The Aransas Harbor Herald. (Aransas Harbor, Tex.), Vol. 2, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 10, 1892 Page: 1 of 4
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^HE ARANSAS HARBOR HERALD
VOL. II. NO. 1.
ARANSAS' HARBOR, TEXAS, THURSDAY, MARCH^U 1892.
I IRK 11 NS
Shipments of Stone Expected by the
15th of this Mouth.
SOME DETAILS OF THE PLAN OF PROCEDURE
Capt. Nelson’s Men Pushing- the Work
On Mustang- Island.—The Rate
to Aransas Harbor.
It is announced by Mr. Nelson that
the shipment of stone will be begun
on the 15th instant, which is as soon
as the necessary developments can be
made at the quarries.
The quarries are near the station at
Brackenridge and in the same forma-
tion from which the stone was secured
for the former work. The quarry now
leased by the Harbor company is not
the same as the one formerly used,
though it has been extensively worked
and only needs clearing out to be ready
for a large force of men
The delay is occasioned by the time
required to build a spur from the rail-
road to the opening. The distance is
4000 feet, and some heavy grading is
necessary.
Mr. Nelson was at the quarries on
Tuesday, returning to Aransas Harbor
yesterday evening.
The work at the quarries is under
the supervision of Mr. Fred L. Loven-
skjold, who was recalled from Mexico
by Mr. Nelson for the purpose. Mr.
Lovenskjold is a young man who has
worked with Mr. Nelson for several
years and is thoroughly acquainted
with all the methods and designs. He
was reared in Corpus Chris ti, and is
the brother of Mr. O. C. Lovenskjold,
who is the favorite candidate for may-
or of that city at the coming election.
From forty to sixty men will be em-
ployed at the quarries at first, but
when the caissons have been sunk and
the rip rap work begins the force will
be largely increased.
The cassion work will only require
from ten to twenty carloads of stone
per day, for a gread deal of lumber is
used in their construction. Like as in
the building of King Solomon’s Tem-
ple, the timbers for the work are cut,
hewed and numbered in the forests
where felled, and it only remains for
the workmen on the jetties to fit them
and bind them to prepare them for
the masonry.
The caissons will be circular in shape
and about sixteen feet in diameter.
Heavy piling will be driven on the
inside of them to hold them in place
and also to serve as supports for the
railroad over which the stone for the
riprap will be delivered. About two
hundred caissons will be required for
each jetty and ten or twelve of them
will be sunk every 24 hours.
This work will probably be com-
pleted within the first two months,
when the control of the currents will
be secured and the works can be pro-
tected with riprap as the occasion re-
quires, and the amount of protection
necessary to be given will depend
largely upon the new conditions de-
veloped. The caissons will be sunk
to the clay beneath the sand by means
of hydraulic pumps and they will be
firmly planted and held in place by
substantial piling, creasoted to pro-
tect it against the toredo.
The pumps, two in number, and all
other necessary machinery, was order-
ed in St. Louis, and was expected to
arrive on the 7th inst., but delays oc-
curred at the foundry and it was not
shipped until last Monday.
The first schooner load of lumber for
the caissons arrived at the camp Tues-
day evening, and was unloaded yes-
terday.
The timbers for the piling and the
railroad art already delivered upon
the ground, am about forty men have
°een at work at the camp since the
second inst.
Mi E. hoster a-Hyed from San
Antonio on Monday ,,nd left yester-
day for the cam,. Mr. Foster will be
Mr. IS elsons i>armast(u and book_
keeper and he wil^side *,t the camp
until the work is coivpietecj
Mr. Nelson’s own u. , wi,jvid_
ed between the quarrie the Jetti
the <^dge boat, the tertiy ^ and
the office of the company, _nd even
his indomitable energy will ,e taxed
to the utmost to meet all the
be used only in harbor improvements.
The distance is 105 miles and the rate
is equivalent to $10.50 per carload of 20
tons. The rate is made upon the basis
of transportation for at least 20,000
carloads and that amount of stone is
contracted for delivery at .that rate.
The rate is made to Aransas Harbor
because, as against any other locality,
a saving of ten miles, equivalent to $1
per car, or 10 per cent of the total tar-
iff, is thus effected in the item of rail-
road freights; because a saving of dou-
ble that distance in the water haul,
equivalent to four hours time per trip
for the steamer “Horatio,” can be
made by using the new channel from
Aransas Harbor ; because the waves
in the new channel are never boister-
ous, as in the larger bays ; and because
there are no adequate wharf facilities
anywhere else within reach.
Nothing could have more clearly
evidenced the strength of the geo-
graphical position occupied by the
new city, and the far-seeing enterprise
of its promoters in providing wharf
and channel facilities in anticipation
of the first movement toward the im-
provement of Aransas Pass.
The action of the Aransas Pass Har-
bor Company in fixing the rate in this
way was without prejudice to any
other point, and was not in any way-
intended to boom Aransas Harbor.
The arrangement was left wholly to
the manager of the company, and no
attempt whatever was made by any
citizen of Aransas Harbor to influence
him otherwise than as his best judg-
ment suggested.
$2.00 A YEAR
IF IF BE DONE AGAIN
Remarkable Success of the Company
That Started Birmingham.
STOCK ROSE FROM S510 $1000 A SHARE
Aransas Harbor Regarded as Presenting
a Better Opportunity for Develop-
ment.—Birmingham’s Story.
Work of the Company at the City of
Aransas Harbor.
THE DREOGE BOAI’S DAILY EXCAVATION
Dimensions of the Channel and Embank-
ment for the Terminal Road Bed.—
Nearing the End.
