A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 33

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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In 1898 packing operations were suspended, and were not resumed until May, 1899, when G. W. Simpson and L. V. Niles and associates of Boston bought the property of the local stock- holders and operated the plant until March, 1902, when it was taken over by Armour and Company.

With the inception of the present century be- gan an unexampled period of material growth and development for Fort Worth. Without ques-

tion, this prosperity is on a substantial basis, and the progress that has been made, while rapid, has been conservative and consistent with the general upbuilding of the entire country. In this time Fort Worth has become a city of varied re- sources, and no longer depends upon the stability of one or two industries. Its key position in the sured beyond all peradventure and disposition of events and circumstances.

"It was along in 1901 that business began to pick up some and the town showed improvement and then the opportunity came when the big pack- ers of the country would consider the town as a location for up-to-date plants. Those who were interested in the old packing house and stock yards helped the thing along, and finally it was agreed that if a certain bonus was raised to pay the packers they would agree-Armour and

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Swift-each to locate a plant in North Fort Worth. It was hard work raising that bonus. All worked, however. The merchant, the banker, the salaried man and all took part in it, and slowly it accumulated day by day. But still we did not have enough. More was needed to round out the full sum. And some one suggested a mass meet- ing to talk things over. The mass meeting was called. It was the biggest mass meeting I have ever seen in Fort Worth. John Springer, former president of the National Livestock Association, was here and agreed to make a speech. R. W. Hall of Vernon, 'Brick' Hall, he is called, was invited to come and make a speech also.

"The speaking was pulled off all right and when it closed that evening the bonus was raised. 'Brick' Hall made a good speech and just laughed men of money into giving of their sub- stance that Fort Worth might be the beneficiary, and John Springer told business facts and anec- dotes which persuaded the tightest wads in the house to separate from their coin. It was the biggest thing I ever saw in the way of a contri- bution to a public enterprise, and that meeting landed the packing houses.

"From that time Fort Worth has grown. From the date of that mass meeting property has be- come more valuable, homes are more plentiful and business houses more numerous. That started the healthy, prosperous existence of Fort Worth, which promises to continue until she has reached that stage of existence when she can figure in the top notch of Texas business af- fairs."

The success of the negotiations which resulted in Armour and Co. and Swift and Co. locating large plants here has benefitted Fort Worth and Northwest Texas in many ways. The stock yards were enlarged to accommodate the cattle which would naturally be shipped in increasing numbers to this point. During the year 1902 both the Armour and Swift interests spent mil- lions of dollars in building two of the most ex- tensive and complete packing plants in existence, and the steers of Texas are now slaughtered in this state instead of in Nebraska, Missouri and Illinois. The packing houses are very extensive and up-to-date in every respect. Machinery oper-

ated by electric power is used wherever possible, and several thousand people are employed. It is estimated that the establishment of these two in- dustries has already added from twelve to fifteen thousand to the population of Fort Worth, and those who are in a position to know assert that the laboring class are law-abiding, industrious and intelligent people, forming a substantial ele- ment of population, a large proportion of them being home-builders.

The plants have been in operation since March, 1903, and since then the capacity has been in- creased and new departments have been added to the industry, among the improvements and addi- tions being lard refiners, soap houses, additional boilers, refrigerating machines, ice tanks, more artesian wells and storage reservoirs, fertilizer plants, beef extract departments, cotton oil re- finery, butterine and produce department, and sausage factory. All this contributes to the wealth and prosperity of the city. It makes Fort Worth quite as prominent in the cattle trade as the town ever was, but in a different relation. This new move, as already suggested, is in obedience to the economic laws of modern trade, to minimize labor and expense in marketing cattle and in bringing the manufacturing facilities as near as possible to where the raw material is produced. The benefits to the live-stock producers come in the shape of a nearby market, to which stock may come with but little delays, with a shortened haul, with service and care equal to any in the country, with charges no higher and in some instances less than elsewhere, and in a location where no floods ever come and where none ever can come to interfere with business or drive stock from the pens. A nearby market reduces the amount of shrinkage, and, other things being equal, brings more money to the shipper. Cattle from West Texas and the Panhandle arrive on this market after one day of rail transportation, in good condition and with killing quality unimpaired. Thus arriving in better condition, Texas cattle are bringing relatively better prices at Fort Worth than at other markets.

