“New Jersey Not a Good Field for Oil Investments.”
There would be no East Coast oil boom, despite enthusiastic promotions of a mythical New Jersey oilfield after a family in Millville decided to expand from real estate into oil exploration business on their farm in Cumberland County.
As early as August 1916, a West Coast newspaper covered the unusual attempt to find oil East Coast oil. “Lewis Steelman, the man who has been prospecting for oil near Millville, N.J., for some time, has begun active work to locate an oil well and he confidently expects to strike the fluid,” reported California’s Santa Ana Register.
Steelman Realty Gas & Oil Company
“Steelman has secured options on the property in the vicinity of his estate at Cumberland, near here, and has erected a derrick 75 feet high, by which the drilling will be done,” the newspaper explained.
A New Jersey “oil well” drilled in 1916 was said to have found a previously unknown geologic oil-bearing formation.
Steelman Realty Gas & Oil Company officially incorporated on November 13, 1916, with $300,000 in capital. Most of the company’s stock was sold to Pittsburgh independent producers. Officers included Lewis Steelman, Merton Steelman and Leroy Steelman. Their objective was to “drill for natural gas and oil on lands of the company.”
When a Steelman exploratory well reportedly discovered oil 800 feet deep on a 1,500-acre tract, the Petroleum Gazette in Titusville, Pennsylvania, took note of the discovery.
“Lewis Steelman struck oil on his estate four miles east of Millville in the depths of a big forest,” the Gazette reported. “Experts who were here several months ago assured Steelman that there was oil on the property and he built a derrick and today struck a deposit which it is believed will yield 25 barrels of crude oil daily.”
The Petroleum Gazette (published where the first U.S. oil well had been drilled in 1859) added that Steelman was not satisfied with the oil strike and would “go a few feet lower to protect himself from prospectors who might drain his well.”
Dr. von Hagen’s Predictions
With Steelman Realty Gas & Oil said to be buying hundreds of acres of forest land surrounding Steelman property, company stock sales were buttressed by the declarations of geologist Dr. H. J. von Hagen, cited as “one of the world’s greatest living geologists and petroleum engineers.”
Dr. von Hagen also predicted this previously unknown geologic oil-bearing formation extended into Maryland and West Virginia, varied in width, “but is nowhere more than fifteen miles across.” Dr. von Hagen had spent two years in tracing it, the newspaper added.
Covering news of the New Jersey wildcat well from North Carolina, the Durham Morning Herald reported Dr. von Hagen as one of the men who had struck oil at Millville. The newspaper quoted the geologist as saying the petroleum came from “a great belt which starts near Moncton, New Brunswick, reappears at the eastern end of Long Island, runs near Lakewood, N.J.”
Newspapers as far away as California reported the dubious New Jersey oil discovery.
“Dr. von Hagen says he and his associates have received a $100,000 offer for the well which they are sinking, and from which they can get about fifteen barrels of oil a day, though the final depth has not been reached,” reported the Morning Herald. Dr. Von Hagan himself leased thousands of acres of land east of Millville, as well as nearby Hammonton.
It looked like the beginning of New Jersey’s first commercial oil production. Then Bridgewater’s Courier-News reported startling news. “Dr. von Hagen and His Bag Gone,” the account began. “Residents of this city, Millville and other places in this section are puzzled over Dr. von Hagen and his oil locating scheme. The doctor is away, his offices here are unoccupied at the present, no oil has been struck, and no one has been asked to buy stock.”
The Courier-News also had something to say about the geologist and his unusual methods. “The story about the doctor sinking his wells for wireless communication with Germany is all rot. He claims to have discovered the secret of locating oil under ground. He has a little bag with a golden cord attached. When that Is held over ground where there is oil the bag becomes agitated and swings violently.”
Meanwhile, another account of the well from the Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter said the discovery had “brought considerable notoriety to a locality in which geologic conditions, as promptly announced by the State geologist, are unfavorable to the occurrence of oil in commercial quantities…No instance of oil seepage and no oil-bearing shales have ever been observed by any worker on the State Geological Survey.”
