2/24/24 [
4906]'s ltr. to EC:
..., Oklahoma
Mr. Edgar Cayce,
Dayton, Ohio
Dear Mr. Cayce:-
I suppose you think I have run off or got lost for I have
been so slow in writing you, but I want to assure you that I
have done neither, simply been hard at work day and night for
the last month. I got in home late yesterday evening from
Maud, Oklahoma, where I have been since last Monday, trying
to straighten out our deal on the Remus block of acreage in
24-
8-4, on which I have your report. Now I find this block
in a terrible shape, that is the four hundred acres on which
the well is located has an aggregate sum of mortgages
totalling about $18,000.00, this being a blanket mortgage,
and two of these mortgages are now in this shape. That is
that the holders have already instigated foreclosure
proceedings, this making it very difficult to handle.
However, the loan companies and the mortgage holders are all
willing to waiver as far as an oil lease to me is concerned,
for my reputation for putting down wells assures them that
the test will be fully completed and I have been assured that
my attorney can obtain all these waivers in writing in the
next few days. Now Mr. Heiden, of the Maud Oil Products Co.,
who gathered together this block of acreage is in the worst
shape financially, I believe, of any man I ever saw, and we
had to loan him $6,000.00 to hold the proposition together
until it could be gotten in the proper shape. Now I do not
know exactly yet just what my deal with him will be, for it
depends wholly as to what I will receive for drilling the
well upon this fact, whether or not that the old hole, which
is 920 feet can be used or not. It is barely possible that
we will have to move the rig and drill a new hole. If this
is done, I am reserving the right to move the rig anywhere
upon the block of acreage that I am to receive for drilling
this well. This is the exact status of the Maud proposition.
Now the well in Section Seven, we have had splendid luck on
it up until three weeks ago, at which time we shut down on
account of the title on the 160 acres on which I am drilling.
I sold the south eighty of the 160 acres on which I am
drilling. I sold the south eighty of the 160 to James G.
Lyons, an Okmulgee operator, and his attorneys in examining
the title made this requirement that we should obtain a
quit-claim deed from Harry Brown, Creek Indian, who was the
original allottee of this 160 acres. This land, however, had
been sold and the title held by five Oklahoma land buyers,
and there was a loan made by a big loan company for $2,700.00
on this 160 acres, and I suppose from this that the title
should be alright, but Mr. Lyons' attorney requested we
should get this quit-claim deed from the allottee before he
would pay out on the 80 acres which I sold him. Now I have
hunted all over Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri for this Harry
Brown, costing me nearly a thousand dollars for travelling
expenses for my men. He was reported to be in Springfield,
Kansas City, Sedalia, St. Joe, Des Moines and Joplin, all
these places we went in search of him, but had to give it up.
We were on his trail and heard in all these places several
months before. Now this Harry Brown is a one-eight Creek
Indian and the other part negro [GD's note: Perhaps a
bearing on statement in
4908-7, Par. 10 re. mixed race?] and
seems to be of the underworld type, or at least he has the
reputation of being a dope peddler and bootlegger and is
known to always be hiding from the law. He may have thought
my men were officers that were after him, at any rate, we
could not find him, and it was on this question that I placed
a long distance call to you, but after thinking it over did
not know whether you would consider that I should ask you to
answer such questions or not. At any rate, I cancelled my
call and decided to work the proposition out myself. I have
finally gotten Lyons' attorney to accept the title upon six
affidavits of nearby residents of the land in question
stating that harry Brown and his various common law wives at
no time ever claimed this land or any portion thereof as a
homestead. This fixes it up temporarily, and I am starting
up the well tonight which is now 1919 feet deep. It should
not take us longer than ten or twelve days to finish this
hole. Nevertheless, if this Harry Brown is alive, we should
have this quit-claim deed for it is the only thing that will
make our title perfect. Now it may be that you can tell me
where this man is, or whether he is dead or not. If you see
fit to do this, and it is the proper thing to do, please wire
me what you find out. I am sending you the record of this
hole up to this depth. All happenings in this hole have been
in accordance with your readings this far. I have carefully
checked same.
We shut down last night in Section Eight, at a little over
1500 feet, being Sunday. Will start again tonight at
midnight. It should not take more than two weeks to complete
this well. I do not anticipate any further shutdowns on
either Seven or Eight, as Eight title is perfect so far as I
know, and I have plenty of Casing for both holes.
