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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEuless A Community That Refused to DieE U LESS A COMMUNITY THAT REFUSED TO DIE Weldon G. Cannon 2022 PREFACE I have spent most of my life studying the history of Euless, my hometown. When I was a child, I was intrigued by the stories told by old-timers about earlier days Euless. Later, when I realized these stories were important, I began writing them down and now have hundreds of interviews with people who remembered back into the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I have also read everything I could find that has been written about Euless. Using these materials, I have written much about the community, including short papers, monographs, and applications for state and local historical markers. I have attempted to interpret the history, placing it in context, finding important themes, and organizing it around certain subjects, as well as chronologically. This paper is a study of one of the major themes running through Euless history. I observe that Euless, as an identifiable community and city with that name, was again and again threatened with extinction, but somehow always managed to survive. This is an explanation of those threats and how Euless survived. I write elsewhere about numerous other themes and subjects in Euless history. A file of materials that I used for writing this narrative has been donated to the Weldon G. Cannon Euless Collection in the Special Collections at the University of Texas at Arlington. Another paper that I wrote, EULESS IDENTIFIED, covers much of this same ground but from a somewhat different perspective. EULESS A COMMUNITY THAT REFUSED TO DIE Weldon G. Cannon 2022 Euless, Texas, emerged in the 1880s in Northeast Tarrant County as an identifiable community. Today, it is a key city in the heart of the Dallas -Fort Worth Metroplex, still bearing the name Euless. The road to this permanent identity was rough, and several times Euless seemed doomed but always recovered and survived. Several communities were established earlier in the area that eventually became known as Euless. The identity of any one of them could have become the lasting name for this part of the county. Bird's Fort, established in 1841 a few miles south of Euless, was the first effort by Anglo-Americans to create a permanent settlement in Tarrant County. It lasted only a few months, but its name was perpetuated when the first county seat, ten miles west of the site, was named Birdville. Grapevine, established about 1850 seven miles north of Euless, was the only town in Northeast Tarrant County for many years. In the mid-1850s, Bear Creek and Minters Chapel communities were established on the eastern fringes of present Euless. Only cemeteries with those names remain. Before the Euless community was given that name, area residents picked up mail at nearby post offices —Estelle after 1857, five miles northeast of Euless, and Bedford, after 1877, four miles west. When Tarrant County Commissioners Court defined voting precincts in 1876, Euless was part of the Bedford (originally called Bobo's Store) precinct. Other communities, dating from about the same time as Euless, were Arwine on the western edge of Euless, today only a cemetery, and Pleasant Glade, at the northwest corner, now remembered as a church, a street, and municipal subdivisions. The name Euless, as identified with Tarrant County, dates from 1867 when Elisha Adam Euless, a 21-year-old bachelor, and Mary Ann Whitson Trigg, a well-to-do widow, and her children, migrated from Bedford County, Tennessee. She bought 200 acres, now site of the Euless municipal complex, post office, and junior high school, in the James P. Halford land survey. The Triggs and Euless lived in a log house built about 1855 by an earlier owner. Today it is known as the Himes Log House, preserved in nearby Heritage Park. Her daughter, Judy, and Euless married in 1870. In 1877, Mrs. Trigg and her family built a Grange Hall on her property as a meeting place for the Patrons of Husbandry, the Grangers, a fraternal order established to improve the lives of farm families. The Trigg family were leaders in the local Grange. It served as a community center, a school, and a church. About the same time, they built a cotton gin and grist mill on her property, known as Tuck Trigg's Gin, that was operated by her family. The Triggs prospered in dairying and farming the sandy loam soil of the Eastern Cross Timbers. Mr. Euless also prospered as a farmer and became well known in local politics and law enforcement as a county bailiff and precinct constable. He even ran for Tarrant County sheriff, unsuccessfully, in 1880. In 1879, he bought most of his mother-in-law's land, including the Grange Hall, and in 1881, the remainder of her property, with the gin. Later he also operated a general store. Local residents soon began applying his name to their growing village centered at the intersection of present Euless Main Street and Euless Boulevard. But before that, the location had several other identities, any of which might have become the permanent designation. A Cumberland Presbyterian Church, established in 1873, was known as Union. After 1877, the community became known as Grange Hall, or simply, The Hall. A Methodist