Midland: Window to the West

WINDOW TO THE WEST 

By Damon Kennedy, PhD. 

Commissioned by the Midland Chamber of Commerce

Thank you for your interest in this HPNbooks publication. 

For more information about other HPNbooks publications, or information about 

producing your own book with us, please visit www.hpnbooks.com.

MIDLAND 

WINDOW TO THE WEST 

by Damon Kennedy, PhD. 

Commissioned by the Midland Chamber of Commerce 

Historical Publishing Network 

A division of Lammert Incorporated 

San Antonio, Texas

Above and opposite: Competing for a place in the sun, the Plains Prickly Pear Cactus, up, up and away. 

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF ILIJA LUKIC. 

First Edition 

Copyright © 2011 Historical Publishing Network 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing 

from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Historical Publishing Network, 11535 Galm Road, Suite 101, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (800) 749-9790. 

ISBN: 9781935377511 

Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2011934854 

Midland: Window to the West 

author: Damon Kennedy, PhD. 

cover artist: Tom Lovell 

contributing writer for “Sharing the Heritage”: Joe Goodpasture 

Historical Publishing Network 

president: Ron Lammert 

project managers: Joe Neely 

Robin Neely 

Wynn Buck 

administration: Donna M. Mata 

Melissa G. Quinn 

book sales: Dee Steidle 

production: Colin Hart 

Evelyn Hart 

Glenda Tarazon Krouse 

Omar Wright 

2 ✦ MIDLAND: WINDOW TO THE WEST

CONTENTS 

4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

5 NOTES ON SOURCES AND IMAGES 

6 CHAPTER I the Permian Basin 

17 CHAPTER II the wide open range 

28 CHAPTER III the queen city of the South Plains 

40 CHAPTER IV the tall city 

50 CHAPTER V urban Midland 

63 SHARING THE HERITAGE 

98 SPONSORS 

CONTENTS ✦ 3

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

Prairie mixer: Sawtooth Daisies, 

Wild Buckwheat, Mare’s Tails, 

among Siberian Elms. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ILIJA LUKIC. 

Any attempt to acknowledge those who have assisted in the completion of this project would fall 

short. However, I would like to thank the Jean Page, Doug Page, and Naomi Moore. Without their 

volunteer efforts at the Midland County Historical Museum much of Midland’s history would be 

inaccessible and I would have been unable to gather many of the photos in this book. I would 

also like to thank Kathy Shannon and Leslie Meyer at the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum. At the 

George W. Bush Childhood Home, Inc., thanks to Paul St. Hilaire. Additional thanks goes to 

the Abell-Hanger Foundation for allowing the use of the Tom Lovell paintings. Further gratitude 

goes to the Midland Chamber of Commerce for allowing me the opportunity to get to know my 

adopted community. Thanks to James Collett for allowing me to view his work prior to publication. 

For meeting my unreasonable requests at the end of this project, I would like to thank Katherine 

Curry-Inskeep and J. Don Wallace. Last but certainly not least, I must thank Mike Makowsky, 

Paula Marshall-Gray, and Peggy Kennedy for their editorial assistance. When writing, each offered 

valuable insight. This book is dedicated to my girls: Susanne, Kaitlyn, and Madelyn. 

Damon Kennedy 


NOTES ON SOURCES AND IMAGES 

Various aspects of Midland’s history have been recounted in numerous books and articles. Each 

has made a unique contribution to the overall story of the community. Samuel D. Myres, The 

Permian Basin, Petroleum Empire of the Southwest: Era of Discovery, From the Beginning to the Depression 

(El Paso: Permian Press, 1973) and Samuel D. Myres, The Permian Basin, Petroleum Empire of the 

Southwest: Era of Advancement, From the Depression to the Present (El Paso: Permian Press, 1973) are 

the most valuable scholarly histories of Midland and the Permian Basin. Several other works proved 

helpful: John Howard Griffin, Land of the High Sky (Midland, Texas: First National Bank, 1959); 

Midland County Historical Society, The Pioneer History of Midland County, Texas, 1880-1926 (Dallas: 

Taylor Publishing, 1984); Bill Modisett, Historic Midland: An Illustrated History of Midland County (San 

Antonio: Historic Publishing Network, 1998); and James Collett, Midland (San Francisco: Arcadia 

Publishing, 2010). Two recent articles of note: Myatt Murphy, “Business Focus: Midland & Odessa 

TX,” Southwest Airlines Spirit, February 2010 and Skip Hollandsworth, “That’s Oil Folks,” Texas 

Monthly, September 2010. The Midland Reporter Telegram is a vital tool for researching the history 

of Midland. Of particular interest to the reader is the abundance of material published during 

Midland’s centennial in 1981. 

Unless otherwise noted, the photographs contained in this book came from the Midland County 

Historical Museum. Other contributors include Midland College, Katherine Curry-Inskeep, J. Don 

Wallace, the Petroleum Museum, George W. Bush Childhood Home Museum, the Permian Historical 

Archives, and the Midland Chamber of Commerce. Images without citations are considered to be in 

the public domain. 

Autumn prairie: Broom Snakeweed 

in bloom. 


NOTES ON SOURCES AND IMAGES ✦ 5

C HAPTER 

THE PERMIAN BASIN 

I 

Midland County occupies more than 

900 square miles at the center of the 

Permian Basin. Midland is the county 

seat and the administrative center of 

the vast petroleum industry in 

the region. 

Originally called Midway Station, Midland was one of many stops along the Texas and Pacific 

Railroad in 1881. Midland County, named for its county seat, has been a cultural and economic 

crossroad for more than 12,000 years. Paleo-Indians first inhabited the region. Their cultures 

developed over thousands of years. The Paleo-Indians gave way to the Apache, who in turn yielded 

to the Comanche. Spanish explorers briefly visited the region, but the Comanche people stubbornly 

protected their lands. Eventually, the Comanche succumbed to the onslaught of American 

settlement, as the first permanent residents came in search of range land for their herds. Abundant 

grasses first attracted ranchers to Midland, but the life blood of the county lay underneath the 

earth’s surface. 


Midland County covers 902 

square miles and lies at the 

heart of the Permian Basin. 

Today the Permian Basin 

region of West Texas and 

Southeastern New Mexico is a 

diverse area of approximately 

500,000 people. Noted as the 

administrative center of the oil 

industry in the region, Midland 

is also home to numerous 

agricultural interests, tourist 

stops, educational institutions, 

and health care facilities. 

Although popularly viewed as 

geographically unimpressive, 

Midland has emerged as the 

center of the region’s social, 

political, and economic life. 

Resting along the confluence 

of two major geographic regions of the Great 

Plains, thousands of years of wind and erosion 

created the level land of Midland County. 

Creeping south, the first, the Southern High 

Plains is a vast, treeless expanse once covered by 

thick grasses. Extending north from the Hill 

Country, the second, the Edwards Plateau is a 

tableland where breaks in plains begin to appear. 

The soil is generally too shallow to support 

farming, but mesquite shrubs and buffalo grasses 

offer some of the best ranch land in the region. 

Although dubbed a “basin,” the elevation of 

Midland County is relatively high, ranging 

between 2,550 and 2,900 feet above sea level. 

The Permian Basin gets its name as a result 

of having some of the thickest Permian age 

deposits of rock in the world. The final of seven 

phases of the Paleozoic Era, the Permian Period 

spanned between 250 million and 300 million 

years ago. During the period, most of Earth’s 

major land masses made up Pangea, a single 

“super-continent” with a vastly different climate 

and topography. At that moment in time, the 

Earth had generally lower sea levels with much 

warmer water. As a result, the Permian Period 

witnessed the mass extinction of ninety percent 

of the Earth’s marine and seventy percent of the 

Earth’s land animals. 

Midland sits atop the remnants of an ancient 

Permian age sea. The Permian Sea, once a shallow 

body of water roughly the size of the Great 

Salt Lake in Utah, has undergone significant 

changes. Over the course of 250 million years, 

the limestone floor of the sea bed filled with 

sediments, chemical layers (magnesium, limestone, 

dolomite, and anhydrite), and finally 

continental deposits. Water returned periodically. 

Successive layers of muddy water, clay, and 

sand eventually filled the sea, until the bottom 

of the sea buckled. Deposits of later geologic 

periods rest above the Permian Sea, giving the 

region its distinctive geological characteristics. 

Above: A Texas and Pacific 

Railroad locomotive. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE PERMIAN BASIN 

PETROLEUM MUSEUM, THE ABELL-HANGER 

COLLECTION, 76-093.642.2. 

Below: The Permian Sea exhibit at the 

Petroleum Museum. 



COLLECTION, 93-003.24695.02. 

CHAPTER I ✦ 7

Above: The Folsom Culture, a huntergatherer 

people, lived in Midland 

County as far back as 12,000 

years ago. 

Below: In pre-horse Texas, c. 1500, 

the Apache dominated. 

Despite once being covered by a shallow sea, 

water has always been scarce resource in the 

Permian Basin. Today average rainfall totals 

only fifteen inches annually. Surface pools of 

water (except the many swimming pools in 

backyards throughout the county) are rare. 

Midland’s water comes from deep beneath the 

Earth’s surface. 

Resting above Permian sediments, the 

Ogallala Aquifer spans from South Dakota in 

the north to Texas in the south. Ogallala water 

has been utilized by humans and animals for 

thousands of years and accounts for about ninety 

percent of all water in Texas aquifers. While 

most Texas geologic formations yield some 

water, most are insufficient for large populations. 

Without the Ogallala Aquifer (or some other 

source of water), sizeable human populations 

could not be sustained in the Permian Basin. 

Even more diverse than the Permian Basin 

geology, the first human inhabitants of the 

American southwest arrived in the region 

approximately 12,000 years ago. With a vastly 

different climate (then cooler, wetter, and 

greener) than what we know today, Midland 

County attracted Paleo-Indians who traveled in 

small bands, hunting mammoths and giant 

bison. Because the small populations moved 

constantly, they collected few possessions and 

left little trace of their presence. While there are 

no written records (excepting pictographs) and 

few material objects remain to tell their story, 

anthropologists have identified the earliest 

people in Texas by evaluating the stone tools 

fashioned largely of flint. The Clovis 

Culture, named for Clovis, New 

Mexico, where archeologists first 

discovered the Clovis spear point 

along the Blackwater Draw, extended 

far beyond West Texas. Clovis 

populations persisted for more than 

500 years until climactic changes 

forever transformed the physical 

landscape of Texas. 

Between 10,000 and 11,000 years 

ago, the Earth began to warm as the 

last ice age came to an end. Modern 

weather patterns emerged making 

Midland County warmer and dryer. 

Water sources dried up and the contest 

for natural resources intensified. 

As a result, the mammoth, which had 

been the staple of the Clovis Culture’s 

diet, became extinct. In order to survive, 

Paleo-Indians improved upon 

the Clovis point, which made them 

more effective hunters. The technological 

leap proved necessary to 

ensure the Folsom Culture would be 


more effective hunters in a landscape where food 

sources were increasingly scarce. Archaeologists 

first discovered the Folsom point thrust into the 

ancient bones of giant bison near Folsom, New 

Mexico. The Folsom point was a smaller, wider 

point utilized to kill giant bison, which had 

replaced the mammoth as the major source of 

food. The bison, however, also suffered as a 

result of climate change, again forcing Paleo- 

Indians to adapt. 

The period of persistent adaptation 

continued for thousands of years. During the 

later period of Archaic Indians, the inhabitants 

of West Texas became gradually more sedentary. 

With the end of the ice age, small animals 

began to thrive and a limited number of crops 

could be planted and cultivated with greater 

predictability. Although still not farmers, 

Archaic Indians increasingly gathered fruits and 

vegetables, providing a far more diverse set of 

food sources. Greater resources and continued 

refinement of technologies such as gauges, 

knives, and projectile points enabled continued 

population growth. Almost inevitably, the 

greater population resulted in increased conflict. 

Amidst the conflict, the Apache emerged as the 

first great political, economic, and military 

power in the region that now encompasses 

Midland County. 

Migrating south from the High Plains after 

1500, the Apache gradually absorbed smaller 

bands of Indians. The complete Apache 

dominance would lead the Spanish to dub 

the region Apacería. Stretching from Texas west 

to California and north to Colorado, Apacería 

encompassed a diverse and inhospitable 

territory. Accordingly, the Apache emerged 

as an adaptive and hearty people. Not a 

unified people, many small bands make up the 

Apache. In West Texas, the Mescalero Apache 

dominated. Their reach extended far beyond 

that of any previous cultures. The ability to 

relocate proved the Mescalero’s greatest asset. 

Mobility enabled them to raid effectively and 

after the arrival of the Spanish in the mid 1500s 

conflict extended throughout Apacería. 

The Comanche probably met the first 

Spaniard in Texas when Álvar Núñez Cabeza de 

Vaca washed ashore following the wreck of his 

ship off the coast of Galveston in November 

1528. Cabeza de Vaca roamed throughout 

Texas, the American southwest and Mexico for 

eight years. While he may very well have ventured 

into the Permian Basin, no one knows for 

sure his exact course of travel. When Cabeza 

de Vaca returned to Mexico, naked and heavily 

tattooed, he had gathered vital information, 

including stories of vast riches. The publication 

Above: By the 1700s, the Comanche 

empire greeted Spaniards as they 

entered Texas.. 

Below: The Texas Yellowstar. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF KATHERINE 

CURRY-INSKEEP. 

CHAPTER I ✦ 9

Above: Tom Lovell’s painting, 

Coronado’s Expedition crossing the 

Llano Estacado. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ABELL-HANGER 

FOUNDATION AND THE PERMIAN BASIN 

PETROLEUM MUSEUM, 2002-038.006. 

Below: Tom Lovell’s painting, 

Comanche Moon. 




Opposite, clockwise, starting from top: 

Stephen Long’s 1822 map of his 

journey provided a glimpse into the 

geography of the Permian Basin. 

Randolph Marcy. 

Randolph Marcy, The Prairie 

Traveler. Less critical of the harsh 

landscape, Marcy saw potential in the 

Permian Basin. 

of his journal created a frenzy of speculation 

and prompted later explorations in Texas. 

Enthusiastic, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado 

followed the ancient Indian trails into Texas and 

skirted the Permian Basin as he explored New 

Mexico and the Panhandle of Texas beginning in 

1541. His year long journey brought the 

Spanish into greater conflict with the Apache. 

The two continued to fight. The arrival of (and 

war with) the Comanche, however, soon overshadowed 

conflict with the Spanish. 

War between the Apache and Comanche 

empires raged for more than 150 years. The 

southward push of the Comanche relegated the 

Apache to the confines of West Texas by the mid 

1700s. Like the Apache, the Comanche consisted 

of numerous bands. The largest of five major 

divisions, the Penetakas eventually pushed the 

Apache out of West Texas and came to dominate 

the region. The late 1600s acquisition of the 

horse (previously extinct in North America) had 

enabled Comanche successes. 

Once in Texas, the Comanche 

adopted an equally important 

technology, firearms. Warfare 

with Apache and Spaniards 

persisted. Warfare, like a 

game, produced winners and 

losers both among the 

Comanche and their enemies. 

Comanche warriors would 

often go to extremes by 

“counting coup,” where a 

brave would touch a living 

enemy rather than kill him. Dominance required 

bravery and skill, and the Comanche soon controlled 

the land previously dubbed Apacería. The 

Spanish renamed the region Comanchería. 

Comanche encroachment had resulted in an 

intensification of warfare between Apache and 

Comanche, Apache and Spaniard, and Spaniard 

with Comanche. The arrival of Americans in 

Texas shortly after the turn of the nineteenth 

century further complicated matters. Looking 

for cheap land and opportunity to acquire 

wealth, Americans first settled the Hill Country. 

Soon after their arrival, Mexico won its hard 

fought independence from Spain, creating 

widespread political instability. The turmoil 

throughout Mexico, and in Texas specifically, 

prevented settlement in Comanchería beyond a 

well established frontier line north of the populated 

areas around San Antonio. The Comanche 

Empire dominated West Texas for most of the 

nineteenth century. Even after Texas independence 

(1836) and eventual 

annexation into the United 

States (1845), American settlement, 

with the exception of a 

few isolated camps of buffalo 

hunters and traders, moved 

slowly north and west. Virtually 

no one saw the potential of the 

Permian Basin, perhaps because 

in 1820 Stephen Long had characterized 

much of the state as 

“the Great American Desert.” 

In contrast to Long, Randolph 

Marcy, who led the first 

American military expedition 

sent specifically to explore the 

Midland area, identified the 


potential value of the region. “For a great portion 

of the distance of the surface of the earth is 

so perfectly flat and smooth,” he said “that it 

would appear to have been designed by the 

Great Architect of the Universe for a railroad.” 

The Marcy expedition had been sent to explore 

south to the thirty-second parallel for possible 

railroad construction as well as to patrol the 

Great Comanche War Trail. Importantly, Marcy 

identified the region as an important hub of 

travel in all directions. When Marcy arrived 

in 1849, however, he discovered that the 

Comanche dominated the region. Like any good 

Army officer, Marcy studied his enemy. He also 

routinely drilled his men in order to show the 

necessary force to give the illusion of supremacy. 

In conversations with the men of his command, 

Marcy had frequent discussions of the 

CHAPTER I ✦ 11

Above: John Pope. 

Below: Herds of buffalo once 

numbered in the millions. Buffalo 

hunters systematically slaughtered the 

animals during the 1870s. 

potentially negative consequences of interaction 

between Indians and Americans. To improve 

relations, Marcy hoped to have similar conversations 

with Indians. As a result, he reached out 

to small bands of Comanche. 

Captain Marcy studied the terrain in addition 

to its people. He mapped the landscape 

and predicted both its value as a site for railroad 

construction and as rangeland. During his 

travels through Midland County and the 

Permian Basin, Marcy noted the fossilized 

remains of sea life. He even suggested the land 

might be home to mineral resources. Marcy 

alone could not bring stability to the region and 

his greatest success came in the form of maps 

and charts. The scouting party not only 

gathered information regarding the human 

inhabitants of the Permian Basin, but also 

measured accurate distances between reliable 

water sources. Marcy gave the name “Mustang 

Springs” to the reliable water supply fed by the 

Mustang Draw. He had no idea the region dated 

back more than 300 million years. Marcy and 

his men also made important notes about the 

plant and animal life in the region. 

A single tragic episode vaulted the Marcy 

expedition into the public eye when a band of 

Comanche killed a man with a very famous lineage. 

Lieutenant Montgomery Pike Harrison, 

the grandson of noted explorer Zebulon Pike, 

grandson of ninth President of the United 

States William Henry Harrison, and brother of 

future President of the United States Benjamin 

Harrison died along the Bluff Creek near present 

day Big Spring. Convinced that Indian depredations 

had been the result of mistreatment, 

Harrison sought to talk with rather than shoot at 

native peoples. His attempt to prove his theory 

got him killed. Harrison encountered two 

Indians who feigned friendship. The three sat, 

talked, and smoked. When the Indians asked to 

see Harrison’s rifle, he produced the weapon. 

A mounted patrol later discovered Harrison’s 

body scalped, stripped, and mutilated. The 

Indians had killed Harrison with his own gun 

while he had attempted to converse with them. 

The murder, reported widely, fueled the already 

intense flames of Indian hatred in Texas. 

Admitted into the United States four years 

before the arrival of Marcy, Texas immediately 

felt a population growth as Americans began 

migrating westward and coming into greater 

contact with hostile Comanche who refused to 

concede territory. Although Comanche residents 

of the Permian Basin numbered only around 

2,000 in 1849, they posed a significant threat. 

The highly mobile Comanche utilized the 

Great Comanche War Trail that connected West 

Texas to the Chihuahuan Desert. Traversing vast 

amounts of territory from the High Plains of 

Texas to Horsehead Crossing and on to 

Comanche Springs in present day Fort 

Stockton, the trail led the Comanche in and out 

of Northern Mexico. 

Tensions heightened as more Americans 

made their way to the Permian Basin, once 

again bringing the region to the attention of 

the rest of the country. Slavery, rather than 

railroad construction and Indian depredations, 

consumed the political debate in the United 

States Congress by the end of the 1840s. 

The successful Compromise of 1850 quieted 

the rhetoric, but slavery remained the most 

important issue facing America. Congress 

proved incapable of divorcing any issue from a 

discussion of slavery. The desire to construct a 

transcontinental rail line proved worthy of 

provoking additional controversy in 1853 when 


the United States Congress sent four parties 

west to survey potential sites for construction 

of a railroad that would connect the Atlantic to 

the Pacific Ocean. 

In search of the ideal route for construction, 

John Pope, Lieutenant in the United States 

Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, 

surveyed Texas along the thirty-second 

parallel. Pope entered the Permian Basin in 

1853. He immediately saw the benefit of the 

flat terrain but identified lack of water as a 

major stumbling block to construction and 

maintenance of a railroad. Pope returned to 

Texas two years later in search of water. He 

dug a well along the Pecos River near the 

Texas-New Mexico state line, tapping into 

the ancient underground sources of water and 

demonstrating the land was not without the 

vital resource. 

Although scare water supplies continued to 

hamper American settlement, the greatest danger 

continued to be the Comanche. To combat 

the threat, the United States Army constructed 

military installations along a line south of what 

would become Midland County. Extending from 

Fort Worth to Fort Davis, the outposts sought 

to pacify the region. Before too long, however, 

the Civil War broke out and Texas joined the 

Confederacy. The Confederate Army proved 

incapable of defending Texans from the 

onslaught of Indian attacks. During the course 

of the Civil War, Confederates lost the minimal 

gains of terrain made by the United States Army 

prior to 1861. 

Not until well after the Civil War ended in 

1865 did the American military succeed in 

removing the Comanche and other Plains tribes 

from the Southern Plains, thus opening the 

region to Anglo settlement. Two key factors 

determined the fate of the Comanche in West 

Texas. First, the arrival of buffalo hunters in 

the middle of the nineteenth century marked the 

beginning of the slaughter of the primary food 

source for the Indians. Second, the Red River 

War of 1874-1875 finally pushed the Comanche 

and other tribes on to reservations in what 

would later become Oklahoma. Within a few 

years, Americans had taken up residence in 

an area dominated by what John R. Bartlett, 

the head of the American section of the 

United States-Mexican Border Commission, had 

described as “a desolate, barren waste, which can 

never be rendered useful by man or beast.” 

United States Army Colonel William Shafter 

played a key role in dispelling the myth that the 

Permian Basin contained nothing of value. In 

July 1875, he led nine men and a caravan of 

supplies into the region, as he scouted and 

mapped the terrain. Like those who came 

before, Shafter made the search for water his 

primary concern. Shafter, unlike his predecessors, 

ventured off of established trails and 

reported that the area had greater potential than 

previously thought. Grasses and animals 

thrived and Shafter believed “the frontier settlements 

of Western Texas would be advanced 150 

miles within two years.” Soon the rapid growth 

proved his assertion. 

One might think that a place as flat, dry, and 

remote as Midland might well be a wasteland, 

but local residents will tell you Midland has an 

undeniable appeal, epitomized by its early 

settlement. In spite of all its original detractors, 

the community has grown steadily and 

continues to grow today. The Texas and Pacific 

Railway Company (T&P) made its way into the 

Permian Basin just over five years after Shafter 

marched from Fort Davis through the area. 

Indeed, the region had been underestimated 

by most. As a later T&P promotional declared, 

the railroad opened a “national highway along 

the path of empire. 

William Shafter. 

CHAPTER I ✦ 13

Above: Skull of the “Midland Minnie.” 

Right: The now extinct 

Columbian Mammoth. 


THE FIRST MIDLANDER 

Although the mystery of human migration in North America may never be solved, important clues exist. One of those clues 

turned up in the sands six miles southwest of Midland, and an accidental find proved to be one of the most important linkages 

between modern man and ancient Texans. 

Amidst drought conditions that gripped the Permian Basin during the early 1950s, relentless winds shifted the earth across 

Midland County. The changing landscape intrigued a number of amateur archeologists, and a frenzy of exploration ensued. 

While exploring an exposed lake bed along Monahans Draw on the Scharbauer Ranch in the summer of 1953, one such explorer, 

Keith Glasscock, discovered human skeletal remains. A pipeliner by trade, the astute Glasscock resisted the urge to disturb the 

site. He retrieved a few remnants in danger of being lost to wind or rain and mailed the samples (skull fragments, two metacarpals, 

and a rib) to Fred Wendorf, an anthropologist living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

Initially dubbed “Midland Man,” the human remains underwent preliminary research. Wendorf speculated that the artifacts 

could be as old as 20,000 years, which would have made the Midland find the oldest in North America. Without additional 

research, however, nothing could be made definitive. Excited, Wendorf and Glasscock organized a formal dig. On October 29, 

1953, the party, which now consisted of additional anthropologists and archaeologists, unearthed cultural material that assured 

the team that the site contained ancient artifacts. Two later visits to the Scharbauer Ranch uncovered additional cultural material. 

In total, the team unearthed over 100 artifacts, including Folsom spear points, bone fragments, as well as the remains of the long 

extinct horse, antelope, and camel. 

Regardless of the age, the abundance of material made the Midland discovery one of the most important in North America. 

