USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I > Part 30
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· To preface this work on the part of the citi- zens, let a quotation from a Philadelphia paper of May, 1874, describe the situation of the rail-
But the efforts to secure funds by this or whatever means on the part of the railroad officials evidently proved ineffectual, for we find that another extension of time has been sought for the fulfillment of the contract with the legis- lature and also financial assistance has been solicited from the citizens directly interested in the building of the road. To the extension of the time limit, many strenuously objected, holding the view that if the company could not live up to its contract, it should forfeit it and "give some one else the chance" to complete this work of such vast benefit to the people. There was a general feeling of distrust as to what the railroad people would or could do, for the citizens had already offered to do their share in carrying on the enterprise. At a rail- road meeting in the court house at Fort Worth, January 23, 1874, called pursuant to the state- ment from the T. & P. of its inability to build the road to Fort Worth by July 1, 1874, without aid from private sources, the citizens had passed resolutions to canvass the city for sub- scriptions to a fund which would be paid the construction company provided actual con- struction work between Dallas and Fort Worth was commenced on or before February 15th. The company could not, or at least did not,
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comply with the provisions of these resolutions, and it was therefore with considerable indigna- tion that the people again heard requests for ex- tension of contract limits.
Hope revived in June, 1874, when word came that the railroad company had resumed work after a long suspension. The section of the road under construction extended to the bottom lands on the east side of Mountain creek, some six or seven miles west of Dallas, and also in- cluded a bridge across the Trinity. Instead of this being the signal for the general resumption of construction all along the line, its purpose seems to have been merely to furnish better terminal facilities, which would secure the T. & P.'s traffic in competition with the other rail- road terminals at Dallas and Denison. The Trinity river at Dallas, with its. width of bot- tom subject to periodical overflows, presented a serious obstacle to the cattle drovers, and most especially at the time of year when the cattle drives were at their height. To extend their stock-shipping terminal to the west side of that river therefore served a highly strategic turn for that railroad, and at the same time, by leav- ing the western end halted in the woods and, as it were, awaiting impatiently the signal to ad- vance, any supposition in the minds of the peo- ple of the western counties that the railroad would remain permanently at Dallas was re- moved and every encouragement given for pri- vate co-operation and assistance in extending the line. Eagle Ford was the name assigned to the terminal of the T. & P., and during the two years that it held that position it was one of the best known railroad points in North Texas, although its importance in history was delimited as soon as the railroad passed on.
N. H. Darnell was then representing the district comprising Fort Worth and vicinity. He and his associates in the legislature found it necessary to prolong the session beyond its natural period and after all regular business had been transacted, in order that the adjourn- ment might not work forfeiture of the railroad's land and cash bonuses. From day to day the legislators met and adjourned, the only pre- text for continuance of the session being to give
the railroad time to complete its line to Fort Worth. Those who opposed the railroad lacked only one vote of being strong enough to force an adjournment sine die. Such a disastrous end- ing of Fort Worth's struggles for a railroad was only prevented by the devotion of Representa- tive Darnell, who, though very ill at the time, had himself carried to the hall each day to record his vote against final adjournment. In this way the session was prolonged until it could adjourn without endangering the in- terests of the Texas and Pacific.
Although the railroad was delayed, Fort Worth was fortunate in obtaining another great instrument of communication. "The telegraph has arrived," enthusiastically exclaims the Democrat; on September 12, 1874, congratula- tions were exchanged between the mayors of Dallas and Fort Worth by telegram, and by that event the latter city was bound by net- work of wire to the great world, the remotest parts of which are almost instantly intelligible to each other.
The railroad of its own initiative having reached Eagle Ford, but with no definite pros- pects of extending the line according to con- tract, it remained for the enterprise and public spirit of citizens to build a railroad. Indeed, until 1880, the westward progress of the Texas & Pacific depended upon and was effected by the people of Tarrant and Parker counties ; out- side capital and action was almost passive. When the contractors had finished grading to Eagle Ford they made a proposition to the citizens of Fort Worth to sell $30,000 of Harri- son county 7 per cent bonds at fifty cents on the dollar, the funds thus realized to be ex- pended to complete the road to Fort Worth, but it does not appear that any action favorable to the proposal was taken. When in March, 1875, the Texas & Pacific asked another extension of time from the legislature, a public meeting in Fort Worth, presided over by K. M. Van Zandt, expressed resolutions to the legislature insisting that the line should be completed by September, 1875. The legislature deferred the time limit to the sine die adjournment of the session.
