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The First Railroad in Texas: the Original "Sunset Route" 

Profusely Illustrated with Lithograph Views of Texas Towns

This rare Texas railroad promotional was printed in Galveston at the "News" Steam Book & Job Office and contains a wonderful collection of lithograph views of various towns and new settlements along the railroad route, including business buildings, houses, railroads, and cattle. Originally chartered as the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway Company, the railroad, which was the first to begin operations in Texas (1853), changed its name to the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railway Company on July 27, 1870. This pioneering western railroad stands as the first part of the famous Southern Pacific Transportation Company and was only the second railroad west of the Mississippi River.

The folding map, which measures about 19 x 15 inches, is titled Correct Map of Texas Published by the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway. The map doubles as a broadside, with an extensive printed text on verso under the title: Western Texas. A Trip from Houston to San Antonio, over the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway. The Sunset Route. This text comprises an article on western Texas by "An Old Texan." This text is styled as a "second edition," apparently referencing an earlier iteration of the "Old Texan's" account, perhaps printed as a pamphlet. 

The main text of the book presents a glowing and highly readable description of the prospects of Western Texas, geared toward the potential immigrant, and with an emphasis on cattle raising. The following selection gives a flavor of the topics covered:

Something about Cattle Raising

Profits from Cattle-Raising in Western Texas

What poor men have done raising stock in Texas

The Fall of the Alamo with "Hymn of the Alamo" by Col. R. M. Potter

The Commerce of San Antonio

What Boys can do in Texas

Sheep Husbandry in Western Texas

How to Get to Texas

To Immigrants from the Different States of the Union

The Lazy Man's Country... If a man desires to be lazy, Texas is certainly a country in which he can practice the profession, but such are not the men who are wanted in Western Texas

The Native Grasses of Texas

Provisions of the New Constitution of Texas to be submitted to the people for their ratification, on the third Tuesday of February, 1876

The lithograph views are remarkable for their straightforward depictions of Texas frontier towns, including views of the Alamo, and various mission missions at San Antonio. While the text was printed at the News Steam Book & Job Printing Office in Galveston, the lithographs are by A. Gast & Co., of St. Louis.

Here follows a list of the lithograph plates:

1. Galveston

2. Portrait plate: Sam Houston, Anson Jones, M. B. Lamar, and David Burnet (all on one sheet)

3. Oakland, Prairie Point

4. Weiman South Side

5. Columbus, Texas. J. B. Knotts, Proprietor

6. Bridge at Columbus

7. [uncaptioned view of railroad trestle or bridge]

8. Jackson House, Weimar. H. Wilson, Proprietor

9. Passenger & Freight Depots, Weimar

10. Flatonia [town view with prominent saloon]

11. View of Court House, Gonzales, Texas

12. Weimar, North Side [view of railroad locomotive, horned cattle, and buildings]

13. Luling, North Side

14. R. R. Bridge over St. Marcos River

15. Fall of Comal River, New Braunfels

16. Newbraunfels

17. Military Plaza - Commerce Street. Market in the Morning, San Antonio, Tex. [two views on one sheet]

18. Spring Head, San Antonio River

19. San Antonio [shows the Alamo, Turner Halle, and Menger Hotel]

20. 1st Mission

21. II'd Mission

22. Third Mission

23. San Antonio River, 3d Mission in the Distance

24. Rapids of San Antonio River, near 3d Mission

25. San Pedro Springs

26. St. Mary's Church

27. Mexican Catholic Church, San Antonio

28. Natural Bridge near Boerne, Kendall Co.

The famed Americana dealer Edward Eberstadt called this book:

A valuable description of the lands, towns, agricultural prospects of West Texas, of high interest for the lithographic views.

Issue points

This copy is an example of the corrected issue, with the section heading "Article IX - Homestead" present at the top of page 112 and not repeated on page 111 (an earlier issue had this text on both page 111 and 112).  Other issues with slight variations are known where the section heading and first five lines of text on page 112 are entirely lacking, resulting in the absence of text relating the Homestead Laws provisions of the Texas Constitution. Finally, we know of a corrected issue with pages 111-113 correct, and with a paragraph at the foot of page 113 removed.

