USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume II > Part 41
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
In the forty-one years of its existence it has developed from two wells to more than a hundred, from log houses and tents to brick and stucco, from a straggling population of a few scattered families to a town of 9,018. As a health resort it has long since passed the experimental stage and has become a recognized factor in restoring health by the medical fraternity.
From dispensing its waters by the primitive gourd it now dispenses them in the largest drinking pavilions in the world. From entertaining
805
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
a few families coming in mule and ox-drawn vehicles it now entertains 150,000 visitors annually coming by train and automobile from every state in the union and many foreign countries.
STRAWN
Strawn was incorporated in 1920. Its population has doubled in the last two years and is now about 5,000. It has two strong banks, the First National Bank and the First States Bank; and two of the largest mercantile establishments of the West. The Strawn Merchandise Com- pany, owned and operated by the Strawn Coal Company, has a capital of $5,000,000. The Watson Brothers is also a solid and substantial concern.
The Coal Company owns the Light & Water Plant, and gas for heating purposes is furnished by E. M. Treat & Company. Plans for a sewerage system are in progress. Two new churches have recently been erected. being the Methodist Episcopal Church, to cost $80.000, and the Baptist Church, to cost $50,000.
The Strawn Tribune is a six-column weekly newspaper owned and edited by S. D. Taylor.
The school building is a substantial two story brick structure con- taining thirty rooms, erected about ten years ago, and is used for grade and high school purposes. It proved to be inadequate to the demand, and in June, 1920, work was begun on a new and larger school building, which will soon be completed and occupied. The new building, with its equip- ment, will cost around $100,000, and is provided with a large auditorium having a stage. This room will be used for school assemblies, lyceum courses and public gatherings. In the basement are a good sized gym- nasium, rooms for sewing, domestic science and for manual training. The building is heated throughout with hot air, gas being used for fuel, al- though coal grates have also been supplied for use in case of a gas short- age. There are now 115 pupils in the high school and 830 in the different grades. For the last ten years the schools have been under the charge of Professor L. T. Cook, with a staff of nineteen teachers in the literary department and three in the department of music and expression.
PARKER COUNTY
Parker is one of the oldest settled counties of North Texas, adjoining Tarrant on the west, and is on the dividing line between the black land belt of the central part of the state and West Texas. One fork of the Trinity River runs through the county, and in the western part is the Brazos River, so that two of the largest water courses in the state ap- proach each other closely in this county. The county ranks high as an agricultural section, with cotton the chief crop, but corn, wheat. vege- tables and fruit are important factors in a diversified farming which has made great progress during the last twenty years. It has taken first pre- miums at all Agricultural Fairs in the country for watermelons, peanuts and many of the fruits.
The county takes special pride in its good roads, constructed from gravel beds closely accessible, and has also developed a broad foundation of institutions and commercial activities.
806
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
Parker County was created from portions of Navarro and Bosque counties on December 12, 1855, and was organized March, 1856. The act creating the county directed that county courts, when chosen, should order an election for the location of the seat of justice, the site selected to be called Weatherford. The first settlement followed soon after the establishment of the military post at Fort Worth in 1849. For twenty years the county was on the frontier and exposed to the hostile raids of the Indians. For several years after the organization of the county the settlers had little trouble, but the removal of a large part of the Texas Indians beyond Red River was followed by a persistent warfare along the fringes of settlement. In 1859 an attack was made on the town of Weatherford, when Mrs. Sherman was killed and scalped. During the Civil war the danger from such raids never abated, and as late as 1873 an Indian incursion was made into Parker County.
COURT HOUSE, WEATHERFORD
During the comparative security of the early '50s settlement was rapid. The population in 1858 was estimated at 3,507, including a small number of slaves, (160).
About 10,000 acres were in cultivation, wheat and corn being the only crops, and over 10,000 cattle raised on the ranges. Weatherford had a population at this time of 175, there being only five negroes in the little town.
