USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Men of achievement in the great Southwest Illustrated. A story of pioneer struggles during early days in Los Angeles and Southern California. With biographies, heretofore unpublished facts, anecdotes and incidents in the lives of the builders > Part 18
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Ahout four years ago Mrs. Butterfield had her at- tention called to the possi- bilities offered investors in lepidolite deposits near Mesa Grande, in San Diego county. The careful and thorough investigation she made of the properties con- vinced her of its merits, and she immediately began to acquire land in the vicin- ity hy both purchase and locating. A company has recently been formed for the purpose of developing the mines, with Mrs. But- terfield as a director. Under the active and pro- gressive policy which char- acterizes any enterprise arousing Mrs. Butterfield's favorable consideration, it can safely be stated that the lepidolite mines of San Diego county will soon be attracting the attention of the mining men of the West.
MRS. R. O. BUTTERFIELD.
San Diego owes much to the energetic personality of Mrs. Butterfield, who has invested not only her own means, but interested eastern capitalists in the development of the great natural and mineral resources of Lower California, Arizona, and San Diego county.
While Mrs. Butterfield's time is necessarily much given up to the many business enterprises with which she is iden- tified, she finds time to make and retain many social ac- quaintances, both at her San Diego home and in eastern cities, where she spends not a little of her time,
Sources of Power for Our Industries
BY G. W. BURTON.
F ROM time immemorial the presence of petroleum in California has been a well-known fact. The Spanish invaders found the exudations of crude oil at many points. It was as thick as soft pitch on the top of the ground where the liquid ele- irents had evaporated. These early Spanish settlers called it brea, and used it for many purposes, as cov- ering roofs of their houses and making court vards about their homes and sidewalks, by mix- ing it with gravel. The first American settlers made similar use of the deposit.
About 1865 some Los Angeles and Santa Bar- bara people conceived the idea of boring for crude oil, and selected the Camulos Rancho, be- longing to the Del Valle family and situated in what is now the eastern portion of Ventura county, then part of Santa Barbara county, as the scene of their oper- ations. Among those engaged in this enter- prise were Cameron E. Thom, Stephen H. Mott and William R. Row- land, all still living, and enterprising citizens of Los Angeles, and Hon. Robert Y. Hayne, of Santa Barbara. The stock of this company was put on the market and sold to many citi- zens of the State. Many thousands of dollars were expended in the search for oil, but the effort was in vain.
WM. R. ROWLAND.
Yet, the territory selected was on the edge of fine oil-producing lands.
About 1875 oil was observed on the Newhall ranch,
about twenty-five miles north of Los Angeles, in Pico Cañon. Chas. N. Felton, afterward Senator of the United States, was induced to join in an attempt to reach this oil. Well after well was bored, but each proved to be a " dry hole." Mr. Felton, with match- less courage, poured thousand after thousand of his money into the search, and at last was rewarded by a well producing a sat- isfactory amount of fine, light-gravity oil. The vein was discovered and many wells were sunk, each giving good re- turns, and the Pacific Oil Company became a . successful venture.
In 1880 the late Wil- liam Lacy of Los Ange- les joined William R. Rowland, owner of the Puente Rancho, in the eastern part of Los An- geles county, to bore for oil in the Puente hills. It was new business in California, and only by costly experiments and persistence was success possible. The first wells were bored in the bot- tom of a cañon and were shallow, small producers of very heavy oil. As holes were sunk further up the hillsides better producers of lighter oil were found, and the Puente Oil Company be- came a large producer and a successful venture.
Little further prog- ress in the industry. was made during the next ten years. Oil outcroppings were more or less numerous from the extreme north- western corner of the State along the Coast Range mountains in a southeasterly direction to the Mexican
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
1
border. Many such outcroppings were known to exist in Santa Cruz and in San Luis Obispo counties. In- side the city of Los Angeles beds of brea and other signs of oil existed, but no effort was made to develop this deposit until nearly 1890. Right in the center of the city, near a small park known as the Second-street Park, such signs were abundant. Here the late Joseph Bayer put down a well, and found a small producer of heavy oil. He followed up this by other wells, and before his death he had over $60,000 invested in the small producing wells found in the district. E. L. Doheny, an oil expert from Pennsylvania, who was
of oil, and is producing a good deal at the present time. Few of the first wells, although bored fifteen years ago, have failed to yield entirely.
