American Well & Prospecting Company
Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized in Kansas in 1890 by Horace Greeley Johnston (1851-1930) of Ohio and Pennsylvania native Charles Rittersbacher (1857-1919). This company began as a water well drilling business. In 1891 the partners moved to Texas and began drilling in Corsicana. In 1894, while drilling on S. 12th street, they struck crude oil, which led to the discovery of the Corsicana oil field. The firm began making and distributing rotary drilling equipment in 1900. Converted to a munitions plant in World War II, the business was sold to Bethlehem Steel and operated at this site until 1959. (1982)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in Kansas in 1890 by Horace Greeley Johnston and Charles Rittersbacher, this firm began as a water-well drilling business before the partners moved to Corsicana. In 1894, while drilling for water on South 12th Street, they struck crude oil—the accidental discovery of the Corsicana oil field. The company went on to manufacture rotary drilling equipment, converted to munitions work in World War II, and finally closed under Bethlehem Steel in 1959.
Why it matters
A chance strike while hunting for water launched one of Texas's first major oil fields and helped make rotary drilling standard across the industry.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Horace Greeley Johnston
- · Charles Rittersbacher
Related events
- · Discovery of the Corsicana oil field
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Early Texas Natural Gas Pipelines
Corsicana, TX
In 1902 the first public use of natural gas in Texas began on this Corsicana street, piping fuel to nearby homes and businesses. Navarro County became a cradle of the industry — the first gas meters appeared at Chatfield in 1905, and gas was first used to pump oil wells here in 1906. From these modest lines grew a network that within a generation spanned the state and, by the 1920s, launched the nation's first interstate natural gas pipelines.
Old Welding Shop of H. C. Nicol
Corsicana, TX
When the Navarro County oil fields opened in 1894, the young petroleum industry needed craftsmen who could join and repair metal in the field. H. C. Nicol answered that call around 1912, remembered as the first welder to work the county's oil patch in an era when a tradesman still had to mix his own welding chemicals by hand. He pushed the craft further, pioneering the welding of cast iron and aluminum in the area.
Joseph S. Cullinan, Pioneer in Texas Oil
Corsicana, TX
Joseph S. Cullinan learned the oil business the hard way, starting at fourteen as a laborer in the Pennsylvania fields. Drawn to Texas after the 1894 Corsicana discovery, he became a driving force in the young state's petroleum industry, organizing companies—including the enterprise that became Texaco—and integrating exploration, production, refining, and marketing. He also pressed for early conservation and anti-waste legislation as the industry exploded.
James Emerson Whiteselle
Corsicana, TX
Born in Tennessee in 1851, James Emerson Whiteselle came to Texas in 1870 to work in his uncle's lumber business and by 1875 had joined the Corsicana lumber company he would eventually own, later expanding into brick manufacturing. A prominent businessman and banker, he served as mayor of Corsicana from 1894 to 1898 — the very years oil was discovered there — and helped guide the field's early development. He died on his birthday in 1915.