The financial information here at Old Oil Stocks – in progress “D” likely will not lead to you finding lost riches – see Not a Millionaire from Old Oil Stock. The American Oil & Gas Historical Society depends on your support; AOGHS does not have resources to research all corporate oil histories.
However, AOGHS continues to look into forum queries as part of its energy education mission. Some investigations have revealed little-known stories like Buffalo Bill’s Shoshone Oil Company; many others have found questionable dealings during booms and epidemics of “black gold” fever like Arctic Explorer turns Oil Promoter.
Visit the Stock Certificate Q & A Forum and view company updates regularly added to the A-to-Z listing at Is my Old Oil Stock worth Anything? AOGHS will continue to look into forum queries, including these “in progress.”
D.M. Simon Oil & Gas Company
D.M. Simon Oil and Gas Company incorporated in Pennsylvania on September 13, 1950. Fourteen years later, shareholders voted to dissolve the corporation and the Pennsylvania regulators issued a certificate of dissolution dated November 10, 1964.
Dallas Oil Company of Texas
“WHEREAS, Alexander R. Abrahams, Tax Commissioner on behalf of the Tax Department of the State of Delaware, has reported to me a list of corporations which for two years preceding such report have failed to pay the taxes assessed against them and due by them under the laws of this State…NOW, THEREFORE, I, DAVID P. BUCKSON, Governor of the State of Delaware, do hereby issue this proclamation according to the provisions of Sections 511 and 512 of Title 8 of the Delaware Code of 1953, as amended, and do hereby declare under this act of the Legislature that the charters of the following corporations, reported as aforesaid, are repealed: Dallas Oil Company of Texas, Inc. IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I, David P. Buckson, Governor of the State of Delaware, have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal to be hereunto affixed this sixteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and eighty-fifth.”
Delaware Union Oil Company
Delaware Union Oil Company was capitalized at $5 million principally from New York and London investors. In 1911 the company – with wells producing 35,000 barrels of oil a month – acquired property in California’s Fullerton oilfield from the Graham-Loftus Oil Company for $1.3 million. In December Felix Chappellet was appointed superintendent of the Fullerton property, which was formerly owned by William Payne Whitney, the Waterbury Wire Rope Company and other New York and London firms. This property was sold to the General Petroleum Company in May 1912.
Denton-Eastland Oil Company
In 1921 Denton-Eastland Oil Company drilled into the famed Ranger oilfield in Texas – but investors’ hopes ended when drilling reached a depth of 3,460 feet in June with no show of oil. The company’s first and only well (No. 1 Moore) was abandoned as a dry hole. Read about the “Roaring Ranger” well and other North Texas discoveries in Pump Jack Capital of Texas and Boom Town Burkburnett.
Desoto Oil Company
Desoto Oil Company was organized just seven years after the birth of America’s commercial oil industry in Titusville, Pennsylvania. A stock certificate may have value to scripophily collectors but not as a negotiable security. Pennsylvania State Archives (record group RG-26, records of the Department of State, 1-1485 box 30) contains a July 10, 1866, Desoto Oil Company “charter and list of subscribers” may offer additional research leads.
DeSoto Oil Company
The Ohio secretary of state reported DeSoto Oil Company of Lewisburg dissolved March 21, 1921 – and the DeSoto Oil Company of Cleveland incorporated two-weeks later (April 6, 1921) with capital stock of $150,000. In 1920, the same entrepreneurs (listed only as Jollay, Bloomfield, Grolle, Henderson and Paxton) also incorporated Peerless Products Company for bituminous products (Jollay and Grolle); the American Electric Refrigerator Company (Grolle, Bloomfield and Paxton); and The Auto Tire & Gauge Company (Jollay, Bloomfield and Grolle.). None of these companies appear to have survived. Similarly, Ohio records show Tioga Oil & Gas Company of Cleveland incorporated November 23, 1920, with capital stock of $ million but nothing thereafter.
Detroit Oil & Refining Company
Detroit Oil and Refining Company appears to be a short-lived entity of the previously formed Dattner Oil & Refining Company, also of Detroit. Between June and November 1920, the Oil and Gas News reported on Dattner Oil’s progress as this company drilled four miles southwest of Bowling Green, Kentucky. It brought in a 30-barrels-of-oil-a-day producer that prompted construction of three 350-barrel storage tanks and the drilling of four additional wells.
Dattner Oil & Refining Company then temporarily lost its charter to do business, but was reinstated in April 1921. This notwithstanding, within two months Dattner Oil & Refining filed to change its name to Detroit Oil and Refining Company. Detroit Oil and Refining Company left few accessible records until being reported out of business in 1926 by the Marvin Scudder Manual of Extinct or Obsolete Companies.
Dominion Oil Company – see Middle States Oil Corporation
The stories of exploration and production companies joining petroleum booms (and avoiding busts) can be found updated in Is my Old Oil Stock worth Anything? The American Oil & Gas Historical Society preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please support this AOGHS.ORG energy education website. For membership information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. © 2020 Bruce A. Wells.