A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 32

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 968

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triumphantly; 'for we have more locomotives to whistle than any other city in the state.'" Many others besides the Major were impressed with firm faith in the future of Fort Worth and bent their efforts untiringly to its welfare.

Finally in July, 1876, the first railroad entered the town. Rather, it entered the town limits, for the land donated by the several public- spirited citizens for the depot yards was fully a mile from the public square, and seemed a long way out of town in those days. However, since the railroad, on account of topographical difficulties, could not come to the town, the town at once commenced its slow and steady march south to the railroad. "For two years, 1876-78," says a writer in the Gazette in 1887, "everybody prospered in this place. The town was typical of western life-rushing business, noisy, boisterous existence, in which the cow- boy and his twin companion the six-shooter figured conspicuously. Cattlemen-those pio- neers of western life-made the town their headquarters and drew their supplies there- from, and a few of the wiser men, with pro- phetic eye, saw a great future for the place and commenced to work to that end."

Progress and development have been so swift in obliterating the primitive order of things and introducing all the accompaniments of modern life that even old-time citizens have almost for- gotten the "wild and woolly" aspects of ex- istence in Fort Worth during the latter seven- ties. The railroad brought its evils as well as its benefits. For several years Fort Worth was the clearing house between the legally consti- tuted society of the east and the free and un- trammeled life of the west. Here the currents of humanity met, and in the swirling vortex that ensued could be found every class of man- kind. Fort Worth was never in the same class with the Kansas towns of Abilene and Dodge City; the substantial and better class of citizens was always in the ascendant here, and license was never allowed beyond the limits of control. But all descriptions agree that "hell's half acre" formed an exceedingly lively, even if restricted, portion of the city. Shootings and bawdy house riots are chronicled with daily regularity in the

columns of the local papers of 1876-77. The citizens worked under a high pressure of mental and physical excitement, and energy and ac- tion in producing the net result of progress at the same time produced that share of evil which in human affairs can never be entirely dis- sociated from the good.

Improvements were going on rapidly. It was in 1876 that James Peters bored the first artesian well in the southwest part of the city, and thus inaugurated the system of water sup- ply which is a reason of especial pride to the city. Building activity was evident throughout the corporate limits. Thus a newspaper re- porter in June, 1876, writes: "We strolled to the depot grounds at the foot of Main street and were surprised to witness the activity on Dag- gett's addition. Mrs. Phelps' hotel on the east side of Main street is well under way, 100 by 50 feet in dimensions. Just north will be a first- class stone building. Opposite is a block of two-story business houses on which work is being pushed rapidly. Work on a two-story building of Mr. Donahue is being pushed. Ad- joining this on the north is the opera house, to be completed in the next sixty days." And so on, showing what a frenzy of enterprise had seized upon these citizens of Fort Worth after their first railroad had come. Though the town was increasing by building, at the same time destructive fires were of frequent occurrence. On March 29, 1876, the court house was burned, entailing a loss of all the county records. But before the end of the year the corner stone of another building was laid, and the county soon had an office more commodious and more in keeping with the increased population of county and town. Hardly had the Texas and Pacific been completed, when the necessity of a street railway connecting the depot with the court house was advocated, and on the 27th day of December, 1876, the same day on which the laying of the corner stone of the court house was celebrated, the street cars made their first run. "There are two cars on the track, of good size and elegantly finished and painted, and a five cent fare is charged," according to the re- port of the occasion made by the Democrat.

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These facts furnish a good basis for the claim

calling upon the board of aldermen to submit that the city trebled in extent and population - to the voters the question of issuing 20-year during the ninety days after the railroad reached town, and by April, 1877, the population was estimated at six thousand.

