Pattillo Higgins	Anthony F. Lucas
Stock Certificate for the Gladys City Oil, Gas, & Manufacturing Company
The Lucas Gusher blew on January 10, 1901

If one had asked a Beaumonter on January 1, 1901, what big news
of recent months had most interested him, he would have said the great Galveston hurricane of September 8, or the dawning of a new century. If one had asked him on January 10, he would have said
the great gusher at Spindletop.

As geologists would soon learn, salt domes are surrounded by oil,
and one of the largest was Spindletop Hill, south of Beaumont.
Pattillo Higgins had noticed oil seeps and gas flares on the Hill
while taking his Sunday school class on picnics. To get the
necessary backing, he approached George W. Carroll, George
W. O'Brien, and J.F. Lanier. In 1892, they incorporated the Gladys
City Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing Company.

Many years and many dry holes later, Higgins advertised for a new partner. Anthony F. Lucas, an Austrian mining engineer, answered
the ad. Lucas believed that salt domes contained oil, and he was
able to convince John H. Galey and James M. Guffey of Pittsburgh
that there were great prospects in Texas. They helped finance a
new well.

On January 10, the discovery well at Spindletop blew out a gigantic gusher, 100 feet tall. The drillers, Al and Curt Hamill, quickly sent a roughneck to tell Lucas of the strike. The oil flowed for nine days
before the Hamills could cap the well, and soon all of Beaumont, Texas, and the entire nation knew of the gusher, and the first great
oil boom began.

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