On September 6th, 1876, a franchise was granted to a company composed of
J. P. Smith. K. M. VanZandt, W. A. Huffman, Morgan Jones and Geo. Noble
for a street railway from the court house to the Texas & Pacific depot.
The contract for its construction was let to Morgan Jones and the work
commenced on November 17th. The first car ran over the line on Christmas
day and Mr. Walter A. Huffman officiated as conductor. The cars were
about the size of an ordinary street omnibus and were propelled by one
mule something larger than a west Texas jack rabbit. That the business
was not very profitable is gathered from the report of the first year's
business, which shows that the gross receipts were $22.00 per day,
showing the transportation of 440 persons each day.
In 1882 there was a spurt in street railway construction that is
probably without a parallel. Every one that had any money, and some who
had none, undertook to build a street railway. The two most important
lines were the Queen City Street Railway and the Rosedale Street Railway
with the road to Mistletoe Heights as a good third. The latter was
constructed from Jennings avenue out Thirteenth street to Ballinger,
thence south across the railway to Terrell Avenue, or in that
neighborhood and thence west under the Fort Worth & Rio Grande to the
Heights. These were where Westmoreland Place is now located. Then there
was the Polytechnic Heights Street Railway and another across the river
and way out towards Decatur somewhere. The present Traction Company runs
over these two latter, and it owns all that was found of value of the
Rosedale and Queen City lines. Then there was the "nine-mile belt" that
ran all around over the South Side, crossed the Katy and Santa Fe tracks
on Magnolia Avenue and wandered around through the Seventh ward
somewhere.
Fort Worth was the first city in the United States to have all of its
street railways equipped with electric appliances.