The Texas Company

 

On this day in 1902, Texaco (The Texas Company) was founded in Beaumont, Texas as the Texas Fuel Company. The star arrived in 1903 when a 19-year-old Italian refinery worker suggested we embrace the five-pointed symbol of Texas. He later added a green "T", perhaps influenced by the Italian flag colors. In 1931, Texaco purchased Indian Oil Company, expanding their refining and marketing base in the Midwest and gave Texaco the rights to Indian's Havoline motor oil, which became a Texaco product. 

In 1959, Texaco, Inc. was formed from the assets of Texas Fuel assets, and additional capitalization. Legend has it that a salesman saw the portmanteau "Texaco" in a telegram and the name stuck. By 2001, Texaco became an oil subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, at which time most of its station franchises were divested to the Shell Oil Company. A midwesterner may have noted the subsequent proliferation of Shell stations with an abrupt absence of Texaco.