The Prophet of Spindletop
Pattillo Higgins is one of those people who put Texas on the world oil map, and he rarely gets a mention. He had a bad reputation as a jokester and troublemaker as he grew up in Beaumont. Blacks often became his target. He was seventeen in 1880 when sheriff’s deputies tried to stop him from […]
The First Oil Well in Texas
Everyone knows about Spindletop, the 1901 oil discovery that changed the world and thrust Texas into the big-time petroleum business. A few people know that in 1895 the city fathers of Corsicana hired an experienced Kansas drilling outfit to increase the town’s much-needed water supply. To the chagrin of the politicians, they discovered oil instead […]
Oil Man Who Gave Away Millions
If you are driving south from Austin on US 183, you know when you’ve arrived in Luling. Even if you’re the passenger and your eyes are closed, you’ll recognize Luling. It stinks. Yes, oil pumping stations (pump jacks) operate all over town—even in the heart of the city. Nobody in Luling minds the odor. They […]
From “Booger Town” to “All-American City”
A friend told me that in the 1920s her father’s job of hauling construction materials in the Texas Panhandle required that he drive through Borger. The place had such a bad reputation that her father carried a loaded .45 on the seat beside him. On one occasion a man jumped on the truck’s passenger-side running […]
PHILANTHROPIC MADAM
Mystery surrounds Miss Rita’s early life. Raised in a prosperous, but unnamed Oregon family in the early 1900s, she left home to dance for a time for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo before she joined the vaudeville circuit. During her first, brief marriage, no one knows why she became a prostitute. When the Great […]
THE POMPEIIAN VILLA
The Pompeiian Villa, built in 1900 in Port Arthur is a replica of a first century Roman villa complete with the deep pink exterior, Doric columns, and ten rooms circling a grand peristyle. Although it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and bears a Texas Historical Marker, its heyday symbolizes an era […]
SPINDLETOP
Patilla Higgins is one of those people that put Texas on the world oil map, and he rarely gets a mention. He came on the scene in the mid-1880s in a brawl with a local deputy marshal that cost Higgins his arm and the marshal his life. Since the scrape occurred after dark, a plea […]
A Taste of Texas Tea
It’s great fun to tell the story of people who don’t fit the expected mold. In Texas where oilmen are known for strutting about in cowboy boots and living a lavish lifestyle, Tol Barret the pioneer that in 1866 drilled Texas’ first producing oil well was one of those people who didn’t fit the mold. […]
PROVIDENCE IN THE OIL BUSINESS?
If you are driving south from Austin, Texas, on US 183, you know when you’ve arrived in Luling. Even if you’re the passenger and your eyes are closed, you’ll recognize Luling. It stinks. Yes, oil pump jacks operate all over town—even in the downtown part of town. Nobody in Luling minds the smell. In fact […]