DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker on this one reads, here's the story as it's been set down officially — and it's a good one. Now, the son of an early industrial engineer, W.C. Trout was already a man who thought in inventions before he ever set foot in East Texas.
He came to Lufkin in 1905 and joined Lufkin Foundry and Machine Co. as a shareholder and company secretary. That's not the flashiest title, you might say — but watch what this man does with it. Trout led the diversification of the shop, pushing it from simple equipment repair into full-on production and sales.
He wasn't content to fix what was broken. He wanted to build what hadn't been built yet. And in 1926, he did exactly that.
That year, Trout patented a design for a counter-balanced pumping unit — and that pumping unit became a standard in the oil business. Not just in Texas. Worldwide.
You can picture it, that rhythm of the pump jack nodding away on oil fields stretching from the Permian Basin to places a Texas boy might need a map to find, all of it tracing back to a design that came out of Lufkin. The marker says it contributed significantly to the success of the Texas oil and gas industry, and that is not a phrase the Texas Historical Commission throws around lightly. By the time all was said and done, Trout held more than thirty patents for his innovative designs.
More than thirty. He served as company president from 1931 until his death in 1947, a period the marker describes as one of marked expansion for the business. W.C.
Trout was born in 1874. He arrived in Lufkin in 1905 with a mind full of ideas. By the time he was through, the oil fields of the world were running on one of them.
What the marker says
The son of an early industrial engineer, W.C. Trout (1874-1947) came to Lufkin in 1905 and joined Lufkin Foundry & Machine Co. as a shareholder and company secretary. Already a successful inventor, Trout led the diversification of the shop from equipment repair to production and sales. In 1926, he patented a design for a counter-balanced pumping unit that became a standard in the oil business worldwide and contributed significantly to the success of the Texas oil and gas industry. Eventually holding more than 30 patents for his innovative designs, Trout served as company president from 1931 until his death in 1947, a period of marked expansion for the business. (2002)