The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1889-03-28
BURNETT.
A Town in Population Doing the
Business Of q City.
BURNETT, Tex, March 20, 1889


Special Correspondence of the Statesman.
Your correspondent has several times
visited Burnett in the interests of The
STATESMAN, and has been surprised at the
amount of business done in the various
branches of trade. In fact, though only a
town in point of population, it is city in
the amount of business done, and in the
push, enterprise and spirit of its business
men. Situated at vantage point, the
terminus of the Austin and Northwestern
railroad, it has long enjoyed large trade
with Llano, Blanco, Gillespie, Mason,
Kimble, McCulloch and other counties, as
a distributing and supply point and a
market for cotton, wool, hides
pecan and other products of the
country. The town has first-class school
building, costing $4,000, in which the
common and higher branches are taught;
one or two good private schools; four
handsome church buildings, the Method
list, Baptist, Presbyterian and Christian,
and its people are second to none in the
advancement of the educational, industrial
and moral prerequisites to true prosper
ity. Burnet is situated near the center of
the county, and splendid county it is,
beyond question, and just now appar-
emily on the eve of becoming one of the
foremost OF the counties of Texas, with
the employment of its fine water power
in manufacturing and the development of
its granite, marble, photographic stone
iron and other mineral resources. The
county has an area of 387,115
acres, of which 1886 are
prairie. The remainder is timbered land,
consisting of fine Lastures, and tillable
valley lands along the Colorado river and
its numerous tributaries on the west and
south, and the Lampasas and smaller
streams flowing into it on the east and
north. The statistical report of 1887
showed only Al, 149 acres of the total area
in cultivation, and 1872, 760 acres in fenced
pastures, which shows the county capable
of an extensive agricultural development
and a greatly increased population. The
total population of the county in 1877 was
1854, and among this number for that
year only 81 deaths occurred, which fact
speaks sufficiently for the remarkable
healthfulness of the county.
Coming back to the county seat
and taking view of Burnet more
in detail, we find all
branches of trade and industry we'll and
fully represented by as good business men
as can be found in Texas or any other
state. The banking business is repre-
sented by the First National bank, of
which W. d. Westfall is president; @. L.
Dalton, vice-p president, and W. II. Bog
CESS, cashier, an old and we'll established
institution, with a paid up capital of
100000, doing an extensive exchange
and deposit business for the merchants,
cotton and wool buyers and stockmen of
Burnet and adjoining counties. It's pres
ident, Doctor Westfall is also largely in
terested in the now famous Capitol Gran
tie quarries, twelve miles south of Burnet,
on the line of the railroad extension now
in progress. This immense deposit of
superior granite, from which the Texas
state house was built, will be further de-
veloped and its product put on the mar
ket as soon as the railroad reaches it,
Doing an exclusive buying business in
wool and cotton, we find Wood, Holloway
d. Co., with house in Burnet and one in
Galveston, backed up by capital of
100000 or more and covering in their
business the entire country west, south
west and northwest of Bnrnet. Their an
nual purchases run up to several hundred
thousand dollars and their reputation is
as wide as the state for energy, enter
prise and business ability.
j. r. Hudson j. Co. do an extensive bust
ness in general merchandise, and also buy
the products of the country. They carry
a stock that would look entirely at home
In Dallas or Galveston and show them
selves fully canal To the rnanauamant of
such business.
Hansford d. Co., another old and well
established house in general merchan-
disc, drive a handsome trade and
seem to be one of the solid elements of
the towns business prosperity.
E. F. Thomas and e. M. Jones d Co.
are two more houses that do fine bust