Church, established in 1876, was officially named Grange Hall Methodist Church when it began meeting there. By 1880 the community was known as Woodlawn, and when the county created school districts in 1884, the local school was named Woodlawn. Located about 4 miles east of Bedford, but within the Bedford voting precinct, it was also called East Bedford. Several business and professional people saw opportunities in the community. Cyrus S. Snow relocated his general store and drug store from Bedford. Also relocating from Bedford was Dr. August F. Scott who opened a practice, along with a drug store and general store. Hence, it was not a foregone conclusion that Euless would be the enduring name. But EULESS would seem to be recognized as the preferred name by 1884 when residents petitioned the government for a post office in the form of a handwritten document. The earliest record from extant post office department archives, a Location Paper, hand -printed by local people, indicates that the name they intended was EULESS. When official application papers came back from the post office department in Washington, D.C., they were addressed in handwriting to Mr. E. A. EULESS, but the hand -printed documents show that the department intended the name to be ENLESS. Cyrus Snow, the proposed postmaster, filled in the final application, signed it, and returned it to Washington. In 1886, on March 3, Snow was officially appointed postmaster of ENLESS, the name engraved on the cancellation stamp and printed in government documents. The lowercase letters "n" and "u" are easily confused, especially when handwritten. But there might also be another explanation for the name switch. There was already a Texas post office named Eustace, and the post office department did not issue new names that might be easily confused with existing names. While the recitation of this process might appear confusing, it is an attempt to explain why the intended name EULESS came out officially as ENLESS. The ENLESS name stuck until 1910 when the post office closed. When a new post office opened in 1949, it was correctly named EULESS. So, the closure was perhaps fortunate; otherwise, the place might still be named ENLESS. The story does not end, however, with the misnaming of the post office. Documents of the fraternal order of Woodman of the World indicate that lodge No. 206 was established in the community about 1893 with the name Enless. Also, several U. S government maps and documents used the same name. Until the middle of the 20th century old timers affirmed that Euless was once called Endless. This story is understandable because of the similar pronunciation. There is no documentary explanation, however, for other accounts by some long-time residents that the community was once called Needmore or Hardscrabble, other designations that have crept into some publications. In 1888, the Tarrant County Commissioners Court, meeting at the court house in Fort Worth and made up of local people who knew the territory, created a new voting precinct, officially and correctly naming it Euless. Originally there was one precinct, named Bedford, for the section of the county bounded by the Trinity River, Little Bear Creek, the Dallas County line, and Precinct Line Road, basically the territory today constituting the Hurst -Euless -Bedford Independent School District. The new Euless precinct, approximately the east half of the original, stood intact until 1968 when it was divided again because of population growth. The post office department notwithstanding, Euless soon became firmly established as the correct name. By 1894, the Woodlawn School District was known as Euless. The Grange Hall Methodist Church and the Union Cumberland Church adopted the community's name, Euless, about 1895. Euless faced a major threat to its existence in 1902 when the Rock Island Railroad constructed a line from Fort Worth to Dallas. This was still the era when a railroad could make or break a community. Many communities and small towns disappeared when a railroad bypassed them or established a new town nearby on its line. As the railroad surveyed its line, it proposed strategically locating three depots. One would be named Hurst for William Letchworth Hurst, a local landowner who donated depot ground. Another would be named Euless, halfway between the cities. A third one would be Irving, where the railway company laid out a new town, probably named for Washington Irving, a favorite author of one of the railroad builders. The site of the Euless depot, however, was nearly two miles south of the community. When the company christened the depot and platted the new town, the name given to it was Candon, not Euless. No reason for the selection has been discovered. There was a problem with this name, however. It was almost the same as another Texas town with a post office, Canton. When the company applied for a post office, the department in Washington rejected the selection and named it Tarrant, apparently for the county. After the sale of town lots, people began flocking to the new town, some of them from Euless —homeowners, businessmen and professional people. Fuller and Collins, the chief mercantile business in Euless, opened a branch in Tarrant. Dr. L. F. Rhodes, Euless physician, built a new home in Tarrant and relocated his