Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1917-01-20
Have Made a Fabulous For
tune For A Poor Pros
pector.
OWNS 100 FINE WELLS
That Have a Value Of 49,
600, 900 tc $4,OOO,-
600.

! NJ. f. Williams, an old man u
years Of age, Is the principal owner
Of the Estill county oil fields and has
made millions in one year. Mrs.
Harry Slice, his widowed daughter,
is his chief business assistant.
AT time in life when most men
are about ready to settle their ac-
count with Father Time, Williams
drifted into Irvine. He was an ex-
perienced oil operator, one who knew
both how to lose and gain, for for
tune had lured him in his time TO oil
fields in many sections of the country
and had treated him in devious ways
once she had enthused him with
"oilitis."
But Williams came to- Irvine with
out soul so to speak. He tramped
through all of the nearby hills, de-
cided a golden stream Of oil would
flow if the hillsides of Estill county
were drilled in the right spot and
then went to his old home at Bowl
ing Green, Mo-, TO borrow enough
money to finance his operations. His
reputation was fourteen-karat good
and w. S. Raydure, wealthy oil
operator of Bowling Green, who con-
trolls extensive holdings in Texas and
Oklahoma oil fields, was persuaded
to Stake" Williams on a fifty-fifty
basis.
Between Ticky Fork and Cow
Creek in this county there lies 49,
900 acres of mountain land known as
the old Maple tract, and Williams
leased for $4,000 the oil rights on
200 acres OF this land. He sank one
well at the cost of $500 and found
nothing. The day drilling operators
informed Williams his first we'll was
a dus.er the operator sat down on
the steps of the River View Hotel, it
is said, and dried with a handker-
chief tears that trickled down
wrinkles in his checks.
That was a few days more than
a year ago. Since that time Will
Hams has drilled more than a hun
dred wells on his properties and
found a golden treasure Of crude oil
at the bottom of every one OF them.
He has leased during that time many
other acres Of wooded wildcat ter
ritory and his holdings now are
worth millions.
II is difficult for a layman 70 APP
preciate the value of an oil well.
When you 90 10 figuring what man
in this section is worth dollars and
figures roll up with such alarming
rapidity that one is stunned In Ok
lahoma and other midcontinent oil
fields wells usually are sold on the
basis Of 81, 600 per barrel production.
That is, if an operator brings in a
well with a daily flow Of fifty barrels
the market price of his fhole in the
ground" is about $4,000, But Ken
lucky oil sells at a higher price than
the Oklahoma product, and it isn't
SO hard to get to the oil here because
of the shallowness OF the wells. Ac-
cording to theory, then, Irvine wells
should easily sell for 81, ZOO per bar
rel production.
Williams & Raydure own at least a
hundred wells and the average pro-
duction in these wells is estimated at
seventy-fve barrels per day. Figure
il out then-an average daily produc-
ton OF $500 barrels of crude oil at
81, 600 a barrel market value and
these two men own holdings worth
$7,5O0,O00. Williams half interest is
somewhere between $3,000,0O and
"a, 900, 600, then, and he has amassed
this fortune in oil holdings within
twelve or fifteen months.
Williams now is living at Ravenna
about two miles south OF Irvine. and
rarely goes into the oil field in the
hills about here. In his stead the |
daughter, with a riding habit. and a |
habit OF riding. makes the rounds Of