City of Wortham

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the City of Wortham, out in Freestone County. Now, every good Texas town has got a foundation story, and Wortham's goes all the way back to 1834, when Mexico granted this very land to Robert B. Longbotham — a colonist who'd come all the way from England to put down roots in Texas.

He settled here in 1839, and for a good long while, this stretch of Freestone County was just his. Then 1871 rolled around, and the Houston and Texas Central Railway started drawing lines on maps, and one of those lines cut right through Longbotham's land. Now, what did R.

B. Longbotham charge for that right of way? Five dollars.

Five. You might call that generosity. You might call it vision.

The marker just calls it a token sum, and leaves the rest to your imagination. Investors bought the townsite from him, platted it out, and gave it the name Tehuacana. Except the post office — established November 10th, 1871 — had other ideas.

The postal authorities called it Long Bottom, a nod to the original landowner himself. But the name wasn't done changin' just yet. By 1874, the town had been rechristened again — this time to honor Colonel Luther Rice Wortham, a merchant who'd been instrumental in securing that railway for the area.

Wortham. It stuck. The town incorporated in 1910 and spent the next decade or so as a modest market town.

Quiet. Respectable. The kind of place you drive through without slowin' down much.

Then came the 1920s, and with them came rumors. Oil rumors. And if you want to empty a man's good sense faster than anything else in Texas, whisper the word oil in his direction.

Among the prospectors who came sniffin' around was a hotel man by the name of Conrad Hilton. He came, he looked, and he left — because what those early wells yielded wasn't black gold. It was salt water.

Even Conrad Hilton couldn't build a future on salt water. But Wortham wasn't finished. Thanksgiving Day, 1924.

A gusher came in, and the boom was on. Population went from one thousand souls to over thirty thousand — not gradually, not in stages, but at once. At once.

Law enforcement became impossible. Housing was inadequate. The town was simply overwhelmed by its own sudden fortune.

But in time, the marker tells us, Wortham met its obligations. Churches prospered. Schools prospered.

And the municipal band — that Wortham municipal band — was named the official band of the 1926 United Confederate Veterans' Convention, held all the way up in Birmingham, Alabama. Of course, what booms must settle. Intensive drilling had ended the boom by late 1927.

The crowds thinned. The chaos quieted. And by 1972, when this story was being set down in metal and stone, a few wells were still pumping out in Freestone County, and new horizons, the marker says, were being explored.

From an Englishman's Mexican land grant, to a five-dollar railroad deal, to a Thanksgiving Day gusher that turned a quiet market town inside out — Wortham has earned every letter of its name.

What the marker says

Situated on grant given 1834 by Mexico to Robert B. Longbotham (1797-1883), a Texas colonist from England who settled here in 1839. Years later, in 1871, when Houston & Texas Central Railway was planned through the area, R. B. Longbotham sold right of way through his land for token sum of $5, and townsite was bought from him by investors. Although town was platted as "Tehuacana", post office was established Nov. 10, 1871, as Long Bottom, for original landowner. In 1874 name again changed, to honor Col. Luther Rice Wortham, a merchant instrumental in securing railway for area. Wortham was incorporated in 1910, but remained a modest market town until the 1920s, when rumors of oil attracted such prospectors as hotel man Conrad Hilton, who soon left when wells yielded salt water. A Thanksgiving Day gusher in 1924 opened the boom. Population leaped from 1,000 to over 30,000 at once. Law enforcement was impossible, housing inadequate, but in time the town met its obligations. Churches and schools prospered. The municipal band was the official band of 1926 United Confederate Verterans' Convention in Birmingham, Ala. Intensive drilling had ended the boom by late 1927. In 1972 a few wells are still pumping, and new horizons are being explored.