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Miles Franklin "Frank" Yount (born January 31, 1880 in
Monticello, Arkansas Monticello ( ) is a college town in, and the county seat of, Drew County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 9,467. Founded in 1849 in the Arkansas Timberlands near the Arkansas Delta region, the city has long be ...
, died November 13, 1933 in
Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat, seat of government of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur, Texas, Port Arthur Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, metropo ...
YOUNT, MILES FRANK , The Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)
Retrieved 2014-10-30.) eventually came to head up one of the most successful private oil companies in the United States.


Career

Although famous in later years as the "Godfather of
Beaumont Beaumont may refer to: Places Canada * Beaumont, Alberta * Beaumont, Quebec England * Beaumont, Cumbria * Beaumont, Essex **Beaumont Cut, a canal closed in the 1930s * Beaumont Street, Oxford France (communes) * Beaumont, Ardèche * Be ...
", Frank’s early life is shrouded in mystery. After his father’s death at age fifty, Frank was forced to leave school and take on the mantle of additional responsibilities. In 1897, however, he and a younger brother, Sullie, left Arkansas and traveled to the Texas Gulf Coast. In the beginning, they made their living digging irrigation canals for rice farmers, and later the two became water-well drillers, until finally, they succumbed to oil fever. Beaumont was home to the famous
Lucas Gusher Lucas or LUCAS may refer to: People * Lucas (surname) * Lucas (given name) Arts and entertainment * Luca Family Singers, also known as "lucas ligner en torsk" * ''Lucas'' (album) (2007), an album by Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities * ''Lu ...
that brought in the great
Spindletop Spindletop is an oil field located in the southern portion of Beaumont, Texas, in the United States. The Spindletop dome was derived from the Louann Salt evaporite layer of the Jurassic geologic period. On January 10, 1901, a well at Spindleto ...
Oil Boom of 1901. At age twenty-four, Frank began his quest for oil riches that led him to such boom towns as Sour Lake, Saratoga, and Batson. He teamed up with another future Texas giant, John Henry Phelan, but he never made any serious inroads at discovering oil until he formed a partnership with Thomas Peter Lee, an oil investor based out of Houston. Lee provided the funds and allowed Yount the freedom to drill where and when he wanted. With the formation of the
Yount-Lee Oil Company The Yount-Lee Oil Company, founded in 1914, was the successor to the Yount-Rothwell Oil Company which had been formed earlier by Miles Franklin Yount and Talbot Frederick Rothwell. It was part of the Texas Oil Boom The Texas oil boom, somet ...
on December 22, 1914, Yount made his mark in the area of deep drilling, much of that on the flanks of old oil fields thought to be depleted. In 1923, he moved his company from Sour Lake to Beaumont, where he and wife Pansy, bought and renovated “El Ocaso,” a magnificent mansion located on Calder Avenue, known once as “Millionaires’ Row.” In Beaumont, Yount formed a working relationship with Marrs McLean, “The Second Prophet of Spindletop.” McLean held most of the leases at Spindletop Oil Field which by 1923, according to a majority of oil experts, had run its course. Yount took over McLean’s leases, and entered agreements with other property owners in and around the old field. To the surprise of most, on November 14, 1925, Yount-Lee brought in a well that regenerated Spindletop, and from that point, the company grew by leaps and bounds.


Personal

On the personal side, Yount used his wealth to benefit his fellow man, and on at least two occasions during the Great Depression, his company loaned the City of Beaumont enough money to pay its city workers. He also bought some of the most expensive and classy automobiles of the day, owning at the same time three Duesenbergs, a Pierce-Arrow, a Cord, and an Austin Coupe. (As the story goes Mr. Yount walked into the Duesenberg factory and told the sales manager which three cars he wished to buy. Being quoted the cost, Yount asked if he could write out a check for all three automobiles? The sales manager looking at Mr. Yount's with a Texas address asked Mr. Yount if they could contact his Beaumont bank to confirm the check's validity? When called the Beaumont bank president inquired just how much the total would be for the cars? When told the amount the president told Duesenberg's sales manager, please have Mr. Yount make his check out for $50,000. He is good for it and we will cover it!) He built Spindletop Stables in Beaumont, stocked it with American Saddlebreds, and hired famous horse trainer,
William Capers "Cape" Grant William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...
to run it. Later in Kentucky, this stable would play a very important part in the legacy of that particular breed.


Death

Upon his sudden death caused by a massive heart attack on November 13, 1933, Frank Yount’s estate was valued at over $8 million, and when the stockholders sold Yount-Lee on July 31, 1935, the sale amounted to $46.2 million, putting it as the third largest financial transaction in the United States to that point. Yount, a regent of the University of Texas, was survived by his wife, Pansy, and their adopted daughter, Mildred Frank. He is buried at Beaumont's Magnolia Cemetery.


See also

*
Spindletop Hall Spindletop Hall, located at 3414 Iron Works Pike in Lexington, KY, is the former home of Pansy Yount, wife of Miles Franklin Yount of the Yount-Lee Oil Company. It is currently the home of the University of Kentucky's staff, faculty, and alumni ...
* Stradivarius Violins


References

* McKinley, Fred B., and Greg Riley. ''Black Gold to Bluegrass: From the Oil Fields of Texas to Spindletop Farm of Kentucky''. Austin: Eakin Press, 2005.


Further reading


"Miles Frank Yount", The Handbook of Texas Online


{{DEFAULTSORT:Yount, Miles Franklin American businesspeople in the oil industry Businesspeople from Texas Texas Oil Boom people 1880 births 1933 deaths People from Beaumont, Texas People from Monticello, Arkansas People from Sour Lake, Texas