A Letter from Texas in 1873

[portions transcribed below]

From the Kansas City Times, February 8, 1873

A Little Gossip from “Jim” - His Travels in the Great State - Trans-Continental Railroad and Its Prospects - Picturesque America - Bonham and Its Quiet Inhabitants - A Tramping Type - “Texas or Bust” vs. “Going Back to My Wife’s People: A Disgusted Emigrant, etc., etc.

[From our Special Correspondent]

Bonham, Texas, January 24, 1873
”your correspondent started on the 22d inst on a tour through the eastern part of the State along the line of the TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILROAD, which is now being built, and when completed will be one of the most important lines of road in the State. . . “

“they are all OLD SETTLED COUNTIES, and are tolerably well developed so far as cultivation is concerned, yet there are thousants of acres of rich land yet uncultivated, and which can be bought at low figures. In this (Fannin) county I believe land ranges at from $10.00 to $30.00 per acre. The land is estimated at about half timber and half prairie and contains 900 square miles, and had a population of about 14,381. This county has some of the finest land I ever looked upon, and settlers are coming in fast.”

The first station on the Trans-Continental raod after leaving Sherman is SAVOY, about 15 miles east of Sherman and 13 miles from Bonham. The station is named after Mr. Wim. Savoy, who donated forty acres of land to the company for a town site. I found Mr. Savoy to be a pleasant and intelligent gentleman, and from him learned considerable about the beautiful section of country in which he lives.

Mr. McClung, another wealthy farmer, deeded the company twenty acres of land on which the town of Savoy is located.

Leaving Savoy, we enter a strip of timber about four miles wide, and then emerge into a beautiful prairie, which, with its little valleys and ridges, presents a picturesque appearance. It is said that this is the most beautiful country west of the Mississippi, in spring-time, there being just enough timber land to furnish a rich green border to the rolling prairie with its waving grass and sweet-scented wild flowers.

The next town we come to is COON CITY. This is an old town, yet it only contains four houses. One is a farm house, another a “Kash Store,” a third the “Kone Sitty Salone” and the fourth a blacksmith shop. This little place away off to itself, has caught up the spirit of enterprise which is now prevading almost the whole State of Texas, and has gotten up a rivalry within its own diminutive confines. It is the farm house and the blacksmith shop versus the “Kash Store” and the “Salone.” The former has taken the name of Coontown, while the latter still retains the favorite old name - Coon City. Such is the effect of a general rush of people to a new country where there is a larger field for American enterprises and when such enterprises are rewarded with a rich harvest. Leaving the small burg I have just described we follow close along the grades of the railroad over narrow stretches of prairie and small belts of timber for nine miles, and we enter the quiet tough prosperous city of

BONHAM, the county seat of Fannin county. I was very favorably impressed with this place, and am led to believe that should I reside here that impression would increase rather than dimish. The town contains some 1,500 or 1,600 inhabitants, and is built on the most beautiul site of any town I have been in during my stay in Texas. The sreets are wide and roomy, while the buildings as a general thing are of a better class than the common run of Texas towns. The place has plenty of good water, which in this country is quite an item. The town contains three fine churches, the largest and best Court House in Northern Texas, besides splendid Masonic, Odd Fellows and Temperance Council Halls. It also has a fine large brick school house, and is said to have one of the best conducted schools in the State. The people of this place as a whole are, I believe, a little above the medium of Texans in point of intelligence, which makes the place desirable so far as society is concerned. Bonham will be one of the principal towns on the Trans-Continental branch of the Texas Pacific road, and THE DEPOT will be located inside the city limits on the south side of the town. It is probable that in the not distant future this will be the crossing of a branch of the M. K. & T. R. R.

In this county there are a number of quarries where a kind of rock called SULPHUR MARBLE is taken out. This marble is something like our Junction City marble, being a light, creamy color, and when first taken out of the mound, is so soft that it can be cut or sawed in any shape, and when exposed to the air for a time, becomes as hard as limestone. As soon as suitable machinvery can be procured this stone will be quarried on a larger scale, and it will be used extensively for building purposes. Bonham, unlike a great many towns I have been in since I came to Texas, is not crowded with a lot of gamblers, loafers and cut-throats, but instead has a quiet and industrious class of people, who enjoy and prosperity of their town without the rough-and-tumble rush of all classes of humanity, like a frontier mining town.

There are TWO EXCELLENT WEEKLY PAPERS published here, and both enjoy a heavy patronage in the way of advertising from the merchants and subscriptions from farmers. The Texas News, published every Saturday morning by Mr. W. T. [Gass}, a seven column paper, is a spicy sheet and ably edited. The News is one of the unterrified in politics. The other is the North Texas Enterprise, a red hot little sheet, and always brimfull of good things, is edited by tom Burnett and Jim Farr, both live and energetic men. . .

Fannin County has several towns withing her borders. Two of the most important outside of Bonham are HONEY GROVE, with a populatin of about 600, and Ladonia which has a population of about 800. . . .