WILLIAM W. TRIPPET, a retired merchant of Fort Worth but still actively connected with mercantile interests in Altus, Greer county, Oklahoma, is better known in the former city as Buck Trippet, by which name he is recorded in the city directory. He has lived in Fort Worth since 1868 and is one of the prominent representatives of commercial life here. A native of Missouri, his birth occurred near Versailles, Morgan county, August 16, 1843, his parents being Aaron and Martha (Ingram) Trippet. The father belonged to an old Virginian family and at an early age became a resident of Missouri. Throughout his entire life he has followed merchandising and now at an advanced age he is still conducting a mercantile enterprise at Waxahachie, Texas. For more than sixty years he has been selling goods, and his business record is a most creditable one. He began merchandising in Versailles, Missouri, and subsequently continued business in the same line in Osceola, St. Clair county, that state. Soon after the war he arrived in Texas. His resources had all been swept away by the depredations of General Jim Lane in southwestern Missouri, but here he made a new start and he has prospered as the years have gone by. His wife, who was born in Alabama, is now deceased.
Mr. Trippet of this review, like his father, has devoted his life to merchandising. He was associated with him in business until about ten years prior to the Civil war, when they removed from Versailles to Osceola, Missouri, and while living there W. W. Trippet joined the Confederate army. He remained in that state for only a brief period, however, after which he came south to Texas and at Pilot Point, Denton county, he enlisted in the Twenty-ninth Texas Cavalry, serving throughout the remainder of the war in the Trans-Mississippi department, principally in the Indian Territory and Arkansas. He saw active and severe service, undergoing all the hardships, privations and dangers of war and he was five times wounded during his military career. He took part in the battles of Poison Springs, Cabin Creek and other engagements, including the fighting around Camden, Arkansas, where Steele tried to go to the relief of Bank’s army.
When the war was over Mr. Trippet returned to Missouri, but when a brief period had elapsed he, like his father, came to Texas, and since 1868 has made his home in Fort Worth, being one of the oldest living merchants of the town. At the time of his arrival there were but a few straggling store buildings around the court house square and Mr. Trippet has much to tell concerning the appreciation of realty values, for in the early days property that now commands high prices could be purchased for a nominal sum. Embarking in the hardware trade in Fort Worth he conducted his store for about twenty years and for fifteen or sixteen years occupied the well known corner of the court house square and Houston street. Some time ago he retired from business in Fort Worth and with his son, A. T. Trippet, established a general store at Altus, Greer county, Oklahoma, which is a successful enterprise. However, he retains his residence in Fort Worth, spending only a part of his time in Altus.
Mr. Trippet married Miss Lucy Andrews, December 1, 1868, a native of Kentucky, and they have six children: Mrs. Effie Proter, George, Mrs. Catharine Swan, Aaron T., Mrs. Clyde Martin and Nellie. For thirty years Mr. Trippet has been a member of the Masonic fraternity and in his life exemplifies the beneficent spirit of the craft. Throughout an active business career his labors have been carefully directed by his second judgment and keen discrimination, and through his utilization of opportunity, combined with unremitting diligence, he has gained success that classes him with the substantial residents of this part of the state.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 150-151.