Edition Number Six

Editions

The following is just a sample of the pictures and articles in the 20 pages of issue #6.

Les and NevaThis is Neva and I, a self portrait. I am taking this picture of the window reflection.

Hermann Park
Texas Electric PlantThe area across the Trinity River to the north was once the site of Hermann Park, an important center for social events in the 1890’s, including an annual May Fest. The Texas Electric Plant was dedicated on this site in 1912. Heritage Park (high on the bluff near the bridge) was created during the Nation’s 1976 Bicentennial. It marks the site on which Fort Worth was founded in 1849. Tradition holds that Robert E. Lee looked over the valley from this bluff and remarked, “I hear the incoming march of thousands of feet.” Markers in the vicinity commemorate the site of the Fort as well as Fort Worth’s first school, Frenchman’s (or Beehive) Well, the Fort’s old stable (later converted into a hotel), and the Tarrant County Courthouse and Criminal Courts Bldg.

The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

Rock Church & Cemetery and old bridge off Hwy 2870
Rock ChurchFrom Fort Worth, go out Hwy 377 through Granbury on through Tolar. Turn left just outside Tolar onto CO RD 2870. Go about 8 or 9 miles until you come to the new bridge. Look to your left and there through the trees you will see the old bridge.
iron bridgeOLD iron bridge across the Paluxy River not accessible to public now on private land. I plan on going back someday and walking down the river which is real shallow and taking some pictures from the river bed. That way I will be on State land and not private land. Continue reading

Edition Number Five

Editions

The following is just a sample of the pictures and articles in the 20 pages of issue #5.

Cowboy Lingo
Mail Order Cowboy = Tenderfoot
Didn’t have a tail feather left = Broke
Bucket of Blood = A tough saloon
Boogered up = Crippled
Arkansas Toothpick = A large knife
Singin’ to ’em = Standing night guard
Put on the nose bag = To eat
Bar Dog = Bartender
Ace in the hole = A hidden gun
Prairie Tenor = A Coyote
Bone Orchard = Cemetery
Bending the elbow = Drinking whiskey
Clean his plow = Beat up in a fight
Chew gravel = Thrown from a horse
Cahoots = Partnership
Hair in the butter = A
delicate situation
Bean Master = Camp cook
Hot Rock = A biscuit

Overheard at a Northside Café:
A cowboy was complaining to his waiter that his steak wasn’t cooked enough, “Waiter, do you call this steak well done? I’ve seen cows hurt worse than this get well.”

Machine Gun Kelly
Notorious Public Enemy #1 George “Machine Gun” Kelly is buried in the Cottondale Cemetery in Wise county. Kathrine Kelly bought George’s machine gun in a Fort Worth pawn shop. That’s how he got his nickname. Sometime in the early 1930’s the FBI added Machine Gun Kelly to it’s Most Wanted List. What made the Lellys famous was the kidnapping of an Oklahoma city oilman Charles F. Urshel on July 22nd, 1933. They demanded and received a ransom of $200,000. Urshel was let go ten days later unharmed. Less than a month later the FBI agents caught up with them and surrounded them. Outnumbered, Kelly quickly shouted to his wife, “Don’t shoot! It’s the G-Men.” That’s how they acquired the nickname “G-Men”. Kelly was given a life sentence and sent to Alcatraz. Later he was transferred to Leavenworth in Kansas. Katherine Kelly was sent to the federal reformatory for Women at Alderson, West Virginia. Later she was transferred to a prison in Cincinnati. She was released Machine Gun Kelley gravein 1958 and it is not known where she ended up. Machine Gun Kelly died of a heart attack July 17, 1954. He was 58 years old. To find his simple marker: at the Cottendale Cemetery front gate, walk down the middle walkway just over half way down on your right. It’s close to the walkway. Continue reading

Edition Number Four

Editions

The following is just a sample of the pictures
and articles in the 20 pages of issue #4.

Things that I learned as I was putting together this issue of “The Journal”
That Fort Worth was the birthplace of the world’s first self-service laundry. In 1934 John Cantrell was the first person to rent out laundry machines for public use. The Central Cleaners and Dyers Washateria was located at 1344 North Main Street, now The Mulholland Companies. John Cantrell died in 1945. He never was financially successful in his venture.
How did the Trinity River get it’s name? In the late 17th Century a traveling Spaniard christened it “Rio De La Saintisima Trinidad or River of the Most Holy Trinity.
Almost everyone knows about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Well, Ft. Worth has one right here, in Pioneer Rest Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the Indian Wars. Well, actually it’s a gravestone. See p.9 Issue Two…
That on April 3, 1909 a disastrous fire destroyed over 150 buildings in a 20 square block area bounded by the T&P yards, the M-K-T tracks, Petersmith St. and South Jennings Ave. The fire destroyed many of the Southside’s Victorian homes, shops, businesses and the roundhouse of the T&P Railroad…
That the world’s first indoor rodeo was held at the Coliseum on the Northside…
That the Justin Boot Co. building is sitting on the site of the old Ft. Worth High School.

Silly sign at a restaurant: Eat now – pay waiter.

Animal SubwayAnimal SubwayThis is the subway for animals that I was telling you about in Issue #3, page 7. This view is from the North looking to the South from the other end.

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