Fort Worth was only 40 years old, an aggressive, competitive town not far removed from the frontier. The Swift and Armour packing plants on the North Side were bringing thousands of newcomers to the city. Railroads, feed mills and grain elevators were the big industries- each a business where brawn and back-breaking labor were highly-prized assets. Fort Worth was still new country, a place where a man could rise fast if ambitious and tough. That year of 1913 a few businessmen looked ahead and saw that a city needed civilizing influences to become great. Co-operation, for one. Civic pride, for another. Willingness to pitch in for the common good.

Eight years earlier, a men's service club called Rotary had started in Chicago, based on those very principles, J. E. Mitchell of the Mitchell-Greer Jewelry Co., talked it over with Bismark Heyer of Leyhe Piano Co. They liked what Paul Harris, the Chicago lawyer who founded the first Rotary Club in 1905, said...

"The true rotary spirit is not the selfish one of trying to see how much you can get out of your fellow members, but the more altruistic one of trying to see how much benefit and good you can do for your fellow members."

Mitchell and Heyer acted. On Feb. 25, 1913, they and ten other businessmen met at the brand-new Westbrook Hotel. Mitchell was named temporary chairman, Heyer temporary secretary. On June 2, 1913, a formal charter arrived, making the Fort Worth club the 75th in the nation. Rotary grew rapidly here. The first official meeting was held June 28, 1913 at the Seibold Hotel on E. Seventh St. and attracted 23 members.
 

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