Enrique Creel

Enrique Creel, also known as Henry Clay Creel, (1854-1931) was Porfirian Governor of Chihuahua from 1904 to 1906 and again from 1907 to 1911. Enrique was the son of Reuben Creel, a veteran of the Mexican American War from Greensburg, Kentucky, and once the US Consul in Chihuahua. Enrique Creel became son-in-law of Don Luis Terrazas by virtue of marriage to his daughter (Reuben Creel and Luis Terrazas were married to sisters of the wealthy Cuilty family whose ancestry was Irish and was related to Sir Thomas More). Enrique Creel served as Mexico's Minister of Foreign Relations and as its Ambassador to the United States. He served as interpreter when Presidents Porfirio Díaz and William Howard Taft met in 1909 on the international bridge between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso. He became vice-president of the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway, where he was responsible for the construction of part of the railroad west of Chihuahua. This is now the Chihuahua Pacific Railroad (Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico) and runs through the town of Creel, Chihuahua. His haciendas totaled 1.7 million acres (6,900 km²).