William Stamps Farish II

William Stamps Farish II, born in Mayersville, Mississippi (February 23, 1881 to November 29, 1942) was the Standard Oil president and a founding member and president of the American Petroleum Institute in 1926Fact|date=July 2007. In 1942, he pled "no contest" to conspiring with the Nazis. ["Trading With the Enemy" (1983), Charles Higham: Delacorte Press, New York NY; Pp. 45 - 46 ISBN 0-440-09064-4]

He was the son of William Stamps Farish (1843-1899) and Katherine Maude Power (1860-1931) [ [http://dgmweb.net/genealogy/FGS/F/FarishWilliamStamps-KatherineMaudePower.shtml Genealogy at dgmweb.net] ] , cousin of Jefferson Davis [ [http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/gene.cfm jeffersondavis.rice.edu] ] (For unknown reasons, his father is not usually counted in the sequence.).

He married Libbie Randon Rice (cousin of the first wife of Jefferson Davis, Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of President Zachary Taylor) in Houston on June 1, 1911. Libbie Randon Rice was a granddaughter of Walter Browne Botts, a founder of the international law firm of Baker-Botts. They had a son, William Stamps Farish, Jr., and a daughter, Martha Farish Gerry. William Stamps Farish, Jr., the father of William Stamps Farish III, was in the US Air Force during World War II.

Farish, with others, founded Humble Oil in March 1917. Later, it was absorbed by Standard Oil/Exxon. In 1933 he became chairman of the board of Standard's New Jersey division and in 1937 became Standard's general president.

In 1942, Farish (along with other officers, Standard Oil and related companies) pled "no contest" to criminally conspiring with the Nazis in the criminal courts of Newark, New Jersey. As part of a plea bargain, the charges were dropped in exchange for Standard Oil releasing its German patents and payment of fines totaling about $50,000. ["Trading With the Enemy", "ibid" 36 - 37 & Pp. 45 - 46] Farish was the principal manager of a merger between Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey and the I.G. Farben concern. The merged enterprise Fact|date=June 2008 opened the Auschwitz labor camp on June 14, 1940, to produce artificial rubber from coal. William Stamps Farish was fined $1,000. (Similar fines were levied against Standard Oil--$5,000 each for the parent company and for several subsidiaries.) This did not interfere with the millions of dollars that Farish had profitted as a large stockholder, chairman and president of Standard Oil. He was described by Senator Harry Truman in public as approaching 'treason' for profiting from the Nazi war machine and withholding patents from the US government. ["Trading With the Enemy", "ibid" Pp. 32 - 62 ]

Lazy F Ranch

William Stamps Farish II founded Lazy F Ranch in Texas. After his death in 1942, his widow and daughter took over the running of the operation. Under Lazy F colors, Martha Gerry bred and raced a number of Thoroughbred racehorses the most famous of which was Forego who raced between 1973 and 1978. Voted United States Horse of the Year three years in a row and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Forego was ranked #8 in The Blood-Horse magazine list of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th CenturyFact|date=July 2007.

ee also

*William Stamps Farish III (son)
*William Stamps Farish IV (grandson)

References

External links

* [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/ffa7.html Biography at the University of Texas]
* [http://www.neosoft.com/~sgriffin/houstonhistory/whoswho/history25hof.htm Historic Houston biography]