Rail Road data
of history.
BY ELIZABETH HEATH
FOOTNOTES
1. Lyle Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, ed., The Butterfield
Overland Trail (San Marino, California, Huntington Library,
c 1942) p.57
2. Ibid. p.62
3. Dwight Kirk (Mrs.), "The Butterfield Stage," The Texas
Permian Historical Annual, IV (December 1964), p.5-6
4. Alton Hughes, Pecos, A History of the Pioneer West (Seag-
raves, Pioneer Book Publishers, c 1978), p.14
5. Wayne Card and Dean Krakil, Along the Early Trails of
the Southwest (Jenkins Book Publishing Co., 1969) p.43
THE TEXAS AND PACIFIC
RAILROAD
(FACTUAL TO FOLKSEY)
HISTORY: TO WARD COUNTY, TEXAS
from Ward County History Book, 1887-1977:
Some one hundred and thirty years ago Texas was a
vast and wild frontier. Particularly was this true in
sparsely settled West Texas. Here antelope, deer and
buffalo abounded. Roaming the prairies and mountain-
ous ranges, they far outnumbered both the Indians and
the handful of hardy settlers who were pioneering in
this seemingly endless stretch of virgin land.
The route of the Texas and Pacific Railroad across Texas
from New Orleans
Transportation in those days was largely a matter of
horseback, ox-cart, or covered wagon. Transcontinen-
tal rail lines through Texas and the Southwest had
been envisioned by many railroad magnates, but terror
of the red man, lack of capital and the Civil War served
to shatter most of these dreams of a rail empire in this
rugged and potentially rich region.
For the few people living in West Texas, the building
of a railroad meant the arrival of civilization. In the
sessions of the Texas Legislature from 1852 to 1856 and
even earlier, the advantage to Texas of a transcontinen-
tal railroad through its borders was realized. The Legis-
lators and its people generally believed that the most
logical and most economical route for one was to enter
the State in the northeastern corner around Texarkana
and hence across the State to and through the pass in
the Rocky Mountains at El Paso. Their legislative sup-
port of these beliefs was embodied in the numerous
charters readily granted and of a most liberal character
during those years. It was believed from the experience
of building railroads across the northern section of the
United States that with a railroad following the 32nd
parallel route once built, the borders of Texas, New
Mexico and Arizona, now so dangerous to the few and
scattered inhabitants on account of exposure to Indian
raids, would become safe. It was believed that the com-
pletion of these Pacific roads would go far toward a
peaceful settlement of our Indian difficulties. Also it
would pay the nation in terms of money to see that a
railroad across its borders would be provided. There
were forty different posts in western Texas, New Mex-
ico, Arizona and southern California, at which were
stationed on December 15, 1875, five regiments of cav-
alry and seven regiments of infantry. In all there were
126 companies with a force of 7,026 enlisted men or
more than one-fourth of the entire available strength of
the army.
In addition to this, the annual cost of a regiment in
these regions where rations, forage, and general sup-
plies had to be transported immense distances at the
highest known rates of freight was over one million
dollars. The reasoning was that it would pay the nation
to cooperate with the Texas and Pacific road and save
the nation millions of dollars yearly
1. by bringing into market hundreds of millions
of acres of good land which was then dead
property; by adding millions of population to
the then present number of its producers and
tax-payers of the United States,
2. by preserving to the United States the practi-
cal monopoly of the cotton trade of the world.
The region traversed by this road produced
the finest grade of cotton and all that was
needed to develop and increase its growth was
to give it facilities for cheap and rapid carriage
to market,
3. by giving the people of the South the same fa-
cilities and commercial advantages that had
already been granted to the North.
4. by utilizing the enormous national capital that
lay idle in the southern region ... There was
a vast national domain of corn, wheat, wine,
cotton, and grass lands, too distant from mar-
ket to be profitably cultivated save for local
consumption, and that is ... by hostile Indians.
The Legislature of Texas had during the Civil War
extended all rights, privileges and obligations to the
railroads from time to time and finally "until two years
after hostilities cease between the Confederacy and the
United States," and in 1866 the Legislature of Texas
had extended the time for locating land grants for ten
years. Much legal maneuvering took place with the
Memphis, El Paso and Pacific during the next few
years, trying to secure funds to complete construction
under their charter. Finally it was decided to seek a
new charter to take the place of that of the Memphis, El
Paso and Pacific and containing authority to purchase
its rights, privileges and property. This was inspired by
the strong assurance of strong financial support of a
company so chartered. In July, 1870, application for
such a charter was made under the name of the South-
ern Transcontinental Railroad Company. It was unani-
mously granted and the Governor approved it on the
27th of that month. Under this charter a company was
organized in New York City and its Board of Directors
included men of prominence, financially and politi
cally, in the East.
In the following year the Legislature also authorized
the new company to acquire the Southern Pacific Rail-
road Company. This Company had managed to reorga-
nize and secure enough capital to resume building in
1867 and was making progress though slow, westward
from Marshall. The Legislature passed an act in 1871
granting the Southern Pacific Railroad and the South-
ern Transcontinental Railway $10,000 a mile in eight
percent State Bonds not to exceed a total of $6,000,000
to be divided equally between the two companies.4
This action caused much indignation and disturbance
among the people.
In the meantime the Congress of the United States on
March 3, 1871, had granted a charter to a new com-
pany, The Texas Pacific Railroad Company, the only
Texas Railroad now operating under a charter granted
by a special Act of Congress. On May 24, 1871, an Act
of Texas Legislature was passed to encourage the
speedy completion of a railway through the state to the
Pacific Ocean:
The Texas Pacific Railroad Company ... is he-
reby authorized and empowered to lay out, locate,
construct, furnish, maintain, and enjoy a continu-
ous railroad and telegraph line, with the appurte-
nances from a point at or hear Marshall, county of
Harrison, State of Texas; thence by the most direct
and eligible route, to be determined by said com-
pany, near the thirty-second parallel of north lati-
tude, to a point at or near El Paso; thence by the
most direct and eligible route, to be selected by
said company through New Mexico and Arizona
to a point on the Rio Colorado at or near the south-
eastern boundary of the State of California; thence
by a most direct and eligible route to San Diego,
California, to ship's channel, in the bay of San Di-
ego, in the state of California, pursuing in the loca-
tion thereof, as near as may be, the thirty-second
parallel of north latitude, and is hereby vested with
all powers, privileges, and immunities necessary to
carry into effect the purposes of this act.
In 1872 the Texas Legislature authorized the Texas
Pacific Railroad to purchase the Southern Pacific Rail-
road Company and the Memphis, El Paso and Pacific,
including their franchises and grants of land. The Leg-
islature had withdrawn the subsidy of $10,000 a mile,
but neither the Southern Transcontinental nor the
Texas and Pacific conceded its right to do so. An
amendment to the Constitution of Texas was adopted
in 1873 allowing the Legislature to make grants to rail-
way companies provided not more than twenty sec-
tions to the mile were so granted.
The name of the company was changed by Congress
May 2, 1872, from Texas Pacific Railroad Company to
the Texas and Pacific Railway Company. An unusual
and significant clause of this charter reads:
The Texas Pacific Railroad Company shall be
and is hereby declared to be a military and post
road; and for the purpose of insuring and carrying
mail and troops, munitions of war, supplies and
stores of the United States, no act of the company
nor any law of any state shall impede, delay or
prevent said company from performing its obliga-
tion to the United States.
After the newly chartered company bought the rights
of the previously mentioned companies, the n