The Railroad in Beeville, Skidmore and Sinton, Texas
Beeville
Beeville, the county seat of Bee County, was founded in 1859. It was greatly boosted in 1888 by the arrival of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass building from San Antonio to Corpus Christi. The town's population jumped from just 300 in 1886 to over 1,000 just four years later. The value of the railroads to the development of the town was doubled when the Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific built a line from Beeville to Victoria the following year, Both companies were acquired by the Southern pacific within a few years. Both were pulled up in the 1970s. Today the city of around 14,000 residents is enjoying something of a boom from the Eagle Ford Shale oil extraction project.
Skidmore
Skidmore was created by the son of original land owner who paid a bonus to the San Antonio and Aransas Pass railroad to build across his land and establish a depot in 1886. The tracks came through two years later. While still independent, the S.A. & A.P. was able to build a spur line towards the Rio Grande Valley as far as Alice. The plan was resurrected in 1927 by the Southern Pacific, who had gained control of the S.A. & A.P. in 1890, pretty much as a spoiler for the St. Louis, Browns and Mexico railroad being built, ironically by Uriah Lott and Ben Yoakum who had built the original S.A. & A.P. The SP's attitude towards its San Antonio and Aransas division was ambivalent at best but its tracks through Skidmore and Beeville survived until the late 1990s.
Sinton
The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway built through the county in 1886, Col. The town was named for David Sinton, majority stockholder in Coleman-Fulton, the large cattle ranch that was in operation in the area. The company built cattle-loading pens immediately. The charter for the Sinton Town Company was granted in 1894. An election made Sinton the county seat of San Patricio County in 1894. The St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexican Railway arrived in 1907. As a result, Sinton became a crossing pint between the Southern Pacific, which contolled the SA&AP, and the MIssouri Pacific, which controlled the SLBM.
