Fourth Generation Family Members Speak on Family's Heritage

August 30, 2001

The August meeting of the River Oaks Area Historical Society featured two sisters and their two cousins who presented an interesting program con­cerning the Farmer family, a name that is synony­mous with Fort Worth and the cattle ranching and slaughter house business. Ann Bigby Cozart and her sister, Mary Lynn Bigby Jones were children of Annie Lois Farmer Bigby and Walter Clifford Bigby. Their first cousin, Betty Lois Farmer Daniel, was the daughter of Frankie (Ferguson) and Tom Farmer. These three ladies had the same grandfather, John D. Farmer. Their second cousin, Frances Tannahill Wynne, was the daughter of Gladys Farmer Tannahill and Claude A. Tannahill.

Ann gave a brief introduction of each lady and told us they were proud of their heritage and their close family ties. The Bigbys lived in the 1600 block of Grand Avenue, Frances grew up in the 1700 block of Grand Avenue and Betty Lois grew up on the cor­ner of Homan and Park Avenue, so they lived in a half mile radius of each other and enjoyed family fellowship with one another and with many other aunts, uncles and cousins.

Mary Lynn was the first speaker and shared with us that they were members of a fourth generation family who had all lived in Tarrant County. Their great-great-grandfather was Joseph Farmer who was born in 1826 and came to Texas in 1849. She brought several books (and old pictures) which told about the history of North Fort Worth, Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Stock Show. All of them refer­enced the Farmer family and one in particular, “Fort Worth..A Frontier Town”, gave a lot of the family’s history. Other ancestors were Elijah, Joseph, David and Press Farmer who settled around the mid I800s, west of Fort Worth, some near Crystal Springs and others on land that became Carswell Air Force Base, which is now our Naval Air Station/Joint Reserve Base. The Historical Society has visited the locale of the home of Elijah Farmer and has, with special permission and a guide, visited the privately owned Thompson Cemetery at the corner of Roaring Springs Road and White Settlement Road, where several of the Farmer family members are buried. During this early period of settling in our area, there were Indians throughout the area who still made raids on these early settlers.

Mary Lynn told us their grandfather owned a slaughter house where the original Zuider Zee Restaurant was, in the Monticello area. (She is the caretaker of the tools he used in the business.) In 1903, he moved his family west of Fort Worth where he settled 3000 acres of ranch land and the family be­came very active in White Settlement. Their great-grandfather had been a founding father of the First Baptist Church of White Settlement. Their grandfa­ther and family (the John D. Farmers) were very ac­tive in that church as well as the family of their grandmother (the Redford Family). Ia the early l940s, a large addition in White Settlement named “The Farmer Addition” was built by Ralph and Marsh Farmer, uncle and cousin of the guests. All of the property just east of the Tarrant County line nearly to Lake Weatherford, was at that time, owned by differ­ent members of the Farmer family. She mentioned a gentleman by the name of Paul Isbell, an influential man who lived in White Settlement and our Isbell Road in River Oaks is named after him. These stories are chronicled in the books Mary Lynn had on dis­play. Mary Lynn said she grew up going to LaGrave Field with her dad, Cliff Bigby, and watching the -Fort Worth Cats play and has been a great baseball fan ever since then. One of the books she brought told about the original ball club. She certainly ex­pressed her pleasure that the ballfield and stadium are to be rebuilt and there was a lot of affirmation from the group gathered that evening, obviously baseball fans too.

The next speaker was Frances Tannahill Wynne, their second Cousin. Her mother was a Farmer and her father was a Tannahill, another prominent name and ranchland owner in the history of our area. Frances still lives on a large ranch west of White Settlement off of White Settlement Road and is the general manager of it and sometimes the ‘flunky’, according to her. In fact, the previous night, she had been up in the wee hours helping because a neighbor’s cow had gotten through the fence. She brought a letter which had been written to cousins in England, upon her great-grandfather’s move and arrival in New York in October of 1841. He told of the hardships and the storms and sickness during the trip and his first impression of America.

The family was headed for Ohio and ended up later in Texas where their name is well known. Her great- -grandfather Tannahill owned ranchland outside of AzIe and also owned the last stagecoach stop that went out of Fort Worth. It was also a fort at times when the area was under Indian attack. Just as I have known the Bigby Family (Ann, Mary Lynn and their younger sister, Priscilla) for a long time, I have also known Frances for many years, since she is a member of my church.

 Betty Lois was the next speaker and being a middle school teacher, she was anxious to tell us of a book concerning some of the Farmer ancestors, pub­lished in 1998, and geared toward middle school children. The book, titled “The Girl On the Bluff” was written about some of the Farmer ancestors, George Preston (Press) Farmer and his wife, Jane, and tells about the life of their daughter, Susan Ann Farmer, who came to Texas with her parents in 1849, when she was two years old. The family built a sod-house with a cellar, on the bluff near the fort which was soon to be named “Fort Worth”. It was an era of danger, excitement and often, tragedy. Susan’s par­ents were constantly afraid she would be kidnapped by the Indians and eventually, there was an Indian raid on their property. Susan’s parents wrapped her in a blanket and hid her in the cellar while they rushed off on horseback, trying to lead the Indians away from the home. The sod house was ransacked but Susan was not discovered and she was found safe when her parents returned the next morning. The book chronicles Susan’s life as she grows up and sounds like very interesting reading. Betty Lois also had a number of pictures, which she put on display with the other pictures, books and letters.

Ann briefly closed, calling her sister and cousins her mentors and said they were very close and always enjoyed getting together and had especially enjoyed gathering material for this meeting. She shared a couple of funny anecdotes and one concerned a visit to an elderly aunt in 1980, who was not too im­pressed that Ann was a member of the Castleberry School Board.

The aunt had bad memories of the time her family had gotten permission many years ago to drive a herd of cattle across some land belonging to Castleberry Schools, to their ranch in Cresson. As the herd came across the land, the school children were allowed to come out on a porch and they started ‘hooping and hollering’ as kids will do, and the herd stampeded. The aunt said it took them a week to round up the herd. This was in the days of the last big cattle drives before ranchers began to transport them by train or truck.

Ann also shared a funny story of the Bigby side of the family which has a very interesting history. Her Dad, Cliff Bigby, had a sister, Lola Mae, who married Orville Yeary and they lived on the North Side for many years prior to their death. (I knew them well as they were also members of my church.) Late in Lola Mae’s life, she asked Ann to drive her by the old Bigby Family two story gingerbread style home on Bluff Street where Lola Mae was born and grew up. Ann was delighted to do this and they de­cided to park outside the immaculately kept home while Lola Mae pointed out rooms and features about the house. As they were doing this, a nice gentleman came out of the house and invited them in and they were able to have a good visit and see how well the home had been preserved. They left feeling like the day had been a very fruitful one...only to read in the paper the next morning that the house had been raided that night...because it was a drug house.

These four ladies who spoke for us were not only great keepers of history, they were delightful. They shared that their family reunions are very important and have meant much to them through the years. Their last reunion of the Farmer family was made up of mostly cousins because the older generations are gone, but the cousins have a close bond. They all en­couraged us to delve into our own history and keep a record of it so it would not be lost for the generations to come. President Mary Earwood presented flowers to the ladies, compliments of Bradley Florist and we lingered to visit for a long time.

The next Historical Society meeting will be September 10, (due to Labor Day falling on our usual meeting night) at John Knox Presbyterian Church, at 6 p.m. We will have a speaker from the old Fort Worth Cats Ballclub so all you original Cats fans need to be there. I spent many a summer night as a young child at  LaGrave Field, so I certainly plan to be present.