Railroad charters Books A-K, and the two indexes, are restricted due to their fragile physical condition, so researchers must use the microfilmed copies of the volumes.
Materials do not circulate, but may be used in the State Archives search room. Materials will be retrieved from and returned to storage areas by staff members.
Most records created by Texas state agencies are not copyrighted and may be freely used in any way. State records also include materials received by, not created by, state agencies. Copyright remains with the creator. The researcher is responsible for complying with U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.).
Microfilm readers are available in the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building. Ask staff members for exact locations.
The Texas Secretary of State is a constitutional officer of the executive branch of state government, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate for a term concurrent with the governor's (a two-year term at first, a four-year term since 1974). The office was first created by the Constitution of the Republic of Texas in 1836, and has been continued by each succeeding Constitution.
The Secretary of State has an enormous number of duties and responsibilities, including the following: authenticating the publication of all laws passed by the state legislature; approving comptroller's accounts against the state prior to payment; maintaining a register of all official acts and proceedings of the governor, and all appointments to state boards and commissions; interpreting and enforcing the Texas Election Code, as the state's chief election officer; keeping the Seal of the State of Texas; maintaining many business-related filings, including corporation and Uniform Commercial Code filings.
The office of the Secretary of State is divided into five divisions: Executive, Elections, Business and Public Filings, Administrative Services, and Information Technology Services.
The Business and Public Filings Division (called Statutory Filings Division prior to 2002), composed of four sections (Corporations, Statutory Documents, Texas Register, and Uniform Commercial Code Sections), assists the secretary in most of his/her duties not related to elections.
The Statutory Documents Section: appoints, reappoints, and commissions all notaries public for the state (since 1940); records the charters of home rule cities; files amendments of charters of incorporated towns and villages; files bonds or copies of bonds for state officers and state employees, members of governing bodies of certain constitutionally authorized political subdivisions, and general law districts; files the constitutional statement of bribery; issues cards to all labor organizers in the state; files labor union annual reports; registers business opportunity sellers in Texas; registers health spas, athlete agents, and credit service organizations; licenses and regulates automobile clubs; files deeds of cession; etc.
Prior to 1876, each railroad in Texas was granted its charter by special act of the legislature. The 15th Texas Legislature approved Senate Bill 144 on August 15, 1876, which required persons forming a railroad corporation to have their charters first approved by the Attorney General and then be certified by and filed with the Secretary of State. Another piece of legislation, Substitute House Bill 227, 23rd Texas Legislature, Regular Session, passed April 8, 1893, required the registration of certificates of stocks and bonds issued by railroads with the Secretary of State, once authorization to issue had been granted by the Railroad Commission.
In 1887 (Senate Bill 272, 20th Texas Legislature, Regular Session), a
law was passed to require railroad companies to furnish sufficient cars to
transport freight when they agreed with private persons and corporations to do
so. Certain penalties were laid out for failure to fulfil this requirement;
this law was amended in 1899 and again in 1913. Texas State Archives staff
could find no stipulation that contracts to lease or sell railroad cars must be
filed with the Secretary of State; but this was consistently done from sometime
before 1901, and continued until at least 1956. The filing may have stemmed
from the requirement for filing railroad charters with the Secretary of State.
By 1992 the Statutory Documents Section of the Texas Secretary of State noted
that
During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Corporations Section filed charters and amendments for railroads; the Statutory Documents Section now handles that function.
(Sources include the following:
Beginning 1876, Texas statutes required persons forming a railroad corporation to have their charters first approved by the Texas Attorney General and then be certified by and filed with the Texas Secretary of State. Railroad charters are created to define the purpose, location and organization of a proposed railroad corporation; charters are approved and granted by the state and give the railroad the legal authority to operate as a corporation in Texas. Railroad contracts and conditional sales are created to accomplish the lease or conditional sale of rolling stock (locomotives and railroad cars) in Texas. These records include railroad charters, amendments to charters, minutes of meetings, resolutions from stockholders and boards of directors, deeds of sale, articles of merger, renewals, articles of dissolution of railroad corporations, orders concerning railroad bonds, valuation reports, railroad contracts and conditional sales, agreements, leases of railroad equipment, leases/conditional sales agreements, first mortgages and deeds of trust, assumption agreements, releases of chattel mortgages, and indexes. These records date 1876-1993.
