People
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Edwin Laurentine Drake (1819-1880) by Dr. William R. Brice
As with most people, Drake is a more complex individual than would appear at first glance. About part of his life we know a great deal, while other parts of it are more obscure, but it was an interesting life, and his actions changed our modern world forever.
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SAMUEL KIER (1813-1874) – GIVING OIL COMMERCIAL VALUE
Samuel Kier was the first to give crude petroleum a sustained market value when in 1848 he packaged pure crude oil from Tarentum area salt wells in half-pint bottles for sale as a medicine. A half-pint bottle of Kier's Petroleum, or Kier's Rock Oil, sold for 50 cents.
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BARREL OF LAUGHS
A compilation of short humorous stories about real life in the oil patch.
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PENNSYLVANIA OIL INDUSTRY AND EARLY AVIATION
Oil “fueled” the development of aviation. This fact was noted by Daniel Yergin in The Prize (1991). “When the Wright Brothers airplane first flew into the air at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903, its engine burned gasoline and lubricants that had been brought to the beach in wooden barrels and blue tin cans by salesman from Standard Oil.”
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Pew and Emerson - Early Oil Region, Men and The Peoples Natural Gas Co.
The genesis of the Peoples Natural Gas Co. began with a mighty roar near Murraysville in Westmoreland County; a roar observers of the time claimed could be heard ten miles away. The Haymaker brothers, Michael and Obediah, had been drilling a well for oil with meager resources and equipment in 1878. Disheartened with no encouraging signs, they were about to abandon the well at 500 ft. when H. J. Brunot stepped in with encouragement and financing. The Haymakers continued drilling to a depth of 1,400 ft. when the earth suddenly and without warning on November 3, 1878 shook violently and exploded with an enormous stream of natural gas that blew the rigging over a hundred feet into the air. Releasing 30 to 40 million cubic ft. of gas a day, the great Haymaker Well became a natural wonder people from all over the country came to see.
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MID-CONTINENT FIELD OF KANSAS AND OKLAHOMA
In 1919, the great Mid-Continent Field of Kansas and Oklahoma produced 193 million barrels of crude, more than half of all the crude produced in the United States. At the time, this gigantic field was producing nearly twice as much as California and more than twice as much as the combined production of the Appalachian, Gulf, Rocky Mountain, Illinois and Lima Fields.
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EMMA SUMMERS, OIL QUEEN OF CALIFORNIA
Emma Summers was early owner of oil wells in California. Confident of inevitable success, Emma purchased interests in other wells before her first well was finished. She hired her own workmen, personally purchased drilling tools and supplies and superintended the daily work and well development. She was not afraid of going into debt and would work at night teaching piano to help pay her workers and the growing stack of bills.
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John F. Carll: The First Petroleum Geologist and Engineer
John Franklin Carll was born in Bushwick, New York, now Brooklyn, on May 7, 1828. Carll moved to Venango County, Pennsylvania in 1864.
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Charles Lockhart
Charles Lockhart of Pittsburgh first became involved in the early Pittsburgh area petroleum trade in 1852, seven years before the commercial success of the Drake Well in 1859.
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George Bissell: Oil Industry Patriarch
George Bissell in New York City learned by telegraph of the Drake Well’s success the same day the good news reached nearby Titusville in late August 1859.