Oilfield Trash: Life and Labor in the Oil Patch

1 The Oil Boom,1901-1905

The twentieth century arrived slightly later in Texas than in most places. The activity destined to dominate the state’s social and economic life for the century was delayed for slightly over a year. Seldom does a single event characterize an entire century, but in Texas destiny intervened on January , . That was the day the Lucas # blew in at Spindletop and propelled the Lone Star State from its legendary cotton and cattle past into a petroleum-dominated twentieth century. Few native Texans had a working knowledge of the oil business at the turn of the twentieth century, nor did they have any idea of how to deal with the associated boomtown environment that activity brought. Their only experience with petroleum, prior to the  Spindletop phenomenon, lay with a minor discovery near Corsicana in . That happened when the city of Corsicana contracted to have three municipal water wells drilled. At a depth of , feet the drilling contractor encountered a major nuisance in the form of oil, which forced the driller to case the well in order to safely complete his contract to provide uncontaminated water to the city. Immediate local interest resulted in the organization of the Corsicana Oil Development Company. That firm brought in a couple of experienced Pennsylvania oilmen named J. M. Guffey and John H. Galey to help drill and develop the wells. By  a small oil boom was underway as activities attracted hundreds of oilmen from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other oil-producing regions back east. Sleepy little Corsicana became the first Texas oil boomtown where boarding houses filled to capacity, all types of rental property became occupied, and local businesses experienced unprecedented growth. The activity soon exceeded the local economy’s ability to utilize petroleum production, and by late  Corsicana oil was selling for as little as fifty cents per barrel while oil from the older eastern fields brought double that amount. At that juncture local investors persuaded yet another Pennsylvanian, J. S. Cullinan , to assist in the development of their little five mile by two mile oilfield. Cullinan persuaded all the local producers to sell their production to him and then proceeded to build the first permanent oil refinery in the state. By late  Corsicana oil was back up to a dollar per barrel, and Cullinan was busy developing new ways to utilize the product. His ideas ranged from promoting it as a new locomotive fuel to coating the dirt streets of regional towns in order to keep the dust down. The Oil Boom, 1901–1905 CHAPTER   CHAPTER  While modest success smiled upon Corsicana’s efforts, other Texans were busy looking for similar rewards. The unlikely candidate for developing petroleum prospects on the Gulf Coast became Pattillo Higgins of Beaumont. Possessing only a third grade education and having lost an arm as a youngster, Higgins was regarded in his hometown as something of an eccentric. Through late night study over a lengthy period of time he developed a working knowledge of geology that gradually grew into the certainty that there was oil in the immediate vicinity of Beaumont. The particular focus of his obsession became a twelve- or fifteen-foot rise of ground located about four miles south of town known variously as Sour Spring Mound, Spindletop Hill, or just the “hill.” It was not too difficult to imagine that petroleum existed beneath that hill when only a casual examination revealed that oil oozed to the surface in several places while gas bubbles occasionally burst from the surface of the stagnant ponds that abounded in the area. As early as  Higgins had persuaded some local businessmen to form the Gladys City Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing Company in order to investigate the oil seepages at Spindletop Hill that so intrigued him. Over the next four years the company made three attempts to drill oil wells at that location. Using traditional cable tool drilling rigs, their efforts were thwarted each time by an unconsolidated formation they called the heaving sand located a few hundred feet beneath the surface. Then in  Higgins, by now only a minor partner in the company, but still the main force behind oil exploration in the area, persuaded A. F. Lucas to assume the lease on the oil property. Lucas, an experienced salt dome driller, had been operating successfully in Louisiana for several years. His first attempt at drilling on Spindletop ended at a depth of  feet when the money ran out, although they had a small showing of oil. With the project seemingly...