by Bruce Wells | Aug 24, 2026 | This Week in Petroleum History
August 24, 1892 – “Prophet of Spindletop” founds Oil Exploration Company –
Patillo Higgins, who would become known as the “Prophet of Spindletop,” founded the Gladys City Oil, Gas & Manufacturing Company and leased 2,700 acres near Beaumont, Texas. Higgins believed oil-bearing sands could be found a few miles south of town. Most earth science experts said he was wrong.
A self-taught geologist, Higgins had noticed oil and natural gas seeps at Spindletop Hill while taking his Sunday school class on picnics. He later supervised the planning of Gladys City, which he named for his favorite student. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Aug 19, 2026 | Petroleum Pioneers
The U.S. petroleum industry began in 1859 to meet demand for “Coal Oil” — the popular lamp fuel kerosene.
American oil history began in a valley along a creek in remote northwestern Pennsylvania. Today’s exploration and production industry was born on August 27, 1859, near Titusville when a well specifically drilled for oil found it.
Although crude oil had been found and bottled for medicine as early as 1814 in Ohio and in Kentucky in 1818, these had been drilled seeking brine. Drillers often used an ancient technology, the “spring pole.” Sometimes the salt wells produced small amounts of oil, an unwanted byproduct.
America’s first petroleum exploration company, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of New York, incorporated in 1854. It reorganized as the Seneca Oil Company of New Haven, Connecticut, in 1858.
The advent of cable-tool drilling introduced the wooden derrick into the changing American landscape. The technology applied the same basic idea of chiseling a hole deeper into the earth.
Using steam power, a variety of heavy bits, and improved mechanical engineering skills, cable-tool drillers became more efficient (learn more Making Hole – Drilling Technology). (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Oct 5, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
Driller of first U.S. oil well accidentally ignited it 41 days later.
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 | Mar 17, 2025 | Energy Education Resources
Biography of father of U.S. oil industry reaches total depth.
In August 1859, the man who would launch America’s petroleum industry was down to his last pennies — and a letter was on its way to “Colonel” Edwin L. Drake telling him to cease drilling at Titusville, Pennsylvania. Investors in the first oil company wanted him wanted out.
“As far as the company was concerned, the project was finished,” notes historian William Brice, PhD, in his 2009 biography of Drake, a former railroad conductor. “Fortunately that letter was not delivered until after they found oil.” (more…)