practice. Other businesses opened, including general stores, a lumber yard, a drug store and a gin. Baptists organized a church, and Woodmen of the World established a lodge. To accommodate the rapidly growing population, the Euless School District opened a school in the new town, naming it Tarrant. Euless could have disappeared and been forgotten, like many other communities that did not get a railroad. Euless survived, however, because of other factors over which it had no control. A new era was dawning, thanks to the recent invention of the internal combustion engine. The time of dominance by the steam engine and the railroad for transportation was about to fade, and the age of the roadway with automobiles and trucks was developing. An important road passed through Tarrant and across the nearby Trinity River, connecting Northeast Tarrant County with Arlington and Grand Prairie south of the river. When the bridge across the river washed out and was not replaced, Tarrant was left on a dead-end road. Several roads through or near Euless, connecting Dallas and Fort Worth, Arlington and Grapevine, were gradually improved and straightened. In 1929 the Texas Highway Department began planning a new highway connecting northern parts of Fort Worth and Dallas. Within a few years it became a major highway, passing through the center of Euless. Residents were within easy driving distance for work, shopping and recreation. The roadways also contributed to a reverse flow of traffic during prohibition as city dwellers came to purchase the produce of local bootleggers south of Euless in lands near the railroad and the Trinity River. Travel by rail, with fixed tracks and rigid schedules, began to decline as people chose the convenience of travel by roadways. World War I contributed to the decline of Tarrant when the government operated the railroads for the war effort, then returned a broken system of rails and equipment to the railway companies. Although passengers could still flag a train at Tarrant and it remained an important shipping point, the town declined. Businesses closed and the post office was discontinued in 1923. The Tarrant Baptist Church saw the handwriting on the wall even earlier. In 1910, it purchased a lot in Euless where the Grange Hall had stood and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church met, although it did not move its building and congregation until 1915. The school district closed the schools in both the Euless and Tarrant communities 4 and in 1914 opened a spacious new brick building between Euless and Tarrant, calling it the Euless -Tarrant School. But it was much nearer Euless, and the name Tarrant was soon dropped. Euless prospered in the 1920s. Euless Nurseries, established in 1897 by Arch Cannon, had become the largest and most prosperous business in the Euless, Bedford, and Hurst area by 1930. It supplied plants, trees, and fresh fruit to nearby Fort Worth and Dallas. In addition, it shipped shrubs and trees by tens of thousands across North and West Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and even beyond, bringing widespread attention to the community. From the sandy loam Cross Timbers soils truck farmers produced fruits and vegetables for markets in the cities. Euless became home to so many dairies that Tennessee Dairies Company of Dallas built a station in the center of the community in 1927 to receive and cool milk awaiting transportation to Dallas for processing. Electric lines were extended to Euless in 1929 to better cool the milk. Electricity was also a blessing for local businesses and residents. Homer Fuller established a new general merchandise store in the center of Euless in 1926 and was joined by his brother, Warren Fuller, the next year. Fuller Brothers Grocery and Feeds grew rapidly, providing for the necessities of local citizens, but also supplying the needs of dairymen even far beyond Euless. It soon became the commercial hub of the village and a community center where residents met to socialize as well as shop. In the first half of the 20t" century, the Euless schools gradually grew and improved, while surviving two movements that threatened the existence of the district. Soon after erecting the 1914 building, the school district established a high school and in 1925 incorporated as an independent school district. A large, free-standing auditorium was built in 1930, providing a new venue for shows, plays, singings, political and religious gatherings, and many other activities. Additional classrooms were also built. The district erected a new high school building in 1935 and added another grade level in 1940, making it a full 12-grade school. Nevertheless, the district was small, enrollment limited, and credited courses were the bare minimum. Several students attended neighboring high schools for more extensive course offerings. The threats came in the form of proposed statewide reforms. In 1936, the Texas State Board of Education issued a report of the results of a statewide school adequacy survey that aimed at making schools more efficient and better funded. Under a proposed reorganization plan, the Euless district would have been abolished and become part of an attendance area based in Arlington. While an elementary school would have been left in Euless, all other students would have