Manuscripts Collection
Fred A. Davies was born on April 17, 1894 in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He graduated with a degree in mining engineering from the University of Minnesota Department of Mines in 1916. After serving in the Army during World War I, he worked as an oil geologist for the Greenwood Company, and then for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company as a metallurgist. In 1922 he joined the Standard Oil Company of California (Socal) as a geologist, exploring for oil in the Rocky Mountain area.
In 1930, Socal sent him to the Persian Gulf to conduct a geological survey of the Island of Bahrain, on which it had recently purchased an option for an oil concession. He also visited Iraq and Iran to look at oil drilling activities there and to investigate geological similarities between these areas and Bahrain and, by extension, Arabia, which he was unable to obtain permission to visit. Following his recommendation that Socal invest in drilling a test well on Bahrain, the Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco), a Socal subsidiary, began commercial drilling operations on the island in 1932, under E. A. Skinner.
From 1931 to early 1934 Davies served as assistant manager of the California Company, another Socal subsidiary, in Dallas, Texas. He then returned to Bahrain, temporarily replacing Skinner as Bapco's field manager. In October 1935, after Socal's affiliate, the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (Casoc), had begun drilling the huge Dammam Dome oil field in eastern Arabia, he was transferred to the Arabian mainland as general manager of its field operations there. He oversaw the drilling of seven test wells, as well as a substantial expansion of the American and Arabian workforce and the attendant camp and transportation facilities.
Davies returned to the United States in 1937 and served as Bapco's production manager, with offices in New York City, until 1939. He then moved to Socal's headquarters in San Francisco as assistant manager of its foreign division. In 1940 Casoc was separated from Socal's foreign producing division and made an independent entity, and Davies was named its president. By this time, it held in Saudi Arabia an oil concession of 250,000 square miles (162 million acres). In 1944 it changed its name to Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco).
In 1947, Aramco separated its corporate administrative and engineering activities. Davies stepped down as president, not, it appears, entirely voluntarily, to become vice-president in charge of production and exploration. He moved back to Dhahran in Saudi Arabia in 1949. In 1952, Aramco moved its headquarters to Saudi Arabia, and Davies was named its chairman of the board and chief executive officer. He served in that capacity until his retirement in 1959, when he moved to Lafayette, California.
Davies and his wife, Amy Louise Burlingame, had two children, Fred M. and Mary Lou (Mrs. Nathaniel Robbins). He died in Walnut Creek, California, on February 3, 1975, at the age of 80.
Biographical information was taken from the papers and from Wallace Stegner,
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the
Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics
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Accession number: 16,654
Processed by Lydia Lucas and Alex Kent.
Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project
grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
Catalog ID number: 007508652
Includes some photocopies.
Copies of Davies's letters to his brother Herman. The originals of some letters are included; the location of the remaining originals is unknown. The letters focus on travel commentary during his Mideast trip, including descriptions of Bahrain, its lifestyle, customs, people, and weather. There are some comments on his survey work and contacts; his investments, which Herman was overseeing for him; and Herman's geological work in the Rocky Mountains. The letter of July 30 includes three photos of Davies.
Copies of Davies's letters to his brother Herman and Herman's wife Derwent, 1934-1937, 1948 (1 letter), and 1953 (1 letter). Also one to his son Fred (1937). The originals of some letters are included; the location of the remaining originals is unknown. Personal and family finances, life in Bahrain, some oil camp and drilling news. The November 10, 1953 letter mentions the death of King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud.
Davies's copy of his report on the inspection trip to the Bahrain Islands. The basic report (29 pages) discusses the geology of Bahrain in detail and evidence of petroleum deposits, and recommends the drilling of a test well. Accompanying this report are 12 supplementary reports, plus maps, giving general information on the Bahrain Islands and discussing the geology of and drilling activities in Iraq, Iran, Egypt, and environs. Some of these reports are by Davies, some taken from reports by others.
Includes correspondence regarding the decision to post Davies to Bahrain and an undated 9-page speech or article by M. E. Lombardi, Socal director, on the rationale for company operations in the Persian Gulf. The portion they have so far explored is the Island of Bahrain, and he discusses the work there, noting also that the company has recently secured a concession along the east coast of Arabia and plans to continue prospecting work there. A January 18, 1934, letter from R. C. Stoner states that Davies is leaving for Bahrain in February to serve as Manager of Operations and Chief Local Representative.
