Paul Bremond

The plaque calls Bremond a spiritualist; by his account, a spirit chose his last railroad. He said Moseley Baker, a soldier of the Texas Revolution, prodded him to build the Houston, East and West Texas, chartered in 1875. Bremond picked a three-foot narrow gauge, bought two locomotives from the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and began laying track on July 4, 1876. The line, nicknamed the Rabbit, reached Nacogdoches in 1883 on eastern bankers' loans. He died in Galveston on May 8, 1885, before trains crossed the Sabine, and in 1894 the whole road was converted to standard gauge.

What the plaque says

Paul Bremond The city of Bremond is named for the noted financier and railroad builder Paul Bremond (1810-85). A native of New York, where he apprenticed in the hat trade, Bremond came to Texas in 1839 and eventually joined other investors in a railroad that became the Houston and Texas Central. With Bremond as president, it built a line from Houston to Dallas and beyond. Among the new towns established along the route was Bremond, incorporated in 1870. Paul Bremond was also instrumental in the development of the Houston, East and West Texas Railroad farther east. A spiritualist who was married three times, Bremond was recognized widely as one of the state's leading businessmen of his day. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Calvert — 13 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 28 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• Bremond — steps away
• Joseph and Catherine Bartula — 0.7 mi
• Wootan Wells — 3.2 mi
• Site of Extinct Town of Hammond — 5.2 mi