Borger High Pressure Greasing Station [Photograph]
Name/Title
Borger High Pressure Greasing Station [Photograph]Description
A 1927 photograph of the Borger High Pressure Greasing Station, the “best equipped grease station west of the Mississippi. 4,000 lb Pressure. General Auto repair. Back of post office on Weatherly Street. Steve Eshelman, Manager.”Context
Borger was established in March 1926, after the discovery of oil in the vicinity. Within a matter of months, oilmen, prospectors, roughnecks, panhandlers, fortune seekers, card sharks, bootleggers, prostitutes, and dope peddlers descended on Borger. "Booger Town," as it was nicknamed, became a refuge for criminals and fugitives from the law. Before long the town government was firmly in the hands of an organized crime syndicate led by Mayor Miller's shady associate, "Two-Gun Dick" Herwig. The center of this vice was Dixon (now Tenth) Street, notorious for its brothels, dance halls, gambling dens, slot machines, and speakeasies. Murder and robbery became commonplace. Illegal moonshine stills and home breweries flourished with the blessings of Herwig and his henchmen, including W. J. (Shine) Popejoy, the king of the Texas bootleggers. Acting on petitions and investigative reports, in the spring of 1927 Governor Daniel J. Moody sent a detachment of Texas Rangers under captains Francis Augustus Hamer and Thomas R. Hickman to remedy the situation. Although the rangers proved a stabilizing force and compelled many undesirables to leave town, Borger's wave of crime and violence continued intermittently into the 1930s, culminating with Ace Borger shot to death by his longtime enemy Arthur Huey on August 31, 1934 in the post office behind this station.Category
Oil & Gas Industry
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