The charters (in more recent years called articles of incorporation) date 1876-1993, and provide the following information: name of the proposed railroad corporation, location and distance of track, principal place of business, life span of the corporation, amount of capital stock, names and addresses of those forming the corporation and of the first board of directors, and the number and amounts of shares. Orders to register, exchange or cancel bonds, or to extend bond maturity dates are interfiled with the charters under the name of the individual railroads. The legislation requiring bond registration also required that railroads submit statements on the value of all of their lines of railway, and railroad property, rights and franchises. These statements include the value of the land for transportation expenses, the right of way and depot grounds, track ties and steel rails, bridges, embankments, furniture and fixtures, depots and section houses, and engineering expenses. Some of these valuation reports are filed with the railroad charters, mostly dating 1920s-1930s. Two additional volumes serve as alphabetical indexes to the charters, 1876-1929 and 1876-1943.
The railroad contracts and conditional sales, for the lease or
conditional sale of railroad cars and locomotives (what is normally referred to
as
These records have been organized into two series by the State Archives staff:
(Identify the item and cite the series), Texas Secretary of State railroad records. Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Initial processing by Paul Beck, March 1988
New accessions added by Tony Black, April 1990, September 1999
Finding aid encoded by Tony Black in EAD Version 1.0 by Tony Black, October 2001
Finding aid converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by TARO using the conversion stylesheet v1to02.xsl, July 2003
Microfilm reels added by Tony Black, October 2003
New accession added by Tony Black, September 2004
Finding aid expanded to include second series, and further corrections to DACS standards by Tony Black, June 2006
Corrections by Tony Black, December 2008
Accession numbers: 1960/024, 1974/129, 1990/019, 1992/080, 1992/303, 2000/005, 2004/033, 2005/003
These records were transferred to the Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission by the Office of the Texas Secretary of State on August 23, 1961; by the Administrative Division (Legal Counsel) of the Texas Secretary of State on May 15, 1974; by the Statutory Documents Section of the Texas Secretary of State on October 19, 1989; March 18, 1992; August 20, 1992; September 9, 1999; and September 7, 2004; and by the State and Local Records Management Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (charters on microfilm) on October 7, 2003.
The originals of Railroad charters Books A-K, and the two corresponding indexes, were microfilmed (on 35 mm microfilm) in 2003 by the State and Local Records Management Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. The reels are available through interlibrary loan; contact your local librarian for details.
The originals of Railroad contracts and conditional sales, 1953-1956,
were microfilmed (on 16 mm microfilm), probably by the Texas Secretary of
State, and the originals destroyed; these reels are
These records were appraised as archival by an in-house appraisal of
Secretary of State records on December 15, 1998. See that appraisal report
online at
The Texas Secretary of State's office periodically transfers railroad charters to the Texas State Archives, typically once every five to ten years. Railroad contracts and conditional sales are no longer required to be filed with the Texas Secretary of State.
Beginning 1876, Texas statutes required persons forming a railroad corporation to have their charters first approved by the Texas Attorney General and then be certified by and filed with the Texas Secretary of State. Railroad charters are created to define the purpose, location and organization of a proposed railroad corporation. Charters are approved and granted by the state and give the railroad the legal authority to operate as a corporation in Texas. These records consist of railroad charters and related documents filed with the Texas Secretary of State, dating 1876-1993. The charters (in more recent years called articles of incorporation) provide the following information: name of the proposed railroad corporation, location and distance of track, principal place of business, life span of the corporation, amount of capital stock, names and addresses of those forming the corporation and of the first board of directors, and the number and amounts of shares. The related documents include amendments to charters, minutes of meetings and resolutions from stockholders and boards of directors, deeds of sale, articles of merger, renewals, articles of dissolution of railroad corporations, orders concerning railroad bonds, and valuation reports. The charters and related documents are contained in fourteen bound volumes (Books A-K), plus three boxes containing four expanding folders (Books L-P). Two additional volumes serve as indexes with an alphabetical listing of the railroads, 1876-1929 and 1876-1943. The earlier volumes of charters (pre-1920) are mostly handwritten copies of the charters with some typed copies and some original documents taped onto the pages. The later volumes are photostatic copies. Orders to register, exchange or cancel bonds, or to extend bond maturity dates are interfiled with the charters under the name of the individual railroads. The legislation requiring bond registration also required that railroads submit statements on the value of all of their lines of railway, and railroad property, rights and franchises. These statements include the value of the land for transportation expenses, the right of way and depot grounds, track ties and steel rails, bridges, embankments, furniture and fixtures, depots and section houses, and engineering expenses. Some of these valuation reports are filed with the railroad charters, mostly dating 1920s-1930s.
