USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I > Part 29
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Both geographically and by political boun-
North Texas, therefore, before the railroad 175
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period, was isolated and inland so far as water transportation is concerned, and in accounting for the slow development up to 1870 the emphasis should be laid on that fact; for, while Indian hostilities have received much space on the pre- ceding pages, they must be regarded in the same category with other retarding elements of nature, and so terribly potent only because the settlers were weak. In the early history of this nation it will be found that the centers of population and commerce have formed and grown at con- venient positions on the great water highways. New York was founded where it was in the first place because of its harbor. St. Louis sprang up out of the middle wilderness years before Chicago and other inland cities were dreamed of, mainly because of its splendid location on the Father of Waters. And, moreover, instances might be multiplied of towns, thus planted by the rivers of our country and nourished by their water commerce, which, in the railroad era, have been left to one side by the tracks of steel and in consequence have decayed and long ago lost all their prestige. But these successive phases of development, one the result of commerce by water and the other a commerce by rail, do not charcaterize North Texas history, and it is the complete absence of the former which, by con- trast, renders the railroad period of such tran- scendant importance.
We also referred to the political boundaries of North Texas as giving this region a peculiar inland position which has had much to do with its development. When, in 1833, the United States government set aside, as a permanent reservation for their Indian wards, the large and fertile region since known as Indian Territory, the statesmen who were the authors of that grant inadvertently placed a burden upon Texas civili- zation and a bar to its progress and development. Although the first cessions of land in 1866 gave the signal for the disintegration of the Territory, which has been going on ever since, yet the inter- . position of that vast reserve with its hostile pop- ulation, for many years practically shut off North Texas from the natural routes .of com- munication which otherwise would have been established with the Mississippi valley states.
While the continuity of civilization was thus interrupted on the north to the northwest and west, nature herself opposed an uninviting pros- pect of semi-aridity, so that, until the railroads came, the line of immigration and development held with little fluctuation from the east to the west ; while now the streams of settlement flow in from every direction.
Although Texas may now claim a greater railway mileage than any other state, its total main-line mileage reported to the railway com- mission January 1, 1904, being 11,294.59, while Illinois had 11,229.50 miles and Pennsylvania 10,299 miles, the construction of railroads did not begin in this state until 1852, when the Buf- falo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad started west from Harrisburg as the germ of the Sunset System. The next road was the Galveston and Red River, which was begun at Houston in 1853, the plan being to cross the state to the north. In 1856 this road became the Houston and Texas Central, and, as such, in later years, was the first iron highway to pene- trate the region of North Texas. In this brief resume it is hardly necessary to state that the Civil war stopped all railroad building, and activity was not resumed until near the end of the reconstruction era. In 1870 only five hundred miles of railroad were in operation in the state ; in 1876 there were two thousand miles ; in 1890, 8,700 miles; and in 1900 over ten thousand, being at that time a little less than the total mileage of either Illinois or Pennsylvania, both of which states, as we see, Texas has now surpassed. June 30, 1905, the Texas mileage showed 11,744.98 miles of main track, an increase for the year of 208.87 miles.
North Texas was a new country thirty years ago, much of it is still new. Its resources at that time were entirely undeveloped-more than that, they were not even dreamed to exist in anything like the abundance and richness which later years have proved. Furthermore, the great inland distances for a long time raised almost insuper- able obstacles to railroad construction. These facts are initial considerations in the study of railroad building in North Texas. Substantial inducements were needed before capitalists would
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embark in any railroad enterprise in Texas. There were too many rich fields in other parts of the country which seemed to offer greater possibilities for investment and promotion. This
and the leading citizens thus assembled passed resolutions presenting the eligibility of Fort Worth as a junction point for the Houston and Texas Central and the Southern Pacific (later leads us to assert here what will become evident ' T. & P.) railroads. Fort Worth at that time in the course of the narrative, that for its splendid. railroad facilities and the consequent unsurpassed material prosperity North Texas is indebted, in a small measure, to sluggish outside capital, but first and above all to the individual enterprise and, generous public spirit of its citizens.
