September 15, 1886 – Trenton Field brings Indiana Gas Boom –
The Eaton Mining & Gas Company, recently established by George W. Carter and a group of investors, discovered a giant natural gas field near Portland, Indiana, at a depth of 922 feet. They had been encouraged by earlier discoveries, including the January “Great Karg Well” in Ohio. The Indiana well revealed what proved to be the Trenton Limestone.
Cities in Indiana and Ohio erected “flambeaux” arches to attract new industries. Indiana banned them in 1891, an early effort to legislate conservation. Photo of Findlay, Ohio, during its 1888 Gas Jubilee courtesy Hancock Historical Museum.
Thanks to the Trenton Formation stretching more than 5,100 square miles across 17 counties, Indiana soon became the world’s largest natural gas producer. Within three years of the discovery, more than 200 companies were drilling, distributing, and selling natural gas.
Learn more in Indiana Natural Gas Boom.
September 15, 1903 – Improved Portable Drilling Machine Patented
Seth Powers of Stanberry, Missouri, received a patent for his “Combined Well Boring and Rock Drilling Machine.” The wheel-mounted, cable-tool framework — used primarily for water wells but capable of finding oil — included a derrick, steam engine, and boring augers.
Seth Powers manufactured a portable drilling rig for boring deeper wells. Image courtesy Superstition Mountain Museum.
Lisle Manufacturing Company promoted the improved technology as a “One-Man Machine” for boring deep wells. By World War I, the company offered a complete line of portable drilling machines, which could bore up to 1,000 feet deep with the gasoline-powered model.
The Superstition Mountain Lost Dutchman Museum east of Phoenix, Arizona, preserves an original 1903 version of the Improved Powers Well Boring Machine.
September 16, 1908 – Carriage Maker incorporates General Motors
William Crapo “Billy” Durant, co-owner of America’s largest manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages, founded General Motors Holding Company in Flint, Michigan. The Durant-Dort Carriage Company, which had taken control of Buick Motor Company, would soon acquire Olds Motor Works of Detroit.
General Motors sold its 1,000,000th car in 1919, an Oldsmobile 37-B model. Photo courtesy Library of Congress.
Within two years, Durant’s General Motors purchased dozens of auto manufacturing companies, including Cadillac and Oakland Motor Car (Pontiac). Durant attempted to acquire Ford Motor Company, but his bankers denied a “buy-out loan” of $9.5 million.
Durant was ousted from GM for over-extending the company’s finances but returned in 1918 after arranging a reverse merger with Chevrolet Motor Car Company, which he had founded with Louis and Arthur Chevrolet in 1911, a decade after the first U.S. auto show. In 1955, GM became the first American company to make more than $1 billion in a single year.
September 17, 2021 – Celebrating a Pennsylvania Oilfield and Museum
Bradford, Pennsylvania, celebrated the 150th anniversary of the discovery of “America’s first billion-dollar oilfield” and the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Penn-Brad Oil Museum. “We look forward to the future, but we celebrate the wealth of our history,” noted the Chamber of Commerce.
Pennsylvanians celebrated anniversaries of the nation’s first billion-dollar oilfield and the oil museum that opened 100 years later to preserve its history.
The Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau released a brief promotional video about the museum and Bradford, once the “high-grade oil metropolis of the world.” One decade after its 1871 discovery, the Bradford field alone produced more than 80 percent of all oil used in the United States — and 70 percent of the world’s production.
September 18, 1855 – First U.S. Oil Company reorganizes
In need of more capital, George Bissell and partner Jonathan Eveleth reorganized their New York-based Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, the first U.S. petroleum exploration company, into the Seneca Oil Company of New Haven, Connecticut. They continued to seek investors for drilling a well to produce oil that could be refined into kerosene.
America’s first oil company, Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, reorganized as Seneca Oil Company of New Haven Connecticut in 1858, one year before drilling the first U.S. commercial oil well.
The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company had been established in 1854 to drill a well near Titusville (see George Bissell’s Oil Seeps). The reincorporated business entered New York City’s capital markets, which had shown little interest in drilling for oil, seen as too speculative.
Seneca Oil hired former railroad conductor Edwin L. Drake, who overcame financial and technical obstacles to complete the first U.S. oil well in August 1859.
September 18, 1948 – Oil discovered in Utah
J.L. “Mike” Dougan, president of the Equity Oil Company, completed Utah’s first significant oil well. Dougan’s small company outcompeted larger and better-financed exploration companies, including Standard Oil of California (Socal), Pure Oil, Continental, and Union Oil. His Uinta Basin oilfield discovery launched a deep-drilling boom in Utah.
Begun in 1948 in the giant Uinta Basin, Utah’s petroleum industry continues today thanks to reserves of coalbed methane gas.
Unlike earlier attempts, Dougan drilled beyond the typical depth of up to 2,000 feet. His Ashley Valley No. 1 well, 10 miles southeast of Vernal, produced 300 barrels of oil a day from about 4,000 feet.
Uinta Basin production soon averaged almost one million barrels of oil a year from 30 wells. As drilling technologies advanced, companies began drilling to 8,000 feet and deeper.
Learn more in First Utah Oil Wells.
September 21, 1901 – First Louisiana Oil Well
Nine months after the headline-making January 1901 “Lucas Gusher” in Texas, another giant oilfield was revealed 90 miles east in Louisiana. W. Scott Heywood — already successful thanks to wells drilled at Spindletop Hill — completed a wildcat well that produced 7,000 barrels of oil a day on the farm of Jules Clement.
Drilled six miles northeast of Jennings, the Clement No. 1 found oil at a depth of 1,700 feet. “The well flowed sand and oil for seven hours and covered Clement’s rice field with a lake of oil and sand, ruining several acres of rice,” noted the Jennings Daily News.
Mrs. Scott Heywood unveiled a marker as part of the Louisiana Golden Oil Jubilee in 1951. Times-Picayune (New Orleans) image courtesy Calcasieu Parish Public Library.
The discovery led to the state’s first commercial oil production by opening the prolific Jennings field, which Haywood further developed by building pipelines and storage tanks. As the oilfield reached peak production of more than nine million barrels of oil in 1906, more discoveries arrived in northern Louisiana.
Learn more in First Louisiana Oil Wells.
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Recommended Reading: Natural Gas for the Hoosier State
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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 website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2025 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.
