Fort Worth -- the most typically Texan of all Texas cities --
began as a tiny outpost on a lonely frontier. Today, this metropolitan area of
more than 600,000 people blends its cattle and oil heritage seamlessly with an
ever-growing, diverse array of new businesses and industries. Fort Worth was
established through the efforts, the courage and the sacrifices of countless
men and women; and the story, even in barest outline, is an American saga.
Skyline1
As America's 18th largest city, and ranked fastest growing large
city with a population greater than 500,000, Fort Worth offers a mix of Western
heritage and modern culture.
"Where the West Begins"
The fertile, game-rich land surrounding the banks of the Trinity
River had long been a favorite hunting ground for Native Americans in the area,
but it soon proved irresistible to settlers as well.
A settlement had been established by Jonathon Bird in the winter
of 1840, three miles east of where Birdville is today. In 1843, Sam Houston
came to what was then called Fort Bird or Bird's Fort and remained more than a
month, awaiting chiefs from different tribes to discuss a peace parley. Houston
departed, leaving Gen. Edward H. Tarrant and George W. Terrell to meet with the
chiefs. When the tribes came to the negotiating table, a treaty was made under
which the Native Americans were to remain to the west of a line traced passing
through the future site of Fort Worth. The line marked “Where the West Begins”
-- giving Fort Worth its famous slogan.
The Establishment of Fort Worth
In an attempt to establish control over North Texas, the
Republic of Texas attempted to set up a line of "ranger" (militia)
forts on the frontier. When ranger stations proved inadequate, the U.S. Army
stepped in and took over the job of watching the frontier. It adopted a
"picket line" strategy of establishing forts every 100 miles or so,
stretching from the Rio Grande in the south to the Red River in the north.
In the spring of 1849, Fort Graham on the Brazos River
represented the northern anchor of that defensive line, leaving a 130-mile gap
up the Red River that was a blind spot in the state's defenses. To extend the
line farther north and close that gap, Col. William S. Harney, acting commander
of the Department of Texas after the death of Maj. Gen. Williams Jenkins Worth,
on May 7 ordered Maj. Ripley Arnold up to the Trinity River.
Arnold took a small party of 2nd Dragoon troopers and proceeded
to Johnson's Station, where he hooked up with Middleton Tate Johnson and four
other cilivians. They rode west to a spot near the confluence of the Clear and
West forks of the Trinity. There, at the end of May, they planted Old Glory on
the future site of Fort Worth.
A week later, Arnold was back with his entire command, the 42
men of Company F, 2nd Dragoons. The men set to work building a fort and, by the
end of August, they were ready to move in.
A small civilian community grew up in the comforting shadow of
the fort. No more than 100 people lived in the vicinity, most of whom were more
dependent on the garrison for economic well-being than safety. Farther out from
the bluffs, the county created by the state legislature in 1849 -- Tarrant --
also began filling up with homesteaders attracted by the rich soil and the
security provided by the U.S. Army. In the next four years, the number of
settlers grew to some 350 hardy souls.
On September 17, 1853, the fort was vacated. Troops were
redeployed as the line marking the Western frontier made another push toward
the Pacific Ocean.
Fort Worth Becomes the County Seat
Birdville was the largest town and the seat of Tarrant County in
the 1850s.
City Hall number 1
Fort Worth's first City Hall at 2nd and Rusk (now Commerce)
streets housed all municipal offices, including Police and Fire departments
from 1877 to 1893.
Many settlers, however, already had moved into the area
surrounding the Fort Worth outpost. When the troops left, residents converted
the military buildings into schools, stores and churches.
Ambitious Fort Worth residents soon called a courthouse
election, sparking a bitter, yet amusing, campaign. As legend has it, Birdville
had a barrel of whisky, intended for use on Election Day, but Fort Worth
citizens learned about it, siphoned off the liquor, took it to their town and
gave it to the voters.
Fort Worth won the election by a narrow margin, though Birdville
supporters asserted that men who did not live in the county had voted for Fort
Worth. Jubilant citizens hastened to Birdville, loaded the county records on a
wagon and, with three fiddlers playing for all they were worth, proceeded
triumphantly to the new county seat.
Trades and business began to thrive in Fort Worth. Capt. Julian
Field, Fort Worth’s first postmaster, established the first flour and corn
mill. Capt. Ephraim Daggett is credited with opening the first hotel. Dr.
Carroll Peak was the first physician. John Peter Smith taught the first school.
Circuit riders conducted services and churches were organized.
In 1873, with a population of 500, the citizens decided that
Fort Worth should incorporate and Dr. W.P. Burts was elected mayor.
