Fitbits for Cows RoadyGoat

2011

Erath County is one of the top dairy counties in Texas, historically the state's leading milk producer, and Stephenville sits at the center of it. Just northeast of town, up US 281, Tarleton State University runs the Southwest Regional Dairy Center, opened in 2011 with hundreds of Holstein, Jersey, and crossbred cows. This is a working laboratory. Cows wear activity trackers, essentially Fitbits for cattle, that log how much each animal eats, sleeps, and moves, so researchers can spot a sick cow before she looks sick. Scientists here test lameness detection using sound and drone-mounted cameras, study manure management to protect the North Bosque River watershed, and train the next generation of dairy scientists. Federal grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture help fund the work. It is high-tech ranching, hidden in plain sight in dairy country.

11.7 mi away

The Night the Sky Lit Up RoadyGoat

2008

On the evening of January 8, 2008, dozens of people around Stephenville reported a large, brightly lit object drifting silently across the sky. Pilot Steve Allen described it as huge, with fast-flashing strobe lights, and said it moved at astonishing speed. The reports drew national news crews to this quiet dairy town. The military first said no aircraft were in the area, then reversed course and admitted F-16 fighter jets had been on a training exercise. That only deepened the mystery. The Mutual UFO Network filed Freedom of Information Act requests and published a report analyzing FAA and National Weather Service radar, arguing an unidentified object without a transponder had performed maneuvers unlike any known aircraft. Skeptics point to jets, flares, and the fog of eyewitness memory. Whatever it was, the Stephenville Lights remain one of America's most documented mass sightings.

13.9 mi away

The Man Who Gave Away a Town RoadyGoat

1854

In 1854 John M. Stephen settled on the Bosque River frontier, and in May 1855 he rode in with surveyor George B. Erath and a party of about thirty pioneers, among the first settlers of what would become Erath County. When the county was organized in 1856, Stephen offered to donate land for a townsite and courthouse on one condition: the town be named Stephenville and made the county seat. Texas agreed. Stephen threw in fifty extra acres of timber to spur growth and became the first postmaster in 1857. The county itself honors Erath, the surveyor who mapped it. The grand courthouse on the square came later, completed in 1892, a polychrome landmark of white limestone and red Pecos sandstone designed by architect J. Riely Gordon. It still anchors downtown today.

13.9 mi away

Public Water Well, Old

1887

An early day oasis for travelers and cattle herds. Dug about 1887 by crew building Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad. At first artesian, lost power when well was dug nearby to supply locomotives. Local residents, who now have private wells, still use this well in emergencies. (1971) Incising on base of marker: Restored 1965 by Bluff Dale Study and Garden Club

Historical Marker →

Holt House

1895

This house was built around 1895 by Dr. Hardy L. Holt and his wife, Isabella "Belle" Victoria Gordon. Dr. H.L. Holt (1844-1914) was a First Lieutenant in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Later, he studied medicine and became a pioneer physician in Bluff Dale. He opened the town's first drugstore, which also contained an ice cream parlor. This two-story, side-gabled house with Folk Victorian and Queen Anne elements replaced the Holt's first home after it burned. Notable features include the wrap-around porch and balcony, turned wood columns, a projecting portico and lapped wood siding. A wrought-iron fence borders the front of house, which remains a significant part of Bluff Dale's history.

Historical Marker →

Warnock, J. F., Hardware

1908

Jeptha Franklin Warnock came to Erath County in 1898 and later settled near Bluff Dale. In 1908 he opened a hardware store and in 1915 built this structure to house his business. Here Warnock provided supplies and implements to the surrounding agricultural area. A community landmark, the Warnock Store features a brick parapet, wooden storefront, and transom windows typical of early commercial buildings once common in Texas. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984

Historical Marker →

McGaughey, William L.

1861

William L. McGaughey, soldier, legislator, and commissioner of the General Land Office , was born on February 26, 1837, in Lawrence County, Alabama. After graduating from La Grange (Alabama) Military College, he worked in the law office of the former governor of Alabama, D. P. Lewis. With the onset of the Civil War in 1861, McGaughey enlisted as a private of Company H in the Sixteenth Alabama Infantry of the Confederate Army. He saw action at Shiloh, where he suffered a head wound. He was shot in the side at Murfreesboro, and a wound to his right heel at Chickamauga ended his career as an infantryman. Subsequently, he served as an adjutant for the general and staff corps in the Fifth Alabama Cavalry until the end of the war. On December 20, 1865, McGaughey married Aurie A. Robbins. They had two sons. His sons both worked for the state of Texas. In 1869 McGaughey moved his family to Texas and taught school in Van Zandt County. After three years he moved to Hood County. Between 1880 and 1905 he raised cattle and acquired four tracts of land in Hood County. In 1902 his land was valued at $4,600, and he had 400 cattle worth $2,800. McGaughey was elected to the Texas House of Representatives of the Nineteenth Legislature, 1885, to represent the Fortieth District, which consisted of Hood, Erath, Bosque, and Somervell counties. He was reelected in 1887 and 1889 to serve in the Twentieth and Twenty-first legislatures. In 1890 the Democratic state convention nominated him for commissioner of the General Land Office, and he easily won. He served in this position from 1890 to 1894. Through his efforts in support of farmers, McGaughey provoked opposition from supporters of industrialization. His foes brought charges of incompetence against him, and he was impeached, tried, and acquitted on May 5, 1893. He resumed the duties of his office. In 1897 he returned to the Texas House of Representatives to serve in the Twenty-fifth Legislature, representing the Eightieth District. In the House he was the chairman of the Committee on Education. He also served on the Constitution, Lands and Land Office, and Rules committees. McGaughey was a Cumberland Presbyterian, a Mason, and a member of the Farmers' Alliance . He died on March 28, 1912, in Tolar and was buried in the family plot in Granbury.

