character of Fort Worth changed substantially due to the commercial influence of the Chisholm Trail, the principal route for moving Texas cattle to the Kansas rail heads. An influx of cattle, men, and money transformed the sleepy frontier village. The area around the property purchased by the Clarks for their college soon housed stretch of saloons, gambling halls, dance parlors, and brothels. By 1872, it had acquired it the nickname of "Hell's Half Acre". The Clarks found an alternative site for their college at Thorp Spring, a small community 40 miles (60 km) in Hood County to the southwest near the frontier of Comanche and Kiowa territory.
=== Move to Thorp Spring, 1873–1895 ===
In 1873 the Clark brothers moved South to Thorp Spring and founded Add-Ran Male & Female College. TCU recognizes 1873 as its founding year, as it continues to preserve the original college through the AddRan College of Liberal Arts.
Add-Ran College was one of the first coeducational institutions of higher education west of the Mississippi …
