Using Railroad Maps and Timetables to Discover How Ebenezer Moved to Texas

Today’s lesson about railroads in the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy in the “Sea to Shining Sea: Researching Our Ancestors’ Migrations in America” course got me thinking how my Loveless ancestors traveled from Conway, Arkansas to Stephenville, Texas.

Ebenezer Loveless came to Texas sometime between 31 Dec 1904 when he sold land outside of Conway, Arkansas to his son, Thomas M. Loveless[1] and 12 Sep 1908, when he married Melissa M. Blount (nee Settle) in Erath County, Texas.[2]

Route to Texas
By this time, railroads crossed many parts of the United States. One could travel to almost any town by rail. Using a railroad map of the Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad, I can find the lines between Conway and Stephenville.

I used the map of the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway Company found on Wikipedia.[3] Conway is not on the map but is located just north of Little Rock on the line along the Arkansas River. From Conway, he would have ridden to Little Rock. Changing trains at Little Rock, he would have traveled to Texarkana. He then changed trains again to ride to Fort Worth, Texas. From Fort Worth, he would have taken another train to Stephenville.

Louisiana & Arkansas Map from Wikipedia

Now, to be sure where this all worked and with which railroad company, I checked The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba, 1905 Jan-Feb.[4] This guide, found on HathiTrust, gives timetables for all of the railroads and steam lines in the above countries.

Official Guide from HathiTrust

The Guide also has maps at the front showing these railroads and the branch lines. Here are the two cropped images showing Arkansas and Texas with our route.[5]

Official Guide p. 24

Official Guide, p. 23

Also, in the Guide are timetables with listings of stops on the lines and the times they stop. If Ebenezer got on in Conway, he had a choice to two trains, one in the morning and one in the evening. Our ancestors had much more choices for riding than we do today. Let’s say he wanted to take the morning train. He would leave on the St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. train  no. 54 at 5:02 and arrive in Little Rock at 6:00 AM.[6]

Official Guide p. 780

He would have about an hour layover to catch the same company’s No. 5 to Texarkana and arrive at 11:40 AM.  Then as you can see at the bottom, he boards the Texas and Pacific Railway at 12:10 PM toward Fort Worth.[7]

Official Guide, p. 771

His last train would be Train No. 9 on the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railway (Frisco System), leaving Fort Worth at 3:25 PM and arrived in Stephenville at 6:07 PM.[8]

Official Guide p. 723.

Conclusion
Using old railroad maps and timetables listed in Official Guides, I was able to determine how Ebenezer Loveless made the move from Conway, Arkansas to Stephenville, Texas in the early part of the 20th century.


[1] Faulkner County, Arkansas, Circuit Clerk records, Conway, Bk 29, p 89, Warranty Deed, E. Loveless to T.M. Loveless.

[2] Erath County, Texas, Marriages, Bk L, p. 42, 1908, E Loveless-Mrs. MM Blount; FHL film 1,026,028.

[3] “Louisiana and Arkansas Railway,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_and_Arkansas_Railway), 1903 system map of the L&A.

[4] The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba, 1905 Jan-Feb, digital image, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.096493241&view=1up&seq=32).

[5] Ibid, p. 23 & 24.

[6] Ibid, p. 780.

[7] Ibid, p. 771.

[8] Ibid, p. 723.


Copyright © 2021 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family, All rights reserved.

Comments

Post a Comment

All comments on this blog will be previewed by the author to prevent spammers and unkind visitors to the site. The blog is open to other-than-just family members particularly those interested in family history and genealogy.

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Blogiversary & Happy 100th Blog Post!

Image
Today is a big milestone. This is the 100th blog post I have written and the 6th anniversary of the beginning of this blog. I began the blog on January 15, 2011, through a blog writing class I took at California Genealogical Society, taught by Craig Siulinski. It was something I wanted to do but wasn’t really sure what I would focus on. I finally settled on writing about my grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster’s family and this was my first post . In the beginning it was hard to get started. I learned from the Geneabloggers website, that there were blogging memes I could use and I have done that off and on, especially at the beginning. But I finally learned that what worked best was to write about my discoveries as I researched my grandmother’s family. So what have I written in six years? I discovered I have only written four posts specifically about my grandmother: “Mam-ma was a Tomboy” “Fearless Females – Day 12” “Mam-ma 1913-2013” “My Grandpar...
Read more

John Coor of Copiah County Made an Agreement with Joel Hoggatt

Image
This week at RootsTech 2024, FamilySearch announced a new feature that an every-word search was available for U.S. deeds and probates. It is still in the trial mode and can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/ . This is the search screen. It clearly states it is for US land and probate records and Mexico notary records. You can do a keyword search or if you click on the “more options” you can add a name. My Find I immediately gave it a try and searched first for records of the COOR family using the keyword search. Up first came deeds from Wayne County, North Carolina.  At the top, you can filter using record year, record type, record place, and collection. For the past few days, I have mainly filtered by record place. I filtered down to Mississippi. You can even filter to the county. The first entry was a document I had not seen before. It was an 1826 agreement between John Coor and Joel Hoggatt to build a set of grist and sawmills. John Coor is my 4x-great-grand...
Read more

Using the Attendees at Lela Ann (Loveless) Lancaster’s Funeral to Discover Residences

Image
Lela Ann Lancaster, my maternal great-grandmother, died on 17 May 1951. [1] She had died in Wichita Falls, Texas, at the state hospital. The doctor’s handwriting is nearly illegible so the cause of death is difficult to determine. She was conflicted with Parkinson’s Disease which probably contributed to her death. Her funeral was three days later. [2] Lela Ann (left) with Warren, daughter Pansy, granddaughter Lela Nell, and son Wayne, c. 1935 Obituary Tells Story of Life Two obituaries were published on the same day in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune on two different pages. One gave information about her life and the funeral, and the other was about who attended her funeral. The transcription of the first is here: "Mrs. Warren G. Lancaster"    Funeral services for Mrs. Warren G. Lancaster, 55, who died at 4:30 a.m. Thursday at a Wichita Falls Hospital, were at 3 p.m. Sunday at the First Baptist Church with the Rev. Felix Gresham and the Rev. Ernest Rippetoe officiating...
Read more