Blue Heron over Big Cyprus Bayou near Jefferson, Texas

I. Inland Water Communication

II. Early Attempts at River Improvement 11

III. Overland Trade and Travel .- 13

IV. Early Trade Districts and Trade Centers 18

l. Inland Water Communication.

The greatest obstacle which had to be overcome by the early Anglo-American settlers in Texas was the almost total lack of means of communication and transportation. At this time there were three small centers of Spanish population within the limits of the State, at La Bahia, now Goliad, Bexar, now San Antonio, and Nacogdoches, but they were widely separated and the roads by which they were connected were no more than blazed trails, sufficient only to guide the traveler to the fords of the rivers. For the rest, Texas was a wilderness, and some five hundred miles of unoccupied territory separated it from the frontier settlements in the United States, at New Orleans, Natchez, Memphis, and St. Louis. To reach the State, the early settler was forced either to transport his family and household effects overland across this unsettled area, or to resort to the uncertainties and dangers of Gulf and river navigation. Nor were his difficulties in this respect materially lessened upon his arrival in the country. As soon as* his first crop was gathered he was forced to seek a market for his surplus products, especially his cotton; and it was with very great difficulty that the country was supplied with clothing and other necessary articles of importation.

A glance at the map of Texas might lead one to suppose that the State is well supplied with navigable rivers. Unfortunately this is not true. Outside of the Rocky Mountain region, there is probably no other North American area as large as Texas that is so poorly supplied with navigable streams. The rivers of the State are long enough and at times carry tremendous volumes of water, but the flow is so uncertain during many months in the year that navigation is impossible except for short distances near the mouths of the streams.

The commercial use to which the rivers of Texas have been put has varied greatly at different times in the State's history. In the early days before the railroad era, when the choice of the settler lay between the river boat and the ox-cart, the rivers were of considerable commercial importance. The Red River supplied an outlet to New Orleans for the northeastern portion of the State, the traffic of this section passing out by way of the town of Jefferson, down Cypress Bayou, across Lake Caddo to the Red River. Navigation above this point on the Red River was interfered with by what was known as the Great Raft, an accumulation of drift wood which blocked the channel for many miles near the town of Fulton, Arkansas. Above the Raft small boats were used as far up as Preston in Grayson county.

In South Texas, most of the commerce of the coast country passed in and out along the rivers and arms of the sea. Before Texas revolted from Mexico, a steamboat was making regular trips on the Brazos, and in the early fifties the Galveston and Brazos Navigation Company opened a canal connecting Galveston Bay with the Brazos, thus bringing the products of Brazoria and adjacent counties to the wharf at Galveston. In this way it was estimated that a saving of $50,000 annually in freights and insurance was effected. Richmond was at the head of regular navigation, though occasional trips were made as far up as old Washington, near the present site of Hempstead. Galveston Bay and Buffalo Bayou furnished water connection between Houston and Galveston, and four steamboats were engaged in this trade as early as 1838.2 The Trinity river was regularly navigated to Liberty, seventy-five miles from Galveston, and occasionally as far up as Magnolia, some ten miles west of Palestine, but Rankin's statement that "the river may be successfully navigated with but little difficulty from six to nine months in the year, for 300 miles by land, and 500 by the course of the river, seems to have been one of those loose exaggerations of which we find many in the early descriptions of Texas and her resources.

The Sabine Lake and the Neches and Sabine rivers furnished a modicum of transportation facilities for the lumber and cotton of the southeastern section of the State. The situation in this region is well stated in a letter written in 1843 by S. H. Everitt to Anson Jones, afterwards President of the Republic. He said, "There must be some place for the receiving and forwarding of the cotton of Texas at the mouths of the Neches and Sabine. The Sabine pass is not suitable, because flat boats coming down the river cannot cross the lake with safety and that, and keel boats, are the only kinds of boats that can at this time come down the river Neches, and it will require much labor before steamboats can navigate the river. Cotton can be brought down the river from Jasper county at an expense of $1.00 per bale, and from Nacogdoches for $1.50 to $2.00; while the expense of shipping to Natchitoches (on the Red River in Louisiana) is from.$5.00 to $7.50 per bale, and the expense on a bale of cotton shipped to New Orleans from Natchitoches is quite as much as it would be to ship the bale of cotton from Sabine Lake to New Orleans, or to Galveston."

The facilities for navigation on the southwestern coast were confined mainly to the Gulf and its inlets, Matagorda, Aransas and Corpus Christi bays. The Colorado had at times been navigated as far up as Austin, but in 1850 Rankin reports that "steam-boating is not now successfully prosecuted on account of the unimproved condition of the channel. The Guadalupe was used occasionally up to Victoria, and steamboats plied on the Rio Grande as far up as Rio Grande City,"' though Rankin assures us that "the stream at present is navigated by steamboats to a distance of about 500 miles.