Early in 1877 Fort Worth began reaching out for the trade of the great Panhandle district, which had formerly gone to Wichita and other Kansas points, the merchants sending out thousands of pounds of supplies and getting in return the buffalo hides, tongues and meat that formed such an important product of that region during these years. While such trade was temporary, it is worthy of consideration be-

cause it was one of the influences that even at ? built up factories, secured railroads, extended

that time made Fort Worth a commercial focus for Northwest Texas. By the middle of the year 1877 the commercial interests had ex- panded much beyond local demands and the foundations of a wholesale trade were already laid. By that time a new cotton compress had been built, and by the spring of 1878 it was estimated that fifty thousand bales of cotton had been received at the Fort Worth markets. A steam grain elevator had also been estab- lished, marking the beginning of that depart- ment of business, which now equals that of any other city in the state. There were several com- mission houses, several lumber firms supplied the thirty odd million feet of lumber sold at the Fort Worth market. W. C. Lobenstein had a branch wool and hide house, where over two hundred thousand buffalo hides were received during the season, and the warehouses being unable to contain them, the vacant ground was covered for hundreds of yards around with high piles of hides. Summarizing the progress of the past eighteen months, the Democrat of January, 1878, states that in this brief time have been constructed, street railways, gas works, steam elevators, planing mills, cotton compress, flour mills, fine hotel (the El Paso), court house, four banking houses, two of them national, and portion of the streets macadam- ized. Municipal improvements were going on apace with business. A meeting of the citizens in May, 1877, declared in favor of the Holly system of water works, and passed resolutions

bonds for the construction of the system, but the establishment of the plant was not accom- 'plished for several years.

All these things attest the progressive attitude and enterprise of the citizens. It would certainly be too much to say that their efforts were in- 'spired or their purposes enlightened with prophecy of the greatness that has since been attained. The world progresses by adaptation of means to the immediate opportunity rather than according to the deliberate plan projected far into the future, but they utilized all the means at hand, the scope of trade, and in this way advanced step by step to the results which we see manifest at the present time.

The historian cannot refrain from mentioning the loyal and enthusiastic support which the Fort Worth Democrat gave to the enterprise of the citizens during those early days. Founded in 1872, the Democrat had its great period of use- fulness during the years when Fort Worth was getting a firm foothold as a business and rail- road center of North Texas. While the town was isolated from the rest of the world as far as railroads were concerned, it was conducted as a weekly, every issue advocating the best welfare of the town and in particular urging the con- struction of the railroad. Then two weeks before the T. & P. trains began running to the town, on July 4, 1876, the Daily Democrat was launched, "without long premeditation," to use the words of the editorial, and before an inch of advertising or a single subscriber had been secured for the issue. On December 28th of the same year the Associated Press dispatches began to appear in the Democrat, and thereafter throughout its in- dependent existence it was the leading newspaper for Northwest Texas. The Democrat was be- hind every improvement in Fort Worth; it urged the construction of railroads unceasingly; also street railways, local improvements such as side- walks, fire department, street paving, water works, each one as successively needed. Early in 1877 it began advocating the establishment of jobbing houses in Fort Worth, and there is not

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an important institution in Fort Worth today which was not a subject for a Democrat editorial at some time of its existence.

Fort Worth is often known as the "Panther City." To the Democrat belongs the honor of fixing this title upon the city. The first issue of the Daily Democrat showed, as part of the title head, the picture of a reclining panther, beneath which was the inscription "Where the Pant'er laid down." The following explanation was given by the editor. "The illustration which forms part of the heading of the Daily Democrat may require explanation. In bygone days, when Fort Worth seemed struggling for very existence, a humorous writer of the Dallas Herald portrayed our city with a panther-or as he called it, a pant'er-asleep in the streets, unmolested and undisturbed by the rush of men or the hum of traffic. Then as now we felt an abiding con- fidence in the future greatness of the City of the Heights, and we conceived the idea of making this picture the central figure of the heading for the Daily Democrat."

The Galveston News' annual review in Sep- tember, 1879, outlines some of the main features of Fort Worth's growth, as follows: "Fort Worth had a population of 2,000 in 1876; in 1879, has 9,000. Taxable property in 1876 was $600,000; in 1878, $2,500,000. The city is ir- regularly built because of its rapid construction. There are 115 brick and stone business houses, besides the wooden structures. It has two flour mills, 250 barrels capacity daily ; two cotton com- presses ; new coal gas works; two grain eleva- tors ; two planing mills; sash and door factory, etc .; twenty artesian wells; a street railway. Fort Worth draws its trade from Johnson, Hood, Erath, Brown, Coleman, and many northwestern counties."

