George Bissell’s Oil Seeps

New resource for making kerosene for lamps created the U.S. petroleum industry.

 

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…)

First Oil Well Fire

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…)

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