USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I > Part 14
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The designation of the mouth of the Clear Fork as the site for a trading post is a fact of more than ordinary interest to thousands of the North Texans who knew and honored the late CAPT. ED. TERRELL, who on the first of No- vember, 1905, died at his home in Graham, Young county, being at the time ninety-three years of age. During the pioneer years of this country he followed the life of trapper, and at his home in Marshall Maj. K. M. Van Zandt, then a boy, recalls having seen Terrell come into town with loads of peltries which he had either bought from the Indians or had taken from
animals which he himself had trapped and killed. Thus it came about that "Uncle Ed," as he was familiarly known to the end of his life, after the Indian treaty of 1843 established his trading and trapping headquarters at the mouth of the Clear Fork.
"He first came to Tarrant county in 1843." relates the Fort Worth Record at the time of his death, "and he was the first white man who ever pitched a tent or cooked a meal in this county, of which there exists any record. Uncle Ed came here with two friends, John P. Lusk and a man named Shackwith, from Fort Smith, Arkansas, for the purpose of trading with the Indians. These three pitched a tent at Live Oak Grove, half way between where the Texas and Pacific and Frisco roads now run, and about a mile and a half southwest of the courthouse. The trinkets these men brought with them were soon displayed to tempt the Indians to part with their valuable pelts and other things. The trinkets, however, did not tempt the Indians half as much as did the three men. 'They were not long mak- ing it hot for us,' said Uncle Ed when he visited Fort Worth in May last, to celebrate his 93d birthday. 'We stuck it out a year and it was either a case of leaving Tarrant county-or what is now Tarrant county-or losing our scalps, and when a man lost his hair in those days he gen- erally lost something else. We were taken prison- ers once by the Indians and kept in close confine- ment at the place that was afterwards owned by Charley Daggett. We finally worked our rab- bit's foot and the Indians turned us loose. We then lost no time in leaving this section, and I did not return until 1849, when the troops were stationed here. In those days this country was infested with Indians and herds of buffalo were all around us. There were more panthers in these parts than I have ever seen before or since; ante- lopes without number, wild turkeys in every tree-in fact, in those days this was God's own country.' "
After his trading and trapping days were over, this old pioneer turned his attention to other pursuits, and during the early eighties was a railroad contractor, helping to build part of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe. At the time of his
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death, he was the oldest of the pioneer settlers, and his range of experience probably covered as great a variety of events and changing circum- stances as that of any man in North Texas.
After the annexation to the United States the Texas tribes were placed under the control of the federal government, which assumed the duty of protecting the Texan frontier from depredations by the savage tribes. As fully two-thirds of the state was unsettled at the time, one of the first acts of the national authorities to accomplish this purpose was the establishment of à cordon of mili- tary garrisons from the Red river to the Rio Grande. These frontier defenders, in 1847, were made up of mounted volunteers, but upon the return of the army from Mexico the posts were occupied by regulars. This cordon of troops had little effect on the wild Comanches, but was able to overawe the small Caddoan tribes, which were hemmed in by the Comanches on the west and the fast-advancing white settlements on the east and south.
The foundation of the military posts affords one of the interesting chapters of North Texas annals. Naturally these posts became foci for settlements, and in some cases flourishing towns sprang up and now live when the old forts are almost forgotten, while in other cases the posts, though now existing only as a memory, are the only points of interest connecting those places with living history. The first two of these forts established in North Texas as part of the cordon between the Red and the Rio Grande were Fort Worth and Fort Graham, the latter in Hill county.
Fort Worth, whose key position with reference to Northwest Texas makes it of initial im- portance in the development of the country, found the seed of its present greatness in the fact that it was selected by the United States military authorities as a strategic point from which the white settlements could be best protected. "In the spring of 1849," says the old Fort Worth Directory of 1877, "Major Ripley Arnold, of the Second Regiment of U. S. Dragoons, under di- rections from the Secretary of War, encamped at the head of the Trinity, about one mile north- east of the present public square, and after a
brief stay the quarters of officers and men were moved to the northwest corner of the square." The post received its name from Gen. William J. Worth, a major general in the Mexican war, the soldiers at this post having been under him during that war.
