A 1930 wildcat well and two others miles away revealed the largest oilfield in the lower 48 states.
The East Texas oilfield, one of the greatest petroleum discoveries in United States history, arrived during the Great Depression.
With a crowd of more than 4,000 landowners, leaseholders, stockholders, creditors and spectators watching – the Daisy Bradford No. 3 well erupted oil near Kilgore, Texas. It was October 3, 1930.
“Thousands crowded their way to the site of Daisy Bradford No. 3, hoping to be there when and if oil gushed from the well to wash away the misery of the Great Depression,” noted one Kilgore, Texas, historian. Photo courtesy Jack Elder and Caleb Pirttelli, The Glory Days.
Incredible to most geologists, another wildcat well 10 miles to the north — the Lou Della Crim No. 1 well, drilled by Malcolm Crim on his mother’s farm — began flowing on December 28, 1930. A month later and 15 miles north of that well, a third, the Lathrop No. 1 well, drilled by W.A. “Monty” Moncrief, delivered another gusher.
At first, the great distance between these “black gold” discoveries convinced geologists — and virtually all of the major oil companies — that the wildcat wells had found separate oilfields.
J. Malcolm Crim of Kilgore names his wildcat well after his mother, Lou Della.
However, to the delight of many small, struggling farmers who owned the land, it finally became apparent that the three wells were all part of one giant oilfield.
H.L. Hunt and Oklahoma Wildcatters
In 1905, when Haroldson Lafayette “H.L.” Hunt was just 16 years old, he left his Illinois farm family and headed west. Along the way, he worked as a dishwasher, mule team driver, logger, farmhand, and even tried out for semi-pro baseball.
H.L. Hunt’s oil career began in Arkansas and East Texas and spanned much of the industry’s history, notes Hunt Oil Company. Photo circa 1911.
During his travels, young H.L. Hunt learned to gamble and played cards in bunkhouses, hobo camps, and saloons. But his life change when an Arkansas wildcat well, the Busey-Armstrong No. 1, erupted oil on January 10, 1921. Hunt joined the speculative rush and drilling frenzy that followed. He began with $50 in his pocket.
The Arkansas oilfield discovery catapulted the population of El Dorado from 4,000 to over 25,000 (learn more in First Arkansas Oil Wells).
While Hunt was pursuing oil in Arkansas, an unlikely pair was doing the same in Oklahoma. Sixty-five-year-old Columbus Marion Joiner was a former lawyer and Tennessee legislator who had spent years making a living as an oil lease broker in Oklahoma. He had lost a $200,000 fortune in the financial panic of 1907 — and began pursuing the wealth a successful wildcatter and promoter might find.
Columbus Marion Joiner believed in geologist A.D. Lloyd, especially after Lloyd located wells in Seminole, Oklahoma, oilfields.
A friend of Joiner, Joseph Idelbert Durham, had studied medicine and worked as a government chemist in the Idaho gold rush. Durham had also prospected for gold in the Yukon and Mexico before peddling patent oil medicines in “Dr. Alonzo Durham’s Great Medicine Show.”
Taking the name “A.D. Lloyd,” Durham proclaimed, “I’m not a professional geologist…but I’ve studied the earth more, and know more about it, than any professional geologist now alive will ever know.”
Joiner believed in “Doc” Lloyd and his confidence was reinforced when Lloyd accurately located the rich Seminole oilfield. Joiner drilled to within 200 feet of discovering this previously untapped reserve — but stopped short when his money ran out. Empire Gas & Fuel Company brought in the field’s discovery well on a nearby lease.
After a similar near miss in Oklahoma’s Cement field and a stretch of bad luck, the broke but optimistic Joiner headed to Dallas, where oilmen and oil money were plentiful. Meanwhile, A.D. Lloyd was off to Mexico, promoting new oil ventures.
Back in the Oil Business: H.L. Hunt, Inc.
H.L. Hunt’s success in Arkansas enabled him to investigate other investment possibilities, and with El Dorado oilfield production diminishing, he was lured to Florida real estate. He sold his interests to the Louisiana Oil and Refining Company, retaining a few wells in the El Dorado and Smackover fields.
Dedicated in 1955, a monument in Shreveport, Louisiana, commemorates the state’s rich petroleum heritage. Photo by Bruce Wells.