II. Early Attempts at River Improvement.

 Prior to the Civil War the" State made at least one serious attempt to improve the .Texas rivers and bays along the coast so as to render them more serviceable to the rapidly increasing trade of the State. As early as 1839 the treasurer of the Republic paid from his empty coffers a warrant for $520 expended in surveying the harbors on the Gulf coast In his message to the Fourth Congress, November 12, 1839, President Lamar urged the establishment of a new department, to be known as the Home Department, one of whose duties should be the supervision of the proposed road building and river improvement. In 1852 a bill was introduced into the State Senate appropriating some $250,000 for river improvement. Four years later the work was entered upon in earnest, the treasury stringency having been relieved by the money received from the Federal Government as a result of the adjustment of the New Mexico boundary dispute. An act was passed in 1856, carrying a total sum of $315,000 to be used on river and harbor improvement. It provided for the appointment of a State Engineer, who was to have control of the work and who, with the Governor and Comptroller, composed a board for apportioning the funds to the various projects. Bach locality was required to raise by subscription one-fourth the amount allotted to it by the board.

The following table8 shows the contracts approved by the board up to 1858. Two or three other places had raised the required funds and their contracts were pending:

This work progressed satisfactorily during the next two or three years and by the beginning of the Civil War river navigation had reached its high water mark. In 1859, a writer says "A considerable portion of the cotton made in Shelby county was shipped down the Sabine river this season. The people in this section of the country, in view of the improvements going on to open up the Sabine river, are much pleased with the probability of being able hereafter to turn their entire trade to New Orleans and Galveston, through this channel. The steamer 'Uncle Ben made five successful trips, two of which were as high up as Smith county, a distance of nearly 800 miles, carrying out nearly 1000 bales of cotton each trip. Also the 'Pearl Plant' and other boats have done considerable in the Sabine trade, and without the least difficulty from leaning timbers.  I have no doubt that 60,000 or 70,000 bales of cotton will find its way to market next season through this channel to New Orleans and Galveston.

With the outbreak of hostilities, the efforts at river and harbor improvement ceased and all the energies of government and people were turned in another direction. As a result the channels became clogged, commerce declined and river navigation almost ceased. After the war there were a few attempts by private parties to clear the rivers and revive the river trade, but they were only partially successful. The rapid construction of railways after 1870 largely removed the incentive to river improvement. Most of the streams have ceased to be factors in the transportation problem of the State, though considerable quantities of cotton, lumber and other low grade freight are still floated down the rivers to the Gulf ports. It remains to be seen whether the efforts at canalization now being made by the United States Government will succeed in making the Trinity, the Brazos, and other Texas rivers successful rivals of the railroads.

III. Overland Trade and Travel.

Before the advent of the railway, overland trade and travel were accomplished by means of the ox-wagon and stagecoach. The roads were few and poor; road building for the most part consisted merely of clearing the brush from the right of way and log- bridging such streams as could not be conveniently forded. Several efforts were made by the Republic to build national highways. In 1838, commissioners were appointed to open a road from Bastrop by way of the upper three forks of the Trinity to a point on the Red River not below Spanish Bluff nor above the Cross Timbers. In 1839, the House passed a bill to reopen the old road from San Antonio to Nacogdoches, but it died in the Senate. Another House bill, providing for opening a national road from Washington on the Brazos to the Sabine, produced a very warm debate in the Senate. Several members opposed the bill because it appropriated for the enterprise $500 from the national treasury. Where was the money to come from? Said one patriot, "We have an army, a navy, and all the officers of government to pay, soldiers to clothe and feed, Mexicans and Indians to whip, and to guard our frontier—uses, in fact, for ten times as much money as we can raise." Others opposed it because they believed it was an attempt at class legislation, and that it was prompted by the local greed and grasping spirit of Jasper county. The result was that when the bill became a law the $500 appropriation had been eliminated and the counties were left to open the road at their own expense. Another attempt at highway building occurred in 1844 when Congress provided for opening the "Central National Road of the Republic of Texas." It was to run from the mouth of the Elm Fork of the Trinity to a point on Red River opposite the mouth of the Kiamisha. The road was to be located and surveyed and then let out to contractors, who were to be paid for their work by a grant of public lands, provided that the cost of the road should not exceed one hundred and sixty acres of land to the mile. The road was to be thirty feet wide, the bridges fifteen feet wide, and the stumps not more than twelve inches high.

