USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume II > Part 10
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watered regions of other states, agriculture has been conformed to suit the country, crops adapted to the soil and climate have been planted, and the settlers have sought to understand the real nature of the country which they would make produce, and have been, in later years, rewarded accordingly.
In recent years, the climax seemingly having been reached during the year of 1905, population has flowed into the Panhandle at a faster rate than ever before. The statement was made in November of that year that 3,000 land-seekers a month visited the "Amarillo country," and that sales were made to a third of these. This would mean a phenomenal development within the next few years. "This is a better class of population than the Kansas and Oklahoma boomers of the '80s and '90s," is the judgment of a man whose opinion carries weight. "The land-seekers of those days were a drifting population, without the anchor of property or provident industry, and a single crop failure or any difficulty that could not be overcome by shiftless labor caused them to pull away from their temporary moorings and drift, oftentimes in a starving condition, back to the more settled communities from which they had come. "The first wave of population is speculative, and therefore less stable than those that succeed. The people who are now going into the Panhandle are of a better class, they have some money, most of them are buying land outright, they understand the conditions on which farming must be conducted, and are in a position to withstand a year of drouth without being discouraged and leaving the country."
The following newspaper item, appearing in 1890, is worthy of atten- tion : "Lipscomb County was organized two years ago, but the uncer- tainty about the opening of the Cherokee and Neutral strips (in Indian Territory ) affect the settlement of this county as all other portions of the Panhandle. The railroads stop on the Southern Kansas border because they fear to cross the lawless and unorganized country." Thus again the interposition of the Indian Territory between Texas and the states to the north and east deters settlement and development. But in recent years these obstacles have been removed, and no part of Texas is isolated by lack of communication. The Fort Worth and Denver, as the pioneer road, has been followed by several other railroads that cross the Panhandle in various directions. From Kiowa, in Southern Kansas, the Santa Fe extended a branch across Oklahoma (the grading of which had been done as early as 1887) and into the Panhandle to intersect the Denver road at Washburn and thence running over the Denver track to the terminal at Amarillo. Later the Pecos Valley & Northeast Railroad was completed from Amarillo to Pecos on the Texas and Pacific. This made Amarillo a junction point, and also the me- tropolis of the Panhandle and a city of growing size and importance in the Panhandle. Amarillo is also the terminus of the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf (now the Choctaw, Rock Island and Gulf, a part of the Rock Island System), forming an extension from the network of Rock Island and Frisco lines over Kansas and Oklahoma.
The Rock Island also built a line across the northwest corner of the Panhandle, now the main line of that system from Kansas City to
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El Paso, and connections have been made and this line is in operation from Dalhart through Tucumcari to El Paso. Texas towns have sprung up along this line, the most important of which is the junction point of Dalhart.
The railroad history of Northwest Texas has probably only begun to be told. The experience of the past suggests that it is easy to project railroads on paper, and yet the fact that many such lines have been built gives some of these forecasts actual worth in this historical investiga- tion. Most notable of all such logical forecasting of railroad lines was the railroad map, exhibited on the court house square at Fort Worth and published in the Democrat in 1876, as elsewhere mentioned, and in giving a brief history of the third railroad radius from Fort Worth, which we have sponken of as a chief factor in the development of West Texas and of Fort Worth, at the same time we describe the railroad which fulfilled the prediction made on the map. This fulfillment of the prophecy is best told by quoting from the Fort Worth Gazette of May 25, 1887 :
