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Pattillo
Higgins,
called by some
the "prophet
of
Spindletop,"
was born on
December 5,
1863, in
Sabine Pass,
Texas, the son
of Robert
James and
Sarah (Raye)
Higgins. By
the time he
was six, his
family had
moved to
Beaumont,
where he
attended
school until
he reached the
fourth grade.
Thereafter he
left school
and
apprenticed
with his
father, a
gunsmith. As a
teenager,
Higgins was a
troublemaker
and a
practical
joker. At age
seventeen he
was involved
in an
altercation
with some
sheriff's
deputies who
were
attempting to
prevent him
from harassing
blacks. After
the smoke
cleared, a
deputy was
dead, and
Higgins had
suffered a
wound in his
arm that
eventually led
to its
amputation. In
the
investigation
and trial that
followed,
Higgins
claimed he
shot in
self-defense
and the jury
believed him.
After the
incident he
went to work
in various
lumber camps
along the
Texas-Louisiana
border. The
loss of his
arm did not
prevent him
from logging
nor did it
seem to curb
his wild ways.
In 1885,
however, his
life took a
dramatic turn
after he
attended a
Baptist
revival
meeting.
Persuaded by
the preacher
to accept
Christ as his
savior,
Higgins
abandoned his
violent ways
and the
sometimes
immoral
atmosphere of
the lumber
camps to
settle down in
Beaumont and
become a
respectable
businessman.
As he
explained, "I
used to put my
trust in
pistols....now
my trust is in
God."
Higgins's
conversion was
so complete
that he began
to teach
Sunday School
classes for
young ladies
at his home
church. He had
saved and
invested his
extra cash
while working
in the lumber
camps, and
upon his
return to
Beaumont he
established
himself as a
real estate
broker. In
1886 he
expanded his
business by
forming the
Higgins
Manufacturing
Company to
make brick.
Through
the brick
business,
Higgins became
interested in
brick and
glass
factories that
were powered
by the
even-burning
fuels of oil
and gas. After
a trip East to
inspect modern
plants, he
began to plan
an industrial
city on
Spindletop
Hill, a
salt-dome
formation
south of
Beaumont. He
chose the site
because he
believed that
oil and gas
could be found
beneath the
salt dome,
despite the
conventional
wisdom of the
day that the
Gulf Coast
region did not
have any
petroleum
potential.
Higgins, with
the financial
backing of
George W.
Carroll,qv
whom he knew
through his
religious
activities,
purchased
about half of
Spindletop
Hill.
Subsequently
Carroll and
Higgins formed
a partnership
with George
Washington
O'Brien,qv
who held the
rights to the
other half of
Spindletop.
O'Brien had
been convinced
of
Spindletop's
oil potential
since 1865,
when he saw
oil oozing
from the
ground there.
Higgins
convinced his
fellow
investors to
name the
company after
one of his
Sunday School
students,
Gladys
Bingham, of
whom he was
quite fond. In
August 1892
the men
incorporated
the Gladys
City Oil, Gas
and
Manufacturing
Company with
the purpose of
finding the
oil and then
building a
city around
it. Higgins
was appointed
treasurer and
general
manager. The
company
drilled
unsuccessfully
in 1893; it
leased some of
the land to
the Savage
Brothers of
Corsicana for
an
unsuccessful
attempt in
1895. That
year Higgins
resigned from
the company
after a
dispute he had
with the board
of directors
over extending
a second lease
to the
Savages.
Higgins
disliked the
terms of the
contract with
the
wildcatters.
After his
resignation, a
third
unsuccessful
well was sunk.
By
1896, industry
experts and
Beaumont
residents
believed that
Spindletop was
worthless and
that Higgins
was something
of a fool.
Even Gladys
City directors
doubted that
they would
ever be able
to recoup
their
investment. At
one point they
even offered
to sell the
company to
Higgins, but
he couldn't
raise the
necessary cash
because of his
heavy real
estate
investments.
Still
believing,
despite public
opinion, in
Spindletop's
potential,
Higgins placed
ads in
magazines,
newspapers,
and industry
journals
throughout the
nation in
search of
geologists and
engineers
interested in
developing the
tract. Anthony
Francis Lucas,qv
a leading
expert on
salt-dome
formations,
responded to
one of the
advertisements
and traveled
to Beaumont.
With the
assistance of
Higgins, Lucas
negotiated a
lease on June
20, 1899, with
Gladys City to
drill on
Spindletop. In
a separate
agreement,
Lucas gave
Higgins a 10
percent
interest in
his lease as
payment for
Higgins's
assistance in
the deal.
