RAILROADS: There's Something about Kouns

 

There’s Something about Kouns

by Larry McGinnis 

        It would seem that wherever there are trains, there are train wrecks. Not so much with today’s railroading where the number one rule for contemporary railroaders is to take the safe course, but certainly back in the “heyday” of early railroads. Train operators in Austin’s era of railroad growth beginning in the 1870s often dealt with serious derailments and violent collisions, usually caused by miscommunication somewhere out on the line.
        After arriving in 1876, the International & Great Northern (I&GN) Railroad, sometimes known as the International, built a bridge across the Colorado River in 1881 to push its “Lone Star” route south to San Antonio and beyond eventually to Laredo. Clearing the river bridge, I&GN’s southbound trains traversed a cut in the hillside on the south bank of the river and slowly rumbled up a long hill on the way to Kouns Station four miles deep into south Austin. Named in honor of C.W. Kouns, a trainmaster with the company, I&GN’s trains had quite the climb of 198 feet in those short miles to reach Kouns Station, pretty steep for fully loaded trains that trudged slowly out of the Colorado River valley without having built up a head of steam.
        Locomotives pulling heavy freight trains or long passenger trains with extra coaches sometimes needed an assist up the grade. To keep I&GN’s trains moving, railroad dispatchers occasionally sent out “helper” locomotives to couple onto the rear of underpowered trains for a shove up the hill to Kouns. Lumbering freight trains nudged along by their helpers sent reverberations throughout Austin from the clanging of car couplings and the shrill of wheel flanges against the rails. White clouds of steam billowed from exhausts of locomotives in their heave to keep a schedule.
        Most Austinites who moved about during daylight hours did not seem to mind the rumble and tremors of trains going up Kouns Hill, but sleepy residents woken in the middle of the night could get irritated from the noisy tonnage that trembled over the line.[1] Cresting the hill, helpers dropped off at a siding at Kouns and later return to the Austin yard for their next assignments. Northbound trains headed down Kouns Hill still arrived with squealing brakes, but That was not so raucous since they had an easier go of it.
        In later years, there was something about Kouns that gave rise to serious train accidents. On November 3, 1899, Engineer John Stedman was killed at the throttle of his locomotive when the freight train he pulled jumped the track. Consisting of a locomotive, five freight cars, and a caboose, Stedman’s train was headed down Kouns Hill toward Austin when his locomotive slipped off the rails. One theory for the cause of the wreck was the rails spread apart and the engine dropped down onto the ties and flipped over into a ditch. Mr. Stedman died when the engine penned him underneath, scalding him with hot bursts of steam.[2]
        At one o’clock on the morning of March 9, 1903, a derailment sent slabs of meat all over the railroad right-of-way when a southbound freight train fell off the track at Kouns Switch and sent one freight car tumbling into a ditch. This particular car was full of fresh meat bound for market in San Antonio. The car’s plummet down the embankment caused it to split open and spill its meaty cargo in all directions. The cause of the wreck was a switch improperly lined to the turnout. An investigation into why the switch was left opened was inconclusive. Inspectors could not determine if the switch was turned the wrong way on purpose to intentionally derail the train or if it was due to the negligence of a railroad employee who did not take the safe course.[3]
        In May of 1913, railroader Chris Reek died in a terrific head-on collision between passenger train #7 headed up the hill and an “extra” stock train headed down the hill. The passenger train had orders to wait at the switch for the stock train to pass. It did not. It rolled through the switch and collided with the oncoming cattle train it should have let pass at Kouns siding. Even though the passenger train did try to stop, the stock train, fully loaded with cattle, bore heavily down the hill and smashed into the other train. The engineer of the passenger train jumped to safety while Mr. Reek was caught in the crash. His body, mashed beyond recognition by twisted wreckage, was taken to a local undertaking parlor for burial. Reports had it the trainmen involved in the wreck were “rather reticent about discussing the fault for the accident.”[4] A month later, an investigation laid blame on the crew of the passenger train who failed to follow railroading protocol by not stopping at the switch.
        On the morning of October 29, 1917, eight men were severely injured in a collision of two Missouri-Kansas-Texas (M-K-T) trains at Cowan’s Switch (a different spelling and possibly the correct pronunciation of Kouns). One M-K-T train had collided into the rear of the other. Five of the injured were Army airmen on their way to San Antonio for their duty assignments. The other three were trainmen riding in the engine and caboose of the freight train that ran into the rear Pullman car of the Katy Flyer, it too enroute to San Antonio. Evidence indicated the Flyer had pulled into the siding at Kouns to allow a northbound I&GN freight train to pass. After it did, the Flyer attempted to back out on the main line but its heavy weight made it difficult to complete the move in time to get out of the way of the oncoming southbound freight train.[5]
        Railroads often named their facilities to honor people who contributed to their companies, as the International had done with Kouns Station. But a name change was in the works in 1918 when the board of directors of the Austin Chamber of Commerce appointed Howard McKean to chair a committee to petition the I&GN to change the station’s name to “Vinson” in recognition of Dr. Robert Ernest Vinson, president of the University of Texas (UT) from 1916-1923.
        Vinson stood at the crossroads of where Austin’s business, educational, and military interests came together. Taking on a leadership role with the Chamber’s Military Committee, Dr. Vinson worked tirelessly to bring to Austin new United States government spending in education and training for local military-oriented schools during the war years of WWI. This money was thought to be over $6,000,000 in additional military funds. Making twenty trips to Washington, D.C., to help secure these expenditures, Vinson’s campaigning boosted the nation’s war effort, created new funding sources for the university, and buoyed the region’s economy at the same time.[6] His accomplishments led to a new school of Students for Armey Training, improvements to the School of Military Aeronautics, growth in the School of Automobile Mechanics, and funding for the Radio Aviation School at Penn Field in what was then south Austin.[7] Facilities for the “radio-flying” school at the field still exist today as a business and retail center on Congress Avenue.
        As UT’s president, Vinson’s forward-thinking philosophy in marrying military spending to Austin’s economy were instrumental in the university’s march toward progressive learning not yet contemplated as possible by other universities and colleges. On the business side of the coin, Chamber of Commerce executives saw their Military Committee as a pathway to new industries they hoped would spin out of these schools.
        An appreciative Chamber sought to change the name of Kouns Station to honor Dr. Vinson. When the I&GN received the Chamber’s petition, it readily agreed and through release of railroad circular No. 16 directed the change to be put into effect immediately. Because Mr. Kouns had taken a job with another railroad, the International likely harbored no compunction in changing the name. On December 27, 1918, Mr. McKean passed along news to the president of the Chamber informing him the committee had successfully completed its work.[8]
        Dr. Vinson’s profile grew for another distinct but a bit more notorious reason when he locked horns with Governor James E. “Pa” Ferguson on how the university was to be operated and who would lead the institution. The Governor heaped political pressure on UT’s board of trustees to fire certain university employees he considered unworthy. When school leaders balked, the Governor vetoed the school’s legislative appropriation for the biennium of 1917-19.
        Not taking kindly to such bullying tactics, Dr. Vinson joined with other educators, alumni, students, and supporters of the university to fight back. As a consequence, the Texas House of Representatives voted to impeach Governor Ferguson, and the Texas Senate voted to convict him for his surly ways in this and other matters, some of which were allegedly related to corruption. The Legislature made quick work of restoring the university’s appropriations.[9]
        Vinson Drive, which runs along what is now Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way, and the neighborhood the street serves, derived their names from their proximity to Vinson Station. 

