For years Erath County Prohibitionists had been trying to get enough votes to turn the county dry, but every year the Thurber vote kept the county wet. The 1903 October issue of the United Mine Workers Journal charged that Erath County went dry this year because W. K. Gordon, the “King of Thurber,” made a deal with the Erath County Commissioners to exempt the Thurber vote. Mingus remained wet because it was in a different county.

Weldon Hardman, Fire in a Hole, Gordon, Texas: Thurber Historical Association, 1975.