The Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company was chartered in 1873 by a group of Galveston merchants and businessmen seeking a direct connection to the Texas interior.  The only access to the Texas rail network for Galveston was through Houston and that was a major problem as Houston was Galvestons main trading competition.  Houston had a history of placing travel restrictions on Galveston travelers due to Yellow Fever outbreaks.  It is not surprising that Houston would use this power excessively to inhibit Galvestons trade with the Texas interior.  Galveston sought out to create its own railway network that would bypass Houston giving them independent access to the Texas interior.

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Construction of the G.C. & S.F. Railroad began in 1875.  The first few years were tough on the railroad due to limited funding and unfortunate events.  On April 15, 1879 after a foreclosure the company was bought on the Galveston Courthouse steps for $200,000 by Gerge Sealy and his investors.  Nearly all of his investors that backed the loan had a railway station named after them including Kopperl, Rosenberg, Moody, Sealy, Kempner, Heidenheimer, Somerville, Dyper, Blum, Rogers, and Wallis.

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Freed of debt by the foreclosure, the company was able to resume construction northward.  The new owners of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe wasted no time and their rails quickly stretched north over fairly gentle terrain.  By the end of 1879 the line was open to Rosenberg, and by December of 1880 it had reached Cameron.  In 1881 a branch line connected Temple to Cleburne.  It is on this line that the towns of Kopperl and Blum were established.  The line then went on to Fort Worth.  Here northward construction stopped for the time being.  The cotton trade across the central one third of the state was thus profitably captured for the Galveston export trade, and no longer would Texas growers in that territory seek market outlets at New Orleans or Houston without consideration of Galveston.  The G.C. & S.F. Railroad strived for many years and although the tracks were moved outside of Kopperl when Lake Whitney was built in the 1950s the railroads rail routes are still in use to this day.  There is a great website that can be referenced for a more detailed and complete history on the G.C. & S.F. Railroad by clicking here.

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