Memorial and biographical history of Dallas County, Texas, Part 24

Author: Lewis publishing company, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1128

USA > Texas > Dallas County > Memorial and biographical history of Dallas County, Texas > Part 24

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In 1873 the legislature did grant a subsidy in land certificates of 10,000 acres per mile to Captain Poitevant, a steamboat captain, and he removed the overhanging timbers and snags on the river as far as Magnolia, in Anderson county. At this point he stopped. IIe received, however, liis certificates for land on contract, for his services. As many as fifty steamboats ran continuously from 1852 to 1874, up the Trinity river as high as Trinidad in Kaufman county; also to Porter's Bluff in Ellis county. A live shipping bnsi- ness of cotton of general freight was carried on. In the '70s, however, the railroads be- gan to traverse the country and, under ex- citement over the rapid travel over these avennes of commerce, attention to navigation was lost; and so greatly were the people ab- sorbed over the rapid transportation of rail- roads and the strides of business generally that the idea of traversing the Trinity river with steamboats seemed absolutely absurd. But some of the pioneer settlers, knowing the history of the past, knew the idea per- fectly feasible and continued to encourage efforts in that direction.

Colonel. W. C. Wolff was the leading spirit to revivo this interest lately excited among the citizens of Dallas. Having failed at sev- eral publie meetings in Dallas to get a hear- ing, proposing the feasibility of the naviga- tion of the Trinity, he finally succeeded in getting the attention of the Board of Trade of the city. At this hearing he aronsed at- tention to say the least, and since then a live interest has been manifested by some of

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

the most influential citizens of the city. Among those most active are Captain Sidney Smith, Captain J. Pinck. Thomas, Colonel D. C. Mitchell, Colonel J. B. Simpson, Colonel Henry Exall and Hon. John H. Cochran and nminerous others.

In July, 1890, John H. Cochran, J. Pinck. Thomas and W. C. Wolff secured a charter for a company known as " The Trinity Navi- gation and Improvement Company;" capital stock $100,000; shares $100 each. The fol- lowing were the charter members:

J. Pinck. Thomas, James Arbuckle, A. L. Watts, B. M. Bond, W. H. Lemmons, C. E. Perry, J. II. Webster, Hugh Blakeney, D. C. Mitchell, W. C. Wolff. John H. Cochran, president; Sidney Smith, vice-president; James B. Simpson, treasurer.

This company built a steamboat 64 feet long and 12 feet across the deck, and launched it in the fall of 1891. It drew only seven inches light, and estimated to be 300-barrel capacity. It was used in cutting away ob- structions from Dallas to Liberty, Texas. It is used at this time in shipping railroad ties to Riverside for the use of the International & Great Northern Railroad Company. This company, at a public meeting in Dallas, agreed to give away to a new company. Ef- fective service is now being done to get the United States to make this a navigable stream.

The citizens have succeeded in arousing interest in Captain Flatau, an experienced and able steamboatman in the enterprise, and considerable attention has been excited gener- ally. The following is an account of a meet-

ing held in Dallas, February 2, 1892, and as published in the Dallas News:

The meeting in the auditorium of the city hall yesterday on the navigation of the Tri- nity river was largely attended, upward of 200 persons being present. Hon. John H. Cochran occupied the chair, and Mr. Leo Wolfson, secretary of the board of trade, per- formed the duties of secretary. Addressing the meeting, the chairman said it was not necessary to argue the importance of the na- vigation of the Trinity river to the future of Dallas. The undertaking, he proceeded, was neither visionary nor of recent birth. John Necly Bryan pitched his tent where Dallas stands because he considered it the head of navigation, and the only obstacle to navi- gation regarded by the early settlers was the raft at Bois d'Aro island, which to-day, with the aids and instrumentalities of science, could easily be removed. The last effort looking to the navigation of the river was the taking out of a charter last July to that end. In addition to the resources of the company had they available $500 cash, $100 worth of dynamite and $10 worth of coal oil, the river would now be navigable down to the raft. He recited the operation of the company in building a boat and clearing the river. With the aid of the people of Dallas the river, he asserted, would soon be navigated to the gulf and Dallas declared a water point. (Applause.)

