DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about W. H. Abrams Well No. 1 out in Brazoria County.
Now, every good Texas story has a moment when the ground itself decides to speak up. This one picked the evening of July 20, 1920, and it picked seven forty-five on the dot. But let's back up, because the setup matters.
A Texas and Pacific Railway official by the name of William H. Abrams — born in 1843, out of Dallas — owned a stretch of old plantation land down in what is now Brazoria County. Nobody thought much of it.
The conventional wisdom of the day held that this ground was fit for one thing and one thing only: pasture. Cattle land. Nothing-special land.
Abrams leased the mineral rights to the Texas Company — the outfit the world would later come to know as Texaco, Incorporated — and the drillers went to work. They drilled. And they drilled.
Down two thousand, seven hundred and fifty-four feet into the earth. And then, on that July evening, at seven forty-five, the well answered. A massive jet of oil and gas erupted from that depth.
Not a trickle. Not a promising seep. A gusher.
W. H. Abrams No. 1 was a gusher, and it was heralding something the oil world would come to call the West Columbia Field — a major discovery by any measure.
Three pipelines were laid at once, right then and there, just to keep up with what the earth was pouring out. Powerful steam pumps pushed more than twenty thousand barrels a day into earthen tanks. Twenty thousand barrels.
Daily. That old pasture land had a lot to say for itself. Now here's the thing about William Abrams — this wasn't even his first act.
The marker makes a point of calling Abrams No. 1 a second bonus for the man, because land he owned over in Mitchell County had already produced the first oil in the Permian Basin back in June of 1920. The same year. Two historic wells, one man.
Some folks just have a feel for the ground beneath their feet. And consider what that ground had been worth. Back in 1840, this Brazoria County land was going for ten cents an acre.
By 1888, it had climbed all the way to five dollars an acre — and someone probably thought that was a fine price. After July 20, 1920, mineral rights alone were bringing ninety-six thousand dollars an acre. Not the surface.
Just the rights to what lay beneath it. That is not a typo. But the boom days, the marker is careful to tell us, were hazardous.
This is not a simple rags-to-riches fable. Brazoria County old-timers suffered right alongside the oilfield workers. All of them living precariously and dangerously in those early days, until — slowly, unevenly — the flow of oil money led to better schools, better roads, and better general social conditions.
The ground gave up its treasure, and the people around it paid a price to receive it. Half a century on, the socio-economic significance of the West Columbia discovery was acknowledged for what it truly was: not just a Texas story, but a nationwide contribution. Some pasture land, that turned out to be.
What the marker says
In 1920, Texas & Pacific Railway official William H. Abrams (1843-1926) of Dallas owned this old plantation land, then considered fit only for pasture. He leased mineral rights to the Texas Company (now Texaco, Inc.), whose drilling reached a climax on July 20, 1920. At 7:45 that evening a massive jet of oil and gas erupted from a 2,754-foot depth, heralding a major discovery now known as West Columbia Field. W. H. Abrams No. 1 was a gusher. Three pipe lines were laid at once to draw the oil to earthen tanks, filled by powerful steam pumps with over 20,000 barrels daily. For Abrams, this wildcat well was a second bonus, as land he owned in Mitchell County produced the first oil in the Permian Basin in June 1920. Locally, land that sold for 10 cents an acre in 1840 and $5 an acre in 1888 now brought $96,000 an acre for mineral rights, irrespective of surface values. Yet the boom days were hazardous. Brazoria County oldtimers suffered along with oilfield workers, all living precariously and dangerously until the flow of oil money led to better schools, roads and general social conditions. Half a century later, the socio-economic significance of the West Columbia discovery could be acknowledged as a nationwide contribution. (1977)