OLD GENERAL LAND OFFICE BUILDING iii
PRESENT GENERAL LAND OFFICE BUILDING v
I.
HISTORY OF TEXAS LAND
When Christopher Columbus stepped ashore in the West Indies in October,
1492, he drew the curtain to an immense area of land, some fertile and
some desert—land of all types and for all purposes.
So vast was this discovery that land-conscious European powers who
sponsored New World exploration were soon giving away large areas with a
surprising disregard for their value. However, when rival powers
disputed their claims to specific territories in the New World, they
were quick to argue. The effect was that nations which matured in the
Western Hemisphere grew up with a high regard for land.
From this it may be inferred that the history of any nation or state has
been and continues to be largely a history of land. The political,
social, and economic superstructure of a people is traceable to the land
they control. Especially is this true of western nations and of Texas.
In what is now Southwestern United States there were several settlements
of Mexicans and Indians on both sides of the Rio Grande as early as
1750. These people held no title to their land. They had assembled for
reasons of economics and security.
Agents of the King of Spain finally arrived in the New World in 1767,
surveyed the river lands, and issued titles. With the exception of
Laredo, there was little colonization until 1815, when the Spanish
governor began to feel the French encroachment on the east. Before then,
Spain’s main effort had been directed toward the erection of missions,
which required constant support and defense, rather than toward
establishing civil settlements that could defend and support themselves.
Thus, the vast area of the Southwest was sparsely populated and lay as a
wilderness to American settlers who had pushed to its borders from the
United States. A grant to colonize was made to Moses Austin in January,
1821, to settle 300 families in Texas; this was the first deviation from
the Spanish policy of maintaining a predominately native population.
Later in 1821, the Spanish yoke was thrown off by Mexico, and the
Mexicans continued the policy of granting land to Americans. A liberal
colonization policy brought an immediate and widespread response. By
1835 it is estimated that there were over 30,000 people in the Texas
colonies—people who had come to Texas not as adventurers or speculators,
but to establish new homes. The fourteen-year period had wrought many
changes. Texas was no longer a complete wilderness. Many areas had been
cleared and turned into small agricultural districts where the people
were both industrious and self-reliant.
Because of the differences in the background and heritage of the
Anglo-Americans and the Mexicans, it was inevitable that conflicts would
develop. Differences in political views, religion, language, and mode of
living all served to kindle and feed the flames of the Texas Revolution.
At the very beginning of hostilities, Texans closed the colonial land
offices and assumed control of the land problems under one agency. This
was the foundation and beginning of the General Land Office, as it is
known today.
In separating from Mexico, Texans recognized the valid titles to land
which had been made by Spain and Mexico, but all vacant land within the
borders of the new republic became the property of Texas. These borders
were defined by the Congress of Texas in an Act of December 19, 1836,
and included all land within the present boundaries of the state (and
out to three marine leagues in the Gulf of Mexico), more than half of
the present State of New Mexico, and parts of Kansas, Colorado and
Wyoming. The first commissioners of the General Land Office, who were
given the momentous task of administering this huge domain, were John P.
Borden (who served from 1837 to 1841) and Thomas Wm. Ward (whose tenure
of office was 1841 to 1848). On December 29, 1845, the Republic became a
state.
Events leading to the annexation of Texas by the United States were
significant in the land history of the state. Relations between the
Republic of Texas and the United States during this time may be
separated into three periods, each of which lasted about three years.
During the first period, Texas sought annexation. Partly as a result of
the slavery controversy then raging in the United States and partly in
fear of war with Mexico, the United States refused annexation.
In the second period, Texas altered her attitude, withdrew her
application for annexation, and made plans to perpetuate her republic.
During this period, Texas was recognized by powers such as Great
Britain, France, Holland, and Belgium. Americans, laboring under the
influence of what they considered a Manifest Destiny, feared the
influence of foreign powers in Texas.
This led to the third phase, which was characterized by renewed U. S.
interest in Texas. On June 8, 1844, a treaty of annexation was defeated
in the United States Senate, largely by partisan politics. This treaty
stipulated that the United States would pay Texas debts up to ten
million dollars, but that Texas would have to surrender title to all
public lands.
Texas was fortunate that this treaty was not approved, because only a
small part of the land that she would have traded for ten million
dollars has since put more than 625 million dollars in the Permanent
School and University Funds. Later that year, President John Tyler of
the United States proposed that the treaty of annexation be adopted by a
joint resolution of Congress, and this maneuver succeeded, the treaty
receiving approval on February 28, 1845.
