4/5 Tuckertown to receive historical marker

By BARBARA FORMAN/Daily Sun Staff

Because of the importance of a small town during the oil-boom days of yesteryear and the impact it had on Navarro County a state approved historical marker will be dedicated Saturday.

Tuckertown symbolized Navarro County as a free-wheeling, high-pitched town with lifestyles that were often unruly and which were typical of oil-boom sites.

The historical research for Tuckertown was done by Wyvonne Putman, chairman of Navarro County Historical Commission and Billy Batton, a history and government teacher at Mildred High School.

Putman said to qualify for the historical marker all of the information documented had to be verified by the state. Austin approved the final research.

"Austin decides what goes on the marker from the research that is turned in," Putman said.

When the first inscription for the marker came back Putman said she was not happy with it.

"They had left out Bill McKie's grandfather (William J. McKie) who wrote the charter (for the Texas Company in 1902)," Putman said.

Putman said after she contacted Austin they agreed the information should be used.

"(The historical marker for Tuckertown) is the last thing I wanted to accomplish with my retirement," she said.

Research revealed Tuckertown was the largest of the oil-boom towns in the area. When oil was discovered in Corsicana June 19,1894 during the course of drilling for water it was the beginning of the oil boom in Texas.

In time oil developers, lease hounds, roughnecks, businessmen, bootleggers, prostitutes, gamblers and other adventurers flooded Corsicana and the fields to the southeast. Several small boom towns began to materialize after oil was discovered in Powell field near the site.

Tuckertown became the heart of the earliest and largest oil production in Powell field. As more and more people poured in, the tent city of Tuckertown sprang up almost over night. Within four months it had a population of 3,000. Even though it was a temporary town its impact on Corsicana and Navarro County is still remembered today.

What is now Farm-to-Market Road 637 was where the wheeling and dealing of a rich oil town began after McKie drafted the charter.

Tuckertown helped to make Texas the leader in the production of oil in the United States.

 

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4/9 Tuckertown marker dedicated

By BARBARA FORMAN/Daily Sun Staff

The unveiling and dedication of a state historical marker Saturday, which recognized the importance Tuckertown played in Navarro County, brought about 50 residents who took time to remember the legacy and heritage that the oil-boom brought to the county.

"(Tuckertown) is really why we celebrate Derrick Days," said Wyvonne Putman, chairman of Navarro County Historical Commission and a major contributor to the research required for the state marker.

Bill McKie dedicated the marker.

Putman said the name for the largest of oil-boom towns was derived from a store owner named Tucker.

The town was characterized as fast-living and a good way to make a dollar.

Ann Montgomery Connor, who is a lifetime member of the Mildred community, gave the history at the dedication of the marker.

"All of the information, research and preparation of the material (for Tuckertown) was done by Wyvonne Putman and Bill Batton, I am just the presenter (of the information) today," she said.

Although Connor said she had known about Tuckertown, the research provided her with some new discoveries.

Even though it is common knowledge that oil was discovered in 1894 in Corsicana while trying to drill for a water well, there are other interesting facts that might not be so common.

In the city's search for water leaders had contracted with the American Well and Prospecting Company to drill three water wells.

"While drilling one of those wells at a depth of 1,027 feet they were annoyed to find oil," Connor said.

To keep the oil from contaminating the water they had to drill to a depth of 2,470 feet.

The first well drilled produced two and a half barrels of oil; the second was a dry hole; and the third well, which was at Fourth and Collin, produced 22 barrels a day.

As other wells came in they produced as much as 20 to 25 barrels of oil a day.

During the oil-boom many new companies were born and derricks were put up all over the east side of Corsicana.

"Many of them were in front and backyards of homes," Connor said. "Many (of the derricks) were offset from one another by only a few feet."

Drilling for oil continued in Corsicana and the surrounding areas through the remainder of the 1890s and into the early 1900s. By 1901 a total of 653 wells had been drilled with an accumulated production of three million barrels of oil.

Connor said in its day Tuckertown exemplified in Navarro County a free-wheeling way of life that was the oil-boom style.

As Navarro County residents listened to the rich history of Tuckertown there were some who had questions and comments about different places and events that helped to make the history of the town.

After being reminded of Tuckertown and the heritage that comes with it, many long time friends and acquaintances shared stories and reminisced about the "good old days."

"This is an old historic town and I think everybody in the county is interested in Tuckertown," said Bobby Fluker, member of the NCHC. "It was one of those oil-boom towns that sprang up real fast and it was a very rough place."

Fluker said the late Lefty Frizell was born only a few yards down the road from the site of the historical marker. Another story Fluker related was about the late Rufus Peevehouse, who was sheriff longer than anyone else in the county.

"Walter Hayes had just hired (Peevehouse) as a deputy and one of his first (official incidents) was a burglary at Tuckertown," Fluker said. "Peevehouse rode on horseback to town and while checking on whatever was happening someone stole his saddle."

Fluker said that showed what kind of respect Tuckertown had for law enforcement and "especially the young deputy."

Although there are not any visible signs of Tuckertown today, it was and is an important economical and historical site. It was the center of the earliest and largest production of oil in the Powell field which produced approximately 186 million barrels of oil. The magnitude of this oil production helped to make Texas the leader in oil production in the United States.

Connor said Tuckertown was home to a special breed of people who brought a different way of life to Navarro County.