Hunt ultimately abandoned the Florida real estate market and returned to Arkansas, where in 1934 he formed H.L. Hunt, Inc. He was back in the oil business, the no-limit game he loved. Hunt traveled to Shreveport, Louisiana, and checked into the Washington-Youree Hotel, where the marble lobby hosted crowds of competing oil operators, promoters, and “lease hounds” — all looking for an edge in the high-risk world of petroleum exploration.
Speculators and promoters often profited where the true wildcatters could not. Not far to the west of Shreveport, Rusk County in northeastern Texas had seen its share of lease trading — despite the widely held conviction that there was no oil to be found there.
Geologists from major oil companies found no petroleum-rich salt domes (as in the 1901 Spindletop gusher at Beaumont to the south), anticlines, or other indications of oil. Seventeen wildcat wells had been dry holes.
“Dad” and “Doc” in Rusk County
Columbus Marion Joiner was undeterred. In 1927, he was 66 years old. He had just $45 in his pocket when he left Dallas to pursue opportunities in Rusk County. To poor farmers scratching out a living on drought-tormented land, Joiner seemed larger than life — a Bible-quoting genuine oil entrepreneur from Dallas who neither drank, smoked, nor cursed.
Within a few months, the affable but shrewd Joiner had acquired leases on several thousand acres and resumed his collaboration with A.D. “Doc” Lloyd.
Investments from hopeful Rusk County, Texas, farmers and merchants brought historic results — and made Kilgore, Longview and Tyler boom towns during the Great Depression. Kilgore celebrates by decorating derricks that once dominated its skyline.
Joiner formed a “Syndicate” from 500 of his lease block acres and began selling one-acre interest certificates to anyone who could scrape together $25. Joiner could be quite charming to the ladies and persuasive to gentlemen.
“Animatronic” rural electric lineman Buddy has welcomed visitors to “Boomtown, USA,” since 2012. Photo courtesy East Texas Oil Museum at Kilgore College.
Small investments from hopeful Rusk County farmers and merchants provided Joiner just enough month-to-month money to get by and sometimes pay on his considerable lease rental debt. Promoting oil certificates in an area largely dismissed by professionals called for a slick pitch, and Joiner’s self-taught geologist friend, “Doc” Lloyd, could help.
While Humble Oil Company geologists and geophysicists were reporting that Rusk County offered no possibilities, Joiner was mailing his own report to potential investors: “Geological, Topographical and Petroliferous Survey, Portion of Rusk County, Texas, Made for C.M. Joiner by A.D. Lloyd, Geologist and Petroleum Engineer.”
The East Texas Oil Museum in Kilgore is “a tribute to the men and women who dared to dream as they pursued the fruits of free enterprise,” according to Joe White, who founded the museum in 1980 — the 50th anniversary of the oil field’s discovery. Photo by Bruce Wells.
Using clear and correct scientific terminology, “Doc” Lloyd’s document described Rusk County anticlines, faults, and a salt dome — all geologic features associated with substantial oil deposits and all completely fictitious. Equally imaginary were the “Yegua and Cook Mountain formations” and the thousands of seismographic registrations ostensibly recorded.
The impressive looking but fabricated report was accompanied by a map depicting a “salt dome” and a fault running squarely through the widow Daisy Bradford’s farm, the exact site of the 500 acre Syndicate lease block that “Dad” Joiner was promoting.
Dry Hole, Dry Hole, Woodbine Formation
“Doc” Lloyd’s assessment had the desired effect and the increased sales of certificates enabled Joiner to patch together a rusty, worn-out rig and begin drilling the Daisy Bradford No. 1 in August 1927.
To sustain operations and in pursuit of new investors, Joiner created more Syndicates and sold far more certificates than he could possibly redeem, in one case selling the same certificate to eleven different investors. This didn’t present a problem unless Joiner actually brought in a producing well, but if he did, finding oil was the kind of “problem” wildcatters wished for.
In February 1928, the Daisy Bradford No. 1 well failed at 1,098 feet when the drill pipe became irretrievably stuck. Joiner continued overselling certificates to finance drilling.
In March 1929, his Daisy Bradford No. 2 suffered a like fate at 2,518 feet — far deeper than the hodgepodge of old equipment was thought capable.