Col. Abe Harris, who recently celebrated his eightieth birthday, is the only man living of the volunteers and regulars who founded Fort Worth over fifty-six years ago. After seeing service that made him a veteran of the war with Mexico he returned to Texas, and when the United States called for volunteers to assist the regulars in the frontier protection he entered this branch of the service and continued till his dis- charge in 1852. Nearly all these rangers, he states, were ex-soldiers of the Mexican war. .The company that was ordered to establish this post came up the Trinity as far as it could on the steamer Jack Hays, and then came on to Johnson's Station, in Tarrant county, where it rendezvoused and completed its preparations. Abe Harris helped build the double log cabin where Major Arnold had his quarters, and the cedar planks used in that first house were brought from Dallas.
"The Indians never attacked Fort Worth," relates Mr. Harris, " and only once was there an approach to a fight. All the Indians in this part of the country were expert horsemen and almost lived on horseback. The Tonkawas, however, were an exception to this rule, and for that reason were despised by the other tribes, and they never met without a fight ensuing. A lot of these Tonks were encamped in the brush a few miles above the Fort, and one day old Towash and a party of his braves came upon them, and in settling their differences several on each side were killed or wounded. In a lull of hostilities and while Towash was getting ready to an- nihilate his foes, the Tonkawas sent to the Fort asking for protection. A lieutenant and four or five soldiers at once galloped up the bottom and corralled the whole Tonkawa camp and brought them to the post, where they were herded into the commissary quarters. This had hardly been done when here came Towash and five or six hundred of his warriors, in high rage that their
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game had been spoiled and demanding that the refugees be surrendered immediately. During the first year or so after these posts were estab- lished on the frontier, the Indians were very presumptuous because of their great superiority in numbers and were confident they could wipe out the entire establishment whenever they got ready. Well, when Towash sent in his ultimatum to the effect that he would attack the garrison if his enemies were not given up, Major Arnold told him to come on. The Major directed that the one howitzer at the post should be loaded and fired at a door set up at considerable distance. When the shell went whizzing past the Indians and exploded so as to blow the wooden target into a thousand pieces they needed no further argu- ment to satisfy them that they didn't want a fight. Their belligerent attitude vanished, and Indian like, the next instant they were begging for something to eat. Major Arnold told them he would just as soon fight them as feed them, but nevertheless had three beeves driven out to them. Those savages were certainly more hungry than hostile, for the next morning there was neither hide, hair nor hoof of those devoted cattle to be seen. And this was the peaceful out- come of the only hostilities Fort Worth ever experienced."
The founding of the post of Fort Worth was the signal for an influx of settlers to this pro- tected spot. Five or six miles up the Clear Fork what was known as White's settlement marked the outmost group on the frontier, and by recol- lection Mr. Harris says those living to the west of the Fort were: Archie Robinson, on Robin- son's branch; J. W. Connor, a mile and a half west; across from Connor was Pete Schoonover ; then came Isaac Thomas, Jack Baugh and Lem Edwards. When, after his discharge in 1852, Harris located on his section of land which he had secured under the Colony grant, he was then the westernmost settler.
