E. E. Townes Interview - E. E. Townes Interview [part 3 of 3]

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  • PIONEERS IK TEXAS OILTopic: Experiences of a young lawyer in Beaumont, beginning 1903*
  • Name: Judge Townes, Edgar Eggleston Interviewer: Owens, William A.Place: Houston, TexasTape
  • No: 3 Date: June 21, 1952 Restrictions: May not be
  • O.- All right, Judge Townes, if you'll tell me about your early days, sir.
  • T.- I was born in San Saba, Texas, in 1878. In the early 1850's a group of friends living
  • in and around Tuscumbia, Alabama, moved to Texas in order to find fresh land for cultivation.
  • They settled about fifteen miles east of Austin in what is now the Manor neighborhood. The
  • families of my father and my mother were in this group. My father was about two years
  • old and my mother about one year old when they moved to Texas.My father practi -- was
  • practicing law in San Saba at the date of my birth. In the early '80's he was appointed
  • by Governor Ross as District Judge for that district in which there were sixteen counties
  • without a mile of railroad road in it. Later, he moved to Georgetown and formed a partnership
  • with Captain Olmsted Fisher and Judge Hal Fisher, his brother. Still later, about 1888,
  • he was again appointed to the district bench, for the district composed of Travisquoted
  • without written consent of E. E. Townes and Williamson counties. In about 1889, he moved
  • to Austin and shortly thereafter resigned as district judge and formed a partnership
  • with Colonel S. R. Fisher under the firm name of Fisher and Townes. This partnership continued
  • until the middle '90's when my father withdrew and went to the University of Texas as a professor
  • of law. Shortly thereafter, he was made Dean of the Department and was dean almost continuously
  • for thirty years until his death.I attended the public schools in Austin and later went
  • to Webb School at Beltbuckle, Tennessee, as a prepare --preparation for entering the University
  • which I entered in 1897. In 1900, I took my academic degree, B. -- Bachelor of Literature,
  • and in 1902, I received the LLB degree and immediately obtained my liscense to practice
  • law. Doctor David P. Houston was elected president of A&M College in the early summer of
  • 1902 and offered me a position to come to A&M and teach with him. This I accepted
  • and remained for one year. I then resigned for fear that I would get into a teaching
  • rut and would not be able to resign or quit later and I saw no particular future for me
  • as a teacher.I wanted to practice law.I then moved to Beaumont in June of 1903, and got
  • a job with an attorney, W. N. Crook, practicing law, largely commercial law. Oil had been
  • discovered there in January of 1901 and there had been a tremendous influx of people from
  • all over the United States and some from other countries.The principal excitement incident
  • to the bringing in of the world's first great oil field had somewhat dissipated by the time
  • of my arrival in Beaumont. Much of the riffraff and curiosity seekers had returned home or
  • left for other parts. The busi -- the oil industry had settled down to adegree as a
  • stable business. With the passing of the slushingress of people of all kinds, general business in
  • Beaumont had begun to fall off and a great many merchants and business concerns that
  • had been organized without a really permanent basis or sufficient capital were beginning
  • to go broker.The bankruptcy court and the referee in bankruptcy were very busy. Receiverships
  • were many. And had quite an influence on the oil business because certain oil companies
  • that were financially able to carry on that business in a proper way took advantage of
  • the receiverships and bought in -- brought in the properties of a great many of the little
  • fly-by-night oil companies at the time when oil was selling for five and ten cents a barrel
  • if you could sell it. And the receivership properties formed the backbone of the oil
  • holdings of several companies which are among the largest in the country today.
  • O.- Could you name some of those companies? T.- Well, it might not be fair to name names
  • and tell stories,too. These matters were perfectly legal and legitimate. Somebody was going to
  • buy those properties that were sold under distress and receivership. But, perhaps it's
  • better not to name names. O.- The record's there anyway?
  • T.- The record is there. As a matter of fact, subsequently, the legality of these receiverships
  • was attacked in court and many of them -- no, and according to the decision of the court
  • -- many of the receivership sales were voidable, if not void. But very few were attacked. This
  • is particularly true of those that were brought about by reason of the fact that the corporation
  • was in default of payment of its franchise tax. Beaumont at the time I reached there
  • In 1903 was in a crowded state of confusion. O.- What was the estimated population at that
  • time? T.- Probably just before oil was discovered
  • Beaumont had between a thousand and fifteen hundred people, with just the ordinary country
  • facilities and utilities. With the coming in of the Lucas Gusher there was dumped into
  • this little neighborhood, crossroads town, interested up to that time principally in
  • lumber and cattle, thousands and thousands of people for whom there were no houses, lodgings,
  • and practically no conveniences. Health conditions were terrible.