Research continued. Close analysis of the fossilized skull and bone fragments revealed that “Midland Man” was, in fact, a woman. 

Artifacts continued to reveal additional insight. With dating technology in its infancy, testing produced numerous results. 

Some speculated that the site could date back as far as 37,000 years, which would make the Midland discovery three times as 

old as any other in North America. Debates regarding the exact age continue, but knowledgeable observers generally place 

“Midland Minnie” somewhere between 8,000 and 12,000 years old. 

Indeed, no one knows for sure when “Midland Minnie” arrived in Texas, and the circumstances surrounding her death will 

never be revealed. We do know, however, that she traveled to Midland County centuries before Spanish conquistadors dreamed 

of riches yet discovered. Minnie’s story is the root of human history in Midland and in the whole of the United States. 

Left: The now extinct Great Bison. 

Below: Midland Point. 

CHAPTER I ✦ 15

Above: Frozen tundra. 


Right: Yucca peek-a-boo. 



C HAPTER 

THE WIDE OPEN RANGE 

II 

In the spring of 1880 the Texas and Pacific Railway Company (T&P) began construction of track 

west along the thirty-second parallel. Mired in confusion, financial difficulties plagued initial 

construction. With track finally completed to Fort Worth, the horizon looked clear for construction 

all the way to El Paso. On June 23, 1881, the T&P reached the half way point between Fort Worth 

and the terminus of the line in El Paso. To celebrate, crews drove a ceremonial spike and dubbed 

the stop “Midway Station.” Flowery speeches and publicity followed. The T&P built a station house 

and construction proceeded westward. An unimpressive place, Midway had seemingly little to offer 

enterprising individuals willing to move to the western expanses of Texas. Even though railroads 

attracted people, the profitability of the Texas and Pacific Railway Company depended almost 

exclusively upon land sales. As a result, the company began a national advertising blitz. Offering 

cheap land and attractive payment plans, the railroad campaign fulfilled William Shafter’s prediction 

that settlers would soon populate the region. 

The Llano Hotel, mid-1880s. 

CHAPTER II ✦ 17

Above: Holding pens in Midland, 

in 1885. 

Below: Route of the Texas and 

Pacific Railroad. 

The vastness of the terrain proved to be 

Midway’s greatest asset. Since the conclusion of 

the Civil War, the cattle industry had steadily 

grown throughout Texas. Charles Goodnight 

and Oliver Loving blazed a cattle trail following 

the old Butterfield Overland Mail route from 

Fort Belknap on the Concho River to Fort 

Sumner, New Mexico, in 1866. The Goodnight- 

Loving Trail crossed the Pecos River via 

Horsehead Crossing (approximately 100 miles 

south of Midland). In the nineteenth century, 

the Pecos flowed rapidly, and few places existed 

where drovers could cross the river safely and 

efficiently. Horsehead Crossing claimed the lives 

of many animals that would get stuck along 

its muddy banks and sink in the quicksand. 


In spite of the hazards, the Goodnight-Loving 

trail guided cowboys away from hostile 

Comanche still living in the Texas Panhandle 

and Oklahoma. The trail also opened the eyes of 

many cattlemen to the possibility of herding 

livestock in the Permian Basin. Although the 

trail brought cattlemen through the region, it 

did little to bolster a permanent population. 

Some twenty years after the opening of the 

Goodnight-Loving Trail, a traveler through 

Midway described the community as a place 

with “no houses in view except the section 

house built by the railroad company and a small 

cabin occupied by a solitary sheep rancher a 

mile away.” 

The single sheepherder must have been 

Herman Nelson Garrett. Midway had only one 

other permanent resident, Lum Medlin, an antelope 

and buffalo hunter. Garrett arrived in 

Midway shortly after the T&P in 1882. Born in 

Illinois, he had moved with his family to New 

York and eventually to California. Midway 

promised all season ranching, good climate, tall 

grasses, and wide open ranges; Garrett determined 

to go. Leaving his wife and daughter, he 

took 300 sheep to El Paso by way of the 

Southern Pacific Railroad and then drove them 

to Midway. He spent his first year in a hastily 

constructed shack built of lumber appropriated 

from the T&P. Situated along the Mustang 

Draw ten miles northeast of the railroad, Garrett 

established himself as a successful 

sheep and cattle man. 

With the T&P completed to 

El Paso in 1883, Garrett sent 

for the rest of his family. 

Eventually the family grew 

by six additional children. 

Garrett erected the first windmill 

in the area, and he also 

demonstrated the possibility 

of ranching on the arid landscape. 

Garrett and his “Y-Bar” 

ranch paved the way for 

future (and much larger) 

ranching enterprise. Today, 

Garrett has become Midland’s 

forgotten pioneer. 

Ranching soon began to 

attract additional sheepherders 

and cattlemen to Midway. 

W. H., George, John, and Buck 

Cowden arrived in Midway in 1883. Originally 

from Palo Pinto County, the brothers established 

their headquarters west of the community. They 

utilized the railhead to ship their cattle east. The 

JAL Ranch (still in operation today) eventually 

became one of the largest in the southwest. Of 

equal importance, Nelson Morris, a former 

Chicago meatpacker, later bought 200,000 acres 

of surrounding territory and became the first to 

fence the land around Midway. 

An 1884 report exaggerated 

the immediate impact ranching 

had on Midway. The report 

claimed 72,000 sheep and 

35,000 cattle grazed on the 

vast amounts of land within 

twelve miles of the community. 

Despite the bloated numbers, 

ranchers now saw Midway as a 

place of opportunity. 

Although a community 

with a growing reputation 

for grazing, Midway lacked 

political organization. In late 

1883, Herman Garrett constructed 

a building intended 

to be the Midway post office, 

but because of the many 

Texas towns already named 

“Midway,” the community 

Above: Nelson Morris first fenced 

Midland area lands. 

Left: Major cattle trails. 

Below: Herman Nelson Garrett. 

CHAPTER II ✦ 19

The first Midland County courthouse, 

in 1885. 

name changed to “Midland.” On January 4, 

1884, state officials approved a post office for 

Midland. With a railroad and a post office, 

Midland had much needed administrative 

structure upon which to build a thriving 

community. With Midland poised to grow in 

1884, an Ohio real estate company bought land 

near the post office, established the Midland 

Town Company (MTC), and began promoting 

the T&P stop as an up and coming community. 

The MTC sold lots of various sizes at affordable 

prices. A residential lot 50x140 feet sold for 

between $50 and $200; commercial lots of 

26x140 feet sold for between $100 and $400. 

In addition to MTC efforts, the T&P constructed 

an Emigrant House (boarding house/hotel) 

and continued to promote Midland and court 

potential land buyers. To aid construction 

efforts, Midland’s first business, a lumber yard, 

appeared. Initially, settlers built crude homes of 

adobe or clapboards, and water had to be 

hauled in from Monahans. A local newspaper, 

The Enterprise, began publication. The community 

gradually expanded. 

By the end of 1884, the Midland population 

did not exceed the necessary 300 required for 

county incorporation. Still part 

of Tom Green County (San 

Angelo is the county seat), 

Midland residents pushed to 

incorporate Midland County, 

with Midland the county seat. 

The editor of The Enterprise 

clamored that if the Texas 

Legislature would not organize 

Midland County, then the seat 

of government in Tom Green 

County ought to be moved to 

Midland, which he rightfully 

said was nearer the geographic 

center. The editor of the San 

Angelo Standard voiced the 

attitudes of San Angelo residents 

when he scoffed at the 

idea of an “imaginary village” 

becoming the county seat. 

Because the community did not 

have the necessary number of 

permanent residents, Midland 

announced a town lot sale. The 

T&P offered special rates to 

travelers willing to view the lots. On the dates of 

land sales, community and railroad officials 

encouraged residents and visitors to sign a petition 

sent to the Texas Legislature requesting 

incorporation. On 28 February 1885, the State 

of Texas incorporated Midland County. 

Accordingly the community elected officers 

who presided over the first county commissioners 

court on August 10, 1885. In the initial meeting, 

the court dealt with numerous agenda items. 

The commissioners created the first school district 

in Midland and approved an MTC proposal 

to construct a jail and a cemetery. The MTC 

donated 3,000 dollars for the jail and land for 

both sites. The court also ordered an accurate 

mapping of the county and appropriated sixtytwo 

dollars for stationary. The Commissioners 

Court did nothing terribly earth shattering, but 

they played a necessary role in the political evolution 

of Midland, and by extension the entire 

area. Governance implied permanence. The 

County Commissioners worked to stabilize the 

community, making Midland far more attractive 

to prospective settlers. As a result, a new and 

important breed of pioneer resettled in the 

region. The first physician, W. E. Bailey, arrived 


in Midland County in 1885. A graduate of the 

Philadelphia School of Medicine, Bailey later 

served as county health officer. 

Midland still faced a crucial test: could 

enough water be located to sustain the expanding 

population? Drillers soon discovered sources 

of reliable underground water. Residents then 

constructed three community wells, installed 

hand pumps, and invited the community to help 

themselves to the water. Like the large pools of 

underground oil in later years, the availability 

of another subsurface resource, water, proved to 

be the natural resource most responsible for 

Midland’s early expansion. 

The initial period of good feeling and growth 

in Midland (and throughout Texas) appeared to 

end during 1886 and 1887. In the summer of 

1886 the already limited amount of rain that fell 

over Midland stopped. Grasses withered. Sheep 

and cattle began to starve and die. To make matters 

worse, the winter brought blizzards. The 

already famished livestock, particularly cattle, 

drifted in the wind and driving snow until they 

stopped along drift fences where they froze to 

death. In addition to unpredictable weather, 

ranchers faced additional troubles. Fluctuating 

prices, predatory animals (wolves), and other 

nuisances (jackrabbits and grasshoppers) hindered 

their ability to make a profit in the late 

1880s. When Permian Basin counties reached 

out for government aid, Midland refused. No 

one wanted to admit that the community had 

suffered the same hardships. As a result, many 

dejected Texans made their way to Midland in 

search of new opportunities. Among the many 

that relocated, Oscar Braxton Holt came in 

1886. Holt had worked on a cotton farm and as 

a clerk in his father’s store. He drove a small 

herd of thirty cattle to thirty miles west of 

Midland, carved a dugout, and lived there for 

two years. He and his descendants became 

prominent members of the Midland community. 

Strangely enough, in a land noted for aridity, 

new opportunity came in the form of windmills 

drawing water from deep within the earth. 

The first water wells in Midland had utilized 

hand pumps, but pumping large quantities of 

water by hand to fill storage tanks proved 

impractical. On his Chicago Ranch north of 

Midland, Nelson Morris demonstrated that the 

windmill could resolve the problem in Midland 

County. Soon other area ranchers replaced their 

hand pumps with wind powered windmills. 

Morris gained a reputation as an innovator and 

ranchers came from hundreds of miles to see 

how windmills might help their operations. 

With the prospect for water, a lone farmer even 

appeared in Midland. He planted watermelon 

and pumpkin. Windmills provided some relief, 

but in time, however, even the windmills failed 

to completely resolve the water problem in 

Midland. The relentless winds demolished 

poorly constructed windmills which had been 

designed with their blades too close together to 

be functional in West Texas. Additionally, the 

dry heat and sun warped the wooden water 

storage tanks. Necessity is the mother of invention 

and soon revisions to windmill construction 

as well as storage tanks made the windmill 

the savior of Midland. In a short time, windmills 

cropped up in every yard in town. As a result, 

Midland came to be known as “Windmill City.” 

The windmill had revived the spirits of 

Midlanders. Mrs. J. H. Frame recalled that in 

1888 “there wasn’t a vacant house in town,” and 

there was “a windmill at just about every 

house.” With the water crisis alleviated, 

ranchers turned to another crucial need. The 

drought had created a problem of indebtedness 

and Midland needed a bank. Store owner 

W. E. Connell had moved to Midland two years 

prior. He pooled money with John Scharbauer 

to create Connell Brothers and Scharbauer, 

Agreement to construct the Midland 

County courthouse. The courthouse 

was said to have cost local 

taxpayers nothing. 

CHAPTER II ✦ 21

Above: The Holt Ranch.. 

Below: Chicago Ranch cowboys.. 

Opposite, clockwise, starting from top: 

The windmill emerged as one of the 

early symbols of Midland. 

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN CROSBY. PHOTOGRAPH 

COURTESY OF THE MIDLAND COUNTY 

HISTORICAL MUSEUM. 

Texas and Pacific Railroad 

depot, 1890. 

One of many dust storms over 

Midland, February 20, 1894. 

a private bank capable of lending money to 

local residents. The name later changed to 

W. E. Connell and Company and in 1890 

became the First National Bank of Midland. 

Connell served as cashier (one of the most 

important bankers in the state, he later became 

president of the First National Bank of Fort 

Worth). The First National Bank of Midland 

solidified Midland’s position as the center of 

cattle and commerce in the Permian Basin, and 

although the drought continued, Midland was 

becoming a prosperous community. 

By 1890, Midland had become an established 

community as evidenced by the growing number 

of significant structures throughout town. 

The Llano Hotel attracted visitors with its 

impressive architecture. Herman Garrett constructed 

an impressive brick home (near Big 

Spring and Louisiana), and Midland had more 

than 100 other houses. Schools and churches, 

however, became the most influential buildings. 

The first permanent schoolhouse appeared in 

Midland in 1890. By assessing a twenty cent tax, 

the county paid one teacher and two assistants 

to teach students until they reached the tenth 

grade. Three years later the community replaced 

the temporary building with a two story brick 

structure. With students ranging in age between 

seven and seventeen, 421 pupils attended. The 

school employed fifteen teachers. Midland also 

contained numerous churches. Baptists completed 

the first house of worship and the 

Methodists soon followed. Coupled with the 

economic infrastructure, homes, churches, and 

schools brought “civilization” to the community. 

Visible evidence of prosperity masked the 

reality that in a community dominated by 

agriculture, Midland and the surrounding 


anches were becoming increasingly desperate 

for precipitation. With only periodic episodes of 

rain, the drought, which had begun in 1886, 

persisted through 1891. Desperation had 

reached an all new high when the United States 

Department of Agriculture (DOA) came up with 

a scheme to end the drought. Many believed 

(perhaps out of desperation, hoped) rain could 

be created by “exciting” the atmosphere. The 

concussive forces of explosive dynamite and gas 

in clouds might create rain. The DOA planned 

an elaborate test and conducted experiments 

on the Chicago Ranch. On August 25, 1891, 

scientists released four balloons, each filled 

with 1,000 cubic feet of an explosive oxygenhydrogen 

gas. After an electrical charge 

detonated the balloons, the scientists launched 

homemade mortars filled with blasting powder 

as well as kites with TNT attached. Additional 

ground detonations occurred. The tests failed. 

Heavy rains fell to the northwest, but none in 

Midland County. Three additional attempts also 

failed to produce results. 

In time, the 1890s brought rain and the land 

once again showed signs of life. The community 

also blossomed. The population expanded to 

over 1,000 as Midland grew into one of the most 

important cattle shipping centers in the region. 

Boasting multiple churches, hotels, a fine 

school, and an opera house, Midland attracted 

settlers and visitors. In 1898, Midland’s population 

temporarily exploded to near 2,500 as a 

result of a massive “Cowboy Carnival.” Noted 

for the free flowing beer and abundant barbeque 

(beef donated by local ranchers), the festivities 

lasted only one day. Mother Nature intervened. 

An unexpected cold front brought fourteen 

inches of snow. Even though the carnival had 

ended prematurely, the festivities exemplified 

the optimism in Midland in the 1890s. No one 

doubted that the twentieth century would bring 

tremendous prosperity. 

Much like the booming decade of the 1890s, 

the first ten years of the new century brought 

continued growth and positive change. Midland 

boosters, among them the editor of the Midland 

Gazette, began promoting the community as the 

“Queen City of the South Plains.” The Watson 

School of Music opened in 1900. Ned Watson 

and his wife, Lydia, directed minstrel shows and 

a classical string quartet. The two also provided 

symphony education in Midland for thirty 

years. In addition to new cultural opportunities, 

the economic infrastructure expanded. A second 

bank, the Midland National Bank, appeared in 

1902. The cattle industry in Midland shipped 

more than two million dollars annually and a 

more sophisticated financial structure proved 

CHAPTER II ✦ 23

Above: Midland parade on 

July 4, 1908. 

Right: Midland in 1902. 

Opposite, top: Leather ribbon worn at 

Midland’s Cowboy Carnival, 1898. 

Opposite, bottom: Cowboy Carnival 

badge, 1898. 


invaluable. In 1905 crews erected an impressive 

red sandstone courthouse. Midland, however, 

quickly outgrew its administrative structure. 

Midland felt growing pangs during the 

period between 1900 and 1909. Laws passed 

by city officials exemplified concerns. In 

September of 1901 officials had attempted to 

incorporate the city; although the proposal succeeded 

by a vote of ninety-three to sixty-nine, 

the arrangement faltered. Midlanders shifted 

their attention to making immediate change in 

the form of laws regulating conduct within the 

community. One such law assessed fines for 

making too much noise, especially if the ruckus 

threatened to “frighten horses or teams within 

this city.” One (now humorous) case later tested 

the ordinance. The uncle of local ranchers Foy 

and Leonard Proctor spooked a number of horses 

when he drove an automobile through town. 

Arrested for “driving an automobile faster than 

eight miles an hour in the city of Midland,” 

Proctor faced potential charges. The court ultimately 

dismissed the case. Another law levied 

a $200 fine on “every able-bodied person 

who lives without employment or labor, and 

who has no visible means of support.” 

Additional laws prohibited spitting on walls 

or sidewalks or in any public place (hotels, 

churches, railway depots). Local ordinances 

also forbade horseracing on public streets and 

driving herds through the community. 

While new laws improved individual 

conduct in Midland, the community still 

needed greater administrative structure. 

Consequently, the idea of incorporation 

resurfaced in 1906. By a vote eighty-three 

to twenty-eight, officials approved a plan 

of incorporation, which enabled Midland 

to progress rapidly over the next several 

years. Telephones became more widely utilized 

with the introduction of electricity in 1907. 

Constructed next to the courthouse, an electric 

station provided local residents with fairly 

reliable electricity. Limited output restricted 

the use of electricity to daylight hours until 

10:00 p.m. The availability of electricity, in 

addition to the city’s incorporation, exemplified 

the maturation of Midland. Efforts continued 

in subsequent years, but the community 

faced potentially devastating setbacks in 1909 

and 1910. 

CHAPTER II ✦ 25

THE SCHARBAUER RANCH 

Left: Clarence Scharbauer. 


PETROLEUM MUSEUM, ABELL-HANGER 

COLLECTION, 76-093.062.1. 

Right: The Scharbauer Ranch became 

known for their quality registered 

Hereford cattle. 

Amidst the drought and blizzard of 1886-1887, many West Texas agriculturalists lost their 

land and livestock. In Midland, however, many ranchers weathered the storm and the 

corresponding economic setback. The persistence of Midland ranchers impressed upon many the 

real value of the Permian Basin and resulted in an influx of settlers. One of the many men who 

relocated, John Scharbauer, established his ranch in Midland County which soon emerged as one 

of the preeminent ranching enterprises. 

Originally from Schenectady, New York, John Scharbauer came to Texas as a young man. He 

began herding sheep near Eastland but continually moved his stock west. His journey carried him 

through numerous West Texas counties, and in 1887 he settled in Midland. At age thirty-five, 

Scharbauer immediately made an impact on the community, and he became known as “Uncle 

John.” Although he successfully moved large quantities of sheep, he turned his attention to cattle. 

In 1888 he sold his sheep and established a cattle ranch south of Midland. Like the other premier 

Texas cattlemen, Scharbauer took an interest in the industry, the livestock, and the environment. 

Scharbauer carefully managed the size of his herds and monitored their consumption of 

resources. He introduced registered Herefords to the region, and Scharbauer Ranch cattle 

commanded top dollar. Soon, additional Midland area ranchers followed suit and culled inferior 

breeds from their herds. Although not the first livestock in Midland, Scharbauer cattle put 

Midland on the map. 

The cattle industry alone created the desire to establish banking 

in Midland and Scharbauer pooled interests with W. E. and W. F. 

Connell in a private bank known as Connell Brothers and 

Scharbauer. Eventually known as the First National Bank of Midland, 

the financial institution became the premier lender in the region. 

Scharbauer’s success and faith in the region led him in 1889 to 

court his brother, Christian to Midland. Christian brought another 

Scharbauer destined to make a great impact on Midland. Clarence, 

his ten year old son, worked for his uncle herding sheep near 

Stanton. As a youth, Clarence attended school in Midland and 

worked as a cowboy each summer. At the age of sixteen, the 


enterprising young cattleman acquired his own herd. Soon he established the VXL brand. 

Clarence attended Baylor University, but his heart was in cattle. After only one year in Waco, 

he shifted his focus back to cattle. Clarence, John, and Christian organized the Scharbauer Cattle 

Company in Midland during 1901. At twenty-two years of age, Clarence became the company’s 

first manager. Like his uncle John, he oversaw the scientific management of land and cattle 

and further enhanced his reputation as well as the reputation of his ranching enterprise 

and Midland. 

The Scharbauer Cattle Company professionalized ranching in Midland County. The family 

emerged as a leader in the ranching industry throughout Texas and the United States. While the 

Scharbauer family’s agricultural interests expanded to include top quality horses, oil was later 

discovered on the Scharbauer Ranch. The family remained prominent not as a result of their 

wealth. Rather, the Scharbauer family name is attached to the story of Midland as a result of their 

deep seeded connection to the community. 

The First National Bank of Midland, 

in 1908. 

CHAPTER II ✦ 27

C HAPTER 

III 

THE QUEEN CITY 

OF THE SOUTH PLAINS 

Devastation from the Midland fire 

of 1909. 

With Midland on the cusp of great things, several substantial fires created chaos in 1909 and 

1910. The fires demonstrated not only the pitfalls of rapid growth, but also the challenges to a 

community with inadequate water resources. In April of 1909 a blaze fueled by spring winds 

threatened to destroy the entire community. Although a bucket brigade had been organized to 

combat the spread of fires, efforts proved inadequate. The fire swept through Midland and 

consumed the First National Bank, the Midland National Bank, the Llano Hotel as well as a number 

of other structures. City leaders responded by calling for the condemnation of all dangerous 

structures, whether they had been damaged by the fire or not. Later residents of Midland approved 

a 50,000 dollar bond for the creation of a water system. Completed in October of the following year, 

the system aided the newly established volunteer fire department. 

Midland witnessed dynamic change during 1910. The Progressive Era reform spirit that had 

swept the nation reached Midland. Progressivism manifested itself in an array of new city 

ordinances. Modeling new laws after similar measures enacted throughout the United States, 

Midland leaders sought to create regulations that promoted both personal and governmental 

responsibility and efficiency. Accordingly a 9:00 p.m. curfew had been levied on residents under the 

age of sixteen, with parents responsible for compliance. To improve sanitation, businesses had to 

properly maintain privies. Additionally, officials mandated the recording of vital statistics and a new 

poll tax levied a one dollar fee on all males between the age of twenty and sixty years of age, “idiots 

and lunatics excepted.” Anyone violating the new ordinances would be required to pay fines. To aid 

enforcement of new ordinances, the city paid a Marshall $1,200 annually. 


The Progressive impulse further manifested 

itself in education. The Texas Legislature had 

created Midland Independent School District in 

1907 and the community responded with 

efforts to reopen Midland’s first public library. 

The library had been discussed as early as 

1903 when a group of female members of the 

’99 Club appointed a committee to oversee 

the organization and construction of a facility. 

Although successful in the short term, the 

library floundered without broad community 

support. In 1910 the Women’s Wednesday Club, 

another volunteer organization, raised funds for 

building repairs and additional books. Their 

efforts revived Midland’s first public library, 

again making educational resources available to 

Midlanders. The greatest educational achievement 

of 1910, however, was the opening of 

Midland Christian College (MCC). 

The September 1910 enrollment of the first 

107 students in classes at Midland Christian 

College finalized two years of hard work. 

Trustees of Texas Christian University (TCU) 

had determined to establish a satellite campus 

in Midland during the spring of 1908. 

Influential Midlanders moved quickly to accommodate 

the plan. Thus citizens gathered to discuss 

concerns. Held on December 4, 1908, the 

first meeting of Midlanders had accomplished 

little other than appointing temporary trustees. 

Two days later, a vote formalized the previously 

appointed Board of Trustees. Herman Garrett 

Clockwise, starting from top: 

Midland Christian College, c. 1910. 

Midland Christian College band. 

Midland Christian College catalog. 

CHAPTER III ✦ 29

Above: Midland fire department 

display their new pull cart and hoses. 

Below: Flood of 1914, when it rains in 

Midland…it usually pours. 

donated land west of the courthouse to support 

the effort. Proceeds from the sale of lands 

would be used to construct facilities. With the 

aid of TCU officials, the MCC Board carved the 

first 300 lots out of more than 225 available 

acres. Each sold for an average of seventy-five 

dollars. Additionally, designers planned the 

future campus. Before the end of the year, 

Walter Taylor of Fort Worth won a contract to 

construct the first campus building. At a cost of 

35,000 dollars, crews completed the three story 

structure during May of 1910. The stone building 

contained offices and classrooms on the 

first two floors, with boys and girls dorm rooms 

on the third floor. Completed later, a separate 

dorm referred to as the “Dog House,” became 

the home of male students. 

