Wreck of the Don Milo

The wreck came six months before a receivership, and the Handbook does not link them. Uriah Lott promoted the San Antonio and Aransas Pass, chartered in 1884, and Mifflin Kenedy built nearly all its track before 1900. It entered receivership on July 14, 1890; it lifted in June 1892 without a sale of the property. The Southern Pacific acquired it that year. A 1903 suit forced the Southern Pacific to sell its stock, though control returned in 1925. Forty miles between Shiner and Luling closed in 1933, and in 1934 the system merged into the Texas and New Orleans.

What the plaque says

Wreck of the Don Milo The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway Company (S. A. & A. P.) was chartered by the state of Texas in 1884 to connect the city of San Antonio with Aransas Bay, and the rail line officially came to Hallettsville on April 23, 1887. A large celebration on that date brought 5,000 to town to witness the completion of the track over the Lavaca River around noon, and the evening arrival of the first train. The S. A. & A. P. Railway met financial ruin when a disastrous train wreck occurred on the wooden bridge over the Lavaca River on January 2, 1890. The river had risen to within fifteen feet of the bridge's rails because of heavy rains. The engineer crossed the river in order to reach the water tank at the other side, because the water was necessary to power the trains steam-driven engine. The engineer then crossed back over the bridge to reattach the remaining cars. Upon preparing to cross the bridge with the entire train, the engineer realized that the trestle had been washed away by the surging water. Although the engineer was able to stop the train at the edge of the river, the weight of the train's cargo caused it to plunge into the raging floodwaters below. The train carried liquor as part of its cargo, and the consumption of the liquor by spectators added to the confusion caused by the crowd of onlookers that soon appeared at the site. The wreck of the Don Milo, engine no. 54, caused additional problems for the S. A. & A. P., which had already been experiencing financial difficulties. The resulting lawsuits forced the company to reorganize, and the S. A. & A. P. was acquired by the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1892. (2009)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lavaca County Courthouse — 0.5 mi
  A limestone Romanesque courthouse of 1897-99 on the square of a town founded by a widow trader, in a county seat that once printed the Socialist Party's state paper.
• Spoetzl Brewery — 14 mi
  The brewery a Czech and German railroad town started in a tin shed in 1909, run through Prohibition by a Bavarian who had brewed in Cairo, and then by his daughter.
• St. Mary's Church of the Assumption (Praha) — 18 mi
  The mother parish of the Czech settlements around Flatonia, a stone-fronted church of 1895 whose ceiling Gottfried Flury turned into a turquoise garden, with an August 15 feast since 1855.
• Nativity of Mary, Blessed Virgin Catholic Church (High Hill) — 19 mi
  A red brick Gothic Revival church of 1906 in a German farm settlement, where two San Antonio painters spent 1912 faking marble columns and stone vaults on wood.

More markers nearby

• Sacred Heart Catholic Church — 0.4 mi
• General John W. Whitfield — 0.4 mi
• Arthur Pendleton Bagby — 0.4 mi
• Hallettsville — 0.5 mi