DUANE
Duane's take
The marker's words are what I'm going on here, so let me tell you what it says about Edgar B. Davis. Now, most oil legends in Texas were born right here in the dirt.
Edgar B. Davis was not. He came into this world on February 2, 1872, up in Brockton, Massachusetts — about as far from the Luling oil patch as a man can get and still be in the same country.
His early careers weren't roughnecking either. Shoes and rubber. Shoe manufacture and rubber planting.
The man knew business, just not the kind that involves a drill bit. Then he retired. And here's where the story turns.
He came here — Caldwell County, Texas — and instead of settling into a quiet life, Edgar B. Davis went wildcatting. Now if you know anything about wildcat operations, you know they are exactly what they sound like: high-risk, go-it-alone gambles in unproven territory.
No guarantees. No map that says "oil here." And yet, in 1922, Davis brought in the Luling Oil Field. Just like that, a man from Brockton, Massachusetts, with a background in shoes and rubber, cracked open one of the great oil fields in this part of Texas.
By 1926, he had 215 producing wells. Two hundred and fifteen. Now some men would've taken that and built a monument to themselves.
Davis took it and gave it away. He handed his employees two and a half million dollars in bonuses. Two million, five hundred thousand dollars.
Then he went further and endowed the Luling Foundation, with a purpose as serious as the gift itself — the advancement of agriculture and human opportunity in the area. The marker lists what came of it: conservation of land, upbreeding of crops and livestock, and the introduction and marketing of superior products. Not a statue.
Not a tower with his name on it. A foundation pointed at the ground itself, at the people working it. Edgar B.
Davis died on October 14, 1951, and true to how he lived his later years, he didn't go back to Massachusetts. He stayed. He is buried near Luling — the same town whose oil field he brought in, in the same county where he gave so much away.
The marker calls him one of the great benefactors of Texas. Hard to argue with a word of it.
What the marker says
(Feb. 2, 1872 - Oct. 14, 1951) One of the great benefactors of Texas. Born in Brockton, Mass. Had business careers in shoe manufacture and rubber planting. On retirement, came here and in wildcat operation brought in Luling Oil Field, 1922. By 1926 had 215 producing wells. Gave employees $2,500,000 in bonuses, then endowed Luling Foundation, for advancement of agriculture and human opportunity in area. Result has been conservation of land, upbreeding of crops and livestock and introduction and marketing of superior products. Davis remained in this area and is buried near Luling.