The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-09-04
..ti.- - - -, y. L.-ess-
THE LOCAL MARKETS.
FIRST TEXAS TRAN. ROAD.
it Was a Source OF Amusement to
t the Natives.

- -t5F.ts
it Was a Source OF Amusement to
the Natives.
said Captain e. Il. lKellie ofiJasper,
was established at Cairo, Jasper
county. 1t was early in the seven
ties. and Colonel D. B. Crazy was the
man who constructed it and put it
in operation. 1t would do you good
if you could have peep at that
ifatheroof the Texas tramss The col
5onell gathered up somehow an out
ut 0f railroad iron, and from, the
rust that c6ated it, and from its gen.
+dTaI, condition, / shouldn't wonder
but what she ished it out of Sabine
Lake. At any rate, it was part of the
equipment of the old Sabine Pass
ard Beaumont railroad that was one
of our before-de-war joramshackle.
efforts at railreallng,
Colonel Crazy ran the stuff on
boat up the Neches river to Yellow
Bluff, and 1T made two or three
short lines of tram road Besides the
iron the equipment of the road con-
sisted OF one car and big yellow
imaiei The mule was the NATIVE pow
e- and for quite a while the colonel
carried on a traffic over hisJc tram
/ lires with this equipment. Then coll
onel Bill Fletcher, head of the Tex
as Tram folks, became !. impressed
with Colonel Crary's ideauof doing
business and the tram folks Joined
in the scheme, extendeNtheEroad into
the upine woods several miles far
That locomotive wasn't much bigger
than the old yellow mule, but itaput,
the mule out of commission, for the
tram people added two cars to the
rolling stock, and the locomotive
could haul them all. And If ever
there was a lot OF people that felt
grand, it was the tram people when
they started up that locomotive with
Its first trainload of logs. 1t is bets
ter than seeing circus nowadays
to think back and see that tremen-
dous engine, with her train in tow,
three cars, and three logs makins
a'Acarload, putting on thes way to the
river She 'wuOld BetsI stalled every
little ways, but that wasn't held up
against her. There WAS always q lat
Of hands along the line, gazing at'
her and the train in admiration, and
every time she stalled, they would
rush to her aid and push the whole
outfit up the grade. why, Colonel
Bill Fletcher used to mount his old
gray horse at Beaumont every day
and ride heythirty-six miles to Cairo
on purpose to see the locomotive and
her train go; and then, content and
happy, ride back home the same
day. sE,
/, THE first train and itsoeQuipment
seems absurd now, but theyswere- a.
great thing in their day. They blazsdi
she way for the great system OF, tram
roads that gridirou eurlpineriex now
adays. 1t was notcgas egreAt b white
esther, before. Colonel Crary's, crude
road WIS improved and enlarged, and
bigger locomotives and cars took the
place of the little top rolling g. stock,
until the tram carried mure. logs on
one train, than thegonginal equip
ment could get over the road in a
week. You could get all the pine
land you wanted when that pioneer
tram was built for 81 per acre. There
was plenty of 1t. on the market. I
have seen. 1t ssell for $25 an acre
,, since, and the owner not particular
ly eager to sell, at hat.'-Southern
Industrial and Lumber Review.