Provisions of the treaty as confirmed by the joint resolution allowed
Texas to retain her public domain and provided also that the new state
should keep her debts, which amounted to about 13 million dollars at
that time. All in all, it was a better arrangement than the earlier
treaty which had been defeated.
Congressional approval was greeted in Texas by considerable enthusiasm.
The initiative in annexation proceedings now lay with Texas. President
of the Republic Anson Jones called a convention to meet at Austin on
July 4, 1845, to decide whether or not Texas should accept the proposal.
The decision being in the affirmative, the State of Texas was admitted
into the Union on December 29, 1845, and the State government was
formally installed on February 19, 1846. Thomas Wm. Ward, who had been
Commissioner of the General Land Office under the Republic, assumed the
same position in the State government. His duties remained essentially
the same.
Shortly after Texas was annexed by the United States, war broke out
between Mexico and the Union over the newly-acquired territory. Mexico
had never relinquished her claim to Texas, and had repeatedly warned the
United States that annexation of what she considered a rebellious
province would mean war. From the beginning of hostilities, however, the
United States experienced a minimum of difficulty in subduing her
southern adversary. Less than two years after the war began, it came to
a conclusion with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, signed February 2,
1848. Among other provisions, Mexico gave up her claim to Texas.
Hardly had the war come to an end than a dispute arose between the
United States and Texas over 78,892,800 acres of land claimed by Texas.
When Mexico concluded the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, she sold this and
other land to the United States for $15,000,000. Mexico had never
recognized Texas’ claim to the land in question, which included parts of
what is now New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming.
However, when the United States began taking possession of this land,
anger in Texas mounted. The Legislature passed a resolution renewing
Texas’ claim to the disputed area.
A solution to the problem was worked out in the Compromise of 1850 by
which the United States was to pay Texas $10,000,000 for the area. On
February 28, 1855, Congress paid Texas an additional $5,496,477.77 for
this land. Therefore, Texas profited handsomely by some shrewd
bargaining on the part of its early leaders. Not only was Texas able to
pay its public debt, but the State reserved its present domain to itself
as well.
This public domain of land has been the basis of growth for the State’s
two big educational funds, the Permanent School Fund and the Permanent
University Fund, as the result of mineral exploration within Texas and
especially because of oil development on public land set aside for the
benefit of these funds.
As a result, the history of oil exploration and development within Texas
is directly related to the story of Texas land. For that reason, it is
briefly told here.
Tradition says that one John A. Veatch arrived in what is now East Texas
but which was then a province of Mexico. After meeting certain
requirements, he was authorized as an immigrant to select a league of
land. Veatch chose his property in two parts: one three miles south of
the present city of Beaumont and the other near Sour Lake in present
Hardin County. Seventy-five years later, two of Texas’ greatest oil
discoveries were made almost on top of his two tracts of land.
Ironically enough, Veatch is reported to have believed that oil existed
in those localities and, for that reason, consistently declined to sell.
The first oil well in Texas was probably drilled near Saratoga in Hardin
County in the early 1860’s, but the first oil discovered in
commercially-suitable quantities was produced in Nacogdoches County 20
years later. The first commercial use of oil appears to have been as a
tick remover.
First important oil production in Texas occurred in the Corsicana area
in 1895. The Corsicana field was of such importance that it attracted
numerous geologists and operators to Texas.
Before the Corsicana field came in, however, efforts had been made to
develop the Beaumont location as an oil-producing area. Nearly ten years
passed before the famous Lucas gusher came in producing a spectacular
4,000 barrels a day. Other wells were drilled in the same area, and the
Texas coast suddenly became a paradise for oil developers.
The next major development in Texas oil history came in that same
coastal region. At Sour Lake in Hardin County, a gusher came in in 1902,
and it is reported that some wells have produced 10,000 barrels a day in
this field. Drilling in this field had been going on since 1893. When
the 1902 gusher was drilled, the supply of oil suddenly exceeded the
demand, and oil was being sold for 15 cents a barrel. An average 1957
price was about $2.85 per barrel.
In 1903, the Batson field in Hardin County was discovered. The Permanent
School Fund experienced its first sensation from this field. A surveyor
discovered a scrap of unsurveyed school land near the oil field and
filed to purchase it at $10.00 per acre, thinking the General Land
Office unaware of its true value. To the contrary, the chief clerk of
the Land Office held out for $1,500.00 per acre. He received what he
asked for, and the School Fund profited by $23,025.00 from the sale.
