The first time Stephenville tried to raise money for a college failed in 1891. In May of 1893 the Empire editor published a series of articles in an attempt to convince Stephenville investors to fund the effort. Not enough residents approved the idea arguing that such a proposal would not bring a return on their money. Continued newspaper editorials finally convinced ten residents to fund the college by subscriptions. The hope was that there would be at least fifty students that would generate $11,000 to $14,000 to local businesses and farmers each year. A two-story wooden building (shown above in a 1901 photo) was built for the fall of 1893, it had an upstairs auditorium, four classrooms downstairs, along with offices and two studios. The building was located in an area now known as Heritage Park at Tarleton University. The building cost about $6, 500, $2,225 less than the money raised by subscriptions and they had to get a mortgage. Marshall McIllhany was named president. Tuition was $4.00 and the course included mathematics, Moral Sciences, Ancient and Modern Languages, Literature, Music and Art. There were elementary and preparatory levels as well. The first year had 100 students ranging in age from ten to fifty. There was never enough money because those holding subscriptions refused to pay. McIllhany published an article in the paper to raise funds: “As far as we can we will take cattle, hogs, corn, baled oats, and other farm products in payment for your tuition.” The college went into default and was sold at auction on March 5, 1895. Robert H. Downman bought the property for $1,500. John Tarleton died in 1895. Money form his estate bought half of the Stephenville College property for $1, 250 on March 12, 1896. Professor McIllhany became the first president. The Stephenville College building, later known as “College Hall,” was torn down in 1915. Eric Larsen, “Stephenville College,” Texas State Historical Association, tasaoline.org

May 16, 1896: “The Stephenville College held closing exercises ” and also the career of that college ended but on the same spot and in the same building, by the same faculty and with the same high aim in view – that od making this a brighter, better world, we hope to see an institution of another name prosper – John Tarleton College. The school, to be run by Professor McIllhany, will open after 1897 when the endowment has time to yield enough interest to operate the school.” Stephenville Empire

1932: Tarleton coeds voted this month to continue to wear blue chambray uniforms: “The chambray – so practical for wearing in chemistry and food labs, and so convenient for getting to an 8:00 class – has won a place in the girls’ affections from which it will not be ousted.” Stephenville Empire-Tribune

Virginia Yearwood, longtime Tarleton professor, told me that she was the first Tarleton student to be disciplined for wearing pants on the campus in the 1930s.

In 1901 T.W. Chambers caught a badger on his Morgan Mill farm. It was described as the largest badger ever caught in Erath County. Chambers invited locals to bring their dogs to fight the animal and for weeks the badger destroyed every dog forced to attack him. Erath Appeal

The Pedernales dart point (4,000 – 3,200 BP) was propelled by an atlatl rather than a bow, the shape (shown above) varies over its range between the Bosque River and the lower Rio Grande Valley. When they were made they were about three and a half inches long, but after breaking and resharpening, they are little more than nubs, barely recognizable. This exhausted stage is how they appear in Erath County collections because flint is so rare in this area the points were used several times. Archeologists I have spoken to believe when a full-sized, perfect point is found, it often represents a burial offering. Sandy land does not favor the preservation of bones and a century of plowing have pretty much obliterated any remnants of a burial. Unfinished and broken preforms offer an idea of how the points were made. (unfinished preforms were probably carried on the hunt into chert-poor places like the upper Bosque River to avoid breaking the delicate points) The chert cobble was reduced from a spall (large flakes) to trade blank, to preform, from where it seems they proceeded to the final reduction by first forming the base and barbs, because this was the trickiest part where most breaks occurred. Once the base was formed, the blade was thinned by removing long thinning flakes. (the above point does not have such skilled, long flaking because it is a replica by Charles Frederick, points in my collection are nubs) Examination of use-related wear shows that these broad-bladed points were also used as knives, with the foreshaft serving as the handle. The Pedernales point was the dominant style in this area for eight hundred years – about the same time as the Edward’s Interval made Erath County an inviting place for bison.

Just after 4,200 years ago there was a negative shift in the North Atlantic Oscillation, which began drying the wheat fields in Mesopotamia. The Akkadian Empire moved in to take advantage of the hunger and unrest, and then the Akkadians disappeared from history for the same reason. Agriculture was wrecked in the Indus Valley, and there world-wide social collapses, migrations, refugees, and ineffective walls were built. A global climate disruption occurred as rain belts shifted north again, setting up millennia of warmth and drought. It was a bad time to be living in a complex society based drought-stressed agriculture. In Texas, however, the new climate regimen, the Edwards Interval (4,200 – 2,800 BP) was a time of more rain, even though the rainy times were punctuated by dry episodes. As it started to rain again, the grasses thickened and then died and burned back during drought. The resulting void after each drought was quickly filled with a sequence of buffalograss, hairy grama, then side-oats grama, before returning to little bluestem equilibrium. Natives in the 17th century were seen expediting this cycle by setting fires among the post oaks to remove brush and other vegetation. These fires created a more open post oak savannah more inviting to the returning bison. The resident hot-rock-bakers must have benefitted from the return of more mesic conditions and the more regular appearance of the bison herds. The Southern plains buffalo range spread into Texas, through the Western Cross Timbers and all the way to the coast. Perhaps, as the early Spanish observed, the bison remained all year in the wooded environment. A French traveler noted that there were prairie patches in the Cross Timbers with small bison herds in each one. A new people arrived in the rich grasslands, these were the Pedernales point-users whose dart heads are among the most commonly found in Erath County. Unlike the earlier narrow point styles, the Pedernales were barbed and with broader blades – characteristics associated with buffalo-hunting points. Dan Young, Unpublished Manuscript, 2022

