Born in 1892 close to Henning, Tennessee, Erle P. Halliburton became an American businessman with a special interest in the oil industry. Before the US entry into the battles of World War I Halliburton became familiar with shipboard engineering as a member of the US Navy. In 1915 Halliburton was honorably discharged from the Navy, and moved to California and applied techniques learned in the Navy to the developing oil industry.
Later Halliburton and his wife move to Duncan, Oklahoma where he invented and patented a new way to conduct oil well cementing. By 1919 Halliburton launched the Duncan-based “New Method Oil Well Cementing Company,” which began operating as the Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company by 1922. In 1961 the company officially became the Halliburton Company. Erle Halliburton died in 1957 in Los Angeles, California.