' Nry~t o nd q
for his attention. Mr. Nelson Vwide
ly noted for his shrewd choice oi lljeu
and the assistants now engaged
him are all worthy of the high^t
The dredge boat attracts a great
many visitors since it has reached the
trestle, and they can watch its move-
ments without interfering with the
work. The reporter finds a great deal
of satisfaction in loafing around there
with the rest of the gang, hanging his
legs over the cross beams of the tres-
tle and watching the ponderous ma-
chinery wrestle with the State of
Texas.
The rumbling of the heavy machin-
ery in the bowels of the boat, the rat-
tling of hundreds of feet of massive
chains and the sweep of the ponder-
ous crane that carries the dipper, are
constant and enduring sources of en-
tertainment to an idle mind.
From dawn to dawn- the work goes
on and every minute the huge dipper
spreads its jaws and bites another
cu bic yard of hard mud from the bed of
the shallow bay before it. The spread
of the dipper is about six feet and the
width of its maw is four feet. Three
courses across the channel constitute a
meal, and the boat moves forward
about six feet at a time. About three
moves forward are made every two
hours, and a hundred feet per day is
an average task, and a big one.
The channel is 55 feet wide and
eight feet deep, though the dipper
cuts to a depth of ten feet.
In this fashion the boat has traveled
two miles and a half and piled up the
mud hehind her. The dirt removed
exceeds a volume of 250,000 square
yards, and represents that many rev-
olutions of the dipper. The dipper
places the dirt on a shute that carries
it to the center of the dump and its
own gravity distributes it over the
road bed.
The road bed is 80 feet wide from
high tide to high tide, instead of twen-
ty-five feet as the reporter once stated.
When the dump is thoroughly dried
out it is intended to raise the bed to
that width, which induced the error
in the former report.
The levers that direct the machin-
ery are now managed by Mr. Walter
Stewart, and he fully understands
the business.
Our Mr. Mackey at Denison.
Denison Gazetteer.
Mr. E. J. Mackey, of Aransas Har-
bor, has been in town the past week.
Mr. Mackey was car accountant for
the M. K. & T. By. Co., in Dennison,
several years ago, and is well known
to most of our citizens. He is now en-
gaged in the real estate business at
Aransas Harbor. Mr. Mackey has
done well in the new town, and by
strict attention to his business, integ-
rity and sobriety, has won the confi-
dence and esteem of the people at
home and abroad. There is a great
deal of activity just now in real estate
at the new town of Aransas Harbor
confidence, but his success is laro-eL aud the couutry contiguous, owing to
£•«£, sir.180;:1 Tfr whr w*
TT. & es to eveiy detail of his work. Wofadeep water inlet to Aransas
Vy, and there is little doubt a good
a^l of money will be made by those
'.Make time by the forelock and se-
desirable property while it is in
tee ^'ket at fair prices. The Gazet-
m a party is now organizing
vie it to pay Aransas Harbor a
Msit tm*^onth# Fairbanksis
His capacity for such management is
unlimited and he can push more dif-
ferent enterprises in more directions
at one time than any man in Texas.
Mr. Nelson is not much given to
talking for the public, and his plans
have been unfolded only as the oceas-
sion required. The reporter’s knowl-
edge of them have been slowly gath-
ered by piece meal and his experience
in putting them together has taught
him that gratifying surprises may be
looked for at every stage of the work.
He is now well advanced with the
ground work of his plans and the
thoroughly systematic manner in
which he has gone to work is the
highest evidence that the confidence
of the people in his ability to move the
bar is well founded. Mr. Nelson says
that in two months from the begining
of the work he will have something
to show to the public, and would be
glad to have them come then, but in
the mean time he prefers they would
let him alone.
NEAREST POINT TO THE PASS.
Saving Effected By Unloading the Mate-
rial at Aransas Harbor.
The sixteenth exception to Com-
modity Tariff No. 10 becomes effective
to-day. By this ruling of the Railway
Commission the Aransas Pass Harbor
Company gets a rate over the San An-
tonio and Aransas Pass Railway from
Brackenridge to the city of Aransas
Harbor of one-half cent per mile per
ton for the transportation of stone to
one of th-
and Mr. Davis and Mr.
Stoneman, vv l ; inJ
tercets in tfc ?av? large
Hicinityof the town, will
No Dov^t About It.
Mr. William IW ,, f o,,
m ., yhiett, of Shavano,
Texas, writes to’XV. Hebald:
“I trust you are E , , ,
without fail or hiderJf +Jee?. wate?
never had a bit of douwe this time. I
ability and ultimate su^J?011];1*'8jeas_
water is a necessity and ^01\ deeP
it. I trust you will go on Lmu.s^ ^av®
not stop till you clasp a“d
Rockport and Portland.” wdd
The Herald is indebted to Mrs. J.
W. Pickens, of Aransas Harbor, for a
copy of the Age-Herald, of Birming-
ham, Ala., in which was published the
following exhaustive review of the
wonderful development of the stock of
the Elyton Land Company,which was
the original proprietor of the city
of Birmingham, and which more
than any other factor brought
about the magic development of that
phenomenal city. The story will
greatly interest the friends of Aransas
Harbor, for in the stocks of the Aran-
sas Pass Harbor Company and the
Aransas Harbor City and Improve-
ment Company they have properties
similar in many respects, though our
home properties represent much larger
areas, are founded upon a broader
basis, invoke a deeper and more na-
tional interest, and their development
is demanded by a more imminent
emergency than existed when Bir-
mingham was founded. The Age-
Herald says:
* * * In March, 1875, Colonel
Powell resigned the office of president,
and Dr. Henry M. Caldwell was elected
in his stead, and was continued as
president from that date to this. At
this time the indebtedness of the com-
pany amounted to about $70,000. It
had no money, no credit and nothing
to sell except land and water ; there
was absolutely no demand for the
former, and scarcely enough for the
latter to pay the cost of furnishing it,
and its capital stock would not sell on
the market for $15.00 per share.
