History
Mount Olivet Cemetery
Encompassing almost 130 acres, the Mount Olivet Cemetery was founded in 1907 by Flavious G. McPeak (1858-1933) and his wife, Johnnie Clara Lester McPeak (1858-1936), who arrived in Fort Worth in 1894 from Tennessee. The land on which the cemetery is located was purchased by Mrs. McPeak in 1895, and the family built a two-story home in 1896.
Transport
Narrow Gauge Railway
Economical to build, operate and maintain, many narrow gauge railroads were running in Texas between 1853 and 1900. Some were "Taps" (for towns off the main line); some logging roads, going deep into woods and swamps. Hauled passengers, thousands of cattle, tons of sugar cane or other crops, and were used for general traffic. One line--Great Sweetgum, Yubadam & Hoo Hoo--operated at first as the T.
History
Nash Farm
NASH FARM ESTABLISHED IN 1859, THE NASH FARM CONSTITUTES ONE OF THE LAST REMAINING AGRARIAN SITES FROM THE 19TH CENTURY IN NORTH TEXAS IN THE REGION WHERE THERE WAS ONCE A PERVASIVE LANDSCAPE OF FARMSTEADS.
History
Near Site of Azle Post Office
Originally named O'Bar, the Azle Post Office opened in 1881. The name was changed in 1883 for Dr. Azle Stewart, who gave land for the townsite. Initially the Post Office was located in a store. Postmaster Cora Lovell moved the operation to a frame building at 141 W. Main, where it remained from 1916 to 1953. The Post Office became a community gathering place.
History
New Trinity Cemetery
When the Rev. Greene Fretwell, a former slave, died in 1886, there was no black cemetery in this part of Tarrant County. With donations collected by his widow, Frances, the trustees of Trinity Chapel Methodist Church bought two acres in 1889 for a church and burial ground. Worship services were held under a brush arbor until a frame church was built here.
History
Niles City
Incorporated in 1911, the City of Niles was called the "Richest Little Town in the World" because of its size and the number of large businesses located here. Included in the townsite, which eventually covered 1.5 square miles, were major meat packing firms, the Fort Worth Stockyards, two grain elevators, a cotton seed oil company, and a petroleum refinery and pipeline plant.
History
North Side School
After Arlington's North Side School at 433 North Center burned in 1909, this board and batten structure was built on the school grounds. Two grades met here for one term until a new brick building was erected. Contractor Joseph Crawley, who built this structure bought it and moved it to 304 South Pecan. It served as his office until 1924 when it became a storage shed.
History
Nugent-Hart House
In the early 1890s Joseph Nugent (1829-1903) and his wife, Christina, built this house, which features late 19th-century Victorian and Eastlake details in the porch. Nugent, a native of Canada, came to Texas in 1851. He operated a private school in Mansfield in the 1850s, taught at the Mansfield Male and Female College,and was elected the first mayor in 1891. Local farmer J.H.
History
Oakwood Cemetery
Founded 1879 by John Peter Smith, one of Fort Worth's first settlers, who became a civic leader, mayor, philanthropist. He gave 20 acres to city; cemetery since enlarged to 100 acres. The area contains three cemeteries: Oakwood, Calvary, Trinity. Many Fort Worth and Tarrant County men and women of destiny are buried here. Plots are owned by lodges, unions, Catholic, Protestant, Negro, and White.
History
Ormer Leslie Locklear
(October 28, 1891 - August 2, 1920) (grave site 65 feet east) A native of Greenville, Texas, Ormer Leslie Locklear moved to Fort Worth with his family in 1906. He worked for his father's construction company until 1914, when he and his brother opened an automobile repair shop. Locklear enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Service in 1917, soon after the U.S. entered World War I.
History
P.A. Watson Cemetery
Mrs. Micajah Goodwin was buried here in 1846, soon after her family came to this area. They constructed a coffin from their wagon bed and burned brush atop the grave to hide it from Indians. When Patrick Alfred Watson (1810-1894) of North Carolina bought the land in 1853, he set aside a one-acre cemetery.
History
P.A. Watson Log House
After his wife Margaret Ann (Armstrong) died, Patrick Alfred Watson (1810-1894) built this dwelling in 1855 near present Arlington for their six children. In 1858 he married Margaret's niece Mary Jane Donaldson and they had six children. A surveyor, educator, and religious leader, Watson gave land for the P.A. Watson Community Cemetery and for the original site of a church an school building.
Transport
Paddock Viaduct
Low-water crossing and ferries originally provided the only access across the Trinity River at this location, connecting the downtown area of Fort Worth with northern sections of the city. A two-lane suspension bridge, constructed near this site in the 1890s, proved inadequate for the growing population. This span, designed by the St. Louis firm of Brenneke and Fay, was built in 1914.
