With his overalls and deep set eyes, James “Billy” McConnell is proud to call himself an oil man.
It’s in his blood.
The Yazoo City resident knows the oil business inside and out from the overall operation of a drilling system to the lingo the oil men use amongst themselves.
The 80-year-old grins when talking about the suspense of drilling a wildcat well. And he laughs out loud when remembering the rookie oil men, or "worms" as he calls them.
In the 1940s McConnell was a young boy with oil on his brain. And the attraction of black gold has never left him.
“I left the oil business a few times, but I always came back,” McConnell said. “I loved it; still do.”
The oil business brought McConnell’s father, J.C. McConnell, to Yazoo County in 1939.
“Daddy transferred over here in September of 1939,” McConnell said. “He was sent here to oversee drilling for the Jones-O’Brien Company. He oversaw the drilling of the second well in the Tinsley fields.”
Nestled 12 miles from Yazoo City in the middle of the hills lies the small communities of Tinsley, Oil City, Anding and other tiny plots. But when oil was discovered in the area in 1939, the quiet communities transformed into bustling towns with hundreds of people and dollars coming through.
McConnell arrived in the growing area when he was 11 years old.
“Of course, at the time, I thought I was grown,” McConnell said.
McConnell said after the second well was drilled, people began to realize there was a tremendous oil reserve in the area.
“That is when everything started happening,” McConnell said. “There was so much going on there. The first bulldozer I ever saw in my life was out there. There were mules and horses digging pits. It was constantly something going on.”
McConnell said one had to be careful even walking the roads in the community. There was constant activity on them with other walkers, cars, loud trucks and horses.
“The roads were dirt, and some were gravel,” McConnell said. “But people were always on them.”
Although the area had money in her hills, it was still hard times for the locals and the many out of town visitors who were looking for work and a better life.
“It was still the Great Depression,” McConnell said. “People were scrapping to live. The oil brought instant riches for the people who owned the land.”
It seemed as if it was overnight when the oil businessmen arrived in the area with smiles and briefcases, wanting signatures. Their arrival meant money for neighboring Yazoo City too.
“Businessmen would come in and buy leases,” McConnell said. “They would stay in the Lamar Hotel in Yazoo City while they were doing their business. Even Yazoo City started to boom.”
And children were littered throughout the Tinsley area. It wasn’t just a few here or there. It was hundreds.
“There were so many kids out there, they had four buses running kids to school,” McConnell said.
Young kids also meant good workers for the oil companies. McConnell got a job when he was 15 years old. He was paid $1 an hour.
“They would hire us kids,” McConnell said. “We were kids, but we sure could work. The old timers were getting old, and the younger men were off at war. We were all that was left.”
McConnell said the oil boom in Yazoo County wasn’t like anything else in the country.
“When oil was discovered in Tinsley, there was nothing going on in the U.S. as far as a boom goes,” McConnell said. “By the time we got there, three or four wells had been drilled. It was boom time.”
McConnell said he and the rest of his family joined his father when their house was built in 1940.
“Everyone thought we were rich because of the house,” McConnell said. “We lived in a house, but a lot of people were staying in tents and shacks. Some of the tents looked just as good as some of the houses.”
It was hard for hundreds of people to find a place to live in an area where they had no connections. Locals began opening up boarding houses, stores and eateries.
And then there was the night life.
“Tinsley had three honky tonks,” McConnell said. “Oh, it was a wild spot. There were bootleggers running around. It was wild. It was nothing but oil men and diggers.”
McConnell said there was a reason Tinsley remained alive after the sun went down.
“Well, what do you think,” McConnell asked, with a laugh. “There was nothing but oil men out there with money to spend.”
But McConnell also remembers the fear that many locals had with the flood of newcomers.
“Some people were scared to cash their checks,” McConnell said. “You didn’t know who these people were. The oil people came out of nowhere.”
McConnell visits the area every now and then. Many of the buildings and other landmarks are gone. But a few pumpjacks can still be seen in the distance. And technology is allowing the business to continue with Denbury Resources using carbon dioxide to help oil rise.
“There are things over there now that you never dreamed of doing in the past,” McConnell said. “But it is nothing like it was during that boom time.”