Midland Christian College endeavored to 

educate students by offering a variety of courses 

and extracurricular activities. Courses included 

liberal arts, bookkeeping, shorthand, painting, 

piano, voice, oratory, and Bible studies. Sports 

also factored into campus life. MCC boasted 

basketball, baseball, football, and tennis teams. 

Football seems to have been as significant in 

Midland then as it is today. The MCC Herefords 

once defeated a Roscoe football team by the 

score of 92-0. Other campus activities included 

choral, orchestra, literary society, and Spanish 

club. Rules stringently governed the behavior of 

students insisting that “students shall be gentlemen 

and ladies in their conduct.” Campus codes 

demanded regular class attendance and also forbade 

the “use of tobacco in and about college 

buildings, loafing in town,” and “contracting 

unnecessary debts.” Although the majority of 


students came from outside of Midland, the 

community certainly benefited from the presence 

of an institution of higher learning. One of 

MCC’s most important students, J. Evetts Haley, 

made a life long contribution to Midland. 

The promise of 1910 ended in tragedy when 

yet another fire almost leveled Midland. The fire 

broke out in the barn of W. A. Holloway when 

an oil heater exploded. The dry wooden structure 

soon succumbed to the rapidly spreading 

flames. Yet again, as The Midland Reporter 

indicated, “It seemed that the whole business 

portion of our city was hopelessly 

doomed.” The fire leapt from building to 

building. The Midland Dry Good and 

Grocery Company went up in flames, then 

the Martin-Campy Jewelry Company. 

Adjoining buildings soon burned as the fire 

raged out of control. The volunteer fire 

department assembled, started the water 

station’s pump, and began fighting the fire. 

Low pressure made it difficult to control 

the blaze. The volunteers halted the flames, 

but not before many buildings sustained 

damage, including Bigham and Lee Vehicles 

and Implement Store, Klapporth’s Saddlery, 

the Scharbauer, the Boaz, and the Stag 

Hotels. The only human casualty, George 

Mauldin, died in the fire. According to the 

The Midland Reporter, “His body was burned to 

a crisp.” 

Without the water station, Midland would 

have sustained much greater losses. Merchants 

promised to reopen. The First National Bank 

stepped up by offering 600,000 dollars in reconstruction 

loans. By the end of 1911, Midland 

had rebounded. The Fort Worth Record reported, 

Above: “Crystal Ballroom” in the 

Scharbauer Hotel, March 22, 1940. 


PETROLEUM MUSEUM, THE J. D. BONNER 

COLLECTION, 82-030.019. 

Below: Gulf oil geologists in the 

Midland area, 1926. 

CHAPTER III ✦ 31

Top: Downtown Midland, 

July 4, 1911. 

Middle: Midland Fair Parade, 

October 3, 1912. 

Bottom: Midland in 1926. 

“New stores being opened up, new irrigation 

wells being bored, new people coming in, and 

large increases in banking transactions are some 

of the convincing proofs that prosperity has 

come back to the Midland country.” As a sign of 

that prosperity, many Midland residents built 

substantial new homes. Additionally, numerous 

water wells cropped up throughout the county. 

W. J. Morgan drilled the first irrigation well for 

farming in 1911. The well produced more than 

2,000 gallons of water per minute. Morgan stored 

the water and flooded furrows. The method, 

although wasteful and inefficient produced high 

yields. Soon small farms of between 100 and 200 

acres throughout Midland adopted the method. 

Cotton, alfalfa, cantaloupes, and watermelons 


appeared in local fields. Mostly family enterprise, 

Midland area farms rarely utilized outside sources 

of labor. Mexican Americans, however, picked 

cotton seasonally. 

Between 1910 and 1920, the pace of Midland 

change slowed. Although Midland Christian 

College more than doubled its enrollment, the 

Midland population hovered around 2,500 

citizens. In 1913, the Nelson Morris Estate 

(Morris had died in 1907) sold the Chicago 

Ranch to David Fasken, a Canadian lawyer. On 

the land, Fasken formed the Midland Farms 

Company. Fasken then granted the Midland and 

Northwestern Railway Company (M&N) right 

of way for the construction of a railroad from 

Midland to Seminole. Fasken’s nephew Andrew 

CHAPTER III ✦ 33

Above: First National Bank of 

Midland was the financial backbone 

of the community for almost 

100 years. 

Below: Midland County library, 1931. 

Opposite, top: Midland in the 1930s. 

Opposite, bottom: Hogan Building, 

later renamed the Petroleum Building. 

moved to Midland to oversee construction, which 

occurred between 1915 and 1916. Because it was 

a limited operation, the M&N leased an engine 

from the Texas and Pacific Railway Company. 

Although never prosperous, the line served the 

needs of local ranchers during World War I. 

The outbreak of the Great War and the onset 

of drought in 1917 highlighted the challenges of 

the decade. In August of 1914, WWI had begun 

in Europe. Initially the demand for agricultural 

commodities drove prices up. Although less 

than eight percent of domestic cattle ever 

reached foreign markets, other factors such as 

rationing and “meatless days” promised to keep 

American cattle prices at an all time high. 

Midland ranchers looked optimistically to a 

future of high prices and unprecedented profits. 

In 1917, however, Mother Nature intervened 

once again. Another severe drought hit the 

region. Cattle starved and died. The few crops 

that had been planted withered away. Numerous 

land owners faced foreclosure and the lack of 

spending money resulted in the failure of several 

Midland businesses. Ranchers and merchants 

increasingly went to local banks in search of 

funds to sustain their operations. Midland 

banks often extended financing despite the fact 

that many loans had been carried longer than 

recommended. The total number of ranches in 

Midland County declined by forty-five during 

the decade, and WWI, which had generally 

been good for agriculture and industry, had not 

been so kind to Midland. 

The 1920s dawned with a sense of foreboding. 

The faltering economy further resulted in 

the closure of Midland Christian College in 1921 

and the Midland and Northwestern Railway 

Company in 1923. There were signs of new life, 

however, and the community rebounded during 

the “Roaring Twenties.” Midland soared to 

new heights. Baseball came to Midland in 1921 

when Los Patrillos, a Mexican American semiprofessional 

baseball team, played their first 

game. The team succeeded for over forty years, 


and Midland gradually recovered, but at a relatively 

slow pace. Midland’s first hospital opened 

in 1922. The population more than doubled 

from 2,500 to near 5,000 inhabitants during the 

decade. Largely a result of the growth of Permian 

Basin oil production, geologists, land men, and 

drillers all became new residents of Midland. 

Oilfield development had begun in 

Westbrook in 1920. Later the same year the 

Colorado City Record fueled the speculative 

impulse with the headline, “Oil, Oil, Rumors of 

Oil!” Although the Westbrook Field never produced 

great quantities, the prospect of oil transformed 

Big Spring. A similar frenzy occurred in 

Scurry County and then Reagan County. Santa 

Rita #1 came in on May 28, 1923. Drillers soon 

overran surrounding ground. Due to its proximity 

to the initial strikes, San Angelo became 

the center of oil speculation, but wildcatters to 

the north and west would later make Midland 

the center of a massive oil producing region. 

During the mid-1920s, the opening of oil 

fields nearer to Midland stimulated growth. 

Gradually, Midland emerged from the prolonged 

economic downturn created by drought, 

agricultural failures, and bank foreclosures. The 

expansion of the oil economy attracted numerous 

petroleum companies to Midland, which 

was at the geographic center of the growing 

boom. Created in 1924, the Chamber of 

Commerce organized a campaign to promote 

the community. The Chamber proved an invaluable 

booster. Pressure from members resulted in 

a variety of improvements, such as a new city 

sewage system. Additionally, Highway 80 was 

completely paved through town in 1925, 

literally opening new avenues of community 

development. Streetlights appeared the following 

year. The Llano Hotel underwent substantial 

upgrades, and Clarence Scharbauer decided to 

build a first rate hotel in 1927. The Scharbauer 

Hotel had the finest amenities, including the 

“Crystal Ballroom,” an opulent space utilized for 

formal dances and the gathering of public 

figures and oil executives. The Leggett Building 

went up the same year. Containing abundant 

office space, the structure further enticed oil 

companies to Midland. Additionally, new 

construction created jobs and potential work 

brought additional African Americans and 

Mexican Americans to the community. 

CHAPTER III ✦ 35

Above: The Yucca Theatre opened 

December 9, 1929. 

Below: Samuel Sloan with his 

brother Harvey. 



COLLECTION, 76-093.067. 

Many saw, as the Midland Daily Telegram 

reported, “possibilities beyond ordinary speculation.” 

T. S. Hogan proved one of the most 

important visionaries. A former Montana 

Senator, Hogan had been active in the oil industry 

in Montana and Colorado. After Gulf Oil 

Corporation made discoveries in Upton County, 

Hogan sent his son Fred to scout the Permian 

Basin. In 1927 Hogan purchased 405 acres from 

Herman Garrett and encouraged local residents 

to beautify the community. He claimed to be 

ready “to help build Midland into a city.” In 

speeches and articles he promoted Midland as 

the future capitol of the oil industry in West 

Texas. Hogan not only proved an invaluable 

booster, he put his words into action. He began 

construction of the Hogan Building (the 

Petroleum Building), and true to his vision, 

Midland soon started to resemble an oasis with 

trees and grass along the major thoroughfares. 

Already at a crossroads of major agricultural 

and petroleum traffic, Midland needed an airport. 

Regional oil man Samuel Sloan, who had 

been trained as a pilot during 

World War I and flown 

in France with the 278th 

Aero Squadron of the United 

States Army Air Service, had 

a love for flying and decided 

to take on the project. He 

found suitable land halfway 

between Midland and 

Odessa. He then carved his 

airfield out of the flat grassland 

leased from Clarence 

Scharbauer. Sloan Field contained 

a graded dirt landing 

strip, a water well, and a 

small hangar. A small passenger 

terminal, refueling 

station, and training facility 

opened in 1928. In August 

of the following year Amelia 

Earhart landed at Sloan 

Field. Unfortunately, Sloan 

never met the famous aviator. 

He had died in a plane 

crash on New Years day, but 

his airport project remains 

an important asset to the 


Although Midland was at the center of the 

vast Permian Basin oil producing region, oil 

had not yet been found in quantity in Midland 

County. Regardless, Midlanders remained 

hopeful. Following several failed attempts to 

drill a producing well, Philips Petroleum drilled 

a test well twelve miles southeast of Midland 

during March of 1929. The effort generated 

buzz throughout the county but the well only 

produced trace amounts of oil. Plagued by 

troubles including lost tools and a broken down 

engine, drillers plugged and abandoned the site 

during July. Despite an inauspicious start to the 

petroleum industry, Midland continued to 

progress as evidenced by the completion of the 

new City Hall, the Hogan Building, and the 

Yucca Theater in 1929. 

While regional oil production had vastly 

outpaced consumption, causing many wildcatters 

to fail, the unusually wet winters between 

1927 and 1929 had resulted in an upswing in 

Midland County’s agricultural profitability. 

Cotton farms, which had appeared in recent 

years, prospered. As a result, many African 

Americans relocated to Midland. Additionally, 

the rains highlighted the value of the Texas and 

Pacific railroad and Highway 80, both of which 

ran directly through Midland. While muddy, 

unpaved roads inhibited travel to and from San 

Angelo, paved roads in Midland made the 

movement of commodities much easier. The 

ongoing development of infrastructure paid 

huge dividends in the midst of the nation’s 

greatest economic collapse. With strong agricultural 

and industrial sectors of its economy in 

1929, Midland proved to be somewhat insulated 

from the prolonged hardships of the Great 

Depression. No doubt Midlanders suffered, but 

economic diversification proved the savior of 

the community. 

The depths of the Great Depression reached 

Midland in 1930. During the early years of the 

decade, the return of drought and a faltering oil 

industry throughout Texas had a profound 

impact on the community. Oil companies that 

had come to Midland in the mid 1920s began to 

move out of their office space. The Petroleum 

Building, locally referred to as “Hogan’s Folly,” 

remained more than eighty percent vacant for 

many years. Its owner, T. S. Hogan, almost 

bankrupt, surrendered the building to creditors. 


The widening depression had an adverse 

effect on virtually everyone. The jobless rate 

reached thirty-three percent and to alleviate 

suffering Midlanders established the Midland 

Community Welfare Association (MCWA). An 

organization promoted by the Chamber of 

Commerce, the MCWA provided relief in the 

form of food and clothing. Because of the 

immense need for aid in 1932 local drives fell 

short of needed supplies. As a result the MCWA 

applied for money under the Reconstruction 

Finance Corporation (RFC), which made 

Federal money available for relief. The establishment 

of the RFC marked the Federal government’s 

move toward direct involvement in 

the economic crisis, which proved to be the 

necessary first step toward recovery. 

In some ways, Midland and the State of Texas 

moved ahead of the Federal government. During 

August of 1930, the Texas Railroad Commission 

(TRC) had issued the first statewide proration 

order, which limited daily production of oil. 

The impetus for the decree had been steadily 

declining prices and a growing concern for 

preserving finite natural resources. The TRC 

hoped that by limiting supplies of oil, prices 

would increase. Most small producers, who 

thought the TRC had conspired to force them 

out of operation, opposed the policy. The TRC’s 

policy of proration, however, set the precedent 

for Federal/state agreements negotiated between 

1932 and 1935. Regardless of the controversy, 

proration, in addition to the increased tariff on 

foreign oil, once again made drilling in the 

Permian Basin a profitable venture. Oil prices 

rose from a woeful $0.10 per barrel in 1930 to 

$0.60 per barrel a few years later. 

For all of the positive gains in the petroleum 

industry after 1932, Midland agriculture slowed 

dramatically. Yet another drought, which had 

begun in 1930, had begun to wreak havoc. 

Cotton production dropped by more than sixty 

percent, and cattle prices fell dramatically. As 

had been the case for industry, agriculture 

witnessed change brought on by government 

programs. The United States Congress passed 

the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) in 1933. 

The AAA regulated both production and prices. 

Cattlemen throughout the west successfully 

opposed the addition of cattle to the list of 

commodities whose prices were controlled 

under the provisions of the AAA. When prices 

continued to falter, however, cattlemen lobbied 

for controls. In April of 1934 Congress amended 

the AAA to included controls of cattle prices. 

Legislators also set aside two hundred million 

dollars for the purchase of cattle. Some of the 

money funded the destruction of livestock. 

Although popularly viewed as one of the most 

unsavory New Deal programs, many deemed 

the culling of herds to be humane and necessary. 

The destruction of stock eased the suffering of 

malnourished animals and also reduced 

competition for diminishing natural resources. 

Regardless of popular opinion, the AAA brought 

short-term stabilization to agricultural prices. 

The United States Supreme Court, however, 

later declared the AAA unconstitutional. 

The fortitude of Midlanders, government 

programs, and a bit of luck brought the 

community out of the depths of the Great 

Depression by 1935. The oil industry in 

Midland began to recover and production in the 

Goldsmith Field brought oil companies and 

their personnel back to the community. When 

much of the country could see no light at the 

end of the tunnel, Midland fortunes began to 

reverse. The influx of people created a severe 

housing shortage as the population of Midland 

County exploded to almost 12,000. After 1935, 

oil and an impending war in Europe brought a 

decade of tremendous prosperity, during which 

time Midland would solidify its position as the 

industrial center of the Permian Basin. 

Difficult economic times hit Midland 

Christian College especially hard. 

CHAPTER III ✦ 37

JOHN 

V. PLISKA 

Midland has a rich history of flight. One of the earliest airplane designers, 

John V. Pliska called Midland home between 1907 and 1956. Born in Tyne, 

Moravia, December 6, 1879, Pliska came to Texas in 1896. He worked as a 

blacksmith in central Texas and in 1903 determined to relocate. He set out for 

Mexico where the government had been courting skilled foreign labor. During 

the journey, Pliska stopped in Midland and explored the community. Before 

leaving, he ventured into the local blacksmith’s shop where he discovered an 

abundance of work. Pliska offered to help repair a windmill owned by 

C. C. Slaughter and his work thoroughly impressed Slaughter. When Pliska 

became an American citizen in 1905, he moved to Slaughter’s Running Water 

and Long S ranches, where he worked for two years. 

With his brother-in-law, Pliska purchased a blacksmith shop in Midland in 

1907. The following year he began planning for the construction of an 

airplane. In the early days of flight, airmen had to possess the skills of an 

engineer, mechanic, and pilot. Fortunately, Pliska had been trained by the 

Austro-Hungarian Army in the craft of ballooning. Additionally, he had 

knowledge of aerodynamics due to his experiences with gliders. During 1909, 

Pliska gathered equipment and materials necessary to complete his airplane 

project. A bit fearful and skeptical of his design, Pliska moved slowly. 

Although he worked consistently, after two years of labor he still did not a 

have plane that could get airborne. 

When a Wright Brothers Model B landed in Midland while making a crosscountry 

journey, Pliska viewed the craft with enthusiasm. He strengthened his 

effort to complete an aircraft of his own. To assist continued design and 

construction efforts, Pliska enlisted the aid of Gary Coggin, a local automobile 

mechanic. Soon the two men traveled to Sandusky, Ohio, to purchase 

an engine. Pliska paid $1,500 for a Roberts Motor Company engine that 


produced between forty and fifty horsepower. Coggin and Pliska finally assembled the plane in 

Pliska’s blacksmith shop. With a fuselage and propeller made of wood, wings made of canvas, 

bicycle wires for struts, and three bicycle wheels with Goodyear tires, the plane made its maiden 

voyage over the Quien Sabe Ranch southeast of Midland in 1912. The underpowered machine 

got airborne but could not maintain flight for more than fifteen minutes. To lighten the aircraft, 

Pliska replaced the canvas with silk. The experiment failed. 

Pliska remained determined to achieve sustained flight. He continued to improve upon his 

design and construction method. He eventually made flights of two miles. Excited, he agreed to 

fly his plane at the 1912 Fourth of July celebration in Odessa. Due to the heat, lack of humidity, 

and rough runway, Pliska never got his craft airborne. Angered by the failure, the raucous crowd 

demanded refunds of their entrance fee and threatened Pliska. Embarrassed, Pliska fled Odessa. 

He later disassembled the airplane. 

Several factors contributed to the dismantling of the plane. Some speculate that a dejected 

Pliska abandoned his flight plans as a result of the humiliation he had felt in Odessa. 

Undoubtedly Pliska wished his show had gone off without any hitches. A later flight crashed into 

mesquite trees. More than anything else, the expense of constant repairs and pressure from his 

wife resulted in his abandonment of his aircraft. Pliska stored the plane above his blacksmith 

shop. He died in 1956. In 1962, his children donated the aircraft to the City of Midland. 

The Abell-Hanger Foundation funded a renovation project and the Pliska airplane now hangs in 

the Midland International Airport. 

Opposite: John V. Pliska, 1911. 

Below: The Pliska airplane at the 

1912 Fourth of July Celebration 

in Odessa. 

CHAPTER III ✦ 39

C HAPTER 

IV 

THE TALL CITY 

Running casing. Painting by 

John Scott. 




Between 1925 and 1935 the ancient geology that had given the region its name now provided 

Midland and the Permian Basin with a new identity—oil. Midland began to transition from a strictly 

agricultural economy to a more diverse economy that included the burgeoning oil industry. During 

that ten year period, the community experienced the first of what would become many booms 

and busts in the local economy. Although initially the boom was in administration rather than 

production, Midland benefited greatly by the increased presence of the oil industry. After 1935 

proration, price stabilization, and the coming of World War II (WWII) brought unprecedented 

growth and prosperity to Midland. The second oil boom in Midland forever transformed the 

community, but the boom and bust cycle typical of the petroleum industry persisted. Midland, 

however, remained the center of the oil industry in the Permian Basin. 

Oil prices rose from $0.97 per barrel in 1935 to $1.22 per barrel in 1945. While businesses 

throughout the nation continued to flounder, oil companies that had previously fled Midland 

returned en masse. Dramatically increased oil profits stimulated additional exploration and drilling 

in the Midland area. Increased production brought geologists, geophysicists, landmen, brokers, 

drillers, crews, and their families to the community. As had been the case in other communities 

witnessing such rapid growth, the migration of thousands of people over the next decade created a 

housing crisis in Midland. To help alleviate the problem, over a few days in 1935, Humble Oil and 

Refining Company relocated more than seventy portable houses and their occupants. Humble Oil 

officials scattered houses originally at an oil camp in McCamey throughout Midland. In order to 

make the dwellings more attractive, crews added a brick veneer. Houses that had once been on 

trucks became permanent residences for Humble Oil employees. 


Midland had always seized the opportunity 

to cement its position as the most contemporary 

community in the Permian Basin. In addition 

to the residential construction boom, the 

commercial construction trend continued at 

the city center when the First National Bank 

built new facilities. Additionally, the Wilkinson- 

Foster, Humble, Permian, and Honolulu 

buildings heightened the Midland skyline. The 

Hogan Building, almost vacant before 1935, 

filled up virtually overnight. The transformation 

of the skyline led Midland to be known as the 

“Tall City.” 

Commercial oil had not yet been discovered 

in Midland County, but with additional regional 

exploration, oil men operating out of Midland 

infused additional capital into the local 

economy. With American demand for petroleum 

for automobile fuel, fuel oil, kerosene, and 

lubricants ever increasing, highly motivated 

individuals and oil companies completed 

approximately 8,900 wells in the Permian Basin 

during 1938 and 1939. The spectacular 

expansion in the region also resulted in ancillary 

development. The growth of the petroleum 

industry fueled the expansion of Midland’s 

economic infrastructure. Midland witnessed 

the construction of new roadways, railroads, 

pipelines, storage facilities and refineries. Banks 

lent more money, which resulted in more 

drilling. The Permian Basin had emerged as one 

of the most significant petroleum producing 

regions in the country and Midland, on the eve 

of WWII, had positioned itself at the executive 

and economic center of petroleum production 

in the Permian Basin. 

With war looming in Europe, oil companies 

further expanded their operations in the 

Permian Basin in anticipation of increased 

demand. Oil prices remained high as a result of 

expanded overseas markets. Federal programs 

such as Lend-Lease ensured American petroleum 

would find a buyer. When the United States 

entered WWII following the bombing of Pearl 

Harbor on December 7, 1941, petroleum production 

proved one of the keys to victory. 

Although Midland County did not contribute 

crude oil to the cause, the community supported 

efforts to win the war in other ways. Midland 

Army Air Field, which had opened earlier in 

1941, became the most significant contribution 

made by the community during the war years. 

Then Chamber of Commerce President Bill 

Collyns described the community as “air minded.” 

To further support the war effort, 

Midlanders also planted “victory gardens” and 

embraced rationing of necessary materials 

(gasoline, rubber, silk). 

WWII created a surge in the American economy, 

but a critical shortage of labor threatened 

the war effort. Because many American men had 

been deployed to Europe and the Pacific, the 

labor pool had diminished. During World War 

II, American industry demanded workers. As a 

result, a growing number of women, Mexican 

Americans, and African Americans entered the 

work force. Midland was no exception. 

While significant numbers of African 

Americans did not work in petroleum related 

businesses or agriculture in Midland, the black 

community witnessed an expansion of entrepreneurialism. 

New businesses cropped up around 

Lee Street, which had become the epicenter of 

Midland’s black community. In addition, African 

American social clubs blossomed. Membership 

Above: Fort Worth Super “D” 

Spudder manufactured during 

the 1930s. 


PETROLEUM MUSEUM, GIFT OF PAUL CHILDRESS, 

66-003.056. 

Left: A Midland National Bank five 

dollar bill. 

CHAPTER IV ✦ 41

Above: The Humble Building. 

Below: The Midland Army Air Field. 

addressed the growing needs of the black 

community, which had traditionally existed on 

the fringes of Midland society. Although new 

jobs opened to African Americans, education 

remained the most pressing need within the 

community. Renamed George Washington 

Carver in 1943, Midland Colored School first 

opened in 1932 served the needs of the small 

but thriving African American population in 

Midland. Largely isolated and self-sufficient, 

the black community continued to endure the 

sting of racism even though large numbers of 

black men had volunteered to fight and die for 

freedom and democracy on battlefields across 

the globe. 

Like African Americans, Mexican Americans 

transformed the community during the 1940s. 

The Mexican American population, 

however, faced many of 

the same challenges of cultural 

division. Their numbers began 

to stabilize as fewer laborers 

migrated from South Texas 

following harvests. Mexican 

American soldiers returning 

from war entered the workforce 

and generally discovered 

improved wages and working 

conditions. Moreover, new 

opportunities appeared. Drilling 

crews across the Permian Basin 

included Mexican American 

laborers, and other avenues of 

employment opened as well. In 

1949, Isidro “Sid” Trevino became the first 

Hispanic police officer in Midland. He eventually 

rose to assistant police chief before his 

retirement. Additionally, the Mexican American 

baseball team, Los Patrillos, continued to 

entertain Midlanders. 

Women also made their mark on Midland. 

Social clubs, which had traditionally been the 

vehicle for voicing women’s opinions, continued 

to play a key role during the course of WWII. 

