The History of 'White Settlement', Texas

The town of White Settlement, Texas is a Northwestern suburb of Fort Worth, just inside the I-820 beltway. The population at the time of the last census was 14,831. White Settlement made the news in a sad way as the site of a shooting at the West Freeway Church of Christ in which one parishioner died and another seriously wounded. The shooter was killed by two armed church-goers who are being considered heroes by some. There were armed security guards at the church as well. People are already staking out their usual positions on gun control but this article isn’t about that. I was curious about how White Settlement got its name and decided to research it.

In the 1840s, the village was literally the only group of almost all-white homesteaders in the midst of several Native American encampments. There are ranches bigger than the approximately 5 square miles it encompasses. The population today is approximately 86% white. The next largest group is African-Americans at just over 4%. The Native Americans that once surrounded White Settlement make up just 0.58% of its citizens.

In 2005, concerns that White Settlement was losing business opportunities because of its name prompted a vote to consider changing it. A name change was overwhelmingly rejected in a vote totaling 2388 against and 219 for. The oldest street in town is White Settlement Road. The Naval Air Station -Fort Worth occupies some of the land. Local schools are overseen by the White Settlement Independent School District.

I realize there’s a history that can’t be found on the Internet. The settlers weren’t the original inhabitants of the land. Even after White Settlement was founded, most of the original inhabitants were forced away. Blood and tears are the legacy of Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine. But today, concern for the church shooting is enough to consider.

Before today’s shooting, the big local news was about a local YMCA opening up and the Christmas tree round-up. This shooting will likely be obscured by the multiple stabbing at a Rabbi’s home in New York. There will be speculation about the shooter’s motive and about the victim and the loss experienced by family members. My curiosity about the name settled for the moment, I’ll say a prayer that this type of news doesn’t keep repeating itself. Amen.

—

This post was previously published on The Polis and is republished here with permission from the author.
—

***