Six-Shooter Junction - 3

Emigrants, trains, old soldiers and newspapermen.

The train ride from Houston had lasted four hours, with one stop along the way. Having reached the destination, it was time to exit the car, nothing unusual

The sun was just coming up during the walk to the train depot. There were the usual congenial greetings to other early risers, being careful of horse riders and carriages and where to step (or what not to step in), we arrived at the ticket master and purchased a ticket for the 7 a.m. train to Hempstead. After boarding the train, there was plenty of time to read the paper and think. So much progress had been made. The first settlers had arrived in Texas only a few decades previous and now there were so many new settlers and economic activity. The train was new and it had been sorely needed for passenger travel but more importantly to carry cotton and other goods to and from the ports in Houston and Galveston. It had encouraged rapid economic growth in Hempstead, but it also brought its own problems with it. The Galveston daily reported another gruesome shooting back home. Every area had violence but it didn't seem like anywhere was as bad as in Hempstead. Two hours later the conductor announced the stop in Cypress and, after a brief stop, we were on our way again. Another hour brougnt the conductor through the cars crying "Six-shooter Junction, prepare to meet thy God" and a few minutes later the train pulled into the station. No one was surprised by the conductor's announcement, but the citizens of Hempstead were not happy their city had been given that label.

Four decades earlier, the McDade and Cloud families had come to Texas and had settled in Austin's Colony on either side of the Brazos river.

The McDades and Clouds arrived in Texas, beginning just before Texas' Independence (1836) and for a number of years following. Those two families had a rich history together, and lived in the Mt. Meigs community in Alabama. They were descendants of James & Elizabeth McDade. They were well-established in Alabama and many of them stayed. Jeremiah Cloud's oldest son, William, stayed because he had land from his father-in-law Thomas Frizzle.