A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 18

Author:
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 954

USA > Texas > Henderson County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 18
USA > Texas > Freestone County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 18
USA > Texas > Leon County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 18
USA > Texas > Anderson County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 18
USA > Texas > Limestone County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 18
USA > Texas > Navarro County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 18

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Thus the conflict has passed, and the old soldiers' society called the United Confed- erate Veterans' Association of Navarro County are now its chief memory.

TOWNS AND THOROUGHFARES.

"The friction of mind against mind is one of the greatest sources of our civiliza- tion," says a writer on water and land transportation in a history of Mississippi recently published, " and nothing produces this friction so much as facile means of transportation, and nothing intensifies it so much as any means of greater rapidity in such intercommunication. This feat- ure of rapidity and the other of more facility may each be easily marked by the most casual student of civilizing influences, as the chief characteristics that distinguish our country and onr century from other countries, and centuries now past. The amazing growth of 'the great republic,' and the century that has been called the 'age of steam,' . the age of electricity,' ' the railway age,' 'the age of iron and steel,' ' the age of invention,' 'the age of rapid transit,' ' the century of ocean greyhounds,' and what not, springs from this one source of rapid transportation to a far greater degree than from any other direct cause. A great story of civilization lies in these simple and homely facts: A man walks about three miles an hour; a horse trots about seven miles an hour; a steamboat averages about eighteen miles an hour; and a railway train reaches near to sixty miles an hour. Civilization has moved in a like manner.

" But if variations in rapidity of trans- port make such stupendous differences in

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immediate results, variation in facility are equally great. The most cursory glance at the several continents will show this feature of facility of intercommunication, when climate does not interfere, to be a very practical measure of civilization of that continent; the greater the facility of intercommunication - natural, especially -the greater the civilization. Indeed, the continents most widely separated in degree of civilization, Europe and Africa, are also the best illustrations of facility of intercommunication, although adjoining one another, and the latter even having centuries of advantage in seeds of advance- ment. Whatever differences of views may be held as to the bearing of race qual- ities on the subject, there can be no doubt the number and depth of the water inlets into Europe, and the practical absence of them in Africa, the small continent of Europe having the longest coast line, and the vast continent of Africa having the smallest, has led to Africa being the last continent to be opened up, and that, too, by artificial means, while Europe has been advancing with an excellence and rapidity uneqnaled in the history of conti- nents before the railway age."

Texas, in this respect, has been both for- tunate and unfortunate. With splendid ocean harbors entrance was easy and very early, but with comparatively no internal water transportation, advance inland, from that source, was seriously crippled. Her water courses became seats of her towns, however; yet, as a rule, it was for the sake of their water for domestic purposes, rather than for transportation. One feat- ure, however, almost entirely overcame

the difficulties from this source, and that was the freedom of movement lent by her vast and beautiful prairies, which were ready-made roads of the finest kind, almost untrammeled by boundaries or limits of any kind. This fact has not been given sufficient importance by stu- dents of our Mississippi valley civilization. All its glorious development has been at- tributed to railways, because railways ac- cidentally arrived to supersede the horse and wagon; but, great things as the rail- way has done, the easy movement afforded by prairies themselves would have made a rapidity of development never before equaled. The prairies owe much to the railroads, but the railroads owe an equally great debt to the prairies.

On the prairies a good spring often has more to do with the location of a town than a creek or river; so that the prairie, in a measure, modifies the inflexibility with which, in most countries of the world the water-courses commanded settlements to be located upon them. It was left for the railway, however, to remove that feat- ure entirely. The railway executives now decide where a town shall or shall not be, without regard to rivers or prairies, either one, and not infrequently without regard to the inhabitants themselves. This is in dicated by the fact that the towns are very frequently named in honor of some rail- way executive.

In most cases the towns, except possibly the county seat town, are the result of transportation facilities, that is, if settle- ment villages such as Dresden was at first be not considered. Let the transportation methods be noted. Besides the prairie

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

wagon and horseback in 1849 there was the Trinity river, whose navigation has been discussed more fully elsewhere in this volume. There were at this date the county settlements of Dresden and Spring Hill; the county seat Corsicana, which was scarcely more than a wayside inn; and Porter's Bluff on the Trinity river, as the cotton shipping point, from which rafts were floated off down the river, or a some- what more pretentious keel-boat. At this time the trading points of this region were Houston or Galveston and Shreveport, and so they remained until reconstruction days.