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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.
That Fort Worth was a strategic point in the scheme of railroad building in North Texas, and that its prior occupation meant a decisive and perhaps permanent advantage to the road which should effect that move, was clearly understood even during the early seventies, not only by the enthusiastic citizens of that town, but also by far-sighted and practical railroad men. As a result, there was considerable skirmishing among the competing railroads to secure this advantage, and, as already stated, it is probable that the extension of the T. & P. to Eagle Ford largely partook of the nature of a preferred claim upon that point. A certain factor of importance in hastening the building of the railroad to Fort Worth was the charter- ing in the spring of 1875, of the Red River and Rio Grande Railroad, with R. S. Stevens, Wil- liam Bond, Francis Skiddy, A. D. Jaynes, B. J. Waters, Theo. Noel, Stevens Gundy and Au- gust Belmont named as incorporators. This road, according to the terms of the charter, should be a continuation of the M. K. & T., embracing the "present terminus of the M. K. & T. at Denison, Sherman, Whitesboro, Gaines- ville, Fort Worth, Meridian, San Saba, to Eagle Pass on the Rio Grande; with branches from Meridian to Belton, Georgetown and Austin; from Gainesville to Montague, thence to junc- tion with Atlantic and Pacific R. R." Here was a formidable rival supposed to be about to enter the field and compete for the immense traffic of North and West Texas, and it behooved the Texas and Pacific to forestall its advance. It is a fact of considerable interest that the Texas and Pacific really did maintain its precedence in advancing into the North Texas territory. The first road to reach Fort Worth, it remained there until rival lines came dangerously near, when it again took up its westward march and was the first to cross the northern half of the state.
The presiding genius of the Texas and Pa- cific during its building across the state was Thomas A. Scott, who was an organizer as well as a builder, possessed unlimited executive abil- ity, and what he accomplished during the sev- enties and eighties has remained a profound
and permanent influence upon the welfare of this part of the state. He was always in close touch with the situation and with the people, was readily accessible to all, and throughout his career remained one of the most popular men and whose name would seldom fail to arouse enthusiasm among the people of Texas. It was coincident with his assuming the presi- dency of the road, that the real activity of con- struction began. We quote part of a letter which he wrote in June, 1875, to reassure the citizens of North Texas of the speedy resump- tion of work: "We have reorganized our road," he says, "getting rid of the construction com- pany, and have placed small mortgages of $8,000 per mile with a view to getting sufficient money to complete the line between Brookston and Texarkana and that between Dallas and Fort Worth. This loan we hope to be able to · negotiate in time to complete the road for the handling of the fall crops, although one of the most difficult of all things is to negotiate rail- road securities in Europe at the present time."
But the resources of the company were not equal to the task of building the twenty-six miles from Eagle Ford to Fort Worth, and in October, 1875, following a series of confer- ences between Maj. Bond, vice president of the T. & P., and the citizens of Tarrant county, there was organized and chartered the Tarrant County Railway Construction Company. The history of this enterprise is unique; its under- taking illustrates the public spirit and high idealism that actuated the citizens of Fort Worth and vicinity; and its eventual success has set a high standard from which subsequent enterprises for the public weal have drawn their inspiration.
