Bill Ingram Interview - Bill Ingram Interview [part 3 of 4]

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PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL TOPIC: Pine Island, Breckenridge Areas - 1917
NAME; Ingram, Bill INTERVIEWER: Boatright, Mody C.
PLACE: Breckenridge, Texas TAPE NO, 35 DATE: 7-29-52 RESTRICTIONS: None
Ingram- Told me to come over and said, "Don't bring your crew; the
crew'll he over there. I told him, I says, "No, Scott, I'll just
bring Garner along, Him and I know how to kick one of those things
better'n anybody else around. We're used to it. Pumper's gonna
help the other two boys, while we're gone, see. That'd make it
wouldn't hold up the work, see. So we got over there -- they
hadn't got over there, had to come across this lake in a boat and
they's a little late. We looked the thing over; opened a little
release valve and blowed the cylinder out. I went around and looked
at the valve and I said to this old boy, "Garner, look here. You
reckon it would've ever started?" And he just hollered, laughed,
you know. He says, "Bill, how in the world reckon a
man worked as much as they have don't know no better than that?"
So I just set the valve like we had ours, see. We rocked it back
on the second kick, and away she went, you know. I says, "Oh, let's
see how she spread, Garner." So we give her the gas and just speeded
her just as fast as she'd want to run, you know, and everything. And
I just slowed it down and set the governors on it, I said, "Garner,
throw the clutch in and let's go." So he went around and throwed
PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p. 2
the clutch in; that started it to pumpin', you see. Well, we'd see
'em cornin' across there in a boat; they hollered, "Wait!" They
come up. Mr. Farney says, "What'd you do to it, Bill?"
I says, "Oh, we didn't do nothing; we just set the valve on there.
All it was. It's easy started. No trouble." This little pusher come in and looked at us;
he's a Pennsylvania Dutchman, we called him. He says, "It won't
run there." I says, "It is a runnin' there."
So he jumps around and cuts that valve off there and down she
went. I says, "Alright, brother, just kick on it now and see if
you can git it started." Well, they kicked on it; they throwed
the clutch out and they kicked and kicked and kicked. Until finally
Mr. Farney says, "Well, Les, you better let Bill have it again."
I's standin' off to one side from the valve and says, "Garner,
set that valve like we got ours set." He was ju3t as good as I
was; he'd learned It, you know. So he just set the valve back up
there where we had it, kicked it off and away it went. He was the
most whipped out fellow; he says, "It won't run there."
I says, "It is a runnin' there." And so Farney says, "Better let it alone,
Les." But he didn't want to give up after he was whipped out,
see." Boatright- Yeah.
I.- Yeah, boys come and ask what was the matter with 'em, and I'd
say just like everybody else. They try to run 'em without any air.
They know they got to have just so much oxygen or they don't explode.
So they had a fellow name of Harmon there, puttin' up a big vacuum
PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p.3
station. He had four 80-horsepower Besamer engines and he -- that
man, he worked and he worked and he worked. He couldn't make 'em
go. So one day at noon hour we come up. Me and this old boy --
fellow name of Bowen, a Mississippi boy, just as rough-spoken as
you ever saw a fellow, but he's a good fellow. He says, "Well, I
bet Bill can start it." So this fellow Harmon says, "Can't start
it; it just won't start," I says, "Mr. Haromon, let me set the valve
on that and you give her the air." You know on those big engines,
you have to kick 'em off by air. Manpower couldn't move 'em, see.
We set it, I set the valve. Well, that thing -- he give it the
air and away it went -- pumpin', pumpin', pumpin', just as pretty
as any engine you ever saw. So I give her a little more, and he speeded
It up and run it a little bit. He says, "That won't do; it
won't run there. It's in them gasometers out there."
I says, "It is runnin', Mr. Harmon." He got around there and done
just like this other fellow and shut this air off. "Aright, you just
blow it and kick it all you want to. Hell, it ain't never gonna
run. I don't care what you do out there, Mr. Harmon, to them reg-
ulators and ometers, you can change 'em all you want to; but when
you make one of these engines run, you're gonna give it some air.
