The Houston & Texas Railway Company began as the Galveston and Red River Railway.
The charter was obtained in 1848 for the proposed railroad from Houston to the Brazos River and the interior of Texas. Progress was slow on the proposed railroad. In 1856 the track laying began, and the line was renamed the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company.
By the early 1870s the H&TC reached Corsicana, Dallas, and Denison. At Denison the H & TC connected with the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad to form the first all-rail route from Texas to St. Louis and the East. The H&TC also acquired the Washington County Railroad, which had completed a line between Hempstead and Brenham which extended on to Austin in the early 1870s. Several other railroads providing service throughout Texas merged with the H & TC including the Austin and Northwestern, Central Texas and Northwestern, Fort Worth and New Orleans, Hearne and Brazos Valley, and Houston Railway. In 1877 the H & TC was sold and came under the control of the Southern Pacific. However, the H & TC continued to be operated by its own organization until 1927. The H & TC was an innovative company providing Pullman service in Texas between Houston and Austin in June 1872. The company was also one of the first in Texas to use oil as a locomotive fuel when it began experimenting with oil-fired locomotives in early 1901.
Investors who owned these bonds would make regular visits to their banks to cut out and redeem the coupons and collect their interest, so the wealthy citizens of this era became known as "Coupon Clippers."
