Parten, J. R. (Jubal Richard)

Jubal Richard (Major, J. R.) Parten, businessman, political activist, philanthropist, and university regent, son of Wayne Lafayette and Ella May (Brooks) Parten, was born at Madisonville, Texas, on February 16, 1896, the sixth of eleven children of one of the pioneer families of Madison County. He spent his youth in Madisonville and graduated from Madisonville High School as valedictorian in 1913. From 1913 to 1917 he studied government and law at the University of Texas and participated in the intercollegiate debate program. After passing the state bar exam, Parten left school and entered the second United States Army Officers Training School at Leon Springs. After earning his initial commission as a captain and becoming an instructor in field artillery, he served tours of duty at Camp Stanley, Texas, and Camp Jackson, South Carolina. On December 15, 1917, Parten married Opal Woodley, a University of Texas student from Shamrock. He left the army in January 1919 with the rank of major. That same month he joined his father-in-law, Edward L. Woodley, to form the Woodley Company, an oil-well-drilling firm in Shreveport, Louisiana, that was reorganized and incorporated in 1922 as the Woodley Petroleum Company. As head of Woodley, Parten was a pioneer of the American oil industry. His company made the discovery wells at the Haynesville field in northern Louisiana and at the El Dorado field in southern Arkansas in 1922. Woodley moved its offices from Shreveport to Houston in 1935. It was active in Smackover, Arkansas, at the giant East Texas oilfield, and at fields in west central Texas, eastern New Mexico, and western Canada. In 1931 Parten and Sylvester Dayson of Longview formed the Centex Refining Company, which later became the Premier Refining Company. Premier operated refineries in Longview, Baird, and Fort Worth, Texas, as well as Cotton Valley, Louisiana.

As president of the Independent Petroleum Association of Texas from 1931 until 1934, Parten was a leader in the fight against the attempt by the presidential administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt to impose federal regulations on the production of crude oil. His efforts contributed to the establishment in Texas of the Railroad Commission as the primary regulator of the state's oil industry. Long active in the affairs of the University of Texas, Parten was appointed in 1935 by Governor James Allred to the board of regents, of which he was chairman for his last two years of tenure, 1939-41. Parten's accomplishments included the recruitment and hiring of Homer P. Rainey as UT president and Dana X. Bible as head football coach. His most significant contribution, however, may have been his work with UT lands and the Permanent University Fund (PUF). Major Parten was instrumental in changing the oil leasing of UT lands from a closed to an open bidding process, which brought an enormous increase in revenue for the PUF.

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