CA1456

Ninety-four Years in Jack County 1854 - 1948 (Huckabay, 1949)
(C. Avis Catalog entry #1456)

p. 334

Jack County's oil production dates back to 1898 when the W. D. Stinehouse well some ten miles north of Jacksboro turned into an oil well at 100 feet instead of a water well.  From that date to the present, there has been some type of oil play in this county.

Following the discovery of that shallow oil in the Avis area, there was a refinery built and some forty-five wells were placed on the pump.  That first refinery was not completed until about 1914.  It produced lubricants, germicidals and preservatives.  The oil produced there was not of sufficient grade to refine into motor fuels.

Official sources state that the Avis oil contained approximately three per cent gasoline and a similar percentage of kerosene.  The by-products of that early oil field in Jack County were used in refrigeration, the old timers say.

In 1914, the refinery was running full blast at Avis taking the oil from the wells drilled down to eighty-five or a hundred and thirty-two feet.  It was not until sometime after the World War, probably early 1919, that the refinery was moved to Wichita Falls by the American Refining  Company; after that date, the production of the low grade oil dropped off until it was almost nothing.

p. 336

Avis oil came to be in equally high esteem for its curative and its lubricating qualities.  Farmers and ranchmen used it on their stock - from sorehead in chickens, cuts and skin disorders on cattle, mange on dogs, and even internally to human - with success. 

Its lubricating qualities caused it to be used for all manner of machinery in the neighborhood.  Farmers drew up the small amount which accumulated on top of the water in the wells which were drilled in the constant hope of big production.