Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-04-24

which are now being pinched because
railroad cars cannot be obtained I'm
sufficient quantities to carry the oil
away may be allowed to flow at maxi
mum capacity.
There seems 10 be no prospect OF the
Mexia field failing. The new wells that
are being brought I'm almost daily ex
ceed each other In production, one af-
ter the other. A short time ago the
United States Texas Company bought
the Fish Pond district" for 500. 600.
Since then thirty-fve derricks have
been erected in compact area. Acre
age has scared in value from $3.50 to
81 900 TO $4,000 within a radius Of n
mile In three weeks.
Colonel Albert r. Humphreys. n SOL |
dier OF fortune, who started pioneering |
from his home in West Virginia. made
and lost several completeness. brought |
I'm the Mexia field, and is expected to |
pay into the Treasury OF the United
States this fiscal year the greatest in
come tax OF any one in the country,
barring not even the best known Of all
petroleum kings, John ID. Rockefeller.
Colonel Humphreys now is credited
with a fortune Of $4,000, 600. The
Humphreys interests. sold recently to
the Pure Oil Company. are understood
to have brought him s30,000.000 alone.
When Colonel Humphreys was q
. years old, 1t Is understood he failed for
. 100000. but paid 1t back and years
later he went broke, again. this
, time for $1,000. 900. lie paid that of
Just before going 10 Texas. He kept
drilling for oil at Mexia when citizens
laughed at his ffJrts. The field is gen
orally conceded TO be the nations larg-
est in production.
Colonel Humphreys recently an
nounced that he would devote the mil
= lions he will make "to the work of the
Master" He ha, established a chain
Of missionaries in West Virginia. Ohio
and Indiana, and intends TO add to
these. Donations OF churches and IL
braries are to be made. Colonel Hum
phreys said that when he was ser
| iously i'll in Denver twelve years ago
Y he got down on his knees and told the
! Lord that II his life should be spared
he would use all the money he made In
religious work.
e 81 have known Colonel Humphreys
since was a small boy" said Fred S
Carr, one Of the officials in the income
tax unit Of the Internal Revenue Blu
reau stationed in Washington. When
ever he returns TO his old home II
i Sissonville, W. Va, he makes oui
ID home his headquarters. / remember
ie years ago, when he was sitting on th'
ie front porch Of the home OF my father
Colonel r. S. Carr. that he said:
n lot Of people go out to hunt for OF
/ with peach-tree switches or some 9th
er form OF detecting devices, but
re hunt oil with a geologist.'
IS Colonel Humphreys, when youn,
IA man, taught school, cooked In lumbe
~ camps and did all sorts of work. II
one numbering venture he lost all hi
"a logs when he attempted TO float then
ie to the mill. They broke away AM
fioated down the river. My father wa
rs made his assignee at the time. Late
e he went onto the Mesba iron range 4
Dg northern Minnesota and was there I
Il the panic OF 1898. Later he went {
ei British Columbia prospecting and the
- to Denver, where he became intereste
!, in the silver and copper game. Hi
Il first interest In oil was in the Bi
w. Muddy field OF Wyoming. The Mex
ny field is the fifth wildcat field he ha
been in.
THE Mexia field had been producin
gas for a long time when Colon
Humphreys went there little over
year ago, but he was convinced that
greater depth oil would be foun
NJ THE Rogers No. well was brought
nd soon afterward. The Magnolia
ol, Company recently paid sl,l00.000 f
n forty acres OF land in the Mexia fiel
m 1t has been producing 1000 barrels
Of oil a day The company has its MON
&C back already and the wells are stan
.. ing up. I understand that the Stan
:. ard OIL Company recently contract
-. for 5000 900 barrels of Mexia oil
$3.50 a barrel. The pipe line now b
- ing constructed Is being run $50 mil
~ TO tide water"
- Mushroom oil companies have Ike
pace and even ahead of the mushroC
growth of the Mexia field. While the
are eye-opening stories by the hu
vas dreds of negroes who have become m
'ho lionaires overnight. of men who toll
ou- night and day with ox-carts fl
ihs years ago now riding around in t
ul- most expensive foreign-built machin
the there undoubtedly are thousands up
Ieit thoussNds OF stories which might
ith' told throughout the United States
in poor persons made poorer by inve:
ments in the stock of oil compant
which have only propects and pro
pectuses.
''"i Optimism is the keynote of Mex
ere as it is in every new field. There
ace prosperity now not only among {
D. persons owning oil lands and oil wei
.. but with the owners of stores, hote
ana cafes, laundries and newspapers. .
ar rhave suddenly found their facilit
as entirely inadequate. The boom oil tor
is a populous. hustling communi
vas New stores, hotels, homes, have be
nts built. In the last four months bui
Nc ing passed the $4,000, 900 mark a
ent new structures are being project
ldaily. Every incoming train is pack