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Who Were the Hamill Brothers?
The Hamill brothers--Al, Jim, and Curt--were well known in East Texas. When anyone talked
about drilling water or oil wells, their names were mentioned. They were considered experts
in that field. Most folks were using cable tools to drill wells, but the Hamills were having
success with a new tool called a
rotary drill.
Because of their experience using rotary
drills, the Hamills were hired by
Anthony F. Lucas and his partners to come to
Beaumont and try to
drill through the sand and rock at Spindletop.
Brother Jim stayed in Corsicana, Texas to
finish a job while Curt and Al along with Peck Byrd loaded up and headed for Beaumont.
The drilling team arrived in town on October 1, 1900.
They hitched a wagon to a team of
four mules and carried their supplies out to Spindletop. On their way out of town they
ordered a load of lumber to be delivered. First job on their list was to use the lumber
to build an oil derrick!
Our tour guide, Tex, has pulled a trick out of his bag and arranged an
interview with Mr. Curt Hamill. Take time to read this interview to learn more
about the discovery of Spindletop.
Tex: Mr. Hamill, what kind of living conditions did you endure while working at Spindletop? Curt: Call me Curt, please. What was that question again...Oh yeah, living conditions? Well, we lived in a run-down, one-room shack, that was near the oil field. 
We shared the shack
with roaches and spiders. We slept on beds that were dusty and moldy. When we sat down
to eat, frogs...the biggest we had ever seen...jumped down from the shack's rafters and
landed on the table.
At night we had to put nets up over the beds to prevent being bitten
by mosquitoes. Even though the living conditions were poor, my brother and I, along with
Peck Byrd, were excited about drilling a well at Spindletop.
Tex: What new drilling equipment did you bring to Beaumont? Curt: We brought a rotary drill. Tex: What was the first job you accomplished at Spindletop? Curt: We ran water lines from a nearby bayou up to the drilling site. Then we built a tall wooden derrick to support our long sections of pipe as they were being drilled into the ground. We also added pulleys to our derrick so that we could raise the pipe from the hole when the bit needed to be changed or sharpened. Tex: How did the rotary drill work? Curt: We used a steam engine that was powered by a boiler to turn the drilling pipe and bit. We lowered the pipe and let the bit chew its way through sand, mud, and rock. We ran into a problem. The sand at Spindletop clogged the pipe and filled up the hole as fast as it was drilled. We pumped water from the bayou down the well to cool the bit and wash the sand out of the pipe. The sand absorbed the water and stayed in the hole. This caused the job to go slow. At the end of twenty days, we had only reached a depth of 400 feet. Tex: Did the drilling team want to give up? Curt: No sir, we didn't give up. We kept on working until we reached 640 feet. Then we hit the worst sand ever. We ran out of wood for the boiler and our bits needed to be sharpened. My brother, Al, went in to town for wood. I stayed at the drilling site to do some powerful thinking. Tex: Did you come up with an idea to solve the sand problem? Curt: We sure did! I came up with the theory that pumping mud not water into the pipe might force the sand to the surface. Sand absorbed the water like a sponge but the mud would not be absorbed into the sand. Tex: Where did you get the mud? Curt: Well, we brought in a small herd of cattle and turned them loose in a nearby water pit. The cattle stomped around and made lots of mud for us. Tex: Did your theory work? Curt: It dang sure did! The thick mud was pumped into the hole and it carried the sand out. We worked hard all day and by evening, we had drilled through the bad layer of sand and into black dirt and shale. Everyone shouted with joy. From then on, we operated the rig 24 hours a day. Tex: Were you there when the gusher blew in? Curt: You better believe I was! I was on the derrick when the gusher came in. I was blinded by the puff of mud and oil. When I wiped the oil out of my eyes, I saw the fountain of petroleum shooting at least 100 feet into the air. Tex:Thank you Curt for such an exciting and informative interview. Top
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