Page 295 - Benbrook FY20 Approved Budget

CITY OF BENBROOK 2019-20 ANNUAL BUDGET

BENBROOK HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The ability of the City of Benbrook to shape its future is intimately tied to its past. Prior transportation and land subdivision actions profoundly
affect the ability to make future land use decisions by establishing the framework within which future development can take place. Prior
economic activity tends to direct future economic activity along associated lines. Prior planning activities, whether implemented or not, also
continue to influence land use decisions directly or indirectly.

Benbrook celebrated the City's fiftieth anniversary of incorporation in November 1997. As an incorporated City, Benbrook is one of the
youngest in Tarrant County, but as a community, Benbrook is one of the oldest.

NATIVE AMERICAN LIFE

Prior to the arrival of Anglo settlers, members of the Wichita, Caddo, Comanche, and Lipan Apache Native American tribes roamed the
Benbrook area. Archaeologists estimate that the area has been inhabited for some 11,000 years. Indian communities looked for the same
environmental factors as present communities, with the availability of an adequate water supply being a primary consideration. The confluence
of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River and Mary's Creek provided such a watering place to tribes as they passed through the country-side
hunting the large herds of buffalo that grazed within the area.

EARLY ANGLO SETTLEMENT

Anglos originally settled the Benbrook area, part of the Peters' Colony established by the Republic of Texas, in the 1840s and 1850s. W. S.
Peters of Kentucky was granted a contract to attract 250 families per year by offering 320 acres free to family men and 160 acres to single
immigrants, plus a free cabin, seed, and musket balls. S. Edward and Nancy Wilburn of Missouri reportedly came to the area in 1843 as
Family 107 of the Peters' Colony; they settled along Mary's Creek near Benbrook in 1854. A "Mary's Creek Post Office" was established
sometime during the 1850s or 1860s, with Benjamin Richerson serving as Postmaster. Lemuel Edwards settled along the Clear Fork of the
Trinity River near present day Hulen Street in 1848, with land holdings that eventually covered 4,020 acres.

A twenty foot by twenty foot single room school building and Methodist church was built in 1857 near the Clear Fork of the Trinity River by
Edward Wilburn. The structure was constructed on concrete and had a dirt floor; the structure collapsed in 1865 as a result of poor construction
materials. Classes at the school had ceased during the Civil War. A new school and church known as "Old Rawhide" was built of lumber in
1872 by the Chapman, Edwards, Ward, Majors,

and Wilburn families. Newspaper accounts indicate twenty-seven students were enrolled in 1877 and forty-eight students attended in 1879.
The building reportedly burned down in 1879. The school was re-established near the corner of the present Mercedes Street and Winscott
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