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.