Part 5

Part 5, Note 49

Texas Monument, November 17, 1852, January 19, 1853, September 28, 1853; Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 3, pp. 1357-1359, 1427-1433; Charles P. Zlatkovich, Texas Railroads A Record of Construction and Abandonment (Austin: Bureau of Business Research of the University of Texas and Texas State Historical Association, 1981), pp. 26, 63). The January 19, 1853 issue of the Texas Monument confirms only that the railroad that the newspaper referred to as "the Harrisburg railroad" was in fact the B B B & C. Neither the Brazos and Colorado Railroad nor the Colorado Valley Railroad would ever build any track. The Colorado Valley Railroad, one of whose backers was John Duncan, was scheduled to have its first meeting in Columbus on August 1, but apparently did not. On January 27, 1854, the legislature amended their charter to allow the railroad to meet for the first time in Matagorda on May 1, 1854. On January 20, 1858, the legislature gave the company until August 7, 1860 to construct 25 miles of track, a deadline they apparently did not meet (see Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 3, p. 1432, vol. 4, pp. 31-32, 1232). Yet another railroad that intended to serve the Colorado River, the Columbia, Wharton and Austin Railroad Company was chartered on January 30, 1854. It was authorized to build track from Columbia on the Brazos River to Wharton on the Colorado, thence up the Colorado as far as Austin. It too, failed to build any track (see Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 4, pp. 35-40).