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C layton’s time in the oilfields from 1924 to 1928 mirrored the roughand -tumble life of oilmen everywhere, and his stories illustrated the frontier lifestyle of the oil industry of that period, which was frequently marked by drunken fights that sometimes resulted in injury and death.“Dangerous business and dangerous surroundings—that was the code of the day,” Clayton said years later. One story he told that highlighted the dangers associated with life in the oilfields began with an innocent dance at the Santa Rita Hotel in the town of Best. A Group No. 1 mechanic named Blackie took umbrage when the wife of the town’s deputy sheriff refused his request to dance.The deputy sheriff and C. A. Jones, a rig builder, threw Blackie out of the dance hall. Clayton said Blackie returned later with a revolver and shot the deputy sheriff in the ear,then turned the revolver on Jones and shot him in the arm,breaking one of his bones. “Jones took two long steps and was out the door, with Blackie after him. A girl who worked in the Best telephone office was standing just outside the door as Blackie came out. She screamed and Blackie turned and fired upon her. After she fell, he stood over her and emptied the gun.” The deputy and the young woman were killed, but Blackie lost Jones’s trail. A day or two later Blackie was found in his own house, where he had presumably committed suicide.“Mr. Hayes [the deputy] was a fine man and officer, but there were times when law and order were not so represented and things got to such a state that the oil companies were forced to call in outside assistance for a cleanup,”Clayton said.“The town that had the Best name was the worst one in Texas.” In another version of this story, Clayton said that he and Carl Cromwell , Texon’s chief driller and the man who brought in Santa Rita No. 1, were in San Angelo at the time of the shooting. Cromwell’s foreman called and asked him to make arrangements for a doctor to work on Jones’s arm. Chapter 7 “Dangerous Business and Dangerous Surroundings” 120 Chapter 7 Clayton and Cromwell made the 80-mile trip from San Angelo west to Best, located between Big Lake and Rankin. “We got a doctor, but all the doctors were out of town except a baby doctor,” said Clayton. “While they were getting that arm bone straightened—trying to get the pieces of bone out of there—Jones would groan a little and Cromwell would say, ‘Yeah, we got the right kind of doctor for you, you big baby.’ That kind of cheered me up.” Disputes in the oilfields were often settled with fists rather than words. Clayton was a party to such a dispute in 1926 involving a Texon production superintendent named Earl Willoughby, who apparently became jealous of Clayton’s rapid rise in the company. “On one occasion he had talked pretty severely to me and in a threatening manner while carrying a hatchet in one hand,” Clayton recalled. “At another time, he threatened me while he had a pinch bar [similar to a crowbar] in his hand.” Fearing for his personal safety, Clayton bought a revolver and carried it on his person, “not with any intent of killing my opponent but to prevent him from hitting me with any weapon.” According to O. W., who told the story to J. C., Willoughby was physically much bigger than Clayton. Matters came to a head when Clayton learned that Willoughby had “brow-beat” one of Clayton’s employees. Clayton told Cromwell about the incident and said he was going to settle the matter with the foreman. Cromwell replied, “Good luck, go ahead.” Clayton located Willoughby in the warehouse adjoining the Santa Rita railroad station and cursed him “in my most violent language.”The foreman charged and Clayton punched him in the face, cutting the man’s cheek.The two men wrestled for a while until Clayton succeeded in pinning Willoughby underneath him and twisted his arm behind his back. “I fully intended to break his arm, but the onlookers pulled me off from him. . . . I noticed then that he was bleeding from the lick I had given him.” Clayton invited the foreman to continue the fight outside but Willoughby refused, perhaps because he saw that Clayton was carrying the revolver under...

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