- Home »
- Essays
Essays
-
Ballad of a Wildcatter
With the dawn of '75,
A new man came to town.
He had a goal and would survive.
No one could bring him down -
Happy Sesquicentenni-oil!!
Diggin’and drilling, Right on this spot, American oil was born.
-
On a camping trip 50 years ago, my brother and I composed this little ditty for the 100th anniversary of the Drake Well
Back in 1859, In the land of deer and pine, Colonel Drake beside a hill
-
The History of the Ajax Iron Works
The Ajax Iron works was founded in 1877 in Corry, Pennsylvania. Originally the firm was a partnership under the name of Harmon, Gibbs and Company. The founders were C.G. Harmon, F.L. Bliss, George H. Gibbs and C.H. Bagley. In 1892, the company was incorporated as the Ajax Iron Works. The Ajax name was chosen to denote the power of the product they were building.
-
Lunch Guest
I'd like to share a coke and pizza pie with Colonel Drake
A most informal setting for our mid- day dining break. -
On an Old 'Lease'
Screech, screech, the oil-wells go.
Nigh fifty years, I've heard the so:
'Tis music to my ear.
Number two and number 3
Hold the same shrill rivalry:
Seems as though they can't afford
To strike up any other cord. -
United Refining Company
The United Refining Co. of Warren claims its origins date back to 1902 when there were ten distinct refining operations in Warren. Warren’s refineries processed wax-based Appalachian crude oil at the time and obtained their crude from locally owned gathering lines and the Pure Oil pipeline system owned by a confederation of independent oil interests.
-
Sun Oil Company
The Sun Oil Co. of Ohio was organized March 17, 1890 by Joseph N. Pew and Edward Octavius Emerson, two Pennsylvania oil and gas producers. In 1886, Pew and Emerson began the development of a number of oil wells in the emerging Lima Field of Northwestern Ohio and bordering Indiana.
-
South Penn Oil and Pennzoil
Standard Oil showed little interest in entering the production function of the oil business until the latter 1880’s. In response to what Standard perceived as a serious threat from the Producers Protective Association to its supply of crude in the Appalachian Field and to the viability of its refineries and extensive Appalachian pipeline network, Standard Oil organized the South Penn Oil Co. in 1889.
-
L. Sonneborn Sons, Witco Chemical Co. and Amalie
late nineteenth century, Petrolia in Butler County was the site of the Petrolia Refining Company, a manufacturer of illuminating oils, valve and engine oils and petrolatum. In the early twentieth century, L. Sonneborn Sons of New York operated a refinery at this location.