Some considered self-taught geologist Pattillo Higgins “something of a fool” — until January 1o, 1901.
Self-taught geologist Patillo Higgins became known as the “Prophet of Spindletop” a decade after founding his Gladys City Oil, Gas & Manufacturing Company in 1892. He was instrumental in discovering the world-famous Spindletop oilfield at Beaumont, Texas.
“Pattillo Higgins believed that oil lay beneath his feet at Spindletop,” reported the Gladys City Chronicles. “He had a feeling that drilling a well on top of this salt dome (and others like it) would produce oil, and lots of it.”
Pattillo Higgins formed the Gladys City Oil, Gas & Manufacturing Company on August 24, 1892. He left the company prior to its famous gusher.
Higgins was convinced that an area known as “Big Hill” — Spindletop — four miles south of Beaumont, had oil, despite all conventional wisdom to the contrary. As petroleum geologists worldwide would soon learn, salt domes are surrounded by oil, and one of the largest was Spindletop Hill, south of Beaumont, notes a local museum.
At age 29, Higgins established one of the earliest of all Texas oil companies, the Gladys City Oil, Gas & Manufacturing Company, with three partners on August 24, 1892. He believed the future energy industry would change from coal to oil. Higgins had noticed oil seeps and gas flares on the hill while taking his Sunday school class on picnics.
Pattillo Higgins (1863-1955). Photo courtesy Texas Energy Museum, Beaumont.
To get the necessary backing to drill, Higgins approached George W. Carroll, George W. O’Brien, and J.F. Lanier. Gladys City Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing leased 2,700 acres in Jefferson County. The company planned to find an oilfield and use it to develop a model industrial city, which Higgins carefully mapped.
“It was Higgins’ dream to make Gladys City, named for his favorite Sunday school student, Gladys Bingham, a perfect industrial city based on manufacturing and the production of oil,” explains the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum.
Pattillo Higgins later founded the Higgins Oil and Fuel Company and later the Higgins Wonder Oil Company. The bond certificate above, signed by Patillo Higgins, is attractive to scripophily collectors.
Although the company drilled wells on Spindletop Hill in 1893, 1895 and 1896 – all were dry holes. “By 1896, industry experts and Beaumont residents believed Spindletop was worthless and that Higgins was something of a fool,” notes the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). Still believing in the potential of the Big Hill, Higgins advertised in search of geologists and drillers.
The “Lucas Gusher”
Anthony Lucas, a Croatian-American mining engineer and an expert on salt-dome formations, responded to one of the advertisements and traveled to Beaumont, TSHA adds. “With the assistance of Higgins, Lucas negotiated a lease on June 20, 1899, with Gladys City to drill on Spindletop.”
However, a series of drilling problems stopped the attempt at a depth of 575 feet, according to historian Robert Wooster. The failure exhausted the last of the partners’ finances. Lucas gathered another group of investors, but excluded Higgins from the new venture.
Lucas contacted experienced drillers John Galey and James Guffey of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Guffey, who controlled newly raised funds. Investors included Pittsburgh banker and industrialist Andrew W. Mellon.
Spindletop oilfield photo by Halvor Ostebee, who opened a Beaumont gallery in 1897. Photo courtesy Spindletop Gladys City Boom Town Museum, Lamar University.
Lucas struck his famous gusher on January 10, 1901, at a depth of 1,140 feet. The discovery well at Spindletop Hill flowed uncontrolled for nine days at about 100,000 barrels of oil a day.
Quickly making headlines as the “Lucas Gusher,” the well revealed a giant oilfield that produced almost 3.6 million barrels in its first year alone. As exploration companies proliferated and more wells drilled, the field produced 17.4 million barrels the following year.
Spindletop also brought the first extensive use of rotary drilling technology, replacing many cable-tool rigs. Further, “Christmas trees” of valves to control oil wells became commonplace in the industry after the Lucas Gusher.
Although Higgins had left the company, he retained some leases at Spindletop field. He subsequently formed the Higgins Oil and Fuel Company and then the Higgins Wonder Oil Company, which drilled actively in Chambers, Wilson, Bexar, and Gonzales counties, Texas, in 1916-1918.
Pattillo Higgins, who predicted the discovery of a giant oilfield beneath the “Big Hill” or “Sour Hill Mound” outside Beaumont, Texas, also envisioned Gladys City as an oil metropolis.
“Call him a dreamer, a visionary, a pioneer or ‘the millionaire’ – the life and exploits of oilman Patillo Higgins are the stuff of legend,” notes the museum of the man who would drill many successful wells before passing away in 1955.
“Besides his ability to locate oil throughout south Texas, Higgins, in the early days of exploration at Spindletop, oversaw the planning for an ‘industrial Utopia’ called Gladys City,” the museum concludes.
Visitors to Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum can view exhibits in 15 replica buildings – watch a gusher demonstration.
Visitors to the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum at Lamar University in Beaumont explore 15 replica buildings filled with objects from the early 20th century depicting life during the oil boom.
The Spindletop field will produce more oil in one day than the rest of the world’s oilfields combined. Texaco, Gulf, Mobile and Sun Oil companies got their start thanks to Patillo Higgins’ confidence in the Big Hill. Learn more in Spindletop launches Modern Petroleum Industry.
Born in 1863 at Sabine Pass, Texas, Higgins left school after the fourth grade and apprenticed with his father, a gunsmith. He was a prankster and troublemaker as a teenager, according to the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). In 1880, Higgins lost his left arm below the elbow following a shootout with a sheriff’s deputy.
“After the incident he went to work in various lumber camps along the Texas-Louisiana border,” TSHA noted in a 2020 biography. Higgins’ life changed for the better after attending a Baptist revival meeting in 1885, teaching Sunday School classes — and taking field trips to Spindletop Hill.
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Recommended Reading: Giant Under the Hill: A History of the Spindletop Oil Discovery at Beaumont, Texas, in 1901
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please become an AOGHS annual supporter and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2024 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.
Citation Information: Article Title: “Prophet of Spindletop.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/petroleum-pioneers/prophet-of-spindletop. Last Updated: August 17, 2024. Original Published Date: April 29, 2014.