A few times an attempt was made to get the more pretentious boats, run by steam, up to the Navarro county landings, but with little permanent results. A writer, in the first paper of the county, has given us a glimpse of the situation, which is given below:

"The Trinity river can be made naviga- ble for three-fourths of the year," writes "L. L.," in the Prairie Blade of August 22, 1856, "and it was ascended as high as Taos or Porter's Bluff in this county, in June, 1852, by the steamboat Nick Hill. Since that time, however, there has been no attempt to ascend it thus high, though it is deep, but narrow and meandering. As a consequence we yet have to depend on wagons and keel-boats for the purposes of transportation, which is bnt a slow and toilsome method, though we are just now much cheered with the prospect of soon having railroad facilities." * ** *

The prospect above spoken of has been inentioned in the settlement chapter, but it did not materialize, and the "slow and toilsome method" was still in vogue when

the war closed, and cotton was still loaded on keel-boats at Porter's Bluff and Lock- ridge's Bluff, farther down, until within a very short time of the railway's advent in 1871. The trading point changed from Houston in 1866, however, when the first great inland railway made its way slowly northward from Houston to Central Texas -two names the road was destined to bear permanently. It had moved its slow length along to Millican in 1866, and all the in- habitants of Central Texas flocked to the new distributing point for supplies. This remained the terminus for a time, and so did nearly every successive terminns re- main so, as one was reached nearly every succeeding year. Bryan came next, and Calvert, Bremond and the towns of Lime- stone connty had their day at it, at least as far up as Groesbeck, whence it was rapidly put through to Corsicana in 1871, and she in her turn became a terminus, and not only that, but the location for shops. Then it betook itself onward to Dallas, and Navarro county had its outlet to the south.

But, although the Houston & Texas Central marks the beginning of the rail- way period in Navarro county, that road was largely limited in its town-building features to the development of Corsicana. Even now it has but two or three small stations on its line in this county outside of Corsicana, as Rice, Richland and An. gus, none of which were large enough for the census of 1890 to give separate men- tion. It did develop Corsicana, however; but that need not be noticed at this point; and it also brought in a large country population. This continued for practically

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ten years-the decade of the '70s-and re- sulted in a large increase in the country population of Navarro county, but had little influence on town population except what has been noticed. So the railway period divides itself into two decades,- the '70s for the Houston & Texas Central, and the '80s for another and greater town builder. The former has now 31 miles of track in the county, valued at $279,- 000, while the latter has 70.17 miles, valued at $491,190.

Navarro has passed through all stages of town-building thus far indicated, by water transportation, springs, prairies and railways, from the days of Dresden and Porter's Bluff down to the railway times of Corsicana and the towns of the Cotton Belt road. Navarro's town-building really divides itself into two eras of nearly equal length before and after 1870-about twenty-two years before and the same period after that date. These two periods, in most connties, are strikingly different in the amount of their town-building, as the great preponderance is usually in the last of the two. Although Navarro is not so remarkable in this respect as some counties, yet it remains trne of her growth also.

The great Cotton Belt Railway, which has become so important a feature of Na- varro, and also Henderson county, began as a small affair in 1871, known in the act of incorporation of December 1, of that year, as the Tyler Tap Railway, to reach ont about forty miles to the Southern Pa- cific, the Houston, or the International railways. It was not until the 14th of May, 1879, that the road began to take on

