Though a large percentage of miners came from Italy, Poland, Britain, and Ireland, eighteen nationalities were represented at Thurber. I have many family stories that my dad told. Walter had many fond memories of growing up and living in the Thurber and Strawn communities. The Johnsons proposed to exploit their discovery themselves: They bought several thousand acres and contracted with the Texas & Pacific Railway Company to supply coal for its locomotives. As you wander from empty building to empty building, you can't help but have the feeling that you have all the pieces of the story except the storytellers. Workers used electrically operated locomotives and dump cars on the spur line until gasoline-fueled engines came into use during the 1920s. Coal mining was already highly unionized in the United States, and the Thurber mines attracted union organizers. With the strike still on, the new owners fenced part of the property and began building a town, which they named Thurber for New York grocer and T&P investor H. K. Thurber. Many of the workers' homes and other buildings were sold and moved to surrounding towns where they survive today, while other structures were dismantled and their materials salvaged for reuse elsewhere. And as Thurber thrived, the farming community for 50 or 60 miles around also benefited. Oh wow, I love this post!! His enthusiasm unhindered by the low production of the 1915 well near Strawn, he conferred with a committee from the town of Ranger. Miners were even paid in Thurber dollars, money that was only usable inside the city limits of Thurber. As a fellow Texan, I had no idea about this! Will definitely have to visit! 4. I had no idea that the town even existed, let alone the first to be completely company owned or the first to be unionized. . I go through there every time I travel to visit some family but only stopped once. Hunter saw a profitable opportunity in the need of railroads to fuel steam locomotives. Hope you have time to stop by today , i love history like that! The discovery of oil in nearby Ranger was the ultimate demise of the town of Thurber, as workers and investors deserted coal mining for the more lucrative oil. Have a great day! Harvey died in 1888, and William sold the enterprise to a Scottish cattleman, Robert D. Hunter. A ghost in Thurber could be just about anybody. The Knights of Labor began a strike just before the Johnson brothers sold out in 1888. Unfortunately I didn’t get to go to the museum but I did go the restaurant and the cemetery. Changing economic times likewise effected this operation, for increased petroleum production led to expanded use of oil-based artificial asphalt as a paving material. Thurber, Texas was completely owned by Texas and Pacific Coal Company, making it the  first town to be completely company owned. During the late nineteenth century, brick making had become a leading industry in Texas, described as second only behind "car building and shop construction by railroads." Since the company owned everything in town, there were no taxes. In 1923 the company relocated its headquarters from New York to Thurber to be closer to physical operations. Unfortunately, the Knights of Labor union moved with them. So much history! The restaurant got its name from smokestack from the local power plant. The view from the elevated museum steps you get the impression that Thurber is not so much a ghost town, but a gone town. Thurber-made vitrified bricks spread all over Texas and the Southwest. The first well at Ranger produced millions of cubic feet of natural gas, worth almost nothing on the market at the time, but it hinted at the presence of oil. Today, it's merely a pit stop on Interstate 20. Other sicknesses and difficulties plagued the immigrant town as well. Electric lights strung throughout the long underground passageways supplemented the carbide lamps attached to the miners helmets. The Thurber electric plant furnished power 24 hours a day, making Thurber one of the first towns in the state to have full electric service. Gordon Center for the Industrial History of Texas. The Thurber area was a ready market for beef, both fresh and on the hoof; fruits; melons; vegetables; hay; corn; oats; and homemade lard and sausage. I grew up in AZ not far from Tombstone, so I have a soft spot in my heart for ghost towns. They offered to exchange a lease for oil that might be produced from 80,000 acres in exchange for drilling four exploratory wells. Obtain a key from the Smokestack Restaurant to the gate of the Thurber Cemetery (leave your driver’s license) and explore the lives of those who lived, worked and died in Thurber. Thurber, Texas was just a typical turn of the century town that experienced a huge boom in population around 1920, with an influx of 10,000 people representing 20 nationalities. Photos and memorabilia line the walls making this the perfect place to fill up and learn more about Thurber. The opera house was the first building in Texas used for public entertainment to have ceiling fans. This mouthful of a museum is dedicated to the history of Thurber, and begins with an informative 20 minute presentation that gives a good picture of the town at its peak. Two work trains transported miners each day to the shafts. During the late 1800s Thurber was a thriving coal mining town with a population of approximately 8,000 souls. The site is marked today by the old electric plant smokestack and a couple of old administration buildings on the north side of Interstate 20 about 16 miles east of Ranger. Some company businesses continued for a while, including the company store, which did business until 1935. In order to take best advantage of its resources, the owners of Thurber initiated the manufacture of brick in 1897. Advertisements in the Texas Almanac reported the use of Thurber paving brick "in Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, Galveston, Beaumont, and other cities of the South." By 1886, mining was underway, but union agitation caused a repeat of the Coalville experience. Employees from the mines at nearby Coalville, which had been shut down in a labor dispute, moved en masse to the new mines. Tract Houses were brightly colored and sold for $300 dollars. My great grandfather Ferd H. Hill had a general merchandise store there. Coal mining for the burgeoning railroad system was the bread and butter for Thurber, although quick thinking investors also developed brick production to diversify the money making opportunities. 