They just won't - gas just won't explode without, without you git
the right kind of mixture." And then he spent a whole day changin'
'em around and when he got them engines to run he had to give 'em
air, just like we did. But he was a big shot, you know, and he
didn't want a little old two-bit roustabout showin' him. But we
PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p.4
had learned it by hard experience, you know. We wasn't trying to
show him up. We's just trying to help the man. He didn't like it,
oh, Lord. But when he did git 'em to run - they had a little en-
gine in there with a jump-up pulley on it that run the air-jammer.
So one mornin' we went out there and we see 'em haulin' an old boy
off and we say, "What's the matter?" "That belt knocked that fellow down, got in
the wheel, cut a hole in where the hair there -- didn't bust his
skull, but he's out." I went out and looked out and says, "That's
just ignorance, a man gittin' hurt that way." Well, his oiler,
he was there, he had to take the engineer's place, he got mad
as the mischief, says, "Hell, like to see you put it on, it runnin'
like that." I says, "Porter, are you crazy? My God a mighty,
I can take a little old stick
"Well, that's what he had." "O.K., you just start your engine. You first
put your belt on a small pulley, you know, and you just turn
it up edgeways and it'll climb up on the other one, see. Then it'll
be tight. You got it fastened enough?" I just picked up a little
old stick and put it under, right under the bottom, and come up,
see. He says, "Bill, you're right. It was just
damn foolishness, that man gittin' hurt. Looked like I would of knowed
better, but I didn't and that fellow didn't either. He stuck
that stick on the inside of that belt."
I says, "No wonder it knocked him over. Jesus Christ, man, any-
body ought to know better than that." PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL
p.5 He says, "You're right. It was just damn ignorance.
He B.- Was he badly hurt?
I.- No, he was in the hospital -- oh, a couple of weeks, I guess,
not too badly hurt, you know. He never did come back on that job,
but he got well and went on home. He got it wound around and be-
fore they could git it fully stopped, why the fly wheel on this
engine rubbed against his head and it just rubbed it to the bone.
B.- Yeah I.- That belt beat him up pretty bad, you
know, after comin' "flop, flop, flop" -- wound around there. Wonder
it hadn't killed him. (BREAK)
I.- The first accident I ever had was on the fifth of July, I don't
know what year it was now, but there was just three of us workin'
in the gang. One fellow -- I called him Kelly, all I ever knew,
forgot his name, just Kelly - that's a nickname for him - he
stepped through the bull ropes one day when the engine was runnin'.
When I got where I could stop, I told him, "Now, Kelly, don't you
never step through them bull ropes a runnin', when this engine's
runnin'. You git killed that way or hurt." He said he'd stepped
through 'em a hundred times. I said, "Yeah, you're gonna step
through 'em one too many. Don't you do It when I'm runnin' this
engine. That's one thing I don't allow." So fourth of July come,
we's off. Went back on the fifth, went down, pulled a well. Got
all the rods back In the hole but three focals, you know, that's
four rods together. So I went to pull one up and went to reverse
PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p.6
my engine and my reverse lever broke. I said, "Grab the brake, Kelly."
Instead of him -- he's standin' by the brake -- he just made a dive
through them bull ropes and as he went through, he fell and his pants'
leg caught what they call the dog on the bull wheel that helps to
throw the bull ropes on. Caught his pants' leg and carried him right
between the bull wheel post and the bull wheel and brought him around
and throwed him up through the cross of the derrick where, the, there,
he come down and his shoulders hit right on these bull ropes, Bounced
up and fell right down on the casin' head, right on the floor. Well,
he was out for a pretty good while. We carried him out on -- went
and got a little old -- some people had a tent out there, been livin'
out there, left an old wire cot, so we went out there and got him
and carried him back to the bank where this well was built, way out
in the water there on that Caddo Lake. They had to carry him back
there before they could git to him with a vehicle to take him to a
doctor. So the doctor and the superintendent got out there, this
man Rith, this superintendent, says, "Bill, how in the world did
you carry that man around that bull wheel and didn't kill him?"
Well, I says, "Mr. Rith, come in here and I'll show you," We's
right at another well, so I went in there and showed him, told him
all about it, just how it happened. He says, "Well, I couldn't imagine how that
thing happened. But I see now. Lot of funny things can happen
in an oil field, can't they?"
