Pattillo Higgins is the person primarily
responsible for the January 10, 1901
discovery of the Spindletop gusher, and
his name is not even on the monument
commemorating the discovery.
His parents were on their way west to the
gold fields of California when they were
sidetracked by the Civil War and came
to settle in the Sabine Pass and
Beaumont area. His father, Robert
Higgins, was a much respected man in
Beaumont and served the community as
gunsmith, cabinet maker, millwright,
mechanic, silversmith, and dentist.
Pattillo, locally known as "Bud," was born
in Sabine Pass in 1863, but the family
moved to Beaumont after the Civil War
because of the threat of hurricantes. He
was known as one of the most
mischievous and rowdy of the boys in his
age group, and was regularly involved in
pranks. He grew into a rough and ready
young man who lost his arm in what
started as a prank at a local black
Baptist church. A local deputy caught
him and in the ensuing melee, he was
shot in the arm and later developed an
infection that led to amputation. He
murdered the deputy but was later
acquitted.
He worked in the timber industry as a
cutter, and later as a log man on the
river, although he could not swim. He
added to his reputation as a daredevil.
In the midst of this, he experienced a
religious conversion, and suddenly the
rough young man was reading the Bible,
writing religious treatises, and giving up
wild women and his rowdy ways.
One of the men present at his
conversion was George Washington
Carroll, who came to believe in Higgins
as a religious person and as a business
man. Higgins gave up the river and
began trading in timber properties. Then
he went into the brick making business,
and while studying was to improve his
brick factory, he traveled to the
Pennsylvania oil fields where oil was
used as a power source in brick
production.
After a period of study, he became
convinced that the signs of oil and gas
were present in the area of Beaumont
called Spindletop. He approached
Carroll about forming the Gladys City
Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing Company
for the purpose of building an industrial
town, to be called Gladys City, whose
industries would be fueled by oil and gas
from the hill. After several dry holes were
drilled, his partners either bailed out or
began to fight him about pouring more
money into drilling. Higgins always said
that the drilling rigs used by the
contractors were too light, and he was
correct.
However, after much controversy, he left
the company, although he still had a
small interest (later upheld by the
courts) in the field to be discovered by
Captain Anthony F. Lucas in 1901.
Higgins controlled another patch of land
on Spindletop in his own name, and he
did prosper as a result of the discovery,
but his dream of Gladys City developing
into a clean, well-run industrial city was
lost.
He went on to wildcat for the rest of his
life, and was the responsible for the
discovery of many new fields. He married
at the age of 40 to a woman he had
adopted and made his legal heir some
years earlier. He died at age 92 in 1955.
Anthony Lucas was born on the Island of
Hvar in Dalmatia and graduated from the
mining and engineering school in Gratz,
Austria, before being commissioned in the
Austrian Navy. After visiting an uncle who
had emigrated to Michigan, Lucas decided to
leave the Navy, stay in America, and become
a citizen. He changed his name from
Luchichs to Lucas and married Caroline
Fitzgerald, the daughter of a prominent
doctor in Macon, Georgia. He began
searching the Gulf Coast for sulphur
deposits. A healthy industry was developing
in the early 1890s after Dr. Herman Frasch
developed a process for extracting sulphur
by drilling as one would for oil and by
introducing steam into the deposits to melt
the sulphur and force it to the surface with
air pressure. When it became commercially
feasible to mine, many people, including
Lucas, began the search for deposits. He
explored the salt dome structures in the
South, and by the time he arrived in
Beaumont, Lucas probably knew more about
salt domes and sulphur deposits than any
other engineer in the world.
James Guffey & John Galey Pattillo
Higgins Anthony Lucas Frank
Yount Anthony (Luchich) Lucas
Anthony Lucas was born on the Island of
Hvar in Dalmatia and graduated from the
mining and engineering school in Gratz,
Austria, before being commissioned in the
Austrian Navy. After visiting an uncle who
had emigrated to Michigan, Lucas decided to
leave the Navy, stay in America, and become
a citizen. He changed his name from
Luchichs to Lucas and married Caroline
Fitzgerald, the daughter of a prominent
doctor in Macon, Georgia. He began
searching the Gulf Coast for sulphur
deposits. A healthy industry was developing
in the early 1890s after Dr. Herman Frasch
developed a process for extracting sulphur
by drilling as one would for oil and by
introducing steam into the deposits to melt
the sulphur and force it to the surface with
air pressure. When it became commercially
feasible to mine, many people, including
Lucas, began the search for deposits. He
explored the salt dome structures in the
South, and by the time he arrived in
Beaumont, Lucas probably knew more about
salt domes and sulphur deposits than any
other engineer in the world.
Pattillo Higgins was the person who attracted
Lucas to Beaumont. Higgins never lost faith
in the potential of the Big Hill area. He
continued to look for someone to drill on it,
even after he severed his connection with
the Gladys City Company, and the story is
often told that he advertised in a
professional journal for a driller. That
advertisement has never surfaced, and in
the new book Pattillo Higgins and the Search
for Texas Oil by Robert McDaniel and Henry
Dethloff, the authors infer that Lucas may
have arrived here another way. However, he
came to see Pattillo Higgins and the salt
dome about which Higgins was so
enthusiastic. The Spindletop mound
intrigued Lucas. He was searching primarily
for sulphur, but he also acknowledged that
oil might very likely be found. He recognized
that the Spindletop mound was a
piercement-type salt dome similar to those
on the Louisiana coastal region. At that
stage, the dome theory was a new one to
Higgins, but as McDaniel and Dethloff state,
the important thing was that Lucas was both
interested and willing to prospect on the
mound. Most significantly, Lucas had the
financing to support his own drilling
operation.
