Oil History Timeline
| Year | Event |
| 1748 | Peter Kalm of Sweden published map showing oil springs of Oil Creek, PA |
| 1767 | Sir William Johnson of New York recorded Native American practice of skimming oil |
| 1778 | Moravian missionaries reported “oil wells, with the products of which the Seneca Indians carry on trade with Niagara” in Western New York |
| 1785 | General William Irvine reported “Oil Creek, PA, has taken its name from an oil or bituminous matter floating on its surface” |
| 1790 | Nathaniel Carey skimmed oil from springs near Titusville, PA, and delivered it to customers by horseback |
| 1791 | Pennsylvania map showed stream named “OYL CREEK” |
| 1795 | Joseph Scott, first U. S. gazetteer, reported about Oil Creek and Seneca Oil |
| 1795 – 1800 | Crude oil quoted at $16.00 per gallon |
| 1806 | David & Joseph Ruffner drilled first salt well using spring pole, drive pipe, casing & tubing near Kanawha River in western Virginia, well produced oil instead of salt water |
| 1807 | Mr. F. Cuming described collecting oil by blanket dipping in “Sketches of a Tour of the Western Country.” Oil from spring in Oil Creek on the Hamilton McClintock farm sold for $1 – 2/gallon |
| 1833 | Prof. Benjamin Silliman Sr. experimentally distilled crude petroleum |
| 1840 | First recorded use of natural gas for manufacturing, used in brine evaporation at Centerville, PA |
| 1846 | Abraham Gesner produced illuminating oil from Nova Scotia coal, distilling a product he named “Kerosene.” Nitroglycerine, invented by Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero, used by Swedish engineer Alfred Nobel |
| 1849 | Samuel Kier marketed rock oil from his father’s salt well as medicine |
| 1850 | Samuel Kier devised a process to distill crude oil, producing “carbon oil” |
| 1851 | Samuel Kier marketed carbon oil for use in lamps. Dr. Francis Brewer purchased first oil lease on land owned by J.O. Angier, Titusville, PA |
| 1854 | George Bissell & Jonathan Eveleth paid $5000 for 105 acres of land (Hibbard Farm) in Venango County, PA, owned by Brewer, Watson & Co. to collect surface oil. Bissell & Eveleth organized Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company incorporated in NY – first U. S. oil company – and leased Hibbard Farm |
| 1855 | Yale chemist Benjamin Silliman, Jr., filed favorable report on petroleum sample from Hibbard Farm. Bissell & Eveleth reorganized PA Rock Oil Co. as a corporation in Connecticut |
| 1856 | Abraham Gesner’s North American Kerosene Gas Light Co. sold kerosene in New York lamp oil market |
| 1857 | Samuel Downer & Joshua Merrill mastered multiple distillations, chemical treatments, and cracking of crude coal oil (applied to crude oil 3 years later). Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co. of CT leased the Hibbard Farm to Edwin Bowditch & Edwin Drake of New Haven |
| 1858 | Seneca Oil Company of New Haven, Connecticut formed, purchased Bowditch & Drake lease, and sent Edwin Drake to drill |
| 1859 | August 27 -Edwin L. Drake’s well, drilled 69 ½ feet, struck oil near Titusville PA (first well deliberately drilled for oil) and launched the modern petroleum industry. August 30 – John Grandin & H. H. Dennis drilled in Tionesta, PA – first dry hole. October 7 – Drake’s well ignited by gas and destroyed – first oil well fire on record, well house rebuilt and oil equipment replaced |
| 1860 | April – Steamboat “Venango” carried first load of petroleum to Pittsburgh |
| 1861 | May – A. B. Funk’s “Fountain Well” reached 460 feet & flowed 300 barrels per day. Annual U. S. crude oil production increased from .5 million barrels in 1860 to 2.1 million barrels in 1861. October – Phillips Well #2 on Tarr Farm came in at 4000 barrels a day. November – First shipload of petroleum to cross the Atlantic shipped from Philadelphia to London |
| 1862 | Humboldt Refinery established near Plumer, by John Burns & the Ludovici brothers. Jacob Vandergrift and Daniel Bushnell shipped crude from Oil City to Pittsburgh by bulk barge tows, more than 20 Allegheny River shipping companies in Oil City. Oil Creek Railroad reached Titusville from Corry, first railroad into PA Oil Region. |
