Lee Roys post on Edna, Texas reminded me of a personal story and a little tidbit of Texas history. As a kid, we often traveled from the Rio Grande Valley up to Houston to visit the grandparents. Where US77 connects to US59 is Victoria … further north one passes through Inez, Edna and Louise. I often wondered if these might all be related and named for sisters or other family members of some wealthy Texas Land Baron. Children have such vivid imaginations. Well, yes and no. And now for the history. In the 1880s, an Italian count strove to build a railroad between New York and Mexico, but his efforts yielded little beyond a stretch of track in Southeast Texas and a legacy reflected in the names of towns along the way. Count Giuseppe (Joseph) Telfener, a native of Naples who had built railroads in South America before immigrating to the United States, formed the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway in 1880 with several other financiers. The men decided to lay the first track in Texas, largely because the state at the time was rewarding railway builders with 16 sections of land for each mile of track laid. Work began in 1881, with an eastbound crew starting outside of Victoria and a westbound crew outside of Rosenberg Junction (present-day Rosenberg). At Telfener’s expense, the company hired 1,200 Italian workers to help build the railway, which became known locally as the “Macaroni Line.” Telfener hoped the men and their families would settle along the railroad right of way. (Descendants of the workers still live in Victoria, Houston, Galveston, and elsewhere in Texas.) Though work on the project ceased in 1882 after Texas revoked the laws that granted land to the rail companies, the 91-mile stretch of track between Victoria and Rosenberg Junction was completed on July 4 of that year. Telfener himself rode on the first train, which workers along the track cheered on mightily. Telfener operated the line for two years before selling it to his brother-in-law, John Mackay. Mackay, part-owner of a Nevada silver mine, was the major initial investor. He in turn sold it to Southern Pacific. Today, towns along US 59, which parallels the railway route, still bear the names of the count and his relatives: Telferner (misspelled, with an extra r), Inez and Edna (two of Telfeners daughters), Louise (his sister-in-law & McKays wife), Mackay, and Hungerford (his father-in-law). Oh, and Victoria? It is named for General Guadalupe Victoria, who became the first president of independent Mexico. Photo of Count Telfener & family courtesy of texashighways
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 15:58:56 +0000
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