The Women’s Wednesday Club and the Altrussa 

Club, later known as the Friends of the Library, 

continued to serve as agencies for community 

activism and change. Although women did not 

hold numerous positions of authority, Midland 

witnessed a growing number of women wage 

earners. Of particular significance, Midland 

women increasingly worked outside the home. 

Nationally, more than six million women had 

entered the workforce by 1943. For women 

and minorities, wartime experiences laid the 

groundwork for social and cultural change 

cemented during the next two decades. 

At the conclusion of World War II in 1945, 

Texas produced forty-five percent of American 

petroleum. Many feared that the end of WWII 

might result in a sharp decline in oil prices. 

Instead, both production and consumption 

increased dramatically. The first major commercial 

oil strike in Midland County occurred in 

November 1945 in what became known as 

Midland Field. Although only a small strike, 

Humble Oil and Refining Company No. 1, a 

discovery well, produced 4,540 barrels of oil in 


two months. Over the next two years, the site 

yielded only 15,000 barrels. As a result, Humble 

plugged and abandoned the well. The focus 

of attention shifted south. In 1947 Humble 

opened the South Midland Field. Although the 

field produced only small amounts, the discovery 

further prompted industry leaders to expand 

the economic infrastructure. 

Likewise, Midlanders renewed efforts to 

expand cultural and economic opportunities. 

Chartered in 1947, the Midland Community 

Theater enhanced cultural experiences in 

Midland and created a buzz that enhanced 

Midland’s reputation as a hub for entertainment. 

The following year, the Scharbauer Hotel grew 

by 100 rooms and the Midland Tower opened, 

adding more than 67,000 square feet of office 

space to Midland’s central business district. 

Although described as “poor in mineral wealth,” 

Midland proved to be “rich in infrastructure.” In 

1949 Life magazine featured a photograph of the 

lobby of the Scharbauer Hotel, which served as 

an informal stock exchange. At the time, some 

speculate that at least fifty million dollars worth 

of business had been done in the hotel lobby 

annually. The national media attention in addition 

to the grand opportunities made Midland an 

attractive community for ambitious businessmen. 

For the next several years, drilling continued 

throughout Midland County. Production grew 

and more impressive discoveries yielded greater 

returns. On February 1, 1949, Texas Company 

completed its No. 1 Clarence Scharbauer. The 

successful completion of the well opened the 

Warfield pool. The search for oil in Midland 

County, however, remained a gamble. Less than 

one month after the Scharbauer discovery the 

Tex-Harvey Oil Company opened the Tex- 

Harvey Field with the discovery well, No. 6-14-B 

Mrs. B. W. Floyd. Wildcatter Arthur Harvey, 

who had been successful in East Texas, made 

the discovery. Initial development progressed 

slowly, but the Tex-Harvey Field devolved more 

rapidly by the end of the decade. Two additional 

wells located in the Pegasus Field on the 

border of Midland and Upton Counties furthered 

the Midland oil boom of the late 1940s. 

The Permian Basin had become the premier 

oil producing region in Texas, and oil had 

brought unprecedented prosperity to Midland. 

Midland County had finally started producing, 

and the city of Midland continued to grow as 

a result of the influx of petroleum interests. 

As early as 1948, Midland rancher Jack B. 

Wilkinson had sold his land and started construction 

of additional downtown office space. 

Completed in three phases, the twenty-two 

story (300 feet tall) Wilco Building opened an 

additional 200,000 square feet of office space. 

When he finally completed all of his projects, 

Wilkinson had built more than 

one third of all office space in 

Midland. To fill his buildings, 

Wilkinson sought out executives, 

geologists, scientists, and 

a variety of others involved in 

the petroleum industry. Soon 

a new breed of individual 

began to make up the Midland 

population: well-educated professionals. 

Not that the new 

arrivals were any smarter than 

the people who already lived in 

the community, but many of 

the men and women courted 

by Wilkinson had been educated 

in some of the nation’s elite 

universities, and they carried a 

new refinement to Midland. 

Far from an elitist bunch, the 

newcomers settled in to and 

became an integral part of the 

community. George H. W. Bush 

for example, who had first 

settled in Odessa, relocated to 

Midland as a result of the community’s 

economic potential 

and growing sophistication. 

Above: Two future presidents, George 

H. W. Bush with George W. Bush. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE GEORGE W. 

BUSH CHILDHOOD HOME INC. 

Left: The lobby of the 

Scharbauer Hotel. 

Below: The Wilco Building, 1957. 

CHAPTER IV ✦ 43

Above: Dr. Viola Coleman. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE PERMIAN 

HISTORICAL ARCHIVES. 

Below: The Carver School. 

Unprecedented growth, however, 

rapidly butted up against the 

greatest barrier to progress in 

Midland—inadequate water supply. 

The historic lack of water 

once again emerged as a major 

concern during the early 1950s. 

Midland County had endured a 

prolonged drought that crippled 

agriculture and threatened to 

leave Midland without sufficient 

water supplies. In response, the 

community approved more than 

eleven million dollars in bonds to 

locate water. The City of Midland 

secured water from the Paul Davis 

Water Field, which promised to 

provide a community of 150,000 

people with water for fifty years. 

The economic infrastructure 

of Midland continued to develop. Midland 

Memorial Hospital opened in 1950. The hospital 

offered state of the art facilities to the ever 

expanding community. Additionally, W. D .B. 

Cooper became the first African American 

physician at the newly opened hospital. The following 

year, the first black female physician, Dr. 

Viola Coleman, arrived in Midland. Although 

still segregated in isolated wards, the African 

American patients received exceptional treatment 

in the new hospital facilities. 

While the 1950s economy boomed throughout 

the country, Midland wealth skyrocketed. In 

communities of similar size, total buying 

income increased by fifty percent. In Midland, 

total buying income increased by 197 percent. 

Retail sales grew by 143 percent compared to 

fifty-eight percent in comparable towns. With 

guidance from the Midland Chamber of 

Commerce, city officials adopted the Midland 

City Plan, 1950, which promoted the expansion 

of social, cultural, and economic opportunities. 

The impact of continued construction was felt 

immediately. The Midland Symphony played 

its first concert in 1953 and in the same year 

KMID-TV went on the air. By 1959 Midland 

boasted an impressive 600 petroleum related 

offices servicing almost 2,000 producing fields 

throughout the Permian Basin. 

In addition to the being the social, cultural, 

and business center, Midland Independent 

School District (MISD) established Midland as 

the educational envy of the Permian Basin. 

During the 1950s, Midland Public Schools 

enrollment skyrocketed from approximately 

3,700 students to more than 14,600. District 

officials expanded overcrowded facilities. 

During the decade, eleven new elementary 

schools went up, along with three additional 

junior high schools. MISD allocated additional 

funds to meet the growing educational needs 

of the African American community. The district 

built Washington Elementary, an all black 

primary school. Additionally, the Carver School 

underwent expansion and reopened as Carver 

Junior/Senior High School (Following Court 

mandated desegregation, Carver closed in 

1968, but not before the school won a 2A state 

football championship). 

The 1950s had changed Midland in unprecedented 

ways, but the unparalleled prosperity of 

the decade waned after 1958. Midland in the 

1960s witnessed an overall slump in the economy. 

Historically, Midland had undergone a series 

of stresses resulting from the boom and bust 

economy created by cycles of drought in agriculture 

and fluctuating prices in the petroleum 

industry. Where world consumption had once 

outpaced petroleum production, the opening 

of overseas oil fields flooded the market 

and drove oil prices down steadily 

throughout the decade. Empty houses 

(Midland had an estimated 3,000 houses 

empty at the end of the 1960s) dotted the 

landscape and oil companies once again 

began to flee the community. Downtown 

offices, filled to capacity ten years earlier, 

also emptied. Symbolic of the decade, 

in 1967 the last passenger train departed 

Midland, never to return. Fortunately, 


the departure of Texas and Pacific passenger 

service did not symbolize a larger exodus of 

people and prosperity. As had always been 

the case, Midland turned to development as 

a means to stabilize the economy. Highway 80 

became Interstate 20, which further entrenched 

Midland at the epicenter of the Permian 

Basin economy. 

In 1967 the Midland Chamber of Commerce 

commissioned a study of social and economic 

conditions in Midland. The Urban Land 

Institute (ULI) surveyed Midland and reported 

their findings. According to the ULI, the community 

possessed “high quality people; good 

supply and range of living accommodations; 

excellent air; highway and rail transportation; 

outstanding public school system; fine cultural 

activities such as the symphony, community 

theater, art colony, and good climate.” The ULI, 

however, identified drawbacks. Midland lacked 

water, an institution of higher learning, 

industrial labor, and most critically, economic 

diversification. To the Midland Chamber of 

Commerce, the tone of the Urban Land Institute 

report seemed too negative. As a result, the 

Chamber organized a local study that produced 

Objectives for Midland in 1967. The report identified 

future goals for Midland and laid the 

groundwork for the diversification 

of industry and the expansion 

of social and cultural 

opportunities for all Midlanders. 

Further, the 1967 Objectives 

addressed the critical need for 

new schools and additional 

water resources. 

Midland had emerged to 

become something unimaginable 

seventy-five years before. 

Randolph Marcy had been the 

first to identify the potential of 

the region. Subsequent ranchers 

and oil men transformed the 

community into an economic 

powerhouse. Although it took 

some time, Midland emerged as 

the hub of the vast oil producing 

Permian Basin region. Oil 

brought unimaginable prosperity 

to Midland. Increasingly however, 

Midland had become a 

single industry economy. Instead 

of the diversity that had seen 

the Midland economy through 

the Great Depression, a single 

industry—oil became the be all 

and end all. The perils of a boom 

and bust economy would test 

Midland in subsequent decades. 

Above: A Texas and Pacific Railway 

ticket book, c. 1960. 

Below: Individual buildings that made 

up the Midland skyline during 

the 1950s. 

CHAPTER IV ✦ 45

Right: During the 1950s, Midland had 

a lot to brag about. 

Below: Downtown Midland at night, 

c. 1965. 


Above: By the 1950s, the Permian 

Basin was dotted with pumping units. 



Left: Sunset in Midland. 



CHAPTER IV ✦ 47

Clockwise, starting from the top: 

“Dummy Bombs” dropped throughout 

the Permian Basin. 

Targeting the enemy over 


Live fire exhibition, July 4, 1942. 

Opposite: Midland Army Air Field 

boasted a fleet of approximately 150 

Advanced Trainer (AT) 11 aircraft. 


MIDLAND ARMY AIR FIELD 

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War II, claimed the war had been won on the sea of American oil. 

Ironically, the contribution of Midland came in an entirely different form. Indeed Midland played a crucial role during WWII, but instead 

of oil fields, Midland Army Air Field (MAAF) significantly contributed to victory in both the European and Pacific theaters of war. 

While oil played a crucial role in both Europe and the Pacific, the Allied victory in WWII resulted in large part due to air 

supremacy. In West Texas, the United States Army trained many of the men piloting, navigating, and dropping ordinance. More 

than a year and a half prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America’s entrance into WWII, military officials began searching 

for civilian facilities that might be utilized for defense. Because of the open terrain and deeply patriotic population, the United 

States Army identified the Midland Municipal Airport as an ideal facility for air combat training. The largest New Deal program, 

the Works Progress Administration (WPA), had previously invested heavily in Midland’s airport and the condition of facilities 

along with Midland’s strategic location proved the perfect combination. 

Founded in mid-1941, MAAF soon developed as one of the most sophisticated bombardier training bases managed by 

the United States Army Air Force. In 1941 the Army Air Corps had fewer than 200 qualified bombardiers, but American 

manufacturing facilities were poised to produce 500 aircraft per month that were capable of delivering ordinance. The significant 

discrepancy and looming war created a need for men and new training facilities. At MAAF, the first airmen reported for duty 

during September 1941 and in the following month the Army named Lieutenant Colonel Isaiah Davies (Davies was promoted 

twice in the following year, making him a Brigadier General) the commanding officer of the Advanced Twin-Engine and 

Bombardier School. With construction of three 6,000 foot runways complete, MAAF was poised to make and impact in combat 

when the United States entered the war in December 1941. 

Bombardier training remained an imperfect art when the first class of 119 cadets reported for duty in February 1942. To master 

the craft, each cadet received twelve weeks of combined ground and flight training and dropped approximately 200 practice 

bombs. The Army Air Corps utilized two types of “Dummy Bombs,” one filled with concrete to simulate explosive ordinance, and 

the other filled with sand to simulate chemical weaponry. Using the latest technology, the then top secret Norden bombsite, 

bombardiers became effective “precision bombers.” One of the more memorable moments for MAAF came on July 4, 1942 when 

the Army Air Corps conducted a live fire exercise over “Little Tokyo.” Nearly 20,000 people witnessed the event, some parked in 

cars within 600 yards of exploding ordinance, and RKO Studios filmed the event for use in their upcoming film, Bombardier. 

MAAF trained not only Americans, but also a number of foreign bombardiers, including, Dutch, Brazilian, and Chinese cadets 

(the first all foreign class graduated in December 1945). The last class of American airmen graduated in January 1946. MAAF, 

however finalized training of a few Chinese cadets prior to final closure of the base in June 1946. 

As the largest bombardier training facility in the world, MAAF, along with the entire state of Texas, played an enormous role 

in the effort to defeat totalitarianism and win WWII. Airmen bombarded West Texas rangeland until the conclusion of the war. 

At its peak, MAAF housed more than 7,000 airmen. The cadets had forever altered the physical landscape of West Texas, but more 

importantly, the men had altered the social, economic, and political landscape of Europe and the Pacific. 

CHAPTER IV ✦ 49

C HAPTER 

URBAN MIDLAND 

V 

Groundbreaking for Midland College, 

in 1973. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF MIDLAND COLLEGE. 

While, the pace of change slowed after 1967, Midland continued to prosper during the 

1970s and beyond. Enduring sometimes dramatic cycles of economic prosperity and decline, city 

planners and business leaders began to recognize the potentially devastating effects of the boom and 

bust cycles in the petroleum industry. Economic diversification, however, took root very slowly. 

Oil and gas remained the primary economic venture in Midland. The final decades of the twentieth 

century brought significant and sometimes tumultuous social, political, and economic changes to 

Midland. Even more so than in previous decades, hardships everywhere made Midland the regional 

urban center. 

Although the late 1960s and early 1970s marked an important point of departure in Midland’s 

economic history, no one knew the tremendous upheaval on the horizon. Midland’s population 

continued to grow and highly visible changes occurred. The Museum of the Southwest moved into 

the Turner Mansion in 1968 and Midland College opened the following year. In 1972 the Midland 

Cubs and Texas League baseball came to Midland and construction began on an impressive new 

Federal center, district court, and post office complex named for George Mahon. 

In January 1973, however, the Stock Market collapsed setting off a wave of panic as well as an 

economic malaise that would last years. Additionally, the Yom Kippur War and failing international 

agreements with Arab countries led to the decision of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting 

Countries (OPEC) to cut production of oil and to raise the price of crude by an astonishing seventy 

percent. In addition, in October 1973, Arab members of OPEC declared an oil embargo in response 

to American foreign policy in the region. The use of economic leverage over the United States 

coupled with the growing rate of inflation in the aftermath of the January stock market crash led 

then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to broker a peace deal to end the Yom Kippur War, which 

benefited Egypt and Syria who were failing in their effort against Israel. 


Although President Richard Nixon 

issued “Project Independence,” a proposal 

that would make the United 

States energy independent by the end 

of the decade, the nation continued to 

consume petroleum products in massive 

quantities. The OPEC embargo 

coupled with the American industrial 

need for oil resulted in skyrocketing 

prices and a growing demand for 

Permian Basin oil. Government price 

controls created artificial scarcity that 

resulted in gasoline rationing and 

long lines at filling stations. The price 

per barrel of Midland area crude rose 

dramatically and once again Midland 

weathered an economic storm that 

threatened to cripple the entire country 

for the remainder of the decade. 

The ongoing oil crisis had continued positive 

impact on the Permian Basin. Petroleum exploration 

and drilling returned in full force. New 

methods of recovery (secondary and tertiary 

projects) revitalized “old” wells and oil companies 

once again went in search of “new” oil in 

the region. Gradually housing surpluses in 

Midland turned to housing shortages as the 

population swelled to new heights. Midland 

homes, once priced extremely low now became 

among the most expensive in the United States. 

Despite the expense, first time home buyers 

entered the market in droves. New apartments 

and condominiums sprang up throughout town 

to alleviate the housing shortage. 

The building boom extended beyond housing. 

The Nita Stewart Haley Memorial Library 

opened in 1974. Midland Community Theater 

moved to a new home in 1978 and Midland 

Memorial Hospital expanded the following year. 

The growing population also heightened the 

need for a permanent home for Midland College. 

The college had previously used public school 

facilities to educate junior college students. 

Initially, the arrangement worked well with a 

low total enrollment, but with the influx of new 

people to Midland, students began flocking to 

Midland College. Enrollment grew from around 

700 in 1970 to nearly 2,200 four years later. 

After a bond rejection, in 1972 Midland voters 

approved five million dollars for construction 

on the 150 acres campus. By 

1975 the College boasted an expansive 

Administration Building. Additionally, 

the Learning Resources Center housed 

the library and additional classrooms. 

The Science Faculty Building and 

Occupational and Technical Building 

contained classrooms and office space 

for instructors. The Physical Education 

Building gave students an opportunity 

to exercise their bodies as well as their 

minds. Crews also wrapped up construction 

on the Maintenance Building. 

Three years later construction completed 

on the Fine Arts Building, an addition 

to the Occupational and Technical 

Above: Grande Communications 

Sports Complex. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF J. DON WALLACE. 

Below: Garfield entrance to 

Midland College. 


CHAPTER V ✦ 51

Above: Downtown Midland at night. 

Below: Midland courthouse 

renovation, 1970. 

Building, and the Chaparral Center, a multipurpose 

event center. 

Midland celebrated its centennial during 

1981. Parades, concerts and a host of other 

celebrations marked the occasion. A euphoric 

attitude existed among residents 

of Midland. The community 

was in a mood to 

celebrate. And why not? 

Midland had the highest 

per capita income ($16,467) 

in the country and the 

unemployment rate stood at 

four percent. The euphoria 

manifested itself in a sense 

of perpetual boom. Virtually 

no small city in the United 

States could claim the luxury 

of Midland. The community 

was even home to a 

Rolls Royce dealership. The 

following year, Forbes listed 

eight Midlanders among its 

400 richest men in America. 

Nowhere in the country 

could prosperity be felt 

quite as much as in Midland. 

At the height of the boom, Midland boasted 

an impressive economy that paid in excess of 

one billion dollars in wages to more than 

54,000 laborers. More than 700 petroleum 

related businesses called Midland home. 

Midland County oil production exceeded seven 

million barrels annually, which laid the groundwork 

for more than fifty million dollars worth 

of manufacturing. 

Drilling in the Permian Basin became 

increasingly expensive after 1981. Many producers 

had turned away from secondary and 

tertiary recovery projects to the more lucrative 

business of drilling overseas and offshore. 

Regional exploration tapered off and drilling 

permits declined. Petroleum related employment 

in Texas fell by thirty-three percent over 

the next decade. Unemployment numbers are 

even more dramatic than they might appear 

given that petroleum made up approximately 

twenty-eight percent of the state’s economy in 

1981. Even though regional natural gas lifted 

the local economy, declining overseas demand 

for American petroleum coupled with the 1983 

OPEC decision to lower the price of oil put an 

economic strain on the Midland that no one 

could have predicted two years earlier. 


By 1983, Midland had breathed a rarified 

atmosphere for many years. The ongoing boom 

excited Midlanders who believed the perpetual 

boom had finally arrived. Claydesta Center 

opened with approximately 440,000 square 

feet of new office space in north Midland and 

Midland’s big businesses planned several downtown 

skyscrapers. The community even had 

grand visions of the newly proposed First 

National Bank of Midland (FNB-Midland) twin 

500 foot towers. Unfortunately in Midland in 

1983, as in all rarified atmospheres, prosperity 

and survival are often difficult. 

The tremendous prosperity ended abruptly. 

Over the next fourteen years nine of the ten 

largest banks in Texas failed. (Texas witnessed 

599 bank failures with over sixty billion dollars 

in failed assets.) The banking crisis reached 

Midland in 1983 when the FNB-Midland collapsed, 

resulting in a near catastrophic loss of 

capital and optimism in Midland. At the time, 

FBN-Midland was the second largest bank in the 

United States and the largest independent bank 

in Texas. FNB-Midland had assets nearing two 

billion dollars. Historically, the bank had been 

the backbone of the local economy. The loss of 

the bank signaled the loss of capital for investment 

in the community. The following year, 

Midland County bankruptcy claims reached an 

all time high. 

Midland and Midlanders persisted, 

however. Although the near collapse of 

the oil industry subsided and oil prices 

rose, profit margins remained too low to 

warrant expansive exploration and production 

during the middle of the decade. 

The almost continual industrial and 

administrative growth that had been the 

hallmark of Midland slowed to a crawl. 

In a twist of historical irony, agriculture, 

the original economic enterprise in the 

Permian Basin, managed to provide a fair 

amount of economic stability. Although 

drought had again taken a sizable amount 

of land out of production and of 36,000 

acres planted in 1984 only 8,000 actually 

produced, agriculture continued to 

employ a substantial number of people. 

Approximately twenty-four percent of 

those working in Midland County did so 

in farming and ranching endeavors. 

With the Midland economy in a slump, the 

community prospered in new ways. Two organizations 

of note, the Midland Hispanic Chamber 

of Commerce and the Midland Chamber of 

Black Entrepreneurs, assisted minority business 

owners by providing leadership training and 

broadly promoting their member businesses. 

Additionally, numerous statewide legal battles 

challenged the fairness of the at-large election 

system used to elect city council members. The 

transformation to single member voting districts 

paved the way for the election of the first minority 

member to the Midland City Council. 

Elected in 1985, Oralia “Lillie” Corrales gave 

a public voice to an ever growing segment of 

Midland society. Additional minority representatives 

served on the Midland College Board of 

Trustees and the Midland Independent School 

District Board, as well as in leadership roles in 

other organizations. 

Although forecasters had predicted additional 

declines in oil prices, prices actually went up and 

the economic outlook in Midland improved 

somewhat. At more than thirty dollars per barrel 

in November 1985, oil seemed poised to provide 

Midland with yet another boom. By the middle 

of 1986, however, the price had fallen to seven 

dollars per barrel. Drilling halted and the 

Permian Basin petroleum industry witnessed the 

largest decline in production since World War II. 

Claydesta looking south to downtown. 


CHAPTER V ✦ 53

Baby Jessica Rescue, a painting by 

Jan Johnson Sheets. The painting 

hangs inside the Midland Center. 

Amidst troubling economic times for 

Midlanders, an unlikely story spanning three 

days in October 1987 lifted the spirits of the 

community and captivated audiences across the 

United States and throughout the world. While 

playing outside the home of her aunt, eighteen 

month old Jessica McClure fell down an 

abandoned water well that had previously been 

covered by a flower pot. Rescuers immediately 

set out to free “Baby Jessica,” who had become 

lodged twenty-two feet below. The initial plan 

called for a parallel hole to be drilled so that the 

well could be tapped from below. Unfortunately, 

dense rock chewed up drill bits at a frightening 

rate. As the one day rescue dragged on, the 

media descended upon the scene. The Federal 

government sent a mining expert and the 

fledgling CNN began broadcasting live around 

the clock. Baby Jessica immediately became the 

darling of many Americans as they heard stories 

of her reciting the alphabet and singing nursery 

rhymes while lodged in the well. Drillers 

ultimately utilized a hydraulic drill capable of 

cutting through the rock. 

Jessica finally emerged 

from the well fifty-eight 

hours after her ordeal 

had begun. Twenty years 

later USA Today named 

Jessica one of twentyfive 

people whose lives 

made a profound impact 

on Americans. 

The good feeling created 

by Baby Jessica 

story did not last long. 

Three days after her dramatic 

rescue the Stock 

Market crashed, declining 

in value by twentytwo 

percent. The fiscal 

crisis resulted in large 

corporations fleeing 

Midland. Small producers 

stubbornly held on, 

but eventually left the 

community as well. 

Businesses of all kinds 

began to fail. Downtown 

Midland, which had 

been built as a symbol of 

Midland’s position at the center of regional 

economy and culture, turned in to a virtual 

ghost town. Panic swept throughout the community 

and almost overnight housing prices 

dipped to a new low, resulting in a wave of foreclosures. 

Midlanders, as always, persevered. 

It might be said that the only certainty in 

Midland during the late 1980s and early 1990s 

was that the community and its inhabitants 

faced an uncertain future. Independent operators 

continued to toil where big and small corporations 

alike had long since given up. As had 

always been the case, oilmen continued to speculate. 

Few met any success. Only a small number 

of regional wells remained operational and 

oil prices continued to decline. As a result, even 

the hardiest of oilmen began selling regional 

holdings and investing in other parts of Texas. 

Residents across the Permian Basin felt the 

crunch and although Midland and Odessa had 

been traditional rivals, work began in both communities 

to break down long standing political 

and economic divisions. As a result, both communities 

benefited by working together to open 

new transit routes through the Permian Basin. 

