John Peter Smith

Duane's take

Now, I'm tellin' this one straight from the official marker — so every word of it is history, not hearsay. Pull up a chair and let me tell you about John Peter Smith, because Fort Worth doesn't quite exist the way you're drivin' through it today without this one man's peculiar combination of contradiction and commitment. Smith came out of Kentucky.

Made his way to Fort Worth in 1853 — and if you know anything about Fort Worth in 1853, you know that was not a city. That was a dare. But he settled in, and he got busy, the way certain people do when they arrive somewhere and decide it's going to be something.

He worked as a teacher, a clerk, a surveyor — whatever the frontier needed, Smith could do it. By 1855 he'd earned himself an appointment as Deputy Surveyor of the Denton Land Department, and here's a detail worth savoring: he was paid for that work not in coin, but in property. Land for labor.

Out here, that was as good as gold — sometimes better. He also studied law, and eventually he was admitted to the bar. So you've got a man who could teach your children, survey your land, draft your deed, and argue your case.

Fort Worth hadn't even decided what it was yet, and John Peter Smith was already most of it. Then the war came, and here's where the story turns on itself. Smith was opposed to the secession of Texas.

Flat opposed to it. And yet — and yet — in 1861 he raised a company of Tarrant County men for the Confederacy and joined Sibley's Brigade. You can wrestle with that contradiction as long as you like.

The marker doesn't resolve it, and I won't pretend to. What the marker does tell us is what that decision cost him. He went to New Mexico with Sibley's Brigade — an invasion that failed.

He was at the recapture of Galveston in 1863. And later that same year, at Donaldsville, Louisiana, he was severely wounded. The war that he hadn't even wanted had taken him across the Southwest and left its mark on him in the most permanent way it could short of killing him.

But he came back. He came back to Fort Worth, and whatever the war had done to him, it had not dimmed what he saw in this city's future. He helped organize a bank.

A gas light company. A street railway. He donated land — donated it, gave it away — for parks, for cemeteries, and for a hospital.

That hospital would eventually carry his name: John Peter Smith Hospital. In 1882, Fort Worth made him Mayor, which seems almost inevitable in hindsight. And as mayor, he directed the establishment of public services that a growing city could not do without — the school system, the water department.

The bones of a real city, not just a settlement. He kept working for Fort Worth right up to the very end. In 1901, John Peter Smith died in St.

Louis, Missouri — not resting, not retiring, but on a promotional trip for Fort Worth. Still out there making the case for the city he'd bet his life on nearly fifty years before. He's buried in Oakwood Cemetery.

A site, the marker tells us, that he donated to the city himself. John Peter Smith gave Fort Worth his labor, his land, his health, and finally his rest. That's not a footnote.

That's a life.

What the marker says

A native of Kentucky, John Peter Smith migrated to Fort Worth in 1853. He worked as a teacher, clerk, and surveyor before his appointment as Deputy Surveyor of the Denton Land Department in 1855, for which he received payment in property. Also a student of law, he was later admitted to the bar. 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 donated land for parks, cemeteries,and a hospital, later named John Peter Smith Hospital. In 1882 he became Mayor and directed the establishment of many public services, including 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 Oakwood Cemetery, a site he donated to the city.