Bennett L. Smith Collection

Tarrant County Archives > Holdings > Named Collections > S > Smith, Bennett L.

Bennett L. Smith at dedication of historical marker for Barron Field 1976

Bennett L. Smith at the dedication of the historical marker for Barron Field in Everman, July 23, 1976

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Bennett L. Smith was an attorney in Fort Worth, Texas. He was the founding Chair of the Tarrant County Historical Commission, which evolved from the earlier Historical Survey Committee. Smith worked as legal counsel for the Community Public Service Company (now Texas-New Mexico Power) and had an office in the Texas Electric Company building. Along with his legal job, he was involved with in UNESCO and local preservation projects. He authored several books and booklets, including Bethesda and The Last Train. He also edited publications, including Tarrant County Bar Memorials 1938-1976.

SCOPE AND CONTENTS

The Bennett L. Smith Collection contains books, publications, documents, and reference material related to his professional and volunteer work. The materials are dated from 1919 to 1984, with the majority dated 1950s-1970s.    

Materials in this collection consist of the following:

Books

  • Colonial Folkways, A Chronicle of American Life in the Reign of the Georges by Charles M. Andrews, Yale University Press, 1919
  • A Treasury of Southern Folklore edited by B. A. Botkin, Crown Publishers Inc., New York, copyright 1949, 1971 printing
  • Texas Under the Carpetbaggers by W. C. Nunn, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1962
  • My Home Town by Beatrice Gipson Carter, 1968
  • Frontier Towns of Texas by numerous authors, Waco: Texian Press, 1966, includes loose map of location of forts
  • Arlington, Texas: Birthplace of the Metroplex 1838-1910 compiled by Arista Joyner, published by the Arlington Bicentennial/Centennial Celebration Committee, printed by Texian Press, 1976
  • Marriage by Bond in Colonial Texas by Bennett Smith, Fort Worth: Branch-Smith Inc., 1972
  • Bethesda by Bennett Smith, Fort Worth: Branch-Smith Inc., 1969
  • Journals of the Convention, Texas, 1845, a facsimile reproduction of the 1845 Edition, published by Shoal Creek Publishers, 1974
  • Names on the Land by George R. Stewart, published by Houghton Mifflin Company, 1967
  • From Gun to Gavel, The Courtroom Recollections of James Mathers of Oklahoma as told to Marshall Houts published by William Morrow and Co., 1954
  • The Face of Liberty, Founders of the United States by James Thomas Flexner and Linda Bantel Samter, in cooperation with the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, published by New York: Clarkson N. Potter Inc., 1975
  • Texas, A Bicentennial History by Joe B. Frantz, published by New York: W. W. Norton and Company Inc., Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 1976
  • Sports Champions of Fort Worth, Texas 1868-1976 by Flem Hall, 1968, autographed
  • Tarrant County Bar Memorials 1938-1976 by Bennett L. Smith, 1977
  • Side Lights on Texas History by Ananias Twist, San Antonio: Naylor Company, 1959
  • The Typical Texas, Biography of an American Myth by Joseph Leach, Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1952
  • Volumes I and II of History of Texas, Fort Worth, and the Texas Northwest Edition by Capt. B. B. Paddock, Chicago and New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1922
  • The Raven, A Biography of Sam Houston by Marquis James, New York: Blue Ribbon Books Inc., 1929
  • Texas, An Informal Biography by Owen P. White, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1945
  • Force Without Fanfare, The Autobiography of K. M. Van Zandt, Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1968
  • Goodby to a River by John Graves, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960, autographed
  • A Judge Looks at Life by Jesse M. Brown, printed by Branch-Smith Inc., 1976, autographed
  • Texas - From Republic to an Economic Empire, A report on the Economic Development of Texas, published by The Republic National Bank of Dallas, 1945
  • An Informal History of Texas by Frank X. Tolbert, New York: Harper and Brothers, 1961
  • Adventures with a Texas Naturalist by Roy Bedichek, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1961
  • Southern Pacific's First Century, a booklet compiled by the staff of the railroad's Public Relations Department, published 1955
  • Under Texas Skies, National and State Constitutions, the People's Heritage, edited by A. Garland Adair and Col. Paul L. Wakefield, published by the Texas Heritage Foundation at Austin, 1947-1948
  • Fifty Billion Dollars, My Thirteen years with the RFC, 1932-1945 by Jesse H. Jones with Edward Angly, New York: Macmillan Co., 1951
  • The Southwestern Historical Quarterly Vol. LVXIII, January 1965, Austin: Texas State Historical Association
  • The Father of Texas, A Life of Stephen F. Austin for Young People by Eugene C. Barker, Austin: The Steck Company, 1935
  • The Texas Courthouse by June Rayfield Welch and J. Larry Nance, Dallas: G. L. A. Press, Waco: Texian Press, 1971
  • In Old Fort Worth by Mack Williams, 1977, signed by donor
  • Fort Worth, the Civilized West by Caleb Pirtle III, published by Continental Heritage Press Inc., Tulsa, 1980
  • Remember, A History of North Texas in Pictures by Leta Nagle Christopher, Fort Worth: Stafford-Lowden Company, 1972
  • Ozona Country by Allan R. Bosworth, New York: Harper and Row, 1964
  • The Texas Revolution William C. Binkley, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1952
  • Texas History Carved in Stone by William M. Jones, published by Monument Publishing Co., 1958, printed by Firm Foundation Publishing House, Austin, 1958
  • Along Texas Old Forts Trail by Rupert N. Richardson, Abilene: Neil Fry, 1972
  • 70 Years by George P. Hill, Fort Worth: Branch-Smith Inc., 1968
  • Texas in 1937, an Anonymous, Contemporary Narrative edited by Andrew Forest Muir, published by University of Texas Press, 1958
  • Bells Over Texas by Bessie Lee Fitzhugh, Texas Western Press, 1955
  • The Duel, July 11th, 1804, commentary by Don Wesely, pamphlet published by Pandick Press Inc., 1976
  • Wildcatting From Pennsylvania to Texas by Harold G. Neely, published by Iron Mountain Oil Company, designed and printed by The Fair Press, Terre Haute, Indiana, 1976, Book No. 0127, autographed
  • The Texas Border and Some Borderliners by Robert J. Casey, published by The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc., 1950, autographed
  • Texas Weather by Harold E. Taft Jr. and Ronald L. Godby, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: England and May, 1975
  • Stephen F. Austin's Legacies by Walter Ewing Long, Austin: Steck-Vaughn Company, 1970
  • The Last Train by Bennett L. Smith, 1406 First National Bank Building, Fort Worth, Texas 76102, June 6, 1969
  • The Lawyer Paces Scrap Book of Bench and Bar by W. T. Pace

