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COLLEGE STATION, Tex. (AP) — Spring-like weather last week here helped growth of small gains in Texas but rain dimmed hopes of farmers who are waiting for dry fields to begin planting spring crops. Dr. John Hutchison, director of the Texas Agricultural Exten sion Service, said. Prolonged wet conditions de layed field work throughout much of the state, he said. Cot ton harvesting operations made some progress in the South and Rolling Plains, where about five per cent of the crop is still in the field. Rains have also been plaguing the vegetable and cit rus harvests in southern areas, Hutchison said. Range and pasture grasses began to grow, he said, and small grains finally providing grazing in many counties. Heavy livestock feeding over much of the state has depleted feed and hay supplies, and many livestock suffered weight losses from the cold weather. District agricultural agents gave these reports. Panhandle: Winter wheat is responding well to warmer weather and good soil meisure. Some oats and barley are being planted. Farmers are busy with fertilizer application and seed bed preparation as fields dry. Stocker cattle are doing well on wheat pastures. South Plains: Farmers are busy with land preparation and fertilizer and herbicide appli cation. Wheat and other small grains are making excellent growth and are providing good grazing. Rolling Plains: from 5 to 15 per cent of the cotton crop is still out. Farmers are busy with land preparation and some are topdressing small grains with nitrogen fertilizer. Some supplemental feeding of live stock continues. North Central: Some early vegetables are being planted. Peace trees are blooming. Farmers will start planting corn, cotton and grain sorghum as soon as fields dry. Livestock f ream in active. ast. Land is being pre pared for vegetables, and to matoes are growing in hoth ouses. Some peace trees are budding and plum trees are blooming. Heavy feeding of livestock continues. Calving re mains active. Far West: Small grains and range grasses are beginning to grow. Peach and plum trees are starting to bloom. Many new pecan orchards are being started in the lower El Paso Valley. _ West Central: Some green grass is beginning to appear on fhanges. Land preparation and home gardening are becoming active where the soil is dry. Some peach trees are bloom ing. Livestock feeding is still active. Angora goats are being shared in Sutton County. Central: Many fields are still too wet to work for spring plan ting. Peach and plum trees are beginning to bloom. Livestock conditions are beginning to im prove. Supplemental feeding is still active. _ East: Grass growth is still ow pastures and ranges. Home gardening is becoming active. Peach, plum and pear trees are beginning to bloom. Livestock are in fair to good condition. Southeast and Upper Gulf Coast: Oats are beginning to grow and are furnishing limited grazing. Land preparation is active where fields are dry. Peach trees are beginning to bloom. Pasture and range con ditions remain below average. livestock feeding continues ac tive. South Central: Pastures are average to below average. Livestock are in fair to good condition. Peach trees are blooming in some counties. Many fields are still too wet for land preparation. Southwest: Peach trees are blooming. The outlook for fruit and pecan production is good. Harvesting of winter vegetables has resumed. Land preparation is active in most counties. Live stock are in fair condition. Sup plemental feeding is still ac tive. South: Wet conditions ham per field work and vegetable harvesting. Watermelon repl anting continues where earlier freezing temperatures killed, plants. Citrus groves are in good condition. Trees are start ing to bloom. Range and pas ture conditions are improving. After 42 years, Leroy Fife, chief bellman, is still working for the Settles. ‘‘I worked here opening day,” Fife recalled. BUSINESS MATTERS The Settles Hotel Corporation, with Mr. and Mrs. Settles and M. L. Tinsley as stockholders, first owned the building. Organized to operate the hotel, the Settles Hotel Com pany — as distinguished from the corporation — was com posed of the Settles, Tinsley and Fenton Baker ‘‘of the renowned Baker string of hotels.” Baker was described as a young director of the Baker Hotel firm. In the Herald’s Settles Hotel Edition which was published the Sunday before the grand opening, Tinsley’s connection is explained. Tinsley was an oil gauger the Settles met after oil was discovered on their Forsan area ranch. Mrs. Settles said they never would have undertaken so large a project had Tinsley, their business manager, not advised them to do so. Tinsley chose the site, bought all the materials for con struction and purchased the elaborate