"Hell's Half Acre"
Great herds of Longhorns were driven from Texas to the railheads
in Kansas; and Fort Worth was on the main route -- the Chisholm Trail.
Lowing herds camped near the town, and cowboys galloped into
Fort Worth, firing their pistols into the air and even riding their horses into
the saloons. The red-light district that sprang up, one of the most infamous
and the basis for many visions of the Wild West, came to be known as
"Hell's Half Acre."
Though indulging the vices of Chisholm Trail cowboys that gave
the town a less-than-angelic reputation, legitimate business poured into the
area to serve the drovers as well. Fort Worth became the trading point for the
whole northwest region. Joseph H. Brown, a native of Scotland, opened a store
and, in nine years, it was the largest wholesale grocery south of St. Louis. It
was not unusual for this “prince of grocers” to have 30 carloads of flour and
20 of bacon en route at a time.
A Race Against Time: The Railroad Comes To “Pantherville”
The Texas and Pacific Railway (T&P) was being constructed
westward across the state of Texas and, in anticipation of the railroad’s
arrival, Fort Worth boomed.
Capt. B. B. Paddock, a Civil War veteran, had a lot to do with
that "boom." In 1872, he became editor of the Fort Worth Democrat.
Boundless in his enthusiasm for Fort Worth’s future, the editor published a map
as part of the paper's masthead showing nine railroads entering Fort Worth --
this at a time when the nearest line was some 30 miles away.
Editors in other towns jested about Paddock’s “tarantula map.”
In the autumn of 1872, the T&P had been built to Eagle Ford,
six miles west of Dallas.
Then disaster struck.
The Wall Street firm backing the railroad, Jay Cook & Co.,
failed. A mass exodus brought the population of Fort Worth from 4,000 to less
than 1,000.
One morning, a citizen pointed to some marks on a business street
and declared, “That’s where a panther slept last night.” No one had seen any
panther and the spot might have been where a calf had wallowed. But a young
lawyer with a sense of humor, who moved from Fort Worth to Dallas, wrote a
letter to the newspaper stating that Fort Worth was so nearly deserted that a
panther had slept in the street. Capt. Paddock, however, embraced the reference
and dubbed Fort Worth “Pantherville,” giving the city another famous nickname
-- Panther City.
Citizens felt that the future of their town depended upon
obtaining the T&P, and they soon took up the task of building the line. The
Tarrant County Construction Company was organized, the capital stock being
subscribed in money, labor, material, forage and supplies.
According to one historian, Maj. K.M.Van Zandt was probably more
responsible than any other man for bringing the T&P. into Fort Worth. Van
Zandt, a young lawyer, just out of the Confederate army and broken in health
and wealth, headed west with his family to start life anew, arriving in Fort
Worth in August, 1865. Van Zandt, Captain E.M. Daggett, Thomas J. Jennings and
H.G. Hendricks gave the railroad company 320 acres in what was then the
southern part of the city. Van Zandt was elected president of the citizens’ construction
company and a contract was let for the work, which began in the fall of 1875.
It was a race to save the railroad company from losing a state
land grant. One of the provisions was that the railroad had to reach Fort Worth
before the legislature adjourned. Some representatives felt the grant was too
liberal and made several attempts to end the session. Major Darnell, Fort
Worth’s representative was ill and, if he were absent at roll call, there was
no quorum. So, day after day, he was taken to the legislative sessions on a
cot. Rapid progress was made on the construction of the railroad but, at last,
adjournment of the legislature was set, leaving two days to complete the
tracks. It seemed almost impossibility that the railroad could reach Fort Worth
within the time limit. But in those final days, Morgan Jones, the contractor,
did not go to bed, seizing only a few minutes’ sleep now and then. And the work
did not end with darkness but continued under the light of torches till
midnight.
The rallying caught up with the grading at Sycamore Creek; so,
instead of a trestle, cribs of ties were used to support the track over the
creek and then the rails were laid on the ground for two miles. One account
states that the Fort Worth City Council extended the city limits a quarter of a
mile east so the distance could be shortened.
In any event, the first train entered Fort Worth July 19, 1876.
The race had been won.People came from miles around; on horseback and in wagons
to see the train pull in. Many had never seen a train before.
The Little City Grows
The arrival of the railroad changed Fort Worth from a waypoint
along the cattle trail to the goal of the drives. Cattle pens were built and
the city became the shipping point.
Fort Worth had become Cowtown.