Booklets

  • "One Hundred Years of the Supreme Court of Texas," report on ceremony commemorating the 100 year existence of the Supreme Court of Texas and celebrating the centennial of its first meeting, at Austin, January 13, 1940, West Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota
  • "A Bank and a Shoal of Time," The First National Bank, Fort Worth Texas, published by the bank, April 18, 1961
  • "City of Fort Worth Chapter," published and issued by authority of the City Council of the City of Fort Worth, Texas as adopted December 1924, with all amendments through April 4, 1981
  • "A City...and the Bank that Bears its Name. The Story of the Fort Worth National Bank," circa 1979
  • "Scenes from the Past: A Mid-Cities Album," by Duane Gage, 1975
  • "Newcomer's Guide to Fort Worth, a Special Place," an official publication of the Fort Worth Area Chamber of Commerce, 1974-1975
  • "The Constitution of the United States and its Amendments," published in 1939 for the Railway and Industrial Engineering Co.
  • "Dallas/ Fort Worth Airport Opening 1973," official commemorative dedication program, BP Industries Inc., 1973
  • "Dallas/ Fort Worth Airport, A Report 1975," photographs of Airport, Board of Directors, Tables of Outstanding Debt, with Special Facility revenue Bonds

Magazines

  • Southwestern Historical Quarterly
    • July 1963, Vol. 67, No. 1
    • January 1985, Vol. 88, No. 3
  • Texas Parks and Wildlife
    • September 1984
  • Traction News, employee publication, Northern Texas Traction Co.-Texas Motor coaches Inc.-Tarrant County Traction Co., Fort Worth, Texas
    • July-August, 1931, Vol. 4, No. 4

Papers and Reports

  • "Treaty Power and The United Nations," radio address made February 25, 1952, by Bennett L. Smith, Attorney
  • "A Trip to the United nations," by Bennett Smith, written approx. April 14, 1954
  • "UNESCO - It's Nature and Purposes," by Bennett L. Smith, Attorney, written in 1952

  • 50 reports titled "Capital and Fiscal Budget Composite Report," completed in 1957-58 by Booz, Allen and Hamilton,  management consultants. They had been hired by the City of Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Independent School District, and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce to collect budget and resource materials from the various municipalities, school districts, and water district; make recommendations for future planning that would be more efficient, productive, and cost efficient. The mission was to explore the possibilities of consolidating many of the same products into a county-wide or Fort Worth-led governing/taxing entity. Not all governing bodies cooperated or sent sufficient data to be useful, but the reports completed give a remarkable view of the economic conditions in the County in the mid-twentieth century.

