DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and it's a story worth telling right. On June 14, 1886, the first San Antonio and Aransas Pass train rolled into Beeville, and the crowd that met it was cheering. Now, that moment didn't happen by accident.
Three men in particular had worked to make sure that railroad came through Bee County and nowhere else. You had SA&AP president Uriah Lott, who had a vision of a line running all the way from San Antonio down to the Gulf at Corpus Christi. You had Captain A.
C. Jones — merchant, banker, cattleman, a man who apparently couldn't stop himself from being useful — and you had rancher Frank Skidmore. When the nearby town of Goliad pushed back against Lott's proposed route, these men pushed harder.
Jones granted land and substantial funds. Skidmore donated land and the Skidmore townsite itself. And once those two set the example, many others followed.
That's the thing about a boom in the making — generosity tends to be contagious. Beeville went from a village to a boom town, and new farming towns sprung up all around it. The place became a shipping point for cattle and cotton, which, in Texas in that era, was about as central as a town could get.
Then in 1889, the Southern Pacific completed a second line through Bee County — this one running to Victoria and on to the port of Galveston. Suddenly Bee County wasn't just on the railroad. It was a rail center, with passenger and freight connections reaching far and wide.
Passenger service peaked in 1918. By 1930, the Beeville-Skidmore line was averaging eighteen trains a day. Eighteen.
During World War II, passenger service increased again, one last great surge of people moving through on iron rails. But improved highway travel had other ideas, and passenger service came to its end in 1952. The Southern Pacific depot was razed in 1958.
And the last train left Bee County in 1994. That's a long run, from that cheering crowd in 1886 to a quiet departure more than a century later. The marker puts it plainly: the booster spirit of the railroad era lives on.
And out here on the road, rolling through Bee County, you might just feel what it means to be somewhere that once made sure the trains came through.
What the marker says
On June 14, 1886, the first San Antonio and Aransas Pass (SA&AP) train arrived in Beeville to a cheering crowd. The arrival marked the combined efforts of SA&AP president Uriah Lott; Beeville merchant, banker and cattleman Captain A. C. Jones; and rancher Frank Skidmore to route the railroad through Bee County. When Lott's proposed line from San Antonio to the Gulf at Corpus Christi was opposed by the nearby town of Goliad, Jones granted land and substantial funds, while Skidmore donated land and the Skidmore townsite. Many others followed their example. Transformed from a village to a boom town, and surrounded by new farming towns, Beeville became a shipping point for cattle and cotton. In 1889, after the Southern Pacific completed a second line through here to Victoria and the port of Galveston, Bee County became a rail center with connections far and wide for passenger and freight service. Passenger service peaked in 1918, and by 1930 the Beeville-Skidmore line averaged 18 trains daily. During World War II passenger service increased, but improved highway travel led to its end in 1952. The Southern Pacific depot was razed in 1958, and the last train left Bee County in 1994, but the booster spirit of the railroad era lives on. (1997)