V.O. Porter, Erath County horticulturalist, described how he started tomatoes in the 1920s: “On a sunny site, south of building, a wood frame is filled with two-thirds full of a half and half mixture of rotted barnyard manure and sandy leaf mold. Boiling water is poured on the bed to sterilize the soil. Tomato seeds are started in February, covering the bed on cold nights.”

V.O. Porter. How We Grow Tomatoes and Melons. Stephenville, Texas. “Portrait of a Seedsman-Sage,” Southern Seedsman, February, 1945.

According to Joe Fitzgerald, who started the first Erath County nursery in 1900, blackberries grew everywhere in the county. Fitzgerald noticed a variety growing near his home by Mickey schoolhouse that produced up to five gallons of berries per plant, had fewer thorns, fewer seeds, and was self pollinating. He collected and propagated the plant and sold it all over the world under the name Early Wonder. The best time to plant blackberries is February. Their natural habitat is near post oak trees in sandy soil where composted oak leaves acidify the soil to their preference.

Geraldine Ham. Interview. Stephenville, Texas, 1981.

Erath County had become one of the main apple producers in the state. In 1912 the area was struggling with San Jose scale, which was killing apple trees by the thousands. Various deadly insecticides were used that proved to be more lethal to the orchard workers than the scale. The scale was carried by the cedar (juniper) trees that were allowed to migrate away from places like the Chalk Mountains, where prairie fires were unable to damage them because the steep hillsides didn’t have enough grass to fuel a hot enough fire. For thousands of years the prairies were covered by waist high little bluestem, Indiangrass, and switchgrass, which burned hot enough to keep the grasslands bare of trees. When overgrazing removed the native grasses, the prairie fires were no longer hot enough to restrict cedar to the hills, thus carrying San Jose scale to the orchards. Stephenville Empire

During the winter and spring of 1860 E.L. Deaton had his horses stolen near Stephenville five times, probably by Comanches. Killed in these raids were three working oxen and about 30 head of grown hogs. Deaton remarked that the Indians used whistles to keep track of each other during night raids. That same winter, Gid Foreman, while visiting friends in Cora (on the line between Erath and Comanches counties) said several times that he felt like he was going to die soon. On his way home he was killed by Comanches. Also in the winter of 1860, the families of E.L. Deaton, Tom Frost, and Tom Groggin were gathered in Deaton’s log cabin while Indian’s stole their horses. Hearing the activity the men ran outside, unable to see anything. While standing there they heard a thumping sound from the barn behind them – the next morning they found arrows in the the barn wall.

Holmes, Floyd J. Indian Fights on the Texas Frontier: A True Account of the Last Exciting Encounters with Redskins in Hamilton, Comanche, Brown, Erath and Adjoining Counties, As Recording by E.L. Deaton. Fort Worth: Pioneer Publishing Co., 1927.

February 6, 1883. A six-day blizzard blew into Erath County, holding temperatures between 4 and 10 degrees, there was no plumbing to freeze, but many livestock were killed. Peter Burns, the Stephenville blacksmith was found frozen to death.

Erath Appeal

February 10, 1899. The most popular hotel in Stephenville, the Erath House, burned. It was so cold that water sprayed up the staircase froze, making access difficult. “Several gentlemen were trying to save Miss Carver’s piano when flames rushing down the staircase blinded them.” Another group finally pulled the piano outside.

Erath Appeal

There are two things that might have happened which would have changed the history of Erath County. First, in the 1840s Sam Houston tried to pass the Franco-Texienne Bill that would have allowed French colonists to build a fort on the site of Stephenville, along with 3 million acres to settle the area. This was ten years before Erath County was settled by Anglos. Second, a few years later, the Erath County area was almost sold as the 60,000 acre tract known Kimball’s Block to a group of New England farmers. Either of these developments would have drastically changed the character of Erath County.

Auten, M. L. A History of Erath county, Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Hardin-Simmons University , August, 1951, in Texas TechSouthwest Collection; and Day, James M. and Dorman H. Winfrey (eds.) The Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest: 1825-1916, 5 vols.Austin: The Pemberton Press, 1966.