DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I wouldn't change a word. Ephraim Merrill Daggett. The man they called the Father of Fort Worth.
And friend, that title was not handed out lightly. Let me walk you through how a Canadian-born boy, raised on a farm in Indiana, ended up with his face on a city seal in the middle of Texas. It's some kind of journey.
Daggett got his start in commerce early — trading with the Indians at Fort Dearborn, up in what we now call Chicago, in the early 1830s. Then in 1838 he packed up and moved his family to Shelby County, in the Republic of Texas. Now, if you know anything about East Texas in that era, you know what was brewing out there.
The Regulator-Moderator feud. That ugly, grinding conflict ran from 1839 all the way to 1844, and the Daggett family found themselves right in the middle of it. Not exactly the quiet frontier life anyone ordered.
He came out the other side, though, and went on to serve as a Captain in the Mexican War of 1846. A man collecting experience the hard way. Then, while serving as State Legislator from Shelby County — that's 1851 to 1853 — Daggett did something that would define the rest of his life.
He established a mercantile business and a hotel in a little frontier town called Fort Worth. Not much to look at yet. But Daggett saw something there.
In 1854 he moved his family to Fort Worth, and he started buying up large tracts of Tarrant County real estate. Now he's not just visiting — he's invested. And when the question came up of where the county seat ought to be, Daggett used his influence as a former legislator to help secure Fort Worth's selection.
That was 1860. The city was finding its footing, and Daggett was one of the hands holding it steady. Then the Civil War came, and he served as Brigadier General.
When it was over, he came back to Fort Worth and got back to work — the mercantile business, the cattle business, building the thing he believed in. By 1873, the city itself recognized what Daggett meant to it. His likeness was chosen to adorn Fort Worth's very first seal.
Think about that. The face of the city, literally. And he wasn't done.
In 1876, he played a role in bringing the Texas and Pacific Railroad to Fort Worth — and if you know what a railroad meant to a frontier town in 1876, you know that changed everything. He helped develop the downtown district. He helped transform Fort Worth from what it had been — an abandoned military post — into a center of commerce.
That's why they gave him the name. The Father of Fort Worth. Ephraim Merrill Daggett now rests in the city's Pioneer's Cemetery, in the place he built.
And the marker stands to make sure we don't forget who laid the groundwork under our feet.
What the marker says
Canadian born Ephraim Merrill Daggett was reared on a farm in Indiana. He traded with the Indians at Fort Dearborn (Chicago) in the early 1830s then moved to Shelby County, Republic of Texas, in 1838. There he and his family became involved in the East Texas Regulator-Moderator feud (1839-1844). He later served as a Captain in the Mexican War of 1846. While serving as State Legislator from Shelby County (1851-53), he established a mercantile business and a hotel in the frontier town of Fort Worth. In 1854 he moved his family here and soon thereafter began purchasing large tracts of Tarrant County real estate. Daggett used his influence as a former legislator to help secure Fort Worth's selection as County Seat in 1860. After serving as Brigadier General during the Civil War, he engaged in the mercantile and cattle business in Fort Worth. In 1873 Daggett's likeness was chosen to adorn the City's first seal. His role in bringing the Texas & Pacific Railroad here in 1876, developing a downtown district, and in helping transform Fort Worth from an abandoned military post to a center of commerce earned Daggett reknown as "The Father of Fort Worth". He is buried in the City's Pioneer's Cemetery. (1993)