The Railroad that a Spirit made
by Robin Montgomery
Believing that the spirit of a deceased person was guiding him, in 1875 a daring entrepreneur started the Houston East and West Texas Railroad, HEWT. The line played a major role in igniting the great East Texas Timber industry. Our daring entrepreneur believed that the same spirit had earlier prompted him to be the driving force behind the company that brought Navasota its first railroad.
This entrepreneur was named Paul Bremond. A native of New York, by the early eighteen fifties he had made his way to Texas. His arrival was propitious, for a series of meetings in Chappell Hill and Houston had just led to activating the charter of the Galveston and Red River Railroad. The goal was to lay tracks from Houston to the Brazos River and on to the interior of Texas. Bremond quickly became the chief promoter of the enterprise, participating in its ground-breaking in Houston in 1853.
In 1856, the railway changed its name to the Houston and Texas Central. Three years later tracks were laid through Navasota. Bremond remained heavily invested in the line until 1875 when his focus became the HEWT line.
It is here that our story delves into the realm of the spiritual. Mr. Bremond was a believer in spiritualism. In Houston, he formed a small society of students of spiritualism and made frequent trips to New York to attend spiritualist conferences. Especially of interest to him was “Spiritual Photography”.
The special spirit guide, whom, Bremond believed, had led him to build both the Houston and Texas Central and the Houston East and West Texas Railroads was the spirit of Mosley Baker. Baker had been Captain of Company D, First Regiment of Sam Houston’s Army at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. After that decisive victory for Texas Independence, Baker died in 1848.
Baker and Bremond did have a few things in common. For one thing, Baker helped incorporate the short-lived “Texas Railroad, Navigation, and Banking Company.” And, like Bremond, Baker also had a flare for heterodox religious beliefs.
Besides the spirit connection, another interestingly spooky aspect of Bremond’s second line, the HEWT, was the tendency of a locomotive to occasionally jump the tracks. Thus did the jumping locomotive receive the name “Rabbit” while the railway, itself, assumed the title of” Hell either way you take it.”
Colorful indeed is the history behind the HEWT and its sister-line, the Houston and Texas Central.
Robin Montgomery may be reached at zippoboo@aol.com
Believing that the spirit of a deceased person was guiding him, in 1875 a daring entrepreneur started the Houston East and West Texas Railroad, HEWT. The line played a major role in igniting the great East Texas Timber industry. Our daring entrepreneur believed that the same spirit had earlier prompted him to be the driving force behind the company that brought Navasota its first railroad.
This entrepreneur was named Paul Bremond. A native of New York, by the early eighteen fifties he had made his way to Texas. His arrival was propitious, for a series of meetings in Chappell Hill and Houston had just led to activating the charter of the Galveston and Red River Railroad. The goal was to lay tracks from Houston to the Brazos River and on to the interior of Texas. Bremond quickly became the chief promoter of the enterprise, participating in its ground-breaking in Houston in 1853.
In 1856, the railway changed its name to the Houston and Texas Central. Three years later tracks were laid through Navasota. Bremond remained heavily invested in the line until 1875 when his focus became the HEWT line.
It is here that our story delves into the realm of the spiritual. Mr. Bremond was a believer in spiritualism. In Houston, he formed a small society of students of spiritualism and made frequent trips to New York to attend spiritualist conferences. Especially of interest to him was “Spiritual Photography”.
The special spirit guide, whom, Bremond believed, had led him to build both the Houston and Texas Central and the Houston East and West Texas Railroads was the spirit of Mosley Baker. Baker had been Captain of Company D, First Regiment of Sam Houston’s Army at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. After that decisive victory for Texas Independence, Baker died in 1848.
Baker and Bremond did have a few things in common. For one thing, Baker helped incorporate the short-lived “Texas Railroad, Navigation, and Banking Company.” And, like Bremond, Baker also had a flare for heterodox religious beliefs.
Besides the spirit connection, another interestingly spooky aspect of Bremond’s second line, the HEWT, was the tendency of a locomotive to occasionally jump the tracks. Thus did the jumping locomotive receive the name “Rabbit” while the railway, itself, assumed the title of” Hell either way you take it.”
Colorful indeed is the history behind the HEWT and its sister-line, the Houston and Texas Central.
Robin Montgomery may be reached at zippoboo@aol.com