Barron Field
Everman, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of three World War I fight training centers in the Ft. Worth area, Taliaferro Field No. 2 was built on this site in Nov. 1917. First used by Canadian cadets, it was occupied in April 1918 by American military units. In May, the facility was renamed Barron Field for Cadet Robert J. Barron, who was killed at another flying school. Covering over 600 acres, the camp housed as many as 150 officers and 900 enlisted men. Barron Field sent six Air Squadrons to France before the war ended, Nov. 11, 1918. The training facility closed in 1921, and today only the munitions building remains. (1976)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in November 1917 as Taliaferro Field No. 2, this was one of three World War I flight-training fields around Fort Worth, first used by Canadian cadets before American units arrived in 1918. Renamed Barron Field for a cadet killed in a flying accident, the 600-acre camp trained hundreds of airmen and sent six air squadrons to France before the Armistice. It closed in 1921, leaving only its munitions building.
Why it matters
It marks the birth of American military aviation, when the U.S. and its allies raced to train pilots for the first air war.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Robert J. Barron
Related events
- · World War I
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ormer Leslie Locklear
Fort Worth, TX
A Fort Worth auto mechanic before the First World War, Ormer Locklear enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Service in 1917 and became a flight instructor famous for heart-stopping precision stunts, including walking from wing to wing in midair. He left the Army in 1919 for the barnstorming and Hollywood stunt-flying circuit, thrilling crowds and cameras alike. In 1920 he was killed filming a night dive for "The Skywayman" when studio lights are believed to have blinded him, and the fatal plunge appeared in the finished movie.
Royal Flying Corps
Fort Worth, TX
During World War I, a reciprocal agreement among the United States, Britain, and Canada sent Royal Flying Corps cadets to train through the mild Texas winters. From October 1917 to November 1918, Camp Taliaferro's three airfields in Tarrant County put roughly 2,000 men each through intensive flight instruction, with British and Canadian instructors sharing hard-won combat expertise. Thirty-nine officers and cadets died in training accidents; eleven were first buried at the fields before the Imperial War Graves Commission reinterred them at Greenwood Cemetery in 1924.
William G. Newby Memorial Building
Fort Worth, TX
German cotton exporter Herman Frerichs built this grand house in 1910–1911, only to be stranded in Germany when World War I erupted in 1914. Branding him an enemy alien, the U.S. government seized the property under the Trading with the Enemy (Alien Property) Act and held it until the war's end. Frerichs sold it in 1923 to Mrs. William G. Newby, who gave it to the Fort Worth Woman's Club in her husband's memory.
Freese and Nichols, Inc.
Fort Worth, TX
The firm traces its roots to engineer John B. Hawley, who designed Fort Worth's first city water system in 1892, and to partners Simon W. Freese and Marvin C. Nichols, who joined him in the late 1920s. The company pioneered dual-purpose reservoirs and early environmental engineering in water treatment, and became a driving force in bringing reliable water to arid West Texas. It remains one of the state's oldest engineering firms.