and its association as "Cowtown." Fort Worth was a good resting point for cowboys driving their cattle to Abilene, Kansas. As many northern cattle buyers established headquarters in Fort Worth, new businesses set up in the city, including Pendery and Wilson's Liquor Wholesale, B. C. Evans dry goods, and Martin B. Loyd's Exchange Office. In 1873 Fort Worth was incorporated with a mayor-council government, and W. P. Burts was elected as the city's first mayor. Panther City In 1875, the Dallas Herald published an article by a former Fort Worth lawyer, Robert E. Cowart, noting the drop in population due to the Panic of 1873 and harsh winter, had dealt a severe blow to the cattle industry. The railroad company had stopped laying track outside of Fort Worth, and Cowart said the city was so torpid that he saw a panther asleep in the street outside the courthouse. Although an intended insult, the nickname Panther City was embraced by residents as Fort Worth recovered the next year from the depression. In 1876, the Texas and Pacific Railway arrived in Fort Worth, causing a boom and transforming the Fort Worth Stockyards into a premier cattle industry center of wholesale trade. The arrival of the railroad ushered in an era of tremendous growth, as migrants from other areas of the war-torn South continued to swell the population. Newly dubbed the "Queen City of the Prairies", Fort Worth supplied a regional market via the growing transportation market. 20th century New industries In 1902 the Swift and Armour meat packing companies set up facilities in Fort Worth. Their arrival meant employment for thousands of workers, greatly increasing the prosperity of the town. As a result, the town's population tripled in size from 26,600 people to more than 73,000, and it attracted migrants from rural areas, as well as immigrants. Texas had a segregated society, and often excluded blacks from the better jobs in new industries such as meat packing. The Fort Worth Gas Company was created in 1909 and began serving almost 4,000 customers via a pipeline from Petrolia, Texas. W.K. Gordon, superintendent of the Texas Pacific Coal Company, believed there was oil in the town of Ranger, away from Fort Worth. While he was testing for oil, a message came in from the headquarters in New York, saying, "Believe had made mistake, suggest you stop drilling". In October 1917, after Gordon had convinced