1857 - Notice from the Southern Pacific Railroad [also known as the Texas Western Railroad, the Vicksburg and El Paso Railroad, and the Texas and Pacific Railway] informing shareholders that an installment payment was coming due

New York, 1857. Envelope or Cover. Very good. This printed circular is titled “Transfer Office of the Southern Pacific Rail-Road Company / No. 54 Wall-Street / New York, May 30, 1857.” It is addressed to W. P. Mehville Wilne, Esq. of Sandusky, Ohio, and franked with an imperforate Franklin stamp (Scott #9) canceled by a black, circular New York postmark. In nice shape with a tiny bit of soiling to the edges.

The notice reads in part:

“An installment of fifty cents a share will become due and payable on the three percent. Stock held by you in the Company, on the first Monday of July next. . .. Stock on which said instalment shall not be paid, will be sold at auction, in conformity with . . . the Charter. . ..

“About sixteen miles of our ‘Road’ are now graded and nearly furnished with cross-ties – twenty-four hundred and seventy-eight tons of rail-road iron have been bought and paid for, and sent up Red River – sufficient to finish twenty-five miles of road.”

. The Southern Pacific Rail-Road referenced in this document is not the much more famous transcontinental route. This railroad was founded on 16 February 1852, officially as the Vicksburg and El Paso Railroad although throughout the document it was referred to as the Texas Western Railroad. It was later bought by the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad for $600,000. It was later acquired by Texas interests and its named officially changed to the Southern Pacific Railroad, the predecessor of the Texas and Pacific Railway. It was never associated with the later and more famous transcontinental Southern Pacific.

During 1857, the railroad laid 23 miles of track between Marshall and Swanson’s Landing on Caddo Creek. During the Civil War, the line was connected to Shreveport, Louisiana. In 1872, it was sold to the Texas Pacific Railroad Company, which in 1976 merged with the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

(For more information, see Werner’s “History of the Texas Western Railroad Companies,” and “History of the Texas and Pacific Railway Company” both at the Texas State Historical Association website.)

Scarce. At the time of listing no other documents from this Southern Pacific Railroad are for sale in the trade. Although no other 1857 circulars documenting the construction of the first 16 miles of its track have been sold at auction, other materials related to it have. OCLC shows no materials related to this Southern Pacific Railroad are held by institutions, however, it is possible there may some within the Texas & Pacific Railway Collection at the University of North Texas.

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