1894: Oil discovered at Corsicana
John H. Galey
Corsicana real estate developers convinced James. M. Guffey and John
H. Galey of Pittsburgh (associates of millionaire Andrew W. Mellon) to
come to Corsicana to help them exploit the region’s deposits of oil. By
1900, their Corsicana field was producing 836,000 barrels a year. In
1897, Corsicana’s town leaders convinced J.S. Cullinan of
Pennsylvania to come to Corsicana found the first successful
commercial refinery in Texas. The J.S. Cullinan Company later merged
with two other firms to form the Magnolio Petroleum Company (later
known as Mobil). As it expanded, the refinery needed new markets for
its petroleum products, and Cullinan convinced the Cotton Belt
Railroad in 1898 to run an experimental locomotive on steam created
by an oil burner. Soon thereafter, most railroads began the switch from
coal- to oil-burning locomotives. (Calvert, De León & Cantrell, p. 245.)
Patillo Higgins of Texas believed
that the salt dome three miles
south of Beaumont known as
Spindletop would be a good site to
drill for petroleum. Captain A.F.
Lucas, a mining engineer, deduced
from his work in Louisiana that
Higgins was probably correct and
decided to join him. (Calvert, De
León & Cantrell, p. 245.)
Patillo Higgins
On January 10, 1901,
Captain A. F Lucas, with
financial backing from
the Mellon interests,
made the most
important oil discovery
in Texas history in
Southeast Texas at
Spindletop
The blending of the technological expertise
of the Hammill brothers of Corsicana and
the money of the Mellon men tapped the
Spindletop pool on January 10, 1901.
For nine days Spindletop spewed oil
unchecked, with between 70,000 and
100,000 barrels flowing from it daily. As
word of the big strike spread, speculators
of all stripes rushed to Beaumont. p. 245.
“The boom that Spindletop triggered would ultimately see oil
surpass both cattle and cotton to become the linchpin of Texas
prosperity.” (Calvert, De León & Cantrell, p. 243.)
Spindletop, Texas oil fire.
Spindletop was the location of the
first Texas oil well.
Oil Created Many Spin-off Industries
Oil-related spin-off industries: refineries, pipelines,
asphalt, tank cars, ocean-going tankers, harbors,
machine shops, oil and gas lawyers, petroleum
engineering, petroleum geology, oil leasing,
automobiles, roads paved, natural gas,
petrochemicals
Starting as early as 1898, some
locomotives ran on oil instead of coal.
Rotary drills and improved bits made deeper drilling possible
and expanded the industry in 1926 to West Texas.
“HogTown”—
Desdemona, TX.
Environmental problems:
derricks too close
together, fire, health
hazards, water pollution.
Voluntary standards
ignored. After World War I,
the Railroad Commission
enforced regulation.
Beaumont Saloon near
Spindletop, 1901.
By 1928, Texans owned 250,000 motor vehicles,
and businesses that serviced these vehicles would
become a major industry. (p. 248)
Texas Oil Production:
•1896: 1,000 barrels
•1902: 21 million barrels
•1929: 293 million barrels
Nineteenth-century Texans never dreamed
that oil and the state would become
permanently intertwined in myth and
economics. They had considered themselves
as cotton farmers and cattle ranchers, but
Spindletop changed that, ushering Texas into
the twentieth century with a bang and
making the state ultimately different from its
southern neighbors. The History of Texas,
pp. 243-244.
Percentage of
Texans living in
metropolitan
areas:
1900: 17.1%
1939: 41%
In 1913, Dallas acquired one of the twelve
national branches of the Federal Reserve
System and took on the personality of a
major financial and business center.
The Devastation of
Galveston, 1900
The commission form of city
government, first developed in
Galveston, served as a model for
city reform that spread
throughout the nation.
City Council Members
Program Description:
As the governing body of the City of
Texarkana, Texas, it is the City Council's
responsibility to represent the best interests
of all citizens in Texarkana, Texas, in
enacting local legislation, in determining
City policies and plans, and in adopting
City's budget.
James W. Bramlett Mayor
Derrick McGary City Council, Ward I
Willie Ray City Council, Ward II
Bill Schubert City Council, Ward III
Bob Bruggeman City Council, Ward IV
Van Alexander City Council, Ward V
Bradley Hardin City Council, Ward VI
The rapidly growing
number of industrial jobs
continued to make urban
areas more attractive than
the countryside.
Texas cities began to
develop modern amenities.
•Telephone
•Electric lines
•Natural gas
On average, rural workers earned
about one-third less than did their
urban counterparts.
The number of female agricultural workers
decreased by nearly one-half as more women moved
to the cities and the demand for agricultural labor in
general dropped.
Agriculture
“Agriculture remained the major occupation
and source of revenue for Texans into the
1920s. In 1927, for example, the value of
Texas agriculture was three times that of oil
and of manufacturing. And in Texas, cotton
remained king. Texas far outdistanced other
southern states, producing one-third of all
the cotton picked in 1922, a position held
through the end of the decade. No other crop
rivaled cotton in either acreage planted or
value yielded.” See page 253.
However, cotton failed many farmers.
See falling prices on page 254.
Between 1913 and 1920, the cost of living doubled, yet farm
income did not increase. In 1910, 51.7 of Texas farmers were
tenants. In 1930, 61 percent were tenants (50 percent of
whites, 70 percent of blacks).
Dusting cotton for the boll weevil in
NC, 1920s.
Boll Weevil. In 1921, boll
weevils cost Texans one-third
of their crop. (See pp. 253-
254.)
A small, grayish, long-snouted beetle (Anthonomus grandis) of
Mexico and the southern United States, having adults that
puncture cotton buds and larvae that hatch in and damage
cotton bolls.
Source: Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third
Edition Copyright, 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
The Farmer’ Union, organized in 1902 in Emory, Texas, grew
into the 140,000-member Farmers’ Education and Cooperative
Union. The union had goals similar to the Farmers’ Alliance.
See p. 260.
Fenced in Ranch
Demonstrating the passing of the Old West, the
number of beef cattle and horses dropped
between 1900 and 1929, while the number of
dairy cows, mules, sheep, and goats increased.
“As late as 1930, the
population was still
classified as 60 percent
rural.”
“The oil boom in the 1920s
ushered in one of the more
prosperous times that most
Texans could recall. Yet as
late as the end of the
1920s, the state seemed
mired in the past;
agriculture still dominated
the economy, and
segregation still defined
race relations.” (Calvert, De
León & Cantrell, p. 243.)
Blacks were often pressured to work
in the fields during the harvest season.
Location: Kaufman county, Texas
Date: August 1936
Plantation owner's daughter checking the weight of cotton.
USDA Photo by Arthur Rothstein
Location: Corpus Christi (vicinity), Texas
Date: November 1942
Mexican cotton pickers helping to save the cotton crop which was
threatened with ruin because of the wartime manpower shortage.
USDA Photo by: Howard Hollum
The average family size declined from 4.6 in 1910 to 3.5 in 1930.
Many women knew of contraceptive methods and
abortifacients. Children still an economic asset in farm
families. Urban women had fewer children. Foreign-born
women had more children. In 1929, black Texans had a higher
infant mortality rate (25% of black children died within the first
year and shorter life expectancy (white males 59.7, white
females 63.5, black males 47.3, black women 49.2)
Farm women faced the greatest
hardships in caring for their
families and doing farm labor. In
1930, a study of white women: 57%
cooked on wood stoves, 80% used
oil lamps, and 63% washed clothes
on a washboard. Black women:
99% used oil lamps and wood
stoves. 1929 less than 5% of Texas
farms had electricity, less than 8%
indoor plumbing, less than 15%
running water, 60% cars (most
roads were unpaved), 32% phones.
Census takers reported that
60 percent of the rural
population was aged fourteen
and under in 1920, while 32
percent of the village and 27
percent of urban inhabitants
fell within that age group.
Young adults, particularly
young women, tended to
move from farms to urban
areas during period.
(Calvert, DeLeón & Cantrell, p. 259.)
In 1929, a good picker
earned $4 per day. Yearly
wage of $485.35.
Slightly more than
400,000 Texas
women worked
outside the home in
1930, an increase of
about 25 percent over
1920. (p. 251)
The growth of large cities and new technologies
offered Texas women increased employment in
such occupations as telephone operators,
clerical workers, and salespeople. Texas
women accounted for 80 percent of the
teachers, 90 percent of the nurses, and 90
percent of the librarians, but under 2 percent
of the lawyers and physicians.
In the 1920s, the
number of women in the
workforce increased.
The increasing number
of white married women
in the workforce
contributed to the
concept of the “New
Woman”: the vibrant
and independent woman
who made her own
decisions, free from
male restrictions and
advice. The History of
Texas, pp. 251-252.