Stage coaches carried passengers and mail to points beyond. One
line operated between Fort Worth and Fort Concho (San Angelo). In 1877, a
contract was let by the Postoffice Department for a line between Fort Worth and
Fort Yuma, Arizona, the longest daily stage coach line in the
world-approximately 1,500 miles. Thirteen days were required to make the run.
Hold-ups and other attacks were frequent so, on part of the route, the coaches
had an escort of troops.
But one railroad was not enough for Fort Worth. Several other
lines entered the city, bringing the dream Capt. Paddock's Tarantula-like map
to life.
The city’s first street car line was built in 1876. It ran from
the courthouse to the T&P station and service was provided by mule-drawn
cars. The gas works were built the same year. (The gas was, of course,
artificial.) By 1878, an elevator had been established, and Fort Worth began to
be a grain center. It was not until 1882 that the free school system began.
(Fort Worth had had only private schools.) Also in 1882, M.P. Begley, son of a
Kentucky steamboat captain, established the first of three great flour mills in
Fort Worth. Original capacity of the mill was 50 barrels a day.
The first Fat Stock Show was held in 1886 with C.C. French and
Charlie McFarland, the latter from Weatherford, as leading spirits. A storm
arrived for the first night of the show and the next morning the cattle were
coated with sleet as they hunched under live oak and pecan trees. But the sun
came out and all present --including the cattle -- felt better. The premiums
were cowboy hats, boots, spurs, bridles, windmills and troughs. Though the
location changed to accommodate its growing size, the Fort Worth Stock Show and
Rodeo has endured for more than a century and, as the first indoor rodeo, has
served as a model for such events around the world.
Prior to 1876, when the first artesian well was drilled, Fort
Worth’s drinking water came from the Clear Fork of the Trinity and from a
spring two miles northeast of town. More than 100 wells were drilled, and Fort
Worth became known as the “city of artesian wells.” Well water was peddled over
the town in carts at 12.5 cents a barrel. During the administration of Mayor
John Peter Smith, water-lines were laid; Main and Houston streets were paved
from the courthouse to the T&P station; bridges were built; a sewer system
was established and the fire department was systemized.
One of the chief factors in the development of Fort Worth has
been strong and progressive banks. In 1870, Capt. Martin B. Loyd opened an
“exchange office” that evolved into the First National Bank, chartered in 1877.
Thomas A. Tidball and John Wilson, in 1873, opened a private bank. A year
later, Maj. Van Zandt, John Peter Smith and Maj. J.J. Jarvis purchased Wilson’s
interest and the name was changed to Tidball, Van Zandt and Company. In 1884,
Noah Harding, Col. R.L. Ellison and Dr. E. Beall acquired interests in the
institution and it became the Fort Worth National Bank. The Continental
National Bank was established in 1903 with J.G. Wilkinson as president.
Chairman of the Board was Morgan Jones, the contractor who built the T&P
into Fort Worth. The Continental National was one of the first banks in this
section to lend money for oil development, and it has long been known as “an
oil man’s bank.”
“Wild and wool” characterized much of Fort Worth’s life in the
1880’s. Most celebrated of six-gun exponents was long haired James Courtright,
who could shoot equally well with either hand and was a master of the “border
shift” wherein a pistol was drawn, fired, tossed in the air, caught in the
other hand and firing resumed. He was city marshal. Then as head of a detective
agency, Courtright convinced saloon and gambling hall proprietors that they
needed his protection. He convinced everyone except for Luke Short, owner of
the White Elephant Saloon, who had earned notoriety shooting Arizona and Kansas
boom towns. As the story goes, Short and Courtright had a brief conversation
and then both went for their guns. A bullet from Short’s weapon, out first, hit
Courtright’s right thumb; he tossed up the gun for the “shift” but, while it
was in the air, Short fired three more times. Courtright had the longest
funeral procession Fort Worth had ever seen.
The first telephone exchange began operating in 1881, with 40
customers. Four years later, in 1885, electric lights were turned on for the
first time.
City Hall 2
Fort Worth's second City Hall, at 10th and Throckmorton streets,
was demolished in 1937 to make way for a larger, updated municipal building.
Polytechnic College was founded in 1890. It became Texas Women’s
College in 1914 and, 20 years later, it again became co-educational as Texas
Wesleyan College. It is known today as Texas Wesleyan University.
The Texas Spring Palace opened in 1889 to celebrate and display
the state's resources. It was a large, two story structure with eight towers
and a dome. One May night in 1890, the band concert had ended and the grand
ball was about to begin. A thousand Dallas representatives were just entering
the palace when there was the cry of “Fire!” Shrieks filled the air, and 7,000
people rushed for the doors. The fire, starting on the second floor, advanced
with breath-taking swiftness among the highly flammable decorations.
