Fort Worth history can be studied from many angles, of course, and the names of streets can be a history mystery in their own right.
Let’s look at how four streets on the South Side—Cannon, Fogg, Mulkey, and Ripy—might have gotten their names.
The names of some Fort Worth streets—such as Benbrook, John T. White, Vickery, Jarvis, Terrell, Hulen, Burchill, Peter Smith—are so uncommon that with some knowledge of local history we can state with some certainty that X street is named for X person.
But the names of other streets—such as Boaz, Daggett, Tandy, Maddox—are ambiguous because more than one prominent person in Fort Worth history had the same surname. We can make only an educated guess. So, we look for clues. For example, did one person develop housing additions and thus was in a position to name streets? Did one person live on the street that bears his or her name?
Cannon and Fogg fall into the first category. Mulkey and Ripy fall into the second category.
William H. Cannon (1824-1907)
Did you hear the one about the traveling salesman? Seems he was the “father” of Fort Worth’s first college.
No joke.
William Hudson Cannon was born in Delaware but spent most of his career in Philadelphia.
The 1880 census lists him as a shoe manufacturer in Philadelphia.
The Fort Worth Democrat-Advance in 1882 indicated that for ten years Cannon had been a traveling shoe salesman canvassing Texas for a Philadelphia shoe manufacturer.
And it was while Cannon was in Fort Worth hawking shoes that he met J. C. Terrell.
Terrell in his Early Days of Fort Worth recalled how he met Cannon:
“I was on my way to Virginia when I met Rev. A. A. Johnson, at that time preaching the gospel and the tenets of John Wesley Methodism in Texas. He said that he had been preaching for two years without a convert, yet he desired to do something for the church by which he could pay back to it the debt he owed for his education as a minister of the gospel. The Methodist Episcopal church had just determined to establish the third of its trinity of educational institutions in the South, the other two having been planted at Chattanooga and Little Rock. He was earnest in the belief that Fort Worth could secure the prize. Why don’t you incorporate, I asked him, and not long afterward he came to my office and I drew up the charter. A few days later I met William H. Cannon, a traveling salesman and a devout member of the Methodist church, and explained the plan to him, telling him of a piece of land forty acres in extent, in front of my home property [on today’s near South Side] that could be bought. Captain John Hanna was the agent for the land, and I advised Johnson to buy it. The deal was made, and Johnson and Cannon sold enough lots off that forty acres to clear up about $4,000 apiece. They reserved the balance for the campus, gave it to the university and on it the buildings of the institution have been erected. . . . Following the incorporation of the company to build the university, the people here raised $10,000 to help the project along. . . . The church put in $10,000 . . .”
The college had opened in temporary quarters downtown in 1881 while raising money to build a permanent campus. Johnson deeded ten of the forty acres to the college, and he and Cannon sold lots in the remainder (the College Hill addition) and donated money to the college, which was named “Texas Wesleyan College” (later “Fort Worth University”).
Johnson’s name from 1882 still appears on some College Hill deed cards.
For his support, Cannon was named president of the college’s board of trustees. Johnson was named president of the college and was a board member. Terrell also was a board member.
The college’s new campus opened in 1886. Today the property is occupied by Green B. Trimble Technical High School.
An 1885 map shows the college campus, Cannon Street, College Avenue, and the homes of A. A. Johnson, J. C. Terrell, B. B. Paddock, and architect A. N. Dawson. Terrell Avenue was then the southern city limit.
Cannon’s obituary says he lived in Fort Worth, but I find no evidence of that. Fort Worth newspapers of the time usually described him as “of Philadelphia.”
The fact that Cannon Street fronts the former site of the college of which W. H. Cannon was board president and a benefactor is enough proof for me that the street is named for him. But his obituary in the Star-Telegram removes any doubt: “Cannon avenue, a south side thorofare, bears his name.”
William K. Fogg (1851-1924)
William K. Fogg was born in Ohio in 1851.
By 1900 he was a wholesale cheese dealer in Alliance, Ohio. Apparently there was enough money in cheddar and Colby for the Foggs to afford a servant.
Fast-forward to 1904. A new company—Fort Worth Iron and Steel—had been formed to build a factory near Katy Lake, and officers had been elected. W. K. Fogg of Alliance, Ohio was president. Flavious G. McPeak, who would found Mount Olivet Cemetery on the homestead of pioneer Charles Biggers Daggett, was vice president. Fogg would arrange for the factory’s machinery to be shipped by rail from Alliance.
Meanwhile, Fort Worth Mayor Thomas J. Powell and city alderman Benjamin Lafayette Waggoman sold 201 acres along Hemphill Street to Interurban Land Company, which promptly sold the land to Fort Worth Iron and Steel Company, which would build its plant on part of the land and sell city lots on the rest.
Powell, who co-sold the land to Interurban Land Company, also just happened to be president of Interurban Land Company.
Fort Worth Iron and Steel Company—known informally as the “bolt factory”—laid out a housing addition—South Fort Worth—west of the plant.
By 1905 William Capps—who also was vice president of Interurban Land Company—had replaced Fogg as president of the bolt factory. Vice president was Benjamin Lafayette Waggoman.
Cozy, cozy, cozy.