Captain Ballard, commander of the Sallie Haynes, a Trinity river steamboat, named after Mrs. Barnett Gibbs; Captain Beeman, the pilot of that boat; Judge James Bently.

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

commander of Job Boat No. 1, which had successfully navigated the Trinity; Captain L. S. Flatan, of Pittsburg, Texas, who navi- gated the Trinity for years, and Judge A. B. Norton, the veteran editor at the Three Forks, were invited to seats on the platform.

Captain Flatan, who at short distance looks like a man of thirty-five, but over whose head forty-eight summers have rolled, addressed the meeting by invitation. He had, he said, navigated the Trinity for a long time without noticeable trouble, and he could not under- stand, in view of the bonanza offered by this water course, why the people of Dallas did not take a livelier interest in opening it up to commerce, than which nothing was more practicable. The narrowness of the Trinity, he proceeded, is an argument in its favor; for whenever a steamboat gets into a river that she fills navigation is easy; but when the river is wide and shallow there is trouble. This part of the Trinity river in which you think a steamboat cannot get along is the easiest navigation of the river. I used to steam up to Liberty, and I believe that I am the first man who ever navigated down the river; and I was the first who ever carried Buck's headlight at the jackstaff. I have come to Magnolia in the night and never had any trouble. I commanded the Cage. Once they sent Colonel Tucker from Dallas to know if I would not bring the Cage up to Dallas. I left Galveston light at the tail of the season and came up in the neighborhood of Bois d'Arc island (about fourteen iniles below Dallas). It was at the time of the

year when there was but little water in the river, and if the river had stayed up I would have come to Dallas. There is not a better river in the south than the Trinity. If the importance that exists for the navigation of the Trinity from Dallas were to exist in Illinois the river would be at once navigated. Why, with less necessity the people of Illi- nois have cut a canal 200 miles, largely through roek. You have no bars in the Trinity and only a few shoals, which nature has meant as a bed for locks-Kickapoo, White Rock and Cannon Ball shoals. You cannot pnt loeks in an alluvial soil, but here is a foundation laid by nature for them. Talk of snags! I have steamboated on the upper Missouri, where snags look like the bristles on a hog. Snags under the water line eut no figure. The people of Dallas cannot afford in these times to let such an opportunity pass. Like all other true Texans I would like to see Dallas grow to a great city. To that end you must have a freight rate that will encourage manufactures and that you can acquire through the ageney of the Trinity river. (Applause.) I would not ask better fun than to start from Galveston to Dallas with a well rigged boat if it were not for a few railroad bridges. All the rivers in the upper country are filled with boats, and if you will in a measure elear away the obstrue- tion in the Trinity river the owners of those boats will make an effort to trade here. The value of timber along this river ean only he appreciated by those acquainted with it-pin oak, ash and hickory. I have plied the Trin-

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

ity river night and day, and we pulled through the rafts. With a quart of glyce- rine and telegraph connection the raft will disappear. Think of what the Government did above Jefferson. Below Bois d'Arc island the river is filled with raft. There are eight or nine clay bends. Put a dynamite can under one of those bends and the water will wash it out. It will cost $550 or $670 a mile to Galveston from Dallas to make the Trinity river navigable. All the railroads to-day are nearly dead for some excuse to give you a cut rate. (Applause.) If it were not for the interstate commerce commission you would have it to-day down to B flat. I re- present B. F. Avery & Sons, and if you could say to them here is a fifty per cent ent rate they would pull up from Fort Worth to- morrow and give you $10,000 bonus. Contin- uing, the speaker said that while eivil en. gineers had performed wonders in their pro- fession, practical pilots, men who knew how to cut and where to cut, were the men needed to clean out the river. A civil engi- neer had reported on the great difficulty pres- ented at the mouth of the river. The speaker, when the river was low, steamed through the mouth, having lightered his cargo into two barges, which he towed to Galveston. By backing the enterprise, he said, the people of Dallas could count on half a dozen steam- boats entering here within two years.

Mr. D. C. Mitchell-Yes; within one year.