I says, "Yeah." So we went back and the doctor's examinin' him,
I says, "Doctor, he may have a broken collar bone; he fell right
PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p.7
down on the rope. His ankle -- he's got a skinned elbow. He hit
that foot with his elbow as it was carryin' him through there. I
just stepped back out of the way and watched it; I couldn't do nothing
else." And he mashed on this fellow and he says,
"Ohhhhh." "Yes, you one-eyed son of a bitch, Bill told
you not to step through them ropes." (LAUGHTER)
I couldn't help but laugh; I's sorry for the fellow, but I couldn't
help but laugh to save my neck -- how that old boy changed up so,
you know. B.- Now the bull ropes were the, uh ---
I.- That's what you pulled these wells with, see. A bull - you had
a -- this rope goes from your band wheel out to your bull wheel, see.
And your rod line is fastened on to this wheel. Pull it up and down,
you reverse, you know. B.- Now is this rope like a dried belt?
I.- Yeah, only - acts as the same thing. B.- Yeah, it's, uh ---
I.- Only it's a big two-inch grass rope, you know,
B.- Now how big are those pulleys? I.- Oh, those pulleys were about eighteen-inch
pulleys. B.- And how far apart were they?
I.- You just have one pulley, just a straight pulley. You pull
through -- It's at the top of the derrick, see ---
B.- Now when you step through --- I.- You step through the bull ropes -- see
these ropes cross --- PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL
p.8 B.- Oh, yes.
I.- See, they come from one pulley to another, one wheel, from the
band wheel to the bull wheel, see. But they cross so you can run
it backwards and forwards. If it was a straight way, it wouldn't
do it. You couldn't pull anything. They cross right in the middle.
B.- Uh-huh. I.- And that leaves a space like that you
crawl through here, see, and why he did that I don't know. He don't
know hisself. He says, "I just got excited, I guess." Said this after
he got aright, you know. "I just got excited; I don't know what
made me do it." The next man I got hurt, we's pullin' rods and
we's usin' just a plain old hook, no latch or no nothing on it, just
the same thing as on a bullchain, where you haul off with it, straight
old hook, no swivel hook. It was swiveled, It's true, but
It was just a knob on it to make it swiveled,
B.- No latch to lock it? I.- No, no latch on it to lock it. And had
the elevators was what they called old tongue elevators. When you
pulled it up straight, it just fastened up people, and when it was
down on the bottom, why when you laid It down to break your rod
out, it just set there in the slot. We's gonna fish rods on that
thing, and I don't know just how many rods down now. But anyway, we
put on our rod tools and started back in the hole to git these
rods -- I think it was seven or eight focals we had on it. So this
boy was hookin' in; he'd just got the rod and tipped right on
in to this hook, see. Well, I saw it wasn't safe, so I started to
back down and I saw PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL
p.9 he's gonna grab it and I says, "Don't touch
that!" And before I could set it back, he grabbed it and when
he did he knocked it off. Just grabbed that rod and he says, "I don't
know why I grabbed it, nothing about it. I just got excited." He
dropped down there and broke his fingers up; he's crippled pretty
badly. But you know me hollerin' at him, tellin' him not to touch
it, and backin' down easy to set down to where he could hook it
good, you know. But he just grabbed it. But he was clean enough to
tell the superintendent, he says, "It was my fault, Mr. Rith. Bill
told me; he hollered at me and tried to git me, but I was excited
and just grabbed it anyway. I don't know why I grabbed it." Probably nothing
would've happened if he hadn't of, but minute he touched it
off it come and bounced and all the rods went in the hole. We had
to go back and pull 'em some more; go back in there and screw on and
pull out again. Start all over.
B.- Well, what about his hand? Did it get well?
I.- Uh, no, it got well, but it was always a crippled hand. And
I don't know what ever become of him. Company paid him off, some
little something. They wasn't no compensation or nothing then. You
just -- if you got hurt -- In other words, a man wasn't any more
than a damn mule. My old man used to say, "Well, if you kill a mule,
you got to buy another one. If you kill a man, you can hire another
one." See? That was the attitude. B.- That's what they said?
I.- That's right. It was just the attitude of the people.
