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.
History
Native Americans
Caddo tribe Anadarko villages were scattered along the Trinity and Brazos Rivers.[3]French explorer Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe developed camaraderie among the Anadarko in 1719 when he established Fort Saint Louis de los Cadodaquious.[4] 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.[5]
County established and growth
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.[6] In 1856, John M. Stephen offered to donate land for a townsite. It was named Stephenville after him and became the county seat.[7]
Jones Barbee founded the community of Dublin in 1854.[8] His children were the first citizens to be buried in Erath County in the community of Edna Hill, which is located in Southern Erath. Barbee Cemetery is named after him. Jones traveled with his wife and children across the country coming from North Carolina. He is the grandson of Christopher "Old Kit" Barbee who was the largest wealthiest landowner in North Carolina. He was the largest land donor for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[9] Barbee served as board president; a bronze statue of him is in the university. Jones had many children who went on to populate the county with names still enduring today such as Barbee, White, Durham, and Brambeletts. Some of his great-grandchildren still reside in the community. His great-great-great-granddaughter, Carolina, lives on his land today in Edna Hill and is the 6th generation to continually live on his old homestead. Her children are the 7th generation to do so. The families of other early settlers still endure there today.
Dublin later became famous as the early boyhood home of the PGA, U.S. Open and Masters golf champion Ben Hogan.[10]
In 1857, thirty pioneers settled in the county led by surveyors George Erath (1813–1891). The group included brothers William F. and John M. Stephen and a black family whose name and destiny is unknown.[11]
Erath, 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.[12] 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.[13]
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.[6]
The community of Thurber was created by the Johnson Coal Company.[14] 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.[15]
Tarleton State University was founded in 1893 as Stephenville College but was renamed in 1899 after the local rancher John Tarleton rescued the institution from financial difficulties.[16]
On November 4, 2008, Erath County voters elected to allow the sale of beer and wine in the county for off-premises consumption.
Courthouse
Erath's original 1866 wooden courthouse burned to the ground, destroying county documents along with it. A second stone courthouse was built in 1877 but eventually razed. The cornerstone for the current courthouse was laid in 1891. The architects James Riely Gordon and D. E. Laub designed the present three-story showcase Victorian structure. In addition to Erath, Gordon designed the Arizona State Capitol, and courthouses in Aransas, Bexar, Brazoria, Comal, Ellis, Fayette, Gonzales, Harrison, Hopkins, Lee, McLennan, Victoria and Wise counties.[17] The building was completed in 1893, with limestone from the Leon River and red sandstone from Pecos County. The building's centralized 95-foot tower has a bell tower and creates a chandeliered atrium from the first floor to the third. The interior is east Texas pine, with cast and wrought-iron stairways, and tessellated imported marble floors. It was renovated in 1988.[18]
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,090 square miles (2,800 km2), of which 1,083 square miles (2,800 km2) is land and 6.7 square miles (17 km2) (0.6%) is water.[19]
Erath County, Texas – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
There were 14,569 households, of which 29.59% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.03% were married couples living together, 14.7% had a female householder with no husband present and 38.2% were non-families. 27% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.06.
22.29% of the population were under the age of 18, 19.40% from 18 to 24, 23.10% from 25 to 44, 22.60% from 45 to 64, and 12.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30.5 years. For every 100 females there were 96.50 males.
At the presidential level, Erath County is predominantly Republican. In 2012, Mitt Romney won the county in the presidential election, taking over 80% of the vote. The last Democrat to win the county was Jimmy Carter, in 1976 and 1980.[26]
United States presidential election results for Erath County, Texas[26]
Two newspapers have offices located in Erath County: The Stephenville Empire-Tribune and The Dublin Citizen. Local television stations that provide coverage for Erath County and surrounding areas come from the Dallas/Fort Worth and Waco/Temple/Killeen metropolitan areas.
In 2023 television and film producer Taylor Sheridan's company used several locations in Erath County including the Court House Square to film The Bass Reeves Story for Netflix as the Yellowstone franchise evolved to include additional places, times and events. Downtown Stephenville was transformed for several weeks into a 19th-century facsimile of Ft. Smith, Arkansas.
Erath County is home to several nationally famous people including 7-time American Rodeo Association World Champion and co-founder of Professional Bull Riders (PBR Rodeo) Tye Murray; comedic actress and winner of the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress (1972- Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) and 5-time Emmy Award nominee Ruth Buzzi; activist Taya Kyle, widow of Navy Seal Cris Kyle who was murdered in Erath County; and it is the birth home of the late country singer-songwriter Johnny Duncan. Stephenville in Erath County is also home to pro football star Cody Davis who plays Safety for the New England Patriots. It is also home to 3-time national "coach of the year in college football, Arthur "Art" Briles, who is currently coaching an Italian professional football team and was formerly the coach of Houston Cougars and the Baylor Bears football teams.
^Weddle, Robert S (1991). "Cannibal Coast". The French Thorn: Rival Explorers in the Spanish Sea, 1682-1762. TAMU Press. pp. 208–228. ISBN978-0-89096-480-4.
^"Texas Indian Lands". R E. Moore and Texarch Associates. Retrieved December 15, 2010.
^ abYoung, Dan M (June 12, 2010). "Erath County, Texas". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved December 15, 2010.
^Dethloff, Henry C (1996). Texas A&M University: A Pictorial History, 1876-1996, Second Edition. TAMU Press. pp. 62–64. ISBN978-0-89096-704-1. - Peterson's (2008). Colleges in the South: Compare Colleges in Your Region. Peterson's. p. 194. ISBN978-0-7689-2695-8.
^Lurie, Maxine N; Mappen, Marc; Siegel, Michael (2004). Encyclopedia of New Jersey. Rutgers University Press. p. 324. ISBN978-0-8135-3325-4.
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