Tarrant County

“The products of this county are wheat, rye, oats, barley, sweet potatoes, etc.  Average crop of wheat, fifteen to twenty bushels to the acre; corn, about twenty bushels; oats and rye do well; potatoes yield one hundred bushels to the acre.  Improved land is worth from $5 to $15 per acre, unimproved, $1.50 to $5.00.  Lands that have been in cultivation 12-14 years produce now as well as ever and produce corn and wheat better than at first.  The soil is generally black and rolling some being mixed with sand.  Average price of cattle, $6 per head for a stock; single cow and calf, $12 or $15; work cattle $40 to $65 per yoke; horses $75 to $125; sheep $2.50 to $3.00.  Cattle and mules are raised without trouble.  A mule at weaning is worth $30 to $35.  Sheep yield 4 lbs. of wool per annum, worth 25 cents per pound.  Sheep do well, requiring only to be herded at night to be protected from the wolves.    A wheat or rye pasture in winter makes them do better.  The only fruit is peaches and these are very fine and plenty in good seasons, though this year there are none.

Ox teams are, as yet our only means of transportation, though we are looking for the Houston Railroad to reach us before long.  Emigrants come here by the overland route across the Red River.  Our building lumber is ash, cottonwood, elm, spotted oak and post oak, and is abundant on the Trinity, the price being from $1.25 to $2.50 per 100 feet.  Our pine lumber is hauled from Eastern Texas, a distance of about 100 miles; price $2.50 per 100 feet.  (Fine brick are made here.)  There are some bois d’arc hedges.  The currency of dollars is gold and silver almost exclusively.  The usual interest is 12 percent, sometimes 20.  The water used for drinking is from springs, wells and cisterns.  Stock water is in some places abundant and is others scarce.  The dews are usually heavy and honey dews occur sometimes.  It does not often snow here.  Ice is often one half to two inches thick”

Texas Almanac 1858

Tarrant County

Acres in area  -  576,000

Number of acres assessed  -  117,047

Value Dollars  -  225,580

Town lots value  -  5,640

No railroad

White population  -  3,080

Increase since 1850  -  2,481

Staples  -  grazing

Value of land per acre  -  improved 6-12; unimproved 3-6

Negroes  -  number assessed 463; value $249,560

Horses  -  number assessed 1,477; value $79,900

Cattle  -  number assessed 13,099; value $89,520

Texas Almanac 1859

In 1859, Tarrant County was fifth in wheat production.  Transportation made marketing a problem.  The only means of transportation to market is hauling in ox-wagons at an average cost of $1 per hundred for each hundred miles.  The extension of the Houston and Texas Central Railway to the wheat region is looked to with great solicitude, as the only means of furnishing a reliable and certain market for the surplus grain.  Average price of wheat $1.00 to $1.50 per bushel.  Average price for flour $4.00 to $6.00 per hundred pounds.

Mills, only a moderate number, a few steams, some powered by water and horses.  Water powered mills operated only during the season when water was plentiful.  Miller estimated that a bushel of wheat, 60 pounds, yields on an average of:

Super fine flour  -  35 lbs.

Fine flour  -  10 lbs.

Shorts  -  8 lbs.

Bran  -  7 lbs.

Wheat producing counties used a large amount of their product for bread.  Some was saved for seed (1 bushel per acre), but there was still a surplus.  Transportation beyond 150 miles was not profitable.  Government troops on the frontier used some, if a surplus still remained; it was used to fatten hogs.

Notaries Public in Tarrant County 1859

Junius W. Smith

Jonas Harrison

Jefferson Estill

James Joyce

John J. Courtney

Jason Watson

In Texas Almanac for 1868 and also 1869, there are articles on hedging – Bois d’arc hedges are recommended as less expensive and longer lasting than rail fences.  Directions for planting and cultivation are given.  Good fence in three years, if pruned and cared for, especially effective in four years against all animals, even rabbits.