The Beginnings of the Texas Railroad System. 
43 
2. Other Railroads. 
The Galveston & Brazos Railroad was chartered in 1838. W. S. 
Cooke, James F. Perry and others were authorized to construct turn- 
pikes and railroads from Galveston Bay to Brazoria on the Brazos 
River, and to improve bays, rivers, bayous and creeks. This enterprise 
was intended to carry out on a more limited scale the plans of Archer 
and Collingsworth. Its ulterior object was to build up the city of 
Galveston by connecting this port with the fertile lands of the 
interior. 
In 1839 a charter with similar powers was granted to parties in 
the interest of Houston to connect that city with Richmond, a town 
a few miles above Brazoria. 
The Harrisburg Railroad & Trading Company was incorporated 
by parties in Galveston, and was given authority to connect Buffalo 
Bayou at Harrisburg, a point a few miles below Houston, with the 
Brazos River. The charter, although soon forfeited, suggested the 
later one, which found fruition in the completion of the Buffalo 
Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad. 2 
No work was done under any of these charters. The Republic of 
Texas lived and died without ever hearing the whistle of a locomotive. 
NOTES. 
*Act of December 16, 1836, Gammel’s “Laws of Texas,” Vol. 1, p. 1188. 
2 The facts of this account are taken from an article by Donaldson in the 
Texas Almanac for 1868, pp. 119-121. 
III. PROGRESS OF RAILROADS IN TEXAS, 1845-1856. 
3. First Railroads of the State. 
In 1846 two roads were chartered by the new State : The Lavaca, 
Guadalupe & San Saba, and the Colorado & Wilson Creek. These 
charters were soon forfeited. 1 
4. Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad. 
In 1850 General Sydney Sherman, a veteran of the Texan War, 
organized the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad Company, 
to succeed the Harrisburg Railroad & Trading Company, which had 
become defunct. J. F. Barrett, of Massachusetts, was elected presi- 
dent, William Hilliard of the same State was elected secretary and 
treasurer, and J. S. Todd, of Texas, was elected resident director. 
This was the first successful attempt to enlist the aid of Northern 
