In June, 1889, William R. Gordon, from Virginia, arrived in Erath County to survey for a railroad. R.D. Hunter of Thurber met him and offered him a job as mining engineer. Thurber began to grow and prosper under Gordon, who replaced Hunter in 1902. Mary Jane Gentry. Thurber: The Life and death of a Texas Town., Master’s Thesis, University of Texas, August 1946.