The author of "Information about Texas." whose observations were made about 1856-57, says of Parker County : "It is a desirable region for small farmers. Weatherford, a new town and county seat, is rapidly increasing. Not twelve months ago the site was laid out and yet there are already a court house in process of construction, and several other public buildings, one hotel, several stores, private dwellings and other marks of civilization." Weatherford built up rapidly in those years. One of the first steam flour mills in a large region of the country was started there about the middle of 1858. and in November of the same
807
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
year a correspondent wrote : "This flourishing little town I find still improving rapidly, and notwithstanding the universal cry of hard times, new buildings are going up all over town. Weatherford seems to have increased faster than any town in North Texas during the first three years of its existence." The establishment of a newspaper -- The Frontier News-at that place, which two years before could not boast of a cabin, was evidence not only of the enterprise of its publisher, but more so of the rapid strides the northwestern frontier was making in improve- ment and settlement.
In 1860 the number of inhabitants was almost as large as in 1870, and by the latter date the people had hardly repaired the damage in- flicted during the decade of the war. The rapid increase of population during the '70s was due partly to the general immigration to this por- tion of Texas in that decade, but more particularly to the building of the first railroad through the county. The citizens of Weatherford were inspired with the same hope of railroad connection with the outer world as were the people of Forth Worth. By 1877 the town had grown so that it was credited with 2,000 population. Some of the men whose civic and business energy was behind the progress of the '70s were Judge A. J. Hood, Captain Ball, I. Patrick Valentine, and the district attorney of the county was S. W. T. Lanham, later governor of Texas. Weatherford has been the home of many well known men. Their spirit of enterprises was of the same sort as that of the people of Fort Worth ; for when they saw that there was no immediate prospect of the Texas & Pacific being extended from Fort Worth to the West, they followed the example of their more fortunate rival and formed the Parker County Construction Company to build a line between the cities. In January, 1879, the grading was begun, by the following May half of the work was completed, and by the winter of 1879-80 trains were running into Weath- erford. That town remained the terminus only a brief time, until con- struction was rapidly extended west toward El Paso. During the '80s the branch of the Santa Fe from Cleburne to Weatherford was built. The Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern Railway is largely a Weatherford enterprise, its general offices and shops are located in that city, and it has made a large section of country to the northwest tribu- tary to the Parker County metropolis. Within the last two or three years the line of railway known as the Gulf, Texas & Western has been con- structed from Jacksboro to a connection with the Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern, thus increasing the traffic which passes through Weatherford.
The population of Parker County in 1860 was 4,213; in 1870, 4,186; in 1890, after the first railroad had come, 15,870 (615 negroes) ; in 1890, 21,682 ; in 1900, 25,823 (865) ; in 1910, 26,231 ; in 1920, 33,482.
WEATHERFORD
Weatherford, which has always been the chief town as the seat of government, had a population in 1860 of 3,369; in 1900, 4,786; and in 1910, 5,074. The town site was originally built in a grove of elm, oak, hackberry and pecan, and there are many hundreds of these trees still standing about the homes of Weatherford citizens.
VOL. II-24
808
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
Weatherford has exhibited much enterprise not only commercially but in the upbuilding of institutions, and besides its public schools has one denominational institution conducted by the Methodist Church, the Weatherford College for boys. The city has a large list of general busi- ness establishments, water works, electric light and natural gas plants, fifty miles of graveled streets, a city hall and federal building, flour mills, machine shops, and grain elevators, several wholesale houses, a large and successful sanatorium in the capacious brick buildings of the quondam Fairmont Seminary, and despite its proximity to Fort Worth controls the trade of a large district. Next to Weatherford one of the oldest villages in the county was Veale Station, which before the coming of the railroad ranked next to the county seat in importance, but is now almost extinct. The principal towns at present outside of Weatherford are Springtown, Poolville, Peaster, Whitt, Millsap and Aledo, all of which have banks, independent school districts, and are the commercial and social centers of surrounding rural communities.
