DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and it's a story worth tellin'. A blacksmith. Nearly eighteen thousand acres.
And a spring that set something in motion nobody could've predicted. The marker's in Hood County, and it belongs to a man named Pleasant Thorp. In 1840, Thorp — born in 1809 — immigrated to Texas.
He hadn't picked this particular patch of ground by accident, either. He'd traveled through the area while on the Morehouse Expedition, and he filed that memory away. This is where he'd settle.
And settle he did. By the time the dust cleared, Pleasant Thorp was sitting on holdings totaling nearly eighteen thousand acres. Now, somewhere in all that land, he encountered Sulphur Springs.
And that encounter led him to set aside land for a town. He called it Thorp Spring. A blacksmith with a town.
Not bad for starters. But Thorp wasn't finished. In 1871, he and a man named Sam Milliken established Thorp College.
An early school, out here in what was still very much the frontier edge of Texas. That school gave way, in 1873, to Add-Ran College. Add-Ran College moved to Waco in 1896.
Then to Fort Worth in 1910. And that institution — born from a blacksmith's land in Hood County — became Texas Christian University. TCU.
Then, in 1888, Pleasant Thorp deeded to Hood County the portion of his land containing the spring, to form a public park. A gift to the public, plain and simple. Thorp died in 1890, just two years after that deed was signed.
The marker calls him a true Texan pioneer — and it's hard to argue with that. A blacksmith who came through on an expedition, liked what he saw, planted roots eighteen thousand acres deep, and left behind a town, a park, and a university that's still standin'. Some legacies echo.
Pleasant Thorp's thunders.
What the marker says
IN 1840, A BLACKSMITH NAMED PLEASANT THORP (1809-1890) IMMIGRATED TO TEXAS. HE PLANNED TO SETTLE IN THIS AREA AFTER TRAVELING THROUGH WHILE ON THE MOREHOUSE EXPEDITION. AS PART OF HIS HOLDINGS TOTALING NEARLY 18,000 ACRES, THORP ENCOUNTERED SULPHUR SPRINGS, WHICH LED TO HIS SETTING ASIDE LAND FOR THE TOWN OF THORP SPRING. HE AND SAM MILLIKEN ESTABLISHED THORP COLLEGE IN 1871. THIS EARLY SCHOOL GAVE WAY IN 1873 TO ADD-RAN COLLEGE, WHICH MOVED TO WACO IN 1896 AND FORT WORTH IN 1910, BECOMING TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY (TCU). IN 1888, THORP DEEDED TO HOOD COUNTY THE PORTION OF HIS LAND CONTAINING THE SPRING TO FORM A PUBLIC PARK. A TRUE TEXAN PIONEER, PLEASANT THORP LEFT A GREAT LEGACY FOR RESIDENTS AND POSTERITY TO CHERISH. (2018)