The Day Rotary Came To Fort Worth
In 1913, Fort Worth was only 40 years old, an aggressive, competitive town not far removed from the frontier. The Swift and Armour packing plants were drawing thousands of newcomers, and railroads, feed mills and grain elevators rewarded brawn and hard work. It was a place where a man could rise fast if he was ambitious and tough.
A few businessmen saw that a great city also needed civilizing influences: cooperation, civic pride and a willingness to pitch in for the common good. J. E. Mitchell of Mitchell-Greer Jewelry Co. and Bismark Heyer of Leyhe Piano Co. were inspired by Paul Harris, who founded Rotary in Chicago in 1905 and believed its true spirit was not about what you could get from fellow members, but how much good you could do for them. On Feb. 25, 1913, Mitchell, Heyer and ten others met at the new Westbrook Hotel. Their charter arrived June 2, making Fort Worth the 75th Rotary club in the nation, and 23 members attended the first official meeting at the Seibold Hotel that summer.
Rotarians liked to stir things up. Members often capped off lunch with a challenge: "I'll give $100 for poor kids if the rest of you will match it." By 1915, the club was selecting scholarship recipients for Texas Women's College, now Texas Wesleyan, and in 1921 it created the Educational Foundation of the Rotary Club of Fort Worth, which went on to lend college money to more than 1,000 young people. In 1916, led by president Harry Adams's push for a park system, the club donated $1,000 to create Rotary Park at W. Seventh and Summit, home to a free bath house and the young Fort Worth Park Department.
Over the decades, Rotary's influence reached into city government, with many mayors and council members counted among its members. The original club became known as the "downtown" club as new Rotary clubs formed in North, West, East and South Fort Worth, all united under the same creed of service, high ethical standards and international understanding, goodwill and peace.
Adapted from the 75th Anniversary Book by Mac Williams
The lobby of the Westbrook Hotel, where 12 Fort Worth businessmen met on Feb. 25, 1913, to organize the Rotary Club of Fort Worth.
(Courtesy of UTA Libraries Special Collections, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection.)
In 1916, the Rotary Club of Fort Worth donated $1,000 to transform a small park at W. Seventh and Summit into Rotary Park, complete with a free public bathhouse and the city's Park Department headquarters. Today, the park's original 1916 monument lives on at Rotary Plaza in Trinity Park.
(Courtesy of UTA Libraries Special Collections, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection.)
Left to right, Doctor H. M. Walker, charter member; Jeff H. Williams, director of Rotary International from Chickasha, Oklahoma, and Harry Adams, the other charter member. (Published Fort Worth Star-Telegram Morning Edition February 22, 1941.)
Texas Governor Price Daniel (left), guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Fort Worth, with Rufus Garrett Jr., who introduced him, and club president James G. Goodwin. (May 1958)