Lucas drilled
to a depth of
575 feet
before running
into
difficulties
and out of
money. As with
the other
wells,
drilling was
complicated by
the quicksand
in the
formation that
made it
difficult to
get to any
great depth.
Still
believing in
the soundness
of the
project, Lucas
returned to
the East to
get new
financing.
Eventually he
entered into
an agreement
with Guffey
and Galey of
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania,
who had
successfully
developed the
Corsicana
oilfield.qv
Guffey
and Galey in
turn brought
in the
considerable
resources of
Andrew Mellon,
who agreed to
provide funds
for five
exploratory
wells. One of
the conditions
of the
agreement
between Lucas
and his new
financial
backers was
that Pattillo
Higgins was to
have no
interest in
the venture.
In
September 1900
Lucas signed a
new
twenty-year
lease with
Gladys City
and also
leased
adjoining
tracts from
the
McFadden-Wiess
and Kyle
farms. It was
on the
adjoining land
that the Lucas
Gusher (see
SPINDLETOP
OILFIELD) came
in on January
10, 1901. An
estimated oil
production of
100,000
barrels a day
flowed
uncapped from
this well for
nine days.
Higgins sued
Lucas and
Gladys City
Oil, Gas and
Manufacturing
Company for
royalties
after the
gusher,
arguing that
Lucas's second
lease was
invalid since
it was
executed
before the
expiration of
the first
lease. Higgins
and his former
friends
settled out of
court for an
undisclosed
amount. Shut
out of Gladys
City and the
Lucas Gusher,
Higgins
rebounded and
formed Higgins
Oil and Fuel
Company, based
on a
thirty-three-acre
lease he
controlled in
the center of
Spindletop.
Wells
developed on
this site
proved over
time to be
twice as
productive as
the original
gusher. The
success of
this second
company, plus
Higgins's
tendency to
overextend
himself in
land
speculation,
made Higgins
Oil and Fuel
vulnerable to
a takeover bid
in 1902 by
John Henry
Kirby.qv
Accepting
defeat
gracefully,
Higgins sold
his shares to
Kirby for $3
million, but
he shrewdly
retained his
leasing rights
on his
original
acreage.
Higgins's
next venture
was to form
the Higgins
Standard Oil
Company, which
became the
vehicle for
subsequent
explorations
of Texas Gulf
Coast
salt-dome
fields. Over
the next fifty
years, Higgins
continued to
be something
of a maverick
in the oil and
gas industry.qv
Typically he
would open a
field but then
pull out
before giving
it a chance to
prosper,
leaving the
great profits
to his
followers. One
day he would
be a
millionaire
and the next
he would be
fighting with
investors for
more money to
continue
drilling a dry
well. In
addition to
being a
self-taught
geologist,
Higgins was
also a
draftsman,
cartographer,
inventor,
naturalist,
industrial
designer,
artist, and
engineer.
In
both his
business
dealings and
his personal
relationships,
Higgins could
be quite
dogmatic and
unyielding.
Through his
reading and
analyzing of
the Bible, he
developed a
profound
belief in
moral
perfection on
earth, and he
was quite
critical of
preachers and
others who
argued that
humans were
imperfect and
bound to sin.
His views led
him to
criticize any
public form of
entertainment,
such as
swimming or
dancing. He
also hated
theaters,
beach resorts,
and the
selling of
alcohol. A
bachelor until
age
forty-five,
Higgins owned
homes in
Beaumont,
Houston, and
San Antonio.
He was always
generous with
his family
members, and
his mother
lived with him
until her
death in 1907.
He was also in
the habit of
adopting
orphaned
girls, which
was how he met
his wife,
Annie Johns.
Higgins
initially
adopted Johns
in 1905, when
she was
fifteen; he
made her his
sole heir. In
1908 she and
Higgins were
married,
despite the
scandal. They
had three
children.
Higgins died
in San Antonio
on June 5,
1955, and was
buried in
Mission Burial
Park.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Robert W.
McDaniel and
Henry C.
Dethloff,
Pattillo
Higgins and
the Search for
Texas Oil
(College
Station: Texas
A&M
University
Press, 1989).
Edgar Wesley
Owen, Trek
of the Oil
Finders: A
History of
Exploration
for Petroleum
(Tulsa:
American
Association
for Petroleum
Geologists,
1975).
Christine Moor
Sanders,
Captain
George
Washington
O'Brien and
the History of
the Gladys
City Company
at Spindletop
(1992).
Spindletop/Gladys
City Boomtown
Museum: A
Guide and a
History
(Beaumont:
Lamar
University,
1992).
Tracé
Etienne-Gray
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