Gillmore Goodland: A Final Look

Last time we took a look at the world in which Gillmore Goodland found himself, circa 1913 – 1915. By 1916, even if he could hear the diamond mines or goldfields calling out to him, Kaiser Wilhelm's u-boats were soon preying on ships with little or no restriction. It simply wasn't a time to ply the dangerous waters of the world in search of a job interview, even if the bankrupt engineer had the fare for transoceanic travel.

Goodland was alone in North America, his family back in wartime England. When we last checked documentation, the wife and children were supposedly still ensconced at Hoving Shaw in Woldingham, Surrey, their home. Exactly how long they would have been able to remain there is unknown.

In July 1918, as the war drew to a close, and despite there still being German u-boats presenting danger in the Atlantic, 43-year-old Edmund Stephenson, a "rubber merchant" left his wife, Mrs. Jess Stephenson, in Woldingham, Surrey, bound for New York City aboard the S.S. Saxonia. The ship arrived on 3 July 1918.

Along with Stephenson on the Saxonia [right] was Mrs. Kathleen Goodland, a 42-year-old married woman with no given occupation. Her last residence was "London, England," and her nearest relative was provided as "Bro-in-law. Mr. J. Goodland, 144 Ashley Gardens, London."

Kathleen was accompanied by Joan Lillis Goodland, born in Dublin and aged 16, Kathleen Gilmore Goodland, born in Dublin and aged 18, and young "Gillmore Goodland," born in Surrey and aged 7. Gillmore's family was on its way to him.

The bankrupt mining engineer obviously had many to thank for his potential reunion, not the least of which were a former neighbor, Stephenson, who sailed with his family as far as New York, and brother, Joshua Goodland, who probably was the family's "London" address after they lost possession of Hoving Shaw.

The Saxonia's typewritten manifest lists Stephenson's exact destination as Alden's Successors, Ltd., 290 Broadway, in New York. Alden's is listed in the 1920 edition of the Year Book of the Merchants' Association of New York as being a rubber importer whose president was T.A. Maguire.

Stephenson was traveling with more than $50 in cash, and immigration recorded in script the fact that he had traveled to Germany and Austria "prior to August 1914." Finally, it is documented that he intended to return to England.

Kathleen and her brood steamed into New York with more than $50 in pocket, but with a different destination: "1949 Hillcrest Road, Hollywood, California." The Goodlands were Hollywood-bound, and the manifest affirms their immigrant status and clearly states they did not intend to return to England.

Hollywood!

One imagines Gillmore sitting in Hollywood in 1918 [left], bathed in the delightful southern California sunshine, amid the orange groves and movie stars, waiting anxiously for his family. Once they arrived, Gillmore—who hadn't seen his wife or children since departing for the U.S. in July 1915—could make up for lost time and reacquaint himself with his family.

Perhaps he even did, although there is no certainty that he was even living at 1949 Hillcrest Road when the family arrived. In fact, he was probably not there.

According to paperwork filed by the Immigration Service at the Department of Labor's Mexican Border District, we do know that Gillmore attempted to cross into Nogales, Arizona from Mexico "on foot" on 29 August 1918. He is listed as an "assessable non-immigrant," a married "civil engineer," traveling alone at the age of 46.

His last residence is listed "Culiacan, Mexico," and the final destination of his border crossing is distinctly the same: "Culiacan, Mexico." He was carrying $200, and claimed to have been in the U.S. from 1915 through 1917.

Interestingly, his interest in entering the United States was to see his wife, "Cathaline L. Goodland" [sic] at "6258 Yucca Street" in "Los Angeles, California."

So we find the family at yet another address in less than two months. It must have been very hard on Kathleen and the children over the past several years!

Curiously, Gillmore also told Immigration that he intended to "resume residence" in the United States, despite his prior claim of a return to Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico as a final destination. Again, we find that the information that Goodland provides to officials does not always add up!

One would assume that Gillmore had been longing to see his family. There is no evidence one way or the other. We can, however, assume that his trip to Los Angeles was not prompted entirely by familial fervor. Gillmore continued to tend to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The 1 September 1918 edition of the Reading (Pennsylvania) Eagle carried the following story:

INDIANS REVOLT

FIGHT ENGAGEMENT WITH
FEDERAL GARRISON.

Nogales, Ariz., Aug. 31. — Yaqui Indians have revolted at Ortiz and Culiacan, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. An American traveling man arrived here today by automobile from Torres and reported that 300 Indians at Ortiz on Monday fought an engagement with the federal garrison at Torres and had taken to the hills. This was officially confirmed today.

Three hundred Yaquis of another command near Culiacan also were reported to have revolted the same day and attempted to loot the city, but were driven off.


