Thomas Baker Slick, Sr.

Thomas Baker Slick Sr. (12 October 1883 – 16 August 1930) was born in Shippenville, Clarion County, Pennsylvania to Johnson M. and Mary A. Baker Slick. He became notable in 1912 for discovering Oklahoma's then-largest oil field, the Cushing Oil Field.

Early experience In 1904, Alexander Massey, owner of Spurlock Petroleum Company, hired Tom Slick, who already had acquired a reputation as a good "lease man" to assist him in buying up oil leases. Massey already had a string of successes drilling in Kansas, finding either oil or gas in 25 consecutive wildcat wells. Massey promised to pay Slick a 25 percent share of the proceeds from every lease Slick could obtain. Massey and Slick then traveled to Tryon, Oklahoma to start drilling. Slick continued buying up leases, (Slick ultimately obtained leases on in the area.)

Massey ran out of money by the time the well reached a depth of only . He also ran out of patience and decided to drill a well near Kendrick, Oklahoma. It also turned up dry. The relationship between Slick and Massey apparently soured, because the two parted ways. Tom moved to Chicago, where he was hired as a lease man by Charles B. Shaffer of the Shaffer & Smathers Company. The company sent him to Kentucky, western Canada, and eventually, back to Oklahoma. During this time, he drilled at least ten dry holes, and acquired the nickname of "Dry Hole Slick." its first well on the farm of Frank Wheeler.

Wheeler had heard of the riches of the Osage Nation and the Glenn Pool, and he readily agreed to lease his land for a dollar an acre. Slick obtained financial backing from bankers at Bristow and a Tulsa attorney, and soon drilling was underway on the Wheeler No. 1 well. The wary investors pulled out of the project, however, when the well reached a depth of 2,000 feet without results. Slick borrowed some money, traveled to Chicago, and eventually secured the backing of C. B. Shaffer, who had made his fortune in the Pennsylvania oil fields. Then returning to the Wheeler farm, Slick selected a more promising site and began drilling once again. On March 12, 1912, his dreams became reality as his drill bit struck a gigantic gas deposit in a thick stratum of oil-bearing sand. Crude oil spewed forty feet above the derrick. Eventually the well was deepened to between and and produced 400 barrels of oil per day (BPD). Within one month Wheeler was receiving $125.00 in royalties every day. Two years later the total royalties had doubled as other producers were brought in on Wheeler's land. The Tryon Star wrote: “Our old friend Tom Slick the oilman has struck it rich…Slick has been plugging away for several years and has put down several dry holes...He deserves this success and here’s hoping that it will make Tom his millions.”

Wheeler No. 1 not only made Frank Wheeler a very rich man, but it made a positive change in Tom Slick's fortunes. For the next 18 years his leases and wells paid off handsomely and consistently. He had plays in some of major domestic fields, including Pioneer, Tonkawa, Papoose, and Seminole. By 1929, he was called the largest independent oil operator in the United States with a net worth estimated between $35 million and $100 million.

Family Tom married Berenice Frates, the eldest daughter of Joseph A. and Lula M. (née Buck) Frates. Tom's father-in-law was well known in the railroad business. Later the two men became partners in various transportation ventures. Their most notable successes were building Nuyaka, Oklahoma and Slick, Oklahoma, two boomtowns near Okmulgee, Oklahoma.

Tom and Berenice had three children: Thomas Baker, Betty and Earl Frates.

Death Thomas Baker Slick Sr. died of a stroke in Baltimore, Maryland in August 1930. He was 46 years old.

Slick's widow, Berenice, survived him and later married one of his business partners, Charles F. Urschel. Urschel had previously married Tom's sister, Flored. After Flored died in 1931, Urschel married Tom's widow. Urschel became nationally known in 1933, when he and another wealthy business man were kidnapped at gunpoint and held for ransom by a gang led by Machine Gun Kelly.