Early Days in Fort Worth, Much of Which I saw and Part of Which I Was

by B. B. Paddock

On September 6th, 1876, a franchise was granted to a company composed of J. P. Smith. K. M. VanZandt, W. A. Huffman, Morgan Jones and Geo. Noble for a street railway from the court house to the Texas & Pacific depot. The contract for its construction was let to Morgan Jones and the work commenced on November 17th. The first car ran over the line on Christmas day and Mr. Walter A. Huffman officiated as conductor. The cars were about the size of an ordinary street omnibus and were propelled by one mule something larger than a west Texas jack rabbit. That the business was not very profitable is gathered from the report of the first year’s business, which shows that the gross receipts were $22.00 per day, showing the transportation of 440 persons each day.

In 1882 there was a spurt in street railway construction that is probably without a parallel. Every one that had any money, and some who had none, undertook to build a street railway. The two most important lines were the Queen City Street Railway and the Rosedale Street Railway with the road to Mistletoe Heights as a good third. The latter was constructed from Jennings avenue out Thirteenth street to Ballinger, thence south across the railway to Terrell Avenue, or in that neighborhood and thence west under the Fort Worth & Rio Grande to the Heights. These were where Westmoreland Place is now located. Then there was the Polytechnic Heights Street Railway and another across the river and way out towards Decatur somewhere. The present Traction Company runs over these two latter, and it owns all that was found of value of the Rosedale and Queen City lines. Then there was the “nine-mile belt” that ran all around over the South Side, crossed the Katy and Santa Fe tracks on Magnolia Avenue and wandered around through the Seventh ward somewhere.

Fort Worth was the first city in the United States to have all of its street railways equipped with electric appliances.

GAS WORKS.

On August 31st, 1876, the first gas company was organized with J. P. Smith as President; John Nichols, Treasurer and J. Q. St. Clair, Secretary. A franchise was granted the company. On November 26th. a contract was entered into with John Lockwood, of New Jersey, to construct the works and lay the mains. Some idea of the extent of the plant can be gathered from the fact that it was to cost $20,000. The plant was added to from time to time, as the demand for light increased, until the entire business section was supplied with gas. The works were finally sold to a new company of which Mr. H. C. Scott, of St. Louis, was the principal owner, and it remained under his control until sold to the Fort Worth Light & Power Co., and it in turn transferred the property to the present company.

PACKING HOUSES.

It would be a harrowing tale to relate all the efforts made to provide a packing plant for this city. The Fort Worth Democrat, which had earned a reputation for “seeing things,” first made the prediction on April 25th, 1875, that some day Fort Worth would be a large producer of refrigerated meats for export. It harped on this in season and out of season and watched for every opportunity to advance the project. The editor, learning that a man was in Dallas negotiating to establish a plant there, went to that city and formed his acquaintance. It was learned that the Dallas people did not regard the project with much favor. The man, whose name was Richardson only asked that the city make a donation of six acres of ground for the plant. He was told that if he would come to Fort Worth that he could select the ground and that a deed would be delivered to him in an hour. He came and looked over the situation and selected the lands where the Medlin Mill now stands. Fortunately the land belonged to John Peter Smith and it was only necessary to tell Smith what was in the wind and the deed was forthcoming. He erected a small packing plant on the land now occupied by the Medlin Flouring Mills. As he only essayed to kill and refrigerate hogs, and as there were very few hogs in Texas, the plant was shortlived. He soon sold it and went out about Cisco and put in a plant to make plaster from gypsum.

Shortly after this a man by the name of Higgs came to the city and in a few days secured capital to erect a refrigerating plant in the southeast part of the city. He killed a cargo of cattle and sent them to Saint Louis, but that proved like sending coals to Newcastle and his venture was doomed to failure. He sold his plant to Mr. Isaac Dahlman of the firm of Dahlman Bros., the first clothing merchants in the city. He killed cattle and sent them to Liverpool by way of Galveston, but they were so long on the way that they did not arrive in good condition. This ended the third attempt but did not dismay the people of Fort Worth. They believed that this was to become a packing house center and in 1890 thirty men got together and each agreed to put in one thousand dollars and purchase some lands and put up more money, share and share alike, as it was needed. Mr. H. C. Holloway was selected to manage the affairs of the company and he bought lands where the present plants are situated and proceeded to build fences and lots and later on a small packing house. It had a capacity of 250 cattle and 1000 hogs per day. About this time John R. Hoxie came to Fort Worth from Chicago and as it was thought he knew all about the industry, he was induced to put in more money, buy more land and increase the capacity of the yards.

He too made a failure and the plant after a precarious existence was sold to Messrs. Simpson and Niles of Boston, neither of whom were practical packers. Mr. Niles was a business man and under his management with the assistance of Mr. H. A. Judd, still a citizen of Fort Worth, the plant earned money. The owners recognized the fact that the plant did not meet the requirements of the times and with the assistance of some of the public spirited people of the city they enlisted the interest of Armour and Swift and secured the present establishments. Most of the thirty men who put the first money into the plant surrendered their holdings as gifts to make the deal go through.

The corner stone of the new buildings was laid on the 13th day of March, 1902, in the presence of a large concourse of the citizens of the city. Just a year thereafter the first cattle were killed in the new houses. At that time Mr. Armour made the prediction that in ten years Fort Worth would be the second market for cattle in the United States. His prediction was verified.