Chapter XXX: The Tap Railroad

Concerning the “Tap” Railroad just referred to, I cannot better explain the trials and difficulties of that time than by reprinting an article which I wrote, some years ago, at the request of one of the Waxahachie papers, which was anxious to clear up the seeming mystery which enshrouded the building of the “Tap.”

Dallas, Texas, Sept. 4th, 1912.

Editor Ellis County Herald,

Waxahachie, Texas.

My Dear Sir—Your valued favor of the 26th ult., requesting a
history of the Waxahachie Tap Railroad is at hand.

Complying with your courteous request, permit me to assure you
and my old friends that it is not my purpose in this to
ventilate old grievances at the hands of people who were the
greatest beneficiaries of the building of the road, but simply
to state facts and to keep the record straight. Carefully
considering conditions existing at that time, my board of
directors were not so much to blame for their want of confidence
in the feasibility and possibility of the enterprise, as this
feeling was shared largely by some of the best business men of
Houston and Galveston, but were to blame for allowing one or two
of their members to control their action in opposing me. I
incurred the enmity of these directors through people’s
expression of approval of my efforts to accomplish what seemed
to them an impossible undertaking.

Entering into this labor of love, without promise of fee or
reward, with my board of directors (composed of the principal
business men of the town) depreciating my business character by
expressions well calculated to bring about ruin, which they
accomplished in about two years, it required about all the moral
courage in my composition to determine not to recognize such
word as “failure.”

Have said this much in defense of this article, which may prove
hurtful to the feelings of friends and descendants of the men
who have claimed the credit of building the road, but I cannot
do otherwise than adhere strictly to facts and truths, as all
fair-minded men who were then citizens of Ellis County, still
living, will bear me witness. I have never had a public
expression of thanks for the enormous sacrifice to me then of
ruining my splendid prospect in business to save your town from
isolation and ruin.

The object in going into these details is only to emphasize the
claim of friends at that time that I was the only man connected
with it who did any work, and if the “board” would quit meddling
with it, I would soon have the road built. These expressions I
tried my best to hold down, knowing well it would increase their
opposition to me. Another object: There are few people now in
your city who know that I ever had anything to do with it, but I
consider it due my children to inscribe in my own history one of
the proudest acts of my business career, representing two years
of the best labor of my life.

Please do not fail to note that I had to depend on memory
altogether for this article, hence its disconnected character,
and am entirely unable to supply dates, which, however, is
immaterial. I moved to Waxahachie in 1873.

To give your readers a fair conception of existing conditions at
Waxahachie and Ellis County, I found on my first visit to your
town by stage from Ennis that your merchants were still adhering
to old-time business methods; selling goods on time, at large
profits, thereby losing the most desirable business; Ennis
selling goods on an average of twenty per cent less for cash,
buying the farmer’s produce, principally cotton, and paying cash
therefor. Waxahachie did not buy a bale of cotton for cash, but
only on account. The result was that Ennis, though but a few
years old, soon outgrew Waxahachie, and aspired to be the county
seat, which caused a bitter feeling between the two communities.
Knowing the magnificent territory contiguous to Waxahachie, I
decided that with proper efforts your town could be made one of
the best in the State, and arranged to locate there. Had I
supposed that to locate there, it was necessary to ask the
permission of the old business men, and then conduct business as
they directed, I would certainly have gone elsewhere, but of
this I was ignorant, and after starting in, determined to
exercise my own judgment. I sold goods for cash, at reasonable
profit; bought cotton for cash, all that was offered, paying
Dallas prices; bought cotton from east of Ennis and Palmer, then
paid the farmer seventy-five cents per bale to haul it back to
the railroad for shipment. Many of these farmers, after I paid
them the cash for cotton, would turn around and spend every
dollar of it with me for goods. I bought cotton from Hill,
Johnson and Bosque Counties, and did not lose any money on it,
although my old competitors predicted that I would soon have to
quit. When disappointed in this, a few of the progressive ones,
Messrs. Pickett, Trippett and McLain, joined in with me, and we
soon established in Waxahachie a good cotton market.

