DUANE
Duane's take
The way this marker tells it, here's the story of Lyne Taliaferro Barret — and friend, it is one of the great almost-was tales in all of Texas history. Barret was born in Virginia in 1832, and when he was ten years old his family packed up and came to Texas — 1842, right in that era when Texas was still finding its footing as a young republic turned state. He put down roots, married a woman named Angelina Thomas, and together they raised nine children.
By any measure, that alone is a life well lived. But here is where the story takes on that particular ache that only hindsight can deliver. In 1859 — eighteen fifty-nine, mind you — Barret was out there in Nacogdoches County trying to drill for oil.
Now, you may know what else happened with oil in 1859, and if you're doing that arithmetic in your head, you understand exactly what's at stake. The marker doesn't mince words about it: if those early efforts in 1859 had succeeded, Lyne Taliaferro Barret would have completed the first oil well in the United States. The first one.
Not just in Texas. In the country. They didn't succeed.
So he kept at it. And in 1866, he drilled the first oil well in Texas. That is no small thing — that is a permanent mark on the history of this state.
But the world wasn't quite ready to meet him where he stood. Low demand and scarce capital halted his oil operations. The timing, the money, the market — none of it held together long enough.
And so Lyne Taliaferro Barret, pioneer Texas oil man, spent the rest of his life as a farmer and community leader. He lived until 1913. Eighty-one years on this earth, from Virginia to the piney woods of East Texas, from a boy of ten arriving in a new land to a man who punched the first oil well into Texas soil and came within a hair's breadth of changing the whole story of American industry.
Some men are ahead of their time. Barret may have been ahead of his capital.
What the marker says
(1832 - 1913) Born in Virginia. Came with parents to Texas 1842. Married Angelina Thomas; had 9 children. Drilled the first oil well in Texas, 1866. If efforts to drill early in 1859 had succeeded, he would have completed first oil well in the United States. Low demand and scarce capital halted his oil operations. He spent rest of his life as a farmer and community leader. Recorded - 1966