Julius ("Jule" or "Jules") Alvord was born in New York on December 10, 1836. Arriving to Denison, Texas, by 1875, he was a long-time conductor for the Texas and Pacific Railroad, based in Denison, Marshall (1879), and later Fort Worth. His brother was J. N. Alvord, who by 1899 was superintendent of the MK&T Railroad [KATY] at Greenville, Texas. Horace H. Alvord (unknown relation) was a clerk at the MK&T Railway in Denison in 1876, living at the Alamo Hotel.

Old Map showing the T&P Railroad
It went west to California and East to New Orleans.
The Red River North of Denison had not yet been covered by Lake Texoma.

The conductor was something of an entrepreneur. The 1876-77 Denison City Directory listed J. Alvord as president of the Denison Daily and Weekly "Cresset" newspaper. On December 31, 1878, the Denison Daily News reported: "The Cresset establishment is sold at trustee's sale and bid in by Jule Alvord; —Burson & Day lease the material." The same issue reported that J. Alvord had built a "first class and highly expensive" house on Sears Street, costing between $2,000 and $4,000. In May 1888, he won a lawsuit concerning "a fine body of agricultural land on Red River" in Wilbarger County. "There were a great many attorneys employed on both sides," reported the Galveston Daily News.

Jule had a life-changing experience on April 10, 1878. Late in the evening, he was conductor on a westbound train pulling into Mesquite, Texas. Sam Bass and several members of his gang had captured the station agent and jumped aboard the engine as it pulled into the station. A gunfight ensued, with Jule, "a crusty Civil War veteran," bravely defending the passengers and getting shot in the wrist in the process. Though one account said he was "disabled for life," he actually recovered, but newspapers blazed lengthy accounts of the train heist across the nation. When Alvord died in 1899, the Houston Post did not mention the train robbery, but other papers mentioned little else.

Perhaps the brush with death gave Rule a new perspective. In January 1879, when friends considered him "a confirmed old bachelor," Jule married a much younger REBECCA PORTER "Ree" TURNER (born January 30, 1858, probably in Wapello County, Iowa) in Fort Worth. Her younger brother, E. P. Turner, became general passenger and ticket agent of the Texas and Pacific by 1899. They had two daughters— ~ Nora E. Alvord and Evelyn Alvord (Mrs. Clarence C.) Dickson— and a son, Eldon T. Alvord.

The Houston Daily Post
Friday, February 24, 1899

WELL KNOWN RAILROADER DIED AT HIS HOME IN FORT WORTH
Fort Worth, Texas, February 28 - Captain Jules Alvord died at noon today of congestion of the brain at his home in this city.  He is a well known and highly respected citizen, a conductor of the Texas and Pacific, and was a prominent member of the Masonic order and the Order of Railway Conductors.  He came in off his run at 4 o'clock this morning and at noon he was dead.
He was a brother-in-law to E.P. Turner, general passenger and ticket agent of the Texas and Pacific, having married Mr. Turner's eldest sister.  He has a brother, J.N. Alvord, who is superintendent of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas at Greenville.