in 1925, entered the oilfield business, and then in 1933 moved to Odessa, where he became mayor. That year, the company had 12 trucks. Ferguson came to town that same
year looking for opportunity, and he found it. Todd recalls Ferguson once telling him that he exited the train with 50 cents in his pocket and was sitting on a bench at the station when Farmer walked by and asked if he needed a job. He said yes and soon became the company’s bookkeeper. Starting with a $50 a month salary, he began buying stock in the company through a profit sharing program and eventually bought out the founders’ stock. Specializing in rig moving, the company grew to more than 600 trucks in 25 loca- tions. At one time, Farmer was the coun- try’s largest oilfield trucking company. During a downturn in the 1980s, Ferguson responded to the market by changing the company’s focus to flatbed hauling and reducing the company’s size. The company was Ferguson’s life. He
never married and never owned a home. He lived in a tourist court across the street
from the company for much of his adult life and then moved to an apartment. Todd would jog past his apartment early in the morning and find his car gone by 6 a.m. “He was dedicated to E.L. Farmer in a
way I don’t think many people are,” Musgraves said. “He lived and breathed it. He was at the office seven days a week. If you called down on Sunday morning at 9:30 needing something, he’d probably answer the phone. He worked, boy – right up until his death in ’97, he was still active in running the company.” When Ferguson passed away without
any heirs, his estate was managed by four trustees—all connected to the company, including his attorney, Jimmy Todd. Those four ran the company together until the other three either left or passed away. That left only Todd, who had his own private practice and did not want to run the com- pany full time. In 2003, he hired Musgraves as vice
president. At that point, B&D had grown to about 15 trucks and owned its own yard and a pipe yard in Hobbs. E.L. Farmer had about 90 trucks. Todd told Musgraves the compa-
ny would make a profit if it could do $1 mil- lion worth of business each month. So Musgraves moved from Hobbs to Odessa and began to try to make that happen. “I had a small company that I knew
how to do everything, and to come over and try to jump in, it almost felt like I was rooting around in Mr. Ferguson’s business, and I didn’t have any business doing that,” he said. He must have done something right.
According to Todd, when Musgraves took over the company, it had about eight termi- nals, and by 2013 it had 19. Monthly reve- nues in 2003 were about $1.2 million. By 2013 they were between $6 and $7 million. The company owned a 108-acre tract of land in Houston that was mostly a truck yard. Under Musgraves’ leadership, it was covered with pipe. Todd said Musgraves has had the
respect of his employees. “I think they all really enjoyed work-
ing for him, and I think they all admired him, and they respected him,” he said. “He
Continues
Issue 3, Fall 2016
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