With Gillmore working among the people in those "hills," many of whom may have been Yaquis, he clearly would have had wind of the violence long before the first shots were exchanged in Culiacan. His visit to see his family may not have been based entirely on his earnest desire to see loved ones, but to get himself out of harm's way in Mexico—Once again!—as quickly as possible.

Ironically, the above article goes on to describe clashes between U.S. soldiers and Mexican constitutionalist troops under General Alvaro Obregon, in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, at the same time. The city of Nogales is separated into American and Mexican halves by the Rio Grande.

Gillmore must have made it home because we find him living in Los Angeles on 9 January 1920 during that year's U.S. census [an excerpt is seen, right]. Goodland, 47, was then residing at "6538 Bella Vista Way" in Los Angeles with wife Kathleen, 42, daughters Kathleen, 19, and Joan, 17, and son Desmond, 9. The entire family is listed as 'naturalized aliens.'

Joan and Desmond are recorded as having attended school in the previous year, but Desmond, however, is unable to read or write. The only family member with an occupation is Gillmore, who was a "consulting engineer" in the field of "mining," and was clearly listed as a 'worker.'

Among their neighbours we find a variety of occupations—teacher, veterinarian, doctor, dentist, cafeteria proprietor, tire wholesaler, carpenter, bank manager, and automobile salesman. Most interestingly, however, some are employed in the "moving pictures" industry.

"Hollywood" neighbours included actor Rex Cherryman, actor/director Charles W. Dorian and and actress Hazel P. Dorian, Australian-born actress Dorothy Cumming, assistant director Vaughan A. Paul and his step-son, moving picture laboratory technician Elwood E. Bredell, and moving picture photographer John Lyman.

Cherryman, who would pass away in 1928 at the age of 34, was in five films, including Camille, which starred Rudolf Valentino. Dorian was assistant director on such Greta Garbo films as Flesh and the Devil, Grand Hotel, Romance [Dorian is pictured, left, seated on the set with Garbo, wearing glasses], and Queen Christina. Dorothy Cumming's notable works were silent epics Snow White (1916), Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings (1927), and The Wind (1928). "Woody" Bredell would become a cinematographer, working such films as The Adventures of Don Juan, The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Inspector General, and the film version of Ernest Hemingway's The Killers.

We can presume there was still difficulty for Gillmore Goodland abroad, even at this time. While a compendium of the Fellows of the Royal Geographic Society dated 1921 includes Joshua Goodland reachable at his Ashley Gardens address in London, the listing for Gillmore still contains no contact address at all. Gillmore simply did not want to be found.

Amid items pertaining to ARIZONA in Volume 113 of the Engineering and Mining Journal the American Institute of Mining Engineers, we find this one: "A suit has been instituted here by the Amalgamated Copper Mines Co. against Gillmore Goodland, former superintendent of the property for return of tools valued at $5,000 and of $750 company funds. The corporation has settled its claim against the interests that are preparing to build a check dam on its property, for protection of flood of lands near the western edge of Phoenix."

Was bad luck still hawking Gillmore Goodland? Was it just fiscal irresponsibility? Was he actually a fellow who couldn't be trusted? Or was he, after an era of great success circa 1896 – 1912, continually finding himself amid war, politics, and violence, always in the wrong place at the wrong time?

No matter, the courts were now after Goodland in his new country, the United States, and Amalgamated Copper had some high power attorneys—it was then owned by the Rockefellers after an earlier takeover. In the 1920s, metals mining was taking off and the company was expanding from copper into "manganese, zinc, aluminum, uranium, and silver," according to the website filepie.us. It was a bad time to have a falling-out with the corporation (which is now owned by British Petroleum under the name Anaconda Copper Mining Company).

In 1928, Gillmore's son, Desmond, graduated from high school at Loyola University of Los Angeles, and his El Padre yearbook notes he played the lead in the senior play, ironically entitled "Stop Thief."

By the 5 April 1930, Gillmore and Kathleen Goodland are recorded as "lodgers" in the home of Peter and Katherine Jensen at 6565 Fountain Avenue in Los Angeles. Jensen was a Danish immigrant and his wife, born in Wisconsin, was the daughter of immigrants from the Irish Free State—a natural connection for Kathleen, born in Labasheeda, Ireland, to have made.

An actor, Jonathan Logan, lived down the block, and next door resided "motion picture directors" Jacob Pretz (a German immigrant) and his son-in-law Carl Beringer of Czechoslovakia. Beringer's work as an assistant director later included the films In Cold Blood, The Misfits, Paint Your Wagon, Elmer Gantry, and Electra Glide in Blue.

