Edward H. Tarrant

Edward H. Tarrant (1796 or 1799 – 1858) was the namesake of Tarrant County. He was born in South Carolina and was the son of Samuel A. Tarrant and Nancy Anna Hampton Tarrant. He was the youngest of at least four children. His father died in 1799 and his mother remarried after many years. Tarrant was living in Muhlenburg, Kentucky at the outset of the War of 1812 and is said to have participated throughout the war, including the Battle of New Orleans. After the war ended, he lived for some time in Tennessee before moving to Texas after 1830, settling first in Red River County.

Over the next twenty years, Tarrant served as a member of the Texas Congress, served and led ranger activities in defense of Anglo settlements and against the native tribes in North Texas. He is not known to have actively participated in the Texas Revolution. He became acquainted with early north Texas individuals such as John Neely Bryan, John B. Denton and George W. Terrell as Anglo settlements were established in that part of the state.

Around the time that Fort Worth and Dallas settlements began to take hold, there were still native tribes in the area. Some had established settlements of their own while others were more mobile and tended to follow the roaming bison herds and other game, leading to inevitable clashes with the ever increasing numbers of settlers. While generally described as a peaceful settlement, a group of Caddo, Cherokee and Tonkawa tribe members had a settlement on Village Creek, southeast of what is now Fort Worth. Village Creek was a tributary of the Trinity River and this settlement provided a barrier. In addition, there were clashes between the two groups, and raids against the incoming settlers. The Texas government authorized punitive actions against the Village Creek and other settlements as early as 1838, but had failed to neutralize the tribes. Then in 1841, military raids were authorized and in May of that year, Texas militia forces attacked the Village Creek settlements. Late in May, Tarrant was by then a General and led a group of about seventy men to attack the settlement. In the ensuing battle, Captain John B. Denton was killed and others were wounded and there were reportedly numerous casualties among the tribes. Tarrant ordered his troops to withdraw. He later returned with reinforcements totaling about four hundred men, only to find that the village had been deserted. In the fall of 1843, the Treaty of Bird’s Fort was signed and among other things, it was intended to end hostilities between the tribes and the state of Texas. Tarrant and Terrell were said to be among the principal negotiators for the agreement.

He returned to politics in his 50s. He is said to have participated in the annexation convention that resulted in Texas rejoining the Union. He also ran for office, first making an unsuccessful run for the office of lieutenant governor in 1847 after which he was again elected for two terms to the Texas House of Representatives.

In 1849, Tarrant was serving as a state representative from what was then Navarro County. He introduced two bills that created Ellis and Tarrant counties. Ellis was named for Richard Ellis, president of the Texas Constitutional Convention and whom Tarrant had known back in Red River County. Tarrant was named for Edward Tarrant.

Tarrant was married first to Polly Young who died in 1850 and then to Mary Danforth (1831 -1891) after Polly’s death. Some genealogy records also mention a Mary Hawkins, but that was likewise a reference to Mary Danforth, who married James Emerson Hawkins (1829 – 1912) after Tarrant’s death. Mary Danforth was much younger than Tarrant by more than thirty years.

Hawkins was a Confederate veteran of the Civil War and after his marriage to Mary Danforth Tarrant, the couple had at least four children. Hawkins had been a long time family friend of the Tarrants and was also a business associate (law partner).

Tarrant had been a farmer, practiced law and had also actively served in local militias for much of his life. He was still engaged in the latter activity when he died. He had been on his way to Fort Belknap where he had moved some of his family. Tarrant took ill while he was near Weatherford and died at the home of William Fondren.

Upon his death, Tarrant was temporarily buried at Fondren’s home in Parker County. About a year later, he was interred in Hughes cemetery near Italy in Ellis County in the small cemetery near his farm. There was a concern that it would be lost to history. An article in the July 4, 1908 issue of the Fort Worth Record and Register contained comments from Ellis County residents about this concern. I. P. Hall of Joshua in Johnson County happened to be in Fort Worth for medical treatment and said that he and his brother, Jacob Young of Italy were two of the last people who would have known the exact location of the grave. Hall said “The grave contains no marks of identification except for a small sandstone slab at the head and foot, without inscription, and I think my brother and I are the only one(s) who could point it out.” Hall added his opinion that Fort Worth ought to erect a monument of some kind to Tarrant. He also noted that the cemetery adjoined a tract of land owned by Tarrant which was why he was first buried there.

Twenty-two years later, another article in the Victoria Advocate on February 28, 1928 commented on the upcoming thirty-seventh convention of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, set to take place early the next month. One of the scheduled speakers was W. L. Kemp of Houston who was interested in marking the graves of Texas heroes and where it was appropriate, to have them removed to proper burial places. The article specifically mentioned the desire to remove Tarrant’s remains from its unmarked grave in Ellis County to Pioneers’ Rest Cemetery in Fort Worth. Later that year it was relocated to Fort Worth. The Canyon News in its January 5, 1931 issue commented on the project to raise $2,000 to find the monument to fund the memorial at Tarrant’s grave in Fort Worth.

Pioneer’s Rest Cemetery is located just east of the West Fork of the Trinity, north of downtown Fort Worth, between Rock Island/Samuels and the railroad track. There are several historical markers in the area including one for Tarrant and for the cemetery.

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