Hearne & Brazos Valley Railroad

From the Hearne Depot archives

from the  HANDBOOK OF TEXAS ONLINE

Nancy Beck Young

The Hearne and Brazos Valley Railway Company was chartered on May 18, 1891, to connect Hearne in Robertson County with Moseley’s Ferry in Brazos County, for a distance of twenty miles. Local cotton farmers and merchants built the railroad. The capital stock was $100,000.

  The members of the first board of directors were R. J. White and Ed Wilson, both of Sutton, and L. M. Carr, T. C. Westbrook, H. L. Lewis, H. K. Davis, H. B. Eastwood, T. Kaufman, and J. M. Bartey, all of Hearne. In 1892 the Hearne and Brazos Valley built sixteen miles of track between a connection with the International and Great Northern at Valley Junction and Stone City.

   The Brazos flood of 1899 almost destroyed the railroad, but during 1900–1901 the Hearne and Brazos Valley was rebuilt on a new location from Glass to Stone City and extended from Glass to Hearne. The portion from Glass to Valley Junction was abandoned. In 1903 the line owned one locomotive and three cars and reported passenger earnings of $4,000 and freight earnings of $14,000.

   On June 1, 1914, the Hearne and Brazos Valley became part of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad Company.