DUANE
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Duane's take
The way the official marker tells it, here's how gas and oil first came to Kleberg County. Now settle in, because this story starts the way a lot of Texas stories do: somebody was just trying to find water. It was 1912, and a man named Frank House was out on the Oscar Rosse farm, drilling for water, nothing more dramatic than that.
What he found instead was natural gas. Other attempts to get fresh water out of that ground kept turning up the same stubborn surprises: more gas pockets, or water so contaminated with salt or oil it was no use to anybody. In 1915, somebody tried to turn that gas into a real producing operation, and that effort went nowhere.
So the land just sat there, holding its secrets a while longer. Then came October of 1919. Nine men in Kingsville, looking at what that Rosse farm might really be worth, decided to organize.
They formed the Kleberg County Oil and Gas Company, and you couldn't have picked a more Main Street bunch if you tried. There was Charles H. Flato, a lumber and hardware merchant, and his son, Charles Jr., alongside H.
C. Dennett, who handled oil sales, and J. F.
Ivey, a grocer. You had the postmaster, Marcus Phillips. You had the mayor of Kingsville himself, J.
C. Nolan. And rounding out the group: retail merchants Sam Sellers, Ben F.
Wilson, and C. M. Allen.
On October 30th, 1919, they leased the Rosse farm. Then they contracted the Hammill and Bess Drilling Company out of Bay City to put a well in the ground. The Rosse No. 1 was completed on January 16th, 1920, at a depth of three thousand feet.
Pipelines went out soon after, carrying gas right into Kingsville, into the businesses and the homes. But the Rosse farm wasn't finished yet. Completed in March of 1920, the Rosse No. 2 turned out to be the first producing oil well in the entire county.
What Frank House stumbled onto in 1912 while looking for something to drink turned out to be the foundation for petrochemical and refining industries that would shape the economic life of Kleberg County for generations to come. All of that, hidden underground, waiting on the right nine men to get organized.
What the marker says
Natural gas was first encountered in 1912 by Frank House while drilling for water on the Oscar Rosse farm. Other efforts to obtain fresh water resulted in more gas pockets or water contaminated with salt or oil. An unsuccessful attempt was made in 1915 to develop gas production. In Oct. 1919, the Kleberg County Oil and Gas Company was formed in Kingsville by lumber and hardware merchants Charles H. Flato and his son, Charles, Jr., oil sales manager H. C. Dennett, grocer J. F. Ivey, postmaster Marcus Phillips, Kingsville mayor J. C. Nolan, and retail merchants Sam Sellers, Ben F. Wilson, and C. M. Allen. The company leased the Rosse farm on October 30, 1919, and contracted Hammill and Bess Drilling Company of Bay City to drill a well. The Rosse No. 1 was completed on January 16, 1920, at a depth of 3,000 feet. Pipelines were soon laid into Kingsville to supply businesses and residences with gas. Another well, the Rosse No. 2, completed in March 1920, was the first producing oil well in the county. The discovery of gas and oil in the county provided a foundation for economic growth through development of petrochemical and refining industries.