USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume II > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
Respectfully submitted,
J. A. L. Wolfe.
We concur in the above,
H. A. O'Neal, T. D. Cobbs, I. A. Patton.
There were three reports of the findings of the committee. The
AN OIL FIELD
majority report was signed by H. A. O'Neal, T. D. Cobbs, I. A. Patton and J. A. L. Wolfe, and concluded with this language :
"That said findings entitle Senator Bailey to the further finding that he is not guilty of the charges preferred against him, and he is hereby exonerated therefrom."
There were three minority reports by Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Robertson and Mr. McGregor. Mr. Jenkins reviewed the evidence, but failed to express any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the accused, in which Mr. McGregor concurred. Mr. Robertson reviewed the evidence at great length and concluded with the following: "It is my opinion that the' evidence fails to establish any act of corruption on the part of Senator Bailey, or any act of malfeasance in office which would disqualify him as a United States Senator."
Thus ended this spectacular and sensational proceeding. But the oppo- sition to the Senator did not end. His political enemies continued to arraign him before the bar of public opinion, until, as elsewhere stated
505
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
in this narrative, he resigned his seat in the senate and retired to private life.
One of the most sensational episodes of a quasi-political character ever staged in Texas was the prosecution of the Waters-Pierce Oil Com- pany, a Missouri corporation authorized, in conformity with law, to transact business in Texas.
The suit against this organization was based on the allegation that a majority of its stock was owned by the Standard Oil Company and that this was a violation of the Anti-Trust laws of the state. An order of court was obtained placing the property of the company in the hands of a receiver, who took over all the assets and machinery of the company and proceeded to conduct its business along the lines which the company had pursued. It was asserted, and seemed capable of proof, that it con- tinued to practice descrimination as to persons and places, as the company was charged with doing.
The company was fined the sum of $1,800,000, and its permit to do business in Texas cancelled and the property ordered sold and was bought, at receiver's sale, by the Pierce-Fordyce Oil Association. The latter made application for a permit to do business in Texas. After examination by the attorney-general, as the law provides, the permit was granted.
It was out of the activities of Senator Joseph Weldon Bailey, in secur- ing this permit, that the prosecution of Senator Bailey was founded. This matter is presented elsewhere in these pages.
PROHIBITION
The campaign for prohibition in Texas has been peculiar and varied. The first effort to secure a constitutional amendment prohibiting the manufacture, importation and sale of intoxicating liquors in the State of Texas was made in 1887. The legislature passed an amendment for this purpose, which was submitted to the people on August fourth of that year. The campaign was very spirited, led on either side by some of the most prominent citizens of the state, preeminent among whom were the Hon. George Clark of Waco, the Honorable R. Q. Mills of Corsicana. When the ballots were counted there were found to be 129,270 for the amendment and 229,627 against the amendment, being a majority of 100,357 against the amendment.
There were prohibition candidates at almost every election in suc- ceeding years, the vote varying from less than 2,000 in 1900 and never reaching as many as 10,000 for a number of years until 1911. In July of that year another election on the constitutional amendment was sub- mitted and was defeated by less than 5,000 votes. Similar experience was had in the following years. In 1912 the prohibition candidates polled 1,130 votes, in 1916, 3,726 votes. Another constitutional amend- ment was submitted in August, 1919, when the amendment received 159,723 votes. The majority in favor of prohibition was 19,622.
The succeeding legislature passed stringent laws to carry the amend- ment into effect. During these years many laws were passed regulating the liquor traffic, among them being statutes prohibiting the sale of liquor to habitual drunkards and to minors and for closing saloons on
506
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
Sunday at nine o'clock at night. All of these laws were flagrantly dis- regarded by many of the liquor dealers, which, together with the fact that many persons voted against local option who favored prohibition by the national government, accounts for the marked change of sentiment as indicated by the result at the 1919 election.
WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE
For a great many years a coterie of strong minded and public spirited women in Texas have been advocating giving the vote to women.
