Historic Midland

est of the hospital only had two beds to a room.
These were wards—four-bed rooms—and this is
where the patients were placed.
All the OB patients were usually placed in a
couple of rooms on the third floor. I am told that
it was through the influence of Dr. Dorothy
Wyvell, the first woman doctor in Midland, that
the nursery was integrated. All of the babies were
put into this one room and the Black babies, the
Hispanic babies and the White babies were all in
the nursery together. This was really the only
truly integrated part of the hospital.
When I came to Midland, there was a hospital
operated by Drs. Melton and Shapira. It was called
Western Clinic, on Loraine Street. It was a privately
owned institution that served the minority community
at reduced rates. I am told, however, that
this generosity became a financial burden to them,
and when Midland Memorial Hospital came into
being, they closed Western Clinic.
In 1951, most women were having babies at
home. I am told that prior to that, when Black
women got pregnant, they usually went back
home—East Texas—to have their babies, because
there was no one in the area to deliver them. I
was called at all hours of the night and day to
home-deliver babies. Of course these women had
no prenatal care and it was not the type of medicine
that I had hoped to practice in the area.
So I approached Dr. Parks and Dr. Lang, who
were the doctors at the women’s clinic, and
asked them if we could get a prenatal clinic for
the patients so that we would have help for
mommas and babies. And they agreed and
approached the city council and the commissioners
court, and they were able to get some
funding for the clinic. It should be noted that
Dr. Wyvell had already established a clinic for
indigents at the health department, but she
could only be there one evening a week.
All the family practitioners in Midland at that
time were delivering babies. The patients were
required to pay a small amount according to
their income and there was so much pride in
these women—when they got whatever amount
they were assessed paid—the first thing they
would tell you, they would hold up the receipt
in their hand and say, “Well, it’s all paid for. I can
have my baby now.”
I mention that because with Medicare coming
into effect in the mid-1960s, patients were
no longer required to share any part of the
responsibility of their medical care. I think that
this was not entirely the best thing that could
have happened. As a result of that, I think
patients are not nearly as interested in their
health care and its costs as when they were
required to pay even a minimal amount of
money for the services.
Spraberry Trend Gave
Midland County Oil Wealth
By Roger M. Olien
Although many other counties in the
Permian Basin produced oil during the 1920s,
the first related stirring in Midland County came
at the end of the decade, in March 1929. Twelve
miles southeast of Midland, Phillips Petroleum
drilled unsuccessfully on the J.V. Stokes lease,
finding several shows of oil but missing commercial
production. As a result, there was relatively
little interest in prospects in the county
until the end of the Second World War.
Beginning in November 1945, however, oil
men made a series of relatively small discoveries
that put the county on the oil map. The first was
Humble’s discovery of the Midland field, with
#1 Mrs. O.P. Buchanan. Two years later, in
February 1949, Humble extended production
two miles to the south, bringing in production
in what was known as the South Midland field.
Production from the fields was relatively modest,
but the high-gravity crude oil yielded relatively
high quantities of gasoline when refined.
In the same month, the Texas Company found
the Warfield pool with its #1 Clarence
Scharbauer, about five miles east of the Ector
County line, 39 barrels of oil per day from the
discovery well, but the oil was high quality.
Pegasus, the final small field discovery of
1949, was made by Magnolia, near the Upton
County line. The well produced more prolifically
than the other small field discovery wells, initially
yielding 975 barrels of oil per day. The
field was extended northward, developed with
seven producing horizons, and was sustained in
1954 with the deepest waterflood project in the
region to that time.
General American Oil discovered the Sweetie
Peck field in March 1950, one mile north of the
Upton County line. Like other fields, it was
56 ✦ HISTORIC MIDLAND