Robert M. McFarlin

Robert M. McFarlin
Born	July 27, 1866 Ovilla, Texas
Died	August 11, 1942
Nationality	Kansas City, Missouri
Occupation	Businessman

Robert M. McFarlin (July 27, 1866 – August 11, 1942) was an American oilman, cattle rancher, philanthropist, and businessman who is best known for amassing a fortune by drilling for oil near Glenpool, Oklahoma with his nephew and son-in-law, James A. Chapman. He was among the early pioneer oilmen who established the state of Oklahoma as a center of the oil industry in the early part of the 20th Century.

Robert McFarlin was born July 27, 1866 to Porter and Caroline McFarlin in Ovilla, Texas (near Waxahachie). He married Ida Barnard in 1886. They moved to the town of Norman, then in Oklahoma Territory, in 1890, where they worked as cattle farmers and operated a feed store, During this time, their only son was born and died. They then moved to a farm in Indian Territory near the town of Holdenville in 1895.

McFarlin and Chapman had first partnered in 1903, to create the Holdenville Oil and Gas Company, which owned 10 acres (4.0 ha) in the middle of the Glenn Pool oil field. In 1912, after the discovery of the even larger Cushing Oil Field, the two founded the McMan Oil Company, which they sold to the Magnolia Petroleum Company in 1916 for $39 million. In 1918, McFarlin built an office building at 5th and Main in Tulsa, thereafter known as the McFarlin Building. The building still serves as a general office building. Also in 1918, McFarlin and Chapman organized the McMan Oil and Gas Company, which they sold to the Dixie Oil Company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil Company of Indiana, for $20 million in 1922.

In 1910, McFarlin, Harry Sinclair and some others organized the Exchange National Bank of Tulsa, which later became the National Bank of Tulsa, and is now the Bank of Oklahoma (BOK).

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