by Bruce Wells | Nov 4, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
America’s petroleum exploration and production industry began in the mid-19th century when a lumber company sold 105 acres along a creek known for natural oil seeps.
On November 10, 1854, the lumber firm of Brewer, Watson & Company sold a parcel of the company’s land at the junction of the east and west branches of Oil Creek southeast of Titusville, Pennsylvania. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Oct 5, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
Along Oil Creek at Titusville, Pennsylvania, the wooden derrick and engine house of the first U.S. well drilled for oil erupted in flames on October 7, 1859. The already famous well had been completed on August 27 by Edwin L. Drake, a former railroad conductor hired by the Seneca Oil Company of New Haven, Connecticut. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Sep 15, 2025 | This Week in Petroleum History
The Eaton Mining & Gas Company, recently established by George W. Carter and a group of investors, discovered a giant natural gas field near Portland, Indiana, at a depth of 922 feet. They had been encouraged by earlier discoveries, including the January “Great Karg Well” in Ohio. The Indiana well revealed what proved to be the Trenton Limestone. (more…)
