Erath County, Texas: History
=== Native Americans ===
Caddo tribe Anadarko villages were scattered along the Trinity and Brazos Rivers. French explorer Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe developed camaraderie among the Anadarko in 1719 when he established Fort Saint Louis de los Cadodaquious. The Anadarko became entangled with the French battles with the Spanish and later the Anglos and suffered the consequences, including diseases to which they had low immunity. By 1860, these tribes moved to Oklahoma. Erath County falls into Comancheria and found itself raided by Comanches until their removal to Oklahoma after 1875.
Erath County was formed from Bosque and Coryell Counties in 1856 and named for George Bernard Erath, one of the area's original surveyors. In 1856, John M. Stephen offered to donate land for a townsite. It was named Stephenville after him and became the county seat.
Jones Barbee founded the community of Dublin in 1854. His children were the first citizens to be buried in Erath County in the community of Edna Hill, in southern Erath. Barbee Cemetery is named after him. Jones traveled with his wife and children across the country from North Carolina. He is the grandson of Christopher "Old Kit" Barbee, North Carolina's wealthiest landowner and the largest land donor for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Barbee served as board president; a bronze statue of him is at the university. Jones had many children who went on to populate the county, with names such as Barbee, White, Durham, and Brambeletts. Dublin later became famous as the early boyhood home of the PGA, U.S. Open and Masters golf champion Ben Hogan.
In 1857, about 30 pioneers settled in the county, led by George Erath. The group included brothers William F. and John M. Stephen and a black family whose name and fate are unknown.
Erath, an immigrant from Vienna, Austria, was a Texas Ranger and member of Billingsley's Company C, 1st Regiment of Texas Volunteers, under the command of Colonel Charles Burleson at the Battle of San Jacinto and a member of the Confederate Home Guard. As a Freemason, he was a charter member and secretary of Bosque Lodge #92, from 1852 to 1855. The lodge's name changed to Waco #92 in 1857. It is the oldest continuous organization in Waco, Texas.
Cotton became the major crop between 1875 and 1915, with the largest harvest in 1906. The industry was helped in 1879, when the Texas Central Railroad reached Dublin, and in 1889, when the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad was completed through Stephenville. This opened eastern markets for the county's cotton crops. By 1910, soil erosion and the boll weevil caused diversity planning that led to dairy farms, fruit orchards, nurseries, and farming peanuts, feed crops, and poultry.
The community of Thurber was created by the Johnson Coal Company. From 1888 to 1921, the Texas Pacific Coal Company mined coal near Thurber, making it a leading coal producer in the state. About 52% of the miners were of Italian ancestry, creating the "Italian Hill" community just outside Thurber. In 1903, the United Mine Workers sent Joe Fenoglio to organize the Italian workers, beginning the Thurber coal-miners strike. In the 1970s, the area began bituminous coal production for fuel in the Portland cement industry.
Tarleton State University was founded in 1893 as Stephenville College. …