The Motzorongo Plantation Company: Difference between revisions

The Motzorongo Plantation Company was an American-owned agricultural enterprise in Veracruz, Mexico, organized in 1902 by Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn and his father, James Parkyn, of Chicago. Both were associated with the Chicago School of Psychology, which they had establish, and applied its New Psychology principles of confidence, cooperation, and scientific management to business. Promoted through Dr. Parkyn’s magazine Suggestion, the venture was presented as a model of moral and industrial progress, combining large-scale agriculture with the New Thought ideals of mental science and practical success. Centered on a 165,000-acre estate featuring a modern sugar mill, coffee and rubber groves, and private rail connections, it was the largest American-controlled property in Mexico for many years.

The company gained international attention in April 1914 when reports claimed that General Victoriano Huerta’s troops had captured and executed twenty American employees of the Motzorongo Plantation. The alleged killings, relayed by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan to Dr. Parkyn, sparked national outrage and brought the United States and Mexico to the brink of war before the reports were proven false and the prisoners released.

By the 1890s Mexico had become a center of intense foreign investment, now known as the Porfiriato period in Mexico. Rail expansion, liberal property laws, and government concessions under President Porfirio Díaz encouraged American and European investors to establish large-scale plantations devoted to sugar, coffee, rubber, and hardwoods. The Parkyn family, who had prior experience in agricultural development and international business, entered this environment at a time of extraordinary optimism about Mexico’s resources.^[1][2][3]

Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn was a Chicago physician, author, and publisher, known for founding the Chicago School of Psychology and editing Suggestion magazine.^[4] His father, James Parkyn, had extensive experience in milling and commercial agriculture.^[5][6] In 1901, Parkyn’s cousin, Horatio Nelson Jackson, began acquiring mining properties across northern Mexico through his Santa Eulalia Exploration Company.^[7][8] The success of those ventures encouraged the Parkyns to pursue large-scale agricultural investments further south. In late 1901, James Parkyn began touring Mexico in search of suitable land for development and soon brought a group of Chicago businessmen together to form the La Luisa Plantation Association in the Veracruz district.^[9] Dr. Parkyn served on the board of the association, while his father acted as the principal promoter of the project. James Parkyn heavily advertised the company’s stock offerings through newspapers, particularly those owned by his brother-law, William K. Atkinson, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.^{[10]: 92 [11][12][13][14][15]}

The La Luisa Plantation Association quickly found success. By 1902, overwhelming interest in its stock offerings enabled the company to purchase the vast Motzorongo Plantation, formerly the estate of General Carlos Pacheco Villalobos, a former Secretary of State of the Republic of Mexico. The property comprised 165,000 acres, over 250 square miles, making it the largest American-controlled agricultural estate in Mexico. At its center stood a state-of-the-art sugar mill valued at 300,000 dollars, capable of processing hundreds of tons of cane per day. A private railway line connected the mill to two stations on the Veracruz and Pacific Railway.^[16][17]

The plantation included 200,000 coffee trees, 40,000 cocoa trees, and 50,000 rubber trees, along with groves of citrus fruit. Thirty-five miles of fencing enclosed more than 30 square miles of pasture for cattle and hogs. The estate also maintained a self-sufficient community of more than 500 workers, housed in over 100 dwellings, supported by a general store, workshops, a sawmill, and an electric lighting plant. The total infrastructure was valued at approximately 500,000 dollars, while the land was purchased at only six dollars per acre, about one-third of its estimated market value.^[18][19][20]

The Motzorongo enterprise was financed through public stock offerings marketed across the United States. Advertisements appeared in newspapers and in Dr. Parkyn’s Suggestion magazine, whose large New Thought readership was already accustomed to seeing investment promotions alongside articles on personal success and self-improvement.^[21]

Parkyn and his father traveled to Veracruz and issued a series of illustrated reports describing the plantation’s progress. These letters, published in Suggestion, invited readers to join “a cooperative and moral enterprise” that combined spiritual ideals of prosperity with modern agricultural science. Parkyn also organized excursions for investors, who were encouraged to visit the plantation and inspect operations firsthand. Within months, all shares in the initial offering had sold out, with over 250,000 dollars invested by readers of Suggestion alone.^[22][23]

