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dimensions. It is under the auspices of the North
Texas M. E. Conference, and young ladies and
young gentlemen are yearly graduated from its
classic halls who bear away with them to their
homes in this and other States the impress of their
alma mater. There are two good white public
schools, and one colored, with a large attendance.
The scholastic population last year was 500 white
and 188 colored pupils.
The municipal government of Sulphur Springs
is economically administered, and the city debt is
inconsiderable. The two banks in the place, one
national, the other private, did a gross amount of
business during the past twelve months of about
$3,000,000. Merchandise sold during the same time
aggregated $9u0,000. In the line of manufacturing
establishments, there are two improved roller flour
mills, two planing mills, two public gins and one
furniture factory. The merchants draw trade from
all over Hopkins, and from portions of Delta,
Franklin, Wood, Rains and Hunt counties.
Hopkins county, of which Sulphur Springs is the
capital, is about equally divided between timber and
prairie land, the dividing line running east and west.
A variety of soils are to be found all over the coun-
- * V, black waxy, black sandy and gray alluvial being
the prevailing kinds. Price of lands unimproved,
$3 to $5; improved, $5 to $lO. The taxable values
of the county last year were $3,300,000; population
about 24,000. There are two weekly newspapers
published in Sulphur Springs. Last year the value
of exports was $494,164.20. They consieted of 11,-
238 bales of cotton, 140,260 pounds of cotton seed,
300 head of cattle, 48 head of horses, 82,228 pounds
of wool, three cars of bones, eight cars of corn, 30
cars of oats, and 20,286 pounds of hides, making a
total tonnage of 7,187,774 pounds.
TEBBELL.
Nestling in one of the finest agricultural regions
in America,Terrell presents a promising location to
the investor or home seeker. It is situated on the
line of the Texas and Pacific at the intersection with
the Northeastern branch of the Houston and Tex
as Central, 189 J miles from Texarkana, and 31%
miles east of the city of Dallas. Although little
more than twelve years since the first survey of the
town was made, Terrell now numbers a thrifty pop
ulation of 3,834. It posse ses perhaps the hand
somest and most commodious public school build
ing in North Texas—a three-story brick structure
recently erected and fitted up with all the modern
improvements, and having a capacity for accom
modating 500 pupils. There is also an excellent
public school building for colored children. The
scholastic census of Terrell for the past year shows
an average daily attendance at the public schools of
537 white and 102 colored pupils.
In the matter of health the town offers a favora
ble condition. The surface drainage is good, and
sanitation is rigorously enforced by municipal ordi
nance. Extending over a period of three years, the
recorded deawis show an average yearly interment
k for the past tlvelve months of 27, being little more
L than one per month to every 1000 of the
- point of socUffadvantagesAo com
ze * n the a favot4
I able residences of the city3fs a gen
r eral thing, evidjmce culture and an appreciation of
the comforts ofllife in exterior surroundings and
architecture on the part of their occupants. Many
of them are fronted by neat lawns and cheerful
shrubbery and flowers and flanked by orchards and
gardens. Nearly all denominations of Christians
have church edifices Cumberland Presbyterian,
Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Christian, Ro
man Catholic and Missionary Baptist. There are
also two churches for the colored people. Here,
too, is the seat of the East Texas Insane Hospital
an institution which, gauged by its success in the
treatment of demented intellects, is abreast of any
sanitarium of its class in the South or West.
Perhaps no town in the State can make a better
comparative showing in its trade statistics than
Terrell. Its outgoing freights for the past twelve
months,as taken from the books of the local agents,
show the export movement over the two railroads
to be 17,681 bales of cotton, 2.500 head of cattle,
375 horses, 245,028 pounds of hides, 30 cars of lum
ber, 326,910 pounds of bran, 612,388 pounds of flour,
12,000 bushels of corn,4oo tons of hay ,90,000 pounds
of bones, 109 cars of cotton seed, 180,000 pounds of
grain, 35,524 pounds of wool, 220 pounds of bees
wax, 7,640 pounds of tallow, and 482,891 pounds of
other articles.
In the establishment of manufacturing enterprise
the people of Terrell have set a laudable example.
The town has now in operation two flour mills with
a daily capacity of 300 barrels, one planing mill,
foundry, steam cotton gin, ice factory, cotton com
press, cotton factory, tannery and two brick yards.
There is also, a fire-proof bonded warehouse and
two large lurfliber yards within the corporate limits.