A report (19 pages, typed carbon copy) by Socal geologist Max Steineke of a geological reconnaissance trip across Arabia from the Persian Gulf to Jeddah [Jiddah] that he made in March 1937 in company with Davies, Lloyd N. Hamilton, Max Thornburg, and Floyd Meeker. Accompanied by two related telegrams and a long letter (April 1) from Davies to “Floyd” [Meeker?]. See photographs for a set of snapshots taken during this trip.
Contains correspondence with Ed Skinner and with Burl H. Howell, who apparently was a non-resident overseer, about the management of a California ranch that Davies and Skinner (and Skinner's widow Irene after his 1956 death) apparently owned jointly. Skinner (as of 1949) was vice president of the Bahrain Petroleum Company, living in Bahrain. There is some mention of oil company affairs.
Although labeled as personal, the correspondence does not differ from other folders.
Includes letters received after hospitalization in Beirut, apparently for a heart attack.
Davies's notes and copies of correspondence, memoranda, and arbitration documents relating to an agreement signed in January 1954 between the Saudi Arabian government and Greek ship owner Aristotle Onassis, which gave Onassis priority rights to transport Aramco's oil. Aramco contended that this agreement violated its concession rights. An international tribunal upheld Aramco's objection, ruling that a country's sovereign rights do not include the right to welsh at will on binding agreements made by the sovereign.
Mainly from Amy, and enclosing letters from their children, to Davies in 1943, when she was in Berkeley and he was in New York City or Washington, D.C., and in 1949, when he was in New York City and she was in Oakland or Santa Rosa.
Davies's correspondence, mainly with Liston F. Hills, president of Aramco, regarding plans for christening an oil tanker named for Davies.
To state dinners, receptions, and other major events hosted by the Saudi or United States government.
Miscellaneous newspaper and magazine clippings about Davies, Arabia, Arabian oil, the Standard Oil Company, and King Saud.
A bound mimeographed compilation of concession documents, royal decrees, and related documents.
Magazines published by the Standard Oil Company of California and its employees, containing articles on the discovery and early development of oil on Bahrain. All are illustrated with photographs.
Includes an article on Taylor's and Davies's inspection tour of the Bahrain Islands.
Includes an article on Camp Jebel Dukhan, the wildcat oil-drilling camp on Bahrain.
Includes an article on petroleum prospects in the Persian Gulf (mostly oil-field operations on Bahrain).
Includes an article on construction of a marine loading terminal on Bahrain.
Includes article
Includes an article on new drilling work in Saudi Arabia, on the Dammam Dome.
Includes article,
Includes several brief articles on Saudi Arabian oil operations.
Includes articles on the discovery of oil on Bahrain and on the career of Ed Skinner, who led the party that drilled the discovery well in 1932.
Includes an article on the California Arabian Standard Oil Company's first geological scouting party into Saudi Arabia in 1933.
Includes an article by James Terry Duce (vice president, Aramco) on the acquisition of the Aramco concession in Arabia.
Includes a cover photo and brief article on Davies.
Pamphlet issued for American employees entering service in Saudi Arabia.
Offprint from The Oil Forum.
Typescript carbon copy of address delivered at the National War College.
Reprinted from
Mimeographed report giving his impressions of Aramco operation in the Mideast.
Mimeographed report by Company Management Committee, Aramco, Dhahran.
Typescript (variously paginated) in pressboard binder containing reviews/extracts/summaries of several books on petroleum and Arab and Middle East policy.
Typed carbon copy of Davies's speech at the dedication ceremony for Hamilton House, Aramco's executive guest house in Dhahran, named for Lloyd Nelson Hamilton; also includes biographical information on Hamilton.
Program and script for Davies's welcome home entertainment
Includes photographs with wife Amy, with Ed Skinner, with American or Saudi officials (most unidentified), and some portrait photographs, both formal and while conducting desert exploration.
Snapshots of F. A. Davies, Amy Davies, daughter Mary Lou (later Mrs. Nathaniel Robbins), son Fred, the Robbins' children, father Fred M. Davies, brothers Herman, Ralph, and Max. Most are unidentified.
May be of Hamilton House, Dhahran.
Of Arabia or Iran.
Presentation folder of photographs of dinner, held at the Waldorf-Astoria.
May be F. A. Davies, his father and his brothers.
Signed by participants.
Possibly Ibn Saud and court officials.