Howard R. Hughes, Sr.

Howard Robard Hughes, Sr. (September 9, 1869 – January 14, 1924) was an American entrepreneur, best known as the father of Howard Robard Hughes, Jr., the famous aviation pioneer and film producer. Hughes, Sr. created the fortune that Hughes, Jr. inherited when he turned eighteen.

Early years

Hughes, Sr. was born in Lancaster, Missouri. His parents were Felix Turner Hughes (Millstadt, Illinois, 10 November 1837 – Los Angeles, California, 19 October 1926, son of Joshua Hughes and Martha Askins) and wife (married in Scotland County, Memphis, Missouri, 1 August 1865) Jean Amelia Summerlin (Keosauqua, Iowa, 6 May 1842 – Los Angeles, California, 4 November 1928, daughter of Thomas Summerlin and Bathsheba Robard).

His older sister Greta Hughes (born in Lancaster, Missouri, 4 June 1866) was "Jeanne Greta" the grand opera and concert singer, and his younger brother Rupert Hughes was the well known novelist and screenwriter. Felix Hughes (born Lancaster, Missouri, 1 October 1874), named after the father, was his youngest brother, an opera singer. Hughes, Sr.'s youngest sister Jean Hughes, named after the mother, and an unnamed male child "Baby Hughes" (both born in Keokuk, Iowa, 1880) died in the year they were born. His father was in the Union Army (enlisted Missouri Volunteer Forces, 18 August 1862) during the American Civil War.

Hughes was a classic entrepreneur, trying and failing at many endeavors before he finally found his specialty. After spending his childhood and early adulthood in Keokuk, Iowa, Hughes lived in Houston, Texas (where Howard Hughes, Jr. also lived before his life in Los Angeles).

Education and marriage

Hughes, Sr. attended grade school at Keokuk, Iowa, and prepared for college at Morgan Park Military Academy in Chicago, Illinois and at Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Missouri. He entered Harvard University in 1893 and after two years began the study of law at the University of Iowa. Without completing his law course, he began to practice with his father in Keokuk.. [Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele. Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004.] Later, in Dallas County, Dallas, Texas, 24 May 1904 he married Allene Stone Gano (Georgetown, Kentucky, 14 July 1883 – 29 March 1922, daughter of William Beriah Gano and wife Jeannette de la Fayette Grissim). His wife and mother-in-law (de la Fayette Grissim) were descendants of Catherine of Valois, Dowager Queen of England, by second husband Owen Tudor. [Tombo do Guarda-Mór Guarda-Mór-Edição de Publicações Multimédia, Lda Lisboa, 2000] [ [http://www.geneall.net/U/per_page.php?id=303839 GeneAll.net - Howard Robard Hughes Jr ] ] Their honeymoon in England, France and Germany was a 'journey around the world' for them, and they returned to Hughes' home at 1404 Crawford Street, Houston, Texas with very little money.

Hughes drill bits

Hughes engaged in various mining business endeavors before capitalizing on the Spindletop oil discovery in Texas, as a result of which he began devoting his full time to the oil business. On 20 November, 1908 he filed the basic patents for the Sharp-Hughes Rock Bit, and on 10 August 1909 was granted two patents for this rock drill. Hughes had patented a two-cone rotary drill bit that penetrated medium and hard rock with ten times the speed of any former bit, and its discovery revolutionized oil well drilling. It is unlikely that he actually invented the two-cone roller bit, but his legal experience helped him in understanding that its patents were important for capitalizing on the invention. According to the PBS show History Detectives, several other people and companies had produced similar drill bits years earlier. In its initial tests at Goose Creek Oilfield in 1909 where the first offshore drilling for oil in Texas was occurring in Harris County, twenty-one miles southeast of Houston on Galveston Bay, the Sharp-Hughes Rock Bit penetrated 14 ft (4.3m) of hard rock in 11 hours which no previous equipment had been able to penetrate at all.

He co-founded the Sharp-Hughes Tool Company with Walter Benona Sharp based in Houston, Texas in 1909, and after Sharp's death in 1912 took over management. Hughes began purchasing the Sharp stock immediately and by 1918 had acquired full ownership of the company. The essential asset of Hughes Tool Company (renamed) were the 10 August 1909 patents for his dual-cone rotary drill bit. The fees for licensing this technology were the basis of Hughes Tool's revenues, and by 1914 the dual-cone roller bit was used in eleven U.S. states and in thirteen foreign countries. After Hughes Sr.'s death in 1924, his only child Howard R. Hughes, Jr. assumed control of the company as its sole owner. Nine years later Hughes Tool Company engineers created a tri-cone rotary drill bit, and from 1934 to 1951 Hughes' market share approached 100 per cent. Sharp-Hughes Rock Bit found virtually all the oil discovered during the initial years of rotary drilling, and Howard Junior became the wealthiest person in the world. During 1972 he made the tool company public and realized $150 million the day it sold. [ [http://www.texasmonthly.com/ranch/readme/drillbit.php Texas Monthly: Read Me. Texas ] at www.texasmonthly.com]

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