Part of: James Donohoe Interview (4 objects)
James Donohoe Interview - James Donohoe Interview [part 4 of 4]
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- the men that was In the field that applied themselves and tried to give a good days work and tried to learn the business and tried to get somewhere in life. The ones that-- on-- that only looked for payday and six o'clock was the ones that was found up here in the dance hall when off duty.
- O.- Well, tell me about the boomers. How many of them made successes of themselves?
- D.- Not so many. There's something peculiar about a boomer,He will be working in a good-- on a good job and getting good wages and a good company, but if a boom starts someplace else,I have known them to quit good jobs, good positions, good living conditions, their families, and go to the boom.
- O.- Why? Does anybody know why they did?
- D.- They couldn't tell you.
- O.- Is it part of the fever of the boom?
- D.- Part of the fever. It's a boom fever.
- O.- Yeah. And the early days that you described at Batson, described part of that boom field.
- D.- Yes, sir. That was-- that was the case. Now, in-- when the boom was over at Sour Lake, they came here, Saratoga, Spindletop. The next big boom in Batson-- after Batson, was Humble. And they went there just in droves. Well, then after that, they went to Shreveport and Louisiana come into the pic-ture as an oil state and they went up to Oil City. And every big boom after that, they went there until the last few years, they-- they've reversed themselves. The boomers, when they get a job-- I wouldn't term them boomers now for when they've got a job, they'll stay with it. They want to stay away from the boom.
- O.- So there's been a great deal of change in psychology?
- D.- Yes. A great deal.
- O.- I'd like to go back now and ask you about some of the people who were here in the early days. I'd like to ask you about Howard Hughes. Did you know him?
- D.- Yeah. I-- Howard Hughes was here and the Hughes Tool--Hughes rotary bit which is one of the standards the world over now, roller bits, was invented here in Batson. That is, for drilling in rock formation.
- O.- Do you know much about that bit? Would you tell me how it was invented, how it came about?
- D.- Yes, it was invented in a machine shop down here on the northeast side of the Batson Oil Field, in J. S. Wynn's machine shop. There was three or four members of the force in there,Mr. Wynn and his foreman, and they was setting pumping in the shop and-- it was what they called a chuck. It's a cone shaped metal-- piece of metal. And they-- it was laying there on the floor and they got to turning it around and around and around and they seen it made a perfect circle. Well, the old fishtail bit and the drag bit, had to use them for rock, and then they would take the swivel off and pour the adamantine in there and they would cut the rock with that. Well, when that-- when they seen what that cone shaped thing-- chuck was doing, then they-- they conceived the idea that they'd put teeth In that and then put it in the shape and fix it so it could be oiled.And they made two cones and put in the bit, made in the bit, and then-- would be oiled and-- oh-- they was tested out. And it proved to be one of the greatest successes and one of the greatest inventions for the oil people for drilling rock formations and the Hughes Tool rotary bit and the Reed Roller Bit in Houston, which was a later bit made, I don't suppose there's a place in the world where oil is being drilled for that their bits are not there. And they service them rigs, and a rig wants a roller bit, why, they just phone in and that's-- they're serviced with a bit, roller bit.
- O.- Well, now, did you see that bit in the shop while it was there?
- D.- I may have seen some of the same samples. I went to that shop pretty often.
- O.- Yes, sir.
- D.- And I seen that-- I-- first bit, I don't say that I seen it.
- O.- Yeah.
- D.- But I do know that it was invented there and I knew all the leading characters that was interested at that time. And Mr. Hughes financed or either bought them out. I'm not quite sure, but anyhow, that was the original starting of the Hughes roller bits.
- O.- Who should get the greatest credit for that invention? Is there one individual?
- D.- Yeah, there's one individual. I think that the man that should get the greatest credit is Harry Thompson.
- O.- Harry Thompson?
- D.- Harry Thompson.
- O.- He's still living, isn't he?
- D.- No, he's deceased.
- O.- He is?
- D.- Yeah.
- O.- Where-- did he continue living here?
- D.- No, he moved a shop up here in town, and then later on hemoved a shop to Hull. And then he moved to Houston. And then he sold his shop out and then he went to work for a strainer company, in there making strainers.
- O.- Well, could you describe Hughes as he was when you knew him here?
- D.- Well, I couldn't say that I was personally acquainted with him, but I seen him often--seen him. And there was so many people here at that time that you didn't have a chance to know them all.
- O.- Yes.
- D.- But I knew Howard Hughes as being a very prominent man at that time.
- O.- Did you know Walter and Jim Sharp?
- D.- I knew Walter Sharp and Jim Sharp, but wasn't personallyacquainted with them. I knew them more by reputation than actual contact.
- O.- They were operating here at that time?
