Thurber

Thurber was a fenced town. The Handbook of Texas says the company enclosed part of its property and built inside it 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. A stockade, armed guards and barbed wire kept out organizers and peddlers. Pay came monthly, so workers drew scrip between paydays, reportedly discounted twenty percent, for the commissaries. The Handbook calls the setting repressive and says a largely foreign-born workforce, many speaking little English, made it easier to sustain.

What the plaque says

Thurber Most important mine site in Texas for 30 years. Coal here, probably known to Indians, was "discovered" in 1886 by W. W. Johnson, who with his brother Harvey sold out to Texas and Pacific Coal Company in 1888. (T. and P. Coal Company provided fuel for the Texas and Pacific Railroad, but was independently owned.) Town was named for H. K. Thurber, friend of T. and P. Coal Company founders. Most dynamic firm member was Robert D. Hunter (1833-1902), developer of 7 of 15 mines. Next president was E. L. Marston, Hunter's son-in-law, who left mining largely to William K. Gordon (1862-1949), an engineer who brought daily output to 3,000 tons. Then in 1917, Gordon (backed by management of coal company) was primarily responsible for discovery of Ranger oil field, 20 miles west. Adoption of oil- burning railway locomotives cut demand for coal. Last mine here closed in 1921, and the 10,000 or more inhabitants of Thurber began to move away. The coal firm changed its name to Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company and was sold in 1963 to Joseph E. Seagram and Sons, Inc., for $277,000,000.00. Renamed Texas Pacific Oil Company, it is now one of largest independent domestic energy suppliers. Much coal (by estimate 127,000,000 tons) remains underground. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Rip at the Eastland County Courthouse — 25 mi
  A horned lizard in a glass-topped casket in the 1928 Eastland courthouse, the creature said to have come out alive from the old building's cornerstone after thirty-one years.
• Lake Mineral Wells State Park and Trailway — 30 mi
  A Cross Timbers park on the old Camp Wolters grounds, built around a 1922 water-supply lake for a spa town, with Penitentiary Hollow's rock climbing and a 20-mile trailway.

More markers nearby

• Site of Hotel Knox and Thurber Mining Office — steps away
• New York Hill — 0.2 mi
• Site of Thurber Brick Plant — 0.2 mi
• St. Barbara's Catholic Church — 0.2 mi