Immediately after his election the
president was authorized by the stock-
holders to issue $80,000 of bonds bear-
ing eight per cent interest, secured by
a mortgage on all the property of the
company, and to sell these bonds at 80
cents on the dollar for the purpose of
raising money to pay the debts. The
mortgage was executed and the bonds
issued, but purchasers for the bonds
could not be found, and but one small
creditor of the company could be in-
duced to. take the bonds for his debt.
One creditor of the company, who was
prevented by a technicality from get
ting a judgment in the courts, became
very anxious about his claim, which
amounted at that time to about $18,000.
The president of the company propos-
ed to pay him the amount of his debt
in bonds at 80 cents on the dollar, or
give him enough land at its then
cash value, to be fixed by disin-
terested parties, to pay his claim in
full; or to induce the stockholders to
transfer a sufficient amount of stock in
the company at $50 per share to extin-
guish the debt. A11 three of these
propositions were rejected by him, and
his claim was finally adjusted by giv-
ing him the note of three stockholders
payable in five years, with interest at
eight per cent, who took the bonds of
the company on the same terms they
were offered to him. If he had ac-
cepted the 360 shares of Elyton Land
Company stock offered him for his
debt of $18,000, and sold out at the
market price ten years afterwards,
collecting his dividends in the mean-
time, he would have realized $1,722,-
000 for his debt, which he thought at
one time he was in great danger of
losing entirely. This gentleman is
now a prominent iron master and an
honored citizen of Birmingham. No
doubt when he thinks of this lost op-
portunity he realizes that
1 ‘There is a tide in the affairs of men, which
taken at the flood,
Leads on to fortune. ’ ’
Finally, the Elyton Land Company
succeeded in funding its debt, but for
several years, there being butlittle de-
mand for property, there was a con-
stant struggle to pay interest on its
debt and expenses, and no dividends
were declared to gladden the hearts of
the stockholders until 1883.
Its capital stock, which sold as low
as $15 per share, had risen in 1877 to
$25 per share, but did not reach par
until the spring 1881.
In August, 1879, the first rays of the
rising sun of prosperity began to illu-
mine the long darkened horizon of
Birmingham and the Elyton Land
Company, when it wasannouned that
the company had donated to Hillman
and DeBardeleben twenty acres of
land at the west end of the town upon
which to erect a blast furnace. The
public, however, who had so often
been disappointed by reports of com-
ing iron works which never came,
were slow to credit this, until in the
spring of 1880, work upon Alice fur-
nace No. 1 was actually commenced.
From the time work was begun on
the Alice furnace, the population of
Birmingham began slowly to increase
and property to advance steadily in
value. During the year 1880 the build-
ing of the Birmingham rolling mills
was also commenced.
The total sales of property by the
Elyton Land Company from 1880 to
1883 were as follows :
1880.
1881.
1882.
1883.
h 69,448.00
108.995.00
176.713.00
355,817.51
A Good Man For Mayor.
Mr. Oscar C. Lovenskjold ^
nounced as a candidate for Mayo^13"
Corpus Christ!. He is eminently
ted for the office and if elected wm
doubtless prove a good Mayor. Mr. _____„
L. is a brother of Mr. Fred L. Loven-Uo present you with something more
The average price per lot received by
the company upon sales of property
inside the corporate limits of Birming-
ham will give some idea of the en-
hancmeut of values up to this time:
1880.........•................................$260.00
1881 ........................................ 360.00
1882 ........................................ 511.71
1883......................................905! 45
As a part of the history of the Ely-
ton Land Company and of Birming-
ham, extracts from the annual reports
of the president will be given in this
paper. The following is an extract
from the report to the stockholders at
their annual meeting in January,
1883:
“For ten long years, at each recur-
ring convention of stockholders, you
have listened to the report of your
president and directors, and have been
regaled with alluring hopes of the fu-
ture prosperity of your company and
the great prospective value of your
property. We were expected to pre-
sent something ; we had nothing else
to offer but encouraging words and
bright hopes of the future.
‘To-day we are gratified to be able
skjold, who is employed by Captain
Nelson on the work at the Pass.
San Antonio & Aransas Pass Time Table
AICRTVK.
From Rockport....................... g.16 a m
From Corpus Cliristi, via Gregory.. .10.30 a.m.
From Rockport....................... 2.00 p.m
From San Antonio, Houston, Corpus
Chris.ti, and points north and east.. 8.13 p.m.
LEAVE.
For San Antonio, Houston, and points
north and east...................... g.16 a.m.
For Rock port..........................10.45 a.m.
For Gregory and Corpus Christi...... 2.00 n.m.
For Rockport (daily)................. g.15 p.m!