There was not time to combat flames, but members of the fire
department and others directed the panic-stricken to the exits. Though several
firemen were scorched and others were injured by the rushing thousands,
everyone escaped death except for Al Hayne. Hayne was a civil engineer who
worked tirelessly to save those in danger during the incident. He remained in
the building too long, dying from severe burns next day.
The city's residents raised money for a monument, which was
constructed and stands today as a reminder of Hayne's heroism and of the
beautiful Texas Spring Palace.
Meat Packing: Fort Worth’s First Great Industry
As the end of the 19th century drew near, the city's population
was booming. In 1880, the population was 6,663; the 1900 census counted 26,668.
Courthouse
The Tarrant County Courthouse has endured as a Fort Worth
landmark since the late 1800s. Though still in operation, new facilities have
been built by the county to handle the legal needs of a burgeoning population.
In spite of the impressive growth, streets were muddy, and
sidewalks were made of wood. The city’s tallest building (later known as the
Wheat Building) was seven stories high. The architectural pride of the city and
county was the new courthouse, four stories and a basement, built in the form of
a cross, of brown granite at a cost of more than $400,000. Most citizens
declared it was too large and costly, and the majority of the commissioners’
court was defeated at the next election.
In casting for a new industry to accelerate the city’s growth,
it was natural to think of a packing house as Fort Worth had long been a
livestock shipping center.
In fact, there had already been several attempts in that
direction.
One was a packing house handling only hogs but the supply was
small and the enterprise soon ended. Another was a refrigerating plant; beef
was shipped to Liverpool but did not arrive in good condition and that venture
failed. The Board of Trade, of which W. A. Huffman was the first president; was
responsible for the organization of the Fort Worth Dressed Meat and Provision
Company, with capital stock of $500,000. Stock yards and packing plant were
built and the business started.
Swift & Company, Armour & Company and McNeill &
Libby packing houses all came to Fort Worth in 1902.
This development lacked the dramatic features of the arrival of
the first train, and of the passing through of the cowboys and the trails herds
but, in its significance, it rivaled any previous event in the city’s history.
Fort Worth became the packing house center of the southwest.
Employment for thousands resulted and the payroll of the packing
houses has been a great factor in the prosperity and progress of Fort Worth
ever since. The full impact of the packing houses was revealed in the 1910
census figure: 76,312, an increase in of almost 300 percent.
Gas and War Come to Fort Worth
The Fort Worth Gas Company was organized in 1909 and began
serving 3,840 customers by means of a 90-mile pipeline from Petrolia.
A combination of war and oil gave Fort Worth its next great
impetus.
World War I broke out in 1914 and, three years later, the
Canadian government established three flying fields in the vicinity of Fort
Worth. The mild climate made year-round training possible.
Seven thousand workers constructed the fields: Taliaferro 1, 2
and 3. In Greenwood Cemetery is a plot where 11 members of the Royal Flying
Corps and the daughter of an enlisted man are buried. A monument bears the
names and a tribute to the gallant dead. The ground belongs to the British
Government and, because of the brave men resting there, it is “a spot that is
forever England.”
When our nation entered the war, the fields were taken over by
the United States, and two were renamed Carruthers and Barron. Camp Bowie was
built here in 1917 at a cost of more than $3,000,000. More than 5,000 workers
erected 1,500 buildings on the 1,410 acres. The 36th Division (Texas and
Oklahoma) trained at Camp Bowie. The total military payroll was $1,675,000 a
month, and 1917 showed an increase of $10,000,000 in bank deposits over the
previous year.
The Oil Boom
One of the most important events in the history of Fort Worth
occurred 90 miles away.
Ranger was a small town on the T&P Railroad. W.K. Gordon,
superintendent of the Texas Pacific Coal Company of Thurber, believed there was
oil at Ranger and began testing. When a message came from the company’s New
York headquarters, “Believe have made mistake; suggest you stop drilling,”
Gordon persuaded the president to let him go a little deeper. On an October day
in 1917, a gusher roared in on the McCleskey farm. Ranger was transformed into
a boom city of 30,000.
Then came the discovery of oil in Desdemona, south of Ranger.
“Hogtown” as the little community on Hog Creek originally was called soon had
16,000 inhabitants. Then Breckenridge, 30 miles northwest of Ranger, scored
with big wells. Meanwhile, a test was going down just outside Burkburnett, 135
miles northwest of Fort Worth. A sensational well came in on the Fowler farm
touching off yet another boon. Hundreds of wells were drilled in the
Ranger-Desdemona-Breckenridge district and hundreds more at Burkburnett. The
two major oil rushes focused national attention on Texas.
