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The families that lived north of the railroad station along Mary's Creek also built a school and church
known as Chapin School after early settler I. H. Chapin. The Wallace’s settled along Mary's Creek
near the intersection of Chapin Road and Chapin School Road.
DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
By the turn of the century, some of the initial transportation routes were established; many of these
routes are still in use today. The Texas and Pacific Railroad line is now operated by Union Pacific and
travels along Mary's and Walnut Creeks. A rail accident at the Mary's Creek trestle sent eighteen
cattle cars into the creek in 1902 or 1903. The main settlement of Benbrook, located within a four-
block area around the railroad station, was located near the present junction of Interstate Highway
20 and U. S. Highway 377 along Aledo Road. The settlement was reached from the east along the
present Old Benbrook Road and Stove Foundry Road (now known as Vickery Boulevard). Winscott-
Plover Road extended south along its present route to Dutch Branch, now submerged by Benbrook
Lake. A road extended east from Winscott-Plover Road near the present Mercedes Street to cross
the Clear Fork of the Trinity. Remnants of this county road are still evident on undeveloped land
north of Timbercreek.
Winscott Road is named for early Fort Worth rancher, developer, and hotel owner Winfield Scott
(no relation to the famous general of the same name). Scott was born in Kentucky in 1848 and
moved to Tarrant County in 1868. The Winfield Scott Ranch covered over 12,000 acres in Tarrant,
Johnson, and Parker Counties. Scott built and/or owned several hotels and businesses in Fort Worth
and constructed Thistle Hill in Fort Worth as his private residence.
A new two-room brick school building was constructed in 1912 to replace the previous building
located at Old Benbrook Road and Winscott Road. The $3,000 construction cost was financed by
bonds. In 1918, a second teacher was added to the school. The school building was severely
damaged by wind storms in 1913 and again in 1923. In 1936, the building was replaced again, this
time by a larger, flagstone-constructed, four room structure with a stage and gymnasium. The
$15,000 building was also financed by bonds and was built by V. A. Davis, who resigned from the
school board to bid on the project; the landscaping was performed by the Works Progress
Administration. Even with the larger building, some students had to be taught in the basement of
the church next door.
EARLY BUILDINGS AND CHURCHES IN BENBROOK
One of the earliest buildings remaining in Benbrook is the Eddie Brustrum House at 8204 Old
Benbrook Road, which was originally constructed about 1895 as the Methodist parsonage. The Corn
House in far southwest Benbrook (11555 Highway 377 South) was built about 1919 by James Corn,
a rancher who owned more than 55,000 acres. John Stevens, for whom Stevens Road is named,
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