San Antonio and Rio Grande Railway; "Old Flossie"
San Juan, Hidalgo County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Beginning operations in 1909, the San Antonio and Rio Grande Railway Company became a branch of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway in 1912. Nicknamed "Old Flossie," it provided freight and passenger transportation to the new towns of Chapin (Edinburg) and San Juan during a crucial time in the area's development. Passenger service decreased after World War II, and the line was limited to freight service. It was absorbed by the Missouri Pacific system in 1956. By the late 1960s all service to San Juan and Edinburg ceased, the rails were removed, and the depots were razed. (1991)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Beginning operations in 1909 and becoming a branch of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway in 1912, the line nicknamed "Old Flossie" carried freight and passengers to the young towns of Chapin (Edinburg) and San Juan during a pivotal era of Rio Grande Valley growth. Passenger service dwindled after World War II, and the Missouri Pacific system absorbed the line in 1956. By the late 1960s all service ended, the rails were pulled up, and the depots were razed.
Why it matters
It recalls the short-line railroads that stitched together new farming towns and drove the settlement of the lower Rio Grande Valley.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
San Juan Townsite
San Juan, TX
The town of San Juan sprang up in 1910 when Rio Grande Valley entrepreneur John Closner sold 406 acres to a townsite company that named the new community for him. Sitting on the rail line, San Juan quickly grew a business district along Fifth Street, and in 1911 raised its first two-story building—home to the San Juan State Bank and, over the decades, an irrigation office and other ventures. Today the surviving fragment of that pioneer building houses the city library.
City of Pharr
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The land around Pharr passed from the nomadic Coahuiltecans to Spanish colonization in the late 1700s, becoming Texas soil when the Rio Grande was fixed as the boundary in 1848. In 1909 the Pharr Townsite Company platted the town, whose founders donated church lots and organized irrigation that shifted the economy from ranching to citrus and produce farming. Served by the railroad and two major highways, Pharr incorporated in 1916 and grew into the self-styled "Hub City of the Valley."
Camp Ebenezer
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In the early 1900s, ranchers Peter Ebenezer Blalock and George L. Hawkins amassed 32,000 acres in the lower Rio Grande Valley and built shipping pens beside a railroad depot they named Ebenezer. When their ranch was sold in 1909, the Alamo Land and Sugar Company transformed the tract into farmland, luring prospective buyers south on excursion trains and lodging them at "Camp Ebenezer." The depot's 1919 move a mile east seeded the town of Alamo.
1940 Train-Truck Collision
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