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Oil
industry in
East Texas
traces roots
back to 1860s
By W. T.
Block
First
published in
Beaumont
Enterprise on
Saturday
January 8,
2000.
As
Spindletop’s
99th
anniversary
approaches, it
is a good time
to remember
that our
nation’s first
oil gusher as
well as the
birth of the
oil industry
began in
Beaumont. It
is a time also
to remember
others in East
Texas history
that tried so
hard to bore
that first
gusher, but
failed.
Sources
indicate,
however, that
Texas’ first
petroleum
pipeline was
built in
Nacogdoches
County.
One
of those who
failed was a
“Mr.
Mulligan,” who
drilled at
Sour Lake in
Feb. 1867, but
history does
not even
provide his
entire name.
Mulligan’s
95-foot well
produced 200
barrels of
petroleum
before sand
clogged the
well, and he
abandoned the
project. W. A.
Savage also
found small
quantities of
oil at Sour
Lake, and he
shipped the
first wooden
tank car of
petroleum from
Beaumont in
1896 before he
too abandoned
the search.
Credit
for East
Texas’ first
oil driller
belongs to L.
T. Barret, a
merchant in
Melrose, in
southeast
Nacogdoches
County, who
dug the first
oil well in
Oil Springs in
1866. Oil
drilling rigs
of that era
were
principally
deep water
well cable
rigs with a
“Samson post
and a walking
beam.” That
type of
equipment,
which was
about all that
was available
in East Texas
at that time,
was very
inefficient,
and the
principal
cause of the
failures.
Barret
chartered the
Melrose
Drilling Co.
with three
partners in
1866, and he
dug his first
well 110 feet
deep, using a
crude
steam-driven
augur. That
well produced
10 barrels of
oil daily. The
partners
obtained some
financing in
Pennsylvania
and drilled a
second well,
also with
minimal
success, after
which they too
abandoned the
search.
In
1877 a second
set of
drillers and
investors
bored a well
that produced
about 75
barrels of oil
daily, and for
the next 15
years a small
oil boom
erupted. Other
drillers
flocked to
that location,
where they
built a
“skimming
plant,” a
wooden barrel
factory, and a
pipeline into
Nacogdoches. A
railroad, the
Nacogdoches
and
Southeastern,
was also built
to Oil
Springs.
For
a few years,
many buildings
and tents
existed at Oil
Springs while
the boom
lasted.
Nacogdoches
Chronicle,
reprinted in
Galveston
Daily News of
Oct. 19, 1891,
observed that:
“...Several
oil wells are
now being
operated at
Oil Springs,
and during the
past two
years, 200,000
gallons of the
finest
lubricating
oil have been
shipped... The
wells have to
be capped to
interrupt the
flow, and
there are now
on hand
100,000
gallons of oil
in tanks and
barrels...”
“...Two
oil companies
have been
operating
there for
years. There
is an immense
tank in the
western suburb
of Nacogdoches
near the depot
that holds
100,000
gallons of
oil. The tank
is connected
to the wells
at Oil Springs
by 16 miles of
pipeline,
through which
the oil is
pumped to the
tank....”
By
1894 an oil
field was
discovered at
Corsicana,
where by 1898,
its 287 oil
wells were
each producing
about 100-150
barrels daily.
Production at
Oil Springs
had dropped
off to about 1
barrel per
well daily, so
the drillers
quickly
deserted that
field for
Corsicana. By
1900, the
Corsicana
field was
producing
830,000
barrels
annually, and
the expertise
learned in
that field
contributed
greatly to
success at
Spindletop.
The
rotary rig of
Hamill
Brothers,
which drilled
the Lucas
gusher, came
from
Corsicana. And
when news of
the giant oil
discovery at
Beaumont
reached
Corsicana,
other drillers
and roughnecks
deserted that
field in
droves to
bring their
drilling rigs
and expertise
to Beaumont.
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