Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake, Baker’s Man: Of Poetry and Doughetry

Before there were Ninnie Baird and her eponymous bakery products, there was Walter Joseph Doherty. And before there were the Burma-Vita Company and its poems advertising its Burma-Shave product, there was, again, Walter Joseph Doherty.

eagle 1900 censusWalter Joseph Doherty was born in County Kerry, Ireland in 1861 and came to Texas at age twenty.

eagle-makers 1Image is from Makers of Fort Worth, 1914.

88By 1888 Doherty operated a grocery store on the near South Side on South Main at Ireland Street. Ireland Street is now Cannon Street.

eagle photo 10-22-08In the late 1890s Doherty founded the Eagle Steam Bakery on South Main. His bakery would become one of the largest in the Southwest, capable of baking twenty-five thousand loaves of bread a day. Deliveries were made by horse and wagon. Clip is from the October 22, 1908 Telegram./?p=30087

eagle naturalized 9-20-6On September 20, 1906 the Telegram reported that Doherty had become a naturalized citizen.

eagle 10-22-8This ad in the November 22, 1908 Telegram by Fort Worth’s Medlin Milling Company called Doherty’s bakery the largest in Texas.

eagle-makers 2This caricature of Doherty, also from Makers of Fort Worth, alludes to his other interest: writing poetry.

eagle poems 1907 1909These poems were printed in the Telegram in 1907 and Star-Telegram in 1909. Like the poetry of the Burma-Shave roadside signs that began in 1925, each Doherty poem, no matter how sentimental, ended with a plug for his products.

eagle census 6-15-11In 1911 the “bigger is better” Star-Telegram offered $10 ($256 today) for the best poem about “Why will Texas lead all other states in population when the 1920 census is taken?” In his poem Doherty listed Texas’s mineral resources and also seemed to allude to the Houston Ship Channel, which would open in 1914. (Texas was fifth in population in 1910. In the 1920 census Texas would still be fifth.) Clip is from June 15.

eagle feature 11-21-15 stOn November 21, 1915 the Star-Telegram published a feature about Doherty, describing how the “barefooted Irish school boy” in Killarney had exasperated the schoolmaster—to the point of cane thrashings—by surreptitiously scribbling lines of poetry instead of applying himself to his lessons in spelling or long division. “Three delightful little volumes” of Doherty’s poems had been published “within the past few years,” the newspaper wrote.  His later poetry, the newspaper said, was “tinged with a sadness” after the death of his daughter Mary Cecilia in 1910 at age twenty.

eagle el paso 1907 cdDoherty made a lot of bread making a lot of bread: He lived on El Paso Street on Quality Hill. Neighbors included attorney James Swayne and millionaire cattleman George Reynolds. Clip is from the 1907 city directory.

eagle obit 10-30-34 dmnW. J. Doherty died in 1934. Clip is from the October 30 Dallas Morning News.

eagle graveWalter Joseph Doherty is buried in the Calvary section of Oakwood Cemetery.

Some views of the Eagle Steam Bakery Building (1895; enlarged by Weinman, 1907) on South Main, built on the site of Doherty’s grocery store of the 1880s:

building eaglelook up eagle 1

corner eagle 2eagle 2 windows eagle corbel 2015 eagle crack in wall eagle north wall eagle side door eagle sills

Mrs. Baird’s: Cowtown Born and Bread
Cowtown Yoostabes: Beds, Breads, Bleach, and Belly-Wash

This entry was posted in Advertising, Architecture, Downtown, All Around, Life in the Past Lane, South Side, Wall to Wall. Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake, Baker’s Man: Of Poetry and Doughetry

  1. Melanie Peoples says:

    I bought alot of furniture from Mr. Anderson. I had seen a cover, of sorts, on the floor and asked him about it. He told me about the bakery, and said that ‘cover’ was the well where the water that was used to make the bread had been. I sure wish someone would buy the building and put it to good use. It is really cool.

    • hometown says:

      Melanie, I was over there last week. That long-idle area is being revived by the two big projects on South Main at Hattie and the repaving of Main. Maybe the bakery, American Laundry, and Sealy buildings will start to get some interest.

  2. Carilyn Dougherty says:

    Ah Medlin Milling, thank you! Every chapter on Scotch-Irish settlements in America has its German paragraphs because both migrations to America started in 1717 and closely paralleled each other. So too was Texas thus populated.

  3. Carilyn Dougherty says:

    Interesting! F.M. Dougherty (no relation to this one) was a state legislator.

    After the Am. Rev. War emigrants from Scotch-Irish decent were no longer grouped under that then-negative label. Their service to the country changed the prevailing perception and made them American to others & to themselves. The influx of Scotch-Irish into the Republic of Texas defined the political direction & future of the State of Texas. Go Green!

  4. Ramiro says:

    I will buy some butternut bread today while I am out looking for the goldilocks of cat good.

    • hometown says:

      Good luck. Stores should offer sampler amounts so cat owners don’t have to commit to a full amount without knowing. Or offer an exchange program.

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