Kurz Number One, When Carl Kurz Struck Oil And Began the Somerset Oil Field
Bernard Pyron
I
have looked for San Antonio Newspaper articles on the discovery of oil
on the Carl Kurz place. I would like to find a newspaper article
written at the time Carl Kurz found that he had hit oil instead of
artesian water which he was drilling for. I would
like to find out exactly when grandfather Kurz discovered oil and
whether or not it was a gusher, as Billy Kenney implies in his interview
for the Institute of Texan Cultures. In oil field lingo, the well that
Carl Kurz drilled for artesian water which struck oil would be called
Kurz Number One. But I have never found an online newspaper article on
the discovery of oil on the Carl Kurz land.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset,_Texas
"In
1913, while drilling for artesian water, Kurz discovered oil. A boom
followed. The Somerset oilfield extended from Somerset to below
Pleasanton and was the largest known shallow field in the world at that
time. Two oil refineries in the field and a pipeline into San Antonio
handled the high-gravity crude."
http://books.google.com/books?id=7pgtAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA114...
The Oil Weekly, January 21, 1922
"The
Somerset, Texas shallow oil pool completed its tenth year with the
close of 1921 without a single dry hole in proven territory since the
discovery of the field........the field had only eight or ten very small
wells and development did not really start until three years ago...the
older wells finished around 900 feet with from one to four barrels
production."
If
ten years went by up to the end of 1921, then the beginning of the
Somerset Oil Field would have been in 1912, so the date in the above
wikipedia article saying Carl Kurz hit oil in 1913 is too late a date.
This
Oil Weekly information on the ten years at the end of 1921 from the
start of the Somerset Oil Field supports the earlier date of the
discovery of oil by Carl Kurz according to the oil leases that A.M.
Pyron contracted in 1912 for the Somerset Oil & Gas Co, seen in
online Bexar county land transaction records. These records show that
A.M. Pyron contracted 17 oil leases in 1912-1913. The list of land
owners in a Bexar county transaction on June 9, 1913 that A.M. Pyron as
the Trustee for the Somerset Oil and Gas Company signed leases with
include R.B. Touchstone, 133 acres, C. Kurz, 129 acres, S.S. Wildman
286 acres, Aug. F. Ernst 480 acres, John Eastwood, 234 acres, C.H. Long,
111 acres, W.B. Kilborn, 78 acres. The oil and gas leases were signed
from November 12, 1912 to January 6, 1913.
Again,
the 1913 date for the discovery of oil by Carl Kurz is not consistent
with the online Bexar county transactions showing A.M. Pyron contracted
oil and gas leases as early as November of 1912.
Billie
Kurz McCord in a phone call of December of 2012 said that the original
well was near the Carl Kurz house, which became the Gus Kurz house on
Payne Road. Billie said there was a small house over the oil well.
Billy
Kenney On the First Carl Kurz Oil Well In His Interview For the Oral
History Collection, Institute For Texan Cultures in 1988: Billy Kenney
was born in February of 1904, so in about 1912 he would have been only
about eight.
HC: "At one time Somerset was the largest shallow well in
the country, wasn't it?
K: Largest shallow oil field in the world.
HC: In the world? Now, Kurtz, wasn't Carl Kurtz diggin'
for water?
KENNEY 10
K: That's right. The way I understand it, he and my
grandfather, of course, - ther e was just a road separatin'
them.
HC: That's grandfather Pyron.
K: Grandfather put in with him to dig a thousand foot
well.
SC: Water well.
K: See if they could get some water. That would be good
for irrigating, see?
HC: Yeah.
K: And they got that oil and they was the maddest ole men.
I remember that day they were really put out. They didn't
want no damned oil, they wanted a water well. (laughter)."
Sunday, September 28, 2014
My Jungle On Idiot Road In the Bug Lands of Missouri
My Jungle On Idiot Road In the Bug Lands of Missouri
Bernard Pyron
Bernard Pyron
- .
- A video inside the Jungle........................
.................https:// vimeo.com/106744928
The Jungle On Idiot Road In the Bug Lands of Ol Misery: Above: From the Big Apple Tree To Looking At Small Field To the west. - Bernard Pyron Some lines from the song "Shelby"s Mule," sung by Shelby's brigade, "Let us alone, we'll do the same, that is the Southern rule;
If that won't do we'll pack the State down South on Shelby's Mule." The state they claim they might pack south on Shebly's Mule is Missouri.