This company, which was chartered only after three weeks of constant agitation among the people, for the proposition found many doubters and skeptics to oppose it, was formed for the purpose of grading the line of railroad along the course of survey from Fort Worth eastward until junction was effected with the railroad company's work. The books were opened for subscription to the capital stock, and a number of enthusiastic men went to work
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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.
to raise the required sum. Fort Worth and the county were young then, and did not possess the wealth and resources which could now be easily enlisted in such a cause and give it all needful momentum toward success; but the citizens were ardent and the spirit of the en- terprise seized them like a contagion, and it is doubtful if any public undertaking since has so welded all classes into such complete accord of purpose and liberality. At the time the organization was effected the subscription books showed one hundred and thirty-six names, representing a community of less than two thousand population. Bankers and mer- chants gave as a matter of course and liberally ; but the contributions of laborers and mechanics and even the widow's mite helped to swell the fund, and those who could not give money of- fered labor, or farm produce, or whatever their means allowed. The recital of the way in which this enterprise was financed and undertaken will still kindle to enthusiasm those who par- ticipated in the movement, and that example of unity of action and esprit de corps leserves long to remain among the sum total of civic virtues which grace the city of Fort Worth and county of Tarrant.
In the last week of October, when the re- quired sum had been realized, the Construction Company was organized, the following well known citizens being elected directors: K. M. Van Zandt, J. P. Smith, W. J. Boaz, E. M. Dag- gett, W. A. Huffman, Sam Evans, John S. Hirshfield, Zane Cetti, J. Q. Sandidge; while Major Van Zandt was chosen president, J. S. Hirshfield vice president, Zane Cetti secretary, W. A. Huffman treasurer, and J. P. Smith, W. H. Boaz, Sam Evans, Zane Cetti and K. M. Van Zandt constituted the executive board.
From the preliminaries those who directed the enterprise advanced at once to the fulfill- ment of the main purpose. Within two weeks a contract was closed with Major D. W. Wash- burne, chief engineer of the T. & P., by which the Construction Company was to grade the first eleven sections of the road east from Fort Worth, this being about three-fourths of the distance to Eagle Ford. Then on the 22d of
November the contractors began the work of grading, removing the last doubt that Fort Worth would soon be connected by railroad with the rest of the world.
At this time the Texas and Pacific had in operation its line from Shreveport to Eagle Ford, a distance of 194 miles ; the branch from Marshall to Texarkana, 74 miles; and from Sherman to Brookston in Lamar county, 96 miles. The gap from Brookston east to Texar- kana was, by November, 1875, graded, bridged and tied, ready for the laying of the iron, and its completion furnished the road two arms of steel stretching out into the rapidly developing country of North Texas, gathering in at the shipping terminals of Sherman and Eagle Ford the greater part of the products transported from this section. The extension from Eagle Ford to Fort Worth was certain, in the words of the Fort Worth Democrat, "to place the railroad beyond competition for the transporta- tion of nearly all frontier business-Fort Worth being the nearest and most accessible point from which to reach Forts Sill, Richardson, Griffin, Concho, Davis, and others of the prin- cipal government frontier posts."
The organization and commencement of work by the Construction Company had almost immediate effect upon the business situation in Fort Worth and surrounding country. Popu- lation in the town had actually decreased since the failure of 1873, and now immigration once more began to fill up the vacant buildings and give stir and bustle to all parts of the town.
By May, 1876, the railroad company had succeeded in disposing of sufficient of its bonds so that it could lay the rails and equip the part of the road constructed by the Construction Company, and about the same time offered to relieve the local people of the responsibility of completing the grading. The Construction Company had been so carefully managed that, besides effecting its principal object, its direc- tors were enabled, in July, 1876, to declare a dividend of four per cent on the capital stock. The enterprise, undertaken without prospects of remuneration other than what would come to the entire public through ultimate success,
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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.
was carried out to the satisfaction of citizens and stockholders alike, and the company went out of existence with all debts liquidated and every obligation cancelled.
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By the middle of June, 1876, track-laying had commenced at Eagle Ford, the trestles and bridges were hurried to completion, and on the 20th of July following the Fort Worth Demo-, crat made this triumphant announcement: "At' Last! Yesterday morning at 11:23 o'clock, engine No. 20 of the T. & P. R. R., with Engi- neer Kelly and Conductor Beale, uttered its shrill scream within the corporate limits, arous- ing the panther from its lair. After years of patient waiting the brave hearts who have stood the storm of doubt, despair and darkest gloom have been gladdened by the fruition of their fondest hopes." It was not till the last day of July, however, that the first regular passenger train ran into Fort Worth. Crowds of citizens met the train and the celebration of the day is yet remembered by the old-timers. In the evening there was a banquet at which were present many of those who had been fore- most in accomplishing the advent of the iron horse. Of the engineer corps there were present, H. Mclaughlin, J. H. Ryan, Collins Ches- brough, H. Dubois; the depot agent, L. J. Swingley; C. L. Frost, the paymaster ; Morgan Jones, J. C. Roche, G. W. Strul, contractors ; and from the citizens, Captain E. M. Daggett, J. P. Smith, Major J. J. Jarvis, B. B. Paddock, and many others.
