The Farmington times., 1919-06-06
TEXAS OIL BOOM DWARFS
PREVIOUS HISTORIC STRIKES

Since the big mine of the Verde
district shut down at least 500 people
have gone from Jerome to the oil
fields of North Texas. Most of them
remained there, having found good
jobs, and, in not a few instances, OPP
portunities to garner for themselves
part of the flood of wealth that is
gushing forth from the SCARED breast
of the Lone Star State.
Those who have returned agree that
the oil boom of which Ranger and
Burkburnett are centers, transends all
other booms in history. One declares
that is the Goldfeld boom, the Jerome
boom, the Beaumont boom and the
Tulsa boom rolled into one and magni-
fled dozen times.
The boom is big one because the
area of the new oil fields is immense;
because so many thousands of people
have already been made enormously
wealthy in Texas oil; because there is
no chance of production catching up
with demand for many years to come.
Field 200 Miles Long
Roughly speaking, the area of prov
en- oil territory is 200 miles long, ex-
tending from northeast to southwest,
and eighty miles wide. New pools are
being discovered almost daily. No
less than 400 wildcat" wells are now
being drilled. A wildcat is well that
is not located close to big production.
The striking of oil by the Texas Pa
cific Coal Company on the W. L. Nc
Clesky farm, a mile and half north
east of Ranger, brought about an as
tonishing transformation. 1t convert
ed the most God-forsaken area on the
face of the earth into one Of the rich
est.
That well struck oil Oct. 7, 1917.
McClesky had been just like his neigh
bors, poor, discouraged, hopeless. He
died the other day leaving an estate
appraised at $7,000,000,
Today there are something like 500
producing oil wells in Eastland coun-
ty, in which Ranger is situated. The
downtrodden Eastland county farmers
have come into their own. Their
wives, as gnarled and twisted as the
oaks among which they once toiled,
have their hands weighted down with
diamonds. Their daughters have silk
gowns, but not the art of wearing
them. Their sons have the privilege
of running down to Dallas or Fort
Worth and getting seriously feeced
by the sharpers that infest those
cities.
There is a pathetic side to this
showering of wealth upon people TN
able to comprehend or use it. Most of
them are wholly incapable of enjoying
their fortune. A thousand dollars
they would have understood and put to
good use, but a million--well, there
isn't that much money in the world
and those farmers aren't going to be-
lieve there is, even when it is marked
up in their own bankbooks by their
own bankers.
Consider McClesky
Consider McClesky, for instance.
After the oil strike on his land he let
contract for the construction of
brick hotel in Ranger. He learned
that his contractor was paying COM
mon labor $3 day. That seemed to
him a stupendous wage. He had never
been able to average that much on mis-
farm. So he struck the contractor
for a job and worked on his own ho-
tel at SO day till the building was
completed.
McClesky died, leaving five of his
81 100000 estate to his wife and the
remainder to his five children by his
first wife. She promptly brought suit
for the entire estate. The heirs have
offered to settle with her for half, but
she demands all. Pending the settle
mcnt of the litigation she is taking in
washing for living. Her greatest
annoyance in life is the flood of let
ters from men all over the world who
tell her how true and loving they
could be to a woman So years old with
81 900, ,000.-Magazine of Wall Street.