At that time, Desmond, 20, was boarding across town at the home of the late Rex Cherryman at 326 North Kings Road [left], 'rooming' with Esther L. Cherryman and her 4½ year-old son, Rexford. He is listed as a "Laboratory MAN" at an "oil & gasoline refinery," and also shares the home with another English-born boarder, 26-year-old Joan Bowden, a clothing saleswoman.

Daughters Joan and Kathleen, unfortunately, had disappeared into history by then.

We do know that on 29 April 1938, Ernest and Winifred Margaret Goodland, 58 and 53 years old respectively, steamed out of Sydney, Australia, on the S.S. Mariposa. The ship arrived in Los Angeles, Californis, on 16 May. It is the only recorded visit of family members to the U.S., presumably to visit Ernest's eldest brother, Gillmore, and Co.

There is no record of a return voyage, but Ernest later passed away in South Melbourne, Australia, at the age of 67, in 1945.

Desmond, born 26 April 1910, became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. on 21 April 1941 [right], on the eve of America's entry into WWII. At the time he was 30 and living at 1737 Fort Stockton Street in San Diego, California.

He is recorded as having married both "Anna Biah" and "Anna Glamuniza" in Los Angeles on 28 February 1984 at the age of 73. According to Social Security records, Desmond Gillmore Goodland soon passed away on 7 August 1985 while living in the Palmdale section of Los Angeles at the age of 75.

His mother, Kathleen Lillis Goodland, became a naturalized citizen on 14 January 1946 at the age of 69 [below, left]. Her address at the time was 4312 Witherby Street in San Diego. She was born on 15 January 1876 and passed away on 24 July 1960 (the exact date of my younger brother's birth) while residing in San Diego.

Gillmore Goodland, once a top British mining engineer, had left us on 16 May 1945 at the age of 74 while living in San Diego. He never became a citizen of the U.S. One can only assume that, at the end, he was still dreaming of making one last, big mining score across the border in Mexico. His brother Ernest, as we saw, died in Australia that same year.

He'd outlived his younger brother, Joshua, who passed away in 1939 back in England, and brother Theodore, who had passed in 1932.

Gillmore's early life, travels, and adventures clearly had a huge impact on Joshua, who spent a good deal of time traveling the world as well.

While Gillmore clearly had trouble remaining with an employer throughout his life, Joshua would have similar difficulty sticking with a career.

We've seen how Joshua began his early adulthood as an assistant teacher in his father's elementary school in Exmouth, moved to Wales and became an architect, and soon after relocated to Cambridge to study law for some 8 years. Following his studies, he became a successful barrister and legal adviser in London through the First World War, during which he had bestowed upon him an M.B.E.

The same restlessness that seemed to drive his older brother, Gillmore, was found in Joshua. He wouldn't remain a barrister much past his listing in the 1921 Royal Geographic Society document mentioned above.

And it is in the next segment of Joshua Goodland's circuitous career path that he will meet—and inspire—George Mills!

Gillmore Goodand: A Look at the Years 1913-1915

In 1913, the Batopilas Mining Company, ordered American staff out of the country after United States President Woodrow Wilson advised American citizens to leave the country.

Mexico had been in a state of upheaval since about 1910, and was in the midst of a revolution or "Civil War." Little in Mexico could have been considered "normal" during that time, and the politics of the country—one in which 5% of the population owned 95% of the land—had to have been a concern to London's subsidiary company, the Batopilas Mining, Smelting and Refining Co., Ltd., and its General Manager, mining engineer Gillmore Goodland.

Perhaps it was the revolution itself that had prompted Gillmore, who always seemed quick to cross the proverbial pond before, to stay in England in 1913. But what of the interests, for example, he had in Russia—and elsewhere?

The Second Balkan War had erupted on 16 June 1913 when Bulgaria attacked Serbia and Greece. Although another Peace Treaty would be signed in September, the conflict encompassed Romania, Montenegro, and the Ottoman Empire and trigger the First World War.

Also in 1913, China's Song Jiaoren was assassinated, leading to Yuan Shikai's military takeover as dictator and dissolution of the parliament.

Just as Woodrow Wilson [seen right, addressing Congress in early 1913] was being sworn in as 28th President in the first week of March 1913, U.S. Marines defeated Moro rebels in the Philippines. Wilson also presided over the completion of the Panama Canal that year.

Insane King Otto of Bavaria was deposed by Prince Regent Ludwig, his cousin, in November, and in that same month, Mohandas Gandhi was arrested leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

And in December 1913, Crete was "annexed" by Greece.

During 1913, the value of world trade had reached approximately $38 billion.