Although many of the facts considered in con- nection with Fort Worth are an essential part of the history of North and West Texas as a

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

whole, it seems well to state them in this chapter, and therefore we may call attention to Fort Worth's relative position among the live-stock centers of the United States as well as with reference to West Texas. While Fort Worth now ranks fifth or sixth among these markets, being led by Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, St. Joseph and Omaha, it is asserted with confidence based upon accurate knowledge of conditions that Fort Worth in the near future will be third if not second as a market and packing center. Capt. J. T. Lytle, secretary of the Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas, declares his belief in this outcome. "Fort Worth is located at the center of the live-stock country," he says, "with the splendid grazing regions to the west and south- west, and on the north the region of Oklahoma, Indian Territory and Kansas, all of which will become more and more tributary to the Fort Worth market. As yet the supply of hogs re- ceived at this market is small, and the packers assert that they must have a certain proportion of hogs to kill with the cattle in order to make the business profitable to the highest degree. At present nearly all the hogs killed at the two plants come from Oklahoma and Indian Territory, but there is no reason why swine should not be pro- duced in this state as well as any place in the world, and in fact they are increasing quite rapidly. The farmers will in time be educated to raise hogs, which in other states have long been known as 'mortgage-lifters,' and with the increased raising of alfalfa and corn crops the 'hog-raising belt' will be extended into North Texas. The Pecos region will for long, and per- haps always, be a grazing region, and these vast areas to the west and southwest will always pour their live-stock products into Fort Worth and will fortify if not render impregnable its position in the live-stock industry of the United States."

It is not the purpose of this chapter to describe in detail the various interests of Fort Worth, which would require more space than can be allotted in a general history of such a vast region as North and West Texas. But because many of the interests reflect the development of the entire country under consideration, we may men- tion the extensive proportions of its wholesale

trade, especially in groceries and drugs ; its com- paratively recent development of manufacturing interests, which now represent over eight mil- lions in capital and have an annual output of be- tween thirty and forty million dollars; its rapidly growing importance as a grain and flour center ; its importance as a banking center and the phe- nomenal record of bank clearings, which have increased four-fold in three years' time; and the general excellence, when the rapidity of the city's growth is considered, of the municipal improve- ments, the public school system, the transportation facilities, and its attractiveness as a civic, intel- . lectual and religious community.

We have already described how the town, after the coming of the railroad, gradually spread away from its nucleus about the public square and built up more or less solidly along the several streets running between the court house and the Texas and Pacific depot. Houston and Main streets are now quite compact with business buildings for this entire distance, and new struc- tures are all the time taking the place of earlier and unpretentious frame houses. But this epoch of building activity has been confined mainly to the last five years, and the business district has been changed so completely during this time, that men returning to the city after an absence of several years remark this as one of the most con- spicuous evidences of Fort Worth's marvelous era of twentieth century prosperity. Some phases of this transformation are thus described by the writer already quoted :

"When I came to Fort Worth there were but four buildings on Eighth street, between Rusk and Throckmorton. One of these was the Main street part of the Metropolitan, another was the Worth, another what is now known as the Wheat building and the fourth was the Southwestern Telegraph & Telephone company building on Throckmorton and Eighth. In the last five years the Metropolitan has grown over to Rusk, the Century building, occupied by Washer, the Rey- nolds building, the G. Y. Smith building, the Bewley building, the Hunter-Phelan Savings bank, the Rosen building, the Acme Laundry and the Telegram have all gone up on that street. The Wheat building five years ago was a mass

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of stone and unoccupied space. It had been a wholesale dry goods house. Mr. Wheat re- modeled it until it is now a veritable beehive of office industry.

