The Caruth Family

A hundred and fifty years ago, two brothers came to Texas with little more than their name. And while all around them history moved on, they worked hard, took care of their family and their community, and left this world a better place for having been here. Although they were not famous in their own right, William and Walter Caruth epitomized the pioneer spirit of hard work and self-sacrifice. William and Walter entered the Texas frontier as pioneers and built a family fortune in the trades and in land.

  • The Texas Frontier -- In the late 1840s Texas was the frontier. Statehood had come in 1845, and there had been a war with Mexico. But the war was over, and the fertile Texas Plains beckoned settlers from across the country.

  • Coming to Texas -- William Barr Caruth left his home in Scottsville, Kentucky and came to the new settlement of Dallas, Texas in 1848, which was little more than a cluster of houses on the Trinity River. The initial plan for this village had just been laid out two years before. William saw the promise and he wrote for his brother Walter to join him. With $1000 they borrowed from their father, the two brothers started a general store near what is now downtown Dallas. Having a store was natural for them, since their father had been in the trades in Kentucky.

  • The first house -- After paying off their father's loan, they began to acquire land to the north of Dallas. In 1853, they built a one-story structure with post-oak joists and clapboard siding on land about 6 miles north of Dallas. At first this was used to open another store.

  • Frontier merchandising -- Throughout the 1850s their business prospered. And then, in 1858, they took a partner named Simons--Caruth, Simons & Co. But in 1860, the business district of downtown Dallas burned and the partners had to rebuild.

  • The land -- In 1858 William and Walter Caruth's father arrived in Texas from Bowling Green, Kentucky. Judge John Caruth had sold his business and brought enough capital with him to finance buying real estate. The Dallas area has rich, dark-colored soils in an area known as the "Blackland Prairie." These lands were magnificent for agriculture, particularly cotton, and wealth in this area was in the land.

  • Hardships of the frontier -- Fire, moving, rebuilding--these were but some of the hardships of frontier settlements. In the frontier settlements there was never enough hard currency. A store owner had to use the barter system to do business with many of his customers. It was often difficult to receive and pay for merchandise from suppliers. Goods from the manufacturing centers farther east had to be ordered months in advance. To pay for this merchandise, it was often risky to rely on the public postal system. As was the custom, the Caruths often hired private couriers to carry their money.
    You will please let us hear from you soon as we will be anxious to hear of the safe arrival of the funds, as the mails between this place and Little Rock, Arkansas have been robbed every mail for 4 months past.

    from a letter written by
    William and Walter Caruth

  • War -- With the coming of war in the South, the Caruth brothers joined the Confederate army. Because the brothers had experience as merchants, Walter became a Captain in the Quartermaster Corps, while William was assigned the Commissary Department These groups were responsible for supplying the troops with materials and food. Because William helped to provide beef for the army, Dallas became a major supply center.

  • Mattie Worthington -- During the Civil War years many families chose to move away from the hostilities. Part of the Worthington family of Mississippi moved to Dallas with this exodus. They came as a caravan with more than 50 individuals and settled on lands to the east of Dallas. There were two Worthington sisters, Mattie and Annie, who spotted the Caruth bachelors. Mattie fell in love with William Barr Caruth, and they were married on July 4, 1864. Nearly a year later, on March 5, 1865, Annie married Walter Caruth.

  • The postwar years -- Recovery was slow in the postwar South, but in Dallas, the 1870s were exciting times. The railroads came and Dallas became a major commercial center. The community received a charter in 1871 and became an official Texas city. In 1868, the Caruth & Brothers store had reopened and the family continued in the trades, but William and Mattie's main efforts were in building a family estate. All their energy went into acquiring land, which they considered the only sure investment for future prosperity. The family lived a typical plantation life of the post-war years, with thousands of acres of real estate. Cotton was king in Texas, along with cattle.

  • The Caruth home -- Until 1872, William and Mattie lived in the original house built by the Caruth brothers in the 1850s. That year they began construction of a new home. Workers were sent to East Texas, many miles away, to cut timber. Dallas was on the open plains, a vast area of rolling grasslands with scattered native trees along the streams. Quality construction-grade lumber was in the woodlands to the east.

  • Cancer -- In 1882, William developed skin cancer, a result of long years of work in the hot Texas sun. By 1884, the cancer had become severe and painful. He and Mattie traveled to Boston for medical help, but it was too late. He said, "Take me home to die, Mattie. I want to go home."

  • Death -- William Barr Caruth died October 19, 1885 in a bed that his father had hauled by wagon from Kentucky. William Barr Caruth had come to Dallas in 1848 with a watch, a pony, a $100 bill. By the time of his death 37 years later, he left behind one of the richest plantations in the State of Texas, with land and property that spread over 3 counties.

  • Mattie and Will, Sr. -- After William's death, Mattie continued to acquire real estate--some of it the most valuable the family would own. The family properties covered a large portion of what is now North Dallas. Their son William Caruth, Sr. was only 8 when his father died, but as he grew he shared the work of running the estate with his mother. Besides the work of farming, the plantation had a large dairy and two cotton gins. Mattie continued this work for another 22 years, until her death November 25, 1907.

  • Will, Sr. and Earle -- In 1905, William Caruth, Sr. married Earle Rauch Clark--a beautiful woman and a resourceful wife. The preacher was the same man who had married William Barr Caruth and Mattie 41 years before. Will and Earle continued to manage the Caruth properties and had two children--Mattie and Will, Jr.

  • The Caruth legacy -- William Barr Caruth entered Dallas as a pioneer and stayed to build a fortune. He passed to his family a pioneering spirit, characterized by vision, courage, hard work, and generosity. This family built hospitals, schools and camps for youth. In 1911 and in the years following, the Caruths gave land to establish Southern Methodist University. The Caruth family is truly one of the great stories of the pioneer spirit and the American dream.