Erected in 1905-06 by local contractor Otto Haase, this building housed the Texas Bottling Works and the family residence of C.F. and Marie Marschner. Shortly before the completion of the building, C.F. Marschner died. His widow inherited the bottling works and operated the business with the assistance of her sons. The company was the first in Galveston to bottle distilled water. Texas Bottling Works remained in this location until 1929, when Triple XXX Bottling Company moved here. Otto Marschner became general manager of Triple XXX in the 1930s. Triple XXX continued to operate at this location into the mid-1940s. The plant was used for bottling soft drinks until the 1960s. The building was leased as office and storage space beginning in 1965. Followed by various businesses through the 1980s. The structure was restored in the 1990s and the upper floor again became a residence while the lower floor housed classic automobiles.

A good example of an early 20th century commercial structure, the Marschner Building features decorative brick work, arched window openings, and an elaborate stepped parapet with brick and ball finials.

In January 1919, Philip Alexander Chapman (1847-1924) purchased 34,631 acres of the Laureles division of the King Ranch for development as farm lands similar to others he owned in east Texas and Oklahoma. He sent his son, J.O. Chapman (1883-1953), to supervise operations. Arriving in Sept. 1919, J.O. Chapman began dividing "Nueces Farms" into 160-acre tracts and leasing them to tenants. In 1924, the name was changed to Chapman Ranch. The town, founded in 1925, had a hospital, cotton gin, 2 schools, its own power plant, and "the commissary", which housed grocery, hardware, and mercantile stores, a barber shop, soda fountain, automobile agency, service station, post office, and ranch headquarters offices. In 1926, over 20,000 acres were in cultivation. The ranch contracted with manufacturers to test modern farm equipment. Several implements were invented here. In the late 1920's, Chapman Ranch was advertised as the world's largest mechanized farm. During the 1930's, the ranch conducted extensive crop experiments, and developed a superior strain of long-staple cotton, the seed of which was marketed worldwide. By 1941, the town had dwindled away, and the land was partitioned among P.A. Chapman's children, whose heirs continue to operate the ranch.

A native of Arkansas, Charles Harvey Waddell came to Texas with his family at an early age. He became an automobile dealer in 1910 and in 1914 formed the Fort Bend Telephone Company. He served as county tax collector from 1919 to 1922, and from 1926 to 1930 represented Waller and Fort Bend counties in the State Legislature. Through his later business interests, including three local farmers' gins, real estate development, a lumber company, and a savings and loan institution, Waddell contributed significantly to the growth and development of Rosenberg.

Surveyed and platted in 1912 as "Hockley City" by cereal magnate C.W. Post. Although only a barren townsite, place won race for county seat in 1921. The first meeting of county officers was held at future courthouse site -- in a Cadillac automobile. Soon city square boasted a temporary courthouse (16 by 32 feet), a well, and a community black-eyed pea patch. When a post office opened, in 1922, city was renamed Levelland, for its topography. Prosperity arrived with the coming of the railroad in 1925 and discovery of oil in the county in 1937.

Thomas Bean, a wealthy Bonham landowner and surveyor, donated fifty acres of land in southeast Grayson County to be used for a branch railroad line from Sherman to Commerce. Bean died in 1887; in that year the City of Tom Bean was established. Nearby Whitemound, which was bypassed by the railroad, lost its post office to Tom Bean's City in 1888; many Whitemound settlers moved to the new town. Mr. Bean's estate began to sell town lots surrounding the railroad in the 1890s. The city school was moved in 1891 from a one-room structure to a two-story building with an auditorium. Several Christian denominations, including the Church of Christ, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist, established churches in town. The city charter was signed in 1897 and the first Mayor was Ice B. Reeves.

In the early days of the 20th century, the city boomed. Within a few years, it boasted a grain company, a furniture company, a drugstore, a newspaper called the "Tom Bean Bulletin," a saloon, a dance hall, a movie theater, and the Tom Bean Social Club. As time progressed, the sharp increase in automobile travel and transport, and the decline of cotton as the principal crop of the area, led businesses to the larger cities of Denison and Sherman.

Though never again the railroad boomtown of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the community enjoyed a growth spurt in the 1950s, celebrating its centennial in 1987, the city of Tom Bean continues to thrive.