Hqgtantial and satisfactory. Since
last assembled in annual conven-
your bonded debt has been en-
moiy extinguished and $80,000 of the
here^ge bonds of your company are
disno H'1 presented to be destroyed or
may iu sucl3 marmer as y°u
out of <&{*• Your company is now
creasing das a constantly in-
mulation iucome and an accu-
substantial Hisets which affords a
handsome grantee of regular and
on. The extends from this time
tire indebtedn|iqlsd3meut
$26,000 in permaL^d the addltl°n
your water works ^ improvements of
31 oue year, and the
enhancement in the market value of
your stock within three years from
twenty cents on the dollar to four hun-
dred is, we think, cause for congratu-
lation and sufficient evidence that the
hopes with which we endeavored to
inspire you during the years of adver-
sity through which your company has
passed were well founded.
“The future prosperity of Birming-
ham is, in our opinion, now assured
and we do not doubt that the present
prices of property will be maintained,
but we should not be content to fold
our arms and let things take their
course. Much can and should yet be
done by the Elyton Land company to
promote the prosperity of the city and
still further enhance the value of your
property.”
During the year 1883 there was a
considerable increase in the total sales
of real estate and prices were materi-
ally advanced. This year there was
paid to the stockholders of the Elyton
Land company cash dividends amount-
ing to $200,000 or 100 per cent upon the
capital stock, being the first divi-
dends received by the shareholders
since the organization of the company.
In the year 1883 the Elyton Land
Company erected the building on 20th
street and Morris avenue in which,
since its completion, have been located
the offices of the company.
The Georgia Pacific railroad was
completed from Atlanta to Birming-
ham in 1883, and on the 1st of January,
1884, the general offices of the company
were moved from Atlanta to Birming-
ham.
Iu 1884 the Elyton Land company
commenced work preparatory to build-
ing the Highland Avenue railroad
with a view to developing its property
situated on the South Highlands, at
that time an almost inaccessible wil-
derness. Highland Avenue was laid
out 100 feet wide, extending from the
intersection of Seventh Avenue south,
and 29th street and winding around
by graceful curves, at one point reach-
ing an elevation of 200 feet above the
city, to 20th street. Extensive im-
provements were also begun upon
Lake-view park and in building the
belt railroad.
In the early summer of 1884, the fail-
ure of Grant & Ward occurred in New
York, and was followed by another
serious financial depression, from the
effects of which the country did not
recover until the latter part of the
year 1885.
The Elyton Land company, notwith-
standing this great financial strin-
gency, continued without cessation
the imp-ovements it had inaugurated
upon so extensive a scale.
The total sales of property by the
Elyton Land company for the year
1884 were $373,227.84, but in the year
1885 the amount was reduced in con-
sequence of the financial stringency to
$210,764. Dividends paid in 1884
amounted to 95 per cent, and in 1885
to 45 per cent upon the capital stock.
Then follows an interesting report
of the establishment of the Birming-
ham water works, electric light plant,
the Williamson furnace, etc., showing
the liberal aid extended to these en-
terprises by the Elyton Land company
which is omitted because of the great
length of the report.
Confident that its original estimate
of the marvelous resources of this sec-
tion was correct, the Elyton Land
company had gone steadily forward
in its policy of of inducing the location
of manufacturing establishments in
Birmingham, and up to this time it
had given to various industrial enter-
prises and for public uses near 2000
acres of land from its original purchase
of about 4000 acres, and had besides
invested over$l,000,000 in cash in va-
rious enterprises for the improvement
and benefit of the town. Birmingham
had at this time (the latter part of 1886)
a population of near 20,000, having
during the previous two or three years
attracted to herself from the most
prominent cities of Alabama and ad-
joining States numbers of their most
intelligent and enterprising citizens,
most of whom had made fortunate in-
vestments in their new home. The
plaintive notes of the croaker who
during the recent depression for the
second time in the history of Birm-
ingham had “bobbed up serenely” to
say, “I told you so” were now silenced
by the^onward march of progress, and
all her citizens with scarcely a single
exception were full of snap and energy,
and buoyant with hope and confidence
in the future.
Early in the year 1886 the real estate
market became exceedingly active and
continued to grow in breadth and ac-
tivity until about the middle of the
year. Such a scene of excitement in
real estate speculation as was present-
ed in Birmingham at this time was
perhaps never before witnessed in the
South. People from all parts of the
South flocked to Birmingham attract-
ed by the reports which had spread
all over the country of the wonderful
profits being so rapidly realized here
by speculation in real estate. Hotels
and boarding houses were packed to
overflowing by eager fortune hunters.
Almost every prominent window fac-
ing on the business streets was rented
at fabulous prices for real estate offices,
while glib-tongued speculators never
tired of pouring into listening ears
fabulous stories of the enormous profits
being so rapidly realized by lucky in-
vestors. Day by day the excitement
grew—upon the street corners, in hotel
corridors, and in private parlors, the
one theme of conversation was real
estate speculation. Young and old,
male and female, merchant and clerk,
minister and layman — everybody
seemed seized with a desire to specu-
late in town lots. Conservative citi-
zens who in the early stages, wisely
shook their heads and predicted dis-
aster to purchasers of property, as
prices climed higher and still higher,
with scarcely a single exception, ceased
to bear the market, and when prices
had advanced two or three hundred
per cent above what they had pro-
nounced extravagant, entered the
market, bought property and joined
the great army of boomers. Wilder
and wilder the excitement grew.