Tsha Handbook → · 6.5 mi away

Tolar, TX

1890

Tolar is on U.S. Highway 377 seven miles southwest of Granbury in southwestern Hood County. It was first settled around 1890, when the tracks of the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway reached the area. The community was named by W. L. McGaughey in honor of his friend Alf Tolar, who lived in Abilene. A post office opened at the community in 1890, and within the decade Tolar had established itself as a trade center for area farmers and ranchers. In addition to a gin, a general store, and a blacksmith shop, Tolar provided its estimated 171 residents with two churches and an elementary school. Its population had reached 460 by 1914, and by the mid-1920s Tolar had a high school, a bank, a weekly newspaper, and some six other businesses. Several buildings in Tolar are made of petrified wood found in the area; in 1969 collecting and shipping this material was a local industry. For a time the population declined because of the Great Depression, World War II , and the growth of nearby Fort Worth. In the mid-1960s Tolar had an estimated 283 residents and five businesses, and in the mid-1970s its population rose above 300 for the first time since the 1950s. During the late 1980s Tolar reported 415 residents, and in 1990, some 523. The population was 504 in 2000.

Tsha Handbook → · 6.5 mi away

Hogan, William Benjamin

1912

William Benjamin (Ben) Hogan, professional golfer, was born in Stephenville, Texas, on August 13, 1912, the second son and third child of Chester and Clara (Williams) Hogan. The diminutive Hogan, nicknamed "Hawk" for his ferocious concentration on the golf course, was a relatively late bloomer as a pro. He won his first PGA tournament and his first major title at the relatively advanced ages of twenty-six and thirty-four respectively. Once his career took off, however, he went on to compile one of the most impressive records in golf history. His contemporary Jimmy Demaret considered him "the greatest golfer that ever lived," and Jack Nicklaus called him "the best shotmaker the game has ever seen." Hogan's early life gave few indications of his future success. His father, a blacksmith in Dublin, Texas, may have suffered from bipolar disorder; one source says that his wife moved the family to Fort Worth in the summer of 1921 to put Chester in a sanatorium. Chester committed suicide in front of his family in February 1922, when Ben was only nine. Thereafter, Clara Hogan earned a meager living as a seamstress and Ben's older brother, Royal, then thirteen, quit school and went to work to help support the family. Young Ben sold copies of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at the Texas and Pacific Railroad station until a friend told Royal that Ben could earn more money caddying at Glen Garden Country Club. Hogan's competitive nature surfaced as soon as he began caddying, in the summer of 1924. Sometimes he slept in a bunker at Glen Garden, so as to be first in line for a bag on the following day. According to family legend, when Clara scolded her teenage son for wasting his time playing golf, he responded, "Momma, someday I'm gonna be the greatest golfer in the world." One of his fellow caddies at Glen Garden was Byron Nelson , who also became a legendary golfer and Hogan's lifelong friend and rival. In 1927 Nelson beat Hogan by one shot after a nine-hole playoff in the club's annual Christmas tournament for caddies. Hogan registered as a professional in February 1930 to play in the San Antonio Open, but went broke soon after joining the PGA Tour in January 1932. He tried again two years later, with similar results, and briefly worked as a dealer and dice-game croupier in Fort Worth's thriving underground gambling scene. Years later, Hogan said, "My greatest accomplishment was being able to make a living playing golf after going broke twice starting out." In 1935 he married Valerie Fox, whom he had met in Sunday school more than a decade before. They were married for 62 years, until his death, and Hogan credited Valerie's support and faith in him for much of his success. Initially, however, Hogan's marriage seemed to have little effect on his golfing fortunes. In 1938 he and Valerie were in Oakland, California, and down to their last eighty-six dollars when someone stole the tires off their car. A distraught Hogan was ready to quit golf for good, but Valerie talked him out of it. Hogan went on to finish second in the Oakland Open, winning $285. Later that year, he won his first tournament, the Hershey Four-Ball, and from then on he was almost unbeatable. He was golf's leading money-winner in 1940, 1941, 1942, 1946, and 1948, and was named the PGA player of the year in 1948, 1950, 1951, and 1953. His sixty-three career victories and nine major-tournament wins rank third all-time, an accomplishment made even more remarkable by the time he missed-more than three full years-during the prime of his career. Hogan was drafted in March 1943 and initially assigned to Fort Worth Army Air Field as a physical-training instructor. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Air Force after completing Officer Candidate School in Miami that summer, then returned to Fort Worth for training as a flight instructor. Eventually, he was promoted to captain, though he never worked as a flight instructor. When he left the service in August 1945, he was

Tsha Handbook → · 14.9 mi away

Bluff Dale, Texas

Music in Bluff Dale

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History of Bluff Dale

Fitbits for Cows RoadyGoat

The Night the Sky Lit Up RoadyGoat

The Man Who Gave Away a Town RoadyGoat

Public Water Well, Old

Holt House

Warnock, J. F., Hardware

McGaughey, William L.

Tolar, TX

Hogan, William Benjamin

Things to Do in Bluff Dale

Everything Near Bluff Dale