Well, it all began back in 1889, when Attorney General James S. Hogg was fighting with supporters of the railroads. Mr. Hogg had actually sued a number of railroad companies, as well as the Texas Traffic Association (the organization that decided how much people should pay to ride the trains or ship goods on them) because he thought some of the railroads were trying to take over the entire industry and keep other railroad companies from having a fair shot at competing with them for customers. Mr. Hogg decided to run for Governor of Texas, and he promised people that if they elected him, he would create a commission to regulate the railroads and make sure they didn't do anything illegal. Well, you can imagine that some of the railroads weren't too happy about that, especially when he won the election and became Governor in 1890.click to view larger version of images

The people, though, were happy that Governor Hogg was going to do something about the problem. At first they had supported the railroads. Forty years earlier, in 1850, Bexar County had been the first of many counties to issue bonds to railroad companies to encourage them to lay tracks in the area. Two years later, in 1852, the state government even began giving railroad companies land for every mile of track completed.

In the Eastern United States, railroads usually followed the people. As people began leaving big cities to move out west, they built railroads to connect their new small towns with the big cities they came from. For Texas, though, it was the other way around. Texas didn't have many big cities, so the state government wanted to get more people to move out to Texas. One way to encourage this was to build railroads to make it easy for people to move here and travel back and forth to the East. However, it takes a lot of money to get a railroad up and running, and some of the companies were afraid that they would spend too much money to build the railroad lines and then not make enough back in profit. That explains why the state offered free land (and even loaned money) to the railroads-they had to get them out to Texas somehow.

Some railroads were given extra sections of land that ran near the railroad, so as soon as the companies had finished building railway lines in that spot, they sold their extra land to settlers from the East and from Europe. Sometimes the railroad companies even helped the new community build courthouses, jails, and schools, because the more people they could get to move to Texas, the more people would use the railroad, and the more money the railroad companies would make.

After the Civil War, two major railway lines were completed. The Texas and Pacific Railway Company finished building its railway line from Texarkana to Sherman and from Longview to Eagle Ford-a total of 251 miles-in 1873. Then, in 1881, the line moved from Fort Worth toward El Paso, using a land grant from the State for 5,338,528 acres! Not surprisingly, by 1882 the State didn't have any more public land left to give to the railroads.

About that time, people began to realize how much power the railroad companies held. Dirt roads for wagons were rough and short, and there weren't even any waterways to use for shipping goods in and out of Texas. Railroads were the only way people could ship materials and products, and believe me, the railroads realized how important they were. Some of the major railway companies formed an organization, the Texas Traffic Association, which set prices for using the railroads at whatever they felt people would pay.