“Buckskin Joe” Cullinan arrived at Spindletop on Jan. 11, 1901, less than 24 hours after the eruption of the Lucas gusher, ready to bet his bottom dollar that the bonanza would spark the biggest oil boom ever.
The son of Irish immigrants was born in Pennsylvania on New Year’s Eve 1860, just a few miles from the first producing well on the North American continent. Going to work for Standard Oil as …
