The Well That Changed the World RoadyGoat

In 1930, Henderson was a sleepy cotton town struggling through the Great Depression. Then came C.M. 'Dad' Joiner, a 70-year-old wildcatter with a stubborn belief that there was oil nearby, even though major oil companies had drilled dry holes and left. People thought he was a fool. He drilled two failed wells, ran out of money, and was plagued by equipment failures. But on his third try, the Daisy Bradford No. 3, something happened. On October 3rd, 1930, about eight miles west of here, on the Miller farm where the town of Joinerville would soon rise, the well erupted, spewing black gold into the air. Joiner hadn't just found oil; he'd tapped into the largest oil field ever discovered in the lower 48 states. Overnight, Henderson became a chaotic boomtown. Fortune seekers poured in, money flowed like oil, and this small East Texas town found itself at the center of the world's energy map.

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Henderson's Darkest Day RoadyGoat

On March 18, 1937, the ground shook about a dozen miles from here. In New London, a natural gas explosion had obliterated the local school, killing close to 300 students and teachers. It remains one of the deadliest disasters in Texas history. Within minutes, Henderson was part of the response. Sirens wailed as doctors, nurses and ambulances raced toward the scene, and buildings all over Henderson were turned into makeshift first-aid stations and morgues — the same thing happening in Overton, Kilgore, Tyler and Longview, while thirty doctors and a hundred nurses came in from Dallas. Citizens turned their cars into ambulances and their homes into triage centers. It was a day of unimaginable grief, but it was also a day that revealed this town's character, as the people of Henderson dropped everything to help their neighbors in a time of desperate need.

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The Secret of the East Texas Oil Field RoadyGoat

The East Texas Oil Field, discovered near here, shouldn't have existed according to the science of the 1920s. Geologists were trained to find oil in 'anticlines,' which are dome-like structures in the rock that trap oil and gas. They drilled these structures all around Henderson and found nothing. But the geology here is tricky. The oil wasn't in a dome; it was in a 'stratigraphic trap.' Imagine a huge, tilted sponge—that's the Woodbine Sandstone formation. Millions of years ago, this sandstone layer was sealed off on its upper edge by a dense, impermeable layer of Austin Chalk. This created a massive, angled trap where oil, migrating upward, got stuck. It wasn't a dome, but a pinch-out. 'Dad' Joiner, the wildcatter who found it, wasn't using advanced geology; he was drilling on a hunch. He accidentally discovered a type of oil field the experts had completely missed, proving that sometimes, the greatest discoveries are made when you break the rules.

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Cowart, Dax S.

1973

Dax S. Cowart, Texas trial lawyer and patient's rights advocate, originally named Donald Herbert Cowart, was born to Thomas Ray Cowart and Ada Bernice (Triplett) Cowart on December 16, 1947, in Harlingen, Texas, where his parents raised Santa Gertrudis cattle . Due to a heavy drought, his family moved from the Rio Grande Valley to the East Texas town of Henderson, where Cowart spent his youth. Nicknamed "Donny Boy" by his father, Cowart excelled in high school athletics at Henderson High School. He was captain of his high school varsity football team and performed in rodeos as a bull and bronco rider. After graduation from high school, Cowart attended Texas A&I University (now Texas A&M University-Kingsville) before enrolling at the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a bachelor's degree in finance in 1970. Following graduation, Cowart was drafted into the United States military. He elected to join the U. S. Air Force and flew C-141 aircraft during the Vietnam War. He was discharged from active duty in 1973 but continued to serve as a pilot in the Air Force Reserve. In July 1973, when he was twenty-five, Cowart was involved in an accident in East Texas. A leaking propane gas pipeline caused an explosion that killed his father and left Cowart with severe burns to approximately 65 percent of his total body surface area, with third-degree burns to his face, ears, and hands. It also resulted in the loss of both of his eyes, severe damage to his hearing, and the loss of all of his fingers except for part of his left thumb. Cowart was first admitted to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas and later treated at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston . He continuously expressed the desire to decline the extremely painful burn treatment procedures but was overruled by professional caregivers. The 1974 documentary Please Let Me Die , showed Cowart, although heavily medicated, exercising rational arguments in favor of making his own personal treatment decisions. Cowart was released after having been subjected to fourteen months of surgeries, skin grafts, and other treatments. Suffering from depression, he attempted suicide in the wake of his treatment. Ten years later in 1984 Cowart appeared in another documentary, Dax's Case , as a forceful advocate for the right of competent adults to exercise autonomy in making their own medical decisions. With the aid of assistive devices, Cowart earned his doctor of jurisprudence from the Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock in 1986. He established his own law practice in Henderson, Texas, and successfully sued the oil company responsible for his burns. During this period, Cowart legally changed his name to "Dax"; he stated that the name was easier to hear and distinguish from the name of "Donald." In 1996 Cowart joined Hilliard & Munoz, a Corpus Christi law firm that specialized in personal injury cases. As he had no fingers to read Braille, he focused on listening to lectures and case law and mastered information by memory. Cowart also served as a trial skills teacher at Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyer's College in Dubois, Wyoming, and participated as a trial counsel and strategy advisor for other attorneys, including Samantha Berryessa, whom he married in 2003. Two earlier marriages-to Sharla L. Stone in 1971 and Karen Bolton in 1983-ended in divorce. After his last marriage he lived on a ranch near San Diego, California. Motivated from his personal experience and using his professional background, Cowart became a prominent patient's rights advocate. He continuously argued for patient autonomy and the right to choose, even if that choice meant death. Cowart's experience has become a famous bioethics case and multiple films have been made to document his journey. These include: Please Let Me Die (1974), Dax's Case (1984), the 20/20 segment titled "Dax's Story" (1999), and Dax Cowart: 40 Years Later (2013). He died of cancer in Fallbrook, California, on April 28, 2019.

