Named for H.K. Thurber, an investor in the Texas & Pacific Coal Company, Thurber,
Texas started to grow under the leadership of Robert D. Hunter, who developed 7 of 15
mines. More than 200 houses, a large general store, drugstore, hardware store,
boarding houses, offices, stables, schools, and churches were built in the first year
to accommodate the workers from all over the world who came to the new town for jobs
in the mines.
The T&P Coal Company owned the mines where the men worked; the houses in which they
lived; the saloons where they drank beer, wine and whiskey; the stores where their
families shopped, and the churches and schools that they attended.
Thurber was never incorporated; there was no mayor or city council, no school or city
taxes, and workers rode in railway coach cars to their jobs before the turn of the
century. Utopia? Many considered Hunter a tyrant who set up his own serfdom to rule
every aspect of workers' lives. No one moved to Thurber, or even stayed there, except
by consent of the company.
Hunter opposed labor unions, telling employees, "I'll run my business or will run it
to Hell!" It was only after his death in 1902 that unions were organized in Thurber.
