Giuseppe Zeppa of Fubine, Italy, was 12 years old when he took passage by ship to the United States to join an older brother living in New York City's “Little Italy” district. There he worked and went to school while learning to speak English. He completed four grades in two years and graduated from the 8th grade. Recognized by others as an intelligent and determined youth, he was hired as an office boy at Shearman and Sterling, a large Wall Street brokerage firm. As an ambitious young man, known then as Joseph or Joe, he took high school classes at night while working during the day. He excelled in accounting and soon began to move upward in rank at the company. With an outgoing personality, and with intelligence and hard work, he gained attention from individuals who were able to boost his career in New York.
When World War I brought America into the fight, Joe enlisted in an Army engineering regiment and was sent to France. His two year tour of duty lasted past the end of the war. While in France, he studied French and international law and returned to the United States as a staff sergeant.
Back in the US, Joe briefly returned to his job at Shearman and Sterling. He was then contacted by a former captain he knew in the army who offered him a job of managing an office located in El Dorado, Arkansas. A large oil deposit was discovered in El Dorado in early 1921, and a tremendous oil boom followed. Joe accepted the job at the oil-related company and moved to Arkansas at the outset of the oil boom. Over the next few years he held jobs at several different oil companies where he learned all the ins and outs of the industry. He became acquainted with many of the oil tycoons, businessmen and bankers when jobs took him to Louisiana, Texas and California. In California, he met and married Gertrude Ruppel. Both Joe and Gertrude were sociable people and often hosted dinners for the many people they met in the oil industry.
In 1931, an even greater oil boom occurred in East Texas. Longview, Kilgore, Gladewater and Tyler were inundated by people seeking work in the oil fields. Oil derricks sprouted up everywhere in the region. An oil man from Texas, Bob Stacy, reached out to Zeppa with the idea of forming an oil drilling company. The two men then sought help and financing from three others in Shreveport, Louisiana. These three, Sam Gold, Sam Sklar and Sam Dorfman, were all Russian-born immigrants. Together they formed Delta Drilling Company with Joe Zeppa as president. The three Sam's held one third of the company shares while Bob Stacy and Joe Zeppa each held one third. Beginning with two old drilling rigs, they operated throughout East Texas. While the Great Depression of the 1930's was affecting most of the United States, the East Texas area was booming. Delta's first office was in Longview, but was soon moved to Tyler where Zeppa lived. Delta prospered and grew in size, and drilling moved beyond East Texas. It became a worldwide venture, and by its 50th anniversary in 1981, had become the largest land-based drilling company in the world.
In the early 1940's, Joe Zeppa purchased land across the Sabine river from Big Sandy, TX. Known at the time as the Simpson Peach Orchard, it originally was the plantation of an early Big Sandy settler, Steven Dekater Kay. Joe changed the name of the property to Pinehurst Farm. Having spent his childhood on a farm in Italy, Joe had a love of the land. He poured money and hard work into transforming the property into a showplace. With Delta headquarters in Tyler, Joe was able to spend most of his weekends at the nearby farm.
In 1981, a book written by James Presley about Delta Drilling and Joe Zeppa was published by Gulf Publishing Company, entitled Never in Doubt. Along with Joe and his son, Keating, many longtime employees of the company and personal friends were interviewed by the author. There were many
positive characteristics voiced about Joe Zeppa who was a hard worker and expected his employees to be, also. The long time boss of Delta Drilling was known for having a dyhamic personality and radiating confidence, integrity, determination, patience, aggressiveness, shrewdness and toughness. One of the most often used descriptions of Joe related to his tremendous intellect. His son, Keating, said that his father had the “mind of an accountant and heart of a poet.” Joe held the position of president of Delta until his death in 1975 at the age of 82, and was succeeded by his son, Keating.
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