A military post was established here in 1849, being called first Camp
Worth and then Fort Worth. It was abandoned in 1853. A settlement grew
up about the fort, and the city was incorporated in 1873. The fort and
the settlement were named in honour of General William Jenkins Worth
(1794-1849), a native of Hudson, New York, who served in the War of
1812, commanded the United States forces against the Seminole Indians in
1841-1842, served under both General Taylor and General Scott in the
Mexican War, distinguishing himself at Monterey (where he earned the
brevet of major-general) and in other engagements, and later commanded
the department of Texas. In 1907 Fort Worth adopted a commission form of
government.
FORTY, the cardinal number equal to four tens. The word is derived from
the O. Eng. _feowertig_, a combination of _feower_, four, and _tig_, an
old form of "ten," used as a suffix, cf. Icel. _tiu_, Dan. _ti_, ten,
and Ger. _vierzig_, forty. The name "The Forty" has been given to
various bodies composed of that number of members, particularly to a
judicial body in ancient Athens, who tried small cases in the rural
districts, and to a court of criminal jurisdiction and two civil appeal
courts in the Venetian republic. The French Academy (see ACADEMIES) has
also been known as "The Forty" or "The Forty Immortals." The period just
before the repeal of the corn laws in the United Kingdom is frequently
alluded to, particularly by the free trade school, as the "hungry
forties"; and the "roaring forties" is a sailor's name for the stormy
region between the 40th and 50th latitudes N. and S., but more
particularly applied to the portion of the north Atlantic lying between
those latitudes.
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