Tag Archives: 1800s

Haunting Fort Worth Tales

A very well-known haunted cabin lies in Fort Worth at a place called the Log Cabin Village. Among the various historic log cabins in the area dating from between 1843 and the 1880s the most infamous is the one called the Foster Cabin, once owned by a man named Harry Foster and his family and now the location of the village staff’s offices and the gift shop. Built in 1853 near Port Sullivan, Texas the Foster Cabin is one of the few surviving plantation homes in Texas and one of the largest log houses dating to the mid-nineteenth century.

Photo Courtesy: Log Cabin Village of Fort Worth, TX.

According to the lore, Harry Foster’s wife died here in childbirth, after which he went on to marry the nanny, a woman named Jane Holt, who would also die in later years. It is Holt that is said to still remain in the cabin, and one of the biggest signs of her presence is the heavy smell of lilac perfume, which she had been rather fond of in life, which appears from nowhere and dissipates just as quickly. There are also reported mysterious roving cold spots, objects that disappear to turn up in strange places, and anomalous footsteps often heard, especially emanating from the attic above the second floor.

Sweet smells of lilac sweep through the cabin.

It is unknown why this ghost should be the one to remain tethered to this place, but she has become a rather popular curiosity for people visiting @logcabinvillage off University Drive.

The downstairs living area of the Foster Cabin.
The fireplace would have been used for warming and cooking in the Foster Cabin.

Do you have a haunting Fort Worth story you’d like to share? Send us a message, we’d love to hear.

Mugg & Dryden Ice, Coal and Wood Company with their Labor Day parade entry (1897)

1897 Photo Credits: Fort Worth Library and Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, Special Collections University of Texas at Arlington

The parade route lines up in front of the old Fort Worth jail (built 1884) that was located behind the Tarrant County Courthouse. The Labor Day parade is headed east down the 100 block of Belknap Street past the Tarrant County Jail. “John A. Mugg, Jr. is seated on the left in the 1st buggy; his son M.E. Mugg is the small boy in the wagon. John A. Mugg, Jr. was grandson of Archibald Franklin Leonard and Mary Ann Foster Leonard.”

Two interesting points about this photo. One is that the Mugg family pictured here (my third cousins 3x removed) are the grandchildren of Archibald Franklin Leonard. In 1849 Leonard and Henry Clay Daggett (1 of 3 Fort Worth Daggett brothers) became partners in a business of great historical significance. They built a log cabin under a big live oak tree a mile northeast of the original fort (Fort Worth) and opened Fort Worth’s first business: a trading post. That big live oak lives on today in Traders Oak Park on Samuels Avenue.

Trader Oak Park on Samuel Avenue

Second interesting point: We see the first Tarrant County Jail pictured at 100 Belknap. This first permanent jail was built in 1884, directly behind the County Courthouse on Belknap Street (north of the Courthouse). The new County Jail was a magnificent structure, the building was three stories high plus a basement, constructed of brick in a “Victorian” style. The interior doors of the building were steel, the windows and cells had steel bars. The wooden exterior doors had large steel plate coverings. An underground tunnel connected the County Jail and the Courthouse basements, and was used to take prisoners to trial without exposing them to the public or an unsecured area.

Tarrant County Courthouse (right) with old city Jail located behind it off the then Belknap Street.

Take some time out today to step into the past. Visit Turner Oaks Park on Samuels Ave. Sit a spell under the old oak tree and imagine the conversations of sell or trade with the boys at the Fort. Then enjoy a drive behind the courthouse and picture the old jail sitting there and the Mugg family lined up for the 1897 Labor Day parade.

#fortworth #laborday #tarrantcounty #jail #texas #historicalbuildings #tunnel #instafw #lockup #turneroaks #mugg #leonard #daggett #oldwest #fortworthyhistory #eugenetheiner #tarrantcounty #1800s #vintagepicture #ancestry