This article originally published May 24, 2016. It is being republished as part of the Chronicle’s 125 project.
The roots of Humble Oil stem back to the 1901 Spindletop gusher that kicked off the Texas oil rush. By the 1940s, Humble became the largest domestic oil producer, a spot it held through the 1960s. The Humble name wasn’t extinguished until the launch of the Exxon brand in 1972.
“It’s a story of really able and driven people finding this region as a way to play out their ambitions,” said Joe Pratt, an oil historian and professor at the University of Houston. “I don’t think you can exaggerate how important Humble was throughout 50 years of the global oil industry.”…