Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Workday Wednesday - Offshore Drilling for Oil


This is one of my favorite pictures of my father-in-law, aka Ed.  It's about an 11 x 14 that I've had reduced so I could scan it to have an image to place with this blog entry.  The photographer's stamp on the back is Paul Dorsey from Houston, Texas.

The story, as my father-in-law told it to me, is that J. Paul Getty sent a photographer out to take pictures for the company magazine.  Notice my father-in-law is wearing a straw hat.  When the photographer submitted the pictures, Ed received a call and was told, "I've got the pictures here and can't use them.  I've got to send the photographer out again, and this time make SURE you're wearing your hard hat." 
 Both pictures were taken in 1958 in the Texas Gulf where my father-in-law was the drilling foreman on this rig.  The family was living in Anahuac, Texas at the time.  He had a boat assigned to him and a driver that took him to and from the rig.  He has this picture labeled "State Track #74 #1, Triple Completion, Spudded 7-12-58, Completed 9-4-58"  I learned that the date a well is "spudded" is the very start of drilling on a new well.  He's very proud it was the first triple completion of its kind, which means it was pumping oil from three zones or depths.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Sunday's Obituary - Leslie French, Sr.

Leslie French's obituary was in some things my mother-in-law gave me.  He was her father's brother.

Transcription:
"Nov 18" is hand written in blue ink at the top.

French Rites To Be Today Near Oldenburg
 
Funeral services for Leslie French of Oldenburg, Miss., who died unexpectedly on Monday will be conducted from the Greendale Methodist Church in Franklin County at 11 a. m. Wednesday.

French, 70, a retired timber man, was a member of Greendale Methodist Church.  He was born July 23, 1893.

Survivors include his widow, the former Rosa Lee Lehmann; one son, Leslie French Jr.; one daughter, Mrs. Royce Luke, Starkville; two grandchildren; one sister, Mrs. C. H. Seab, Roxie; and three brothers, Clyde and Alvi [sic] French, both of Hamburg, and H. O. French, Raymond.

Pallbearers will be Odie Lee Bonds, Gary Grainger, Willard Smith, J. C. Price, Frank Priest, and Edward Harrigill.

First I checked findagrave.com, but did not find an entry for him.  I created a page for him and left the place of burial as "unknown" for now.  

I used my subscription to Ancestry.com and familysearch.org to find more information.  Unfortunately, digital images of the Mississippi death records are not on the family search site; they often have the place of burial.  I did find his Social Security Death Index records which gave me the year of his death: 1963.  Another subscriber to Ancestry posted the obituary of  Rosa Lee Lehmann, Leslie's wife.  It stated she was buried in the church cemetery, so I would assume he was as well since his funeral was at the same church.  However, I try to always document what I enter, so I will try to find proof of his burial there.

I found Leslie French listed in Franklin, Mississippi each census year 1900 through 1930 with the exception of 1920.  I found a Leslie French who was born in Mississippi, age 25, with parents born in Mississippi, who was listed as a lodger in Akron, Ohio with many others whose occupation was a "rubber worker".  It is very possibly him, but I have no proof.   He is listed as living with his parents up until 1910; in 1930 he is listed with his mother, since his father died in 1925.  Another researcher states he married Rosa in October 1930.

His World War I Draft Registration Card from 1917 was also found on Ancestry.  On it he is described as tall and stout with brown hair and eyes.  He listed his occupation as a farmer at that time.

As is so often the case, I have found a few facts about him, but have no stories to add that would tell more about his life.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Happy Easter!

 A few Easter pictures I found
Carolyn, Ryan, David
 Ryan is on the left and his son, Ethan, is on the right.