Sidebar to the Oil Story to Follow
East Texas was home to the largest oil field in the world in the 1930s. Dallas tycoon H. L. Hunt made his fortune in the field after J. M. (Dad) Joiner persevered to drill the discovery well.
That well, the Daisy Bradford #3, still pumps oil as far as Rush Warren, who returned to Terlingua from East Texas late Monday night, knows.
In an aside on that well and personalities surrounding it, Warren said that in his youngest childhood, his best friend was Duel Glass, who is one of the sons of Joanne Bradford Glass, who was a niece and sole heir of Daisy Bradford.
"Our families have a long history since probably before the discovery well," Warren said, since my great grandfather, James Rush Warren, whom I was named after, was the district judge for Smith, Wood, and Upshur Counties for 20-30 years. The well is in Rusk County, but just barely out of Smith County. Tyler was the "urban hub" of that day.
"Coincidentally, his wife, my great grandmother, was Daisy Barnwell Warren. I reckon Daisy must have been a popular East Texas name back then."
Warren said he sees Duel about once a year. "I saw him last December at the 31st Annual Crude Club Christmas Party in Tyler," he said.
He said he has a sample of oil from the Daisy Bradford #3 that Duel gave him several years ago. It is in his desk at his ranch.
"Duel's family still owns the property, and I am pretty sure that they bought back the wells from H. L. Hunt many years ago," Warren commented. "I used to go out there to their house summers and swim. The house had a swimming pool, a novelty in those days."
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