Some time before the development of the Los Angeles field was attempted, the Union Oil Company, under the inspiration of Lyman Stewart of Los Ange- les and Thomas R. Bard of Ventura, now United States Senator, began to bore for oil in Torry Cañon and other places in the mountains of Ventura county, near where the first attempt made to find oil in the State failed. By persevering efforts and with great expense the oil was reached. The ground was hard
THE OIL FIELDS AT SUMMERLAND.
here more by chance than design, saw what was being done, and secured some lots and put down several of these shallow wells, producing two to three and up to five or more barrels of heavy oil a day. This Los Angeles city field from these small beginnings has gone on until now it reaches from the east-central part of the city westerly to the city limits, and gocs on into the country ten or twelve miles to the Ca- huenga hills, where the Sherman Oil Company has some fairly good wells. The belt is about half a mile wide at most. This belt has produced a great deal
and the oil lay as deep as 2700 feet below the surface. This is now generally known as Sespe district, and it is a large producer today. The oil is mostly like that of the Pico Cañon, light, and is generally used for refining. A pipe line has been laid to the ocean, and at one time a steamer, specially constructed for oil carrying, was owned by a company attached to the Union Oil Company.
The next field developed was the Whittier field, some twelve to fifteen miles easterly from Los Angeles city, and extending in a generally easterly direction
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
into Orange county, going through Fullerton and on to near the Santa Ana River. This field is on the south slope of the same hills in which the Puente field is on the north slope. The Santa Fe Railway Com- pany secured a large slice of territory on the Olinda Rancho, in the extreme easterly end of this territory. and did energetic development work in that field. The oil is very light, and much is sold to the Standard Oil Company to be refined near San Francisco. The Santa Fé Company intended the oil for fuel on the engines used by the road, but finds it an economy to sell the light oil at over $1 per barrel, and buy heavy oil in other fields, where such oil has been procurable as low as 10 cents per bar- rel. It is probable that the Santa Fé in this way has the cheapest fuel of any rail- road in the country. Some wells in this Fullerton field have cost a great deal to borc. One operator is reported to have put $21,000 in one hole before he reached the oil.
Simultaneously with the development of the Los Angeles and Fullerton fields, oper-
field and Joseph Chanslor went into the same field and struck oil, but not until they had spent a good of money. They could now come out of the field with a large fortune.
The last field developed is that in the northern part of Santa Barbara county, around Santa Maria and Lompoc. It is a rich field, and will make very rich men of the syndicate, mostly Los Angeles men, who own it.
Such, in brief, is the history of oil development in the State of California. It is a total of less than thirty
1
THE OIL FIELDS IN THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES.
ations were begun in Kern county, near Bakersfield. This district is now the heaviest producer in the State, yielding much more than all other fields put together. Fresno is also a large producer, the Coalinga field being one of the best in the State. In this field the chances connected with such enterprises are well illus- trated. The late William Lacy and his associate, William R. Rowland, spent a considerable sum of money searching for oil in the Coalinga field, and found nothing. A few years later, Charles A. Can-
years since the first producing well was found. For the first ten years the pro- duction was not large. The product by years is given below.
Today the Standard Oil Company and the two railroads, the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fé, control a large propor- tion of all the product of the State. The Standard Oil Company has a pipe line over 300 miles in length from the Kern county district to Point Richmond, near San Francisco, by which the oil is taken to the refinery. There are pumping plants all along the line at intervals, as the land is almost level over a great deal of the course. The heavy gravity of the oil compli- cates the task of conveying it so far.
The Standard Oil Company, as already stated, takes a large part of all the production of the State. The two great railroad companies take another large portion of it. These roads have either purchased ter- ritory and put down wells, or they have bought terri- tory already developed. The Santa Fé recently pur- chased territory which cost over $1,000,000. Coal was costing the railroads as high as $7 per ton before
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHIVEST.
