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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
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