Clayton Williams

Vocation

Lifestyle

American engineer, geologist, oilman, World War I military officer, rancher, county commissioner and civic leader, historian, and philanthropist. From 1919 to 1920, Williams worked as an engineer for the Oil Belt Power Company in Texas. For four years, he was a surveyor and an engineer for the Texas and New Mexico state highway departments. In 1924, he became the chief engineer for the Texon Oil and Land Company. He became one of the earliest licensed geologists in Texas, having taken the lead in the discovery of the Settles and Harding oilfields in Howard County near Big Spring and the first discovery well in the Ellenburger field. Upon Williams’ recommendation, Texon in 1926 drilled the deepest well in the United States until that time, the University 1-B well. In 1927, he established a water and ice works plant in Crane, Texas, which he operated until 1935, having resigned from Texon. Active in community affairs, Williams served for eighteen years as an elected Pecos county commissioner, having been elected in 1936. He also achieved distinction as a historian of West Texas. His publications include several scholarly articles and five books: Never Again (3 vols., 1969), Animal Tales of the West (1974), and Texas' Last Frontier: Fort Stockton and the Trans-Pecos, 1861-1895 (1982). On September 10, 1928, Williams married the Chicora Lee Graham. They had one son. In 1983, Williams was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died on September 9, 1983. Link to Wikipedia biography