A Master of Arts
Thesis at
Lamar University
Printed by
Nederland
Publishing Company
P. 0. Drawer 1326
Nederland, Texas
77627
, W. T. Block,
1976
Most people would agree that the repulse of an invasion fleet in
1863 and the oil eruption at Spindletop in 1901 were the two
outstanding historical events in Jefferson County’s history.
Each event has spawned volumes of history. In a sense, each
occurrence marked the decline of an old order. The outcome of
the Civil War ended slavery and witnessed the regression of the
cattle industry. Gradually, the new lumber and sawmill barons
replaced the stockmen as Jefferson County’s economic backbone.
As the virgin forests vanished and petroleum was discovered, the
process of economic transition began anew.
In
this first of two planned volumes to terminate in the year 1901,
the writer has purposely delayed his Master of Arts degree in
order to seek for every possible source of Jefferson County’s
antebellum history. There were men such as George A. Pattillo,
Henry Millard, Stephen H. Everett, Dr. Frederick W. Ogden, and
James R. Armstrong who were equally at home in the capitol at
Austin as they were in Jefferson County, and whose lives are
recorded in the ensuing chapters. The writer, however, has
endeavored to chronicle the “little people” as well, for it was
they who collectively laid the foundations for our metropolis,
nearing one-quarter million persons, of today.
In
the past, myth and legend have often prevailed, and a single,
forty-minute battle has become synonymous with four years of the
county’s Civil War history. It is the writer’s hope that this
volume will remove much of the shroud of mystery and
uncertainty, which heretofore has surrounded those years prior
to 1865.
W. T. Block
P. O. Box 62
Nederland, Texas 77627
To
Ralph Ancil Wooster and Cooper Kirby Ragan
|