"In 1873 Capt. B. B. Paddock, then editor of the Fort Worth Democrat, published a map of the future great railroad center of Texas. It was laughingly alluded to by the state press as 'Paddock's tarantula map.' At that time there was no railroad within fifty miles of Fort Worth, but the map had on it nine roads entering the city, and by strange coincidence, the man who conceived the map was presi- dent of the last road that completes the 'tarantula.' Captain Paddock saw leg after leg added to the body (Fort Worth), and under difficulties that would have disheartened most men he undertook the building of the Fort Worth & Rio Grande. A popular subscription of $40,000 was obtained from the citizens of Fort Worth, and on November 23, 1886. construction began with Brownwood as the objective point, 142 miles away." The first division to Granbury was completed August 25. 1887. and Granbury remained the terminus until the fall of 1889. It was extended to Stephenville by October, 1890, to Dublin in November, and Brownwood was reached July 16, 1891. Since then Menard has become the terminus, and the Fort Worth & Rio Grande is now a part of the great Frisco System. The first effort to build this road was made in 1881 by twenty-six men of Fort Worth, who organized with the follow- ing board of directors: J. H. Brown, W. J. Boaz, Sidney Martin, S. W. Lomax, T. A. Tidball, W. F. Lake, J. P. Smith, L. N. Brunswig, W. H. Davis. Much time and money were expended to secure sufficient capital, but the enterprise lay dormant until 1885, when a new charter was ob- tained and the work shortly afterward begun. The value of this road to Fort Worth can be readily understood. It traverses a vast and pro- ductive country that without this railroad would not be tributary to Fort Worth ; Hood, Erath, Comanche and Brown counties are among the rich- est of North Texas counties, and this railroad furnishes the most direct route for the shipment of their products to the northern markets. With the Fort Worth & Denver City tapping the region of the Panhandle, the Texas and Pacific the central artery of traffic for West Texas, the Fort Worth & Rio Grande was the third transportation arm, reaching out into Southwest Texas, by means of which Fort Worth became the gateway
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for practically all the commerce that West Texas pours from its pro- ductive area.
The Frisco System-which had its nucleus in the Southwest branch of the Pacific Railroad from Pacific to Rolla, Missouri, built in 1861, and purchased by J. C. Fremont and associates and went under the name of the Southwest Pacific until 1868, and under the Pierce syndicate was extended to Springfield, Mo., and named the South Pacific, in 1870 merged with the Atlantic & Pacific, in 1876 went into the hands of receivers, and in 1878 reorganized as the St. Louis and San Francisco- has pushed its lines across Red River at two other points beside Denison, Vernon and Quanah both being terminal points for this road.
A typically North Texas railroad, with the building of which men of prominence both past and present were connected, is the Wichita Valley Railroad.
The Wichita Valley Railway Company was incorporated on the 4th day of February, 1890, by E. W. Taylor, W. F. Somerville, W. A. Adams, J. G. Jones, J. T. Granger, Morgan Jones, G. P. Meade, J. P. Smith, G. M. Dodge and L. Tillman. The first board of directors was com- posed of E. W. Taylor, Morgan Jones, W. F. Somerville, G. P. Meade, J. P. Smith, J. G. Jones, G. M. Dodge, J. T. Granger and L. Tillman. It was organized soon after its incorporation by the election of Morgan Jones as president. During the year 1890 it built its line of railroad from Wichita Falls to Seymour, a distance of fifty-two miles.
On the 21st of October, 1903, it organized the Wichita Falls & Okla- homa Railway. The names of the persons organizing this company were Morgan Jones, W. E. Kaufman, Frank Kell, N. Harding, J. G. Wilkin- son, E. W. Taylor, A. M. Young, Ben W. Fouts, H. C. Edrington and D. T. Bomar. The names of the directors of this company were Frank Kell, Otis T. Bacon, J. G. Jones of Wichita County, George W. Byers of Kansas City, Missouri, Morgan Jones, G. M. Dodge, N. Harding, W. E. Kaufman and D. T. Bomar. Morgan Jones was elected president of the company. During the same year it built from Wichita Falls to Byers on Red River in Clay County a line twenty-three miles long, which has since been operated by the Wichita Valley Railway.
On the 4th of October, 1905, this company caused to be incorporated the Wichita Valley Railroad Company to build from Seymour southwest. This company was incorporated by J. G. Wilkinson, Ben W. Fouts, N. Harding, K. M. Van Zandt, D. B. Keeler, W. C. Stripling, W. E. Kauf- man, C. A. Sanford, Morgan Jones and D. T. Bomar. The names of the first board of directors were G. M. Dodge, H. Walters, B. F. Yoakum, Edwin Hawley, Frank Trumbull, Morgan Jones, W. E. Kaufman, D. T. Bomar, R. V. Colbert, L. M. Buie, F. G. Alexander, H. G. McConnell. and J. H. Glasgow. Under this charter the line was constructed from Seymour through the towns of Munday, Haskell, Stamford and Anson to Abilene in Taylor County.