Fort Worth, strategically located between the two areas,
experienced an oil boom, too. The Westbrook Hotel lobby was the center of the
activities. All the chairs were removed to make room for the throngs of
operators, promoters and speculators. Even then, there was not sufficient
space, and the sidewalks were so packed that one could hardly get in or out of
the hotel.
Even before the rush, Fort Worth had three refineries. By the
late summer of 1920, five others had been built, with four more under way.
This, along with a network of lines made Fort Worth “The pipeline center of
Texas.” Bank deposits soared; big office buildings were erected, and beautiful
homes were built from the riches that gushed out of the ground.
Life Between Two Wars: Fort Worth Becomes the Metropolis of West
Texas
The years between the World Wars continued the explosive growth
of business and saw the construction of many of the city's most valuable
architecture.
City Hall 3
Designed by Wyatt Hedrick, the same architect who designed the
Lancaster Avenue post office, the third City Hall would later be reused as the
Public Safety and Courts Building when the current municipal headquarters,
across the street at 1000 Throckmorton St., opened in 1971.
New public schools were constructed, while the grounds of those
that already existed were the target of an extensive beautification program.
The city's historic office buildings as well as the Texas, Worth and Blackstone
hotels were built. The T&P station and terminal warehouse, the U.S.
Courthouse and U.S. Post Office were commissioned in the south side of
downtown.
In 1938 alone, $11 million in projects were in progress,
including the West Lancaster elevated highway and bridge; the Will Rogers
Memorial Coliseum and Auditorium; a new City Hall and public library;
city-county Hospital; and the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital.
The glamorous summer of 1936 will live forever in the memory of
Fort Worth for that was the year of the world-famous Fort Worth Casa Mañana, or
"House of Tomorrow" -- Fort Worth's contribution to the Texas
Cenntenial. Star-Telegram owner and prominent Fort Worth patron Amon Carter
created the revolutionary outdoor amplitheater and restaurant with the world's
largest rotating stage surrounded by a moat, allowing a wall of water to be
used as a curtain between acts. The theater produced broadway, Wild West shows
and musicals for several years until the high costs and fear of the impending
war shut it down. The building was soon dismantled so scraps could go toward
the war effort.
Casa Mañana would be reborn in 1958 thanks to a bond election
and the support of City Council. The rebuilt, fully enclosed and air
conditioned theater was much smaller but offered a uniquely intimate
theater-in-the-round experience under an aluminium dome. The theater was
updated again in 2003.
Fort Worth has long depended on manmade lakes for its water
supply. Under the administration of Mayor W.D. Davis, a lake was commissioned.
Lake Worth, in northwest Fort Worth, was completed in 1916 at a
cost of $1 million. For years its amusement-lined boardwalk (including the
Casino) was a fantastic scene each summer. But the lake filled with silt,
reducing its water capacity by 40 percent. A $6 million bond project was
approved to construct Bridgeport and Eagle Mountain lakes on the West Fork of
the Trinity. Later, three other huge inland lakes, Benbrook, Grapevine and
Arlington, were constructed.
During World War II, a Quartermaster Depot, Marine Air Base and
the Fort Worth Army Air Field were constructed in Fort Worth. The establishment
of Consolidated-Vultee’s aircraft plant on the shore of Lake Worth alongside
the airfield was a milestone for the city. During the war, the mile-long plant
produced more than 3,000 B-24 Liberator bombers, with a peak employment of
32,000. The facility would change hands over the years to various defense contractors
-- Convair, General Dynamics and, currently, Lockheed Martin -- and produce
some of the world's most important aircraft, including the B-36 Peacemaker and
the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
The Army air field was renamed Carswell Air Force Base in 1948,
and became the headquarters of the 19th Air Division in 1951. B-52 bombers of
the 7th Bomb Wing -- a crucial piece of the U.S. nuclear arsenal during the
Cold War and of Strategic Air Command -- soon called Fort Worth home as well.
Carswell was repurposed as the Fort Worth Naval Air Station and
Joint Reserve Base in the 1990s, but still connects Fort Worth to its military
heritage in a time of diversification and growth.
More than 150 years of history have shaped Cowtown. Ranked the
nation's fastest growing city with more than 500,000 population -- the 18th
largest city in the country -- and one of America's Most Livable Communities of
the decade, Fort Worth has endured economic changes and retained its Western
heritage as it continues to prosper.
The above
text is an adaptation of histories written by the Fort Worth Chamber of
Commerce and Dr. Richard Selcer, a U.S. military and Civil War historian and
author.
