Answer:
d
Explanation:
The Texas and Pacific Railway (T&P) was being constructed westward across the state of Texas and, in anticipation of the railroad’s arrival, Fort Worth boomed.
Capt. B. B. Paddock, a Civil War veteran, had a lot to do with that “boom.” In 1872, he became editor of the Fort Worth Democrat. Boundless in his enthusiasm for Fort Worth’s future, the editor published a map as part of the paper’s masthead showing nine railroads entering Fort Worth — this at a time when the nearest line was some 30 miles away.
Editors in other towns jested about Paddock’s “tarantula map.”
In the autumn of 1872, the T&P had been built to Eagle Ford, six miles west of Dallas.
Then disaster struck.
The Wall Street firm backing the railroad, Jay Cook & Co., failed. A mass exodus brought the population of Fort Worth from 4,000 to less than 1,000.
One morning, a resident pointed to some marks on a business street and declared, “That’s where a panther slept last night.” No one had seen any panther and the spot might have been where a calf had wallowed. But a young lawyer with a sense of humor, who moved from Fort Worth to Dallas, wrote a letter to the newspaper stating that Fort Worth was so nearly deserted that a panther had slept in the street. Capt. Paddock, however, embraced the reference and dubbed Fort Worth “Pantherville,” giving the city another famous nickname — Panther City.
Residents felt that the future of their town depended upon obtaining the T&P, and they soon took up the task of building the line. The Tarrant County Construction Company was organized, the capital stock being subscribed in money, labor, material, forage and supplies.
According to one historian, Maj. K.M.Van Zandt was probably more responsible than any other man for bringing the T&P. into Fort Worth. Van Zandt, a young lawyer, just out of the Confederate army and broken in health and wealth, headed west with his family to start life anew, arriving in Fort Worth in August, 1865. Van Zandt, Captain E.M. Daggett, Thomas J. Jennings and H.G. Hendricks gave the railroad company 320 acres in what was then the southern part of the city. Van Zandt was elected president of the citizens’ construction company and a contract was let for the work, which began in the fall of 1875.
