Corpus Christi History by Murphy Givens

Wednesday, December 1, 1999

The folly of Uriah Lott

People gathered at Cooper’s Alley and Mesquite to watch Uriah Lott drive the first "golden" spike of the Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Railroad. It was Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26, 1876. The spike gilded by James McKenzie looked like real gold. It was stolen that night.
  This was a day of triumph for Lott, a 34-year-old salesman from Albany, N.Y. Before he got into promoting railroads, he owned a business buying and selling wool and hides.
  Lott invested his energy and savings in the dream of building a railroad from Corpus Christi to Laredo. He promoted a bond issue in 1875. It failed. Some feared it would ruin the ox-cart trade and two stagecoach lines - Armstrong’s line from Corpus Christi to Laredo and Hall’s from San Antonio to Brownsville - didn’t like the prospect of competing with railroads.
  People snickered and called the railroad proposition Lott’s folly, but he wouldn’t give up. He scrounged for money and support and gained the influential backing of ranchers Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy. Lott sold bonds and obtained land grants from the Legislature; for every line of railroad built, he would gain 16 sections of state land. Then, with $6,500 in cash advanced by King, he went to Philadelphia and bought a new steam locomotive from the Baldwin Locomotive Works.
  The engine arrived in September, 1875. Fogg’s Bar and Billiard Room, usually packed in the middle of the day, stood empty. Most of the town turned out to see the engine unloaded from the steamship Mary. The locomotive bore a shiny brass legend that read "Corpus Christi."
  A year later, a month after the golden spike was driven, Lott advertised his first schedule in the Corpus Christi Weekly Gazette. Excursion tickets to the end of the track cost 50 cents. The passengers sat on wooden benches in a home-made passenger coach and whooped and hollered as they rode 18 miles to Driscoll’s pasture, where the city of Robstown is today.
  When the tracks reached Banquete, a pipeline was laid to Agua Dulce Creek a mile away to bring water to make steam. Mesquite logs were burned in the locomotives; they threw off dangerous sparks and set range fires. At Banquete, Indians attacked the work crew, killing all but two. Lott and J.J. Dull of Pennsylvania, who made the iron rails, were robbed by bandits and stripped of their clothes; they made their way to San Diego in their underwear. Construction was delayed in 1878 when the port was under a yellow fever quarantine.
  The line stopped at San Diego in 1879. Lott was out of money. He sold the assets to the syndicate that owned the Mexican National Railway, which rushed to complete the railroad.
  When the line reached Laredo in 1881, the new company allowed the former owners to celebrate the inaugural run. King, Kenedy and Lott invited 100 or more friends to ride to Laredo in a private car called "Malinche." On the way, they drank from a barrel of lemonade that had been spiked with champagne and Rose Bud whisky (King’s brand). They were in fine spirits when they reached the Gate City. The train’s arrival set off the largest celebration ever held in Laredo.
  The name was changed to the Texas Mexican Railway. Lott’s iron rails were replaced with steel rails shipped from England. In 1902, in one overnight operation, the line was changed from narrow gauge to standard gauge. Wood-burning locomotives were converted to coal-burners and later to oil-burners. The Tex-Mex, often called Lott’s Railroad, gained a reputation as the friendliest, and perhaps most unusual, railroad in the world. If an engineer spotted a buck grazing by the tracks, he’d stop the train and let the passengers take a few shots. He would stop the train for a cowboy who needed a ride to the next station. Ranch wives would give conductors shopping lists to be filled in Corpus Christi or Laredo. In the early days, passengers would toss up mesquite wood to the tender to help speed things along.
  Lott didn’t stop building railroads. He was in charge of building the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad, which reached Corpus Christi in 1886. Lott was the driving force behind the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexican Line, which reached Brownsville in 1904. Before the "Brownie," there was not a sizable settlement or post office from Sinton to Brownsville. The Brownie changed the map of South Texas while Lott’s first railroad, the Tex-Mex, was a major force in the growth of Corpus Christi and Laredo. What happened to Lott often happens to visionary go-getters who have a great impact on the future. His endeavors brought him fame, but no wealth. He died a poor man in his hotel room in the Hotel Ricardo in Kingsville in 1915.
  (Sources: Caller-Times archives, "King Ranch" by Tom Lea, and "Gringo Builders" by J.L. Allhands.)
  

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