Briscoe's Dream
by Louis F. Aulbach and Linda C. Gorski
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Andrew Briscoe had a dream, a dream of a railroad from Harrisburg to the Pacific Coast. Since there were no railroads in Texas at the time, a transcontinental system was a giant leap of imagination. In 1840, Briscoe wrote a paper in which he detailed his concept of the "California Railroad". He envisioned a grand route from Harrisburg, through Richmond, Fayetteville, Austin and, then, on to El Paso and San Diego, California.
That was a bold and audacious idea for Texas at the time, but, in many ways, it was typical of the optimism and vision of many of the young leaders of the nascent Republic of Texas.
Andrew Briscoe settled in Texas in 1833, at age 23, after making several trips between his home in Mississippi and Texas to assess the opportunities in the state of Coahuila y Tejas. In 1835, he received a shipment of goods and established a store in Anahuac. Almost immediately, he became involved in the unrest among the Texans there that was referred to as the Anahuac Disturbances. Having distinguished himself in the cause of revolution and having served as a Captain at the Battle of San Jacinto, Briscoe was appointed the chief justice of Harrisburg County by President Sam Houston in 1836.
As the first county judge of Harris County, Briscoe set a pattern for entrepreneurial ventures that several succeeding county judges have emulated. At the end of his term of office in 1839, he returned to his interest in mercantile activities. He planned to build a railroad, the first in Texas, from the port of Harrisburg to the agricultural lands of the Brazos River. About two miles of the Harrisburg and Brazos Railroad were graded and laid with ties, but financial difficulties caused the project to be abandoned.
On January 9, 1841, the Harrisburg Rail Road and Trading Company was chartered with Briscoe as president. The railroad was to extend from Harrisburg to Richmond on the Brazos River. The company failed to build any tracks due to lack of funds and the war with Mexico.
Although Andrew Briscoe lived in one of the first two story houses in Houston, the county seat, he also owned substantial property interests in the town of Harrisburg. In 1840, he owned one town lot in Houston, but he owned 13 town lots in Harrisburg. As a merchant, he believed that commerce to and from the interior counties of Texas, was best handled through the port at Harrisburg, not Houston. His railroad was designed to bypass the town of Houston by three miles to the south. The rivalry between the two towns for commercial dominance would persist for nearly forty years until the devastating hurricanes of the late 1870's flooded the wharves at Harrisburg and forced the merchants to move their warehouses farther inland to Houston.
Perhaps discouraged by his failure to establish a successful railroad venture in Texas, Andrew Briscoe moved his family and his business operations to New Orleans in the spring of 1849. The railroad holdings and the town site of Harrisburg had been sold in 1847 to a group headed by General Sidney Sherman, and Briscoe turned his interests in New Orleans to banking and brokerage services. Tragically, on October 4, 1849, Andrew Briscoe died of bronchitis in New Orleans at age 39.
Briscoe did not live to see his dream become a reality. A good idea, however, will persist until its time comes. General Sidney Sherman and a group of investors chartered the Buffalo Bayou Brazos and Colorado Railway in 1850, and they succeeded in building the first railroad in Texas. Tracks were laid from Harrisburg to Stafford's Point in 1853. The first passengers to ride a train in Texas went three miles from Harrisburg to Thomas Point on the Buffalo Bayou Brazos and Colorado Railroad, on April 21, 1853, to a celebration featuring salutes from the Twin Sisters cannons used at Battle of San Jacinto. Regular operations of the BBB&C Railroad were inaugurated in August, 1853.
The Civil War brought financial hardships to the railroad. In 1870, Thomas Peirce acquired the BBB&C Railroad and renamed it the Galveston Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad. Peirce set his sights on extending the tracks of the GH&SA Railroad to San Antonio and beyond. He entered into an agreement with the Southern Pacific Railroad coming from the west coast, and the two railroads met on a trestle over a small ravine along the Rio Grande, about three miles west of the Pecos River in late 1882.
On January 12, 1883, Thomas Peirce emerged from his private car in the middle of the trestle where the two railroads came together. In the presence of officials of the Southern Pacific Railroad, Peirce spoke eloquently of the magnificent canyons of the Rio Grande and the superb engineering required to traverse the difficult terrain. He then drove in the last spike, a silver spike. With that, Andrew Briscoe's dream of a rail system from the port at Harrisburg to the west coast was finally a reality.
Today, you can stand in the vacant lot at the end of Magnolia Street where once stood the railroad depot at Harrisburg. Buffalo Bayou and the Houston Ship Channel are only a few blocks away. The bustle of passengers and the hustle of the loading of merchandise for shipment have long since faded away. But, the rail line is still active. You can follow the tracks down Griggs Road, to Holmes Road, to South Main Street, and on to Stafford, Richmond, San Antonio, El Paso and San Diego -- the route of Southern Pacific's famous Sunset Limited.