Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 4, Number 1, January 1994 Page: 33
46 p. : ill., ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Brief History of Columbus
practicable route by way of Gonzales and San Antonio, to a point on the
Rio Grande river, not more than five miles below, nor more than forty
miles above Eagle Pass." The act also specified that the company would
lose their charter if they did not begin construction within two years,
complete 25 miles of track within four years, and complete 25 additional
miles each year thereafter (see The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, volume
4, pages 1345-1350). On February 8, 1860, apparently because
construction had not yet been started, the legislature amended the
charter, allowing the railroad an additional year to begin building track
(see The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, volume 5, pages 169-170). On
March 5, 1860, the commissioners met in Gonzales and, in two days,
raised $300,000 in subscriptions (see The Colorado Citizen, March 17,
1860).
On February 2, 1860, six days before it had amended the charter
of the Columbus, San Antonio & Rio Grande Railroad, the legislature had
approved An act to incorporate the Columbus Tap Railway Company.
The act appointed six citizens of Colorado County, Andrew Monroe
Campbell, John G. Logue, Joseph Worthington Elliott Wallace, Charles
William Tait, George Washington Smith, and Isam Tooke, to organize a
company to build a railroad line from Columbus to "a point intersecting
with the Railroad of the Buffalo Bayou Brazos and Colorado Railway
Company" (see The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, volume 5, pages 127-
132). At the time, the B B B & C was extending its line rapidly to the
west, reaching Eagle Lake in September or October 1859, and Alleyton
in September 1860 (see The Colorado Citizen, August 20, 1859,
November 3, 1859, September 29, 1860). The line had been extended
north of Alleyton before the outbreak of the Civil War halted construction
(see Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad v. M. B. Matthews,
Cause File 1614, Office of the District Clerk, Colorado County, Texas).
The law that created the Columbus Tap had stipulated that the
company could begin operations when it had raised $40,000. By
September 1860, it had. That month, the company elected Campbell
president, named Smith, Tait, Wallace, and Exum Phillip Whitfield direc-
tors, hired surveyors, and advertised its intention to hire laborers to build
track (see The Colorado Citizen, September 22, 1860). By the following
January, Whitfield, who had become president, reported that about forty
men were actively building track, that the grading was about two-thirds
finished, that trestle work was being done, and that ties were being
produced; and he announced an expected completion date of April 22,
1861 (see The Colorado Citizen, January 5, 1861). By April, the track
extended at least a mile from the river toward Alleyton (see J. L. Taylor
v. Columbus Tap Railway, Cause File 1731, Office of the District Clerk,
Colorado County, Texas), but plans for a bridge had apparently been
delayed, for on April 8, the legislature gave the railroad the authority to33
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Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 4, Number 1, January 1994, periodical, January 1994; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151390/m1/33/?q=nesbitt%20memorial%20library%20journal: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.