  • O. What about law and order? T.- You can imagine what the law enforcement
  • situation was.A percentage of the people who rushed in were gamblers and disreputable people
  • of various kinds -- camp followers. They were all strangers. I suppose there were few nights
  • that there were not murders committed, and bodies thrown in the river. No one will ever
  • know just how many were disposed of. The officers did the best they could but their position
  • and the circumstances made their official duties very difficult. Probably, there was
  • less organized crime than has existed in any other place with that number of people. This
  • was due probably to the fact that the people did not know each other. There was not the
  • quick opportunity for organization and cooperation between the illegal element.Beaumont, fortunately,
  • had as its original citizenship many of the finest citizens that you could imagine anywhere.
  • There were the Carrolls, the Fletchers, the Keiths, and numbers of others who could not
  • be excelled or perhaps equalled anywhere for good, substantial, honorable, Christian people.
  • They and the officials whom they influenced because they had elected them did their best.Living
  • conditions were, of course, distressing. Calder Avenue was the principal silk stocking residence
  • street. I remember walking out that street and you could see along the white picket fences
  • along Calder the water mark where the high water had reached above the upper two-by-four,
  • I would say probably thirty inches above the ground. There were stories, and some of them
  • were true. For instance, that -- uh -- hack going out Calder to deliver a passenger. One
  • of the horses fell and drowned before the driver could cut the harness loose. You can
  • imagine health conditions under these circumstances. There were no sewerage or sanitary facilities
  • at the time oil was discovered. These conditions were remedied as rapidly as the citizens could
  • do so. O.- But they hadn't been remedied much in
  • 1903? T.- Very little. As a matter of fact, the
  • doctors were kept busy with a disease which was of epidemic proportions; some character
  • of diarrhea which came to be known locally and throughout the oil district industry as
  • the 'Beaumonts'. O.- That's a new one for me.
  • T.- Well, that's what it was. O.- I've heard it in east Texas --
  • T.- Of course, that disappeared as sanitary conditions improved.
  • O. What about saloons and drinking? T.- Well, as you would naturally expect -- in
  • [pause] a large group of people of the mixed character, there was quite a good deal of
  • drinking. I would say among the real business people, as distinguished from the gamblers
  • and drifters, there was probably no more drinking than there is today.There was probably more
  • than there existed 25 years ago, but I think conditions in this regard have done somewhat
  • worse in recent years.Gambling was carried on more or less openly. I remember that one
  • of the best citizens of the place, Mr. George W. Carroll, who was
  • one of the principal stockholders and incorporators of the Gladys City Oil and Manufacturing Company
  • which owned a large part of Spindletop, a very ardent Christian, a Baptist deacon, in
  • order to get evidence about the gambling, shaved off the beard which he had worn for
  • years and went in -- went up into one of the gambling houses one night and took part; sat
  • around and noted everything that went on and next morning when the news came out that the
  • stranger in the house was Mr. George W. Carroll, business picked up in criminal prosecution
  • circles.The law business at the time and for several years after I reached Beaumont was
  • principally taken up with receiverships and suits for debt with foreclosure of lien and
  • attachments, et cetera. The higher class of business was mostly related to oil and to
  • land litigation. There were two justice courts and each vied with the other in an effort
  • to get the most of the suits that should be filed. Lawyers who. had filed a great many
  • suits perhaps got a little better treatment in the trials than those who had only an occasional
  • suit. I suppose this is natural in any place. O.- You told me that you were -- you represented
  • some of the old timers in the suits. T.- The first year that I was there I was
  • almost constantly in the Justice and County Courts, in these suits for collection of debts
  • as the lawyer with whom I was associated had a very large commercial business. At the end
  • of the year I went in with Mr. L. A. Carlton whose clients were chiefly oil companies and
  • individuals engaged in the oil business, and naturally my business took on that character.
