Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 30, Number 2, Fall 2018 Page: 6
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a point half the distance between the cities with a
park in the middle.6
Aside from uncertain technology, a significant
obstacle to building such a line was capital. There
simply was not enough wealth in North Texas to
build and operate an interurban between Dallas
and Fort Worth or anywhere else. Attempts in
the early 1890s foundered because of a "financial
panic" that seized the nation in 1893.
The downturn in the economy in the 1890s
affected Dallas and Fort Worth for the rest of
the decade, but prospects for a new interurban
emerged on September 19, 1899, when a large
number of citizens attended the Oak Cliff city
council meeting to hear a petition from George
T. Bishop. Bishop, who lived in Cleveland, Ohio,
sought permission to construct, maintain, and
operate a double-track electric street railway
on specified streets of Oak Cliff, in conjunction
with the construction of an electric railway from
Dallas to Fort Worth with future extensions to
Cleburne and Waxahachie. Bishop's proposal was
a serious one, as he had successfully constructed
an interurban between Cleveland and Lorain,
Ohio, before turning his attention to North
Texas. An ordinance granting the petition was
adopted five days later.7
Meanwhile, Bishop's partner, John B.
Coffinbury, also of Cleveland and a former
Cleveland councilman, appeared before the
Dallas city council seeking a similar ordinance
on behalf of Bishop to permit the proposed line
to enter Dallas from Oak Cliff and run along
existing streetcar tracks on Commerce Street
to the Post Office. This franchise was needed to
establish a Dallas terminal for the electric railway.
He promised an investment of up to $700,000
to complete the project. He said this was a new
field, and that once a city had such a railway, it
could not get along without one. He told the
council: the interurban is "the greatest institution
we ever had in our country, both for the city and
the country."8 In October 1899, a similar Bishop
petition to enter and use Fort Worth streets wassent to the Fort Worth city council.
In contrast to the swift approval received
from Oak Cliff, there was hesitation and opposi-
tion in both Dallas and Fort Worth. Complicating
the proposal was the announcement in January
1900 of another proposed electric line between
Dallas and Fort Worth, sponsored by G. Van
Ginkel and John T.Voss.Van Ginkel was a native
of Holland who came to Dallas in early 1899
from Des Moines, Iowa. In March 1899, he pur-
chased the largest streetcar line in Dallas, called
the Dallas Consolidated Electric Street Railway,
and began upgrading the line. Voss was presi-
dent of the Glenwood and Polytechnic College
Electric Street Railway Company operating in
east Fort Worth. Their proposal was to connect
the two existing lines and offer free transfers
on their local lines.10 On January 20, 1900, Van
Ginkel appeared before the Dallas Commercial
Club and argued, in a speech described by The
Dallas Morning News as "caustic," that the Bishop
franchise "would destroy property." Coffinbury,
who was also present on behalf of Bishop, object-
ed to that accusation and said his group would
begin work within six days once the Dallas fran-
chise was awarded. Coffinbury later said that
bonds could not be floated in the east for this
project and that attempting to obtain capital in
Texas would result in a loss of time. Instead, he
and four others were willing to invest the esti-
mated cost to build the line, with any one of
them being capable of financing the line himself.
Van Ginkel and Voss claimed that their proposal
could be funded with eastern capital."
The Bishop proposal was taken up again by the
Dallas council in late January 1900. Although the
proposal "precipitated a scrappy fight," the franchise
was approved for a twenty-year term and ratified by
the municipal commission on February 1. One ofthe
conditions was the requirement for Bishop to pay
the city $100 per year for the first five years, and
$250 for each of the remaining fifteen years. The
Van Ginkel-Voss supporters vowed to continue
their efforts, but their supporters admitted a6 LEGACIES Fall 2018
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Dallas Historical Society. Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 30, Number 2, Fall 2018, periodical, Autumn 2018; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1137646/m1/8/: accessed June 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Historical Society.