Grapevine History 1843 - 1900

Grapevine History 1843 - 1900

1843 Attempts to sign a treaty of peace and friendship with ten American Indian tribes begin at Grape Vine Springs. General Sam Houston invites the Indians to meet with him at Grape Vine Springs, and he journeys from Austin for the meeting. The Indians fail to appear at the appointed time, so, after waiting a few days (which he spends hunting on the prairie), he returns to Austin. When the Indians arrive several weeks later, the meeting is held at Bird’s Fort. The Treaty of Birds Fort is signed, opening North Texas for settlement.

1844 James Gibson and John Hallford come from Missouri and scout the Peters Colony area. They return to Missouri to get their families. Hall Medlin arrives on the Grape Vine Prairie.

Hallford’s Store opens northeast of Grapevine at the edge of the Cross Timbers and the prairie.

1845 James Cate, Patrick Watson, Macajah Goodwin and others receive headrights from the Peters Land Company and settle on the Grape Vine Prairie near the Dallas County line. Some 600 families arrive in North Texas within a period of three years.

According to the Grapevine Area History Book, in mid November settlers from Missouri arrive on the Grape Vine Prairie settling near Lonesome Dove and along Denton Creek. Settlers include the Archibald Franklin Leonard family, B. J. Crowley, Hiram Crowley, Dr. J. C. Dunn, Ambrose Foster, John A. Freeman, Zeb Jenkins, Eli Jenkins, and Jimmy West. Descendants of these families still reside in Grapevine today.

Archibald Leonard opens a store in Grapevine near what today would be Main and Wall Streets.

Other early settlers arrive, including Hamilton Bennett, Nathan Hurst, Carhels Burgoon, W. M. Giddens, H. S. Hope, Philip D. Hudgins, Rev. E. N. Hudgins, Amos Quayle, William and Jacob Morehead and their families.

1845 John C. Dunn and his wife Nancy M. Dunn arrive on the Grape Vine Prairie from Harrison County, Texas, where they had lived after leaving Alabama in 1845. Other settlers build cabins near theirs; this little settlement is sometimes called Dunnville.

Francis Throop constructs a cabin in the Lonesome Dove area; it is now known as the Torian Cabin. Members of the Torian family lived in the cabin from 1886 until 1976.

1846 The Lonesome Dove Baptist Church is established in February and meets south of Judge Morehead’s place near Grape Vine.
In 1847 it moves to its present location northwest of Grapevine.

1850 Tarrant County holds its first election for 20 official offices. Ten of those elected are from Grape Vine and the Lonesome Dove area. Elected are: Daniel Barcroft, County Commissioner; Archibald Leonard, County Clerk; Henry Suggs, County Treasurer; Vincent Hutton and John Hust, County Tax Assessor and Collector; Robert Smith, Justice of the Peace; Francis Jordan, Sheriff; Sanders Elliott, District Clerk; Wallen Rogers, Justice of the Peace; Berry Hall, Constable. The County is divided into three Precincts: Precinct 1 is the Birdville area; Precinct 2 is the area south of the West Fork of the Trinity; and Precinct 3 is northeast Tarrant County.

1854 When establishing the postal route, controversy arises over the town’s name – whether to call it Dunnville, Suggsville (for Henry Suggs) or Leonard. A. F. Leonard serves as the postmaster on a horseback route from Birdville to McKinney, and also as justice of the peace, clerk of the first court in Tarrant County, and representative of the county in the Twelfth Texas Legislature. Judge James Tracy Morehead, when asked for his opinion on the town’s name, says, “Well, gentlemen, I think Grape Vine would be a good name for our little town.” Judge Morehead knows that each of the gentlemen wants the town named for him, but “Grape Vine” it becomes. (In 1914 ‘Grape Vine’ is officially changed by the post office to ‘Grapevine’.) An area of about six square blocks is laid out as the original township, and the men establish some rules of government.

There are about 16 streets in the original township. They are, Austin Street, Church Street, College Street, Coppell and Keller Road, Dooley Street, Franklin Street, Hall Street, Hudgins Street, Jenkins Street, Leonard Street, McCombs Alley, Morehead Street, Nash Lane, Nash Street, Scribner Street, Terrell Street, Weems Alley and Worth Street.

