Credit for the following information about Cisco, taken from early newspapers, is given to the late J. C. Mc-Daniel a former math teacher for over 40 years at Cisco College and also a former resident of Carbon, Texas. He was an avid researcher of railroad material, but along the way recorded in his notes information about other historical happenings of the Cisco and Eastland County area.
On June 8, 1881, the Dallas Daily Herald wrote about the towns that had developed along the T&P Railroad. Another article about Cisco was published in the Dallas Daily Herald, June 29, 1881, followed by their July 26, 1881, article about a Passenger Train wreck. Then came the first killing in Cisco when Sam Glasie killed M. C. Wort (August 17, 1882). The Fort Worth Gazette, January 19, 1882, reported there had been a fire in Cisco that burned two blocks of the town. Another fire burned the Dance Hall in Cisco six days later, reported by the Dallas Daily Herald, January 25, 1882. But something position was also reported in that same paper—the Union Depot in Cisco was opened (it also burned five years later). Cisco eventually had three different depots.
W. T. Caldwell, who ran a general store at nearby Red Gap before there was a Cisco, was postmaster in Cisco in 1882. He had come from Red Oak, Ellis County (Dallas Daily Herald, March14, 1882). Two days later that same newspaper reported that the Greenback Party was meeting in Cisco. It is a little confusing in J. C. Mc-Daniel's notes whether the Convicts that were working the mines near Sandy Creek out of Cisco was reported by the Fort Worth Gazette on March 16, 1882 or was it 1883. But because of the article that followed in the Gazette was dated November 14, 1883, the aforementioned article must have been 1883— that is when another fire took place that burned much of downtown Cisco. Again, something positive happened eight days later; Cisco was shipping 5,000 bales of cotton by train.
