Getting a Taste of the Old ‘Texas Tea’

Turn into a narrow dirt lane south of town for your first glimpse of the unpainted pine-board walls and red tin roof on the old Tol Barret House, canopied in the cool shade of towering pines.

A pole fence circles the swept garden, a 19th-Century term for a dirt yard. Old brown bottles border flower beds along the dirt path that leads to the broad front porch, and bricks outline a flower bed in the shape of a Texas star on each side of the yard.

The residence of the man who brought in Texas’ first oil well in 1866 does not look like the home of an oil mogul, because mogul he was not. Tol Barret was a pioneer, a forger of dreams on which a great industry grew.

Like many visionaries, Barret has received little attention. Nothing remains of that first oil well. But his home survives, thanks to retired Navy Capt. and Mrs. Charles K. Phillips. They had the house moved 12 miles and restored to look as it did during the half-century Barret lived in it.

The Phillipses live in another historic old house tucked into the forest of their Llano Grande Pine Tree Plantation about a quarter of a mile from the Barret place. They’ll meet you at the pole fence.

The Bare Earth

The first question most visitors ask is, “Where’s the grass?”

“We’ve used Barret family pictures and visited with Barret grandchildren and neighbors to jog their memory and recapture the way the place looked when the family lived in it,” Ann Phillips said. “It was the custom back then to sweep the yard to keep out grass that might hide rodents, snakes and insects. Also, the bare earth served as a fire break.”

Leaning against the porch wall is the brush broom, or “bresh” broom as the old-timers called it. The twisted dogwood branches that compose what looks like a witch’s broom will claw from the soil whatever might try to grow in the yard.

Using the double front doors, the Phillipses are carrying on another Barret family tradition. “The grandchildren said the Barrets always asked guests to sign the door when they came for a visit. We didn’t find the guests’ door, but we found a bedroom door with the notation ‘December 27, 1878, dance at Teutsch’s tonight,’ ” Charles Phillips said. “We’ve continued the tradition by having our guests sign the front door.”

The first name on the door is sprawled in bold strokes: “Bill Clements, 9-22-81.” On that date, the 115th anniversary of the day Tol Barret struck oil, the Barret house was dedicated as a Texas landmark and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Gov. Bill Clements attended the ceremony and renewed the old tradition by signing the front door.

Inside the wide center hall with its plain white vertical board walls, varnished yellow pine floor, hand-woven rug and dark American Empire furniture, the atmosphere seems genteel, in keeping with family descriptions of Tol Barret, as a quiet, well-educated man.

Lyne Taliaferro (Tol) Barret, was born in Appomattox, Va., in 1832, and came to Texas with his family when he was 10. Growing up in Nacogdoches County, he knew about oil seeping from streams where hogs liked to wallow. He probably heard about the water well over in Shelby County that burned for 12 months. Moreover, he did not believe the “experts” who claimed that significant amounts of oil would never be found in Texas.

Drilling Gets Under Way

In early 1859 he prepared to drill for oil. He leased a tract of 229 acres about 12 miles southeast of Nacogdoches, but lack of machinery and then the Civil War halted his plans. So the world’s first producing oil well was discovered in Pennsylvania in August, 1859. At the time, oil was used primarily for lubricants and medicine.

After serving in the Confederate Army, Barret came home, formed the Melrose Petroleum Oil Co. with four other men, and renewed his lease. He mounted on a tripod an auger that was 8 feet long and 8 inches in diameter. Using a steam engine for drilling and a mule to pull the auger out of the hole, he bored to 106 feet, where, in early fall of 1866 he struck oil. This first Texas oil well produced 10 barrels a day.

Barret secured financing through a Pennsylvania firm and brought a Pennsylvania operator, John F. Carll, to Texas to begin a second well. When it didn’t come in at 80 feet, Carll shut down the drilling and headed home. The bottom had dropped out of the petroleum market. Prices plummeted from $6.59 to $1.35 a barrel.

Broke, and unable to convince Pennsylvania oil operators of the merits of Texas petroleum, Barret gave up. He spent the remainder of his life managing his wife’s farms and a mercantile store in Melrose. He lived until 1913, long enough to see that he had been correct. An oil boom hit when Barret drilled in 1887, and the granddaddy of them all, Spindletop, gushed in 1901. Texas, indeed, became the oil capital of the world.

The Barret sitting room contains a desk that resembles the one where Tol Barret labored hours keeping careful ledgers of his expenses and writing to potential oil backers. The unpainted pine walls rise 15 feet in this cheerful room, and visitors can still gather around a card table almost identical to the Barrets’.

To the left of the center hall a bedroom boasts a canopied four-poster similar to the old piece remembered by the grandchildren. Two small back rooms flank the old warming kitchen, and a covered raised walkway leads out back to the detached kitchen.

A Few Modern Conveniences

Using wood from an old house in the area and directions from Barret descendants and neighbors, the Phillipses reconstructed the kitchen and the loft above it where the maid lived. “We’ve added modern plumbing, heating and air conditioning,” Ann Phillips said.

The Phillipses open the detached kitchen as a bed-and-breakfast house. Guests will find homemade bread, venison sausage and other food for a country breakfast. The table occupies the center of the room in front of a stone fireplace. In the loft, under-eaves beds with rope springs have been dressed in handmade quilts. Braided rugs blanket the wood floor.

Wind whispers through the towering pines, and a wren has made its nest in a teapot on the back porch. A black pot used for making lye soap sits beside an old smokehouse.

This country memorial is all that survives to tell the tale of Tol Barret, the man who understood the potential for greatness underground, the black gold that changed Texas history.

Nacogdoches is 140 miles north of Houston on U.S. 59.

The Tol Barret House is open daily, by appointment only. Admission, $2 per person, minimum five people or $10, includes guided tour and refreshments.

In addition to the bed-and-breakfast suite above the kitchen that accommodates four, the Phillipses have bought a 1940s farmhouse, the Gate House. This cottage boasts two bedrooms furnished in antiques and a modern kitchen where visitors will find food for a big country breakfast.

Sometimes visitors find themselves lodged on the second floor of the Phillips’ 1850s home. In the antique-filled loft room you can warm your feet on a round stove from an old train depot. The second bedroom boasts a fireplace and a trundle bed. Guests enjoy a continental breakfast of homemade coffee cake, juice and coffee.

Ask to see Rosewild, the 1855 house the Phillipses are restoring. Scheduled to be completed and opened for bed and breakfast in two years, Rosewild will be the most handsome of the historic homes on the plantation.

Rates vary from $70 a night for two in the Barret kitchen loft to $60 a night for two in the other houses; $5 each additional person. Each room except the loft room has a bath.

For information and reservations for tours or accommodations contact Capt. and Mrs. Charles K. Phillips, Route 4, Box 9400, Nacogdoches, Tex. 75961; (409) 569-1249.

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Millard’s Crossing, a village of 16 historic structures, sprawls serenely beside U.S. 59 just north of Nacogdoches. Lera Thomas, widow of Rep. Albert Thomas, began collecting antiques during her husband’s 29-year stint in Congress. After her husband’s death, she completed his term and then returned to her hometown and began her Texas-size collection--19th-Century structures filled with handsome antiques. Guided tours are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays. Admission, $2.50 adults, $1.50 children 6-12. For information: 6020 North St., Nacogdoches, Tex. 75961; (409) 564-6631.

Music department students from Austin University serve as singing waiters and waitresses at Rossini’s Italian restaurant. Housed in a converted warehouse, it is open 6 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, and 5 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

For information contact Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Drawer 1918, Nacogdoches, Tex. 75961; (409) 564-7351.