Ben Pate
Special to the Citizen
The country roads in Erath County needed constant care before a long lasting paving solution was found. When looking through newspapers around 1913, there was a call on a regular basis for able bodied men to donate one day a year to work on county roads. The County Commissioners would find which roads needed the most work and where along the road the work was needed. Volunteers would bring the tools they had at home to the work session.
The need for repairing roads was a state wide issue. The Dublin Progress October 17, 1913, published an article that stated “Governor Colquitt has designated November 5th and 6th as the dates and requested all the people throughout Texas to work the public roads throughout the state on those dates.” Local commissioners were asked to know the work needed and to let those willing to work to bring implements with them and to otherwise have some definite plans so the the two day’s work would be well spent.
It was estimated that 3000 men would work on the roads of Erath County.
Special note was to have workers to help on the newly created road between Dublin, Greens Creek and Stephenville to assist with improving it. (Dublin Progress, October 24, 1913)
County Judge A.P. Young asked County Commissioners, Lowe, Hudson, Bowie, and Miller to help with the work on both days. (Dublin Progress October, 17 1913).