Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 176, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1919 — RICH, BUT DOESN’T KNOW IT [ARTICLE]

RICH, BUT DOESN’T KNOW IT

Sailor's Farm in Texas Turns Into OH Lake While He’s Gone. Eastland, Tex. —Somewhere on th« Seven Seas Eli Perkins is by ail odds the richest man in the United States naval service. Knowledge of his big fortune has not yet come to him. His father has been trying to locate him, but what warship he is on has not been learned.. When Perkins enlisted in the navy more than two years ago, he owned a farm of 80 acres north of here. The soil is poor and has an Intrinsic agricultural value of perhaps S4OO. When Perkins entered the navy he left the farm in charge of his father, with full power to act in all matters connected with it. With the first indications of an oil boom the elder Perkins leased the 80 acres for 25 cents an acre, retaining for his son the usual oneeighth royalty of any oil that might be produced. When the field began to develop onehalf of the one-eighth royalty was sold for $40,000 cash, which sum was deposited in a local bank to the credit of young Perkins. Now the big thing has happened. The Sinclair Gulf OH company, which has a lease on the 80 acres, has brought in the largest well upon the tract that there is to be found in any of the central west Texas fields. It Is producing crude petroleum at the rate of 10,000 barrels a day, each barrel valued at $2.25. The present income of the young man is about $1,500 a day. and with the* bringing in of other wells upon the farm it may be increased several times this sum. He could easily dispose of his royalty rights for $3,000,000.