Directory of the City of Fort Worth 1902-1903 Page: 2

                                
Prefatory.

Fort Worth has grown in importance to the size
that demands an annual directory and answering
that demand we present the directory for the
latter part of 1902 and the year 1903.
That the city has grown out of all proportion to
the normal ratio of increase of Texas cities, satis-
factory as that has been, is self evident. There is
the natural growth that all of the Texas cities
hae had of recent years, but in the case of Fort
Worth there is a special stimulus of growth which
brings up the most important matter of interest
to the people of Texas which has become vitalized
in the history of the city. About two years ago
the question of inducing the establishment of the
two greatest meat packers of the world in Fort
Worth became a question of vital Interest, for the
establishment of the packing houses meant an
absolutely abnormal growth for the City of Fort
Worth and incidentally an increase in the value
of every marketable beef animal, hog in a saleable
condition and calf and sheep in the State of Texas
which was suitable for human food.
No point is better suited for the distribution of
the meat products of a Southern packing house
than is Fort Worth.
An important factor in the development of the
City of Fort Worth has been the railways which
center here. She has given much to them, but
they in return have poured into her business cof-
fers unstinted wealth by giving her merchants the
chance to reach out into many territories. West
on the Texas & Pacific as far as El Paso Fort
Worth's business extends. Southwest to Brown-
wood and San Angelo her merchants trade. North-
west along the line of the Denver, and in that
great triangle formed by the Denver and the
Texas & Pacific, Fort Worth reigns almost su-
preme.   Several of the    railways  here  have
terminals which   are unexcelled  in the South.
To   particularize  the  Texas  &   Pacific, the
Frisco, the   Rock   Island,  the  Katy   which
uses  the yards of the Texas &      Pacific, the
Santa Fe (or more exactly the Gulf, Colorado &
Santa Fe and an important branch of the Santa Fe
System) and the Houston & Texas Central, which
is the Fort Worth connection with the Southern
Pacific system, all have terminals which are far in
excess of their present needs, but which will be
over crowded in a few years unless there is a
retrogression of the business done by this city,
which is among the impossibles. All of the roads
are rapidly increasing the volume of the business
done here.
Not to particularize but to point the example
the business of the Texas & Pacific has increased
50%, and much of this is in the strictly commer-
cial branches of railway business.
When the shipments of meats and other packing
house products begin, as they will in a short time,
before the first of the coming year, the volume of
business of all of the lines will be largely in-
creased both in and out.
The reason for the increase of the "in" business
is found in a minor degree in the in-
crease  of the population   of the    city.  But
more than all else is the improvement in the
business of the railways due to the establishment
of the Swift and Armour packing houses at Fort
Worth and the business which comes from      the
bringing of cattle and other forms of live stock
and the taking out of the finished products of
the packing houses. It would need the gift of
prophesy to tell what this will amount to for the
business is just in its incipiency.
To its railways ere the year is done, the main
line of the International & Great Northern, that
makes connection with the northwest, will reach
from Fort Worth to Houston and Galveston.
Since the last Issue of the directory the Frisco
has come in and has acquired the Fort Worth &
ilo Grande, which is now being extended south-
ward towards San Antonio and old Mexico.
No city of Texas is better supplied with rail-
way facilities than is the city of Fort Worth.
When a contract was made with the Armour and

Swift companies to establish at this place packing
houses which should have a minimum capacity of
5000 hogs, 500 cattle and a correspondingly large
number of calves and sheep, it was felt that it
made this city the packing center and the live stock
market of the Southwest.
This is beginning to be realized. The expendi-
tures of the two packing companies, the stock
yards and the railway connections which have to
be made and the belt line railway needed for stock
yard connections will require the expenditure of
over $5,000,000, and the packing houses are so
built that they can be extended as the business
demands.
Another most important matter for the city is
the development of the Northern Texas Traction
Company's interurban   and city street railway
lines.
The business of the Fort Worth-Dallas line has
been of the phenomenal order. The company has
arranged for the extension of its lines to Weather-
ford, Cleburne and Denton as soon as it is possible
and the rebuilding and extension of the lines not
already rebuilt. The new extensions and the im-
provement of the city lines call for the expendi-
ture of about $3,000,000.
All of these factors have contributed to in-
crease the growth of the city over 15% In popula-
tion in the past year, as a reference to the direc-
tory will prove.
It is utterly impossible to form any idea of the
new building which is being done here at this
time and yet the demand exceeds the supply, both
of residences and of business houses. In the six
months since April the building permits have been
over 500 and that was not during the period of
the year when most were issued. Scant attention
is paid to the law on this subject, and only an
indication of the work of construction can be
given.
The advent of the packing houses led to the
coming of many other enterprises and several
new wholesale firms have come to share the
prosperity of Fort Worth.
The most important street improvement is the
substantial beginning which has been made to-
wards putting down a permanent pavement. Avail-
able for this purpose now is a large sum annually
due to two causes. An amended charter permits
the levy of an additional tax of 25c on the $100
for permanent improvements, and the greater
economy in the administration of the affairs of the
city affected savings which could be and were
used for improvements.
With the funds from these sources supplemented
by the aid of the abutting property holders and
the Northern Texas Traction Co., Main street has
been paved from the Courthouse to the Texas &
Pacific tracks with brick pavement of the most
substantial character.  Some of the intersecting
streets have been paved, and bids for the paving
of Houston street, next to Main street the princi-
pal street of the city, have been asked for. Nearly
every street in the city has been graded and
gravelled  and  many   have  been  macadamized.
Where the traffic is heavy the intention is to put
down vitrified brick or asphalt, as a majority of
the property owners shall elect. On any street, as
the city pays for intersections and the street rail-
way company pays for its proportion, which is a
majority of all of the paving to be done the
chances are that Fort Worth will exhaustively try
brick paving on the black prairie lands.
During the year a contract was made with
Daniel Mead, of Chicago, one, if not the greatest,
authority on the question of municipal water sup-
ply in the country, to furnish to the city an ade-
quate supply of artesian water. So much progress
has been made that it is certain the supply of
water delivered through the mains will be pure
artesian, and as the city is metered the supply
will be ample and yet at a minimum cost.
The new additions to the city water supply will
be made without any additions to the tax levy or
to the bonded indebtedness of the city. Under