06/24/2026
The Interurban That Never Was: How Mineral Wells Lost Its Electric Railway Dream
In 1905, a group of ambitious businessmen—Cicero Smith, D.M. Howard, H.N. Frost, E.J. Waldron, and Albert Stevenson—formed the Fort Worth and Mineral Wells Electric Railway Company. Their vision was bold: construct an electric interurban railway linking Mineral Wells with Fort Worth, bringing fast, modern transportation to the region. With an initial capitalization of $250,000, enthusiasm for the project ran high.
But enthusiasm alone could not finance such a massive undertaking.
Around 1906, Major Beardsley, a Canadian-born former Union soldier, arrived in Mineral Wells with transportation ambitions of his own. He built a local streetcar system that ran through downtown Mineral Wells and extended it to his recreational development, Elmhurst Park, southwest of town. Beardsley envisioned something much larger—a regional interurban network connecting Mineral Wells to Weatherford, Peaster, Millsap, and Fort Worth.
To advance that dream, he acquired the charter of the Mineral Wells electric railway project and set out to turn the vision into reality.
The undertaking required enormous capital. Beardsley leveraged his land holdings and railroad interests as collateral to secure substantial financing from a syndicate of creditors. Construction began, and for a brief time it appeared the long-awaited interurban might finally become a reality.
Then disaster struck.
The Financial Panic of 1907 crippled investment markets across the country. Funding evaporated, construction slowed, and by the end of the year workers on the railway project were going unpaid. While Beardsley was away in New Orleans, the project collapsed. Local newspapers declared the interurban enterprise dead.
A lengthy legal battle followed. Eventually, Beardsley's trustee and the City of Mineral Wells assumed control of the remaining assets, with portions of Elmhurst Park and surrounding land passing into city ownership.
And with that, Mineral Wells' dream of an electric interurban railway came to an end.
Or so it seemed.
In 1912, the Weatherford, Mineral Wells and Northwestern Railway introduced an innovative alternative. Rather than invest in costly electric infrastructure, the railroad purchased two state-of-the-art McKeen Motor Cars—gasoline-powered railcars designed to provide many of the same benefits as an interurban system.
Locals affectionately nicknamed them "Doodlebugs."
These sleek, 70-foot-long passenger cars featured streamlined styling and distinctive round porthole windows. They offered frequent service between Mineral Wells, Weatherford, Fort Worth, and Dallas. Round-trip travel took less than six hours, with departures operating in each direction every three hours.
For years, the Doodlebugs effectively served as the region's unofficial interurban, providing fast and reliable passenger transportation without overhead wires or electric substations.
Yet larger economic forces eventually caught up with them.
During the 1920s, automobile ownership surged and improved highways gave travelers greater flexibility. Passenger ridership declined sharply, and regular passenger service on the line was quietly discontinued in 1928.
The attached photograph depicts the groundbreaking for the Fort Worth–Mineral Wells Interurban on September 22, 1907
Captured during the optimistic early days of the Fort Worth and Mineral Wells interurban project, this photograph shows the ceremonial groundbreaking held in 1907, when investors, engineers, and civic leaders gathered to celebrate the start of construction on what they hoped would become a modern electric railway connecting Mineral Wells with Fort Worth.
At center, financier and company incorporator D.M. Howard turns the first shovel of dirt, symbolizing the official beginning of work on the ambitious line. The arrow identifies Major Beardsley, the driving force behind the project and owner of Mineral Wells' streetcar system, who envisioned expanding local rail service into a regional transportation network. The star marks C.M. Wilson, president of the American Engineering Company, whose firm was involved in the railway's construction.
At the moment this photograph was taken, the future appeared bright. Backed by investors and buoyed by public enthusiasm, the interurban seemed destined to become a reality. Yet within months, the Financial Panic of 1907 would cripple financing, halt construction, and ultimately doom the project. Today, the image stands as a poignant reminder of one of Mineral Wells' most ambitious dreams—a railway that promised to connect the city to North Texas but was never completed.
