The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1902-06-16
|SAM CR0WTHER MAKES
A COLOSSAL OIL STRIKE
the oil proposition.

this land l could develop oil fields that
would be the wonder OF the world That
was seven years ago-long before Texas
had Its gushers. or even the California
fields were dreamed Of / knew that II
was necessary TO keep the matter secret
or / would lose the hope OF being interest
ed
II toiled early and toiled late. Finally
purchased on my own account some
OF the land. but / couldn't satisfy my
self until / got enough TO mean great
deal.
After / had absolute control OF 1000
acres of this land and knew IL was mine
put down two more wells TO prove that
had a vast area of oil land. know
what i am talking about. / proved that
had discovered luminant Gil lands at
least seven miles wide and thirteen miles
long.
Then I saw the chance 10 lease up
all the lands I'm that section that might
prove TO be vufurbfc,-t I'm order to have
what knew was the great oil dip under
my control.
II interested the Hon. N. r. Wallace.
Judge OF the county court OF Atascosa
county; John Findlater. Jr.. hardware
merchant of San Angelo, and Walker F..
Moore. capitalist Of Waco. We COM
menced to lease lands and kept at II until
we had In our possession what i think
are the oil lands OF Atascosa. McMullen
l23,04o acres-all in one body-l2 square
miles OF land.
II got one rig, big traction engine,
a whole lot of machinery and pipe, and
took II through the country from the rail-
road. No living being except my asso-
ciates knew where the machinery had
gone, where l was living. or what l was
doing.
LIFE IN TENT.
my wife and two boys were with me.
We camped out In tents and endured
hardships but we were developing new
and by far the most important oil lands
In Texas.
II could tell little story OF our tent
life OF our hopes dreams and ambitions
as the years went by. But / am no ro-
mancer, l deal in actualities. II was TO
dream with me; felt that knew
enough OF oil formations and oil lands to
know that / had made no mistake. My
associates belieyed with me. and pinned
their faith 10 the project with their dol
lars 1t was sure thiIg for me. so far
as i was concerned, Hut a sure thing.
while in sight, may yet be long way
down the road.
HAD | not had unbounded confidence
In myself and In my knowledge OF oil. you
may rest assured that / should not have
Isolated myself and family as did, but
being convinced. l stayed with IL. and
now results will Justify all that / did.
But, you see. after we had finally got
ten oil and knew 1t beyond any question
OF doubt, after we owned thousands of
acres OF land In fee simple; after we had
leased other thousands OF acres. secur-
ing all the oil and other mineral rights
for long terms of years. ranging from
twenty-five to ffty. we found that we
had gone the limit. and 10 develop this
vast property, no matter how rich IL was.
would require financial help.
II knew we had a first-cass, honest
proposition, and, after consulting my
partners. / took the train for Boston and
went TO work trying 10 interest capital
lists OF that city
II want to say here that Boston Is a
great place-a place where a tenderfoot
must go slow. i wanted conser-
vatives honest men TO become identified.
i found that that class Of men are slow
and cautions. 1 had all kinds of offers.
Had offers TO sell for cash outright-Quite
a goodly sum-but / wanted a company,
one in which l could be interested and
from which 1 could share the enormous
profits which are sure to come. That
showed my sincerity. When II was under
stood that the Texas end had nothing 10
unload. when II was ascertained that
there was no gold brick scheme about
the deal, and that we people wanted H.
nancial aid for a legitimate enterprise
and expected no returns for the years of
work and the money we had put In II un-
III we took them from the ground, people
up there no longer doubted our sincerity
'The result was as you know. Our en-
tire holdings were transferred to the
King -Crowther corporation. We have q
strong company the directors being
among tho successful business men In
Massachusetts and this state and we
are part of IL.
"The quality OF oil produced by the
wells already sunk equals any illuminat-
ing oil found in the world 1t has been
examined and tested by experts OF the
Standard OIL company and pronounced
equal TO the products OF the best wells Of
Pennsylvania and Ohio, and for this. you
know. there is ready market the world
over
The seven years that have put in
In securing this property have been long
and tedious But now that a strong
company has been organized and the full
development OF the land is assured,
no longer have any secrets TO keep from
the public.
RICH OIL FIELDS.
"Our territory is almost due south OF
San Antonio II is new, and as an oil
expert familiar with all the oil section
and conditions OF Texas, l make bold
10 say that no prospects were ever bright
er for the development of rich oil fields
than those OF the King -Crowther cor
poration.
The possibilities are beyond estimate
You see. We have the largest tract of
proven oil land owned by any single
corporation, or. expect. any half dozen
corporations In the United States. We
have an excellent quality of illuminating
oil. and we have II In practically endless
quantities.. We are organized TO do bust
ness and not TO traffic IN a few stocks
We are going after oil We are prepared
20 meet every requirement. We have
capitalists I'm this company who mean
business. Their money has been paid IN
after a complete investigation. and they
know what they are about The King
Crowther corporation is today In possess
sion OF oil lands sufficient. when properly
developed. 10 make thousand million
aires"
A MAGAZINE TRIBUTE.
The National Magazine for January
printed an interesting article outlining
the romantic history OF the Klng-Crow
ther corporation, and paid an especially
pretty tribute 20 the former we'll known
newspaper man who organized the cor