Old Welding Shop of H. C. Nicol

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and here's how I'll tell it to you. Out in Navarro County, there's a story worth pullin over for. The oil fields opened up in 1894, and if you know anything about oil fields, you know they chew through equipment.

Pipes crack, iron breaks, metal gives out in ways that don't ask permission. For years, when something broke out there, it stayed broken, or it got replaced, because there wasn't a welder in the county who could fix it. Not one.

Then came H. C. Nicol.

Born in 1892, Nicol picked up an acetylene torch and got to work around 1912. Now here's where you appreciate the man. This wasn't a time when you walked into a supply shop and bought what you needed off a shelf.

Nicol had to mix his own welding chemicals. His own. He wasn't just doing the job, he was building the means to do the job from the ground up.

And he didn't stop at the basics, either. Nicol pioneered the welding of cast iron and aluminum in this area, materials that will humble a lesser hand in a hurry. He became, by all account, the first welder operating in the Navarro County oil fields.

The first. When those fields opened back in 1894, that role didn't even exist yet. By 1912 it did, because Nicol made it exist.

He worked with that torch until 1963, when he passed. The old welding shop still stands as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, and if you think about it, every weld that ever held out there in those fields owes something to the man who showed it could be done.

What the marker says

(1892-1963) Expert with acetylene torch, Nicol is remembered as first welder operating in the Navarro County oil fields, which opened 1894. He began work about 1912, at a time when he had to mix own welding chemicals. In addition he pioneered welding of cast iron and aluminum in this area. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1968