Fort Worth had no free public school system until 1882. In the early days private schools furnished the greater part of the educational ad- vantages to the young. Prof. Hanna's Fort Worth High School was one of the noted institu- tions of the sixties. In the latter seventies, among the important schools should be mentioned: The Weaver Male High School, in the northwestern part of the city, of collegiate grade. The Arnold-

Walden Institute, for young ladies, also having a primary department, was at the west end of Fourth street. Mrs. Scribner's School, for young ladies, was also on Fourth street. Miss Alford's School, Second and Taylor, was a girls' school of first grade. Mrs. Burchill's School contained primary, intermediate and grammar grades.

In February, 1877, by order of the city council, an election was held to determine whether the city should assume exclusive control of the public schools within its limits. Ninety per cent of the tax-paying votes were cast for this proposition, and thereby the city became a separate school community, receiving from the collector of taxes its proportion of the school fund, having power to construct schools and to levy an additional tax of one per cent, provided a special election showed two-thirds of the tax-payers in favor of the levy. In July of this year the levy was voted by the necessary number of tax-payers, but an adverse ruling of the attorney general prevented for some time the diversion of the public funds to this purpose, and for this and other causes the public school system of Fort Worth was not in- augurated until 1882. The free public schools had their origin in the vote of the citizens in August of that year for a tax of one-half of one per cent to supplement the amount received from the general school fund. The city at the time did not own a building nor one piece of furniture, yet by renting and erecting buildings, the schools were opened on October 1, 1882 with seventeen teachers and an average attendance of 648 pupils for the first week. March 9, 1883, the teachers. were increased to twenty-one, and the average attendance of pupils was 1,016. Thus was in- augurated the splendid system of public educa- tion, which has been steadily developed as the city has increased in population and wealth and in keeping also with the general progress in all educational affairs.

And, likewise, the churches of Fort Worth show the same progress for limited conditions and paucity of resources. A church directory published in 1874 graphically illustrates the re- stricted opportunities for worship in those days. The Presbyterians held services morning and

COL. J. P. SMITH

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evening of the first and third Sundays of each month, at Knight's Hall, W. M. Kilpatrick being their pastor. The Methodists worshipped every Sunday morning and evening at the court house, R. H. H. Burnett being pastor. The Baptists, under Rev. J. R. Masters, assembled at the Masonic Hall, morning and evening of the first and second Sundays. The Christian denomina- tion had meetings on the first and fourth Sun- days, Elder A. Clark being their leader. The Cumberland Presbyterians had one meeting in the month at Masonic Hall, under Rev. W. D. Wear. The Catholic adherents met on the last Sunday of the month at the home of Mr. Scott on Main street, Father Parrier being their priest. Every Sunday morning there was a union Sab- bath school at the Masonic Hall, John Hanna being superintendent.

Fort Worth was thus constituted a city, with the improvements and facilities understood by that name, and to grow and develop was all that remained necessary in order that it should be a city in size and importance as well. When the Texas and Pacific was built on to Weatherford, there was occasioned a temporary depression, many of the less permanent class of citizens leav- ing, but confidence was soon restored, especially as other railroads began building to this point. The Missouri Pacific entered the city from the north. The completion of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe to this point and the inception of the building of the Fort Worth and Denver were the great events of the year 1881, these two roads costing the city about one hundred thousand dol- lars. Line after line of railroad was built, the importance of the city as a railroad center was equaled by its increasing prestige as a business and industrial center, and now for twenty years Fort Worth has been the metropolis for North- west Texas.

