William Frank Buckley, Sr.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Frank Buckley, Sr. is most well known as the father of William F. Buckley, Jr., the founder of National Review magazine.

Buckley, who was born in San Diego, Texas, in the United States, made his name as a lawyer to oil wildcatters in Tampico, Tamaulipas, in Mexico, during the 1910s. When revolutionaries began to demand taxes from them and attack the Catholic Church, Buckley joined the counterrevolutionaries, who attempted to stage a coup in Mexico City. They were not successful.

Expelled permanently from Mexico for his ultraclerical counterrevolutionary activities, he bought the Great Elm property in Sharon, Connecticut, built in 1763. Its distinguishing feature was the Great Elm, the largest elm tree in the state. Later, in the 1930s, he hit a rich oil deposit in Venezuela and founded the Pantepec Consolidated Company of Venezuela. With this financial success, he added a large extension onto his house on the Great Elm property.

Buckley's faith and desire to educate his ten children were strong features of his life. He was a staunch Roman Catholic who raised his children in the same tradition.

He brought up his children to speak both Spanish and French fluently, and brought in professors to teach them about different subjects. He then sent all of his sons to Yale University. Apart from William, James L. Buckley also became famous by being elected to the U.S. Senate from New York State representing the Conservative Party of New York.