Henderson Coquat

The man who built the gas line, in Tips’ telling. Natural gas was one of the two local resources that justified putting a glass factory at Three Rivers at all — but gas in the ground is not gas at the furnace, and Coquat is the only person the record names as having built the distribution system that closed that gap. He went on to make a fortune in oil and to serve as the town’s first elected mayor [ev-0059].

What the memoir says

Tips names Coquat once, in the memoir’s closing pages, in a single dense sentence: “Henderson Coquat, whom I persuaded to give up teaching school to move to Three Rivers to work with me in the sale of real estate and in building the natural gas system which I had put in to serve the glass factory (and who subsequently made a fortune in the oil business and who served as first elected Mayor of the city of Three Rivers)…” [ev-0075].

Four claims are packed into that aside:

1. He was a schoolteacher before Tips recruited him.
2. He worked with Tips in real estate sales.
3. He helped build the natural gas system Tips installed to serve the glass factory.
4. He later made a fortune in oil and was the first elected Mayor of Three Rivers.

Why the gas system matters

The factory’s location case rested on two local inputs: quartzose (Carrizo) sand and cheap natural gas. Gas is what melts the batch; a bottle house without a reliable fuel line is not a bottle house.

A separate Three Rivers Construction Company appears in 1922 records as the gas-pipeline entity, with A. H. Morton as its secretary. Whether Coquat’s work sat inside that corporate vehicle, preceded it, or ran alongside it is not established — the memoir gives no dates, and Coquat’s name has not been found in any other source in this collection.

As state-court receiver

The Hartford-Empire trial transcript (ev-0059) describes Coquat as “mayor of Three Rivers and manager of the local gas company” [part 09, fol. 10178] [ev-0059]. When Hartford filed suit against Three Rivers Glass in October 1932, Coquat was appointed state-court receiver [ev-0059]. Hartford subsequently relicensed him under a supplementary agreement dated June 21, 1933 [ev-0059]. Coquat traveled to Washington to see Vice President Garner about Hartford’s cancellation notice [Defs. Ex. H-5708, part 18, fol. 63454] [ev-0059]. By the time of the second 77-B bankruptcy petition (circa 1934–35), Coquat “was out completely” [ev-0059].

Source criticism

Two sources, one corroborating the other. The biographical claims originate in Tips’ memoir [ev-0075], written around 1962–1963, roughly forty to fifty years after the events. The Hartford-Empire trial transcript [ev-0059] independently corroborates Coquat’s roles as mayor and gas company manager, and extends the record with his receivership, relicensing, and trip to Washington. Open items: Coquat’s dates; his mayoral term; whether “Coquat” is spelled that way in Live Oak County records.

See Also

• A. H. Morton — secretary of the Three Rivers Construction Company, the 1922 gas-pipeline entity