Committees attended the state convention and endeavored to secure platform endorsement of Woman's Suffrage, without avail. In 1919 the nineteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States conferring this privilege on women was submitted at a special election called for that purpose, at which 141,772 votes were cast for the amendment and 166,983 against the amendment, an adverse majority of 25,210.
Notwithstanding the fact that one of the cardinal principles of the democratic party is that the majority shall rule, the legislature in 1920 proceeded to adopt the amendment by a very large majority in both Houses.
-
CHAPTER XXXVI RAILROAD BUILDING AND GENERAL DEVELOPMENT
During the decade of the eighties the rapid building of railroads transformed North and West Texas from an isolated region in which cattle-raising was the only praticable industry to a country whose means of transportation have enabled it to produce varied and abundant crops and to reach as high a degree of material prosperity as can be affirmed of any other part of this State or any other Western State.
During this decade Fort Worth became a railroad center. All the important lines of Northwest Texas center at this point, and it is with much pride that the citizens mention these eleven trunk lines, which are : Texas and Pacific ; Missouri, Kansas and Texas ; Gulf, Colorado and Sante Fe ; Houston and Texas Central (Southern Pacific System) ; Fort Worth and Rio Grande (Frisco System) ; Trans-Continental branch of the T. and P .; Fort Worth and Denver City; Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf ; St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) ; St. Louis and San Fran- cisco ; International and Great Northern.
The M. K. and T. was extended into Texas no further than Denison for six years. In the winter of 1878-79 what was at first known as the Denison and Pacific Railroad began building from Denison west, was completed to Whitesboro in March, 1879, and by November had reached Gainesville. In January, 1880, this road was purchased by the M. K. and T. company, which some years later pushed the line on to Henrietta, and still later paralleled the track of the Fort Worth and Denver City to Wichita Falls. Thus Gainesville was given a railroad, and in December, 1879, the telegraph line between that town and Deni- son was put in operation. Gainesville has for twenty years been con- sidered the commercial metropolis for Cooke, Montague and, Wise counties, and for the Chickasaw Nation of the Territory. Shortly after the first railroad reached the town it put on municipal proportions, and by the time the G. C. & S. F. completed its north and south con- nections at that point it claimed a population of five thousand and was a considerable manufacturing and trade center.
Until 1880 Sherman had remained the western terminus of the so- called Transcontinental line of the Texas and Pacific from Texarkana, but by rapid construction it affected a junction with the M. K. & T. at Whitesboro and thence was extended south to Fort Worth, reaching the latter city in May, 1880. Both the T. & P. and the M. K. & T. trains were operated over this branch, as they are today, but when the road was built it was known as a part of the Missouri Pacific system, the M. K. & T. being in that combination during the early eighties. This road had no sooner been completed between Fort Worth and Whitesboro than the International Improvement Co., which was then engaged in the extension of the Missouri Pacific lines through Texas, began building south, toward Waco. The construction of this line is thus explained by the Denton Press in May, 1881 :- "The Missouri Pacific extends from Hannibal, Mo., to Sedalia, where it joins another
507
508
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
prong from St. Louis. From Sedalia the main track runs to Parsons, Kansas, thence to Denison, which remained its terminus till two years ago, when it was extended to Gainesville. It was then thought that the road would be built from Gainesville south, leaving Denton on the east ; but the Missouri Pacific formed an alliance with the T. & P. to build a joint road from Whitesboro to Fort Worth, thus passing through Denton and connecting with the Dallas and Wichita line. As yet the Missouri Pacific is completed only to Fort Worth, but the line is mostly graded to Waco, from there will be extended to Austin."