I now began planning for railroad connection, and when I had my
plans sufficiently matured, I submitted them to a meeting of the
business men, who expressed grave doubt about the possibility of
the undertaking, and I only induced them to enter into it by
suggesting that an effort, even though a failure, would have the
result of throwing Ennis on the defensive and induce them to
drop their county seat agitation. They then told me to go ahead
and get my plans fully matured, which I submitted at a
subsequent meeting, and which were as follows: To get a charter
for a Waxahachie tap road with a State land grant of sixteen
sections to the mile and have the town issue bonds to the limit
of the law, which proved to be $75,000, then augment this amount
with farmers’ stock subscription of $25,000 more; to sell these
bonds at par to the business men of Waxahachie and commission
merchants of Galveston and New York who were doing business with
Waxahachie—thus giving us $100,000 cash and the State land
grant to build the road with. I stated this could only be done
by the adoption of second-hand iron, which I believed could be
had, and which would answer the purpose. To buy new iron would
cost several times the amount of our cash asset, as it was then
quoted at $85.00 a ton at the mills. There was serious doubt
about the Legislature passing a bond bill at the time as they
had up the repudiation of international bond bill granted under
a fraudulent charter, and the International Railroad Company had
Galusha Grow of Pennsylvania and John H. Burnett of Galveston at
Austin, trying to bulldoze Governor Coke and his Legislature
into the issuance of their bonds; hence both the Governor and
Legislature were committed against the issue of bonds of the
State in aid of railroads. But I believed that Judge J. W.
Ferris, who was then one of the most eminent lawyers in the
State, and who, through his International bond decision while
acting as special Supreme Judge in the case had endeared himself
to the Governor and Legislature, as well as the entire people of
the State, would be able to overcome this objection, as we were
only asking permission to tax our own town. It was then
determined to send Judge Ferris to Austin for the purpose of
obtaining a charter and bond bill. The committee appointed to
make the request of the judge met his positive refusal, but he
stated at the same time that if it was attempted to build the
road, he would back the enterprise with his money. I was now
urged and finally persuaded to go to Austin and endeavor to
obtain the necessary legislation. I called a meeting of the
taxpayers of Waxahachie, and explained to them that it was of
the utmost importance to get up a petition to the Governor and
Legislature, asking permission to tax themselves, and I
succeeded in obtaining every taxpayer’s name to the petition. I
then had the county clerk examine the tax rolls and certify that
he found every taxpayer’s name to the same. I then proceeded to
Austin, armed with this petition, a letter from Judge Ferris to
Governor Coke, and from Dr. Aldredge to friends in the Senate.
On my arrival at Austin, I met John H. Burnett and Galusha Grow
at the hotel, who proposed to me, if I would assist them, they
would assist me, which I declined, telling them that I was
opposed to the issuance of their bonds, thus at the outset
defining my position with the Legislature. The next morning I
sought and obtained an audience with Governor Coke, presented my
letter from Judge Ferris and petition from the taxpayers, and
after reading this, the Governor said, “Mr. Graber, I will
promise you this, if the Legislature passes your bills I will
sign them. The question involved in the International bill is
the taxing of the whole State to benefit the section through
which the road runs, but in your request the good people of
Waxahachie are only asking to tax themselves to save their
town.” I thanked the Governor for his kind assurance and asked
permission to make the statement to the members of the
Legislature, which he readily gave. Though I had never before
looked inside a legislative hall I soon felt perfectly at home
and had the privilege of the House and Senate. In my canvass of
the House and Senate I found little opposition to the bond bill
after reading our petition, but considerable objection to the
further donation of land in aid of railroads, which, however, I
was able to overcome by satisfying them we would never be able
to build our road without it. As many of the influential members
were old army friends to whom I became indebted for valuable
assistance, I was able to return home in three weeks, both bills
having been signed by Governor Coke a few weeks later. It would
not be inappropriate here to mention a little incident to show a
proper appreciation of my services at that time. I had wired my
wife that I would be home on Saturday, but detained en route, I
failed to make it, which saved me considerable embarrassment, as
the stage was met a short distance from town by the mayor, city
council and concourse of citizens, with a brass band, intending
to give me an enthusiastic reception. On the next Saturday a
mass meeting was held for the purpose of organizing under our
charter, and electing officers. At this meeting I explained to
them that I had taken the liberty of stating to members of the
Legislature that Judge Ferris would be the president of the
company, and asked his election, telling them that it was
all-important the enterprise should be headed by the most
influential man in the community. Judge Ferris being present,
stated he could not under any circumstances consider the
acceptance of the position as he did not have the time to give
it the attention necessary to make it a success, and placed my
name in nomination, which created great enthusiasm, and it was
attempted to be carried through without further consideration. I
tried to check this movement, by telling them I had as little
time to spare from my business as Judge Ferris, had already
given them three weeks of most valuable time away from my
business and was unable to do anything more than act on the
board of directors, if they saw fit to use me in that capacity;
but the meeting would not have it that way, and plainly told me
if I wanted the road built, I would have to serve, and promised
to sustain me with all the means and power at their command.
Under this assurance I was finally persuaded to accept, and,
after completing the organization with Judge Ferris as
vice-president, the meeting adjourned subject to the call of the
president.