Captain Flatau spoke of the river above Jefferson as a spring branch compared with the Trinity, and he reminded his listeners

that owing to the increased rainfall in the Panhandle country and all over north Texas there is more water now in the Trinity than when he navigated it. A dam at White Rock or Kickapoo Falls, if it should be found nec- essary for low water, would, he insisted, back water almost up to Dallas. Coneluding, he said: If you push this thing as you should Dallas will be the greatest distributing and manufacturing point in the South. Build a wall around Texas and we would not know that there was anybody elsewhere, such are our resources. The men in Dallas who own great brick blocks and annexes would be paid by digging a ditch to Galveston. (Ap- plause).

Colonel W. C. Wolff offered the following resolutions and they were unanimously adopted :

Resolved, That a committee of ten, com- posed of two members of the County Commis- sioners court, two members of the City Coun- cil, two members of the Board of Trade and four members of the Trinity River Navigation and Improvement Company, be appointed to formulate and present the most feasible plan for the early reopening to navigation of the Trinity river from Dallas south to the county line. That all the counties bordering on the Trinity river from Dallas to the Gulf of Mexico be requested to consider our common interest in this enterprise and give their aid to this movement either by taking stock in the Trinity river navigation and improvement company or by giving lands and donations in money.

That all of said counties and all friends of the enterprise be requested to urge npon our representatives in Congress the importance of

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

making a reasonable appropriation to utilizo this highway to the sea in order to develop the resources of the Trinity valley.

The chair appointed the following com- mittee under the resolutions: From the City Council -- Aldermen Webster and Ifarris; from the County Commissioners' Court -- Jndgo Bower and T. B. Fisher; from the Board of Trade-S. W. S Duncan and John II. Taylor. From the Trinity River Navigation and Im- provement company-Sydney Smith, J. I. Thomas, C. E. Perry and D. C. Mitchell.

The committee retired, and during their absence the meeting was entertained by Judge A. B. Norton, Judge Bentley, F. N. Oliver and General Gano with short ad- dresses. Judge Norton said that no State in the Union was so well provided with water-courses as Texas. The Trinity was misnamed. It should have been called the Rio Grande, be- canse it was the grandest river in Texas. In the early days of Texas, he said, speaking from recollection, all the cotton raised in the counties adjacent to this river was taken adown its bosom to Galveston. Legislature had given grand subsidies to railroads, but they did nothing for his great commercial highway. The speaker said that when he ran against Roger Q. Mills for Congress]the main horse he rode was the navigation of rivers. Hle promised if elected to get a good appro- priation with which to put the Trinity in a good navigable condition. He was not elected and he has since been as one crying in the wilderness. Concluding, Judge Norton said, and the sentiment was loudly cheered : Away with all party considerations; away with all divisions among men ; stand shoulder to shoulder on the navigation of the Trinity river. It matters not who gets hold of the public teat. He only helps himself; but he who works for improvement of the navigation

of the Trinity river works to carry out the designs of God.

Judge Bentley briefly reviewed his experi- ence as a Trinity river captain, and he heartily indorsed the movement looking to the return of the nse of that river as a highway of com- meree.

THE COMMITTEE'S REPORT.

The committee appointed under the Wolff resolution presented the following report: We, the undersigned, your committee, beg to make the following report, to-wit:

That whereas, the Trinity River Navigation and Improvement Company propose to open the Trinity river for navigation and thereby declare Dallas a water point, and propose at their own expense to canvass for and colleet subscriptions for that purpose to be paid when Dallas is so declared a water point;

And whereas, they propose to turn the said subsidies over to three trustees to be used for that purpose; now therefore, we recommend the acceptance of their proposi- tion and the election of the three trustees as mentioned, who shall receive all such funds and use the same in conjunction with the said Trinity Navigation and Improvement Company for the accomplishment of that ob- jeet, returning to said Trinity Navigation and Improvement Company the remainder, if any, that may be left after said object has been accomplished.

It is also recommended that all citizens take stock in said Trinity River Navigation Company and that our members of Congress be instrueted to at once take sneh aetion as they deem necessary to have Congress appro- priate $500,000 for improving the navigation of the Trinity river from Dallas to its mouth at Galveston.

JOHN II. TRAYLOR, Chairman.

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

The report was unanimously adopted.

Colonel W. C. Holland, Captain J. P. Murphy and Captain W. H. Prather were elected trustees under the resolutions.

