Texans Wait Until 1888 To Ride Across The State
The Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad reached the New Mexico state line on Jan. 26, 1888 making it possible at long last for Texans to ride all the way across their vast state. The Lone Star Republic did not have a single mile of track, and Texans had to wait until the seventh year of statehood to catch their first train. In 1853 a short-haul line began carrying freight between Harrisburg and Richmond, but optimistic plans for expanded service were delayed indefinitely by the Civil War.
The Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad reached the New Mexico state line on Jan. 26, 1888 making it possible at long last for Texans to ride all the way across their vast state.
The Lone Star Republic did not have a single mile of track, and Texans had to wait until the seventh year of statehood to catch their first train. In 1853 a short-haul line began carrying freight between Harrisburg and Richmond, but optimistic plans for expanded service were delayed indefinitely by the Civil War.
As Texas stagnated under Reconstruction rule, railroad building was going great guns in the rest of the country. The eagerly anticipated continental connection was completed in May 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah, when the Union Pacific and Central Pacific conquered the Rocky Mountains.
The Lone Star State lagged far behind much to its economic detriment, and geographic isolation stunted the growth of many communities. With a rapidly rising population of 818,000 in 1870, Texas was in dire need of a modern transportation system.
A charter was issued in August 1872 to the California and Texas Construction Company to build a railroad west from Marshall. In two years, the outfit was supposed to have a hundred miles of track in operation and within the decade a ribbon of iron clear to the Pacific Ocean. Both goals exceeded the limited resources of the modest venture, but the attempt at least signaled the start of the gigantic task of tying Texas together.
The Panic of 1873 and the depression that followed strangled the California and Texas and similar enterprises. Serious work did not resume until 1876.
The notable exception during this lull was the 1874 connection of Dallas, the state’s fifth largest city, with St. Louis courtesy of the Texas and Pacific. Fort Worth residents grimaced at the profitable honor bestowed upon their rivals but took comfort in the T&P pledge that their town would be next.
When the railway reneged on its promise, an exodus of disappointed citizens threatened to turn Cow Town into a dusty cadaver. However, two years of extraordinary effort, which included everything from badgering state legislators to laying track for free, finally brought the iron horse. The inaugural locomotive was welcomed on Jul. 19, 1876 by a deliriously happy crowd that cheered the rescue of their town.
The coming of the train was surpassed only by remaining the westernmost railhead, a lucrative distinction Fort Worth enjoyed for four years. During this boom, the population zoomed from less than 500 to 6,600.
Construction crews went back to work in 1881, and a new railroad, the Fort Worth and Denver City, crept northwest toward the recently settled Panhandle. At each stop along the way, jubilant throngs celebrated their liberation.
By May 1, 1882, fresh track covered the 40 miles to Decatur, seat of Wise County, and an obviously impressed eyewitness recorded the grand occasion. “Brawney men of woods and pastures closed in and vented their feelings by emitting a wild Comanche whoop. Then they clasped the hands of the trainmen and visiting officials. Of all days in Wise County before or since, this was the prodigeous day.”
That same spring, the Texas legislature nullified all land grants to the railroads. In their zeal to usher in the steam age, generous politicians had parceled out 40 million acres – a fifth of the state! The inevitable backlash against this giveaway hit the lawmakers full force in 1882.
As the furor mounted in Austin, the Fort Worth and Denver City realized the clock was ticking and frantically pressed on toward Wichita Falls. In July 1882, the tiny village became the line’s western terminus, an enviable position it held for nearly three years until a political thaw revived construction.
After 20 months on nonstop labor, the FW&DC entered Vernon in October 1886 and brand-new Quanah four months later. Without missing a beat, the crews pushed on across the Panhandle and straight into a civic squabble in Childress County.
Separated by just four miles, Childress City and Henry fought over the route and the right to the county seat. The argument was settled when the railroad ran its tracks past Henry. Losers and winners wound up neighbors after Henry changed its name to Childress and the practical inhabitants of Childress City relocated en masse.
After crossing the New Mexico boundary in January 1888, the FW&DC raced to meet its sister line out of Denver, Colorado. In the hills of northeastern New Mexico on Mar. 13, 1888, Fort Worth and Denver were united by 808 miles of steel and spikes.
By 1926, a hectic half century after its standing start, Texas proudly boasted 16,000 miles of track, the most rail mileage of any state in the Union. No longer cut off from each other or the rest of the nation, Texans were ready to tackle the challenges of the twentieth century.
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