Ephraim Merrill Daggett
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Canadian born Ephraim Merrill Daggett was reared on a farm in Indiana. He traded with the Indians at Fort Dearborn (Chicago) in the early 1830s then moved to Shelby County, Republic of Texas, in 1838. There he and his family became involved in the East Texas Regulator-Moderator feud (1839-1844). He later served as a Captain in the Mexican War of 1846. While serving as State Legislator from Shelby County (1851-53), he established a mercantile business and a hotel in the frontier town of Fort Worth. In 1854 he moved his family here and soon thereafter began purchasing large tracts of Tarrant County real estate. Daggett used his influence as a former legislator to help secure Fort Worth's selection as County Seat in 1860. After serving as Brigadier General during the Civil War, he engaged in the mercantile and cattle business in Fort Worth. In 1873 Daggett's likeness was chosen to adorn the City's first seal. His role in bringing the Texas & Pacific Railroad here in 1876, developing a downtown district, and in helping transform Fort Worth from an abandoned military post to a center of commerce earned Daggett reknown as "The Father of Fort Worth". He is buried in the City's Pioneer's Cemetery. (1993)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Canadian-born and Indiana-raised, Ephraim Merrill Daggett traded with Native people at Fort Dearborn before coming to the Republic of Texas in 1838, where he was caught up in the East Texas Regulator-Moderator feud and later served as a captain in the Mexican War. Settling in the frontier post of Fort Worth in 1854, he bought up large tracts of Tarrant County land and used his political influence to help make Fort Worth the county seat and to bring the Texas & Pacific Railroad in 1876. His work developing the young city earned him the title "The Father of Fort Worth," and his likeness graced the city's first seal.
Why it matters
Daggett's career from the Mexican War to railroad boosterism embodies how frontier speculators and boosters willed Western towns into cities in the second half of the nineteenth century.
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Related people
- · Ephraim Merrill Daggett
Related events
- · Regulator-Moderator feud
- · Mexican-American War
Themes & tags
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