Railroads were encouraged during the Re- public, though none were built during that period. Public land subsidies were freely voted, the Texans themselves were enthusiastic whenever such enterprises were broached, but there was an essential poverty of resources in those early days that rendered Texas an unattractive field in the eyes of the practical railroad builder. Hopeful be- cause of their recently achieved independence, and buoyant with prospects for the future, the average Texan had very little conception of the stupendous sums required for railroad construc- tion and could not understand why the liberal land grants did not attract a score of railroads.
It was under the general railroad law of 1854 that the first railroads were constructed in North Texas. This measure provided, among other things, that when a company had constructed and put in operation twenty-five miles of railroad, it could have thirty-two sections of the public do- main surveyed for each mile of road thus con- structed; every alternate section was donated to the railroad company, and the intervening sec- tions were set aside as public school lands. By this time Texas land had a tangible value, and many companies, generally of little substance, were formed to take advantage of the railroad law. By 1857 forty-one railroad lines had been projected in all directions over the state, and had received charters; at that date fifteen of these charters had already been forfeited, and most of the others were destined to share a simi- lar fate.
. On November 13, 1858, an enthusiastic rail- road meeting was held in the court house at Fort Worth, with the late E. M. Daggett as chairman and Capt. J. C. Terrell as secretary,
was hardly thirty miles from the Indian frontier, and even ten years later the construction of a railroad through Tarrant county was only a prospect. Though nearly twenty years elapsed before the first train came into Fort Worth, it is a fact of pregnant significance that the enter- prise of its leading men was thus early directed to the necessity of making Fort Worth a railroad center.
To the citizens of North Texas, waiting from year to year for the transportation facilities which they truly felt to be the only prerequisite for a splendid material welfare, the story of railroad building into their part of the state is a series of civic, financial and industrial calamities, deferred prospects and exasperating delays, and yet, show- ing through it all is a persistence of determination and hopefulness that merits the final triumph.
About fifteen years after the date of the above meeting at Fort Worth, three different lines of railroad and from three different directions, al- most simultaneously, penetrated that region of Texas which forms the basis of our present his- tory. These lines were: The Houston and Texas Central, from the south; the Texas and Pacific, from the east; and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, from the northeast.
The Houston & Texas Central, as stated above, began building north from Houston, the head of light-draft navigation, in 1853. By the middle of 1859 it was finished and running trains to a point ten miles north of Hempstead, for a total distance of sixty miles. Early in 1860 construction reached Navasota, and to this town, as the nearest railroad point for North Texas, what was known as the Dallas and Houston Express Co. ran a fast four-horse express twice a month from Dallas. So highly was this transportation agency esteemed among the people of North Texas that its establishment was hailed as the advent of a new era, bringing the northern terminus several days nearer to the centers of commerce and civilization. Before the war opened trains were
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running on this road to Millican, which remained the terminus for a number of years. Resumption of the work in 1867 pushed the 'line on to Bryan, but it was not until 1870 that Bremond, the junction point for the "Waco Tap" line, was reached. Groesbeck, in Limestone county, be- came the actual operating terminus by June, 1871. The speed of construction was now no doubt ac- celerated by the approach of the other two lines, so that on July 16, 1872, Dallas heralded the arrival of the first train from the south over the H. & T. C., giving consummation to an agitation and endeavor which the citizens of that place had kept up for many years.
Dallas was placed in telegraphic communica- tion with the world on July 8, 1872. Through- out the trying period of the Civil war the people in this part of the state had no means of learning the critical events transpiring on the nation's battlefields except through the irregular mail service or travelers. In 1868 the nearest tele- graph stations were at Tyler and Bryan. The contrast of conditions suggested by this fact is worth considering in these days of the Associated Press when the world's yesterday is chronicled for reading at this morning's breakfast time.
