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Vol 8, No 10

January 10, 1901

Thursday Evening

Lucas Strikes Oil at Spindletop

Lucas No. 1 Blows
BEAUMONT (1901)  On this date in 1901, Captain A F Lucas strikes oil while drilling on Spindletop Hill, three miles north of Beaumont. The Hill was formed when an oil dome pushed on the earth above it. With this Beaumont discovery, Pennsylvania lost it standing as America's leading oil producing state. For centuries native Americans were aware of the oil, often using the oil to treat ailments. In 1543, the Spanish used the local black tar to water proof their boats. Wells in Corsicana and Nacogdoches had been producing modest amounts of oil, but with the discovery at Spindletop, the oil boom in Texas was born. Texas joined the Industrial Age (and created a few multi-millionares along the way).

City Desk
Post Office Approves Town Name
NAMELESS   (1880)    After several attempts to name their new post office, citizens of a community in Travis County were at their wits end. With each name submission, they learned that their choice for a name had already been selected by another town. Finally after the six failures, the citizens wrote the Post Office "Let the post office be nameless and be damned!" On this date in 1880, the U S Post Office agreed, and so it was - Nameless, Texas.

Political Desk
Jordan is first black State Senator
AUSTIN  (1967)   On this date in 1967, Barbara Jordan is sworn in as the first black woman ever to become a Texas state senator. Jordan will go on to a very active and distinguished career in Texas and national politics, eventually becoming a professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.