Stranger and resident alike plunged
into the market, hoping to gather in a
portion of the golden shower which
was now falling in glistening sheets
upon the Magic City. Each day the
office of the Elyton Land company was
crowded with a throng of eager pur-
chasers, and the president of the com-
pany, who alone had charge of sales
of the company was kept busy at the
maps from morning until night pric-
ing property and making sales. A
memoranda of each sale as soon as
made was handed over to a clerk, who
would receive the cash payment and
give a receipt for the same. In many
instances the purchaser would seize
his receipt and rush out on the street
and resell the property at a handsome
profit before his bond for title could
be executed. One instance may be
mentioned where a real estate specu-
lator bought of the Elyton Land com-
pany a large amount of property and
in less than three months sold the
same for 400 percent advance. On sev-
eral occasions during this year the
president of the company stopped sales
and more than one time left the city,
but in a few days he would be over-
whelmed with telegrams urging him
to return. Many strangers who came
to Birmingham during this period of
excitement did not reach the Elyton
Land company at all, but boughtprop-
erty from speculators at prices far be-
yond what they could have bought
property for from the company in the
same locality.
On the 24th of December, 1886, a card
was issued from the office of the Ely-
ton Land company, addressed to each
of the stockholders, upon which was
neatly printed the following :
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Office Elyton Land Company, )
-Bibmingham, Ala., Dec. 24, 1886. (
I am gratified to be able to present you to-day
with an order for a dividend of 100 per cent upon
your stock in the Elyton Land company, paya-
ble on the 24th of December.
This makes 138 per cent for the month of
December, and 340 per cent, or $680,000, which
has been divided among the stockholders dur-
ing the year 1886. Your obedient servant,
II. M. Caldwell,
President.
Extracts from the report of the pres-
ident of the Elyton Land company to
the annual convention of stockholders.
May 5, 1887:
“ The amount of sales of real estate
for the year, you will preceive, is $4,-
866,955.57, more than quadruple any
previous year’s business since your or-
ganization as a company.
“It is gratifying to your directors to
be able to present you with so favora-
ble a statement. Such an enormous
increase of available assets as the Ely-
ton Land company shows for one year
is doubtless without a parallel in the
history of Southern corporations. The
distribution of $500,000 of water works
stock worth par, the payment of $1 -
320,000 of cash dividends, the invest-
ment of $250,000 in permanent improve-
ments, and the setting aside of $3,614,-
395.58 to the credit of reserved profits,
making a grand total of $5,684,395.58
as the visible fruits of one year’s busi-
ness, we think ought to satisfy the
average stockholder.
“Those of you who attended the
meetings of the stockholders in the
dark days of yore can best appreciate
the marvelous change which time has
wrought in the financial condition of
the company.
“The sales of near $5,000,000 worth
of property during the current year
just passed shows a most remarkable
and. unprecedented activity during the
entire year. Your past experience has
been that an active real estate market
is usually followed by a period of dull-
ness, and these recurring periods usu-
ally follow each other at short inter-
vals. The dull period which has just
set in, following such a long extended
time of activity, may be more than
usually protracted.
“So far as our rival claimants for in-
dustrial supremacy are concerned,
Birmingham can confidently rely upon
the fact that it is in a great measure a
question of the “survival of the fit-
test.”
“All intelligent men who know the
facts, realize and conceed the fact that
the Elyton Land company has been
the back bone of Birmingham, and to
it more than any other influence, she
owes her marvelous growth and won-
derful prosperity. In the days of vour
poverty, you extended sympathy and
such aid as was in your power to strug-
gling industrial enterprises in your
midst, and as you grew more prosper-
ous, you spent your money with a lav-
ish hand in various enterprises for the
development of Birmingham. As the
city has prospered so have you pros-
pered, and to-day Birmingham is the
most prosperous city, and the Elyton
Land company the most powerful’ cor-
poration, financially, in the South.
Stimulated by your success, rival
cities all over the South are organiz-
ing for the development of their re-
sources, striving to secure for them-
selves a portion of the benefits of the
great industrial activity which Birm-
ingham has awakened.
“An important question for us to
determine is whether we shall pocket
our profits and let Birmingham take
care of itself, or continue to expand
our energies and money to keep the
city of our founding in the lead in the
great race for industrial supremacy.
“Should this convention adoptstrong
resolutions announcing to the world
that the Elyton Land company has
determined to sustain Birmingham by
inaugurating some such scheme as
suggested, it would effectually remove
all doubt from the minds of the public
that here was to be the great indus-
trial center of the South. It would at
once establish confidence and enhance
the value of your property more than
the entire amount the works would
cost you.
“While we may not fully subscribe
to the proposition that “Providence is
always on the side of the heaviest ar-
tillery,” we must admit that many
battles, both in war and commerce,
are often decided in favor of the heav-
iest guns and the longest purse. The
battle for commercial and industrial
supremacy among the cities of the
South has now commenced. None can
equal Birmingham in position, and
she may remain to the end secure and
unscathed behind her natural fortifi-
cations, but the conflict will be quickly
decided if the Elyton Land company
will bring into action its heavy re-
serve.”
At this meeting of stockholders the
following resolution was unanimously
adopted:
Resolved, That the directors be and
are hereby authorized to expend the
Aransas Harbor’s Location Selected
For tlie City of the Pass.
CHOICE OF ENGINEERS LONG AGO
Its Geographical Position Impregnable.
—Advantages of Topography.—The
Railroad Center.
sum of $1,000,000 in the erection of a
rolling mill and such other manufac-
turing enterprises as in their judgment
may be expedient, the time and mode
of investment to be at the discretion
of the board of directors.
* * * *
In the latter part of the year 1887,
the directors of the Elyton Land com-
pany decided to issue $2,400,000 of trust
bonds, an equal amount of real estate
notes being placed in trust as security
for the payment of the interest and
principal of these bonds. These bonds
were issued and divided among the
stockholders, making a dividend of
1200 per cent upon the capital stock of
the company.
