Follow
Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Erath County, Texas.
Official Website
Caddo tribe Anadarko villages were scattered along Trinity and Brazos Rivers. French explorer Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe developed camaraderie among the Anadarko in 1719 when he established Fort Saint Louis de los Cadodaquious. The Anadarko became entangled with the French battles with the Spanish and later the Anglos and suffered the consequences, including diseases from which they had no immunity. By 1860, these tribes moved to Oklahoma. Erath County falls into Comancheria and found itself raided by Comanches until their removal to Oklahoma after 1875.
Erath County was formed from Bosque and Coryell counties in 1856 and named for George Bernard Erath, one of the original surveyors of the area. Erath (1813–1891), an immigrant from Vienna, Austria, was a Texas Ranger and member of Billingsley’s Company C, 1st Regiment of Texas Volunteers, under the command of Col. Charles Burleson at the Battle of San Jacinto, and a member of the Confederate Home Guard. As a Freemason, he was a charter member and secretary of Bosque Lodge #92, from 1852 to 1855 which changed its name to Waco #92 in 1857 and remains the oldest continuous organization in Waco, Texas.
A. H. Dobkins founded the community of Dublin in 1854. Other early settlers in Dublin were Will and Tom Holland. Dublin later became famous as the early boyhood home of the PGA, U.S. Open and Masters golf champion Ben Hogan.
Cotton became the major crop between 1875 and 1915, with the largest crop being in 1906. The industry was helped in 1879 when the Texas Central Railroad reached Dublin, and in 1889 when the Fort Worth and Rio Grande railroad was completed through Stephenville. This opened eastern markets for the county's cotton crops. By 1910, soil erosion and the boll weevil caused diversity planning that led to dairy farms, fruit orchards, nurseries, peanuts, feed crops and poultry.
The community of Thurber was created by the Johnson Coal Company. From 1888 to 1921, the Texas Pacific Coal Company mined coal near Thurber, making it a leading coal producer in the state. Fifty-two percent of the miners were of Italian ancestry, creating the "Italian Hill" community just outside Thurber. The United Mine Workers in 1903 sent Joe Fenoglio to organize the Italian workers, thus beginning the Thurber Coal Miners Strike. In the 1970s, the area began bituminous coal production for fuel in the cement industry.
Today, Erath County is the location of two of North America's largest renewable natural gas plants. The largest is at Huckabay Ridge, near Stephenville. The second largest is located outside Dublin at Rio Leche Estates.
Adjacent Counties
- Eastland County
- Palo Pinto County
- Comanche County
- Hood County
- Somervell County
- Bosque County
- Hamilton County
Cities & Communities
- Alexander
- Bluff Dale
- Bunyan
- Chalk Mountain
- Clairette
- Dublin
- Duffau
- Edna Hill
- Hannibal
- Harbin
- Huckabay
- Lingleville
- Morgan Mill
- Mount Airy
- Oak Dale
- Purves
- Selden
- Stephenville (County Seat)
- Three Way
- Thurber
Cemeteries
Links
National Register of Historic Places