the airs of a great northern trunk line. On that date the directors met at Tyler and changed the name of the road to that of the Texas & St. Lonis Railway Com- pany, and arrangements were made to ex- tend to Texarkana for northern connection, and to reach out westwardly through Hen- derson, Navarro, Hill or Limestone and McLennan to make a junction with the Waco branch of the Houston & Texas Central Railway, which had been built up throngh Waco in 1871. Work was rapidly pushed during 1879 and 1880; and with the now fully determined purpose of making it a trunk line, the directors made another move for extension. On April 22, 1881, they net at Tyler and laid plans for an extension beyond Waco, to connect with trunk lines in New Mexico and also in old Mexico at the Rio Grande, with miscellaneous connecting branches else- where. It was only pushed west of Waco to Gatesville, in Coryell, however, which still remains the terminns. On July 27, of that year, the name was changed to the Texas & St. Louis Railway Company in Texas. During the '80s the road passed through many legal procedures that vary- ing management had made necessary, and the evolution it was making toward be- coming a great railway system from St. Lonis to the southwest. These changes are of interest because they affected the vigor of the road, and consequently the growth of the two counties along its line with which this sketch is concerned. It was put into the hands of a receiver January 16, 1884, and in the two suc- ceeding years efforts at reorganization were ınade.

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

On January 18, 1886, the St. Louis, Ar- kansas & Texas Railway Company in Texas was organized to cover the trunk line with which this sketch is concerned, and on the 1st of May following it took possession at the order of the court. Other extensions were made that year, but they are not pertinent to this sketch. In 1887, low- ever, on May 4, the stockholders did ar- range for one of importance to Navarro county, namely, the branch to Hillsboro from Corsicana, which made the latter an important central distributing point. The legal trials and tribulations of the road, however, seemed to have no end, and on May 13, 1889, it again went into the re- ceiver's hands,-this time S. W. Fordyce, of St. Louis,-at the order of the court; while later A. H. Swanson became co-re- ceiver. Renewed efforts at reorganization were made, and on January 9, 1891, at Tyler, the St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company of Texas was organized, and on the following May (18th) took possession and control of the property at the order of the Federal court. This is its present status and name, although it is far better known by its popular title of the "Cotton Belt Route." Its lines under this name in Texas embrace over 642 miles, and its Navarro county mileage is greater than that of any railway in any county con- sidered in this volume; consequently, for its age, it is the leading town-builder in these counties. It already has a half- dozen good stations on its lines in the county, not including Corsicaua, and among these are the only towns outside of the county seat that had in 1890 a population sufficiently large to be given separate men-

tion by the national census of that year. These two are Dawson and Blooming Grove, while the town next in size in the county-Kerens-is also on its lines. Among the others are Frost, Purdon and Barry. Thus with Corsicana as the cen- tral trading point, Dawson is the repre- sentative supply station of a large region in the southwest, Blooming Grove in the northwest, Kerens in the east, Rice in the north, and Richland in the south, while the others cover intermediate points.

There are other villages, however, that are not railway stations, and as there is no way of grading them except by local esti- mates, which seldom profess to be very reliable, they can be noticed only in a general way.

The first post office established in Na- varro county was secured on the 22d of May, 1846, by the Dresden settlement, and bearing the name Melton, in honor of its postmaster, Ethan Melton, whose home became the office. Excepting the Alta Springs postoffice in Limestone county, which was established on the same date, this was the first to be established in these counties after their organization. This was in 1846; ten years later, or 1856, the county had seven postoffices: Dresden, Corsicana, Muskeet, Parker's Bluff, Rich- land Crossing, Spring Hill and Taos or Porter's Bluff, of which five now exist under those names. But if there was one in 1846, and seven in 1856, it will be no surprise to learn that in 1892 there are twenty-one more, or twenty-eight in all, the largest number by ten, and more, in

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any county considered in this volume. Anderson county comes the nearest, with eighteen.

These Navarro post offices are as fol- lows, and the estimates of their village size are given with the distinct understanding that they are merely rough approximates by one or two of Navarro's own citizens: Corsicana, the largest, is of course given by the census, as 6,285 in 1890, inside the corporate limits alone; Dawson, the next in size in 1890, was quoted separately with 365 inhabitants; Blooming Grove, quoted with 175, came third in that cen- sus, and the others were not quoted apart from the precinct population; so here is where the rough estimates must be brought in; Kerens, a lively little village of about 100, with a newspaper called the Navarro Blade; Frost, a vigorous little place of probably 75, on the Hillsboro branch of the Cotton Belt, and with a newspaper called the Frost Clarion; Rice, on the H. & T. C. Ry., north, with about the same population; then there is old Chatfield, with a couple of stores, Cryer Creek, Dresden, Pardon, Richland and Winkler, all with about lialf a hundred; then come Angus, Barry and Spring Hill with a score and a half or so; Bazette, Cade, Emmet, Eureka, Pursley, and Rural Shade liave a dozen or so; and Birdston, Hester and Re close the list of those that pretend to more than the office in a private house, such as are Drane, Moreland, Pisgah, and Rodney.

