Articles

This article is from the town's website [with permission], with some additions from the Arlington Daily News, June 13-20, 1983

The Town of Pantego was incorporated in its present form with minor later adjustments, on May 22, 1952, after a previous incorporation in June 1949 and a dis-incorporation in February 1952.

The first incorporation in 1949 came about to prevent threatened complete annexation by Arlington. However, in January 1952, Pantego citizens defeated a bond issue for a city water and sewer system, with an accompanying levy of taxes to retire the bonds. Almost immediately, a petition for an election to disincorporate was successful, and on February 23, the vote was 158 to 109 to dissolve the town. Almost immediately, the women of the town were able to prove that many of those who voted in the election to dis-incorporate were not eligible to vote. So now the citizens of Pantego were ready to battle one more time. In the meantime, Arlington had called a special meeting and thrown an annexation ring around Pantego. But Pantego leaders convinced Arlington to release at least one square mile with 200 residents so that Pantego could re-incorporate. An election to form the town again was successful, and the town of Pantego was here to stay.

Pantego had its origins in the area bounded on the west by present day Handley, on the south by Arkansas Lane, on the east by Jones Drive and Fielder Road, formerly Henry Road, and on the north by the Texas and Pacific Railroad. Two creeks run from south to north through this original area, viz. Rush Creek and Village Creek, formerly Caddo Creek, the latter believed to be named for Indian villages in the area.

The earliest historical reference to the area was the year 1542 when the ill-fated Spanish DeSoto Expedition, now under Luis de Moscoso Alvarado, is believed to have camped in what is now the Village Creek area. Members of this group were the first white visitors to the area. The explorers got along fairly well with the Caddo Indians in the area. In the 1770s, hostile Indians in the Midwest forced Wichita and Kiowa tribes into the Pantego area. The Caddos, known for taking in other Indians, admitted the Wichitas and Kiowas. By 1830, though, the largest group of inhabitants in the present state of Texas were newly-arriving pioneers. This migration caused additional tribes, forced out of their own territory , to band together with the Indians around Pantego.

After Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836, and particularly after President Mirabeau B. Lamar become President of the Republic of Texas (1838-1841), friction began, or was accelerated, between the Indians and the white settlers. "On May 24, 1841, General Edward H. Tarrant with 70 men attacked several Indian villages situated along a creek (now called Village Creek) and recovered many horses and much stolen plunder. Twelve Indians were killed and many wounded. Of the Texans, Captain John B. Denton was killed. Captain Henry Stout and Griffin were wounded" (from the State monument on Spur 303, erected in 1936).

In 1841, settlement of what later became Tarrant County began under the provisions of the Peters Colony grant. New settlers began to arrive and settle in the area about 1843-44. On September 29, 1843, Sam Houston and Chiefs of the Indian tribes signed the Treaty of Bird's Fort stating that the Indians were to remain west of a line that passed through the present City of Fort Worth.

After the war with Mexico, 1846-1848, many veterans were granted land in Tarrant County, notably Colonel Middleton Tate Johnson from South Carolina who founded Johnson's Station, southeast of the Pantego area. His holdings were vast and may have included the Pantego area. He is sometimes called the father of Tarrant County.

Another prominent early settler was Frederick Forney Foscue, a native of North Carolina, who was a state representative (1849-1851) and lawyer in Alabama. In 1853, Foscue settled in Smith County, Texas. He was elected to the Texas Legislature serving as a state representative and state senator intermittently from 1859-1866. He supported the Ordinance of Secession, served in the Confederacy and was referred to as Colonel Foscue. Serving records of the Confederacy list F. F. Foscue as a Captain who served as Enrolling Officer in one of the Confederate Congressional Districts in East Texas. He could have been promoted to a higher rank. Records of the Trans-Mississippi Region headquartered in Shreveport, Louisiana, were burned in 1865 and the last 1 1/2 years of records were destroyed. There was a custom also that anyone from second lieutenant and up was called "Colonel." There are some notable exceptions to this practice in which those who served as privates in the War were called "Colonel" afterward. There was also the possibility that Foscue was a member of a veterans group which perpetuated military titles in the hierachy of the organization. In any event, Foscue was known as Colonel Foscue.

On a visit back home to Alabama, Foscue married his first cousin Mary Jane Foscue. She did not like Texas and returned to Alabama. She obtained a divorce from Colonel Foscue and died February 5, 1896, in Alabama. Colonel Foscue married twice after he and Mary Jane divorced. His surviving widow was Mary Ann Floyd Foscue.

It is uncertain when Colonel Foscue came to Tarrant County, but after the Civil War, he began acquiring land in the Pantego area - perhaps from Colonel Middleton Tate Johnson. (All records of Tarrant County were destroyed in a fire in March 1876.) Colonel Foscue accumulated some 3,360 acres of land. He also sold land and rented some on shares. Foscue was a dominant figure in the settlement of the Pantego area and should be regarded as the first Pantego land developer.

Tradition holds that Colonel Foscue had a loyal and trusted Indian friend named Pantego. When fellow tribesmen were moving to Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma), Indians stopped at the Foscue plantation and demanded that Pantego accompany them. Pantego refused and was murdered on the spot, supposedly by hanging. He and his wife and family were supposedly buried on Briarwood Hill or in the Westbury Square area. The last of the Caddo Indian and other tribes left the Pantego area in 1859.

Colonel Foscue continued his strong support of the community. On December 20, 1883, Frederick Forney Foscue donated one acre of his land in trust for school purposes. The $1.00 nominal consideration was paid by the Trustees of the school community. The Pantego Common School was built in 1884, named in honor of Colonel Foscue's loyal and trusted Indian friend. From this point the official designation of the surrounding community was Pantego.

Colonel Foscue died March 3, 1905, and for the next 50 years, the settling of his large estate affected Pantego, with his three grandchildren inheriting 3,360 acres in the town. Electricity came to Pantego in the 1930s. The end of World War II brought development to Pantego. Natural gas lines were run from U.S. Highway 80 (now Texas 180) to Pantego Road (now Park Row), and two and four-party telephone lines were installed. Developers were buying up Pantego land and building homes. Because Pantego had not incorporated at that time, these new subdivisions would become part of Arlington.

The stagecoach that stopped at Johnson’s Station came through Pantego (from 1858), running diagonally through the area, from the southeast to the northwest corners. It crossed just west of the modern intersection of Pioneer Parkway and Bowen Rd. Several streets, locations, and sections of the Pantego area were named for the old stagecoach route, including Stagecoach Drive and the Stagecoach Addition. Ruts from the old stagecoaches could be seen in the land for decades after it went out of existence after the T & P railroad came through in 1876. At the turn of the century, and until the end of 1934, a new innovation in travel came to the area - the interurban electric rail car, running between Fort Worth and Dallas. The interurban stop in Pantego was called the Bowen Stop, from which one could ride to Arlington for seven cents.

"Small town charm...big city opportunities" is proudly proclaimed on the Town of Pantego's website (townofpantego.com). In the 2010 Census, Pantego had a population of 2,394. The town is now totally surrounded by Arlington and (on the south) Dalworthington Gardens. It is within the Arlington Independent School District.