DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this piece of East Texas ground — so let's get into it. Now, before there was a great East Texas field, before anybody was talking about two hundred square miles of oil country, there was a man named B. A.
Skipper, Sr., and he had faith. Not the kind of faith you pick up and put down depending on the weather — undaunted faith, the marker calls it, years of it, aimed squarely at the notion that oil was hiding somewhere under East Texas. And one day he decided faith alone wasn't going to cut it.
So he assembled an eight-thousand-three-hundred-acre block under lease. That's not a small bet. He then made a deal with J.
E. Farrell, W. A.
Moncrief, and E. A. Showers, and they had the well drilled down to thirty-five hundred feet.
That's when Arkansas Fuel Oil Company — which by the time this marker was written had become Cities Service Oil Company — came in, bought a half interest, and assumed operations. They had drillers on the job: W. A.
Andrews, B. A. Ferrell, and James H.
Lowery. And behind them, keeping that rig running, a full crew — C. R.
Kaylor, R. T. Crisp, C.
Spruill, A. W. Owens, C.
O. Croley, D. V.
Chidester, Geo. Jones, J. V.
Huckaboy, R. E. Roe, E.
E. Houchin, and R. H.
Summers. Fourteen men, out there working the earth. The well they were working was called the F.
K. Lathrop A-1, and it was spudded in on December 3rd, 1930. Down it went.
At three thousand five hundred and sixty-nine feet, it hit caprock. Then, on January 26th, 1931, it was completed — total depth, three thousand five hundred and eighty-seven feet. And when they tested what they had, the initial potential came back at eighteen thousand barrels of oil.
Per day. Now, the world around that well had already been stirring. October of 1930, the Joiner No. 3 — Daisy Bradford, over at Turnertown, came in.
December of 1930, the E. W. Bateman No. 1 — L.
D. Crim, down at Kilgore, came in. Oil fever was running high, the marker says, and the F.
K. Lathrop A-1 was the climax of that fever. But here's the thing nobody standing on that lease in January of 1931 could quite imagine yet — those three wells weren't just three lucky strikes scattered across East Texas.
They were going to be linked. Extended. They were going to become the great East Texas field.
Two hundred square miles of it. A world record as the largest of its time. As for the F.
K. Lathrop A-1 itself? In its first thirty-five years, it produced over five hundred and twenty-seven thousand barrels.
B. A. Skipper, Sr. believed in something nobody could see.
Turns out, he was right.
What the marker says
After years of undaunted faith in discovery of oil in East Texas, B. A. Skipper, Sr., assembled an 8300-acre block under lease; made a deal with J. E. Farrell, W. A. Moncrief and E. A. Showers; had the well drilled to 3500 feet. At this point Arkansas Fuel Oil Co. (now Cities Service Oil Co.) bought a half interest and assumed operations. Drillers were W. A. Andrews, B. A. Ferrell and James H. Lowery. Crew members were C. R. Kaylor, r. T. Crisp, C. Spruill, A. W. Owens, C. O. Croley, D. V. Chidester, Geo. Jones, J. V. Huckaboy, R. E. Roe, E. E. Houchin and R. H. Summers. The F. K. Lathrop A-1 was spudded in on Dec. 3, 1930; hit caprock at 3569 feet; was completed on Jan. 26, 1931, at total depth of 3587 feet. With an initial potential of 18,000 barrels of oil daily, it has produced over 527,000 barrels in its first 35 years. Oil fever ran high with the completion of the Joiner No. 3-Daisy Bradford at Turnertown, Oct. 1930; the E. W. Bateman No. 1 - L. D. Crim at Kilgore, Dec. 1930; and climaxed here with the F. K. Lathrop A-1. However, few could imagine that soon these three would be linked and extended to form the great East Texas field, which covers some 200 square miles and has made a world record as the largest of its time.