Based on its exports, agriculture and manufac
tuerd products, a fair estimate of th|j volume of bus-
- iness done by Terrell for the fiscal year just over
would be in round numbers $1,000,000, an amount
rather under than over the actual mercantile trans
actions. Real estate in Terrell is in reasonable de
mand, with stiff prices for eligible building lots.
The circumjacent lands are held at sls and S2O per
acre for improved, and from $7 to $lO for unim
proved tracts. Diversified crops and careful culti-
i vation among the farmers of the surrounding coun
try is the fashion, and cotton, corn, small grains,
live stock, fruit, and large quantities of indigenous
and cultivated grasses are raised on nearly every
hoding.
Terrell has a radius of trade extending about 40
miles in every direction, and reaching over the
whole and Rockwall counties, thewes-
> ern of Van Zandt, the northern part of
Henderop into Southwestern Hunt. The pre
vailing chWacter of soil on tributary tarms is of
thehlack waxy and black sandy varieties.
/Iwt> banks with ample capital furnish all the nec
essary adavnces for moving crops, and two news
papers, both weekly, reach out to gratify the longing
of Terrell for local and political literature. The
town has an excellent volunteer fire department, is
reaching out for additional railroad facilities through
It»e extension of the Texas Central from Roberts
THE NEW WESTERN RAILWAY GUIDE.
to Greeneville, and to a branch connection with the
A., T. & S. F. coming down from Gainesville.
TYLER.
Tyler, for a Texas town, is ancient, but its sub
stantial prosperity has waxed strong with its years.
It is a picturesque place, laid out after the old
Southern fashion, with broad streets fringed with
shade trees, leading to the inevitable square in the
center of the business portion of the town, on
which inevitable square the court-house of Smith
county rears its hoary three-storied altitude along
side its red-cheeked brother, the United States dis
trict court building, a few yards distant. It has a
population of 6,000, with a daily attenc ance in its
public schools of 964 pupils during the scholastic
year. Its two banks are among the staunchest fin
ancial concerns in the State, and their legitimate
transactions in exchanges and discounts last year
amounted to over $8,000,000. The town is now the
entrepot of several railroads; the Texas & St. Lou
is, the International and Great Northern, and the
Kansas and Gulf Short Line affording it outlets to
all the great centers of commerce in and outside
the State, and giving it admirable competitive
freight rates. To this latter fact perhaps more than
anything else is due the enormous jobbing trade
which Tyler does with smaller towns in all direc
tions. It is 265 miles from Galveston and 103 from
the city of Dallas, and enjoys the exceptional rail
road connections belonging to these centers of traf
fic.
Tyler exported during the fiscal year of 1885-6,
23 730 bales of cotton, three cars of live stock, 853
pounds of wool, 1,202,414 pounds of miscellaneous,
3 000,000 pounds of cotton seed, 8,550 tons of lum
ber, 636 tons of shingles, 1.198 tons of wood, 600,-
000 p . unds of bacon, 150,000 pounds of hides, 126,-
000 pounds of vegetables, 7,000,000 pounds of man
ufactures and merchandise, 30,000 boxes of fruit,
1,200,000 pounds of flour and meal. 600,000 pounds
of grain, 600,000 pounds salt, 60,000 pounds of em
igrants’ outfits, 10,000,000 pounds of limestone, and
400,000 pounds of other articles.
The volume of mercantile operations at Tyler last
year slightly exceeded $2,000,000. The trade of the
place includes all of Smith, all of Henderson, the
southern part of Van Zandt, and portions of Rusk
and Gregg counties.
The number of deaths from all causes Lyt year
amounted to 65.
The town has an opera-house, two military com
panies, a brass band and several social and mason
ic societies.
Tyler sits *on a succession of gentle declivities,
and the surrounding country is undulating, broken
and timbered. The soil displays the three varieties
known as white, chocolate and sandy loam, and
produces at the rate of one-half bale of cotton, 28
bushels of corn, and from 12 to 15 bushels of wheat
per acre. It is adapted to fruit of all kinds except
cherries.
Besides the machine shops of the Texas & St.
Louis and the Gulf Short Line, employing together
ah&t 350 men, Tyler has a large fruit canning es-
ice factory, water warka a cotton j
miWcotton compress, aiUi
ir3n plow factory, a wagon factory, a sad
dle and harndsss factory, and a ne plus ultra fire de
partment. Ihe Catholics, Methodists, Baptistsand
Episcopalians all have imposing houses of worship
The people of Tyler are filled with a desire to see
’The A., T. & S. F. buy the Texas Trunk, the Gulf
Short Line, join the gaps between them, and thus
give them another compesing route to the Southern
seaboard and Northern lakes.