Thus it came about that North Texas was joined to the rest of the state and the world by railroads-the most pregnant event in her his- tory. Throughout the remainder of the decade of the seventies the railroad situation was about in statu quo. Fort Worth, the western terminus of the T. & P., and the most westerly railroad point in North Texas; Sherman was the west- ern end of the northern prong of the same road ; the M. K. & T. reached from the north as far as Denison ; the Houston and Texas Central form- ed practically the eastern bounds of the old Peters Colony, Sherman being its northern terminus. And, in the latter seventies, a com- pany of Dallas men projected and built, mainly with local capital, a railroad from Dallas north-
west as far as Denton, along the route called for by the old Dallas and Wichita charter is- sued in the early seventies, and this line was until bought and merged with the M. K. & T. known as the Dallas and Wichita Railroad. Thus, at the close of the seventies, one might have proceeded in a due northeasterly direction from Fort Worth, and at Denton would have crossed the Dallas and Wichita, at Sherman the H. & T. C. and the T. & P., and at Denison the M. K. & T.
Railroad building in Texas had now entered upon that rapid progress which in thirty years was to place this state first in mileage. An interesting comparison is instituted between Texas and Virginia as to railroad building. In 1860 Virginia had 1,379 miles of railroad, and Texas but 307; in 1865 Virginia had 1,407, and Texas 465; in 1870 Virginia with 1,486 miles still had over twice as much as Texas with 711 miles; but in the next five years, taking the figures for 1875, we find that Texas with 1,685 miles had leaped ahead of her Old Dominion neighbor with 1,638 miles.
During the pause in railroad extension, while the status was maintained as we have just de- scribed, it will be well to return to the settle- ment of the country, noticing the increase of population, the formation of new centers, the growth of the old towns, and summarizing the progress of civilization to the west in the track of the Indian, the buffalo, and the receding cattleman.
The building of the Texas and Pacific Rail- road to Fort Worth has been described as an event of wonderfully pregnant importance not only to the history of the city but to all North Texas. The fact has also been emphasized that the extension of the road from its Dallas ter- minus to Fort Worth was the result of the enter- prise and co-operation of Fort Worth people, and for that reason the Tarrant County Con- struction Co., though of brief existence and formed for the accomplishment of one definite purpose only, occupied as prominent a place in the early history as the packing-houses do in the later history of Fort Worth and vicinity.
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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.
The Construction Company was promoted by a group of public-spirited individuals whose ef- forts first and last have been given to Fort Worth's upbuilding, and the secretary of the company was Mr. ZANE-CETTI.
Mr. Zane-Cetti (Zane-Cetti is his family name, and though he has cognomens he has never used them and is known everywhere in Fort Worth as Zane-Cetti) was born in Philadelphia, of Eng- lish Quaker parentage. In 1859, at the age of fifteen, he was sent to Germany, where he re- mained till 1870, and for five years was in the Polytechnic College of Carlsruhe, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, and was then in the government service until his return to America.
Mr. Zane-Cetti was educated for a civil en- gineer, and until he came to Fort Worth was engaged in railroad engineering. He was in Alabama for a time, and was then sent by Gen. G. M. Dodge, the great railroad-builder, to Texas to assist in the survey of the original line of the Texas and Pacific across the state of Texas. He became first assistant under General Dodge, tak- ing the place of Major Muhlenburg, and, in charge of a surveying party, ran the original line from Phantom Hill (now Anson in Jones coun- ty) westward to the terminus, El Paso. On ac- count of the danger from Indians the party was guarded by a company of cavalry and a company of infantry.