1914 began with author Ambrose Bierce disappearing while traveling with 'General' Pancho Villa [seen below, left, third from right] in Chihuahua. Bierce was never heard from again. At the same time, Villa's troops took the city of Ojinaga, Chihuahua.

In April 1914, President Wilson dealt with the "Tampico Affair," which was described in our last blog entry. Tensions grew between the U.S. and Mexico and American marines would soon occupy Veracruz.

On May 25, Great Britain's House of Commons passed Irish Home Rule, and would soon pass the controversial Welsh Church Act of 1914. The enactment of both would be suspended due to the outbreak of the First World War.

Then, on 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Pricip, a nationalist, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Duchess Sophie of Austria in Sarajevo, in what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina. Anti-Serb riots erupt throughout Bosnia. The next day in Siberia, Russia, Chionya Gusyeva failed in his attempt to assassinate Grigori Rasputin.

By July 1914, demonstrations in Ulster, Ireland, suggested civil war was on the horizon. Days later, de facto Mexican presidente Victoriano Huerta resigned his post.

On 23 July, Austria-Hungary issued Serbia an ultimatum, and then attacked on 28 July. By the following day, Czar Nicholas II of Russia was fully mobolised against Austria-Hungary.

On 1 August 1914, Germany mobilised and declared war on Russia. France mobilised on the same day. As a result, the New York Stock Exchange closed due to war.

On 2 August, Germany occupied Luxembourg, and issued a 12-hour ultimatum to the neutral Belgium government to allow German troops to pass through into France. The next day, Belgium failed to comply, while Germany declared war of France.

Germany invaded neutral Belgium on 3 August at 8:02 am and Great Britain declared war on Germany. (And, I'm ashamed to say, the isolationist United States declared its neutrality.)

On 5 August, Montenegro declared war on Austria-Hungary, and the Germans bombed the city of Liège using zeppelins [pictured, right].

The next day, 6 August 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia.

Later, on 15 August, the Panama Canal was officially inaugurated, while the troops of Venustiano Carranza marched into Mexico City under General Alvaro Obregon.

Later in August, Germany would occupy Brussels, defeat Russia in the Battle of Tannenberg, and force British, French, and Belgian forces into a tactical retreat during the Battle of Le Cateau.

At the Battle of St. Quentin, French forces held back a German advance at La Cateua and British cruisers sunk three German cruisers in the Battle of Heligoland, as well as the German minelayer Königin Luise [left], which was trying to lay a minefield in the estuary of the Thames at Lowestoft.

During that month, Japan also declared war on Germany, and Prince William of Albania was forced to leave his country after 6 months due to opposition to his rule.

Then, on 13 September 1914, South African troops attacked German South-West Africa (today called Namibia) and the Battle of the Aisne began—that's the battle in which George Mills's brother, Arthur, was wounded.

On 3 October, 33,000 Canadian troops crossed the Atlantic to join the fight, and on 29 October, Ottoman warships shell Russian ports on the Black Sea, prompting Russia, Britain, and France to declare war.

On 20 October, the the German U-boat U-17 sank the first merchant ship of the war, the S.S. Glitra, off Norway.

In November 1914, Great Britain "annexed" Cyprus and Japan seized Jiaozhou Bay, China (which declared neutrality), base of the German East Asia Squadron.

The New York Stock Exchange re-opened for the trading of bonds in November, and the U.S. withdrew troops from the Mexican city of Veracruz, prompting Venustiano Carranza's troops to march in.

By December, the New York Stock Exchange was fully re-opened on the 12th, and on the 24th, there was a German air raid on Dover on the same day a Christmas Truce [right] was declared.

On 9 February 1915, Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm assented to the creation of a declaration of war zone around the British Isles. Then, on 7 May 1915, the RMS Lusitania was sunk with a loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 Americans. The United States was holding Germany "strictly accountable" for the loss of U.S. lives, but it would be another two years and the loss of more lives before the neutral U.S. could be coaxed into the global conflict.

A couple more notes: The Germans unleashed poison gas against the Russians on 31 January 1915, a plague of locusts broke out in Palestine in March, and in April the Ottoman Turks began the Armenian Genocide, the slaughter of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians.


Horrific battles, bloodshed, and disasters (of both natural and man-made origin) continued to proliferate, but at this point, we've made at least a cursory examination of the world in which consulting mining engineer Gillmore Goodland was bankrupted.

It's easy to see above that virtually all of the lands in which Goodland was involved in mining were involved in violence and conflicts: Mexico, Russia, South Africa. The New York Stock Exchange had been closed and Americans had been ordered out of Mexico. German submarines [like the U-9, left] made transoceanic travel dangerous to possible mining points in Jamaica and Australia. And consulting in England would have been almost impossible because of the many creditors desiring to know his location.