Haroldson Lafayette “H. L.” Hunt (third from right) is a former dishwasher, mule team driver, logger, farmhand, and semi-pro baseball try-out. C. M. “Dad” Joiner (third from left) shakes the hand of geologist A. D. “Doc” Lloyd at the 1930 discovery well of the East Texas oilfield. Recognizing the significance of the discovery before his competitors, H. L. Hunt will move quickly — and take significant risk — by purchasing the discovery well and nearby leases from Joiner.
Daisy Bradford No. 3 was spudded just 375 feet from the failed second attempt at a site determined when broken equipment prevented moving any farther. Before long, Joiner’s “poor boy” operation was down to burning used tires in the old boiler to gain a few pounds of steam pressure and drill a few feet at a time.
In September 1930, Hunt and Joiner met for the first time when Daisy Bradford’s brother invited Hunt to observe a drill stem test at Joiner’s third well (drill stem tests can determine if oil is present in a formation and the rate at which it can be produced).
Hunt was always on the lookout for new opportunities and drove to the site with his friend from El Dorado, merchant and clothier P.G. “Pete” Lake.
The test was done on September 3, 1930. When the drill stem test brought a surge of mud, oil, and natural gas, Hunt was impressed. He raised enough money to lease three tracts to the east and one to the south of Joiner’s well as the news spread and the scramble for a piece of the action began. The Woodbine sand formation will make petroleum history.
In legal trouble, Columbus “Dad” Joiner, discoverer of the giant East Texas oilfield, will meet with H.L. Hunt at the Baker Hotel in Dallas — and sell 5,580 acres for $1.34 million.
In two weeks, more than 2,000 land deals were recorded; two weeks later, Daisy Bradford No. 3 blew in as a gusher in front of about 5,000 spectators who cheered madly, celebrated their newfound fortunes, and congratulated “Dad” Joiner. It wasn’t long however, before the greatly oversold Syndicate certificates created a convoluted legal nightmare of immense proportions for the now famous “Dad” Joiner.
On the 31st of October, a Dallas court put Joiner’s holdings into receivership. Seventy-year-old Columbus Marion Joiner took refuge in a Dallas hotel as swarms of claimants and creditors looked for him.
Following the drill stem test and aware of previous dry holes drilled to the east, H.L. Hunt became convinced that a substantial oilfield lay to the west. His conviction was reinforced when dry holes were drilled both southeast and northeast of Daisy Bradford No. 3, abruptly chilling the lease market.
Meanwhile, just a mile west of Joiner’s find and surrounded by his leases, Deep Rock Oil Company was drilling a test well on the Claude Ashby farm. Hunt believed that if this well came in, it would confirm that Daisy Bradford No. 3 was part of a much larger oilfield. A dry hole would prove the major oil companies’ belief that Joiner’s Woodbine sand reservoir was a fluke.
Hunt assigned three oil scouts to closely monitor and report to him on progress of the Ashby No. 1 well. Since his own credit was exhausted, he tried to interest Deep Rock and others in deals to buy out Joiner, but Daisy Bradford No. 3 was by then flowing intermittently. It would yield only about 200 barrels of oil and stop altogether for an agonizing 18 to 20 hours before resuming,
Hunt remained convinced Joiner’s contested leases set atop an oilfield, but just how big an oilfield was beyond Hunt’s or anybody else’s imagination. He later wrote, “Joiner was a true wildcatter and was much more interested in drilling wildcat wells than developing proven or semi-proven oil acreage. He was becoming weary of all the carrying on which was being made against him.”
Hunt’s “Business Coup”
Hunt borrowed $30,000 from his old El Dorado clothier friend, P.G. Lake, and set about to convince the harried and hiding “Dad” Joiner to sell. They met in Dallas’ Baker Hotel on November 25-26, 1930, while Hunt’s scouts continued to watch the Deep Rock well’s progress.
By the summer of 1931 about 900,000 barrels of oil per day are being produced from 1,200 wells in Rusk County. H. L. Hunt’s purchase of Daisy Bradford No. 3, above, provided the financial base for Hunt Oil Company.
At about 8:30 p.m. on November 26, Hunt’s scouts reported that the Deep Rock well had found the oil-rich Woodbine sand, confirming his belief in the oilfield. Four hours later Joiner sold all his holdings (including about 5,000 leased acres) to Hunt for $1,335,000 including all the $30,000 in cash Hunt had borrowed. It was far more money than Joiner had ever seen and provided him a way out of the legal mess of oversold certificates and competing claims.
