Where forty-two came from

The Handbook of Texas has an entry, "Forty-Two (Domino Game)," written by Dennis Roberson. It puts the start in 1887, in the little school community of Trapp Spring, now part of Garner, in Parker County, about forty-five miles west of Fort Worth.

Two boys there, William Thomas, twelve, and Walter Earl, fourteen, liked cards and were not allowed to play them. The Handbook says they turned to dominoes, which was not treated as sinful, and worked out a bidding game with trumps for two teams of two. A double-six set. The name comes from the forty-two points in a hand. The Handbook says the first team to 250 wins.

Thomas and Earl taught their families and that small community. Thomas delivered fruit from his father's orchard to Mineral Wells and taught the game there. Later the Thomases and the Earls moved to Fannin County, in Northeast Texas, and taught it again. The Handbook says that by 1940 people were learning it in every corner of Texas, and that during World War II Texas soldiers took it overseas.

It also says the game was passed down by mouth, family to family, and that the rules, the strategy, and the history were not in a book until the 1990s. That book is Winning 42: Strategy & Lore of the National Game of Texas. The Handbook's own bibliography dates it to Texas Tech University Press, 1997, with a fourth revised edition in 2009. There is a later printing too. That is a story for another morning.

A sharper telling sits in the Legislature's House Concurrent Resolution 84, from the 82nd session. The governor signed it on June 17, 2011. The resolution says it is following research Christopher Evans of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram did in 1985. In that account the boys are William A. Thomas and Walter Earl, they were caught in a barn hayloft playing auction whist, their Baptist families punished the cards, and dominoes were allowed. It says the game later became popular in Fannin County after the families moved to Windom. I have not read the August 3, 1985 Star-Telegram story itself. The hayloft, the whist, and Windom are the resolution's report of that research. The Handbook agrees on the year, the town, the ages, the move to Fannin County, and the reason they used dominoes. It does not tell the hayloft.

The Handbook's bibliography also names the Parker County Historical Commission's History of Parker County (Dallas: Taylor, 1980). I am not quoting that book. I have not had it in my hands.

The National 42 Players Association, on its own bylaws at n42pa.org, calls itself a social and recreation club. Those bylaws record a first annual formal meeting on March 5, 2005, and they name a founding board, Dennis Roberson of Fort Worth among them. Their public places are n42pa.org, the Facebook group, and @N42PA on X. This note is not a tournament listing. The useful part for a kitchen table is older than the club: the Handbook says the game spread by word of mouth. Tables still do not all play the same way. That last sentence is what you hear when you sit down. It is not a line from the Handbook.

Sources, and only these:

• Dennis Roberson, "Forty-Two (Domino Game)," Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. Original publication September 4, 2009. Most recent revision January 5, 2012. tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/forty-two-domino-game
• House Concurrent Resolution No. 84, 82nd Legislature, enrolled text, and the Legislature's history page showing the governor's signature on June 17, 2011. Enrolled text. History
• National 42 Players Association Constitution and By-Laws, the copy posted at n42pa.org (adopted in the 2025 elections, effective January 1, 2026, and still carrying the 2005 adoption note). PDF