Tulsa, the Dog Who Survived
Tulsa, the Dog Who Survived
Bernard Pyron
When Tulsa, the dog shown in the photo here taken September 26, 2014, was born in March of 2004 his mother had only two, and the other looked just like Tulsa. Both got parvo virus in July of 2004 and his brother died. The old Christian Media Network group, or several in it, were praying for Tulsa to live and on a Saturday morning suddenly he was up and playing with his mother. He got over the parvo virus.
Tulsa, who is part Walker, and part Wolfus Spaniel and Beagle was not named for Tulsa, Oklahoma, but for a famous South Texas coyote hound, who was written up in the journal, The Hunter's
Horn. Tulsa, the famous hound, ran in the area of Devine. In a Hunter's Horn article from the thirties the the writer said the famous Tulsa of the thirties would "sit up in front of a pack behind a Wolf and scream every time his feet hit the ground."
LIFE magazine on December 7, 1936 had an article on the South Texas
Wolf Hunters Meet held on the Story Ranch at Cotulla. Julian Roberson
was the owner of Tulsa the hound who won both the hunt and bench show.
Running hounds after coyotes in the thirties and forties was part of another time and another culture, very different from the one we live under now..........You might say that being interested in running hounds after coyotes is now politically incorrect - and thats partly why it is interesting. Few now can understand why men would go out in the country, build up a camp fire and sit around it for hours in the night listening to the barking of their hounds on coyote trails maybe a mile or two away. See: http://www.texashuntingforum.com/.../ubb.../topics/2473692/2.............
"There are still a few "Wolf Hunters" out there. I just visited with a buddy who had been up around Decatur where he hunted with a couple of fellows who still had running dogs..
Gary Roberson says "My Grandfather, Julian Roberson bred and hunted a dog by the name of Tulsa. Tulsa won the meet in the late 30's and is considered by most of the South Texas Wolf Hunters to have been the greatest of all time. Walt Disney sent a sound crew down to Cotulla, TX and recorded the dog running a coyote and it was Tulsa who actually provided the sound track of the hound in the Disney movie, "Voice of Bugle Anne". He later sold the hound to Preacher Balkham from San Antonio. To everyone's disappointment, Tulsa never reproduced any offspring with his great classic bugle mouth.."
"Preacher Balkham" is Robert Gaddy Baucom, in the thirties preacher of the South San Antonio Baptist Church, who had coyote hounds and sometimes ran them with those of my older brother and father. Baucom, or as the coyote hunters called him "The Preacher," had a Model A truck which was equipped to hold several of his hounds - and he had built along the sides of the back shelves and cupboards like in the old chuck wagons the cowboys of the open range used. Baucom would arrive in the Somerset area on a Saturday night before dark with his rig and park it at our house near town. When my Father Blake Pyron and my older brother George got off from work after dark on a winter night, they would head out to the Quesenberry, the Ballard, or wherever the group was going that night.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028471/plotsummary...
The Movie Voice of Bugle Ann, 1936
"The countrymen in the hills of Missouri take the hounds on night fox hunts. This goes on until Jacob Terry comes into the county and decides to raise sheep and install a woven wire fence. This upsets the neighbors since the dogs would not harm the sheep and they will be hurt running into the fence at night. Jacobs vows to shoot any dogs or people that he finds on his land. But Bengy Davis is in love with Camden Terry and that alone causes problems. But when the hound, Bugle Ann is missing one night, both sides are out with guns to settle the score."
http://immortalephemera.com/.../the-voice-of-bugle-ann.../
Running hounds after coyotes in the thirties and forties was part of another time and another culture, very different from the one we live under now..........You might say that being interested in running hounds after coyotes is now politically incorrect - and thats partly why it is interesting. Few now can understand why men would go out in the country, build up a camp fire and sit around it for hours in the night listening to the barking of their hounds on coyote trails maybe a mile or two away. See: http://www.texashuntingforum.com/.../ubb.../topics/2473692/2.............
"There are still a few "Wolf Hunters" out there. I just visited with a buddy who had been up around Decatur where he hunted with a couple of fellows who still had running dogs..
Gary Roberson says "My Grandfather, Julian Roberson bred and hunted a dog by the name of Tulsa. Tulsa won the meet in the late 30's and is considered by most of the South Texas Wolf Hunters to have been the greatest of all time. Walt Disney sent a sound crew down to Cotulla, TX and recorded the dog running a coyote and it was Tulsa who actually provided the sound track of the hound in the Disney movie, "Voice of Bugle Anne". He later sold the hound to Preacher Balkham from San Antonio. To everyone's disappointment, Tulsa never reproduced any offspring with his great classic bugle mouth.."