Within the three or four years of the existence of the military post at this point there settled here several men whose names have since become nothing less than illustrious in the history of the city of Fort Worth. One of these was the late Dr. Carroll M. Peak, who died in 1888. Born in
Gallatin county, Kentucky, November 13, 1828, graduating M. D. in Louisville, he came to the village of Dallas in 1852, and in November, 1853, arrived in Fort Worth. From the history of the city which he wrote when the corner stone of the old court house was laid, we quote: "It was in the winter of 1853 that we, though not new in Texas, first pitched tent in this fair land. With not a tree felled, with every shrub and leaf and flower still here, with scarcely a blade of the tall grass missing, how grandly did it seem to the visitor ; the jutting promontories and lovely valleys of the Clear Fork and the elevated plateau of prairie between that stream and the West Fork on the northwest; still northward and circling to the east, lay the grand prairie, whose grasses, long forsaken by the buffalo, only yielded to the tread of the fleet-footed deer and startled antelope, and whose vast .expanse was only relieved by the graceful windings of Marine creek, with borders fringed with wooded cliffs and the great elevation of the Blue Mound in the far north. On the eastern boundary of this lovely landscape stood the Cross Timbers, belting the state from Red river and, running across the state, was one of the most singular provisions of nature in the midst of a treeless stretch of prairie. Game was very abundant and the streams then abounded in the finest of fish and of greater variety than can now be found. The last detachment of troops, under command of Lieut. Holladay, of the Second Dragoons, left the post here toward the close of November, 1853. Upon the evacuation of the post immediate possession was taken by Col. M. T. Johnson and Archie Robinson, the former being the landed proprietor of all the survey on which the fort was located."
No more eligible site for a military post could have been found than the bluff overlooking the Trinity where Major Arnold and his men stood guard for four years. The grounds on which the post was located (the word "fort" is a mis- nomer, since no fortification was ever erected) were slightly west of the present court house square. On the edge of the bluff were the three rough-built cabins in which the privates were housed. On the south side of the hollow square and drill ground stood the officers' quarters, a
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little more commodious and better furnished with the pioneer comforts. The central building was the major's house, to the east of which was the cabin provided for the post surgeon, and it was in this that Dr. Peak and his young wife made their home during their first years in Fort Worth; while the lieutenant lived in the structure just west of the major's place. On the west side of the square stood the hospital, and the sutler's store was a little to the northwest and the com- missary house on the southwest. The cavalry stables occupied the present site of the county jail, and on the southeast corner of the square the post blacksmith had his shop, and right near was also a little vegetable garden. A well had been sunk on the east side of the square and thus every de- partment of a military post was provided.
Mrs. H. C. Holloway, nee Loving, is the only woman now living in Fort Worth who settled at this post in 1849, her father locating on a tract of land to the south and in the present limits of the city. Although the post was planted here in the wilderness and the sterner features of frontier living were for many years predominant, it must not be understood that all the amenities and pleasures of society were absent. The survivors from that period tell of some very joyous and fes- tive occasions, when the big tables in the commis- sary quarters were heaped with the best that the frontier larder provided, when there was music and dancing far into the night, and the hard lines of existence were loosened for the time.
As stated, the post was finally abandoned late in 1853, but the site had already commended itself for other reasons and the departure of the troops in no wise decreased the advantages of the spot as a coming commercial center. Dr. Peak succeeded the post surgeon Williams as the first regular physician, and for the following thirty years continued in active practice, his services being in demand in a radius of many miles. The cavalry stables were turned into a hotel, and the commissary quarters became a dry goods store, and the foundations of a great city were laid. "Before the soldiers left," says Abe Harris, "Lewis Kane had a little place near the old cemetery where he sold dry goods, and after the post was abandoned Henry Daggett bought out
Kane and moved his store to the square. About the same time Julian Fields and Rev. Maston bought the sutler's store."
About three weeks after the arrival of Dr. Peak, and coincident with the phoenix-like birth of the town from the military post on the Trinity bluffs, a young man came to the settlement who in the subsequent years identified himself with the up- building of his city in perhaps a greater number of important ways than any other citizen. J. Peter Smith, who died in Fort Worth only a few years ago, was born in Owen county, Kentucky, September 16, 1831. After coming to Fort Worth in December, 1853, he organized and taught the first school, gathering his pupils about him in one of the buildings that had been used by the soldiers. He was one of the early lawyers, in 1860 opposed secession, but loyally served throughout the war and was promoted to colonel in 1864. From the close of the war until his death he was active in the law, banking, gas, street railways, and large public and business enterprises, and his influence and co-operation, though appropriately mentioned at the beginning of Fort Worth's history, are cardinal facts in all its later growth.