Presumably Gillmore's family was comfortably ensconced, if not at Hoving Shaw in Woldingham, then in Wales with sister Grace Goodland or in London with brother Joshua Goodland. Goodland, with his employment ended, his company liquidated, and violence and war breaking out in seemingly any country with mines, Goodland ran.

When we last left Gillmore, he was at the Hotel Belmont in New York City, very likely working to save his professional career in the neutral United States. The September 1915 issue of Mining and Metallurgy, the monthly bulletin of the American Institute of Mining Engineers (No. 105) records Gillmore's correspondence address as having been "Devonshire Club, St. James St., London, England," so it's clear that he hadn't completely severed ties to the U.K [below, right].

Does that address imply that his family was still in Surrey, or perhaps in London? Did Kathleen take the train in to London Victoria to pick up mail from Gillmore and his creditors? Or had that task fallen to Joshua, his brother and barrister, who then handled bankruptcy-related documents and forwarded personal letters from Gillmore in North America to his family?

The latter seems more probable. Having surmised that Gillmore was the financial benefactor of Joshua's lengthy Cambridge education in the field of Law, the younger brother would still have been beholden to the older for favors previously extended from 1900 through 1908.

It seems, however, that there was not much that Joshua could do on Gillmore's behalf—at least without the full cooperation of Gillmore, who was clearly a man on the run.

As far as we know, Gillmore Goodland never returned to England. And we'll learn of the rest of his personal and career experiences next time…

Gillmore Goodland: A Fourth Look

After returning to England on 30 November 1912, the transoceanic travels of Mr. & Mrs. Gillmore Goodland, Esq., were put on hold. Ekaterinberg, Siberia, was on Gillmore's metaphorical plate [it was recorded as an address of his in a 1913 listing of the Fellows of the London Zoological Society; the Reptile House is seen, left], so he still may not have been spending much quality time at home with the wife and kids.

Would his wife, Kathleen, have accompanied him into Russia during his time there? Possibly. I'm not sure if spending time in Ekaterinberg would have been as big an attraction as, say, a winter in subtropical Mexico, an autumn in Jamaica, or a stay at an opulent hotel in New York or Boston at any time of the year. Czar Nicholas II and his deposed royal family, however, were at Ipatiev House [below, right] in Ekaterinberg (in which they were executed), so the city must have had something going for it besides the borscht. Still, I'm not sure what appeal six months in isolated Batopilas just before the Pancho Villa era would have had, either.

By 1914, the couple's children would have been older: Kathleen, 14; Joan; 13; and young Desmond (Gillmore) 3-going-on-4. Mother Kathleen would have been about 37, and Gillmore himself 43. They were settled in Surrey at Hovingshaw, Woldingham, an upscale suburb in Surrey, just a short rail commute from Victoria in London. Still over a decade from the Great Depression, life presumably would have been fine for the affluent Goodlands. Would they—could they—finally settle down from a life of international travel and spend time with those children?

In the Gazettes, however, there arose a word with which Gillmore had begun to familiarize himself back in 1905: Bankruptcy.

On 17 August 1914, the Edinburgh Gazette featured the following item:

"RECEIVING ORDERS. Gillmore Goodland, late of Hoving Shaw, Woldingham, Surrey, but whose present residence and place of business the petitioning creditors are unable to ascertain."

The date of filing petitions against Goodland was 6 February 1914, and by the date above, Gillmore was nowhere to be found. (If I were a wagering man, I think the smart money would have been on Wales.)

Gillmore Goodland, of course, had a highly regarded barrister on his side—his brother, Joshua, recently out of Cambridge with a Master's Degree in Law that may largely have been paid for by Gillmore. Joshua Goodland's practice, situated on King's Bench Walk near the Temple was adjacent to those of many of London's most renowned legal minds.

Given Gillmore's sudden disappearance, how much Joshua could have done for him was apparently along the lines of: Not much.

Gillmore was likely compensated with stock in Batopilas Mining, Smelting and Refining Co., Ltd., at least in part, for services rendered as a mining consultant. If a bankruptcy of the corporation had occurred, would I have been wrong to believe that his stock would have been worthless, precipitating a personal financial collapse?

Yes, I would have. That was clearly not the case. My original assumption of the downfall of the company was completely incorrect.