Dividends were paid to the stock-
holders of the Elyton Land company
during the year 1887 as follows:
Amount percent.
Cash..........................$ 410,000
Birmingham water works
stock....................... 500,000
Birmingham water works
bonds............ 100,000
Birmingham Trust and Sav-
ings company stock........ 200,000
Highland Avenue and Belt
railroad company stock... 1,000,000 or 500
Elyton Land company divi-
dend trust bonds.......... 2,400,000 or 1200
105
100
Total.......................$4,610,000 or 2205
The market price of stock of the Ely-
ton Land company in December, 1882,
reached $350 per share, and on the 20th
day of November, 1885, at an adminis-
trator’s sale iu Birmingham, thirty
shares sold tor $700 per share, cash.
From this time on it advanced rapidly
in value until the spring of 1887, when
several shares sold at $4,000 per share.
Naval Appropriations Bill.
Washington,_D. C., March 4.—The
house naval affairs committee to-day
practically completed consideration of
the naval appropriation bill. The
bill in round figures appropriates $24,-
000,000. The appropriation for the
current fiscal year, $31,146,145. No
appropriation is made in the bill for
the new cruiser authorized; $7,000,000
appropriated for the “construction”
of ships heretofore authorized and
$2,000,000 for the “armament” of these
ships.
A new dry dock at Algiers, La., is
provided for in the bill, the cost of
which be not more than $8,000,000.
Tlie Biggest Elephant.
A veritable curiosity has been cap-
tured in Africa, it is an elephant big-
ger than the late lamented Jumbo, pea
green in color, trunkless, and has
tusks that branch out something like
the horns of a deer. It is in posession
of a native king, who will not part
with it.
In former issues The Herald has
mentioned the franchises held by
Judge Pryor Lea and associates, and
the great railway enterprises they in-
augurated, with this point as the base
of their operations. It was the pur-
pose of those gentlemen to construct a
trans-continental line of railway from
Aransas Pass to Mazatlan, on the Pa-
cific coast of Mexico. The road was
designated “The Central Transit,”
and it was expected to divert to this
proposed route the commerce of China
and the Indies. The necessary fran-
chises were secured and capital suffic-
ient for the prompt completion and
equipment of the entire system was
pledged by English capitalists. At
that date (A. D. 1858) this was perhaps
the most gigantic railway enterprise
ever conceived by man.
In addition to building the railway
from this place to the Pacific coast,
the plans of “The Central Transit”
company embraced the deepening of
the water on the bar, outside of Aran-
sas Pass, and the necessary improve-
ments of the Harbor. The required
capital was deposited with the bank-
ing house of Messrs. Baring Bros., of
Boston, and work was commenced
under most encouraging conditions;
but, unfortunately, the civil war came
on very soon thereafter and the com-
pany was forced to temporarily sus-
pend operations.
Thirty-four years ago the identical
site upon which the city of Aransas
Harbor now stands was selected by
Judge Lea as the eastern terminus of
the trans-continental railway. Nearly
the entire water front of this penin-
sula was then open to him, but this
particular spot was chosen because it
possessed superior advantages as a
site for the great commercial city
which must inevitably follow upon the
consummation of their plans and de-
velopments.
It was (1), the nearest point on main
land to the Pass, and directly opposite;
(2) , its immediate proximity to the
large land-locked harbor—the safest
and best harbor on the Texas coast—
was a prominent feature in its favor,
(3) , it was but a short distance across
the bay to Harbor Island, which it
was intended to connect with main
land by terminal railway facilities;
(4) , the beauty of situation and large
area of high and dry lands made the
location specially desirable for a great
sea port city ; (5), the site possessed
superior natural drainage ; and (6), an
inexhaustible supply of pure, fresh
water. The foregoing are a few of the
advantages which influenced Judge
Lea in his choice of location more than
one-third of a century ago, and are
equally applicable at the present time.
A few years since a prominent rail-
way official of this State was asked
for his opinion as to the most availa-
ble and desirable site for the seaport
city which every fair-minded and un-
prejudiced man concedes will be built
at some point near the Pass when deep
water is secured. He replied: “There
is but one place for it; only one place
where (in connection with other im
portant advantages) sufficient room
can be had for such city and for the
necessary facilities for handling the
traffic of the place, such as yards, sid-
ings, switches, shops, etc., required
by the roads centering there in the
future.” And the shrewd railway
official then indicated as that “owe
place” the very spot chosen by the
Central Transit company in 1858, and
again adopted by the Aransas Harbor
City and Improvement Company in
1890, when they founded this fair
young city.
The advantages of this site, so ap-
parent to Judge Lea and associates
one-third of a century ago, are now
conceded by all who have the time or
iuclination to investigate the subject.
Indeed, they are points never ques-
tioned by those familiar with the sit-
uation. It is for the benefit of the
thousands of The Herald’s readers
at a distance who may not be posted
in reference to the history of Aransas
Pass or the events above mentioned,
and who aro asking information of
this section that these facts are again
stated. It is the purpose of The Her-
ald to disseminate reliable informa-
tion concerning this the fairest section
of the United States, and to aid in the
development of its unequaled advant-
ages.
The Herald has no wish to dis-
parage the claims or advantages of
any town or community. It has never
done so. It sincerely desires the suc-
cess of every town, every hamlet and
every citizen of Southwest Texas, and
has earnestly labored for the general
welfare of this section. It has hearti-
ly encouraged every enterprise that
promised good for the people. It is
not envious of our neighbors, and has
no words of abuse to heap upon any.
