page_title: Fort Worth, Texas
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Fort Worth, Texas / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Due to the international financial panic of 1873, the Texas &amp; Pacific Railway, building from the east, temporarily stopped construction after reaching Dallas that year. However, in the town of Fort Worth, just thirty-four miles to the west, newspaper publisher and editor B. B. Paddock (1844-1922) of the Fort Worth Democrat and his fellow citizens refused to give up. Paddock tirelessly promoted Texas, Tarrant County, and his adopted town in the national press, worked to see that construction continued on the Texas &amp; Pacific as well as to secure other railways for the growing city, including the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway (chartered in 1885) for which he served as president. One of Paddock's most famous creations was his so-called "Tarantula Map" of which this chromolithograph is one of the best contemporary printed representations. Paddock sketched the map as early as 1873, when a crudely executed and simple hand-drawn version appeared in the Democrat. He apparently drew a number of these for anyone who would listen to him share his vision for the city. The chromolithographed version here from 1888 shows Fort Worth as the hub of the Texas &amp; Pacific, the Houston &amp; Texas Central, the Gulf, Colorado &amp; Santa Fe, the Fort Worth &amp; Rio Grande, the Fort Worth &amp; Denver, the Missouri, Kansas &amp; Texas and other railroads. It boasts Fort Worth's recent selection as "the headquarters of a railway postal division" and appeared in a promotional and libretto of a "madcap" parody written by Ed. J. Smith specifically about Fort Worth based upon Englishmen W.S. Gilbert &amp; Arthur Sullivan's then wildly popular satirical operetta The Mikado. Among other projects, Paddock also promoted the Texas Spring Palace (a short-lived exposition and exhibit building in Fort Worth constructed entirely from Texas products), published the Fort Worth Gazette, wrote a four-volume History of Texas: Fort Worth and the Texas Northwest Edition (1922), and eventually served four terms as the city's mayor. His beloved city eventually became the headquarters for today's Burlington Northern Santa Fe, operating "one of the largest freight railroad networks in North America, with 32,500 miles of rail across the western two-thirds of the United States."
context_page_description: Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly 350 square miles into three other counties: Denton, Parker, and Wise. According to the 2019 census estimates, Fort Worth's population was 909,585. Fort Worth is the second-largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, which is the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the United States.
  The city of Fort Worth was established in 1849 as an army outpost on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River. Fort Worth has historically been a center of the Texas Longhorn cattle trade. It still embraces its Western heritage and traditional architecture and design. USS Fort Worth is the first ship of the United States Navy named after the city. Although considered by some to be a satellite city due to its proximity to Dallas, which has held a population majority since the 1950s, Fort Worth has become one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States in recent years, particularly in the 21st century, and has more than doubled its population in the last 30 years.
context_section_description: The Treaty of Bird's Fort between the Republic of Texas and several Native American tribes was signed in 1843 at Bird's Fort in present-day Arlington, Texas. Article XI of the treaty provided that no one may "pass the line of trading houses" (at the border of the Indians' territory) without permission of the President of Texas, and may not reside or remain in the Indians' territory. These "trading houses" were later established at the junction of the Clear Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River in present-day Fort Worth. At this river junction, the U.S. War Department established Fort Worth in 1849 as the northernmost of a system of 10 forts for protecting the American Frontier following the end of the Mexican–American War. The city of Fort Worth continues to be known as "where the West begins."
  A line of seven army posts was established in 1848–49 after the Mexican War to protect the settlers of Texas along the western American Frontier and included Fort Worth, Fort Graham, Fort Gates, Fort Croghan, Fort Martin Scott, Fort Lincoln, and Fort Duncan. Originally, 10 forts had been proposed by Major General William Jenkins Worth (1794–1849), who commanded the Department of Texas in 1849. In January 1849, Worth proposed a line of 10 forts to mark the western Texas frontier from Eagle Pass to the confluence of the West Fork and Clear Fork of the Trinity River. One month later, Worth died from cholera in South Texas.
  General William S. Harney assumed command of the Department of Texas and ordered Major Ripley A. Arnold (Company F, Second United States Dragoons) to find a new fort site near the West Fork and Clear Fork. On June 6, 1849, Arnold, advised by Middleton Tate Johnson, established a camp on the bank of the Trinity River and named the post Camp Worth in honor of the late General Worth. In August 1849, Arnold moved the camp to the north-facing bluff, which overlooked the mouth of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. The United States War Department officially named the post Fort Worth on November 14, 1849.
  Native American attacks were still a threat in the area, as this was their traditional territory and they resented encroachment by European-American settlers, but people from the United States set up homesteads near the fort. E. S. Terrell (1812–1905) from Tennessee claimed to be the first resident of Fort Worth. The fort was flooded the first year and moved to the top of the bluff; the current courthouse was built on this site. The fort was abandoned September 17, 1853. No trace of it remains.
  As a stop on the legendary Chisholm Trail, Fort Worth was stimulated by the business of the cattle drives and became a brawling, bustling town. Millions of head of cattle were driven north to market along this trail. Fort Worth became the center of the cattle drives, and later, the ranching industry. It was given the nickname of Cowtown.
  During the Civil War, Fort Worth suffered from shortages of money, food, and supplies. The population dropped as low as 175, but began to recover during Reconstruction. By 1872, Jacob Samuels, William Jesse Boaz, and William Henry Davis had opened general stores. The next year, Khleber M. Van Zandt established Tidball, Van Zandt, and Company, which became Fort Worth National Bank in 1884.
  In 1875, the Dallas Herald published an article by a former Fort Worth lawyer, Robert E. Cowart, who wrote that the decimation of Fort Worth's population, caused by the economic disaster and hard winter of 1873, had dealt a severe blow to the cattle industry. Added to the slowdown due to the railroad's stopping the laying of track 30 miles (48 km) outside of Fort Worth, Cowart said that Fort Worth was so slow that he saw a panther  asleep in the street by the courthouse. Although an intended insult, the name Panther City was enthusiastically embraced when in 1876 Fort Worth recovered economically. Many businesses and organizations continue to use Panther in their name. A panther is set at the top of the police department badges.
  The "Panther City" tradition is also preserved in the names and design of some of
caption: Map – showing – the Geographical location of Fort-Worth, Tex., and Rail-Roads, 1888
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