TAYLOR.
Nestling on the southern slope of a gentle decline,
with broad plains stretching about it on every hand’
lies the beautiful little prairie city of Taylor. Here
two branches of the extensive Missouri Pacific sys
tem center, one extending northeast byway of Pal
estine to Texarkana, and the other northward to
St. Louis. About the town, for a radius of fifteen
miles, lies as fertile and as lovely a country as can
be found in the broad domain of the Lone Star
State. This country is inhabited by a people the
equal of any in thrift, intelligence, love of order and
all the other high qualities that go to make a good
citizen. &
Taylor, though but an infant compared with some
of its neighbors, is noted for its public spirit and
enterprise. In proof of this, attest its fine system
of water works, its thriving public schools, its
churches where all denominations are represented
and liberally supported, its handsome hotel, bank
and brick store buildings, filled with well selected
and ample stocks, its Saving and Loan Associa
tion, for the praiseworthy purpose of assisting
men of moderate means in building homes for
themselves. It has a population of 2000, somewhat
cosmopolitan in characterW>eing drawn from all
quarters of the Union, with a sprinkling of ener
getic'foreigners.
Its tolal annual business at present is estimated
at $500,000, with the following exports for the past
season: Seven thousand bales oi cotton, $210,000-
300,000 pounds of wool, $54,000; 15,000 pounds of
hides. $1,650; 20 000 thousand bushels of oats
$5,000; and live stock, consisting of beef and stock
cattle, horses and sheep, valued at $174,000; form
ing a total of $514,650. These exports, of which
the greater part are agricultural products, give some
idea of what may be expected of Taylor, v hen the
rich country about it is fullv developed and settled
up by a thrifty farming class. These lands have
heretofore been held by capitalists or by cattlemen
as grazing grounds for stock, but are now being put
on the market to be sold, and in small farms, as the
purchasers may desire. No better agricultural
k e f° und in the State than this portion
of Williamson County, and no more desirable town
for a home than Taylor. Fruits of every descrip
tion grow in abundance and can be raised for mar
ket with very little care and trouble. One party
within half a mile of Taylor had shipped early in
July more than 2,000 boxes of fine peaches from a
! ma J! °£ chard ‘ var y in g in price from 50 cents to
to $1.50 per box. The town’s railroad facilities,
already exceptionably good, will soon be increased
by the Bastrop and Elgin Road, to connect here
with the Missouri Pacific System, to which it now
belongs by purchase. The shops and roundhouses
of this large system situated here make it a distri
buting point tor a gaeat deal of money other than
received from the products of the country.
The citizens of the town to encourage the propa
gation of superior breeds of stock, have formed an
association known as the Taylor Live Stock Asso
ciation. They have neat grounds, well equipped,
and have semi-annual exhibits. Among the assured
enterprises for the coming season is a cotton com
press and ice factory, with others in contemplation.
A good weekly paper supplies the journalistic needs
of the public. In everything that goes to suggest a
“ future great,” Taylor stands at the head of the
procession.
TRINITY.
Commencing with August, 1885, and letting the
estimate run up to the first day of last month,
this year, there were billed at the town of Trinity
for shipment 1,116 bales of cotton, 6,364 cars of
lumber, 593 cars of ties, representing a total ton
nage in pounds of 201,926,781, and earning a freight
revenue for the railroads of $348,706.76. The total
value of these various products exceeded a million
and a quarter dollars. For the same period of
time 4,752.330 pounds of merchandise were received
and $9,315.15 worth of tickets sold. The town of
’frinity sits at the western terminus of the Trinity
and Sabine Railroad, where the latter joins the
Southern Division of the International and Great
Northern at a point eighty-five and a half miles
from Houston. The Trinity and Sabine Railroad
crosses the Trinity River nine miles east of the
town, bisecting the great pine belt of the State, and
bringing under contribution to the leading town the
trade and saw mill products of Leider’s, Hurlock’s,
Roberts’, Wassons’, Groveton, Sloan’s, Josserand’s,
McDuffie’s, Saunder’s, Thompson’s and about
twenty-five other settlements. Seventy-five miles
of the finest timbered belt in the world are thus laid
under contribution to Trinity. The town was laid
out by the railroad in the spring of 1872 and
already has a population in excess of 1,000. It has
nine stores of general merchandise, four grocery
stores, two hotels, two blacksmith shops, one car
penter shop, six sawmills, two excellent schools,
one for white and one for colored pupils, two drug
stores, one Baptist and one Methodist Church for
white people and two churches for colored wor
shipers, and two public gins and gristmills. The
town enjoys an immense trade from Trinity, Polk,
and other portions of Angelina, Tyler and Jasper
Counties. The amount of goods sold last year was
worth SBOO,OOO. The county of Trinity is about the
best country in Texas for a poor man. More and
better land can be bought here for the same amount
of money than in any other county in the State.
