In 1885 the Houston East and West Texas Railroad (H.E. & W.T. RR) came through Garrison. The land for the railroad was purchased from Captain Jim Garrison who was awarded the contract to furnish crossties for the railroad. After the death of Captain Jim Garrison, the contract was sold by the Garrison family to the R. T. Patterson Estate in or around 1921. The Executor of the Estate was Belton Latimer and his brother-in-law was N.H. Jarrett who ran the Tie Company.
In 1936, K.L. Barton was employed by N.H. Jarrett Tie Company. In 1957 Mr. Jarrett retired and the contract was awarded to K.L. Barton and Sons Tie Co. by Southern Pacific Railroad. The management of the Tie Company remains in the Barton family to this day.
In 2006 - over 21 million wood crossties were produced in the U.S. In the 49 years K.L. Barton produced 49,000,000 crossties. Union Pacific has 33,000 miles of track.