May 28, 1873, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad was chartered by Galveston capitalists, and two years later construction work was begun, with the intention of carrying the road northwest- ward through the state to the capital of New Mexico, opening up a country of splendidly varied productiveness. By February, 1881, the line reached Belton and was in operation. This was evidently one of the trunk lines which would bring prosperity and development to a large portion of the state, and the citizens of the several counties north of Bell considered it worth much effort and expense to get this line constructed north toward Fort Worth rather than along the original route. In September, 1880, over $75,000 were raised by the public-spirited citizens of Fort Worth to secure the building of the road through this point, and in a short time contracts were let for the construction of the road between Cleburne and Fort Worth. The citizens of Cleburne had also labored zealously for this road, and it was due to the liberal contributions of towns all along the route that the building of the line was made possible. Work between Temple and Fort Worth was pushed rapidly during 1881, and on December 2, 1881, the first train ran into Fort Worth over this route, giving the first direct connection with the gulf. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe was, originally, a distinctively Texas road, promoted by Texas capital and the generous bonuses of citizens.
From Temple, the junction point of this road, what is known as the Lampasas branch was constructed and put in operation as far as Lampasas in May, 1882; extended to Brownwood in January, 1886; from Brownwood to Coleman, March, 1886; Coleman to Ballinger, June, 1886, and Ballinger to San Angelo in September, 1888. From Cleburne the branch to Dallas was put in operation in 1882, and thence extended to Paris by June, 1887. During the '80s, also, the branch from Cleburne to Weatherford was constructed.
In 1886 the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, having suffered severe financial straits, was bought by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Interests, this giving the great Atchison System a gulf connection and allowing for an extension of its lines over the Southwest country. With the aid of $45,000, subscribed by the people of Fort Worth, the line was constructed between Fort Worth and Gainesville and put in operation by January, 1887. From Purcell, Indian Territory, con- struction work was also being pushed, and Gainesville was reached, and the Texas lines became an integral part of the entire Santa Fe system. About the same time Chicago became a terminal of these
509
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
lines, and North Texas was permanently linked with one of the largest railroad systems of the entire country.
The Fort Worth & New Orleans Railroad should always be remembered as another of the home institutions of Fort Worth. To build this line as far as Waxahachie a bonus of $75,000 was raised in the city, and home capital and home enterprise were mainly respon- sible for its building. By this line Fort Worth was given railroad communication with a rich and fertile country whose trade was by this means directed to Fort Worth, and, by subsequent developments, found a place upon another of the great trunk lines of Texas. The work of construction was commenced in September, 1885, and in a few months was completed to Waxahachie. In January, 1887, the Fort Worth & New Orleans was absorbed by purchase in the Southern Pacific group and has since been operated as part of the Houston & Texas Central, which had also held it under lease for several months before the purchase was made.
In May, 1887, after the projection of various tentative routes and after much rivalry between various towns along the route, it was decided to construct a branch of the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas to Fort Worth. This railroad, better known as the Cotton Belt System, was originally a narrow-gauge line, beginning at Bird's Point, opposite Cairo, Illinois. After undergoing a receivership it was re- organized as the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas, the gauge was widened and some important extensions projected. The Kansas & Gulf Short-Line was acquired by purchase, and four branches pro- jected : From the main line north of Pine Bluff to Little Rock; from Texarkana to Shreveport ; from Sherman to Fort Worth; from Corsi- cana to Hillsboro, Waco and McGregor, and later on to Comanche. The line to Fort Worth through Plano, Carrollton and other towns was built, and the Cotton Belt-now the St. Louis Southwestern- has Fort Worth as a terminal of its many important lines.
Within the past twenty years three other railroads have come to Fort Worth from the East: The International & Great Northern, one of the oldest Texas railroads, the first grading and track-laying on which began in 1854; this line runs in from the southeast, from Waco and points intermediate in Hill and Ellis counties. The Frisco System operates its principal Texas road through Fort Worth, run- ning in over the Cotton Belt tracks from Carrollton-thirty miles- and furnishing one of the logical routes to the Mississippi Valley and the East. The third road that might be mentioned is the Rock Island Line between Dallas and Fort Worth.
The three railroad lines radiating from Fort Worth that have been the most important factors in the development of that city and the North and West Texas country conjointly may be named, in order of building, the Texas & Pacific, the Fort Worth & Denver City, and the Fort Worth & Rio Grande. A glance at a railroad map will indicate the regions traversed by these lines and also how immensely valuable they are in opening up the vast regions which till their advent were useless except for limited industrial development. The history of the Texas & Pacific has already been described.
