The town of Mont Belvieu sits imperially atop a salt dome at the far western end of the
Henry Griffith League in the western section of Chambers County. This salt dome in recent
years has represented the towns' greatest asset, and also its greatest liability. Due to
the threat of explosions and fires on The Hill, many residents have moved. The school
system has moved east of town to sites along Farm Road 3180, also known as Eagle Drive.
The churches, the post office, and many new homes have been or soon have rebuilt in the
same locality. Even today, Mont Belvieu is still a city in transition and continuing to
grow.
Under the colonization laws of Coahuila y Texas in 1831, Texas granted a gentleman by
the name of Mr. Henry Griffith 4,428.4 acres of land. This land is now where Mont Belvieu
is located. Griffith, a native of Pennsylvania, was married in Opelousas, Louisiana in
1824 to Amelia (Barrow) Moody, a sister of other early county settlers.
In 1835, Mr. Griffith sold 1,047 acres of the land that was granted to him to William
Duncan. In the original document, which survives even to this day, Mr. Griffith refers to
the land as "that tract of land known as the big hill but hereafter to be called Mont
Bellview." After Mr. Duncan passed away, the land was divided among his three
children.
One son, Meredith Duncan, in turn sold his parcel, amounting to 349 acres to Hugh
Jackson in 1840. Then nine years later, 100 acres of this tract was sold by Jackson to
Amos Barber and it was there that Amos built his double-pen, dogtrot cabin and began his
family.
In the years to come, the Barber family prospered. Amos and Susan
Ann Hodges Fitzgerald Barber (pictured top left) had two children by Fitzgerald and had
ten children by Barber. Five of their children are pictured at bottom left. The other five
had already passed away at the time this photo was taken. They were (in order): Amanda
Melissa (pic), Albert Milby (deceased), Elmer Watson (pic), Ella (deceased), Amos Joshua
(pic), Lillie Ann (deceased), Betty (deceased), Estelle (pic), Bertha Aquilla (pic), and
William Henry (deceased). In his memoirs, Amos Joshua Barber included a thorough inventory
of the family farm. Since his first purchase of land from Hugh Jackson, Amos Barber had
bought an additional eleven hundred acres. There were 20 acres of corn, half an acre in
cotton for thread, half an acre in tobacco, wooded lands, grazing lands, one hundred
horses, six hundred cattle, four hundred sheep, thirty-five goats, an uncertain number of
hogs in the woods (they killed forty-eight of them one winter), two hundred chickens,
eight or ten ducks, and fifteen or twenty geese.
The first tangible evidence of oil in the Barbers Hill area came in 1889 when Elmer
Watson Barber encountered inflammable gas while digging a 65-foot water well near his
home. Geologist George M. Bevier wrote of the site in 1925:
"Barbers Hill is a mound like elevation in the extreme northwestern portion of
Chambers County, Texas, 26 miles northeast of Houston. It is oval in shape, covers an area
of 1,718 acres, and rises 45 feet above the surrounding prairie. This elevation is the
result of an intrusive salt plug which has raised the surface above the normal
position."
Upon the discovery of oil in neighboring Jefferson County in 1901, the first oil and
gas leases on "The Hill" were recorded in February 1902. However, only traces of
oil were found in the numerous drilling attempts made between 1902 and 1915. Once again,
in 1916, Mr. Bevier wrote:
"The Gulf Production Company, successors to the Guffey interest, jointly with the
Humble Oil and Refining Company, drilled four wells, all of which are located on the
Chambers County Agricultural Association's land near the southern slope of the hill. The
fourth well obtained the first production at Barber's Hill, estimated at 40 barrels per
day, from a sandy formation at 1,571 feet. The oil was reported as dark brown in color,
heavy and vicious. The well was abandoned when salt water appeared after the production of
a small quantity of oil."
In 1918, Mr. Sam Hindman organized the United Petroleum Company and completed Fisher
No. 1, on September 14, 1918. The initial production was 70 barrels per day, and the well
continued to produce for a period of fifteen months. This was the first successful
completion in sixteen years of drilling.
Drilling again ground to a standstill until 1926, when two other companies jointly
drilled the A.E. Barber No. 1 through the northwestern flanks of the dome. The discovery
well produced 500 barrels a day. In the latter part of 1926, the two companies drilled on
the northeast flank of the dome. The main feature of this well was the discovery of a
43-foot Miocene pay sand. With this discovery, a frantic leasing campaign began among the
major companies in the area.
Then it happened! In 1929, the Republic Production Company discovered Oligocene
production on the southeastern flank. From a total depth of 5,914 feet, oil flowed at an
estimated 3,420 barrels per day. A second significant well came in that same year when the
Yount-Lee Company struck Oligocene pay sand on the south flank of the dome at a total
depth of 5,318 feet. Out of the 77 wells drilled to the deep sand on these flanks, 71 of
them were producers. By September of 1929, the Barbers Hill field had an average daily
production of 20,000 barrels of oil, second only to Jefferson County's Spindletop Gushers.
In 1955, Warren Petroleum Company built an underground Salt Dome storage terminal in
Mont Belvieu. The terminal contains 26 underground caverns with a total storage capacity
of forty-three million barrels of propane, butane, ethane, natural gas and other products
extracted from natural gas liquids. The Warren Petroleum Storage Facility is the largest
such facility for natural gas liquids in North America. About three dozen other companies
operate similar facilities in the area.
