Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-01

80 900 population, her business
reaches out on eight thorough
fares and her residences extend
beyond the city limits and a number Of
additions to the city have been made. In
the year 1877 the total assessable values of
Fort Worth amounted to S246, 5I6 so; in
1880 they had reached 81 ,467 $50; in
1881, 81 1892 ,891; in 1882, So PA ,627; in
1888, S. ,851 ,773; in 1884, So ,343 400;
in 1885, So ,6l5 1916; in 1886, S. 1851 ,69S;
in 1887, Sc FOB ia; and in 1888, IS ,613, :
AGO 93. In a nutshell the wonderful
progress of Fort Worth is shown by these
figures, and when people undei stand that
only 60 per cent. of the real value of
property IS taken they can understand
what this city has done. In 1878 Fort
Worth had no streets and wagons went to
their hubs IN mud on the principal
streets TO day Fort Worth has forty
one miles of paved, guttered and curbed
streets, and has expended over $3.50 900
in building them. In 1873 Fort Worth
had no system of lighting her streets; to-
day she has 268 street gas lamps and two
electric light companies, furnishing both
the arc and incandescent lights. In 1873
Fort Worth had thTee-quarters of a mile
of street car line on one street,
IO-uly she HAS uIu6I66u anu a HALL
miles constructed and in opera ton to all
parts of the city, and two companies will
add five and half miles within the next
four months.
HER RAILROADS.
The first railroad the Texas and Pacific,
reached Fort Worth on July 10, 1876,
while to-day she has twelve railroad
outlets reaching in every direction and
bringing to her thirty-four wholesale
houses, the trade of the territory equal
to the state of Missouri, and this too the
richest section of the state. The rail-
roads have been the chief instrument in
making Fort Worth, but the citizens in
bringing these railroads have contributed
the sum of $3.50 200, and not one dollar
of this was in the shape of a bond left for
some new conner to pay. Her bonuses
to railroads have been straight out gifts.
The railroads now centering here are the
Texas and Pacific, the Transcontinental
the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, the
Houston and Texas Central, the Fort
Worth and Denver, the Fort Worth and
Rio Grande and the st. Louis, Arkansas
and Texas. OF four of these roads Fort
Worth is the terminus, and five of them
have round houses and machine shops
within the city's limits. To show what
Fort Worth is as great railroad center
it will only be necessary to say that the
books of the city assessor and collector
show that the various railroads have
within the city SO $40 miles of railroad
track, all of which is required to trans
act the business done by the roads.
THE CITY IS WHOLESALE TRADE.
The railroads have made Fort Worth a
great distributing point, and therefore
built up many large wholesale houses to
the number of thirty -four in all lines Of
trade In 1880 Fort Worth
did Il wholesale business of $3.50 900,
III 1887 this trade aggregated more than
IS 800 600, while i'll the year 1888 the
grand total is 50 400 600.
Fort Worth has the largest grocery
house and the finest commercial building
west of the Mississippi river, and the
of that house, who owns the
building and ground, began business here
in 1875 with cash capital of $1,000. He
is to-day worth at least $500 900. Fort
Worth wholesale merchants sell goods in
all of Texas, in New Mexico, in Indian
Territory in Arizona in Colorado, in the
Republic of Mexico and in Louisiana and
Arkansas. Her distributing facilities are
and any large concern desir-
ing to increase its field cannot do better
than locate in this city. Fort Worth has
competing lines of railroads to all the
great commercial centers, and also has
the benefit of low ocean rates on freight.
HER WATER SUPPLY.
As late as 1850 the city IS water supply
came from springs and the river, hauled
in wagons and sold to the citi-
gems at so much per barrel,
while her fire protection was
provided for by n system of cisterns in
parts of the city To-day Fort |
Worth has something over twenty miles |
Of water mains and a system of water
works costing 1925 600, with 127 fire NY
1rants, from which the water can be car
red through hose to any fire 1000 feet |
away, and as a consequence her rates OF |
Insurance are as low as any citA in the |
state of Texas.
HER ARTESTAN WELLS.
ghe water furnished by the Yaterworks |
aoDsss from the depth of the river through |
OF gravel which fiIterA> it, and is /
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