Brenham weekly banner. [volume] (Brenham, Tex.) 1877-1907, 1884-03-13
A NEW RAILWAY.


The people of Independence and
neighborhood in this county, des-
pairing of ever getting anything
like passable wagon road from
Independents to Brennan have
concluded to build a narrow gauge
railway from Independence TO Clay
Station on the Navasota tap of the
Santa Fe railway, FIVE miles dis
tant. tits stated that about $4,000
has been raised at Independence
and about $1,000 at Navasota and
that the work of clearing the right
of way and grading has been be-
gun, also that ties are being gotten
out. These are current reports,
no mention of the proposed line of
railway has been made in either
the BRENNAN or Nsvasota papers,
and 1t would seem to be the inten-
ton ofthe projectors of the enter
prise to keep it profound secret
until the merchants of Brennan
should be awakened some fine
morning early in the coming May
by the snort,ng of the iron horse
| in the old and hitherto quiet vii
Ilige of Independence. The people
of that neighborhood are certainly
entitled to great credit for their
pluck and enterprise in undertake
ing TO build the road themselves
and thus secure direct railway
connection with the outer world.
Independence Is a wealthy and
populous neighborhood and Bren-
ham can lll-offord to lose the trade;
now the question is what is going
to be done about it? viii Bren-
ham quietly and gracefully fold
her hands and let the trade of one
of her best neighborhoods tribu-
tary to her slip out of her grasp
without even so much as moving a
muscle to retain 1t. If the tap road
to Clay Station is an accomplished
fact, and the indications are that it
will soon be, Brennan will in self
defense be compelled to construct
eleven or twelve miles of road to
meet the Independence road. The
proposed fve-mile tap road can
never be made a paying invest
mont, but it can be made the be-
ginning of 3 great and paying en-
terprise, viz: narrow gauge rail-
way up the BrsEos valley to form
. connection at Waco with the
Texas and st. Louis narrow gauge
railway, giving 8 direct narrow
! gauge railway from Brennan to st.
Louis, and thence to Toledo, Ohio.
That the East and West Texas mar
row gauge road, now completed to
Sesly, viii be continued to Austin
is no longer 9 matter of doubt, but
one of time. The Austin and
Northwestern narrow gauge road
now completed to Burnet will
eventually be built north to con,
nection with the Texas and st.
Louis road. From Brennan the
narrow gauge road should be
built southwest to LaGrange or
some point in that vicinity connect
ing with the East and West Texas
road. By this means we would
have direct connection with the
entire narrow gauge railway sys-
tenn of the state. With seventeen
miles Of railway completed it
would be a comparatively easy
matter to raise money by the is
sue of bonds for the construction
Of additional road. There is no
richer country in the state than
that from LaGrange to BRENNAN,
and in addition it is unoccupied
territory, and thence up the valley
of the Brazos to Waco. The scheme
is a grand one but it is within the
range of easy probability. If Bren-
ham expects to keep abreast of the
times in the matter of progress she
must help herself.