As the population increased, the counties gradually opened roads to accommodate the traveling public, and private stage lines were established between the principal towns. These stage lines were the forerunners of the railways, and served as models for the early railroad companies. They were usually owned by an individual or company called the "Contractor." The roads over which the stagecoaches traveled were generally laid out and surveyed by the Contractor, but they were kept in repair by the counties through which they passed. Depots were established in all the important towns on the routes and tickets for transportation were sold as is done by the railroad companies of today. The teams consisted of from four to six horses or mules. An average
speed of five to eight miles per hour was made, but it is said that in bad weather the passengers were sometimes compelled to walk and prize mud from the wheels. Fresh teams were secured from time to time at stations scattered along the route and taverns and eating stands were provided for the refreshment of the passengers. The usual cost of transportation was ten cents per mile, each passenger being allowed a small amount of hand baggage.

The number of stage lines in Texas probably reached a maximum limit about 1860. The Texas Almanac of that date shows thirty-one distinct stage lines, forming a perfect network of lines that covered all the settled portions of the State. It is a matter of interest to note that a strong tendency toward consolidation had made itself felt even at this early date, for we find that one concern, the firm of Sawyer, Fisher, and Hall, controlled sixteen of the thirty-one lines. They were believed to be the largest mail contractors in the United States, owning many lines in Louisiana as well as most of those in Texas, and employing three hundred men and one thousand mules and horses.

In addition to the thirty-one lines lying within the State there were two long distance lines in operation that deserve mention. One extended from Sherman to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where it made connection with a line to St. Louis. The through trip from Sherman to St. Louis was made in four and one-half days, traveling day and night. This line also extended from Sherman to Fort Concho, near the Rio Grande, where it made connection with the line from San Antonio to San Diego, California.

This latter route from San Antonio to San Diego was one of the longest overland stage lines ever established, covering a total distance of fourteen hundred and seventy-six miles. It was opened in 1857 by Mr. J. E. Burch, of California, who secured a contract with the Post Office Department to carry the mails between the two places, semi-monthly trips to be made in four-horse coaches, the consideration being $149,000 annually. Although thirty days were allowed for the trip, the mails were rarely out over twenty-five days, twenty three days being the average time required. The cost of a through passage was $200, all expenses being borne by the company. The stages were so arranged "that passengers could recline in them comfortably and take their sleep while traveling." In carrying out this contract the company employed sixty-five men, fifty coaches, and four hundred mules. The San Antonio and San Diego route was, without a doubt, the most practicable route to the Pacific, and, had it not been for the prejudices of the Civil War period, it would probably have been chosen as the route for the first transcontinental railroad. It is interesting to note how closely the old stage route was followed, fifteen years later, by the engineers of the Southern Pacific  Railway Company.

The transportation of freight was accomplished by means of ox freight-lines, which in general followed the routes used by the stage lines that led to the markets and seaports. A caravan of ox-wagons moved along at a very leisurely pace, depending on the grass along the way for the support of the teams. Many weeks and even months were required to deliver a cargo of cotton or buffalo hides at the market and to return to the interior with the sugar and coffee and manufactured goods required by the settlers. Before the opening of roads the cost of transportation was almost prohibitive. In 1842, President Houston assigns the cost of transportation, along with the danger from Indians and Mexican raiders, as a cause for the removal of the capital from Austin to some point near the sea-coast. "During the last year," said he, "the expense to the government for transportation to the city of Austin, over and above what it would have been to any point on the seaboard, exceeded seventy thousand dollars, and the extra cost of the transportation of the mail, aside from all other expense and inconvenience attending its remote and detached situation, amounts to many thousands more.

As the country became settled, however, "freighting" came to be a permanent occupation and furnished employment to a very considerable portion of the population. The customary rate of charge was one dollar per hundred pounds per hundred miles, or twenty cents per ton-mile, if we express it in terms of the modern railway unit of work. As the present freight rate in Texas is about one cent per ton-mile, it will be seen that the introduction of the railway has reduced the coat of transportation to about one-twentieth of what our fathers were compelled to pay. This heavy cost of transportation was a tremendous handicap on the fertile black-land region of the central and northern sections of the State. The surplus wheat of this region, on account of the cost, could not be transported over a hundred and fifty miles, and either rotted in the fields or was fed to the stock. It was undoubtedly this lack of transportation facilities that caused this, the most fertile region of the State, to remain so long practically untouched, while the population fringed the Gulf and bays and navigable rivers at the southern and eastern sections.

"The Comptroller's Report for 1850 shows sixteen counties whose assessed wealth exceeded one million dollars. They were all in South and East Texas and practically all were located on navigable water. Following are the assessed values for 1850 income of the typical counties in Central and North Texas on the one hand and in South and 'East Texas on the other:

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The total assessed wealth of the State for that year was $50,715,000, of which it will he seen more than one-half was located in the sixteen counties of South and East Texas, just enumerated.