The Rock Island, after building lines in Nebraska, Kansas and Colo- rado, was extended from Caldwell, Kansas, south into the Cherokee Strip to Pond Creek and through the Chickasaw Nation. Organizing under the laws of Texas as the Chicago, Rock Island and Texas, it built from Terral, Indian Territory, toward Fort Worth, and entered Fort
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Worth as another trunk line, and by its branch from Bridgeport through Jacksboro to Graham gave the two rich counties of Jack and Young rail- road connection.
The enactment of the Railway Commission law and the Stock and Bond law put an end to the construction of railways in Texas for the profits arising from construction. Since that time there has been but one independent line built in Texas. Several roads have been built, notably the Trinity and Brazos Valley, the Gulf Coast Line from Houston to Brownsville, but when completed they were found to be in the interest of and adjuncts of existing lines.
The exception noted is the Gulf, Texas and Western Railway, pro- moted by Mr. B. B. Cain and extending from Jacksboro to Seymour. This line is the property of Mr. J. J. Jermyn, of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He owns all the securities on the road. It opened up a rich and pros- perous section to the Northwest.
Since the oil "boom" there have been constructed several short lines in the section covered by the oil development. Among these are the Wichita Falls Ranger and Fort Worth Railway, extending from Wichita Falls to Dublin, where it connects with the Frisco and over which rails it enters Fort Worth ; the Cisco and Northeastern, from Cisco to Breck- enridge, twenty-eight miles; the Ringling, Eastland and Gulf, from Man- gum to Wayland; and the Wichita Falls, Graham and Breckenridge, from Newcastle to Breckenridge, a distance of forty miles. While these lines were constructed, primarily, to serve the oil interests, they serve to open up a fine territory and afford transportation for the agricultural and cattle interests.
CHAPTER XXXVII PUBLIC HIGHWAYS
The problem of transportation was one of the first that presented itself to the human mind as it emerged from the darkness of absolute savagery and inertia into a state of progressive activity manifested by dissatisfaction with existing conditions and a striving after something better. The invention of the first conveyance for transporting burdens, though probably but a rude platform of boughs, bound together with vines and supported on log rollers, which furnished the means of loco- motion, marked the beginning of a new epoch. Perhaps it was many centuries afterward before the first wheeled cart made its appearance, and after it the war chariot; but, however that may be, with the advent of the wheel, even in its crudest form, came the necessity of road making.
Doubtless the first road was as crude a piece of handiwork as the first cart, and was a mere trail from which the brush and small trees had been removed, and holes or small depressions filled up with earth of stones. Swamps, lakes and marshes were avoided, if they lay in the way by taking a circuitous direction around them; the smaller rivers were crossed at fords, and the larger ones in boats or on rafts, for beyond a log thrown across a small stream, bridges had not yet been thought of.
The taming of the horse and its use as a draught animal gave rise to improvements in coveyances and in road building ; but probably the great- est stimulus in the latter direction, after some degree of civilization had been attained, was war, the rapid movements of troops being impossible without roads. Thus, coming down to historical times, we find that the Romans, those builders of a vast military empire, were the greatest road builders ; and that they knew their business is evidenced by the fact that much of their work in this direction can still be traced and in some places has not greatly deteriorated after a lapse of 2,000 years. But the Roman empire fell and was finally dismembered. and for centuries nc further progress was made.
In England, even in the later Georgian period, we read that many of the principal highways were in very bad condition, so that a coach jour- ney, even for a comparatively short distance, was more of an ordeal than a pleasure.
The modern inventive era in which we are now living may be said to have begun in the early part of the nineteenth century. though some initial discoveries had been previously made. Probably the most impor- tant event during that period was the construction of the first steam rail- road, between Liverpool and Darlington, by the Scotch engineer, George Stephenson. This immediately revolutionized the entire transportation problem and gave an immense progressive impetus to almost every sort of human activity. In the meanwhile McAdam and others were making valuable improvements in methods of road construction.