Further, compiling population data for both 

Midland and Ector Counties as a single metropolitan 

region opened the eyes of new businesses, 

which chose to locate in an area with 

250,000 inhabitants when there was little 

chance of building in a less populous region. 

Cooperation encouraged the completion of 

Highway 191 and Loop 250 in the early 1990s 

and opened new areas of Midland to economic 

development. The commercial building boom 

moved away from the downtown area and 

Highway 80 to north Midland where construction 

has continued for twenty years. 

By the late 1990s many outside analysts 

believed that Midland, in fact the entire Permian 

Basin region, had been drilled to the point of 

complete exhaustion of the region’s most important 

natural resource—oil. Lucrative new wells 

had not been drilled in many years. In 1995, 

however, the Atlantic Richfield Company 

(ARCO) once again started drilling. Petroleum 

engineers, such as Dennis Phelps, began the difficult 

task of drilling in a seemingly exhausted 

area. And like the wildcatters of old, a new 

breed of oil man gambled that Midland and the 

Permian Basin contained additional riches. 


Oil leases found new life. Engineers promoted 

the prospect for recovering oil and ARCO 

drilled. Oil men experimented with new 

techniques for fracturing wells. Dennis Phelps 

experimented with a slick-water technique 

and began expensive testing. Much in the same 

way as the wildcatters of previous generations, 

Phelps gambled a great deal of money as well 

as his reputation. With oil prices hovering at 

about twelve dollars per barrel, Phelps had 

little margin for error. The technique worked. 

Oil flowed, even if only briefly, once again. The 

triumph proved to be a boon for ARCO, who 

sold to British Petroleum in 1999. Additionally, 

the success created yet another era of boom 

in Midland. 

Midland continues to provide opportunity 

to the entire region. For Midland the result has 

been a corresponding growth in permanent 

residents. As a result, one of the recent 

demographic trends in West Texas, the 

declining population in rural communities, has 

been exacerbated. Since 1990, the number of 

inhabitants in Midland County has risen from 

106,611 to 136,872 in 2010, an increase of 

eighteen percent. The city itself has witnessed a 

similar population growth. Midland boasted 

89,443 residents in 1990, 94,966 in 2000, and 

will likely reach 100,000 in 2010 (city census 

data not yet released at date of publication). The 

significance of steadily growing populations 

cannot be overestimated. New residents serve to 

offset (to an extent) declining tax revenues, slow 

housing starts, and lower tax revenues resulting 

from economic fluctuations. Growing numbers, 

however, have a down side. Large populations 

continue to strain already limited available 

natural resources. Water remains the focus of 

city planners who have negotiated water rights 

that extend well into the future. The City of 

Midland continues to excel at providing services 

to the expanding population. 

The population growth at the dawn of the 

new century prompted numerous expansion 

projects between 2000 and 2010. Midland is 

home to state of the art health care facilities. 

The award winning Midland Memorial Hospital 

employs more than 200 physicians with over 

forty-five specialties. Coupled with medical 

imaging services such as nuclear medicine and 

Pumping unit at sunset. 



CHAPTER V ✦ 55

Clockwise, starting from the top: 

Downtown Midland from the 

A Street duck pond. 

Permian Basin Petroleum Museum. 


PETROLEUM MUSEUM. 

Arial view of downtown 

looking north. 


PET-CT (the latest in cancer detection), Midland 

Memorial is recognized as one of the most technologically 

advanced facilities in the state. To 

meet the needs of the community, the hospital 

has undergone expansions in the last decade. 

The expansion of Midland Memorial Hospital, 

new construction at the Petroleum Museum, 

and the completion of the Midland County 

Multipurpose Facility (The Horseshoe) resulted 

in the widening and expansion of Garfield 

Street. Expansion of Loop 250 east to the 

Interstate further developed the community’s 

infrastructure. Numerous other entities undertook 

expansion projects. 


Above: Construction at Midland 

Memorial Hospital, 2011. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR. 

Left: The Marie Hall 

Academic Building. 


CHAPTER V ✦ 57

A Midland wind farm. 



Like the community itself, Midland College 

had witnessed unprecedented growth. As a 

result, the college added the Jack E. Brown 

Dining Hall, the Dorothy and Todd Aaron 

Medical Science Building, Nadine & Tom 

Craddick Resident Hall, the Dollye Neal 

Chapel, and Fox Science Building to the 

growing list of structures on the 224 acre main 

campus. In 2005 the Midland College received 

accreditation to become a Level II four-year 

institution, offering Bachelor of Applied 

Technology degree. The following year, 

construction began on a multi-million dollar 

expansion of Midland College resulting in the 

renovation and construction of numerous vital 

campus buildings. The college now has an 

enrollment of approximately 7,000 students. 

In cooperation with local industry, the 

Midland College offers job training for a 

changing energy industry, which has begun 

to embrace new technologies. The windmill, 

a symbol of Midland’s early development 

has reappeared. Instead of pumping water, 

however, wind farms harness the power of the 

region’s most consistent companion—the wind. 

In addition to wind power, local industry is 

exploring alternative forms of clean, renewable 

sources of energy. Included among them are 

clean coal, biomass, and geothermal energy. 

Midland has made a historic contribution to 

the development of the Permian Basin. Midland 

and the Permian Basin have remained a constant 

social, political, and economic force for more 

than 125 years. Moreover, Midland has played an 

important role beyond the Basin. With two 

former Midlanders in the White House and the 

importance of oil and gas, the community has 

shaped state, national, and even international 

economics and politics. Today, in a time of 

tremendous political and economic upheaval, 

Midland has retained its independent spirit. The 

Midland Development Corporation has invested 

a tremendous amount of time and energy to 

the redevelopment of the community’s most 

enduring image—the downtown central business 

district. Once almost empty, the buildings are 

almost filled to capacity with ninety percent of 

almost five million square feet of office space 

presently occupied. Midland remains the 

corporate center of the Permian Basin. 


Above: The George W. Bush 

Childhood Home Museum. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE 

GEORGE W. BUSH CHILDHOOD HOME INC. 

Left: George H. W. and Barbara Bush. 

CHAPTER V ✦ 59


MIDLANDERS IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

Midland has the unique distinction of being one of the few communities in the country to have 

once been home to two Presidents of the United States. Both arrived in the community during 

the prosperous decade of the 1950s. 

Born June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, George H. W. Bush grew up in a wealthy and 

influential Northeastern family. Shortly after his graduation for the prestigious Philips Academy 

in Andover, Massachusetts, Bush joined the navy and earned his wings. As the youngest combat 

aviator in 1943, he flew fifty-eight missions as a torpedo bomber pilot in the Pacific theater of 

operations during World War II. Shot down by the Japanese and later rescued by an American 

submarine, Bush received the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1944. Following his wartime service, 

Bush attended Yale. He graduated in 1948 with a degree in economics and he passed up an 

opportunity to become an investment banker in order to move his family to Texas. 

George H. W. Bush moved his family to a booming West Texas in the summer of 1948. He had 

left the family money at home and set out to build his own legacy. Bush first settled in Odessa 

and after a brief relocation to California, moved his family to Midland in 1950. His connections 

enabled him to prosper. He formed Zapata Petroleum in 1953, and later Zapata Off-Shore. 

A highly successful businessman, Bush turned his attention to politics. 

Although his first bid for a Senate seat from Texas was unsuccessful, Bush was elected to the 

United States House of Representatives in 1966. In 1970, he again ran unsuccessfully for the 

Senate. For Bush, however, the loss opened a door. Richard Nixon appointed him as United States 

Ambassador to the United Nations in 1971. Bush became head of the Republican National 

Committee in 1973 and Gerald Ford made him Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 

1976. In 1978, Bush began campaigning for the Presidency. He lost the nomination to Ronald 

Reagan, who picked Bush to be his running mate. Bush served two terms as vice president and 

in 1988 he successfully campaigned for the presidency, becoming the forty-first President of the 

United States. Bush served one term in office, but it would not be the last time a Bush occupied 

the White House. 

Born July 6, 1946, the 

eldest son of George H. W. 

Bush, George W. Bush 

spent his formidable years 

in Midland. As a youth, he 

proved rambunctious. His 

father lamented in 1955 

that, “Georgie aggravates 

the hell out of me at times.” Although not the best student or athlete, the younger Bush worked 

hard and demonstrated exceptional leadership as a young man. He chose to follow in his father’s 

footsteps, first to Andover, then Yale, flying in the Texas Air National Guard, and finally the oil 

industry in Texas. In July 1977, Bush announced that he would run for a seat in the United States 

House of Representatives. He also married a Midland girl, Laura Welch. He lost the election in 

1978, but had shown to be a formidable politician. He ran for governor of Texas in 1994 and 

defeated the popular Ann Richards. 

George W. Bush served as governor until he was elected forty-third President of the United 

States in 2000. He served two terms in office and oversaw the country during perilous times. 

Less than one year after his inauguration on September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked the United 

States. As a result, his presidency was defined by an international effort to defeat terrorism. 

When he left office, he immediately returned to Midland, proclaiming the community to 

be “home.” 

Opposite, clockwise, starting from the 

top left: 

George W. Bush in his 

baseball uniform. 



Midland oil well and George W. Bush. 



Father and son in front of their 

Midland home. 



Cub Scout and future President of the 

United States, George W. Bush. 



Two presidents on their porch 

at home. 



Above: Bumper sticker for George W. 

Bush’s campaign for governor. 

CHAPTER V ✦ 61



SHARING THE HERITAGE 

SPECIAL 

THANKS TO 

Historic profiles of businesses, 

organizations, and families that have 

contributed to the development and 

Basic Energy Services 

economic base of Midland. 

Commemorative Air Force & CAF Airpower Museum ............................64 

The Petroleum Museum ....................................................................67 

Ortloff Engineers, Ltd. ....................................................................68 

Occidental Petroleum Corporation .....................................................70 

Midland Community Healthcare Services ............................................72 

M. F. Machen .................................................................................74 

Davis, Gerald & Cremer, P.C. ...........................................................76 

Weiner Oil & Gas 

Texas Crude Operator ................................................................78 

Advance Consultants Corp. 

A Tribute to Victor S. Frigon ........................................................80 

Midland College .............................................................................81 

J. Mark Cox, DDS...........................................................................82 

Petro Communications, Inc. ..............................................................83 

Family Wellness Center ...................................................................84 

Lone Star Abstract & Title Co., Inc. ..................................................85 

Fite Fire & Safety...........................................................................86 

First United Methodist Church ..........................................................87 

Coastal Pipe Company .....................................................................88 

The Village at Manor Park ...............................................................89 

South-Tex Treaters, Inc....................................................................90 

Odessa Jackalopes Hockey Club.........................................................91 

Carrasco Homes, LLC ......................................................................92 

B&W Chemical Toilets, Inc...............................................................93 

Midland Independent School District..................................................94 

Morris Holmquest Tidwell & Company ...............................................95 

Plaza Inn ......................................................................................96 

Abbott Building Company .................................................................97 

Cowboys Resources Corp. 

Don Crawford & Associates 

Fasken Oil & Ranch 

George W. Bush 

Childhood Home Museum 

SHARING THE HERITAGE ✦ 63

The CAF World War II era P-51 

Mustangs Tuskegee Airmen and 

Gunfighter take flight at the CAF 

AIRSHO in Midland. 

PHOTO BY FRANK MARMILLO. 

COMMEMORATIVE AIR FORCE & 

CAF AIRPOWER MUSEUM 

The Commemorative Air Force (CAF) and 

the CAF Airpower Museum, headquartered in 

Midland, are dedicated to acquiring, restoring 

and preserving—in flying condition—a complete 

collection of combat aircraft flown by all 

the military services of the United States. 

This ambitious mission was launched in 

1957 with only one plane and the determination 

of a small group of friends led by CAF 

founder Lloyd P. Nolen. 

Nolen, a World War II Army Air Forces flight 

instructor, and his supporters pooled their 

money to purchase a P-51 Mustang, and they 

shared the pleasure and expense of maintaining 

the aircraft. 

On a Sunday morning in the fall of 1957, 

several of the pilots arrived at the airport in 

Mercedes, Texas, where the P-51 was hangared 

to take the Mustang called Red Nose out for a 

spin. When they arrived at the hangar, the 

pilots discovered that someone had painted a 

sign on the side of the Mustang’s fuselage, 

just under the stabilizer. The sign read, 

“Confederate Air Force.” 

The name that started as a joke on the side 

of a plane stuck, and the group of veteran 

pilots began referring to themselves as the 

Confederate Air Force, a light-hearted attempt 

to poke fun at their rag-tag beginnings. 

By 1960 the group, led by Nolen and Marvin 

‘Lefty’ Gardner, had begun to search seriously 

for other World War II aircraft, but it soon 

became apparent that few remained in flying 

condition. By the end of the war, America had 

produced nearly 300,000 aircraft. Just fifteen 

years later, almost all the warbirds were gone. 

Decommissioned and stripped of armament 

and instruments, most of these proud warriors 

were scrapped or abandoned. No one, not even 

the Air Force or Navy, was preserving the 

historic aircraft that changed the world forever. 

The CAF vowed to restore and fly these 

World War II-era aircraft and what was started 

as a hobby became an urgent mission to 

preserve history. The group was chartered 

as a nonprofit Texas corporation in 1961 

and has grown to become an international 

organization. In 2001 the members of CAF 

voted to change the organization’s name to 

one that better reflects its mission—the 

Commemorative Air Force. 

After collecting flying warbirds for more 

than half-a-century, the Commemorative Air 

Force is the largest flying museum in the world. 

The CAF is a nonprofit aviation association 

dedicated to honoring American Military 

Aviation through flight, exhibition, and remembrance 

by maintaining a flying museum of 

classic military aircraft. 

Today, the CAF has approximately 8,500 

members and a fleet of more than 150 airplanes 

from military conflicts since World War II. Most 

of the planes are American, although a few 

significant foreign aircraft are included. For 

care and operation, the aircraft are distributed 

throughout the country to more than seventy 

units. These units, composed of CAF members 

and volunteers, restore and operate the planes, 

which are viewed by more than 10 million 

spectators each year. 

These historic aircraft are more than a mere 

collection of flyable warbirds. The CAF’s fleet of 

warbirds, known as the ‘Ghost Squadron’ 

recreates, reminds and reinforces the lessons 

learned from the defining moments in American 


military aviation history. The demands of aerial 

combat drove the great technological advances 

in aviation that occurred during and after 

World War II. Many different types of aircraft 

were developed, often designed for very 

specific missions. 

The CAF’s mission is to keep these historic 

planes in flying condition by repairing, 

rebuilding and piloting these unique assets. 

Future generations will benefit from the CAF’s 

preservation efforts, educational programs, 

museum exhibits and air shows. 

The Commemorative Air Force International 

Headquarters is located in Midland, along 

with the nationally-accredited CAF Airpower 

Museum. Since relocating to Midland in 

1991, the CAF has hosted AIRSHO ® at Midland 

International Airport. AIRSHO is one of the 

largest events held in Midland and brings 

visitors from around the world. 

The Airpower Museum is located at the CAF 

Headquarters in Midland. The CAF Airpower 

Museum shares a rich history with the CAF. 

Once the CAF began restoring and preserving 

the World War II-era combat airplanes, a small 

museum began to grow as artifacts were 

donated to the CAF. In 1965 the first museum 

building was completed at old Rebel Field in 

Mercedes, Texas. When the CAF and museum 

moved to Harlingen, Texas in 1968, both 

continued to grow. The first museum-trained 

employee was hired in 1986 and the CAF 

Airpower Museum was born as a separate 

nonprofit organization in 1989. In 1991 the 

museum, along with CAF, moved to its current 

location in Midland. 

Today, the CAF Airpower Museum, located 

adjacent to the Midland International Airport 

in Midland, is dedicated to preserving 

the complete history of World War II military 

aviation and the memory of the men and 

women who built, serviced and flew the 

historic military aircraft. 

Recognized for its collection of authentic 

World War II artifacts and memorabilia— 

including uniforms of Allied and Axis countries, 

armament, photographs, weapons, and equipment—the 

museum houses 100,000 square feet 

of ‘hands-on’ permanent exhibits that detail the 

story of World War II to the introduction of the 

Atomic Age. The museum provides interactive 

exhibits that illustrate aviation concepts and 

events from every theatre of the war. 

The CAF Airpower Museum is accredited 

by the American Association of Museums. 

Accreditation certifies that a museum operates 

according to the standards set forth by the 

museum profession, manages its collections 

responsibly and provides quality service to the 

public. In 2006 the museum became an official 

The crew of the CAF’s A-26 Lady 

Liberty proudly posts the American 

flag at the CAF AIRSHO. 

PHOTO BY BERNARD DELFINO. 


Top: Visit the CAF Airpower Museum 

to view the largest collection of 

authentic Nose Art ® collected from 

aircraft scrapped after World War II. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CAF ARCHIVES. 

Above: The CAF Airpower Museum is 

home to exhibits that tell the story of 

World War II, from the front-line to 

the home-front. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CAF ARCHIVES. 

affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in 

Washington, D.C. As a Smithsonian affiliate, 

it is the museum’s goal to expand the reach of 

the Smithsonian and broaden the availability of 

different types of collections and resources. 

Believing with writer Robert Heinlein that 

“A generation which ignores history has no past 

and no future,” the CAF’s objectives are to: 

• Acquire, restore and preserve in flying 

condition a complete collection of combat 

aircraft, which were flown by all military 

services of the United States and selected 

aircraft of other nations for the education 

and enjoyment of present and future 

generations of Americans. 

• Provide museum buildings for the permanent 

protection and display of these aircraft 

as a tribute to the thousands of men 

and women who built, serviced, and 

flew them. 

• Perpetuate the memory in the hearts of 

all Americans the spirit in which these 

great planes were flown in the defense of 

our nation. 

• Establish an organization having the 

dedication, enthusiasm, and esprit de corps 

necessary to operate, maintain and preserve 

these aircraft as symbols of our American 

military aviation heritage. 

If you would like to become part of 

this great mission, you can become a member 

of the CAF and “Get Your Hands on 

History” by helping keep the CAF flying. 

For more information, please check the 

websites at www.commemorativeairforce.org 

or www.airpowermuseum.org. Moving with 

the future of communications, the CAF 

also has Facebook and Twitter accounts. 

Check Facebook under CAF Airpower Museum 

and Commemorative Air Force; or twitter 

CAFMuseum and CAF1957. 

Become a CAF member and “Keep ‘Em Flying!” 


The Petroleum Museum is the largest museum 

of its kind in the nation giving an overall 

picture of the petroleum industry. It is a 

privately funded educational institution that 

was built to tell the intriguing story of oil— 

the area’s largest industry. The Museum also 

outlines the cultural history of the Permian 

Basin before and after the discovery of oil. 

At the Petroleum Museum, you can explore 

500 million years of geologic history during 

which the oil-rich West Texas and southeastern 

New Mexico developed. Walk along a reef’s 

edge, thirty feet below the surface of the 

Permian Sea, as it was 230 million years ago. 

Relive centuries of adventure, hard work and 

uncertain risks while learning about hearty men 

and women who tamed the Permian Basin. 

From the Indians to the wildcatters, the Spanish 

explorers to the ranchers—their heritage laid 

the foundation of our modern world. 

The Petroleum Hall of Fame pays tribute to 

the individuals “who have made outstanding 

contributions to the development of the petroleum 

industry or who have served as worthy 

examples to those in the industry.” 

The Chaparral Gallery, located in the 

Transportation Wing tells the story of Jim Hall 

and the legendary Chaparral race cars. 

The Library and Archives Center tells the 

story of the petroleum industry, the history 

of the companies, corporations and related 

organizations, as well as the story of the men 

and women of the industry. An excellent 

collection of early photographs portray the 

discovery wells, early equipment, men and 

animals at work, and early ‘boom towns” of 

the Basin. 

A variety of educational programs 

are available to the Permian 

Basin community. Outreach topics 

include fossils, geology, area history, 

Indians, and dinosaurs. Scout 

camp-ins and school tours are also 

offered. Adult lunch and lectures 

are offered monthly featuring a 

variety of topics. Family Science 

Nights, featuring hands-on science stations 

and free admission, are presented quarterly. 

The Petroleum Museum is open from 10:00 

a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday 

and from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sundays. 

We are closed New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving 

Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. An 

admission fee is charged and group discounts 

are available. For more information, visit our 

website at www.petroleummuseum.org. 

THE PETROLEUM 

MUSEUM 

Above: The Petroleum Museum 

at night. 

Below: The Petroleum Museum 

in 2007. 


ORTLOFF 

ENGINEERS, 

LTD. 

Below: The Ortloff Corporation 

Founders in 1962, Messrs. 

Robert. M. Leibrock, W. F. Ortloff, 

Roy E. Campbell, George H. 

Landreth, and F. H. Callaway. 

Bottom: Ortloff Technology Group, 

LLC, Board of Directors, from top left 

to right: Messrs. Kevin D. Sparks, 

L. Don Tyler, Rickey L. Smith, Craig 

A. Campbell, and bottom left to right: 

Robert C. Leibrock, John D. 

Wilkinson, and Hank M. Hudson. 

On February 1, 1962, The Ortloff 

Corporation began operation in two small 

offices in Midland, Texas. The beginning 

resulted from a group of four individuals 

recognizing the need for an integrated 

engineering construction firm in the Permian 

Basin. The four individuals were Robert M. 

Leibrock, George H. Landreth, Roy E. 

Campbell, and F. H. Callaway, who were 

operating a successful petroleum engineering 

consulting firm. 

W. F. Ortloff, who knew some members of 

the group from earlier work associations, was 

contacted by Campbell in the early part of 

1961 to determine his interest in heading up 

a proposed new firm. After several discussions 

and the legal work to incorporate a new 

company…in the passing of a year’s time…the 

two offices were rented and the company 

began operation. 

Ortloff’s first few months were spent 

making potential customers aware of the new 

services available and planning for future 

operations. In seven short years, Ortloff had 

catapulted to one of the top 400 engineering 

construction firms in the country, according 

to the national publication, Engineering News- 

Record. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, 

Ortloff maintained its market dominance as 

a major EPC contractor in the design and 

construction of liquids recovery, sour gas 

processing, and sulfur recovery facilities. 

As a result of the oil bust of the 1980s, The 

Ortloff Corporation operations were shut down 

in 1985, and a new company with a new focus 

was born—Ortloff Engineers, Ltd. 

Ortloff Engineers, Ltd. leveraged the 

reputation of The Ortloff Corporation and 

refocused its efforts to become a leading process 

consulting firm, developing and licensing 

NGL/LPG and sulfur recovery technologies. 

Ortloff Engineers, Ltd. has achieved its goal 

and is recognized as a worldwide leader in 

the area of cryogenic liquids recovery, sulfur 

recovery, and sour gas processing plant 

design. The experience, technical skills, and 

capabilities of this initial group have been 

enhanced by the addition of other highly 

qualified engineers and technicians, and by 

the increased use of computers for engineering 

design. Another major milestone occurred in 

2002 when Ortloff entered into a cooperative 

marketing agreement with UOP LLC, a 

large international technology licensor. The 

agreement enables UOP to market Ortloff 

technologies, both sulfur and liquids recovery, 

in most markets outside of the U.S. The 

agreement enables the UOP/Ortloff team to 

offer their clients the benefit of having a single 

source for all major technologies used in a gas 

processing facility. 

Arthur R. Laengrich led Ortloff Engineers, 

Ltd. as president from its inception in 1986 

until July 2003. Laengrich, a thirty-nine 

year veteran of Ortloff, announced his 

retirement and John D. Wilkinson, a twentynine 

year veteran of Ortloff at that time, 

succeeded Laengrich as president of Ortloff 

Engineers, Ltd. 

Ortloff’s parent company since its founding 

relocated to Dallas in 1988, and in making 


a decision in 2005 to focus more of its 

corporate resources in the area of residential 

and commercial building products, sold the 

Ortloff assets to a group of local investors and 

the Ortloff employees. 

The purchase was organized by the 

Campbell Family Properties’ representative, 

Craig Campbell, son of Roy E. Campbell. The 

$18 million deal resulted in keeping a 

$1.5 million payroll in Midland, along with 

twenty-one engineers and support personnel, 

and brought ownership and leadership of 

Ortloff back to Midland, where it all began. 

An article in the Midland Reporter-Telegram 

at the time of the acquisition quoted an official 

of the West Texas Energy Technology Initiative 

(WTETI), who said, “The sale will slow 

the ‘brain drain’ from the Permian Basin. 

Before substantial economic development 

can occur, we have to quit losing our great 

brain power.” 

“What is important,” added another official of 

WTETI, “is that money that was going out of 

town is now money staying in West Texas. It 

takes private investment 

and private funds to 

foster economic development 

and that’s what 

the West Texas Energy 

Technology Initiative is 

all about.” 

One of the exciting 

components of the new 

partnership on which 

both investors and 

employees agreed was 

a commitment to give 

back to the community in which they live. 

Ortloff wrote into its charter that a set percentage 

of all pre-tax profits be donated to local 

charities and named the program, ‘Live to 

Give Back.’ As of May 2010, five years from 

its inception, Ortloff has donated more than 

$1 million to Permian Basin charities. 