gone to Arlington to school. The proposal was never fully implemented and Euless survived. In 1946, when the state government again proposed a complete overhaul of the public schools, it appeared that small districts, such as Euless, would be abolished and many schools closed. Although the Euless school population was relatively small, the school board, the superintendent, and community residents were deeply concerned at the prospect of losing their school and fought hard to retain it. The loss would have been a serious blow to the community. O. B. Powell, who had a reputation as a school builder, became superintendent in 1945 and led efforts to save the Euless district and improve facilities. In the end, with enactment of the Gilmer-Aikin Bill in 1947, the Euless School district survived, came out better funded, and even prospered. The 1914 school building was totally renovated in 1947 and connected to the 1935 high school building. Additional classrooms were added, and a gymnasium, the school's first, as also built. In 1950, high school students from the neighboring Sowers School District in Dallas County began attending Euless High School. Thus, the Euless school was saved, at least for a while. Other institutions also made significant strides in the early 20th century. The Methodist Church built a new church in 1917 and two years later a parsonage, making the parish the focal point for a circuit of several churches. The Baptist Church constructed a new building in 1922. And the Euless Woodmen of the World built a new lodge hall. The 1940s brought new challenges and opportunities for Euless during World War II and its aftermath. Developing events in Northeast Tarrant County brought growth to Euless but also potential threats to its existence. Fort Worth and Dallas, with airports only about 30 miles apart, were under pressure from the federal government to have only one airport. In 1940, serious discussions began about the possibility of constructing a new airport midway between the cities to serve both. Little real progress had been made when World War II began. Nevertheless, the U.S. Government secured land one and one-half miles east of Euless, exactly half way between the two cities, and built a pilot training field. After the war, Fort Worth became sole owner of the field and in 1948 announced its intention of building its municipal airport there. The site, however, was not in the city limits of Fort Worth. It was located about 20 miles from downtown and about 10 miles from the nearest border of the city limits. In order to completely control development and management of the new airport, Fort Worth annexed it to the city. To do that, it connected the property with the existing city limits by a contiguous strip of land along county roads and railroads, beginning at a point north of the Handley community in far east Fort Worth, then north across the Trinity River, through the center of Hurst, along the north Dallas -Fort Worth Highway, then to the airport site via Pipeline Road that was one mile south of the Euless community center. If, instead of veering off on Pipeline Road, the Fort C. Worth annexation had continued along the highway to the airport, Euless would have been forever split in two and never could have formed a cohesive a city. Nevertheless, if sometime after 1948 Euless should incorporate as a municipality, it could never extend south of Pipeline Road, a large part of what had been the Euless school district since 1884 and Euless voting precinct since 1888, without Fort Worth's approval. Everything between Pipeline Road and the Trinity River was forever separated from the remainder of the community. Today the area is part of the cities of Fort Worth and Arlington, although it is still in the Hurst -Euless -Bedford Independent School District. The Fort Worth annexation had forever altered the map of Northeast Tarrant County, but the center of the Euless community was still intact and might eventually form the core of a viable city. In fact, Euless residents had held a meeting before the Fort Worth annexation to discuss the possibility of incorporation, perhaps even including the airport site in a prospective city. Fort Worth officials, however, said that the annexation was in their long-range plans and that Euless' actions had nothing to do with the decision to annex the airport. Nevertheless, the map was drawn. But a far greater threat to Euless' identity loomed on the horizon in the early 1950s. Before the threat developed, however, a movement to preserve the community's identity began auspiciously. On October 6, 1950, through the cooperative efforts of Euless business people, school officials, owners of rental properties, and other residents who were interested in preserving Euless' identity, village voters approved incorporation of a two square mile municipality by a 48 to 19 margin. They recognized that a major hindrance to growth of the community was lack of municipal water and sewer systems. Each household had to drill its own water well and build its own septic tank or secure these necessities from a neighbor. This resulted in a hindrance to economic development and prevented growth of the school system through new students. An incorporated municipality could grant a franchise to a company to provide these services. In 