People
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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.
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Samuel Kier - Medicine Man & Refiner
Have you ever tasted crude oil? Probably not! In fact, most people would react to the question with disgust. If you have ever been near an oil well, pipeline, tanker, or refinery, you are undoubtedly familiar with the sight and odor of this liquid hydrocarbon. Pennsylvania’s crude oil called Penn Grade crude, often looks and smells pretty bad.
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Samuel Justus (1836 - 1920)
Because Samuel Justus was such a private man, no known photographs exist and not much is written about him. The little information we do know indicates that he was born in January, 1836, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Justus moved to Oil City, served for nine months as an Union soldier during the Civil War and after the war, managed an iron furnace and a grocery.
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Patrick Boyle (1846-1920)
Boyle, known both as P.C. and Pat, was 39 years old when he purchased the Derrick Newspaper in 1885, making it the "organ of oil." He was referred to the world over as "The Derrick," which was regarded as an essential publication wherever oil was produced and refined.
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J. T. Jones - Early Oil Region Producer
Overlooking the harbor at Gulfport, Mississippi, a bronze statue of a stocky elderly man dressed in a business suit stands on a broad, sculpted stone pedestal. On the front side of the pedestal facing the sea, the inscription reads. “Captain Joseph T. Jones – Founder of the Port of Gulfport”. The backside of the pedestal informs the passing public this pioneering oil producer from Pennsylvania and West Virginia built the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad and the city and harbor of Gulfport.
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Joseph Sibley (1850 - 1926)
Joseph Sible/s life was very busy. His father's death, while Joseph was a young man, prevented him from going to college, but he educated himself by reading.Later, in 1871 while working for Galena Oil Works, Sibley almost died in the Great Chicago Fire. Eventually, he became president of his own oil company, the Signal Oil Works.
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Joseph Reid (1843 - 1917)
While he became famous for his engines and locomotives, Joseph Reid's life had a beginning typical of the time. He was born in Scotland in 1843 and until the age of 11 attended school when he was apprenticed to a woodworker. His own goal was to become an engineer, so in time, he began work as a machinist.