An item from a 1915 edition of the Standard Corporation Service (Daily Revised) read:

"BATOPILAS MINING CO.: Operations in Mexico to Be Resumed.—On Aug. 28 1914, Secretary [Edgar W.A.] Jorgensen announced that the company's staff of Americans had left El Paso en route to the mines at Batopilas, Mexico [pictured, right], in charge of John R. Harbottle, who was appointed General Manager. More active operations will now be carried on, although the business has been operated on a small scale under two of its most trusted Mexican employees since the former American staff left the mines in September, 1913, on receipt of President [Woodrow] Wilson's warning for all Americans to leave the country."

Not only had the parent Batopilas corporation not bankrupted, it hadn't even fully shut down operations during that violent time!

Here's what a website called sparknotes.com had to say about President Woodrow Wilson of the United States and 1913's Mexican crisis:

"In 1913, Mexico fell into a bloody revolution when Mexican general Victoriano Huerta overthrew the nation's government and declared himself its military dictator. Wilson immediately denounced Huerta, declaring that the United States could not and should not recognize violent dictators who seized government in pursuit of their own agendas. The President attempted to initiate peaceful negotiations between Huerta and the usurped government, but both sides refused to submit to his proposal. Unsure how to proceed, Wilson permitted Huerta's enemies, the Constitutionalists, to purchase military equipment and arms in the U.S. in order to stage a counterrevolution.

When the dictator's army seized a small group of American sailors on shore leave in Mexico, Wilson demanded an apology. He also demanded that Huerta publicly salute the American flag in Mexico, which Huerta naturally refused to do. Wilson responded with force: in April 1914, he sent American Marines to take and occupy Veracruz, Mexico's primary seaport. Veracruz was taken, but eighteen Americans were killed in the battle. Not wanting to commit the U.S. to war, Wilson also requested the ABC powers–Argentina, Brazil, and Chile–to mediate the dispute. With their arbitration, the conflict was eventually resolved. Huerta fled the country, and a new government was established in 1915 under the leadership of Constitutionalist President Venustiano Carranza."

The Batopilas Mining, Smelting and Refing Co., Ltd., had been registered on 3 August 1909 and its London offices, and Gillmore Goodland's personal office as a free lance consulting engineer, were one and the same: 17, Gracechurch Street, London, E.C. Goodland was a Board Member, meaning he owned at least 100 shares of stock.

According to the 1912 edition of The Mexican Yearbook, as of 19 December 1911, the parent company, Batopilas Mining Co. of New York, had shown a profit of £3834 that year, and had £36,051 in cash at bankers, and £2443 in outstanding debts. Estimated operating expenses were £9000 a year, so it seems that the company should have been able to weather the storm of about a year operating on a skeleton crew from September 1913 to August 1914.

In 1912, Goodland is also listed as the Batopilas Mining Company's official "General Manager," according to that year's The Manual of Statistics: Stock Exchange Hand-book, Volume 34. His address in that text is given as "Batopilas, Mex." The rest of the board has New York adresses.

In Moody's Analyses of Earnings, Part 2 (1916), under an entry for the American-owned Batopilas Mining Company, it reads: "On March 10, 1914, the Batopilas Mining, Smelting and Refining Co., Ltd., of London, England (a company incorporated under the English Companies Act of 1908, with an authorized capital of £300,000 and controlled by the Batopilas Mining Co.) was dissolved [by liquidation]."

The same entry also lists the company's surplus (in Mexican currency) after each of the years ending 31 December: $160,093 in 1912, $120,137 in 1913, and $21,112 in 1914. Apparently, liquidation of the London part of the firm was seen as necessary, despite the surpluses, given the circumstances. It's doubtful that Gillmore agreed.

I'm no accountant, but the article delineates the assets and liabilities of the company in each of those three years as well, and in each one (1912 – 1914) both numbers are identical to the penny. Is that likley, or just smart bookkeeping?

I am also unsure if or how how any stock dividends may have been paid by the London Batopilas company, but Batopilas of New York City [pictured, left], as of 1916, had not paid investors a dividend since 1907—before the creation of the London company.

Now, am I correct in assuming that a liquidation of the London Batopilas company would not necessarily have made Gillmore Goodland unfit to be kept on as General Manager? I assume he could easily have been retained.

But would I be wrong in thinking that, when Batopilas of New York decided it needed a new General Manager after the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution in 1914, it may have been that Gillmore was not looked kindly upon due to his personal bankruptcy, his disappearance to avoid creditors, and the fact that he already had been jailed once in Batopilas because of a conflict with a local white collar employee?

Or could it be that, since Mexico was in a period of civil unrest and Civil War, Goodland had resigned as General Manager?

No matter, he was not named the new G.M., and he was apparently in serious trouble.