B.- Well, did many people get hurt? Was the accident rate pretty high
PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p.10
I." Yeah, lots of people, oh, Lordy. Lots of men got killed or
crippled up uncalled for. Through ignorance a lot of it, and through
unsafe equipment too, you know. Most of the accidents could be
avoided, but people were ignorant of the danger and they'd just
take chances. And your equipment wasn't safe like it is now, not
at all. Nowadays they've got elevators that you could drop a string
of tubin' and it wouldn't come off. Sane way when you hook one, why
it's hooked; it won't come unhooked. Them days was just plain old
things, you know, nothing It was hard go. And then one man as
an average knows about as much as another, and they all had to
learn it, you know. And it made it a little bit tough that way.
B.- Did you have -- what about fires? Weren't they pretty bad too?
I.- Well, no, didn't have too many fires. Mostly -- the biggest
fires I ever saw was caused by lightning, catchin' big tanks afire
that way -- hardly ever --- B.- Not many wells on fire.
I.- No, not much. Some few got afire, but not where I was workin'.
Once in awhile one would blow out and catch from the boiler but
not too often. They got where they'd move these boilers back quite
a ways from the rigs, when they'd go to bring a well in, drill it
in, you know. Well, they'd set these boilers back, cut the fire
out, if you see anything cornin' out. But before they learned that,
why they had quite a few fires. Used to have lots of blow-outs in
that Smackover Field up there. They'd strike a pocket and the mud'd
be too light, and strike a pocket of gas or something and just blow
everything out. I believe the biggest fire I ever saw was out on
PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p.11
Pine Island. There was lots of waste oil there and lots of slews,
ponds, you know, water had come down and washed and this oil would
settle on top of this water and in dry time was very dangerous.
One night a fellow set a whole pond afire. It was about, I guess
a inch of oil, old heavy waste oil been floatin' around on it. Set
that afire, and my God amighty, you never saw such a fire in your
life. The thing was about a mile long and some places a hundred
yards wide, just that much oil gittln' afire at one time made a
terrible fire. B.- Did it burn down any equipment or anything?
I.- No, we lost one rig; Dixie Oil Company lost one rig was all we
lost. And just happened not to be any wells right close. This
was just -- it was right out in a big field, but it was just an old
pond there where water always stood. They couldn't never -- they's
kinda a little branch come through it there, you know, and water
out of the hills and waste oil. Used to waste an awful lot of oil
in that Pine Island district there, where they couldn't git it
treated right and they'd put it off and it'd go down and settle in
them swamps. Made it pretty rough. B.- Probably killed a lot of fish.
I.- I believe it was in 1917 or 1918 when they had the epidemic of
flu there. Gulf had a camp there on Pine Island. Had over 100 men
in that camp; in a week's time there wasn't nobody there. They's
just sick, some of 'em died and scattered out. We had a camp of
about twenty-four men, with the Dixie Oil Company - I think there's
twenty-four of us stayed there. It wasn't a quarter of a mile from
PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p.12
it and never did we have a man with it, the flu. I don't know why,
but It just struck that way. B.- You did all your work then practically,
with two companies? I.- Yessir, I worked -- well, I never worked
for any other company since I been here in 1919. During that time
I got hurt one time and I told the superintendent, I says, "Mr.
Thornberry, that ain't safe."
Oh, he says, "Bill, that bailer and things ain't as heavy as that
machine." I says, "I know it, but something might happen.
Give her a quick jerk or something. That thing ought to be
anchored down. It's just B.- Was that the draw works or ---
I.- Uh-huh, had the draw works set -- what they called the pullin'
machine draw works - had it set down on two eight by tens. And
that's all there was, wasn't anchored down either end -- just bailin'
shallow wells, about 1800 feet well. Well, I'd been bailin' there
for about an hour, I guess, and was goin' back In the hole, and what
hung the bailer up, nobody knows, nor I don't know if what it was
was a pocket of gas puffed up there stoppin' it. But it stopped
and all at once it went through, you see, and they checked that
thing up and it come down across that foot. I was standin' on this
eight by ten and this beam, this runner, rather, and that come right
on across that foot. I had on one of these safety-toed shoes, see.
