Erath County was once honey-combed with rock fences. The 1910 Stephenville Empire explained: “The old time rock fences in and around Stephenville have nearly all disappeared since work on the public square commenced, the city having bought them to be ground up and put on the streets. The disappearance of these landmarks . . . leaves nothing as it looked fifty years ago.”
How well I know. One of the most extensive fences in Erath County was three feet wide and six+ feet high originally. It was built in the Harbin area by my great uncle Zeke McCleskey. Later his farm was sold to the Hallmark family (I think 11 were born out there) and then to D.R. and Helen Franks, who owned the Re all drugstore in Dublin. Sequestered inside the house that is still (at least of this moment) still standing is Uncle Zeke’s two story log cabin. Mr. Franks appreciated history and the artistry of these fences and learned how to repair the rock work when necessary.
At some point the place was sold to John Shivers who had a longhorn ranch there. Mr Shivers seemed to care about history and charm so I do not know why he decided to lower the rock walls by three feet, but my mother and I were heart broken when we drove by to see the wall and only half of its height was left. I suspect Garnet Lloyd was the one hired to reduce the wall as he is the only local person that I think knew how to do this kind of thing. He was a good rock man. I can attest to the original height personally because my best friend, Marguerite, was their granddaughter and I used to ride my horse over there to visit. The corrals were also dry stacked rock, and from inside the corral, you could not see over the walls unless you were on horseback.
After John Shivers died, someone put the place up for sale and I noticed areas where the walls had holes in them, something that astonished me. The managers claimed they couldn’t be fixed and so in 2018 someone either gave or sold the rock wall… all of it… to a local construction group. It’s a shame that counties have no way of preserving such historic features. Perhaps have some group that can fund restoration of historic features such as this if the owners don’t have the money. And the owners probably don’t realize that the most charming feature of their property was that wall. Too late now, but now they don’t have to fix it. In some ways I’m glad my family didn’t live to see this because my father and mother loved Uncle Zeke’s work and thought it would be there forever. There are still people who know how to fix these rock walls and they could have been hired. As it is Erath has been stripped of a big piece of its charm and history, in my opinion. And to explain what I mean about the county being able to deny demolition of historic features, I will say that the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas was two weeks away from demolition when a friend and I found out about it. We contacted the Oak Lawn Preservation Society and one week later the City declared the mansion a historic site that could not be demolished and it is still there today. Things like that can be done.