By Lindsey Light In December of 1902, A. B. “Bert” Marston arrived at the Stilwell Hotel in Pittsburg, Kansas, to gather African American workers to go with him to Thurber, Texas, to mine coal. Marston was the assistant storekeeper of the Texas Pacific Mercantile and Manufacturing Company (TPM&M). TPM&M was...
By Matt Stephenson The Obel family moved to Palo Pinto County, from Montgomery County, Alabama, in the early 1880s. Phillip Wilhelm Obel purchased farm land at Mingus and went to work as a butcher in Thurber located two miles south. His two sons, John Phillip (J.P.) and William (Will) Reinhold...
By Matt Stephenson Northern Erath and southern Palo Pinto Counties were the largest coal producing areas in the state of Texas from the late 1880s until 1946. In the region, the coal industry centered on the Texas & Pacific Coal Company (T&P) mines. In fact, in the mid-1890s T&P conducted...
By Lindsey Light In 1928 the Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company opened its first TP Aero Brand filling station in present-day downtown Fort Worth, Texas in the middle of the wide intersection at West Seventh Street and Camp Bowie Boulevard. It was designed in a unique octagonal shape and...
By Matt Stephenson Coal mining is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. In Thurber miners worked in coal seams that were often two to twenty feet thick. They spent the day hunched over or lying on their sides using hand tools and explosives to break coal deposits...
By staff When a coal mining company established a town, it often built a church, a school, a saloon, and a general mercantile. In some cases miners, company employees, and their families could purchase goods only at that location. In Thurber the store began as a small commissary that dealt...
By David Buster At one time, Thurber was the largest city between Fort Worth and El Paso boasting some 10,000 plus residents. The most important coal mining site in the state of Texas, it was a major manufacturer of paving bricks and the headquarters of the company that discovered the...