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East Texas Oilfield

1930

The East Texas oilfield, located in central Gregg, western Rusk, southern Upshur, southeastern Smith, and northeastern Cherokee counties in the east central part of the state, is the largest and most prolific oil reservoir in the contiguous United States. Since its discovery on October 3, 1930, some 30,340 wells have been drilled within its 140,000 acres to yield nearly 5.2 billion barrels of oil from a stratigraphic trap in the Eagle Ford-Woodbine group of the Cretaceous. The source of its primary recovery was a strong water drive. Because the field is so large geographically the first wells, located several miles apart, were originally regarded as discovery wells in separate fields. After the spaces between the first wells were drilled, it was revealed that all sectors drew oil from the same Woodbine sands. The giant field was named for its geographic region. The first discovery in the East Texas field came in Rusk County. It was there in the summer of 1927 that Columbus Marion (Dad) Joiner , a sixty-seven-year-old promoter from Ardmore, Oklahoma, took mineral leases on several thousand acres of land with the intention of selling certificates of interest in a syndicate. Joiner presented a kind and gentle appearance, which belied his shrewd ability to use the labor, property, and money of others in his ventures. Joiner transferred 500 acres of mineral leases into the syndicate and offered a one-acre interest in the lease block and a pro-rata share in a drilling test for twenty-five dollars. He mailed copies of a misleading report, prepared by a nonprofessional geologist, to hundreds of names on his sucker list. The duplicitous report promised the existence of oil-productive geological structures in Rusk County and incorrectly claimed that major oil companies were actively leasing there. Joiner's real motivation, as evidenced by a later lawsuit, was the sale of his syndicate shares. Because he needed a drilling test to serve as a prop for impressing potential investors, Joiner commenced a lackadaisical poor-boy drilling operation with rusty, mismatched, and worn-out equipment. But, Joiner's unstable rig and his oil-rich promises appealed to the generosity and dreams of the hard-scrabble farmers and townspeople who donated their labor and traded supplies for syndicate certificates. Joiner and driller Tom M. Jones spudded the Bradford No. 1 on an eighty-acre tract belonging to Daisy Bradford in the Juan Ximenes Survey of Rusk County. After drilling for six months without finding a show of oil, the hole was lost to a stuck pipe. Joiner abandoned the well at a depth of 1,098 feet. By April 14, 1928, he formed a second syndicate from another lease block of 500 acres and sold certificates of interest through another mail promotion. A second well, the Bradford No. 2, was spudded by Joiner and driller Bill Osborne at a site 100 feet northwest of the original well. Joiner's certificates again were bartered for supplies and labor for the well, becoming an accepted medium of exchange in the poor economy of Rusk County. After eleven months of intermittent drilling, the Bradford No. 2 reached a depth of 2,518 feet, where the drill pipe twisted off and blocked the hole. Before abandoning the site, Osborne returned to test a shallower horizon at 1,437-1,460 feet where gas had been reported. When no evidence of production was found, the well was abandoned. After abandoning the Bradford No. 2, Joiner formed a third syndicate and managed to oversell the shares of interest in a third test as he had in the first two. On May 8, 1929, driller Ed Laster skidded the rig to a new location, 375 feet from the second site, and spudded the Bradford No. 3. After two days of drilling, the well reached a depth of 1,200 feet, using the same rachitic rig, weary equipment, and farmers as rig hands. The boilers were fed green wood from the beginning and old automobile tires at the end. In late August Laster and farmer-rig hand, Jim Lambert, were seriously burned