I forgot to explain that through the issuance of the bonds, it
was agreed that the town should be issued stock to the amount,
thus every taxpayer became a stockholder and was entitled to
vote in the organization. While at Austin, in company with some
members of the Legislature, I called on General Braxton Bragg,
who had just come to Texas with a party of civil engineers, with
the intention of making this his home—he was anxious to get a
first job and promised me he would undertake the location of our
road at his actual cost (estimated not to exceed 500 dollars).
As soon as organized I took up a correspondence with him, and
entered into a contract to run three preliminary lines and cross
section the line adopted, furnish plans and specifications of a
first-class road. He surveyed one line to Ennis, one to Palmer
and one to the nearest point on the H. & T. C., which was
adopted. We next advertised for bids for the whole work
complete, contractor furnishing the road complete, ready for
operation, except equipment, and another for the grading only.
We had a bid on each, one from John McCarthy of Kansas City, who
was returning from Galveston, where he had in a bid for a large
contract with the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe and had lost out. He
carefully examined our assets, which were one hundred and
eighty-five sections (estimated) of land certificates to be
issued by the State (the line being 11 45-100 miles long),
$75,000 of Waxahachie bonds and about $13,000 of farmers’ stock
subscriptions which I had secured by hard labor, and in which I
had valuable assistance from Judge Anson Rainey, who was then a
young lawyer in Judge Ferris’ office. Mr. McCarthy, satisfied
with our assets, submitted a proposition to deliver us the road
complete as per General Bragg’s specification, except to
substitute fifty-six pounds of good second-hand iron approved by
General Bragg, which was considered sufficient for our purpose,
in consideration for our entire assets, and complete the same in
two years. We also had a proposal from Roach Brothers & Tierney
for the grade only at thirteen cents per yard. As John
McCarthy’s bid was the best for us we awarded him the contract,
and immediately notified him by wire at Kansas City, to which we
received a reply from his wife, by letter, saying Mr. McCarthy
was not at home, but we would hear from him as soon as he
returned. In the meantime I wired General Bragg at Galveston,
who was the chief engineer of the G., C. & S. F. for a report on
Mr. McCarthy, but had his answer, “Drop him.” This in connection
with an indefinite letter finally received from McCarthy, made
me conclude it best to let him alone. In the meantime, I had
induced Mr. Roach to hold his bid open (which was 13 cents per
yard, one-third cash, one-third in bonds and one-third in
provisions and forage he expected to use to feed his teams and
men) until we heard definitely from John McCarthy and in case of
his failure to make us a good bond, and furnish us ample
evidence of his ability and good intentions, we would give him
the contract for the grade, as in his bid. After our decision to
drop Mr. John McCarthy, we entered into a contract with Roach
Brothers & Tierney for the grade, to go to work at once—as he
had his outfit at Fort Worth already. He was on the ground
sooner than expected, and gave us only a few days to prepare for
a formal beginning of the work. We wanted to celebrate the event
with a great barbecue. On account of the short time for
notifying the farmers, the board of directors opposed my plans
of having the celebration, but I determined to have it anyway,
and sent out invitations to all interested in the building of
the Waxahachie Tap, to join us in celebrating the commencement
of the work. I solicited a few of our best farmers to donate the
meats, which they did cheerfully in the greatest abundance. The
day set apart for the celebration, the farmers began to arrive
in the early morning in large numbers—not only our own Ellis
County people, but a large number from Hill and adjoining
counties, and by one o’clock the crowd was variously estimated
at from 1500 to 2000 men, women and children. Such a large
enthusiastic gathering had never been known in this part of the
State. The board of directors had in the meantime concluded to
join in with us, and, although they had told me they would have
nothing to do with it, had ordered carriages, and I was invited
to a seat with Mr. John C. Gibson, who informed me they had not
prepared any program, which I had asked them to do in the
morning. I asked Mr. Gibson his age, and found he was the oldest
man on the board. When everything was ready, I was handed a
spade by Mr. Roach, who stated that it devolved on me to turn
the first dirt. I climbed on top of a wagon bed with the spade
and addressed the crowd in a few words which I remember about as
follows:

“Fellow Citizens: We are proud to see so many of you
here, manifesting, by your presence, an interest in our
work; an interest on your part it has been charged did
not exist, particularly with our farmers, who recognize
that they are as much interested in the building of this
road as our town. The doubting Thomases will directly
witness actual beginning of the work by our contractor,
Mr. Roach, who has one of the best-equipped grading
outfits in the country and will push his work to an
early completion. Upon such occasions it is customary
for the president of the company to turn the first dirt,
an honor which on this occasion I turn over to Colonel
John C. Gibson, the oldest member of the board of
directors.” I then turned the spade over to Mr. Gibson,
who eagerly accepted the honor and performed the duty.
Mr. Roach having his teams ready, then proceeded with
the work. Permit me to say here, that it proved a grand
sight to everybody present, the most of whom had never
seen anything like it, to see about fifty splendid teams
with their scrapers turning up the ground, and the moral
effect at that time cannot be overestimated, as the
effort of Waxahachie’s building of a railroad had been
ridiculed by people interested in our failure,
particularly the people of Ennis. I omitted to mention,
I visited Ennis before we definitely determined on a
location, and to a meeting of their business men,
submitted a proposition to adopt their line for a
subsidy of twenty thousand dollars, which created
considerable ridicule, but I told them they might laugh
as much as they pleased, the road would be built and
some day would become a main line by an extension east
and west, and though the point of junction might never
become a rival town, it would always prove a standing
menace to their town, and prevent capital from locating
with them. How well my judgment was founded is proven by
the result. On the completion of the road to Fort Worth,
this road has furnished more tonnage than the main line
from Garrett to Denison, which no doubt proved a great
surprise to the H. & T. C. management, who had expressed
themselves unwilling to operate it for its
earnings—hence I had to conclude a traffic arrangement
with them to enable us to operate it. Then, again, when
the Central undertook its extension from Garrett east,
Ennis sent a committee to Houston to try to secure this
connection, and failed, although it was rumored they
were instructed to offer a bonus of one hundred thousand
dollars. I also forgot to mention that before the
adoption of the Garrett line, I secured a donation of
one hundred acres of land from Mr. Garrett, divided into
town lots—this in spite of the strenuous opposition of
his agent, Mr. Neal. Mr. Garrett at that time resided
somewhere in East Texas. After the commencement of the
work it soon became evident that I must get to work and
sell bonds outside of Waxahachie; we were needing cash
to meet payments to Mr. Roach—although I had an
understanding with our business men, that they would
take as much as ten thousand dollars, at par, they were
slow to come up with their money—I therefore made a
trip to Galveston for the purpose of selling $20,000 of
our town bonds. I called on Mr. R. S. Willis, who was
then the president of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe
Road. Mr. Willis was a good friend of mine and I was
buying my goods of him largely. He said, “Mr. Graber,
let me advise you to drop that scheme, it is visionary,
you can never build the road. Attend to your own
business. If you were to succeed, you would never
receive thanks for it. I’ll not subscribe one cent.” I
said, “Mr. Willis, I appreciate your advice, and esteem
your judgment highly, but must decline to be governed by
it. We are going to build that road.”

