Hallowed Spot Little Known to Public, Birds Fort History Colorful

By Jim W. Jones
Star-Telegram Writer

EULESS, July 11 - Go four miles south on Main St. in this town—past the pavement and onto dirt road—and you come to a place hallowed by history.

There you can stretch out under oak trees that once shaded Sam Houston.

You can walk where moccasined Indians circled for moonlight discussions with Battle of New Orleans veteran, Gen. Edward H. Tarrant, the man for whom this county is named.

You can see where early day Texas Rangers, led by Col. Jonathan Bird, took refuge behind the type of stockade you see in old Randolph Scott movies.

The place, little known to the general public, is the site of Bird's Fort, where one of the most famous Indian treaties was signed.

The imagination can make the spot exciting even now.

But all that remains to mark the significance of the land is a white slab of cement.

Helicopters buzz overhead as they are tested by pilots nearby Bell Helicopter Company.

And occasionally big airliners swoop over the area, coming or going from Southwest Airport, just a little to the east of the point where Tarrant County's first military post was built.

Despite 20th Century intrusions, on a hazy summer afternoon it's not hard to look back 123 years and imagine Col. Jonathan Bird's men building the Frontier outpost.

Publications of the Texas Historical Association state that the fort "consisted of a block house fort and several houses, three of which were within a stockade."

The fort was built deep the territory of not-so-friendly Indians.

Colonel Bird took his men out of the fort in late 1840 when he heard reports of a coming Comanche attack.

He returned with settlers in 1841 and tragedy struck soon afterward.

Two men on a hunting party, Wade Hampton Rattan and Solomon Silkwood, were shot by Indians. Their graves are not far from the monument. No one knows exactly where.

J. J. Goodfellow, a pioneer surveyor, saw the graves in 1866, however, and wrote to friends in Fort Worth in 1926 telling them what he saw. He related:

"My first visit to the graves Was in 1866, at which time Col. B. Rush Wallace was the owner of the property covering most of Calloway's Lake and the ground upon which the old blockhouse and the graves were located.

"The remains of the house were then plainly visible. They stood on the northeast bank of the lake at a point where a country club later built a swimming pool.

"The outer walls were constructed in picket form, logs set on ends, with deep entrenchments all around the building . . . From this blockhouse a path led in a northeasterly direction, probably 250 or 300 yards through timber to the graves."

What is apparently the site of the swimming pool mentioned is located right next to the historical monument which was set in place in 1936.

The treaty which was signed at the fort in 1843 by General Tarrant and George W. Terrell was extremely important since it helped keep peace with the Indian through Civil War days.

Indian tribes who signed the treaty included the Tehuacanas, Keechis, Wacos, Caddos, Anadarcos, Ionies, Boluxies, Delawares and several isolated Cherokee groups.

Sam Houston, then president of the Republic of Texas, called for the treaty signing and himself visited Bird's For at one time in preparation for the treaty negotiations.

Historical reports state that some of the discussions on the treaty went far into the night.

Included in the terms was a passage prohibiting the sale of liquor to Indians. It also made it a capital offense for a white man to kill an Indian except in self defense or defense of family.

Bird's Fort was used very little after the treaty signing, but it gave a name to Tarrant County's first county seat - Birdville.

The community of Birdville, now part of Haltom City, is more than 12 miles away from the fort site, however.

The historic spot is practically next door to Euless residents, many of whom have never visited the site.

Main reason for this is that "No Trespassing" signs surround the place.

Anyone can visit the area, however, if they request permission from a white-haired gentleman who usually wears striped overalls.

His name is E. O. (Jack) Tidwell, who with his son, Jim Tidwell, operates a large dairy on the land surrounding the Bird's Fort property which is owned by Charles D. Armentrout in Dallas.

Tidwell, himself very interested in the history of the fort, welcomes visitors.

The dairyman often walks around the place himself, letting his mind wander back to the things that used to be.