This Week in Petroleum History: September 14 – 20

by | Sep 14, 2026 | This Week in Petroleum History

September 14, 1871 – President Grant visits Pennsylvania Oil Regions – 

President Ulysses S. Grant and his family arrived at Titusville, Pennsylvania, on a special train. The 18th president thanked residents for the reception and noted it was his first visit to the oil regions, adding, “I am aware that this section of the country furnished its full share of men and means for suppression of the rebellion, and your efforts in the discovery and production of petroleum aided materially in supplying the sinews of war, as a medium of foreign exchange, taking the place of cotton.” (more…)

George Bissell’s Oil Seeps

by | Nov 4, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers

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…)

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