Ortloff has received numerous patents 

for many efficiency improvements in natural 

gas processing and LNG production/ 

processing. Ortloff remains at the forefront 

of innovation through a dedication to 

technology development. 

Technologies available to clients include 

Ortloff’s patented and proprietary LPG and 

NGL recovery processes, Ortloff’s proprietary 

gas processing plant design know-how, licenses 

to use Amoco’s sulfur recovery processes and 

know-how, Ortloff’s proprietary sulfur recovery 

process and design know-how, Ortloff’s proprietary 

sulfur vapor valves and sulfur drain seals, 

and secrecy and use agreements for essentially 

all gas treating processes. 

In the area of cryogenic liquids recovery, 

Ortloff has licensed technology for processing 

over 50 BSCFD of natural gas in more than 240 

plants ranging in size from 25 MMSCFD to 2.1 

BSCFD in over twenty countries as indicated on 

the “Ortloff Technology Around the World” 

map shown in this article. Ortloff has a patent 

portfolio of over 200 patents that address the 

NGL/LPG recovery market as well as innovative 

high-efficiency designs for LNG fractionation 

and production. 

Ortloff Engineers, Ltd. is located at 415 West 

Wall Street, Suite 2000 in Midland, Texas 

79701. For more information, visit their 

website at www.ortloff.com. 

Top, left: Camisea LPG Recovery 

Units of Pluspetrol Peru, S.A. near 

Malvinas, Peru. 

Top: President and CEO John D. 

Wilkinson, P.E. of Ortloff Engineers, 

Ltd. from July 2003 to May 2005; 

and president and CEO of Ortloff 

Technology Group, LLC, from June 

2005 to present. 

Above: Former President and CEO 

Arthur R. Laengrich, P.E. of Ortloff 

Engineers, Ltd. from 1986 to 

June 2003. 


OCCIDENTAL 

PETROLEUM 

CORPORATION 

Above: Oxy Permian employee 

monitors operations at sunrise in the 

Goldsmith Field, near Midland. 

With the largest of its worldwide 

production operations based in 

Midland, Oxy has grown to become 

the fourth-largest oil and gas 

company in the United States. 

Below: Oxy’s position in the Permian 

Basin makes the company the largest 

oil producer in Texas. Pump at the 

Dora Roberts Ranch oilfield. 

Occidental Petroleum Corporation moved 

into the Permian Basin in the early 1980s and 

found a home in Midland, where today Oxy 

Permian manages operations that make the 

company the largest oil producer in Texas. 

During the nearly three decades Oxy has 

been in the Midland area, the city’s oil and gas 

industry, job growth and business-friendly 

climate helped propel it to the top of the 

Milken Institute’s list of Best Performing U.S. 

Small Cities. 

Oxy has more than 3,500 employees and 

contractors and operates more wells than any 

other company in the Permian Basin, making it 

the largest oil company in Midland. Occidental 

Energy Transportation, Centurion Pipeline 

system and Occidental Energy Marketing, Inc., 

play a significant role in marketing and 

transporting the oil, natural gas and natural 

gas liquids that Oxy extracts from Permian 

Basin reservoirs. 

Oxy’s acquisition of Cities Service Company 

in 1982 opened the door to the Permian Basin 

and the oilfields of Midland. Oxy 

has continued to expand in the 

region with the purchase of 

Altura Energy Ltd. in April 2000 

and significant subsequent acquisitions 

from BP, ExxonMobil and 

PXP, as well as a number of smaller 

acquisitions. With the largest 

of its worldwide production 

operations based in Midland, 

Oxy has grown to become the 

fourth- largest oil and gas company 

in the United States. 

The Permian Basin extends 

throughout southwest Texas and 

southeast New Mexico and is one 

of the largest and most active 

oil basins in the United States, 

accounting for approximately 

nineteen percent of the nation’s 

total crude oil production. Oxy is 

the largest oil producer in the 

Permian Basin, and the leading 

operator among more than 1,500 

operators in the area. Oxy’s oil 

production accounts for twenty 

percent of the Permian Basin’s 

total production. Oxy’s Permian 

Basin acreage spans 3.6 million gross acres (2.2 

million net acres) and includes a deep inventory 

of more than 2,000 drilling locations. At the 

end of 2009, Oxy’s Permian Basin properties 

had 1.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in 

proved reserves. 

The Permian Basin, with its long-lived fields, 

provides many opportunities for the application 

of improved oil recovery techniques, including 

waterflooding and carbon dioxide flooding. The 

carbon dioxide flooding process, which has 

been more widely applied in the Permian 

Basin than anywhere else in the world, recovers 

oil that would not be otherwise produced, 

increasing domestic reserves. 

Oxy is a worldwide leader in using water 

and carbon dioxide to produce oil and extend 

the life of reservoirs. Highly trained and 

experienced, the employees of Oxy excel at 

reservoir simulation, water and carbon dioxide 

flood design, production and injection optimization, 

facilities design, and overall flood 

management. Sixty percent of Oxy’s Permian 


Basin production—including 

production at the 

North Cowden field near 

Midland—involves carbon 

dioxide flooding. The 

Century Plant, a new gas 

processing plant soon to 

open in Pecos County and 

the associated pipeline 

infrastructure, will provide 

a major new source of 

carbon dioxide to enable 

Oxy to continue to expand 

Oxy’s enhanced oil recovery 

operations in the 


Oxy uses traditional and other enhanced oil 

recovery technologies at the Goldsmith, South 

Cowden, Midland Farms and Dora Roberts 

Ranch oilfields, all of which are near Midland 

and Odessa. 

As in all of its worldwide operations, Oxy 

is committed to safeguarding the environment 

and protecting the health and safety of its 

employees in the Midland operations and 

nearby communities. A key metric of safety is 

the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Injury and 

Illness Incidence Rate (IIR). Oxy’s 2009 

worldwide employee IIR of 0.41 was the second 

best in company history and compares 

extremely well to the average IIR of 3.9 for all 

U.S. industries. Contractor safety performance 

also was exemplary in 2009, as evidenced by 

Oxy’s worldwide contractor IIR of 0.67—the 

company’s lowest to date. 

Oxy also places a high priority on community 

engagement. Working with local civic groups 

and organizations, Oxy strives to support community 

interests in Midland and Ector Counties 

and takes great pride in its outstanding record 

of accomplishment as a responsible and caring 

corporate neighbor. 

Oxy Permian employees volunteer for 

numerous causes and contribute to the success 

of local organizations, including the Midland 

Chamber of Commerce. In recent years, 

Oxy has supported the American Diabetes 

Association—Midland/Odessa; Christmas in 

Action; Harmony Home; Hospice of Midland; 

Hospice of Odessa; United Way chapters in 

Midland, Odessa and Andrews; and the 

Permian Basin Food Bank. Oxy Permian was a 

charter sponsor of the Midland Reporter- 

Telegram’s Newspaper in Education program. 

Oxy’s Midland commitment 

runs long and deep—distinguished 

by a tradition of success 

and creative, highly efficient 

operations in the Permian Basin. 

Oxy’s success comes from the 

dedicated efforts of a talented 

and experienced team combined 

with the application of innovative 

technology. The Permian 

Basin, with Midland at the center 

of the activity, is projected to 

continue as one of the major 

components of Oxy’s worldwide 

petroleum operations far into 

the twenty-first century. 

Above: An Oxy Permian employee 

checks gauges at the central tank 

battery at the Dora Roberts 

Ranch oilfield. 

Below: Drilling rig in the Goldsmith 

Field. Oxy is committed to safeguard 

the environment and protecting the 

health and safety of its employees and 

neighboring communities. 


MIDLAND 

COMMUNITY 

HEALTHCARE 

SERVICES 

Midland Community Healthcare Services was 

founded in 2004, after being operated by 

Midland Memorial Hospital for over twelve 

years, to provide high quality, efficient healthcare 

to all those in the community who need it. 

MCHS blends compassionate care and vast 

experience with a dedication to meet the needs 

of all its patients. 

The clinics operated by MCHS provide a full 

complement of primary healthcare services 

across all life cycles including behavioral health, 

and dental care. 

The mission and vision of MCHS is well summarized 

in the organization’s Values Statement, 

which reads: 

Above: Dr. Viola M. Coleman. 

Below: A view of the Viola M. 

Coleman Clinic, with its 

recent expansion. 

We believe that the Health Center is a sanctuary, 

a place of refuge for those who need healing 

and community. We will constantly strive to 

create a tolerant and caring environment for all 

our patients. 

We believe that all who enter our doors 

must be heard, valued, and honored for their 

way of being and knowing. 

We insist on a continuous progression in 

words and deeds toward a better understanding 

and service of the community’s needs. 

Through all our endeavors, we will promote 

the community’s ownership of the health center 

which will rely on the cultural wealth of West 

Texas to sustain and nurture Midland Community 

Healthcare Services. 

MCHS offers a low-cost or in some cases, nocost 

services by accessing many State and 

Federal Healthcare grants. Staff members help 

patients determine which programs they or their 

family may be eligible for, thus reducing out-ofpocket 

expenses. For those that qualify for the 

grants, the cost of their services is based on a 

sliding fee scale. 

One of the leaders in the establishment of 

MCHS was Dr. Viola M. Coleman, who pioneered 

desegregation efforts in West Texas. 

Dr. Coleman, who came to Midland in 1951, 

served as the city’s first African-American 

woman physician. She was a community activist 

and was instrumental in the desegregation of 

Midland Memorial Hospital and Midland 

schools. She served as the Medical Director at 

MCHS for many years. Dr. Coleman died in 

2005 at the age of eighty-six. 

MCHS operates several clinics. Pediatric 

services are offered at the Pediatric Services 

Clinic, 2500 Delano Street in Midland. The Pedi 


Clinic provides acute, chronic and well-childcare 

for patients from birth to age seventeen. 

Services provided include newborn hospital 

exams, general pediatric healthcare, management 

of chronic illnesses, vision/hearing screenings, 

locating community resources, referral to 

the dental and other specialty services, financial 

counselors, and referrals to the OB clinic for 

GYN services. 

The Women’s Services Clinic at 4214 

Andrews Highway in Midland helps women 

have healthier babies by offering high-quality, 

state-of-the-art technology in obstetrics, gynecology, 

family planning, prenatal care and 

childbirth education. Services provided at the 

Women’s Services Clinic include routine care 

from early pregnancy through birth, counseling 

about a healthy lifestyle, labor and delivery 

preparation and expectations of parenthood, 

post-partum care, family planning and Well- 

Woman care, social services, financial counseling, 

educational videos and childbirth education 

through Midland Memorial Hospital. 

Coleman Family Clinic, named in honor of 

Dr. Viola Coleman, is located at 801 East Florida 

in Midland. The Coleman Clinic offers adult, 

dental, behavioral health and pediatric services. 

Preventive services include annual physicals, lab 

work, and screening procedures and referrals 

to other specialty services. Other services 

include management of chronic illnesses such 

as hypertension, diabetes, COPD, education, 

financial counseling, prescription assistance and 

referrals to the OB Clinic for GYN services. 

MCHS now provides behavioral health 

counseling through the Coleman Family 

Medicine Clinic. Counseling is provided by an 

LPC-1 and is available for such conditions as 

depression, anxiety, PYSD, adjustment disorder, 

divorce, and grief. 

Midland Community Healthcare Services 

currently employs approximately 100 full time 

employees in its clinics and administrative 

offices. In any given year, MCHS sees a total of 

16,500 patients with a total of 60,000 office 

visits. Over one-third of all new births in 

Midland County were via MCHS’s clinics. 

The MCHS administrative offices are located 

at 600 North Marienfeld in Midland. For more 

information about MCHS and its services, check 

their website at www.midlandchs.org. 

Above: The main entrance of the 

Viola M. Coleman Clinic. 

Below: The MCHS Pediatric Clinic 

located on Delano Street. 


M. F. MACHEN 

Above: Mac in uniform at Coleman. 

Below: In 1970 with tool pusher, Jerry 

Gay (left), Mac discusses progress of 

his firm’s Rig #36 repairing a leak at 

Getty Oil’s Laughlin-Straughan Well 

No. 1. 

M. F. “Mac” Machen made things happen in 

thirty-six years of business. Mac was born the 

youngest of nine in 1917 in Calvin, Louisiana. 

By the time he turned two the family had 

moved to Winnfield, Louisiana, where his 

father had several interests and where Mac 

learned something about farming, dirt moving 

equipment and raising catfish. Machen Street 

in Winnfield was so named because of his 

family. Mac entered the U.S. Army Air Force 

during World War II, graduating in class 44F 

from the 304th Flying Training Detachment 

in Coleman, Texas. He was promoted to 

Lieutenant and after serving some time on a 

base in San Angelo, he was transferred to 

Midland Air Force Base, a bombardier-training 

base, as an instructor. After Mac was discharged 

from the AAF, he became a pilot for the late 

Fred Turner, owner of an oil company and 

resident of Midland. 

Mac started in business with little other than 

a lot of determination and the desire to 

succeed. When asked what got him into the 

business, Mac replied, “A hundred and twenty 

dollar electric grinder.” His first taste of 

construction-related work was grinding maul 

point bits for a dollar a bit. Soon after that, a 

tool pusher told Mac if he would buy a tractor 

he could dig mud pits on his drilling location. 

Not one to run from a challenge, Mac 

hocked his car for the down payment on an old 

8U D6 Caterpillar. Since he had never done 

much dirt work before, he had another guy 

show him how to dig a set of pits and Machen 

Contracting was off and running. Survival 

depended on ingenuity and resourcefulness in 

the early days. Mac worked the Sprayberry at 

first, hustling one set of pits after another. Once 

Mac struck a deal the “I’ll have to go get my 

operator” routine began. Mac would contract 

hauling his tractor into the general area and 

walk it in to the location and dig the pits. “Of 

course, I hauled the diesel and supplies in my 

old ‘49 Plymouth. My wife, Aileen, picked up 

parts in that old Plymouth too. I got a hundred 

and fifty dollars for a set of pits. I’d take that 8U 

and dig a set of pits in six hours and be gone.” 

As business increased, Mac added equipment 

and operators. Holding steady through the 

rough times of recession, changes in oil prices 

and the steel strike of 1957. 

The Machen offices moved into the family 

residence of fifteen years on Pecos Street. The 

original house, with additions, housed a 

computer in one room while in another the 

secretary talked on a radio-telephone that 

looked vintage 1950s. Other rooms provided 

offices for bookkeeper, foremen and his righthand 

man, Bobby Ellis. The property was 

donated to the First United Methodist Church 

in 2000. The new offices, on Interstate 20, built 

in the 1980s still serves as the main office with 

the ‘yard’, equipment, crew office and welding 

shop, down the road on Garden City Highway. 

Mac was well known for buying the best and 

first of new equipment. His work was topic in 

several of the oil business magazines such as 

Treanor News & Views, Detroit Diesel Power 

Parade, Drill Bit and the Official Journal, 

Association of Oilwell Servicing Contractors. He 

was the first to purchase a Caterpillar 963 Track 

Loader and one of the first owners of a 966D 

Wheel Loader in West Texas. He had forty plus 

pieces of Caterpillar equipment, sixteen well 

servicing units and a staggering number of 

trucks. When he was working, which was most 

of the time; he looked more like a cowboy than 

a tycoon. Never slow to get on a dozer and do 

the work himself whenever needed, he had 

over 250 employees during the years he was 

running the business. Mac was also quick to 

help a friend. If a company was having trouble 

paying for all the dirt work, he would invest in 

the well with a working interest and cover the 

costs himself. 

In 1976, Mac founded Mid-Frio Services, an 

oilfield services company in Pearsall, Texas, 

where his nephew Glenn Machen ran things. 

He acquired Russell & O’Donnel, Inc., in 1980 

and it was added to his other work-over rigs. 

Mac, Wayland Lacy, Wade Mitchell and Bobby 

Ellis stared Macpet Communications, Inc., in 

1983 and it is still in operation in 2010. 

Mac did have other interests outside the oil 

field. He believed in owning land, as he always 

said, “There is only so much of it and they 

won’t make any more.” Near Midland he 

bought property at Airpark to hanger the two 

Cessenas and off CR 1213 he had a stocked 

catfish pond and a large garden. He still kept 

property near his hometown in Louisiana but it 

was Machen Ranches in Upton County that was 


his love and where he devoted time and energy. 

The main ranch being only six sections, he 

leased two other ranches nearby with room 

enough for all the various livestock. It served as 

a place to get away without having to go too far. 

Always on call for the business, the ranch was a 

good diversion and a place to relax. Ninety-five 

pecan trees, an acre garden, forty acres planted 

in grass and ducks, geese, Guinea hens, 

chickens, 2 peacocks, wild turkeys, Spanish 

goats, Barbados sheep, Texas Longhorns, 

Herefords and dogs and cats. As if you could 

relax with all a ranch requires but it was a 

favorite place to go. 

Hard working, dedicated and always “just one 

of the guys.” Story goes that he never got mad but 

if he did you knew it because he would throw his 

hat on the ground. Everyone who knew him had 

a story about him and all the stories were good. If 

it was possible to show the Machen Contracting 

logo, you would notice that the colors are 

Caterpillar yellow and black. He was often asked 

why there was a drawing of a man standing on 

his head between a dozer and a derrick and his 

reply was often, “Well, I’m always standing on 

my head for some body.” I think it was more the 

fact that to make things happen he was willing to 

stand on his head to do it. 

Mac died in September 1986 and his wife 

Aileen followed in September 1989. Machen 

Contracting was taken over by his daughter 

Stephanie Machen from 1989 until September 

2004 when it was sold, having sold the well 

servicing division of the business earlier. Machen 

Contracting was operated by a Machen for fiftyfour 

years. Although it is a division of something 

else, it is still called Machen Contracting with a 

heritage of hard work, dedication and quality. 

But nothing is ever like the original. 

Left: Inspecting the operation of one of 

his eight Detroit Diesel powered rigs is 

easy for “Mac” Machen as he flies into 

job sites in his own plane. 

Mac was a member of the First Christian 

Church of Midland. He was a member of the 

Masonic Blue Lodge at Midkiff. He was a thirtysecond 

degree Mason and belonged to York Rite 

Shrine and was a member of the Suez Shrine 

Temple. He supported 4H clubs and bought 

a blue ribbon winner each year. He was 

acknowledged with a plaque dated 1981 to 

1986 from the “Lion’s & Lioness Clubs of 

Midland in recognition and appreciation for his 

loyalty and devotion to the handicapped 

children” by flying them in his private plane to 

the Texas Lion’s Camp for Disabled Children in 

Kerrville, Texas. 

Right: Mac checking out locations 

was routine. 


DAVIS, GERALD 

& CREMER, 

P.C. 

Davis, Gerald & Cremer “DGC” was founded 

in Midland in 1994, after its founders left Kemp 

Smith, the second oldest law firm in Texas. 

DGC provides high quality, value driven 

services to members of the business and 

financial communities in the Permian Basin 

and beyond. 

The firm is active in four major areas of 

practice: Trial and Appellate; Oil and Gas Title 

and Transactional; Business Organizations, 

Transactions, Mergers and Acquisitions; and 

Trusts and Estate Planning. 

The firm is growing and currently has 

fifteen lawyers. 

The shareholders of the firm are Frank N. 

Cremer, Robert P. Crumpler, Jr., John A. 

“Jad” Davis, Kristi Franklin Hyatt, and 

David H. Smith. 

Frank Cremer heads the Oil and Gas Title 

and Transactional Section of DGC. He is a 

San Francisco, California native who received 

his B.A. and law degrees from Baylor University. 

Rob Crumpler’s practice focuses on trial 

and appellate cases. He was born in Richmond, 

Virginia, received a B.A. degree from Austin 

College and earned a law degree from Texas 

Tech University. 

Jad Davis heads the Trial and Appellate 

Section. He is a Columbus, Georgia, native, 

received his undergraduate degree from Texas 

A&M University and his law degree from 

Baylor University. 

Kristi Hyatt heads the Trusts and Estate 

Planning Section. She is a native of Big Spring, 

Texas, received a B.S. degree from Howard 

Payne University, and earned her law degree 

from Baylor University. 

David Smith, as head of the Business 

Organizations, Transactions, Mergers and 

Acquisitions Section, is also actively involved in 

litigation. He is a native of Ballinger, Texas. He 

earned a B.S. from Boston University, an M.A. 

from Harvard University, and his law degree 

from the University of Houston. 

Since its inception, DGC has served Fortune 

500 companies as well as large independent 

and privately owned oil and gas clients in 

significant litigation and transactions. In many 


instances, DGC Law has worked in tandem 

with—and against—some of the largest firms 

and best lawyers in Texas and throughout the 

United States and Europe. 

DGC Trial and Appellate lawyers have 

defended and prosecuted cases involving 

virtually every aspect of the exploration, 

production, and marketing of oil and gas. DGC 

lawyers have tried cases involving everything 

from real estate, banking and financial services, 

manufacturing, insurance, healthcare and even 

trade secret/intellectual property disputes, 

insurance coverage disputes, employment 

disputes, serious personal injury defense, to ad 

valorem tax cases. 

DGC Oil and Gas Title and Transactional 

lawyers negotiate and document key acquisition 

of producing properties and handle all aspects 

of title examination in addition to advising oil 

and gas clients on ongoing business matters. 

DGC’s Business Organizations, Transactions 

and Mergers and Acquisitions lawyers handle 

negotiations in many different business areas, 

as well as private stock offerings, asset sales, 

stock sales, and reorganizations and mergers. 

DGC’s Trusts and Estate Planning 

lawyers work with individuals, families, 

and organizations in matters pertaining 

to wealth transfers and related transfer 

tax issues, including gifts, wills, trusts, 

probate, and special needs planning and 

asset protection. 

The DGC lawyers are active in the Midland 

community and in a number of local 

organizations. These include service on the 

Boards of the United Way, the High Sky 

Children’s Ranch, and the Museum of the 

Southwest. They take service and leadership 

positions with their churches and other 

places of worship, sponsor and volunteer at 

everything from the American Cancer Society, 

the Hunt for Heroes, the YMCA programs, to 

the Bynum School. 

DGC is proud to be a mainstay in the 

Midland legal community and look forward to 

making further contributions to our dynamic 

city and the Permian Basin region. 

Davis, Gerald & Cremer is located at 400 

West Illinois, Suite 1400 in Midland, Texas, and 

on the Internet at www.dgclaw.com. 


WEINER 

OIL & GAS 

TEXAS CRUDE 

OPERATOR 

Ted and Stanley Weiner were sons of Sam 

“Skipper” Weiner, who came to the Midland 

area in 1927. 

The family was in the supply business, 

machine shops, and drilling rigs. The principal 

office was in Wink, eighty miles west of 

Midland. The brothers banked with the First 

National Bank in Midland, John Butler, cashier. 

At the end of World War II, Ted and Stanley 

Weiner returned to Midland, while Skipper 

maintained his head office in Fort Worth. Jay 

Floyd sold a lease on his father’s ranch in 

Midland County to Ted Weiner in 1948. Parts 

of the lease were farmed out to Tex Harvey, 

on which he drilled the discovery well of the 

Sprayberry Field. 

companies. In 1967 the companies were 

merged into the Fluor Corporation, of which 

the family represented—along with the Fluor 

family—the largest ownership group. 

Stanley married Mary Don Mask in 1946 

and settled at 1507 West Storey. They had five 

children, all of whom attended schools in 

Midland. Stanley is buried in Midland and is 

survived by his wife, four children, and seven 

grandchildren. Ted married Lucile Clements 

in 1939 and moved to Fort Worth in 1942. 

The family’s oil company, Texas Crude, has 

offices in the Wilco Building on West Wall. 

The long business and personal associations 

produced a number of stories that have become 

part of the family lore: 

Above, left to right: Sam “Skipper”, 

Stanley and Ted Weiner. 

The Weiner’s discovered five more fields in 

the area between 1948 and 1951. These fields 

were later found to be part of one giant field 

that is currently the largest producing oil 

field in the contiguous forty-eight states. It 

now produces more than 100,000 barrels of oil 

a day and there are five major oil zones still 

under development with more than twenty 

drilling rigs currently operating. 

Ted became the senior partner in the family 

business. He was also the founder of Coral 

Drilling Company and five other drilling 

One story deals with J. E. “Bob” Hill, 

a Midland rancher and friend of Skipper’s. 

Bob bought a truck load of line pipe to move 

water around his ranch to feed the cattle. 

Times were tough and Bob was not able to pay 

for the pipe. One day, Skipper bumped 

into Bob, who invited him to his home for 

some lemonade. He asked Skipper how much 

he owed him for the pipe he had bought 

in 1955. The amount was $350. When they 

finished the lemonade, he gave Skipper a 

check for $350. Skipper thanked him for the 


lemonade and promised to get together more 

often in the future. It was a hot day and the 

lemonade tasted real good on Bob’s veranda. 

completed the discovery well in the Tex 

Harvey field, Jay Floyd asked Ted if he could 

find a big artificial diamond ring. He planned 

to flash it in front of one of the 

Cowden boys and casually say, 

“Have you had any rain in the 

Dollar Hide Ranch lately?” For 

years, Jay had to listen to the 

Cowden’s talk about all the 

wonderful wells being drilled 

on their spread while the 

Floyd Ranch did not have any 

production. Jay and Ted bought 

leases and drilled two new 

discoveries together in the 

Sprayberry Trend. They called 

one of the fields the Weiner- 

Floyd field. 