The publication added that the survey had been “continuously active since 1864” and the geology of New Jersey had been studied “to a more minute degree than that of any other State, the conclusion seems irresistible that they (oil-bearing formations) do not occur.”
No New Jersey Oil Boom
Articles describing a successful oil well in New Jersey nonetheless excited investors and apparently attracted more drillers and cable-tool rigs. “Discovery of Flow Near Millville, N.J., Starts Rush of Prospectors,” proclaimed the Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) Times. “The Steelman Realty, Gas and Oil Company, which recently struck oil at their well on the 1,500 [acre] tract three miles east of Millville, has received pipe for a second well which will be started at once.”
“The old timers called the woods road leading to the site Oil Well Road,” notes one Millville resident.
The newspaper said pipe and drills had arrived “for three independent concerns, and prospectors from Oklahoma and elsewhere will sink the wells on leased ground near the location of the well where oil has been struck.”
However, the state geologist remained dubious. “All drilling for oil here is extremely speculative and should be undertaken only by those who fully understand the hazards of the game and can afford to lose their entire venture,” he warned. “The public should therefore beware of stock-selling schemes based on reported discoveries or assumed occurrences of oil in New Jersey.”
An October 1917 report on the well’s status noted technical problems. “For months no work was done at the well owing to the loss of tools and obstruction of the casing (see Fishing in Petroleum Wells).” Despite this trouble, “the sale of stock in an oil and realty company controlling adjoining territory was actively pushed by some of the persons interested in the company which sank the well.”
Millville resident George Martin tracked down the abandoned New Jersey well.
Perhaps the New Jersey State Geologist had the last word about the well when:
“Facts have come to his knowledge which verify what he formerly suspected, namely, that the reputed discovery at Millville was a fake pure and simple, although not all of the persons interested in drilling the well had knowledge of the fraud.”
Steelman Realty, Gas and Oil Company stock certificates today are valued by collectors as remnants of a failed petroleum speculation scheme. “New Jersey Not a Good Field for Oil Investments,” concluded the April 1921 Oil Trade Journal.
For a thoroughly researched chronology of the Steelman well, visit the Millville Historical Society and see Paul M. McConnell’s “A Century Ago, Southern New Jersey Had Its Fifteen Minutes of Fame.”
Home to major East Coast refineries, New Jersey has never produced commercial quantities of oil or natural gas.
The American Oil & Gas Historical Society thanks long-time Millville resident George R. Martin, who trekked the countryside to find the Steelman well in 2017. “”My father and my uncle took me to see it many years ago,” he recalled. “The old timers called the woods road leading to the site Oil Well Road.”
The stories of exploration and production companies trying to join petroleum booms (and avoid busts) can be found updated in Is my Old Oil Stock worth Anything?
Citation Information – Article Title: “Fake New Jersey Oil Well.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/steelman-realty-gas-oil-company. Last Updated: August 24, 2022. Original Published Date: July 20, 2018.
Canadian author preserves history of Alberta Energy Industry.
In 2012, Joyce Hunt of Calgary, Canada, published her 400-page illustrated book Local Push-Global Pull: The Untold Story of the Athabaska Oil Sands, 1900-1930. “If the Oil Sands have been a curiosity to you and you want to fully understand and appreciate the events that shaped the development of the oil sands industry in Alberta, this book is a must read,” noted a February 2012 book review of her work.
“In order to have an educated opinion about the Oil sands, one must first understand the history that led to the development of this massive resource,” the reviewer added.
Joyce Hunt’s introduction to petroleum came at an early age in New Brunswick, Canada.
While the time period Hunt focuses on is different from the significant growth of modern oil sands projects, there are common threads. “The major issues 100 years ago were not that different from the major issues the big players face today,” Joyce Hunt proclaims. She among the sources she cites is a 1920 article in Imperial Oil Review (Canada:
“It is expected that the history of the petroleum industry will again repeat itself and that the higher crude oil prices now prevailing will stimulate production and bring into existence new sources of supply which will ultimately overtake the increasing consumption.