Unimproved lands range in price from $1 to $4 per
acre, The woods are full of game and the streams
are freighted with fish. Bear, deer, squirrels, turkey,
ducks, abound, while the speckled trout and black
bass snappeth savagely at the transfixed minnow,
and tljp beautiful Wim and adipose goggle eve perch
shallow credulously tne red wormJftid de
ceased fly. The county, in addition to the’numer
ous small creeks which meander through it, is
bounded on the west and southwest by the Trinity
River, and on the east by the Neches River.
These streams border the county an aggregate
distance of 100 miles, and a wide belt of fertile bot
tom land extends along each stream. The soil ot
these bottoms is black vaxy and black sandy loam,
easily tilled and very roductive. The land is cov
ered with a dense /rowth of valuable timber, among
the varieties of which are whiteoak, pinoak, walnut,
ash, pine, cypress, hickory, pecan and persimmon.
The timber is worth more than the price of the
land. In many places are canebrakes, where cattle
range and keep fat through the winter. The county
abounds in numerous springs of pure freestone wa
ter. Scattered through the county are many prai
ries, ranging in area from 20 to 100 acres. These
prairies are not only good for grazing, but produce
excellent crops when cultivated. The soil of the
upland is a black and gray sandy loam, and pro
duces very well without fertilizers for a number of
years. Unlike the pinelands of Florida, Georgia,
and some other states, it is a notable fact that the
pinelands are good farming lands, and as valuable
for purposes of tillage as fortheir timber. Os course
the thriftless style of cultivation will tell upon this
kind of land quicker than upon the heavier soils.
The uplands produce from ,200 to 300 pounds of lint
cotton of an excellent quality, and from 20 to 30
bushels of corn to the acre. The bottom lands yield
a bale of cotton and 40 to 50 bushels of corn to the
acre. Oits, rye, barley, millet and wheat have been
tested and succeed well. Hogs fatten on the mast.
There are several mineral springs in the county,
among the most noted of which are the chalybeate
springs of Alford’s Bluff, and the sulphur springs
near the town of Trinity.
TEMPLE,
Eastern terminus of the western division of the
Santa Fe, and the point where the Missouri Pacific
crosses the main line, is one of those magic towns
which seem to spring full grown from the soil. Ly
ing in the very heart of one of the richest agricul
tural countries of the State, it draws sustenance
from the counties of Bell, Milam, Coryell, Falls,
Williamson,McLennan, all rich in varied products.
Its annual exports are about as follows: 13,000 bales
of cotton, $520,000; 100,000 bushels of oats, $30,000;
150,000 bushels of corn, S6O 000; 50,000 bushels of
wheat, $35,000; 50,000 pounds of wool, $9,000; 400
cars live stock, $96,000; 4000 tons cotton seed. $28,-
000; 120,000 pounds of hides, $13,200; making a
grand total of $791,200. It has a population of 4000,
an ice factory and ample water works in active op
eration, and compress in course of erection, and
does a total business in all lines of about $1,500,000.
There are two public schools,one colored,with a ten
months session in each year; five churches, and one
of the best county newspapers in the State, giving
employment to young ladies at its cases. That
Temple is destined to become one of the most im-
portant towns along the line of the Santa Fe road,
no one who will note its phenomenal growth and
exceptional situation can doubt. Its railroad and
general transportation facilities are already suffi
cient for a city twenty times its size, and the coun
ties with which it deals yield such a variety of pro
ducts, agriculturally, as to justify the establishment
of numerous industries. Just now its two vital needs
are an oil and flouring mill, with attachments for
grinding corn also. An investment of this kind
would undoubtedly pay a handsome dividend, and
would draw a large percentage of trade to the
town from sections that are now compelled to take
their grain elsewhere to have it ground. Such in
vestments as the one suggested above are not only
of great local value, but serve a good and worthy
purpose by offering inducements to farmers to raise
grain as a marketable product, thereby protecting
their lands by a rotation in crops. Recent heavy
investments in real estate by outside capitalists at-
Itest the faith of far-seeing business men in the future
of this ambitious and deserving young city.
TEXARKANA.