Now, Cayce, just after starting the well in Section Seven,
Fourteen, Fourteen, I made out your assignment for a one-
sixteenth interest, which is one-eight of my half. Now the
holders in this lease as show of record are as follows:
McBrayer & McCarty, owners of original lese, T. A. Johnston &
Co., 3/16ths; furnishers of rig and pipe: Edgar Cayce 1/16;
[
4906] 1/2, and I am paying all the bills. Now I sent your
assignment over to be filed for record and it was filed but
the paper will not be returned for weeks from the recorders
office for they are awfully behind in copying the instruments
that are sent there for record, so I am sending you my carbon
copy of your original assignment which is on record in
Okmulgee County as to your interest in Section Seven. Now I
am not going to record your assignment in Section Eight, but
am sending it to you, so you can mail it for filing yourself
to the county clerk. This delay in getting back from the
recorder's office has caused this delay in my sending these
assignments as I wanted to send both of them together.
Now, Cayce, I believe this explains everything fully that you
wish to know. You must be patient when I don't write for
there are days and weeks that I do not get to my office as I
put my own personal attention on each of these wells and have
to be there personally to keep these wells going, but you
will find that I am toting on the level at all times.
The lease holders of record in Section 8-
14-14
Okmulgee Development Co., 8/32
Emery Locke 1/32
T. A. Johnston & Co., 8/32
Edgar Cayce 2/32
[
4906] 13/32
now in this lease, I gave you a little more than an eight
because I have not a full half, but this is alright. Now,
all this is on record excepting your assignment, which you
will mail to the County clerk to be filed yourself. Now, all
wells in the future I will send your assignments as soon as I
make the deal, and you can have them recorded yourself, for
if I record them, it looks like it takes so long to get the
papers back to my office that you may think that I do not
want to give you your interest. I believe this makes this
point clear.
Now, Cayce, in your letter, you make them very short and to
the point, just little notes that refer to our business. Now
why don't you sit down and write me a real letter. There are
lots of things going on back there that you would like to
tell me and well do I know it. I know if I had an hour's
conversation with you that you would tell me how you are
coming along financially. If you see fit to tell me about
the way things are going, do so, because I would like to
know. I am not going to ask just now for any more readings
on oil lands, but am going to test out these three wells -
that is Section Seven, Section Eight and the Maud Well.
Well, this is Sunday afternoon and I have been away nearly
all the time in the past month and my family, I suppose,
thinks I care very little for them, so I am going to quit
writing for this time and go home and spend the rest of the
day with the wife and babies. Let me hear from you.
Thanking you very kindly for the great favors you have
already shown me, and trusting that our new adventures will
turn out better than you expect, and with kindest regards to
you and your family.
Respectfully yours
P.S. Keep copy of assignment of Section Seven. Send
Original assignment on Section Eight to be recorded. Am
Sending Records of both holes. You may keep same for your
information. Will send balance of records when wells are
completed.
Your assignment will be forthcoming on the Maud well when we
finally determine just what the deal will be.
2/29/24 EC's ltr. to [
4906]:
P.O. Box 463,
Dayton, Ohio
Mr. [
4906]
..., Okla.
My dear Mr. [
4906]:-
I have yours of February 24th, with enclosure of assignments.
Also the one of the 25th with recorded assignment. I am
today mailing to the County Clerk the other assignment for
record. I do not know what the recorder's fee, consequently
am asking him to let me know. Would you mind letting me know
what is the usual fee?