In 1870 the aggregate assessment values in Parker County were $1,511,975; in 1882, $3,653,138; in 1903, $7.187,955; in 1913, $13,486,- 760; and in 1920, $14,748,820. In 1910 the Federal census enumerated 3,634 farms in Parker County, as compared with 3,529 farms in 1900. The total area of the county is 560,000 acres, of which 510,753 acres were included in farms or ranches, and about 215,000 acres in "improved land." While nearly half the county is now cultivated and the old-time ranches have almost disappeared, the county raises more stock with a greater aggregate value than it did twenty-five or thirty years ago. The stock interests at the last enumeration were reported as follows: Cattle, 22,280; horses and mules about 14,450; hogs, 13,500; goats, 1,030. In 1909, 89,871 acres were planted in cotton, 47,876 acres in corn, 9,524 acres in hay and forage crops, 4,070 acres in wheat, 1,332 acres in oats, about 1,150 acres in potatoes, sweet potatoes and other vegetables ; about 144,000 trees were enumerated in orchard fruits, and about 7,000 pecan trees. Dairying is an industry of increasing value and much cream is shipped from Weatherford. Diversified farming is no longer in an experimental stage in Parker County, and many of the most successful men divide their cultivated acreage among four or five crops. The growing of fruit, especially peaches, is becoming valuable, and the county has gained special fame through its water- melons and cantaloupes. Many watermelons are shipped from this county weighing over a hundred pounds each, and at the St. Louis World's Fair a Parker County melon was awarded first prize for size. The truck crops of Parker County to a large degree are shipped West. even as far as El Paso. Much attention is paid to terracing and advanced methods of agriculture.
PECOS COUNTY
Pecos County was a part of Presidio County until 1871, when about 11,000 square miles of territory bordering on the Pecos River was made into one county, and a county government organized in 1872. the county seat being old Fort Stockton. Fort Stockton was established about 1859, and for many years it was one of the isolated outposts in
809
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
the extreme western part of Texas, and the duties of its garrison were chiefly in patrolling a country sparsely inhabited by Indians and Mexi- cans and in furnishing protection to the stages and other travelers along the highways that converged to this point from the East and passed on through El Paso to the Pacific Coast. The early settlers of the county were practically all Mexicans, and it is said that the first irrigation practiced in the county was by Mexicans, who as late as thirty years ago cultivated irrigated land with the primitive wooden plow. In 1883 the northeastern end of Pecos County was detached to form the County of Reeves, and in 1905 the southern end became Terrell County. Even as thus reduced, Pecos County has an area of about fifty-five hundred square miles. Except in the western and southwestern parts its area is a level plain, covered with stunted desert vegetation.
THE GREAT PECOS VIADUCT
The population of Pecos County in 1880 was 1,807, about three- fourth of whom were Mexicans, and population of course was dis- tributed over what is now Reeves and Terrell counties. The population in 1890 was 1,326; in 1900, 2,360; in 1910, 2,071; in 1920, 3,857. including about 300 Mexicans. Pecos County had no railroad until 1912, when the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient was completed through the county, with a station at Fort Stockton. During the last ten years Fort Stockton has exhibited a vigorous growth, chiefly due to the irri- gation enterprises developed in that vicinity, and since the coming of the railway its growth has been very rapid. The location of Fort Stockton as a military post was chosen on account of its proximity to some of the most remarkable springs in the world. These springs, known as Comanche Springs, constituting the source of Comanche Creek, have a steady and unfailing flow of about fifty-five million gal- lons of water every day, and besides furnishing abundant supply for
1
810
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
domestic purposes, these springs are the source of a great irrigation system now adequately watering approximately 8,000 acres of land. This development has all occurred in the past ten years, and by irriga- tion methods have been produced large crops of alfalfa, the grains and fruit. Fort Stockton fruits are of specially fine quality, and it is said that grape culture was first attempted by the soldiers at the old fort, and the results demonstrated in earlier years have since caused a number of land owners to set out extensive vineyards. In the north- ern corner of the county along the Pecos River, a large amount of land has been brought under irrigation in recent years with water obtained directly from the river and from the reservoirs. While irrigation was practiced many years ago for the raising of garden crops, it has been placed on a commercial basis only within the last two or three years, and as yet the extensive plant has only been partly developed, and it remains for future years to determine the rank of Pecos County among the agricultural sections of Texas. In 1909 the Federal census credited the county with about 2,300 acres of irrigated farm lands. With the exception of the irrigation district at Fort Stockton and along the Pecos River, the entire county is given over to large ranches and pastures. The total area of Pecos County is 2,645,760 acres, and while the census estimated over 2,000,000 acres included in farms and ranches, only 6,524 acres were classified as "improved land." The live stock interests comprised 108,577 cattle ; about 4,200 horses and mules ; 78,183 sheep ; and 8,479 goats. The enumeration in 1920 showed 62,410 cattle; 4,697 horses and mules ; 63,130 sheep; 10,620 goats. The valuation of property in Pecos County in 1903, before Terrell County was set off. was $4,168,- 579; in 1913, $8.072,010; and in 1920, $9,256,365.