oil was discovered. This coal came from Australia, British Columbia, the State of Washington and even from Europe. Tests were made of the comparative value of coal and oil. Tests have proved that one pound of California petroleum on a passenger loco- motive evaporated 10.96 pounds of water from and at 212 deg. F., as compared with 7.14 pounds of water under like condition's evaporated by one pound bitu- minous coal. This is rather below the results attained by other tests, which, in many cases, show that from three and one-fourth to three and one-half barrels of petroleum did the work of one ton of coal. An evap- oration test recently made by the Southern Pacific Company gives further evidence of the superiority of oil. The time of the test was nine and one-half hours. In this time 41,515 pounds of water were evaporated by 5852 pounds of soft coal, or the pounds of water per pound of coal was 7.09. During the same time, 3988 pounds of oil, which was equal to 5987 pounds of coal, evaporated 47,529 pounds of water, or the pounds
is steadily increasing the number of its oil-burning locomotives. On the coast division of this line over $350,000, it is said, was saved last year over the cost of coal. During the past year, the railroads con- sumed, as near as can be estimated, fully 10,000,000 barrels.
Next to the railroads, the largest consumers of crude oil are the refineries, of which there are forty in oper- ation in the State. The largest is that of the Standard Oil Company at Point Richmond, near San Francisco. This has a capacity of 2000 barrels a day. There are several refineries in the Kern district and several others in Los Angeles city. The base of the Califor- nia petroleum is asphalt, and this by-product of the refineries is the most important. It is shipped to many points in the United States, where it is used in street paving, roofing and other ways. The residuum of the refineries is used also in making printers' ink, and asphalt is used in coating water pipes used in irrigat- ing. An excellent point is also made of the by-
THE UNION CONSOLIDATED OIL AND REFINERY COMPANY'S PLANT, LOS ANGELES.
of water per pound of oil was 11.9. As it requires, according to practical tests, on an average of 1000 gal- lons, or twenty-four barrels, of oil for every hundred miles a train is hauled, compared with five tons of coal, the saving on that distance, by using oil at 50 cents a barrel, ranges from $16 to $20. The actual price of the fuel, however, is not the only saving. Actual tests have shown that it possesses other advantages over coal. Besides reducing the wear and tear on
tenders by reason of less weight carried on a single trip, it reduces the work of fire cleaning and handling of ashes at terminals. On the Southern Pacific sys- tem coal is to be abandoned absolutely, and the com- pany is now practically on an oil basis. Its saving annually on its fuel bill is said to be close to $4,000,000.
The Santa Fé is also a heavy consumer of oil, and
product of the refineries. Recently the application of heavy crude oil in road-making has attracted much attention. The crude oil coalesces with the clay and gravel of the roads, forming a thick coat, which, after two or three applications, becomes so hard that it lasts some time. There is no dust in such roads. The railroads have learned to use crude oil on their rights of way between tracks for the same purpose of laying the dust. Railroad travel in California is made very comfortable by this means.
The development of oil has had a very important bearing on manufacturing in California, and most of all in Los Angeles. The cost of coal used to make manufacturing here prohibitive. Coal here cost the manufacturer from $7 to $11 per ton. Eastern com- petitors got their coal at $1.50 to $3 per ton. At first
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
a most important thing to the fruit growers of Southern California. The rainfall here has been rather deficient in this section nearly every year in the last ten. The irrigating streams and artesian wells have run low, and irri- gators have been forced to seek new supplies. This has been done in the way of finding surface wells in many places. Pumping plants have been installed at these wells and abundant water pro- duced at very low cost.
Before the development of an abun- dant supply of crude oil, the importation of foreign coal into California amounted to as much as 2,000,000 tons some years. At $6 per ton, the import cost of this was
LOOKING SOUTHEAST FROM CENTRAL FIELD.
there was much difficulty experienced in burning the crude oil, but persevering experiments resulted in ap- pliances which burn it per- fectly. At 50 cents to even $1 per barrel, crude oil is as cheap here as coal is at the East. Hence, many manu- facturing enterprises have been successfully established here, and they are being added to from time to time. Cheap crude oil has been
L CO
CENTRAL OIL COMPANY'S STORAGE TANKS AT LOS NIETOS, CAL.
LOOKING NORTHWEST.
$12,000,000. This large sum of money is practically all kept in the State now.
New uses for crude oil are continually coming into being. Ocean-going steam- ers have experimented in the use of oil, and with good success. Of course, the trouble here would be the obtaining of a supply of crude oil at the out-port for the return voyage, and to carry enough for the round-trip on a long voyage would not be easy.
