Letter from Will to Alma: 5/16/1934
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Will, at home in Atlanta, Georgia, writes to Alma, in South Hadley, Massachusetts, about adventures in drilling for oil in Texas.
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1934-05-16: tour stops---images---~AUDIO~---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
1934-05-16: tour stops---images---audio---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
334 Eighth St., N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia.
May 16, 1934.
Dear Alma,
Many happy returns of the day! I have three good reasons for being so early with your birthday letter. In the first place I made an April Fools Day's resolution to be more prompt with my correspondence. Then there was the precedent you set when you wrote my birthday letter from Madras a month before my birthday. Finally since your birthday has become a movable feast one has to write early to be sure to be on time.
I left Houston on Saturday the 5th, going by auto with a Mr. Newman to Iola about 100 miles north of Houston. Mr. Newman was getting ready to drill a well about two miles west of Iola. He is doing it for a Dr. Marshall. I bought a couple of small oil leases and may lose a little or make a little as a result. I went with Dr. Marshall by auto to another well site where they were getting some of their drilling machinery. I think it was about 12 miles away.
The whole region is very interesting to an amateur geologist, and might be to a professional botanist because everywhere there is a great deal of petrified wood. I think it is of the kind where the wood is replaced by silica molecule for molecule. At any rate some of the specimens seem to be very pretty agate. There is quite a variety of colors, some pieces being almost white and some almost black. Some of the best specimens I picked up turned out to be real wood. I expect to be going out there again and will send you some specimens if you want them. I carried some home in my bag. It was hard to limit myself in the amount I took. As it was the bus driver said my bag felt as if it had a lot of liquor in it. I told him what it was, but I don't know whether he believed me. I think he must be more used to handling bags with liquor than those with petrified wood.
Mr. Newman took me to Splendora to catch the bus on his way back home in Houston. We got there about 7:45 I think and he staid there and talked oil geology until after 10 o'clock. It helped me to pass the time until my bus came a few minutes after midnight. When it did come there were so many passengers that they had had to put on an extra bus. Finally when enough had got off they crowded the remainder into one bus. The busses seemed to be old, crowded, and a little behind time, all through Texas and Louisiana. I went via Shreveport, Jackson, Meridian, and Birmingham. I think I will go back via Birmingham and New Orleans and have Greyhound busses the whole way. They have big busses that have comfortable seats. I prefer the busses to the train because one can see around so much better. On a train you can see out in a narrow sector through your own window and that is about all. In a bus you can see ahead and to both sides with little obstruction since the posts between the windows are so narrow.
The Steen Drilling Co8s well that was being drilled about 2 miles west of Splendora and very close to the corner of my place showed gas and distillate on two drill stem tests. They went on down to a little over 6000 ft. to try to get oil and got salt water with a little showing of oil. That showed they couldn't make an oil well of it. Then they tried to plug it back with concrete to where they got the gas and distillate. Before they could get their casing set they had a cave in so that a boulder or two blocked their hole. They had to start redrilling at about 2800 ft and had about three weeks work ahead of them when I left. There seems to be a very good chance that they will make a gas and distillate well of it. I expect to go back shortly and see how things are going. The result of that drilling was not altogether unsatisfactory. It is generally believed that it is an edge well, that is it is on the edge of an oil field. According to what seems to be the best opinion our tract lies in the right direction from the Steen well. As I was leaving the Humble Oil Co. was preparing to drill a well about a mile north of our north-west corner.
Mr. Newman who is a geologist as well as a practical oil man said he went out with a botanist one time who located a fault by the change in the vegitation, and the change was so small that he could not detect it. Texas is certainly much faulted. You wouldn't think there could be so many in a place like that until you look for them.
I hope to hear that you have been a credit to your teacher and have passed your examination for a driver's license.
With lots of love,
Will
Atlanta, Georgia.
May 16, 1934.
Dear Alma,
Many happy returns of the day! I have three good reasons for being so early with your birthday letter. In the first place I made an April Fools Day's resolution to be more prompt with my correspondence. Then there was the precedent you set when you wrote my birthday letter from Madras a month before my birthday. Finally since your birthday has become a movable feast one has to write early to be sure to be on time.
I left Houston on Saturday the 5th, going by auto with a Mr. Newman to Iola about 100 miles north of Houston. Mr. Newman was getting ready to drill a well about two miles west of Iola. He is doing it for a Dr. Marshall. I bought a couple of small oil leases and may lose a little or make a little as a result. I went with Dr. Marshall by auto to another well site where they were getting some of their drilling machinery. I think it was about 12 miles away.
The whole region is very interesting to an amateur geologist, and might be to a professional botanist because everywhere there is a great deal of petrified wood. I think it is of the kind where the wood is replaced by silica molecule for molecule. At any rate some of the specimens seem to be very pretty agate. There is quite a variety of colors, some pieces being almost white and some almost black. Some of the best specimens I picked up turned out to be real wood. I expect to be going out there again and will send you some specimens if you want them. I carried some home in my bag. It was hard to limit myself in the amount I took. As it was the bus driver said my bag felt as if it had a lot of liquor in it. I told him what it was, but I don't know whether he believed me. I think he must be more used to handling bags with liquor than those with petrified wood.
