Thanks for the background on Richardson and Murchison. They were partners in the oil business, were they not?
Joe Trees, Benedum's partner, had no politics that I know of. Trees was an engineer and easily embarrassed. He met Benedum at a small hotel still in existance in of all places Wellsville, West Virginia. It may have been a chance encounter in a very small hotel lobby; Trees was broke and needed a couple of thousand dollars to continue drilling in that area. Benedum became Trees partner.
By todays standards Benedums methods were not very scientific. For example, a blind man once told him that he saw oil gushing over a fruit tree on his property. Benedum drilled on that spot and found a large quanity of oil. Another time Benedum followed the direction of an arrow that had been carved by American Indians on a rock . Another big discovery of oil. It only gets better...
Another classic story about Benedum concerns an attempted robbery. A robber with a gun held up Benedum, and, Mike asked the guy why are you robbing. The robber told Benedum his story and Benedum listened. He then told the guy come a long with me and I'll lend you some money and get you a job.
Sincerely, Tom Lehman -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/19980925/696e6765/attachment.htm>