In that five years many of the old shacks have been torn away from Main street and good, sub- stantial structures have gone up in their places. The Parker-Lowe building has been constructed, the Ellison building, the Public Library, the Rey- nolds building on Main, the Saunders building at Ninth and Houston, the Fort Worth National bank, the First National bank-in fact, building upon building has been added to the taxable wealth of the city. These have not been the result of a boom, but of a substantial growth, and that a demand existed for these houses of brick and stone is shown by the rapidity with which they have been occupied.

"Five years ago what is now North Fort Worth was known as the postoffice of Marine. It was a small cross roads postoffice, few people liv- ing in its vicinity. That which is now Rosen Heights was a vast stretch of unoccupied land. Now there are homes for 7,500 people dotting that high ground to the north of here and a more prosperous set of people have never existed."

Fort Worth has had an interesting past ; it has struggled for existence, it has labored to improve its natural advantages, it has fought for dis- tinctive facilities in transportation and industry and business, it has experienced the strenuous life from its beginning ; and it continues to aspire to prestige and power and to expend the energy and resources of its citizens in the accomplish- ment of the best ideals of an American city. To forecast the future, however fascinating such an attempt would be, is hardly the province of his- tory. Yet a statement of some of the conditions upon which the future depends has its value and interest, especially when couched in the words of a Fort Worth veteran who has seen the city de- velop through all it important stages. "I believe that Fort Worth will soon have a population of one hundred thousand souls, and in five years North Fort Worth will contain twenty thousand," is the prediction of Maj. J. J. Jarvis. "And I will back up that statement with these argu- ments," he continues. "First, Fort Worth has

more railroads-that is, main trunk lines-than any other Texas city. Then, supplementing this fact, there is not and perhaps never will be, any city of considerable size in all the country west to El Paso. Thus Fort Worth is the natural trading point for all this region, here will be located all the big wholesale houses, the live-stock markets and all other commercial activities, so that the West Texas merchants and business men will go no further east to transact their affairs. The railroads will continue to direct traffic to and. through this point, and the prestige of Fort Worth as the permanent metropolis of Northwest Texas hardly admits of doubt. Besides being a commercial and live-stock center, Fort Worth is already one of the centers of the grain trade in the southwest, having more elevators than any city in the state, and this is another of the factors from which we may predicate a future fully in keeping with the assuredly splendid past of Fort Worth."

Time has been described as an artist who is always painting over the same canvas, but, effac- ing here a line and there retouching in detail, changes the wonderful scenes of history in har- mony with world progress. A century ago the canvas portrayed, in perspective outlines, the quiet river valley, in the charm of original crea- tion; the bordering bluff, with its abrupt front smoothed by its vesture of live-oaks, and, above, the camp-fire of some unhoping barbarians, who, unanchored by social law or material interest, were drifting flotsam of existence and on the morrow would leave the scene to its wonted solitude.

The seasons' changing colors, and the acci- dents of storm and flood, form the only variations in the panorama year after year, until finally the faithful artist must paint in a few contrasting and significant details. The river still continues its peaceful flow, the live-oaks still bind the stream to the bluff and clothe in verdure the beds where the water once flowed, but, on the pla- teau above, the advance guards of change have camped and nature sinks in subservience before the power of civilized mankind. There are the rough cabins grouped around a square, a flag-

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staff carrying aloft its tri-colored symbol of new world destiny, the movement of armed men .in drill and barracks routine, while in the dim east- ern distance rises the smoke from the advancing line of settlers' cabins.

The busy hand of Time writes rapidly now, obliterating old forms and covering the landscape with homes and workshops. Where the Indian , of the burden of years which time has seen fit to

trail had wound down the bluff to the river, is ' depicted the broad highway; where the river had rippled over a rocky bed is now fretted with stone and mortar, and the volume of water turns a hundred wheels; where the deer had rested from the heat of noonday, rumbling factories are con -- verting the products of the field into a thousand modifications; where the buffalo herd wound its way over the ridge, are seen the shining rails which guide the traffic of the world to market ; piles of stone and brick and wood arise one after another, until the city of today covers the canvas, the scenes of all the yesterdays being unimpressed save in history and the memory of living man.