It was for Hunt, as he later described, his “greatest business coup,” despite the 300 lawsuits that followed. As presiding District Judge R.T. Brown said, “If you want a successful gathering of long-lost kinfolks, just manage to find oil on the old homestead. They will come out from under logs, down trees, from out of the blue and down every road and byway, but they’ll get there — even some nobody ever suspected were kinfolks.”
The East Texas oilfield produced more than five billion barrels of oil by 2010 — and has continued to produce. The 1930 well found a field 43 miles long and 12.5 miles wide.
In the 10 years of litigation that followed, Hunt sustained every title. Eighteen days after his deal with Joiner, Deep Rock’s Ashby No. 1 came in at 3,000 barrels of oil a day.
The “Black Giant”
On a Sunday two weeks later, Lou Della Crim No. 1 came in 13 miles to the north, near Kilgore, Texas, flowing at over 22,000 barrels of oil a day. In January 1931, the similarly petroleum-rich Lathrop No. 1 well came in about 15 miles farther north, in Gregg County. Remarkably, the Ashby, Lou Della Crim, and Lathrop wells were all part of the same gigantic field, covering over 140,000 acres!
Hunt’s deal had put him in the midst of the unprecedented “Black Giant” known as the East Texas oilfield. In 1972, James A. Clark and Michel T. Halbouty published The Last Boom, noting, “The fortune Hunt built in East Texas served as the foundation for one much larger, for he could no more stop hunting for oil than could Joiner — and he seemed to find it as often as not.”
Production from the giant oilfield yielded five billion barrels of oil by 1980, and thanks to Dallas-based Hunt Oil Company, that was the year the East Texas Oil Museum opened at Kilgore College, not far from the Daisy Bradford No. 3 well.
Citation Information – Article Title: “East Texas Oilfield Discovery.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/petroleum-pioneers/east-texas-oilfield. Last Updated September 27, 2024. Original Published Date: October 22, 2012.
A 1928 experimental concrete reservoir for storing Permian Basin oil became a water park in 1958 — for one day.
Tourists traveling I-20 in West Texas should not miss the Monahans oil museum in the heart of the Permian Basin. Not just a collection of artifacts, the Million Barrel Museum’s big attraction is a former experimental oil tank the size of three football fields.
The Permian Basin once was called a “petroleum graveyard” — until a series of oilfield discoveries beginning in 1920 brought exploration companies to the vast, arid region. Completed near Big Lake in 1923, the Santa Rita No. 1 well alone would endow the University of Texas with millions of dollars.
However, as oilfield discoveries grew, the lack of infrastructure for storing and transporting large volumes of oil proved to be a problem. (more…)
America’s largest ranch signed a record-setting oil lease in 1933, launching a major oil company.
The largest U.S. private oil lease ever negotiated was signed in Texas during the Great Depression. The 825,000 acre King Ranch oil deal with Humble Oil and Refining, signed on September 26, 1933, would help the company become ExxonMobil, which has extended the agreement ever since.
At its peak covering one million acres, the King Ranch has remained bigger than the state of Rhode Island (776,960 acres). Despite unsuccessful wells drilled on the south Texas ranch for more than a decade, a Humble Oil geologist was convinced an oilfield could be found. (more…)
Will wisely stipulated mineral rights should not be sold.
In 1917, the Tyndall-Wyoming Oil Company’s No. 1 Hogg well discovered oil south of Houston and ended a streak of dry holes dating back to 1901 — when former Texas Governor James S. Hogg first thought oil might be there and leased the land.
The Lone Star State’s 20th governor, “Big Jim” Hogg died in 1906 without witnessing the Texas drilling boom he helped launch. But his unwavering belief in finding oil in the Gulf Coast’s geologic salt domes would benefit the Texas petroleum industry.
Indiana researcher’s “Informal History Notes” help preserve U.S. petroleum company legacies.
James Hinds of Columbus, Indiana, originally completed his extensively researched history of the Indian Refining Company in November 2003. His work documented the early histories of Havoline Motor Oil (through 1962) and the Texas Company, the future Texaco (through 1985).
“Emphasis was placed on Indian Refining Company and on an accurate account of Havoline’s early days,” Hinds noted about his extensively researched “Informal History Notes” emailed to the American Oil & Gas Historical Society in 2023. He added, “Please feel free to use (or not use) as you see fit.”