510
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
A railroad line to the northwest, tapping the fertile Wichita Valley and connecting the great Panhandle Country with the farming and commercial centers of North Texas, had been a fond dream of pro- moters and enthusiastic citizens long before any railroads had been constructed west of Dallas. The old Dallas & Wichita line was begun with the intention of penetrating that district, but was never con- pleted further than Denton, and has since become a branch of the M. K. & T. The actual charter for the line that was finally con- structed was issued under the laws of Colorado, May 26, 1873, at which time the Fort Worth & Denver City Railroad came into existence on paper and officially.
But more than eight years passed before the work of construction began. The Texas and Colorado Railway Improvement Co., of which Morgan Jones, of Fort Worth, later president of the road, was the leading spirit, began grading at the place called Hodge, several miles north of Fort Worth, on November 27, 1881. The first rails were laid on February 27, 1882, and Wichita Falls was reached on September 27 of the same year.
From the first, Fort Worth citizens had realized the benefit which would accrue to the city and to all Northwest Texas from the con- struction of this railroad, and requests for financial assistance front the company met with the same generous responses as were given similar previous undertakings, $12,000 being subscribed to purchase the right-of-way through the county. As a local paper said, "it was essentially a Fort Worth road. It was inaugurated in 1873, being the conception of Col. W. W. H. Lawrence, who drafted and procured the charter from the state, and had charge of the original survey. The failure of Jay Cooke and the consequent panic caused a suspension of work on this enterprise. During the years that followed, and when others forgot or abandoned the idea of building the road, Colonel Lawrence kept the records intact, and when the time came for Jay Gould and associates to take hold of the construction of this road, the books and papers, thanks to Colonel Lawrence's forethought, were found in proper shape and condition." Other well known men con- nected with this enterprise as directors were, J. M. Eddy, J. P. Smith, C. L. Frost, Max Elser, R. E. Montgomery, W. A. Ross, W. A. Huffman, Morgan Jones, of local note ; and Jay Gould and Gen. G. M. Dodge, familiar names in all railroad circles.
This was the first line to penetrate the country to the northwest of Fort Worth, and its results in the upbuilding of towns along the way were remarkable, not to mention the really wonderful transformation caused in the line of agricultural improvement and settlement. To quote from the Tribune of Decatur, which had been connected with Fort Worth by the driving of the last spike on April 15, 1882, "Decatur is on a regular boom. At present (May, 1882) six large stone, iron- front storehouses are being erected on the square by Colonel Lang and the Terrell heirs; Partridge and Cartwright are beginning the erection of a stone block on Main Street; Watson and Peters another building on Main Street ; and new residences are springing up all over town." The building of the railroad five miles east of the old town
511
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
of Aurora caused that town to migrate bodily and concentrate its two schools, four churches, twelve merchandising houses, three gins, and other enterprises around the railroad station of Rhome. The genesis of several towns in Wise and Montague counties dates from the laying of tracks for the F. W. & D. C. A traveler over the road in June, 1882, describes the village of Herman as consisting of a side- track and several box cars; Cowen (named for E. P. Cowen, railroad contractor ) distinguished by a sidetrack without any cars; Sunset, containing several business houses, and Bowie, now the metropolis of Montague County, had just come into nominal being, but was as yet without a business house. Such are typical origins for towns and communities. It would be a fascinating study to search for the source, of every North and West Texas town's history, the circumstances under which it came into being and the men who were first connected with it; but such an investigation is beyond the limits of this work, which can only indicate some of these beginnings and classify as far possible the various towns as originating either before or during the railroad era.
According to the terms of the charter, the Fort Worth & Denver City should have been completed by Christmas Day, 1882. But extension west from Wichita Falls was not resumed until May, 1885. By April, 1887, Quanah was the western terminus, while the Denver, Texas and Fort Worth, as the Colorado division of the road was known, had been built 138 miles from Pueblo. The two lines met at Texline and were connected March 14, 1888, and on that date the shortest rail line between the gulf and Colorado and the northwestern states was opened.
