Station

  MULLEN     Mills County   Milepost 323+3579’       

Origin of Station Name

Named for J. C. Mullin, who established ranch here in 1857.   The Santa Fe misspelled his name, a mistake which was never corrected, such that the name of the station never matched the name of the town and its post office (Mullin).

Agency Opened

December 31, 1885

1886 Personnel

Frank Moore                  Stationmaster           $60/mo.

Bob Morris                     Section Foreman     $55/mo.

Supervising five laborers @ $1.25/day.   These were William Fisher, Monroe Malone, Frank Moffat, Jack Farish and John Miller.

1890 Insured Structures

Depot                             $1085

Section House                $655   (Section No. 37)

1921 Depot(s)

Depot 24 by 80 feet “standard no. 4”   built 1914

No bay window shown on schematic.

1946 Traffic Report

No coverage.

“The Earth” Press Coverage

No coverage.

Employee Magazine Coverage

 No coverage.

Junction Other Lines

None.

Agency Closed

Closing authorized by January 3, 1942 Order of the Railroad Commission in Docket 4357-R.

Photographic Images

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Operating Bulletins

None.

Railroad Commission Complaints

None.

Legal Department Files

Two files, re closing agency and closing station.

Remarks

            Frank Moore, listed at stationmaster in the September 1886 ledger, seems not to have stayed long.   A 1910 letter by John J. Cox reported that he transferred as station agent from Santa Anna on Dec. 26, 1886, and moved in to the depot with his family as agent and telegraph operator.   Within months he had built a residence in the community, and he remained there until moving to Goldthwaite in 1895.

            The establishment most patronized by travelers at Mullen was the Florida Hotel. This two story wood frame structure was originally built at the nearby community of Williams Ranch by Florida native Captain A. A. Hutchinson in 1874, before the arrival of the railroad.   A telegraph line connected Austin and Fort Concho through this point (via Lampasas and Brownwood), and a station was established at the hotel.   Hutchinson had the building moved to a place beside the tracks at Mullen after the Santa Fe arrived.     

            In November 13, 1941 the Railroad Commission convened a hearing at the Brownwood County Courthouse to consider an application by the Santa Fe to discontinue its manned agency at Mullen.   The company presented its Superintendent A. B. Clements as a witness.   Clements exhibit no. 1 estimated that the population within a three mile radius was 700, and listed business establishments in the community of 4 grocery stores, 1 lumber yard, 1 garage, 5 gasoline filling stations, 1 drug store, 1 meat market and 2 restaurants.   The community was served by Arrow Coach bus lines, which offered six busses a day.   In the year ended October 31, 1941, Santa Fe had delivered 17 freight carloads to this station.   These included 11 cars of asphalt, 3 cars of lumber, 2 cars of cement and 1 car of coal (which was used for heating the school).   During this period only two outgoing carloads were shipped from the station, both livestock.   During this year the station agent sold $357.00 worth of tickets to passengers.   Six citizens of the community appeared at the hearing in protest of the application.   These were S. S. Dorbandt, owner of the cotton gin, Mr. and Mrs. R. M. Stanley, poultry breeders, Mayor A. F. Sheldon, Garageman L. L. Wilson, and Willard Mosier, lumberyard manager.   Mr. Clement testified that operation of the station at Mullen was no longer profitable to the company, and Commission hearing examiner Charles F. Petet was forced to concur.   At the beginning of 1942 the Commission approved closure of the agency, and operation of the station thereafter as a prepay point.   On June 1, 1956 the station was abandoned as a prepay point.

The fate of the Santa Fe’s agency at Mullen was probably sealed by completion of a paved highway through the town in 1936.

 

The Florida hotel was relocated to nearby acreage and restored for private residential usage in recent years.

Mullin attracted statewide attention in the last years of the 20 th Century for the prowess of its six man football team.