Frostweed, Verbesina virginica, is an herb growing along the Bosque River with a long history and many names: Iceplant, white crownbeard, richweed, squaw weed, Indian tobacco, and tickweed. Only cold morning hikers in temperatures below freezing will recognize why the plant is called Iceplant and frostweed, below freezing temperatures cause the winter stems to emit fantastic shapes of what appear to be styrofoam ice crystals oozing from the plant, sometimes forming ribbons that fold back on themselves, like the candy. Richweed refers to the depth and loamy quality of the soil indicated by this plant, while the name tickweed indicates that this herb is a gathering place for ticks. The Spanish name, lengua de vaca, is descriptive of the shape and texture of the leaves. Indigenous People used the plant as an abortifacient, hence the name squaw weed. One would imagine that small societies living on the edge would have been anxious to have as many children as possible, but that was not the case for captive women. I’m thinking of Comanche captives who wanted to avoid the harsh role that motherhood placed on a young woman against her will. The death rate was so high among Comanches and the birth rate was so low, that many wives were kidnapped and forced to become wives and mothers. Except they didn’t seem to have many children. When a botanist asked a Native man about the use of squaw weed, the response was that he didn’t know – it was an herb that only women used and understood.

In 1877: “Stephenville has seven dry goods houses, two family grocery stores, three bar rooms, two hotels, two saddle and harness shops, one tin shop, one millinery establishment, one watchmaker and jeweler, one large blacksmith shop, two steam mills, one wood shop, one furniture store, one livery stable, nine lawyers, three or four doctors, one bank of exchange, two land agencies, two drug stores, one flourishing school, one finely finished lodge, and two unfinished churches.” Waco Examiner

1893: “Stephenville’s “Prairie Wildcat” is the only paper in the county that is strictly independent. If you don’t like it don’t read it. Ordering it stopped won’t do a bit of good. It’ll keep coming. We are going to print what you ought to be told rather than what you would like to hear.”

In April of 1864, Confederate deserter John Taylor heard about a wagon train assembling on the Concho River bound for California. He sold part of his cattle and his share in the Comanche County school to raise money. Taylor left his remaining cattle and homestead with Asa Reed to dispose of as best he could. On the 14th Taylor, along with other deserters from Erath and Comanche Counties left to join the wagon train and forty mounted deserters. Before leaving the area they hunted buffalo and dried the meat for the trip. They divided themselves into three groups and arrived at their destination in the vicinity of San Bernadino, California on October 25th. John Taylor, known as the “little man who drove the bull team from Texas,” soon went into politics. Lester Reed, Old Time Cattlemen and Other Pioneers of the Anza-Borrego Area. Palm Desert, California: Desert printers, 1963.

In 1883, Jack Guthrie was sleeping in s tent near Stephenville when he was bitten by a skunk. After the skunk was killed, a madstone was applied to the animal and was declared to have hydrophobia (rabies). Madstones were applied to the bites of suspect animals and the length of time it stuck to the wound was meaningful in some way. A madstone could be many things, most often it was a hard piece of undigested hair or some other matter from a horse or a cow’s stomach. Stephenville Empire

Erath residents may have noticed piles of chunky limestone rocks in their pastures and fields, some believe them to be graves. On closer examination these rocks are broken in right angles, they have a cracked, grayish cast, and stepping back the rock pile often is seen to have a depression in the center. Excavations of these rock heaps all over Texas for the last several decades have shown these features to have been rock ovens. Before overgrazing the Western Cross Timbers was a root-rich environment that Native Texans were attracted to to prepare foods through hot rock baking. Beginning about 6,000 years ago, a time when there were fewer bison in Texas, bulbs and tubers that were toxic in the raw, could be made edible by baking. The process, taking several days, began by building a fire in a pit where fired-rocks from earlier baking had been removed. The fire was covered by limestone slabs dragged up from the nearest creek. The roots were encased in grass bundles or placed between layers of prickly pear pads with the thorns burned off. The green layer was covered with stones, leaving a stem vent in the center. After the oven cooled in a few days, the now fire-cracked rocks were removed since they were too small for the next baking. The prepared foodstuffs were then ground on a metate, dried, and stored for later use. The metate used for grinding was made from sandstone, something not found naturally in Erath County, except in the northern part. It’s interesting to speculate how these essential processing tools found their way into the greater Erath County area. The sandstone slabs must have been pulled on a travois, most likely pulled by dog teams. Studies have shown that a single dog can pull 100 pounds on a travois. It’s also interesting to try to imagine what the people in the Upper Bosque River area offered in trade for the manos and metates. Geologists have remarked that Erath County is a flint-poor area, the only chert to be found is in the form of river cobbles smaller than a fist, just large enough to produce a few butchering flakes. So flint was not a source of trade-wealth. Perhaps deer grease, hides, or maybe some other perishable trade item. Or, the locals just made pilgrimages to the sandstone quarries themselves. Dan Young, Unpublished Manuscript, 2022.