Hugh
Roy Cullen was born in Denton County on 3rd July, 1881. He received
only a few years of education. At the age of sixteen Cullen began
work with a cotton broker. Later he started a real estate business.
In
1911 Cullen moved to Houston and eventually went into the oil business.
He made major discoveries at Pierce Junction, Blue Ridge, Rabb's Ridge
and Humble. Cullen became a co-owner of the South Texas Petroleum
Company and later established the Quintana Petroleum Company.
Cullen
was active in Texas politics. In 1944 he became a leading figure in
what became known as the Texas Regulars
movement. Cullen was the main provider of funds for this group that
included Eugene B. Germany, Wilbert
Lee O'Daniel and Martin Dies. This was
a group of right-wing members of the Democratic
Party who
opposed the liberal policies of Franklin
D. Roosevelt. Supported by Texas oilmen, the group were also opposed
to the fixed prices of oil and gas imposed by Roosevelt's government
during the Second World War. They also campaigned
against the New Deal, civil
rights and pro-trade union legislation.
The group disbanded after they failed to remove Roosevelt as the leader
of their party.
Cullen
survived the Great Depression and in 1947 he was able to establish
the $160 million Cullen Foundation. This provided money for education
and medicine. Cullen also gave more than $11 million to the University
of Houston.
In 1948 conservatives like Cullen were opposed to Harry
S. Truman and his Fair Deal proposals that included legislation
on civil rights, fair employment practices, opposition to lynching
and
improvements in existing public welfare laws. When Truman won the
nomination, Southern Democrats formed the States' Rights Democratic
Party (Dixiecrats) and Storm
Thurmond was
chosen as its presidential candidate. It
was thought that with two former Democrats, Thurmond and Henry
Wallace standing, Truman would have difficulty defeating the Republican
Party candidate, Thomas Dewey. However,
both Thurmond and Wallace did badly and Truman defeated Dewey by 24,105,812
votes to 21,970,065.
In
1952 Cullen gave his support to Dwight
D. Eisenhower and the Republican Party.
His main political concern was in the preservation of the oil
depletion allowance. He was therefore pleased by Eisenhower's
decision to employ
Robert Anderson (the former president
of the Texas Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association) as Secretary of
the Navy and Secretary of the Treasury. In this post Anderson introduced
legislation beneficial to the oil industry.
Cullen was also a great
supporter of Joseph McCarthy. In 1952
he was the single biggest contributor to McCarthy's reelection campaign.
His friends Jesse H. Jones and Clint
Murchison were also financial supporters of McCarthy. As Murchison
pointed out in 1954: "We all made money fast. We were interested
in nothing else. Then this communist business suddenly burst upon
us. Were we going to lose what we had gained?"
Hugh
Roy Cullen
died in Houston on 4th July, 1957.
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