The chair, speaking as president of the Trinity Navigation and Improvement Com- pany, said that the directory consisted of thirteen members, seven of whom would re- sign to give place to subscribers to stock.

Colonel Holland suggested that Captain Flatau be at once sent to Washington to present the claims of the Trinity river before the River and Harbor Committee.

Captain Flatau said he had received letters from Congressmen Abbott and Culberson, asking him what the improvement of the river would cost. lIe had replied to the com- munications. He was willing to do what he could in the premises.

Arrangements were set afoot for Captain Flatau's trip to Washington, and the meeting then adjourned.

The following is the bill upon the subject of the navigation of the Trinity river origi- nally introduced in Congress by Congressman Abbott April 28, 1892, and as reported by the committee on rivers and harbors and called up in the llouse of Representatives by Congressman Charles Stewart for Mr. Abbott, and passed in the House the 20th iustant. There is no doubt about it passing the senate and becoming a law quite favorable indeed to this great Dallas enterprise:

Mr. Stewart of Texas, from the Committee on Rivers and Harbors, reported the following bill in lieu of H. R. 8449:

A bill to authorize the Trinity Navigation Company to open to navigation the Trinity river in the State of Texas.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of Amer- ica in Congress assembled, That the Trinity Navigation Company, a corporation created and existing under and by virtue of the gen- eral laws of the State of Texas, or its suc- cessors and assigns, be, and are hereby au- thorized and empowered to open to navigation the Trinity river in the state of Texas, from the town of Liberty to the city of Dallas, in said state, and to this end said company, its successors or assigns, are authorized to remove all logs and rafts and stones from the water bed of said river, as well as other obstruc- tions found in said river, so as to secure safe passage for suchi vessels as may navigate the same; said company is further authorized and empowered to construct such locks and dams as said company deem proper and nec- essary, and to do and perform any and all such acts and to make such improvements on said river and its banks as may be proper and necessary to secure safe navigation of said river at low water between the points named for steamboats having a draft of not less than three feet:

SEC. 2. That in consideration of the labor and expense incurred and to be incurred by said Trinity Navigation Company in opening said river to navigation, the same is hereby authorized and einpowered to charge and col- lect such tolls therefor as may be prescribed by the regulations that may be made from time to time by the secretary of the treasury of the United States.

SEC. 3. That within two years of the pas- sage of this act, said company shall begin the work of improving the navigation of said river, and shall proceed with said work as ex-

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

peditiously as possible until said work is com- pleted, otherwise the rights hereby granted shall be forfeited.

See. 4. That the United States reserves the right at any time during the progress of the work on said river or at any time after the same is completed to take charge of said river and the works of said company and in the exercise of this reserved right shall have the option of taking said works at their original cost, or at their actual valne at the time of taking the same, and the actual valuo thereof shall be ascertained by three officers of the engineer corps of the army of the United States, to be appointed by the secretary of war; provided that, in estimating the value of said works to be paid for by the United States, the franchise of said corporation re- sulting either from this act or derived by it from the State of Texas shall not be con- sidered or estimated.

SEC. 5. That the right to collect tolls on said river under this act shall not accrue to said company until it shall have improved said river between the town of Buffalo, in the county of Anderson, in the State of Texas, and the city of Dallas, so that between said points, at the lowest stage of water, steam- boats having a draft of not less than three feet can navigate the same, and in no event shall tolls be charged for the use of said river below the town of Liberty, in Liberty county, in the State of Texas.

RAILROAD FACILITIES.

For any city to become a great commercial center she must have able means of transpor- tation either by water or railroad. Dallas in her earlier stages of city development, when she realized that it was possible for her to be-

come the great metropolis of the State, began to exert every effort to secure the railroad line reaching through the southwest; and the first subsidy voted by this ambitions and en- terprising city, then comparatively small, was in 1872, prior to any prohibition by the State constitution to such subsidies given by a vote of the people which now exist, and was $100,000 to the Texas & Pacific railroad, which was then being constructed westward from Texarkana.

The shrewd and enterprising citizens then of Dallas, foreseeing the importance of having at this point the intersection of this great eastern and western line, and the Houston & Texas Central running north and south, which was at that time driving with rapid speed north from Houston into the Indian Territory, determined to use every means possible to have this intersection. So she was liberal in her donation, accomplished her aims and thereby in this happy arrange- ment made Dallas in many respects the rail- road city of north Texas.

