The Frisco's quick purchase of the "Fayetteville & Little Rock" was another independent branch turned Frisco that I enjoy learning about. HOWEVER, I often wonder had the Fayetteville & Little Rock remained independent, just how far would they have gotten? Their charter indicated they were not physically going to Little Rock, but south of Conway to the river town by the name of "Lewisburg". Don't know if they hoped to obtain trackage rights over the Little Rock & Ft. Smith/Iron Mountain to reach Little Rock or just what. Andre
Andre, I don't believe the Fayetteville & Little Rock was ever truly "independent". The railroad's ICC valuation states that it was a FRISCO project from the outset, all stock owned by the parent company and all construction either done by FRISCO or by contractors employed by FRISCO. Like many railroads from the time it was just sort of "there" at first... Fayetteville to Patrick (25.62 mi.) was apparently sold to St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Company around the time of completion in 1887. There is some indication FRISCO leased the track on to St. Paul and beyond, at least for a time. John
Hi John: All I have to go by is Clifton Hull's findings that I have read in his book "Shortline Railroads of Arkansas". Here's the findings that Mr. Hull shares concerning the formation and construction of the St. Paul line: The last Indians had been driven from the Ozark Mountain region of Arkansas. Soon farms began to appear in the fertile valleys and along the sheltered slopes of the hills. The settlement of Fayetteville became a station on the Butterfield Overland Stage run from Springfield, Missouri, to Fort Smith. Then on May 31, 1881, a man living in Fayetteville spread the exciting news that he had heard the whistle of a locomotive: The Frisco was building through Fayetteville on its way from Pierce City, Missouri, to Fort Smith. The first passenger train rolled into town July 4, 1882. When the Frisco came to town, a young man named Hugh F. McDanield came with it. He was a construction man and a tie contractor. The railroad had to have ties, hundreds of thousands of them, and McDanield was the man who supplied them. Embryo mill establishments and an abundant supply of timber in Washington and Madison counties attracted his attention. The only thing he needed to make the lumber business a financial success was adequate transportation. Nothing could haul logs and lumber in greater quantities than a railroad, so the only sensible thing to do was build one. On September 4, 1886, the state granted a charter to the Fayetteville & Little Rock Railroad. Behind the enterprise were Hugh F. McDanield, F.H. Fairbanks, J. S. McDanield, J. F. Mayes, and J. S. Van Hoose, all of Fayetteville; D. B. Elliot of Delaney; J. Pickens of Eversonville, Missouri; J.W. Brown of Brentwood; and B.F. McDanield of Bonner Springs, Kansas. The charter granted them authority to issue capital stock valued at $1,500,000 - the estimated cost of building 150 miles of railroad from Fayetteville, in Washington County, by way of St. Paul to the riverboat town of Lewisburg, on the Arkansas River in Conway County near present-day Morrilton. There it would connect with the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern. Hugh McDanield was the real promoter of the venture, and he personally invested $100,000 of his own money in it. On December 4, 1886, a switch was installed in the Frisco track about a mile south of Fayetteville, and the spot was promptly named Fayette Junction. The railroad was on its way. February 1887, saw rails laid on raw white-oak ties as far as Powell, twenty-five miles away. By this time, the Frisco had become interested in the splinter road, particularly its ability to supply needed ties. The Frisco offered to purchase the F&LR, and on February 23, 1887, the transaction was made. The corporate name of Fayetteville & Little Rock was retained, and construction was continued by the parent Frisco. That's all I have to go by. If you have come across information that seems to invalidate the above, me not being privy to it, I would be very interested in hearing more/reading more.
Hi Andre, You and Mr. Hull got me interested, so I did a little bit of research. Turns out that a pretty good, and more to the point, current for the time period, source of information on Mr. Hugh McDanield is an entry about him in the Goodspeed history of Washington County, Arkansas. If it is taken at face value, and since it was published in 1889 it probably should be, the information given by Mr. Hull is correct. "In 1881, having learned that the San Francisco Railway would build this way, he came to Fayetteville for the purpose of furnishing ties for the new division. He located permanently at this place, which is in a finely timbered country, and soon began the shipment of railroad ties to western markets, increasing their business year after year until he accumulated a large fortune... In 1886 Mr. McDanield began the building of the Fayetteville & Little Rock Railway, and in 1887 sold it to the 'Frisco Road, which how operates it." This does sound like the railroad was an actual private venture, although that appears to have been the case for only about a year. As is sometimes the case, the ICC, which relied mainly on Frisco records, did not seem to have this information. John
Hi John: Interesting! I know that there may be inaccuracies in any work by any historian, but it's nice to know that Clifton did a pretty good job overall on his Arkansas book. I'll bet Hugh found the Frisco to be a ready buyer after making such good progress in fairly short order on his endeavor. According to Mr. Hull, the privateer F&LR rails reach Powell (about 3 miles west of Combs) before the Frisco's involvement. It was after the Frisco purchase that the rails reached St. Paul. Andre
