Texas Oil Products Company incorporated in 1918 with $850,000 capitalization specifically to build a $750,000 refinery near the Houston & Texas Central Railroad south of Dallas, just outside of Waxahachie’s western city limits.
Founded in 1850, Waxahachie has been an agricultural, commercial, and transportation center in North Texas. Ellis County was one of the nation’s largest cotton-producing counties during the early 1900s.
With U.S. demand for gasoline soaring, the Texas Oil Products sought new technologies for its new refinery, planning for a capacity to process 3,000 barrels of oil a day.
The company turned to the Bostaph Engineering Corporation, which had recently patented a “ramage vapor-phase cracking process” (patent no. 1,224,787) to increase the amount of gasoline that could be extracted from each barrel of oil.
Construction began in 1920 and the Waxahachie refinery was up to 1,000 barrel a day capacity by 1922. The company marketed its high-grade gasoline as “Topoline.”
Although incorporated in Arizona, the Texas Oil Products executive offices were in Detroit. The president was G. Carl Fisher and vice president was Robert J. Fisher.
In December 1922, United States Investor reported the company, now capitalized at $3 million, had run afoul of the Michigan Securities Commission and was suspended from selling its stock.
“Many reputable brokers of Detroit are not handling the stock,” the publication noted. Some reports said the company floundered due to legal difficulties and pollution.
By court order, Texas Oil Products Company’s idled refinery was sold in 1930 to Star Oil & Refining Company of Fort Worth.
Today the Waxahachie Country Club sits on the old refinery property.
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The stories of exploration and production companies joining petroleum booms (and avoiding busts) can be found updated in Is my Old Oil Stock worth Anything? The American Oil & Gas Historical Society preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please support this AOGHS.ORG energy education website. For membership information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. © 2018 Bruce A. Wells.
