CONTINENTAL REFINING COMPANY / CONTINENTAL OIL REFINING COMPANY
CONTINENTAL REFINING COMPANY / CONTINENTAL OIL REFINING COMPANY (“CORECO”), OIL CITY (ROUSEVILLE / CORNPLANTER TOWNSHIP), VENANGO COUNTY, PA, 1885 - 1947
David L. Weber, 2008
“Continental Oil Refinery - This company is owned by the Anderton Estate. It has still capacity of one thousand barrels daily, manufacturing all the products obtainable from Pennsylvania crude oil, and gives employment to from forty to fifty men. The officers are: A.F. Anderton, president; Thomas A. Anderton, treasurer; J.W. Anderton, secretary. Their output is valuable, trade always increasing, and the concern is one of the city’s solid institutions. The founder of the estate is deceased, but his good work is continued by his sons.” - Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania - Her Pioneers and People (1919)
Thomas Anderton was born at Chorley, Lancashire, England (Britain), April 16, 1840. He worked in a cotton mill at age 15.
Anderton sailed to America on the steamship “Great Eastern”, 1862 (this vessel’s maiden voyage). A brother living in Pittsburgh gave Thomas Anderton employment in the coopering trade.
Thomas Anderton worked for nearly two decades in barrel shops at Pittsburgh, Oil City, Petroleum Centre, Miller Farm and Titusville. Several years in the retail grocery business at Oil City followed, c. 1880.
Thomas Anderton became an oil refiner, 1885, according to The Petroleum Age:
“The Continental Refining Company, of Oil City, consisting of Louis Morris, Louis Walz and Thomas Anderton, have their refinery on the Clapp Farm [Cornplanter Township], about a half mile up Oil Creek from the Independent Refinery, partially built at this writing. They have purchased over 200 acres at the Clapp Farm for $8,000 in order to have plenty of room and secure a water supply from some springs across the creek from where their works are located. They have one 500 - barrel still of the ‘cheese - box’ pattern.”
Louis Walz, a German immigrant, was prominent in owning / managing Oil Region refineries. Walz’s business interests also included shares in the American Oil Works (Titusville); and the Independent Refining Company, Penn Refining Company and Germania Oil Company (Oil City).
Other investors replaced Morris and Walz in the Continental Refining Company. These included: Charles Huster, Michael Liebel, Sr, and Eugene Liebel.
The Liebels were the father and brother of Erie industrialist - Democrat Party “political boss” Michael Liebel, Jr. No record has surfaced on the younger Michael Liebel’s involvement with his family’s oil refinery, although he could have been a “silent partner.” M. Liebel, Jr. represented northwestern Pennsylvania in the United States Congress, and was also a major shareholder in the Erie Brewing Company and Continental Rubber Works (Erie, PA).
Continental Refining Company’s capacity was increased to 1000 BOPD (barrels per day), with the addition of larger stills, 1890.
Thomas Anderton married Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Huster Stubler, a widow who ran a boarding house and grocery store (sister of Charles Huster), July 27, 1882. Four sons and three daughters were born to the Andertons.
Mr. and Mrs. Anderton belonged to St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, where Thomas also sang in the choir. Thomas Anderton was also an active member of the Oil City Council, Knights of Columbus.
Charles A. Babcock wrote the following concerning Thomas Anderton’s allied business interests, 1919:
“Mr. Anderton had the greatest faith in local business opportunities, as indicated by his investments, which included stock in the Oil City Trust Company of Oil City, the Pure Oil Producing Company, natural gas producing interests, the United States Pipe Line Company, as well as oil properties in Venango county and extensive holdings of real estate in Oil City business blocks.”
Anderton’s investments included the Alum Rock Gas Company. This partnership, which supplied natural gas from Clarion County wells to fuel Titusville and Oil City area petroleum refineries, included many prominent local residents. Other investors in this gas producing firm included Percival “Percy” Beers (oil and gas producer, oil field supply and automobile parts manufacturer / dealer, real estate broker, etc.), James Fawcett, Edwin V.D. Selden, Edward O. “Ned” Emerson, Jr. (Titusville oil and gas heir, insurance / real estate agent, Titusville Forge Company treasurer / shareholder, coal and building materials dealer, civic leader, etc.), Henry and Charles Suhr, Louis Walz, Abel Confer and Thomas W. Phillips, Jr.
Thomas Anderton’s sons later owned a Titusville area oil lease in partnership with the Preston family (Oil Creek Township, Crawford County).
Thomas Anderton died, August 20, 1915. Complete ownership of the Continental Refining Company (“Coreco”) passed into the hands of Anderton’s sons: Aloysius F., Thomas A. and Joseph W.
Coreco specialized in “Cylinder Stocks, Neutral Oils, Refined Wax and Railroad Oils,” according to a 1919 advertisement. Branch bulk plants were located at Erie, Meadville and New Castle, PA; and Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
A January 9, 1918 National Petroleum News article detailed the refinery’s modernization undertaken by the Anderton heirs:
“The plant’s [monthly] capacity has been increased to 30,000 barrels. A new wax plant and filter house have been built and a new sweater and sweater house. New pipes and fittings have been put in throughout. Five new tanks of 60,000 barrels [capacity] each have been constructed with concrete roofs. These roofs were made by running iron rods through the sides and putting the reinforced concrete two inches thick on top.”
