The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 35, July 1931 - April, 1932 Page: 25
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Texas and the Southern Pacific Railroad, 1848-1860
Jersey to the amount of $300,000 was submitted and refused by
Governor Pease, as was also the stock of the Mechanics Bank, of
Memphis, to the amount of $298,000. The latter had been sub-
mitted with $2,000 of the state bonds of New York. The gov-
ernor persisted in his refusal, despite protests of the stockholders
that their security was good, declared the contract null, and ad-
vertised for new proposals.70
The Atlantic and Pacific Company was dissolved and the Vicks-
burg and El Paso Company, also called the Texas Western, was
organized with Walker and King again at the head. This was
in January, 1855. But the new company also found it impossi-
ble to meet the terms of the contract. An amendment to the
charter was secured, abolishing the forfeit feature, and the com-
pany was reorganized under the name of the Southern Pacific
by an act approved August 16, 1856.71 It will be recalled that
during the same month the state legislature had passed an act
providing for the loan to railroad companies of $6,000 of the
school fund for every mile of railroad constructed under certain
conditions. In view of the fact that the Southern Pacific Com-
pany was in line for the land donation of twenty sections a mile
and for the school fund loan of $6,000 a mile, and since work
had actually begun on a branch of the road from Marshall to
Caddo Lake late in 1856, there was general rejoicing among those
who favored a southern route to the Pacific. De Bow rejoiced
that after twelve years of agitation time for action had arrived,
and that a company of influence, capital, and character was char-
tered and located at. New Orleans. He remarked that he had sup-
ported a southern route in the Memphis Convention of 1845.72
In March, 1857, the Railroad Journal reported that the South-
ern Pacific line from Marshall to Shreveport would soon be fin-
ished; and that 600 men were at work on the road.73 President
George Yerger, of the Southern Pacific Company, in a public
address in April, 1857, said that there would be millions of dol-
lars to distribute among stockholders from the Texas land grant
of eight million acres, that the highest estimate he had ever heard
for the completion and equipping of the road through Texas was
"'Texas State Gazette, November 11, 18, and December 2, 16, 1854.
1Gammel, H. P. N., Laws of Tewas, IV, 032.
"De Bow's Review, XXII, 509.
7"Amerisan Railroad Journal Weekly, March 7, 1857.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 35, July 1931 - April, 1932, periodical, 1932; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101092/m1/29/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.