James Hinds Informal History Notes
INDIAN REFINING COMPANY, INCORPORATED HAVOLINE Motor Oil (through 1962) The Texas Company / Texaco Inc. (through 1985)
Compiled by Jim Hinds, Columbus, Indiana November 2003
In Memory of R. R. Hinds, Distributor
FOREWORD
1. These notes consist of information which I (with appreciable assistance) have been able to piece together on the corporate history of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY, INCORPORATED, the origins of HAVOLINE Motor Oil, and (to a lesser extent) the history of The Texas Company / Texaco Inc. Emphasis was placed on INDIAN REFINING COMPANY, and on an accurate account of HAVOLINE’s early days, since surprisingly little such information (especially on the “old INDIAN”) is readily available elsewhere. They are by no means a comprehensive history of The Texas Company / Texaco Inc. but only attempt to cover those events which I believe were most relevant to the histories of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY and HAVOLINE Motor Oil.
2. I am aware that these notes conflict, in some details, with “The Texaco Story – The First Fifty Years 1902-1952” (Marquis James, The Texas Company, 1953) which has come to be viewed as the “official history” of The Texas Company. Based on information which I have verified through multiple, independent sources, however, it appears that portions of the material with which Mr. James was given to work were either erroneous or misinterpreted.
3. It is recognized that “The Texas Company”, “TEXACO”, “HAVOLINE”, “INDIAN”, “FIRE-CHIEF”, and “Sky Chief” are or were registered trademarks of Texaco Inc. (a subsidiary of ChevronTexaco Corporation) or of its antecedents. They are used here for informational and historical research purposes, only. These notes are in no way an official publication of Texaco Inc. nor of ChevronTexaco Corporation.
A Texaco station was among the 2012 indoor exhibits featured at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma. Photo by Bruce Wells.
Chronology
28 March 1901 – The Texas Fuel Company is among some 200 companies organized in the days immediately following the famed oil strike at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, Texas. The company establishes an office in Beaumont.
4 October 1901 – John F. Havemeyer of Yonkers, New York incorporates The Havemeyer Oil Company under the laws of that state, for purposes (as detailed on its certificate of incorporation) related to “lubricating and all other oils of every kind and nature” (probably referring to whale oil, other animal renderings, and – possibly – to various seed oils, in addition to petroleum).
2 January 1902 – The Texas Fuel Company begins business.
7 April 1902 – The Texas Fuel Company becomes The Texas Company and incorporates under the laws of the State of Texas.
1 January 1903 – “TEXACO” (having originated as the cable address of The Texas Company) is first used as a product name.
13 November 1903 – The Texas Company begins operations at its first refinery – Port Arthur [Texas] Works
14 November 1904 – Although its plant is physically located in the tiny northwestern-Indiana hamlet of Asphaltum, and 99.8% of its common and 100% of its preferred stock are listed in the name of 23-year-old Richmond M. Levering (a Lafayette, Indiana native currently residing in Chicago, Illinois), Indian Asphalt Company incorporates under the laws of the State of Maine. (While not recorded, it is speculated that the name “Indian” is an allusion to Indiana – meaning land or place “of Indians”.)
1904 – The Havemeyer Oil Company — having developed a unique cold-filtration process and blending package for oils — coins, and first uses, the name “HAVOLINE.”
1905 – Realizing that the Jasper County, Indiana oil field which it originally intended to exploit is effectively depleted, Indian Asphalt Company is persuaded (in “an extensive campaign by the [Georgetown] Board of Trade”) to move its offices and plant to Georgetown, Kentucky.
1 May 1906 – Growing quickly in both size and scope, Indian Asphalt Company changes its name to INDIAN REFINING COMPANY. Its plant is upgraded to “refinery” status and its product line expanded to include paraffin wax, paint, “Sunset Engine Oil”, “Bull Dog Compound”, and “Blue Grass Axle Grease” in addition to asphalt. Richmond M. Levering becomes the first president of the renamed company and is soon joined in business by his father and mentor – Indiana banker, financier, and entrepreneur J. Mortimer Levering – who becomes the company’s secretary.
8 December 1906 – “HAVOLINE” is registered as a trademark of The Havemeyer Oil Company for use as a brand name on oils (not strictly motor oil) and greases.
