Remember John B. Stephens and R. L. Peveto, the two guys that met while doing land research for the Deep Rock Drilling Company? Eventually, John B. leased 2,000 acres for a test well in the Talco area, and partnered with R. L. Peveto to drill the Carr No. 1 three quarters of a mile east of Talco.
The Friday, February 7, 1936 Mt. Pleasant Daily Times headline screamed "Oil At Talco Seems To Be Certain!" in two inch letters. Even the banner headline's large, bold type couldn't approach the excitement felt all over Titus County about the impeding discovery of crude oil in the Talco field that would change the face of the entire county for years to come.
The Jefferson Hotel, the oil men's unofficial headquarters, had been the scene of a seething, milling crowd ever since Thursday. Abstractors, lawyers, and lease brokers were swamped with work, and the whole town was humming like a beehive over prospects of a producing field being brought in, which now seemed practically certain. The only topic of conversation all over town was oil.
Excitement throughout the county was at fever pitch after core tests at 4185 to 4205 foot levels in the Peveto well on the Charles M. Carr property three quarters of a mile east of Talco plainly showed that the drill stem had penetrated twenty feet of Paluxy sand, and all of it was saturated with oil. The sand had a strong odor of crude oil and if touched left a grease spot on the fingers. Samples were quickly sent to major oil company experts seeking their opinion as to whether paying quantities of oil were present, and everyone was anxiously awaiting their response.
The full depth of the sand was not known, but this test provided the best indications for oil production ever seen in Titus County. Should the tests prove that the sand was sufficiently saturated, people expected an extensive field to be brought in near Talco because it was well known that the Balcones fault runs through northern Titus County, and several oil fields had been developed along the fault in other parts of Texas.
Dozens of people who followed oil drilling had already swarmed into Mt. Pleasant on Thursday night, taxing hotels to the limit. Many people who were present when other oil fields had been brought in had no hesitancy in saying that the Peveto well was almost a sure thing, and only unforeseen problems would prevent Titus County from having a real oil field very soon.
Lease and royalty trading was active all over northern Titus County, with leases selling for high prices near the well and still bringing good prices as far east as ten miles. Prices climbed rapidly, and even if the well failed to produce, it meant that lots of money would be spent in the county in the next few days.
Leases and royalty prices continued to skyrocket on Friday. Even higher prices than before were being paid as far as ten miles from the well, and close leases were now bringing exorbitant prices because many big oil operators had arrived from other fields and were plunging into the market. Buyers called on all land owners within several miles of the test all day Friday and into the middle of Friday night.
A drill stem test taken on Friday night, February 7, only served to increase the already frantic excitement. Oil rose 800 feet in the drill stem, indicating without a doubt that there were paying quantities of oil and confirming the previous core tests.
Hundreds of people stayed at the well all night to watch the proceedings, and there were not enough hotel rooms in Mt. Pleasant to accommodate the influx of people who rushed to town after hearing the early reports. People familiar with oil operations knew there was no doubt that a field would be brought in as soon as casing could be set and procedures for bringing in a producing well could be finished.
So many long-distance calls flooded Mt. Pleasant's telephone office that they could not handle them. Part of the day shift had to be called back in to work to supplement the regular staff to handle calls from speculators who were trying to contact others.
Two carloads of casing arrived by the Cotton Belt on Monday morning, February 10. Arrangements were made to move the pipe to the well so it could be set as soon as possible. After casing was set, it usually required about seventy-two hours to before a well could be brought in, so no one expected to know the well's full flow before the following Friday.
Now that word was out that the Peveto well was a producer, everything in Titus County boomed at once. To some, the smell of crude oil stinks. However, to many others, it smells like money. All kinds of people immediately flooded into Titus County upon hearing about the oil strike in hopes of grabbing their share of "black gold."
Literally overnight Mt. Pleasant and Talco went from quiet little farming towns to boom towns. Every hotel, motel, and privately rented room was filled, and at premium prices.
