City of Wortham
Wortham, Freestone County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Situated on grant given 1834 by Mexico to Robert B. Longbotham (1797-1883), a Texas colonist from England who settled here in 1839. Years later, in 1871, when Houston & Texas Central Railway was planned through the area, R. B. Longbotham sold right of way through his land for token sum of $5, and townsite was bought from him by investors. Although town was platted as "Tehuacana", post office was established Nov. 10, 1871, as Long Bottom, for original landowner. In 1874 name again changed, to honor Col. Luther Rice Wortham, a merchant instrumental in securing railway for area. Wortham was incorporated in 1910, but remained a modest market town until the 1920s, when rumors of oil attracted such prospectors as hotel man Conrad Hilton, who soon left when wells yielded salt water. A Thanksgiving Day gusher in 1924 opened the boom. Population leaped from 1,000 to over 30,000 at once. Law enforcement was impossible, housing inadequate, but in time the town met its obligations. Churches and schools prospered. The municipal band was the official band of 1926 United Confederate Verterans' Convention in Birmingham, Ala. Intensive drilling had ended the boom by late 1927. In 1972 a few wells are still pumping, and new horizons are being explored.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Wortham grew from an 1834 Mexican land grant to English colonist Robert B. Longbotham, who later sold a railroad right-of-way through his property for a token five dollars. Renamed for a colonel who helped secure the line, the town stayed a modest market center until a Thanksgiving Day gusher in 1924 turned it into a roaring oil boomtown—its population leaping from a thousand to tens of thousands almost overnight. The boom burned out by late 1927, leaving a town that had briefly touched the frenzy of the Texas oil age.
Why it matters
Wortham's rise and sudden collapse distill the whole boom-and-bust rhythm of the Texas oil era, when a single well could remake a quiet farm town in weeks.
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Related people
- · Robert B. Longbotham
- · Luther Rice Wortham
- · Conrad Hilton
Related events
- · Wortham oil boom
Themes & tags
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