100 Years Ago Governor Wood Received Bill Creating Tarrant County

By Oliver Knight

One hundred years ago today a hero of the Mexican War worked long hours in a frame building at Austin as his term as governor drew near a close.

Daily, Governor George T. Wood—who as a colonel of Texas infantry helped lead the charge at Monterrey—received a fresh batch of bills from the Third Legislature. On Dec. 19, the messenger's pouch contained two bills which symbolized the steady growth of the frontier state.

One of the bills was to create Tarrant County and the other was to create Ellis County. On Dec. 20, 1849, the last full day of his term, Wood signed the bills into law and Tarrant County was established. Tuesday will be the centennial of that memorable occasion.

Only eight years had passed since the first daring pioneers pushed their way into what became Tarrant County. In 1841, Gene Edward H. Tarrant, a noted Indian fighter of the Republic for whom the county was named, led an expeditionary force into the section to destroy Indians who had been raiding colonies to the south. He met the Indians at Village Creek and wiped out their entire village. Later in the year, Jonathan Bird who had been Tarrant's sergeant major returned to this section with a force of Rangers and established Bird's Fort which became Birdville.^*

TREATY SIGNED IN 1843

In 1843, at the instance of Gen. Sam Houston, a peace treaty between white man and red was signed at Bird's Fort, and two trappers—Terrell and Lusk—were the first white men to set foot where Fort Worth is. In 1846, Rev. John A. Freeman, Rev. J. Hodges and Dacon Gibson organized the Lonesome Dove Baptist Church near Grapevine which originally was known as Dunville. Came 1847 and Col. M. T. Johnson founded fabled Johnson Station, and in 1849 Maj. Ripley Arnold led a troop of Second Dragoons to the Trinity and built Fort Worth.

In the meantime, settlers had been pushing into the county which was part of the Peters Colony. By 1849, legislators thought the section should constitute a separate county.

Consequently, Rep. William M. Cochran of Dallas and Denton Counties introduced a bill in the Third Legislature on Nov. 9, 1849, to create Tarrant County by carving it from Navarro County which had been taken in 1846 from Robertson County. Robertson County had been formed in 1837 from Milam County, designated in 1836 from the former Milam municipality, one of Texas' first political subdivisions.

METES AND BOUNDS SET

The bill creating Tarrant County was reported favorably on Nov. 12 by the committee on county boundaries. General Tarrant, a representative from Limestone and Navarro Counties, was on the committee.

Metes and bounds of Tarrant County were set by the Legislature: "Beginning at the southwest corner of Dallas County; thence, running north with the Dallas County line to the northwest corner of Dallas County; thence, due west 30 miles; thence, due south 30 miles; thence, east 30 miles to the place of beginning—subject, however, to bear with the southwest and northwest corners of Dallas County should said corners of Dallas County be found to be incorrect, upon a final resurvey of said county of Dallas."

The Legislature named Vincent J. Hutton, Little, Johnson and Sanders Elliott as commissioners to govern the county until the first election could be held in August 1850.

The Legislature also stipulated that an election be held to determine the county seat and that the winning place be named Birdville.

FIRST ELECTION IN 1850

When the first election for officers was held in 1850, one of the voting places was Ed Terrell's log cabin in Fort Worth. Seaborn Gilmore was elected chief justice (county judge).

At the time Tarrant County was formed, Texas had but 79 counties. Today the state has 254.

Records fail to show whether the first election ballots included choice of the county seat, but Birdville, near the site of Bird's Fort^**, became the county seat. By 1856, Fort Worth was growing and becoming ambitious. It decided the county seat should be moved west.

An election was held and Fort Worth won by a small margin, aided by "imported" votes from Sam Woody and his Wise County cowboys. Too, Fort Worth men stole Birdville's whisky supply to prevent temptation of voters, although the voters were tempted in quantity in Fort Worth.

Hard feelings were aroused by the election that caused several gun fights, including a duel between the county's first two editors. Albert G. Walker of the Birdville Union who wanted to keep the county seat shot John J. Courtenay of the Birdville Western Express, the county's first paper, who wanted the seat moved.

Another election was held in 1860 and Fort Worth was confirmed as the county seat. With land and money donated by Fort Worth citizens David Mauch began building the first permanent courthouse on the Fort Worth square.

The Civil War—which found Tarrant County favoring secession by a scant 27 votes when the county had 700 voters—halted construction of the courthouse. After the war, most of the building was completed, but it burned on the night of March 29, 1876, destroying practically all records.

^*Factual Error: Bird's Fort did not become Birdville; the fort had been abandoned some nine years before the Third Legislature of the Republic of Texas prescribed that the town winning the election for Tarrant County Seat would be named "Birdville".

^**Factual Error: The site of Birdville was (and is) 12 miles, as the crow flies, from the site of Bird's Fort.