urn:taro:rice.wrc.00189 Guide to the Kirby Petroleum Company / George Sawtelle Executive records, 1921-1967, bulk 1931-1953 Inventory prepared by Philip L. Montgomery Woodson Research Center
Rice University, Houston, Texas
March 21, 2005 Finding aid encoded by Philip L. Montgomery , Fondren Library March 21, 2005 Finding aid written inEnglish. 20050321 Edited with XMetal 3 by Philip Montgomery, according to instructions in TARO 2 EAD 2002 Editing Instructions. Descriptive Summary Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, TX Kirby Petroleum Company Guide to the Kirby Petroleum Company / George Sawtelle Executive Records 1921-1967, bulk 1931-1953 Materials are in English. MS 504 2.5 cubic feet (2.5 linear feet) The materials in this collection are from the Houston-based Kirby Petroleum Company and the records of George Sawtelle, president and later chairman of the company to 1965. This collection consists of 2.5 cubic feet of photographs, correspondence, business records, clippings, and technical papers. The primary correspondents are John H. Kirby, Clint Murchison, Cooper Ragan, and George Sawtelle. This material provides a valuable look at the early days of the oil industry in Texas. In particular, this collection documents through correspondence the concerns and business goals of oil men from the 1920s through the 1940s. Historical Note

The Kirby Petroleum Company/George Sawtelle records offers a glimpse into the early 20th century oil boom in Texas primarily through the correspondence of George Sawtelle, who served as president of the company for more than 20 years. Sawtelle died September 4, 1967.

The origin of the Kirby Petroleum Company can be traced back to 1921 when John Henry Kirby, a pioneer in the development of the Houston business community, formed Kirby Petroleum Company, an oil and gas exploration and development company. Kirby Petroleum Company operated as a Houston-based independent oil and gas exploration and development company until 1956 when, after the sale of its producing properties, the remaining non-producing acreage was merged with three other independent oil and gas companies to form Kirby VenSyn Petroleum Company, a publicly traded company. As a result of the mergers, the Murchison family of Dallas, later noted for its ownership of the Dallas Cowboys, owned approximately 35 percent of Kirby. Kirby VenSyn Petroleum Company changed its name to Kirby Petroleum Co. in 1957 and adopted the name Kirby Industries, Inc. in 1967. As of 2005, the company, still based in Houston, is known as Kirby Corp. although its primary business is transporting bulk liquid products on the Mississippi River System and Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Kirby Corporation. (2001). Company History. Retrieved March 23, 2005 from http://www.kmtc.com/corp/history.cfm

George Sawtelle was born in Wheeling Virginia on February 27, 1892. He graduated in 1916 from Lehigh University with a bachelor of science degree in chemistry. In 1916, he was in the U.S. Army and stationed on the border with Mexico. During World War I, he served in France in the Seventh Field Artillery Brigade and rose to the rank of captain. His brigade commander thought highly enough of the young captain to write Sawtelle a letter stating that he had been recommended for promotion to major. That letter is located in box 5, folder 4. From 1920 to 1921, Sawtelle, a longtime football enthusiast, served as an assistant football coach at Northwestern University. He joined Kirby Petroleum Company in 1922. In 1924, he was the general manager and chief geologist of the company. Eventually, he rose to the presidency of the company, a position he held for more than 20 years. He resigned as chairman of the Kirby board in 1965. As the result of a heart attack, he died Sunday, September 3, 1967 in Austin, Texas.

 Scope and Contents

This collection consists of 2.5 cubic feet of photographs, correspondence, business records, clippings, and technical papers. The materials are from the Houston-based Kirby Petroleum Company and the records of George Sawtelle, who was president of the company for more than 20 years. The inclusive dates for the materials are 1921-1967, although the bulk of the materials cover the years 1931-1953. The primary correspondents are John H. Kirby, Clint Murchison, Cooper Ragan, and George Sawtelle. This material provides a valuable look at the early days of the oil industry in Texas. In particular it documents through correspondence the concerns and business goals of oil men from the 1920s through the 1940s. In addition, the personal correspondence of George Sawtelle reveals his close ties to family and business colleagues, as well has his charitable work. This collection does not contain significant amounts of published corporate materials, such as annual reports or press releases.

 Access Restrictions

This material is open for research.

 Use Restrictions

Permission to publish from the Kirby Petroleum Company / George Sawtelle Executive records, MS 504, must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.

 Arrangement

This material is in alphabetically arranged files by the name of the correspondent or subject.

