Talbot Frederick Rothwell

Who was Talbot Frederick Rothwell?

Talbot Frederick Rothwell was born in West Virginia on February 27, 1887 to T. J. and Mary Jane Cross Rothwell. Educated in the public schools of both his native state and Ohio, he began his career in the oil fields and eventually moved to Saratoga, Texas, where he found work with the production division of the Sun Oil Company. On August 13, 1913, he married Mabel Martha Lee, the daughter of Thomas Peter Lee, and to this union, three daughters were born: Mary Elizabeth, Essie Lee, and Virginia Mae.

In 1914 he and Miles Franklin Yount formed the Yount-Rothwell Oil Company, which later became the Yount-Lee Oil Company, of which he became vice president and superintendent of production—and eventually its president.

Tal Rothwell had numerous business ties and held directorships on the boards of the Citizen National Bank of Sour Lake, Texas, the First National Bank of Beaumont, the Lake Tool Company, and the Rex Supply Company of Sour Lake. A devoutly religious man with a gentle voice and calm demeanor, he rose as one of the leaders of the First Methodist Church of Beaumont, where he was steward and chairman of the finance committee, and the music committee. Once during the Depression, when the church needed $39,000 to complete an addition to the Sunday School building, the Rothwells contributed $30,000 to the cause. They also donated the Aeolian-Skinner organ, and a new parsonage to First Methodist.