The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 21, 1901, Page 1

I\ EMMA \|A. \J|Summers PHOTO BY MARCEAU for' af. raradoxicat fus she could r control the Los ‘modest, shy and very is this California ofl e gaze of the men who have of oil was di crust are breadth of the nducts by out in the rest derricks, where smoky engines fill the air with d man| ofl that flows from was in the begin- ad more time for prac- when she needed prac- 1 a market w intricate her fingers' ends. Bhe is 1 knows the qual- well in the racts with el ofl in Los m year to 3 . what men to y te eir ofl runs and she kr when to be From end to end of thg n end respected d in can compete with the umers were inclined to look her when she offered to sup. with oil They gave her on f thelr orders, by way of exper d because she was a woman, In wever, when she had proved to bility andle their business, sh d thelr nfidence by giving eir entire orders and recommend- friends result of strict business e honesty. Mrs. Sum- every word of a promise etter and such is the reliance ed in her promises that she has never for bond even in the largest 8 No man goes to her for & check when money is due him and falls to receive it, and when she borrows from »ank she pays when her note matures ys On the other hand, she con- erself to be a little chicken-heart- to pressing a creditor, has a wife and children. be called a fauit, nciples usually work both M 2 ners of th attends to every b onaily. She hir her men teamster, all the irough her hands, buys all her tools and supplies, keeps har own books writes ber own letters. She works every day from 8 to 6 as regu- larly as if she were on saiary, and in the KEEPS HER OWN evening attends to the books and corres spondence. She ewns forty horses and ten wagens, has a pay roll of $600 & month for men regularly employed, besides furnishing work almost constantly to five or siX eX= tra men znd teams. Blacksmithing fey ten four-horse teams and as many wagons is something of an'item, and Mrs, Sum-: mers has her own blacksmith shop, doing custom work on the side. All t0ld, Mrs, Summers has sunk fours teen wells, and each one has been a payer, Three times she has gone {nto new terrls tory to bore for ofl, and her success jn striking it every time has led others to profit by her judgment. For obvious rea- sons her last wells have been sunk undey other names than her own. No one knows, not even the ofl queen herself, how much she is worth. Once long ago, when she was $10,000 in @ebt and did not know whethar sz £55c well was BOOKS AND“WRITES HER OWH LETTERS a dry hole or an endless stream of ofl, Mrs. Summers decided that when ske could write her check for $10,000 she would be ready to quit. But she is so far past the ten (nousand mark that it is only a tiny speck in the distance;, and she is no nearer quitting than she was when she reached it. She has never set another limit. Meanwhile she has been careful o salt down a goodly share of her earninss in valuabis real estate, which she turns over to advantage from time to time. That she has never yet made a loss is one of Mrs. Summers’ boasts, and one of which any financier of the man Kkind be proud. the mountains of Tennessee, was one day nanded’ a roll of greenbacks in payment for some property. Although assured by her husband that the méney was all right, she had serious- doubts on the subject, so-mounted her horse and rode four miles to have an uncle examine and pass on the mlov?:s}." Summers is a Southern woman. That is, she was born in the South. She has the charming personality of the Southern woman, yet there is a strong flavor of the West about her, the self-re- llant' independence, the freedom, the ner- vous, restless energy typical of the West. Sho is quick to think, quick to speak, * quick to do. She is shrewd, but her bsolute fair- shrewdness is tempered by al ness and she never takes advantage of one in her dealings. lnAys a young girl sne was fond of rid- ing, driving, rowing—anything that took her out of doors. From her father she inherited this talent for business. As the loest of & {amily in which for mary CONDUCTS BY TELEPHONE THE WORK. OF BORING WELLS , ETC. years there were no boys, she was very close to her father, a banker and large land owner in Hickman, Ky. With him she often rode about the plantation when he went to give orders to his men. The tiny seed thus planted was one day to make its way to the surface despite a womanly reserve bordering on timidity, and prove the daughter equal to the father. In the days of dolls and playhouses, thepe were always stores and merchan- dise, buying and selling; and first thing the “sisters knew it was Emma who pad all the stack, never by unfair means, SUPPLIES but Decause she haw tne trade Instinet. Because she loved it, she studied musto and was sent to Boston to finish her musieal educaticn. Witn a rich and induigent father, thers was_no thought of turning her mesical Eift to account. It was' cultivated merely as an accomplishment. But no sooner had the young woman taken her place tn so- clety than she was offered the position of musical instructor in the publie schools of.a Tennesgee town, where she was spending the gay season with her uncle’'s family, Perhaps the offer flattered her: perhaps it was the business instinct again. At any rate she accepted, her father giving a rejuctant " consent, to gratify, as he thought, a. whim. Teaching was harder work than being a society belle, but part of this woman's re- ligton s doing what she undertakes, and she held the position until she married. Then, true to: her Seuthern nature wund trainirg, home seemed a big enough world for her. Presently, however, reverses came, and, to quote Mrs. Sununers, Tennessee is no place to live without money. So the Sum- mers moved as far avay from Tennessee v could. Califor and early '80's. In Los Angeles they built a small home, and with the pluck and courage tkat is stowed away somewhere In the soul of 'y S Tn woman, and which neces- wicovers, this woman stepped ce beside her husband as ia was very far in ) o lessons. Pupils ¢ fine in plenty and the wem was happy. 1. S were scarce in L Angeles then, t cf the pupils went to Mrs. Sum- When the num- it then a th. 1 it came to having a piano in the kitchen she decided to build a house big enough for the pianos, and this she did, with only about half the money “It ba [ thing has run away with many pupils I was giv lessons all day and half the night. 