I have been asked about Forney’s Texas and Pacific Railroad Depot, which had a listed address of East Pacific and Cedar Streets and was constructed somewhere around the year, 1901. I was in Cub Scouts, beginning some time in 1958 and continuing until I was old enough to join Boy Scouts during the early 1960s. Our Cub Scout Den, led by Marian Themer and Helen Stark, took an educational field trip/outing to the Forney Depot while it was still in operation, and a clerk gave us a tour of the various areas and some short talks about the operations from beginnings until then. We learned (This stuck in my mind.) that the long wooden benches had arm rails from front to back every few feet to keep the “hobos” (transients) from sleeping on them. (We tried to fit and could not!) We were allowed to get onto one of the flat carts with the “pump handles” to propel them down the tracks, and all of us guys together had a hard time making it “GO!”
One record I have seen states that the depot closed in the late 1950s, but I am going to hazard a guess that it was closer to early 1960s, since we were in Cub Scouts and taking trips until then. I remember that when the train quit stopping in Forney, it was a sad day–and then the area was used for storage for a while, while townsmen talked about what to do with it in the future–and before the useful future took place, a massive fire consumed the building and much of the surroundings. Rumor had it that either hobos sleeping there had “caught it on fire” with a cooking/warming fire or cigarettes tossed aside still lit—or that town “kids” had been “messing around” there and carelessly set the debris around the building on fire and that it spread to the building. I think I have seen statements that say the building was destroyed by fire in 1965, but I have no proof in any of my records.
For what it is worth, Carl Eudy told me that the
ONION SHED, where he and other older boys of his age worked summer and part-time jobs, was next to or near the DEPOT–and boy, was it hot and did it smell like onions! And, as a pretty young boy, I remember that often as we drove towards Church in Dallas, we could smell onions that were being harvested near the Lovers Lane area near “River Bottoms.”
And last, but I hope not least, did you know that Forney’s CiCi’s Pizza Take-Out-Restaurant was once a Sinclair Gas Station, a Car Repair Garage, a café/diner, and a Bus Station? Located at Old Highway 80 (Broad Street) and North Bois d’Arc Streets and built early in the ‘30s, the location where folks had to obey the “stop light” along the major highway was a local and traveller favorite.
P. S. I had a request for a photo of the RACKENSACK GENERAL STORE
in Forney’s outskirts (Clements Ranch area) after it was sold and moved from Heath, where it had been a very popular store there for as long as I can remember. Around 1959–1960, we local neighborhood boys would ride our bicycles to HEATH to buy Fleer Chewing Gum 3-packs for one cent each and the largest soft drink made, Mr. Cola–16 oz.– for a nickel per bottle.
“Try That Today!” That might be the next millionselling country hit!
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