First San Marcos Mayors:
THE GILDED AGE
Editor’s Note: While this series highlights the first mayors of San Marcos, parts 1 and 2 will give background on the city’s beginnings.
“Go west, young man; go west and grow up with the country,” someone, perhaps Horace Greeley, may have said. Easier said than done. That advice was easier to heed than “go to the moon, young man” would have been, but not much.
The desire to “go west” was certainly present. On Jan., 24 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold in the South Fork of the American River at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, CA. On Sept. 9, 1850, California became the 31st state of the Union. In between were untold square miles of land — free or almost so. The difficulty was transportation — rather, grueling transportation. An 1870 railroad map reveals a nation divided.
“The Gilded Age” was an age of robber barons. Andrew Carnegie produced iron and steel with which Cornelius Vanderbilt constructed railroads. In 1870, the eastern part of the nation was planted thick with railroads that had reached the eastern borders of Nebraska and Kansas, where they stopped.
A Texan had two ways to get to California — by sea and by land. The sea route was no picnic. Board a ship at Galveston, sail south and round the tip of South America at Cape Horn, then sail north to Sacramento — five months. It was much quicker to cross the isthmus of Panama, by mule or, later, by rail, rather than rounding Cape Horn—one month.
There were several choices for travel by land. Wagon train — four months. Butterfield Stage Line — three weeks or more. Pony Express — 10 days.
Of the wagon train pioneers, the Donner Party is probably the most well-known. In April 1846, 87 people left Springfield, IL, and went west. Plagued by mishap after mishap, such as taking an ill-advised route to California, they were late in attempting to cross the Sierra Nevada via a pass, which had been blocked by early winter snows. Stranded from November 1846 to March 1847, they faced starvation, illness and extreme cold. Some who died were eaten by others in the party. Forty-seven of the Donner Party survived.
The earlier Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party had better luck or better leadership — probably both. The 50member party left a site near Council Bluffs, IA on May 22, 1844. Most walked beside their wagons, which were pulled by oxen. At Donner Summit, winter snow halted their advance. Seventeen men left for Sutter’s Fort. On Feb. 24, 1845, they returned with much-needed provisions. Later that Spring, all 52 members arrived at Sutter’s Fort; two were infants that had been born along the way.
As the vacant West attracted more and more people, market problems arose. How did Texans get the supplies they need to produce crops? How did they get those crops to market? Take cotton, for example, for which Texas is justifiably famous. Long-staple cotton is preferred for making clothing because the fibers are softer, stronger and more durable. And it is easier to remove the seed from the lint. But short-staple cotton can be grown in a wider range of climates and soils, which Texas has. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, which vastly increased the speed of seed/fiber separation, made shortstaple the cotton of choice in Texas.
When the seeds were removed, the fiber was baled in round or square bales and then compressed. The compressed bales were hauled to Galveston for a sea voyage to the cotton mills in the Northeast.
Texas was also producing a lot of longhorn beef destined for Northern markets. This resulted in cattle drives. The most famous route is probably the Chisholm Trail, which was used to drive longhorns to railheads in Kansas.
An intolerable trip. Railroad magnates saw opportunity and acted. In 1863, the Union Pacific began driving a road westward from Council Bluffs, IA. Central Pacific and Western Pacific built eastward from Sacramento, CA. They met at Promontory Point, UT, on May 10, 1869, where the famous “golden spike” was driven.
Now, that 1870 railroad map looks like a crowded pincushion with a knitting needle projecting westward. That situation could not, and did not, last. Every town of any size wanted the railroad. Branch lines began to sprout anywhere the railroad saw a profit.
There were side effects. The widespread use of wagon trains declined significantly after the 1880s. By 1895, the cattle drives had virtually disappeared, killed by the railroad and barbed wire. As branch lines proliferated, railroads got contracts, such as mail, which was previously given to stagecoach lines or the Pony Express. While stagecoach lines persisted for a while, most were gone by the early 1900s. The Pony Express mail service suffered an even quicker demise. It ceased operation on Oct. 26, 1861 after just 18 months in existence. That’s almost simultaneous with the completion of the transcontinental telegraph line on Oct. 24, 1861.
Every town wanted the railroad, but many, for lack of population, were destined to wait. Large population areas, and large profits, were first to attract the railroad. Villages between two population centers got the railroad automatically.
That was the case with San Marcos. In 1870, it had a population of 741 and 2,334 in 1880, but it was conveniently located between Austin and San Antonio, which had plenty of population to attract a railroad. In our case, it was the International & Great Northern Railroad. Its northern terminus was in St. Louis, MO. It ran almost due south to Poplar Bluff, MO. Then it angled to the southwest and ran through Little Rock, AR, to Texarkana and Palestine where it split. The eastern leg continued to Houston and Galveston. The western leg to Austin and San Antonio could hardly avoid San Marcos, New Braunfels and other towns between.
See Part 2 “A Tale of a River and Its Village” next week.
Dr. Grady Early, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, taught math and computer science at Texas State University for 29 years, serving briefly as interim chair of the newly-formed Computer Science department. After retirement, Early began researching his family history and gained some familiarity with various research tools: ancestry, Familysearch, newspapers, San Marcos Record archives, Findagrave and many more. This made it easy for him to segue into the histories of non-family members, which is how he began to write a story about the first mayors of San Marcos.