Skipper died in 1958 and was 

survived by his wife and four 

children. Stanley died in 1969 

and Ted passed away in 1979. 

Their organizations are still 

operating and drilling wells in 

the Midland area. Skipper was 

honored by having his photograph 

hung in the Pioneer Museum 


Left: Stanley and Ted Weiner fishing. 

Below: Charles Weiner. 

George Abell liked for 

Skipper to tell stories about 

the ‘good old days’. Skipper 

once told George that one time 

when he was gone, Ted lent his 

gas engine to Buck Sturn. Buck 

used it to drill the discovery 

well that was the first well in 

Ward County. Ted also lent a 

string of eight-inch pipe. When 

the well was completed as a 

discovery, Buck returned the 

engine and the pipe to Ted 

and gave a one-eighth interest in 

the oil well to Ted as payment 

for the loan. Skipper said he 

was upset with Ted until 

Buck gave him an interest in 

the well. 

The Scharbauer Hotel coffee 

shop was the place where old 

friends met to visit. When Tex 


ADVANCE 

CONSULTANTS 

CORP. 

A TRIBUTE TO 

VICTOR S. FRIGON 

Above: Victor S. Frigon, 1921-2009. 

Below: Advance Consultants Corp.’s 

headquarters at 2819 West Industrial 

Avenue in Midland. 

Advance Consultants Corp., a pioneer 

in efforts to provide America with an 

adequate supply of oil and gas, reflects the 

vision, courage and determination of its 

founder, Victor S. Frigon. 

“Vic” Frigon was born September 18, 

1921, and raised on a western Kansas 

farm where he learned the importance 

of hard work from an early age. The 

middle son of nine children, Vic grew up 

breaking horses, milking cows and 

harvesting wheat. 

Vic attended military college for a 

year and then, only three months after 

the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor, 

volunteered for the U.S. Army. He trained 

as a demolition expert and combat 

engineer at City College of New York 

before being assigned to the Corps of 

Army Engineers. He was sent to Europe 

where he helped build bridges and 

deactivate anti-tank and personnel mines. 

In Germany, he courageously led troops 

behind enemy lines at night to deactivate mines 

so bridges could be built for U.S. troop 

crossings of the Rhine River. Vic, who fought 

in the strategically vital Battle of the Bulge, 

was injured behind enemy lines and spent 

eight months recovering from his wounds in an 

Army hospital. 

Returning to Kansas after his discharge, 

Vic met Barbara Hodson and they were wed 

at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in 

Wichita on August 26, 1947. He also returned 

to school and graduated from Wichita State 

University in 1949 with a degree in Petroleum 

Geology and a minor in Engineering. 

After college, Vic and Barbara moved nine 

times in one year while Vic worked the oil 

patch in a number of West Texas towns. They 

settled in Midland in 1952 and Vic gained 

valuable experience working as a geologist 

and well sitter for several oil companies. 

In 1956, Vic organized his own company, 

Advance Consultants Corp., a hydrocarbon 

mud logging company operating in the Permian 

Basin of West Texas and New Mexico. Advance 

Consultants mission is to be the best provider 

of hydrocarbon mud logging services in every 

area it serves. The company has logged more 

than 4,000 wells in the Permian Basin, 

including one of the deepest on-shore wells in 

Texas at 27,018 feet. Advance Consultants has 

also been a leader in horizontal logging. 

Vic received the Pioneer Award from the 

West Texas Geological Society in 2007. 

He became a member of the West Texas 

Geological Society in 1953 and served in a 

number of positions with the organization 

over the years. Vic was also a member of 

the Wildcatters Club, a Colonel in the 

Commemorative Air Force, a member of 

the Exchange Club, the Petroleum Club, 

and the Midland Chamber of Commerce. 

Advance Consultants is now operated by 

Vic’s daughter, Cheryl Jones, and continues 

to lead the way in detecting and analyzing 

gaseous hydrocarbons to help find oil and gas 

for America. 


MIDLAND 

COLLEGE 

Midland College was established in 1969 

when the residents of Midland—by a margin of 

almost four to one—voted to become a part of 

the Permian Junior College System, composed 

of Midland College and Odessa College. 

The school expanded in 1972 with the 

formation of the Midland College District. 

Bonds in the amount of $5.1 million were 

issued for construction of a 115-acre campus 

and groundbreaking for the new campus was 

held in October 1973. Al G. Langford was 

named first president of the new institution. 

The main campus of Midland College is located 

at 3600 North Garfield. In addition, the school 

operates an Advanced Technology Center, Cogdell 

Learning Center, an Aviation Maintenance 

Technology Hangar, Professional Pilot Preparation 

Hanger, Child Care Center, Petroleum Professional 

Development Center, and Building Trades Center 

throughout the community. Midland College 

classes are also held at the Williams Regional 

Technical Training Center in Fort Stockton. 

Today, Midland College offers more than fifty 

associate degree and certificate options, and is a 

Level II (four-year) institution, accredited to offer 

a Bachelor of Applied Technology (BAT) degree. 

In addition to the school’s BAT degree, students 

may earn upper-level degrees on the Midland 

campus from various four-year universities. 

More than 163,000 people have taken classes 

at Midland College since 1972, and current 

student enrollment is 6,982. During the 2008- 

2009 school year, the college awarded 493 

Associate and Baccalaureate Degrees and eightythree 

Certifications. 

The college also invests in the quality of life 

in Midland. The Phyllis & Bob Cowan 

Performing Arts Series and the Davidson 

Distinguished Lecture Series recruit renowned 

performers and speakers to the campus for free 

community concerts and lectures. The campus 

is also home to the McCormick Art Gallery and 

co-produces theatre presentations with Midland 

Community Theatre. The college’s newly 

renovated Al G. Langford Chaparral Center is 

the largest public facility in town and hosts 

concerts, trade shows, and sporting events. 

Midland College’s annual operating budget is 

nearly $56 million. The full-time instructional 

staff totals 151, including ninety-six with 

advanced degrees. 

The school is supported by one of the top ten 

community college foundations in the nation. 

Interest from endowments totaling $5.7 million has 

been placed into operating budgets for campus 

upgrades, technology, instruction, and other 

projects. Since 1992 the college has raised in excess 

of $95 million from public and private sources. 

In 2005, to better serve an ever-increasing student 

body, Midland College passed a $41.8 million 

bond that is providing newly expanded learning 

facilities and other campus improvements, which 

include state-of-the-art classrooms, 

lecture halls, and laboratory 

facilities and resources. 

Looking to the future, the 

faculty and staff of Midland 

College are committed to 

instruction that sustains a lifelong 

quest for knowledge and 

provides students with academic, 

intellectual, occupational, 

and professional proficiency. 

Additional information is 

available on the Internet at 

www.midland.edu. 


J. MARK COX, 

DDS 

J. Mark Cox, DDS. 

Dr. J. Mark Cox says his original intent was 

to return to his home town of Monahans after 

he finished dental school in Houston. But, after 

several years in Houston, he knew he did not 

want to live in such a big city, but he was afraid 

Monahans might be too small. 

The summer before his senior year, 

Dr. Cox visited a friend in Odessa who had 

been a few years ahead of him in school 

and asked where he would settle if he 

were beginning a dental practice. The friend 

replied that he would consider Midland 

because no new dentists had moved to town 

in several years. With this inside information, 

Dr. Cox talked with one of the supply salesmen 

who introduced him to several of the dentists 


Several months before graduation in 1977, 

Dr. Cox received a call from Dr. James 

Borron. He had injured his hand in a skiing 

accident and asked if Dr. Cox would consider 

coming into his practice as an independent 

practitioner and help him catch up on patient 

treatments that had been missed while he 

was recuperating. 

Dr. Cox explains that Dr. Borron and Bill 

Franklin at Midland National Bank were 

instrumental in his coming to Midland and 

being able to open his own practice in 1977. 

“Dr. Ken Kimbrough was the first dentist I met 

in Midland and he was also very encouraging 

about coming here,” he adds. 

Dr. Cox accepted the offer from Dr. Borron 

and several months later, when Dr. Borron 

decided to get out of dentistry, he bought 

the practice. In 1984, he moved to the space 

adjacent to his original office at 2109 West 

Texas and has continued to practice there to the 

present day. 

Not long after he opened his practice, 

one of Midland’s long-time dentists, Dr. A. P. 

Shirey, passed away. The dentist’s hygienist, 

Sibyl Helmer, had met Dr. Cox and told many 

of Dr. Shirey’s patients about him. “Several of 

those people are still my patients today, more 

than thirty years later,” Dr. Cox says. 

Over the years, Dr. Cox has become one of 

the most respected dentists in the area and 

the practice now includes an office manager, 

receptionist, two dental assistants, and one 

full-time and one part-time Dental Hygienist, 

in addition to Dr. Cox. 

In addition to his dental practice, Dr. Cox 

learned about the Leadership Midland program 

and became a member of the third class to go 

through the program in 1980-81. He is also an 

avid supporter of the Dale Carnegie Course and 

is a former instructor himself, teaching a course 

to Junior Achievement classes. 


The two-way radio equipment so vital to 

companies doing work in the oil fields was still 

tube type and required constant maintenance 

when Walt Lacy and Dave Murphy started their 

own business in 1961. 

The two men were working for a communications 

company that failed and were able 

to obtain the company for unpaid wages 

and a promise to pay off the company’s 

debts. At that time, the company was known 

as Permian Communications and the first 

employee was Wade Mitchell, who is still with 

the company. 

The business expanded to Big Spring and 

Snyder, Texas, in the mid 1960s. The company 

split in 1972 and the Midland offices became 

Petro Communications. 

Lacy and Murphy were the original owners 

from 1961 to 1972; Lacy ran the business alone 

from 1972 to 1978; and Wade Mitchell and 

Wayland Lacy were the owners from 1978 to 

2001. Mitchell has been the owner of Petro 

Communications since 2001. 

In the early days, much of the company 

business consisted of installing and servicing 

two-way radios and serving as a Motorola 

service center. By 2009 the company was 

selling, installing and maintaining equipment 

for voice and data communications, primarily 

Motorola or Microwave Data Systems. The 

company also sells and installs towers and 

buildings for communications equipment. 

Communications equipment and installation 

has changed dramatically during the last 

fifty years. In the 1960s, installation and 

maintenance required climbing drilling rigs and 

well service units, an often dangerous job. One 

person could keep only 300 units operating in 

the early days; today one person can maintain 

several thousand units. Mobile radios have 

evolved from large, forty pound units to today’s 

portables weighing only a few ounces. 

As with many companies, the fortunes of 

Petro Communications have been closely tied 

to the ups-and-downs of the oil industry. Oil 

prices rose from $3 a barrel in 1962 to $140 a 

barrel in 2008, then dropped back to $70 a 

barrel in 2009. Fortunately, automation and 

scada devices opened up a new market for 

communications equipment that could send 

and receive data. 

Petro’s customer base has changed over the 

years from public safety entities, major oil 

companies and drilling contractors, and a few 

oil field service providers to public safety, 

homeland security, ambulances, schools, 

county road and bridge departments, major oil 

companies, independent oil operators, oil field 

service companies, in-city service companies, 

and oil field automation companies. 

Petro also sells and services vehicle cell 

phones for individuals and businesses; installs 

lights, sirens, radars, cameras and other devices 

in public safety vehicles; and installs computers 

in vehicles to provide Internet service and 

data communications between field units and 

central office. 

PETRO COMMUNICATIONS, INC. 

Top: The repair shop and 

fleet vehicles. 

Above: Mike Mitchell and 

Wade Mitchell. 


FAMILY 

WELLNESS 

CENTER 

Drs. Anjana and Ashutosh Rastogi. 

Too many Americans neglect their health, 

hoping that a cure will be found should they 

become ill. The truth is that it is much easier to 

prevent most diseases than it is to treat them. 

At Family Wellness Center, the emphasis is on 

Advanced Prevention, a relatively new tool to 

monitor and maintain a healthy lifestyle. 

Family Wellness Center was founded by 

Anjana Rastogi, M.D., who came to Midland 

in 2000 to practice at the Heart Center. 

She opened her own practice in 2001. A native 

of India, Dr. Rastogi graduated with honors 

from M.L.B. Medical College. She was a 

research fellow at the New England Medical 

Center in Boston and did her internship 

and residency in the Department of Medicine at 

Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) 

in Boston. 

Dr. Rastogi is Board Certified in internal 

medicine and a Board Certified densitometrist. 

Before relocating to Midland, Dr. Rastogi 

taught in medical schools in Boston and 

at Texas A&M University, served as chief 

medical resident at Boston Medical Center, was 

an attending physician in acute care impatient 

wards, and a staff physician at Manchester 

VA Medical Center, Lowell VA OPC in Lowell, 

Massachusetts, and Temple VA Medical Center 

in Temple, Texas. 

Dr. Rastogi is married to Dr. Ashutosh 

Rastogi and they are the parents of a twin boy 

and girl, now twenty-four years old. 

Dr. Rastogi practiced at two different 

locations before building the Family Wellness 

Center at 5813 West Wadley Avenue. At this 

location, Dr. Rastogi has been able to provide a 

more comprehensive Internal Medicine Practice 

to all adults sixteen and above, with the main 

emphasis on preventive medicine. 

The Family Wellness Clinic emphasizes 

stroke and heart attack prevention following the 

Bale-Doneen method. Specialized cardiovascular 

risk assessment testing includes CIMT, coronary 

calcium score, and more advanced lab tests. 

Prevention of osteoporosis, diabetes and other 

preventable diseases is also emphasized. The 

Clinic also offers genetic testing. 

At the request of many 

patients, Dr. Rastogi has 

incorporated several aesthetics 

procedures in her practice. 

She has been well 

trained in various dermatological 

procedures during her 

long medical career and offers 

a variety of services 

to her patients. The Laser 

Palomar System is used for 

hair removal, acne treatment, 

skin tightening through 

infrared light, and fractional 

non-ablative skin resurfacing. 

Mole removal, rosacea treatment, 

removal of pigmented 

lesions and prominent facial 

veins is also provided. A 

VelvaShape device is utilized 

for circumferential reduction 

and treatment of cellulite. 

Another innovation, Pelleve’ is used for 

smoother, tighter skin and has been authorized 

for treatment of facial wrinkles without surgery. 

Botox and several fillers are also offered in the 

Clinic for more aesthetic care. 

In addition to Dr. Rastogi, the staff at Family 

Wellness Center includes Physician Assistant 

Hilda Baesa, Office Manager Liz Madrid, 

Medical Assistant Yesenia Suchil, and 

Administrative Assistants Krystal Sanchez and 

Punan Patel. 


Lone Star Abstract & Title Co. was founded 

by Tom Ingram, who came to Midland as a 

young attorney in 1949 and began issuing 

title policies. In 1951, Ingram and two partners 

invested about $5,000 each and Lone Star 

Abstract & Title Co. was born. Within a year, 

Ingram bought out both partners. 

In a 1999 interview, Ingram noted that 

before he came to Midland to open the title 

company, no one locally was issuing title 

insurance policies. Once Lone Star was able 

to issue title policies, “The format of doing 

business in Midland changed overnight.” 

Ingram graduated from high school in 

Louisiana, and then attended the University 

of Texas where he received his law degree 

and passed the bar in 1943. He served as an 

officer in the Army, mostly in the Pacific, until 

March 1946. After discharge, Ingram learned 

real estate law by working for Lawyer’s Title 

Company in Dallas. 

Offices for LSAT were located originally in 

downtown Midland at the present site of the 

Midland Center. In 1961, offices moved to 206 

North Colorado where they remained until 

1978 when Lone Star moved to its current 

location at 600 North Loraine. 

In 1975, Ingram hired Joe Campbell from 

Service Title Company and, in the process, 

ended up purchasing the company. Ingram 

remained the sole owner until 1980 when he 

sold the business to Campbell and a few minor 

partners. Joe eventually bought out the minor 

partners and, in 2000, sold a majority interest 

to his son, Jack Campbell. 

Lone Star has survived through the booms 

and busts of the Midland economy since 1950 

and has been involved in many important local 

real estate transactions over the years. Lone Star 

worked with the group that purchased and 

began the George W. Bush Childhood Home 

organization, the transactions involved in the 

Scarbrough Sports Complex, and many of the 

city’s projects over the years. Lone Star has been 

a part of the growth of Midland through many 

important and defining real estate transactions. 

Lone Star has a long record of community 

involvement and charitable activities. Ingram 

was very involved with Midland Memorial 

Hospital as a member of the Board of Directors 

and as a member of the Board of Governors. 

LONE STAR ABSTRACT & TITLE CO., INC. 

He and his wife, Jackie, have supported the 

Midland Community Theatre, COM Aquatics, 

the YMCA, and many other charitable organizations. 

Jack and Joe Campbell and Senior Vice 

President and General Counsel J. Brian Martin 

have a long standing relationship with Habitat 

for Humanity. Lone Star has also supported 

The Rotary Club, Junior League of Midland, 

COM Aquatics, Centers for Children & 

Families, United Way, CASA of West Texas, 

MARC, Inc., and many activities of the Midland 

Independent School District. 

Lone Star currently employs twenty-five 

people and continues to provide a quality 

product and superior service to those in 

Midland County. 

Top: 600 North Loraine, our business 

location since 1978. 

Above: Joseph W. Campbell, Jr., 

and Jack W. Campbell, the current 

owners of Lone Star Abstract & Title 

Co., Inc. 


FITE FIRE & 

SAFETY 

Safety Instrumentation, Inc., dba Fite Fire 

& Safety, was incorporated in 1981 by Lyn Fite, 

but was not activated until 1985. Then, in 

early 1986, came the first of three major 

oil busts. 

“Having activated our company on very 

limited financial resources and then having the 

first big oil bust hit, we found ourselves just 

trying to keep alive,” recalls Lyn. “I have had 

the distinction of visiting with every bank 

president in Midland, pleading my case, only to 

be patted on the back, pointed toward the office 

door and told to ‘come back when you have 

some money.’” 

Today, Lyn reports, the banks come to him 

asking for his business. 

Fite Fire & Safety, a sales and service 

organization, serves the oil industry with 

environmental health and safety products. 

The company is a major distributor for 

leading manufacturers in the field, including 

gas detection, fire protection, respiratory 

equipment, fall protection, and confined space 

equipment. Fite also provides stand-by rescue 

teams, safety equipment, industrial hygiene 

equipment, environmental products, training 

and an emergency response team. 

Fite Fire & Safety has assembled a team of 

qualified and experienced personnel, current 

in applied technology, and competent in their 

professional trade to meet the demands of 

today’s industry. This team is backed by skilled 

inside sales, customer service and technical 

service personnel to process customer’s orders 

in a timely and quality-controlled manner. 

Fite Fire & Safety became an OSHA 

Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star 

Worksite in May of 2006. This is the highest 

award for safety given to a company by the 

federal government. Fite is the first VPP 

Star Worksite in Midland and the first in 

our SIC Code nationally. The Owner/ 

President/CEO, Lyn Fite, and company Vice 

President, Tim Nolen, became Special 

Government Employees (SGE) with OSHA in 

2008 and Fite Fire & Safety is the only 

company in OSHA’s Region VI (Texas, New 

Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana) 

where the President and Vice President both 

are SGEs. 

The company survived the oil bust and, in 

1991, was able to purchase its corporate office 

at 3012 West Kentucky Avenue in Midland. In 

1994, Lyn bought out his partner and became 

the sole company owner. 

A Fire Services Division was opened in 1999 

to do industrial fire training, and sell and 

service fire extinguishers and respiratory 

equipment. This division also provides 

emergency rescue services, primarily for 

confined space entries. 

The name of the company was changed to 

Fite Fire & Safety in 2001 to better describe 

what the company does. 

In 2008, Fite Fire & Safety acquired a large 

building and property on the west side of its 

corporate offices. This more than doubled the 

company’s physical property and provided 

ample room for future growth. The company 

also operates a Panhandle business unit office 

in Dumas, Texas. 

Fite Fire & Safety has 

grown from a very small revenue 

base in its early years to 

a company producing several 

million dollars annually. Fite 

employs about a dozen fulltime 

employees, although 

employment can swell to 

thirty to thirty-five during 

busy periods. The company 

services the oil and gas 

industry primarily, but is not 

limited to that industry. 

For additional information, 

please visit www.FiteFire.com. 


First United Methodist Church was the first 

church organized in Midland and, after more 

than 125 years, the church remains true to its 

mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the 

transformation of the world. 

The earliest settlers of Midland included a 

large number of Methodists who were determined 

that the Methodist Movement begun in 

England by John Wesley would grow strong 

in the new community being carved from 

the Texas prairie. The First Methodist Episcopal 

Church–South was organized by Reverend 

J. A. Scoggins on August 23, 1885 with six 

members, five of them women. 

Although the Methodists were the first to 

organize, the Baptists were the first to build a 

structure in Midland. The Baptists shared the 

little one-room frame building with other 

denominations until they could erect their 

own churches. 

In 1889 the Methodists borrowed $500 from 

the Church Extension Board and built a frame 

building on the west side of the 100 block of 

North Main Street. The minister at the time was 

Reverend J. W. Sims. His salary for the entire year 

amounted to $109, including old clothes and 

‘poundings,’ which were contributions of food. 

In 1894, as the county population passed 

the 1,000 mark, the church was moved to 

the corner of Main and Illinois and the 

original lots were sold. A red brick building, 

the church’s second structure, was 

built on the site in 1907. 

The third sanctuary to serve the congregation 

was completed and dedicated 

in 1943. Portions of this Mission-Style 

structure remain and are known as the 

Scharbauer Education and Fellowship Hall 

wings. In the early 1950s, one portion of the 

educational building was erected. The other 

section, housing offices and a library, were 

completed in 1960. 

As Midland and the Methodist population 

grew in the 1960s, an ambitious 

building plan was developed under the 

leadership of the pastor, Dr. Timothy 

Guthrie. The beautiful sanctuary, parlor 

and classrooms used by the congregation 

today were dedicated in 1968. The glass 

Memorial Chapel was added in 1976. 

Former President George W. Bush and his 

wife, Laura, were married in the chapel. 

Today, the First United Methodist 

Church of Midland, led by Senior Pastor, 

Dr. Tim Walker, serves a membership of 

2,500. At First Church the faith is deep, 

the people are friendly and the messages have 

heart and are relevant to life. The church offers 

traditional and contemporary worship services 

as well as a wide variety of Sunday School 

classes and a host of opportunities to serve. 

For more information about First United 

Methodist Church, please visit its website, 

www.firstmethodistmidland.com. 

FIRST UNITED 

METHODIST 

CHURCH 

Top: The Methodist Church built 

in 1889. 

Middle: The 1907 red brick Methodist 

Church on the 300 block of North 

Main Street. 

Bottom: First United Methodist’s 

Mission-Style church, the third to be 

built in Midland. 


COASTAL PIPE 

COMPANY 

Since 1967, Coastal Pipe Company has 

provided oil companies, other pipe dealers, and 

individuals with the very best reconditioned 

used oil field tubular goods at the very best price. 

The company was founded in Houston by 

Ron Roetschke and his college roommate, 

Buddy Yentzen. James A. Rice joined the 

company in 1972, became a partner in 1980, 

and sole owner in 2008. 

Coastal Pipe Company buys used oil field 

tubular goods and equipment from plugged 

wells and oil companies’ surplus inventories 

and brings them into its yard for sorting, 

reclamation, and resale. Coastal Pipe has all the 

necessary equipment, including cleaners, testers, 

straighteners, trucks and fork lifts, to be selfsufficient 

in performing the service. The 

reconditioned product is then resold for different 

applications, including downhole, line pipe and 

structural use. New pipe is also available for sale. 

Coastal Pipe sells to anyone needing pipe, 

from oil field applications to structural needs. 

Several repeat customers have been the 

company’s mainstay for many years. Revenue 

has increased steadily in recent years. 

In the company’s early days, all pipe handling, 

such as loading pipe in the field and unloading 

in the pipe yard, 

was done by hand. 

There were no forklifts 

or other lifting 

devices, and no employees, just Rice and his 

partner and a 1950s vintage truck with no heat 

or air conditioning. The company acquired its 

first forklift in 1976. 

“On one occasion, my partner and I handloaded 

our semi-truck with tubing for delivery 

to a location,” Rice recalls. “Our old Mack truck 

didn’t have enough power to pull a hill with the 

load, so we had to hand-unload half of the load, 

go up the hill with the other half, then unload 

it. Then it was back down the hill and reload the 

other half, and back up the hill and unload. The 

job took all day in 100 degree heat. Many 

broken fingers and other injuries were suffered 

during the early years.” 

The number of Coastal Pipe employees has 

fluctuated between ten and twenty, depending 

on market conditions. There are now ten 

employees with hopes of adding more in 2010. 

Coastal Pipe recently completed a major 

remodeling of its offices and added a new 

building. Older equipment and machinery is 

being replaced with more modern ones. Business 

has increased through use of the Internet and 

increases in inventory. Rice’s two sons, Clay and 

Luke, are now involved in the company and he 

expects the business to continue for many years 

to come. “With modern technology in drilling, 

completion, and re-entry of wells, we believe the 

oil industry and services will only improve 

during the coming years,” says Rice. 