History
Parker Cemetery
Land for cemetery donated by Isaac Duke Parker, Jan. 14, 1901. He was son of Isaac Parker, pioneer politician for whom Parker County was named and who was the uncle of Cynthia Ann Parker, white girl captured by Comanche Indians in 1836 and reared as an Indian. She was the wife of Comanche Peta Nocona and mother of Quanah Parker, the last great Comanche war chief.
History
Parker Memorial Cemetery
The first burial here is thought to be that of Christina Driskill (1797-1862), whose son-in-law Isaac Green Parker (1816-1875) owned the land. In 1881 Parker's widow, Mary (Polly) Parker Turner (1820-1897) deeded the 4.31-acre plot for a public burial ground. A tabernacle was erected in 1928 and used at first for funeral services and later for meetings of the cemetery association.
History
Peterson Family Cemetery
Swedish native John Peterson (1840-1925) came to the United States in 1868. His wife, Thilda (Mossberg) (1848-1912), joined him two years later. They lived in Nebraska before coming to Texas in 1872. Peterson acquired several hundred acres in this part of Tarrant County and made his living by farming the land.
History
Pioneer Birdville Schools
The community of Birdville, named for pioneer Jonathan Bird, became the first seat of Tarrant County in 1851. It continued to hold that position until 1856, when an election changed the county seat to Fort Worth. Located within the community, on this site known as Birdville Hill, was a school operated by Professor William E. Hudson.
History
Pioneer Stone Burial Cairns (at Mount Gilead Cemetery)
Scattered throughout many of the pioneer cemeteries in Texas are unusual stone structurers, or burial cairns, built by the early settlers to memorialize their dead. Primarily surface structures of native stone, the cairns vary in design and workmanship. Their use, however, is representative of traditional burial customs prevalent in the South during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
History
Pioneer's Rest Cemetery
This burial ground was started in the summer of 1850 upon the deaths of Sophie and Willis Arnold, children of Major Ripley A. Arnold (1817-1853), commander of the troops at Fort Worth. Arnold's friend, Doctor Adolphus Gouhenant, set aside a three-acre burial site at that time. In 1871, after a cemetery association was begun, Baldwin Samuels gave three adjoining acres.
History
Pleasant Run School
Early settlers have recalled that a log school stood near this site as early as 1870. By 1877, 45 students were enrolled. In 1884, A.J. Colwell deeded two acres here to the Pleasant Run School Trustees for a public school and church. In 1897 a wooden school-house stood here and one teacher, Emma Dixon, was teaching 93 students during a 120-day term. A 2-story brick building was completed c.
History
Pollock-Capps House
Built in 1898 for Dr. Joseph R. Pollock (1856-1941), this mansion was sold to William Capps (1858-1925) and wife Sallie (1864-1946), whose family lived here 1909 to 1971. On the grounds were a golf course, tennis court, and a 3-car garage with a ballroom above.
Architecture
Ponton, Dr. Arvel and Faye, House
At the time of this home's c. 1920 construction, the Mistletoe Heights neighborhood was emerging as a desirable subdivision for merchants and professionals. Designed by noted local architect Joseph R. Pelich, the Spanish Eclectic style home features a clay tile roof, large arched windows and doorways, stucco walls, embellished door surrounds, chimney belvedere and wrought iron detailing. Dr.
History
Quanah Parker
Comanche chief Quanah Parker was a son of two cultures. He was born about 1845 along Elk Creek, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). His Anglo mother was Cynthia Ann Parker, taken captive in a May 1836 raid and adopted by Qua-Ha-Di (Antelope) Comanches, and his father was Comanche chief Peta Nocona. Texas Rangers reclaimed Cynthia Ann in an 1860 fight at the Pease River.
History
Ralph Man Homestead
A native of South Carolina who came to Texas in the 1850s, Ralph Sandiford Mann (1825-1907) was one of the founders of Mansfield. The town was named for Mann and his brother-in-law and business partner Julian Field. The two men operated a steam-powered grist mill that supplied grain to the Confederacy during the Civil War (1861-1865) and later to U.S. troops at Fort Belknap and Fort Griffin.
History
Raymond C. Morrison
Raymond C. Morrison was born on Sep. 13, 1900 in Alworth, Illinois, to Phillip Huntley and Edith Adella (Cleveland) Morrison. On Jun. 9, 1924, he graduated from the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University. Morrison married Helen Estelle Steele on Feb. 28, 1924, and they had two children. Morrison is noted for being Fort Worth's first city forester, beginning Jan. 1926.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
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