A bound booklet of this web-site, down through and including James Monroe Choate, is available in hard-copy in a plastic-jacket 138-page publication.

Throughout this writing, "WGB" means William Green Butler, Bill Butler.

Go directly to         Helena          Kenedy         There really was no reason to have a Karnes City

DAILEYVILLE

Judge Thomas Ruckman and Dr. Lewis Owings established Helena as the new county seat in 1854.
In the beginning, the citizens of Helena had to cross the San Antonio River at Wofford Crossing and proceed to Goliad to get their mail.(6)
After a period of time, approval was secured for a post office in Helena, and this change was a great convenience for people of the new Karnes County.

Meanwhile, Bee County had been established to the south.    The need immediately arose for a road to connect Helena and Beeville.(6)
A state road and a mail route were opened, branching off the Helena-Goliad road on the west side of the river near Wofford Crossing, and leading south to Beeville.

In 1869, soon after the Civil War, David Dailey and his brother Christopher P. Dailey opened a general store on this Helena-Goliad road at the point where the Beeville road branched to the south.
Daileyville was located on the west side of the San Antonio River, probably only a short distance from the river and Wofford Crossing.   It would have been on Pleas Butler’s “33 Ranch.”   It had a general store, a grist mill, possibly a cotton gin, and several houses.

A post office was approved, with C. P. Dailey as the first Postmaster.   The post office was in service from July 5, 1870 until May 27, 1884, when the store closed.   The store was re-opened in November 1885, but it was not again a post office.

This wooden building was in the line of fire on September 6, 1886, and showed bullet holes in its walls in later photographs.    The building was dismantled in 1887 and re-assembled in Kenedy to serve as the post office.    C. P. Dailey was postmaster in both places.   After all, it was his building.

Historian Henry W. Dailey, son of Christopher P. Dailey, wrote later for "The Kenedy Times" that the location of Daileyville "was about 4 1/2 miles east of Kenedy, near Wofford Crossing," and that it had since become “only a site on a hill.”   (More accurately, it is 5 miles northeast of Kenedy.)

The author does not believe that Daileyville was located at the Dry Escondido Methodist Church Cemetery, which is 2 1/2 miles from Kenedy and 2 1/2 miles from Wofford Crossing.

Wofford Crossing Road runs on a compass-true NE-SW line, in accordance with the old Spanish grants.


HELENA

The San Antonio & Aransas Pass SAAP railroad began building a line to the coast in 1884. "Karnes County at the time was supposed to have the reputation of being a gun-toter's haven, and the railroad developer said, 'If the new line could be run around Karnes County, it would be better for everybody.'"

In the middle 1880's several events occurred which were to spell the doom for Helena's prosperity and lead to its eventual downfall. Helena was the largest city on the proposed route of the railroad to the Gulf. The SAAP Railroad was negotiating for right-of-way to pass through Karnes County. It was the policy of the day that the railroad demanded both right-of-way and cash to bring the line to a community, because the railroad company was running out of cash. The citizens of Helena were expected to raise either a reported $35000 or $60000 toward construction costs, as well as to donate the right-of-way. The town was prepared to donate the right-of-way, but not the cash, because the overconfident citizens thought that Helena was too important a town to possibly be by-passed.

No effort was made to cooperate with the railroad. Many of the citizens of Helena, convinced that they were the only town of any consequence between San Antonio and the Gulf, were of the opinion that the railroad would be compelled to pass through Helena.

Other citizens, realizing the importance of having the railroad come through Helena, made the effort to raise the money but succeeded in getting only $32000. When this sum was offered, the railroad refused. Thomas Ruckman vainly tried to raise the additional funds, but failed. He did his utmost to prevail upon the railroad officials to bring the railroad into Helena, but the railroad remained adamant.

William Green Butler got in touch with B. F. Yoakum and offered the railroad a full right-of-way across his lands, and the offer was accepted.   Butler also paid a lofty amount toward construction costs.   When the tracks were laid seven miles to the southwest of Helena, the Ox Cart Road was abandoned and Helena began to suffer.    Helena became a ghost town as her stores and businesses moved to Karnes City, starting in 1891.

Butler did donate the right-of-way, but his vow to "kill the town" is only romantic legend.   Butler was a rancher, cattleman, and business man.   On those cattle drives to Kansas, he learned the economic power of the railroad in providing a market for cattle.

Trail drives to Kansas had brought "the $4 cow to the $40 market."   The SAAP railroad could bring the $40 market to South Texas.

Butler's business attention was on the railroad and not on Helena.    We might surmise that Butler donated the right-of-way because he feared that the railroad would not come through Karnes County at all, since the money had not been raised in Helena.   "Butler always said that the reasons for donating the land were purely in the interest of business. He saved money, and the land value increased.  Butler was a shrewd businessman with good foresight." (20)

In his twilight years, he sat in a rocking chair on the gallery of his mansion and looked at the SAAP line two hundred yards to the east, running trains in his own front yard.    To those of you born after 1920, the "gallery" is the front porch.


KENEDY     was to be located in Grandma Ammons cornfield.

As the railroad moved southward through Karnes County and reached the location of the 1975 Otto Kaiser Hospital, four miles north of the present city of Kenedy, the railroad company determined to lay out a new townsite at that place, to be called Kenedy in honor of Mifflin Kenedy, one of the promoters of the railroad.

Thus Kenedy Station was established early in 1886 about opposite the J. D. Ammons ranch, with the depot on the east side of the tracks on the Bud Elder land.

By mid-summer, the SAAP had extended freight, passenger, and mail service as far south as Beeville.(11)

But the railroad junction and the new town were not destined to be at this location of Kenedy Station, because of the Fracas at Daileyville on September 6.

While the railroad officials were in the process of negotiating the land deal for a railroad junction and a full townsite, the landowner, Sheriff Fate Elder, was killed in the Fracas at Daileyville, leaving a widow and several minor children. Fearing that they could not obtain good title by reason of this unfortunate death, the railroad men began to cast around for a new location for the townsite of Kenedy.

Through the influence of W. G. Butler and J. M. Nichols, whose properties were located farther south, Mifflin Kenedy acquired 667 acres of land from George W. Little.    This plot was located at the confluence of Escondido Creek and Nichols Creek, four miles south of Kenedy Station.    On this tract the townsite of Kenedy was platted and established.    It was at first called Kenedy Junction, because the railroad to Houston now joined the SAAP at this location.

The therapeutic hot mineral artesian well was discovered in 1915 at the 2900 foot level at this very location, when the railroad company was drilling a water well to serve their locomotives. The well was located at the junction of the SAAP line (San Antonio to Aransas Pass) with the spur line (Runge, Cuero, Yoakum, Wallis and Houston). "The Kenedy Hot Wells Hotel" was 200 yards east of Front Street and 50 yards south of the extension of Main Street. There was a large wooden hotel, six brick resort cottages, and public baths. The therapy bathing facilities were inside the hotel. The business lasted only about 35 years.

The early commercial development of "Kenedy Junction" was at a higher elevation and to the south, on "The Hill," halfway between the twin water towers and the downtown bank corner.    Later, business activity moved downhill and to the north, to the aforesaid downtown bank corner on Main at Second St.   That is, down to a lower elevation more easily flooded by the Escondido and Nichols Creeks, which did happen in the 1940's.

Due to the tragic deaths and the question about a clear title, Old Kenedy Station was used only for freight, passengers, and mail.    It had a depot, a few tents, and some construction buildings.    Old Kenedy Station never became a post office or a town.    Walter Lokey, a clerk in John Ruckman's store in Helena, met the train there to pick up the Helena mail.    Approval was granted for a new Kenedy "Junction" post office, and it began service for temporary use on March 12, 1887 in a parked boxcar.    The old building at Daileyville with its bullet holes was torn down and then rebuilt along the tracks at the new townsite.   Again, C. P. Dailey was the first postmaster.    The name was soon shortened to one word, when the post office was established.    For many years, the "Station" townsite four miles north was referred to as Old Kenedy.

"Mrs. Sarah Elder and her children have through their attorneys, Graves and Little, brought suit against the S.A.& A.P. Railroad Co. for $56,000 damages for breach of contract by failing to keep and maintain a depot at Kenedy, Karnes County, Texas." From The Karnes County News, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1887. She was the mother of Fate and Bud Elder.

When it was decided to extend the railroad from Kenedy Junction eastward toward Houston, a group of merchants from Cuero, who owned a large block of land east of the San Antonio River, decided in 1887 to plat the townsite of Runge.     Runge, near the river and on the railroad to Houston, had a rapid growth, and soon developed into the largest town in the county.

On December 12, 1890, another group of Cuero businessmen purchased 1000 acres of land from J. L. Calvert, and in March 1891 platted the townsite for Karnes City.(9)

In the short space of three years, Karnes City demanded an election to choose a new County Seat location. (9)    It was a hotly contested election in 1893, and Karnes City won. (2)     The vote was very close, with Helena, Karnes City, Kenedy, and Runge in a tight race.    Helena was the older and historic place of government.    Runge was the largest town.    Kenedy was small and not strong politically.    Karnes City had been deliberately platted to be a County Seat on the railroad.

Helena ignored the election. But in 1894 the county records were moved late at night from Helena to Karnes City in a wagon accompanied by armed men on horseback. The guard hired by Helena to protect the county records rode on the wagon to Karnes City. He reported that he was hired to protect the records, and that is just what he was doing. Thus died the town of Helena.



HISTORY COULD HAVE PLAYED OUT A DIFFERENT STORY

HELENA would have remained County Seat and the largest town in the county, if the railroad had come there. The over-confident citizens of Helena thought that the railroad HAD to come through such an important town.       After all, Helena was located at the intersection of two ox-cart roads.

KENEDY would have been located in Grandma Ammons' cornfield about four miles north of the present location, and Karnes City would never have been formed, had there been no gunplay at Daileyville. There would have been no need for a Karnes City, since the railroad could have concluded the negotiations that had already begun with Grandma Ammons, Jeff Ammons, Fate Elder, and Bud Elder for a Kenedy townsite.  (9,14)

RUNGE came very close to being voted County Seat, being just behind Karnes City and well ahead of Kenedy and Helena. Runge flourished in its first years, but it lost its activity and its population in the next century.

Had there been no gunplay at Daileyville, Karnes County would have had one large town, Kenedy, in the center of the county, as is true for Beeville, Goliad, Victoria, Cuero, and Floresville in their own respective counties.



SA&AP Railroad 1              SA&AP Railroad 2                    SA&AP Railroad 3 has good links
SA&AP Railroad 4              SA&AP in Floresville               Map of SA&AP Railroad                     A trip down Memory Lane

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Saturday, 08-Sep-2018 19:16:01 MDT