Unit 10 Vocab Spindletop – This 1901 strike in Beaumont was the

Unit 10 Vocab
Spindletop – This 1901 strike in Beaumont was the first “gusher” oil discovery in Texas.
Suffrage – Voting rights.
Prohibition – The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that made it illegal to make or drink
alcohol.
Texas Railroad Commission – State agency created to oversee and regulate railroads and the oil industry
in TX.
Texas Equal Suffrage Association – Organization founded in Houston to advocate for voting rights for
women.
Galveston Hurricane of 1900 – The deadliest hurricane in U.S. history; caused the city to erect a sea wall
to protect the city from flooding in future hurricanes.
Boomtown – Towns that developed wherever oil was struck; they were notoriously dirty, crowded, and
rough.
Sour Lake – Oil strike in 1903 made by the Texas Oil Co., later called Texaco.
Petroleum – Naturally occurring liquid fossil fuel commonly called oil.
James Hogg – Governor of Texas who set up the Texas Railroad Commission and protected citizens from
unfair business practices.
Howard Hughes Sr. – Businessman who helped to invent the two-cone rotary drill bit, which allowed
further oil exploration and drilling in Texas.
Patillo Higgins – Man who discovered the Spindletop oil strike but did not receive any profit from it.
Wildcatter – Person who searches for oil in new locations.
Texas Farmers Union – Union created after the failure of the Populists’ Party. They were advocates of
farmers.
League of United Latin-American Citizens – Organization founded in Corpus Christi to support the rights
of Latin Americans in the U.S.
Progressivism – Movement in America at the turn of the century that encouraged social, political, and
economic reform.