All towns have their stores, post office, and necessary shops, with church and school, but it is when they become strong enough to get some distinctive features

that they become of sufficient interest for a story of them such as brief space al- lows. Thus it is that a small city has a much more complex and varied develop- ment than a half dozen villages, aggre- gating the same population.

Before turning to a fuller view of the three towns quoted in the census of 1890, let a glance be taken at the general dis- tribution of population throughout the bounds of Navarro county. In 1880 there were but three precincts, the largest one witlı 14,210 people, and including what are now Nos. 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7, and cover- ing Corsicana, Dawson and Kerens. The next largest was what is now Nos. 5 and 8, including Blooming Grove, and total- ing 5,152. The other was what is now No. 2, with 2,340, thus giving the whole county 21,702. But the census of 1890 showed 26,373 in the county and eight precincts were reported. The largest of these, of course, was No. 1, containing Corsicana and totaling 10,687; but it was also the most populous if Corsicana's 6,285 were left out, as it would then be over 4,000. The second precinct in pop- ulation was No. 3, with Kerens in it, making 3,249. Nos. 5 and 2 came next, with 3,094 for the former, with Blooming Grove, and 3,019 for the latter. These were all that scored above 3,000, and but one, No. 4, reached above 2,000, that in- cluding Dawson, with a total of 2,069. Nos. 6 and 7 are nearly the same size, 1,710 and 1,613, while No. 8, with 932 is the smallest. Thus it will be seen that the total quoted town population of 1890 was 6,825, leaving probably 19,000 for

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

the country, after allowing for the villages; this makes approximately 3 to 1 in favor of the country.

CORSICANA.

Corsicana's founding as a county seat at Rev. Mckinney's "tavern " has been al- ready told in the chapter on organization. Mrs. C. M. Winkler writes of those early buildings in a pleasant, chatty way: " In the home of Rev. H. Mckinney, when only comprising the three cabins before mentioned, the first district court was held. Afterward a log courthouse was built which served also as church and schoolhouse. This was replaced by a wooden square building which was burned by an incendiary. A brick structure took its place before the war, which became un- safe and the handsome edifice now stand- ing took its place. This is constructed in modern style, of Austin brick, trimmed with stone, substantial enough to last for many years.

"The next public building in the town was the academy, which stood where Mr. Tom Kerr's residence is now situated, on Third avenne. This was a large two- story building, built altogether of cedar, the lower part used for educational pur- poses during the week and for religious worship on Sunday, the upper story serv- ing as a Masonic lodge, the Masons calling their brethren together for work by sound- ing a triangle. After the chapter, No. 41, was organized, at their meetings the neigh- bors were very much shocked by the un- earthly noises which issued from the hall."

In the Central Texian of Anderson, Sep- tember 2, 1854, a Corsicana letter says:

"Corsicana has greatly improved since you were liere, and is now in excellent condi- tion to advance. Our courthouse is ready for use, and is a beautiful frame building, two stories high, and 40 x 46 feet, with an observatory on top. It was built mainly by the industry and energy of Hon. Presley Donaldson, chief justice of this county, who has devoted his time during the last year of his term of office in col- lecting the debt of the county and pro- curing material and capable workinen, etc., for the building. We have two schools, which can scarcely be beaten in Texas -- a primary school, taught by S. H. Kerr, and a high school, by R. A. Rakestraw, Esq., an accomplished classical scholar. A steam saw and plane mill will be in operation in about a month, which will be of immense advantage to the place. Two buildings are already on the way, and three churches in proportion, and, to cap the climax, the prohibition liquor law was elected on Mon- day almost unanimously in this county. At this precinct, ont of 222 votes polled, only thirteen were against it."

