Part 5

Part 5, Note 59

Colorado Citizen, March 17, 1860, June 2, 1860, July 21, 1860, September 22, 1860, November 3, 1860, December 22, 1860, January 5, 1861, March 16, 1861, July 13, 1861; Colorado County Deed Records, Book K, p. 750; Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 1731: James Lee Taylor v. The Columbus Tap Railway, Civil Cause File No. 1732: James Lee Taylor v. The Columbus Tap Railway, Minute Book D, p. 216. Both the treasurer and the clerk of the Columbus Tap were required to post bonds. Because Whitfield, as clerk, and Tait, as treasurer, did so, it is clear that they were named to those positions at a meeting of the board of directors on September 21, 1860. At their meeting on December 17, Cleveland Windrow took Whitfield's place as clerk. Whitfield, who served as president in early 1861, evidently was promoted at that time (see Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, pp. 497, 498, 526).
Though Taylor was not happy with the configuration of the railroad's track, which had disected his 310 acre plantation lengthwise and thereby made it extremely inconvenient to cross from one part of it to another, his suit, which he filed on April 11, 1861, was apparently fully anticipated by and indeed endorsed by the railroad. Taylor preferred to have a court decide how much the railroad should pay, and to have a court decree that the cash-starved railroad should pay. The suit was not finally decided until March 5, 1869, when Taylor was awarded $2614.06. The railroad's track had consumed some 22 acres of his land and made another four or five acres between the track and the public road to Alleyton, which also passed through his plantation, unusable. Four days after he sued the railroad, and about a month after he had asked the commissioners court for suitable compensation, Taylor filed suit against the county for cutting down a great many of the trees on his plantation for use in repairing the road to Alleyton. That suit too had to wait until the Civil War was over. He was awarded $75 on November 11, 1865 (see Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 1729: James Lee Taylor v. Colorado County, Minute Book C2, p. 498).