Supply and demand have not been steady in the twenty-five years of . the history of the industry. At times there has not been enough to go round. At other times there has been twice as much
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
as there was a market for. The price naturally has fluctuated from $3 a barrel in some localities at times to 10 cents in others, at others. This caused much fluctuation in the production. Up to the close of 1902 the whole amount of the petroleum product of Cali- fornia from the time when mining began in the State is placed at 39,680,217 barrels, representing a total value of $27,067,997. The consumption in 1876 was 12,000 barrels, which represented the total production for that year. Los Angeles county contributed most of this oil, and it was not until 1891 that oil-bearing strata were uncovered in the city of Los Angeles suf- ficient to cause an important increase in the produc- tion, a total of 99,682 barrels. But it was in 1888 when the height of the early development was reached, and in that year 690,000 barrels of oil were con- sumed in the State as a whole. Several years of decadence intervened, and in 1889 the consumption dropped to 303,200 barrels. Little change was recorded until 1893, when the total output aggregated 470,179 barrels. The discovery of new fields in Kern county and in Santa Barbara really marked the birth of a new industry. These fields in 1894 began to con- tribute, and in that year the consumption amounted to 705,969 barrels. It is interesting to note the re- markable advancement that followed. Investors and speculators rushed in, and an oil boom swept over the State. Great increase in the consumption of oil fol- lowed, the consumption growing from 1,208,482 bar- rels in 1895 to 4,329,950 barrels in 1900. In 1901 the consumption reached 7,710,315 barrels, and in 1902 the oil-producing territory of California contributed 14,356,910 barrels of crude petroleum. The last year the output is estimated at 25,000,000 barrels, of a value of $12,500,000, or an average of a little more than 50 cents per barrel. The facts here presented show that during the last year or two consumption. has much more than outrun the output, using up all the accumulation of the previous years, when the opposite condition prevailed. The large amount taken by the railroads and the presence of the Standard Oil Company in the State as a refiner, seem to insure a steady market for all the oil at all likely to be produced for some years to come.
Among the large users of crude oil in the State are the five large sugar factories. This led the sugar- makers of the Hawaiian Islands to use petroleum instead of coal. While steamers bound on long voy- ages do not use oil, and while many coastwise steamers will continue to use coal obtained in British Columbia and Washington, the steamers plying between San Francisco and Honolulu are using oil. These take down crude oil for the sugar factories and bring back cargoes of sugar. The use of oil on roads is only at its beginning. It is pretty sure to grow while oil
can be had at present prices. With the growth of population on the Pacific Coast and of trade between here and China and Japan, manufacturing enterprises must grow apace. Each new plant will create a de- mand for more crude oil. In a year or two the harbor at San Pedro will be completed, and the Salt Lake road will be in operation. The result is sure to be a great revival of shipping at the old embarcadero of the caballeros. The oil deposits of California are said by experts to be only touched. For many years to come new development seems a necessity of the exist- ing conditions.
At the present time, there are sixteen fields in the six districts noted below, where development is going on. There are a total of 2750 wells in these fields. They vary from a few feet deep to 2700 feet, and a well of 3000 feet is now being sunk in the Santa Maria field. These wells, from the estimate made for 1903, seem to be producing an average of about 9000 barrels a year each. Some of them produce less than 500 barrels a year. Most of them have to be pumped. But many of them are great producers, which require little or no pumping .. One well in the Kern district is said to have produced oil of the value of $250,000 in four months. One in the Coalinga field is reported to have put $5,000,000 in the pockets of its owners in a few years. Nearly every man who has gone into the oil business in California has made money. Per- haps in no industry in the country has there been so few failures to make money.
There are many points of minor interest in the Cali- fornia oil industry. The gravity varies very much, some being 8 degrees gravity and some 45 degrees. Some of the shallow wells yield oil so thick it is almost asphalt, and the product of some is a light-green oil almost like manufactured product.
The insurance companies are interested in the use of oil as fuel. In San Francisco there are said to be as many as 300 factories, large and small using crude oil as fuel. A year ago an effort was made to force through the State Legislature a bill forbidding the use of oil unless it was so prepared as to yield a very high-flash test. In the discussion of this subject in committee the insurance companies showed that since the use of oil as fuel had become general in San Fran- cisco factories, the fire losses were much lower than had been the case when coal had been the usual fuel. The average reduction of fire loss was $378,000 per year. The fire record in Los Angeles shows similar results.