But the picture is ever completing, is never finished. In the future the stolid artist will con- tinue to draw what his swiftly moving hours and days accomplish, and though the light shines dim , a disposition as generous, as honest, as lovable,

through this curtain, yet prophetic reason, out- speeding the tracings of Time, shadows forth the valleys overspread with the seats of a multiplied commerce and industry, the surrounding hills topped with the silhouettes of countless homes, and the restless energy of a mighty people vibrat- ing the shuttles which weave the web of human accomplishment.

SAM WOODY is distinguished mainly for his remarkable personality, his ability as a natural raconteur, and his individual history would be of interest in any part of this work; but his connec- tion with a very important event in Fort Worth's early history furnishes reason to place the story of his career following the history of Fort Worth.

In respect to age, Mr. Woody is the central one of a group of five brothers. He has two brothers, aged respectively ninety-four and eighty-three, he himself is eighty, and the two younger are seventy-nine and sixty-nine. All have been frontiersmen, have survived what

seems to a modern age, an epoch filled with hardships and dangers, and are splendid speci- mens of the simple, natural life. Without being told, no one could believe that Mr. Sam Woody is an octogenarian. His face is round, his cheeks ruddy, his eyes bright and full, and his hearty laugh and quick, sprightly motions give no hint impose upon him.

He was born and spent his youthful years in the mountainous regions of east Tennessee. "I was not raised, I just grew up," he says. "I went to school two weeks and at the end of that time did not know A; in fact, when the teacher pointed to that letter and asked me its name, I called it Izard. He told me I would never learn anything, and I guessed he was telling the truth, so I left school and continued to grow up." But the schools have never yet been able to make in- telligence nor to destroy it. This callow Tennes- see boy who went shuffling from the schoolhouse, despaired of by his teacher, and with careless happiness returned through the woods to the in- different comforts of home, had a mind as keen as a blade, a memory as retentive as a Webster's, as easy-going, as that of the most typical Ten- nesseean of literature or history. A meagerness of diet in comparison with which the commonest articles of food nowadays would seem luxurious, did not prevent him from waxing strong and vigorous in his native heath, and without doubt he was moved by ambition for higher things to a greater degree than most of the youths of his neighborhood. Up to his nineteenth year he had never been more than five miles from home, and of the great world about him and the customs of men he knew absolutely nothing. Then came an opportunity to go on a boat down the Tennessee, and during the next year or so he had a series of experiences which, when narrated in his own expressive and picturesque language, has all the interest that attaches to those who fare forth from the small known into the great unknown world about them and which have furnished themes for heroics and epics from the beginning of literature. In this time he found that he was able to earn more money than he had ever

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dreamed possible while at home, and he returned to the family imbued with a higher sense of his own worth and ability and a fixed determination to betake himself and his people to a country where all might have better opportunities. He set himself to paying off the debts of his father, who was a blacksmith, and as soon as that was effected he put all the family on a flatboat and sent them down the river to a land of more promise. He himself remained at the old home for a time in order to get sufficient financial start for his next great move. Before sending his parents away he had married a fair member of one of the households in the community, a young woman whose companionship was of the sub- stantial and helpful sort and which endured for the long and happy period of fifty-one years.

Finally when he was about twenty-two years old, he made the great move of his life, floating down the Tennessee and Ohio and Mississippi rivers, across to Shreveport, and then over into East Texas, to Upshur county, where he lived for a year or so. In the spring of 1849 he came on to Fort Worth and lived there- abouts for a year or so, and in 1854 passed on to Wise county, where, on the very outskirts of civilization, he was the first permanent settler, and the house which is pictured on another page was the first home in the county. Asked as to what motives led him to locate on the borderland between civilization and barbarism, he replied : "The prettiest sight I have ever seen is a new country, where man has never been and which is just as the great God of Heaven left it; where every stream is full of fish and every hollow tree gorged with honey. The wild life and nature at first hand suited me, and if I knew of such a country now I would get up and start for it to- night. But" he added, with a laugh that was tinged with the pathos of age, "I couldn't do it, my strength would not let me, I am not what I used to be."

