“All aboard,” the train is coming! Railroad travel to Austin remembered

“All aboard,” the train is coming! Railroad travel to Austin remembered

Written by Karen R. Thompson Saturday, 07 April 2007

Thompson is manager of archives for Williamson County.

Eighty-six years ago, when Ernest and Fannie Mason took their young daughters, seven-year-old Charlie Bess, and five-year-old Christine, from Leander to Austin on the train, it was an all day trip.

It started early with the family horses, Tom and Nell, pulling the buggy three miles to the Leander Train Depot. The girls eagerly watched and listened for the train to come down the tracks.

Even today, 91-year-old Christine Mason remembers how exciting it was to travel to Austin by train. She remembers how clean and nice the depot was. On the train, the girls sat in the straight-backed seats in front of their parents, taking turns by the window and ate the lunches and snacks packed by their mother.

As the train made its way, it stopped at a small landing in Cedar Park to pick up riders.

The next stop before arriving in Austin was Rutledge, just north of Pond Springs, where the only building was the Petri Store.

Downtown Austin was busy on Saturdays with families shopping on Congress Avenue at the new Kress 5 & 10 cent store, F. W. Woolworth store, or Scarborough’s. This type trip called for buying goods not always available in Leander such as shoes, clothes, fabric, gloves, hats and handbags.

Christine and Charlie Bess were tired by the time they boarded the train for the return trip home to Leander. It was a full day indeed, by the time the horse and buggy arrived home, the girls were ready for bed.

The Austin & Northwestern Railroad was incorporated on April 29, 1881, to build a narrow gauge railroad from Austin northwest to Burnet. The board of directors included four men from Iowa, Dr. M.A. Taylor, Rudolph Bertram, Leander Brown, Frances B. Forster, and W.H. Westfall, all of Austin.

The company named one of the depots Bertram, and the depot a couple miles east of Bagdad, Leander, after Leander Brown.

Mr. Brown served as the mayor of Austin from 1867 to 1871. He was also involved in starting the first saving and loan company in Austin, and in 1864 his building on the corner of Bois d’ Arc and Brazos Streets was used to jail three Willis Brothers arrested for murdering three men in East Austin. A mob took the men and hanged them from three oak trees north of Pecan Street.

On November 9, 1881, the State Capitol building in Austin caught fire and burned down in two hours. Plans were begun to build a grand Capitol, and this time use granite.

The Austin & Northwestern Railroad would be used to haul the huge chunks of granite, from Granite Mountain near Marble Falls, to Austin.

During the years of 1885 to 1887, they hauled 50,000 tons of granite to build the current State Capitol in Austin.