My maternal Grandfather, Joseph N. Duke, was a poor farmer with land between DeLeon and Desdamona, Texas when oil was discovered on his farm circa 1917/1919.
I heard the story often that while they were drilling the discovery well they stopped one day and the head man went into town to tell the company that it was a dry hole. One of the workers on the drilling rig came up to my Grandfather Duke and told him that it wasn't a dry hole. They were just trying to make him think so and then buy his farm or something; then complete the well.
My Grandfather told the worker that if they would keep on drilling and they found oil he would buy them all a pair of cowboy boots. They started drilling again and soon hit oil. A Gusher, shooting oil hundreds of feet into the air! This precipitated what became known as the Desdamona Oil Boom.
My Grandfather Duke soon became known as "The Oil King of Commanche County" and was said to have been the youngest millionaire in Texas.
Soon after he became 'rich' he bought a car. One day my Grandmother and her children started into DeLeon; my Grandmother was 'driving', one of her sons' was shifting the gears. They started across a creek when she hit a rock or something and the car turned over on its side spilling everybody, my Grandmother and five or six of her kids, out of the car. They gathered themselves up and all together pushed the car back onto its wheels and proceeded on in to town.
My Grandfather Duke soon built a large house in DeLeon on several acres. When I was very young it looked like a huge mansion to me. Within a few years he lost practically all his money! He trusted his fellow man and there were some who took advantage of his trusting nature, got him in a big mess and the money all went into their pockets; or down the drain. When he died in 1960 he was living on the same farm where oil had been discovered, but he was destitute.
"It's not polite to pick up lost golf balls until they stop rolling!"
Have a goodun,
Doug