Rise and quick fall of a small oil company.
In October 1919, Texas Oil & Refining controlled leases in Comanche and Tillman counties of southern Oklahoma — an area of about 2,000 acres northwest of the Burkburnett oilfield (see Boom Town Burkburnett).
The Texas Oil & Refining Company (also called the Douglas-Texas Oil & Refining) was organized in Fort Worth in 1919. With capital of $200,000, it managed to acquire a small refinery in Port Arthur.
In Oklahoma, near where the Red Fork gusher and more recent oilfield discoveries made headlines, the company leased land south of Tulsa and drilled the No. 4 Henderson well near Okmulgee. The wildcat well as a 1,900-foot-deep “dry hole.”
About 35 miles north, the Glenn Pool oilfield (discovered in 1905 between Okmulgee and Tulsa) brought the first rush of exploration companies. An oilfield discovery closer to Okmulgee was drilled and completed in 1907, the same year of Oklahoma’s statehood.
The Texas Oil & Refining venture continued to explore for oil. By the end of 1919, the company had completed two shallow, producing oil wells on a 680-acre lease in the Beggs-Bixby oilfield at Okmulgee.
Exploring in South Texas in 1920, the company drilled a wildcat well in Gonzales County. The No. 1 Hassman well “spudded” a mile west of the town of Coast, but there is no other information.
Petroleum exploration and production proved beneficial for Okmulgee businesses, according to residents. The “back gold” wealth helped create the “Roaring 20s” throughout the state, which had been Indian Territory in 1897 when the first Oklahoma Oil well was drilled.
The October 9, 1919, issue of Oil & Gas News promoted the company’s efforts with photos and names of company sites, principals, and investors. The trade publication noted several dispersed activities and some apparent success, but then nothing else as the company faded away.
Texas Oil & Refining Company disappeared from financial records by 1921.
Especially in the 1920s and 1930s, bankruptcies were common among new, inexperienced exploration companies. Many in Oklahoma failed, despite drilling relatively shallow wells of about 1,500 feet deep, which considerably lowered drilling expenses (see more in the history of the Healdton field).
The high quality of the oil produced from these Oklahoma wells also made them attractive to investors. As production of the thick, sulfurous oil from the 1901 Spindletop field in Texas declined, this oil was “light and sweet” and easily refined into gasoline and kerosene, according to geologist Norman Hyne, PhD, at the University of Tulsa.
Learn more Oklahoma petroleum history in Making Tulsa the Oil Capital.
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please become an annual AOGHS supporter and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2025 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Texas Oil & Refining Company.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/old-oil-stocks/texas-oil-refining-company. Last Updated: March 20, 2025. Original Published Date: July 5, 2013.
