1755: Francisco de Merlo and Villa San Antonio del Camino In the early 17th century the present-day partido was part of the Pago (from the
Latin pagus, country district) of Las Conchas; the territory was traversed by the Reconquista River, known in those days as Río de las Conchas (literally River of Shells) from where the region took its name. The region was largely inhabited by the taluhet people, part of the het nation, a
hunter-gatherer society better known by the exonym
querandi. In 1636 the territory of today's Merlo was divided into a few
haciendas, given as
land grants by Governor Pedro Esteban Dávila to a few and influential Buenos Aires neighbors. Inside the haciendas the main economical activities were the agriculture and
cattle-raising. The fertile land —drained by Las Conchas/Reconquista River— was covered with
wheat fields and
orchards. The bigger hacienda was granted to the
Company of Jesus and the resulting production provided the Jesuits the financial resources to maintain the schools they had in Buenos Aires. The Jesuit priests
Thomas Falkner and
Florian Paucke visited the region in the mid 18th century and described the area plenty of herds of feral cattle and horses roaming free on the plains and numerous packs of dogs that feed on them and sometimes attacked the unwarned and helpless travelers. (1892), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. By the 18th century the
Araucanian people were moving from the lap of the
Andes Mountains to the
Pampas, attracted by the numerous cattle and horses herds. The Araucanians looted and sacked the Spanish settlements around Buenos Aires, performing unexpected horse mounted attacks known in the
Southern Cone as
malones (s. malón, from
Mapudungun malocán: “to make war”). By those days the Spanish businessman Francisco de Merlo bought many lands in the region, establishing a big estancia. The settlers scattered throughout the region took refuge around the fortified Merlo's ranch-house, starting a little hamlet in his properties. It made Merlo petitioned King
Philip V of Spain authorization to found a town in his states. On October 28, 1755 Francisco de Merlo founds the town of
Villa San Antonio del Camino. After Merlo's death the town became into an out-back town, isolated from the main commercial routes, remaining within the boundaries of the estancia belonged to the Mercedarian Order, expropriated in 1821 by the State of Buenos Aires and bought in 1852 by the English businessman Thomas Gibson Pearson. After his death the estancia was managed by his stepson Juan Dillon, key figure in the history of Merlo.
Juan Dillon Juan Dillon y Calderón was born in Buenos Aires in 1819 and died in 1887. He was son of John Dillon, an Irish immigrant and his second wife, Manuela Calderón. Juan Dillon was a businessman,
absentee landlord and public official, member of the prosperous Irish community in Buenos Aires. He married Josefa Ballesteros (b. 1824) and they had eight children. He was a prominent member of
Adolfo Alsina's Autonomist Party. John Dillon, left
Ireland and emigrated to
Spain. In 1807 he settled in the
River Plate as a merchant and owner of a
meat-curing plant. He loaned his flotilla of boats to Argentina in the war for independence with Spain. He also started the first
brewery in the country. John Dillon dies in 1826 and Manuela Calderón married Thomas Gibson Pearson. After
Rosas’ fall in 1852, Juan Dillon was appointed
Juez de Paz (Justice of Peace) in
Morón (1855–1856) and military commander for the region. He also was elected
Presidente de Municipalidad (Municipal President or
Mayor) of the same district (1857; 1864–1865). By those days Dillon took charge of his family's estate in Merlo, rebuilt the town and was appointed
Juez de Paz of the newly created Partido of Merlo. After his public life in Merlo, President
Avellaneda appointed Dillon as Chief Commissioner of Immigration in 1875. During his administration Argentina experienced the first massive European immigration to the country and Dillon received the first
Welsh immigrants,
Volga Germans and Italians from
Friuli. After that, Dillon and his family moves to
La Plata when he was elected senator and served during three terms in the Buenos Aires legislature, in which he chaired the budget commission.
1864: Merlo obtains its autonomy In 1857 the Argentine railway company
Camino de Hierro de Buenos Aires al Oeste opens the first steam locomotive public railway in Argentina and few years later the company was planning to extend the line westward to
Moreno. The construction of the railway made land speculation a highly profitable activity. In order to reach Merlo the line had to pass through the land owned by the Pearson Family and Dillon saw the opportunity to make huge profits by selling out parts of the family's estate. Dillon established in Merlo and in 1859 he commissioned the famous architect and engineer Pedro Benoit to design the layout of the town, organizing it on a rectangular grid of streets and blocks. The town was enlarged and endowed with a municipal palace, avenue, train station, school and church. The rail station was opened on August 11, 1859. Dillon and others businessmen and prominent neighbors such as Manuel Rodríguez, Enrique Smith and Fernando Pearson (Juan Dillon's step brother), petitioned to the Governor the erection of a new partido from the old Partido of Morón. On October 11, 1864 the legislature of Buenos Aires sanctions the law 422 creating the Partido of Merlo. Until 1878 the new district included the today's Partido of
Marcos Paz and comprehended 400 km² approx. The election of the authorities took place in the same year and only sixty-four citizens voted; the first municipal government was integrated by Juan Dillon as
Juez de Paz and Antonio Suárez, Francisco Sullivan, Fernando Pearson and Tomás Gahan as
Municipales or
Councilors. Thousands of neighbors fled Buenos Aires to the countryside when a
cholera epidemic first, and a
yellow fever outbreak later, afflicted the city in 1867 and 1871 respectively. These events brought many
Spaniard,
Basque,
Italian and
French immigrants to Merlo, contributing with a highly qualified working force. There was also a small
British community constituted mainly by white collar workers, employed in the British railway companies. By the late 19th century many rural settlements were dispersed throughout the countryside, thriving along the rail tracks. The railway prompted the accelerated development of Merlo in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; San Antonio de Padua, Mariano Acosta, Libertad and even Merlo city grew as
railway towns. Merlo was a
countryside district until the late 1940s. People from Buenos Aires spent their weekend and summer getaways in
cottages,
picnicking at the Reconquista riverside, playing
golf at the Ituzaingó Golf Club and
gliding at the
Club Albatros and
Club Cóndor gliding clubs. The landscape was spattered with
estancias and
farms. During the first half of the 20th century the two mayor political forces in the district were the
Radical Civic Union and the Conservative Party of Buenos Aires.
Merlo becomes part of Greater Buenos Aires . In the second half of the 20th century Merlo experienced an important influx of immigrants from the provinces. Between 1947 and 1960 the district quintuplicates its population, initiating a rapid process of urbanization and incorporating Merlo into the Greater Buenos Aires. This period coincided with the rise of the
Peronism in Argentina and since then the district becomes a Peronist stronghold. ==Cities==