Being ambitions of attaining the propor- tions of a great city, she was yet unsatisfied, and even in those early days she had her eyes open to the importance of connection with the Panhandle and the great Northwest, and only a proposition had to be made to build a road from Dallas to Wichita Falls, Texas, to open that territory of rich prairie lands adapted specially to the raising of small grain, when Dallas steps to the front with another $100,000. This line, however, was built only as far as Denton, at which point it

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

was absorbed by the Missouri Pacific and made a branch of that great system.

These were the only subsidies voted by the people. Since then the constitution of the State has been so amended as to revoke the power of the people to do that. However, the liberal spirit of the citi- zens has never been quenched, and thousands of dollars have been mnost generously donated in the way of private donations to secure the other great lines that now radiate in eleven directions from Dallas.

After these the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, a line direct from Galveston, was secured and made connection with the Missouri Pa- cific at Greenville and the St. Louis & San Francisco at Paris, giving Dallas two other great avenues of commerce, which has ever been her pride and boast. This Missouri Pacific system a short time afterward ex- tended their branch, reaching from Denton to Dallas on to Hillsboro, where it joins the main line of the great Missouri Pacific sys- tem, now the Missouri, Kansas & Texas.

The Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe did not stop at Greenville, but extended on as far as Paris, where it made connection with the St. Louis & San Francisco, thereby giving another direct outlet to the East.

The Texas Trunk was early put into oper- ation. Extending in a southeasterly direc- tion it traverses a rich country and opens up to connection with Dallas one of the finest timbered sections in the State, and indeed in the Union. This line was bought by the

Southern Pacific Railroad Company in the spring of 1892. So it is apparent that nearly all the Texas railroads lead to Dallas, and it is said that those roads now being op- erated in the State and not coming into Dal- las contemplate doing so as soon as practi- cable !

It is certainly an evident fact now that no railroad can come into north Texas with the purpose of having a Texas trade without pay - ing tribute to the city of Dallas. About four years ago, General Geo. F. Alfred or- ganized another railroad company, called the Dallas, Archer & Pacific (now the Dallas, Pacific & Southeastern), was its first presi- dent, and was succeeded in the presidency on account of failing health by Colonel J. E. Henderson. Nearly 100 miles of this road were graded into the great Panhandle, bifur- cating the rich country between the Texas & Pacific and Fort Worth & Denver railroads, and penetrating the richest coal belt in the State. The hard times and money pressure following the collapse of the Barry boom sus- pended construction for the time being, but it will soon be resumed, and this great artery of commerce will then be pushed forward to Albuquerque, New Mexico, thus making connection with the Atlantic & Pacific for San Francisco, and making a through line from San Francisco to New Orleans, about 400 miles shorter than any transcontinental line now in existence.

The following shows the number of yards of track and sidings of the different railroads in the limits of the city of Dallas:

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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

YARDS.

Texas & Pacific railway-main line. 6,100

66 sidings 4,150

switches. 800

Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway-Dallas and

Greenville, main line 6,000

Dallas & Waco 4,800

switches 200

Dallas & Wichita railway-main line 5,400

switches 100

Other sidings and switches of the M. K. & T.

system.

3,850

Texas Trunk railway-main line 2,400

sidings. 600

switches 100

Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe railway-main line. . 10,650

sidings. . 4,500

switches .. 1,100

Houston & Texas Central railway-main line. . . 11,700

sidings 2,800

switches 700

Total yards. . . . 65,950 or 37.47 miles of railroad track (not including street and rapid-transit lines) in the city limits.

TEXAS STATE FAIR AND DALLAS EXPOSITION.

No institution has ever been established in Dallas connty that has ever attracted more attention from abroad and excited more pride among the citizens, not only of Dallas county, but also throughout the entire State, than the Texas State Fair, and Dallas Exposition. It has not only impressed the people abroad that Dallas is the foremost city in the State, but also that her citizens cannot be surpassed in enterprise and vim.

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Memorial and biographical history of Dallas County, Texas, Part 24

Author: Lewis publishing company, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1128

Author: Lewis publishing company, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1128