Historical Markers in Tarrant County
Texas·286 places·Page 10 of 12
History
Site of Randol Mill
In 1856 Archibald F. Leonard (1816-1876) built a dam and grain mill at this site. Hiram Crowley became a partner. The mill became a community center and county voting place. During widespread abolition violence in 1860, Leonard's Mill was burned. It reopened by 1862 and operated during the Civil War. Owners after 1867 were H.B. Alverson and J.H. Wheeler. In 1876 R.A.
History
Site of Tarrant County's First Courthouse, Birdville
First (1849-1856) county seat, Tarrant County, with 80 acres for public use. Courthouse foundation was laid on site donated by G. Akers and W. Norris. After courts upheld--in Walker vs. Tarrant County--vote in bitterly contested 1856 election, Fort Worth became the county seat. (1968).
History
Site of the First Masonic Hall in Fort Worth
After many years of debate, Fort Worth researchers identified this site in 1957 as the location of the city's first Masonic lodge. For more than twenty years, lodge members met in a two-story hall at this location. The group organized in 1854 and received its charter the following year as Fort Worth Masonic Lodge No. 148, A.F. & A.M.
History
Sloan-Journey Expedition of 1838
In the spring of 1838, Captains Robert Sloan and Nathaniel T. Journey led a group of about 90 northeast Texas frontiersmen on a punitive expedition against the Indians who had raided their homes in present-day Fannin County. The trail led them to the vicinity of present-day Euless and Arlington, where they attacked a small Indian village, killed several Indians, and recovered a few horses.
History
Smith-Burnett Home
This area of Fort Worth became a fashionable subdivision during the early part of the twentieth century and attracted many prominent residents. In 1906 Fort Worth banker Ben O. Smith (1867-1932) purchased land at this site. He built a home here for his wife, Frances, who hosted many Fort Worth social gatherings.
History
Smith-Frazier Cemetery
Fort Worth businessman and philanthropist J.J. Jarvis bought land here in 1871 and built a home on the property in the early 1880s. A benefactor to the area's black institutions, he deeded this site to Charles Young and Allen Prince in 1886 as a burial ground for Azle's black community. Several graves were already located here when the land was conveyed.
History
Smithfield Cemetery
Eli Smith (1848-79), for whose family the town of Smithfield is named, came from Missouri to Texas about 1859. In the early 1870s he donated part of his farm for the cemetery. The oldest marked grave is that of an infant, Mattie J. Brownfield, who died on Oct. 13, 1872. More than seventy-five graves, including that of Eli Smith, date from the 1870s. Pioneer physician Lilburn Howard Colley (b.
History
Smithfield Masonic Lodge No. 455 A.F. & A.M.
The organizational meeting for this lodge was held on July 13, 1875. Originally known as the Grand Prairie Lodge, the fraternal organization held its meetings in the Zion Church until the first Lodge Building was constructed in 1876. In 1894 the structure was moved to the lot adjacent this site and was in use until 1981.
History
Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show
Fort Worth Stock Yards Company publicist Charles C. French and local cattleman Charles C. McFarland oranized the first livestock show in north Fort Worth in 1896. Members of the Texas Cattle Raisers Association (TCRA) participated in the initial show. The Fort Worth Stock Yards Company built a new coliseum in north Fort Worth in 1908 with the help of TCRA members.
History
Spring Garden Community
The first permanet settler to this area was Samuel Cecil Holiday Witten of Spring Garden, Missouri, who came here in 1854. In 1865, with Milton Moore, he built a schoolhouse here which was named for his Missouri home. The building also served as a Chapel and Meeting Hall.
History
Spring Garden School
The concern of area settlers to provide a school for their children resulted in the opening of the Spring Garden School in the fall of 1865. Samuel Witten, Levin Moody, Milton Moore, and Caleb Smith joined forces to build a schoolhouse on land (1/2 mi. N) donated by Witten. Named Spring Garden after Witten's home in Missouri, the School was noted for its excellent teachers.
Industry & Science
Swift & Company
A leading national meatpacking firm by the 1880s, Swift & Co. adopted a practice of opening branch plants nearer the source of supply. Attracted to Texas by the State's vast livestock herds, the Company chose this site for a new operation as a result of efforts by the Fort Worth Stock Yards Company. The plant opened in 1903 and soon had a dramatic impact on the economy of the City and the State.