The high price did indeed stimulate exploration throughout the world, and Alberta, Canada, was no exception, says Hunt, who reviews the role of technologies, economics, regulations, war and energy demand that shaped the energy resource.
Although conventional drilling methods were used in most of Alberta, she notes, experiments with extraction processes characterized development work in the Athabasca region throughout the 1920s.
“This economic environment provided the global pull that furthered the local push for ways to develop the Athabasca tar-sands. The deposits had been the subject of examination by curiosity seekers, investigation by government officials, attempted exploitation by promoters, as well as analysis by scientists,” Joyce explains.
“These deposits, unlike conventional petroleum sources, were visible, and well known throughout the petroleum industry, although they were still misunderstood,” she adds. “While many recognized the potential value of the deposits and pushed to develop them, others struggled with suitable terms to describe them, where as some searched for an explanation of their origin.”
Citation Information – Article Title: “History of Alberta, Canadan Tar Sands.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/history-of-canadian-oil-sands. Last Updated: May 3, 2021. Original Published Date: September 1, 2012.
Preserving a father’s letter about efficient light bulb use — and Con Ed’s prompt reply.
The evolution of efficient lighting and the search for safe and inexpensive illumination has been part of U.S. energy history since kerosenebecame a popular lamp fuel in the mid-19th century. Even earlier, illuminating gaslight manufactured from coal provided street lighting in Baltimore (1817), Philadelphia (1836), and other cities.
In September 1882, Thomas A. Edison began operating the first commercial U.S. power station in New York City. The coal-fired plant on Pearl Street powered six dynamos to provide electricity to homes in lower Manhattan. Four years later, six gas New York City companies merged into a giant utility, the Consolidated Gas Company.
Coal fueled Manhattan’s Pearl Street Station in 1882, the first electric powerplant in the United States.
By 1920, Edison’s electric company had become a subsidiary of Consolidated Gas. With electric sales outpacing gas sales, Consolidated Gas changed its name to Consolidated Edison Company of New York in 1936 (see History of Con Edison). Five years later, John Weingart’s father Robert wrote the company seeking the best strategy for turning out lights to lower utility bills.
“I have a wonderful short 1941 correspondence from my father Robert asking the Consolidated Edison Company of New York whether you use more energy turning out lights when you leave a room if you know you’ll be back soon,” explained John Weingart in a November 2019 email to the American Oil & Gas Historical Society.
“I’d like to share it with others who might enjoy it,” Weingart added.
Incandescent light bulb Question
15 West 106 Street New York, N.Y. October 21, 1941
Consolidated Edison Company 4 Irving Place New York, N.Y.
Gentlemen
As a consumer of electricity for many years, I would appreciate an answer to the following questions:
Is there any truth to the report that more electricity is consumed by turning lights on and off frequently than by leaving them burning?
If so, what is the minimum time required for a light to be out before being relit, in order to effect a saving to the consumer? If this varies according to the size of the bulb, please give figures for 10, 25, 40, 50, 60 and 100 watts respectively.
Would you mind giving a brief technical explanation.
Very truly yours
Robert A. Weingart
New Yorker Robert Weingart’s 1941 letter to the Con Edison.
Con Edison Customer Service in 1941
Weingart received a reply from the world’s largest electric utility the next day in a letter from Con Ed’s “Manager of the Sales Technical Bureau.”
CONSOLIDATED EDISON COMPANY OF NEW YORK, Inc.
4 IRVING PLACE
NEW YORK, N.Y.
October 22-1941
Mr. Robert A Weingart 15 West 106 Street New York, N Y
Dear Sir
The belief that more electricity is consumed by turning electric lights on and off frequently than by leaving them burning has, from a practical point of view, no basis in fact.
