The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-12-17
A TALK ABOUT RAILROADS.
Letter from :. n. Wood.

FLORENCE, TEXAS. Nov. %, 1869.
JACOB SToTLER: l hardly ever see a
Kansas paper any more, and do moi
know what is going on in the = Jay
hawking" Stale. | see, however, ali
item il, a Kansas City paper from which
l learn that the Atchison, Topeka & San
ia Fe Co. have determined to build their
road at once, from Atchison to Topeka,
and continue this end to Emporia. Of
course Lawrence must and will connect
with this road, making your excellent
eastern connections then with your Ne
osho Valley road, which l suppose is a
certainty. In time you will also have
the road from Holden, Mo. via Paola,
Ottawa, to Emporia, and OH up the Cot
Mcpherson county, connecting with the
Union Pacific at Ellsworth. Some day
another road will run up the Arkansas
to the mountains.
But what L wanted TO write you about
is this Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe
road. You at least know that it cannot
stop at Emporia; neither can it be built
parallel with the Union Pacific road to
Santa Fe. I suppose Congress will in
some way bid the building of the South
ern Pacific road, say main line from
Fulton, Ark, connecting there with the
road east, via Little Rock to Memphis,
thence west through GAINESVILLE, Texas,
Sherman, GAINESVILLE, Montague, Old
Fort Belnap, Ell Passo, Fort Yuma, to
San Diego, on the Pacific. This road
would bring st. Louis 800 miles nearer
the Pacific than over the Union Pacific.
Like the Union Pacific, this road would
want its branches or feeders:
1st. From New Orleans, or Galveston,
up the Trinity, connecting with the
main line at or near Fort Belnap.
I'd. The Shreveport s. Marshall road,
connecting with line of road east
through Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama,
&C., connecting west with this main
line.
Sd. From st. Louis via Springfield,
Fort Smith, Fort Arbuckle, Florence, to
Old Fort Belnap.
4th. Emporia, Kansas, via Flol enee
OH heu TlNcT, IeAdS, 10 L OIG DcIildp
This last road, in time, will continue
across Western Texas to Presida del
Norte, at the mouth of the Rio Conshas.
| on the Rio Grande, thence via Chihua-
hua, Bacosa, to Culison, on the Gulf of
California, passing through the forests
of dye woods OF Simola, on the Pacific
slope. This road will have "a branch
down to the City of Mexico. This is,
of course, in the future. 1t may not be
built on Mexican soil, but if not, it can
and will be built on American soil.
| But the road from Emporia to this
place can and will be built. 1t should
j be the continuation of the Atchison and
Topeka road. This place is on the riv-
er in Montague county, above the Cross
| Timbers, about 300 miles from Emporia
on a direct line. AS soon as the road
reaches this point it will control the Gu
tire cattle trade of Western and South
ern Texas, comprising nearly the entire
cattle of the State. The route is be-
tween Fort ArbuckIe and Fort Sill,
crossing the Washita at Cottonwood
Grove. This road would supply the
forts iii the Indian Nation, feed the In
dams OH the new reservations, and reach
trade here worth millions to your
town and to Kansas.
The most of cur goods and supplies
are now hauled overland from the Mis-
souri, river. What you and Kansas
ought to do is to talk up this road.
Make it a branch of the Southern Pa
cific. Get your members in the Legis-
lature to urge it up, demanding branch
of the Southern Pacific road to Old
Fort Belnap. Get a joint resolution
through the legislature asking a branch
as above. 1 have written TO Pomeroy
on this subject.
Write it up in your paper. 1 have
| looked it all over. The road must come
east of the Wishita mountains, west OF
the Arbuckle, through the gap TO this
place. This is the great crossing of Red
river, for all Texas. to Fort Sill and the
new Indian reservations. 1t is bound
to be big place. We have thousands
of acres of the celebrated Chickasaw
plums here, and acres of wild grapes
equal to your Concords. In haste.
S. N. WooD.