Women’s Work?
The growth of large cities and new technologies
offered Texas women increased employment in such
occupations as telephone operators, clerical
workers, and salespeople. Some occupations even
became stereotyped as “women’s work.” Texas
women accounted for 80 percent of the teachers, 90
percent of the nurses, and 90 percent of the
librarians, but under 2 percent of the lawyers and
(Calvert, DeLeón & Cantrell, p. 251.)
physicians.
Domestic servants waiting for the streetcar on their way to work
early in the morning in Atlanta, Georgia, 1939
Freedwomen washing laundry, Circleville, Texas
Courtesy, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library
Source: Texas: The South Meets the West, The View Through African American History
in Journal of the West, Vol. 44, No. 2, (Spring 2005). p. 47.
Texas granted more divorces than any other state from 1922-26
THE DECLINE IN AMERICAN MORALS?
The general failure of prohibition enforcement brought home to
many Texas what they defined as a decline in American morals.
The rapidly increasing urbanization seemed to blur what were
once clear moral and community values. Migration to the city
disrupted the neighborhoods of rural America and, coupled with
more and better transportation facilities, broke up the extended
family. Historians have cited the urban growth of the United
States as creating tensions between rural and urban
Americans. The anxiety emanated not only from the
countryside, but also from developing southern cities filled with
recent foreign immigrants. The anti-city focus of rural Texans
resulted from their perception of urban areas as hotbeds of
disloyal foreigners, religious modernism, illegal speakeasies,
organized crime, morally suspicious “New Women,” and
corrupting modern music. These tensions were further abetted
by the post-World War I Red Scare and reinforced by the
progressive drive for social control. (p. 310)
Labor Unions in Texas
Labor Unions never had a strong base in
Texas. Texas State Federation of Labor;
United Mine Workers
Why union membership declined:
1.
Lack of leadership
2.
Hostility of business
3.
Red Scare
4.
Political leadership opposed labor
unions
Open Port Law: prohibited strikes and gave
the governor the authority to intervene
militarily to end strikes.
See pp. 252-253.
NEGROPHOBIA IN THE EARLY
TWENTIETH CENTURY: Historians have
described the early twentieth century as the nadir
of race relations in the United States. Ironically,
Populism, which tried to create a biracial political
coalition, helped to encourage segregation in the
South. Attempting to prevent the formation of any
coalition of blacks and poor white farmers,
establishment Democratic politicians frequently
demonstrated their Negrophobia by accusing blacks
of being genetically inferior to whites and claiming
that such “innate” flaws made blacks a threat to
society. There began a move to make African
Americans, governed by political leaders for whom
they could not vote and segregated by law and
custom into a separate society, permanent
outsiders. The movement largely succeeded.
(Calvert, De León & Cantrell, 4th ed., 257.)
Booker T. Washington
Main Point: We should concentrate on
work and progress. Blacks and whites
need stop fighting, agitating and
relocating. The South will progress if
we work together. We only hurt
ourselves by fighting.
THE MESSAGE FOR BLACKS: Work hard, and do not agitate for equality. Start
at the bottom and work your way up.
Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic
service, and in the professions. …when it comes to business…, it is
in the South that the Negro is given a man’s chance in the
commercial world…. Our greatest danger is that in the great leap
from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of
us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in
mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and
glorify common labour and put brains and skill into the common
occupations of life…. No race can prosper till it learns that there is
as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the
bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top.
The wisest among my race understand
that the agitation of questions of social
equality is the extremist folly, and that
progress in the enjoyment of all the
privileges that will come to us must be
the result of severe and constant
struggle rather than of artificial forcing.
However, working together does not
necessary include socializing together.
THE MESSAGE FOR WHITES: We are a loyal and humble people who serve you
well if you treat us well. It is in your interest to encourage and help black
people.
Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you
know, whose fidelity and love you have tested….. Cast down your
bucket among these people who have without strikes and labor wars
tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and
cities, brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, just to
make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the
South. Casting down bucket among my people, helping and
encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to
education of head, hand, and heart, you will find that they will buy
your surplus land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and
run your factories. While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as
in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most
patient, faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world
has seen. As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past, in nursing
your children, watching by the sickbed of your mothers and fathers,
and often following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in
the future, in our humble way, we shall stand by you with a devotion
that no foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our lives,….
