It is prostitution specifically that created power and wealth for the women who chose that lifestyle at the time. They were known as "soiled doves" and while their less than moral activities contributed to an "anything goes" Wild West atmosphere in Fort Worth, their work in the sex trade left a lasting impact in the city's history. Brothels were abundant within the boundaries of Hell's Half Acre during the era, which thrived from Jessica Webb is a TCU-trained historian who wrote her dissertation about the topic.
She described the activity as being plentiful saying, "I would say the word rampant. The quote you see frequently used in newspapers of the day was that Fort Worth was a 'wide-open town. Webb said at the top and most expensive were parlor houses, which would offer all of the amenities at the time and the most desirable prostitutes.
Next down the line were brothels or boarding homes. At the very bottom of the list were cribs, one-room houses that customers would rent by the day. The women working there had usually "aged" out of parlor houses and brothels, but were still working in the sex trade. If a prostitute was successful, had money, and business sense, she would usually become a madam were she would run an entire operation to include buying or renting a house for service and employing a long list of workers and staff aside from prostitutes themselves.
One of the most famous madams of the time was Mary Porter, who was buried in Fort Worth's Oakwood Cemetery following her death in Her headstone, donated by local historians has her name inscribed on it, with the phrase "Call Me Madam" underneath. The madams made an extraordinary amount of money for the time, and oftentimes invested their money in other pursuits including philanthropic affairs. Historians say, whenever law enforcement did try and crack down on prostitution in "The Acre" it was the madams who were targeted with arrests.
Those arrests were loosely carried out, because the real intent was simply to collect fines and fees from the madams. Most who studied the matter say the madams were usually out of jail within hours and right back to business as usually once a fine was paid.