Mr. Newman took me to Splendora to catch the bus on his way back home in Houston. We got there about 7:45 I think and he staid there and talked oil geology until after 10 o'clock. It helped me to pass the time until my bus came a few minutes after midnight. When it did come there were so many passengers that they had had to put on an extra bus. Finally when enough had got off they crowded the remainder into one bus. The busses seemed to be old, crowded, and a little behind time, all through Texas and Louisiana. I went via Shreveport, Jackson, Meridian, and Birmingham. I think I will go back via Birmingham and New Orleans and have Greyhound busses the whole way. They have big busses that have comfortable seats. I prefer the busses to the train because one can see around so much better. On a train you can see out in a narrow sector through your own window and that is about all. In a bus you can see ahead and to both sides with little obstruction since the posts between the windows are so narrow.
The Steen Drilling Co8s well that was being drilled about 2 miles west of Splendora and very close to the corner of my place showed gas and distillate on two drill stem tests. They went on down to a little over 6000 ft. to try to get oil and got salt water with a little showing of oil. That showed they couldn't make an oil well of it. Then they tried to plug it back with concrete to where they got the gas and distillate. Before they could get their casing set they had a cave in so that a boulder or two blocked their hole. They had to start redrilling at about 2800 ft and had about three weeks work ahead of them when I left. There seems to be a very good chance that they will make a gas and distillate well of it. I expect to go back shortly and see how things are going. The result of that drilling was not altogether unsatisfactory. It is generally believed that it is an edge well, that is it is on the edge of an oil field. According to what seems to be the best opinion our tract lies in the right direction from the Steen well. As I was leaving the Humble Oil Co. was preparing to drill a well about a mile north of our north-west corner.
Mr. Newman who is a geologist as well as a practical oil man said he went out with a botanist one time who located a fault by the change in the vegitation, and the change was so small that he could not detect it. Texas is certainly much faulted. You wouldn't think there could be so many in a place like that until you look for them.
I hope to hear that you have been a credit to your teacher and have passed your examination for a driver's license.
With lots of love,
Will
1934-05-16: tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
The envelope, addressed to Alma, is postmarked Philadelphia, June 4, 1934, rather than Atlanta in May. But somebody - presumably Alma - wrote "Will's birthday letter" on it. Perhaps Alma sent to to Eva for her to read, and then Eva sent it back. Or perhaps Alma just used any old envelope to store the letter in. I don't know.
Because of the envelope, I'm adding this to Eva's related documents list.
2.
In the first place I made an April Fools Day's resolution to be more prompt with my correspondence.
I am not in the habit of making New Years Day resolutions, but I am so charmed by the idea of April Fools Day resolutions that maybe next year I'll try to think of one for myself.
3.
I bought a couple of small oil leases and may lose a little or make a little as a result.
It surprises me to learn that Will could afford to buy the leases so casually. But I've also been surprised to learn how very involved he was with this whole oil thing. There's more to be learned about it all, but I don't know that I'll ever learn it.
4.
I hope to hear that you have been a credit to your teacher and have passed your examination for a driver's license.
This makes it sound as though Will was Alma's driving teacher. But I don't see how that could be. The previous summer - i.e. 1933 - Alma had a car in Woods Hole. Will's four children are there, but Will is not. Eva was learning to drive the car. I think Sibyl was teaching her, but I can't remember where I got that detail from. It is interesting to think that Alma bought a car without having a driver's license. I don't know what to make of it all.
The envelope, addressed to Alma, is postmarked Philadelphia, June 4, 1934, rather than Atlanta in May. But somebody - presumably Alma - wrote "Will's birthday letter" on it. Perhaps Alma sent to to Eva for her to read, and then Eva sent it back. Or perhaps Alma just used any old envelope to store the letter in. I don't know.
Because of the envelope, I'm adding this to Eva's related documents list.
2.
In the first place I made an April Fools Day's resolution to be more prompt with my correspondence.
I am not in the habit of making New Years Day resolutions, but I am so charmed by the idea of April Fools Day resolutions that maybe next year I'll try to think of one for myself.
3.
I bought a couple of small oil leases and may lose a little or make a little as a result.
It surprises me to learn that Will could afford to buy the leases so casually. But I've also been surprised to learn how very involved he was with this whole oil thing. There's more to be learned about it all, but I don't know that I'll ever learn it.
4.
I hope to hear that you have been a credit to your teacher and have passed your examination for a driver's license.
This makes it sound as though Will was Alma's driving teacher. But I don't see how that could be. The previous summer - i.e. 1933 - Alma had a car in Woods Hole. Will's four children are there, but Will is not. Eva was learning to drive the car. I think Sibyl was teaching her, but I can't remember where I got that detail from. It is interesting to think that Alma bought a car without having a driver's license. I don't know what to make of it all.
1934-05-16: tour stops---images---audio---transcript---notes---~LINKS~---site navigation
DOCUMENT LISTS FOR PEOPLE:
- WILL: DOCUMENTS ----- Outgoing
- ALMA: DOCUMENTS ----- Incoming
- EVA: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
OTHER DOCUMENT LISTS:
- DOCUMENTS SORTED BY WHERE THEY WERE WRITTEN ----- Georgia
- DOCUMENTS SORTED BY SOURCE ----- Barbara
- AUDIO READINGS OF THE DOCUMENTS: 1930-1939
OTHER RELATED DOCUMENTS/PAGES:
(none at the moment)
(none at the moment)
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