In Wise county he has spent practically all his subsequent years. He was in the regular army during 1861, but being a man of family he was discharged and sent back to help guard the Texas frontier, and then during the years 1862-63-64 was in the Ranger service under

Throckmorton. Many hard experiences befell the soldiers on their campaigns throughout the great country of Northwest Texas, extending clear up to the Canadian river. It was his ability to see the humorous side of every occurrence, to joke with his comrades in the midst of great danger or suffering, that lessened the strain of strenuous life at that time as in all other periods of his career, and no doubt to that characteristic he owes his long and contented life. "After the capture of the widow Spriggs about Belknap," he relates, "we were gone on the pursuit for twenty-one days, and hardly had a bite of bread or chaw of tobacco. The boys thought they would die, but I said I could stand it, and I did. There was plenty of venison and buffalo meat, and I will tell you of a sandwich the like of which you probably never heard of. We would dry a piece of lean meat on the coals until all the juice was out of it and until it was flaky and tasteless ; that was our bread. Then we would broil a nice fat 'slice, and putting the two together we had a sandwich that tasted mighty good to a hungry man. When there was a small supply of flour in camp we would poultice the end of a ramrod with the ball of flour and water, hold it over the fire till it was cooked as hard as a bullet, and it was the sweetest morsel I have ever eaten."

Of his relations with the Indians while in Wise county and before the war, he says: "I reckon I didn't know the disposition of Indians. I was never afraid of them-didn't have sense enough I guess. I used to trade with them at my house until they got hostile on account of the war. For a little corn they would give me the finest buffalo robe or moccasins you ever saw. I only wish I had kept some of those things, they would be worth lots of money now. We ought all to live twice, you know, so we would know the right thing to do. But after all, I believe if I had it all to do over again, I would not change my life a bit, for I am content and satisfied even if I didn't get rich. I lived a great life of excitement, for twenty years being in constant fear of Indian raids, yet I never killed an Indian in my life. I had the best house in that part of the country, and every time we had an Indian scare the neigh- bors would come over and fort up at my house,

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where they seemed to take heart when they saw I legislature and an election was ordered to decide whether the court house should stay in Birdville or be moved to Fort Worth. I had until a short was not afraid. Every time anybody was killed, most of the settlers would pull out and leave the country, but there were four families of us that . time prior been a citizen of Tarrant county, but stayed through it all. Before the war the Indians when the election came off I was living in Wise county. Around me were fourteen other settlers, and on the day of the election I got them together seldom killed a white person, they came to steal. I built my stable with its only door facing the house, and many a night have I stood guard in ; and started down to Fort Worth to help my for- the house, with six or seven loaded guns beside me, ready to shoot the first redskin that made an attempt to enter that door. My dog would tell me when Indians were prowling around, and after such a night of watching I would find many moccasin tracks behind the stable."

"It was easy to live in those days. Sow five or six acres of wheat, it would often produce fifty bushels to the acre, cut it with a cradle, tramp and fan it out, then once or twice a year load up a wagon to which five or six steers were hitched, and after a week's trip to Dallas you would have enough flour to give bread to your own family and some of the neighbors for a number of weeks, until it would be the turn of some one else to make a trip. If we had bread enough, game was always plentiful. Hogs would get so fat on acorns that they couldn't walk. After marking them we let them run wild, and trained our dogs to run them in whenever. we wanted a supply of pork. Now and then we sent a wagon to Shreveport or Houston for coffee and sugar and such groceries, but we did not use sugar much. I paid a dollar for a pint of the first sorghum seed planted in Wise county, and molasses was the commonest kind of 'sweet- ening.' When we got tired of game and pork we killed a beef. By swinging a quarter high up to the limb of a tree it would be safe from wild animals and would keep sweet for weeks, and it was a common sight in our country to see the woman of the house untying the rope and let- ting down the meat to cut off enough for dinner.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 33

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