Founder of Texaco. Joseph Cullinan was born December 31, 1860 near Sharon, Pennsylvania. He started working in the oil fields of Pennsylvania at the age of fourteen, learning all aspects of the industry from the ground up. In 1882 he began work with a company offshoot of Standard Oil and worked there as a manager for thirteen years, when he decided to go into business for himself, founding Petroleum Iron Works in 1895. In 1897, he was asked to manage the vast oil strike in Corsicana and built his first refinery there in 1900 under the umbrella of the J.S. Cullinan Company. With the discovery of oil at Spindletop, Cullinan moved his headquarters to Beaumont and partnered with Arnold Schlaet to form the Texas Fuel Company in March, 1901. Within two years, he started The Texas Company as a means to transport and refine the crude oil; from 1903 to 1913, Cullinan served as its president. In 1905, he moved the company base to Houston, as did all other oil businesses, causing the enormous oil boom to Houston which was responsible for its rocketing growth as a city. Cullinan was now a key player in the American oil industry, and he turned his attention to serving the country any way he could. During World War I, Cullinan served as special advisor to the Ford Administration under Herbert Hoover; in 1928 he served on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Committee; he supported the development of the Houston Ship Channel and the Houston Symphony. Joseph Cullinan was visiting Herbert Hoover in Palo Alto, California when he was stricken and died of pneumonia on March 11, 1937. In 1959, The Texas Company would change its name to Texaco. (bio by: Screwtape)  Family links:  Parents:  Mary Frances Considine Cullinan (1837 – 1917)  Spouse:  Lucie Alberta Halm Cullinan (1862 – 1929)*  Children:  John H. Cullinan (1893 – 1920)*  Craig Francis Cullinan (1894 – 1950)*  Nina Jane Cullinan (1896 – 1983)*  Margaret Anna Cullinan Wray (1898 – 1985)*  Mary Catherine Cullinan Cravens (1901 – 1994)*  Siblings:  Margaret Anna Cullinan Hughen (1858 – 1908)*  Joseph Stephen Cullinan (1860 – 1937)  Catherine M. Cullinan (1874 – 1930)*  Jane R. Cullinan Sawyer (1875 – 1961)* *Calculated relationship