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Created page with "'''The Wichita Falls Railway''' is a defunct railroad that extended for eighteen miles from Wichita Falls to Henrietta in Clay..."
'''The Wichita Falls Railway''' is a defunct railroad that extended for eighteen miles from [[Wichita Falls, Texas|Wichita Falls]] to [[Henrietta, Texas|Henrietta]] in [[Clay County, Texas|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]].
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.<ref name=kemp/> Railway board members included Robert E. Huff, A. Newby, and Joseph Kemp, all of Wichita Falls; M. J. Tompkins of [[Vernon, Texas|Vernon]] in [[Wilbarger County, Texas|Wilbarger County]], [[Texas]], and Leon Blum, Morris Lasker, and Julius Runge, all from [[Galveston, Texas|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 [[dividend]]s averaging more than $13,000 per year.<ref name=tshao/> The line was sold to the Katy in 1911, which then built in Wichita Falls a station, offices, a roundhouse, and three switching tracks.<ref name=kemp>{{cite web|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fke14|first=Brian| last=Hart| title=Kemp, Joseph Alexander| website=Handbook of Texas Online| publisher=Texas State Historical Association| accessdate=April 16, 2013| date=April 30, 2012}}</ref> The track operated under lease until 1969, when it was superseded by the parent company.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.<ref name=tshao>{{cite web| url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eqw14| title=Wichita Falls Railway| website=Handbook of Texas Online| publisher=Texas State Historical Association| first=Clark| last=Wheeler| date=June 15, 2010| accessdate=April 20, 2013}}</ref><ref>The [[Texas State Historical Association]] bases its information on the Wichita Railway from: {{cite book| first=V.V.| last=Masterson| title=The Katy Railroad and the Last Frontier| location=[[Norman, Oklahoma]]| publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]]| year=1952}}</ref>
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, Texas|Dublin]] to its northern point in [[Waurika, Oklahoma|Waurika]] in southern [[Oklahoma]].
{{Portal|Texas}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
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.<ref name=kemp/> Railway board members included Robert E. Huff, A. Newby, and Joseph Kemp, all of Wichita Falls; M. J. Tompkins of [[Vernon, Texas|Vernon]] in [[Wilbarger County, Texas|Wilbarger County]], [[Texas]], and Leon Blum, Morris Lasker, and Julius Runge, all from [[Galveston, Texas|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 [[dividend]]s averaging more than $13,000 per year.<ref name=tshao/> The line was sold to the Katy in 1911, which then built in Wichita Falls a station, offices, a roundhouse, and three switching tracks.<ref name=kemp>{{cite web|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fke14|first=Brian| last=Hart| title=Kemp, Joseph Alexander| website=Handbook of Texas Online| publisher=Texas State Historical Association| accessdate=April 16, 2013| date=April 30, 2012}}</ref> 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.<ref name=tshao>{{cite web| url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eqw14| title=Wichita Falls Railway| website=Handbook of Texas Online| publisher=Texas State Historical Association| first=Clark| last=Wheeler| date=June 15, 2010| accessdate=April 20, 2013}}</ref><ref>The [[Texas State Historical Association]] bases its information on the Wichita Railway from: {{cite book| first=V.V.| last=Masterson| title=The Katy Railroad and the Last Frontier| location=[[Norman, Oklahoma]]| publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]]| year=1952}}</ref>
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, Texas|Dublin]] to its northern point in [[Waurika, Oklahoma|Waurika]] in southern [[Oklahoma]].
{{Portal|Texas}}
==References==
{{reflist}}