The Toughest Town on the Sunset Route RoadyGoat

The town you're rolling into was laid out fast and hard in 1874, when the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio railroad pushed its track to a terminus about three miles west of Plum Creek and stopped. For two years Luling was the literal end of the line, where the rails met the cattle trails, and that combination earned it a reputation as the toughest town in Texas. Drovers, gamblers, and gunmen filled the saloons; Austin papers of the day groused that Luling was given over to the devil and that everyone in town went armed at night. Its early settlers came largely from the older Plum Creek and Atlanta communities nearby. Even the name is a mystery with three competing answers: some say it honored a Chinese railroad worker, some a Judge Luling, and some claim it was the maiden name of the wife of the man who built the railroad. Nobody ever settled it. When the great cattle drives faded in the late 1880s, the gunsmoke cleared and cotton took over, and within a few years the rowdy railhead survived only as a legend. (Source: Handbook of Texas.)

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Six Dry Holes and the Seventh Well That Made a Boomtown RoadyGoat

Right out here, on August 9, 1922, a New England shoe millionaire named Edgar B. Davis turned Luling from a quiet cotton town into one of the hottest oil plays in America, and he nearly went broke doing it. Davis had drilled six straight dry holes and was deep in debt, ignoring the geologists who told him the field was finished. The seventh well, the Rafael Rios No. 1, hit oil at about 2,160 feet and came in flowing roughly 150 barrels a day. It opened a field that ran twelve miles long and two miles wide. Within two years Luling sat atop one of the top-producing oilfields in the country, and the town's population exploded from a few hundred to several thousand almost overnight. Boarding houses, derricks, and roughnecks filled the place. A deeply religious man, Davis insisted God had directed him to deliver Luling from its one-crop cotton economy through oil, and for once the wildcatter's faith and the geology agreed. The black gold underneath you reshaped everything that came after. (Source: Handbook of Texas; American Oil & Gas Historical Society.)

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The 12-Million-Dollar Deal and the Free Barbecue RoadyGoat

On June 11, 1926, Edgar B. Davis sold his Luling oil leases to the Magnolia Petroleum Company for $12 million, with half of it paid in cash, in what was likely the biggest oil deal in Texas up to that time. Most men would have boarded a train for somewhere fancier. Davis threw a party for the whole region instead. To celebrate the sale he staged an enormous free barbecue for his employees, his associates, and the ordinary citizens of Caldwell, Gonzales, and Guadalupe counties, and accounts put the crowd somewhere between 15,000 and 35,000 people. He handed his workers bonuses worth anywhere from a quarter to a full year's salary. Then he kept giving: at least five million dollars went to charity, including a golf course and athletic fields for Luling, a Broadway play, and the agricultural foundation that still bears the town's spirit. Davis genuinely believed the fortune wasn't really his to keep, and he spent the rest of his life proving it. He died in 1951 and is buried right here in the town he refused to abandon. (Source: Handbook of Texas.)

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Logan, James Marion

1943

James Marion Logan, Medal of Honor recipient and first recipient of the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor, son of C. M. and Maggie Williams Logan, was born at McNeil near Luling in Caldwell County, Texas, on December 19, 1920. While growing up in rural Texas during the Depression , Logan worked as a laborer for $15.00 a week. In order to supplement his income Logan joined the Texas National Guard in 1936 at the age of fifteen. He enlisted in Company L, Luling Guard, and remained with the unit until he was mustered into Federal service. On November 25, 1940, the Thirty-sixth Infantry was mobilized into the United States Army at Camp Bowie, Texas. Logan served as a rifleman in the 1st Platoon, Company I, 3rd Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division (Texas National Guard), Fifth Army. After spending a great deal of time training and running maneuvers in the United States, the Thirty-sixth Infantry set sail for Oran, Algeria, on April 2, 1943. Once in North Africa the Thirty-sixth was held in reserve and then later stationed near Rabat and Casablanca. The Thirty-sixth was then put through training at the Army's Invasion Training Center on the Mediterranean at Arzew, where they were prepared for their first action with the invasion of Salerno, Italy. On September 9, 1943, Logan, among the first wave of men to land on the beach at Salerno, advanced inland among darkness and enemy fire. After traversing eight hundred yards, he took a position along the bank of a canal. Logan and Company I were besieged by Germans, taking refuge behind a wall two hundred yards ahead where they began a counterattack. "Voluntarily exposing himself to the fire of a machinegun," Logan advanced toward the Germans behind the wall, dodged their fire, and killed three of them as they attempted to escape. After he ran the two hundred yards of open terrain, Logan reached the wall and killed two machine gunners. He then seized their gun and opened fire on the German retreat which resulted in more casualties. In the meantime he managed to capture a German officer and private who were attempting to escape. Later that morning Logan stormed a sniper's den one hundred fifty yards from his company. Once again taking his life in his hands, he reached the house where the sniper was located and shot off the lock to kill the sniper. "Logan's exploits proved a constant inspiration to all the men of his company, and aided materially in insuring the success of the beachhead at Salerno." To award Logan for his gallantry, Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch II presented him with the Medal of Honor on June 6, 1944, near Naples, Italy. Following his heroic efforts at Salerno, Logan was promoted to sergeant. In late May 1944 Allied Forces were advancing toward Rome, but before they could proceed they had to take the Italian city of Velletri which was the last German stronghold defending Rome. On June 1, 1944, Sergeant Logan captured fifteen Germans and killed twenty-five in an assault on a German unit trying to escape Velletri during the short and chaotic battle. Logan was injured by shrapnel from artillery shells while he carried a wounded soldier to a medical aid station. This effort earned Logan the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest military honor. Although he was nominated for the Medal of Honor for his actions at Velletri, it was United States Army policy not to award two Medals of Honor to one individual. In addition to the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Purple Heart, Logan received two Bronze Stars for bravery, the Rome Avno, Naples Fogio, the Italian Cross of Valor, and several service medals. After leaving the U.S. Army on March 6, 1945, Logan spent another two months in the Texas National Guard and then left on May 24. He spent the next three decades working for Exxon ( see EXXON COMPANY, U.S.A. ) and retired to Kilgore, Texas. On May 30, 1997, more than three decades after its authorization by the Fi

