Wildcat Road: The Heritage of a Newton County Farm Boy

By William Ade

Wildcat Road is a three-volume autobiography chronicling the life of William C. Ade, one of Asia's most successful independent petroleum wildcatters. Volume I describes Ade's immigrant ancestors and childhood on an Indiana farm. Sharing homespun lessons and lore

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ade Royalties and Publishing
• Release date: Aug 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781734713688

William Ade

William Ade started his writing career upon his retirement in 2014. His short stories have appeared in the 2018 and 2019 editions of Best New England Crime Stories. Other anthologies include Mindscapes Unimagined, Black Fox Literary Magazine, Classics Remixed, and Transcend Literary Magazine. His short story collection, No Time for His Nonsense, was released in March 2020. His novel, Art of Absolution, was released in June,2020. William lives in Burke, Virginia with his wife Cynthia.

Book preview

Illustrations and Photos

Sources and Credits

Cover illustration

The Bend at Hazelden by LuEthel Davis Ade

Collection of William C. Ade

The Craig family tree

Collection of William C. Ade

Photographs of William Craig, Jr. and Sarah Thomson

Collection of William C. Ade

Florine Craig as a baby

Collection of William C. Ade

Marguerite Ellen Craig as a young child

Collection of William C. Ade

Harry Otis Craig family portrait

Collection of William C. Ade

William Craig Jr. family portrait

Collection of William C. Ade

Portrait of the Pulse men

Collection of William C. Ade

Florine Craig Van Arsdall as a young nurse

Collection of William C. Ade

Clarence Regal Van Arsdall as a young man

Collection of William C. Ade

Doc Van and Florine in their prime

Collection of William C. Ade

Portrait of the Van Arsdall boys

Collection of William C. Ade

Portraits of Lydia Olive Ollie Payne Van Arsdall

Collection of William C. Ade

Clarence Regal Van Arsdall as a child

Collection of William C. Ade

Van Arsdall family tree

Collection of William C. Ade

The Craigs and Van Arsdalls

Collection of William C. Ade

Carolyn Van Arsdall as a child

Collection of William C. Ade

Photographs of Doc Van and Grandmother Flo

Collection of William C. Ade

Photograph of Doc Van in WWII uniform

Collection of William C. Ade

Photograph of Will and Reete Ade enjoying Christmas at Doc Van’s

Collection of William C. Ade

Photo of Will Ade and Doc Van

Collection of William C. Ade

Covid-19 deaths graph

Formal picture of John Ade

Collection of William C. Ade, photography by John Boshears

Formal picture of Adaline Bush Ade

Collection of William C. Ade, photography by John Boshears

John Ade and family formal portrait

Courtesy of the George Ade Home

Portrait of George Ade

Courtesy the Grand Consuls Portrait Collection of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. Reprinted with the permission of the Sigma Chi Historical Institute. All rights reserved to the Sigma Chi Fraternity

Provenance: Sigma Chi’s original oil painting of George Ade in his study at Hazelden

Photograph: Sigma Chi

Photographs of John Davis Ade and Kathryn Ade Kleinkort

Collection of William C. Ade

John and Carolyn (Van Arsdall) Ade on their wedding day

Collection of William C. Ade

LuEthel and Rolland Ade

Collection of William C. Ade

Photograph of George Ade Davis

Source: Kentland Centennial book

View from the Old Farmhouse by LuEthel Davis Ade

Collection of William C. Ade

The Bootlegger’s Cabin by LuEthel Davis Ade

Collection of William C. Ade

Various photos of Will, Marguerite and Adair Ade, neighbors and cousins as children

Collection of William C. Ade

Various photos of farm life

Collection of William C. Ade

Farmhouse View, Flood of 1958 by LuEthel Davis Ade

Collection of William C. Ade

Scouting and camping photos

Collection of William C. Ade

Will, Star and Storm

Collection of William C. Ade

Charles Kleinkort campaign flyer

Collection of William C. Ade

Various BSU, field camp and Phillips field geology photos

Collection of William C. Ade

Will and Laurel

Collection of William C. Ade, photograph by Dean Allan

Will’s BSU graduation, with Laurel

Collection of William C. Ade

Various Death Valley photos

Collection of William C. Ade

Will, Laurel and cousin Jim Kurfess

Collection of William C. Ade

Will and Laurel wedding photos

Collection of William C. Ade

Various photos from Will’s time at BSU graduate school

Collection of William C. Ade

Ade family photos in Dewey, OK

Collection of William C. Ade

Photos of Will and co-workers Rick Box and Doug Beam from Phillips

Collection of William C. Ade

Back Cover Illustration

The Thomson Family Tree

Collection of William C. Ade

Timeline of William C. Ade

Books I and II

Chapter 5—Life on Ade Acres

Born Oct. 11, 1953 on a farm in Indiana

1958: Began work in the chicken house; age 5

1960: Began driving a tractor; age 7

1966: First paid work putting up hay at $0.50/hr for other farmers; age 13

1967: Net worth $75, made deal with Dad: in exchange for work on the farm he would pay for my college at any in-state school. If I didn’t go to college all wages would be forfeited; age 14

1967–1971: Jobs on farm: putting up hay (cutting, baling, loading and unloading into barn), cattle round-ups, feeding cattle and horses, shoveling manure out of barn, spreading manure in pastures, tractor jockey disking fields, planting and harvesting corn and beans, de-tasseling corn from horseback, breaking horses to saddle and harness, tearing down old buildings or repairing them, building a new garage (foundation to roof, but not plumbing or electricity), driving trucks, pulling trailers, stringing fences and fixing whatever broke down

1971: Indiana State Highway crew at $1.60/hr. Mowing crew, hot-patch crew, cold-patch crew, operating payloader and big trucks, welding and cutting torch; age 17

Chapter 6—College Boy

1971: Started college at age 17. Worked as geology lab instructor for 20 hours a week. Graduated in three years with B.S. geology (magna cum laude) at age 20

Chapter 7—Prospecting Field Geologist (with Phillips Del Mar, CA)

1975: Began work with Phillips Petroleum the summer of 1975 and again worked the summer of 1976

Chapter 8—Graduate School and an Instructorship

1975–1978: Attended Ball State, earning a master’s degree in Geology and Physics and an MBA

1975: Married Laurel Betan Bookout on November 26, 1975

Net worth: Under $10,000. No debt

Chapter 9—Bartlesville, OK (Phillips Petroleum Headquarters)

1978–1980

Introduction

What’s past is prologue.

~ William Shakespeare, The Tempest

It is often said that life is a journey, not a destination. While our ultimate destination may be subject to conjecture, the road we take and how we take it is objective. We know if we’ve taken a wrong turn. We know if we are in a cul-de -sac or at a dead-end . We know if our road has become potholed and uneven, and we certainly know if we have become bogged down in a rut and are going nowhere. As we travel this road of life, we also can tell if we are making improvements to the road for the ones coming along behind us or if we are burning bridges that will make life more difficult for those who follow.

This book is about my journey along life’s road and my attempts, however small or grand they may have been, to go in the right direction; that is to say, in the direction of progress and improving the path for others as I’ve made my way. For a boy raised on a small family farm in Indiana, I believe I’ve blazed a reasonably good trail for myself and my descendants. I learned how to work hard from an early age. I got a quality, debt-free education. I wasn’t afraid to go outside of my comfort zone and accept remote job postings in Asia and South America, where I was able to use my skills and talents to make my fortune as an oil and gas wildcatter. Once I’d earned some money, I made smart decisions about how to preserve and grow it. Whenever I’ve had setbacks (and believe me, there have been many!) I’ve kept my head and continued moving forward despite my fears. Today I have a net worth of over $30 million,¹ and I’m not done yet.

In short, I’m a free man . . . free in every sense of the word.²

It matters not whether your name is Rockefeller, Disney, Gates, Jobs or Joe Schmoe. We all begin from the same place: as helpless infants, totally reliant on those further along on the path of life. If we are intelligent and follow those who came before; if we take the right path and march at a soldierly pace, we soon discover that we have gotten somewhere. This has been my experience. The lessons I learned from my father and other family members on our Indiana farm were indispensable as I undertook my travels around the world. This was very much on my mind as I wrote this volume, which begins with the stories of my ancestors who traveled before me—the ones I call The Pathfinders—and continues with my account of life on the farm, my parents, my schooling, and those all-important first jobs I held as a young man.

Each of the families described herein came to the United States in search of the road to freedom, and fortunately for them and for me, they found it. They immigrated for the economic freedom that was absent in their countries of origin, for without economic freedom they couldn’t be free in any other aspect of their lives. They had to pave their own way, though; no one did it for them. The entertaining tales of how they did so have been passed down through our family for generations. I am delighted to share them with you here, because in addition to being engaging, they are instructive. These stories prove that the seemingly small things we teach our kids and grandkids when they are young have far-reaching, positive effects on their future. Indeed, the lessons I learned from my elders helped me to a degree that I truly did not appreciate until I had traveled far down my road.

History may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

~ Attributed to Mark Twain

We encounter many such guides throughout our lifetime, and they usually fall into one of two categories: either Mr. Know Who or Mr. Know How. It is difficult to accomplish anything personally or professionally without these two kinds of people. As we get older, we accumulate our own sets of Know How and Know Who, becoming ourselves the guides for our fellow men and future generations. Unfortunately, the Grim Reaper takes away every generation’s Know Who, which must be rediscovered anew by the ones who follow. But Know How? That’s culture. That’s history. That’s science . . . and it can be passed on from generation to generation.

I’ve worked diligently to impart to my children and grandchildren the Know How I gained from my elders, and I’ve fought with all my might to keep myself and my loved ones from drifting down the dead-end road to serfdom. I describe my efforts toward that end in the pages that follow. In Volume II, I chronicle my journeys on a road less traveled: the road of the emigrant, expatriate, explorer and adventurer. My 20-plus years in Asia and South America (where I lived with my family in the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Colombia) were not only interesting, but also the most productive of my life so far. During this time I was a scientist, a manager, unemployed, a consultant, an entrepreneur and a corporate executive as well as a husband and homeschooling father³ of three wonderful girls. Like the good Eagle Scout I am, I always followed my internal compass and held true to the right economic path throughout a career that spanned more than four decades.

And now, instead of being a man of a certain age looking for help and trying to find a job, I am in a position of offering assistance, starting up new companies and creating many jobs for those who are following me.

In essence, I’m a wealth creator.

Wealth creation is about building bridges, paving roads, draining swamps and leveling mountains along the right-of-way. For me this has primarily come about through the discovery of new oil and gas fields that had been missed by the giants: Exxon, Shell, Texaco, Chevron, Mobil, Total and others. It has also been my good fortune to invent processes such as the Ade Rule,⁴ depth conversion with seismic stratigraphy, F-test statistics and isopach summation, and new applications of seismic lithology/stratigraphy in the search for oil and gas. Readers with an interest in geology or oil and gas exploration will likely find my work-related stories informative. I was employed as a geologist, geophysicist and exploration manager by several notable oil companies over the course of my career including Phillips, HUFFCO, Fletcher Challenge, Jackson and Oxy, and I’ll offer an insider’s view into how they operated in Asia and South America (insights which may or may not surprise you depending upon your level of immersion in the oil industry). It’s my hope that readers with no previous exposure to oil and gas exploration will be entertained, too. I encountered quite an outrageous cast of characters in my travels around the world; their stories alone will hopefully be worth the price of admission.

In Volume III I return to my beloved Newton County, Indiana middle-aged, unemployed, and, due to my wife’s illness, a single parent. Not at all the path I chose. But my journey wasn’t over, for the ships that I’d sent out over the course of my career were beginning to come in, and they were laden with riches. Adversaries still had to try to torpedo them, but with help from my friends, family, Know How and Know Who, many of my ships made it safely into home port. Also in Volume III I describe my experience with Tiger 21, the club of the ultra-wealthy and the even more select R360, and try to dispel a myth or two about what it’s like to be not of the one percent, but of the 0.1-percent (one in 1,000).

As I’ve traveled through life, there have been many guideposts along the way that have contributed to my can-do mindset. I have assembled at the end of each volume an annotated bibliography and filmography of those cherished ones that have been the most illuminating and helpful in keeping me optimistic and on freedom’s path. These are the ones that I encourage everyone—especially young people—to read or to view because they are particularly inspirational and motivating.

We all need to consume more positive media. By far, the worst thing we can do is to teach young people that they cannot make a difference, that they cannot succeed or improve themselves as individuals. Society is a collection of individuals and nothing more. If the individuals in a society believe themselves incapable, then so will go the culture of that society. This is the road to a failed state, paved with bricks of individuals who don’t know how to work, build or achieve. There is nothing more destructive to the individual and to society than to be taught that life is random and meaningless, and that nothing can be improved. It is simply not true.

I have always believed that the best history is biography because it tells the tale of how one person navigated a life. While no two journeys are ever the same, there is much to learn in reading the biographies of those who have managed to travel well. It is my sincere hope that my story will serve as inspiration to you in your journey; that it might be of some use in informing, educating, and perhaps even entertaining those who will pick up the torch and try to improve on what I and our previous generations have built.

Very sincerely yours,

William Craig Ade

Brook, Indiana

April, 2021

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1. 2018 was the peak at $40 million.

2. In ancient Greece, slaves could be wealthy but were not free men and were not allowed to vote. Some were hired managers, similar to corporate managers today. In Classical Greece, a dirt farmer with only two acres and no boss was a free man and eligible to vote. I read this in the slavery section of the Encyclopedia Britannica years ago while working on salary in Asia. It struck me that I, making $250,000-plus in 1987, was indeed less free than my father, a farmer.

3. I handled the administrative duties, computer hardware and software, tests, measurements and athletics while my wife Laurel carried the heavy load of the classroom.

4. The Ade Rule is an empirical relationship that I derived using Lopatin modeling of wells, rocks and seismic data from Bogue Hunt’s Library. The rule states that all commercial oil production will be located above or laterally no further than 18- to 20-km away from the thermally mature rocks of the basins. The rule is valid throughout all of Southeast Asia for the Tertiary basins of Sundaland (an area half the size of the continental United States). The Ade Rule was one of our most important competitive advantages in prospecting for petroleum in Southeast Asia. It predicts with a 99-percent level of accuracy which areas will be non-prospective and which ones will be prospective. Applying the rule quickly eliminated most areas from further study and allowed us to focus our attention on the most petroliferous prospects.

Book I

The Pathfinders on the Road to Freedom in America

The further back you can look, the further forward you’re likely to see.

~ Winston Churchill

The Craigs, Van Arsdalls and Ades

Journalist in 1913: If land was selling for a dollar an acre when you came to Northwest Indiana, how come you didn’t buy a bunch of it?

~ John Ade: I didn’t have a dollar.

The American Dream has always been to seek progress and wealth, not only for oneself but especially for one’s children and grandchildren. This is the immigrant work ethic, the pioneer spirit, the driving force of the American experiment’s success. Therefore, I shall begin my saga by introducing you to my immigrant ancestors, grandparents and parents, because the deep roots they established for our family tree have impacted every aspect of my life and were among the chief contributors to my success. Everything I am and everything I have can be traced back to how they lived and the way they passed on their values and our common heritage. Although I didn’t inherit monetary riches from those who came before me, I have been blessed to be the recipient of their legacy of love, wisdom, work ethic and passion for learning.

As you read my family history, I hope you’ll be inspired to think about your own lineage and how the people within it shaped who you are today. I also hope these stories will motivate you to think about the sort of ancestor you want to become for your descendants, and the kinds of lessons and gifts you can begin giving them right now to set them firmly on the path to success. In my mind, that’s what family is all about.⁵

The Craigs: Artisan Weavers

Upon my birth I was given the middle name of Craig in honor of the family of my maternal grandmother, Martha Florine Flo Craig. Flo’s story began at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in Scotland, where the Craigs were a clan of weavers. As power looms came into play, the Craig family and other artisan weavers were forced into a difficult financial situation because it was impossible to compete with mechanized looms. The tale of artisan weavers like the Craigs was beautifully told by George Eliot in her masterpiece, Silas Marner.

Around the time of the American Revolution, the Craigs left Scotland for a brighter future in the United States. William Craig, Sr. made the trip to America from the Scottish weaving center of Kilmarnock Ayrshire in 1800. His cousin James followed in 1819 and others of the clan continued to arrive in America as late as 1848 via Canada. The family continued to practice their trade as weavers by staying at the frontier, meaning they set up shop far from the more developed roads and waterways. Here it was impractical for the British mills, and later, the New England mills, to ship in goods and compete with them. Thus they literally wove their way westward across America. By the 1830s they had settled in southern Indiana, where they established a successful weaving business. The family came to be renowned as the master weavers of Indiana. The products they created—especially their coverlets—are considered masterworks. Our family still has some of these amazing pieces. Today if you visit Spring Mill State Park outside Bloomington, Indiana, you’ll see several of the revered Craig coverlets on display.

And so it was that the Craigs settled on the frontier not as farmers like the majority of their neighbors, but as weavers of the old Silas Marner type. But it was not to last. Eventually the Craigs were forced to accept the reality that the end of artisan handweaving and its resulting livelihood was upon them. By the time my grandmother Flo was born in 1903 in Greensburg, Indiana, her Presbyterian Scottish family had switched exclusively to farming.

Grandmother Flo and her sister, Marguerite, were raised by their father and a stepmother because their mother died quite young. For some reason, Flo never learned to cook . . . more on that later. When the girls came of age, the senior Craig advised them to pick a career that would not involve weaving or farming. He impressed upon them that an education would empower them to support themselves wherever they may roam, come what may. Even in the early part of the 20th century, my great-grandfather understood this truth: both men and women need an education and professional skills to maximize their chances for success. That’s why he sent young Flo and Marguerite to Indiana University’s medical school to study to be nurses.

Thus, my great-grandfather taught my grandmother a lesson that she would one day pass down to me: when you have an education and your professional skills are someday overtaken by new technology (as had happened to the Craigs and can happen to just about anyone), you have the power to retool your skills or move to a new place where your talents are still viable. Moving in pursuit of a better life is part of the American experience. It’s a phenomenon that sets us apart from most other nations where the labor force is stagnant, apathetic, or prone to ignore opportunities that require relocation.

To reinforce this lesson, my grandmother told me the backstories of many of the people who appear on our family tree, the branches of which are etched with the names of church leaders, school teachers and a fair number of academics. I recall Grandmother telling me that her grandfather, William Pulse, donated his personal library to Indiana’s DePauw University at the end of his life . . . a library filled with books written entirely in Greek!

The reason Grandmother told these stories to my mother, my sisters and me was to drive home the message that there was a deep heritage of academics and professionals in our family tracing all the way back to before the American Revolution. That’s why, later in her life, she carried out the extensive research required to become a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was determined that we not forget the firm footing so diligently—so skillfully, so hopefully—woven for us in this country by our intrepid Craig ancestors.

The Craig family tree

William Craig, Jr. and Sarah Thomson Craig

(left) My grandmother Florine Craig as