Photos

Smashed locomotives from train wreck
that killed fireman Chris Reek
(source Sam Sargent)

C.W. Kouns
Trainmaster with the International & Great Northern Railroad
(source Sam Sargent)

 

Dr. Robert Ernest Vinson
University of Texas President 1916-1923
(source Library of Congress)

 

References

[1] Wright, Hamilton. Special to the Austin Statesman (Austin). “YM shack bossed rail traffic.” 22 January 1964. p.9. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman. Austin History Center collection.
[2] Austin Daily Statesman (Austin). “A railroad wreck: a freight train smash-up on the International and Great Northern.” 4 November 1899. p.2. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman. Austin History Center collection.
[3] The Austin Statesman (Austin). “Freight wreck in I.&G.N: Early yesterday morning at Koun’s Switch, five miles above Austin. Two box cars flew, rolled into a ditch. Turned switch assigned as the cause of the wreck – no one was injured, but train delayed.” 10 March 1903. p.1. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman. Austin History Center collection.
[4] The Austin Statesman (Austin). “Trains crash: one killed, more than score injured five miles south of Austin: Chris Reek, of San Antonio, Fireman, is crushed to death.” 20 May 1913. p.2. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman. Austin History Center collection.
[5] The Statesman (Austin). “8 hurt in collision on M.K.&T.: freight engine smashes into Pullman at Kouns. Injured are student airmen, little damage done.” 29 October 1917. p.1. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman. Austin History Center collection.
[6] The Statesman. “’Build’ Not “Boost” is Slogan of Austin Chamber of Commerce.” 27 July 1919. p.D8. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman. Austin History Center collection. Courtesy of James Ralph Ross.
[7] The Statesman (Austin). “University of Texas Led Institutions of Nation in Founding Army Schools.” 27 July 1919. p.B1. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman. Austin History Center collection.
[8] The Statesman (Austin). “Austin C. of C. changes name of MS to ‘Vinson’.” 28 December 1918. p.6. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman. Austin History Center collection. By 1947, Vinson Station had a section house, a siding of 3,129 feet in length that could hold fifty-eight freight cars, and a short spur. Map. Dated 1947. From the collection of Ben Sargent, chairman of the board of directors of the Austin Steam Train Association. Accessed June 2, 2021.
[9] Robert Adger Law, “Vinson, Robert Ernest,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed January 29, 2021, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/vinson-robert-ernest.  Published by the Texas State Historical Association.