William S. Farish (Sr.) & Historic Houston

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WILLIAM STAMPS FARISH
WITHOUT industry trailblazer William S. Farish, the legendary Humble Oil &
Refining Co. of Houston and the oil industry as it is known today would
have never taken shape.

Farish was an informed decision-maker. He was a real student of the
industry, seeking information from every level of the business, according
to a 1967 Houston Chronicle article celebrating Humble’s 50th anniversary.
The paper quoted one of his assistants as saying, "He wasn’t a driver, but
he could lead a man almost to death, trying to keep up with him."
Farish was born in Mississippi in 1881, the son of a lawyer and planter.
He earned his law degree at the University of Mississippi and traveled to
Beaumont after the Spindletop discovery in 1901 to oversee one of his
uncle’s oil investments. Farish saw the potential of oil, and paired up in
1904 with Robert L. Blaffer, whom he’d met at a Beaumont rooming house, in
a successful drilling and lease trading business.

The partners moved to Houston the next year, focusing on the Humble field
and other oil ventures to the north. By 1916, Farish had become one of the
leading independent oilmen in Texas but felt restrained because the
independents by themselves were too small to sell directly to the
refineries. He organized the small producers into the Gulf Coast Producers
Association in 1916 but was unable to generate the large, steady flow of
oil the refineries required. So Farish convinced Blaffer and independent
oilmen Walter W Fondren, Ross S. Sterling, and Harry C. Wiess to pool
their assets—wells, leases, equipment, production—into Humble Oil in 1917
so that they would not have to rely on the major oil companies to move
their product to market.

As vice president, Farish was in charge of production, advancing industry
technology and helping the company expand rapidly. In 1918, he raised the
profile of Humble, serving on the Petroleum Committee of the Council for
National Defense. When Humble grew short of capital for expansion, Farish
turned to industry executives he had met. He negotiated with Walter
Teagle, head of Standard Oil of New jersey, which paid $17 million for a
slight majority of Humble in 1919, and Humble gained a market for its oil
and financial backing to build in Baytown one of the world’s largest refineries.

Farish took over as Humble Oil president in 1922. The Houston company,
which remained surprisingly autonomous, became Jersey Standard’s largest operating unit.
In 1926, Farish became a founder and president of the American Petroleum
Institute, taking a leadership position in oil conservation.
In 1933, Farish was named chairman of Jersey Standard and moved his family
to New York, but always maintained a Houston residence. He succeeded
Teagle as company president four years later. In 1941, Farish died at the age of 61.
Farish had established the W.S. Farish Co. in 1929 to manage the family
assets, which were valued by Forbes in 1992 at $400 million. The holdings
include the Farish Fund foundation, providing millions for charitable
causes. WS. Farish Co., today is headed by grandson Will III, and still
operates in Houston.