1898 Higgins Promotional and Cadastral Map of Jefferson County, Texas

Progenitor of Texas Oil Boom.

This is a spectacular 1898 promotional and cadastral map of Jefferson County, Texas, prepared by Pattillo Higgins, father of the Texas Oil Boom. Three years after this map's production, Higgins and his partners struck massive oil reserves at Spindletop, just outside Beaumont. But at this point, Higgins was only an ambitious self-taught geologist with an unceasing conviction in his own abilities and that of his home county, which is apparent here.

A Closer Look

The map covers the entirety of Jefferson County, Texas, along the Gulf Coast and bordering Louisiana to the east. Nearby Galveston appears at bottom-left. Cities and towns, railroads (extant and proposed), canals and channels (extant, proposed, and under construction), waterways (Sabine Lake, the Neches River, and the Gulf of Mexico, with soundings recorded), survey lines and individual properties, with their owners, are labeled throughout. Spindletop, the site where Higgins and his partners would soon discover the world's largest oil deposits, is not labeled here but is situated near 'Gladys City'; Higgins and his partners had founded the Gladys City Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing Co. in 1892, but to this point had been unsuccessful in discovering oil. Following the Spindletop discovery, the area would be transformed almost overnight into a boom town, and the landscape would be permanently altered by a sea of drilling and refinery equipment.

Surrounding the map are vignettes and promotional text, including a small, odd inset map at right towards top demonstrating the connections between cities as far as Houston, Chicago, Omaha, and St. Louis with the 'great long leaf yellow pine forest in South East Texas and West Louisiana,' that is, the very woods where Higgins worked as a lumberjack after his legal difficulties early in life (see biography below). Another biographical reflection is the peculiar illustration of the twelve-year-old girls, 'Natives of Beaumont,' at top-right, no doubt drawn from Higgins' habit of adopting orphaned girls.

Endorsements of Higgins' map appear at top-left and at bottom, one of them being by A.B. Doucette, the County Surveyor. At bottom-right, at the Sabine Pass, is a depiction of Uncle Sam standing above a satchel of money, with the words 'Uncle Sam's Deep Water. The World's Progress' and 'Sabine Pass. A Door to the World.' A block of text at bottom similarly touts, and no doubt exaggerates, the county's resources, economic potential, and railroad connections to distant markets. Though the tone of the map is hyperbolic, Higgins was extremely prescient, as the county would become known far and wide only a few years later after the Spindletop discovery.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared and published by Pattillo Higgins, a local businessman who soon would become one of the most important oilmen of the era. The map is copyrighted 1897, but at the top is recorded as being updated to 1898. It is quite rare, being cataloged among the holdings of only five institutions in the OCLC: the University of Texas at Arlington, Southern Methodist University, the Houston Public Library, the Library of Congress, and Yale University. Additionally, an example is held by the Texas General Land Office and has been digitized as part of the University of North Texas' Portal to Texas History.

Cartographer

Pattillo Higgins (December 5, 1863 - June 5, 1955) was a businessman from Jefferson County, Texas, who was a pioneer in the Texas oil industry. During his rowdy and delinquent youth, Higgins was harassing a local Black church when he had an encounter with a local sheriff's deputy, which resulted in an exchange of gunfire and the deputy being killed. Higgins was found not guilty of murder on grounds of self-defense, but was injured and had to have his left forearm amputated. Afterward, while working as a logger, Higgins attended a Baptist revival meeting, became a born-again Christian, and decided to turn his life around. He began pursuing various business ventures, including a brick manufacturing company. Curious to learn more about the oil and gas used in his brick kilns, Higgins traveled to Pennsylvania to learn about the burgeoning petroleum industry. He also began teaching himself geology by reading reports from the U.S. Geological Survey and any other resources he could find. Recognizing that a hill (Spindletop) in his hometown of Beaumont might have oil underneath, he partnered with some other local businessmen and founded the Gladys City Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing Company in 1892. Initial attempts to locate oil deposits failed, and Higgins sold his shares in the company to his partners in order to buy a plot of land at the hill's summit. A second attempt to find oil in partnership with Anthony Francis Lucas also initially failed. However, through the use of newer equipment and trained crews that could drill deeper, a geyser was struck at Spindletop on January 10, 1901, producing roughly 100,000 barrels per day, more than all of the other oil wells in the United States combined at that time. (Which, among other things, ended the virtual monopoly on petroleum held hitherto by John D. Rockefeller.) This event is generally considered the start of the Texas oil boom and even the beginning of an 'Oil Age' - a new era in human history. Until the Spindletop discovery, most trained geologists believed the Gulf Coast did not contain significant oil deposits. Despite his uncanny skill as a self-trained geologist, Higgins made some questionable business decisions that caused him not to always reap the profits of his remarkable discovery, though his retention of the valuable leasing rights to his plot atop Spindletop did allow him to continue launching new ventures. He fell out with some of his closest business partners, especially Anthony Francis Lucas (1855 - 1921). His personality was also eccentric, being an autodidact in several fields, including drafting, drawing (including artistic works), and engineering. He also adopted several young orphaned girls and, controversially, married one of his adoptees, a woman thirty years his junior, in 1905.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Minor-moderate soiling and staining. Some marginal losses including some loss of border, expertly reconstructed and all but invisible from the verso.

References

OCLC 29179334.