[Memorandum of Visit of Sam Bashara, January 28, 1954] Page: 1 of 2
This text is part of the collection entitled: Harris and Eliza Kempner and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Rosenberg Library.
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January 28, 1954
Memorandum of visit of Oam Bashara.
Mr. Bashara called about 2:30 P. M. He stated that in his
opinion he still had a valid lease with Sugarland Industries and dis-
liked to have any litigation about it with us. He stated that with
all of the development that had taken place at his instigation and
with his participation in some part of the area presently under lease,
that we should realize all of this money would not have been spent
unless there was confidence on both his part and those who were
associated with him that oil would be found in the area under lease.
He claimed that our leasing acreage to Johnny Mitchell had damaged
him, but he was not very clear as to how or why. My inference was
that Mitchell's failure to strike oil put a damper on his efforts
to enlist funds for further development.
He loudly boasted that with the development that has taken
place, even though each and all of them failed in production, it
gave him a perfect picture of the situation far beyond that enjoyed
by any geologist or based on any geological study from the surface.
To use his own words, he stated, "What information I have is the
equivalent of human bodies; what information the geologists bring
into the office is a group of corpses".
He stated that I was under obligation to him because at the
time the Eldridge interest was acquired from and through Walter Abodul
he and Gus Ulrich were prepared to buy the Eldridge half interest,
had arranged the financing, but at my urgent request he gave up his
desire to acquire the properties in order not to embarrass me or the
Kenpner interest. I can recall no conversation or negotiation of
this sort in any way with either bashara or Ulrich and so told him.
After his recital of how he had found oil at our Lake,
Blue Ridge and one or two other places where the big companies,
several of which he named, had abandoned the field, he stated that
if we would give him eight months from February lst in which to start
a well and two months thereafter to get production, he would sign
an agreement stating if neither of these things was accomplished
the lease would automatically be cancelled and all his interest therein
cease. He declined to state in what form the development would take
place - whether going further into old wells or drilling new ones.
He insisted that he had his own ideas which he felt it was unwise
to disclose and he could or rather would not tell at this time what
his plans were.
He wound up the interview without any incriminations but
with his still maintaining that he held a valid lease; that this
would be more apparent if we had not damaged and delayed him by con-
stant interference, and I insisting that he had no lease.IHK
11
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Kempner, Isaac H. (Isaac Herbert), 1873-1967. [Memorandum of Visit of Sam Bashara, January 28, 1954], text, January 28, 1954; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1134032/m1/1/?rotate=180: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rosenberg Library.