65258 Interstate 20 Exit 367 More specifically the ones in foreign languages so that I could take them home and translate it. In 1933 the firm moved its corporate offices to Fort Worth. Burros pulled the coal cars in the mines at first, but by 1910, electric motors replaced the animals. The Snake closed with the adoption of Prohibition and was never reopened. With the adoption of Prohibition in 1919, the Italians in Thurber imported grapes from California to make wine. Residents of Thurber shopped in company stores, went to company schools, and worshiped in company churches. Several independent saloons operated profitably in the area surrounding Thurber and Mingus. Wish we traveled more as a family – just can’t seem to get it together. Gordon Center and the history of Thurber. — written by Mary G. Ramos, editor emerita, for the Texas Almanac 1990-1991. The tower rises from the horizon like a sentinel, watching over the site where the bustling town of Thurber stood at the turn of the 20th century. Most strikingly, the headstones are written in a potpourri of languages, mostly Italian, Spanish, and Polish, representing the many immigrant families that called Thurber home. At the close of the 19th century, the value of the state's coal output exceeded the combined value of all other mineral products. The remaining smokestack and foundations can be seen and pondered from this vantage point. Workers at Thurber in the early 1900s. Thurber was completely a company town. As the mines prospered, Thurber grew, reaching a population of about 4,000 in 1910. Looks like it was a great time! The cemetery was very interesting and I got pictures of several of the tombstones. Shaft No. We love history and traveling as well, thank you for sharing so much about Thurber TX!! Inside the Thurber Museum. These buildings are not a part of the museum price, and they are somewhat in disrepair. Miners also needed entertainment. Having purchased the Johnson brothers' coalfields in Erath, Palo Pinto, and Eastland counties, Hunter organized the Texas and Pacific Coal Company to extract and sell coal to the railroad and other customers. i hope you will take the time to check out my blog and follow back! . A reduced market, combined with general economic depression starting in 1929, led to the closure of the Thurber brick kilns in 1930. By 1900, there were more than 800 men producing between 1,500 and 2,000 tons of coal a day. It is possible that the town may one day boom again and be filled with new residents with new stories. I hope to translate them and give the translations to the people who live there so maybe they can put signs up by the graves with the translations on them. Convinced that West Texas held oil, Gordon used his knowledge of both geology and the local terrain to continue his search. There are many unmarked graves, and many of the graves are over 100 years old. With such a solid claim in the history of the South, It is almost surprising to see that the only remnants are a single smokestack, a few foundations, and crumbling cemetery. Over a 1000 headstones from 1880 and on are the only physical remains of the lives that built the town of Thurber. Realizing that coal could not continue to compete with other fuels, especially oil, Gordon began to seek petroleum in the area surrounding Thurber. In Mingus, there was a quaint ice cream parlor that Louis Santi and his wife owned. Since it was illegal even to teach someone how to produce alcoholic beverages and many neophyte wine-makers needed instructions, the labels on the bricks of dried grapes circumvented the law by giving detailed instructions on how not to produce wine: They warned the user that he would be violating the law if he put the grapes in so many gallons of water, added so many pounds of sugar and kept the concoction at a specified temperature for so many days. Today, the only thing that remains of the old mining town is a very impressive smokestack towering next to row of aged brick buildings, one of which houses the Smokestack restaurant on Interstate 20 about 75 miles west of Fort Worth. I’m a follower and I hope you’ll stop by again soon! Mingus, TX 76463. Although the T&P Coal Company discouraged free-lance produce dealers, probably because the company owned the grocery stores in town and the free-lancers cut into their profits, local farmers hauled in produce and sold it to the residents of Thurber, Mingus and other neighboring towns. The Catholic Church and the bandstand are also preserved for the public. The discovery opened the great Ranger Oil Field, which after expanding into other areas eventually produced almost four million barrels of petroleum and opened oil production in West Texas. They made several varieties of brick, but specialized in road paving brick. He advanced quickly to the post of general manager of the coal company and held that position for almost 20 years.