"Preacher Balkham" is Robert Gaddy Baucom, in the thirties preacher of the South San Antonio Baptist Church, who had coyote hounds and sometimes ran them with those of my older brother and father. Baucom, or as the coyote hunters called him "The Preacher," had a Model A truck which was equipped to hold several of his hounds - and he had built along the sides of the back shelves and cupboards like in the old chuck wagons the cowboys of the open range used. Baucom would arrive in the Somerset area on a Saturday night before dark with his rig and park it at our house near town. When my Father Blake Pyron and my older brother George got off from work after dark on a winter night, they would head out to the Quesenberry, the Ballard, or wherever the group was going that night.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028471/plotsummary...
The Movie Voice of Bugle Ann, 1936
"The countrymen in the hills of Missouri take the hounds on night fox hunts. This goes on until Jacob Terry comes into the county and decides to raise sheep and install a woven wire fence. This upsets the neighbors since the dogs would not harm the sheep and they will be hurt running into the fence at night. Jacobs vows to shoot any dogs or people that he finds on his land. But Bengy Davis is in love with Camden Terry and that alone causes problems. But when the hound, Bugle Ann is missing one night, both sides are out with guns to settle the score."
http://immortalephemera.com/.../the-voice-of-bugle-ann.../
http://www.tcm.com/.../Voice-of-Bugle-Ann-The-Original...
This is a two and a half minute clip from the 1936 movie Voice of Bugle Ann, which has a few seconds of the distinctive voice of a hound, which, if
Gary Roberson is right, is the voice of the famous South Texas coyote hound, Tulsa recorded in 1936. The voice of Tulsa, if it is him, does sound like a bugle. And Gary Roberson is the grandson of Julian Roberson the owner of Tulsa.
The Voice of Bugle Ann as a full movie is online, but I did not find one on youtube. The others involve signing up for something... As Bugle Ann, the dog with the voice of Tulsa, was killed in the movie, so the lead dog, Pep, that belonged to my older brother George, in 1935 or 1936, was shot and killed by a farmer, Cleve Kight, when she was leading a pack through Kight's place. There was an article on the killing of the Lead Dog, Pep in the Hunter's Horn, April 1936 page 16, about how in a Bexar county, Texas court trial in San Antonio my father, Blake Pyron, testified that he could tell what his hounds were running by the sound of their barking. He said the dogs "never changed their tune," when the lead Dog Pep was killed. Cleve, or Cleveland L. Kight, who killed her, said the hounds were running his hogs. Since the address of Kight who killed Pep and another Pyron hound that night was given as Von Ormy, its likely that the incident occurred in the general area of the Quesenberry ranch on the north banks of the Medina. I am not sure how Kight got in position to shoot dogs running on a coyote trail. George was only about 16 when his dog was killed. A lead dog is one who gets out in front of the pack of hounds which are usually scattered behind the lead dog. The lead dog is responsible for staying on the trail of the coyote, though when trailing becomes difficult, other hounds who are the trail dogs who first find trails of coyotes, may come up and help the lead dog find the lost trail.
This is a two and a half minute clip from the 1936 movie Voice of Bugle Ann, which has a few seconds of the distinctive voice of a hound, which, if
Gary Roberson is right, is the voice of the famous South Texas coyote hound, Tulsa recorded in 1936. The voice of Tulsa, if it is him, does sound like a bugle. And Gary Roberson is the grandson of Julian Roberson the owner of Tulsa.
The Voice of Bugle Ann as a full movie is online, but I did not find one on youtube. The others involve signing up for something... As Bugle Ann, the dog with the voice of Tulsa, was killed in the movie, so the lead dog, Pep, that belonged to my older brother George, in 1935 or 1936, was shot and killed by a farmer, Cleve Kight, when she was leading a pack through Kight's place. There was an article on the killing of the Lead Dog, Pep in the Hunter's Horn, April 1936 page 16, about how in a Bexar county, Texas court trial in San Antonio my father, Blake Pyron, testified that he could tell what his hounds were running by the sound of their barking. He said the dogs "never changed their tune," when the lead Dog Pep was killed. Cleve, or Cleveland L. Kight, who killed her, said the hounds were running his hogs. Since the address of Kight who killed Pep and another Pyron hound that night was given as Von Ormy, its likely that the incident occurred in the general area of the Quesenberry ranch on the north banks of the Medina. I am not sure how Kight got in position to shoot dogs running on a coyote trail. George was only about 16 when his dog was killed. A lead dog is one who gets out in front of the pack of hounds which are usually scattered behind the lead dog. The lead dog is responsible for staying on the trail of the coyote, though when trailing becomes difficult, other hounds who are the trail dogs who first find trails of coyotes, may come up and help the lead dog find the lost trail.
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