60 
Transactions Texas Academy of Science. — 1906. 
completed and opened for business to East Bernard, fifty miles from 
Harrisburg, about April 1, 1859, and to Eagle Lake, sixty-eight miles 
from the starting point, by October 6, 1859. Seventy miles were com- 
pleted soon after. Work on the road to the point near Columbus, 
eighty and one-half miles from Harrisburg, was in progress in 
1860. The grading was completed, and the seventy-fifth mile fin- 
ished on May 23rd. The inception of hostilities put a stop to fur- 
ther progress. 
These seventy -five miles of road, completed before the Civil War, 
were built by the following means : 
The amount realized from the issuance of capital stock was $311,702. 
The citizens of Colorado, Fayette, Bastrop, Travis and Wharton 
Counties donated $24,047.25. 718,080 acres of land were received 
from the State under the various land donation acts. Of these, 
141,160 had been located and patented. 588,800 acres were disposed 
of, netting to the company $106,810.37, or about five and a half 
cents an acre. 
The loans received from the school fund, under the terms of the 
acts of 1856 and 1858 amounted to $420,000. 1 $232,095.76 was se- 
# cured from parties in Boston for which bonds were issued. In ad- 
dition $215,208.89 was received by the company in the form of sup- 
plies, equipment, etc., for the payment of which notes were given. 2 
These amounts aggregated $1,209, 846. 27. 3 
18. Houston & Texas Central Railroad. 
The beginnings of the Galveston & Red River Railroad have al- 
ready been described. Nothing much was accomplished during the 
year 1853 owing to the sore financial straits of the company. 
In 1855 a contract was closed for the construction of twenty-five 
miles of road. After many delays, and after the granting of an exten- 
sion of time by the Legislature, this section was completed in 1856, 
and trains were then run to Cypress City daily. 
With the permission of the Legislature, the company assumed the 
name of the Houston & Texas Central Railway Company. 
In order to receive a loan from the school fund a contract was let 
for the completion of the second section. This was finished to Hemp- 
stead, a distance of fifty miles from Houston, in January, 1858. Dur- 
ing the year 1859 work on the road progressed steadily. By October 
1st of that year, seventy-five miles were in operation. In 1860 the 
line was completed to Millican, eighty miles from Houston. Con- 
struction was then supended on account of the war. 
This company had great difficulty in securing funds with which to 
prosecute construction. In 1854 Paul Bremond, who had succeeded 