These improvements naturally spread to our own country, where. however, owing to its vast extent and the much greater distances separat- ing the chief centers of population, the work went on more slowly.
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The pioneers of North America in their early explorations usually, if not invariably, followed the Indian trails, which gave them the shortest and most practicable route for travel on foot or horseback. These trails. as much as possible, avoided all natural obstacles, and remained for many years almost the sole avenues of communication between the scattered white settlements. Indeed, their advantages were so obvious that in many cases the, routes they marked out have been retained to a large extent by modern engineers, and are now among the principal highways in the country. In the South one of the most ancient of these routes, which has an important historical interest, is that known popularly as "The Old Spanish Trail," leading from San Augustine, Florida, to San Diego, California, which the Automobile Association of South Texas is now proposing to develop into a practicable road, an organization for that purpose having been recently developed. It would be hard to find a route in the United States or Canada more replete with historical asso- ciations, dating back as they do to the earliest Spanish settlements on this continent. In Texas this trail passes through Houston, San Antonio. founded in 1718, and El Paso, founded in 1680, besides many places of lesser note, but each with its wealth of history and local color.
It is the object of the organization, above mentioned, to open up the south country, not that automobiles may sweep hurriedly through, but to make it so interesting to the tourist that he will linger along the way and open up a new avenue of wealth to the towns located thereon.
In Texas the road has been financed between Houston and San An- tonio, except in Fort Bend County, west of Houston. Money has been provided for 150 miles of the highway, while fifty per cent of the high- way has been financed from San Antonio to El Paso. Five counties in West Texas have been scouted and the cost determined. The other states through which this old trail passes are doing their part or are ready to do it. Florida is busy completing her roads connecting with the Trail; Louisiana is ninety per cent complete and east of New Orleans bonds have been voted to put the highway across swamps in that sec- tion, which will carry the road to the Mississippi state line, and when that is completed Mississippi will do her part. Alabama has passed a $25,000,000 bond issue law ; and in Arizona a bond issue of $9,000,000 has been voted. The road program calls for the completion of the trail in California in five years, and the road in that state will be of concrete and other hard surface material. After the development of the main highway it is proposed to add branch routes at various places to points of interest, as, for instance, roads from Houston to Galveston, to the San Jacinto battle grounds ; and to the old Spanish mission ground of Nacog- doches.
KING'S HIGHWAY
Another ancient road, The King's Highway, stretches across the State of Texas from Eagle Pass on the Rio Grande to the old mission of Adaes, near Robeline, Louisiana, a distance of 400 miles. It was first conceived by Sieur Louis Jucherean de St. Denis, a Frenchman of noble birth, who, after an adventurous life in the upper Mississippi and the Great Lakes, entered the service of Antoine Crozat, the newly
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appointed governor of Louisiana. Crozat, who had obtained a trade monopoly of Louisiana for fifteen years, therefore listened willingly to the proposal of St. Denis to open an overland trade route to the Spanish province of Mexico from the Mississippi River, and gave him a com- mission to explore the route and negotiate a treaty with the Spanish authorities. With twenty-four men under his command St. Denis struck out from Natchitoches on the Red River into the uncharted wilderness in search of his goal. He seems to have spent about six months with the Texas Indians on the Angelina River, where he found memories of La Salle's presence in that vicinity some thirty years before, and also of Father Hidalgo, a Spanish monk who had spent several years among the Indians, and to whom they had become much attached. In the autumn of 1714 St. Denis resumed his journey, accompanied by Indians in search of Father Hidalgo, who was reported to be at the mission of San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande. After passing the Brazos they met and defeated a band of hostile Indians. Most of the party now turned back, while St. Denis with a few companions pushed on and reached the Rio Grande early in 1715, much to the surprise of the Spanish Com- mandant at San Juan Bautista, Don Diego Ramon, who was obliged. owing to the stringent Spanish laws which aimed to exclude all strangers from the trade privileges in Spanish domains, to place him under arrest. After awhile, however, the Commandant permitted him to go to Mexico City to interview the Vice-Roy. St. Denis' efforts to establish trade relations, however, were unsuccessful, and his expedition had so fright- ened the authorities that they took immediate steps to establish a com- bined mission and military post on the Louisiana border to prevent fur- ther French explorations of their territory. St. Denis, who in the mean- time had fallen in love with and married Don Diego's granddaughter, accompanied the Spanish expedition to Texas as guide. Capt. Domingo Ramon, son of the Commandant, was in charge and the party, which included twelve friars under the charge of Father Antonio Margil de Jesus and Father Hidalgo.
