The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
THE JUNIOR HISTORIAN
ZANE-CETTI, CIVIC LEADER
by BETTY PRUITT
Arlington Heights High School, Fort Worth
ONE September day in 1873 a
young man alighted from his
stagecoach and viewed the small
frontier town past gorgeous fields of
wildflowers; he breathed the clean, dry
air of open country and decided to make
a short sojourn. Here was a young civil
engineer with exceptional talents, but
with no immediate prospects before him.
Jesse Shenton Zane was born of Eng-
lish-Quaker parentage on January I,
1844, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
When his mother married again the
original name Zane-Cetti came into ex-
istence. Anxious to keep his own name
and also to show respect for his step-
father, whom he liked very much, Jesse
hyphenated the two surnames. At fif-
teen the boy was sent to Karlsruhe, Ger-
many, to study civil engineering.' Upon
graduating he went into government
service before returning to America in
1870.
By letter of introduction to General
Grenville M. Dodge, Zane-Cetti became
connected with some of the pioneer rail-
road building projects of the South. He
was first attached to a corps of engi-
neers in Alabama. From Alabama he
was sent to Texas to assist in surveying
the original line of the Texas and Pa-
cific Railroad across the country to El
Paso. The corps actually required a mil-
itary escort of United States troops for
protection against hostile Indians. With
the "Black Friday" warning of the Pan-
ic of 1873 railroad construction came to
a standstill and men were without em-
ployment, Zane-Cetti among them.
Fort Worth, Texas, extending south
only to its second street, was an inviting
little town in 1873 when it gained the
energetic young man who was to live
more than half his life there helping
bring about the forward progress of the
community during the next quarter of
the century. Zane-Cetti was quickly ac-
cepted by the small group of Fort
Worth promoters when he established
his real estate and insurance office at
First and Main Streets and became ac-
tively engaged in the real estate busi-
ness. In the I88o's real estate men be-
came interested in the organization of a
real estate exchange for the purpose of
regulating the sale of property in Fort
Worth. Zane-Cetti, who actively sup-
ported the proposal, offered his office as
a meeting place. Here the interested
men gathered, established the exchange,
and elected Zane-Cetti president of the
new organization.
Soon after he had established himself
in Fort Worth Zane-Cetti began making
plans for marriage. While studying in
Germany he had become acquainted with
Emma Hoeflein, and after seven years
of correspondence she consented to come
to Texas and marry him. One can imag-
ine the readjustment Fraulein Hoeflein,
soon to be Mrs. Zane-Cetti, foresaw
when, fresh from a German metropolis,
she came to live in a tiny frontier town
with a group of cowboys as a welcoming
committee.
The couple moved into a two-room
cottage at Ninth and Calhoun Streets.
The family increased to include seven
children, four of them surviving in-
fancy.
At this' time Fort Worth was begin-
ning its struggle for the railroad, which
would make Fort Worth a leading city
of the Southwest, but the picture was
dim. The Texas and Pacific Railroad
had reached Dallas, but construction
had halted at Eagle Ford because of
insufficient funds. To make matters
worse the Texas Legislature had voted
land grants provided the tracks were
completed by a certain date. In the
slang of the day, "we were up against
it, and we knew it." But the enthusiastic
promoters of Fort Worth were not to
r6