Streets of the new addition west of the bolt factory included Fogg, Waggoman, and . . . wait for it . . . Bolt.
As with William H. Cannon, I find no evidence that William K. Fogg ever lived in Fort Worth. In fact, by the time the bolt factory opened in 1905, Fogg was living in Pasadena, California, where he dealt in real estate from a building bearing his name.
He also served on the Pasadena city council.
Fogg died in Pasadena in 1924 after being hit by a car.
Stephen Holland Mulkey (1832-1912)
Stephen Holland Mulkey, born in Maryland in 1832, was the older brother of George Hill Mulkey. George was Fort Worth’s first commissioner of fire and police and the main founder of Mulkey Memorial Methodist Church, named for the brothers’ parents.
The brothers came to Fort Worth in 1872. In the 1870s they operated a grist mill and a planing mill on the east side of town. The grist mill was powered by Tarrant County’s first steam engine. The planing mill was powered by water from a creek.
By 1885 Stephen Mulkey was a director of Trader’s National Bank.
The Star-Telegram said Stephen Mulkey “invested early in Fort Worth property.” It was not uncommon for real estate wheeler-dealers such as Mulkey and John Peter Smith to buy and sell lots between themselves in a real-life game of Monopoly.
Mulkey eventually owned the rectangle of real estate from Terrell Avenue to Magnolia Street and from South Main Street to St. Louis Street. He built several houses there, including his own. The Star-Telegram said that when Mulkey began acquiring that real estate, there were only two other homeowners between Mulkey and the Texas & Pacific tracks to the north: B. B. Paddock and W. B. Tucker.
In that rectangle of real estate Mulkey developed S. H. Mulkey addition just north of Rosedale Street.
Mulkey’s home was where the blue dot is at the intersection of Terrell Avenue and Galveston Street.
Deed card shows the S. H. Mulkey addition. His home was where the blue dot is. Mulkey lived there until his death. Today that lot is part of the Vandervoort’s plant.
This section of the map shown above shows how much the near South Side had developed by 1885 and adds the homes of Stephen Mulkey, W. B. Tucker, E. F. Ikard, and James F. Ellis. In the beginning Mulkey kept his horses and cows on a lot where the Alexander Hogg school (green dot) now stands. The blue dot is where Mulkey Memorial Methodist Church would be built in 1889. The red dot is the home of George Mulkey. Brothers George and Stephen lived within walking distance of each other and the church.
Stephen Mulkey died in 1912.
As for Mulkey Street, it’s a bit of a puzzler. The street existed by at least 1895. But it is located more than one mile from the locations of the Mulkey church, the Mulkey addition, and the homes of George and Stephen. I find no evidence that any Mulkey ever lived on Mulkey Street. Because the Mulkey family—especially George—was prominent, anyone could have named the street to honor George or, more broadly, the Mulkey family for contributions made to Fort Worth. I’d say the odds are—and I would not take these odds to Las Vegas Trail, much less Las Vegas—that Stephen Mulkey, the real estate developer, named Mulkey Street either for himself or, like the church, for the Mulkey brothers’ parents.
John W. Ripy (1853-1931)
When you drive down Ripy Street, think lumber. Or, if you prefer, whiskey.
John W. Ripy was born in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky and moved to Fort Worth in 1876. He established lumber companies in Denton in 1884, in Roanoke in 1893, and in Fort Worth in 1900. He eventually owned yards in Oklahoma City, Portales, Cleburne, and other towns.
John W. Ripy was surely a relative—uncle, is my guess—of J. B. Ripy, who came to town in 1911. Both men were from Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.
J. B.’s father J. P. Ripy was the distiller of Old Ripy whiskey. J. B.’s father probably was a son of James Ripy, who was born in Ireland in 1844 and began distilling Old Ripy in Kentucky in 1868. Today Old Ripy is owned by the Wild Turkey company, which still uses the Ripy distillery.
Fort Worth newcomer J. B. Ripy was general manager and organizer of the new Marquette Land Company, which had bought land at the end of the Hemphill Street streetcar line. John W. Ripy and his son Oliver P. Ripy also were officers in the company.
In Fort Worth, Old Ripy was distributed by the Martin Casey company. (Tyrone is just outside Lawrenceburg.)
Newcomer J. B. Ripy formed a club of Kentuckians living in Fort Worth, and among the club’s endorsers were John W. Ripy and son Oliver P. Ripy.
The Ripys’ Marquette Land Company developed the Marquette Place addition near the seminary.
In 1912 the Marquette Place lots were sold by “the famous ‘four twins’”: “Hear the wonderful twin auctioneers, who cry the same bid at the same time in the same tone of voice.”
(Let’s see Century 21 or RE/MAX top that!)
Ripy Street is in the Worth Heights addition, which was platted in 1908.
John W. Ripy lived on Ripy Street and was president of Worth Land Company, which was a major developer of Worth Heights.
A. A. Ripy was John W. Ripy’s wife Alice A.
John W. Ripy also developed additions in Denton and Oklahoma City.
John W. Ripy died in 1931.
Because he was a developer of Worth Heights and lived on the addition’s Ripy Street, I believe John W. Ripy named the street.
