Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, October 28, 1997

Louisiana industry began on Jules Clément

by Jim Bradshaw

After the famous Lucas Gusher opened the Spindletop Field near Beaumont, Texas, a group of men from Jennings thought they might have the same luck. They hired the Heywood brothers, who had had good success drilling in Beaumont, organized the Jennings Oil Co., and began drilling on the Jules Clément farm six miles northeast of Jennings.

Clément had also noticed the gas bubbling through the water in his rice field. In fact, he stuck an old stove pipe into the ground at the place where the gas was bubbling through, then threw lighted matches down into the pipe. The gas ignited.

The word of Clément's experiment spread quickly throughout the Jennings area, but neither he nor the men who would lease his land to drill on it, had any idea that his farm on the Mamou Prairie would be the birthplace of the industry that has supported south Louisiana since. In fact, Clément was worried that the oil drillers would mess up his land and scatter his cattle.

The location of that first well, the Jules Clément No. 1, is actually just across the parish line, in Acadia Parish. Still, Jennings lays claim to being the birthplace of Louisiana's multi-million dollar oil industry. For a while, Jennings was the home of the Heywood brothers, who increased their fame and fortune with that first Louisiana well. The town also served as the base from which the state's first oilfield workers operated.

The first oil company, known at first as the S. A. Spencer Co., was formed by Stanley A. Spencer, Frank R. Jaenke, Thomas C. Mahaffey, Avery C. Wilkins, and l. D. L. Williams. Spencer and Williams had gone to Beaumont to ask the Heywood brothers to come look over the property they had leased from Clément. But when Scott Heywood, the drilling superintendent of the Heywood company, got to the farm, he found the gates padlocked. Clément feared the oil would ruin his rice crop and his cattle would fall into the well.

Heywood had brought an interpreter with him, since Clément spoke only French. They found Clément walking down the road toward his home, and offered him a ride. He took the ride, but still objected to the well. He wanted assurances that his cattle would not hurt themselves.

As the story is told, Heywood was able to smooth over that difficulty, but then met another one. Clément objected that he wouldn't know what to do with his share of the oil. Heywood promised that. he would sell the oil for Clément, at no charge.

Clément then argued that the government would take all of his money in taxes, so it probably wasn't worth the effort. Heywood said he would write the lease so that he, not Clément, would pay the taxes.

Still not satisfied, Clément is reported to have said, "What the hell do you know about oil? You're nothing but a kid." (Scott Heywood was then 29.)

"I may look like a kid," Heywood replied, "but I've found oil before, and I am going to find it on your land and make you rich. When I do, I will make you pay for that remark by ducking you in your own oil."

The Spencer Co. reorganized and became the Jennings Oil Co. during its early negotiations with the Heywood brothers. The contract with the drillers called for two wells, each to be drilled to 1,000 feet, the depth at which oil had been found in the Spindletop Field.

The brothers brought in the equipment they needed, and began drilling on June 15, 1901. The derrick was 64 feet high, and the drill pipe was just ordinary line pipe. When oil had not been discovered at 1,000 feet, a new contract was drawn to allow Heywood to drill to 1,500 feet.

At 1,500 feet, Heywood was running out of drill pipe and saw little indication that he would find oil. But he shipped in more drill pipe, and, at 1,700 feet, the last four feet of the last string of drill pipe penetrated an oil sand by only two feet. Heywood sent for more pipe, eventually completing the well at 1,832 feet.

The well came in, flowing a solid 4-inch stream of oil over 100 feet high for seven hours. Oil sand piled up on the derrick floor and for about 100 feet around the derrick to a depth of more than a foot. But then the well gave one big gush of oil and sand and shut itself off, clogged by sand.

For the next 30 days, the crew worked to clear the pipe, but the well was ultimately abandoned.

While the drilling for Jennings Oil Co. Well No. 2 was under way, Scott Heywood had a dream, which he later related in his autobiography, "An Oil Man." He dreamed the sand problem was solved by using a screen such as those used in water wells used for irrigation. After consulting with the I. G. Getty Machine Co. on several designs, Heywood finally tested his first sand screen. It worked.  The well flowed without clogging.

During the fall of 1902, lightning struck Well No. 2. The resulting fire raged for nine days. In his autobiography, Scott Heywood recalled that a levee had to be built around the well to keep burning oil from floating down a nearby coulee. The fire was eventually extinguished by spraying it with jets of steam created in 22 boilers that were set up around the well.

Even after the fire, the well continued to produce about 7,000 barrels of oil a day (which sold at an average price of 13 cents a barrel).

The Heywood brothers profited by mistakes made in earlier fields, and built a 4-inch pipeline to Jennings before their first wells were brought in. In midsummer 1902, oil was being loaded at Jennings into Southern Pacific tank cars. In addition, the Heywood Transportation Co. Operated 25 barges and six steamers and tugs on the Mermentau River.

But the wells were soon producing more oil than the pipeline could handle. The Heywood brothers hired a contractor from Houston to dig storage tanks in the ground. Using mules and large scoops, the contractor dug a series of holding pits with capacities ranging from thousands to millions of barrels.

One old-timer recalled that during moonlit nights during the winter, men had to be stationed at the tanks with rowboats and floodlights to keep ducks from landing on the ponds in such numbers that they clogged the intake pipes.

Even with the storage facilities, transportation to market became a problem. Most railway tank cars belonged to the oil companies that used them, and most of them belonged to operators at Beaumont.

Some of these tank cars, having been emptied of their Texas crude, were being returned through Jennings in 1902, just when storage facilities there were becoming congested.

Exactly what happened is not a matter of record, but the congestion at Jennings was eased and Texas oil operators accused the oilmen at Jennings of hijacking the empty cars before they got back to Texas, using them to send Jennings crude to the refineries.

In 1951, Jennings hosted the Golden Oil Jubilee Festival, which affected more than 100,000 persons to the community. The Louisiana Department of Commerce and Industry unveiled a marker during that festival, recognizing Jennings' historic role in the industry. Also dedicated at that time was an authentic wooden replica of the first oil rig.

The original replica actually worked. Hurricane Audrey destroyed it in 1957 and the one standing today at the Oil and Gas Park alongside Interstate 10 was built to replace it.

This article is copyrighted © by the Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser and is used with permission.  This web site was originated through a grant awarded to Carencro High School (Joel Hilbun/Bobbi Marino, Grant Administrators) by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from the Louisiana Quality Education Support Fund - 8(g).