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The Tarrant County Historical Journal P.O. Box 311, Springtown,
TX 76082 |
FROM THE FORT WORTH DEMOCRAT…
Nov. 25, 1876 - Three proprietors of Dance Houses
were fined $10 a piece and forbidden to open again. The Democrat suggests
that if they have to be operated, they should be restricted to
unfrequented portions of the city where their orgies will not disturb the
citizens.
Nov. 29, 1876 - Another soiled dove crosses the
river. Yesterday morning another of the Demi Monde, weary of the trials
and tribulations of her life, took a dose of laudanum and morphine. The
last suicide of such nature was about two weeks ago.
Jan. 16, 1877 - Blood has been shed at the Dance
Houses. Close them out.
Feb. 5, 1877 - These dens of vice and immorality
are open night after night contrary to the law and sworn officers wink at
and permit them to go on, knowingly and willfully.
April 27, 1879 - As a result of the order issued to
the City Marshall by Mayor Beckham to enforce every ordinance on the books
to the letter, 23 fast and fancy girls of the Arena were taken in
tow.
Aug. 5, 1879 - The frequent discharge of firearms
after dark in the Eastern part of the city is the source of much
complaint.
April 19, 1887 - The festive burglar has no soft
snap when he invades a Fort Worth domicile at dead of night. The average
Fort Worther keeps a gun and knows how to use it.
May 17, 1887 - It's a cold day when the Half Acre
doesn't pan out a cutting or shooting scrape among its male denizens or
morphine experiment by some of its frisky females.
Rufus Coates was the last man
to be executed by hanging in Tarrant County. He was hung on November
8, 1918 for the murder of his sweetheart, Zella Faulk. From his cell
window in the old jail he could see the tree near Oakwood Cemetery
under which he stabbed Zella to death. The old jail was located at
what now is Paddock Park. There was a tunnel from the jail to the
Courthouse that went under Belknap
Street. |
Even More "At The
Movies" Did You Ever Notice?
If you need to reload your gun, you will always have move ammunition
even if you haven't been carrying any before now….. You're very likely
to survive any battle in any war - unless you make the mistake of showing
someone a picture of your sweetheart back home……. The Eiffel Tower can
be seen from any window in Paris……. Interbreeding is genetically
possible with any creature from elsewhere in the universe……. Kitchens
don't have light switches. When entering a kitchen at night, you should
open the fridge door and use that light instead…… The Chief of Police
will always suspend his star detective - or give his 48 hours to finish
the job…….. Any person waking from a nightmare will sit bolt upright
and pant….. It is not necessary to say hello or good-bye when beginning
or ending phone conversations……. If you decide to start dancing in the
street, everyone you bump into will know all the steps…… When a person
is knocked unconscious by a blow to the head, they will never suffer a
concussion or brain damage. |
3126 Handley Drive, Weiler House 1906. This house was not
built on this location, but was moved here in 1931 from nearby Lancaster
Ave.
William & Rose Weiler
moved to Handley in 1892. Weiler was a prominent businessman and very
active in the community. He was President of the First National Bank of
Handley and also owned an insurance company. Rose Weiler died in 1934.
William Weiler lived in this house until he died in 1936. Next door to the
Weiler House is the old Handley Post Office. Mr. Weiler had this building
built for him in 1931. The original Post Office was located on East
Lancaster. Rose Weiler was the Post Mistress until the late 1920's. It is
now a private office.
He Brought First Bathtub to
FW As Fort Worth grew, it grew with
the familiar sight of Thomas Patton Day striding down Main St. in full
beard under his favorite derby hat, carrying his gold-headed walking
stick. If Mr. Day was not the best scrubbed gentleman in Fort Worth, he
ought to have been. He owned the first bath tub with running water in
town. Building his way here into the role of prominent merchant and
inventor, Mr. Day lived in the elegant old home at 100 Penn for many
years. It was there his grandson, Ernest L. Day, was born in
1895. Recently, Ernest Day of 1504 Enderly Pl. E., now 64, found a
covey of yellowed photographs long stuck away in a corner of his warehouse
at 1623 8th Avenue - ancient pictures taken of and by his
grandfather. With his son, Press Art Editor Owen Day, he began digging
into grandfather's life and times. From it comes a story of a city's
progress. Fort Worth's life with grandfather began in 1876, the year
the first train came breathing hot cinders into town. T. P. Day was on
hand to greet the T&P that day. His wife and four year old son were
aboard it. Mr. Day had arrived several weeks earlier by wagon and
opened a photographers tintype studio here. He hauled lumber and furniture
clear from Dallas to build their home on Village Creek. Mrs. Day,
second cousin to President Zachary Taylor, was the daughter of a Louisiana
plantation owner. Mr. Day was already 36 when he moved here, but full of
the red-blooded pioneer zing. She wore a wedding band made from gold he'd
mined in the Chihuahua State of Mexico.He built a home at Weatherford and
Lexington and then moved into the mansion at 100 Penn, after establishing
a jewelry and pawn brokerage, his firm installing the clocks atop the
Courthouse. Then came his big bicycle and sewing machine business at
Houston and 4th, where he invented a formula to build rubber tires that
were solid yet had give when rock and ruts in the roads were hit. His
patent made him a profit in early French gas carriages in England, Canada
and many parts of the US. He owned the third automobile purchased
here. By 1911, he put - putted down the city's dusty streets, his beard
parting in the wind, his eyes covered with large goggles, in a Rambler
that had 336 on its license plate and sat seven passengers. He dug the
first artesian well here, which accounted for his bath tub, and then sent
drilling teams into West Texas to dig deep water wells for parched
ranchers. He found helium gas on the Matador Ranch, searching for
water. Toward the end, which came in 1924 when he was 84, Mr. Day used
to ride the trolley into town to laugh at the latest vaudeville
shows. He and his wife, who died in 1936, are buried in Pioneer Rest
Cemetery. Reprinted from the Fort Worth Press Friday, May 20, 1960.
Permission by Owen Day Story contributed by Barry and Annette
Marsh. |