Charles A. Babcock elaborated further on the expansion / modernization program, 1919:
“The old Dutch ovens have given way to Palmer forced draft towers, with a savings of twenty per cent in operation. All stills and boilers are fitted with registering thermometers which make the condition at any moment of the day available for reference. A coal handling apparatus does the work of six men. Loading racks increasing the [railroad] car loading capacity have been installed…. Three new stills have been placed in the wax plant, and the rotary kilns, filtering plant, sweater house and bleaching pans are all placed for the greatest economy and efficiency. No phase of the operation has been neglected in the regenerating process, but especially attention has been paid to the matter of protection against fire, which with the much increased value of the plant has more importance than ever. The water supply may be obtained from three sources, namely: From the Oil City mains; the creek, where water is naturally filtered through gravel to a deep well ten feet square; and a side hill reservoir fed from a run, the water flowing through gravity pipes to a junction connecting with the other two supplies, so that all would be immediately available in case of necessity.”
Expansions and improvements by the Andertons made possible the manufacture of refined / finished waxes (including floor polish) and petrolatum, greases, insecticides and specialized lubricating oils (for automotive, railroad and aviation requirements).
July 18, 1929, a severe fire struck the Continental / Coreco refinery. The Titusville Herald carried the following:
“Fire which followed an explosion in the filter house of the plant of the Continental refining company in Rouseville [Cornplanter Township], at 2:10 o’clock yesterday afternoon, injured half a dozen people, some of them quite seriously, and caused a property estimated at $200,000 before the flames were brought under control. At midnight last night the fire was still burning and streams of water were to be played upon the flames through the night. In addition to the city water pressure from a six inch main, there were pumping units from the [fire] departments of Titusville, Oil City and Franklin assisting in fighting the fire.
“…. There were eight employees working in various parts of the filter house at the time of the explosion and four of them were quite seriously injured.”
Temporary rebuilding of the ruined filter house took place. Construction of a new, larger capacity filtration unit followed in 1930, according to the National Petroleum News, August 12, 1931:
“The new plant was decided upon when the older plant became inadequate to properly handle the throughput of lubricating fractions from the refinery. Before the plant was designed, officials of the company visited practically every refining plant in the Western Pennsylvania area and studied in detail the design and methods employed in those refineries.
“…. The filter house proper is a three - story brick building, 124 feet long by 22 feet by 45 feet high…. Twenty - eight 12 - ton filter cylinders are placed vertically in what corresponds to the second floor of the building, between horizontal, parallel concrete floors.”
Continental Refining Company, in partnership with the Pennzoil Company and two other Oil City area refiners, erected a 2500 BOPD Dubbs process gasoline cracking unit at Pennzoil Plant # 2, 1930.
A description of this operation appeared in the National Petroleum News, October 2, 1930:
“Several refiners in the Oil City district have combined interests in cracking operations and the final conclusion of this building contract is the outcome of negotiations which have been going on for several months, it is understood.
“Four refining companies in this area have entered the plan and will utilize the cracking facilities thus provided. These are: Pennzoil Co., Independent Refining Co. [Quaker State], Continental Refining Co., all of Oil City; and the Empire Oil Works, Inc. [Wolf’s Head Oil Refining Company], whose plant is at Reno, a short distance from Oil City.”
Cities Service Company, operators of a 3500 BOPD lubricating oil refinery in Titusville, also acquired shares in the Pennzoil cooperative cracking plant. Raw gasoline and fuel oil from the five operations went into Pennzoil Plant #2 by pipeline, was cracked into finish run gasoline, then was piped back to the parent refineries for blending with additives and shipment.
Continental Refining Company owned 65 tank cars, 15 tank trucks, 10 gasoline service stations and three bulk distribution facilities, 1932 - 1933. Products were marketed under the “Coreco,” “Pennsylect,” “Continental” and “De - Penn - Do” brand / trade names.
Independent dealers also sold Coreco gasoline. Records from the 1930s and 1940s show that there were three Coreco stations in Franklin, eight in Oil City (including a filling station at the refinery) and others in Titusville and Pleasantville.
David Anderton, a great - grandson of Thomas Anderton, once described his family’s refinery between Oil City and Rouseville:
“It was like one big plant from Oil City to Rouseville, and you really couldn’t distinguish one [petroleum refining] plant from another.”
“…. As for Continental, it was one of the first refiners and marketers of what was known as ‘100 per cent Penn Grade pure oil.’”
Declining crude oil supplies and low prices caused the Coreco refinery’s bankruptcy, 1930s. A.B. Weingard, a Pennsylvania Refining Company official, headed a partnership which bought the 1000 BOPD refinery from the Andertons.
Continental Refining Company, Quaker State, Wolf’s Head, Cities Service and Pennzoil were involved in the construction and operation of a catalytic cracking plant and alkylization facility for the United States Government (adjacent to the Coreco site), 1943. This facility, known as Pennzoil Plant #3, processed high octane gasoline (cracked and reformulated from raw stocks provided by the five refiners) for United States Navy airplanes and PT boats during World War II.
Merisol Antioxidants, Ltd. now owns / operates the former high - octane alkylization plant.
Declining Pennsylvania Grade crude oil production closed the Continental Refining Company operation. South Penn Oil Company, Pennzoil’s parent firm, canceled its crude oil contract with the smaller firm, 1945. A merger with the Brundred Oil Corporation was proposed (which would have secured another local source of Pennsylvania Grade petroleum), but the Coreco refinery ceased operations, 1946 - 1947.
The last remaining Coreco building, the 1930 - 1931 filter house, stood until 1992.
Continental Refining Company’s closing was not an isolated case. Several other refineries in Clarendon (Warren) and Titusville ceased operations due to dwindling crude supplies during the 1940s. Three major oil refiners; Cities Service, Mobil and Sinclair; all abandoned the New York - Pennsylvania oil fields for the same reason, 1950s.
Continental Refining Company / Coreco oil cans, signs and other related memorabilia are prized by antiques (“petroliana”) collectors today. Signs painted on barns advertising Coreco Motor Oil were visible at two Venango County locations until recent years.