Index Terms Subjects (Persons) Christian, W. G. Kirby, John H. Ragan, Cooper. Sawtelle, George. Murchison, Clint. Pratt, Wallace. Subjects (Organizations) Kirby Petroleum Company--History--20th century Subjects: Oil well drilling rigs Oil well drilling rigs--Texas. Petroleum industry and trade--Texas--History. Petroleum--Texas--History. Oil fields--Texas. Houston (Tex.)--History. Texas--History, Local. Houston (Tex.)--Business, industries, and trades--Petroleum. Houston (Tex.)--Business, industries, and trades--Oil field equipment. Houston Geological Society--History. Subjects (Places) Texas, East Texas, West Formats Clippings Correspondence Form letters Personal correspondence Telegrams Memorandums Technical papers Black-and-white photographs Digital images CD-ROMs Photographic postcards Business records Preferred Citation

Kirby Petroleum Company / George Sawtelle Executive records, MS 504, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University

 Acquisition Information

Mary Alice Sawtelle of Houston, Texas, donated this material to the Woodson Research Center in February 2004.

 Accruals

No future additions are expected for this material.

 Detailed Description of the Collection Series I: Alphabetical files A-L 11 A-B: Business and Personal Correspondence from or to George Sawtelle, 1946-1967 12 C: Business and Personal Correspondence between George Sawtelle and C.E. Cook and others, 1937-1967 13-4 Correspondence of Christian, W.G., 1922-1923 15 D: Correspondence to or from George Sawtelle, 1928-1966 16 Correspondence of Davis, Morgan, 1945-1966 17 E: correspondence, 1929-1967 18 "Estimates on Refinery," 1922 19 F: Correspondence to G. Sawtelle, 1948-1955 110 G: Correspondence, 1929-1956 111 Guideline for Applying Protective Coatings to Underground Pipelines, 1929 112 H: Correspondence, 1938-1965 21 Houston Geological Society, 1929-1959 22 I-J: Correspondence, 1928-1967 23 K: Correspondence related to leases and Kirby Oil, 1928-1953 24 Kirby, John H., 1922-1930 25 Kirby Petroleum Company: corporate history, clippings, 2001-2002 26 Kirby [Petroleum Co.] correspondence, memos; folder 1 of 2, 1921-1946 31 Kirby [Petroleum Co.] correspondence, memos; folder 2 of 2, 1921-1946 32 L: Correspondence, 1940-1966 33 Lehigh University, 1948-1964 Series II: Alphabetical files M-Z 34 M: Correspondence, 1929-1954 35 Mattinson, J.A., 1932-1937 36 Mays, Gene, 1929-1936 37 Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Assoc., 1941-1943 38 Mincon, map, correspondence, DMEA project on Elk Ridge properties, Colorado, 1956 39 Minister, H., 1932-1934 310 Moncrief, W.A., 1928-1940 41 Muldoon Well, 1941-1942 42 Murchison, Clint; dissolution of Kirby [Petroleum Co.], 1940-1955 43 N: Correpsondence, 1930-1962 44 Neath, J.A., 1939-1957 45 Correspondence with F.C. O'Keefe, Oahu Railway and Land Company, and Oliphant and Co., 1951-1959 46 Opinions on Oil Leases, 1930-1937 47 Pratts, Wallace, 1938-1960 48 P: Correspondence, 1944-1960 49 R: Correspondence, 1944-1967 410 Ragan, Cooper, 1932-1937 411 Ragan, Cooper, 1938-1955 412 Reiter, Bosey, 1937-1940 413 S: Correspondence, 1929-1967 51 St. Thomas High School - George Strake, 1939 52 Sawtelle, George, 1923-1959 53 Sawtelle, George, 1960-1966 54 Sawtelle, George,: clippings, obituaries, memorials, birth certificate, military record; 1918-19676 55 Sawtelle Family, 1940-1944 56 Sawtelle Family, 1954-1965 57 Stroube, H.R. & W.C., 1933-1936 58 Suman, John R., 1939-1953 59 T: Correspondence, 1942-1963 510 Texas Oil & Gas Conservation Assoc., 1931-1933 511 V, W: Correspondence, 1951-1965 512 Y, Z: Correspondence, 1925-1962 513 Yates Field, 1935-1945 514

Photos include an original portrait of George Sawtelle, ca. 1960s, and an original image of a man standing on a stack of pipe, ca. 1930s. The other images are prints of scans from original images, which also are contained on the CD as high resolution tif files. The scanned images include subjects such as oil gushers, derricks and roughnecks from the 1920s and 1930s.

 Photographs (printed scans and CD), n.d.