In 1865 the Union Pacific Railway southern branch was incorporated to build a railroad from the St. Louis-Kansas City area to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1870, with construction completed to the border of Indian Territory, the line was renamed the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad. This title was often shortened to M-K-T, which led to the familiar nickname by with the line is best known -- "The Katy."

Following the route of an old cattle trail, the Katy became the first railroad to cross Indian Territory, now the State of Oklahoma, and enter Texas from the north. On Christmas Day 1872, over 100 passengers rode the first Katy train into Denison, a new townsite named for M-K-T Vice President George Denison. The construction and acquisition of branch lines soon extended the Katy east to Greenville, west to Rotan and Wichita Falls, and south to Galveston and San Antonio. By 1904, the system had over 1,000 miles of track in Texas. The railroad transported cattle, cotton, and other crops to market. It also carried passengers on such trains as the "Texas Special" and the "Katy Flyer" before passenger service ended in 1965.

Today (1975) Denison is a division headquarters on the M-K-T and the home of about 600 railroad employees.

Surveyed in 1850 by Army engineers, this was the first wagon road to penetrate this area. Point of origin was San Antonio, site of U.S. Army District Headquarters after annexation of Texas in 1846. This segment of road extended from Fort Gates (in Coryell County) to Fort Griffin (Shackelford County) and Fort Belknap (Young County). Although used for communications and troop movements, most common traffic was in supplies -- especially feed for Army horses and mules. Hence the name "Corn Trail." Presence of the road and its traffic from fort to fort encouraged settlement. In 1851 John A. and J.M. McGuire moved to a site near here on Indian Creek. James H. Neel settled on Resley's Creek in 1852; in 1854 James Mercer and Capt. Frank Collier pitched tents on Mercer Creek, soon to be joined by their families and the Holmsleys and Tuggles. Collier put up first log house; Holmsley plowed first furrow. By Christmas of 1855 there were enough citizens here to petition for a county, and Comanche County was created by the Texas Legislature Jan. 25, 1856. The Corn Trail was a main civilian thoroughfare, and continued to serve its original purpose as a route for frontier troops and supplies.

The Pedernales community, established here by German immigrant farmers in the 1840s, was joined with the Live Oak community to form a school district in 1854. Sometime prior to 1875 a native stone schoolhouse was built at this site. State funds and tuition supported the 1-teacher, 7-grade school. Picnics on "schulpruefung" (final exam day), plays, Christmas programs, and music practices became traditional activities at the school. Falling student enrollment during World War II led to the school's closing in 1945. The school building was converted to residential use in the 1980s.

In 1854, 100 Polish families (800 persons) came to America in one small sailing ship -- a voyage of 9 weeks. None spoke English. From Galveston they walked 200 miles to Panna Maria in South Texas, arriving for Christmas Eve Mass. There they toiled at manual labor. In 1909, in response to White Deer Land Co. offers, they migrated here. Later the colony had additions from Washington State, Nebraska, Wisconsin. Their first Catholic Church, completed May 13, 1913, was on this site. Today their descendants include some of the most outstanding citizens of Texas.

The history of this community cemetery dates to October 1890, just three months after Swisher County was organized and Tulia was named county seat. The first recorded burial here is that of 18-year old Louis H. Harral, who died on October 17, 1890. His parents, L.J. & N.J. Harral, obtained permission from landowner T.W. Adams to bury their son on this hillside south of the Middle Tule Creek. Twelve days later, 4-year old Robert Alonzo Hutchinson, son of W.B. & Virginia Hutchinson, died and was buried on the hill near Louis. In 1906 five acres of land surrounding the graves were officially set aside for a community cemetery. A cemetery association was formed in 1916 under the leadership of Lula B. Tomlinson, who named the cemetery Rose Hill. The association was officially chartered by the state in 1937, and continues to maintain the site. Among those interred here are numerous city and county elected officials, including two law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty: John Mosley (d.1933) and Robert (Bob) Potter (d. Christmas Day, 1960). Also buried here are veterans of the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Six months after the news of emancipation reached Texas in 1865, the Louisiana-Texas-Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church for African Americans, known as the Mississippi Mission Conference, was organized on Christmas Day. In 1868, its mission at Orange began to host worship services. Baptist minister Arthur Robinson led the mission and was succeeded by the Rev. Joseph Hardin, a circuit rider from Galveston, the following year.

