William Stamps Farish II
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William Stamps Farish II, born in Mayersville, Mississippi (February 23, 1881 to November 29, 1942) was the Standard Oil president and a founding member and president of the American Petroleum Institute in 1926[citation needed]. In 1942, he pled "no contest" to conspiring with the Nazis.[1]
He was the son of William Stamps Farish (1843-1899) and Katherine Maude Power (1860-1931)[2], cousin of Jefferson Davis[3] (For unknown reasons, his father is not usually counted in the sequence.).
He married Libbie Randon Rice (cousin of the first wife of Jefferson Davis, Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of President Zachary Taylor) in Houston on June 1, 1911. Libbie Randon Rice was a granddaughter of Walter Browne Botts, a founder of the international law firm of Baker-Botts. They had a son, William Stamps Farish, Jr., and a daughter, Martha Farish Gerry. William Stamps Farish, Jr., the father of William Stamps Farish III, was in the US Air Force during World War II.
Farish, with others, founded Humble Oil in March 1917. Later, it was absorbed by Standard Oil/Exxon. In 1933 he became chairman of the board of Standard's New Jersey division and in 1937 became Standard's general president.
In 1942, Farish (along with other officers, Standard Oil and related companies) pled "no contest" in the criminal courts of Newark, New Jersey. As part of the plea bargain, charges of criminal conspiracy with the enemy were dropped in exchange for Standard relaesing its German patents and payment of fines totalling about $50,000.[4] He was the principal manager of a merger between Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey and the I.G. Farben concern. The merged enterprise[citation needed] opened the Auschwitz labor camp on June 14, 1940, to produce artificial rubber from coal. William Stamps Farish was fined $1,000. (Similar fines were levied against Standard Oil--$5,000 each for the parent company and for several subsidiaries.) This did not interfere with the millions of dollars that Farish had profitted as a large stockholder, chairman and president of Standard Oil. He was described by Senator Harry Truman in public as approaching 'treason' for profiting from the Nazi war machine and withholding patents from the US government.[5]
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[edit] Lazy F Ranch
William Stamps Farish II founded Lazy F Ranch in Texas. After his death in 1942, his widow and daughter took over the running of the operation. Under Lazy F colors, Martha Gerry bred and raced a number of Thoroughbred racehorses the most famous of which was Forego who raced between 1973 and 1978. Voted United States Horse of the Year three years in a row and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Forego was ranked #8 in The Blood-Horse magazine list of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century[citation needed].
[edit] See also
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This article appears to contradict the article William Stamps Farish III. Please see discussion on the linked talk page. |
- William Stamps Farish III (son)
- William Stamps Farish IV (grandson)
[edit] References
- ^ Trading With the Enemy (1983), Charles Higham: Delacorte Press, New York NY; Pp. 45 - 46 ISBN 0-440-09064-4
- ^ Genealogy at dgmweb.net
- ^ jeffersondavis.rice.edu
- ^ Trading With the Enemy, ibid 36 - 37 & Pp. 45 - 46
- ^ Trading With the Enemy, ibid Pp. 32 - 62