    • Volume 1: Introduction with some initial data of the 49 governing units that makes up the reports

    • Volume 2: City of Fort Worth, 1958

    • Volume 3: Fort Worth Independent School District, 1958

    • Volume 4: Tarrant County, 1958

    • Volume 5: Tarrant County, Preliminary Report, 1957

    • Volume 6: Benbrook Water and Sewer Authority, 1958

    • Volume 7: Haltom City Water Authority, 1958

    • Volume 8: North Tarrant County Municipal Water District, 1958

    • Volume 9: Benbrook, 1958

    • Volume 10: Colleyville, 1958 

    • Volume 11: Crowley, 1958

    • Volume 12: Dalworthington Gardens, 1958

    • Volume 13: Euless, 1958

    • Volume 14: Grapevine, 1958

    • Volume 15: Haltom City, 1958

    • Volume 16: Hurst, 1958

    • Volume 17: Keller, 1958

    • Volume 18: North Richland Hills, 1958

    • Volume 19: Richland Hills, 1958

    • Volume 20: River Oaks, 1958

    • Volume 21: Saginaw, 1958

    • Volume 22: Saginaw Park, 1958

    • Volume 23: Westworth Village, 1958

    • Volume 24: White Settlement, 1958

    • Volume 25: Arlington Independent School District, 1958

    • Volume 26: Azle Independent School District, 1958

    • Volume 27: Bedford Common School District, 1958

    • Volume 28: Benbrook Common School District, 1958

    • Volume 29: Birdville Independent School District, 1958

    • Volume 30: Bludworth Common School District, 1958

    • Volume 31: Carroll Common School District, 1958

    • Volume 32: Castleberry Independent School District, 1958

    • Volume 33: Chapin Common School District, 1958

    • Volume 34: Crowley Independent School District, 1958

    • Volume 35: Eagle Mountain Common School District, 1958

    • Volume 36: Everman Independent School District, 1958

    • Volume 37: Grapevine Independent School District, 1958

    • Volume 38: Hurst-Euless Independent School District, 1958

    • Volume 39: Keller Independent School District, 1958

    • Volume 40: Kennedale Independent School District, 1958

    • Volume 41: Little Common School District, 1958

    • Volume 42: Mansfield Independent School District, 1958

    • Volume 43: Pleasant Run Common School District, 1958

    • Volume 44: Rendon Common School District, 1958

    • Volume 45: Rosen Heights Independent School District, 1958

    • Volume 46: Saginaw Common School District, 1958

    • Volume 47: Webb Common School District, 1958

    • Volume 48: Wheatland Common School District, 1958

    • Volume 49: John T. White Common School District, 1958

    • Volume 50: White Settlement Common School District, 1958

  • "The City Plan for Arlington, Texas, 1952. A Guide for Future Development," The City Planning and Zoning Commission. Freese and Nichols, Consulting Engineers, Robert W. Caldwell, Associate Planner

  • "City of Fort Worth Texas Municipal Life, 1931-1937." Published by the Bureau of Municipal Research, Fort Worth, August 1937

  • "A System of Major Streets for Fort Worth, Texas." Bartholomew and Associates St. Louis, MO, October 1, 1927

  • "Texas Electric Service Company: Industrial Market Study." Sales Department, Ebasco Services Incorporated, May 1944

  • "Factual Information concerning the Fort Worth Area," prepared by the Fort Worth National Bank, Industrial Department, Fort Worth, Texas, 1958

  • "Factual Information concerning the Fort Worth Area," prepared by the Fort Worth National Bank, Industrial Department, Fort Worth, Texas, 1959

  • "Fort Worth Industrial Factbook," prepared by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, February 8, 1960

  • "Services to Business and Industry by the City of Fort Worth." City Manager's Office, City of Fort Worth, February 18, 1966

  • "The North Fort Worth Story." North Fort Worth Business Association, 1970

  • A Tale of Two Cities by Fritz Alan Korth, senior thesis, Princeton University, April 19, 1961

Research Files

  • Sidney Samuels: includes newspaper articles, letters, resolutions

  • Bar Memorials: background information and correspondence for publication

  • 50th Anniversary Armistice, November 11, 1968, newspaper articles

Directories

  • Joint Petroleum Societies, Fort Worth, Texas, 1956-57