In the history of its municipal progress the year 1882 is especially notable. In that year the late J. P. Smith was elected mayor, and to assist him a public-spirited council, and through their co-operation the city inaugurated internal im- provements which have proved the foundation for all subsequent work along that line. In May, 1882, a franchise was granted to the Fort Worth

Water Works Company, and in the following year the Holly system was completed and put in opera- tion. Previous to 1876 the drinking water for the city had come from Clear Fork or from a spring two miles northeast of town. The first artesian well, three hundred feet deep, furnished all the drinking water for a time, but in 1887 there were a hundred wells, and Fort Worth was some- times referred to as the "city of artesian wells." Before the water works were built water was drawn from the wells and peddled about the streets at twelve and a half cents a barrel, and even to this day that custom still prevails though to a limited extent. The water works company - filled its mains with water from the Clear Fork, but since that time it has been the policy of the city to depend on an artesian supply as far as practicable, and the city water now comes entirely from wells. In 1884 the city purchased one-half interest in the water works plant, and in the fol- lowing year came into complete control, so that the water system has been a municipal utility for now twenty years.

Besides the water works, Mayor Smith and his associates directed their attention to the paving of Main and Houston streets, at a cost of over one hundred thousand dollars; also to the con- struction of a sewer system, of bridges and roads, excavations and trenches, installation of a fire department, schools, improvements whose. cost aggregated four hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars. The year 1883 was noted as the most pros- perous year in the history of the city, and popu- lation nearly doubled. About that time what was known as the Railroad reservation, south of the Texas and Pacific tracks, began to build up.

On May 31, 1882, the Fort Worth Board of Trade was organized and began its career of use- fulness in the upbuilding and promotion of the best interests of the city. The first president of the Board was the late W. A. Huffman, one of the foremost of Fort Worth's citizens, a pioneer and a builder. Of him it has been said that "his undaunted energy, perseverance and cash, assisted by others, some of whom are with us and many of whom have gone to the great beyond, caused this to be the greatest railroad center of Texas. He also conceived the idea of making this the

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great packing center of the southwest. No sub- scription list for the upbuilding of Fort Worth appeared without a large amount being placed opposite to his name." The other officers of the board were: Sidney Martin, first vice president ; J. P. Smith, second vice president ; J. H. Brown, third vice president; P. A. Weaver, secretary- treasurer; and S. W. Lomax, I. Goldberg, G. W. Gillespie, C. A. Darling, Charles Daggett, direc- tors.

The depression in the cattle industry during 1884-85 had its effects on the growth of Fort Worth. The period of stagnation was short, but in comparison with the season of prosperity that had preceded was severely felt. In fact, such rapid progress as was experienced in 1883 was not again duplicated for nearly twenty years. A striking evidence of the business conditions of these years appears' in the fact that railroad building, which had been going on at a phenom- enal rate during the first half of the decade, was now almost stopped. But beginning with 1887 there was a revival. ' In that year several citizens, Col. R. E. Maddox among them, began systemat- ically to boom Fort Worth's advantages as a live- stock market and to advocate the establishment of stock yards and such other facilities as would secure for all time a share in the great cattle industry of Texas. The commercial interests of Fort Worth had by this time reached very large figures. In 1880 the city's wholesale trade was estimated at $650,000, while in 1888 it had in- creased to over eight million. In 1876 R. G. Dun and Co.'s commercial report gave Fort Worth but fifty-nine concerns, in 1887 the same authority showed the number to be 460.

All agree that the factor next in importance to the railroads in conferring prosperity and sub- stantial greatness on Fort Worth has been the creation of a live-stock market through the in- strumentality of stock yards and packing houses. With the Texas and Pacific, the Fort Worth and Rio Grande, and the Fort Worth & Denver pen- etrating the great range country of Southwest, West and Northwest Texas and all converging to meet at Fort Worth, it was logical if not in- evitable that this should become the great live- stock market of Texas and the Southwest. By

every construction that can be placed upon the events of the past, it seems that Texas for a long time to come is destined to be the great cattle state of the Union. The breaking up of the great ranches into smaller and more easily managed stock farms, instead of decreasing the production of live stock, broadens and benefits the industry in every way. Bearing these facts in mind, and remembering that the system of modern economy calls for the preparation of the meat products as near as possible to the source of supply, rather than, by the old method, transporting the animals "on the foot" to abattoirs situated in many cities of the world, it was the most natural thing in the world that the Southwest should have its own market and packing center.

