He received $15 per month credited against the debt, and studied at night under a kerosene lamp given to him by his father in the hope of passing the entrance exams for college.
[5][full citation needed] Hefner went to college with only the clothes on his back and 35 cents, but found work splitting wood to pay his way.
As a result, he worked for a while to save up enough to pay his way and, at the age of 25, he enrolled at the University of Texas and found himself only the second student from the "South Prairie" to do so.
It seemed all Texas had heard of the Hamill brothers' gusher which gained Beaumont the title "Oil Capital of the World" for a short time.
Hefner decided to specialize in oil and gas law, and to save his money to invest in land that one day might produce.
They decided to move to Ardmore, Oklahoma, after being involved in a Choctaw court case which dealt specifically with the Dawes Act and Indian mineral conveyances to non-Indians.
He was paid for this work with an annual interest in future profits from the mineral rights, making Hefner quite wealthy.
[6] He founded the Hefner Company, and became an expert in legal issues related to the rapidly-developing oil and gas industry.
[citation needed] Hefner used his law earnings to purchase mineral rights where he thought oil and gas might one day be produced, based upon his "creekology".
[citation needed] The theory was that because oil is lighter than water, it had been forced uphill in permeable formations and become trapped in subsurface highs, or domes.
[citation needed] Hefner served two years as city attorney in Ardmore and was elected to the Board of Education as President in 1911 – a position he held until 1918.
[citation needed] In 1929, three members of the court were impeached for bribery, coercion, misquotation of facts, conspiracy, corruption, interference with criminal proceedings and incompetency; they were all acquitted.
Other organizations he ardently supported include: In 1926, Hefner moved the family to Oklahoma City, where he would become mayor in April 1939.