A Guide to the Linda Tays Dunn Family Papers, 1776, 1795, 1915-1989

Biographical Note

The Linda Tays Dunn Family Papers document the lives of various members of the Tays and Dunn families in early Texas and the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa. Two Tays brothers, Eugene and Joseph, were civil engineers and lived in Mexico, where Joseph worked on the Mexican National Railroad and Eugene worked in the mining fields. Both were in Mexico and crossing the border into Texas during the Mexican Revolution. After the revolution, Eugene's mining interests dwindled, so he turned to the family estate in Sinaloa, Mexico, and to farming and ranching. Eugene began sending winter vegetables to the United States, though he also continued to seek other areas in which he could continue his mining investements. The Tays family also has a home base in El Paso.

Eugene's daughter, Linda, married William Edward Dunn, a history professor and foreign-service official, who was born in Sulpher Springs, Texas. Dunn assisted Herbert Eugene Bolton in Mexico City on research in the early history of the Spanish Southwest. His foreign-service career carried him to Peru, Haiti, Guatemala and Columbia. The Dunn family lived in Washington, D. C. while Dunn taught at the School of Advanced International Studies. Afterward the family resided in Dallas, though they often traveled to Sinaloa to visit their estate.

Scope and Contents

Correspondence, legal and financial documentation, reports, creative materials, maps, published materials and photographs document the personal and professional lives of the Tays and Dunn families. The papers are arranged into three series: Tays family, Dunn family and Tays family minig properties.

The Tays family series includes the personal papers of Mrs. Dunn's father, E.A.H. Tays, brother José Tays and grandfather Reverend Joseph Wilkin Tays. E.A.H. Tays' photographs, correspondence and written reports serve to illuminate the process of mining in remote early 20th century Sinaloa, Mexico. Of special interest among the letters of Mr. Tays are those concerning the death of his son José Tays at the hands of Indians under the leadership of famed rebel/outlaw Felipé Bachomo in 1915. The papers of Mrs. Dunn's mother, Rosaura de la Vega, are also included in the series, as well as four folders of geneological information about the early Tays family, compiled by Mrs. Dunn and others.

The second and largest series concerns the activities of Mrs. Dunn and her immediate and extended family members. The Linda Tays Dunn sub-series is the largest, of which correspondence constitutes the bulk. the Casa Tays sub-series contains the earliest documents of the papers, consisting of deeds of ownership by the ancestors of Mrs. Dunn to the ranches of Jecolua (1776) and Mesquital (1795). Pre-existing arrangement of two-way correspondence was retained wherever feasible. Correspondence and other subject folders are arranged as received by the Center for American History.

The Tays family mining properties subgroup includes all correspondence, reports, maps, stock certificates, legal documents and financial records relating to the operation of serveral gold and silver mines owned by the Tays family in Sinaloa, Mexico. Correspondence by various family members over the years, especially Linda Tays Dunn, document their efforts to get the mines into active production. Also included are numerous mining reports about various Tays holdings and a series of maps displaying the extent of their claims.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Unrestricted access.

Use Restrictions

Unrestricted use.

Related Material

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Linda Tays Dunn Family Papers, 1776, 1795, 1915-1989, Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Detailed Description of the Papers