by Barbara J. Wood
HIGGINS GRASS FARM
Pattillo "Bud" Higgins
Pattillo "Bud" Higgins is the great grandfather of Tambria Higgins Read, Sutherland Springs Historical Museum Director.
Pattillo "Pat" Higgins, Tambria's grandfather, was born in 1910 in Houston to Pattillo "Bud" Higgins, Sr. and Annie Jahn Higgins. Bud owned oil properties in Chambers and Bexar Counties and, in 1925, began to purchase land in Sutherland Springs. After a short time at the University of Texas, Pat joined his dad on the Higgins Oil Leases. Continuing his father's quest for oil, Pat began to drill in Sutherland Springs but, by 1937, he decided to try ranching instead. He purchased land and began to experiment with new forage grasses.
Finding oil on Spindletop Hill
On this day in 1901, the Spindletop oilfield was discovered on a salt dome south of Beaumont, marking the birth of the modern petroleum industry. Pattillo Higgins, the "prophet of Spindletop," and others had tried for years to find oil on Spindletop Hill, but with no success. In 1899, however, Higgins hooked up with Anthony F. Lucas.
Despite negative reports from contemporary geologists, Lucas remained convinced that oil was in the salt domes of the Gulf Coast. On January 10, mud began bubbling from a well that Lucas had spudded in the previous October. The startled roughnecks fled as six tons of four-inch drilling pipe came shooting up out of the ground. After several minutes of quiet, mud, then gas, then oil spurted out.
The Lucas geyser, found at a depth of 1,139 feet, blew a stream of oil over 100 feet high until it was capped nine days later. The discovery of the Spindletop oilfield had an almost incalculable effect on world and Texas history. Investors spent billions of dollars throughout the Lone Star State in search of oil and natural gas.
The cheap fuel they found helped to revolutionize American transportation and industry. Many of the major oil companies were born at Spindletop or grew to major corporate size because of their involvement at Spindletop, including Texaco, Gulf Oil Corporation, Magnolia Petroleum Company, and Exxon Company, U.S.A.
COURTESY/ Texas Historical Commission
📷: The Portal to Texas History
Pat Higgins
PAT HIGGINS GRASS FARMS ... Marker Text: Pattillo "Pat" Higgins was born in 1910 in Houston to Pattillo "Bud" Higgins, Sr. and Annie Jahn Higgins. Bud owned oil properties in Chambers and Bexar Counties and, in 1925, began to purchase land in Sutherland Springs. After a short time at the University of Texas, Pat joined his dad on the Higgins Oil Leases. Continuing his father's quest for oil, Pat began to drill in Sutherland Springs but, by 1937, he decided to try ranching instead. He purchased land and began to experiment with new forage grasses. In 1941, he consulted with the Wilson County Soil Conservation (C.S.C.) District and worked hard to grow grasses but was unsuccessful. Following six years of failure, in 1949, Pat and the C.S.C. learned to compact the soil and were finally successful. By late August 1949, all the grasses were dead except for one row of buffelgrass. Word began to spread about buffelgrass and, in the next eleven years, over 12,000 visitors were registered at the farm. Pat built a small runway for planes to accommodate visitors from Hawaii, France, Africa and Australia. A variety of native grasses were put into commercial production. Pat employed around 200 men and women to harvest grass seeds by hand prior to inventing a mechanical harvester he named the "bug catcher." In 1957, Higgins earned the soil conservation award for irrigation water management. By 1958, Pat had 50 varieties and strains under observation. Before his death in 1961, Pat discovered the parent plant to buffelgrass and named it Higgins buffelgrass which produced higher yields and was more persistent. Buffelgrass became a mainstay on the famous King Ranch in Texas and the Parker Ranch in Hawaii. Higgins became known as the "Grass King of the Southwest." (2013)
Location: FM 359 North & East 3rd Street, Sutherland Springs Texas
APRIL 22, 1950
A share from the Sutherland Springs Historical Museum :
Pat Higgins of the famous "Higgins Grass Farms" in New Town Sutherland Springs Wilson County Texas .
Higgins Grass Farm
WHAT IS THIS? It played a part in Wilson County Texas history. What particular usage did it have? Answer: Higgins seed picker .. more details in comments
