George H. Sisson was a nineteenth-century American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

. He was born in Michigan, and was an early real estate developer in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. He was a mining engineer in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, and with his profits from that operation, purchased a large land concession in

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

Chicago

Arizona

Baja California and Ensenada

On July 24, 1884, he and Luis Huller obtained a concession from the Mexican government for a tract of land in

, extending between 29° North and 32°42' North, including

Cedros Island Cedros Island (''Isla de Cedros'', "island of cedars" in Spanish (language), Spanish) is an island in the Pacific Ocean belonging to the state of Baja California, Mexico. The dry and rocky island had a population of 1,350 in 2005 and has an area o ...

. This was extended with additional purchases to 28° North, which later was to become the border between Baja California and

Baja California Sur Baja California Sur, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur, is a state in Mexico. It is the 31st and last state to be admitted, in 1974. It is also the second least populated Mexican state and the ninth-largest state by ...

. Land was also purchased northward to the United States border. In 1885, they formed the International Company of Mexico in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

, and George H. Sisson was named as general manager. Eventually, the Huller Estate covered over 13,325,650 acres of land, a representation of the vast neocolonial inequities in Mexican land distribution during the

Porfiriato The Porfiriato or Porfirismo (, ), coined by Mexican historian Daniel Cosío Villegas, is a term given to the period when General Porfirio Díaz ruled Mexico under an Authoritarianism, authoritarian military dictatorship in the late 19th and e ...

. The company was sold to the British Mexican Land and Colonization Company in 1888. Related lawsuits continued for years afterward.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sisson, George H. 19th-century births American expatriates in Mexico People from Arizona Territory Businesspeople from Michigan Year of death missing