We have already seen what an impetus the construction of a railroad from the north into Texas gave to the cattle business, obviating, as it did in a short time, the long cattle drives over the Chisholm and other trails. It is doubtful if any road proved a greater factor in the develop- ment of North Texas than the Missouri, Kansas and Texas. The nucleus of this great system was chartered on the 20th of September, 1865, and construction work soon began at Junction City, Kansas. It was pushed on to the southern boundary of that state, and was opened for busi- ness to Chetopa, on June 1, 1870. Other links in the meantime were in process of completion, and connections were soon made with Hannibal and St. Louis. The eyes of North Texas were on this railroad even when it was five hundred miles away, and every extension toward the south was hailed as a step nearer that commer- cial union which made North Texas a factor in world trade and industry. During 1871 and 1872 this road continued its building through the ter-
ritory and in the last months of 1872 crossed the Red river and halted in a corn field four miles this side, in Grayson county. Around this terminus, to which trains began to be operated on January 1, 1873, there at once sprang into being, touched by the wand of railroad enter- prise, a group of stores, dwellings, and all the accompaniments of a bustling village which formed a depot and shipping center, at which would be distributed the commerce from the north, and the receiving point for the products of a wide range of North Texas country. This was the origin of Denison, which came into being through the advent of the railroad and which has ever since retained its prestige as a railroad town. During the seventies Denison was an important cattle market, and derived many other advantages from its position as the terminal of the only road coming from the north. It was several years before the line was extended beyond that point, and in the meantime its importance as a center was fortified by the projection of other lines from this radiating point.
Already for several years East Texas had been in railroad connection with the outside world. The old Southern Pacific, from Shreve- port into Texas by way of Marshall, was the germ of the present Texas and Pacific, which may be termed the base line of North Texas, and when first built across the state, if not to- day, the greatest factor in its development. As the Southern Pacific it was known until 1871. On March 3, 1871, the Texas Pacific Railroad Company was chartered by Congress, the name being changed to the Texas and Pacific Rail- road Company on May 22, 1872. With the in- fusion of new life and vigor into the enterprise; it soon became the favorite road of the North Texas people. In many respects, indeed, the Texas and Pacific is a "home road"; it has never been subsidized by the national govern- ment, receiving only such aid as the state gave to every road in the way of land grants ; it has depended most largely upon the liberality and enterprise of Texas citizens, and the process . of its construction across the state is a very reliable index of the general prosperity of the country and the intimate relation which has
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always been maintained between this road and the citizenship of the country through which it has passed.
The same company which took over the em- bryo lines of the T. & P. also got control of the Memphis, El Paso and Pacific, which was re- named the "Trans-Continental," and its subse- quent extension is now the Trans-Continental Division of the T. & P. In 1872 this line ex- tended from Fulton to Texarkana, Arkansas,' and, according to the Texas Almanac for 1873, work was being rapidly pushed upon the pro- jected route to Fort Worth, "the completion of which is promised during the coming year."
The projection of new lines and the actual work of construction on old ones were going on so rapidly about this time, that there was firm basis for the hopes that North Texas would be gridironed with railroads in the course of a few years. In May, 1873, there were bills be- fore the legislature for the incorporation of the Fort Worth, Cleburne and Waco, which was to connect the towns named and to be com- pleted by 1877; also the Fort Worth and Den- ver City, which was projected primarily to de- velop the mineral resources of the Northwest Texas; a third road was the Beaumont, Corsi- cana and Fort Worth. In 1871 a charter had been granted for the construction of the Dallas and Wichita Railroad, to run from Dallas northwest of Wichita Falls, where it was to connect with the proposed Denver and El Paso narrow gauge; this road was projected for practically the same reasons as the Ft. W. & D. C. The people of Dallas were much elated about this time over the prospects of their city becoming the great rail- road center of North Texas, and the develop- ment of that town to its present commercial importance received its principal impetus dur- ing the early seventies, while, with two rail- roads completed to a junction point there, yet without immediate prospects of further exten- sion, it became the principal shipping point of North Texas to the east and south, and on this account grew and prospered while its rivals suffered from the financial depression of the same period. It was on the 30th day of August,
1873, two weeks before the banking house of J. Cooke and Co. suspended payment with such dire results to all industries that depended up- on the circulating medium of money, that the last spike was driven that connected the Dallas and Longview ends of the Texas and Pacific, establishing a through route from Dallas to the east.