I thank you very much for your explanation of the condition
in Maud, Oklahoma, and I should like very much to be of
assistance in locating Harry Brown if it was possible, but
such things are out of my line. I'm very much in hopes you
will be able to get this all straightened out very soon. I
trust you do not feel that I was impatient in writing and
wiring you so much. Naturally, though, my position and
condition makes one feel rather anxious about every condition
where the work is really interested [involved?]. I'M in
hopes it will not be very long. Yes, I feel very confident
it will not be so long before you will have both of these
wells producing. I'm certainly pleased to know you've had so
much good luck in the drilling operations, but I understand
what it means for one to be right on the job all the time,
and as to how much difference it makes when one is on the
job. I certainly thank you very much for going into detailed
information regarding both of these propositions, and you
know that I'm going to leave the whole thing in your hands to
handle, to do with as you see fit. If it were possible I
would like very much to be on the grounds when these wells
come in, or as soon thereafter as possible. However, I fear
this will be out of the question, under the present financial
condition, but there area a great many people in Okmulgee
that I have given work for. Just how or why these requests
have come we rarely ever know, but every few days there is
another on. Naturally, I'm very much interested in all of
these people, and wonder what the results are. Know they
must be satisfactory in many cases, or we would not keep on
hearing from people there. I have refrained Mr. [
4906] from
going into my personal conditions and financial position, for
fear of burdening you with something that I doubt as to
whether that you should be burdened with, for we have gone
into this work in a business sort of way, and I do not like
to have you feel that I am burdening you with my own daily
needs. Sufficient is it for me to say that the draft which
you so kindly honored was certainly a good angel to me. In
fact I do not know just what I would have done without it at
the time. The associations here, or as promised me when I
came here, have not materialized at all. No part of them.
Consequently, it has left me wholly dependent upon the
returns from the work done. Being in a new place, no way of
advertising, not sufficient capital to do so, neither
sufficient capital to take care of the daily needs, it has
made it very embarrassing to me, so I am asking as soon as it
is possible, not to jeopardize any other interest, but as
soon as it is practical for you to realize something for me
in cash, out of any of the interests that we have together,
that you will do this for me, that I may be able to get in
condition to take care of the very pressing needs at the
present time. Of course, you understand I do [not?] wish to
jeopardize any interests at any time, nor is it any lack of
faith in the ultimate success of any operations that are
honestly and faithfully carried to culmination through the
readings, but the pressing needs of the physical man and
those dependent upon me and the work that causes me even to
request this of you. It was certainly kind and generous of
you to make the offer as you did, and to make the loan as you
did. I do not doubt that you could read between the lines
that everything was not just as it might be with me, but as I
said before I did not want to jeopardize your good opinion of
me, which I hope that you have, by complaining or going into
detail of the present financial straits that I am in, but
knowing and feeling if this work is all that we hope that it
is there will be some way provided, for every condition to be
taken care of, if we are doing the right thing by our fellow
man from day to day. No matter how many trials and
disappointments that may come up, truth will rise and conquer
in the end. I know how much it means for you to be away from
your family, and how hard the work and strain on a fellow is
trying to get titles clear. I have certainly been through
some of these conditions myself. I certainly appreciate your
letter and your taking the time to write me, but it did me
good to know that you felt like that you should give some of
the time to your wife and little ones. I'm enclosing you the
copy of the assignment that you sent me, as I now have the
one that is made a matter of record. You perhaps will want
to keep this in your files. Trusting you will let me hear
from you whenever you have the time. I will write you every
chance, whether I hear or not, if there is anything that
comes up that I think I could communicate with you regarding.
Trusting this finds you well and everything going fine and
dandy in both propositions, and the Maud proposition
adjusting itself in a way quite satisfactory. Know at any
tie that I can possibly be of service don't hesitate to call
on me.
With kindest personal regards,
Sincerely, Edgar Cayce
3/14/24 EC's ltr. to [
4906]:
P.O. Box 463,
Dayton, Ohio
Mr. [
4906],
..., Okla.
Dear Mr. [
4906]:-
Just a line to let you hear from me, and to let you know that
we are for you, believing in you, trusting you, and hope that
you are not very far from the "Golden Juice", and that you
are going to let us hear from you in the next few days. We
are certainly anxious to hear the good news, we are needing
it, and are hoping to hear from you most any hour now.
Know you are very busy, and haven't time for letter writing,
but drop us a line whenever you have the opportunity.