The departure from the Rio Grande was made on April 27, 1716, and on June 30 the party arrived at the spot on the Neches where Father Hidalgo had labored in 1690. Six missions were established, four among the Texans, one in the allied tribe of the Aies at the present town of San Augustine, and one among the Adaes near Robeline, Louisiana. The Texas missions were San Francisco, on the east side of the Neches, near the present town of Alto; La Purissima Concepcion, near the Linwood crossing of the Angelina; San Joseph, on one of the tributaries of Shawnee Creek, near the northern line of Necogdoches County, and Nuestra Senora de Guadelupe at Nacogdoches. The three first men- tioned were abandoned in 1727.
In 1718 the mission of San Antonio de Valero was established on the San Antonio River to serve as a supply station between San Juan Bau- tista on the Rio Grande and the distant settlement near the eastern border.
But though the Spanish had assumed possession of the territory, the French had so maneuvered that their opponents had opened the overland route, which St. Denis had proposed, and had planted a settlement with which they might trade, even though they must do it clandestinely. In VOL. II-G
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after times, when traffic had become frequent between Mexico and Texas, this great thoroughfare became known as the Old San Antonio Road. For many years it was a mere trail, or succession of trails, from one Indian village to another, but between the Neches and the San Antonio there was for some time no settled trail. Different travelers seem to have selected different routes. It is probable that the selection between San Antonio and the Neches was settled by custom along the trail which was afterward known as El Camino Real-the Royal Road or King's Highway. Along its course would wind long trains of pack mules bearing supplies from Mexico for the lonely missions in the East. The journey was long and tedious, and the traveler was often in peril from hostile Indians, and later from bandits who laid in wait for and attacked trains conveying treasure. Woven into its history are stories of buried gold that has never been discovered, and many a tragedy was enacted that would form a good framework around which to build an exciting mystery novel.
About 1805 the road was put in order by Spain and guards were stationed at each of the crossings of the Trinity, Brazos and Colorado
For some time previous to this date the traffic on the road had beer mostly for contraband purposes. By 1806 a few Americans had settled on the road on both sides of Nacogdoches, though in so doing they risked imprisonment or even death, and had opened productive farms.
After the settlement of Americans early in the nineteenth century wheeled vehicles began to travel across the country. This necessitated a considerable change in the road, as the old mule trail was in many places impracticable, thus the old San Antonio Road came into being, traversing the same general course, though often diverging widely from the orig- inal mule trail.
Under the Republic that part of the old San Antonio between the Red River and the Nueces was constructed as a military road, and an act of January 21, 1841, provided for opening to settlement a reservation of twenty-five miles wide along this military road, and also that certain land certificates be issued in connection with the laying out of "The Central National Road" from the Trinity to the Red River, which des- ignation apparently applied to a part of this trail.
That the good roads question is one of the greatest public importance is recognized to day by every intelligent citizen, even though he may be reluctant to assume any greater burden of taxation in behalf of the cause. The ranks of the progressives, however, are being constantly recruited owing to the large and increasing use of the automobile, an invention which has been perhaps the most potent factor in advancing the cause ; and state and federal aid to a large extent equalize local bur- dens and prevent road taxes from pressing too heavily on thinly settled communities. Federal aid is confined to the construction or reconstruc- tion of Free Rural Delivery and Star Routes, commonly known as post roads, and in no case can exceed fifty per cent of the cost of construction.
State aid projects are those on which money from the State High- way fund is allotted. It is confined to roads designated as state high- ways, and shall not exceed twenty-five per cent of the cost of construc- tion. Counties whose taxable properties are not sufficient to warrant the
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construction of sections of the system of state highway may, at the dis- cretion of the commission, be granted aid not to exceed fifty per cent of the cost of construction.
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