18 Facts About Pattillo Higgins

Pattillo Higgins was an American businessman and a self-taught geologist.

Pattillo Higgins earned the nickname the "Prophet of Spindletop" for his endeavors in the Texas oil business, which accrued a fortune for many.

Pattillo Higgins partnered to form the Gladys City Oil Gas and Manufacturing Company, and later established the Higgins Standard Oil Company.

Pattillo Higgins was born to Roberto James and Sarah Higgins on December 5,1863, in Sabine Pass, Texas.

Pattillo Higgins's family moved to Beaumont when he was six years old.

Pattillo Higgins attended school until he reached the fourth grade, after which he apprenticed as a gunsmith under his father's direction.

The deputy fired a warning shot over Higgins' head, after which Higgins fired back and delivered what would later turn out to be a fatal hit.

Pattillo Higgins was put on trial for the murder of the deputy, but he would be found not guilty by a jury that perceived his act as self-defense.

Pattillo Higgins ventured into real estate at first, and with the money that he saved as a logger, he started the Pattillo Higgins Manufacturing Company to manufacture bricks.

Pattillo Higgins decided to travel to Pennsylvania to learn about these fuels and study the geographical features that give signs to the presence of underground oil.

Pattillo Higgins resigned from the company, sold his stock, and purchased 33 acres compromising the summit of Sour Spring Mound.

Unwilling to give up hope of striking oil, Pattillo Higgins placed numerous ads in industrial magazines and trade journals in an effort to spark others' interests in the prospect of hitting a successful well at the site.

The terms set forth by Guffey limited Lucas' percentage cut to a small amount, and eliminated Pattillo Higgins and cut him completely from the deal.

Pattillo Higgins sued Lucas and Gladys City Oil, Gas and Manufacturing Company for royalties, using the basis that the second lease was invalid because the first lease had not yet expired when the second was enacted.

Pattillo Higgins maintained his leasing rights to his land, and would establish the Pattillo Higgins Standard Oil Company.

Pattillo Higgins later established other wells with various investors, with an eccentric habit of pulling his interests out, leaving the majority of the profits for others.

Pattillo Higgins remained a bachelor until the age of 45.

Three years later Pattillo Higgins married her, and later had three children with her, despite the scandal.