November 25, 1875 – Continental Oil sends Kerosene Westward –
Convinced he could profit by purchasing bulk kerosene in cheaper eastern markets, Isaac Blake formed the Continental Oil and Transportation Company and began transporting kerosene refined in Cleveland, Ohio, for distribution in Ogden, Utah.
Conoco began in 1875 as Continental Oil, delivering kerosene to retail stores in Ogden, Utah.
Continental purchased two railroad tank cars — the first to be used west of the Mississippi River — to ship the kerosene by rail. Blake’s company expanded into Colorado in 1876 and California in 1877 before being absorbed by Standard Oil Company in 1885.
Following the 1911 breakup of Standard Oil, Continental Oil reemerged as Conoco, becoming ConocoPhillips in 2002. The company opened two Oklahoma petroleum museums to celebrate that state’s 2007 centennial.
November 27, 1940 – Art Museum displays Mobilgas Station Painting
With petroleum company service stations part of America’s popular culture, the oil painting “Gas” by Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was first exhibited by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Art critics praised the work, suggesting the painting with the Pegasus sign anticipated the modern Pop Art movement by more than a decade.
Edward Hopper’s 1940 oil on canvas “Gas” is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The value of the painting, 26 1/4 inches by 40 1/4 inches, is estimated at more than $100 million.
According to Hopper’s wife, the image of a Mobilgas station at the end of a highway was an amalgamation of several gas stations near their home in Truro, Massachusetts. The painting is owned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Learn more about petroleum’s artistic influences in Oil In Art.
November 27, 1941 – Death of the Oil Queen of California
Mrs. Emma Summers, once known as the Oil Queen of California died at the age of 83 in Los Angeles. Forty years earlier, the San Francisco Call newspaper described Mrs. Summers as “A woman with a genius for affairs — it may sound paradoxical, but the fact exists. If Mrs. Emma A. Summers were less than a genius she could not, as she does today, control the Los Angeles oil markets.”
Newspapers featured Emma Summers as she succeeded in the fiercely competitive Los Angeles oilfields of the early 1900s.
Summers graduated from Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music and moved to Los Angeles in 1893 to teach piano — but soon caught oil fever. With her home near where Edward Doheny discovered the giant Los Angeles City field just a year before, Summers invested $700 for half interest in a well a few blocks from the site. Summers’ first 14 wells produced oil, launching her dominance in the oilfield.
Learn more in Oil Queen of California.
November 27, 1923 – Standard Oil registers Esso Trademark
The Standard Oil Company of New Jersey registered the Esso trademark, which had been in use since May 1923 for refined, semi-refined, and unrefined petroleum products. The name was a phonetic spelling of the abbreviation S.O. for Standard Oil.
A young Theodore Geisel created many Essolube ads beginning in the 1930s (see Seuss I am, an Oilman). When Standard Oil renamed itself Exxon in 1973, the company adopted the Exxon trademark nationwide. The Esso name, acquired by BP through various mergers, has remained in use in other countries.
November 28, 1895 – Inventor Duryea wins First U.S. Auto Race
Six of America’s first “motor cars” left Chicago’s Jackson Park for a 54-mile race to Evanston, Illinois, and back through the snow. Inventor J. Frank Duryea received $2,000 for winning the first U.S. automobile race. His No. 5 racer took just over 10 hours at an average speed of about 7.3 mph. Frank and brother Charles had patented America’s first gasoline-powered auto in June.
The Duryea Road Vehicle was granted a U.S. patent on June 11, 1895. Photo courtesy Library of Congress.
The Chicago Times-Herald, the race’s sponsor, declared, “Persons who are inclined to decry the development of the horseless carriage will be forced to recognize it as an admitted mechanical achievement, highly adapted to some of the most urgent needs of our civilization.” New York City would host America’s first auto show within five years.
November 28, 1892 – First Kansas Oil Well
While drilling for natural gas, William Mills discovered small amounts of oil in eastern Kansas. He took a sample from his Norman No. 1 well and visited experienced oil drillers in Pennsylvania. Impressed, they convinced him to “shoot” the well at Neodesha with 30 quarts of nitroglycerine.
A rare photograph of the 1897 Standard Oil refinery in Neodesha, Kansas, the first to process oil from the Mid-Continent field. Photo courtesy Kansas Historical Society.
The Kansas oil well was the first to find commercial success drilling west of the Mississippi River. “It proved that Neodesha had the riches of oil and gas in their backyard,” according to Neodesha’s Norman No. 1 Historic Oil Well and Museum.
Just 832 feet deep, the discovery well uncovered the vast Mid-Continent producing region, eventually including five states. Abandoned in 1919, the discovery well was neglected until 1961, when a replica 67-foot wooden derrick was erected on the site as a memorial.
