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 Miles Franklin "Frank" Yount (born January 31, 1880 in Monticello, Arkansas, died November 13, 1933 in Beaumont, Texas Texas Oil Boom The Texas oil boom, sometimes called the gusher age, was a period of dramatic change and economic growth in the U.S. state of Texas during the early 20th century that began with the discovery of a large petroleum reserve near Beaumont, Texas. T ...

period.

History

Yount headed up the new enterprise, and counted among his partners: Thomas Peter Lee, William Ellsworth Lee, Emerson Francis Woodward, Talbot Frederick Rothwell, John Henry Phelan, Beeman Ewell Strong, Frank E. Thomas, and Maximilian Theodore Schlicher. With a new fusion of capital provided by T. P. Lee, Yount was confident that the

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 field in southeast Texas had not been tapped out, so he set about acquiring large tracts of land in the area. In 1925, the company's No. 2 McFaddin well struck oil at about 2,500 feet, producing 1500

BOPD A barrel is one of several units of volume applied in various contexts; there are dry barrels, fluid barrels (such as the U.K. beer barrel and U.S. beer barrel), oil barrels, and so forth. For historical reasons the volumes of some barrel units ...

and sparking a second Spindletop oil boom. Subsequent successes made the company the largest Gulf Coast producer in 1927. Yount went on to acquire mineral rights in several of the Gulf Coast's major fields. He also built the infrastructure necessary to ship his company's oil to destinations around the world from his headquarters 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 ...

. Before his death in 1933, Yount, his business partners and associates, had built the company into one of the largest and most successful independent oil operators in the country. Within two years, on July 31, 1935, the stockholders sold Yount-Lee Oil Company for $46.2 million to Houston attorney, Wright Francis Morrow, who immediately began to parcel off the assets.

Stanolind Amoco () is a brand of filling station, fuel stations operating in the United States, and owned by BP since 1998. The Amoco Corporation was an American chemical and petroleum, oil company, founded by Standard Oil Company in 1889 around a oil re ...

Oil, later a part of

Amoco Amoco () is a brand of fuel stations operating in the United States, and owned by BP since 1998. The Amoco Corporation was an American chemical and oil company, founded by Standard Oil Company in 1889 around a refinery in Whiting, Indiana, a ...

, bought most of the oil inventory and oil-producing properties for over $41 million, which at the time represented one of the largest financial transactions in American business history.

References

{{reflist * 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. Defunct oil companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Texas Petroleum in Texas Energy companies established in 1914 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1914 Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 1935 Amoco Energy companies disestablished in 1935 1914 establishments in Texas 1935 disestablishments in Texas 1935 mergers and acquisitions