Well, it just twisted my foot, just right around there and broke
them two bones right there. That's the only 'sides this finger
gittin' mashed, that's the only injury I've ever had.
PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p.13
B.- Only accident you've had. I.- Only one I've had in my thirty-six years
of service in the field. I guess I'm pretty lucky; I contribute it
to luck more than anything else. But I never got very many men hurt.
I just tried to play it safe.
B.- Did you know many of the landowners around the fields you
worked on? I.- Oh, yeah, I knew most all of 'em here,
got acquainted with all of 'em, Most of 'em were very nice. We had
one man that was -- he lived over here close to Necessity - he's
the most peculiar character you ever saw. He leased the Gulf his land; then he turned
around and leased it to somebody else, see. They had a big law-
suit about it. So it was settled over here in Eastland County,
and the old man was about to go to the penitentiary. So Mr, Pyron
called me up one morning and says, "Bill, go over there and tell
old man Harris I want him and his wife in Eastland at 1:00 today.
I'm gonna wait till you come back here and call me." He was in
Port Worth and I's out there, see. He used the company phone.
So I went over there, and I says, "Mr. Harris," -- met him cornin'
out of the house -- "Mr, Pyron said to tell you he wanted you and
your wife to go to Eastland today, to be in Eastland by 1:00."
"Well," he says, "I've got a cow that I think got a young calf
and I got to go see about her." I said, "Mr, Harris, is that cow worth as
much to you as that law- suit is?"
"By God, I'll be there. By God, I'll be there." That was the
PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p. 14
attitude he'd take. "You go back and tell him I'll be there."
I says, "Mr. Harris, if you don't have a way to go, why I'll take
you and it won't cost you nothing." "No, I'll go." And if it hadn't been for Mr.
Pyron, the man would've got taken, but he got it settled.
B.- How'd he settle it? I.- I don't know just how. They compromised
some way or other. These other folks saw that they were wrong, you
see; they got it settled some way or another, keep the old man from
goin' to the penitentiary. He's got lots of land and has got It leased
out now and got some good wells on it now. But Law, he's the most,
contrariest man I ever saw In my life. One night we's sittin'
up at the Island, right at this well, this camp we had here. We had
one well makin' 3,000 barrels a day and we had to keep the pump
runnin' pretty near all the time, see, to take care of this oil, git
the tank full. So somebody had drilled a well down on this man's
Harris's lease down there and he says, "Bill, let's walk down;
I've got to put a tank on down here. Just walk down there with me."
We just walked down there; I'd holdin' his flashlight for him,
to read his gauge line. Old man Harris come up with a shotgun and
says, "By God, you're not gonna run that oil!" So this fellow says,
"Look here, old man, by God, one eighth of this oil is yours and the
balance of it belongs to the Gulf Oil Corporation. I'm gonna run
it. I'll come down there and make you chew the sights off that
God damned gun." (LAUGHTER)
No sir, I's just fixin' to dive off. Afraid that old man -- but
PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p. 15
he backed down. I've never seen a fellow back down, and he had that
shotgun drawed right on that fellow. Fellow just backed him right
down. He said, "Now you come up here and you see the gauge." Had
the old man come up and sign the gauge ticket, you know, so you
could have a royalty gauger, you know, as a landowner. So he sent
his brother out next day as a royalty gauger. His brother had to
see every tank that was put on. So that was the funniest thing to
me. The old man, his brother come out and he says, "I want witnesses
I want to see what happened." This fellow by the name of Stanford, he says,
"Mr, Harris, you see that?"
"Yeah." He says, "Sign your name."
He says, "I can't write." He says, "By God, you can draw an 'X'!"
Sent a man out there didn't know one figure from another, one letter
from another, to be a gauger, B.- That was his brother-in-law?
I.- No, it was his brother, B.- He couldn't write?
I.- Couldn't write; couldn't sign his name, B.- Couldn't read a gauge, could he?
I.- No, not a thing, he didn't know whether it was one foot, ten
foot or what, I tell you, you just can't imagine the char ---
B.- How much land did Mr, Harris have? Was he pretty well off?
I.- Yeah, he had lots of land. PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL
p.16 B.- He was a rancher, I guess.
