1893: Stephenville Ordinance: “Any person who shall appear in a public place, within the corporate limits of the city of Stephenville in a dress not belonging to his or her sex . . . shall be fined not exceeding one hundred dollars. J.W. Jarrott. Revised Ordinances and Rules of Order of the City of Stephenville, Texas. Printed and published by authority of the City Council of Stephenville, Texas. Revision of 1893.

1869: After the Civil War, many ex-soldiers drifted through Erath County, killing and robbing without fear of punishment. Typical of these desperados was James Taylor, who had joined and deserted from both armies. He arrived at the John Simpson farm and asked for a watermelon, then followed Simpson to the watermelon patch and shot him in the back of the head as he bent down to pick one. Dallas herald

July 15, 1865: The Pony Creek Baptist Church was formed today with the assistance of Choctaw Bill Robinson. The name “Choctaw” was added around 1850 when a Choctaw listener stormed out of church saying that “white man talks too long” and in fact Robinson’s sermons lasted for hours. When Baptist preacher “Choctaw Bill traveled to deliver sermons he always traveled with a pack of hounds. When asked what the dogs were for, he responded that their purpose was to tree the “Campbellites” so he could preach to them. [Campbellite was a pejorative reference to an early name for the Church of Christ] Choctaw Bill owned a saw mill and gristmill at Hazel Dell [between Comanche and Hamilton] which was considered one of the most dangerous settlements on the Texas frontier in the 1850s. He preached at the still standing Robertson Oak, where he stowed his guns during the service, right across the street from a saloon. The Hazel Dell cemetery started when saloon drunks decided to shoot a trapper camped nearby – because nobody would miss him -[the most popular saloon in Texas was said to be the Lewis Ledbetter saloon in Hazel Dell] Among the interesting stories about Choctaw Bill was that of a wedding he was about to perform at Buffalo Gap when a band of Comanches swept threw and kidnapped the bride. Those assembled chased down the group and returned the bride – the ceremony was resumed. Known and trusted by most frontiersmen, he was able to defuse a conflict between vigilante groups positioned for battle along Alarm Creek, south of Stephenville. Historians marvel at how Robertson was able to preach on such dangerous subjects – he opposed succession during the 1850s.

Robinson-Bradley, Willo M. and Edith Lucile Robinson. Family Trails: Ancestral and Contemporary. Stephenville Printing Co. 1978; “Choctaw Robinson Oak,” Texas State Historical Association, Robinson, William [Choctaw Bill] 1809-1898; Restoration Movement/Campbellism. Wikipedia.

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) was introduced to the Spanish missions in Florida in 1576, then Texas missions in the 1600’s, and from the missions to the horticultural Natives. An 1882 newspaper claimed that “A liberal diet of watermelon will keep the system in a healthy condition during the summer months – and cure the worst cases of yellow fever . . . the time will come when the watermelon cure will be as popular in this country as the grape cure is in Europe.” (Cleburne Enterprise) I don’t know about yellow fever but the watermelon is known to lower blood pressure, improve insulin sensitivity , and reduce muscle soreness, along with plenty of citrulline if you eat a bit of the white rind. Also it contains lycopene and vitamins. I don’t know how long watermelons have been grown in Erath County, but it’s generally known that Choctaw Natives traveled through the area in wagons selling fruit trees and seeds. The fragment of a photo shown above (I don’t know how to show it completely), from the 1920s is the V.O. Porter seed company showing off the Porter’s Pride, a very large watermelon that has become extinct because of some imported blight. Courtesy of his son, Gene Porter and family.

Newspaper articles began as early as 1882 exciting Stephenville residents about the plans for the Fort Worth and Rio Grande railroad laying tracks toward Erath County – in 1889 the railroad finally reached Stephenville.

M.L. Auten. A History of Erath County. Unpublished master’s thesis, Harden-Simmons University, August 1951, in Texas Tech Southwest Collection.

July, 1889: “Bully for Stephenville . . . three months ago it was apparently a dead town, but now the Fort Worth and Rio Grande railway is only a few miles out . . . Stephenville is veritably on a boom . . . The sound of hammer and the saw rings out all day.”

When automobiles first appeared in Erath County some citizens thought they were sent by “his Satanic Majesty to scare horses and mules.” Farmers held a meeting in which some resolved to carry guns in their buggies when going to town “vowing they would shoot the first autoist they met who scared their horses, declaring they would drive the monster from the county.” Just a couple of years later, in July of 1921, the Stephenville Tribune pointed out that the same people that threatened motor cars now owned one.

The above photo is from the Stephenville Historical House Museum. The date is unknown, what is known is that the Roberts Reunion developed into an annual summer camp for young people in Erath County. Perhaps descendants will add to this story.

Until 1909 Stephenville sewage was a private matter for most residents, a hole was dug in their backyards and an outhouse was pulled over the pit. After this arrangement became intolerable, responsible residents dug a new hole and dragged the outhouse over the fresh pit. House flies swarmed over Stephenville in these years before window screens, spreading (according to Google) typhoid fever, dysentery, and tuberculosis. Those who could afford it paid for “honey-dew” wagons to use alleys to service sewage vaults, pumping out the waste and replacing it with scented water by low-paid “scavengers.” When the city began to discuss raising taxes to build a modern city-wide sewage system, the wealthy Stephenville families (whose children died as often as any from the disease-laden flies) opposed the new system for years because of costs. During the summer of 1908 those preferring low-tax, low-service, organized an anonymous group known as the “taxpayers” and fought a poster and circular campaign against the proposed sewer system. The Stephenville Tribune carried articles arguing both sides: “Sewers would be a God send to the people of Stephenville in that they would greatly minimize the fly nuisance, hence there would be fewer cases of typhoid fever. Filth accounts for a large per cent of unnecessary human suffering.” On July 14, 1908, the sewer bonds were passed by a vote of 183-71.