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Joiner, Columbus Marion [Dad]

1930

Columbus Marion (Dad) Joiner, oilman, the son of James and Lucy Joiner, was born near Center Star, Lauderdale County, Alabama, on March 12, 1860. He began a law practice in Tennessee in 1883 and was a member of the legislature of that state from 1889 to 1891. He moved to Oklahoma in 1897, where he made and lost two fortunes in oil before moving to Texas in 1926. Despite the contrary opinion of geologists, Joiner was convinced of the possibility of oil deposits in Rusk County, and in 1930 he drilled eight miles west of Henderson, using a flimsy pine rig and battered tools. His first two wells were unsuccessful, and he and his associates went further in debt, but the third well, Daisy Bradford No. 3, came in on October 3, 1930, thus opening up the largest oilfield in the world up to that time, the East Texas oilfield . As "father" of the field, Joiner was given the nickname Dad. He became involved in several lawsuits and after 1940 lived in retirement in Dallas. Beset by financial problems, he went into voluntary receivership and sold his well and leases for $1 million to Haroldson L. Hunt . He married twice, the second time to Dea England on September 8, 1933. Joiner died on March 27, 1947, and was buried in Dallas. Though his estate had an estimated value of $3 million as late as 1938, Joiner's personal and real property at the time of his death was described as only of "nominal value." The town of Joinerville was named for him.

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The 1860 Henderson Fire

1860

The fire of August 5, 1860 in Henderson, Texas, marked the beginning of the end of the Union in Texas. As a successful agricultural and commercial center, Henderson was one of the most important cities in Texas. Fires erupted all over Texas during the extremely hot summer of 1860, and Texans were becoming afraid and angry that their towns were burning at the hands of northern abolitionists and slaves. By the time the fire in Henderson burned the entire business district of the town, people all over the state were ready to fight for their way of life. This fire is argued to be what ignited Texan secession. By September of 1860, news of the Henderson fire had reached all over the country, from New York city to San Francisco. Fifty-two citizens were selected in Henderson to investigate the fire, and they hanged Green Herndon and his female slave for setting the fire. Evidence of guilt or innocence is unknown. Louis T. Wigfall wasted no time using the fire to rally Texans to the banner of secession. “the secession flood in Texas” was too strong for leaders like Sam Houston to resist, and a draft of Texas’ formal Declaration of Causes for Secession was drawn up by Texas delegates, among them Rusk County’s Malcom D. Graham. Graham laid the blame for the fire on northern abolitionists and their political allies. The delegates approved Graham’s Declaration and when compiling a chronology of events leading to secession, listed the burning of Henderson first, as the end of the Union in Texas.

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Howard-Dickinson House

1855

First brick home in county. Built 1855 by brothers, David P. and Jas. Logan Howard, settlers from Richmond, Va. The Howards made bricks with mud mill and later with a patented machine and kiln on the premises. (Howard bricks and carpentry went into the old courthouse on Square-- and most of the city's major construction in later 1800s.) Structure is iron-reinforced; has hand-wrought woodwork and oldest plastered walls in city. A frequent visitor in early years to this house was Texas statesman Sam Houston, a cousin of Martha Ann (Mrs. Dave) Howard. The home was bought 1905 by Mrs. M. C. Dickinson, the daughter of Dr. Alfred Graham, a pioneer physician of Rusk County. To the original house, the Dickinsons added frame wing at the rear.

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Henderson

1843

Founded as the county seat for the newly created county of Rusk in 1843, Henderson was named for Republic of Texas pioneer and statesman James Pinckney Henderson, who would later become the first Governor of the State of Texas. Land for the town was donated by W. B. Ochiltree, who stipulated that it be named for his friend Henderson, and by Republic of Texas General James Smith, who is known as the "Father of Henderson." Town lots were sold soon after the city was established, with land set aside for both churches and schools. A wooden courthouse was built in the center of town in 1849, and the town grew steadily as homes and businesses were constructed. A disastrous fire destroyed much of the central business district in 1860. Following the Civil War and the arrival of the railroads in this area in the 1870s, a large number of brick structures were built in the downtown area. The discovery of the vast East Texas oil field in 1930 caused an economic boom in Henderson. The population increased from 2,000 to 10,000 within a matter of months. The town continues to serve as a center of commerce and civic activities.

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Henderson, Texas

Music in Henderson

Songs About Henderson

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History of Henderson

The Well That Changed the World RoadyGoat

Henderson's Darkest Day RoadyGoat

The Secret of the East Texas Oil Field RoadyGoat

Cowart, Dax S.

East Texas Oilfield

Joiner, Columbus Marion [Dad]

The 1860 Henderson Fire

Howard-Dickinson House

Henderson

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