The construction of the Houston and Texas Central Railway would be directly responsible for the early development of the city. Not only was the community strategically located in the middle of the Blackland Prairie, but it was located along the proposed H&TC line from Houston to Dallas - the first rail connection between both cities. However, the railroad's decision to establish Ennis meant that the nearby town of Burnham - located five miles south near the present-day community of Ensign - would be bypassed. The issue of this decision presented itself when many businesses in Burnham were attracted to the railroad and relocated to Ennis. As a result, a mob of angry residents reacted violently to the railroad's bypass and attacked citizens in the city of Ennis, killing one and injuring several others. Burnham, an otherwise well-planned and relatively developed city, would eventually decline and become a ghost town in the coming decades.