FORT STOCKTON
Fort Stockton, county seat of Pecos County, is located almost in the county's center, on the Kansas City. Mexico & Orient Railway. It has a population of 1,297. Its altitude is 3,050 feet. There is a high school with eleven grades and a corps of fourteen teachers. Students may matriculate into state universities. There are school autos for students in rural districts.
Waterworks, electric power, ice plant and telephone system-all are private companies. There is an election pending to vote bonds for municipal waterworks system.
An inexhaustible supply of pure water is obtained at depths ranging from 50 to 200 feet. Comanche Springs make a daily flow the year round of 55,000,000 gallons. These springs supply a municipal bathing pool, with the waters registering seventy-one degrees, January and July.
In regard to the climate the temperature is rather mean, winter fifty ; summer, seventy-seven. Atmosphere dry, healthful and delightful- nights always cool.
The environments in Fort Stockton are very desirable, as the laws are sedulously enforced. Gambling, drinking and other phases of im- moralities are conspicuously absent. It is in all respects a family town.
811
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
PARMER COUNTY
All of Parmer County was included in the princely domain of the Capitol Syndicate Ranch, comprising 3,000,000 acres of land granted by the state in the early '80s as payment for the erection of the splendid State House at Austin. This ranch also included one-eighth of the area of Bailey County, and half of Lamb County. Only in recent years has there been a gradual breaking up of this vast tract, and its corporate ownership and management furnishes an obvious explanation for the late development of Parmer County as compared with other neighbor- ing sections of the great Panhandle district. The Pecos & Northern Texas Railway, a branch of the Santa Fe, was constructed across the county from northeast to southwest during the year 1898. In other counties the advent of the railroad has been accompanied by an imme- diate influx of settlers and a rapid development of agricultural re- sources. However, Parmer County, which in 1890 was credited with a population of seventy, in 1900 had only thirty-four inhabitants enu- merated by the census, and only within the present decade has there come any considerable number of settlers. Population in 1910 was 1,555, and in 1920, 1,699. Under such conditions no county govern- ment was instituted until 1907, and except as a great cattle range Parmer County has been unimproved until within the last decade.
The surface of the county is a level plain and absolutely treeless except where settlers have planted small groves of fruit and other varieties. In 1900 one corporation owned all the land, so that only one farm was enumerated. By 1910 the number of farm was 161. Along the railway the cattle syndicate established several railway stations, at Black, Friona, Parmerton, Bovina, which has enjoyed distinction as being one of the largest cattle shipping stations in the state, and at Farwell, just across the state line from Texico, and established as the county seat at the organization of the county.
The assessed valuation of property in Parmer County in 1912 was $4,792,839. The total area of the county is 577,280 acres, of which the last census reported 116,083 as included in farms, and about 38,000 acres as "improved land," compared with only 350 acres in cultivation in 1900. The census enumerated 2,904 cattle, about 950 horses and mules ; and 8,716 sheep. In 1920, cattle was enumerated as 22,250, horses and mules, 14,450. The crops in 1909 were kaffir corn and milo maize, 4,907 acres; hay and forage crops, 7,230 acres; wheat, 1,948 acres ; and corn, 232 acres.
The assessed valuation of the county for 1920 was $6,500,000, while in the past five years the number of farms have increased 100 per cent and the wheat and corn acreage has been multiplied ten fold, so that Farwell is now one of the largest grain shipping points in extreme West Texas.
