The Justiss Oil Legacy
The year was 1926 and the town of Tullos was experiencing an oil boom when a young Jick Justiss caught his first glimpse of LaSalle Parish. Justiss, originally from South Arkansas, had fallen on hard times. His previous job as an oilfield contractor, moving equipment and building drilling locations with teams of mules for various operators in the Smackover, Arkansas boom had played out. However, what looked like an end would soon transition into a new opportunity for the young man and future oilfield businessman.
“Mr. H. L. Hunt had noticed how hard my grandfather worked while he was in Arkansas,” Jim Justiss, current Chairman and President of the family owned Justiss Oil Company shared. “Mr. Hunt was impressed by my grandfather’s ability to coordinate up to forty mule teams consisting of two mules and a set of slips with an operator for each, all working on the same location. When the Smackover boom cooled down, he asked my grandfather to work for him in the Central Louisiana town of Tullos.”
Jick Justiss was no novice at hard work and responsibility. His dad passed away of pneumonia when Jick was young, leaving him to care for his mom and numerous siblings. Both of his parents were college educated, but education and school attendance were infrequent for him due to the early demands and responsibilities placed on his shoulders. He started logging in the woods with mules which eventually led to oilfield contracting using the same animals.
“A set of slips was like a wheelbarrow, except minus the wheel. It functioned as a dirt scoop pulled by a twomule team. The operator could fill the slips and dump the dirt as needed. Locations were leveled, levees built and pits dug using slips. Multiple teams would make circles on a location, speeding the process.”
When the superintendent of Mr. Hunt’s operations in Tullos passed away, Jim’s grandfather was promoted to that position. Hunt expected him to produce and ship out 500 tanker cars of oil monthly. Jick Justiss exceeded that.
“He met my grandmother there in Tullos at Milam’s Drug Store. They married one year later and around the same time the East Texas oilfield was discovered. Grandad laid the first pipeline there. The field covered five counties, and at its peak, produced one million barrels of oil per day,” Jim shared. “It was the biggest oilfield in the world at that time.”
In a short while, oil had also been discovered in local areas of Olla and Nebo, and Jick (the name now morphed into “Jake”) found himself answering a call to travel back to Louisiana to man the effort. The call came on Christmas Eve, and he left immediately – his family wouldn’t see him again for four months. The year was 1938 when he moved his family back to LaSalle Parish. In 1946, Jake was called upon once again to follow the oil. Not wanting to uproot his settled family, he decided he could do better on his own and gave Mr. Hunt his notice.
He and C. G. Mears, a successful businessman from Arkansas, then formed a partnership, built their first drilling rig – Rig 1 – and bought two oil wells in Nebo. Mears provided the funds and some credit, and Justiss provided the know-how. The company grew and wells were drilled. In 1980, the Mears family sold their interest in the company and Justiss Mears Oil Company transitioned into Justiss Oil Company.
In 1952, James Justiss Jr. joined the company after his college graduation. In 1964, he became Vice President of the company, and in 1980, at the passing of Mr. Justiss Sr., he became both Chairman and President. He and his wife, Jenna Fae, built their home, lives and family in LaSalle Parish.
Since that first well, Justiss Oil Company has drilled all over the United States and overseas. While the elder Justiss achieved success through hard work, James Jr. excelled in business relationships with both small and large companies within the oilfield industry. He formed friendships and business contacts with the management of companies such as Texaco, Shell and Exxon. He brought his son, Jim, into the company in 1990.
Today, Jim – who assumed Chairmanship after his father passed in 2021 – his nephew Adam Williams and his sister Jennifer Loe – carry on the oilfield legacy those before them cultivated and maintained, but times and practices have changed. Oil production now requires less employees and incorporates technologies that didn’t exist in the past. The industry favors larger public entities who have tremendous capital to spend as opposed to family-owned operations. The number of drilling contractors has declined to around ten percent of what it once was, and there are few small private companies left. New technologies change economics, and economics change and drive the free market system.
As for Justiss Oil Company and the family legacy that built it? “We are in for the long haul and plan to be in LaSalle Parish forever as an employer,” Jim emphatically stated. “I have a great respect for my parents and grandparents and feel like I am standing on the shoulders of giants.”
From the genesis of Mr. Justiss’ Rig 1, to the current Rig 64, to the thousands of past and present employees, and to an endless number of wells successfully drilled in search of oil, the story is still being written. The pen is just held by a different hand.
