Texas and Pacific Railroad #6 [Stereograph]
Name/Title
Texas and Pacific Railroad #6 [Stereograph]Description
1900-1903 stereoview by "SWAFFORD & SWAFFORD, Photographers / Home Studio, Baird, Texas." There is a train headed east in the far distance - this picture was taken just before #5.Context
Baird, at the junction of Interstate Highway 20 and U.S. Highway 283 in north central Callahan County, was established when the Texas and Pacific Railway came through in 1880. It was named for railroad surveyor and engineer Matthew Baird. The community was a division point on the railroad, with a depot, roundhouse, and repair shops. It replaced Belle Plain as county seat in 1883 and gained most of the former county seat's population. New arrivals increased the population to 1,200 by the mid-1880s. The post office, established as Vickery in 1881, was renamed Baird in 1883. A fire that started in S. L. Robinson's store, where the cast of Golden's Opera Company was preparing a show for the residents, did not stop the town's progress in 1884, nor did a tornado in 1895. Baird was incorporated in 1889, just before this stereograph was made.Category
Texas in Focus
Bayou Bend