272 THE IRON ORE DISTRICT OF EAST TEXAS. 



Company. The plant of this company consists of a receiving or "dump" 

 tank ; five storage tanks ; one iron evaporating pan three by twenty feet, with 

 steam chest underneath; steam filter pump; boiler house, with portable boiler 

 and engine; one iron shipping tank; stock of iron drums for shipping and 

 return; portable derricks and portable engines for drilling; manager's office 

 and dwelling; stables and outhouses; store house, with stock of piping, fit- 

 tings, and well tools. 



Several wells were drilled on this property before it came into possession 

 of the present company, and about twenty-five since. 



The method of operation consists in bailing the water and oil semi-weekly 

 from each oil bearing well by means of a cylindrical galvanized iron bored 

 well bucket ten to fifteen feet in length, a little less in diameter than the bore 

 of the well, with a dart valve in the bottom. The water and oil are discharged 

 into a separating barrel (by allowing the dart valve to strike the bottom of 

 the barrel), which is provided with two plugs or bungs, one for water, the 

 other for oil. From the separating barrel the oil is drawn into carrying 

 barrels in a wagon, which conveys it to the receiving or dump tank, into 

 which it is emptied. This tank is located on a hillside overlooking the 

 storage house with its tanks, into which the oil runs through an iron pipe by 

 gravitation. From the storage tanks the oil is fed by iron pipes into the 

 iron evaporating pan, provided with a steam chest below, which heats the 

 oil and drives off the remaining water and the small amount of naptha. 

 While still hot the oil is forced by steam through a specially woven filter 

 cloth to remove any particles of grit, and the oil discharged through a pipe 

 into the iron shipping tank, from which it is run off into iron shipping 

 drums provided with wrought iron tires for rolling. The capacity of each 

 drum is about one hundred gallons. They are conveyed by wagon to the 

 town of Nacogdoches for shipment by railway. 



The writer is indebted to Mr. H. H Sawyer, formerly of East Hampton, 

 Massachusetts, mining engineer, now postmaster at Nacogdoches, and gen- 

 eral manager of the Lubricating Oil Company, for courtesies and the follow- 

 ing facts in reference to the history of the oil industry in this county: "The 

 first authentic prospecting for oil in this region was by Emory Starr, now of 

 Maysland, and Peyton F. Edwards, now of El Paso About twenty years 

 ago they visited what is now known as the Oil Spring, fifteen miles southeast 

 of the town of Nacogdoches, while on a hunting excursion. They dug a 

 few holes with spades in the sandy soil on the margin of Oil Spring Branch, 

 and left them during the night. On returning next day they found that 

 oil and water had collected in the holes while they were absent. Some 

 of this oil was secured and brought to the town of Nacogdoches, where it 

 was tested on shoe leather, harness, and for other domestic purposes. 



