Fort Worth was once a city with a saloon on almost every corner — from high-class, uptown places to the low-dives of Hell’s Half-Acre. They tended to be named either for the proprietor (such as, Sheehan’s Saloon) or by using a well-known name like “the Oriental.” Some of those names showed up all over the West (such as the White Elephant).
The saloon was a mostly male preserve (unlike the modern-day nightclub), a place where a man could escape the cares of everyday life and his responsibilities at home. Women generally weren’t allowed in because they put a damper on the favorite pastimes of drinking and gambling, not to mention swearing and fighting.
Sometimes the manly culture made a man forget more than he should have. In 1883, John Willingham took his daughter with him to his favorite drinking establishment one morning, and when he tottered out the door after a few drinks, he left her behind. After a few hours, the barkeep called the authorities, who spent the rest of the day looking for the father. They placed the girl in the hands of the jailer where the father reclaimed her the next day…