Site of Tuckertown

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the site of Tuckertown, out here in Navarro County. Now, it all starts with a mistake. A good one, as mistakes go.

On June 19, 1894, somebody in Corsicana was drilling for water. Water. What they got instead set the whole state of Texas on fire — figuratively speaking, at first.

Oil. And with it came the oil boom that changed everything. In the years that followed, Corsicana and the rich fields to the southeast drew in just about every kind of human being you can imagine.

Oil developers, lease hounds, roughnecks, businessmen. And then the other kind — bootleggers, gamblers, prostitutes, adventurers of every stripe. They came because the ground was giving something up, and somebody was going to be there to catch it.

When oil was discovered in the Powell field, right around this very site, a number of small boomtowns sprang up. But the largest of them — the one that became the center of it all — was Tuckertown. Now, the story of how Tuckertown came to be has two names at its heart.

Percy T. Fullwood, born in 1891, a man from Corsicana, had himself a small grocery store on land he leased from a Corsicana attorney named William J. McKie.

And McKie was no small figure himself — he was the man who drafted the charter for the Texas Company, the one the world would come to know as Texaco, back in 1902. In 1923, Fullwood joined forces with Harry L. Tucker, a town site promoter, and the two of them formed a partnership.

They started selling lots around that little grocery store, on both sides of the gravel road to Beaumont — the road that's now Farm-to-Market Road 637. And people came. Lord, did they come.

Within two months — two months — three thousand people were living there. In tents. In houses.

In shanties. Three thousand souls crowded into a place that, not long before, was just a patch of ground with a grocery store on it. Tuckertown became everything you'd expect of an oil boomtown and then some.

Freewheeling. Often unruly. The kind of place where life moved fast and the rules moved slow.

But Tuckertown had enemies, and some of them were invisible. In October of 1923, fire burned most of the north side of town. The residents rebuilt.

They weren't done. Then in November of that same year, the Powell field was completely drilled — no new digging could be done. And in February of 1924, another fire came and did further damage.

The field continued to decline. Slowly, then completely. By 1931, most of the structures in Tuckertown had been torn down.

The last grocery store — which had itself been converted from what was once a house — was turned into a barn in 1935. A barn. That's the final chapter of a boomtown right there.

And yet, even in its brief and rowdy life, Tuckertown was the center of the earliest and largest oil production in the Powell field — a field that produced about one hundred and eighty-six million barrels of oil. That number deserves a moment of silence. One hundred and eighty-six million barrels.

By the end of the twentieth century, you couldn't really tell any of that had happened here. The location of Tuckertown — three thousand people, two fires, a partnership, a grocery store, a barn — had been obscured by pasture. Just grass, growing quiet over the whole wild story.

Some places don't leave monuments. They leave the ground.

What the marker says

Oil was discovered in Corsicana on June 19, 1894, during the drilling of a water well, setting off the oil boom in Texas. In the ensuing years, oil developers, lease hounds, rough-necks, businessmen, bootleggers, prostitutes, gamblers and other adventurers rushed to Corsicana and the rich fields to the southeast. A number of small boomtowns sprang up after oil was discovered in the Powell field around this site. Tuckertown was the largest of the oil boomtowns in this area. Percy T. Fullwood (1891-1958) of Corsicana had a small grocery on land leased from Corsicana attorney William J. Mckie, who drafted the charter for the Texas Company (Texaco) in 1902. Fullwood and Harry L. Tucker, a town site promoter, formed a partnership in 1923. They sold lots around the store on both sides of the gravel road to Beaumont (now Farm-to-Market Road 637.) Within two months, 3,000 people were living in the tents, houses and shanties of Tuckertown. It exemplified the freewheeling, often unruly life of the Navarro County oil boomtowns. In October 1923 a fire burned most of the north side of town, but the residents rebuilt. In November, the Powell field was completely drilled, and no new digging could be done. Another fire in February 1924 did further damage to Tuckertown. The field continued to decline, and by 1931 most structures in Tuckertown had been torn down. The last grocery store, located in what was once a house, was converted to a barn in 1935. Tuckertown was the center of the earliest and largest oil production in Powell field, which produced about 186,000,000 barrels of oil. By the end of the 20th century, its location was obscured by pasture. (2000)