History
Tannahill Homestead
In 1853 Scottish-born Robert Watt Tannahill (1821-1885) and his wife Mary Catherine (Smallwood) came here from Mississippi. In 1856 Tannahill patented this 320-acre tract on the Fort Worth-Azle Road. He used rocks from a nearby creek bank to construct this house in 1874. He served as a Tarrant County Judge and used the front room of this home for a Post Office from 1878 to 1885.
Architecture
Tarrant County Courthouse
Designed by firm of Gunn & Curtis and built by the Probst Construction Company of Chicago, 1893-1895. This red Texas granite building, in Renaissance Revival style, closely resembles the Texas State Capital with the exception of the clock tower. The cost was $408,840 and citizens considered it such a public extravagance that a new County Commissioners' Court was elected in 1894.
History
Tarrant County Criminal Courts Building
Built in 1917-18, this structure is located on land upon which old Camp Worth was constructed in 1849. The noted Fort Worth architectural firm of Sanguinet and Staats designed the building, incorporating elements of the Beaux Arts and Classical Revival styles.
Architecture
Tarrant County State Bank Building
Constructed in 1897, this building served as retail space until it was purchased and remodeled by the Tarrant County State Bank in 1921. It became the offices of the Grapevine Sun newspaper in 1947. Displaying Classical Revival style elements, the brick structure features a central inset entry, stepped parapet of brick with stone coping and detail, and four Classical pilasters supporting a…
History
Tate Cemetery
Evan Calloway Tate (1832-1885) brought his family to this area from Georgia in 1870, establishing the Tate Springs community. Land for this cemetery was deeded to the community by Tate heirs in 1894. At that time there were four marked burials, those of E. C. Tate and three of his children. Other members of the Tate family and the Tate Springs community were later interred here.
Transport
Texas & Pacific Railroad Passenger Terminal
A line of the Texas & Pacific Railroad was extended to Fort Worth in 1876 and proved vital to the economic growth of the City. Company officials, led by the President John L. Lancaster, had this Passenger Terminal Building constructed in 1931. Designed by Wyatt C. Hedrick (1888-1964), it is a good example of the Art Deco style.
History
Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association
On February 15, 1877, a large number of stock raisers from northwest Texas assembled in the Young County Courthouse in Graham to address the problem of cattle rustling. Their solution was the creation of the "Stock-Raisers' Association of North-West Texas." The organization worked to promote the interests of stock raisers and initiated a system of tracking stray or stolen cattle.
Civic & Local
Texas Garden Clubs, Inc. Headquarters
Garden clubs have been popular for women interested in gardening and landscape design. The clubs have also successfully advanced such statewide efforts as conservation, highway beautification, wildflower protection, community landscape and garden therapy. The Texas Federation of Garden Clubs (later Texas Garden Clubs, Inc.) formed in 1929 and was a founding member of National Garden Clubs, Inc.
Military
Texas in the Civil War: Confederate Veterans
From 1865 until World War I, Civil War veterans were leaders in economic and public life in Texas. Every locality had its United Confederate Veterans camp, with yearly reunions. Texas railroads gave free passes to veterans and widows. But while the U.S. Treasury gave ample pensions to Federals, the Confederates depended on state bounties.
History
Texas Log Cabins
These authentic log cabins, built by pioneers 100 years ago, recall a way of life in early Texas when great courage was required to meet the hardships of frontier existence. Constant threats from Indians, poor crops, adverse weather, primitive living conditions did not stop these ingenious people from developing a wilderness into a land of opportunity.
History
Texas Spring Palace
Following a suggestion by General R.A. Cameron, an officer of the Fort Worth & Denver Railway, city promoters developed the idea of an annual exhibition for the display of Texas agricultural products. In 1889 they constructed the Texas Spring Palace near this site to house the exhibits.
Architecture
Thannisch Block Building
The eastern portion of this structure was built in 1906-07 by Col. Thomas Marion Thannisch (1853-1935), one of north Fort Worth's early developers. Designed for use as a hotel and office space to serve the Stockyards community and trade, the building was expanded in 1913. The three-story commercial structure features decorative brickwork, chevron designs in the upper story, and a corbeled parapet.
History
The 1865 Indian Creek Raid
During the late 1850s Indians on the north Texas frontier became increasingly restive about continued white settlement on their lands. As a result, numerous attacks on Anglos occurred during the years form 1859 to 1875. One such incident took place in Sept. 1865 near this site when 15 mounted Indians attacked two Denton County residents by the names of Smith and Wright.
Elsewhere in Texas
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