An incandescent electric light consists essentially of a resistance, usually called a filament, surrounded by a glass bulb. The passage of an electric current through the filament causes it to heat to incandescence at which point it emits light. The function of the glass bulb is to prevent oxygen in the air from coming into contact with the filament in order to prevent the destruction of the filament by oxidation. The interior of the bulb is, in modern lamps, filled with an inert gas, such as nitrogen or argon. For a very small fraction of a second after an electric current is turned on to such a bulb, and until the filament is heated, more than normal current will pass through the filament. This is probably the basis for the belief expressed in your letter, but the increase in the amount of electricity consumed is so small that it could not be measured by ordinary metering apparatus and even the cumulative effect of a great many on and off operations could not be measured with ordinary metering equipment.
The operation of a fluorescent lamp is different in principle from that of an incandescent lamp but the same conclusion holds, that is, that there is no increase in electricity because of frequent turning on and off of the amp which could be measured with ordinary metering equipment. However, in the case of the fluorescent lamp the frequent turning on and off of the lamp is apt to shorten its life considerably through dissipation of the coating on the heating element and the lamp should be applied, therefore, to situations which require frequent starting and stopping, such as in flasher signs.
I trust that this is a satisfactory answer to your question.
Very truly yours,
J C Murtha, Manager Sales Technical Bureau
JCM/hb
John Weingart rightly believes his father’s 1941 letter and the response should be remembered as part of U.S. energy history.
“One of the most striking thing about this correspondence remains, I think, that the question is still unresolved to many (maybe most ) lay people,” he concluded. “When I’ve mentioned this letter or shown it to friends, the first comment often is, ‘Yeah, I’ve wondered about that too.’ And, then the apparent detailed, informative response dated only one day after the initial letter of inquiry remains remarkable.”
Citation Information – Article Title: “OA 1941 Letter to Consolidated Edison of N.Y.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/a-1941-letter-to-con-ed-of-n-y. Last Updated: March 22, 2022. Original Published Date: January 18, 2019.
A potential exhibit about early 20th century petroleum infrastructure and transportation.
An Epping, New Hampshire, family business oil wagon is available to educate museum visitors about early petroleum transportation technologies.
Buxton Oil Company was started in 1960 by Kenneth B. Buxton. When he passed away in 2011, his daughter Donna took the reigns and grew the business into one of the most recognized energy companies in New England. She also kept a horse-drawn oil wagon he had acquired.
Donna Buxton, who sold Buxton Oil in 2018, currently owns and operates Buxton Water Company, wants to find a home for her family’s “beautifully restored antique oil delivery wagon and a massive book that includes history awards and accolades.”
Seeking a museum home or permanent display for her former Epping, N.H., company’s oil wagon, she asked the American Oil & Historical Society’s help in contacting museums (see other examples at AOGHS Oil & Gas Families).
Except when rolled out for fuel and energy shows, the Buxton Oil wagon has been carefully stored in a climate controlled garage in Exeter.
Contact the Owner
“Beside being in local parades, the wagon has been displayed at the New England Fuel institute in Boston and recently at the National Energy Expo in Providence, Rhode Island,” Baxter explains. “This piece is a show stopper and certainly an important part of history and how the transportation and the industry has changed,”
The Buxton Oil wagon would be a great addition to any energy or transportation collection, and “it certainly would be wonderful for our family if a museum would display it.”
If an appropriate museum or historical site can be found, she would be pleased to donate her family’s oil wagon and assist with its transportation and display. To learn more, email bawells@aoghs.org or call Donna Baxter directly at (603) 365-7116.
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Oil and Kerosene Wagons
Bulk horse drawn tankers were seen, “in both town and country, mainly from the late 1890s to the early 1920s,” according to historian D.J. Smith in his 1977 book, Discovering Horse-Drawn Commercial Vehicles. “A number were used, during the 1900s, by large oil and petrol companies. They could be adapted, however, for any type of bulk liquid, from water to paraffin.”
Consumer demand for kerosene lamp fuel led to many commercial, horse-drawn vehicles. Many designs included a riveted tank with three compartments. The tank’s supporting wagon measured about 11 feet long and 5 feet wide. A typical wagon was pulled by two horses with the driver sitting on a padded seat, often built into the tank.
A typical Standard Oil Company of New Jersey kerosene delivery wagon, circa 1900. Photo courtesy Michigan State University.
