Henry E. Bryson, founder of Jack County's petroleum capital, was a Civil War veteran, farmer, and stockraiser who built the first log cabin here in 1878. After the Bryson post office was established in 1882, the town developed as a center for the growing of cotton and grain. The Rock Island Railroad reached here in 1902. The first oil well was drilled in 1925; during the 1920s and 1930s the town had a gasoline plant, and from 1935 until late 1964 an oil refinery operated here. Churches, schools, social and civic clubs, and Masonic bodies contributed to its growth.