  • We represented among others the Heywood Oil Company of which Captain W. C. Tyrrell was
  • president and chief owner; Parafine Oil Company of which Captain William Weiss and S. W. Pipkin
  • were the most active officers and chief owners. A year or two later when Wilson-Broach Oil
  • Company was organised by J. C. Wilson, one of our clients, and George Adsit, we represented
  • that company. Later the Unity Oil Company and various and sundry others. Later on, about
  • 1914 or '15, I represented the Sun Company, the Ardmore Oil Company and quite a number
  • of others. In about 1905 or '06, Mr. L. C. Proctor of Victoria moved to Beaumont and
  • joined our firm which then became Carlton, Proctor and Townes.We represented the G. M.
  • Guffy Petroleum Company and later the Gulf Company which represented merely a change
  • of name. About 1906 or '07, when the Gulf Company decided it had grown large enough
  • to have a legal department of its own, our firm was invited to move over and be the Gulf's
  • legal department. After some consideration, Mr. Proctor decided that he was willing to
  • go. Mr. Carlton and I decided that we did not want to quit the general practice.Therefore,
  • Mr. Proctor became general counsil and head of the legal department which he then organized
  • at the Gulf Company, and Mr. Carlton and I considered -- continued as general practitioners
  • to represent them in many matters.For instance, as the younger member of the firm I had to
  • do the legal work with the Right-of-Way Department of the Gulf Company in getting the right of
  • way and in the building of the pipe -- the first pipe line from Oklahoma to Port Arthur.
  • This was quite an assignment at that time because we had no automobiles in general use
  • and anyone going up and down the line had to depend on trains that ran seldom, freight
  • trains, section hand cars, saddle horses, buggies, and hacks. This caused a great deal
  • of inconvenience and delay as compared with the quick mode of getting around anywhere
  • in vogue today. O.- Where did this pipe line start in Oklahoma?
  • T.- I don't remember, whether it was Keefer or where the accumulating point for oil was,
  • but its terminus was at Port Arthur at the refinery of the Gulf Oil Company there.
  • O.- You mentioned yesterday that you represented Walter Sharp at one point. Could you tell
  • me about that and about him? T.- Let's stop for just a second.[break]
  • T.- Naturally, the production of oil being a new business, muchly publicized over the
  • country and spoken of as a business in which millions could be made on practically no capitol,
  • a great many younger men were attracted to Beaumont to start in a business about which
  • they knew as much as the older business people with whom they would have to compete in other
  • lines. There were a number of very fine young people and -- men of 35 and under -- that
  • came to Beaumont to go into a serious, steady business. Among these were Walter Sharp, W.
  • B. Sharp, who had been in the water well drilling contracting business in the neighborhood of
  • Dallas. There was W. S. Farish, R. Lee Blaffer, Ed Prather, Prank Ireland, Lee Hager and a
  • number of others.A number of these were represented by Mr. Carlton at the time I went in with
  • him, and I therefore had an opportunity to get acquainted with them in our representation,Mr.
  • Sharp was not in Beaumont as continuously as some of the others
  • because he had drilling contracts and producing endeavors in various other places where oil
  • was being prospected for. The others were chiefly engaged in and around Beaumont and
  • were constantly in the city. Mr. Sharp was a large, rather raw-boned, sandy
  • haired man, a very forceful character, and physically forceful.He gave his business his
  • personal attention and knew what was going on. He was unique in some respects since he
  • paid very little attention to correspondence. I remember that I represented him in a case
  • in court and wrote him several times asking for the names of witnesses and telling him
  • when the case was set and come by the office for a conference. I got no response. Finally,
  • his right-hand man, Bill Lynes, came by the office on certain matters and told me that
  • there wasn't any use to write to Walter, that Walter not only wouldn't answer the letter,
  • he wouldn't read it; that if I wanted to get word to Walter at any time, to write to him
  • and he would talk to him and give me the answer. This followed out the idea which was attributed
  • to Napoleon who was said never to read a letter, but when he received it
  • he would throw it aside and say, that it is -- "If it is of any importance, I'll hear
  • from it again. If not, why waste time reading it?" This, however, made the handling of Mr.
  • Sharp's business in those early days rather difficult.For a large man of the physical
  • strength and control that he had, he was rather nervous. He never
  • liked to waitto see anyone. He usually carried with him ---[end of tape]