In November of 1883, the Bailey brothers, from near Comanche, were arrested for counterfeiting. The youngest brother was to be released on the 11th, but vigilantes took the brothers to the cemetery and hanged them. A few days later the wife of the younger brother arrived in Stephenville and was told of the vigilante action.

Fort Worth Daily Gazette

In October of 1882, the evangelical tent services of Major Penn were disrupted at Alexander when tornadic winds struck. “To be brief, the scene was one never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it. About 10:00 PM the wind blew up a storm, and the rain poured in torrents, and the darkness was Egyptian [?] in its intensity except when it was lightening . A momentary glance as the scene was illuminated showed men and women rushing wildly about, some with blood streaming from wounds in the head and face and the air was rent with the screams of distracted women and shouts of agonized fathers and the plaintive wails of children.” Stephenville Empire

White Sage (Artemisia ludoviciana), similar in appearance to the white sage (Salvia apiana) found in Southern California, (both used for smudge sticks) was introduced to me by a Hispanic lady as the best herb in Erath County for an upset stomach. I had no trouble finding some for my garden because it can be found all over the county. Its an aromatic, silvery perennial that root spreads quickly and is not troubled by drought. A tea from this herb is said to reduce fever as well as calm an upset stomach. Indigenous Texans rubbed it on their skin as an antibacterial deodorant and for purification before certain rituals. The Cheyenne crushed the leaves to use as snuff for sinus problems. The best known use is as smudge sticks. Many Native Americans believed the smoke (said to have anit-microbial properiies) could ward off sickness, bad influences and can purify a room.

In 1865 a man named Dalton, who lived on the Bosque River below Stephenville, was brought to town and charged with killing his wife. A large crowd gathered to watch. Since there was no judge, town officials drew a line in the square and asked the crowd to listen to the evidence and then stand on the guilty or innocent side of the line. Most of the crowd stepped to the guilty side. Dalton was hanged on one of the post oaks on the Stephenville square.

M. L. Auten, A History of Erath County. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Hardin-Simmons University, August, 1951, in Texas Southwest Collection.

Soon after Stephenville was settled, a man bought around fifty oxen used to bring the first wagons to the new community. A full grown post oak was cut from the square and the oxen were used to drag the tree to Kimbel Bend, the ruts left by this passage were followed to Glen Rose. Later this path became highway 67. The route from Brownwood to Fort Worth began as a buffalo trail, (perhaps more ancient than that) then it became a cattle trail, in the 1870s this pathway was used by the Chidister Stage Line. Later it became highway 377. In October of 1891, Stephenville’s first railway was completed following this route.

1882: Teddy Blue recalled a storm on a cattle drive: “nobody knows now what those storms were like, because nobody has to stay out in them anymore, but believe me, they were awful . . . I was was out in one that killed 14 head of cattle and six or seven horses and two men . . . one man was so scared he threw his six-shooter away, for fear it would draw lightening; and I remember old Matt Winter, with the rain pouring down and the lightening flashing, taking off his hat and yelling at God Almighty: ‘All right, you bald-headed son of a bitch up there, if you want to kill me, come on and do it.’ It scared the daylights out of the rest of us.”

Edward Charles Abbott, (Teddy Blue) We Pointed them North: Recollections of a Cowpuncher, (ed.) Helena Huntington Smith, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1939, 1971.