Photos courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society Windsor may have divorced in his younger years but he certainly doesn’t appear to have disliked female company later in life.

What was unfolding in his personal life during this period?

“Fred retired from the National Guard in 1906 at age 45,” according to the Warren County Historical Society. “He might have risen above the rank of colonel, but he ran into difficulties with his superior, General Hulings. Fred fried to please him but was too fearless in expressing his own opinions; Hulings preferred those over whom he had more control.”

Two years after he left his beloved National Guard, his ex-wife, Belle Henry, died at the age of 43.

“Looking for a change of scene,” per the Historical Society, he was lured by extravagant reports of ‘black gold’ out west. He moved to Los Angeles, California about 1910 and began drilling on easement land leased from the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Photo courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society A photo of Windsor in his office/apartment in a downtown bank building. He lived decades of his life in the same apartment.

“He hit oil but became embroiled in years of litigation over whether the railroad or the government owned the mineral rights to the land. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court; the government eventually won out. Through it all, Fred insisted to investors that the wells would soon make a fortune. It is unclear whether he and his partners made enough to cover their legal bills.”

While in California, Windsor served as a “special police officer” and also invested in a Nevada copper mine that shall remain nameless because its name is rather offensive.

According to the Historical Society, Windsor also convinced his brother – Arthur – “into investing with him in an alfalfa farm in Kern County. None of these ventures brought him the wealth he desired.”

That source indicates that he returned to Warren three years later “making it his home base as he continued to travel widely juggling all his businesses.

“His father died in June 1914. It isn’t known whether he left an inheritance. Fred continued to drill for oil – in Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma, Mexico and Canada. He was considered by many to be an expert driller and was always able to find investors to go in with him. He even named his Kentucky company the ‘Good Luck Oil Company.’ Fred was so respected as an oil man that he was named ‘King Petroleum’ at the 1925 International Oil Exposition in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In his search for oil and other investments, he traveled to every state in the U.S.”

Photo courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society Windsor in the early 20th century in his Los Angeles, California office. Notice the many one-handed-clock variants at right.

It’s not surprising that Windsor’s social life in Warren “revolved around service clubs, especially those associated with the military, where his rank of colonel gave him prestige. He was an active member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the Sons of the Revolution, the National Defense League as well as the Elks, Knights Templar and Masons.”

He tried to enlist in World War I at the age of 57 – to drill water wells in France, per the Historical Society – and was “bitterly disappointed” when he was rejected.

So he went back into community activist mode.

“Fred redirected his energy toward drumming up support for the Red Cross and written long analyses of the war for the local paper. His greatest service was organizing the town’s Victory Garden effort. He ran it like a military campaign; he identified every back yard and vacant lot, mapped them out and assigned crews. In 1918, a total of 1,695 gardens and 116 vacant lots were planted, growing an estimated $169,500 of produce.”

The Historical Society source indicates he also formed a “Vigilance Committee,” where citizens were to report “pro-German” individuals but “the committee was so secret that nobody knew whom to contact about suspicions.”

While Windsor may have tried to subversively help the war effort with his Vigilance Committee, he wasn’t shy in expressing his views on the war. Such a display of a disagreement with war policy pops up in the Congressional Record of the 65th Congress (1915-1917).

He was writing on the McLemore resolution which, according to the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, restricted travel of Americans on “armed vessels of belligerent nations” in 1916 (the U.S. wouldn’t formally join the war for another year).

He obviously disagreed with the vote on the issue by local Congressman Samuel H. Miller.

“Rather had I be a toad than have record of your today’s vote against administration efforts to protect national honor, and herin pledge my energies on stump or otherwise, against your reelection to represent Americans in National Congress; so, having expressed my contempt, I feel better.”

This is vintage Windsor – he admits freely that he feels better now that he complained. This just seems eminently in character.

The Congressman responded by indicating that Windsor’s message was so “discourteous that I am under no obligation to take notice of it, but as I try to be a gentleman at all times, and as I am representing the county you live in, I think I should answer it.”

Miller defended his action and told Windsor he wasn’t planning to run for re-election anyway so Windsor could “save your ‘energies on stump or otherwise’ for some other worthy purpose.”

Regardless, Windsor saw that the country was on the path to joining the war.

Per the Historical Society, Windsor was speaking to a school group in 1916 and said the following: “We are going to get into it in this country pretty soon and you better have more Red Crosses.”