1 got so mauy pianos I had to bulld a house to put them in. Thea I saw a chance in the oil business and sunk a well, and this has carried me on and on, till I don’t knew where it will stop.” When the ofl craze broke out in Los Angeles some twenty years ago Mrs. Sum- mers was one cf the first to try her for- tune in oil. She had saved just $700 from her teaching. ard this she decided to put into an oil well. some one agreeing to fur- nish a like amount. And she did put it in, too—so deep that she thought it would never come out. With it went $1800 more, for Mrs. Summers’ credit was good. Boring oil wells then was not what it is now. The equipment was meager, and the expe of those who drilled wells more me: Bad luck fol wed bad luck, and the elimax came n first the casing and then the tools t crashing into the well. Only the man who had drilled the hole was left on ton. Day after day Mrs. Summers stood by that FLole. V' after night she hovered over it as 3 uld I a babe that had swallcwed a tack and three pina. The prospect was dreary, Lut Mrs. Summers Jever says die, and she iknew there wa oil in the well. When e hardware was finaliy fished out the piucky womar went on bering, not only the one well, but another, and another and another. It was this W sale sinking of wells that plunged aer §10.000 in cebt. nw Mrs. Summers was teaching music to help pay the hardware bills. Even after she was out of debt and had reached her ten thousand dollar mark, the music lessons continued, chiefly because pupils would not quit coming. In- . it is less than a year since the last one was induced to go elsewhere for in- struction. Gradually, as Mrs. Summers found more n she could supply with her . she began +to buy from others, sometimes so many barrels a mcrth, sometimes, as a matter of specu- iation, the year's ouiput of a well Asd 80, without realizing it, this woman be- came a power in the local oil world. But such ups and downs as she h: There have been times when it seemed she could not win out, that everything must go, bui the woman's unerring judg- mert, indomitable will and perseverance always bring things to the right about, Even now the streaks of good and bad run like streaks of lean and fat in bacon, but Mrs. Summers has learned to take both as they come. Taking, for example, a day when one of her houses was partiy destroyed by fire, one of her wagons broks dcwn in the fleld with a big contract to fill, and her horse gave her arm a bad. wrench, all within a few hour: would grant her the right to cry didn’t, because the telephone rang just thele, or a man called to talk over some deal. e hasn't time for tears any more than she time for society. Once a week regularly sh. theater for men- tal relaxation, but dinings, receptions and the r of femininity's pet functions are anything but recreation. They bore her, and them when she can. With no children of her own, Mrs. Sum- mers is not without maternal cares. She is thé best of mothers to the three or- phaned children of a friend. On Her death- bed the mother of these little ones, whose father had died some time before, was burdened with the thought of her chil- dren’s future. “What will become of them?”’ she sighed to the friend of her girthood. And Mrs. Summers gave her word that they should be well cared for. How faithfully the promise has been kept can be guessed when one knows that Mrs. Summers has refused to allow them to be adopted into good homes, feeling that she has no right to give them away. She has them under the care of a worthy wo- man, gives them a house to live in and provides for them as if they were her own —and loves them. In business Mrs. Summers is every inch the man. Away from business she is every inch the woman, barring her dis- like for society. She can cook, embroider and sew and has all the accomplishments considered necessary for women one generation back. If necessity had not come to develop her wonderful capacity for affairs she would be the happiest and most contented of home bodies. As it is now, she loves her home as well as she loves her business. “I wouldn't have an office downtown for anything,” She asserts with upralsed hands and a look of terror at the very thought. “And I couldn’t go on the oil exchange with all those men—not for any- thing. I never was on 'change in my life.” And yet she has managed to buy and sell many a biock of stock, and with out the aid of a broker. There are ways of hiding one’s light under a bushel if one cares to, and still keep it burning. “My husband is awfully nice,” Mrs. Summers is wont to say with truly femi- nine pride. - “But we never talk about business unless it is to tell some lit cident that comes up.” No deubt one reason she and her husband are such good friends. Each goes his own way, having perfect confidence n the other. When the first venture was made in bor- ng for oil, it was Mrs. Summers’ scheme, but her husband stood back of side her. But Mr. Summers is conservi- ters than his wife, and when s fairly started in her speculative and certain career as an oil producer, turnéd his attention agaln to his business. That he has every ¢ in his wife is evidenced. by the fact \hat she holds always, whether he is at home building houses or in Cape me looking after his mining properti a power of attorney which authorizes her to sell any- thing he has. And here is something that smacks of inconsistency. M Summers never ad- vises any woman to go into business. “So many women come to me and ask my advice, apd I always tell them to go back and attend to their housekeeping. “I love business myself,” she admuts, “] can’t help being a business woman, but it is_too strenuous a life for every woman. There are too many difficulties to surmount, too many trials to undergo before success is attained. The success- ful business woman is stronger, more helpful and has a broader sympathy with the world, but it is doubtful whether she is as happy with the vivid impression that a world struggle leaves upon her, If she is unsuccessful, a woman has lost some- thing of her womanly swe and gained in Its stead an unwholesome un- Test. It is too great a risk for me to ad- vise any woman to-undertake the strug. “;imnger. perhaps, than this verdict, s the fact that Mrs. Summers Is the one person who does not think she has done anything out of the ordinary, amythiag worth talking about,