The town that I grew up in was once known as Six Shooter Junction, and for good reason. It was the typical old west type town that was full of saloons, poker playing, prostitution, gun fights in the middle of the day and the whole nine yards. General Custer even stayed at the Liendo plantation here for three months in the fall of 1865 to supervise reconstruction of this area of Texas after the civil war.
They say that Southern Pacific threatened to cancel passenger service through here at night because the drunks would take pot shots at the trains to see if they could shoot the hats off of the passengers… This was finally resolved by turning down the lights in the cars and pulling the shades. The conductors would warn the passengers a few miles out side of town to be prepared to duck as they passed through Six Shooter Junction.
Bonnie and Clyde supposedly once spent the night here too on their way from Houston to Dallas, and told the hotel manager if he called the sheriff that he and the sheriff would both be buried the same day… The hotel manager didn’t call the sheriff.
So trainluver, you then have this junction on your layout complete with two saloons, a barbershop, three story hotel with outside veranda, horse tie up rails and of course the obligatory rail station with Telegraph office that gets robbed…right? No?
How about a spur off the mainline called Derringer Flats, or something like that? And your passenger cars have bullet holes in the glass??? sounds like a fun diorama on your layout!!
No JohnT14808, it’s a real community, and if I’m not mistaken you can find the info on the web under the history of Hempstead Texas.
A couple of interesting facts that I failed to mention is that during the civil war, the community was an important rail line that supplied the south with supplies and had two large yankee prisoner of war camps that were nearly wiped out by yellow fever.
In 1905 a government official along with three other men were gunned down at the courthouse during a hearing about the prohibition of alcohol when 75 shots were fired.
Hempstead was also home to Mrs. Lily Drenin, the first known female truck driver in the US.
Justice was also served swiftly here in the late 1800s and early 1900s as there was more than one occasion when the towns people didn’t wait for a trail and delt with suspected criminals themselves using a rope…
The town was also known at one time as the “watermelon” capitol of the world because some of the best melons ever grown were raise in the area.