Early Texas Natural Gas Pipelines
Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First public use of natural gas began in Texas in 1902, from transmission lines on this street, serving local homes and businesses. These early lines were forerunners of mains that now transport Texas gas to three-fourths of the United States and Mexico. Other natural gas industry pioneer achievements in Navarro County were the first use of meters, in 1905 at Chatfield (12 mi. NE), and first use of gas in pumping oil wells in the Corsicana field, 1906. Developers of Navarro fields expanded to Clay County, and in 1907 were supplying natural gas to Henrietta and Wichita Falls; Fort Worth and Dallas were furnished service in 1909-1910. By 1918 new fields supplied Laredo, San Antonio, Waco. Today Texas is spanned by over 83,000 miles of gas pipelines. A 1918 discovery opened the Amarillo field, soon recognized as the world's foremost gas field -- and point of beginning, during the 1920s, of the first interstate natural gas pipelines. Texas now has 27 pipeline companies exporting gas. Annual production rate is nearly eight trillion cubic feet. A number of wells deliver more than 20 million cubic feet per day. Texas has 42.3 per cent of proven United States natural gas reserves. Incise in base: Early Travel, Communication and Transportation Series, erected by The Moody Foundation
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Corsicana's early gas fields helped birth an energy industry that would reshape the American economy and knit distant regions together with pipelines.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Welding Shop of H. C. Nicol
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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.
American Well & Prospecting Company
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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.
Joseph S. Cullinan, Pioneer in Texas Oil
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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.
Henry G. Damon
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Florida-born Henry G. Damon served in the Confederate army and spent part of the Civil War as a prisoner before starting over in Corsicana in 1873. There he practiced law and founded the Texas Loan Agency, an early real estate mortgage firm that helped finance the region's industrial growth from this building through the 1890s. An active civic booster and prohibitionist, Damon helped shape the young oil town's development.