5 January 1907 – Havoline Oil Company (a “spin-off” of The Havemeyer Oil Company) is incorporporated under the laws of State of New York. As with The Havemeyer Oil Company, its stated purposes include production, purchase, refining, sales, and other dealings involving “animal” oils and fats as well as “mineral” (i.e. petroleum) oils.
1907 – Construction of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY’s Lawrenceville, Illinois refinery is completed and the refinery begins operation.
1908 – Although continuing to operate its Georgetown refinery, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY relocates its offices to Cincinnati, Ohio. The company also begins operation of a small refinery near East St. Louis, Illinois.
20 May 1909 – As part of a program of rapid expansion, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY incorporates under the laws of the State of New York and purchases The Havemeyer Oil Company, Havoline Oil Company, and the by-now established “HAVOLINE” name (which is then registered as a trademark of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY as a brand name for lubricating oils – again, not strictly motor oil).
1909 – Production of HAVOLINE products at the Lawrenceville refinery begins.
1 December 1909 – Following a brief illness, J. Mortimer Levering (secretary of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY) passes away.
17 December 1909 – The Havemeyer Oil Company is dissolved.
2 September 1910 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY (Maine) is chartered to do business in the State of Louisiana and begins operating a refinery in New Orleans.
1909-1911 – Also included in this period of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY’s expansion are the purchases of the Bridgeport Oil Company (Bridgeport, Connecticut), the Record Oil Refining Company (Newark, New Jersey), a small refinery in Jersey City, New Jersey, and control of a large storage station at Kearny, New Jersey. The company launches a program aimed at making a full-scale entry into the European market.
16 March 1911 – Primarily in anticipation of expanding to the west coast, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF CALIFORNIA is created (and is incorporated under the laws of the State of New Jersey).
20 March 1911 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY (New York) changes its name to INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF NEW YORK and becomes the principal operating subsidiary of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY (Maine). The parent company’s main offices are moved from Cincinnati to New York City. Although its offices are moved, the company retains its close ties to the Cincinnati business community (which have existed since its inception as the Indian Asphalt Company) for many years. Its stock continues to be traded on the Cincinnati Stock Exchange and its board of directors includes (at various times) such well-known Cincinnati businessmen as William C. Procter, M. C. Fleischman, Lazard Kahn, and Bernard Kroger.
17 September – 6 November 1911 HAVOLINE Motor Oil lubricates the 28-horsepower engine of the first airplane to fly across the United States. Piloted by Calbraith Perry (“Cal”) Rodgers, the Wright EX bi-plane publicizes the new soft drink “Vin Fiz”, after which the the plane is named.
1 April 1912 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF LOUISIANA incorporates under the laws of the State of Louisiana.
December 1913 – January 1914 In conjunction with a sweeping organizational and financial re- structuring, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY (Maine) applies for and receives “authority to do business” in the States of New York and California. It assumes those functions formerly performed by INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF NEW YORK. The planned expansion to the far-West, however, is effectively cancelled and INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF CALIFORNIA is dissolved.
1915 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY closes its Georgetown, East St. Louis, and Jersey City refineries and abandons the company’s European venture (which has proven to be a severe financial drain due largely the First World War).
1916 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY (Maine)’s president, Richmond M. Levering, resigns, as do several other senior officers of the company.
December 1918 – January 1919 In yet another reorganization, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF NEW YORK, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF LOUISIANA, Havoline Oil Company, the Record Oil Refining Company, and the Bridgeport Oil Company – all subsidiaries of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY (Maine) (hereafter referred to simply as INDIAN REFINING COMPANY) – are dissolved. The New Orleans plant is closed.
1920 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY purchases the capital stock of the Central Refining Company, which is located immediately north of the Lawrenceville refinery. The Central refinery facilities are ultimately reconfigured for lubricants manufacture.
1923 – The general offices of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY are moved from New York City to Lawrenceville.
1924 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY sells its remaining producing properties (consisting mainly of wells and leases in Illinois and Ohio) to the Ohio Oil Company (later to become the Marathon Oil Company).
1924 – The globes for INDIAN gasoline pumps are redesigned: a red “ball” with “INDIAN” arched above and “GAS” arched below (both in blue letters) on a white globe, replaces the reddish-brown and black “running Indian” design which was previously used. (One-piece globes also include “HAVOLINE”, in letters, vertically on each side.)