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Bellard, Emory Dilworth

1967

Emory Dilworth Bellard, a high school and college football coach and inventor of the wishbone formation, was born on December 17, 1927, in Luling, Texas. He was the son of Pearl Albert Bellard and Louie Cass (Davis) Bellard. The family moved to Port Aransas, Texas, when Emory was about twelve years old in order to facilitate his father’s recuperation after an accident, but Pearl Bellard eventually died. Emory grew up in Port Aransas. His mother managed Angler’s Court, a fishing bungalow, where he helped clean fish and made beds. An active Boy Scout , Bellard achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. He transferred to Aransas Pass High School for his junior year so that he could play football, and he graduated in 1945. Bellard played running back at the University of Texas before transferring to Southwest Texas State Teacher’s College (now Texas State University), where he graduated in 1949. He became a high school coach in 1949. He had his first head coaching job at Ingleside from 1952 to 1954 and won consecutive regional championships. His 1958 and 1959 Breckenridge teams won Class 3A state championships. His 1966 San Angelo Central team won the Class 4A state championship. University of Texas head football coach Darrell Royal hired Bellard as an assistant coach for the 1967 season. He eventually became offensive coordinator for Royal and coached at UT through 1971. Bellard is often credited for developing an offensive formation in which three backs lined up behind the quarterback. The fullback lined up directly behind the quarterback, and two tailbacks lined up behind the fullback in a split formation resembling a "Y." The formation focused on the quarterback’s “reading” of what the opposing defensive tackle would do on a given play. The quarterback could hand off the ball to the fullback, keep the ball and run to the outside, or make a quick pitch to the trailing tailback. The formation became known as the “wishbone” and played a large part in the University of Texas Longhorns’ success during that era. Texas won the 1969 and 1970 national championships and enjoyed a thirty-game winning streak from 1968 to 1970. The Longhorns’ success boosted Bellard as a college head coaching prospect. In 1972 he was hired as the head coach at Texas A&M University. He coached the Aggies for six and a half seasons when he resigned midway through the 1978 season. Bellard’s Aggie teams won 48 games and lost 27. In 1979 Bellard became head coach at Mississippi State University. He coached through the 1985 season and then retired from coaching at the college level. In 1988 he became head coach at Westfield High School in Spring, Texas, and remained in that capacity through the 1993 season. Besides winning records as a head coach, Bellard played a role in the desegregation of Southwest Conference football by recruiting star African-American athletes to Texas A&M. He is also credited with helping to implement women’s athletic programs at the university. He is considered an innovator of a football practice structure that focuses segments of time on particular drills. Bellard received many honors during his career including head coach of the Texas High School All-Star football game (1960), West Texas Coach of the Year (1962), AFC College Coach of the Year (1975), Academy of American Football Gold Cup (1975), Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor (1976), and Distinguished Coach Award from the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame (1993). He was inducted into Texas A&M University’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. An avid golfer in his retired life, Bellard hosted with fellow coach, Spike Dykes, the Emory Bellard-Spike Dykes Golf Tournament in Marble Falls for seven years and raised money for children’s medical care in Burnet County. Bellard was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in 2010. He died at the age of eighty-three on Febr