One of the most productive oil fields in Texas was developed at Humble
in January, 1905. The well that brought in the field began producing at
8,500 barrels per day.
Matagorda County caused some excitement in 1908. Its best producer
yielded 7,200 barrels per day, but the field soon declined.
About 1910, exploration in Wichita County was active. Development moved
at a snail’s pace originally, but discoveries near Burkburnett in 1912
and 1917 resulted in renewed attempts, and a field that was regarded as
shallow suddenly became one of extensive resources. The field was even
extended into the channel of the Red River. In general, the land was in
the hands of small farmers, so this was the little man’s field.
Far to the south, the Goose Creek field in Harris County had been
attracting attention since 1907. By 1911, a well on the edge of San
Jacinto Bay was reported to be flowing several hundred barrels a day. In
1913, the Legislature enacted into law at the recommendation of
Commissioner of the General Land Office J. T. Robison a plan whereby San
Jacinto Bay, which was owned by the State, could be opened for
development on a royalty basis. The first permit for this purpose was
issued on August 18, 1913.
The first royalty, $33.97, was paid to the General Land Office in April,
1914. Six years later, royalties from this source had increased to
$600,000.
The Goose Creek field is still producing.
An interesting chapter in the history of Texas oil has to do with
natural gas. In 1913, a well was drilled on top of 50-foot-high chalk
cliffs on Nueces Bay near Corpus Christi. As the drill cut through the
cap rock and into the gas chamber at about 2000 feet, the well blew out,
a hole was torn in the ground, the derrick fell in, and the gas burned
with a roar that was audible for miles. Four hundred yards away another
well was drilled, and precautions were taken to avoid the previous
calamity. The precautions were without avail, however, and the
experience was repeated. An eyewitness described the scene:
Rushing gas came out with such tremendous force that a crater was torn
some two hundred feet in diameter and made the ground and housetops
snowlike with white sand for some six miles. The gas was dry. It
ignited. A flame some one hundred and fifty feet in diameter shot up
two hundred or more feet high and tossed up boulders as large as a
peck measure as one would a baseball. The light could be seen forty
miles and when I approached to within warming distance of the flame
the earth trembled like a mass of jelly.
In northeast Texas, some small production was discovered on Tar Island
in Caddo Lake in 1914. Caddo Lake is on the Marion-Harrison County line.
Three years later, oil discoveries began shifting to West Texas.
At Ranger in Eastland County on October 17, 1917, oil was discovered.
Uncontrolled, the producers allowed their wells to flow thousands of
barrels a day, and in many cases wells were practically exhausted within
six months. Though the Ranger field is still producing today, the great
period of activity lasted only about five years.
From Ranger, oil exploration drifted to the north in Stephens County.
The Stephens County field is reported to have produced up to 90,000
barrels a day at its zenith.
Other oil developments in West Texas in the first quarter of the
Twentieth Century came at Blue Ridge field in Fort Bend County in 1919,
in Potter County near Amarillo in 1919, and in Wilbarger County in 1920.
Near the coast in 1919, the West Columbia field in Brazoria County came
in. Reports say that a 29,600-barrel well was drilled in July, 1920.
Though small, the field was quite productive.
The Mexia field was discovered in 1920, and the Powell field near
Corsicana was reopened in 1924. As a result, Texas oil production shot
above 200,000,000 barrels in 1927. Early in the 1920’s, oil was
discovered in the Texas Panhandle. In 1925, Spindletop field near
Beaumont was redeveloped, and proved more productive than when first
discovered.
In the last half of the 1920’s, oil was discovered in Howard and Winkler
Counties in West Texas. Other discoveries included Raccoon Bend on the
coast, Van Zandt County in East Texas, and Bee County in 1929.
But the most prolific field of all was the East Texas field, which C. M.
(Dad) Joiner brought in in October, 1930. Haunted by two failures,
Joiner drilled a well in Rusk County where geologists said no oil
existed. The overwhelming success of the well resulted in the wildest
battle for leases in the history of the petroleum industry.
The discovery of the East Texas field, which soon covered a large area,
led to a decline in the price of oil. After much struggle—some verbal
and other physical—the field was put under martial law by Governor Ross
Sterling in August, 1931. The reason for the struggle—the desire of some
to reduce the amount of production and divide it among the producers—was
solved as the Texas Legislature gave the Railroad Commission authority
to ration production.
A number of major fields were discovered in the 1930’s, mostly in West
Texas and along the Gulf Coast.
The next sensational discovery, however, came in 1948 in Scurry and
adjoining counties. The discovery well in this field was brought in on
November 21, 1948. This led to further exploration and further
discoveries of oil in West Texas.
