CRESSON
RAIL WHISKED CARGO TO WORLD
By Pete Kendall
Hood County News – October
15, 2003
CRESSON – Long
before business and industry leaders coined the term economic upturn, Granbury heavy
hitters experienced earth-shattering economic boom.
The year was 1887,
when the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railway chugged out of Fort Worth and into
the Hood County seat, and the Santa Fe steamed out of Cleburne and into
Weatherford.
The two rail magnates
met, though not at precisely the same moment, in Cresson, just about the
biggest little town in America then and for many generations thereafter.
Cresson was a
livestock and agriculture mecca with cotton, asparagus, livestock and other
precious commodities loaded from private sidings daily.
Surrounding Hood
County earned rich dividends. It generated the majority of the exports.
Cresson was
important in and of itself in those bountiful days, but it was most important
because of the communities it linked … Granbury, Fort Worth, Weatherford,
Cleburne and the great wide world beyond.
The Fort Worth
& Rio Grande ran northeast from Granbury to Fort Worth and, by 1889,
southwest as far as Menard near San Angelo.
The FWRG connected
at Cresson with the Santa Fe for the short hops to Weatherford and Cleburne.
From Weatherford,
the Texas & Pacific could take you to Abilene and El Paso.
From Cleburne, the
Santa Fe could take you to Temple and Galveston, the Katy to Waco and Austin,
and the Trinity & Brazos Valley to Hubbard and Coolidge.
If you lived in
Granbury at the turn of the 20th century, you were as familiar with Cresson as
with your back yard.
Cresson is still a
rail springboard to the universe but only in three directions.
You can go
southwest to Granbury and northeast to Fort Worth. Santa Fe purchased the Fort
Worth & Rio Grande from the Frisco in 1937. The Fort Worth & Western
traverses it now.
You can still hang
a right at Cresson and go to Cleburne by rail, but few exercise that circuitous
option. The weeds outnumber the railroad ties.
If you want to go
from Granbury to Weatherford by way of Cresson, best to take a car. The
Weatherford-Cresson line is gone with the wind.
Santa Fe abandoned
that once-proud 19.97 miles of track in 1959. Nostalgia buffs will note the
plainly visible rail embankment, atop which cows pause to catch a breeze from
locomotive ghosts.
Helen Long, a
Cresson resident since 1953, vividly recalls the criss-crossing Santa Fe routes
and station northeast of the stop light.
“I remember the passenger
trains, but I don’t think many passengers got off here,” she said. “This was
mainly a freight stop.
“Cresson had two
depots originally. There was one when I got here. Parson’s Switch, about eight
miles west of Cresson, was another stop. It had livestock pens.”
According to
Charles P. Zlatkovich’s authoritative book “Texas Railroads,” Santa Fe also
abandoned 1.0 mile of track between Cresson and Cleburne in 1961.
The exact location
of that miracle mile is a mystery. North Texas railroad history is often as
complicated as it is fascinating.
For certain, we
know the FWRG christened its 40-mile Fort Worth to Granbury route in 1887 and
that Santa Fe opened its 41.73-mile Cleburne-Weatherford route on Nov. 1 of the
same year.
Texas railroad
historian Jack Proctor explained the how and why of the latter:
“The citizens of
Weatherford importuned the GC & SF (Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe) Railway
Co. to build the extension from Cleburne to their town, promising right-of-way en
route and station grounds in Weatherford.”
The Weatherford
Santa Fe depot is now a Chamber of Commerce. The Cleburne Santa Fe depot is now
a mirage.
“Charter Amendment
No. 11 covering the proposed extension from Cleburne to Weatherford was
formally agreed upon by board of directors of GC & SF April 5, 1887 and
certified by the Secretary of State in Austin April 19, 1887,” Proctor
continued.
“Preliminary survey
had been begun at Weatherford about Feb. 15 by F.W. Steber, locating engineer.
The location was finished at Cleburne the latter part of April, 1887. Grading
was begun in May and finished in October.
“Track laying was
begun at Cleburne about Aug. 1 and reached Weatherford the latter part of
October, the line being open for operation Nov. 1, 1887.”
Longtimers say the
Weatherford-Cleburne line was nicknamed the Nancy Hanks in honor of a racehorse
in Godley. There is no record of which was faster, the steed of iron or steed
of flesh.
No historical marker commemorating the Nancy Hanks exists.
The state of Texas can address that issue now that Historic Cresson
School has been appropriately immortalized.