The work upon the bar, made pos-
sible at this time by the liberal con-
tributions of the enterprising citizens
of San Patricio, Aransas, Bee, and
other counties, is well under way, and
will be pushed to completion as soon
as possible. Deep water in the near
future is now a certainty, and an era
of prosperity never before equaled in
the Southwest is just dawning upon
us. Nor will the howls of the envious
effect the result.
dared in favor of holding the’ Demo-
cratic State Convention at Houston.
The Austin Capitolian wants to see
a “good level-headed farmer” as the
running mate for the Waco man.
The Caller says that spurious silver
dollars were taken in at one of the
leading stores in Corpus, last week.
The imports from Mexico through
the port of Laredo for the month of
February amounted to nearly $300,000.
The Waxahachie Democrat names
Hon. W. H. Getzendaner as a suitable
man for the high office of governor of
Texas.
The special election in Ellis county
resulted in the choice of J. A. Beall as
representative. Another vote for
Mills.
He Gives a Herald Reporter a Few
Facts About the Company’s Work.
RECORDING THE DEEDS fOR LAND SUBSIDIES
A Jefferson correspondent of the
Gazette says that “Texas should and
will furnish the iron for the great
Southwest.”
Sam Jones will hold forth at Bren-
ham from the 20th to the 30th of this
month, and a tabernacle is being
erected for the occasion.
The Democrats of Nueces county
propose to organize a club, “to advance
the interests of Hon. George Clark in
his race for the governorship.”
The Llano News says that arrange-
ments are now being perfected with
Eastern capital to establish plate g’lass
manufactories in Llano county.
An enthusiastic Democratic meeting
was held in Dallas on the 4th to or-
ganize a Clark club. Over 150 names
were enrolled before adjournment.
The Aransas Pass Harbor Company Tin-
der a Business-Like Administra-
tion.—Future Work.
Let Them Come to Aransas Harbor and
See the Best of the Show.
I GRID SPECTACULAR DRUM BEGINNING
If You Don’t Like Your Places, Now Is
the Time to Get In Front of the Foot-
lights On Harbor Island.
To our neighbors along the coast of
the Live Oak Peninsula, and our
friends just across the Nueces, the deep
water city extends this invitation:
Come to Aransas Harbor, while there
is yet room at the front.
Step over and select choice seats,
while Prof. Nelson’s complete orches-
tra is playing the overture; for when
the curtain rises there will be a crowd-
ed house, and before the end of even
the second act, a ticket would admit
you to “standing room only.”
The show has been well billed, and
we know you all wish to be where
you can best enjoy it. It is a grand
spectacular drama, and Aransas Har-
bor is the spot from which to view the
stupendous mechanical effects—real
ships drawing 20 feet of water; term-
inal railroad with moving trains; long
docks, and deep channels with ever-
lasting walls of clay.
The fact that we are nearest the
footlights has not made us selfish or
exclusive, yet we prefer the company
of acquaintances to that of the stran-
gers who will crowd around us. So
make your exchange while places are
cheap, else you may view the scenes
over the heads of a howling mob of
gallery gods.
Drop your rotten vegetables and
bring boquets. Come up and look
through the powerful lenses of The
Herald at the pleasing features of
the triumph just begun."
GENERAL NEWS.
TEXAS STATE NEWS.
The Channing Register has sus-
pended.
Houston wants the Democratic
State Convention.
Dallas has taken steps to organize a
board of life underwriters.
A number of Texas papers have de-
D. M. Ferry, the Detroit seedsman
is en route to Texas.
Sarah Bernhardt’s age, officially
(not fishly) is 48.
Serious riots are reported in Japan,
resulting from political troubles.
The Texas exhibit cars were visited
at Chattanooga,Tenn., by hundreds of
northern tourists.
_ A number of chinamen are becoming*
citizens of Mexico to evade the United
States restriction laws.
Col. Daniel Lamont, of New York,
is reported seriously ill at the St. James
Hotel, Jacksonville, Florida.
The Supreme Court of Kansas has
decided that criminals in that state
shall be confined in the penitentiary.
Kate Brown a wife of four days
suicided by shooting herself with a
revolver, on the 4th inst ., in Chicago.
Congressman G. W. Fithan has been
renominated by acclamation by the
Democrats of the Sixteenth Illnois
district.
The official crop report from Ger-
many says that crop conditions are
uniformly excellent throughout the
empire.
It is stated that the thickly popu-
lated negro counties of Arkansas will
send from 2000 to 3000 negro emigrants
to Oklahoma.
The United States treasury depart-
ment is making the usual arrange-
ment for the enforcement of laws in
regard to seal fisheries.
The Methodist Episcopal conference
of Kansas,_ by a vote of 85 to 25, decid-
ed to admit women as delegates to a
general conference.
Senor Montt, the Chilean miniser at
Washington, has informed the Secre-
tary of State that he will relinquish
his diplomatic position.
On the 3d inst, the thirteen Congres-
sional districts of Indiana selected a
solid Harrison delegation to theRepub-
lican National convention.
The fatal shooting of a deputy
United States marshal, by moon-
shiners, is reported from the vicinity
of Ducktown, Tennessee.
Assistant Secretary Bussey has
again been called before the pension
inquiry committee, but nothing new
or sensational was developed.
In New York, on the 5th inst.,
Edward T. Eaton was convicted and
sentenced to six months imprisment
for trying to flirt with a young lady.
Advices received in New York state
that the national assembly have de-
clared Gen. Reyna Barrios elected
president of the Central American
republic.