Via the Gazettes, we know creditors didn't know his whereabouts, and a 1915 issue of a journal called the Bulletin of the American Institute of Mining Engineers published a brief item trying to locate him as well: "Gillmore Goodland. There is held at this office considerable mail matter addressed to Mr. Goodland from London, England, and we would be pleased to get in touch with him and ascertain what to do with this mail."

To where had Goodland disappeared, and who went with him?

I suppose at the time—and perhaps even today—it might be wise to put an ocean or two between one's creditors and oneself, and that's exactly what Gillmore did.

On 17 July 1915, Goodland sailed out of Liverpool on the S.S. Philadelphia [left] and into New York on 25 July. On that manifest, his address is listed as "Hovingshaw, Woldingham," with his wife, "Mrs. K. Goodland" still in residence.

Interestingly, Gillmore's final destination is listed as "New York, N.Y.," specifically the "Hotel Belmont, 42nd Street, New York." Bankruptcy proceedings apparently did nothing to change Gillmore's tastes. He eschewed other destinations on the manifest such as the Richmond Hotel and the Hotel St. James.

What’s particularly interesting here is Gillmore's claim that his last visit to the United States had been in "1913." There is simply no record of him entering the United States during that year. Again, is this just a minor error, or has Goodland established a pattern of providing a variety of different information on immigration forms when entering the U.S.?

And could the fact that he had not actually been to Batopilas in a couple of years and was not what Americans would call a "hands on" manager?

Perhaps it was the rich mining areas of Mexico calling him to him once more, revolution or no; perhaps it was simply to escape creditors; nevertheless, Goodland was heading to the luxurious Hotel Belmont again.

This time he was alone.

Despite Goodland's ability to stay at the posh Belmont after his voyage, it seems probable that his family would have been unable to stay at Hovingshaw in Woldingham in perpetuity if this 1915 trip bore no fruit. What would happen next?

Gillmore, a "civil engineer" according to the manifest of the Philadelphia, was again in comfortable surroundings, perhaps ones in which he could repair the damage done to his life and career. Perhaps he was on his way to the New York offices of Batopilas Mining Company to make a plea for a job, or even to delineate exactly how he could help them turn even more of a profit in the future, now that the corporation found its surplus diminishing.

Could he manage it? He had clearly missed the annual board meeting held the third Tuesday of each April in the offices at 45 Broadway in New York City. He'd have to hope for good luck.

So would the rest of the world…

Gillmore Goodland: A Second Look

We've already taken one look at the early life of Gillmore Goodland, brother of Joshua Goodland of our interest here. We've found that the ambitious young Gillmore was working [or attempting to work] for companies that mined gold and silver. Now, I know there were also copper and cyanide on the table in Mexico, at the very least, but is it wrong to suspect he may have had a consulting 'hand,' no matter how temporarily, in the mining of diamonds in South Africa?

Looking at the 1913 list of Fellows of the Zoological Society of London, we find Goodland's interests extend not just west and south, but eastward as well. We find he gives "Ekaterineberg, Siberia," [left, in 1910] as one of his addresses.

We recently looked at how construction of a railway influenced the development of gold mining in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), and how Goodland soon found himself in that steamy locale.

Similarly, in Ekaterinberg, we find a railway system beginning in the mid-19th century in Russia that concluded with an Ekaterinberg – Chelyabinsk line in 1897 that "allowed Ekaterinberg to join the general railway network of the country." The value of the commercial interests in Ekaterinberg was estimated at 25 millions of rubles per year with the advent of rail transport and its position as a geographically intermediate city between Europe and Asia.

As early as 1807, Ekaterinberg had become the mining center of Russia. Of the city's history, the website ekaterinberg-ural.com writes: "Ekaterinburg of Russia took the leading position in cast iron and copper production, guns and cannon-balls casting, cold steel manufacture, and other spheres. In addition, metallurgical and metal mining plants of the Ural and Siberia had their Headquarters in Ekaterinburg. The Headquarters had different names in different periods of time. It was called Siberian Supreme Mining Command, Ober-Bergamt, Ural Mining Administration. It comprised several structures: mining courts, mining police, central mining drugstore and the city’s garrison submitted to the chief of the mining plants of the Ural Mountains."

Between 1807 and the revolution in 1917, the population had grown from 10,000 to almost 72,000 inhabitants.

Still, in June 1909, when Gillmore became a member of the Zoological Society, he wasn't traveling in the Siberian summer, a time when one might think it would be best to visit the mines.

No, on 13 June 1909, Gillmore was crossing the Rio Grande into sultry El Paso, Texas, from Mexico, presumably traveling from the mining area of Batopilas in the mountains near the Pacific.

