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Despite the odds of Indian raids, the Civil War, and one man's feud, Weatherford began as a small frontier settlement in the mid-1800s, and quickly grew into a bustling West Texas county seat known for its Victorian beauty, home-grown peaches, and small-town charm. Images of courthouse construction and early pioneering families are among the first glimpses into Weatherford's fascinating history. Other highlights include the development of downtown, forgotten changes to the square, the first city rodeo grounds, photos of the Queen of England sitting for her coronation portrait, as well as rare shots of some of the city's more famous past residents, Larry Hagman and his mother, Mary Martin, and Comanche Chief Quanah Parker. Additional scenes of schools, streets, politics, firemen, parks, hospitals, and residents provide an entertaining and educational illustration of the city's past.
The early years of Weatherford yield stories of trials and triumphs as a rowdy frontier town that matured and became known as the "City of Churches" and the "City Beautiful." Created in 1856 as the county seat of newly formed Parker County, Weatherford was lush with grasslands, timber, and fertile soils. In 1858, the two-story brick courthouse was surrounded by log cabins, frame buildings, and tents. For nearly two decades, the town was the principal supply center for points west and a safe haven for settlers seeking refuge from Indian raids. Stalwart men and women nurtured the development of religious, educational, and cultural refinements. But when the Texas & Pacific Railway arrived in 1880, it spurred Weatherford's stature as an agricultural, banking, and commercial center and opened national markets to local cotton and prize-winning watermelons. The historic City Beautiful is still evident today in Weatherford's picturesque courthouse square and quaint tree-lined residential districts.
In the mid-19th century, a few hardy settlers of European descent carved out farms in the Clear Fork Valley of present-day Parker County, attracted by the areas springs, tributaries, and a burgeoning market in nearby Fort Worth. For centuries, Comanche and Kiowa had inhabited the land, and a period of dramatic conflict ensued, exacerbated by the Civil War absence of able-bodied husbands and sons. By 1880, ranches and settlements flourished, aided by the Fort WorthYuma cattle trail and a Texas and Pacific Railway line connecting Fort Worth to the county seat of Weatherford. As the first mail stop in the newly formed county, Aledo was briefly dubbed Parker Station before having its name changed in 1882a bow to a railroad engineers Illinois hometown. Today segments of Bankhead Highway, the nations first paved transcontinental highway, wind around Aledo, the Annettas, Willow Park, and Hudson Oaks, thriving communities that offer a pastoral lifestyle minutes from the urban amenities of the Fort WorthDallas Metroplex. Mere fragments remain of Newburg, Prairie Hill, Willow Springs, and other old settlements, visible only to old-timers and lost to living memory.