Rev. Daniel Starr, a Methodist Episcopal Church – South preacher, arrives on the Grape Vine Prairie from Monroe County, Illinois. He is the father of Grape Vine’s first mayor, Bart Starr, Sr.

1855 In November, Jefferson Estill comes in a covered wagon to the Grape Vine Prairie. With him are his wife Fannie Staples Estill and three children (Jack, Charlie and Mary) all less than four years of age. Also with them are Fannie’s 69-year-old mother, Sallie; a niece, Nancy VanZandt, Jeff’s nephew, Wallace Burrough, and several slaves.

1858 The Post Office is established in Grape Vine at Main and Morehead (now Texas) Streets with I. P. Solon Dunn as the first post master.

1859 The Eli Mathis Jenkins family arrives in Grape Vine from Jefferson, Texas, where they had lived for five years after leaving Alabama in 1852. E. M. Jenkins and his brother-in-law Solon Dunn build the first store in Grape Vine. Cattle raising is the major enterprise in the area.

The Thomas Jefferson Nash family moves into the old Henry Suggs cabin and acquires 110 acres of farmland
southwest of downtown, thus beginning their farming enterprise.

1860 Lucas Funeral Home begins business with a general store and handling funeral needs at a location between Minters Chapel and Estelle.

1861 Grape Vine sends the first company of volunteers from Tarrant County to the Civil War under the leadership of Captain William Quayle. They are called “Quayle’s Company of Mounted Riflemen, State Volunteers.” Men who are too old to go to war form the “Beef Club” to help keep homes on the Grape Vine Prairie well protected and supplied with food.

1866 The Methodist Church is organized in Grape Vine by the Rev. E. N. Hudgins. Members include the Hudgins family, the Quayle family, and Angelina Starr.

Mr. G. E. Bushong teaches school in Grape Vine’s first school house, which is built of logs. (It is located where the Grapevine Cemetery is now.)

1866 The Grape Vine Masonic Lodge is organized. J. W. Dunn is the first Worshipful Master.

1867 The Masonic Lodge begins its plan to build a school and a new lodge building. Rev. Hudgins donates the land; pine lumber is hauled by ox teams over 150 miles from the mills in East Texas.

1869 In September, school begins in the two-story 50’ x 50’ new schoolhouse. It is called the Grape Vine Masonic Institute. Col. W. P. Bishop is principal; Miss Ella Thomas, Miss Emma Day, and music teacher Miss Amanda Beard assist him. It remains open until 1886.

The Nash Family begins construction of its new farmhouse.

On Christmas Day, the Grape Vine Baptist Church is organized in a little log school house (where the Grapevine Historical Cemetery is now located). Members include the Dunn family, the Rodgers families, the Giddens family, Rachel Allison, Margaret Jorman, Mrs. E. A. Bushong and Mary Boals. A. J. Hallford serves as pastor.

1870 The three-story, wood Baker Hotel opens on Main Street.

An old Indian trail is identified that crosses the Denton Creek (now under Lake Grapevine), goes through the McPherson Farm, through Nash Farm, west to what is now Continental and Brumlow, through B. R. Wall’s land and on southwest to Birdville.

A brick kiln on Solon Dunn’s farm at the corner of the Allen Coble Farm is operational (near Dooley and Wildwood).

1871 The Lipscomb family and Dr. W. E. Dorris and his family arrive in Grape Vine. Benjamin Wall builds a store in Grape Vine. Z. T. Wall opens his Drug Store on Main Street. Raising cotton becomes the major enterprise of the area.

The Baptist Church builds a new brick building. On Jan. 1, 1871, Mrs. J. L. Morehead is baptized. Due to the water being frozen over, it was necessary to break the ice before she could be baptized.

The Texas Legislature passes an act prohibiting the sale of liquor within two miles of the Grape Vine Masonic Institute.

1873 Rev. E. N. Hudgins gives land on which the first Methodist Church is built.

1875 About 80 students attend the Grape Vine Masonic Institute.

1877 A storm blows the Methodist Church off its foundation during a prayer meeting. A second church is built on the same site.

