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