The Central Railroad and Banking
company of Georgia with all its assets
and entire property, has been placed
in the hands of a receivor, General E.
P. Alexander.
Gov. Wheeler returned to Aransas
Harbor yesterday. He has been for a
couple of days engaged with the secre-
tary of the Aransas Pass Harbor Com-
pany registering the deeds and bonds
for the deep water donations.
In an interview with a Herald re-
porter, Gov. Wheeler said that the
trust deeds for lands in Aransas coun-
ty have been filed for record, and he
had then in his possession the deeds
for the donations in San Patricio, Bee,
Goliad, Refugio, Bexar, Hidalgo, El
Paso, Grimes, Matagorda, Nacogdo-
ches and other counties for transmis-
sion to the clerks of the respective
counties, and they will be forwarded
at once.
The bonds for the cash donations
have all been executed and will remain
in the custody of Mr. J. M. Hoopes,
treasurer of the company. The total
number of the deeds exceeds onqhun-
dred and some of them are for exceS^
ingly large areas of land. Two of
them convey 10,000 acres each, and
more than a dozen of them exceed
1,000 acres each.
Gov. Wheeler, the president of the
company, and the secretary, are both
experienced lawyers, and careful at-
tention was given to the forms of the
conveyances, and all defects have
been carefully corrected. Quite a
number of the deeds are witheld for
correction, and it will be several days
before the record is perfected.
Some delay has been occasioned in a
few instances by the necessity for
having the instruments ratified by the
shareholders in contributing corpora-
tions, but no difficulty has been expe-
rienced in any instance to have the
subscriptions ratified by legal con-
veyance.
The secretary has prepared a record,
under Gov. Wheeler’s instructions, of
all donations made, which preserves
in proper order by counties the name
of every subscriber, with a proper de-
scription of his donation. When it is
completed a copy will be furnished for
publication, and it is always open for
the inspection of any one interested.
Very few of the deeds indicate the
value of the property conveyed, and
the record as yet does not show the
aggregate of the donations.
It is the intention of the company to
faithfully preserve the names of all
subscribers to the subsidy, and the
jetties that secure and maintain deep
water at Aransas Pass will be an en-
during monument to the public spir-
ited enterprise and business sagacity.
Gov. Wheeler is suffering from a
severe cold recently contracted, and
on that account has deferred his
weekly visit to the camp. Much of
his personal attention will devoted to
the work on Mustang Island, though
his chief duty will be to devise ways
and means for utilizing the channel as
soon as it is opened for business.
The principal—in fact, the only rev-
enue to the company, aside from sales
of its capital stock, until deep water is
secured and maintained for twelve
months and its land can be sold—
must be derived from dockage and
wharfage. Railroads and ships must
pay these tolls and they must be at-
tracted here as early as possible, for
the channel will be opened to business
within four months. To inaugurate
and promote such enterprises requires
the comprehensive intelligence and
indefatigable energy for which Gov.
Wheeler is so well known, and the peo-
ple of Aransas Harbor may rest as-
sured that no opportunity will be al-
lowed to pass us by. Though the
time is short in which to bring them,
twenty feet of water will find steam-
ships and railroads ready to receive
its business.
The Governor is already in corres-
pondence with some notable railroad
men who are not backward in
acknowledging their interest in
the improvements inaugurated here
and their anxiety to reach Aransas
Harbor. When his plans are further
advanced The Herald is promised
some interesting announcements in
that connection.
TEXAS STATE NEWS.
Fifteen officers and employes of the
Lousiana lottery company have been
indicted by the grand jury at New
Orleans, for alleged violation of the
anti-lottery postal law.
Atwood, Violett & Co., of New Or-
leans, estimate that by April 1st the
amount of cotton in sight will reach
8,350,000 bales, or perhaps more; an
excess of 460,000 bales over last year.
R. G. Dunn & Co.’s review of trade,
March 4th, gives the number of busi-
ness failures for the proceding seven
days at 240, compared with 270 for the
previous week and 265 the same week
last year.
M. C. Wright was convicted of forg-
ery, on the 4th inst., at Fort Worth.
The Grimes county farmers will ex-
periment with castor beans this year.
The New Birminghau Iron and Im-
provement Company has sunk an oil
well.
A rise in the Colorado river caused
a loss of about $1000 on the dam, at
Austin.
Liberty was visited by a severe
wind and hail storm last Saturday
morning.
Over 1200 permits were granted last
year for the erection of new buildings
in San Antonio.
The Knights of Honor, of Beeville,
talk of erecting a temple in that city,
at an early day.
A good rain extending throughout
Bee county is reported to have fallen
on the 7th inst.
Sam Jones will begin his Corsicana
meeting in the old oil mill in that city,
to-day, the 10 th inst.
Col. B. C. R.home, of Wise county,
has been mentioned as a possible can-
didate for governor.
The National bank of Daingerfield
has been authorized to begin business
on a capitalization of $50,000.
The cattlemen of Palo Pinto county
report stock in fine condition with
grass growing rapidly.
It is reported that the young men of
Velasco were prolix with wrath last
week, when they were summoned to
work the Oyster Creek public ro.nL 4
—--»«•-
Church Directory.
Preaching every fourth Sunday of
the month at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. by
Rev. J. W. Sims.
Sunday school at 3 p.m.; Gov. T. B.
Wheeler, superintendent.
1
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The Aransas Harbor Herald. (Aransas Harbor, Tex.), Vol. 2, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 10, 1892, newspaper, March 10, 1892; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth881355/m1/1/: accessed July 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Ed & Hazel Richmond Public Library.