The Madeira Mamore Expedition

How The Data Was Collected

Are you researching the Philadelphia, PA area? If you are you might find some hidden treasures in the two databases I created. While reading the old newspapers and books that reported on the progress of the Collins Expedition, I continually found names, dates and stories about individuals from Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware who participated - so I decided to make a collection of them along with the source when they appeared in print.

I was looking for one individual named Philip BOWERS who I finally found in one newspaper article about half way all the material. It wasn't much, but it confirmed his death in Brazil, which was a written family fact but without any substance, dates or narrative.

There were too many names flying by that would never be found unless someone started taking notes - and that's the short story of how this project began.

It's Time To Share

The names were added to an Excel spreadsheet and it continued to grow until I thought it was time to share it on a web site. It's a fascinating story especially when you read the newspaper articles and realize that news of events in Brazil normally took several weeks or sometimes months before it reached family and friends back in home in the US. Much has been lost in the last 140 years and I thought it would be a valuable list for others to use.

I would love to hear from anyone who finds an ancestor or has another story to add. Just drop me a note at: rccarch@gmail.com

The two pages below are linked together. Choose either one to get started.

List Of Names or List Of Sources

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What's The Special Project?

Pennsylvania has always been known for it's railroads and engineering capabilities. When the country of Brazil need help building one they called on the workers and engineers from that state to build a railroad that would export rubber from the interior of Bolivia.

Early expeditions had failed and the later expedition in 1907-1912 had minimal success only for a few years.

This special project involved the indexing of names from the Collins Expedition in 1877-1879. That story was written in a book called, "Recollections of an Ill-Fated Expedition". The book was actually carried by members of later expeditions as a reference to the hardships and trials of building a railroad through the jungle.

The Disastrous American Expedition of 1878 included the contractors P. & T. Collins and the laborers who went to Brazil to build a railroad. It was later referred to as the "The Railroad of Death" and a "railroad from no-place to no-where". It was estimated that a worker died for every sleeper that was laid in the jungle.

The purpose of this project is to create a database of names while reading newspaper accounts, books and other material about the expedition. Careful attention was given to separate these names from the later Farquar/Jekyll expedition of 1907-1912. Thousands of men from many countries lost their lives in both expeditions. Most of the participants in the 1877-1879 were from PA, NJ, DE and NY.

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Older issues of newspapers are a treasure trove of information and the web sites listed above along with other specific web sites for other newspapers can help break down brick walls in your research. It is time consuming but can also be extremely informative.