The new Western railway guide (Atlanta, Ga.) 188?-1???, November 01, 1887, Page 2, Image 2

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2 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.