August 24, 1892 – Gladys City Oil Company founded

Gladys City (Texas) Oil, Gas & Manufacturing Company drills near Spindletop Hill, which will become famous for a 1901 gusher.

One of the earliest Texas oil companies  — the Gladys City Oil, Gas & Manufacturing Company — is formed by Patillo Higgins and four partners. They lease 2,700 acres in Jefferson County, Texas.

Higgins is convinced that an area known as “Big Hill” — Spindletop Hill — four miles
south of Beaumont, has oil despite all conventional wisdom to the contrary. The new
oil company drills wells on Spindletop in 1893, 1895 and 1896. All are dry holes.

Higgins leaves the Gladys City venture in 1895. Capt. Anthony Lucas will bring in a gusher on January 10, 1901, that changes the petroleum industry forever. The Spindletop field will produce more oil in one day than the rest of the world’s oilfields combined — and Texaco, Gulf, Mobile and Sun Oil will trace their roots to Patillo Higgins’ confidence in the Big Hill.

Two Beaumont museums tell the story of the great Spindletop discovery — and the
role of petroleum in America’s economic development. Visit the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum and the Texas Energy Museum.

August 25, 1922 – New Mexico’s First Commercial Oil Well

The first commercial oil well in New Mexico is spudded by the Midwest Refining Company — a wildcat well on the western edge of the Navajo reservation in San Juan County. Oil is discovered within a month, producing 375 barrels a day from the San Juan Basin. Midwest drills 11 more wells to establish the Hogback oilfield as a major producer.

Two years later, a pipeline to Farmington is completed and oil is shipped by rail to Salt Lake City, Utah, for refining. Visit the Farmington Museum, which features “Dinosaurs to Drill Bits” — an energy education exhibit that tells the oil and natural gas story of the prolific San Juan Basin.

August 27, 1859 – Birth of U.S. Petroleum Industry

"August 27, 1859, is one of those special dates that changed the world," notes one historian. "Edwin Drake's quest to find oil by drilling was a success, and the modern oil and gas industry took a giant leap forward."

The modern American petroleum industry is born in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The Seneca Oil Company’s highly speculative pursuit of oil is rewarded when Edwin Drake and his blacksmith driller, William “Uncle Billy” Smith, bring in the first commercial oil well at 69.5 feet near Oil Creek in Venango County. They launch a new industry.

“The drilling of this oil well, by Edwin L. Drake in 1859, is the event recognized as marking the modern phase of the petroleum industry,” notes a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark at the site, now home of the Drake Well Museum.

“A series of revolutionary technological changes, unforeseen even by the most prophetic, followed,” the historic marker adds. “An emerging source of concentrated energy and abundant chemical compounds, petroleum supported sweeping changes in our modes of illumination, power development, transportation, and industrial chemistry. Few events in history have so transformed the face of civilization.”

A Drake biography published as part of the 2009 celebration of the 150th anniversary includes more than 200 pages of reference material and dozens of rare images. William Brice, PhD, professor emeritus in geology and planetary science at the  University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, is the author of the Myth, Legend, Reality -  Edwin Laurentine Drake and the Early Oil Industry.

August 27, 1859, is one of those special dates that changed the world, Brice explains. “Edwin Drake’s quest to find oil by drilling was a success, and the modern oil and gas industry took a giant leap forward. Even though the use of petroleum dates back to the first human civilizations, the events of that Saturday afternoon along the banks of Oil Creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania, provided the spark that propelled the petroleum industry toward the future.”

More than 150 years after Edwin Drake used the technology of a 32-foot iron pipe to strike our nation’s first commercial oil, and hundreds of wash bins and whiskey barrels to collect it, petroleum producers have progressed.

Visit the outdoor exhibits at the Drake Well Museum.

August 27, 1959 – Centennial Stamp Issue

With more than 120 million stamps to follow the first day of issue, the commemorative stamps are "as a reminder of what can be achieved by the combination of free enterprise and the vision and courage and effort of dedicated men," declares U.S. Postmaster Arthur Summerfield.

“No official act could give me greater pleasure than to dedicate this stamp
commemorating the 100th anniversary of the petroleum industry,” declares U.S.
Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield on this day in 1959 during his keynote
speech at “Oil Centennial Day” in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

During his introduction of the four-cent commemorative postage stamp, he adds,
“The American people have great reason to be indebted to this industry. It has supplied most of the power that has made the American standard of living possible.”

Fifty years later, after granting commemorative status to Kermit the Frog (and friends), the U.S. Postal Service Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee twice rejects attempts to create a sesquicentennial stamp recognizing the 150th anniversary of the U.S. petroleum industry. Read more in the “Centennial Oil Stamp Issue.”

Aug 27, 2009 – Communities celebrate 150th Anniversary of Petroleum Industry

Titusville, Pennsylvania, annual celebrates it famous 1859 oil discovery -- including this parade during the 1934 jubilee.

Oil patch celebrities participated in the 2011 parade during America's oldest annual oil festival.

Petroleum products were among the parade floats for the 150th anniversary -- including this one from Oil Creek Plastics.

A week-long festivities take place in Oil City, Titusville, Bradford and many other northwestern Pennsylvania communities honor the sesquicentennial of Edwin Drake’s historic oil discovery.

A new Mobile Energy Education Training Unit was part of the 2009 Oil 150 celebration at the Drake Well Museum.

Thousands attend the annual Titusville Oil Festival parade on Saturday — part of a 2009 Drake Day Extravaganza with the theme “Oil 150: America’s Energy Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”

The parade includes 75 floats and 10 marching bands along a 1.7-mile route through Titusville. Seven queens from seven area cities participate along with representatives from six volunteer fire departments, who bring 10 trucks. An annual Antique Car Show is held at Drake Well Park while an Oil Man’s Barbecue takes place at the Cross Creek Country Club.

August 28, 1927 – Tool Company founded

Brothers Arthur and Kirby Penick establish the Oil Center Tool Company (O-T-C) in Houston to supply drilling equipment to east Texas oilmen. Within six months, they file their first patent for improvement in well performance and safety.

In 1931, Oil Center Tool Company supplies the East Texas Oilfield boom. O-T-C introduces the first factory-assembled and tested completion systems of assembly of valves, spools, and fittings today known as “Christmas trees.”

By 1957, when Oil Center Tool is acquired by FMC Corporation, it has more than 50 patents, including well head innovations, flow control systems, blow-out preventers and Christmas trees.