DUANE
Duane's take
The way I tell it, I'm goin' straight off the official marker — so let's let the record speak. Now, you want a man who contains multitudes, you pull up a chair and hear about John Peter Smith. Born in 1831, came to Fort Worth out of Kentucky in 1853 — back when Fort Worth was barely a notion on the prairie.
And from that first footfall, this man just would not stop bein' useful. Teacher. Clerk.
Surveyor. Attorney. Civic leader.
Pick a need the town had, and somewhere in that list, John Peter Smith was already coverin' it. Fort Worth didn't so much grow around him as it grew because of him. But here's where the story gets complicated, the way real life always does.
When Texas moved toward secession, Smith was opposed. Let that sit for a second — this man, this pillar of Tarrant County, did not believe in the cause. And yet, when the moment came, he raised a company of Tarrant County men for the Confederacy and joined Sibley's Brigade in 1861.
Whatever his convictions, he went. And he didn't just sit out the war in a safe corner. He served in the invasion of New Mexico — the marker calls it unsuccessful, and it was.
Then the recapture of Galveston in 1863. And then, later that same year, at Donaldsonville, Louisiana, he was severely wounded. The man who came to Texas to teach school and survey land had now bled for a cause he hadn't even wanted to fight for.
But John Peter Smith was not the kind of man who stayed down. He came back to Fort Worth after the war, and he got to work. Helped organize a bank.
A gas light company. A street railway. He gave land for city parks.
He gave land for cemeteries. In 1879, he gave this very site — twenty acres, donated outright — for what would become Oakwood Cemetery. And he gave land for a hospital that would later be named in his honor.
Then in 1882, Fort Worth made it official and elected him mayor. And Smith, being Smith, didn't treat the office as a title. He directed the establishment of the school system.
The water department. Public services that a growing city needed if it was ever going to be more than a dusty ambition. In 1901, John Peter Smith died in St.
Louis, Missouri. He wasn't there resting. He was there on a promotional trip for Fort Worth — working the room for his city right up until the end.
And here's what gets me about all of it: they brought him back. He is buried in a section of Oakwood Cemetery that is part of the original twenty acres he donated to the city of Fort Worth. The land he gave away is where he rests.
Some men leave a legacy in bronze or stone. John Peter Smith left twenty acres, and he's still in it.
What the marker says
Pioneer area settler John Peter Smith (1831-1901), who donated twenty acres for the establishment of this cemetery, came to Fort Worth from Kentucky in 1853. He served the community as a teacher, clerk, surveyor, and attorney, and became a noted civic leader. Although opposed to the secession of Texas during the Civil War, Smith raised a company of Tarrant County men for the Confederacy and joined Sibley's Brigade in 1861. While in the war he served in the unsuccessful invasion of New Mexico, the recapture of Galveston in 1863, and was severely wounded at Donaldsville, Louisiana, later that year. After the war Smith returned to Fort Worth, where he became involved in the development of the city. He helped organize a bank, gas light company, and street railway. He also gave land for city parks, cemeteries, including this site in 1879, and a hospital, later named in his honor. In 1882 he became mayor and directed the establishment of many public services, such as the school system and the water department. In 1901 Smith died in St. Louis, Missouri, while on a promotional trip for Fort Worth. He is buried in a section of Oakwood Cemetery that is part of the original acreage he donated to the city. (1981)