By special guest blogger LeAnna Schooley When the descendant of a former Thurber resident contacts the Gordon Center looking for information, the request always makes its way to me. As curator, I use research to identify artifacts, develop exhibits, and dig out the true tales of life in our company...
By special guest blogger, Stephanie Winnett Indigestion? Nausea? Hypertension? Fever? Headache? Today, you would drive to the local pharmacy for an over-the-counter medication to cure what ails you. However, at the turn-of-the-century, in rural areas like those around Mingus and Thurber, people relied on country doctors. Dr. John T. Spratt...
By Mary Adams Thurber, Texas, located approximately 70 miles west of Fort Worth, was a self-sufficient town in many aspects thanks in part to the Texas Pacific Mercantile and Manufacturing Company, a subsidiary of Texas and Pacific Coal Company. TPM & M provided for the material needs and desires of...
By David Buster At its peak, Thurber, Texas, boasted some 10,000 plus residents. While this figure may seem small by today’s standards, Thurber was once the largest city between Ft. Worth and El Paso and one of the state’s most renowned industrial sites. It was home to Americans from every...
By Mary Adams Beginning in 1897, the Green and Hunter Brick Company, later known as the Thurber Brick Company, produced, and sold a special heavy-duty brick called a paver to many cities and towns in Texas. Roads in and around the stockyards and Camp Bowie Boulevard in Fort Worth, Congress...
By Gary Spurr The Texas & Pacific Coal & Oil Company papers record the history of the corporation from the 1880s through its sale in the 1960s. Over the years, employees compiled annual reports, publications, tax files, coal and oil exploration data, maps, and ledgers filled with financial accounts. One...
By David Buster At approximately 2:30 am June 3 1904, the night engineer in the tower building of No. 8 Mine discovered a fire. Company investigations revealed that the conflagration most likely began when men from the machine shop making repairs, dropped cigarette butts or some other flammable material into...
by Mary Adams Thurber, Texas was at one time the largest community between Fort Worth and El Paso with a population of approximately ten thousand at its peak. People came to Thurber from diverse backgrounds and locations including at least eighteen different countries. Despite the size and diversity, the people...
By Mary Adams It is that time of the year when trees are decorated, people bustle around buying gifts for friends and family, children line up to sit on Santa’s lap and then anxiously await his late night visit on December 25. Texas Pacific Coal Company and its subsidiary, Texas...
By David Buster On the night of May 18, 1911, John Woods of Thurber stayed the night with one Mrs. Alice Beatty of Millsap. Woods was there visiting Mrs. Beatty’s daughter and his paramour, Pearl Little. Pearl had been staying with her mother as she had recently separated from her...
by Mary Adams The move from summer to fall is accompanied by many changes. The air is damper, the temperatures are cooler, and the trees begin to change colors and lose their leaves. Some years the coming of fall brings other, less enjoyable, elements such as influenza. Often flu season...
By special guest bloggerGene Rhea TuckerDoctoral student at University of Texas at Arlington Thurberites drank beer, wine, and other spirits in great amounts. Miners and other laborers demanded that alcohol be available to slake their thirst and wet their parched throats, dusty from work in the mines and brickyards. Many...
In 1918 Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company required crushed rock and other road-making materials for its use and for sale to others. According to a 1927 Dallas Morning News article, they found just what they needed “in the midst of acres of rocks that had never been disturbed by...
The Story of a Thurber Fighter PilotBy David Buster Audax Fortis et Fides–Bold, Brave, and Faithful–Motto for the 505th Fighter Squadron. Originally from Tredegar, Wales, Thomas O. Thomas came to the United States with his brother Jack by way of Liverpool, England, on the passenger ship Carmania. They arrived at...
“The working families that lived in Thurber had few watches or clocks for their daily lives were governed by whistles. At the company power plant, engineers scanned clocks with large dials and numbers and sounded the whistles at designated times.” (Thurber Texas; the Life and Death of a Company Coal Town,...
By Ashley Franz-Davis, May 2009 graduate As English poet Lord Alfred Tennyson wrote, “In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” So too do a young woman’s. May Day, May 1st of each year, traditionally represents the gathering of flowers and dancing around the maypole...
by David Buster Arithmetic! Algebra! Geometry! Grandiose trinity! Luminous triangle! Whoever has not known you is without sense!~ Comte de Lautréamont After reading this quote, I have decided that Lautréamont would have a field day with me. Surely, the nineteenth century Uruguayan-born French poet would mark me as an idiot. After...
The Industrious Historian is a collaborative effort on behalf of the graduate students and staff members of the W. K. Gordon Center of Industrial History of Texas. The many untold tales of the company town of Thurber and industrial history around the state of Texas inspired the effort, which intends to...