Background
Clinton W. Murchison, Sr. was born on April 11, 1895, in Tyler, Texas, the son of John Murchison, a bank president, and Clara Williams.
Clinton W. Murchison, Sr. was born on April 11, 1895, in Tyler, Texas, the son of John Murchison, a bank president, and Clara Williams.
Murchison, Sr. attended public schools in Athens and then Trinity University in Waxahachie, Texas, for a few months.
In 1916 Murchison, Sr. worked as a teller at his father's bank. With the outbreak of World War I, Murchison, Sr. enlisted in the United States Army, attended officers' training school at Camp Pike, Arkansas, and served his tour in the United States.
After the war, Murchison, Sr. entered an informal partnership with Sid W. Richardson at Wichita Falls, Texas, in the trading of oil leases; the recession of 1921 forced them to abandon their business.
In 1921, Murchison, Sr. formed Fain and Murchison, a partnership, to drill wildcat oil wells in northwestern Texas. After some of the oil properties were sold to Magnolia Petroleum Company in 1926, Murchison, Sr. temporarily retired with a $1. 6 million profit, but he soon resumed developing oil and natural-gas deposits.
In 1928 he organized the Murchison Oil Company in Dallas, and in 1929 he founded the Southwest Drilling Company. When many of the wells produced natural gas, Murchison, Sr. formed the Southern Union Gas Company to pipe the gas to cities in several southern and western states. Murchison, Sr. wanted to use Southern Union to exploit the discovery of oil in eastern Texas in 1930, but his partners were reluctant.
Murchison, Sr. left the company (while maintaining his stock interest) and formed Golding and Murchison Production (later the American Liberty Oil Company). To fund the new operation, Murchison, Sr. introduced an innovative approach to financing the cost of well drilling: he bought properties in exchange for oil payments to be made after oil had been found and production had begun. Frequently, the costs of drilling wells were similarly financed. During this period Murchison, Sr. was in the vanguard of opposition to Texas oil-proration laws, which limited the amount of oil that could be removed from the ground. His contention that the law violated his liberties was rejected by the courts. He also introduced the concept of reversionary interest to the oil industry. He would sell oil properties at reasonable prices with the understanding that once the property had earned enough to repay the new owner for his investment (plus interest), a half-interest in all additional production would revert to Murchison, Sr. During World War II the demand for oil skyrocketed, and Murchison's reversionary-interest plan brought him huge dividends, since the war reduced significantly the time required for investors to recoup their funds and begin paying him his 50 percent.
In the late 1930's, Murchison, Sr. began to diversify his holdings. In 1936 he acquired the Reserve Loan Life Company of Indiana, which grew into Life Companies, with assets in excess of $130 million in 1955.
In 1944 he acquired a Dallas bus line that became the Transcontinental Bus Company, with assets of $23 million in 1955.
In 1947, with some properties spun off by Southern Union, Murchison, Sr. organized, and became the president of, the Delhi Oil Corporation. Delhi began developing oil fields in western Canada and then transferred those interests to Canadian Delhi Petroleum.
In 1949, Murchison, Sr. sold his interest in American Liberty to his partner. In 1950 he sold his holdings in Southern Union.
In 1955, Delhi Oil was merged with the Taylor Oil and Gas Company to form the Delhi-Taylor Oil Corporation, a wholly integrated oil company, with assets in excess of $71 million.
In 1952 he and associates began to develop oil fields in Venezuela in association with the Pantepec Oil Company. In 1955 those operations were merged with the Venezuela Syndicate, an oil royalty company. Murchison's diversification continued when he purchased the Consumers Company, a Chicago building-materials company, in 1951; the Frontier Chemical Company in 1952; and the Easy Washing Machine Corporation in 1953.
He then formed the Union Chemical and Materials Corporation in 1954 by merging these companies with the Follansbee Steel Corporation. Altogether Murchison, Sr. owned as many as 115 companies simultaneously. He owned, or had controlling interest in, companies in a wide range of fields, such as textbook and magazine publishing and the manufacturing of fishing tackle, candy, and office systems, as well as banking and steamship lines. In 1952 he united all his investments, excluding oil, under the Investments Management Corporation, which was directed by his two sons. In 1953, Boys, Inc. , established by Murchison, Sr. and Sid Richardson, acquired the Del Mar Turf Club in California and, through an operating company, used its revenues for the rehabilitation of delinquent youths. All proceeds above the cost of operations plus 10 percent went to various programs to assist delinquents. The scheme eventually was abandoned after several years of success when the Internal Revenue Service refused to issue a favorable tax ruling on the charity. Murchison's politics were conservative, but his business ventures were decidedly daring. His early wildcat oil-drilling efforts coincided with the rapid growth in popularity of petroleum-dependent automobiles in the 1920's, and later he profited from the increased reliance on oil as a home heating fuel. In Murchison's later years he devoted himself to farming and raising cattle. Clinton W. Murchison, Sr. died on June 20, 1969, at Athens, Texas.
Clint Murchison, Sr. was an ardent believer in state’s rights and Constitutional rights.
On April 21, 1920, Clinton W. Murchison, Sr. married Anne Morris; they had three children.
His first wife having died in 1926, Murchison, Sr. married Virginia Long on January 21, 1942; they had no children.
Sid Williams Richardson was an American businessman and philanthropist, known for his association with the city of Fort Worth.
Clinton Williams Murchison, Jr. was an American businessman and founder of the Dallas Cowboys football team.
John Dabney Murchison was an American financier, who served as the director of the Murchison Brothers company.