I next called on Ball, Hutchins & Company, and Mr.
Seeley asked, “Have you been to see Mr. Willis?” I told
him I had and had his refusal. He then asked to be
excused. Walking down the street, I met Mr. W. L. Moody,
in front of his place of business. He expressed himself
as glad to see me, and said, “I see in the News you are
down here for the purpose of placing $20,000 of your
Waxahachie bonds; step into the office. Colonel Jameson
will put us down for a thousand dollars.” He furthermore
said, “When you get your $20,000 placed here, I think I
can place the balance for you in New York.” I thanked
him, took their $1000 subscription, and dropped into
Leon H. Blum’s. Met Leon coming out. He said, “Go back
in the office, tell brother Sylvan to put down a
thousand dollars for us.” I next called on several other
commission houses, who assured me they would subscribe,
but could not just then. It soon became evident to my
mind they wanted their customers personally to ask them.
I therefore concluded to return home, and induce my
board of directors, who were all shipping cotton to
different houses to assist me in the matter, by going
down with me, but could not induce them to go. This want
of interest on the part of the board at that critical
period was indeed discouraging. They well knew that the
taking of $10,000 by Waxahachie and $20,000 more by our
commercial city at par, would establish the solid
character of the bonds in New York, but they were
unwilling to spare the time and incur the expense. Could
there have been anything more discouraging? It seemed as
though they were determined that I should not succeed,
and did not want the road built, which was talked
frequently by people in Waxahachie as elsewhere. They
seemed afraid of inviting competition in their business,
and preferred to continue as they had. Meeting with
Major Douglas of Tyler one day in Galveston, he said to
me, “Graber, why don’t you go ahead and build your
little road?” I gave an evasive answer. He said, “I know
what is the matter—you have seven old mossbacks pulling
back.” He said, “My board of directors told me to go
ahead and build the road, and I am doing it. I have not
had a meeting of my board since I commenced.” Major
Douglas was then building the Tyler Tap Road and was
president of that company.

I now began looking around to secure iron, ties and
bridge work. I soon had the latter promised by our
carpenters for stock—there were only a few small
culverts and bridges. On one of my trips to Houston I
met Mr. H. M. Hoxie, general superintendent of the
International & Great Northern Railroad, with whom I was
well acquainted, who was changing the iron on the
Galveston road to a heavier lot. He made me a
proposition to furnish us sufficient iron for our road,
taken up from the Galveston road, which was fifty-six
pound and in good condition, subject to our inspection,
for $20,000 f. o. b. cars at Houston, which proposition
I accepted subject to the approval of my board. I had a
contract with the Houston & Texas Central Railroad to
haul iron, ties and bridge timber, for stock in our
road. In about a month’s time I had a wire from Mr.
Hoxie, “Come down, inspect and receive the iron.
Answer.” I immediately had a meeting of the board and
asked their consent to close the deal, but they wanted
time to consider. “Wait and see what the crop is going
to do; where is your money?” etc. I told them I was
satisfied I could induce Hoxie to accept bonds. But they
insisted on waiting. I begged and plead with them not to
lose this splendid chance of securing iron, which they
certainly would by waiting, telling them it might be
lost to us in three days. There were other tap roads
building—the towns of Henderson, Georgetown and Tyler
were all busy, but my pleadings were in vain.

I now felt that I must give up, I could do nothing more.
They were determined that I should not complete the
road; in fact, it seemed they did not want it at all,
and I immediately tendered my resignation, which was
promptly accepted, and John C. Gibson elected to succeed
me. As soon as it became known that I had resigned, the
people demanded of the board to send me down to close
the deal for the iron, and soon the secretary came with
a request for me to close the deal and a tender of the
money to pay my expenses. I told him I was ready to
waive all personal feeling in the matter and now go down
in a private capacity, close the deal and have my
successor sign the contract, as my only ambition was to
see the road completed, even by a set of men that
deserved no consideration at my hands, but that I must
wire Hoxie first and know if iron was still on hand. I
wired Mr. Hoxie at Houston and received no answer. I
repeated the wire the next day and had his answer, “Too
late, iron sold.” This proved a surprise and
disappointment to all concerned and for a time it seemed
as though Waxahachie was doomed. I had turned over to my
successor and his board, the grade, a splendid piece of
work completed and paid for; sixty-five thousand dollars
in Waxahachie bonds; a farmers’ stock subscription of
about eight thousand dollars; about one hundred and
eighty-five sections of State land certificates to be
issued on the completion of the road, and every
alternate lot in the town of Garrett out of the
subdivision of one hundred acres.