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Davis, Edgar Byram

1921

Edgar Byram Davis, oilman and philanthropist, was born on February 2, 1873, in Brockton, Massachusetts. With only a high school education, he began making his first million dollars in the shoe business in Massachusetts about 1905; later he made another fortune, about $3 million, as an early investor in foreign rubber plantations and as the largest individual stockholder in the United States Rubber Company. After thirteen years he sold his holdings and gave much of the proceeds away as gifts to friends and associates in New York. His brother Oscar invested in oil leases in Caldwell County, Texas, in 1919 and asked Edgar to manage his share of the oil leases. Edgar made his first visit to Luling that year. A deeply religious man, Edgar believed that he was directed by God to come to Texas and to deliver Luling and Caldwell County from the oppressive one-crop (cotton) economy that dominated the area. He believed he would do this by finding oil, though geologists claimed there was none there. In March 1921 Davis incorporated the United North and South Oil Company. After Oscar Davis died, Edgar purchased the oil leases from his estate. The first six wells were dry, and Davis's company was heavily in debt, but the seventh, Rafael Rios No. 1, gushed in on August 9, 1922. This well opened up a field near Stairtown that was twelve miles long and two miles wide. By December 1924 the field was producing 43,000 barrels of oil daily ( see LULING OILFIELD ). On June 11, 1926, Davis sold his leases to the Magnolia Petroleum Company for what may have been the biggest oil deal in Texas up to that time, $12 million (one-half in cash), and to celebrate gave a free barbecue for friends, associates, and employees; 15,000 to 35,000 people attended. In addition, to his employees he gave from 25 to 100 percent of their total salaries as bonuses. He also gave the citizens of Luling a golf course, an athletic clubhouse for local Blacks, various other facilities, and endowments for each. He established the Luling Foundation there for the teaching of improved agricultural methods. He also established the Pilgrim Foundation back in his hometown of Brockton, Massachusetts, to assist needy people in that area. In all, Davis donated at least $5 million to charity, as well as keeping a play, The Ladder , written by his friend James Francis Davis , running on Broadway for two years even though critics considered it one of Broadway's worst. Davis believed in the message of the play, which included the theme of reincarnation. Davis discovered two more oilfields in the area, Buckeye and Darst Creek, and again gave most of the cash away when they were sold. With the Great Depression he ran into financial problems again; by 1935 the development company was declared insolvent. He worked for twelve years paying off most of his indebtedness, always insisting that more oil could be found. Davis died in Galveston on October 14, 1951, and was buried in Luling at the site of one of his former homes. He never married. He belonged to no church but attended each church in Luling regularly. In 1966 the Edgar B. Davis Memorial Hospital was built on the site of his home in Luling; his gravesite is on the hospital grounds.

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Davis, Edgar B., Oil Pioneer-Philanthropist

1922

(Feb. 2, 1872 - Oct. 14, 1951) One of the great benefactors of Texas. Born in Brockton, Mass. Had business careers in shoe manufacture and rubber planting. On retirement, came here and in wildcat operation brought in Luling Oil Field, 1922. By 1926 had 215 producing wells. Gave employees $2,500,000 in bonuses, then endowed Luling Foundation, for advancement of agriculture and human opportunity in area. Result has been conservation of land, upbreeding of crops and livestock and introduction and marketing of superior products. Davis remained in this area and is buried near Luling.

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Rosenwald School

1925

Julius Rosenwald created the Rosenwald fund in 1917 to endow new African American schools. Luling’s Rosenwald school opened in 1925 to replace the Luling Colored School which began operation in 1874. The Rosenwald School employed four teachers for ten grades and was built on 2.5 acres including a shop, library, home economics and vocational departments. P. W. Tucker was the first principal. The school added buildings to the campus and maintained high scholastic and extracurricular standards until it closed in 1966. Though most original buildings have been razed, the site continues to be a school campus of the Luling Independent School District.

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First Christian Church of Luling

1891

Eula Nichols moved from a farm near Austin to Luling in 1891 to attend school. She persuaded the rev. A. J. Bush to hold a revival service here in 1892. As a result, First Christian Church was organized with the Rev. G. S. Kimberly serving as resident minister. The congregation purchased the lower level of a local Masonic Lodge where they held services until 1946. A sanctuary, built at this site in 1947, burned and was replaced with a new building in 1979. The church sponsors a variety of youth programs and remains active in local and foreign outreach activities.

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Luling, Texas

Music in Luling

Songs About Luling

Artists From Luling

Rivers & Roads in Song near Luling

History of Luling

The Toughest Town on the Sunset Route RoadyGoat

Six Dry Holes and the Seventh Well That Made a Boomtown RoadyGoat

The 12-Million-Dollar Deal and the Free Barbecue RoadyGoat

Logan, James Marion

Bellard, Emory Dilworth

Davis, Edgar Byram

Davis, Edgar B., Oil Pioneer-Philanthropist

Rosenwald School

First Christian Church of Luling

Things to Do in Luling

Everything Near Luling