By the early twentieth century, magazines in the New Thought movement had become major platforms for promoting investment ventures, particularly in mining, agricultural, and industrial enterprises. Publications such as New Thought, Suggestion, The Nautilus, and others reached large audiences attracted to the movement’s promise that right thinking, confidence, and visualization could lead to material success. Editors and publishers recognized that this readership of ambitious, self-made investors was ideally suited to ventures that claimed to unite mental science with practical wealth-building.^[24][25]

Within this environment, ventures such as the Motzorongo Plantation Company were promoted not merely as commercial undertakings but as practical demonstrations of New Thought philosophy. Through his magazine Suggestion, Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn presented Motzorongo as proof that disciplined thinking, confidence, and organized effort could transform ideas into material achievement. A view Parkyn summarized in his well known maxim, “Thought takes form in action.”^{[26][27]: 79}

The company’s founding group brought together figures from Parkyn’s publishing and fraternal circles with established industrial and religious leaders from across the Midwest. Among them were:^[28][29]

Harry W. Huttig of Muscatine, Iowa, was the President of the Huttig Bros. Manufacturing Company, the Huttig Trust & Investment Company, and the Huttig Lumber Company. He was the son of William Huttig, who, along with his brother, founded the Huttig Bros. Manufacturing Company in 1880. The company grew to become the countries largest supplier of sash and doors, operating what was considered at the time the largest and most advanced factory in the United States.^{[30][31][32][33]}

Several of H. W. Huttig’s associates were partners in the Motzorongo Plantation Company, including Leigh H. Wallace, a prominent lumber merchant and banker, Rev. H. Henkel, a German Lutheran minister and the Letts brothers.

C. C. Letts and H. A. Letts were from Davenport, Iowa, just down the road from Muscatine. In the late 1890s, they relocated to Chicago, where C. C. Letts founded C. C. Letts & Co., a company that operated a large wholesale tea and coffee business as well as engaged in many real estate ventures throughout the Midwest and Western states. His brother, H. A. Letts, was a prominent dentist and had studied the use of hypnotism as an anesthetic in dentistry under Dr. Parkyn.^[34][35][36]

Harry C. Moir from Chicago was the managing owner of the Morrison and Saratoga Hotels and The Boston Oyster House. The Morrison Hotel was the tallest hotel in the world for many years. The Boston Oyster House was a famous landmark restaurant within the hotel that provided dance music and entertainment with seating for 2,000. Moir was born in Calcutta, India, to British parents and then raised in Canada. In 1893, at the age of 26, he moved to Chicago after attending sessions of the Parliament of World’s Religions held during the Chicago World’s Fair.^[37][38]

C. W. Bibb form Minneapolis, was the owner of The Bibb Broom Corn Company one of the largest distributors of brooms in the nation. He was also a major real estate developer and owned several mines. He would go on to found The American Federation of Patriotic Societies.^[39][40][41]

Prof. Edgar Young Mullins was the President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, located in Louisville, Kentucky. Mullins was one of the most influential figures in American Protestantism. As president of the seminary, Mullins helped shape the identity of Southern Baptists through his writings, leadership, and theological vision. He authored The Axioms of Religion, a foundational text that articulated Baptist principles of soul competency, religious liberty, and democratic church governance, and he played a major role in drafting the Baptist Faith and Message.^[42]

Mullins was not only a theological leader but also a major public intellectual, frequently speaking at national gatherings and representing American Baptists in ecumenical and civic forums. His reputation extended far beyond denominational lines. His involvement in the Motzorongo Plantation Company carried significant weight. At a time when religious figures rarely associated themselves with large-scale investment ventures, Mullins’ participation signaled to potential investors that the company had the backing of a trusted, nationally known Christian leader.^[43]

The Motzorongo Company was heavily marketed as a “co-operative society”, a phrase that resonated at the time among a rising class of progressive-minded investors, spiritual seekers, and reformist businessmen. From the earliest advertisements placed in Suggestion magazine and other New Thought publications, the company was framed not merely as a land venture in tropical Mexico, but as a moral and social opportunity, a chance to become part of a new kind of agricultural enterprise that promised both material return and spiritual fulfillment. It aligned perfectly with the ideals of the New Thought movement, which emphasized harmony, unity, individual responsibility, and the power of collective intention. It was about cultivating a better economic and social model, one rooted in mutual benefit, prosperity, and high-minded purpose.^[44][45]

In contrast to the harsh realities often associated with mining camps or foreign land ventures, Motzorongo was portrayed as a model of dignified labor and fair treatment. Ads described a plantation where workers lived in clean, well-organized quarters, received regular wages, and worked under conditions that were humane and health-conscious, a rarity for investment enterprises at the time. Investors were invited to travel to the plantation, inspect the operations, and see firsthand the harmonious environment being cultivated.^[46]

