Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 11, Number 1, Spring, 1999 Page: 42
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Athens, he followed. During his engagement to
Ann, the doctor saved Sid's leg, if not his life.
Then about fifteen, Sid was driving a horse
and buggy at breakneck speed when the buggy
overturned and he was pinned underneath. His
right leg was badly crushed just below the knee.
Instead of amputating the leg, as most doctors in
that day would have done, Dr. Bass removed
some two inches of bone. Unable to use a cast, he
built a trough to lay the leg in. For six weeks, Sid
lay on his back with the leg in the trough while it
was drenched with hydrogen peroxide to kill the
infection. There were no known antibiotics. The
leg healed. Richardson said, "It's an inch and a
quarter shorter than the other. That swinging
walk of mine is my own invention. I practiced a
walk that wouldn't make me limp. It took me a
year. I take long steps with the long leg and short
steps with the other."
It was the leg that kept him from serving his
country. When war was declared in I917, he was a
lease man for the Texas Company. He joined the
army and was accepted for Officers Training
School. During inspection one morning, standing
on tiptoe to disguise his short leg, he heard a voice
behind him call out, "Richardson, put your right
foot flat on the ground." Thinking it was his
friend, the captain, Sid answered, "You SB, you
know that's my short leg." Immediately from the
rear came footsteps, and the colonel-not the captain-stood
in front of him. Sid was discharged.
Determined to help the war effort, he joined
the National Guard but again was relieved of duty
because of his leg. Unable to serve his country
through active duty, he fought another way. Perry
Bass explains, "Uncle Sid had money before
World War I, but he gave it all away helping the
war effort." He continued with the Texas Company.
"I worked days for the Texas Company and
nights for Richardson and did both of us good,"
he recalled. "Remember a trade works two ways:
it has to please both sides. I never made a tade
where I couldn't go back and make a second trade
easier than the first."
When the Armistice was signed, Clint
Murchison was still in Officers Training Camp.Through some maneuvering, Sid got him discharged
and brought him to Fort Worth. He took
Clint to Washer Bros., Fort Worth's finest men's
store. There Clint folded up his uniform and
walked out in all new clothes, wearing one of the
two suits Richardson had bought him. He and
Sid Richardson were partners again-this time in
oil-and headed for Wichita Falls. Clint complained
that Sid never gave him time to go see his
mother. Each time he made plans to go to
Athens, Sid would tell him they were too busy
and he couldn't leave until there was a slack in the
oil business.
The oil fields of Burkburnett and surrounding
areas were opening up. Richardson and
Murchison began buying sections of land and
leasing it to the major oil companies. The
"trading" paid off. By I9I9 Sid had accumulated
$I00,000. "It was luck," Sid said. "Luck has helped
me every day of my life, and I'd rather be lucky
than smart-'cause a lot of smart people ain't
eatin' regular. People get luck and brains mixed up
and that's when they get into trouble."
Clint Murchison had a penchant for finding
deals. He was like a bird dog on a quail hunt.
When he found one, he was after another. Sid
once said, "He tells you to hold this horse while he
goes after another. First thing you know, you've
got a whole stable fill."
One night in 1919, Clint heard of a top-secret
well being drilled on the Texas banks of the Red
River. He got Sid out of a poker game and they
rushed to the well site, arriving just after daylight
to see it come in a gusher. Immediately they went
to the Oklahoma side and bought $75,000 worth
of land. The news of the well spread, and two days
later they had sold five percent of their interest for
$200,000. They were in big business. Their ventures
made each a millionaire, but only tempoarily.
In 1921 oil prices dropped to $i a barrel because of
overproduction. They owned land but owed large
sums of money to banks. They were "busted."
Sid's sister Ann and her husband took Sid
and Clint into their home, where they stayed for
two years. Sid's nephew, Perry Bass, says it was
heaven for him. Having nothing to do, they42
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Dallas Historical Society. Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 11, Number 1, Spring, 1999, periodical, 1999; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth35102/m1/44/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Historical Society.