Learn more in First Kansas Oil Well.
November 29, 1927 – Patent awarded for Coin-Operated Gas Pump
Lewis P. Starkey, of Fort Collins, Colorado, received a U.S. patent for his “Self Operating Filling Station,” an electrically powered coin-operated device for dispensing gasoline. The L.P. Starkey Pump Company competed with other manufacturers of automatic pumps that did not need an attendant.
Detail from the “Self-Operating Filling Station,” patented by Lewis Starkey of Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1927.
Earlier self-service “gasoline slot machines” had required motorists to insert a coin into a slot and turn a crank. The L.P. Starkey Pump Company was later acquired by Gas-O-Mat Inc. of Denver, which manufactured and sold two models of Starkey’s coin-operated pumps.
Learn more in Coin-Operated Gas Pumps.
December 1, 1865 – Lady Macbeth arrives in Famed Boom Town
Shakespearean tragedienne Miss Eloise Bridges appeared as Lady Macbeth at the Murphy Theater in Pithole, Pennsylvania, America’s first famously notorious oil boom town. A January 1865 oilfield discovery had launched the drilling frenzy that created Pithole, which within a year had 57 hotels, a daily newspaper and the third busiest post office in Pennsylvania.
Star of the stage in boom town Pithole, Pennsylvania, Eloise Bridges, circa 1865.
Bridges appeared at Murphy’s Theater, the biggest building in a town of more than 30,000 teamsters, coopers, lease traders, roughnecks, and merchants. Three stories high, the building included 1,100 seats, a 40-foot stage, an orchestra, and chandelier lighting by Tiffany.
Bridges was the acclaimed darling of the Pithole stage. Eight months after she departed for new engagements in Ohio, Pithole’s oil ran out; the most famous U.S. boom town collapsed into empty streets and abandoned buildings. Today, visitors can walk the grass streets of the historic ghost town.
Learn more in Oil Boom at Pithole Creek.
December 1, 1901 – Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company organized
With almost 1.5 million acres of Osage Indian Reservation under a 10-year lease expiring in 1906, Henry Foster organized the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company by combining the Phoenix Oil Company and Osage Oil Company. The lease provided the Osage with a 10 percent royalty on oil produced and $50 per year for each natural gas well. Foster subleased drilling to 75 different companies, but only 30 wells were drilled in 1903.
Although debt would drive the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company into receivership, the company emerged thanks to partnering with Theodore Barnsdall, who helped Foster complete 361 oil and gas wells by the end of 1904. Foster became known as “the richest man west of the Mississippi” and Barnsdall’s interests were sold to a Cities Service Company subsidiary for $40 million in 1912.
Learn more in First Oklahoma Oil Well.
December 1, 1913 – First U.S. Drive-In Service Station opens
Gulf Refining Company opened America’s first drive-in service station at the corner of Baum Boulevard and St. Clair Street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and sold “Good Gulf Gasoline” for 27 cents per gallon.
Unlike earlier curbside gasoline filling stations, the purposefully designed pagoda-style brick facility offered air, water, crankcase service, and tire and tube installation. A manager and four attendants stood nearby. The service station’s lighted marquee provided shelter.
Gulf Refining Company opened the first service station (above) in 1913 on “automobile row,” Baum Boulevard in Pittsburgh. Photo courtesy Gulf Oil Historical Society.
“On its first Saturday, Gulf’s new service station pumped 350 gallons of gasoline,” notes the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. A July 2000 historical marker adds, “Prior to the construction of the first Gulf station in Pittsburgh and the countless filling stations that followed throughout the United States, automobile drivers pulled into almost any old general or hardware store, or even blacksmith shops in order to fill up their tanks.”
When the Pittsburgh station opened in 1913, Baum Boulevard already was known as “automobile row” because of dealerships located along the roadway. In addition to gas, the Gulf station sold the first U.S. commercial road maps.
Learn more in First Gas Pump and Service Station.
December 1, 1960 – Lucy’s Broadway Oil Musical
Lucille Ball debuted in “Wildcat” — her first and last foray onto Broadway. Critics loved Lucy but hated the show. She played the penniless “Wildcat Jackson” scrambling to find an oil gusher in a dusty Texas border town, circa 1912.
Oil gushers featured on album cover of 1960 Broadway musical “Wildcat.”
“Wildcat went prospecting for Broadway oil but drilled a dry hole,” proclaimed a New York Times critic. Although some audiences appreciated a rare oil patch musical, after 171 performances, the show closed.
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Recommended Reading: CONOCO: The First One Hundred Years Building on the Past for the Future
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please become an AOGHS annual supporter and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2024 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.