Erath County was mostly settled by the descendants of the Scots-Irish who came over in the 1700s from the British Borderlands (bringing Border Collies) and after a few generations in the Upper South moved go Texas. In the old country they were not allowed to cut oak trees, so when they reached Erath County, they cut down post oak trees for rail fences and cabins with reckless abandon. Pecan trees were cut down to make collecting the nuts easier. Post oak trees were once so thick that a squirrel could climb into a tree on the square and not come down until Dublin. Last month a dozen surviving post oaks were bulldozed on Washington street almost without comment. The incredible fertility of early Erath County unfortunately encouraged a philosophy of abundance which led to the destruction of not just timber; abusive grazing removed the grass root mat that had trapped spring rains which had trickled into clear-running streams during the summer. Just a few years after barbed-wire fences were introduced in the early 1880s prairies chickens became extinct for lack of water and cover. Thoughtless agriculture methods resulted in the loss of 75% of the topsoil by the 1930s.

Some of this is from the Stephenville Empire-Tribune; Henry Fooshe, Historical Articles Appearing in the Stephenville Empire in the 1880s; and my own remarks.