by Bruce Wells | Nov 14, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
Among the great Oklahoma oilfields, Glenn Pool in 1905 helped the careers of Sinclair, Getty, and others.
Greater than the 1901 oilfield discoveries at nearby Red Fork and Spindletop Hill in Texas, the Oklahoma Territory giant Glenn Pool field produced a “light and sweet” oil from the Creek Indian Reservation. Its discovery made Tulsa the “Oil Capital of the World.”
On a chilly fall morning in 1905 — two years before Oklahoma became a state — oil was discovered on the Glenn family farm south of Tulsa. The oilfield discovery well launched a drilling boom that greatly exceeded the first Oklahoma oil well of 1897 at Bartlesville. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Nov 4, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
Astute businesswoman prospered in booming Pennsylvania and New York oilfields.
In 1899, Mary Byron Alford, the “Only Woman in the World who Owns and Operates a Dynamite Factory,” prospered in the midst of America’s first billion-dollar oilfield. Mrs. Alford’s oilfield nitro factory cooked 3,000 pounds of nitroglycerin every day.
The 85,000-acre Bradford oilfield in north-central McKean County, Pennsylvania, and south-central Cattaraugus County, New York, remains an important part of U.S. petroleum heritage. There are many reasons, including Mary Alford’s pioneering oilfield career at the turn of the century.
Penn-Brad Oil Museum Director Sherri Schulze in 2005 exhibited a laminated (though wrinkled) newspaper article from 1899. “This was done by a student many years ago,” she said. “It was a school project done by one of Mrs. Alford’s descendants.”
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by Bruce Wells | 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…)
by Bruce Wells | Oct 31, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
Giant oilfield discovery at Hobbs in 1928 launched the New Mexico petroleum industry.
“It was desolate country: sand, mesquite, bear grass, and jackrabbits. Hobbs was a store, a small school, a windmill, and a couple of trees.” — A New Mexico roughneck.
Although the Hobbs discovery came six years after the first oil production (seven years after the first natural gas well), petroleum geologists soon called it the most important single oil find in New Mexico history.
Spudded in late 1927, the Midwest State No. 1 well saw its first signs of oil on June 13, 1928, and the wildcat well was completed November 18 at a depth of 4,065 feet to produce 600 barrels of oil per day. It had been a long journey revealing the giant Hobbs field. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Oct 29, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
19th-century “Smoky City” skies cleared when factories replaced coal with natural gas.
In 1878, the Haymaker brothers discovered a Pennsylvania natural gas field near Pittsburgh – and laid the foundation for many modern petroleum companies.
Like many young men of their time, Michael Haymaker and his brother Obediah sought to make their fortunes in Pennsylvania’s booming petroleum industry. They left their Westmoreland County farm to seek work in the oilfields. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Oct 26, 2025 | Petroleum Pioneers
Oilfield service company founder and future mayor of Toledo patented a “Coupling for Pipes or Rods” in 1894.
Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones of Ohio made a fortune in oilfields and supplying equipment and services, patented an improved sucker rod for pumping oil, and created a better workplace for his factory employees. He ran on the progressive Republican ticket in 1897 and was elected mayor of Toledo. He would be reelected three times.
As the country weathered an 1890s financial crisis, Samuel M. Jones brought a new business philosophy to Toledo, Ohio. An immensely popular mayor, he was reelected in 1899, 1901, and 1903 — and served in office until dying on the job in 1904.
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