Old Division Point Office for the "Boll Weevil" Railway
Teague, Freestone County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Important Texas transportation artery. Chartered as Trinity & Brazos Valley Railway. Nicknamed for special trains roaring down its tracks, taking men to "Boll Weevil Conferences"-- in turn of century alarm over pests attacking cotton and the economy. Another nickname for road was "Turnip & Bean Vine". The T. & B.V. was founded by an investor-statesman, Col. Edward M. House, famed for his national political power as advisor of U. S. President Woodrow Wilson. House's associates included Frank Andrews, formerly assistant attorney general of Texas; Robert H. Baker, statesman and insurance executive; and Benjamin F. Yoakum, lifetime railroad man and agriculturist. Road was built 1902-1907 from Houston to Cleburne, and with special trackage arrangements it became a short-cut hauler from Galveston to Fort Worth and Dallas. It introduced diesel passenger streamliners to Texas; belonged to Burlington-Rock Island complex during most of its first 60 years of service. Texas attained a peak of 17,078 miles of railroads in 1933. Trains still have respected roles in freight hauling. But the era of regulating family clocks by passage of the "Boll Weevil" or some other train is now largely a matter of warmly-cherished history. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Chartered as the Trinity & Brazos Valley Railway and built between 1902 and 1907, this line earned the affectionate nickname "Boll Weevil" from the special trains that carried men to conferences about the pest then devastating Texas cotton. Founded by Col. Edward M. House—later President Woodrow Wilson's famous confidant—it became a shortcut hauler linking Galveston to Fort Worth and Dallas and even introduced diesel streamliners to Texas. Teague served as its division point, and this office anchored the road's operations.
Why it matters
The railroad shaped the economy and daily rhythms of early-20th-century Texas, and its founder's role beside Wilson ties this small depot to the highest levels of national politics.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Col. Edward M. House
- · Benjamin F. Yoakum
- · Frank Andrews
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Town of Teague
Teague, TX
In 1905 this was a sleepy farming settlement called Brewer, named for an 1835 land grantee, until the Trinity & Brazos Valley Railroad chose it as its shops and main division point between Houston and Fort Worth. Renamed Teague for relatives of railroad magnate B. F. Yoakum, the town exploded almost overnight—a 1906 lot sale drew crowds by special train, a band playing 'Dixie,' and 5,000 pounds of barbecue. Brick buildings and boosterish dreams of '10,000 by 1910' followed, but as passenger rail declined, so did Teague, which drifted back to quiet with its old depot now a museum.
Site of Worthy Store
Donie, TX
In 1906 Alabama native Dillard Monroe Worthy opened a general merchandise store here, later joined by his son Roy as D.M. Worthy & Son. It supplied the surrounding countryside with everything from farm goods and lumber to butcher, blacksmith, and funeral services. Worthy's reach extended beyond the counter—he helped found a local bank and worked to bring a railway spur near Donie—and after his death in 1930 the store reopened under Roy until it eventually burned.
City of Wortham
Wortham, TX
Wortham grew from an 1834 Mexican land grant to English colonist Robert B. Longbotham, who later sold a railroad right-of-way through his property for a token five dollars. Renamed for a colonel who helped secure the line, the town stayed a modest market center until a Thanksgiving Day gusher in 1924 turned it into a roaring oil boomtown—its population leaping from a thousand to tens of thousands almost overnight. The boom burned out by late 1927, leaving a town that had briefly touched the frenzy of the Texas oil age.
Home County of Lafayette Lumpkin Foster
Groesbeck, TX
Lafayette Lumpkin Foster packed several careers into Gilded Age and Progressive-era Texas: state representative and speaker of the house in the mid-1880s, president of Texas A&M at the turn of the century, and an early appointee to the Railroad Commission created by Governor James S. Hogg in 1891. That commission began by policing shipping rates but grew, over the following decades, into the powerful body that regulated the state's booming oil and gas industry. Foster's tenure set an early tone of professionalism for an agency whose reach would eventually help supply Allied armies with fuel in World War II.