Off The Beaten Path - Thurber, TX

[joe817]

Though it is a ghost town today, Thurber once had a population of perhaps as many as 8,000 to 10,000. At that time (1918–20) it was the principal bituminous-coal-mining town in Texas. The site of the town is seventy-five miles west of Fort Worth in the northwest corner of Erath County. Mining operations were begun there in December 1886 by William Whipple Johnson and Harvey Johnson. Isolation forced the operators to recruit miners from other states and from overseas; large numbers of workers came from Italy, Poland, the United States, Britain, and Ireland, with smaller numbers from Mexico, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, and Russia. Black miners from Indiana worked in the mines during the labor troubles of the 1880s.
The force of predominantly foreign workers, many of whom spoke little or no English, enabled the company to maintain a repressive environment for many years. Following inability to meet a payroll and a resulting strike by miners, the Johnsons sold out in the fall of 1888 to founders of the Texas and Pacific Coal Company, including Robert Dickey Hunter, who became president of the new company, and H. K. Thurber of New York, for whom the town was named.

Colonel Hunter chose to deal with the dissident miners, who were affiliated with the Knights of Labor, with an iron hand. The new company fenced a portion of its property and within the enclosure constructed a complete town and mining complex, including schools, churches, saloons, stores, houses, an opera house seating over 650, a 200-room hotel, an ice and electric plant, and the only library in the county. Eventually the strike ended, and the miners and their families moved into the new town. In addition to the mines, the company operated commissary stores. As in the typical company town, low pay, drawn once a month, forced employees to utilize a check system between pay periods, whereby the customer drew scrip, reportedly discounted at 20 percent, for use at the company's commissary stores. In 1897 a second industry came to the town, a large brick plant; Hunter was also a partner in this operation, which, although it was separate from the mining company's holdings, used clay found on company property. A stockade, armed guards, and a barbed wire fence, which restricted labor organizers, peddlers, and other unauthorized personnel, regulated access to the town.

Despite the retirement of Colonel Hunter in 1899, Thurber remained a company-dominated community. William Knox Gordon, the new manager of the Thurber properties, at first continued the established policy of suppression and antiunionism. Continuation of such activities resulted in a concentrated effort by the United Mine Workers to unionize the Thurber miners. Following the induction in September 1903 of more than 1,600 members into the Thurber local of the UMW and the organization of locals of carpenters, brick makers, clerks, meat cutters, and bartenders, the company opened negotiations with the workers and, on September 27, 1903, reached an agreement resulting in harmonious labor-management relations. Thurber gained recognition as the only 100 percent closed-shop city in the nation.

Despite occasional strikes, basic labor-management harmony prevailed, and Thurber remained a union stronghold until the demise of mining operations in the 1920s, after railroad locomotives began to burn oil rather than coal. Gordon's discovery of the nearby Ranger oilfield in 1917 stimulated this conversion, and the change of the company name to Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company in April 1918 signified shifting company interest toward oil production, which yielded large profits from 1917 to 1920. The conversion to oil-burning locomotives led to Thurber's demise; declining use of coal and a resulting wage cut led to labor unrest lasting through much of the 1920s and to a strike in 1926 and 1927. The company maintained operation of the brick plant until 1930, a general office until 1933, and commissary stores until 1935. By the late 1930s Thurber had become a virtual ghost town. The population was listed as eight in 2000.

Note: Thurber is actually on I-20 about 45 miles west of Weatherford. I've passed by it many times going out to Abilene. It's an interesting place to stop and have a bite to eat.

Here's another interesting story from Texas Escapes: "Only Indianola's story comes close to equaling the Thurber saga. Once the largest city between Fort Worth and El Paso, Thurber became a ghost due to corporate decisions and not the forces of nature, as was the case with Indianola. Thurber was the first city in Texas to be completely electrified and amenities included refrigeration and running water. It did, however have an abnormally high child mortality rate that still puzzles historians.
[ For the full story: http://www.texasescapes.com/FEATURES/Th ... sttown.htm ]

[Jusme]

I have seen thousandss of Thurber bricks. Ft. Worth, as well as other cities used them as street pavers. You can still see them in the Stockyards area of Fort Worth. During some rework of the streets in the 80s they were giving away some bricks, and I managed to get about 10 Thurber bricks. I can't lay my hands on them now, but I know I moved twice with them.
Great post Joe! I'm really enjoying reading about the history, of these towns.

[joe817]

I have seen thousands of Thurber bricks. Ft. Worth, as well as other cities used them as street pavers. You can still see them in the Stockyards area of Fort Worth. During some rework of the streets in the 80s they were giving away some bricks, and I managed to get about 10 Thurber bricks. I can't lay my hands on them now, but I know I moved twice with them.
Great post Joe! I'm really enjoying reading about the history, of these towns.

Thanks Jusme! And right you are about the Thurber bricks! From an excerpt from Texas Escapes:

"A brick factory was added to the mining operations since they had the material, the fuel, and the railroad to ship the end product. Tile was manufactured as well, but it was the thick, heavy Thurber paving brick that paid the bills. Congress Avenue in Austin was paved with them as well as Seawall Boulevard in Galveston. Governor "Ma" Ferguson's experimental highway from Belton to Temple was constructed with Thurber Brick and asphalt (or macadam as it was then called, after its inventor, a man named MacAdam). Mr. Leo Bielinski who has ties to Thurber dating back to his grandfather's arrival from Poland in 1889, adds that Camp Bowie Boulevard was paved with Thurber brick as well as The Fort Worth Stockyards."

I knew about the Thurber bricks before I learned of the coal mine there.

You lucky dog you! Getting your hands on 10 bricks!