Introduction
The Texas Highway Department, re-named Texas Department of Transportation in 1991, was established in 1917 by act of the Thirty-fifth Legislature
and was originally charged with the primary responsibility of granting financial aid to counties for highway construction and maintenance. The act provided
for a three-member Commission having the authority to appoint a State Highway Engineer. At the Commission's first meeting on June 4, 1917,
George A. Duren was appointed to that position, in which he served until 1919. (Biographical sketches of Texas Highway Department chief engineers can be accessed from the Key Professionals link.)
The Commission proposed that an 8,865 mile network of state highways be built. They published a map of the proposed system in June, 1917, which became
the basis for the future Texas highway system, (the future Route 66, which followed a branch of the Ozarks Trail is labeled "13"), but few roads were actually constructed before the 1920's. In 1924, Gibb Gilchrist was appointed State Highway Engineer,
having served as district engineer in both San Antonio and San Angelo. He resigned in 1925 when Miriam A. (Ma) Ferguson became Governor. A quick succession of five men
held the department's executive post from 1925-1928. Gilchrist returned to serve from 1928 until 1937, when he left to become dean of engineering (and later, university dean)
at Texas A&M University. It was during this period that the most significant progress was made in building the state highway system, and U.S. Route 66 was hard-surfaced
across the state.
In 1927, DeWitt C. Greer joined the Texas Highway Department as an instrument man. He worked in various roles, including acting district engineer and later district engineer
in the Tyler district. In 1936, he moved to Austin to head the department’s division of construction and design. In 1940, Greer became the state highway engineer and served
in that role for 27 years. He retired from the Department in 1967, but continued to serve the state of Texas as a Highway Commissioner from 1969 to 1981. During his tenure,
the Texas highway system expanded significantly.
The Texas Department of Transportation's Headquarters building in Austin, completed in 1933, is named the Dewitt C. Greer State Highway Building in his honor.
References:
Minutes of the Meeting of the State Highway Department June 4, 1917
Highway Department Records at the Texas State Archives, 1920s-1930s, 1962-1975
Texas Transportation Commission - Former Commissioners
Dewitt C. Greer State Highway Building