The building of this line worked nothing short of a revolution in the Panhandle cattle industry. It struck the final blow to the great trade movement, cattlemen henceforth finding the rail route the shortest, most expeditious and the most economical for taking their stock to market. Even the T. & P. line across the state to El Paso was not followed by such general upbuilding and growth in the country traversed as resulted from the building of the F. W. & D. C. All the now flourishing towns west of Henrietta, including Wichita Falls, Iowa Park, Vernon, Quanah, Clarendon and Amarillo, begin their history practically with the building of this railroad.
Typical is the history of Quanah. November 1, 1885, one box house, that of J. V. Johnson, was on the site. R. S. Simmons lived one mile south ; W. J. Jones, 11/2 miles west; Z. Hooper, four miles southeast. In 1886 a corps of engineers located the town; in the spring of 1887 the railroad came, the court house was moved up from the place called Margaret, and by the beginning of 1890 the town was able to claim 1,500 population, many of whom were farmers. A historian of that time continues: "The man with the hoe, written of so eloquently by J. D. Ballard, editor of the Quanah Quirt, has entered the county and where a few years ago the Kiowa and Comanche chased the buffalo, are now wheat fields lovely to look upon. But men make cities, and Quanah has men devoted to her upbuilding. The Golstons, Knotts, Goods, Smiths, Elberts, Johnsons, Swearingens,
512
FORT WORTH AND THE TENNAS NORTHWEST
Sherwins, Combs, Faulkners, Ballards, Pardues, Carters, Reeds, McDonalds, are all men after Fort Worth's own heart, and are city builders."
"Many are called, but few are chosen." Mobeetie, the county seat of the first county organized in the great Panhandle, on grounds justifiable, aspired to be the metropolis of that region, and while the Denver Road was being graded toward Decatur, we learn that the "town is building fast through expectation of the railroad being con- structed through this point." The railroad went many miles to the south, the Choctaw, Rock Island & Gulf built along the southern edge of Wheeler County, and Mobeetie has a present population of about 200.
Other places were more fortunate. Clarendon, in Donley County, was laid out about 1878, as already mentioned, there being no railroad within 300 miles at the time. Until the railroad came the place hardly deserved a name, but within a few months after that event a revival of business and influx of settlers gave the town a substantial and increasing prosperity, which it still retains. Childress, Lipscomb, Potter and Hemphill counties were organized in 1887 as a result of settlement. The town of Claude in Armstrong County, where eighteen months before not a house was to be seen, was a busy little village in 1890, and the same story was repeated again and again of these Panhandle centers during the late '80s and early '90s.
Until the opening of the F. W. & D. C. the Panhandle cattlemen had hauled all their supplies from Trinidad on the north or from Colorado City on the T. & P. Line. Closely settled communities were impossible under such a condition, with the source of necessary supplies several hundred miles away, and in sketching the history of the Pan- handle one is again brought back to the aphorism previously stated that, "Transportation is the key to population." Without the railroad the Panhandle would still be cattle range country, and Tascosa, of by- gone romance, with its Boot Hill adjunct, might be the cattlemen's metropolis instead of the little hamlet of two hundred people. From no point of view can the changes in a country wrought by the railroad be regarded otherwise than beneficial, for though its coming may doom one village to oblivion, it raises up another with better facilities to serve the purposes of social existence.
The land law which went into effect in July, 1887, did more to put the settlement of the Panhandle on a substantial basis than any other cause except the railroad. Although the people complained of the delay in classification of the lands and what they considered the arbitrary powers given to the land commissioner, no serious troubles arose that time could not adjust. Forty years' time and five per cent interest induced thousands to come, many of whom were without money or means to make homes and carry on a successful enterprise in a new and dry country. In consequence, when the dry years and the financial stringency of the '90s followed, there was a general exodus from the Panhandle, and only those who had means and were of the true pioneer stock remained to reap the rewards that surely came. Since then the limitations as well as the possibilities of the Panhandle have been realized; instead of subjecting the country to the sort of farming pursued in the well
513
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.