Though it has two municipad governments, and
is the seat of two counties, Bowie county, Texas,
, and Miller county, Arkansas, Texarkana is, com
mercially speaking, but one town. It lies across the
imaginary line dividing Texas and Arkansas, and is
pierced by the northern terminus of the Texas Pa
cific, the eastern terminus of the Transcontinental,
the southern terminus of the Iron Mountain, and
the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texrs passes through it,
running from the southwest to the northeast. The
town looks as bright as a new twenty dollar gold
piece, and new brick business houses and frame res
idences continue to go up on both aides of the line.
|The population of the joint town is about 6500, 4000
■ of which live in Texas and the remaining 2500 in
Arkansas. There are two banking houses in the
Texas town whose daily business during the last
year averaged $30,000. The principal items of ex
port during the past twelve months were: cotton,
10,0000 bales; lumber, 38,000 feet ; cotton seed oil,
B,ool> barrels, or 400,000 gallons, and 3,500 tons oil
cake. The lumber business of Texarkana is colos
sal. Two lumber companies are located here, and
each operates about 15 to 10 mills located in and
near the city. The assessed value of property in the
Texas town is over $1,000,000. The aggregate lo
cal business during the last twelve months foots up
j fully $1,100,000. The St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas
has its central offices here, and a large corps of em
ployes engaged in depot and yard work on the sev
eral lines of railroad are a source of considerable
,(revenue to the retail trade. Real estate is high and
J in active demand. The Texas town has, beside sev
eral good private schools, a handsome brick build
's, ing for public school purposes and a Catholic con
sent for young ladies which is an imposing and ele
gant structure and quite an ornament to the town.
There are water works, electric lights and telephone
service all over the city. The numbar of churches is
11, two of which belong to the colored population.
The percentage of whites and blacks is respectively
60 and 40.
■ The Northern, owned by the mer-
chants rod F
I miles dim north as far as Red River. The cross
■lhave been laid, and the rolling stock necessary to
(•operate it that distance has already been bought and
paid for. Its objective point is Fort Smith, Ark.,
and it will pierce an exhaustless belt of pine, cy
press, oak and hickory, besides developing valua.ble
coal fields and iron and copper mines which lie
along its course. The Texas town doe& owe'a dol
lar and has a cash balance in the treasmy. kits ra
ius of trade extends twenty-five miles—west through
f Bowie County,south as far as Sulphur Springs,takes
iin about four-fifths of Miller county, Ar*., a good
portion of Little Red River county, Arie, and a
considerable part of the southeast corner of the
( Choctaw Nation. In addition to its other industries,
! the town has a casting and boiler foundry aud the
largest oil mill in the Southwest.
TIMPSON.
Timpson, thirty-two miles east of Nacogdoches,
is a young town of a year’s growth, and is looked
upon as the “ future great ”of its section, a pro
phecy not unwaranted by its thriving appearance.
Organized twelve months ago, it has already
gathered seven hundred people within its limits and
! shipped aboard the following receipts: 2,628 bales
of cotton, $105,120; 88 cars of lumber, $6,160; 20,-
000 pounds of hides, $2,200; 20,000 pounds of wool, j
$3,600; making a total of $117,080. From this andl
other sources was drawn a trade of $175,000, alj
lines of business being fully represented exc«
liquor, which is rigidly excluded from the tovM|
There are already three churches, a handsome
school building and a newspaper edited by a bravte
lady, who buried her griefs and courageously took
up the unfinished duties left by her murdered hus
band. In manufacturing interests there are two
saw mills and one gin and grist mill combined.
With a tributary territory reaching into the coun
ties of Shelby, San Augustine, Nacogpoches,
Panola and Rusk, Timpson's prospects as a trade
center are very encouraging, and the chances are
that it will one day become the county seat, the
disposition generally being to bring the seat of
justice and the records to accessible points along
the railroad. Some idea of the faith of the people
in the young town can be had from the fact that
property has enhanced 50 per cent, in value already,
and it is the intention of prominent business men to
soon replace their frame business houses with sub
stantial buildings of brick, material for which is
already at hand. It is the supply depot for several
interior points, among them being San Augustine,
Minden, Caledonia, Clayton and Center, the coun
ty seat. The country adjacent is already sufficiently
populated to guarantee a good local trade. They
confidently expect to handle from 8 000 to 10 000
bales of cotton this season. In addition to its regu
lar exports of pine lumber, Timpson is experiment
ing with her fine black walnut, several car-loads of
which has been shipped North as a test of its value.
If the experiment proves successful this will become
a profitable industry, as the supply is abundant and
easily marketed.