This image was reinforced by its board members including Prof. Edgar Young Mullins, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who lent the company the prestige and moral credibility of one of the most respected theological voices in the country. Mullins’ name assured religious conservatives that this was a serious, respectable venture, one worthy of trust. Alongside him was Rev. H. Henkel, a well known German Lutheran minister, whose presence signaled the company’s appeal to German immigrant communities and faith-based communities. At the center was Dr. Parkyn, whose network of New Thought followers and emphasis on collective progress gave the project its idealistic energy and broad public appeal.^[46]

Dr. Parkyn and his family were the largest creditors of the company, holding a controlling interest with six of the fifteen voting seats among the majority bondholders. Parkyn spread the bonds among his father, mother, two sisters, and his wife to ensure the family’s majority control over financial decisions and company direction. With so much of his family’s money tied up in the venture, as well as the many Suggestion magazine investors, Dr. Parkyn was determined to maintain close control over the company’s operations. To maintain close oversight, Parkyn’s father, James Parkyn, moved to the plantation to manage its operations directly. With his extensive background in agriculture and milling, James provided hands-on leadership, ensuring that the plantation delivered on its promises of productivity and fairness.^[47][48]

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  Dr. Parkyn’s father, James Parkyn, ran the plantation

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  Dr. Parkyn and his family controlled six of the fifteen voting seats among the majority bondholders.

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  Dr. Herbert A Parkyn, president of the Motzorongo Co.

Dr. Parkyn soon expanded the land holdings of the Motzorongo Plantation Company with the purchase of a neighboring estate known as Hacienda Josefina. It was described as a “Paradise” and one of the most valuable pieces of land in Mexico. This major acquisition increased the company’s total property to 360,000 acres, an area of more than 560 square miles.^[49]

James Parkyn, who had served as general manager of the Motzorongo Sugar Company and overseen much of the plantation’s early development, remained in Mexico for several years to manage the estate directly. In December 1909 he died of typhoid fever at the plantation at the age of sixty-eight.^[50][51]

In April 1914, during the height of the Mexican Revolution, the Motzorongo Plantation Company became the focus of an international crisis that nearly brought the United States and Mexico to war. Following the occupation of Veracruz, reports reached Chicago that General Victoriano Huerta’s troops had seized a group of American engineers and officers of the Motzorongo Company that were traveling on the Vera Cruz Isthmus Railroad near Tierra Blanca and that they had been executed after capture. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan forwarded the news to Dr. Parkyn in a telegram that was immediately released to the press.^[53][54]

According to the message from the American consul at Vera Cruz, twenty Americans and one British subject, all associated with the Motzorongo estate, were believed shot by Huerta’s soldiers. Those named included A. M. Turner, secretary of the Motzorongo Company; Edward and Sidney Wunsch; Alexander Boyd, a British cashier; and several engineers and railroad staff. Newspapers carried front-page headlines declaring that they had been executed near Motzorongo, describing the event as a massacre of civilians. Panic quickly spread among shareholders and relatives of the missing men. Hundreds of inquiries reached the company’s Chicago offices. Parkyn immediately appealed to the State Department, urging it to act to save the men and emphasizing that the Americans at Motzorongo were neutral civilians engaged only in plantation management. He telegraphed both Secretary Bryan and Canadian Consul at Vera Cruz, stating, “It seems unbelievable they would be executed. Please do everything possible to save the men, and for the sake of their relatives kindly keep us informed.”^[52][55][56]

The reports coincided with mass evacuations of Americans from Mexico and widespread speculation that the United States would declare war. Within a few days, however, later cables from Vera Cruz revealed that the earlier information had been inaccurate. The detained Americans were alive, and A. M. Turner had been released and confirmed safe in Vera Cruz. Bryan’s office relayed this news to Dr. Parkyn, and newspapers issued retractions under headlines such as “Chicagoan Is Freed by Huerta’s Troops.”^[57] Despite the relief, the incident became a political controversy. Representative Frank W. Mondell of Wyoming accused Secretary Bryan of exaggerating the situation in his telegram to Parkyn, arguing that it had needlessly inflamed public opinion and risked provoking a war. Supporters of Bryan responded that his message reflected the best information available at the time and that immediate communication was justified by the danger to American lives.^[58][59][60]