THE VILLAGE 

AT MANOR PARK 

Mrs. Andrew Fasken dreamed about a 

retirement community in Midland because 

there were no facilities available where seniors 

could receive care and services as they aged. 

In 1960 she asked Dr. R. Matthew Lynn, pastor 

of First Presbyterian Church, along with her 

son, Murray Fasken, to recruit a steering 

committee to develop a retirement facility. 

In 1963, Manor Park, Inc. (originally Midland 

Presbyterian Homes, Inc.) was incorporated as a 

not-for-profit, non-denominational Texas corporation. 

A five-acre tract at 2800 West Illinois 

Avenue was acquired and, by 1970, Trinity 

Towers opened its doors to serve the first senior 

residents. Soon, the five-story tower and forty 

surrounding apartments were operating at 

capacity, so a second tower was added in 

February 1978. 

A second Manor Park campus was developed 

on forty acres donated by the Jessie Wallace 

Estate in September 1982. Due to the generosity 

of the community, the new campus featuring 

apartments, townhomes and a beautiful activity 

center opened debt free. 

With additional contributions from the 

community, more services were soon added 

including the Mabee Healthcare Center for 

long-term nursing care in 1985, the John F. 

Younger Special Care Center for residents with 

Alzheimer’s disease in 1994, Helen Greathouse 

Manor for assisted living and the Vogel Center 

for residents with early stages of memory 

impairment in 2005, and the Skilled Nursing 

Rehab Center in 2008. 

Manor Park and Midland College partnered to 

open a Children’s Center on the campus that 

features intergenerational activities. The Campbell 

Wellness Center was created to offer residents 

an extensive exercise and wellness program, 

and in 2008, the Margaret Cowden Clubhouse 

was opened to offer a new venue for dining and 

activities. Thirteen acres south of Sinclair Street 

were purchased in 2006 to accommodate the 

future expansion of Manor Park facilities. 

Memorials and gifts to the endowment fund 

have allowed Manor Park to care for residents 

who outlive their financial resources and for 

Medicaid residents in nursing care. 

Unfortunately, Fasken did not live to see the 

fruition of her dream, but due to her vision, 

there have been thousands of senior residents 

over the past forty years who have benefited 

from Manor Park’s quality housing, care and 

services. Today Manor Park has a complete 

continuum of care and has created an 

atmosphere fostering dignity, respect and a 

meaningful daily life for the residents. 

Above: Independent living residences. 

Below: Original Trinity 

Towers Campus. 


SOUTHTEX 

TREATERS, INC. 

SouthTex Treaters, Inc., headquartered in 

Odessa, is a midstream operator and manufacturer 

of gas processing plants and equipment. 

The company was founded in 1986 for the 

primary purpose of providing contract gas 

treating services and equipment. Since then, 

the company has expanded its engineering and 

manufacturing capabilities and sold hundreds 

of gas processing plants throughout the Barnett, 

Haynesville and Eagle Ford shale plays, and 

across Texas. SouthTex has distributed gas 

processing equipment and process assemblies 

elsewhere in the U.S. and throughout the 

world, and currently operates five plants across 

Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Colorado. 

SouthTex designs and constructs both 

custom and stock plants for amine treatment, 

glycol dehydration, oil stabilization, landfill 

gas (LFG) removal/recovery, physical solvent 

treating, NGL recovery (dewpoint control) 

and NGL fractionation. The company sells and 

leases plants, and also offers contract treating 

services. Additionally, SouthTex maintains a 

vast new and used equipment supply inventory 

on its private eighty-four acre office and 

construction complex. 

Combining practical knowledge with the 

latest technologies, SouthTex carries gas 

treatment projects from concept to completion. 

The company has been a leader in gas 

processing for over twenty-five years, and has 

operated treating facilities with greater than 

ninety-seven percent runtime performance 

over a five year period. Top-notch engineering, 

quality control and unsurpassed delivery unite 

with economies of scale and no-nonsense 

integrity to create operational efficiencies that 

are hard to find under one roof. 

From chemical, electrical and mechanical 

engineering to plant and process design, parts 

fabrication, equipment supply, construction, 

installation, start-up assistance, tech support 

and plant operation, SouthTex has the entire 

value-chain for plant construction covered inhouse. 

This vertical integration saves customers 

time and money, creates a better service experience 

and helps SouthTex preserve quality and 

integrity in the chain of midstream gas treatment 

options customers have to choose from. 

Privately owned and financed by David, Paul 

and Luke Morrow of Midland, SouthTex has 

kept the company mission and objectives undivided 

by outside interests, has kept employees 

thriving, and has kept the focus on strong 

customer relationships and service. With the 

vertical integration of services and economies 

of scale SouthTex has achieved over time, 

the company’s recipe for success has produced 

a continuously thriving and expanding operation, 

even in the worst of times. 

“The continuity of ownership, leadership 

and experience at SouthTex has helped us 

create a culture of ethics, teamwork and 

personal excellence that shows in everything 

we produce,” says SouthTex CEO Paul Morrow. 

“We have very little turnover, with employees 

and customers alike, and our environment of 

innovation has led to new patent-pending 

technologies, like our BTEX removal system.” 

With the world watching the rise of natural 

gas and “green” technologies as primary energy 

sources, SouthTex Treaters, Inc. is poised for 

long-term growth in global midstream gas 

processing and waste-to-energy development. 

For more information about SouthTex, visit 

the website at www.southtex.com. 


As any local sports fan can tell you, a 

Jackalope is not a rare creature of the Texas hill 

country but the name of the only professional 

winter sports team in the region. 

The increasingly popular Odessa Jackalopes 

compete in the highly competitive Class AA 

Central Hockey League. Affiliates of the New 

York Islanders, the Jackalopes regularly draw 

enthusiastic crowds of 3,000 to 4,000 to Ector 

County Coliseum and have become a fan 

favorite for winter time excitement. The 2009- 

2010 season is the Jackalopes’ thirteenth in the 


The Jackalopes are considered one of the 

best-run minor league hockey franchises and 

have been featured in Sports Illustrated for their 

imaginative promotional efforts and close ties 

to the community. The Jackalopes were named 

the CHL’s “Best at Community Relations” for the 

2008-09 season, as well as the league’s “Most 

Improved Franchise.” The Jackalopes were also 

named the league’s “Franchise of the Year” for 

both 1997-98, and 1998-99. 

All Jackalopes games are broadcast 

live on KFZX radio and fans 

can also take part in a weekly talk 

show featuring players and coaches. 

The Jackalopes’ ownership 

group is comprised of local business 

developers Rick Gasser, and 

Bill and Tracey Nyborg. The group, 

which has owned the team since 

2005, welcomed Massachusetts 

native David LaCouture to the 

Jackalopes in 2009 as a minority 

owner. This foursome, along with 

an exceptional front office staff led 

by general manager Joe Clark, are 

dedicated to their motto of good, 

clean, affordable family entertainment. 

With an average ticket price 

of fifteen dollars, the Jackalopes 

provide a very affordable evening 

of sports entertainment. 

The Jackalopes are not only 

strong competitors on the ice at 

Ector County Coliseum, but are 

also a very strong part of each community 

around West Texas. The 

Jackalopes players and staff take 

part in a number of community 

events, including the Salvation Army Toy Drive 

during Christmas, Blood Drives, the “Scoring 

in the Schools” program, and monthly hospital 

visits. A visit by Jackalopes mascot SlapJack is 

always considered a high point of any event. 

Each year, the Jackalopes combine strengths 

with the Midland Rock Hounds to put on the 

annual West Texas Sports Banquet, an event 

that has raised more than $300,000 for special 

needs groups in the area. 

To help promote hockey in a region where 

the game was unknown just a few years ago, the 

Jackalopes sponsor a Youth Hockey League to 

train and nurture young players. 

An interactive website, www.jackalopes.org 

allows fans to listen to a live feed of the games, 

purchase tickets online, even purchase game 

gear from the Jackalopes’ online store. 

With a highly competitive team and strong 

community support, the Odessa Jackalopes 

look forward to a bright future in the Central 

Hockey League. 

ODESSA 

JACKALOPES 

HOCKEY CLUB 


CARRASCO 

HOMES, LLC 

Right: Vicente and Rogelio Carrasco. 

Vicente Carrasco, whose father was a 

masonry contractor, has been around the 

homebuilding business his entire life. Today, 

he and his brothers—Roger and Manuel—are 

owners of Carrasco Homes in Midland. 

As a small boy, Vicente learned about 

homebuilding from his father. He graduated 

from high school in 1986 and worked in a 

variety of jobs to support his wife and four 

children. He became dietary department 

manager at what is now Midland Memorial 

Hospital-West Campus, but along the way he 

worked on remodeling jobs. He started by 

remodeling his own home, and then moved 

on to other projects in the Midland-Odessa 

area. He also attended college to learn more 

about cabinet making and the building trades. 

In 2000, Vicente felt it was time to go into 

the homebuilding business and, with the help 

of his brothers, he established Carrasco Homes, 

LLC. In addition to his brothers, his daughter, 

Jennifer Carrasco, is involved in the business as 

a bookkeeper. 

Carrasco Homes range in price from 

$120,000 to more than a half-million dollars 

and are known for their excellent quality. 

“Unlike most of our competitors, we go for 

quality instead of cost, not sacrificing the full 

potential of the home for the least quality 

products,” says Carrasco. 

Each member of the Carrasco Homes team is 

selected for their reliability and work quality 

and the company uses the most effective 

methods and techniques in their work to 

ensure customers of the best home possible. 

“We’re not architects or engineers, we’re 

builders,” says Carrasco. “We know what we’re 

doing and we do a good job.” 

With Carrasco Homes, customer satisfaction 

is number one. Carrasco tries to respond to 

service calls as soon as possible and always does 

more than the customer expects. 

Vicente has built homes all around Midland 

and is constantly on the move to start his next 

project. He is currently building in Los 

Patios Addition, Greathouse Addition, 

Rock Point, and Los Conchos Estates. 

Carrasco Homes is a member of 

the Permian Basin Home Builders 

Association, Texas Association of 

Builders, National Association of 

Home Builders, and the Midland 

Chamber of Commerce. The firm is 

also an FHA/VA Approved Builder. 

Carrasco Homes is located at 1321 

East Jax Street in Midland and on the 

Internet at www.carrascohomes.com. 

“The styles of today are incorporated 

into each home we build,” says 

Carrasco. “You can be assured that the 

home you have bought will be one of 

the best available.” 


The year was 1963 and Robert “Bob” Howle, 

who had worked in the oil fields for several 

years and was operating a Phillips service 

station, realized that businesses and individuals 

in Midland needed a place to rent equipment 

and party items. With $8,000 in cash, Bob 

organized A to Z Rental, which was located 

originally at 1903 North Big Spring. The name 

was later changed to Bob’s Rental Center and 

the business moved to 2909 North Big Spring. 

purchase a portable toilet business. Bob and 

Wayne established B&W Chemical Toilets 

and Bob became sole owner in 1985 when 

Wayne retired from the City of Midland Fire 

Department and moved to Mason, Texas. 

Bob’s Rental Center was sold to United 

Rentals in 1998. Bob retained ownership of 

B&W Chemical Toilets and moved it to its 

present location at 4500 South State Highway 

349. Bob died on January 10, 2008. 

B&W 

CHEMICAL 

TOILETS, INC. 

Bob had seen the boom and bust periods in 

the oil fields and resolved to never get over 

his head in debt. He would take out small 

loans to purchase larger equipment but was 

careful not to overextend himself. In this way 

he was able to ride out even the bad times. 

Bob also realized early on that he needed 

to diversify, so he became a dealership for 

such products as Jaco trailers, John Deere 

tractors, Honda power equipment, and Stihl 

chain saws. 

By 1979 the business had outgrown its 

facilities and, faced with restrictive zoning 

codes, Bob bought property at 2700 South 

Rankin Highway and built a large facility. 

That location now houses TMP Truck 

& Trailer. 

In 1983, Bob was approached by a friend, 

Wayne Martin, who was looking for a partner to 

Many members of Bob’s family have worked 

for the businesses over the years and contributed 

to its growth and success. Barbara 

Ezell, Bob’s step-daughter, was manager at the 

time Bob’s Rental Center was sold, and is 

now part owner and general manager of 

B&W Chemical Toilets. Bob’s step-grandson, 

James “Dusty” Builta, is vice president of 

B&W Chemical Toilets, and step-granddaughter 

Melissa Bogart is the bookkeeper. 

B&W Chemical Toilets is active in the 

Midland, Midland Hispanic, and Big Spring 

Chambers of Commerce, member of the Portable 

Sanitation Association, a member of the Better 

Business Bureau, and member of the Permian 

Basin Home Builders Association. The firm is also 

a supporter of Show of Support Hunt for Heroes. 

For more information about B&W Chemical 

Toilets, check www.bwchemicaltoilets.com. 

Left: Chemical Toilets, Inc., 2010. 

Right: Robert “Bob” Howle. 


MIDLAND 

INDEPENDENT 

SCHOOL 

DISTRICT 

The story of Midland Independent School 

District began in the nineteenth century. In 

1885, settlers had begun to populate West 

Texas, making a livelihood on farms and 

ranches. The Midland County Commissioners 

recorded 35 boys and 25 girls between the 

ages of 8 and 16 living throughout the county. 

Public school lands were set aside and, in 1886, 

Midland’s first public school, a one-room building, 

was constructed. 

In 1893 a two-story, red-brick school building 

was constructed at 301 West Illinois Avenue. 

The building, known as 

North Ward, housed all 

students. Several years 

passed, and in April 1907, 

Midland ISD was formed 

when citizens approved the 

establishment of a common 

school district. The first 

school board, comprised of 

seven men, elected County 

Judge E. R. Bryan as its 

president, and named W. 

W. Lackey as superintendent 

of schools. The minutes 

of the May 17, 1907, 

school board meeting reflect the appointment of 

the president and superintendent, as well as the 

hiring of a principal, seven teachers and a janitor. 

The superintendent was given a salary of 

$133.33 per month, and teachers made an average 

of $60 per month. 

North Ward soon became crowded, leading to 

the construction of South Ward in 1909 at 

8 Main Street (now the location of South 

Elementary). Attendance grew and the need for 

a high school arose. Midland High School was 

built in 1926 at 500 West Texas Avenue. 

In 1928 a school for Hispanic students 

was built at 1101 East South Street (now the 

location of DeZavala Elementary). Carver 

Elementary School for black students was 

built in 1932 at the 1300 block of East 

Wall Street. 

The MISD Board of 

Trustees unanimously voted 

to abolish segregated schools 

in August 1956. Midland 

schools began desegregating 

in September 1956. 

Throughout the 1950s 

and 1960s, Midland ISD 

constructed twenty schools 

to provide for a student population 

that doubled over the 

course of a decade. There 

were 16 elementary schools, 

3 junior high schools and 

1 senior high school added. 

Five schools were added 

to MISD in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, two 

more schools were built. 

Today, there are more than 21,000 students, 

ranging from pre-kindergarteners through 

high school seniors at thirty-five campuses. 

Students have access to the finest education 

through in-depth classes, up-to-date programs 

and engaging extracurricular activities led 

by educators who uphold MISD’s motto of 

“Educating the Future.” 


Morris Holmquest Tidwell & Company, 

organized nearly twenty-five years ago, prides 

itself in providing excellence in local accounting 

by offering timely and professional services 

equal to those provided by a national firm. 

The firm was founded as Morris Holmquest 

& Company, a partnership between James 

Morris and Nan Holmquest in July 1986. Mary 

Alice Tidwell joined the firm in 1992 and the 

partnership became Morris Holmquest Tidwell 

& Company. 

Morris and Holmquest began their careers in 

1976 with Elmer Fox Westheimer & Company, 

a national accounting firm. EFW became 

known as Fox & Company and later merged 

with Alexander Grant before it became known 

as Grant Thornton. In July 1986, Morris and 

Holmquest resigned from that firm as senior 

tax managers and started their own local 

accounting firm. 

Tidwell was a partner with Elmer Fox 

Westheimer and left in 1979 to join a publicly 

traded company as director of the tax 

department. She later left that firm and 

reentered public accounting as a partner in 

another local firm, which eventually became 

known as Tidwell & Company. In November 

1992, Tidwell became a partner with Morris 

and Holmquest. The accounting staffs from 

both firms were merged and retained. 

Tidwell was one of the first women admitted 

into partnership with Elmer Fox Westheimer & 

Company. Being one of two women partners in 

a 275-partner firm; she was continually asked, 

“Aren’t you intimidated by all those male 

partners?” Her answer was, “Not a bit!” 

James Morris is a brother to five sisters. 

When asked what it is like working with five 

women, his response is, “No different from 

getting along with five sisters.” 

Nan Holmquest suffered from an asthmarelated 

illness and resigned from the firm in 

1998. In her honor, the firm has kept her 

name associated with the firm. She has since 

relocated to east Texas and continues to be 

involved in accounting work. 

As a local accounting firm, Morris Holmquest 

Tidwell & Company strives to provide the 

same level of service a client would expect from 

a large, national firm. The firm provides 

accounting and bookkeeping services, federal 

tax compliance in income and payroll reporting, 

state tax compliance in sales tax, franchise tax 

and income tax reporting for all types of entities 

including corporate, partnership, trusts, and 

individuals. The firm also assists in estate 

probate accounting and related federal reporting. 

To a limited extent, it compiles financial 

statements when needed, although the firm does 

not review or audit financial statements. 

Located at the corner of A Street and Wadley 

Avenue, Morris Holmquest Tidwell & Company 

has five employees and serves more than 

500 clients made up of estates, trusts, individuals, 

partnerships, corporations and not-forprofit 

organizations. 

MORRIS 

HOLMQUEST 

TIDWELL & 

COMPANY 

Left: Mary Alice Tidwell and 

Jim Morris. 

Below: Mary Alice and Maudine 

Bankson sitting and Jim Morris, 

Sharon Roberson and Shirley 

Parker standing. 


PLAZA INN 

Beautifully situated in the legendary West 

Texas oil country, the Plaza Inn Midland offers 

outstanding service and amenities in a prime 

location with easy access to Loop 250. 

At Plaza Inn, you will enjoy an outdoor 

swimming pool and hot tub, free workouts at 

the YMCA, use of the business center, complimentary 

high-speed Internet access, flat screen 

televisions, free local calls and express check 

out. There is also a complimentary breakfast 

each morning. Additional features in executive 

rooms include a microwave and refrigerator. 

The Plaza Inn, built in 1985 and purchased 

in 2000 by Midland Canam Enterprises LTD, 

is now a locally owned and operated 

family business. The Plaza Inn has grown 

twenty to thirty percent under the new 

management, which includes CFO Shafik 

Tejani and manager Vangie Tryon. 

Guests at Plaza Inn are greeted by an 

array of pleasing features in each of 

the 114 guest rooms. The well-appointed 

accommodations include everything 

needed for a good night’s rest and to 

enable you to get down to business. No 

matter which guest room you choose, you will 

be provided with every comfort, along with 

attentive and caring service. 

Plaza Inn meeting facilities are beautifully 

equipped for all kinds of business functions for 

up to thirty-five people. Special rates are offered 

to businesses and groups wishing to book 

blocks of ten rooms or more. 

Whether you are looking for a romantic 

weekend getaway or a fun family vacation, 

the Plaza Inn offers the ideal location to 

enjoy Midland’s many attractions. 

Midland is the proud home of presidents 

and world-class museums such as 

the Museum of the Southwest, the Haley 

Memorial Library and History Center, the 

American Airpower Heritage Museum 

and the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, 

which boasts the largest collection of oil rigs and 

machinery in the world. There is plenty of 

action, as well. The RockHounds minor league 

baseball team plays at Midland’s Citibank 

Ballpark and the Odessa Jackalopes of the 

Central Hockey League play only twenty miles 

away in Odessa. 

The George W. Bush Childhood Home in 

Midland is the restored home of the forty-third 

President of the United States, George W. Bush. 

The President’s childhood home has been 

restored to the way it was when he grew up 

there in the 1950s. 

The Plaza Inn is very involved in local 

civic and community activities, including the 

Aga Khan Foundation, Midland Chamber of 

Commerce, Special Olympics, American Cancer 

Society, Midland Police Department, Midland 

Chamber, Midland Hispanic Chamber, American 

Diabetes Association, Midland Northside Lions 

Club, Midland Downtown Club, Jaycees, High 

Sky Children’s Ranch, YMCA, 

Midland College, and Hospice of 

Midland, and Al Rankin Highway 

Visitors Center. 

The Plaza Inn is located at 

4108 North Big Spring Street in 

Midland. For more information, 

please check their website at 

www.plazainnmidland.com. 


Abbott Building Company (ABCO) is a family 

owned general contracting firm, which has 

served the steel building needs of customers in 

the southwest for more than half-a-century. 

The company, first known as H. E. Abbott & 

Sons, was founded in 1954 by H. E. Abbott and 

his two sons, Gene and Dick, who had moved 

to West Texas from western New York. They 

started business in a little yard and office in 

southeast Midland. 

Although they were strangers to the area 

without any knowledge of the oil business, they 

soon began to fill the needs of the oil industry 

for industrial type facilities. In 1957 the office 

was moved to northwest Odessa to better serve 

the company’s industrial market. Before long, 

buildings erected by Abbott began to appear all 

across West Texas and eastern New Mexico. 

H. E. Abbott passed away in 1963 but his two 

sons continued the company traditions. To better 

accommodate the firm’s growth, the company 

moved in 1969 to its present location on U.S. 

Highway 80. At that time, the company name 

was changed to Abbott Building Company. 

Like many other businesses related to the oil 

industry, Abbott Building Company experienced a 

severe downturn in the early 1980s. Since 1985, 

however, the company has enjoyed a resurgence 

of business in the markets where it operates and is 

once again enjoying growth and expansion due to 

increased activity in the oil patch. 

Gene Abbott, who has been with the company 

56 years, serves as president. His son-in-law, 

Tim Hodgens, has been with the company 28 

years and serves as vice president of operations. 

A member of the third generation, Mike Abbott, 

has been with the company 19 years and is vice 

president of sales. ABCO’s current employees 

total more than 280 years experience. 

ABCO looks forward to serving a growing 

customer base throughout the southwestern 

United States in the years to come. 

ABBOTT 

BUILDING 

COMPANY 

Autumn prairie, Broom Snakeweed 

in bloom. 



SPONSORS 

Abbott Building Company............................................................................................................................................................97 

Advance Consultants Corp., A Tribute to Victor S. Frigon ............................................................................................................80 

B&W Chemical Toilets, Inc. .........................................................................................................................................................93 

Basic Energy Services....................................................................................................................................................................63 

Carrasco Homes, LLC...................................................................................................................................................................92 

Coastal Pipe Company..................................................................................................................................................................88 

Commemorative Air Force & CAF Airpower Museum ..................................................................................................................64 

Cowboys Resources Corp. ............................................................................................................................................................63 

Don Crawford & Associates..........................................................................................................................................................63 

Family Wellness Center ................................................................................................................................................................84 

J. Mark Cox, DDS.........................................................................................................................................................................82 

Davis, Gerald & Cremer, P.C. .......................................................................................................................................................76 

Fasken Oil & Ranch.....................................................................................................................................................................63 

First United Methodist Church.....................................................................................................................................................87 

Fite Fire & Safety .........................................................................................................................................................................86 

George W. Bush Childhood Home Museum..................................................................................................................................63 

Lone Star Abstract & Title Co., Inc...............................................................................................................................................85 

M. F. Machen................................................................................................................................................................................74 

Midland College ...........................................................................................................................................................................81 

Midland Community Healthcare Services .....................................................................................................................................72 

Midland Independent School District ...........................................................................................................................................94 

Morris Holmquest Tidwell & Company........................................................................................................................................95 

Occidental Petroleum Corporation ...............................................................................................................................................70 

Odessa Jackalopes Hockey Club ...................................................................................................................................................91 

Ortloff Engineers, Ltd...................................................................................................................................................................68 

Petro Communications, Inc. .........................................................................................................................................................83 

The Petroleum Museum................................................................................................................................................................67 

Plaza Inn ......................................................................................................................................................................................96 

South-Tex Treaters, Inc.................................................................................................................................................................90 

The Village at Manor Park ............................................................................................................................................................89 

Weiner Oil & Gas, Texas Crude Operator.....................................................................................................................................78 


$49.95 

About the Author 

Damon Kennedy is assistant professor of 

history at Midland College. He attended 

Midland College and earned his Ph.D. degree 

in History from Texas Tech University. An avid 

local history researcher, Damon is the author 

of numerous articles and book reviews. He has 

served as research consultant on various grant 

proposals, preservation projects, and museum 

exhibits. His dissertation, Samuel Burk 

Burnett and the 6666 Ranch is being readied 

for publication. 

About the front cover 

Fast Mail to Carlsbad, painting by Tom Lovell. 

Photograph courtesy of the Abell-Hanger Foundation and 

the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, 2002-038.010. 

About the back cover 

Scarlet Globemallow skies. 

Photograph courtesy of Ilija Lukic. 

ISBN: 9781935377511

Midland: Window to the West

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?