Lucas, Anthony F. (Anthony Francis), 1855-1921

Born to Francis Stephen Luchich and Giovanna Giovanizo in Austria, Anthony Francis Lucas (1855-1921) attended the Polytechnic Institute in Graz before enlisting in the Austrian Naval Academy around 1875. In 1879, he left the academy and immigrated to the United States, where he eventually settled in Washington, D. C. Eight years later, Lucas married Caroline Weed Fitzgerald, with whom he had one son. Following his work as a mechanical and mining engineer at various gold and salt mines, he became an authority on the formation of salt deposits and domes on the Gulf Coast. In 1899, Lucas was hired as a drilling contractor by Pattillo Higgins and given permission to drill at Spindletop near Beaumont, Texas. Convinced that salt domes harbored oil wells, he persisted drilling until harnessing the Spindletop oilfield in 1901. Following Lucas’ success, he acted as a consultant throughout the United States as well as Europe and Russia.

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