The enthusiasm evoked by the progress of railroad building is well illustrated by the large canvas map of Fort Worth as the coming rail- road center, which an enterprising real estate firm of that city hung up on the court house square for the instruction and hope of all who passed that way, and the same diagram was reproduced in the local papers for some time. Although this rough map was but a prophecy, it is significant that this prophecy had a basis ih sound judgment since all the lines of rail- road pictured on the canvas have since been ·constructed, and more too. Coming in from Dallas, was shown the line of the T. & P., from Sherman the projected route of the H. & T. C .; from Denison the M. K. & T .; from Gaines- ville the L. L. & G .; to Decatur the F. W. & D. C. reached out; Weatherford was on the west branch of the T. & P .; while Cleburne was joined by the Waco and F. W., and Brown- wood by the Fort Worth, Granbury & South- western.
Fort Worth was alive to the necessity of securing railroads, and never from the time the first line was projected to this point until the present has the city ceased to be a storm center of railroad agitation and activity. Not to dis- parage the citizenship of the present, it can be said truthfully that men of giant enterprise, foresight, and indefatigable energy directed the career of Fort Worth in those days ; such well known men as D. C. Adams, Howard Schuyler, W. A. Huffman, W. H. H. Lawrence, John A. McCoy, E. M. Daggett, J. F. Ellis, Daniel Stewart, J. P. Smith, J. M. Eddy, M. H. Goble, C. L. Frost, M. B. Loyd, who are named among those who met in September, 1873 (three or four days before the financial panic was precip- itated), to organize under the terms of the charter granted by the state to the Fort Worth
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and Denver City Railroad. And most of these men continued year after year as ardent in the cause of railroad building as before the panic. Then, on the very day of the memorable fail- ure, the following directorate was announced for this typically Fort Worth and Northwest Texas road: W. A. Huffman, W. H. H. Law- rence, C. L. Frost, J. A. McCoy, J. M. Eddy, J. H. Creighton, D. C. Adams, Howard Schuy- ler and M. H. Goble; J. M. Eddy being chosen president, W. H. H. Lawrence vice-president, M. H. Goble secretary, and C. L. Frost treasurer. This was followed by the statement that it was proposed to construct the road through the Panhandle at once, and that $250,000 stock had been subscribed and only $50,000 more was wanted. The charter gave the usual la- 1 grants, and required that 25 miles of the road should be completed within three years from the passage of the act, and an additional 30 miles each two years thereafter. Almost im- mediately after this meeting an engineering corps began the location of the line.
It is hardly possible to assert, and at best is but an interesting subject of conjecture, what the results would have been had not the financial panic of 1873 turned awry this and similar enterprises of great pith and moment which were then being undertaken for the de- velopment of North and West Texas. It seems indeed, that this grand project of a railroad into northwest Texas, which has since been consummated with inestimable benefits to that region, was at the time a little premature. It will be remembered that at this time the west- ward movement of the range cattlemen had hardly penetrated the Panhandle district; that Young, Archer and Wichita counties were still on the frontier limits; and that even when this road was completed through Northwest Texas fifteen years after the above mentioned or- ganization, it traversed a yet sparsely settled country.
