Moonshine Hill
Humble, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Early reports of natural gas seepages in this area were not uncommon in the late 19th century. James Slaughter noticed such natural occurences near the San Jacinto River in 1887. Several years later, with S. A. Hart, he set up a drilling operation in the area, but it proved unsuccessful. Charles Barrett, a former Huston merchant, also drilled wells here, but found the results limited. In 1904, the Higgins Oil Company brought in a major gas well and the following year, the first successful oil well was drilled. This area, known as the Moonshine Hill section of the great Humble oil field, became the site of a boom town. Within months of the 1905 discovery, the population of the Moonshine Hill settlement increased to 10,000. Early operations associated with the site included the Moonshine Oil Company of Walter Sharp, Ed Prather, and Howard R. Hughes. Although tents comprised most of the early structures, Moonshine Hill eventually included a church, school, postal station, stores, hotels, and saloons. Despite three separate boom eras, the last occurring in 1929, Moonshine Hill declined as a community. Its brief existence, however, had a dramatic impact on the economic development of Humble and Houston. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After decades of reported gas seeps near the San Jacinto River, the Higgins Oil Company brought in a major gas well in 1904 and the first oil well followed in 1905, opening the great Humble oil field. A boom town called Moonshine Hill exploded to some 10,000 people almost overnight, its tents mixed with a church, school, stores, and saloons. Among its operators was the Moonshine Oil Company of Walter Sharp, Ed Prather, and Howard R. Hughes; despite later booms, the settlement faded away.
Why it matters
Moonshine Hill launched the Humble field that made fortunes — including the Hughes family's — and helped turn Houston into a capital of the American oil industry.
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Related people
- · Howard R. Hughes
- · Walter Sharp
- · Ed Prather
- · James Slaughter
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lambrecht's Artesian Well
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When drillers went looking for oil at this Humble site in 1912, they struck free-flowing artesian water instead. German-born Nick Lambrecht, who had installed a town water system in 1904 and served as justice of the peace and mayor during Humble's oil-boom years, bought the property and put the well to work — supplying bathhouses and piping water to nearby homes in a town that had once hauled its water in barrels by wagon.
First United Methodist Church of Humble
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Humble was a raw oil-boom town in 1907 when a Houston minister began holding Methodist services for its swelling population—the first ones meeting in a former bottle factory. The congregation organized in 1908 with 37 charter members and raised a small frame church the next year, later lost to fire. Each successive building traced the growth of both church and town.
Humble Lodge No. 979, A.F. & A.M.
Humble, TX
Around the turn of the 20th century, Humble's Masons still belonged to lodges in neighboring towns until, with help from Justice of the Peace F. K. Wise, they chartered their own lodge in 1908. They first met in the bank building of Ross Sterling — future Texas governor — and after a 1912 fire bought the property to build their own hall. The lodge remained active in civic affairs for decades.
City of Humble
Humble, TX
Humble began as a crossroads community named for settler Pleasant Smith Humble, who kept store, hewed railroad ties, and served as justice of the peace before 1889. Everything changed on January 7, 1905, when C.E. Barrett's No. 2 Beaty Well gushed 8,500 barrels a day, opening a boom that swelled the village of 700 into a town of 20,000 almost overnight. Operators here—including future Texas governor Ross S. Sterling—founded an oil company in 1911 that carried the town's name into world commerce.