| 1863 | Pennsylvania legislature passed first anti-pollution bill preventing running of tar and distillery refuse into certain creeks |
| 1864 | “Coal Oil Johnny” Steele began spending spree |
| 1865 | Pithole Creek oil field discovered. Col. E.A.L. Roberts used explosives to increase “Ladies Well” flow near Titusville, PA April 9 – Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse ended the Civil War. April 14 – President Abraham Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Six weeks later, well on Pithole Creek, in which Booth had a share, struck oil. Van Syckle oil pipeline connected Miller Farm on the Oil Creek Railroad to the U. S. Well, a distance of approximately 6 miles. |
| 1866 | Patent for exploding torpedoes in wells granted to E.A.L. Roberts – 2000 lawsuits filed involving patent, but it was said Roberts never lost a suit Roberts exploded a torpedo in “dry hole” establishing oil flow in a non-producing well Alfred Nobel invented dynamite. |
| 1867 | E.A.L. Roberts licensed by Alfred Nobel to use dynamite in shooting wells. |
| 1867 | Nikolaus Otto invented early internal combustion engine |
| 1868 | John Benninghoff robbery near Petroleum Centre netted robbers half million dollars |
| 1869 | Rockefeller, Andrews, and Flagler firm operated in Oil City, Cleveland, and New York Oil exploration moved south to Armstrong, Clarion, and Butler Counties, PA |
| 1870 | Crawford Well in Emlenton, PA produced 35 barrels of oil per day Standard Oil Company organized as corporation in Ohio |
| 1871 | Titusville Oil Exchange formed |
| 1872 | Newton Gas Well, Titusville, produced gas for 250 customers. |
| 1873 | Edwin L. Drake granted a $1500 annual pension by Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. |
| 1874 | Bradford oil field boom |
| 1877 | Pithole Borough Charter annulled |
| 1878 | Standard Oil controlled 90% of nation’s refining capacity |
| 1879 | Thomas Alva Edison invented incandescent lamp Tidewater Pipeline completed from Bradford to Williamsport – 100 miles |
| 1880 | November 8 – Edwin Drake died in Bethlehem, PA, at age 61 |
| 1881 | Standard Oil organized the National Transit Company |
| 1882 | Standard Oil Trust organized |
| 1885 | German engineer Karl Benz built first internal combustion engine vehicle |
| 1890 | Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act |
| 1892 | First American car built by Duryea brothers First steel derrick, 72 feet in height, constructed and made available through catalog Standard Oil Trust passed formal resolution to dissolve |
| 1893 | Thomas Edison introduced motion pictures |
| 1895 | First U. S. automobile road race won by Duryea “motor wagon” California produced 1.2 million barrels of crude oil |
| 1896 | First reported U. S. automobile accident occurred in New York City – Henry Wells collided with bicycle rider Evylyn Thomas, breaking her leg. Wells went to jail |
| 1899 | Standard Oil reorganized as holding company in NJ |
| 1900 | 8000 automobiles owned in the United States, half sold this year |
| 1901 | 14,800 automobiles registered in the U.S. Spindletop well struck oil in Texas |
| 1902 | Ida Tarbell began publishing Standard Oil series in McClure’s Magazine. |
| 1903 | May 23-August 1 – First transcontinental automobile trip, San Francisco to New York December 17 – Kittyhawk, North Carolina, Wright Brothers made their first heavier than air powered flight – flight lasted 59 seconds |
| 1904 | First plant for extracting natural gasoline (Casinghead gasoline) from natural gas by the compression method built by Andrew Fasenmeyer near Drake Well at Titusville, PA. |
| 1908 | October 1 – First Model T Ford built First commercial natural gasoline plant built at Sistersville, West Virginia |
| 1909 | Standard Oil of NJ found guilty of Sherman Act violations, company dissolved into 37 independent organizations in 1911 |
| 1911 | 667,000 automobiles registered in the United States |
| 1919 | Gasoline replaced kerosene as product leader of the American petroleum industry |
| 1920 | 8,500,000 automobiles & trucks registered in the U.S. |
| 1927 | Charles A. Lindberg made first successful trans-Atlantic flight |
Compiled for Drake Well Museum with research by Neil McElwee, Susan Beates, and David Weber.
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