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"The Whole Honor." Ironically, much of this bypassed Pattillo Higgins. Even before the first Spindletop gusher blew in, he had been elbowed aside by Anthony Lucas. It was called the "Lucas well," not the Higgins well. Higgins had to sue to get his share from the Lucas well, finally settled for about $300,000. When he tried to form a new company in 1902, suspicious Beaumonters, wary of the sharpsters that had flocked in, were calling the whole operation "Swindletop." In the boisterous, bawdy oil boom, Beaumont refused to honor the man who had started it all, just as it had refused to believe him. Bitter, Higgins packed up and moved away.
For 50 years after the Lucas gusher blew in, Pattillo Higgins worked to develop Texas oil lands, made a comfortable living at it, although he never became the big oil baron that he might have been. Through the years, he never lost his urge to prospect for oil. When he was nearly 90, he was still setting out in his old model A with pick and shovel, to probe among the rocks.
Last week, at 92, Pattillo Higgins died and ended his restless search for oil. He left among his papers a document dated Dec. 3, 1901, signed by 32 citizens of Beaumont, Tex., and attested by the county clerk. It was a sort of apology, and it said in part: "Mr. Higgins deserves the whole honor of discovering and developing the Beaumont oil field. He located the exact spot where all the big gushers are now found."