[We will interlace ] our industrial, commercial, civil, and religious life
with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both races one.
THE MESSAGE FOR WHITES: If white people insist on keeping the Negro down,
they will only be hurting themselves.
Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load upward,
or they will pull against you the load downward. We shall constitute
one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the South, or onethird its intelligence and progress; we shall contribute one-third to the
business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we shall prove a
veritable body, of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding every effort
to advance the body politic.
Stamp commemorating Booker T.
Washington
Issue Date: April 7, 1940
SIGNIFICANT FINE POINT FOR BOTH RACES: We do not have to
socialize together, but we should work together for the common
cause of development.
In all things that are purely social we call be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the
hand in all things essential to mutual progress. -- Booker T. Washington
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Niagara Movement, (1905)
1. We should meet, despite the existence of other
organizations for Negroes.
2. We must complain about common wrongs
toward blacks.
We must complain. Yes, plain, blunt
complaint, ceaseless agitation, unfailing
exposure of dishonesty and wrong—this is
the ancient, unerring way to liberty, and we
must follow it. (p. 100)
3. In not a single instance has the justice of our
demands been denied, but then come the
excuses.
Fifteenth Amendment:
Section 1 The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race,
color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2 The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.
In 1910, the Texas House of Representatives urged repeal of
the Fifteenth Amendment. Urban blacks acquired some
voting power as city bosses needed their votes.
In Nixon v. Herndon (1927)
the U. S. Supreme Court ruled
the all-white primary
unconstitutional. In 1928 the
state legislature defined
political parties as "private
organizations" not subject to
federal law. Until 1944 most
black Texans could not vote.
Thousands gathered in Paris, Texas, for the 1893
lynching of Henry Smith.
Thousands gathered in Paris, Texas, for the 1893 lynching of Henry Smith.
Spectacle lynching. The Burning and Lynching of
Jesse Washington, Waco Texas 1916.
Although accurate figures on the lynching of blacks are
lacking, one study estimates that in Texas between 1870
and 1900, extralegal justice was responsible for the
murder of about 500 blacks—only Georgia and Mississippi
exceeded Texas’s numbers in this grisly record. Between
1900 and 1910, Texas mobs murdered more than 100
black people. In 1916 at Waco, approximately 10,000
whites turned out in holiday-like atmosphere to watch a
mob mutilate and burn a black man named Jesse
Washington. (Source: Calvert, De Leon and Cantrell, The
History of Texas, pp. 189, 261-262.)
The lynching of
Lige Daniels.
August 3, 1920,
Center, Texas.
The White Man’s Double Standard
“We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the
man who embodies victorious effort; the man who never
wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but
who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the
stern strife of actual life.”
--Theodore Roosevelt, The Strenuous Life
White mobs murdered more than 100 black people
between 1900 and 1910.
White prejudice included animosity toward black troops in
the U.S. Army. Brownsville whites, for example, objected
to the stationing of the all-black Twenty-fifth Infantry at
Fort Brown. In anger, they charged that the troops had
raided the city in 1906 in protest of discriminatory
practices. Later evidence demonstrated the unfairness of
the charges, but at that time President Theodore
Roosevelt had dishonorably discharged 160 of the troops.
(The History of Texas, 261-262)
A black boxer from
Galveston named
Jack Johnson was
world heavyweight
champion from 1908
to 1915, prompting
the legislature to ban
the showing of films
of his fights.
Blind Lemon Jefferson and Huddie Ledbetter
were pioneers of Texas blues music. p. 268.
Revolution
Between 1910 and 1920, between 1.5 and 2
million Mexican lost their lives in the Revolution.
The census takers in
1920 counted almost a
million fewer Mexican
than they had found
only a decade before.
Mexican Americans observed special
days with traditional festivities of
various sorts. Religious holy days
included commemoration of the date
of the apparition of the Virgin of
Guadalupe to Juan Diego in Mexico in
1531 (December 12), All Souls’ Day
(November 2), and Christmas. Fiestas
patrias, which honored the Mexican
historical holidays of independence
(Diez y Seis, September 16) or the date
of the victory of the Battle of Puebla
(Cinco de Mayo), where held in almost
all Tejano communities. (Calvert,
DeLeón & Cantrell, p. 271)
The Virgin Mary
appears to Juan Diego
on the Hill of
Tepeyac—a sacred hill
where the goddess
Tonantzin had dwelt.
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