Grape Vine receives a favorable write up in the Dec. 19, 1877, issue of The Daily Fort Worth Democrat, including a mention that “Mr. Giddens has ginned over 400 bales of cotton this season, considerably of which he has purchased. “

Smith and Malone Howell are arrested for stealing 22 head of cattle from Mr. Troupe and Mr. Bullock and selling them at Fort Worth. Five fully armed citizens capture the two prisoners and turn them over to authorities in Fort Worth.

Land for sale on the Grape Vine Prairie brings from $10 to $12 per acre. Unimproved land rents at $4 per acre in cash.

1880 The Tate Family comes to the Grape Vine Prairie.

1882 The Grapevine Globe is published; its editor is Jack Yates. Later in the year L. J. Martin, who is 14 years old, purchases the paper and operates it for 7 months and 10 days as The Grapevine News. L. J. “Samp” Martin is the son of Col. Elbert S. Martin, a United States Congressman from Virginia, who passed away in 1876. His mother brought her five children to Grape Vine and operates a boarding house. Her children attend the Grape Vine Masonic Institute.

Fort Worth Hack Lines serves Grape Vine on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8 a.m. Small parcels are carried reasonably; the fare each way is $1.25.

Dr. Davis, Mr. Bushong, and the office of Yates, Bushong & Co. have private telephones in operation. They allow their friends and patrons to use their phones.

1883 The Grapevine Telephone newspaper is published by Tom Jenkins.

1885 Mr. J. E. Foust, Sr., establishes the first telephone system in Grape Vine.

1886 Zeb Jenkins and J. E. M. Yates are appointed to sell the Grape Vine Masonic Institute and Masonic Lodge building. The building is purchased by Professor J. S. Brown, who operates the school under the name of the “Grape Vine College” from 1887 to 1900.

1888 The Depot and Section Foreman’s House are built and the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad (aka the Cotton Belt Railroad) arrives in Grape Vine. The whole town turns out to meet the first train. Many citizens meet the train about a mile out of town and ride it in. For years, everybody dresses up on Sunday afternoons and goes down to meet the train at the depot. Grape Vine becomes an agricultural trade center. Section foremen take care of the tracks.

On March 22, B. R. Wall records in his diary, “…the train is passing now. The Depot is nearly done. I will be glad when it is. The men that are working on it are going to dinner. They don’t camp out but they stay at the hotel.”

1889 On January 24, the J. E. Foust store opens on Main Street (it is now Grapevine’s oldest remaining brick building). Foust’s Mercantile Store on Main Street receives shipments of freight by wagon from Galveston, including molasses, sugar, coffee and other goods. Eggs sell for 10 cents per dozen; butter is 20 cents per pound; lard is 15 cents per pound; and chickens are $2.50 per dozen. “Foreign fruits” are also sold including oranges, lemons, bananas and apples.

1890 The Grapevine Advocate newspaper is published by Mr. K. Bradley.

1891 The two-story Brick Hotel, also called the Wallis Hotel, is built near the depot by Johnny Wallis for his sister, Susan Wallis Terrill. It remains in operation until 1926.

1893 In December, Thomas Jefferson McPherson and his sons and other neighbor men from Duke, Alabama, travel by horse and covered wagon for six weeks and arrive in Grape Vine. In early 1894, Mrs. McPherson and their nine children arrive in Grape Vine from Alabama on the Cotton Belt Railroad.

1895 The Grapevine Sun is founded by Mr. B. R. Wall.

1896 On August 29, Locomotive #2248, now known as “Puffy”, is constructed at the Cook Locomotive Works in Patterson, New Jersey. (In 2007, Puffy is the star steam locomotive of the Grapevine Vintage Railroad.)

Baby Rosie Lee Torian Blevins is born in the Torian Cabin on Christmas Day.

1897 Mr. J. E. Keeling purchases The Grapevine Sun; his family operates it for 80 years.

1898 Thomas (T.J.) McPherson purchases 360 acres from P. D. Hudgins and moves his family into their new home three miles northwest of Grape Vine (now Park Boulevard and Dove Road). The farm already has barns and outbuildings and a two-story house built in 1886.

1899 Binder Parade is held on Main Street showcasing all the farm equipment being used on the Grape Vine Prairie. The railroad brings prosperity to town.