1952, when the city council enacted a small tax for the first time, several residents circulated a petition to dissolve the municipality, and with it the city council and the tax. On January 3, 1953, the measure passed by a 43 to 39 vote, so Euless ceased to exist as a legal entity. This was a very risky move, because it left the community open to annexation by neighboring cities, especially Fort Worth, Irving, and Grand Prairie, which as home rule cities could annex any area at will without consent of the areas being annexed. Euless could have ceased to exist forever. This happened to Smithfield, by far the largest city in Northeast Tarrant County, geographically, and the third largest in the county. When it disincorporated in 1958, it 7 was quickly annexed by adjoining cities and disappeared. It is merely a footnote in the history of the Tarrant County today. Euless' neighbors were not quite ready to annex the unincorporated community, and its residents quickly circulated another petition for incorporation as a municipality. The measure passed on February 21, 1953, by a 59 to 27 vote. Thus, Euless survived. It was only two square miles, however, and unless it grew would never have room for more than a few thousand people, leaving it a relatively insignificant community. But annexation wars for territory in Northeast Tarrant County soon began, and in the end, Euless was large enough that it would be a major player in the Dallas -Fort Worth Metroplex. At first, as a general law city with limited annexation powers, Euless was still at a disadvantage, being in the neighborhood with the home rule cities that had unlimited annexation powers. Their ranks were joined by next -door Hurst in 1956. The threat to Euless was real. Fort Worth began annexing areas around its airport, as well as territory south of Pipeline Road. Irving annexed much of Northwest Dallas County and planned annexing part of southern Denton County, mainly the Flower Mound area, but backed down. It could have easily claimed unincorporated northeastern Tarrant County. Grand Prairie, far removed in Dallas County and south of the Trinity River, was perhaps a greater threat. It annexed a large acreage south of Arlington in Tarrant County, but backed down in the face of vigorous protests by Arlington, which viewed the territory as its future growth area. Grand Prairie contemplated building a lake on Bear Creek, now within Euless and on the site of DFW International Airport. It even annexed several hundred acres immediately north of the Fort Worth airport, named Carter Field, and present Airport Freeway. The area constituted the southern part of present DFW International Airport. The action was illegal, however, because Irving had previously annexed a strip along Airport Freeway to the Tarrant County line, touching the Fort Worth city limits, so Grand Prairie could not connect its proposed annexation with a contiguous link to the city. When Hurst became a home rule city, it attempted to annex a large swath of land across Northeast Tarrant County, north of Euless, including territory that eventually became part of Euless. In the face of massive protests by affected residents and officials of neighboring cities, Hurst rescinded its annexation. Euless also pursued an aggressive expansionist policy, using available methods, such as the right to annex public roadways as a public safety measure and good personal relationships with nearby property owners who petitioned for annexation to Euless. Thus, Euless had acquired a sizeable area into which it could grow and become a small but important city. When Euless became a home -rule city in 1961, it also had unlimited annexation powers and annexed land to the north, even into areas that had never considered part of Euless. Some 0 property owners in the newly annexed land protested and even filed lawsuits to block the annexation, but courts upheld the Euless move. Today, Euless covers 16 square miles, but the eastern third of the city is within the bounds of DFW International Airport, cutting its prospective built -out population proportionally. For several years Euless was involved in numerous lawsuits with Fort Worth, Dallas, and the airport board, primarily over such issues as land usage and zoning. The differences were resolved amicably, and today Euless benefits greatly from the relationship. It is the southern gateway to DFW International Airport and receives one-third of taxes from car rentals at the airport, plus taxes from other operations within the city. Vast acreage remains for development, affording Euless the potential for much more tax income. Since the airport maintains its own infrastructure, utilities and security, Euless is not responsible for these. Many communities, such as neighboring Arlington and Irving, were established with definitive names and thereafter enjoyed steady, uninterrupted growth into large Metroplex cities. Such was not the case with Euless. For many years after the community began developing, a definitive name had not been determined. Even after the name was firmly established, Euless went through numerous brushes with disaster that could have ended it as an identifiable community. However, the people of Euless through several generations successfully met each challenge, and their city survives. It just refused to die. 9