Magnolia Oil Refinery

The company behind the refinery changed names more than once, according to the Handbook of Texas. In 1909 the John Sealy Company bought the Navarro Refining Company, successor to the J. S. Cullinan Company, along with the Security Oil Company, and in 1911 it became the Magnolia Petroleum Company. Standard Oil of New York took Magnolia's stock in 1925, and in 1931 Magnolia became an affiliate of Socony-Vacuum. By 1949 its pipeline subsidiary ran 8,670 miles of line into nine states. Magnolia merged with Socony Mobil on September 30, 1959.

What the plaque says

Magnolia Oil Refinery Corsicana is recognized as the birthplace of the Texas oil industry which led to the formation of several prominent oil businesses. The first commercial oil refinery in Texas was built in Corsicana in 1898. Mayor James E. Whiteselle invited Joseph S. Cullinan, a talented manager with standard oil in Pennsylvania, to visit Corsicana and offer advice. In 1897, Cullinan came to Corsicana and quickly transferred his efforts. With a group of investors from back east, Cullinan formed the J.S. Cullinan Company, predecessor to the Magnolia Petroleum Company (Mobil Oil), to build the refinery. By December, the installation was complete with four stills, each twelve feet in diameter and thirty feet long, arranged in a row. Each firing still held 500 barrels of crude. The first batch of crude at the refinery was fired on Christmas Day in 1898 by W.C. Ralston. To market his product, Cullinan persuaded businesses across the region using coal to switch to fuel oil and provided a model for future oil endeavors. In 1911, the J.S. Cullinan company merged with several newer companies to form the Magnolia Petroleum Company (Mobil Oil), the legendary Texas oil company symbolized by the flying red horse. The refinery ceased operations in 1941, but the tank farm and pipelines at the site continue in operation. Exxon Mobil, successor of Magnolia Petroleum and Mobil Oil, continues to maintain one of the four original brick-lined firing stills from the original refinery. Magnolia Petroleum and other founders of oil industry titans to come found their start in the Corsicana oil field and are remembered as forerunners in the industry. (2013)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Petroleum Industry Park — 0.9 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 19 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Ellis County Courthouse — 31 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's courthouse of 1897 in Pecos red sandstone and pink granite, with twenty-one carved stone faces and two cornerstones left by a quarrel over its building.

More markers nearby

• Birthsite of Beauford H. Jester — 0.9 mi
• Collin Street Bakery — 0.9 mi
• First Baptist Church of Corsicana — 1.0 mi
• Fire Station No. 2 — 1.0 mi