| |
Texas'
Premier Ghost TownTHURBER,
TEXASErath/ Palo
Pinto County
I-20, 70 miles W of Fort
Worth |
| | The
1908 smokestack in Thurber
Photo courtesy TXDoT | |
|
History
in a Pecan Shell
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.
Thurber was built by the Johnson
Coal Company that was later bought out by The Texas
and Pacific Coal Company in 1888. It's mining operation provided the fuel
for coal-burning locomotives of numerous railroads, including the Santa
Fe, the Southern Pacific, the Texas
& Pacific and the "Katy". At one time the
coal deposits were thought to be inexhaustible. We are told there are still millions
of tons left. |
| | A
Thurber Union-Made Brick
Photo courtesy TxDoT |
| | The
Thurber Brick yards.
Old post card TE Archives |
| Who
Needs a Watch when Whistles are Free
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.
The city lived by whistles. From 5:30 when the first miners would rise, to the
noon whistle, then the railroad whistles that would signal the approaching end
of the school day and finally the quitting whistle.. Armed
guards patrolled a huge fenced perimeter around Thurber, not to keep workers in,
but to keep Union organizers out. The mostly immigrant workforce was by and large
pretty gruntled, but why take chances? The Union eventually infiltrated and won
and Thurber became a Union town in 1903. *
( *After negotiating
with the Union, Thurber bricks had an added feature impressed into each brick
- the Triangle and initials T.B.T.) |
| | The
Thurber Mine Workers' Union Band
Courtesy Thurber Historical Assn |
| | Selling
Liberty Bonds during WWI
Courtesy Thurber Historical Assn
|
| | Thurber
Cemetery
TE photo |
The
Demise and Thurber Today In
1915 oil was piped in to fuel the brick furnaces. Ironically, the switching of
locomotives from coal to oil was in part responsible for Thurber closing. They
were using the product that was putting them out of business. Physically, Thurber
ceased to exist when the company sold the houses for the price of lumber and they
were carried away piece-meal or intact. After the brick-making operation closed,
workers were permitted to live rent-free and were given a thirty-dollar stipend
(in scrip) per month.
More recently, in the late 1960s and early 70s, Thurber became a center for
not one, but two controversial religious communes. The Children of God, and "The
Soul Clinic." They were evicted from private property they were leasing in the
vicinity sometime around 1972. |
A
typical miner's house - "Speegle House"
Photo courtesy Jonnie Goodwin, Thurber
Historical Assn, 2007 |
St.
Barbara Catholic Church in Thurber
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, February
2004 |
from
"Texas Tales" column by Mike Cox
"...Though those three
phases of Thurber's history - coal, bricks and oil -- are well known, much less
known is that the town became a production center for a fourth product: illegal
booze... more" |
| | Another
view of the smokestack in Thurber
TE photo, 2001 | |
|
| New
York Hill was the
name given to the neighborhood for the white-collar clerks and brick-counters
that the company recruited from the East Coast. In truth, they actually oversaw
the operations of the Ranger Oil Field. New York Hill is now the site for the
Restaurant of the same name. Thurber
has a yearly reunion every year on the 2nd Saturday
in June and has done so since 1937. |
Check
out the Official Thurber website at: www.thurberhistoricalassociation.com for
events and changing content. Thurber videocassettes and books are available at
New York Hill Restaurant across from the famous smokestack. Dr.
Leo Bielinski's informative site on Thurber is www.thurbertexas.com For
more information on Thurber, see if your library has:
THURBER:
The Life and Death of a Company Coal Town by John Spratt III.
FIRE
IN THE HOLE by Weldon Hardman or
THE
BACK ROAD TO THURBER by Leo S. Bielinski
Our sincere thanks to
Mr. Leo Bielinski who reviewed our article for accuracy and added to our knowledge
of this unique place, in our opinion the most fascinating of all Texas ghost towns.
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| THURBER:
The Life and Death | |
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