THIS WEEK IN TEXAS HISTORY
Hugh Roy Cullen gave a luncheon at his Houston mansion on Dec. 7, 1949 for Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. Taking the war hero aside, the Texas oilman echoed the sentiments of most Americans by urging Ike to run for president in 1952.
Self-taught prospector with a knack for squeezing black gold out of abandoned fields.
Political maverick who fought the New Deal and broke with the Democratic Party. Folksy philanthropist whose generosity made the Rockefellers look like skinflints. That was Hugh Roy Cullen, a rich old coot with a heart of gold.
Dropping out of school in the fifth grade, Cully’s first job was in a San Antonio candy factory, where he earned a notso- sweet three dollars a week. Four years later at age 16, he chose the gypsy life of a cotton buyer in the Oklahoma Territory.
By 1905 Roy Cullen had outgrown his childhood nickname and taken on the responsibilities of husband and father.
Refusing to shoulder the family burden by settling for a steady paycheck, he announced to his dumfounded wife, “I’m going into business for myself. I don’t expect to work for anyone but myself again.”
Inside five hectic years, Cullen savored success as an independent cotton merchant, an appetizer which only made him hungry for the main course. Realizing the opportunity he craved was not on the Okie menu, he pulled up stakes in 1911 and moved to Houston.
The choice must have had his dearly departed grandfather spinning in his grave. A hero of the Texas Revolution and leading politician of the Republic, Ezekiel Cullen devoted much of his rambunctious career to kicking the civic stuffing out of the Bayou City.
Advocating a new capital in 1841, the old firebrand fumed, “That abominable place! That wretched mudhole!
It would be better to legislate in tents in a high, healthy section of this country than to inhale this poisonous atmosphere, to drink the polluted water and to be subjected to the deprivation and want of comfort incident to life in Houston!”
Roy Cullen was pushing middle age, when he finally got his feet wet in the oil game. After the bottom dropped out of the cotton market, a friend persuaded the smoothtalker to buy drilling leases for him. Fascinated by the intricacies of the treasure hunt, Cullen blossomed into a full-time petroleum prospector.
In 1927 a wealthy cattle baron offered to back him in a wildcat venture with, as Jim West casually put it, “three million dollars I’ve got lying around.”
Sticking to his vow never to be an employee, Cullen insisted on a partnership that split expenses as well as profits right down the middle.
Cullen quickly struck it rich not once, not twice but three times in Houston-area fields long dismissed as depleted. At Blue Ridge, Humble and Pierce Junction, he simply drilled deeper and tapped untouched pools.
Those sensational strikes were merely a modest prelude to the Rabb’s Ridge surprise in Fort Bend County. Cullen snorted at a $20 million offer from Humble Oil assuring his partner the find was worth five times that paltry sum. But West wanted to take the money and run, and Cullen relented with the parting words, “After this deal is closed, we’re through as partners. I’m not going to find any more oilfields for you to give away.”
Not long after the breakup, Cullen had the last laugh -- the incredible O’Connor bonanza in West Texas that made Rabb’s Ridge look like small potatoes. The historic discovery established him as the undisputed king of the wildcatters and one of the richest men in America.
Cullen was then able to indulge a lifelong preoccupation with politics. Like the majority of Texans, he had cast his ballot in 1928 for Republican Herbert Hoover rather than Democrat Al Smith.
But when the Lone Star electorate returned to the one-party fold four years later, the oil tycoon balked. He wanted no part of Franklin Roosevelt or his “socialistic” New Deal.
Implacable hostility to FDR colored Cullen’s outlook. “Pappy” O’Daniels’ criticism of the president was reason enough for the ultraconservative oilman to bankroll the 1938 gubernatorial upset by the radio personality.
Spearheading the challenge of the “Texas Regulars” to a fourth term for Roosevelt, Cullen ignored ominous threats to attend the Harris County Democratic Convention. In 1948 he organized a raucous rally in Houston at which Strom Thurmond accepted the thirdparty nomination of the Dixiecrats.
Although his extracurricular activities qualified Cullen for membership in the survival-of-the-fittest fringe, beneath his hardboiled exterior beat a soft heart. Following a donation to the University of Houston in 1936, his subsequent contributions saved the destitute college. Including gifts to local hospitals, he handed out an estimated $170 million -- roughly 90 percent of his personal fortune -- over a 20-year span.
But Roy Cullen never felt such generosity made him a saint. “Giving away money is no particular credit to me,” he once said. “Most of it came out of the ground, and while I found the oil in the ground, I didn’t put it there.”
Christmas special! “Depression Desperadoes,”“Murder Most Texan,” “Texas Boomtowns,” “Unforgettable Texans” and “Entertainers” just $19.95 each. Mail your check to Bartee Haile, P.O.
Box 130011, Spring, TX 77393.
