First producing oil well in Texas comes in

Instead of traditional cable tool percussion drilling, Barret chose to use an auger fastened to a pipe and rotated by a steam-driven cogwheel — the basic principle of rotary drilling — which has been used ever since. - American Oil & Gas Historical Society

(TDbD) On this day in 1866, the first producing oil well in Texas came in at a depth of 106 feet at Oil Springs in Nacogdoches County. The Melrose Petroleum Oil Company, which had been organized in December 1865 by Lyne Taliaferro (Tol) Barret and four partners, began drilling in the summer of 1866.
Taliaferro, a Nacogdoches County merchant born in Virginia in 1832, had first contracted to lease 279 acres near Oil Springs in 1859, but the Civil War put a temporary halt to his exploration. The first well produced about ten barrels a day … Continued