With kindest personal regards,
Sincerely, Edgar Cayce
3/14/24 [
4906]'s ltr. to EC:
..., Oklahoma
Mr. Edgar Cayce,
Dayton, Ohio
Dear Cayce:-
Just a little note to let you know I am still hitting the
ball on our two wells in
14-14. I am drilling tonight at a
depth of 2710 in Section 7. I will run my 5-3/16 inch pipe
at 2770 looking for that famous depth of 2780. This pipe
will shut off all water and caves, thus if we get a well at
2780 feet we will be in shape to handle the production
nicely. Things are very quiet around this well, as we got a
hole full of water at 2630 in the Wilcox sand, which from a
practical oil man's standpoint is the last chance so far as a
test at this location is concerned, and none of them quite
understands why I am drilling deeper, and they do not value
my chances worth anything, consequently when my contract was
completed to the Wilcox sand they did not want to put up any
money for going deeper and when I asked them for a donation,
or to pay their parts respectively, they all refused to stay
in, but assigned me the leases, so it leaves it up to me to
finance the going on down with the exception of the little
help that I am obtaining from the companies that I sold the
offsets to and you can see by this that I have enlarged my
holdings in this lease by having the knowledge that you gave
to me and I am this day making you out an assignment for an
additional one-sixteenth interest into the N 1/2 of SE 1/4 of
Section 7-
14-14. We do not happen to have a blank assignment
in the office here tonight, but you can sure depend upon
getting it and I will have it made out and sent tomorrow, or
if anything should happen to me, you can use this letter in
evidence.
I am shut down in Section 8-
14-14 at a depth of 1900 feet. I
have been unable to realize scarcely anything from the sale
of acreage around this hole and am carrying a tremendous load
on these two wells. There simply is no chance to sell
anything around them after getting the water in Section 7, so
I am determined to drill them both by myself to a depth of
your report. I will start up 8 again as soon as I hit the
sand in Section 7, using the same men in Section 8. The crew
I had in Section 8 got a bad hole and I had to fire the whole
works, but I was able to straighten it and have it in fine
shape now ready to go deeper. There is nothing new on the
Maud deal, just simply standing as I explained before.
I enjoyed your last letter very much, but was sorry to hear
that things were breaking so bad for you. I am not surprised
at you not receiving any help as you had expected from the
party that I met while in Dayton [Arthur H. Lammers]. I felt
that this was the way that things would turn out when I first
met that fellow. I wish that I was in a position that I
could extend you some credit myself, but financially I am
cramped almost beyond operating. I suppose I owe more money
than any young man my age in Oklahoma. My books showed
January 1, 1924 a debt of over $120,000.00, so you see that
it keeps me plodding every day to pay the interest and keep
everyone satisfied. You must not mention the small favor
that I did for you, for I was only too glad to do it, and
would do lots more if I was in a position that I could. By
the way, what ever became of [
257]. Cayce, I loaned this
fellow $200.00, which he was going to pay me as soon as he
could sell some furniture at Altoona. Now I have not heard
from him and do not know here he is. If it was possible to
collect this money, I would be glad to let you have it, and
you could reimburse me when you were able, and if that time
never came, all good and well.
Well, I will not write more tonight for I am tired. Have
been running tower myself. I have several other propositions
that I will be sending you real shortly to report on. I
cannot but hope that this year will bring you and I both
great success. It seems that hard work agrees with me, for I
weighed over at the supply store the other morning and I
tipped the scales at 231 lbs. Some Driller, if size counts
for anything.
With kindest personal regards to you and your family, and
trusting that we may get a nice well, I remain as ever
Yours truly,
[GD's note: EC did not receive above letter until after the
wires back and forth on 3/18--19/24 and the
3/19/24 reading
4906-6. See
4906-6, Par. R2.]
3/18/24 Wire:
1 EXTRA RUSH CA255 55 OKMULGEE OKLA 18 717P
EDGAR CAYCE CARE PHILLIPS HOTEL ROOM ONE FIFTEEN DAYTON OHIO
WELL IN SECTION SEVEN TWO THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY
TWO FEET DEEP AM DRILLING WITH HOLE FULL OF WATER HAD PLANNED
ON RUNNING FIVE INCH CASING AT TWO THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED
SEVENTY FEET BUT AM IN SAND NOW LOOKS LIKE WATER SAND WIRE ME
TONIGHT IF I SHOULD RUN CASING AT THIS DEPTH
3/19/24 See
4906-6.
3/19/24 Wire:
Mr. [
4906] ..., Oklahoma
Wire delayed. Set casing first lime two thousand seven
hundred seventy-eight, ground measurement. Then drill in.
Full information by mail, special delivery.
EDGAR CAYCE COLLECT
Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation