Miles Franklin "Frank" Yount (born January 31, 1880, in Monticello, Arkansas, died November 13, 1933, in Beaumont, Texas[1]) eventually came to head up one of the most successful private oil companies in the United States.
In the beginning, they made their living digging irrigation canals for rice farmers, and later the two became water-well drillers, until finally, they succumbed to oil fever.
At age twenty-four, Frank began his quest for oil riches that led him to such boom towns as Sour Lake, Saratoga, and Batson.
In 1923, he moved his company from Sour Lake to Beaumont, where he and wife Pansy, bought and renovated “El Ocaso,” a magnificent mansion located on Calder Avenue, known once as “Millionaires’ Row.” In Beaumont, Yount formed a working relationship with Marrs McLean, “The Second Prophet of Spindletop.” McLean held most of the leases at Spindletop Oil Field which by 1923, according to a majority of oil experts, had run its course.
He built Spindletop Stables in Beaumont, stocked it with American Saddlebreds, and hired famous horse trainer, William Capers "Cape" Grant to run it.