Smoke and fire showing: Fire, fraternity, and social order in post frontier Fort Worth 1873-1919

Abstract

This thesis paper explores the development of a post frontier area township along the original 1849 military outpost line and the co-evolution of integral social groups of firemen within an established Fort Worth, Texas, 1873. It explores the social order, city services, commercial economic enterprise, and the fire departments formation which played significant roles in Fort Worth’s existence and eventual survival. Fire events themselves created reasons for change within the budding region and created an unceasing morphing of the fire department institution and how it dovetailed into the city structure. Within this thesis is a focus on symbolic events intended to show a group of men and a city coevolving to support their community – that specific group are the volunteer firemen of Fort Worth.