The Washington herald., 1914-06-07
|OIL "PLUNGER'
IS BROKE AGAIN
Billy" Roesser Made Big
Fortunes in a
Day.
HAS EXPENDED ALL OF IT
Oklahoma's Unique Finaneier Liable
to Be Rich Again in a
Week or So.
HAS EXPENDED ALL OF IT

to Be Rich Again In 4
Week or So.
Seven years ago the great .Glen
PooT' of oil was discovered a few miles
south of Tulsa, Okla. 1t made mil
lionaires in a day. and BILLY" Roesser
was one Of them.
He sold eighty acres Of his oil hold
ings for S350,0o0 in actual cash. and had
nearly a million dollars worth of oil
lands left, says the Kansas City Star.
That is a lot of money. 1t was too much
for Billy" who was only thirty-two
years old, and had never had much
money before, and he began to spend it.
The finest house in Tulsa was owned
by George Bayne. Roesser bought 1t
for $4,000 cash, just as 1t stood, furni-
ture and all.
Wanted the Rest House.
He had never been in the house. but
1t was the best in town. and that was
enough for him. He was bound to have
the best, and that quickly. too.
When he bought 1t and went out to
look through it the furnishings did not
suit him. 1t was good mahogany furni-
ture, but it was veneered, not solid, and,
with his wealth, he was not going to
friends needed furniture, and he told
them to go out and take everything that
was in 1t. chairs, tables. rugs, hansings,
pictures dishes. everythiEg-csrt II away
Then he spent $4,000 fixing up and
furnishing the house. Decorations came
from St. Louis An art dealer came
from New York. and as Billy did not
know much about art and the dealer
did, he gave him $4,000 and said to
him:
You send me $4,000 worth of real
genuine oil painting for my house"
Lawn Was Bare.
His lawn covered nearly two blocks. and
1t was quite bare. There is something
in the soil, or the air, of that part OF
Oklahoma that will not let blue grass
grow. A good many have tried to get
bluegrass to grow there, but none ever
succeeded. Nothing short of bluegrass
would do for Roesser. He believed IL was
the soil that prevented bluegrass from
growing.
I'll bring bluegrass soil here and then
it will be bound to grow" he said.
He loaded fifteen freight cars with blue
grass sod in Neosho, Mo-, and hauled II
to Tulsa and laid the sod all over his
nearly two acres of lawn. 1t grew, and
he had the best lawn in Oklahoma, but
1t cost him 5000 when it was finished.
bluegrass lawn is all right, but 1t
needs shrubs and trees to set 1t OF. and
he had to have those too. He engaged
a landscape gardener from st. Louis, and
when he got through the additional cost
was 8 500. The lawn had cost $14. 500, but
1t was some lawn, and 1t waS nothing
more than right and proper that a house
and grounds that cost SO much should be
dedicated with a great reception.
They are still talking. down in Okla
homa, about that reception. or house
warming. or lawnwarming, or whatever
you choose to call il.
He Hired . Chef.
Roesser came tS Kansas City and got
Morton, who had a catering establish
ment, then in Main street, to serve the
dinner. He hired Morton, Mortons chef,
Morton's walters. and even Morton's best
dishes-cost 8. .2oe: and while he was here
he might as we'll do the thing up right,
SO he took Carl Busch and his orchestra
down with him. too. The reception cost
s., 5,ooo
A little later he came to an automobile
show in Convention Hall and bought six
motorcars at a cost of $4,000. He went
out riding in one of them to see his oil
wells near Tulsa, and the machine stuck
in the mud. He managed to get 1t back
to town, but he was dissatisfied with Its
performance, and. standing beside the
machine on a street corner in Tulsa, he
was telling Tim Cremen how the plagued
thing had wsllowed in the mud.
"What'n you give me for her, Tim?"
he bantered.
Two hundred dollars" replied Tim.
She's yours" said Roesser, and the
trade was made.
Another time there were to be some
motorcar races in Tulsa, and he took
a nation. two days before the races, that
he would enter. He telephoned to a firm
in indianapolis to ship him a racing car
at once, and 1t arrived in time for him
He took his attorney and two friends
to Chicago for a motorcar tour.
IT just want to show you a good time
and it's my treat" he said.
He hired two motorcars and two
chaufYeurs in Chicago, and the party
went to the Crown Point races and then
to Indianapolis, Columbus, Cleveland. and
back to Chicago. q mere matter of 5000
expense. that's all.
He "Grub-stakedo Many.
He gave 5000 to his church in Tulsa,
and he gave many thousands Of dollars to
hundreds Of his old friends of the oil
prospecting days.
Even this expenditure might have been
kept up If Roesser had invested his win
nings in something besides oil leases. but
he is 'nstural-born gambler" as all
oil men are who run true to form, and
he plunged. million and a quarter was
not enough.
Three years ago there was excitement
about oil in Illinois, and Roesser, with
some others, organized a syndicate and
went down there and leased 11000 acres
in Bond, Clinton, and Montgomery coun-
ties. 1t was a play for millions. and he
lost One well after another turned out
dry holes"
At the same time he was plunging in
Illinois oil leases he leased 5000 acres
near the old Glen Pool, where he had
made his big strike, and he sunk $l3o,0oo
in dry holes there.
He sold the big house, sold the paint
ings, the lawn, his motorcars, and every
thing but just enough furniture to fix
up a. modest cottage for his wife and
two children, and sunk the money after
oil. too.
One night in February, two years ago.
he got of a train in Tulsa with $40 in
his pocket, and that was every copper
he had in the world.
His Wife wept. F
His wife wept about it. but billy"
true sport that he is, laughed and said:
That's as much as / had hve years
ago, isn't it?''
The next night at midnight Roesser
toward his cottage when he met an old
prospector, who told him that he had
just heard q well had come In on
ceytaip tract east of Glen Pool. Roes-