Home Depot (First published in Our Hometown Magazine Vol1 I2)

Hamilton is one of those towns that has always had a gathering spot. Somewhere the locals go to catch up. One hundred years ago, that gathering spot was the local train depot. The building, which still stands to this day, houses several different businesses, but the one at the front is called The Depot Laundry and Dry Cleaning. Prior to this, the depot housed a resale shop and various other businesses before that.

The Hamilton Railroad, first laid in 1907 and taken up in 1941, saw many things during its short life. It might not be the most important or influential piece of Hamilton history, but it certainly is one of the most interesting things that is now all but forgotten. Few current citizens have had the pleasure of having seen one of the trains during the line’s short run and a few more have heard the stories. Anyone with a passing familiarity of the town has seen the old depot which still stands over 100 years after it was built in 1911, although it has been altered from what it once was. Most remember it as an automobile dealership, although a few may be too young even for that – the conversion was finished in 1950 and it continued to serve as a dealership through the early 90’s when it was split up and leased to different tenants. Some may have heard that Railroad Street used to be a railroad track and that the building on the corner was the train depot. Others may have even seen the old railroad trestle that runs through farmland on the outskirts of town. One thing is obvious though, those who do know are waning in numbers as the older generation begins to leave us and theirs stories die right along with them.   

Local businessman Garland Anglin, who was four when the trains stopped, talks about how the depot used to be the spot where everyone went to hang out. This story is repeated by others who remember the depot or have relatives who do. Just a few steps away from the town square, it’s easy to see why it was popular. By 1941, when it was dismantled, the trains were only making a few runs a year which is why some people remember the tracks but never remember having seen a single train. Mr. Anglin has many stories about the trains, most of which were recounted to him by his father. He tells of a local doctor named Kooken who was caught by his wife getting off the train with another woman. The story goes that his wife then shot him three times but it was not fatal. He says it never made the papers, which is strange considering the number of stories that did make the paper about Dr. Kooken and his son around this time. Since the shooting didn’t kill Dr. Kookeln,  it might have been easier to keep the story away from the papers, although shootings in Hamilton happened rarely, even then. Another story Mr. Anglin tells is about an accident where four died in an explosion while laying the track. According to the story, an Anglo foreman got impatient with his workers’ attempts to open a can of blasting powder and he hit it with a hammer causing an explosion which killed all four. He says that the Anglo’s body was sent home, but the story goes that the three Chinese workers’ bodies were buried on that same hill. This story was recounted to Mr. Anglin by a friend who lives along where the railroad track used to run. The Herald-Record reported an incident about an explosion which killed three during the laying of some track in 1911, but the newspaper article tells their names and where they were buried, so it is unlikely this is the same group in the story.

Another local, 97 year-old Leman Wagner, and his wife both remember the trains, although they were also very young; when the last train departed Mr. Wagner was nine but Mrs. Wagner doesn’t remember exactly how old she might have been since it was so long ago. Mr. and Mrs. Wagner are both residents of Hamilton Healthcare nursing home. Mrs. Wagner remembers watching the trains arrive with an air of excitement and joy. “…they’d come in,” she says her eyes brightening and a smile of remembrance gracing her small face, “and we’re so glad ‘cause there was a train.” Mr. Wagner remembers the town being much busier when the trains were here and says there weren’t even paved roads back then.

Certainly, if newspaper articles of the time are any indication, the town did not take the loss of its train station lightly. Many people opposed the decision to close the depot and shut down the track. In fact, that is the main reason that the decision to dismantle the track was not immediately put into effect when it was decided in 1940. The appealed the decision, which was made in September of 1940, trying to keep their beloved train. When the time finally came that they had to give up, the paper reported that several hundred showed up to send off the last train and waved a tearful goodbye to the train employees they’d all come to love, as they would all be moving to other stations around Texas. The Lion’s Club, which has been around for over 100 years and had a great deal of influence in the town at that time, tried to convince the city of Hamilton to buy the depot after the train line closed, but it was purchased instead by George Golightly. The track itself was sold for scrap metal and the road that was left behind was finally laid with caliche in July of 1941 creating what we now know as Railroad Street almost a year after the railroad commission first ruled to allow abandonment of the line.

Since the purchase of the depot in 1941 it has stayed within the same family; the depot is currently co-owned by Tom Locke (Golightly’s grandson) and his sister. Golightly had to jump through a few legal hoops to gain ownership of the building because the railroad had claimed bankruptcy and was unable to simply sell it. However, the building was eventually cleared for sale and Golightly obtained ownership. The onset of WWII prevented the renovations that Golightly needed in order to convert the building into an auto dealership though, and he was unable to finish until 1950 when he finally opened his doors. The building, as it was converted, still stands on the corner of Railroad and Main. It is now being leased to several different tenants, a practice which began in the early 90’s. There was a bid in 2001 to restore the depot as a historical marker. The project, which was extensively researched and planned out, fell through because the state approved a different project with its limited funding.

Just what factored into the abandonment of the Hamilton line may never be completely clear. It is evident that the advent and general use of automobiles had a hand in it, as it saw the decline of many passenger railroads throughout the United States. However, this cannot completely explain why the track in Hamilton failed while others prospered and continued to run. Mr. Anglin suggests that poor management may have had a hand in the failure of this branch of the Cotton Belt Railroad, and it is easy to see this being the case. Throughout the years, the local paper published many articles concerning the failure of the railroad executives to consider issues that impacted townsfolk. In February of 1913, the concern was that a merger between the Cotton Belt and Katy Railroads would suppress all small lines. Then, in August of 1941 it was the cotton freight rates that were a concern. In September of 1921 an article appeared in the Herald-Record entitled “Cotton Belt Railroad System Again Deals Hamilton Black Eye.” The article was about the decision to change the railroad schedule and how it would negatively affect mostly Hamilton service. Of course, this article was 20 whole years before the railroad finally shut down, so it isn’t clear whether it was a contributing factor in the line’s decline.