The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 327
616 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
limits on the one hand and of the size of Standard on the other.
Texas was still a comparative newcomer on the petroleum scene
when 1911 rolled around, and the spectacular strikes lay in the
two decades ahead. As late as 1911 Texas refiners were still build-
ing pipelines to Oklahoma in order to obtain a sufficient supply
of crude, and Texas was outranked not only by Oklahoma but
California, Illinois, Louisiana, and West Virginia. Add to Texas'
lateness the fact that Standard was operating on a worldwide basis,
and it can readily be perceived why the Southwest receives-and
deserves-no more than about a dozen pages of attention in the
nearly one thousand.
Standard came to Texas as a result of the opening of the Cor-
sicana field, which helped raise the total Texas production to a
thousand barrels in 1896. J. S. Cullinan of The Ohio Oil Com-
pany formed a company, lost his backing, and turned to Standard
officials to bail him out. Thus was formed in 1898 the Corsicana
Refining Company, which soon was the second largest producing
company in the Corsicana field and which intrigued Standard
officials by its development of the rotary drill, its method of
forcing water to the bottom of a hole to wash up the loosened
material outside the tubing, and its ability to complete wells in
ninety-six hours at $1,500 each. Standard officials-specifically,
H. C. Folger, Jr., and C. N. Payne-directed the Corsicana com-
pany (named Navarro after 1907) -down to 1909, when a Texas
court ordered it and another Texas affiliate, Security Oil Com-
pany, legally severed from Standard connections.
After Spindletop, Texas became a more attractive producing
area, but even then Standard held back and let the upstart Texas
and Gulf companies go ahead with exploiting the state's resources.
Undoubtedly a major factor in influencing Standard's lack of
interest was the continuing feud between the state and the Waters-
Pierce Oil Company, which culminated in a Travis County dis-
trict court fining Waters-Pierce $1,623,000 in June, 1907, for
violating the Texas anti-trust statutes through its Standard affilia-
tions. The Texas climate then was not exactly benign where
Standard operations were concerned.
Of course, nowadays both Humble and Magnolia owe a debt
of one sort or another to Standard for help in getting estab-327
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957, periodical, 1957; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101163/m1/356/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.