1924-1925 – Wishing to even more closely associate the two names, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY adopts a totally re-designed “HAVOLINE” trademark and virtually identical “INDIAN GAS” logo, both of which prominently feature the red-white-and-blue “ball” which had first been incorporated into the “HAVOLINE” logo in 1922. A “dot” is added to the middle of the “D” and above the second “I” in the word “INDIAN” (replicating the dots within the “O” and above the “I” in “HAVOLINE”). “INDIAN HI-TEST” Gasoline (made identifiable by red dye) is introduced on a limited basis.
1926 – The subsidiary Indian Pipe Line Corporation is sold to the Illinois Pipe Line Company.
May 1926 – The Texas Company introduces “New and Better TEXACO Gasoline”.
26 August 1926 – The Texas Corporation is incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware and, by exchange of shares, acquires substantially all outstanding stock of The Texas Company (Texas).
20 April 1927 – The Texas Company incorporates (under the laws of the State of Delaware) as the principal operating subsidiary of The Texas Corporation. All assets of The Texas Company (Texas) are transferred to The Texas Company (Delaware) and The Texas Company (Texas) is dissolved. The Texas Corporation becomes the “parent company” of the by-now numerous “Texas Company” entities and other subsidiaries.
2 March 1928 – The Texas Corporation acquires the California Petroleum Corporation, which is reorganized as The Texas Company (California).
16 August 1929 – Its chemists and engineers (led by Dr. Francis X. Govers) having perfected a revolutionary solvent-dewaxing process, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY introduces “HAVOLINE WAXFREE” motor oil, replacing “HAVOLINE –the power oil” (which had, early in the 1920’s, supplanted “HAVOLINE It Makes a Difference”). (An economy “Blended HAVOLINE” is also offered, primarily in bulk.)
By 1930 “HAVOLINE” sales (both nation-wide and overseas) not only remain strong but grow, markedly, following the introduction of “HAVOLINE WAXFREE”. But, while it had once been in the retail gasoline, kerosene, and fuel oil markets (to varying extents) in over 25 states, the growing effects of the Depression, increasing difficulty in competing with the larger oil companies, the lack of reliable sources of crude, and (especially) the huge amount of money spent in developing the Govers solvent-dewaxing process, combine to force INDIAN REFINING COMPANY to retrench and restrict such marketing to Indiana, Michigan, eastern Illinois, northern Kentucky, and western Ohio. (Within this limited area, however, the company still has a well-developed and efficient distribution and sales network. Into the latter 1920’s, for example, “INDIAN” accounts for some 20% of all gasoline sales in Indiana.)
1930 – The Texas Corporation introduces “TEXACO Ethyl Gasoline” (which is renamed “FIRE-CHIEF Ethyl” 15 April 1932).
August 1930 INDIAN REFINING COMPANY introduces a higher-octane “regular” gasoline which is made identifiable by green dye and which is dubbed “INDIAN Green-Lite” Gasoline.
14 January 1931 – The Texas Corporation gains controlling interest in INDIAN REFINING COMPANY, including the rights to HAVOLINE Motor Oil (and the all-important Govers solvent-dewaxing process) and INDIAN REFINING COMPANY’s remaining active and inactive subsidiaries (the Indian Realty Corporation, the Central Refining Company, and the Havoline Oil Company of Canada, Ltd.). This also gives The Texas Corporation an established distribution and sales network and entry into the retail gasoline market in Indiana, Michigan, eastern Illinois, northern Kentucky, and western Ohio – areas in which it has not previously had any significant presence. (The Texas Corporation limits use of the “HAVOLINE” name to motor oil, only; it is not again used on products other than motor oil until the mid-1990’s)
14 January 1931 – 15 March 1943 INDIAN REFINING COMPANY continues in operation as an “affiliate” of The Texas Corporation, although all sales outlets and company facilities and equipment are re-badged as “TEXACO.” Production of “TEXACO” gasolines begins at the Lawrenceville refinery. An “INDIAN”-brand gasoline becomes a “sub-regular” (priced below “TEXACO” gasolines) and is added to the product line at most outlets, nation-wide. Production of “INDIAN” gasoline is included at other Texas Corporation refineries. (It is during this period that “INDIAN” pumps bear a distinctive plate – either round or rectangular – featuring an art deco Indian beadwork design.) National marketing and sales offices for INDIAN REFINING COMPANY are opened in Indianapolis, Indiana.