The board now went to sleep over the situation; they had
no one to suggest or try to do anything towards the
completion of the road, which, for nearly three years
was a dead enterprise—and left the board with an
investment in bonds of about $6000, which would prove
worthless unless the road was completed under the terms
and provisions of the charter, which were: the
completion and operation of the road within five years.
They now got desperate, and induced Mr. Royal A. Ferris
to go to New York and offer the charter and its
franchises, and all of the assets of the company to any
responsible party that would complete it, even with old
iron, and run a train in before the expiration of the
time in the charter. Mr. Ferris succeeded in inducing a
Mr. Riordan to accept the proposition. He went to work
and completed the road, and after a few months’
operation, demonstrating to the Central people its
value, sold out to Mr. Waldo for account of some
individual stockholder of the H. & T. C. what Waldo
termed a pretty good bank of dirt with two streaks of
rust for $85,000. In the hands of the Central it was
soon refurnished with new iron and completely
overhauled, making it a first-class road, and soon
extended to Fort Worth.

This terminated the history of the Waxahachie Tap Road
in the loss of all interest the town had in it through
the farcical conduct of its leading business men, acting
as its board of directors.

When a meeting was held just before the election on the
bond proposition, I told the people, as long as I could
control it, if they would vote the bonds, the road
should never pass into other hands, only with their
consent, and should pay its value. It was my intention
to hold on to the State land donation until it would
become valuable and already had the promise of a few
surveyors to locate the same free of cost, save actual
expenses. I believed then the land within our day and
time could be sold for from $5 to $10 per acre, which
would amply reimburse the town for its issuance of the
bonds, and they would own the road besides. The result
was, we had a unanimous vote on the bond. To fairly
illustrate the character of the men I was connected with
in this enterprise, some few years after the Santa Fe
was completed west of Waxahachie, we had a proposition
from the management to build a branch of their road into
Waxahachie for a bonus of $10,000. A meeting to consider
the proposition was held; and these men who were still
in control, expressed themselves as opposed to meeting
the Santa Fe proposition, saying, If they propose to
build in here for $10,000 they will do so anyway.
Realizing that they were about to lose another valuable
opportunity, I told them that I came to subscribe my
money and not to talk, knowing well any suggestion I
might make would fall flat, but felt that they were
about to make a serious mistake in turning down this
proposition; there were movements being made on the
railroad checkerboard constantly and something might
occur that would force the Santa Fe Company to withdraw
their proposition in less than thirty days, and rather
than have this happen I was willing to subscribe $1000.
One of the old members of the board of railroad
directory smiled at my suggestion, and made a motion to
adjourn sine die, which was carried and thus Waxahachie
was again cheated out of another golden opportunity; as
in less than thirty days this company had to withdraw
its proposition on account of a trouble with the Gould
lines. When about three months after Mr. N. A. McMillan
was sent to Galveston to have them renew or make another
proposition, Mr. R. S. Willis told him they could not
consider such a thing; that they had all they could do
to look after their main line; but frankly told him,
“You people missed your opportunity. Had you accepted
our proposition when we made it, we would have built
into your town.”

I have thus given an important part of Waxahachie history, which
I trust will prove instructive in its future. There are great
opportunities presented every now and then, which should be
taken advantage of and properly cared for by the progressive
citizens of a community and should be ably seconded by a public
spirit. This is due from every man who is a beneficiary of the
growth of his home city.

It should be borne in mind that in the period when we first
submitted the railroad proposition, Texas had hardly felt the
great benefits of railroads and it was difficult to induce small
communities to take hold of such enterprises; besides there was
no money with which to build them.

It is easier now to build a long line of road, provided it is
practicable and the inducement sufficient, than at that period
of time to build a little tap road.

In conclusion, I must be pardoned for a seeming egotism in
claiming to be the originator and having done the principal work
in this enterprise, but I cannot do otherwise and state facts.
Whilst it is true that others completed the road, it was
comparatively an easy task to do this by giving it away. The
only recognition I have ever had for my efforts in behalf of
your town was an occasional expression from prominent citizens
whom I met in years after: “Well, Mr. Graber, if you had not
come to Waxahachie when you did, our town would have been an old
rat hole.”—Dr. Conner. “Mr. Graber, they treated you
badly.”—Captain Patrick. And other like expressions, but permit
me to say I feel compensated in the fact that I was probably
instrumental in starting your town on its upward march, and
therefore feel that I have been of benefit to others, and have
not lived in vain.

Thanking you for this courtesy, I am with great respect,

Yours very truly,
H. W. GRABER.