- D.- Well, yes and no. The company that I went to work for is--we had to call a______________[inaudible]. They leased the Sharpinterests, which was the Producers Oil Company. Later on, The Texas Company. And the Sharp brothers, especially Walter Sharp, Jim Sharp wasn't quite as active I don't think in the oil busi-ness as Walter Sharp. Jim Sharp was quite a sportsman and natur-ally followed that up quite a bit. And-- but Walter Sharp was very active and was considered one of the best oil men-- that is, in the most practical of-- And everybody in the oil businesshad a great respect for him and had a lot of confidence in hisjudgement about oil companies. And would say this, that Walter Sharp had done a great deal to the oil business and he was one of the prime movers of the having-- getting it started and developing when it was in its infancy in this Gulf coast.
- O.- Yes, sir. What person, do you think, should have had the greatest credit in the Gulf coast area for the early days, developing the oil?
- D.- Well, I might say the most persistent fellow, the fellow that believed it and the greatest confidence in it was Patillo Higgins.
- O.- Yes, sir. Did you ever know him?
- D.- I-- not personally. I met him a few times.
- O.- Yes, sir. He had already severed his connections with the Higgins Oil when it was here, I take it?
- D.- Yeah, yes. He-- I-- well, when-- at the first, I don'tthink he had, but later on. But I-- he did not take any active part in the Higgins Oil Company during the first years that I was here, but he probably was in an advisatory [sic] capacity.
- O.- Now, I'd like to go back to your own experiences in the fields. You mentioned fires a while ago. I'd like for you to describe the worst fire that you had.
- D.- Well, among the-- one of the worst fires that I experienced- I was- was one or two before I came here. One of the worst fires was down in the heart of the oil field. It was on theGulf ________ [inaudible] land. And it was a tremendous fire andit burnt up lots of wells, equipment, tanks, and storage andwas-- done a great deal of destruction. Now, another well- another fire was in the west end, the Christian Oil Company.and I suppose there was at least 60 acres of oil that burnt to the ground and it-- it happened in the- about noon, a little shortly after noon, and that was along in about the year of 1906, the first part. Some time in the year of 1906. And it just leveled everything before it. And, of course, there was numerous other fires, not as great, however, done lots of destruction, but I- I- mention them two as about the largest.
- O.- Yes, sir. How did these fires usually catch?
- D.- Well, they usually caught from gas. Oh-- uh- lots of times, they'd- they'd catch from the boiler, and sometimes they would catch from carelessness about people smoking and the like of that. And then sometimes a hot box of a night on a Standard rig would get hot and that would be-- and especially if it caught fire on a Standard rig which was wooden bearings and the timber would get hot and it was soaked with oil and that would cause the fire. That was one thing that had to be watched pretty carefully,
- O.- Did you have any narrow escapes yourself, physically?
- D.- In the fire?
- O.- Yes, or in the field.
- D.- Well, yes. I've some very-- some very narrow escapes by things falling out of the derrick. I had a sucker rod elevator one time to fall and it hit me on the arm. It was a glancing lick and if it had hit me on the head or any place else, it would have killed me right now. And then I've had several close calls at other work in the field, but fortunately for me that I didn't have any accidents serious enough to cause any bones to broke [sic] or have to be sent to the hospital or laid up with a long sick spell.
- O.- Now, I'd like to go back to the community again. Were there many Negroes working here when you first came to Batson?
- D.- Oh- only as teamsters. The team contractors were mostly all Negroes, and they got along fairly well with the white people and they always lived in what we called quarters, Negro quarters. And their- their employers provided shelter for them and provisions. And the great amount, or the most I'd say, of all these Negroes lived a distance of about three miles from the town of Batson on Pine Island Bayou. There- and then there was one or two Negro camps north of the field which was run by Mr. S. R. Buchanan, but the Negroes never worked on the oil field about the wells. Their work was always- oh, hauling pipe, hauling machinery, rigs and things of that type, and doing ex-cavation, dirt work.
- O. - Did you have any tension between Negroes and whites during those days?
- D.- Not anything of a serious nature. Of course, we'd have a little flare-up once-- at times, but they never did prove too serious. Now, over at Saratoga, they was very strict on them there. They didn't allow Negroes in the town of Saratoga. AndI don't know one living there at-- up to this time. But there--living at Saratoga, that never was done.
- O.- Did they allow the workers to come in there, the Negro workers or -
- D.- Well, at times they would try to run them out there. The contractors come there with a bunch of Negroes to work and they've had a few cases of where they'd run them out, but the contractors usually avoided that as much as they could by having their tents out away from the townsite of-- but now that is not so bad. I see them going through Saratoga and they're not disturbed.
- O.- Were you here during any strike times?
- D.- Yes.
- O.- When?
- D. - Well, there was one in 1917.
- O.- Would you tell me about that one?
- D, - Well, that was- that was during the first part of World War I and they had a strike here and so they had United States troops come in here and guard the place. And, fortunately, there was nobody killed over it, but they brought lots of men in here to work from other places and they had camps for them and they was protected by the U. S. Troops.
- O.- Yes, sir. Was there a great deal of bitterness in the town then?
- D.- Yes, there was. There was a great deal of bitterness among- especially families.
- O.- Yes, sir.
- D.- But as time went on and that seemed to subside, not so bad.
- O.- Do you have a regular union here now?
- D.- Not at this time.