The general public has much interest in the oil in- dustry. The stimulation cheap fuel has given to man- ufacturing here has benefited not only the thousands of people employed in such industries, but has an inti- mate bearing on the general business of the city.
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
Employés must have homes to live in, and they must spend their earnings at stores of all kinds in the city. The money paid the wage-earner is seldom hoarded. It is nearly all spent as fast as it comes. Unfortu- nately, it is too often spent before it is earned. These Los Angeles factories now use 250,000 barrels of oil a month. This includes the oil used at refineries. The promise of the future is almost unlimited. There is
BORING FOR OIL.
no reason why, with cheap fuel, with an inexhaustible supply of the best iron ore in the world, easily acces- sible to this city, with a fine harbor at the gates of the city and with the markets of the Orient, and of all the American coast north and south, nearer to this point than to any other, the manufacturing should not grow rapidly. Los Angeles lies nearer the southern cotton fields and nearer the oriental markets for cotton goods than any other point. Cotton factories ought to be possible here.
Thus, looked at from any point of view, the fact is forced on the mind that the future of the California oil industry is something all but impossible to over- estimate. It is not an iridescent dream to guess that before many years pass, the production of crude oil in this State will reach a total of 50,000,000 barrels.
Large fortunes have been made in the business. Large fortunes will continue to be made in it.
Since 1887 the annual production has been as fol- lows, being the official figures of the State Mining Bureau on Petroleum :
BARRELS.
VALUE.
1887
678,572
$1,357,144
1888.
690,333
1,380,666
1889
303,220
368,048
1890
307,360
384,200
1891.
323,600
401,264
1892
385,049
561,333
1893.
470,179
608,092
1894
783,078
1,064,521
1895
1,245,339
1,000,235
1896.
1,257,780
1,180,793
1897
1,911,569
1,918,269
1898
2,249,088
2,376,420
1899
2,677,875
2,600,793
1900
4,329,950
4,152,928
1901
7,710,315
2,961,102
1902.
. 14,356,910
4,692,189
*1903
. 25,000,000
12,500,000
Estimated.
Surely the exhibit here made is an inspiring one.
By districts for the year 1902, the yield was as fol- lows :
BARRELS.
VALUE.
I. Los Angeles
2,198,496
$1,075,868
2. Kern
9.777,948
1,955,585
3. Fresno
571,233
199,931
4. Orange
1,103,793
824,492
5. Santa Barbara
230,440
181,313
6. Ventura
475,000
455,000
14,356,910
$4,692,189
I. Los Angeles City, Whittier, Newhall, Puente.
2. Kern River, Sunset, Midway, McKittrick.
3. Coalinga.
4. Fullerton, Brea Cañon.
5. Summerland, Santa Maria, Lompoc.
6. Santa Paula, Sespe Cañon, etc.
In the two tables presented above, much difference will be noted in the price of the oil. This is due to the varying quality, or gravity, of the product, and to the remoteness of the field from the market.
1
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
CENTRAL OIL COMPANY, OF LOS ANGELES.
O NE of the most remarkable features of development in Los Angeles county and Southern California during the past few years has been the greatly increased pro- duction of petroleum. For a quarter of a century petroleum has been produced on a limited scale in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, but it is only within the past few years, since the discovery of a rich field within the city limits of Los Angeles, that the industry has assumed great importance. Today the petroleum industry of Southern California is attracting the attention of capitalists throughout the country. While development has been extended into other counties, Los Angeles still ranks high in the production of petroleum, having produced in 1902 about 25 per cent. of the total output of the State, which was estimated at 14,000,000 barrels. Among the oil companies that have contributed in a generous degree to swelling this immense annual production, few occupy a more prominent position in Los Angeles county than the above named company.
The history of the company, from the time of its organi- zation in January, 1900, to the present time, has been that of one unbroken string of successes. Capitalized for $1,000,000 with 200,000 shares in the treasury and 800,000 shares out, the company has paid dividends amounting to over $200,000, and this year will pay over 7 per cent. in addition to prosecuting development work with unabated activity. It is free from indebtedness, and directed by men who have won enviable reputations as men of exceptional business acumen.
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