Fort Worth: A Frontier Triumph

18. Vision and Tussle, Then Fort Town

CHAPTER 18 Vision and Tussle, Then Fort Town THE forsaken military post Fort Worth was not transformed in a magic flash into a fort town when the United States troops departed in September, 1853. The deserted fort stood on the high bluff with not more than six cabins near it. On the north, south, and west horizons of early Fort Town there were less than a hundred cabins rising from the prairie grasses. On the eastern horizon was flourishing Birdville, the county seat. There was no current trade at the fort. There were no roads, no cattle trails, only a sea of grass occasionally crossed by a supply train. It was not a picture to assure one that deserted Fort Worth would not easily go the way of other abandoned posts to become a prairie phantom. Hardy individuals in the cabins around about had a different plan. They had not come to the outskirts of the wilderness for an easier world, but one of unlimited opportunity. Men with vision and tussle would change the abandoned Fort Worth into a town that they would affectionately call Fort Town for two decades . Troops moved out and civilians rushed in. Not even a ghostly shadow had time to permeate the empty buildings. No, it would not become a shadowy apparition to remind homeseekers of the brevity of life and inescapable change. As rapidly as Daggett and Leonard could pack their 122 BOOK III stock they moved their mercantile store from the live oak grove to the deserted military barracks on the bluff. And Henry Daggett added a new home to the skyline above the fort. The Daggett neighbors were the Archibald Robinsons, who lived in one of the six log houses near the fort. Robinson and Colonel Johnson, owners of the land, took possession of the premises. Now that the military no longer needed the land, Robinson turned his mind and energy to building Fort Town, disbursing hospitality and generosity, thus winning the title of "Uncle Archie." Many years later, he sold his property and settled on a farm in Denton County. Captain Julian B. Feild arrived in time to make his home in one of the officers' quarters-the house southwest of Major Arnold's former quarters . Feild, being a trader, had brought a stock of goods: hammers, picks, oxen yokes, harness, huge chunks of solidified sugar for children; and for women, there were coffee grinders, and thread and bolts of cloth for festive clothes. Homespun served for daily wear. On the southwest corner of the present courthouse square, he built a frame store. Now Daggett had competition. Captain Feild's haste to establish himself and a frontier fever sent him to bed. There was no doctor. A friend rode to "Three Forks," the present city of Dallas, for medical aid. Late the next day, the friend returned with a young physician. Feild liked the doctor and his medicine; and as he swallowed pills and tonic, he did a bit of town promoting. Fort Worth would not remain an abandoned fort, but would become a future city and would be a bonanza for a doctor. What the young medical man heard and saw at the fort and the panorama from the bluff won a new citizen. Doctor Carroll M. Peak returned to "Three Forks," where in the previous spring he had established his bride, Florence Chalfant of Kentucky. Eagerly they prepared to move to Fort Worth. In the fall of 1853 the young physician and his wife made the two-day buggy trip. On their way, they spent the night at the home of Colonel Johnson. The bride won the Johnsons for "life-long friends." The Peaks moved into the vacant officers' quarters southeast of Major Arnold's. Doctor Peak had the distinction of being Fort Worth's first civilian doctor. Mrs. Julian Feild welcomed the bride, taught her artful methods in frontier housekeeping, especially the curing of fresh meats; and later instructed her in the care of infants. Doctor Peak's education had been obtained at the Louisville Medical College in Kentucky. Serving as physician, surgeon, and dentist, he practiced within a thirty-mile radius of the fort. He said his zone of practice was "bounded on the west by the setting sun." Every day he rode the fenceless country regardless of weather. Many cold nights, called from CHAPTER 18 123 his bed by a breathless horseman pounding his...