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_EARLY DAYS_
IN
_FORT WORTH_
_Much of Which I saw and Part of Which I Was_
By
B. B. Paddock
[Illustration: Fort Worth's First Bank Building]
This 2010 facsimile of the rare first edition is limited to 300 copies.
B.B. Paddock created this work just after 1900, perhaps 1905 or 1906. It
provides early Fort Worth history and is a necessity for a Fort Worth
collection.
Albert L. Peters
Bookseller
P.O. Box 136814
Fort Worth, TX 76136
E-Mail: petersfortworth@aol.com
I purpose writing a brief history of Fort Worth from the time of its
selection as a military post down to the time within the memory of men
now living, who may be interested in the struggles and sacrifices made
by those who laid the foundation of the City. I purpose giving somewhat
in detail the work of these patriotic, public-spirited men to whom the
present citizenship of the City owe so much.
I am inspired to do this for the reason that so much credit is given by
the uninformed to men to whom no credit is due and so much is withheld
from those who bore the burden and heat of the day in times that tried
men's souls, and to whom no sacrifice was too great, no demand upon
their time or purse too much, if it could be shown that Fort Worth was
to derive a benefit from the expenditure of time or money. The good that
men do should live after them. But men should not have the credit for
deeds done in the body when the deeds were never performed. Obituary
notices are useful as examples to the living, but to be useful they
should be true. Men should not be given credit, even though it may make
pleasant reading to the families of the deceased, for things they did
not do and perhaps had not the means of doing, no matter how willing
they may have been.
In the early days of this city there was among its citizenship a coterie
of men, the like of which were never found in any other community. Their
first and only thought was for the upbuilding of the city. Some of these
men are still living, but most of them have gone to their reward. It is
greatly to be regretted that all could not have lived to see the
culmination of their efforts and to participate in the prosperity which
they helped to bring to the city.
In what follows there shall be found "nothing extenuate, nor aught set
down in malice." It will be "an o'er true tale" as I saw it I do not
hope that this little volume will be complete but that it may serve as a
foundation for some future historian to erect a structure as voluminous
and veracious as Gibbon's Rome or Hume and Smollett's England. As far as
it goes it may be regarded more authentic and reliable than
Knickerbocker's History of New York.