Traffic became an immediate problem. Mt. Pleasant didn't have a bypass like it does now, and even the highways were narrow two lane roads. There was only one way into town from the north, south, east, and west and all converged at the Court House Square. The "Dallas highway" is now Texas FM-899, and part of West First Street, which came to the square. Highway 65, or the "Pittsburg highway" ran west of the Cotton Belt tracks to approximately what is now the end of Priefert Manufacturing Company's outlet lot, then followed today's U.S. Highway 271 path under the Cotton Belt overpass to the square. Highway 49, which included highways to both Daingerfield and Talco, entered Mt. Pleasant on the south at the present intersection of South Jefferson and Highway 49. However, there was no Ferguson Road loop. Highway 49 joined Highway 65 in a T-shaped intersection at what is now Highway 49 and South Jefferson, and traffic from both funneled under the Cotton Belt overpass to the square. From there, Highway 49 continued up North Jefferson Street to what is now Texas FM-2152 (the Greenhill Road) and on to Talco and points north. Mt. Pleasant had no through secondary streets like North Madison or Van Buren where a person could dodge the heavy traffic to go from one end of town to the other. You must also keep in mind that none of these roads were substantially paved by today's standards, and none were four lane at any point.
There was an extremely long one lane wooden bridge where Highway 49 (the Greenhill Road) crossed the White Oak Creek sloughs between Mt. Pleasant and Talco. This bridge was so long that pull-offs were constructed on the bridge itself so a vehicle could pull slightly to one side to let an oncoming vehicle pass. The long wooden bridge was still used until the latter 1960s or early 1970s.
The Mt. Pleasant people's "country" driving habits only served to worsen the traffic problems. The town was still so rural and had so little home-town traffic that if people couldn't find a parking place, they just "double parked." In other words, they stopped their vehicle right in the street, got out, went in a store, and took care of their business. Anyone driving down the street had to go around their empty vehicle in the traffic lane, and the person parked in the legal parking place blocked by the "double parker" had to wait until they came out of the store and moved their car in order to leave.
The roads and driving habits, while never the best, worked when life was slow and there were few people. After all, cars had only been fairly common for a little over 10 years and there weren't that many of them. However, once "out-of-town" traffic flooded the little town, traffic became tangled a nightmare.
Record crowds were at Talco and the well on Sunday, and Mt. Pleasant looked like a boom town. Hotel rooms rented for premium prices because the crowd was larger than the combined room capacity of all hotels and motels in town. Lease and royalty trading was still at a fever pitch, and prices had risen so high that only the "big boys" had a chance.
Representatives of the Humble Company leased the Cleland building vacated by the Spencer Ice Cream Company last fall, and also took an option on its upstairs offices, which were expected to be vacant soon.
Texas Highway Commissioner Harry Hines spent Friday, February 14 in Mt. Pleasant and said that upon returning to Austin he would recommend building a completely new highway from Mt. Pleasant to Talco. Mr. Hines said that if the Talco field was brought in, the present road could not handle the heavy traffic that would result, creating an emergency that demanded a better road than the present one to handle the traffic. Building a new highway would of course depend on securing the right of way necessary, but no one expected much trouble in getting the right of way.
Mr. Hines also said he would send engineers to Titus County at once to plan improvements to Highway 49's present route, including straightening sharp curves. He said that the present road would be maintained and improved even if a new one was built. Mr. Hines said it would be impossible to do much construction work on the present highway with the present traffic.
Because there was so much lease and royalty trading activity all over the area, he planned to send some highway patrolmen to Mt. Pleasant to help handle the traffic. One was in town on Friday and Saturday and it appeared his sole duty was to keep traffic moving at the southeast corner of the square around the Jefferson Hotel.
County Tax Collector Leftwich's office was affected by the oil boom to a greater extent than most people realized. In a single week, northern Titus County residents paid his office over ten thousand dollars, mostly in back taxes, some of which were several years in arrears. Taxes dating as far back as 1919 were paid on Talco town lots to clear their deeds so transactions could be completed.
Several land owners cleared enough from leases and royalties to pay off their homes and still have money left to put in the bank. Some were in such bad financial condition that they were preparing to allow their property to be foreclosed, but the oil boom saved them.