15 April 1932 – “TEXACO FIRE-CHIEF Gasoline” is introduced.
1934 – Furfural solvent-extraction (developed by The Texas Corporation) is combined with the Govers solvent-dewaxing process in the manufacture of “HAVOLINE WAXFREE”.
1935 – Production of “HAVOLINE WAXFREE” at Port Arthur Works is begun in order to supplement the output of the Lawrenceville refinery.
May 1936 – “New TEXACO Motor Oil” (also produced with the solvent-dewaxing/furfural solvent-extraction process but with a totally different and less-expensive formulation than that of HAVOLINE) is introduced.
1938 – “HAVOLINE – DISTILLED AND INSULATED” is introduced.
October 1938 – “TEXACO Sky Chief Gasoline” is introduced (replacing “FIRE-CHIEF Ethyl”).
1 November 1941 – The Texas Company (California) is instructed to transfer all assets to The Texas Company (Delaware) and is then dissolved. The Texas Corporation “merges itself into” The Texas Company (Delaware). The Texas Company (Delaware) — hereafter referred to simply as “The Texas Company” — becomes the “parent company”.
15 March 1943 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY’s stockholders transfer all of the company’s property and assets to The Texas Company in exchange for shares of that company’s stock. The Texas Company discontinues “INDIAN” gasoline and all other use in trade of the INDIAN name.
24 April 1943 – An agreement is implemented under which The Texas Company (partially by what amounts to cash purchase but, primarily, through exchange of shares) secures all INDIAN REFINING COMPANY stock, which is then cancelled. (INDIAN REFINING COMPANY, INCORPORATED is thus liquidated and is placed in “inactive corporation” status by the State of Maine (under whose laws it was incorporated) 31 December 1943.)
30 April 1943 – The Texas Company creates a second “Indian Refining Company”, which it incorporates under the laws of the State of Delaware – a “shell” company which it lists as an inactive subsidiary.
1946 – “New and Improved HAVOLINE” is introduced.
1950 – “Custom-Made HAVOLINE” is introduced.
Early 1950’s Lubricants production at the Lawrenceville refinery is discontinued; the lubricants production facility is dismantled and portions of that area of the property are disposed of.
1953 – “Advanced Custom-Made HAVOLINE” is introduced.
1955 – “Advanced Custom-Made HAVOLINE Special 10W-30” is introduced.
26 August 1958 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY, INCORPORATED is officially dissolved by the State of Maine.
1 May 1959 – The Texas Company becomes Texaco Inc.
1962 – New HAVOLINE cans are introduced. The “TEXACO” trademark replaces the INDIAN REFINING COMPANY-era red-white-and-blue “ball” in a totally re-designed “HAVOLINE” logo.
1980 – For numerous reasons (among them the expense of needed technological upgrades), the prospects for the Lawrenceville refinery’s future profitability have eroded significantly. Unable to establish what might be a viable alternative means of supplying product to the area, Texaco Inc. makes the decision to withdraw from the retail gasoline market in that portion of the upper Midwest traditionally serviced by Lawrenceville.
1982 – The marking of all 55-gallon TEXACO drums becomes black with a red band. TEXACO oil drums had, historically, been gray with a green band with two exceptions. Drums of multi-grade (SAE 10W-30 and 10W-40) HAVOLINE Motor Oil were painted dark blue with a gold band and “head”. Those of “straight-grade” HAVOLINE were painted dark blue with a white band and head – Texaco Inc.’s last remaining use of The Havemeyer Oil Company’s original colors.
March 1985 – The diminution of reasonably-accessible sources of suitable crude, the ever- increasing costs of compliance with governmental regulations, and other business considerations combine to make continued operation of the Lawrenceville refinery economically unfeasible. Texaco Refining and Marketing Inc. (a recently-formed subsidiary of Texaco Inc.) completes the withdrawal from the retail and wholesale motor fuels market in a contiguous area spanning Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Wisconsin. The Lawrenceville refinery is closed.
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Recommended Reading:The Texaco Story: The First Fifty Years, 1902-1952(2012). Your Amazon purchase benefits the American Oil & Gas Historical Society. As an Amazon Associate, AOGHS earns a commission from qualifying purchases.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Histories of Indian Refining, Havoline, and Texaco.” Author: James Hinds. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/histories-of-indian-refining-havoline-and-texaco Last Updated: August 19, 2024. Original Published Date: June 21, 2023.
