AHC: Metropolitan Area of Corsicana-Dallas-FortWorth

As the tin says, with a POD of 1848 when founded, grow Corsicana to be a tripolar city with Dallas and Fort Worth
 
Excerpt:

From Three Points Make A Plane: A History of the CDFW Metroplex, Allen Navarro Allanson, Texas A&M University Press 2012:

… The attachment of Lt. Gov. Jester, father of the later Governor, to his hometown, was a material aid to Corsicana’s growth; but it was only an aid. John Winship’s iron foundry, now the Oil City Iron Works, moved with admirable speed in seizing new opportunities beyond its cotton gin manufacturing origins. The partnership – Mr. Garrity, Mr. Huey, and Mr. Whiteselle – who bought it out and made it the Corsicana Manufacturing Co., had the sense to refuse to sell it off in 1898, in the wake of the Panic of ’96; as local men, they recognized the market possibilities of the 1894 discovery of the Corsicana Oil Field, and their foresight was vindicated in 1923 when the Powell Oil Field came in east of town, in what is now Tuckertown. As manufacturers, it didn’t matter to them whether a wildcatter or a Seven Sister drilled a gusher or a dry well, or whether oil went to a dollar a barrel: they became early leaders in the manufacture of casing, pipes, drills, and rods, and so long as they were paid up front, what happened to the purchaser’s dreams afterwards was no concern of theirs.

Their possession of cutting-edge machine technology led them into supplying other ventures as well: the machinery used by the Collin Street Bakery and by Wolf Brand at its cannery was theirs also, and both Dallas and Fort Worth looked to Corsicana for any needs in iron or steel their own booms required. The creation and extension of the FWDCRR relied in no small part on Corsicana’s manufacture of everything from locomotive parts to rails and spikes; and the Forth Worth, Dallas, & Corsicana in turn opened new markets to Collin Street fruitcake and Wolf Brand Chili, which led to an enduring expansion in Corsicana. When J. L. Kelly left Bell Labs to return to his native Corsicana, accompanied by his friend research partner Claude Shannon, and established an institute there, it might have seemed a quixotic gamble; but the fathers of the Kelly Criterion and of Information Theory knew better than anyone which way, and when, and how to bet. The economic vitality of Corsicana....​
 
From Three Points Make A Plane: A History of the CDFW Metroplex, Allen Navarro Allanson, Texas A&M University Press 2012:

… The attachment of Lt. Gov. Jester, father of the later Governor, to his hometown, was a material aid to Corsicana’s growth; but it was only an aid. John Winship’s iron foundry, now the Oil City Iron Works, moved with admirable speed in seizing new opportunities beyond its cotton gin manufacturing origins. The partnership – Mr. Garrity, Mr. Huey, and Mr. Whiteselle – who bought it out and made it the Corsicana Manufacturing Co., had the sense to refuse to sell it off in 1898, in the wake of the Panic of ’96; as local men, they recognized the market possibilities of the 1894 discovery of the Corsicana Oil Field, and their foresight was vindicated in 1923 when the Powell Oil Field came in east of town, in what is now Tuckertown. As manufacturers, it didn’t matter to them whether a wildcatter or a Seven Sister drilled a gusher or a dry well, or whether oil went to a dollar a barrel: they became early leaders in the manufacture of casing, pipes, drills, and rods, and so long as they were paid up front, what happened to the purchaser’s dreams afterwards was no concern of theirs.

Their possession of cutting-edge machine technology led them into supplying other ventures as well: the machinery used by the Collin Street Bakery and by Wolf Brand at its cannery was theirs also, and both Dallas and Fort Worth looked to Corsicana for any needs in iron or steel their own booms required. The creation and extension of the FWDCRR relied in no small part on Corsicana’s manufacture of everything from locomotive parts to rails and spikes; and the Forth Worth, Dallas, & Corsicana in turn opened new markets to Collin Street fruitcake and Wolf Brand Chili, which led to an enduring expansion in Corsicana. When J. L. Kelly left Bell Labs to return to his native Corsicana, accompanied by his friend research partner Claude Shannon, and established an institute there, it might have seemed a quixotic gamble; but the fathers of the Kelly Criterion and of Information Theory knew better than anyone which way, and when, and how to bet. The economic vitality of Corsicana....​

Loved it. Have to wonder what the population of CDFW and Texas as a whole would be in this scenario
 
Excerpt:

From: A History of Catholic Education in Navarro County, Ursula Clare Dougherty, Navarro Press, 1979:

José Antonio Navarro was a believer in education, in the Magisterium of Holy Church, and of Classical Liberal political thought and in democracy. He did not regard there as being a whit of contradiction in these views. Founding, providentially, Corsicana in 1848, that year of fateful revolution in old Europe, he was – providentially – led to lend his name, support, and influence to the foundation, contemporaneously with the future metropolis’ founding, to the establishment of the Academy of the Sacred Heart. Only a Navarro or a Seguin could have done so at that time and in that place; much less have established a tradition of close cooperation, regardless of credal differences, between the Academy and the Protestant (and, later, State) schools, including the Female Literary Institute. The Academy he stood godfather to soon attracted bright young minds; its emulative rivalry with the Protestant academies drove all pupils and teachers in all of the Corsicana schools to try harder to excel; and the name and influence, the example, of José Antonio Navarro, and his extensive political correspondence with moderate Catholics in Europe who had watched with interest events in Texas, set Corsicana on a perhaps unlikely path as a center of education in North Texas. Mazzini and he did not agree well together, owing to the latter’s drift away from the Church; but many Catholic intellectuals who had hoped to guide the 1848 Revolutions towards Catholic social democracy became interested, when the revolutions failed either to take that course or to succeed on any course, in emigration. So too did Protestant sympathizers with these ideals; and North America was an obvious destination, promising freedom of religion and thought in a liberal democracy. (The Collin Street Bakery was founded by just such a family from Wiesbaden.) Good reports from new Texans who had come over through the Adelsverein doubtless played a part as well; but Corsicana had the advantage of having been established in a less exposed part of the State, somewhat removed from the anxieties of the frontier.

The result was an early blossoming of intellectual vigor and a surprising cosmopolitanism, in unlikely soil enough, which surely was the true and original basis for the ascent of Corsicana....​
 
Thank you.

Loved it. Have to wonder what the population of CDFW and Texas as a whole would be in this scenario

And that's a good question, to which, having started in medias res, I have no idea of the answer.

You did foresee, surely, when posting, that the answer to the challenge would include fruitcake....
 
A good way to make any arbitrary city into a metropolis is a POD making it the state capital. Especially with a university, you draw a lot of population. It center.might be possible for that to make the city a financial Later, make that university a center of research for the oil/petrochemical industry and that will funnel a lot of money (facilities and more population) starting with the oil boom. A timely segue to aerospace research with the establishment of NASA add another entire population of researchers and facilities. State offices, university campus and a developing research center-timed right-might provide the boost you are looking for.
 
A good way to make any arbitrary city into a metropolis is a POD making it the state capital. Especially with a university, you draw a lot of population. It center.might be possible for that to make the city a financial Later, make that university a center of research for the oil/petrochemical industry and that will funnel a lot of money (facilities and more population) starting with the oil boom. A timely segue to aerospace research with the establishment of NASA add another entire population of researchers and facilities. State offices, university campus and a developing research center-timed right-might provide the boost you are looking for.

With the POD I can't see Austin losing its position as capital
 
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