Lucas and Higgins got a lease-purchase
agreement fromt he Gladys City Company
for a 663 acre tract on top of the hill. In a
separate agreement, Lucas retained a 90%
interest for funding the search, and Higgins
was given a 10% interest. When their first
attempts were unsuccessful and their money
was gone, Lucas carried the search for
funding to John Galey and James Guffey
from Pittsburgh. Galey and Guffey took
Lucas to the Mellon banking house, and an
agreement was worked out for financing.
Higgins was totally excluded from this
agreement, which led to the discovery of the
Spindletop gusher. Higgins later sued and a
settlement was reached with him that left him
comfortably well off. Lucas was present for
the real beginning of the Texas oil industry,
but he stayed in the Spindletop field for only
a few months. He left in September 1901 to
wildcat in other fields.
Hvar in Dalmatia and graduated from the
mining and engineering school in Gratz,
Austria, before being commissioned in the
Austrian Navy. After visiting an uncle who
had emigrated to Michigan, Lucas decided to
leave the Navy, stay in America, and become
a citizen. He changed his name from
Luchichs to Lucas and married Caroline
Fitzgerald, the daughter of a prominent
doctor in Macon, Georgia. He began
searching the Gulf Coast for sulphur
deposits. A healthy industry was developing
in the early 1890s after Dr. Herman Frasch
developed a process for extracting sulphur
by drilling as one would for oil and by
introducing steam into the deposits to melt
the sulphur and force it to the surface with
air pressure. When it became commercially
feasible to mine, many people, including
Lucas, began the search for deposits. He
explored the salt dome structures in the
South, and by the time he arrived in
Beaumont, Lucas probably knew more about
salt domes and sulphur deposits than any
other engineer in the world.
James Guffey & John Galey Pattillo
Higgins Anthony Lucas Frank
Yount Anthony (Luchich) Lucas
Anthony Lucas was born on the Island of
Hvar in Dalmatia and graduated from the
mining and engineering school in Gratz,
Austria, before being commissioned in the
Austrian Navy. After visiting an uncle who
had emigrated to Michigan, Lucas decided to
leave the Navy, stay in America, and become
a citizen. He changed his name from
Luchichs to Lucas and married Caroline
Fitzgerald, the daughter of a prominent
doctor in Macon, Georgia. He began
searching the Gulf Coast for sulphur
deposits. A healthy industry was developing
in the early 1890s after Dr. Herman Frasch
developed a process for extracting sulphur
by drilling as one would for oil and by
introducing steam into the deposits to melt
the sulphur and force it to the surface with
air pressure. When it became commercially
feasible to mine, many people, including
Lucas, began the search for deposits. He
explored the salt dome structures in the
South, and by the time he arrived in
Beaumont, Lucas probably knew more about
salt domes and sulphur deposits than any
other engineer in the world.
Pattillo Higgins was the person who attracted
Lucas to Beaumont. Higgins never lost faith
in the potential of the Big Hill area. He
continued to look for someone to drill on it,
even after he severed his connection with
the Gladys City Company, and the story is
often told that he advertised in a
professional journal for a driller. That
advertisement has never surfaced, and in
the new book Pattillo Higgins and the Search
for Texas Oil by Robert McDaniel and Henry
Dethloff, the authors infer that Lucas may
have arrived here another way. However, he
came to see Pattillo Higgins and the salt
dome about which Higgins was so
enthusiastic. The Spindletop mound
intrigued Lucas. He was searching primarily
for sulphur, but he also acknowledged that
oil might very likely be found. He recognized
that the Spindletop mound was a
piercement-type salt dome similar to those
on the Louisiana coastal region. At that
stage, the dome theory was a new one to
Higgins, but as McDaniel and Dethloff state,
the important thing was that Lucas was both
interested and willing to prospect on the
mound. Most significantly, Lucas had the
financing to support his own drilling
operation.
Lucas and Higgins got a lease-purchase
agreement fromt he Gladys City Company
for a 663 acre tract on top of the hill. In a
separate agreement, Lucas retained a 90%
interest for funding the search, and Higgins
was given a 10% interest. When their first
attempts were unsuccessful and their money
was gone, Lucas carried the search for
funding to John Galey and James Guffey
from Pittsburgh. Galey and Guffey took
Lucas to the Mellon banking house, and an
agreement was worked out for financing.
Higgins was totally excluded from this
agreement, which led to the discovery of the
Spindletop gusher. Higgins later sued and a
settlement was reached with him that left him
comfortably well off. Lucas was present for
the real beginning of the Texas oil industry,
but he stayed in the Spindletop field for only
a few months. He left in September 1901 to
wildcat in other fields.
BigOilFields.Com
Pattillo Higgins
Anthony Lucas
Wildcatters Hall of Fame
The Lucas
Gusher
ushered in the
Texas Golden
Age. of Oil
Booms
Gusher
ushered in the
Texas Golden
Age. of Oil
Booms