[The Thurber Tipple and Thurber Monument]

Description

Photograph of buildings in Thurber, Texas, taken from a parking lot. A gasoline station is on the left; it has a second story serving as an overhang as well as a taller platform with a railing and the words "Thurber Tipple" written near the roof. A car is parked at the gasoline station and a couple is looking inside the engine. The Thurber smokestack is visible near the center of the photograph and several unidentified buildings are on the left. Three other cars are parked on the left side of the photograph.

Physical Description

1 photograph : col.

Creation Information

Creator: Unknown. August 4, 1974.

Context

This photograph is part of the collection entitled: A. F. Weaver Collection and was provided by the Boyce Ditto Public Library to The Portal to Texas History, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries. It has been viewed 329 times. More information about this photograph can be viewed below.

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Boyce Ditto Public Library

Located in Mineral Wells, the Library holds over 50,000 materials and is dedicated to providing free access and services for the community in a friendly and professional manner. Because of the work of the Boyce Ditto Public Library, residents of Palo Pinto County have access to books, online resources, events, and much more.

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Description

Photograph of buildings in Thurber, Texas, taken from a parking lot. A gasoline station is on the left; it has a second story serving as an overhang as well as a taller platform with a railing and the words "Thurber Tipple" written near the roof. A car is parked at the gasoline station and a couple is looking inside the engine. The Thurber smokestack is visible near the center of the photograph and several unidentified buildings are on the left. Three other cars are parked on the left side of the photograph.

Physical Description

1 photograph : col.

Notes

Thurber in the 1920s was the largest city between Ft. Worth and Abilene. A Company town, wholly owned by Texas and Pacific Coal Company, it had its own school system, a hotel, a general store that stocked whatever the inhabitants wanted, two saloons, an opera house, a town band, a semi-professional baseball team, two city lakes, and a golf course. It was the first town in Texas to have gas and electricity in every home. The town furnished coal to the Texas & Pacific Railway.
Pea coal that the T&P refused was used to start a brick plant, using local clay. Thurber brick was used to build the Galveston Sea Wall after the disastrous hurricane of 1900, to pave the streets of Ft. Worth, and a brick highway from Mineral Wells to Ft. Worth.
The Company discovered the Ranger oil field in 1917 that fueled the World War I effort. When the T&P railway switched from coal to the more convenient oil to fuel its steam engines, it marked the end of the Thurber coal industry. The Company shut down the Thurber operation in 1931, and demolished the town except for the remnant shown in this picture.
It has been reliably reported that at least ten houses from Thurber were not demolished, but were removed to Mineral Wells, where they remain to this day.

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Identifier

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Collections

This photograph is part of the following collection of related materials.

A. F. Weaver Collection

This colorful panorama covers Mineral Wells' founding and its mercurial growth as a resort center and army town to the present. Photos are from local historian and photographer A.F. Weaver, local families and research sources.

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Creation Date

  • August 4, 1974

Covered Time Period

Coverage Date

Added to The Portal to Texas History

  • Oct. 17, 2007, 2:33 p.m.

Description Last Updated

  • Feb. 14, 2017, 8:23 p.m.

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Yesterday: 0
Past 30 days: 2
Total Uses: 329
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  • 32.506783, -98.416546

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[The Thurber Tipple and Thurber Monument], photograph, August 4, 1974; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth29460/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boyce Ditto Public Library.

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