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 Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Hardin-Simmons University, August, 1951, in Texas Southwest Collection.