The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, July 1952 - April, 1953 Page: 317

                                
Texas Collection

Thesis: The Peters Colony in North Texas, 1841-1854.
EDITH HELENE PARKER-American History, English, and English
History.
Thesis: History of Land Grants for Education in Texas.
WILLIAM MARTIN PEARCE, JR.-American History, European History,
and Anthropology.
Thesis: A History of the Matador Land and Cattle Company,
Limited, from 1882 to 1915.
PAUL HERBERT RIGBY-Business Administration and Economics.
Thesis: A Statistical Study of the Lower Colorado River Au-
thority's Soil Conservation and Farm and Ranch Improvement
Program.
HAROLD ARTHUR SHAPIRO-Economics and Government.
Thesis: The Workers of San Antonio, Texas, 1900-194o.
For the following note on the "oxen railroad" in East Texas
and Louisiana during the Civil War, the Association is indebted
to member Oscar Haas of New Braunfels. Haas, who is treasurer
of Comal County, translated the story from the Kalender, supple-
ment to the New Braunsfelser Zeitung for 1918:
THE OXEN RAILROAD
Under the lesser historical chapters of American railroads are in-
cluded some real oddities. Probably one of the most remarkable
is the following railroading story that took place in Texas and
Louisiana during the Civil War.
Posterity should not forget the "Oxen-Railroad" that in the 6o's
stretched the 40 miles from Marshall, Texas, to Shreveport, Louisiana,
under the name of Memphis, El Paso & Pacific Railroad.
Owner and founder was a certain John Higginson; and he was
everything else, president, vice-president, chairman-of-the-board, train-
master, freight and passenger agent, fireman, chief mechanic.
Starting at Marshall was a long downward climb which in the
development of matters came in quite handy. During the war, soldiers
had seized the greater part of the rolling stock and left the owner only
three freight cars. These assets also were not increased until the rail-
road passed into other hands.
Higginson procured the best locomotive power available at the
time, namely several yokes of good oxen, ordinarily called "hay-
burners" and regulated the operation of the railroad as follows:
the oxen themselves were loaded into the first car, passengers and
freight were put into the second car, and the third was for the
owner's personal use.
Higginson would start the train at Marshall on the downward
run and let it roll down the long decline during which the cars

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