Local location located
Bob,
I live in Huntsville, Texas. It is the headquarters for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. There are seven prisons in town and in the surrounding areas, including the infamous Death Row at the Ellis Unit and the even more infamous execution chamber at the Huntsville Unit (aka, The Walls). To most of the world, we're known for the prisons and the occassional execution of some crazed, lunatic mass murderer who somehow has gained celebrity status.
Huntsville was originally founded as an Indian trading post by Pleasant and Ephraim Gray. They named it after their home town of Huntsville, Alabama because the terrain looked similar. They traded with Bidai (bee-die), Alabama and Coushatta (coo-shot-a) Indians, and relations with the natives were generally peaceful. Trade along the nearby Trinity River brought more people to the area, and settlers moved in to take advantage of the rich farm soil and abundant timber.
Huntsville is also famous for being the last residence of General Sam Houston, who led the rag-tag Texas Army to defeat the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto (fought near Houston, Texas). That was the final battle in the Texas Revolution, and General Houston went on to become President of the Republic of Texas, then a senator after Texas became a state of the U.S. His career pretty much came to an end, though, when the War Between the States (Civil War) started and he wouldn't swear allegiance to the Confederacy. He retired to Huntsville and died here in 1863. We have a sixty foot statue of him at the southern entrance to the town along I-45. You can see it from several miles away as you approach Huntsville. Egads.
Huntsville is one of those few towns that never really depended much on the railroad for its survival. Most of the shipping was done via the port on the Trinity River at Cincinatti (now under Lake Livingston, I think) and by stage. In 1856 there were plans to build the Huntsville Railroad to connect with the Houston and Texas Central Railway near Cypress, Texas; but they never built it (the H&TCR was put on hold until after the Civil War). The prison system provided a steady source of employment for the locals. Construction on the Huntsville Unit began in 1849. After it was completed, a cotton and wool mill was added to make the prison self-sufficient. It provided a great deal of cotton and wool to the Confederacy during the Civil War.
The Houston and Great Northern was building a line from Houston to Palestine, Texas and wanted Huntsville to pay them a bonus to connect to their town (I think it was something like $200,000). The city refused to pay, so the railroad passed the town just a few miles to the east. In 1871 the Huntsville Branch Railway Company was chartered, and citizens contributed money to build a branch that joined the H&GN at the town of Phelps. Most of the line in town has been been taken up, but there is a concrete plant that still uses it.
Sam Houston Normal Institute was established in 1879 (on the site of Austin College, which had moved to another city). In 1923 the name was changed to Sam Houston Teachers College, then Sam Houston State College in 1965 and finally Sam Houston State Unversity in 1969.
For a time, logging and lumber mills were big business in the area. U.S. Geological Survey maps show where the old tramways used to be. There used to be a sawmill town just north of Huntsville, too. I forget the name at the moment... You can follow the paths of the old railbeds (on the USGS maps) right to where the mill used to be. My father-in-law has promised to take me to the site sometime this winter (when the old foundations aren't obscured by the trees).
Huntsville's main employment comes from TDCJ, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville Independent School District and service industries. I think that it is generally considered one of the nicer places to live in Texas. I certainly enjoy it.
I'm a transplant from a horrid little town called Porter,which is located a few miles north of a horrid city called Houston (located on the western edge of the Armpit of Texas). Porter's claim to fame are its numerous bars (for those in other countries, think "pub" except very low-brow), mud, rednecks, and more mud. Did I mention that it's muddy there? Lots of swamps. Alligators, too. Yech. The mosquitoes will carry you off, beat you up, take your wallet, go down to a local bar, get drunk, come back, beat you up again, throw you into the mud, then suck your blood. Compared to Porter, Huntsville is virtually paradise.
The Houston East & West Texas (HE&WT or "Hell, Either Way Taken") was a narrow gauge railway that ran up through Nacogdoches, crossed into Lousiana and met with the Shreveport and Houston Railway and ended in Shreveport, Lousiana. The line was nicknamed "The Rabbit" because the engines had the habit of hopping off the rails.
On July 29, 1894 the entire line from Houston to Shreveport was converted to standard gauge. At least that's what the history books say! Apparently it involved a great deal of company, inmate and volunteer labor. Southern Pacific took it over in 1899, then it was merged with the Texas & New Orleans (another notoriously bumpy railroad). It's now owned by Union Pacific. Anyway, the HE&WT ran through Porter--right by my old elementary school. Porter was just a small sawmill town in the early days. I think they used vicious, drunk mosquitoes to haul the logs to the mill.
The HE&WT is also the railroad that ran through (or near) the towns of Teneha, Timpson, Bobo and Blair. American servicemen during World War II used to say "Teneha, Timpson, Bobo and Blair" for good luck when playing dice. Someone...my memory fails me...wrote a song about it. The HE&WT in that region is one of my candidates for a future layout...
Well, I seem to have written quite a bit! I'm going to stop now! hehehe
-Rory