Flagstone ruins nearby mark site of early 1900's stage stand, first stop on passenger and mail line connecting Ozona with Southern Pacific railhead at Comstock -- 80 miles distant.

When stage pulled in about 8:30 A.M. (having left Ozona at 5:00) agent had fresh horses in harness for next 20-mile run. Agent's family lived in tent with a flagstone floor. Other structures here were rock pens for a pig and cow and probably a corral for horses. Automobile replaced stage about 1914, but wagon ruts are still visible.

The W.E. Nunnelee Bus Lines began passenger service from Tyler to Gladewater and Mt. Pleasant in March 1925; later added buses from Tyler to Henderson and Nacogdoches. Twenty-six vehicles were operated over the 205 miles. These included 7-passenger automobiles and 12-, 15-, 16-, and 19-passenger buses.

Fare from Tyler to Gladewater was $1. With stops in Winona, Starrville, Friendship, the 30-mile run took an hour, over roads paved in 1919 and 1923.

On Aug. 1, 1927, buses were placed under regulation of the Railroad Commission. This line had franchise No.1; it was one of 247 companies running 865 public passenger vehicles on 20,348 miles of Texas roads.

Many of these "buses" were autos built for private use. Others had "stretched" auto chassis seating 10 or more passengers. Several models had doors that opened along the side. Uncomfortable and hard to drive, they constantly needed new tires and repairs to brakes and valves. Breakdowns were frequent. Overhauls (often made, or necessity, by the roadside) were handled by mechanics lacking suitable tools.

Although far different from the airconditioned, safety-engineered bus of today, early buses showed the way to a new era in convenient transportation.

Electric railways (trolleys) provided convenient travel between many Texas cities for more than forty years. The first Interurban Line was established in Grayson County, connecting the cities of Sherman and Denison. Founded in 1900 by Fred Fitch and John P. Crerar, the Denison and Sherman Railway began operations on May 1, 1901, with a single 10.5-mile track.

The company built a power plant, offices, and a car barn near this site halfway between its passenger stations in the two cities. In order to provide water for the power plant, they built a dam below Tanyard Springs, creating a small lake. Named Wood Lake, it provided recreational facilities for passengers on the line's excursion trains.

The Texas Traction Company, founded in 1906, began construction of a second Interurban Line from Dallas to McKinney in 1906. Merged with the Denison and Sherman Railway in 1908, the company expanded its operations, eventually connecting a number of north Texas cities and changing its name to the Texas Electric Railway in 1917. The advent of automobile travel signalled the decline of the Texas Interurbans by the 1930s. The last train passed this site on December 31, 1948, on its route from Denison to Dallas.

What came to be known as the Fort Smith - Santa Fe Trail was first blazed in 1840 by Josiah Gregg, a trader seeking a route to Santa Fe along the south side of the Canadian River. In 1849, Gregg's route was closely followed by a military escort led by Capt. Randolph B. Marcy (1812-1857). Marcy's group traveled from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Santa Fe with about 500 pioneers heading for California. The party entered Oldham County on June 13th, and on June 14th ascended to the Llano Estacado near this site. Reaching the top, Marcy found the plains "as boundless...and trackless as the ocean...a desolate waste of uninhabited solitude." Eighty-five days after leaving Fort Smith, the party reached Santa Fe. After passing the plains, Marcy remarked, "I have never passed a country where wagons could move along with as much ease and facility, without expenditure of any labor in making a road, as upon this route." Marcy advocated the trail as a prospective route for a transcontinental railroad, which was built after the Civil War. Later, as the country entered the automobile age and the interstate highway system was developed, U.S. Highway 66 (Route 66) and Interstate 40 were laid close to the trail.

Began as "Cordwood Junction," a siding on the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad. Flatcars loaded wood here to be shipped over a wide area. As demand for the fuel increased, the railroad built a station house at site. It was named in 1892 for O.H. Hasse, thought to have been the local railway agent, 1890s. Cotton and cattle brought more business to town. A cotton gin, stock pens, and lumber yard were built. With the advent of automobiles, migration to urban centers, and highways, however, Hasse began to dwindle. Today only a few buildings remain.