Denton County, Texas - Chapter 10, 1918

In the early days Denton County had but little to sell, except horses and cattle, which were driven overland to markets in the North and East from three to eight hundred miles away. Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee were considered our best horse and mule markets and it was a common thing in the spring to see droves of horses and mules driven to market. The people learned that horses and mules were similar to human beings in that they will follow their leaders, especially a belled mare. So one would see a man at the head of the drove, riding a belled mare, and from one to two men bringing up the rear. They would be gone from three to five months, driving and disposing of the stock. They would drive about thirty miles a day and feed night and morning.

The marketing of cattle was different. In the spring of the year, when the grass was green, droves were formed, sometimes by individuals who were large stock growers, sometimes by two or three, driving together. Generally there were from three to five hundred head in a drove, but sometimes a drove would contain a thousand head, scattered out in a string a mile long. They never fed the cattle as they did horses, and they counted from eight to ten miles a day a good drive. The cattle were driven slowly and allowed to graze as they went. Often a drove would be one-half mile in width. The cattle could not be advantageously driven through a thickly settled country. They were generally driven to St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, and Baxter Springs. This route was over a prairie country, where the cattle could feed as they were driven.

here to the northern markets. It was made by John Chisum of Denton County. A trail was made with three things in view, jrrass and water every day. and a mai-ket at the end of the route. We had no roads to amount to much in those days. But a cattle trail was a very conspicuous mark across the country. Sometimes it would be from fifty to one hundi'ed yards wide, without veg-etation, especially if the herds were driven along when the ground was wet. ]\Ien learned thoroughly the habits of cattle and the best ways to handle them when herded together, and the dangers arising from being thrown together in large bodies.

To be a cowboy, in deed and truth, meant something more than a fairy tale. Cattle sleep at certain times at night and at certain times get up and turn over. Frequently they stampede, generally at night when everything is quiet. The cattle are perhaps dreaming, some unusual noise produces a fright, and the whole herd runs together in the same direction, running over everything in their path. They would scatter in small herds all over the country when worn out. Some of the cowboys were run over and a number killed. The cowboy was an expert in his line of business and was always on guard. It was his duty to overtake the leaders and circle the cattle and when properly done the circle could be made on a square mile of territory. The cattle, when worn out. would drop out, one by one, and come to rest. When properly managed, the cattle could be oi'derly assembled without much loss, but if scattered over eight or ten miles of territory, much time would be consumed in assembling and some of the cattle could not be found.

We could raise sheep and hogs with as much ease as cattle and horses but they traveled so slowly, and at such a disadvantage when driven in droves that the distance to markets made it unprofitable. So hogs were raised for home consumption and sheep loi- wool. Jefferson and Houston, Texas, and Shreveport and New Orleans, Louisiana, were our markets, or places of exchange, for the products. We sent wool, hides, and furs and sometimes wheat, but the manner of transportation made wheat unprofit-

Transportation facilities consisted of "ox trains" for freight auling. An ox team was composed of five or six yokes of oxen itched to a large wagon, sometimes called "prairie schooners," nd would haul from 5,000 to 6,000 pounds of freight. Two or iree wagons constituted an "ox train," and would go together, hey could make but one trip a year on account of the distance nd problem of sustenance. These "ox trains" would start in the pring as soon as grass was up sufficiently to graze the oxen, and ^ould sometimes be on the road two months. On that account our )cal stores "stocked up" only once a year. When they ran out f an article they were out until the next year. Hence it was Dmmon to hear such expressions as these: "They tell me that ou can get coffee at Dallas now;" "They tell me that you can get ugar and tobacco at McKinney now."

The lumber we used in our houses was hauled from Wood nd Upshur counties and cost $2.00 per hundred feet at the mill, t was rough and sometimes green and very heavy to haul. The rice of hauling was $1.00 per hundred feet for each quarter of n inch in thickness, that is, $4,00 per hundred feet for one-inch Limber, or $6.00 per hundred feet, counting the cost at the mill. Salt was worth $7.00 per sack of two hundred pounds and was lauled from Jordan Saline in Van Zandt County,

Two things brought a wonderful change in Denton County - he railroads and barbed-wire fences. The barbed-wire was the neans of fencing the country and changing the custom and habits yf the people to such an extent as to form an issue in State poliics, and to cause the State campaign called the "free grass cam- )aign." Barbed-wire was the greatest blessing to this country hat we had and yet the poor man and his family, who had had mrestricted access to the timber of the old surveys, and free jrass and free range, resisted the new organization and strict istablishment of property rights. They were called "nesters" Dy the cow man, and a state of war was on in 1885 in Wise and rack counties, and in the western part of Denton County. Many miles of wire fence were cut down and several men lost thrr lives while cutting fences. The difficulties of the new situati soon adjusted themselves along the lines of mutual rights and pui)lic benefits, and we all recognized the barbed-wire fence agreat blessing.

The railroads came as a great blessing to Denton Coun; but at a great price to the State of Texas. The State had enablec us to make this a great county by bringing to our doors a marked for all our products, and furnishing cheap transportation to qui people. The railroad problem is still unsettled. On account o) this and its effects on our people - past, present, and future - it is deemed best to refer to some of the railroad legislation the State to better undertsand the problem.

