Wichita Falls Railway

Last updated April 29, 2019

The Wichita Falls Railway is a defunct railroad that extended for eighteen miles from Wichita Falls to Henrietta in Clay County in North Texas, where it joined the larger Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, often called the "Katy". The railway was built between 1894 and 1895 by the entrepreneur Joseph A. Kemp.

Wichita Falls is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita Counties. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 104,553, making it the 38th-most populous city in Texas. In addition, its central business district is 5 miles (8 km) from Sheppard Air Force Base, which is home to the Air Force's largest technical training wing and the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program, the world's only multinationally staffed and managed flying training program chartered to produce combat pilots for both USAF and NATO.

Henrietta is a city in and the county seat of Clay County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Wichita Falls metropolitan statistical area. The population was 3,141 at the 2010 census, a decline of 123 from the 2000 tabulation of 3,264.

Clay County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 10,752. The county seat is Henrietta. The county was founded in 1857 and later organized in 1860. It is named in honor of Henry Clay, famous American statesman, Kentucky Senator and United States Secretary of State.

The initial capital of $100,000 to build the railway was augmented with the sale of $20,000 worth of stock and $250,000 in bonds.^[1] Railway board members included Robert E. Huff, A. Newby, and Joseph Kemp, all of Wichita Falls; M. J. Tompkins of Vernon in Wilbarger County, Texas, and Leon Blum, Morris Lasker, and Julius Runge, all from Galveston, Texas. The railway owned no rolling stock but leased its track to the Katy. This arrangement proved profitable for its thirty-one stockholders, the most prominent having been Kemp and his brother-in-law Frank Kell, another Wichita Falls entrepreneur. In the period from 1899 to 1901, the Wichita Falls Railway paid dividends averaging more than $13,000 per year.^[2] The line was sold to the Katy in 1911, which then built in Wichita Falls a station, offices, a roundhouse, and three switching tracks.^[1] The track operated under lease until 1969, when it was superseded by the parent company. The original eighteen miles of railway were finally abandoned in 1970.^[2]^[3]

Vernon is a city in Wilbarger County, Texas, United States. It is the county seat, and as of the 2010 Census had a population of 11,002.

Wilbarger County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 13,535. The county seat is Vernon. The county was created in 1858 and later organized in 1881. Wilbarger is named for Josiah Pugh Wilbarger and Mathias Wilbarger, two early settlers.

Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Geographically located in the South Central region of the country, Texas shares borders with the U.S. states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the southwest, while the Gulf of Mexico is to the southeast.

Kemp and Kell also owned other rail properties, including the Wichita Falls and Southern Railroad, which operated between 1921 and 1954 from its southern terminus in Dublin to its northern point in Waurika in southern Oklahoma.

The Wichita Falls and Southern Railroad Company was a railroad in operation in North Texas from 1921 to 1954. It was incorporated in 1920 by several investors, most prominently Frank Kell and his brother-in-law, Joseph A. Kemp, both of Wichita Falls, Texas.

Dublin, Texas City in Texas, United States

Dublin is a city located in southwestern Erath County in Central Texas, United States. The population was 3,654 at the time of the 2010 census, down from 3,754 at the 2000 census.

Waurika is the county seat of Jefferson County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,064 at the 2010 census, a 4.36 percent decrease from 2,158 at the 2000 census.

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Wichita County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 131,500. The county seat is Wichita Falls. The county was created in 1858 and organized in 1882.

The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railway is a former Class I railroad company in the United States, with its last headquarters in Dallas. Established in 1865 under the name Union Pacific Railway, Southern Branch, it came to serve an extensive rail network in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. In 1989, it merged with the Missouri Pacific Railroad; today, it is part of Union Pacific Railroad.

The Wichita, Tillman and Jackson Railway is a shortline railroad subsidiary of the Rio Grande Pacific Corporation that operates two disconnected lines in Oklahoma and Texas, mostly owned by the state of Oklahoma. The line for which it is named extends from Wichita Falls, Texas to Altus, Oklahoma, through Wichita, Tillman, and Jackson Counties. It was completed by the Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway and Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway of Texas in 1910, and became part of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway (MKT) system in 1911. The line was cut back from Forgan, in the Oklahoma Panhandle, to Altus in 1973, and operations were transferred to the WTJR in January 1991. The other line, from Waurika to Walters, is a former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad branch, leased to the Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas Railroad, an MKT subsidiary, after the Rock Island's abandonment in 1980, and transferred to the WTJR in 1991.

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Orville Bullington was an attorney and businessman in Wichita Falls, Texas, who was the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1932 against former Governor Miriam Wallace "Ma" Ferguson, who won the second of her two terms in the office.

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The exposed strata at the surface in and around Wichita Falls are the products of one ancient period of deposition with a modest amount of recent and modern alteration. In all cases, the strata are products of terrigenous (non-marine) environments dominated by fluvial depositional and erosional systems.

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Joseph A. Kemp American businessman from Wichita Falls, Texas

Joseph Alexander Kemp, sometimes known as Jodie Kemp, was an entrepreneur and investor who along with his brother-in-law Frank Kell is considered one of the modern founders of Wichita Falls, Texas.

Lake Wichita was a large man-made lake of 2,200-acre (890 ha) acres located some three miles southwest of Wichita Falls, Texas. Its creation was primarily the work of the business entrepreneur Joseph A. Kemp, who with his brother-in-law Frank Kell, is considered one of the principal founders of Wichita Falls in the early 20th century. In 1995, the dam and spillway were rebuilt lowering conservation elevation to 976', decreasing surface acreage to 1224 acres at full pool, and leaving average depth of four feet.

The Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway was among several short-line railroads which in the first half of the 20th century extended like the spokes of a wheel from the hub city of Wichita Falls, Texas. Its principal owners were the entrepreneurs Joseph A. Kemp and his brother-in-law, Frank Kell.

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References

1 2 Hart, Brian (April 30, 2012). "Kemp, Joseph Alexander". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
1 2 Wheeler, Clark (June 15, 2010). "Wichita Falls Railway". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
↑ The Texas State Historical Association bases its information on the Wichita Railway from: Masterson, V.V. (1952). The Katy Railroad and the Last Frontier. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.

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[kemp-1] 1 2 Hart, Brian (April 30, 2012). "Kemp, Joseph Alexander". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved April 16, 2013.

[tshao-2] 1 2 Wheeler, Clark (June 15, 2010). "Wichita Falls Railway". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved April 20, 2013.

[3] The Texas State Historical Association bases its information on the Wichita Railway from: Masterson, V.V. (1952). The Katy Railroad and the Last Frontier. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.