Usually, oil tanks included three separate compartments (filled from top) designed to carry kerosene, heating oil, and other fluids that could flow out the rear of the tank via separate pipes and valves. Some early tankers rolled on iron (later steel) frames with 40-inch wheels on the front and 48-inch wheels on the rear and equipped with a manual lever hand brake.
A late 1880s Continental Oil Company oil tank wagon has welcomed visitors to the Conoco Museum in Ponca City, Oklahoma, since 2007. Phillips Petroleum Company, once headquartered 70 miles east in Bartlesville, merged with Conoco in 2002. Photo by Bruce Wells.
In May 2007, ConocoPhillips opened two oil museums on the same day as part of the 2007 Oklahoma statehood centennial celebrations. Exhibits at the Conoco Museum In Ponca City educate visitors about that company’s start in 1875 in Utah as a small distributor of coal, grease, and kerosene.
In addition to making deliveries with horse-drawn tank wagons, the Ogden-based Continental Oil and Transportation Company purchased railroad oil tank cars – the first to be used west of the Missouri River.
Docent Shirley Patterson and a Phillips 66 wagon welcomed visitors to the Phillips Petroleum Company Museum in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, in 2012. Brothers Frank and L.E. Phillips founded their oil exploration company in 1903. Photo by Bruce Wells.
Museum docent Shirley Patterson in 2012 welcomed visitors to the Phillips Petroleum Company Museum, offering rare insights about the company she joined in 1952 as a secretary for top executives. During her career, Patterson worked for every Phillips Petroleum president except for the first, founder Frank Phillips.
Recommended Reading:Discovering Horse-Drawn Commercial Vehicles (1977). Your Amazon purchase benefits the American Oil & Gas Historical Society. As an Amazon Associate, AOGHS earns a commission from qualifying purchases.
Links to a few of the many milestones of U.S. exploration and production history (a work in progress).
Although early pioneers who drilled brine wells sometimes found oil instead, the U.S. petroleum industry began with an 1859 Pennsylvania well drilled specifically for oil for refining into kerosene lamp fuel. This oil and natural gas history chronology is a limited sample of the industry’s milestones — exploration, production, technologies, products, transportation,etc.
The petroleum industry history timeline is part of an on-going project of the American Oil & Gas Historical Society (everyone is invited to jointhe research effort). Petroleum history provides a context for understanding modern energy challenges.
The U.S. petroleum industry began on August 27, 1859, with a Pennsylvania well drilled specifically for oil.
“Any survey of the natural resources used as sources of energy must include a discussion about the importance of oil, the lifeblood of all industrialized nations.” — Daniel Yergin, bestselling author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
_______________________
1817 Public street lamp (fueled by manufactured, Illuminating gaslight, lit in Baltimore, Maryland.
1821 First U.S. natural gas well dug near Fredonia, New York.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Milestones of American Petroleum History.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/oil-riches-of-merriman-baptist-church. Last Updated: June 6, 2021. Original Published Date: October 15, 2019.
The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) website is designed to help researchers, journalists, teachers, and students learn more about U.S. petroleum history. When contacted about oilfield family heirlooms, AOGHS also has located suitable museum collections for preserving the histories (see Adding Family Petroleum Heritage to Museum Collections).
There are many more stories and research requests meeting to be shared. AOGHS now adds posts to create simple, comment-forums for site visitors to exchange information. If your have ideas or suggestions for this post, please comment below.
Using Cypress Swamp Tree Stumps…
January 2020
I am a graduate student at the Architectural Association in London working on a project that looks at the potential use of tree stumps as structural foundations. While researching I found the following extract from an article on The Petroleum Industry of the Gulf Coast Salt Dome Area in the early 20th century:
“In the dense tangle of the cypress swamp, the crew have to carry their equipment and cut a trail as they go. Often they use a tree stump as solid support on which they set up their instruments”
I have been struggling to find any photos or drawings of how this system would have worked (ie how the instruments were supported by the stump) I was wondering if you might know where I could find any more information? I would greatly appreciate your help!