It was in the latter eighties when the general development of the Southwest country had reached that point where the selection of such a central market became a matter of practical importance. There were three factors that gave Fort Worth first place in consideration of a proper site. First, its location as the only large place on the eastern border of the cattle country, where it had enjoyed prestige as a stock center from the days of the trail. Second, its numerous railroads, radiating in all directions, tapping the sources of supply on the west and connecting · easily with the eastern cities and the Gulf. And third, the alert enterprise of the citizens, who were certain to put forth every effort to secure such a market to Fort Worth. These citizens laid the foundation for the packing industry of which Fort Worth is now so proud, for although the initial enterprise was not fully successful, it served as the base from which greater things have developed.

So, on the 6th of February, 1890, the Fort Worth Dressed Meat and Packing Co. was or- ganized, with a capital stock of $500,000. Its incorporators were the following well known citizens: R. E. Maddox, John R. Hoxie, Tobe Johnson, J. C. McCarthy, M. G. Ellis, A. T. Byers, E. B. Harold, Robert McCart, S. D. Rainey. Stock yards and packing plant were built, and the business started off with a degree of success that was encouraging and resulted in several additions being made. The stone build-

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ing in which packing operations began was but recently destroyed by fire. At that time but two railroads passed the stock yards site, and the business on the whole was of little more than local importance.

From 1892 to the close of the decade Fort Worth suffered its longest and most severe period of financial and industrial depression, and all . development of Northwest Texas seems now as- lines of business, including the live-stock market, were at a standstill. The city has always been closely dependent upon the industrial conditions The stock yards and packing houses are re- garded as a corner-stone of Fort Worth's great- ness, and the zeal and earnest effort and money of its tributary West Texas, and during the long time when immigration into the western counties had practically ceased, Fort Worth was. contributions which the citizens put forth to se- unable to advance faster than the region of which cure them deserve description as among the most beneficial achievements in Fort Worth's history. How the big Armour and Swift interests were induced to locate here, resulting in the advance of Fort Worth from a live-stock center of little more than local importance to a place of consider- ation among the five or six great markets of the United States, is well told by a writer in the Fort Worth Record. it was the business metropolis. It may be as- serted, indeed, on the basis of the facts and the judgment of thoughtful observers, that until the first five years of the present century the develop- ment of Fort Worth and West Texas has been periodic rather than continuous,. intermittent rather than steady. The entire country has en- dured severe reverses. Seemingly, its enterprise, restrained by financial and industrial storm, has, "When I came to Fort Worth," he says, "in April, 1900, to do newspaper work, the two daily when again released, rushed ahead with an im- petus that carried it beyond substantial limits , newspapers were but local publications. The and weakened its powers of resistance against the next storm. Thus we witness the period of prosperity in 1872 and the early part of 1873, fol- lowed by almost a depopulation of the town on account of the failure of the railroad construc- tion. From 1876 to 1883 the city progressed al- most marvelously, only to find itself in the slough of industrial despond in the middle eighties. Then came the completion of the long-projected railroads and the inception of the live-stock mar- ket and packing business, after which exuberance of prosperity the city experienced the lean years of the nineties. Morning Register was issuing as good a paper as the patronage justified and the Evening Telegram was moving along in an easy, quiet sort of a way. I listened to the older citizens talk and they told me what B. B. Paddock, John Peter Smith, B. C. Evans and others had done for Fort Worth in the old days. They detailed how railroads were in- vited and paid for, how the Texas & Pacific was influenced to come further west than Dallas, how this was done and how that, and all of those old citizens concluded with an expression of entire confidence that Fort Worth was destined to be the largest city in the state.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 32

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co. Number of Pages: 968

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 968