From Handbook of Texas

The Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway Company was chartered on February 11, 1850, as the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway Company. Its name was changed on July 27, 1870. The Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado was the first railroad to begin operating in Texas, the first part of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company to begin operating, and the second railroad west of the Mississippi River. Between 1851 and 1860 the company completed eighty miles between Harrisburg and Alleyton and was in the process of clearing and grading a line along the east bank of the Colorado River in the direction of La Grange and Austin when the outbreak of the Civil War ended construction. The Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado did no additional construction after the war but did extend its operations into Columbus over the tracks of the Columbus Tap Railway Company in 1867. On July 7, 1868, the company was sold by the sheriff of Harris County in order to satisfy various judgments against the railroad. William D. Sledge, the purchaser, resold 75 percent of the company to various individuals including a 25 percent interest to Thomas W. Peirce, who soon became the dominant force in the company. On January 24, 1870, the railroad was sold under provisions of the 1860 mortgage. Peirce and his associates were again the purchaser and organized a new company under the original name and charter. Subsequent charter amendments, including the name change, the merger of the Columbus Tap, and authorization to build to San Antonio, Houston and Galveston, were approved by the Texas legislature on July 27. Although the company also had authority to build to La Grange and New Braunfels, the main thrust was now San Antonio. Construction west of Columbus under the direction of Maj. James Converse began in April 1873. The railroad reached Schulenburg in December, Waelder in the summer of 1874, Kingsbury in the summer of 1875, and Marion in the spring of 1876. However, the rails did not reach San Antonio, 125 miles from Columbus, until February 5, 1877. It was during this period that Peirce bought the interests of his other associates in the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio, and the railroad was commonly called the Peirce Line. The railroad itself used the nickname Sunset Route, a name that was in general use by 1874 and was later adopted by the Southern Pacific for the entire line between New Orleans and Los Angeles.

As early as 1878 Peirce and Collis P. Huntington, acting for the Southern Pacific interests, were reported to have reached an understanding regarding the expansion of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio west of San Antonio. In January 1880 Col. J. E. Gray, chief engineer of the Southern Pacific, and Converse left San Antonio to inspect the proposed route to El Paso. In mid-April William Hood of the Southern Pacific began the actual survey. Preliminary work on the Mexican and Pacific Extension, or Sunset extension as it was frequently called, was under way. At this time the Southern Pacific was extending subsidiary companies eastward across Arizona and New Mexico. On reaching the New Mexico-Texas boundary in May 1881, the construction forces continued eastward under provisions of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio charter. Work was done on two fronts-east from El Paso and west from San Antonio and track laying began at the latter point in late May. Construction was under way before all contracts were in place. Huntington officially acquired an interest in the company on July 1, 1881, and the contract with the construction company was approved on July 5. The two fronts met in January 1883, and on January 12 Peirce drove a silver spike at a point just west of the Pecos River to mark the completion of a new transcontinental route across Texas. In less than two years, 638 miles of track had been completed. In addition, the company also built several branch lines. In 1877 the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio reached Houston over the tracks of the International-Great Northern Railroad Company and built its own line in 1880. Also in 1880 the company completed a line from Smith's Junction to La Grange utilizing the grade that had been partially completed by the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado nearly twenty years earlier. In late 1882 the branch from Spofford to Eagle Pass was finished. East of San Antonio the Gonzales Branch Railroad Company was also completed in the same year. The sixty-three miles between Del Rio and Shumla were the most difficult part of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio to build and operate. The original line had to dip down into the canyon of the Rio Grande on a shelf blasted out of limestone, required two tunnels, and crossed the Pecos River at its confluence with the Rio Grande. In 1892 the company completed a new line that crossed the Pecos on the original High Bridge, shortening the route by 10.7 miles and eliminating the two tunnels and the track through the canyon. This, along with subsequent line relocations, has reduced the rail distance between San Antonio and El Paso by twenty-five miles when compared with the original route.

In 1905 the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio acquired and merged five other Southern Pacific subsidiary companies with a total of 391 miles of track. These were the Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railway Company, the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway Company, the San Antonio and Gulf Railroad Company, the Galveston, Houston and Northern Railway Company, and the Gonzales Branch Railroad Company. The Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio also completed a forty-seven mile line between Stockdale and Cuero in 1907 and an eleven mile line between Strang and Seabrook in 1914. In 1918 the company completed a new entrance into Houston between Chaney Junction and West Junction, and the original 1880 entry between Chaney Junction and Stella was partly abandoned. Effective January 1, 1925, the company leased the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway Company. Between March 1, 1885, and June 30, 1889, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio was leased to the Southern Pacific Company. Before and after that period the company was operated by its own organization until March 1, 1927, when it was leased to the Texas and New Orleans Railroad Company. It was merged into the latter company on June 30, 1934. The Texas and New Orleans lasted until November 1, 1961, when it was merged into the Southern Pacific Company. On the eve of its merger in 1934 the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio operated 1,345 miles of track, which represented 40 percent of the Southern Pacific owned main track in Texas.