The territory covered by our historical in- quiry was to be denied for several years a rail- road outlet other than that furnished at Dallas by the T. & P. to the east, the H. & T. C. to the south, and at Denison by the M. K. & T. to the
northeast. In the meantime, however, the soil was being prepared for the seed when the time of sowing should arrive. Though business was prostrated for several years after the panic, a relatively lighter blow was struck to the settle- ment of the country, and immigrants continued to pour into the fertile districts of North Texas and develop its agricultural resources to a point where it soon became a permanently in- viting field not alone for railroads, but for all great industrial undertakings. Accordingly, the delay that prevented the railroads from ex- tending their lines to the west and northwest cannot be regarded as an unmixed evil, since with the revival of prosperity progress was more stable and has continued without abate- ment.
Nevertheless, to Fort Worth, standing, as it were, on her hills, with hands outstretched to receive the promised boon of the railroad and its accompanying benefits, the sudden check placedupon railroad construction by the "Black Friday failure" was without doubt the bitterest disappointment of her early career. It must indeed have been small comfort for the citizens to read such a statement of the matter as ap- peared in the public press in February, 1874. "In contrast with the Union Pacific and other great trunk lines," says the article in question, "the Texas and Pacific, as far as completed, has been built out of the pockets of the stockhold- ers. But for J. Cooke's failure of last Septem- ber, the line would have been built through to the Pacific without further aid than the original land grants. It is said that had the failure been postponed only twenty-four hours, the negotia- tions pending in European financial circles would have been completed and the funds necessary to carry on the building would have . been secured. But the foreign investors now confound this enterprise with other Pacific roads to the north, and will not invest."
In consequence of the panic the T. & P. found it impossible to complete the divisions of its line according to the terms of its contract, and sought and obtained from time to time ex- tensions of contract. The date set for com- pletion of the road to Fort Worth was origin-
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ally November, 1873, ,but the legislature re- road company: "Shortly after the panic of last fall it will be remembered that the California and Texas Railway Construction Company suffered severely, as did many other corpora- lieved the construction company by granting an extension of eight months' time. After the climax of the panic was reached in September, the citizens of Fort Worth, as elsewhere, were . tions, its notes to the amount of $4,000,000 go- buoyed up by the confidence that the wave of ing to protest. The first note was defaulted Sep- tember 17, to the amount of $300,000. Since that time the work of construction has been in statu quo. At a recent meeting of the stock- holders it was resolved to take the construc- tion company's securities at a low rate in order to furnish the money necessary to complete the following lines at the earliest possible date : From Dallas to Fort Worth, and from Texarkana to Brookston, which will give a complete line from Marshall to Fort Worth and from Marshall north to Texarkana and west from that point to Sherman, thus effect- ing complete connection from Texas with rail- roads in surrounding states." depression would soon pass over and the in- . terrupted railroad building would be resumed. Such expectations are well illustrated in the; following quotation from the Fort Worth Dem- ocrat of October 25, 1873, which proudly points - to the fact that "a year ago but one mercantile house ornamented Main street-now there are two solid blocks and part of a third, two hand- some hotels, three banks and a score of other mercantile establishment"; and then goes on to say that "the extension of time granted the T. & P. for reaching this point has seriously af- fected trade for the time being. But eight months will soon pass. That the road will be completed by July 1, 1874, none presume to deny. It will be followed in six months by the Trans-Continental branch. Then there are two other lines chartered-the Forth Worth and Denver City, and the Beaumont, Corsicana and Fort Worth, one to the rich mineral fields and the other to the Gulf. Also the M. K. & T. and the western branch of the H. & T. C. will reach here." Concluding with the admonition, "Rome was not built in a day."
Although to the anxious citizens of Fort Worth, awaiting from day to day some news of the resumption of the work that would con- nect their city with the rest of the world, the. delays were exasperating, and often discourag- ing to those who had settled there for the pur- pose of reaping the harvest of prosperity which the railroad would bring, yet when viewed in comparison with similar railroad enterprises the Texas and Pacific reached Fort Worth much sooner than could ordinarily have been expected, and for this result the city had to thank not so much the promoters of the rail- road as the enthusiasm and vigorous enterprise of local citizens.
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