Goodland, 37, stood at the end of a line of Mexicans, just ahead of a German lawyer named Herman Gans. Gillmore was listed as a "mining eng." in "transit," his last permanent residence having been Chihuahua, Mexico. His destination was "New Quay, England," and his wife "Catherine Goodland" (actually "Kathleen").

Paperwork filed with the Immigration Service at the Mexican Border District on behalf of the Department of Commerce and Labor give some details of the appearance of Gillmore Goodland, a man quite a bit different from his diminutive, 5 foot 9 inch brother Joshua.

Gillmore stood 6'3" tall (although other manifests record him as merely 6'2"), with light brown hair (although on some manifests, he is blonde), blue eyes, with a light complexion and a mole over his right eye. He must have been an impressive man at the turn of the 20th century, and a veritable Goliath among the Indians in the mountains of Chihuahua.

He was carrying $200 and had travelled in the United States for the first time while making a trip from New York City to El Paso, on his way south, in May of the same year. Under Rule 41e, there was no "head tax" on Gillmore, and when asked about his physical condition, the words "Dr. Says Good" are transcribed, although we don't know if the physician or Gillmore himself uttered those words.

Gillmore then proceeded home to Newquay [right] aboard the Lusitania of the Cunard Line, sailing out of New York and arriving in Liverpool on 26 July 1910 (at immigration, the person behind him in line this time was another British citizen named Alfred Hitchcock, which may be of interest to no one but me). Gillmore had spent just a month in Mexico, but was calling it a "permanent residence." Then he spent well over a month trying to get home to England. What was his rush?

By this time, Gillmore had two daughters, Kathleen, who was born in 1901, and Joan Lillis, born in 1902. In the late summer of 1910, the Goodlands would have a son, registered at the time (Jul-Aug-Sep) as "Gillmore," but known in most subsequent records as "Desmond." The birth was recorded in Godstone, Surrey, indicating that in the year after Gillmore's return from Chihuahua, the family had relocated from Cornwall to Surrey.

Would I be wrong in assuming that such a geographical move may have been prompted by economic success?

What's unclear is why Gillmore would have set sail for Mexico with a pregnant wife if he had intended to return for the birth. Perhaps he didn't know she was pregnant when he departed. A close to full-term late summer birth would imply a winter conception. Pegging travel from Cornwall to Chihuahua via New York and El Paso at about a month, and knowing Gillmore passed into Mexico in May, he must've left England in April.

It's conceivable that Gillmore was unaware of Kathleen's condition—but she was probably 5 to 7 months pregnant at that point. Is it likely she herself didn't know? Or is it possible there were unexpected medical complications that were wired to Goodland, who originally had left fully expecting to miss the birth entirely ?

Anyway, by this point, Joshua Goodland had earned his Master's Degree in Law from Cambridge and was beginning his career as a barrister in London. He and his wife, Florence, may have been a help to Kathleen during that summer.

In fact, the Gillmore Goodlands time spent with their infant son, Desmond, would be quite brief. On 5 November, the S.S. Arabic, sailing from Liverpool, steamed into New York City together. Goodland, 39, a "consulting eng.," and Kathleen, 29, provided the name and address of their nearest relative as "Brother J. Goodland, 9 King's Bench Walk, London," [left] near the Temple. Their own home was given as "Woldingham," and their destination was "Mex."

Incidentally, Gillmore is listed here as being 6' 2½ ", and Kathleen as 5' 2".

Why Kathleen would have traveled with him at this point, leaving behind a son who could have been no older than 4 months, is anyone's guess. I suppose she might have been ordered to recover and get some "sea air," convalescing after a dangerous birth. What is clear is that barrister Joshua Goodland is now Gillmore's closest relative, and not merely geographically.

By the 1911 census, taken on 2 April, the Goodlands had not yet returned to their new relatively new home in Woldingham. The girls, Kathleen and Joan, are in Godstone, Surrey, according to the count, but we don't know exactly where. There ages were 10 and 9, respectively, so they may have been at boarding school.

The infant Desmond ("Gillmore") is found in Cardiff, Galmorganshire, Wales, fast approaching one year of age, and likely with his aunt, Grace Goodland, who was also living in Cardiff at the time.

It would be 5 July 1910 before Gillmore and Kathleen Goodand would set foot in Great Britain again, sailing out of New York City on the Cunard Line's S.S. Campania [right]. They didn't sail all the way to Liverpool, however, disembarking at Fishguard in Wales.

The Goodlands would have been soon reunited with their baby, Desmond, and presumably set off immediately to see their daughters back in Surrey after some 10 months away.

How long would the Goodlands be home in England after their long winter and spring spent in the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico? And what, exactly, happened there in Mexico?

We'll look at that next time.