On February 4, 1856, the Legislature granted a chartei to the Memphis, El Paso and Pacific Railroad Company from Re( River on the east to El Paso on the west, a distance of abou eight hundred miles. The act took all the land off the market for location or otherwise, for eight miles on each side of the loca tion tract and gave to the road eight sections of land for eacl mile of completed roadbed. When the company should have com pleted as much as twenty-five miles or more, certificates were t> be issued on that part of the road. The war of '61 came and f' road was not built. But a new charter was sought and obtaii from the Congress of the United States, dated March 3, 1871. i the name of the Texas & Pacific Railroad, reaching from Texai kana to El Paso, and the transcontinental division of the samt reaching from Texarkana west to the west line of Grayson Cour ty and thence southwest to Fort Worth, through Denton, to it connection with the main line. This company acquired the right pf the old company, the M.,E. & P. R. R.Co.. and on April 12, 1871 the Reconstruction legislatui'e passed an act authorizing counties cities, and towns to aid railroads by issuing bonds and donatin' the same to railroads. The act was amended on May 6, 1871, r< quiring that the money derived from said bonds should be ir vested in the State.

signatures to a petition to the commissioners' court of Denton County, calling for an election on the proposition for the county to vote $80,000 of bonds, and the city of Denton $40,000 of bonds as a donation to the Texas & Pacific Railroad to build the road through Denton County,

This was a startling proposition and unreasonable under the circumstances. Rev. William E. Bates canvassed Denton County against the bond issue and made such an impression as to render the bond issue hopeless. Hon J. W. Throckmorton, agent for the railroad company, withdrew the proposition and the road was built through Denton as required by the charter and the city and county saved the $120,000.

The Reconstruction Legislature passed a bill November 25, 1871, amending an act passed May 24, 1871, to encourage the construction of railroads. This bill provided for the State to issue bonds of $3,000,000 to the Southern Pacific (assigned to the Texas & Pacific) from Longview to Fort Worth, and the transcontinental branch of the same through Denton, making a juncture at Fort Worth, - $3,000,000 of State bonds to each line, to be issued at the rate of $10,000 per mile on completion of sections of twenty-five miles, with a proviso that the legislature should have the right at any time before January 1, 1874, to substitute for the bonds twenty-four sections of land per mile, (compromised at twenty sections). This is what the Texas & Pacific Railroad received in settlement. They have thirty-five and nine-tenths miles running through the county from Pilot Point to Roanoke. The railroad received 718 sections of land, of 640 acres each, or 459,520 acres, as the price paid for Denton County's T. & P. Railroad, or about four-fifths as much land as there is in the county.

The Fourteenth Legislature on April 22, 1874, repealed the act authorizing counties, towns, and cities to vote bonds to railroads, except twelve counties named, in the southwest part of the State.

tions to the mile. The people under reconstruction and restricted suffrage had voted a constitutional amendment on November 5, (>. 7, and S, 1S72. authorizing the legislature to grant to railroads twenty sections of land to the mile.

The legislature on May 28, 1873. passed an act incon)oi-ating the Gulf, Colorado & Sante Fe Railroad, granting to it sixteen sections per mile of completed road, certificates to be issued on every ten miles of completed road. The road has thirty-two and nine-tenths miles in Denton County, for which it received 526 sections, or 336,896 acres of land, equal to three-fifths of the amount of land in Denton County.

The Dallas & Wichita Railroad was chartered by the Thirteenth Legislature on May 24, 1873, granted to J. W. Calder, W. J. Clark, I. B. Calder, Henry S. Ervay, C. Wagefarth, J. W. Swindells, D. Conelly, J. W. Haynes, T. C. Jordan, and Thomas Fields. They were granted sixteen sections of land per mile. Certificates to be issued on the completion of each ten miles, and the charter was to be foi'feited unless twenty miles of road were completed and in running order by July 1, 1875. The company barely saved the charter by completing the road to a point just below Lewisville in Denton County on July 1, 1875. J. W. Calder was killed m Dallas in a difficulty growing out of the financial affairs of the road. The road was built on to Denton and has twenty and three-tenths miles in Denton County, for which they leceived 329 sections of land, or 210,560 acres.

On April 22, 1882, the legislature passed an act repealing all laws granting lands to railroads as subsidies, and the constitution of 1876 repealed the constitutional amendment voted in November, 1872, and thus ended the devastation of the public domair of Texas by the railroads.

A county thirty miles square has nine hundred sections, or 576,000 acres in it; or one and three-fourths counties were given by the State for the ninety-nine miles of road in Denton Pounty. This land, valued at $2.6114 Pei" acre, will give the reniiition value for taxation, $2,719,045, or $30,551 per mile; or the ^tate gave approximately $4.75 per acre for every acre in Denton County for ninety-nine miles of railroad. The questions are often asked, "Who owns the railroads?" and "Is it right to control them?"

! These roads are almost invaluable to the county, and drawing the line of exact justice between the people and the roads is the railroad problem of today. We have recited these facts at length that the future citizens of Denton County may know the history of the railroads they find here.