This, however, is written in the vein of contemporary enthusiasm, which reveals to the most casual reader the condition of the town as a mere village.

The town hung about the square in the original plat down to the war, with no great advances in any direction. The stores were there where small ones now stand facing the courthouse, which, indeed, was the ground of the town's existence. This, for a few blocks each way, might be called "Old Corsicana," as in Palestine a

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similar part is known as "Old Town." This was in the days of stage-coach travel, as the following shows:

Says the Express in 1860: "Recently the new line of four-horse coaches, on Colonel G. W. Grant's line, via Corsicana, Fairfield, Centerville, Madisonville and Anderson, shortens the route nearly forty iniles. When Grant's line becomes a little more known, it will attract a great portion of the travel. I happen to know some- thing of the way the line is managed. At Waxahachie Vanmetre mounts the box; it is after midnight; you go whirling down the beautiful Waxahachie creek, passing well-improved farms, and many evidences of thrift and industry. Passing on down, you cross Mustang creek, a small stream. At Corsicana Charlie Lyons takes tlie strings, and you go whirling southward at the rate of six iniles an hour. He puts you into the careful hands of Joe Cashion; Joe takes you to Centerville, and hands you over to Hezzleton; Hezzleton gives up to Mays, and Mays sets you down at Fan- thorp's -- in forty hours from Waxahachie!" This was the acme of rapid transit, recorded with enthusiasm.

"Fifty years hence," says a prophetic writer in the March 10 Express of 1860, " Corsicana may be quite a city, whose in- habitants inay listen daily to the snort of the iron horse. The little cottages, clustered around, may be hid by magnificent dwell- ings, and business houses be erected, to which our present ones will appear as small as the Liliputians did to Gulliver." As thirty-two years have now passed they

prove the writer a modest prophet. The prophet was a young girl, "S. S.," of the the Female Institute.

Of course, the period of the war was noth- ing but stagnation and decay, and may be passed with no farther notice since the pur- pose of this sketch is to show the grounds of Corsicana's growth. With the war once closed, the city was early alive and pulsating with the slow prospects of the Central Railway's advance from Houston. The leading paper of that day -- The Observer -- had much to say of it, and always vigorous and to the point. Here is a sample:

In March, 1868, Mr. Van Horn says in the Observer: "The Central's trade alone has extended it from Hempstead to its present terminus. Prior to that it was constructed principally by the indomitable energy of Paul Bremond, aided by liberal contributions of planters on the Brazos and all the upper country between the Brazos and the Trinity. Many of the notes of men in this county paid for grading and ties be- low Hempstead. The road was subsequently sold out for debt, and purchased by its present manager, W. J. Hutchins, Esq., who generously proffered to reinstate the original stockholders, upon payment to the treasurer of ten per cent. of their respective stocks. Many availed themselves of this privilege and everything went on harmoni- ously. The progress of the war, however, set the road back at least ten years, but since the 'break up' it has undergone thorough repairs and has been in running order for some time to Bryan, witli a con- tract out for an additional thirty miles and considerable of the grading done.

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"No one who has not witnessed the operations of this road can have the least idea of the immense amount of cotton that has been transported on the road since the termination of the war. Very frequently the cars would be behind its transportation for more than two months. The revenne from this freight alone was almost incred- ible, and was sufficient of itself to support and extend the road for some time. But, alas! unfortunately for the road, and the county also, this freight is fast falling off. Planters and farmers, owing to the heavy taxation on cotton, and the destruction of the labor that produced it, have almost abandoned its culture; the sagacious stock- holders and managers of the Central road are aware of this, and are now determined to reach the wheat region as soon as pos- sible to compensate for the loss of cotton freights. This meant that Corsicana should soon be reached and passed, and is a fair sample of the anxions expectation with which the whole country of upper Texas awaited it. Its coming on during the next three years was like the movement of a thrilling story long drawn out, as far as its effect on the people were concerned. But it came, and below is given a sample of the way her citizens reviewed the process of its acquisition.

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Author: Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 954

Author:
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 954