On the same plane of prominence with Peter Smith, and almost contemporaneous with him as an early settler, is E. M. Daggett. His was a fascinatingly varied and useful career. Born in Canada, June 3, 1810, so that he was al- ready in the prime of his manhood when he be- came a citizen of Fort Worth, he was reared in the pioneer scenes of Indiana, and only three years after the revolution came to Texas. Lo- cating in east Texas, he took part in the famous war of the Regulators and Moderators. In the war with Mexico he was advanced from second to first lieutenant, and finally became a captain in Col. Jack Hays' famous rangers. In 1849 he was engaged in locating West Texas lands, and in 1854 settled in Tarrant county, where he was almost immediately involved as one of the prin- cipal actors in the acrimonious county seat con- test, which eventuated in Fort Worth becoming the official town of the county. His part in this affair was only the first of a long list of im- portant services which he rendered the city of his
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choice, one of the most familiar in the recollec- tion of his fellow citizens being his donation of the land on which the T. & P. depot was built. He was honored by election to the legislature, and his is one of the first names to be mentioned in connection with the interesting history of Fort Worth. ,
Fort Worth had hardly been founded when the westward tide of settlers had advanced so far that a new frontier line became necessary, and the government proceeded with the establish- ment of a new cordon of posts. "In the spring of 1850," writes Don H. Biggers of Abilene, "General Arbuckle, having headquarters at Fort Smith, Ark., directed that two forts be estab- lished in Texas on or near the 32d parallel. The two forts were located, established and after- wards known as Fort Belknap, on the Brazos river in the Young county of today, and Fort Phantom Hill, on the Clear Fork of the Brazos in the southeastern portion of what is now Jones county. The expedition reached post No. I, or Belknap, some time in the month of November. Here one company of soldiers were stationed, and a few weeks later the balance of the expedi- tion moved forward to establish Post No. 2, afterward known to fame as Fort Phantom Hill."
Belknap is often mentioned in the pages of this history, not alone as an important military post, but as one of the centers of population during the early history of West Texas develop- ment. In "Information about Texas," published about 1857, Fort Belknap and the surrounding country are thus described: "Young county is the extreme northwest county of the state. It was formed by the legislature of 1856-57 out of Cooke. Fort Belknap and the Indian reservation are within its limits. Following the beaten track from Fort Graham in Hill county to Fort Bel- knap you will, after a tedious journey through the Cross Timbers, reach a range of rugged but open hills, with the Brazos meandering through the narrow valley. Fort Belknap may be seen in the distance. It is a situation of considerable importance, has a spacious magazine, comfort- able quarters for the troops and buildings for the officers. Below the fort is a fine spring and a well of considerable depth, affording abundance
of water. South of the fort half a mile is the county seat. Follow a trail from Fort Belknap about twelve miles in a southeast direction and you come to the villages of the Wacos and Ton- kawas upon the Indian reservation. At the dis- tance of a mile is the large trading house of Charles Barnard and the residence of the Indian agent. Six miles further you come to the villages of the Delawares, Caddoes and Shawnees. The valley of the Clear Fork of the Brazos is already settled as far up as Camp Cooper. During the year 1856 about 2,500 acres of land were under cultivation in this county, and there are several thousand head of stock in the county. The mar- ket is good, but limited at present to Fort Belknap and Camp Cooper."
The significance of Phantom Hill is more of legend than of fact, and since the later pages will make only one or two references to the old post we will summarize its history here in the words of Mr. Biggers: "More has been written and said and fewer facts revealed about Fort Phantom Hill than any other federal fort ever established on Texas soil. Shorn of fiction and reduced to simple truth, the story of Phantom Hill is the simple story of a federal post, several hundred miles from the outskirts of civilization. It was the lonely, isolated index of the irresistible onward march of civilization, and the desperate thwarting efforts of a savage, dying race. Fort Phantom Hill was established by Major Thomas. afterward famous as a federal general during the Civil war, and was first selected and occupied as the site for a government post the latter part of December, 1850. It derived its name, about which there has been so much controversy, as the result of a mirage, or optical illusion. After the expedition had crossed the Clear Fork and reached the top of the hills skirting that stream, a considerable elevation, seemingly covered with large trees, was sighted, and was apparently about one mile to the southwest. To this point the expedition was guided, but the nearer it was approached, the more evident the deception be- came. The big hill became a small rise in the surface and the trees assumed their natural pro- portions. Nevertheless Major Thomas adhered to his resolution of establishing the post here, and
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gave it the name which the experience sug- gested." Phantom Hill is associated with the career of Gen. R. E. Lee, who, as lieutenant colonel, was for several months in command there. The post was abandoned during the war, and was never again garrisoned.