I.- Yeah, kind of a - well, the oil company made him rich. He had
a few cattle, not many. He raised a nice family, but he was the
most contrary, even with his neighbors and all that I ever saw. I
liked his children. His oldest boy was just as nice a kid as you
ever want to meet in your life, and I moved out of that district up
in here, and I haven't seen his boy for twenty years. I been down
around here but I hadn't seen him. So I went down to a funeral;
a man's son that worked for the company died and they burled him
over there. So I went over there, and this old man Harris, he al-
ways liked me, git along pretty good. I don't know why, but he
just treated me pretty good. He said, "Bill, you wouldn't know
Claude. You remember him?" I says, "Yeah, never would forget that boy,
Mr. Harris. That was a nice kid."
"Well, he'll be here directly. He made a preacher. You won't
know him now; he's a great big fellow." Directly that boy drove up and he just run
over and "Hello, Mr. Ingram." He'd remembered me, you know. And
he's a real - he's pastor of some church over here in Mineral
Wells now, nice fellow. But that old man ---
B.- He took care of his money though, I.- Yeah.
B.- Well, what did the -- what's your Impression of the way the
landowners came out? Did they spend all their money?
I.- Yeah, most of 'em did. Most of 'em did. Some few saved their
PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p.17
money. Uh, old fellow by the name of Yose over there -- company
had his land leased, and the railroad track come through this land,
see; and the company wanted to build a camp site on this land over
there. They could've built it anyway, but they come out there; the
land man come out there. And they had me in the crew to come over
there, bring a crew over there. I said, "Now, Mr. Yose, we want to
build a camp site here next to the railroad on your property here.
But we'll build it here between four locations, where it won't
interfere with your drillin'. If your land proves up good, why
it won't interfere with your wells at all. Now what will you
charge us for it?" Well, he says, "The old lady says she wants
$1000 an acre." We say, "Mr. -- my Lord, what's the matter
with you? We don't want to buy this stuff; just want to lease
it and turn it back to you when we git through with it. We couldn't
consider nothing like that."
"Well, old lady said she wanted $40,000 for forty acres. We'd
consider $500 an acre for it." "No, Mr. Yose, we can build one right over
here on this track for nothing. We can build our railroad track
out to it if we want it.!l That old man turned down $20,000
right there. Well, they drilled a well down in one corner of
his well, and that well when they shot it -- they shot it with about
350 quarts of nitro- glycerin -- it made just a showin' of oil.
And water and stuff that was in the well, it was one foot, three
production in a 500 barrel tank, you see, which is a little over
thirty barrels. PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL
p. 18 That's every drop of stuff they ever did -- oh,
just had to dump it out, see. You couldn't git that little bit
of oil out of a tank. I just thought how -- old man was old and
his old lady -- why, he turned down that, when it wasn't a hurtin'
a thing in the world, see. You just -- it's what I say - you just
meet the most peculiar characters in an oil field you ever saw. Why,
right here in this little town when I first come here, went to
church right up here, little church up there. Well, they passed
the hat around; we fellows all just chipped in; we's used to
it, you know, give 'em a little money. Well, that fellow got up there
and preached and he called us whore mongers; he called us everything
in the world. And we just got up and walked out, people
that worked in the oil field were thieves, whore mongers and everything
else. Now he just ruined hisself, his church, and everything
else, see, Well, all the people that works in oil fields ain't
that kind of a character, you know. But that was his conception
of people that worked in a oil field. He thought they were
all murderers and everything else. It's a great life if you
don't weaken. (LAUGHTER) B.- (LAUGHTER)

Details

Title: Bill Ingram Interview [part 3 of 4]
Identifier: e_toi_0128
Description: Reel 34b: Bill Ingram discusses Oil City, Louisiana and Breckenridge, Texas areas between 1908-1938.
Creator: Ingram, Bill
Boatright, Mody C. (Mody Coggin), 1896-1970
Date: 1952-07-29
Date Created: 1952-07-29
Resource: Oral history of the Texas oil industry collection
Subject Geographic: United States - Texas - Breckenridge
Physical Genre: Oral histories (literary works)
Extent: 7 inches
Collection Strength: American Energy Industry
Texas History
Project: Oral history of the Texas oil industry collection