Railroad charters prior to 1876 may be found by consulting the
These records are arranged by the Secretary of State chronologically in the order that they are filed; the indexes are listed after the microfilm.
(Identify the item), Railroad charters and related records, Texas Secretary of State railroad records. Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
These records were appraised as archival by an in-house appraisal
of Secretary of State records on December 15, 1998. See that appraisal report
online at
Accession numbers: 1974/129, 1990/019, 2000/005, 2004/033, 2005/003
These records were transferred to the Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission by the Administrative Division (Legal Counsel) of the Texas Secretary of State on May 15, 1974; by the Statutory Documents Section of the Texas Secretary of State on October 19, 1989; September 9, 1999; and September 7, 2004; and by the State and Local Records Management Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (the microfilm) on October 7, 2003.
Railroad charters Books A-K, and the two indexes, are restricted due to their fragile physical condition, so researchers must use the microfilmed copies of the volumes.
Most records created by Texas state agencies are not copyrighted and may be freely used in any way. State records also include materials received by, not created by, state agencies. Copyright remains with the creator. The researcher is responsible for complying with U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.).
Microfilm readers are available in the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building. Ask staff members for exact locations.
Initial processing by Paul Beck, March 1988
New accessions added by Tony Black, April 1990, September 1999
Microfilm reels added by Tony Black, October 2003
New accession added by Tony Black, September 2004
Further corrections to DACS standards by Tony Black, June 2006
Corrections by Tony Black, December 2008
Railroad contracts and conditional sales are created to accomplish
the lease or conditional sale of rolling stock (locomotives and railroad cars)
in Texas. Records in this series consist of copies of
Book 1 (dating prior to October 1901) and Book 4 (dating 1913-1915) were missing at the time the volumes were transferred by the Secretary of State (August 1961).
Railroad contracts and conditional sales dating 1953-1956 are in microfilm format only.
One volume (2-1/149) is a general index to railroad contracts and conditional sales, covering Books 3 through 15, 1909-1929. Book 2 (which is the first volume extant in the series) contains a forward and reverse index of its own. The general index contains the following information: the names of both of the parties to the contract, sale, agreement, etc.; the volumes and pages numbers; and (beginning with entries for volume 12, 1925) dates (presumably of the filing of the contract). There is also a microfilmed index to Books 15 through 23 (Contracts dating 1927-1947), which also contains entries for Books A-J (Railroad charters, 1876-1942).
In 1887 (Senate Bill 272, 20th Texas Legislature, Regular
Session), a law was passed to require railroad companies to furnish sufficient
cars to transport freight when they agreed with private persons and
corporations to do so. Certain penalties were laid out for failure to fulfil
this requirement; this law was amended in 1899 and again in 1913. Texas State
Archives staff could find no stipulation that contracts to lease or sell
railroad cars must be filed with the Secretary of State; but this was
consistently done from sometime before 1901, and continued until at least 1956.
The filing may have stemmed from the requirement for filing railroad charters
with the Secretary of State. By 1992 the Statutory Documents Section of the
Texas Secretary of State noted that
These records were arranged by the Secretary of State chronologically by date of filing with that office.
(Identify the item), Railroad contracts and conditional sales, Texas Secretary of State railroad records. Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
These records were appraised as archival by an in-house appraisal
of Secretary of State records on December 15, 1998. See that appraisal report
online at
Accession numbers: 1960/024, 1992/080, 1992/303
These records were transferred to the Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission by the Office of the Texas Secretary of State on August 23, 1961; and by the Statutory Documents Section of the Texas Secretary of State on March 18, 1992; and August 20, 1992.
The index to Books 15 through 23 is restricted due to its fragile physical condition, so researchers must use the microfilmed copy of this volume.
Most records created by Texas state agencies are not copyrighted and may be freely used in any way. State records also include materials received by, not created by, state agencies. Copyright remains with the creator. The researcher is responsible for complying with U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.).
Microfilm readers are available in the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building. Ask staff members for exact locations.
Finding aid expanded to include second series, and further corrections to DACS standards by Tony Black, June 2006
Corrections by Tony Black, December 2008