furnishings. The Settles themselves were described this way by a long time friend on the eve of hotel’s opening: “Today, they are the same helpful, kind, unassuming, dear couple that they were in the old days when they rode in the old double-teamed buggy in stead of a chauffeured Buick.” DEPRESSION HITS Oil had been found on their land on March 5, 1927, vaulting the couple into local limelight. To help finance the landmark, the Settles signed a deed of trust on June 10, 1930. They used rural land and mineral properties as collateral for a $125,000 promissory note payable to Group No. 1 Oil Corporation. Group No. 1 is now known as Continental Oil Co. “This part of the country is always a year or two behind,” one observer noted. The Depression which historically began with the Stock Market Crash in 1929 did not reach the Big Spring area until about 931. The financial basis for the Settles, the price of oil, dropped from $3 to $4 per barrel to ten cents a barrel. Bankruptcy soon was declared for the Settles Hotel Cor poration. On March 16, 1932, the Honorable D. M. Oldham Jr., referee in bankruptcy, ap pointed R. W. Haynie, Abilene, “to operate said business and to continue the same as a going concern.”” Lots 11 and 12 in block 19 of the Original Townsite together with improvements (the 15-story hotel building) were sold in a private sale in the U.S. District Courtroom in Abilene on March 30, 1932. BACK TO COURT American National Insurance Co., Galveston, bid $175,000, and this amount was credited to secure the claim of the American National Insurance Co. A related court case followed. Mr. and Mrs. Settles filed suit in 70th State District Court here on Jan. 4, 1935, to cancel a trustee’s sale of their rural property. They had lost nine sections, 193 acres and oil and gas interests in Howard and Glasscock Counties. Their original petition to the local state district court, which is now within the 118th Judicial District, reveals what happened. The $125,000 deed of trust provided all oil and gas royalties payable to the plaintiff would go to pay off the debt. Funds collected from oil and gas production on their land exceeded the amount credited toward this debt, claimed plaintiffs W. R. and Lillie Settles. Group No. 1 had said $118,047 was due in Dec., 1931. The Settles alleged less than this amount was due. $75,000 BARGAIN Group No. 1 bought rural properties, which the Settles said were worth one million, for $75,000 in the ensuing trustee’s sale. Mr. and Mrs. Settles said they did not contest the trustee’s sale at the time, because they were promised they later could repurchase this property by paying the amount of the original debt plus interest. But this re-sale to the Settles did not happen. This downtown real property was said to be worth $600,000 and personal property in the hotel, $175,000. “by reason of such, conduct on the part of said defendant (Group No. 1) and loss of land by said plaintiffs, plaintiffs were rendered in capable of meeting their obli gations on said Settles Hotel pro perty with the result that such, Settles Hotel Corporation was forced into bankruptcy .. .” The petition continues: **. . and such property was sold at a great sacrifice and] ithe plaintiffs thereby lost their equity in said property, which was in the reasonable amount of $500,000...” _ Files in the district clerk’s ‘office here do not contain a reply to these allegations. ‘TAKE NOTHING’ Instead, attorneys for Group No. 1 obtained an order from the District Judge Charles L. Klapproth, Midland, removing tthe case to the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, Abilene Division. Group No. 1 was identified as a Delaware Corporation in the defendant’s motion for removal. Attorneys for the defense said U.S. District Courts have i original jurisdiction in civil mmatters in equity. From Abilene, the case was transferred to the Dallas Division of the federal district court. On Feb. 2, 1937, two years after the case was presented to a federal court a decision was reached. U.S. District Judged T. Whitfield Davidson “decreed that the plaintiffs, W. R. Settles and wife Lillie A. Settles, take nothing .. .” . Group No. 1 was found to be ‘owner of surface estate and oil Laas cc 3) and gas interests. The case was Dec. 5, 1947, the couples’Feb. 4, 1956. The inventory and dismissed prejudice to its being a community property was worth appraisement in her probate file filed again. $72,443, the probate file shows.gives the net value of her estate When W. R. Settles died on. His widow, Lillie, died onjas $45,789.08.
Newspaper Details
Big Spring Herald
Big Spring, Texas, US
Sun, Mar 11, 1973
Page 20
Full Page
Clipped by
James J.
USA 19 Apr 2026
Other Publications Near Big Spring, Texas
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