In 1953, the Neches Field in Anderson and Cherokee Counties was
discovered. It has been labeled a major field.
Another area of oil development in Texas has been the so-called
“tidelands”, the submerged lands under the Gulf of Mexico to the
three-league limit. Production in the tidelands began as early as 1940
but drilling exploration has never developed to the desired extent. One
reason has been the controversy between the United States and Texas over
the ownership of the tidelands. After some litigation, Congress passed a
law in 1953 placing ownership of the “tidelands” in the hands of Texas.
Until then, Texas had claimed land out to the outer edge of the
continental shelf, an average of about 85 miles.
In another area of petroleum development, the first oil discovery on
University of Texas land makes an interesting story. A stubborn
professor and a broken-down wagon played key roles.
In the early 1920’s, the governing body of The University of Texas
decided to sell the University’s vast land endowment in West Texas. The
late Dr. J. A. Udden, then director of the Bureau of Economic Geology
and a renowned scholar, protested the sale and insisted that the land
had possibilities for mineral development.
To prove his point, he located a site to drill an oil well and made
arrangements for the drilling. When the drilling rig was being
transported to the location, the wagon on which it was carried broke
down and was extensively damaged. It was decided to drill at the site of
the breakdown. On May 28, 1923, oil was discovered there.
The well was named Santa Rita and was the discovery well for the Big
Lake field in Reagan County.
Ironically enough, a well was drilled later at Dr. Udden’s original
location. It was a dry hole.
Santa Rita, though shallow, is still producing. Since its discovery,
wells have been drilled nearby at seven levels, and the Big Lake field
has yielded a total of 113,878,857 barrels to September, 1956. In terms
of dollars and cents, this amounts to $18,874,527.09.
From the meager beginning provided by the Santa Rita well, the Permanent
University Fund has grown today to more than 280 million dollars.
As a direct result of oil exploration and development in Texas, the
Permanent School Fund and Permanent University Fund have mushroomed.
Much oil exploration and development have been done on State-owned
lands. This has been the major source of income for these funds, which
now total more than 625 million dollars.
Even today these permanent funds are growing as a result of oil and
other mineral development on State-owned lands. As a result, the public
school systems and higher education in Texas will continue developing in
a manner befitting the Lone Star State.
Thus, the history of Texas land is still being written.
II.
DISPOSITION OF TEXAS LAND
The disposal of land within the present boundaries of Texas constitutes
an interesting segment of the State’s history.
The disposition of these lands actually began while they were still part
of Spain’s colonial empire. In the areas around Nacogdoches, San
Antonio, and the Rio Grande Valley, Spain gave away a few very large
tracts of land. When Mexico obtained her independence, she granted title
to other large areas in Texas. The means by which Mexico disposed of
these lands were three: sale, special grants, and empresario contracts.
The most famous of the last of these was the contract with Moses and
Stephen F. Austin. The total number of acres granted by Spain and Mexico
approximated 26,250,000.
When Texas earned her independence, she recognized the legitimacy of
titles to land granted by Spain and Mexico. In addition, Texas set about
disposing of more land.
In general, Texas parted with land in three ways. She gave some away,
traded other for services, and sold some.
Land given away was designed to encourage immigration, reward good
citizens and veterans of military service, encourage settlement and
improvement of land, help the growth of railroads and other internal
improvements, and foster development of educational systems.
Texas traded more than 3,000,000 acres of land for the construction of a
state capitol building.
There was but one reason to sell land, and that was important: to pay
debts of the State.
Grants of land were given numerous names, depending upon the purpose of
the grant. HEADRIGHTS were to encourage immigration and reward native
citizens. BOUNTIES and DONATIONS were given to men who had fought with
the Army of the Republic during the Texas Revolution. PRE-EMPTIONS (or
HOMESTEADS) were given in the late 1850’s to encourage families to
settle permanently on and to improve a plot of land. CONFEDERATE SCRIP
rewarded Texas veterans who had fought for the Confederacy. CONTRACTOR
SCRIP was given for construction of railroads and other internal
improvements. Two other classes of scrip were sold: TOBY SCRIP, named
for the man who sold it; and SALES SCRIP; these were designed to help
pay the public debt. Land granted without any particular designation was
that given to public schools, counties, The University of Texas, and
eleemosynary institutions to use in developing an educational system.
Here is a detailed study of circumstances surrounding the disposition of
all land given, traded, or sold by the Republic and State of Texas.