Following this, he was engaged in laying out some towns along what is known as the Trans- continental division of the T. & P., with head- quarters at Marshall, until the "Black Friday" of 1873 put an immediate and effectual stop to all railroad1-building in Texas for some time. A cause only second to the financial panic was the yellow-fever scourge of that same year, and for the time being was as effective in stopping rail- road work as the other. From East Texas Mr. Cetti went to Dallas, where he did not dare to stop because he was from the infected region, and in September, 1873, he boarded a stage in that city, with no particular destination fixed in his mind, but with the intention of find- ing a location somewhere in the West. "It was the close of a beautiful, sunshiny autumn after- noon," to use the words of Mr. Cetti, "when
the stage mounted the crest of the hills to the east of town. To the north, clear up to the lit- tle group of buildings on the bluffs of the Trini- ty, the whole prairie was covered with a gorgeous carpet of brilliant wild flowers, the valley of the river, circling around the plateau, hemmed it in with a mass of dark green foliage, and the horizon was lost in the hazy blue that hovered over the distant hills-altogether, it was the most beautiful scene of nature I had ever seen, and even now I can dwell on no memory picture with so much pleasure as the recollection of that splendid landscape as it unfolded itself to me that afternoon over thirty years ago." Some men we have described as being influenced to lo- cate in Fort Worth on account of the railroads, either actual or prospective, or because of busi- ness prospects, or for reasons of health, and on various other grounds; Mr. Cetti got down from the stage coach that evening, although his pas- sage was paid to a point many miles beyond, and decided to cast in his lot with the town of Fort Worth because it was the most beautiful spot he had seen in Texas, and he yielded to the artis- tic in his nature rather than to business consid- erations or general circumstances.
He gradually drifted into the real estate busi- ness as a member, first, of the firm of Zane-Cetti and Brewer, and later of Lawrence, Cetti and Brewer. "For more than two years following 1873 the town was practically dead," to quote Mr. Cetti's description of that period. "In the fall of 1875 the Tarrant County Construction Co. was organized, with Maj. Van Zandt as president, for the purpose of securing the con- struction of the Texas and Pacific Railroad to this point, work on which had not yet been re- sumed since the failure of 1873. This company took out a charter and made a contract with the T. & P. people for the building of the roadbed, culverts and bridges, west from Eagle Ford to Fort Worth. The railroad company was under contract to 'tie' and 'iron' the road, and furnished security to the Construction Company in the shape of paper bearing eight per cent interest; the amount of this paper to be paid by the railroad company either in cash or in services rendered in shipping freight for stockholders of the Construc-
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tion Company. Practically every citizen of the town and vicinity took stock in the Con- struction Company, this stock being paid for by the subscribers in various ways- with money, work, grain and any kind. of material or supplies that could be used by the Construction Company or its sub-contractors. The Construction Company paid the sub-contrac- tors 45 cents on the dollar in money or anything it could get, the remaining 55 cents being guar- anteed by the Construction Company backed by T. & P. paper. Through this unique yet simple and successful method of financiering, the road was completed to Fort Worth in July, 1876, turned over to the T. & P. company, and Fort Worth remained the western terminus of the road until the fall of 1878, when the extension was begun to Weatherford, and, in 1881, to El Paso. Every one connected with that construc- tion enterprise has reason, even to this day, for gratulation, not only because the undertaking was carried out successfully, but also that, four years after the company was organized, every stockholder received a dollar and thirty-two cents for every dollar invested, in other words, an annual rate of interest at eight per cent."
"During the brief period, from 1876 to [878, while Fort Worth remained the terminus of the road, the city received its first substantial growth and the foundation of its present importance as a city. During that time several large whole- sale business houses were established, forming the nucleus of the present great wholesale trade, and giving the city an advantage over all others in competition for the trade of West and North Texas. The almost limitless cattle country was then at Fort Worth's back door, this city being its nearest railroad, trading and shipping point. The town was also then the center of an immense wagon cotton business, drawn from an increas- ing expanse of territory. The railroad remained long enough to secure all these business advan- tages, and when it began to push on to the west there was a hardly perceptible decrease in pros- perity, for by that time our town, largely through the energetic efforts of the citizens, had be- come recognized as the best site for a railroad
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