Taft Reenactment ‘Huge Success’

The city of Wills Point celebrated the 1909 stop of President William Howard Taft’s train stop in Wills Point with a reenactment on Saturday.

In October of 1909, Taft was traveling east from Dallas after a stop at the state fair. On a Sunday morning, approximately 1,500 residents gathered at the Wills Point depot to see the president, but were informed that the train would not stop after all.

As the train approached, conspirators gathered around the semaphore and cut the rope, dropping the flag and signaling the train to stop. Against his wishes, Taft emerged to address the gathered crowd.

When the 100-year anniversary of the event was brought to the attention of Wills Point City Manager Jim Stephens, he contacted Amtrak about the reenactment, and officials with the passenger rail service teamed with the city to provide a memorable event.

Wills Point resident Kelly Ferris was in costume to play the part of President Taft, and along with more than 170 others, traveled to Longview on Saturday morning for a train ride to Wills Point.

Amtrak stopped the train in Wills Point for more than 10 minutes while Ferris, with the help of "presidential aide" Paul Addison, fielded questions from the audience.

Prior to the train’s arrival, gospel singing, a barbershop quartet, country music and the Wills Point High School Marching Band entertained the crowd, estimated to be between 500-600.