Notes

The Effects of the Growth of Railroads
Texas went through many changes in the 1800s. The population grew, and with it, cities and towns expanded. The cattle business boomed. Cotton farming spread. One of the greatest reasons behind these and other changes in Texas was a major technological innovation: the coming of the railroad.
There were no railroads in Texas before the 1850s. In fact, most Texans lacked any reliable year-round method of moving from one place to another before the 1850s. The few roads in the state offered little help. They became muddy and unusable when it rained.
Many Texans lived along rivers or near the Gulf Coast. These waterways provided a method of moving around. Steamboats carried people and products up and down major rivers, such as the Rio Grande and the Red River. However, most rivers in Texas were too shallow for steamboats to use year-round. Reliable transportation remained out of reach for most Texans.
Texans Demand Railroads These transportation problems made it hard for the economy to grow. Sending goods to market was slow and expensive. This made it difficult for Texans to make a profit from their produce. Some Texans thought railroads could solve their transportation problems. After all, railroads were providing fast, reliable transportation in other parts of the United States.
First Attempts Fail Texans had tried to build a railroad in 1836. The Republic of Texas granted the Texas Rail Road, Navigation, and Banking Company the right to lay tracks to and from any point in Texas. However, the railroad company went out of business before it built any tracks.
In the following years, three more companies received permission to build railroads in Texas. They all failed. Trains did not roll through Texas until the 1850s.
The Harrisburg Railroad In 1851 work began on the first successful Texas rail line, which was built near Houston. It was the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado Railroad, also called the Harrisburg Railroad. Wealthy investors backed it. In September 1853, the first trains in Texas rolled across this 20-mile track. It was only the second railroad west of the Mississippi River.
By 1861, nine railroads operated in Texas. Houston was the rail center of the state. Rail lines moved out of the city in five different directions.
The Effects of Railroads on the Ranching Industry The first rail line in Texas opened in 1851. Over the next ten years, tracks slowly spread across Texas. Nearly all of the early rail lines linked Houston to nearby towns. Ranchers, however, lived in rural areas, so the early trains were of no use to them. Ranchers needed rail lines to move cattle from the Texas plains to other states, where hungry customers would pay cash for beef.
Railroad building in Texas had ceased during the Civil War. After the war, construction resumed. Yet progress was slow. Then in 1873, the Texas rail system linked to the nationwide rail network. That same year, some Texas ranchers began shipping their cattle by rail. The linking of Texas to the rest of the nation changed the cattle ranching business in Texas.
For years, cowboys herded their cattle along the famous cattle trails that led from Texas to the rail links in Kansas. The building of rail lines in Texas, however, made the long trails unnecessary. Now cattle could be shipped by rail straight out of Texas.
Railroads Replace Cattle Trails Although Texas ranchers now had access to rail lines, it was still cheaper to drive the cattle over trails. Yet cattle quarantines, barbed wire, and greater convenience made ranchers want to use the railroads to move their livestock to market. By the 1890s, the railhead at Fort Worth had become a collection point for Texas cattle.
At first, Fort Worth served as a place to gather cattle for transport. Ranchers herded the animals onto trains and shipped them elsewhere for slaughter. This changed in 1901. That year, Swift and Company and Armour and Company built meatpacking plants in Fort Worth. Within about a decade, Fort Worth had established itself as one of the nation’s largest meatpacking centers. Although the days of the open range were over, the cattle business was still vital to Texas. In fact, it was bigger than ever. Advances in technology, like the railroad, barbed wire, and factory machinery, made ranching a very important industry.
Railroads Spur Advancement in the Agricultural Industry The railroads changed the way Texans farmed. With access to railroads, a farmer who grew more than his family needed could ship the surplus to market. In this way, the rail lines led to a dramatic growth in commercial agriculture in the state. Commercial agriculture is the growing of crops for sale in order to make a profit. Farmers could also use the railroads to bring in seeds, plows, and other items they needed.
Railroads Carry Farmers to West Texas Railroads also led people to begin farming the land in West Texas. The railroad companies wanted people to buy the land the railroads owned there. They also hoped these new settlers would become rail customers.
Growing crops in West Texas required a different method of farming. This was because there was less rainfall than in the eastern part of the state. Farmers tried to conserve water. They also tried to irrigate their land and use well water. However, stored water evaporated quickly in the West Texas heat.
Farmers found that corn and other crops that grew well in East Texas did not do as well in the western part of the state. As a result, they grew other crops. The railroads had shown Texas farmers the power of machines. More farmers began to use machines to help plant and harvest their crops. Some farmers even used steam-powered tractors. Machinery helped farmers increase their harvest by allowing them to cultivate more land.
The new technologies came at a cost. Farm machinery and railroad shipping were expensive. Indeed, farmers were producing more crops. Yet to earn a profit, those crops had to fetch a certain price in the markets. When crop prices fell in the late 1800s, many farmers went into debt. Some had to give up their land and farm on land owned by others.