Old Division Point Office for the "Boll Weevil" Railway

The Trinity and Brazos Valley was chartered in 1902, and its Eastern backers ran short of money. In 1905 the Colorado and Southern bought it and sold half to the Rock Island; the line was finished by 1907. It entered receivership in 1914. In 1930 it was reorganized as the Burlington-Rock Island, which started Texas's first streamlined passenger train, the Sam Houston Zephyr, on October 1, 1936. The original Mexia to Cleburne stretch was abandoned in stages from 1932 to 1942. The Handbook says the road called itself the Valley Road but was better known as the Boll Weevil.

What the plaque says

Old Division Point Office for the "Boll Weevil" Railway Important Texas transportation artery. Chartered as Trinity & Brazos Valley Railway. Nicknamed for special trains roaring down its tracks, taking men to "Boll Weevil Conferences"-- in turn of century alarm over pests attacking cotton and the economy. Another nickname for road was "Turnip & Bean Vine". The T. & B.V. was founded by an investor-statesman, Col. Edward M. House, famed for his national political power as advisor of U. S. President Woodrow Wilson. House's associates included Frank Andrews, formerly assistant attorney general of Texas; Robert H. Baker, statesman and insurance executive; and Benjamin F. Yoakum, lifetime railroad man and agriculturist. Road was built 1902-1907 from Houston to Cleburne, and with special trackage arrangements it became a short-cut hauler from Galveston to Fort Worth and Dallas. It introduced diesel passenger streamliners to Texas; belonged to Burlington-Rock Island complex during most of its first 60 years of service. Texas attained a peak of 17,078 miles of railroads in 1933. Trains still have respected roles in freight hauling. But the era of regulating family clocks by passage of the "Boll Weevil" or some other train is now largely a matter of warmly-cherished history. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 16 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Old Fort Parker — 16 mi
  A rebuilt 1830s family stockade near the Navasota River, where a May 1836 attack killed men of the Parker settlement and took five captives, among them nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker.
• Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site — 16 mi
  Where Limestone County Confederate veterans gathered each summer from 1888, later a water supplier in the Mexia oil boom, now a Texas Historical Commission site on the Navasota River.

More markers nearby

• Town of Teague — steps away
• William Rufus Boyd, Jr. — 0.8 mi
• Furney Richardson High School — 3.2 mi
• Ghost Town of Cotton Gin — 5.8 mi