The Gainesville, Henrietta and Western Railway Company (GH&W) was chartered on July 23, 1886, to build a rail line from Gainesville in

Cooke County, Texas Cooke County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. At the 2020 census, its population was 41,668. The county seat is Gainesville. The county was founded in 1848 and organized the next year. It is named for William Gordon Cooke, a soldie ...

, to

Seymour Seymour may refer to: Places Australia *Seymour, Victoria, a township ** Seymour railway station * Electoral district of Seymour, a former electoral district in Victoria * Rural City of Seymour, a former local government area in Victoria * Se ...

Baylor County, Texas Baylor County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 3,465. Its county seat is Seymour. History In 1858, the Texas Legislature established Baylor County, naming it for Henry Weidner Baylor, ...

, a distance of . The line was to cross Montague,

Clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

, and Wichita Counties.

History

Between Gainesville and Henrietta, only the town of Saint Jo existed. Other towns vied for access to the railroad, such as Montague and

; however, land for the right-of-way was offered across northern portions of Cooke, Montague, and Clay Counties, and the railway produced new towns along the route, to include

Myra Myra (; , ''Mýra'') was a city in Lycia. The city was probably founded by Lycians on the river Myros (; Turkish: ''Demre Çay''), in the fertile alluvial plain between, the Massikytos range (Turkish: ''Alaca Dağ'') and the Aegean Sea. By the ...

Muenster Muenster may refer to: * Münster, Germany * Muenster, Saskatchewan * Muenster, Texas Muenster ( ) is a city in western Cooke County, Texas, Cooke County, Texas, United States, along U.S. Route 82 in Texas, U.S. Route 82. The population was 1,53 ...

, Bonita, Nocona, and Belcherville, Texas. Construction began in 1886 with the establishment of section houses and depot buildings in Gainesville; it was hoped at the time that of line could be constructed and be serviced by passenger trains by February 10. of track had been completed by January 7. The line reached Saint Jo before the end of January. In May 1887, the

Missouri Pacific Railroad The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad o ...

assumed control of the GH&W. The line was consolidated with several others to benefit the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway through Legislative act on April 16, 1891. At the annual meeting of stockholders held on May 6, 1891, F.M. Dougherty was elected president, R.D. Gribble vice president and J.L. Lindsay secretary and treasurer. The town of Ringgold, also along the line, would develop after the crossing of the Rock Island line in 1892. By 1900, the line had been extended, parallel to the

Fort Worth and Denver Railway The Fort Worth and Denver Railway , nicknamed "the Denver Road," was a Class I railroad, class I Rail transport in the United States, American railroad company that operated in the northern part of Texas from 1881 to 1982, and had a profound infl ...

, into Wichita Falls, connecting to lines that ran to Abilene and into

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

Demise

The automobile and America's love affair with it brought the end to the small-town rail lines. In 1969, the line was abandoned with the exception of a small stretch near Wichita Falls. In 1971, the tracks were removed and sold for scrap metal. Many of the towns that developed along the line vanished long before the railroad, but others continue to prosper without it. Portions of the old right-of-way can still be seen in various places (between Henrietta and Nocona, particularly). On the eastern side of Henrietta, a

U.S. Route 82 U.S. Route 82 (US 82) is an east–west United States highway in the Southern United States. Created on July 1, 1931 across central Mississippi and southern Arkansas, US 82 eventually became a route extending from the White Sands of New ...

bridge over nothing still stands as a reminder of the Gainesville, Henrietta and Western Railway and its contributions to north-central Texas.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gainesville Henrietta Western Railway Defunct Texas railroads Montague County, Texas Cooke County, Texas Clay County, Texas Predecessors of the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad Railway companies established in 1886 Railway companies disestablished in 1887 American companies disestablished in 1887 American companies established in 1886