From 1875 to 1940 trolleys ruled the streets of Austin. The Austin City Railroad Company operated the first streetcars in Austin which were pulled by mules navigating the muddy, dusty and unpaved roads of the rapidly growing Capital of Texas.  These early mule drawn trolleys ran mostly along Congress Avenue in the heart of downtown Austin. By 1891 Austin joined the age of exciting innovation with the first electric streetcar. This fast and convenient mode of transport was able to carry passengers to suburbs north of downtown. The tree lined neighborhood of Hyde Park was known as a classic streetcar suburb.  The streetcar companies faced several difficulties like the catastrophic failure of the Austin Dam in 1900 which left the city without power and temporarily required the service of mules to pull trolleys once again. In response, the streetcar company erected its own steam powered generator on the west side of town, and a fully electric transportation system was in action with twenty cars running on fifteen miles of track. After several mergers the Austin Electric Railway Company was founded in 1902, and the golden age of the electric streetcar in the Capital city began.

Investors who owned these bonds would make regular visits to their banks to cut out and redeem the coupons and collect their interest, so the wealthy citizens of this era became known as "Coupon Clippers."