While the county seat has a population of less than 1,000 at the date of this writing, December, 1920, it is the business center of a very prosperous community, having a high school of the first class, several churches, one bank, with average deposits of $250,000, and a large factory for the manufacture of tires and casings, as well as the assem-
812
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
bling of automobiles. It is the gateway to New Mexico from the east, and four great automobile highways converge at this point to carry the overland motor traffic to Western and Southwestern points.
POTTER COUNTY
The chief city and business metropolis of the Panhandle is Amarillo, the county seat of Potter County, The Fort Worth and Denver City Railway was completed across the Panhandle in 1888, with a station at Amarillo. During 1887 the Southern Kansas Division of the Santa Fe had been built into the Panhandle from another direction, with its temporary terminus at Panhandle City, thirty miles northeast of Amarillo. A little later this road was extended to Amarillo, and in 1901 on to the southwest through the purchase of the Pecos Valley & Northeastern Railway. Within ten years following the Santa Fe had extended its lines southward from Amarillo through Western Texas and had com- pleted its line westward to a connection with its main line in New Mexico, near Albuquerque. In 1903 the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railway from Memphis, Tennessee, crossed the eastern boundary of the Pan- handle and gave a third railway line to Amarillo. This line was imme- diately made a part of the Rock Island system and in 1910 was continued westward to a connection with the transcontinental line of the Rock Island through New Mexico. These railroads, which have been such prominent factors in the development of all the Panhandle country, have been of especial benefit to the development of Amarillo, giving that city a location on several transcontinental lines and making all the Panhandle country and Eastern New Mexico tributary to this distributing and market point, in a territory of 60,000 square miles.
Until the coming of the first railroad the Panhandle cattlemen had hauled all their supplies from Trinidad in Colorado or from Colorado City on the Texas & Pacific Railway. Closely settled communities were impossible under such conditions, with the source of necessary supplies several hundred miles away ; but with modern transportation population came into the Panhandle in sufficient numbers to found towns and organize communities, to establish schools and churches, and provide all the facilities which are common in a well settled country. Another factor, not previously noted, which was important in favoring the settle- ment of the Panhandle, was the land law, which went into effect in July, 1887. Although the people complained of the delay in the classi- fication of the land and what they considered the arbitrary powers given to the Land Commissioners, no serious trouble arose that time could not adjust. The homeseekers that came in with the railroad found they could obtain school and state lands on liberal terms-forty years' time and five per cent interest. A large proportion of the settlers in Northwest Texas during the '80s possessed insufficient money to establish permanent homes and carry on successfully farming in a new and dry country.
In consequence, when the dry years and the financial stringency of the '90s followed, there was a general exodus from the Panhandle, and only a nucleus of the pioneer stock remained to reap the rewards of later development. Since that time the limitations as well as the possi-
813
FORT WORTH AND THE TEXAS NORTHWEST
bilities of the Panhandle have been realized. Instead of subjecting the country to the sort of farming pursued in the well-watered regions of the state, agriculture has been conformed to suit the country, crops adapted to the soil and climate, and settlers have sought to understand the real nature of the country they have chosen as home. Thus during the past ten or fifteen years the immigration has been of a better class than the Kansas and Oklahoma boomers of the '80s and '90s. The landseekers of that time were largely a drifting population, without the anchor of property or provident industry, and a single crop failure or any difficulty caused them to pull away from their temporary moorings and drift, oftentimes in a starving condition, back to the more settled communities from which they had come. It has been well said that the first wave of population in a new country is speculative, and therefore less stable than those that succeed. Evidence of this is found in the fact that in spite of the dry conditions that have prevailed in Northwest Texas for several years, the county as a whole has made progress, has increased in population and wealth, and there has been nothing resem- bling the general exodus which occurred during the '90s. This region in the past ten or fifteen years has developed from the "Cow Country" of former years into one of the greatest wheat and grain raising sec- tions in the United States, producing in 1919 and 1920 about 25,000,000 bushels of wheat annually, with a production of other grains equal in value. The estimated production of the Panhandle from agricultural sources in 1920 was about $300,000,000. Being the distributing and financial center of this territory, Amarillo has reaped a large benefit from these conditions.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.