Humble Oil & Refining Company
Baytown, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Ross S. Sterling entered the oil business in 1909, when he invested in the Humble oil file north of Houston. Two years later he formed the Humble Oil Company with five partners: Walter W. Fondren, Charles B. Goddard, William Stamps Farlish, Robert Lee Blaffer, and Harry Carothers Wiess. Sterling's brother, Frank, became a company director in 1914. In 1917 the company obtained a state charter under the name Humble Oil & Refining Company. In order to finance the building of a refinery, fifty percent of the company stock was sold to Standard Oil of New Jersey. The first oil was pumped into a still at the new refinery on May 11, 1920. As the company expanded and employed more people, a town grew up around the refinery. The company provided low-interest home loans to its employees. By the 1930s research was being conducted at the Baytown refinery, resulting in the production of vital products for the U. S. war effort during World War II. The post-war years saw additional expansion at the refinery, and the company was merged with Standard Oil of New Jersey in 1959. The Humble name was used until 1972, when Standard Oil Company (NJ) became known as Exxon Corporation.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Ross S. Sterling and five partners founded the Humble Oil Company in 1911, incorporating in 1917 and financing a Baytown refinery by selling half its stock to Standard Oil of New Jersey. First oil flowed into the still in 1920, and a company town grew up around the plant, complete with low-interest home loans for workers. By World War II the refinery's research was producing vital war materiel, and the enterprise eventually became part of what would be renamed Exxon in 1972.
Why it matters
Humble Oil traces the rise of the Texas petroleum industry from a wildcat investment into a corporate giant that helped fuel the American century and win a world war.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
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