In pursuance of the policy of policing the frontier it became necessary, from time to time, to establish various other posts in West Texas, among them being Forts Richardson, Chadbourne, Griffin, Camp Cooper and Camp Colorado, but with the exception of Camp Cooper and Fort Griffin they have little to commend them for historical notice. Camp Colorado, established in the summer of 1856 by Major Van Dorn. was located on the Jim Ned in Coleman county. There still remains some of the stone and wooden buildings which were erected by the government. Fort Chadbourne was in Runnels county, was established in the early fifties, and was never occupied after the Civil war.
After the Civil war the federal government was slow in again affording protection to the frontier, but about 1867 it established two gar- risons in West Texas, and spent many thousands of dollars in erecting barracks, hospitals and in equipping the posts. One of these, Fort Richard- son, was located at Jacksboro, in Jack county, which was then on the frontier, but the rapid ad- vance of population beyond this, point in a few years made the holding of this position superflu- ous, and the buildings were deserted and soon went to ruin.
Two newspaper items tell the final chapter in the history of Fort Richardson. The first, dated in May, 1878: "Fort Richardson has been dis- mantled and the equipment moved to Fort Grif- fin." And the second, appearing some five months later, thus chronicles : "Fort Richardson, in Jack county, built in 1867-68, at a cost of nearly $800,000, is fast becoming a ruin, the buildings are falling, and altogether it presents a sorry appearance. This fort, during the years 1868-69-70, contained the largest garrison in the United States, Gen. Sherman having his head- quarters there for a time. The hospital, the original cost of which was about $143,000, is now a useless pile."
Fort Griffin, in Shackelford county, was the other post established about 1867, and during the decade or more of its existence this was the most notorious town in West Texas, and as a military post, a cattle town and buffalo hunters' supply and trading station, it will figure again and again in these annals, so that its consideration will be left for its appropriate place on later pages.
That these frontier posts were entirely effi- cient of their purposes is not borne out by facts nor by the logic of conditions. The line of de- fense was too long, and at one hundred miles apart the garrisons were quite inadequate to cope with the situation. It was impossible for them to prevent frequent raids into the region whose unexcelled grazing facilities sustained countless ·herds of buffalo, antelope, deer and mustangs, forming an ideal hunting ground for the red man and which, moreover, he claimed as his birthright.
Soon after the establishment of Forts Bel- knap and Phantom Hill, a grand enterprise was inaugurated by the state and federal govern- ments in conjunction. It was thought that the native tribes of Texas were entitled to a domi- cile in the state on some of its vast unoccupied do- main in order to reclaim them from the savage condition by instruction in the arts of civiliza- tion. The legislature of Texas set apart 55,728 acres of land to be reserved to the United States for this purpose. Under the supervision of Maj. R. S. Neighbors two agencies were located, one, the Brazos Agency, on the main Brazos river close to Fort Belknap, and the other sixty miles southwest, on the Clear Fork, in Shackelford county. The latter agency was called Camp Cooper. All the Caddo tribes, previously men- tioned, together with the nomadic and pacific Tonkawas, were placed upon the Brazos Agency. The Southern Comanches, the dread scourge of the Texan frontier, were placed at Camp Cooper.
The following description of these reserves is drawn from the Texas almanac for 1859, and what is said about the process of civilization among these domiciled barbarians will be found not entirely justified in fact by later events. "The Brazos Agency," says the article in question,
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