The good folks of Sulphur Rock in Independence County recently celebrated Trolley Car Days, a festival honoring America's last mule-powered streetcar service. Operating until 1926, the "bobtail street car" was a link to an earlier time and vivid testimony to the impact of rail transport in the development of Arkansas.
Sulphur Rock was bypassed by the Iron Mountain Railroad when it opened a line in 1883 from Diaz near Newport to Batesville. Oral tradition held that landowners would not cooperate with the railroad on right-of-way issues, but written sources do not substantiate that. Whatever the cause, the citizens of Sulphur Rock suddenly found themselves with a depot situated a mile from town.
The exact date of the founding of the Sulphur Rock Railway Co. is unknown, but Robert Craig, the author of the entry on the company in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, estimates that it opened "within two to six years" after the Iron Mountain came through.
Sulphur Rock was not the first town in Arkansas to have a mule-powered trolley system. Little Rock granted its first franchises for a trolley system in 1876. Mules pulled these first streetcars in Arkansas. Mule-powered trollies were also found in other Arkansas cities including Walnut Ridge and Pine Bluff where a black entrepreneur and political leader, Wiley Jones, owned the system.
Mules and horses were not ideal for powering streetcars. When going down a grade, the trolley "motorman" had to carefully apply the brakes to prevent cars from running over the draft animal. And they were slow. But in the case of Sulphur Rock, the alternative was a mile-long ride in a wagon or buggy over rough unpaved roads.
With support from the Hill-Fontaine Cotton Co. of St. Louis, Mo., the Sulphur Rock Railroad Co. was established to build the track and operate the line. The first operator was Sam Tuggle, who was also the major stockholder in the company.
The Sulphur Rock Railroad Co. initially purchased a passenger car in St. Louis, but later when the city of Batesville discontinued its trolley line, one of the unused cars was transferred to Sulphur Rock. Apparently a third car was used to transport freight.
In 1910 the line was leased by John "Skipper John" Huddleston, the proprietor of the Huddleston Hotel on Main Street. Huddleston, along with his trusted white mule named Old Dick, became familiar sights as they plodded along the mile-long route every day.
In addition to carrying passengers--many of them being drummers (traveling salesmen)--the trolley delivered shipments destined for local businesses. The line also had the contract to transport mail for the U.S. Postal Service.
Huddleston's mule was an intelligent animal, and he hardly needed a driver since he knew the route and the various stops. Years later one local resident recalled that "when Mr. Huddleston unhitched him from the passenger car and said, 'Freight, Dick,' the mule trotted across the street and backed up to a special freight car."
Huddleston was quoted as saying that with Old Dick, "he never had engine trouble." Likewise, "nor was the line plagued with strikes, rate fights, washouts or wrecks."
The trolley line was never particularly profitable, but Huddleston was quoted once as saying, "The old car put my four boys through school and gave two of them college educations."
During the last years of its existence, Huddleston continued the service even though it was not cost-efficient. ". . . I get a lot of fun out of it. I haven't any other hobby and I like the 'joshing' my outfit causes. It's something, too, to know that you have brightened up a few moments for some worn-out traveler--or that a mother [pointed] out that 'funny old mule car' to her fretful children. I enjoy telling youngsters about the car."
Economic realities and the gradual switch away from travel by train to automobiles forced the closure of the Sulphur Rock trolley in 1926. It was the last mule-powered trolley in the nation.
The unique history of the Sulphur Rock trolley received recognition from the U.S. Postal Service in 1983 with the issuance of a postal stamp honoring the line. That stamp was one of a block of four stamps dedicated to American streetcar history.
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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com.
Editorial on 10/23/2016