Pattillo Higgins: The Wisdom of an Unschooled Geologist

Pattillo Higgins was an American entrepreneur and self-taught geologist. His business endeavors in the oil industry helped many people earn a vast fortune. Because of his contributions, he was nicknamed “Prophet of Spindletop.” He was the co-founder of Gladys City Oil, Gas and Manufacturing Company and the founder of Higgins Standard Oil Company.

Higgins was born in Sabine Pass, Texas on December 5, 1863. After his fourth grade, he worked as an apprentice in his father’s gun shop. This exposed him to violence and often harassed African Americans. When he was 17, his left arm was amputated from the elbow down after he was engaged in a firefight with a deputy after he pulled a prank on a local Baptist Church. He became a Christian in 1885 after he attended a Baptist revival service. Thereafter, he left his work as a logger because he realized that it was not a good job to maintain morality. He left for Beaumont, Texas where he started his own business.

Using his savings as a logger, Higgins established the Higgins Manufacturing Company and with it manufactured bricks. His interest in gas and oil business was kindled because of his requirements for kiln to even the burning of bricks. He traveled to Pennsylvania to study fuels and how to identify areas with underground oil deposits. He read reports from the US Geological Survey and other materials. He remembered what his Sunday school teacher taught him about the “Sour Hill Mound.” It was called sour because of the presence of sulfur under it. Convinced that the Sour Hill Mound indicated the presence of oil beneath, Higgins partnered with J.F. Lanier, Emma John, George Carroll, and George O’Brien, and formed the Gladys City Oil, Gas and Manufacturing Company in 1892.

At that time, professional geologists dismissed the notion that there is oil beneath the gulf coasts of the US. But Higgins’s self study of geology convinced him that there is oil beneath because of gas seepage and the presence of mineral water. Gladys City Oil decided to pursue the drilling. He attempted three times but the shifting sands and unstable clay underneath contributed to his failure. Later, he resigned from the company.

Higgins was unwilling to give up his hopes of hitting an oil well. He placed advertisements in the newspapers hoping to spark interest in others. A man named Anthony Francis Lucas responded. In June 1900, they started drilling but Lucas’ light equipment collapsed upon reaching 575 feet. In October 1900, drilling continued with the help of Corsicana’s Al and Curt Hamill.

The new project used newer, heavier, and more efficient rotary bit. On January 10, 1901, at 150 feet beneath the ground, 100,000 barrels of oil per day flowed from the geyser. And it was at the same spot that Higgins earlier predicted. In the first year of operations, the Spindletop oilfield turned in more than three million barrels of oil and more than 17 million barrels the following year.