- O.- What about the Ku Klux affair? Did you have any Ku Klux here?
- D.- Well, I'm sorry to tell you that this place and this county was the hotbed of Ku Klux, and they paraded here and they took men out and whipped them and beat them. Here, Saratoga, Sour Lake, and Beaumont. And it was very common. Every few nights there would be somebody whipped. And that got to be very--people got very bitter over that. But they- they pulled off some of the most shameful- oh, whippings on men that was ac-tually innocent, I will say, what they was sorry for. Now, they may not have been the best citizens, but they was sorry for doing things that they wasn't guilty.
- O.- Can you name a particular case?
- D.- Well, I-- I know of cases here, where they'd claim that they was living with other women and they would take them out and whip them. Then over at Sour Lake they whipped some of them over there. I don't recall what they was being whipped for over there. But then-- in- in Beaumont, there was some doctors over there - uh-- whipped for their practice, so they claimed, wasn't on the up and up, wasn't ethical as it should be. But fortunately, there was nobody killed here. I was looking, expecting, for akilling here any time. But, fortunately, they just- it- after Ma Ferguson, the governor of Texas, and Jim Ferguson, they got Into office and there was a law passed that-- to remove the hood, no more parading in disguise. And, in other words, I would say that Ma Ferguson, while I'm not a ferguson supporter really, but I do say that they had-- deserve the credit of picking the American flag up out of the mud and holding it high.
- O.- That's a lot. Well, were there any religious tensions in the community then?
- D.- Yes.
- O.- Could you tell me about some of those?
- D.- Well, the- of course, now they didn't have so many here as they did in Beaumont. Now, there's a- there's a- you know, there's quite a lot of Catholics in Beaumont; that's quite a lot of Catholic town. In a way, there's some- a lot of French. And these outlying counties, here there's not many Catholics in them, but when a Catholic would appear on the scene, these Ku Kluxers would give him a weather eye.
- O.- Well, did they ever actually ever annoy or abuse a Catholic because of his belief in this community?
- D.- No, I don't- It- if the-- if they did, there was no out-ward appearance.
- O.- Yes, sir. They had some other excuse.
- D.- Yes. O.- Is there a Catholic church in the community here?
- D.- There's a Catholic church in Saratoga, a small- but the-that's a mission over there and then there's a Catholic church in Sour Lake and one at Liberty and one at Silsbee- one at Liberty.
- O.- But they never tried to damage those churches or anything like that?
- D.- No. No, There's never been any destruction of property,
- O.- Yes, sir. What about the people of Jewish faith? Are there any in the town?
- D.- Well, there is not a one of the Jewish faith in Batson now. There was at that time and most all these Jewish people are in either Liberty or Sour Lake and quite a little-- large number in Beaumont, but the Jews is mostly merchants and these little small towns are not very attractive for the businesses,
- O.- So you've had no flare-ups about that? D.- No. O.- Another thing I'd like to ask you. I drove down the main street looking at the houses on both sides. How many of those were built during the boom do you suppose?
- D.- The last houses- there isn't but one or two houses that are standing today that were built during the boom. I don't call- recall but one or two. They're all later day.
- O.- Yes, sir. Now, do most-- excuse me,
- D. - Go ahead.
- O.- Do most of the people living here now get their living from the oil field?
- D.- Yes, practically all of them.
- O.- And how many of them own their homes?
- D.- Well, now- that is a sort of a yes and a no proposition.They own their houses, but don't own the land. They sign anull of ______________ [inaudible] to the oil companies who own theland, and they're subject to move whenever the companies demand.
- O.- Does that account for a sort of run-down appearance of many houses?
- D.- Yes. Very much so. Very- the case.
- O.- The people feel no permanency?
- D.- No. Now, here of late, the Gulf Oil Corporation and the Cashin estate and myself on this particular strip of land on the main street, we have sold them the surface rights, and they now are putting up good substantial homes.
- O.- That would seem a necessity if the community is to continue a nice community.
- D.- Yes, that would be the result,
- O.- What about schools and churches today?
- D.- Well, we have-- we have a fine school. It's like the average oil field town that you go into. There's always a good school. I've noticed that, that every oil field has a good school.And we have one of the good schools here and the finances ofthe school is in good condition and they have good buildings,not much indebtedness, hardly any. Their bond is all about paid out. And they- they have always been very-- in the last few years, they've been very fortunate in having a good superin-tendent and faculty. And when these boys and girls go through the twelve grades, from appearances they go right on through college, them that goes, and makes the way,
- O.- I have one more question. If you had it to do over again, would you stay in the oil business?
- D.- Ye s.
- O.- Why?
- D.- Well, I would say this. That being in the- as I have, being in the oil business, I've prospered. And by that having stayed in the oil business, it gaven [sic]- it has given me lots of comfort in life that I wouldn't have had probably here-tofore if I'd a been in some other work,
- O.- Yes, sir. You were a pioneer and reaped some of the rewards of the pioneer?
- D.- Yes, Well, that's-- that's it, isn't it.[end of tape]