The name Salem Methodist Episcopal Church was formally adopted when the mission became a full church in 1873. Church trustees acquired property and constructed a small frame building in 1877. For several years beginning in 1883, students of the African American School at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church attended classes in the Salem Church Building. As the congregation grew, trustees acquired additional land, and by 1923 brick was added to a second frame building. The sixtieth session of the Texas annual conference was held at Salem Methodist Episcopal Church in 1925.

The church grew steadily throughout the 20th century and maintained an active role in the daily lives of the African American citizens of Orange. During the World War II population increase, elementary school classes were held in the Salem Church Building. Members of the church have been community and state leaders, including political and civil rights activists, ministers, educators, a vice president of the Texas National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the first black and first female mayor of the city of Orange. The Salem United Methodist Church continues in the traditions of its founders with programs of service and worship.

In 1879 Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company agent George Sealy purchased 11,635 acres at this location from the township of San Felipe de Austin for the purpose of establishing a railroad depot. The village of Sealy soon developed around the depot and on July 5, 1883, it recorded its first burial here, that of the infant Annie Fowlkes.

Families that settled in Sealy purchased cemetery plots directly from the railroad until the company donated the land to cemetery trustees C.H. Ruff, R.P. Josey, and John Hackbarth in 1887.

The Sealy Cemetery Association was founded sometime prior to 1898 and officially chartered in 1924. The ladies of The Cemetery Society, organized in 1904, helped the association cultivate community support to upgrade and maintain the cemetery. Two notable society members, Mrs. J.W. (Vera) Ripple and Mrs. Paul (Mahala) Hackbarth helped organize a Christmas bazaar fund raising event in the 1930's that developed into an important annual social affair in the community.

Among the more than 2,400 grave sites are those of many of Sealy's early residents. The cemetery boasts a variety of gravestones and statuary and includes two mausoleums.

First home in Canyon, a half-dugout, with windows at ground level. Built on survey located Christmas Day, 1887, by L.G. Conner. Location of Canyon's first post office; birthplace of Mamie Conner, first white child born in county. 1889 election to organize the county was held here.

The Rev. Martin Ruter (1785-1838) came to Texas as a missionary for the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1837. A town called Rutersville and Rutersville College, both located here, were named in his honor.

Bishop Beverly Waugh arrived in Galveston in early December 1840. His mission was to visit Texas Methodists and to assemble and organize the first annual conference. Accompanied by Thomas O. Summers, Waugh traveled to Austin, where on December 20 he preached in the Capitol.

Bishop Waugh arrived in Rutersville on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas Day he called the conference into session at Rutersville College. During the four day meeting the delegates elected Thomas O. Summers secretary of the conference, heard reports of the nine preachers present, admitted four new preachers, and ordained two deacons. The Texas Missionary Society also met, and plans were made for the second annual conference to be held in San Augustine in 1841.

Following its humble beginnings here in 1840, the Texas conference of the Methodist Church grew steadily, eventually to include additional annual conferences within the state.

In 1901 the Texas Legislature authorized the Northern Texas Traction Company of Fort Worth to extend rail service to Dallas. The interurban system, powered by overhead electrical lines, was completed one year later. The thirty-five mile trip took just over an hour. Passengers could flag the train and board at any point on the route. Each car held up to forty travelers. Rail traffic began to decline in the 1930s when paved roads were constructed between the two cities, and the last train made the interurban run on Christmas Eve, 1934.