Galveston Daily News – Sun., 12 Oct 1873, p. 4, c. 2 Miscellaneous - Milam Messenger: Oct. 8 - The International railroad bridge across the Brazos was swept away by the late flood. We understand there is a construction train on this side, together with a considerable supply of material for track laying and the company will, for the present at least, suff no serious inconvenience. The overflow of Little river, last week, was a great calamity to those who were so unfortunate as to have crops in low localities. Galveston Daily News – Sat., 1 Nov 1873, p. 1, c. 4 Miscellaneous - Milam Messenger, Oct. 29: We were happy to meet in our town yesterday, Col. Burnett, who says that the bridge across the Brazos will be rebuilt and trains running over the International in less time than a week. It will then be but a little while until th road is completed to Rockdale, the resent terminus. We expect to see, within the next 60-days, a flourishing railroad town at Rockdale, where an immense lumber trade will be carried on, together with the great variety of other business that they wants and resources of this country demand. Galveston Daily News – Sat., 22 Nov 1873, p. 1, c. 3 & 4 Miscellaneous - The grading on the International Railroad is completed to Rockdale, 30-miles westward from Hearne and it is confidently believed that trains will be running to that place by December 1st. Rockdale is in Milam county, 50-miles from Austin. Galveston Daily News – Sun., 23 Nov 1873, p. 4, c. 4 Miscellaneous - Milam Messenger, Nov. 19 - W. L. Lutner, now a resident of our embryo city, Rockdale, informs us that the place is building up rapidly. The bridge across the Brazos was to have been finished Saturday, but wh have as yet no positive assurance that it was completed. The company is anxious for the road to reach Rockdale at an early day and are using every exertion to effect that much desired object. Galveston Daily News – Tues., 4 Dec 1873, p. 4, c. 2 Miscellaneous - Milam Messenger, Nov. 26 - We paid a flying visit to Rockdale last week and was proud to see so much animation and enterprise among its citizens; houses are springing up as if by magic, and already the place is attracting a good local trade. Great difficulty is experienced in procuring lumber which has much retarded the growth of the town. Scores of buildings would not have been completed had material been plentiful. The repeated accidents to the Brazos bridge has, of course, seriously affected Rockdale, but it is to be hoped that the company have experienced such lessons in the past as will enable it to avoid these unfortunate catastrophes in the future, and that a permanent bridge will be speedily completed. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Lynna Kay Shuffield P. O. Box 16604 Houston, Texas 77222 telephone: 713/692-4511 e-mail: friday@argohouston.com ---My webpages--- 'Our Loose Ends' Genealogy Column by Lynna Kay Shuffield http://www.geocities.com/lks_friday/COLUMN-001.htm 'My Loose Ends' Family Tree Database by Lynna Kay Shuffield http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi? db=friday Note above URL wraps around onto the next line, cut & paste it onto the end of the first line in the 'location box' on your browser. 'Milam County War Dead Project' http://www.geocities.com/lks_friday/ County Coordinator for the Milam County TXGenWeb http://www.geocities.com/milamco/ County Coordinator for the San Jacinto County TXGenWeb http://www.geocities.com/lks_friday/SANJAC-01.htm TX-CEMETERY-PRESERVATION http://www.geocities.com/lks_friday/CEMETERY-001.htm