USA > Pennsylvania > Venango County > Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1) > Part 33
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110
Year
No. Wells
Bbls. Produced
Average Price
Consumption
Stock
1859.
I
2,000
$20.00
1860.
200
200,000
9.60
1861
300
2,110,000
2.73
1862.
400
3,055,000
1.05
1863
500
2,610,000
3.15
1864
1,000
2,1 30,000
9.871/2
1865.
1,000
. 2,721,000
6.59
1866.
900
3,732,000
3.74
1867
900
3,583,000
2.41
1868.
1,000
3,716,000
3,621/2
1869.
1,000
4,351,000
5.6334
1870.
1,044
5,371,000
3.89
3,156,528
554,626
1871.
1,472
5,531,000
4.34
5,553,626
532,000
1872.
1,201
6,357,000
3.64
5,804,577
1,084,423
1873.
1,361
9,932,000
1.83
9,391,226
1,625,157
1874.
1,350
10,883,000
1.17
8,802,513
3,705,639
1875.
2,385
8,801,000
1.35
8,956,439
3,550,200
1876.
2,960
9,015,000
2.561/4
9,740,461
2,824,730
1877
3,954
13,043,000
2.42
12,739,902
3,127,837
1878.
3,018
15,367,000
1.19
13,879,538
4,615,299
1879.
2,889
19,827,000
.8578
15,971,809
8,470,490
1880.
4,194
26,048,000
.941/2
15,590,040
18,928,430
1881.
3,848
27,238,000
.8576
20,146,726
26,019,704
1882.
3,269
30,460,000
7878
21,883,098
34,596,612
1883.
2,886
24,300,000
1.0534
22,096,612
36,800,000
1884.
2,309
23,500,000
.831/2
23,500,000
36,800,000
1885.
2,857
20,900,000
.88
23,900,000
33,800,000
1886.
3,525
26,1.50,000
.711/4
26,750,000
33,000,000
1887.
1,679
21,818,037
.663/
26,627,191
28,310,282
1888.
1.504
16,131,000
.8734
26,470.655
18.505.474
From one well of 1859 two thousand barrels were produced at an average price of twenty dollars a barrel. Five years later one thousand
nated by the attempt to produce oil and to manufacture all that was required to obtain it and to send it on its way to the world at
Digitized by Google
157
VENANGO COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
large. This accounts naturally for the aban- donment of many other enterprises.
The refining business at Franklin began in a small way. The first to engage in this line was a Mr. Brown, and his methods were ex- ceedingly primitive. The first refinery of any consequence was built by J. P. Hoover, and was burned in the autumn of 1861.
The Norfolk Oil Works were also estab- lished in 1861. Their capacity was two hun- dred barrels a week. In 1864-65 there were nine refineries in operation and after this the business for a time seems to have been discon- tinued almost entirely in Franklin. At present, however, the oil works at Franklin are very extensive.
The Keystone Oil Works were built in 1864 by Samuel Spenser at a cost of thirty thou- sand dollars. He leased the works to Jacob Sheasley, and the latter leased them to the Standard Oil Company in 1875, for ten years, during which period the plant was not oper- ated. J. H. Cain purchased the property in 1885, from which date the tankage capacity was three thousand barrels; still capacity, three hundred barrels a day, and filtering ca- pacity two hundred barrels a month. The product consisted mainly of lubricating oils, amounting to six or eight thousand barrels an- nually. This concern was united with the Franklin Oil Works Jan. 1, 1890, and the lat- ter works are still carried on by Earl G. Ream- er, manager, and by Jacob W. Reamer. They are located at the foot of Atlantic avenue.
The Crescent Oil Works were first operated in 1873 in connection with an evaporating es- tablishment in Sugar Creek township by L. H. Fassett.
The Relief Oil Works were built in 1878, S. P. McCalmont was chairman of the com- pany, S. P. McCalmont, Jr., secretary, and O. B. Steele, manager. The stillage capacity was nine hundred and fifty barrels, and weekly ca- pacity two thousand, five hundred barrels. The works were located across the river in Cranberry township.
The Galena Oil Works, Limited .- In 1869 Charles Miller and John Coon purchased the Great Northern Oil Company, which was or- ganized in 1865, and was leased in 1868 by Colonel Street. In July R. L. Cochran became a member of the firm, and the name was then changed to Miller, Coon & Co. In January, 1870, Mr. Cochran retired, R. H. Austin tak- ing his place, and the firm name became Mil- ler, Austin & Company. In August, 1870, they were succeeded by the Galena Oil Works. Charles Miller, John Coon, R. H. Austin and
H. B. Plumer were partners. Messrs. Coon, Austin and Plumer disposed of their interests to the Standard Oil Company in December, 1878, from which date the business has been continued by the Galena Oil Works, Limited, and its successor the Galena-Signal Oil Com- pany, of which General Charles Miller is pres- ident; C. C. Steinbrenner, George C. Miller, vice presidents ; J. French Miller, secretary and treasurer ; G. E. Proudfoot, assistant secretary ; L. F. Stull, assistant treasurer ; D. D. Mallory, controller ; George A. Barnes, manager elec- tricity department ; James E. Linehan, super- intendent mechanical expert department ; L. E. Brown, superintendent shipping department. The office building is at Liberty street, corner of South Park, Franklin.
In 1869, when Gen. Charles Miller first be- gan the production of lubricating oil by refin- ing it from petroleum and compounding it with lead and other lubricating mediums, the stand- ard lubricants for railway service were tallow, lard oils and greases. Astonishing as it may seem to modern railway men, in the light of present-day knowledge of the subject, General Miller had not only to prove to the railway executive of those days that Galena oils were more efficient than the previously used ma- terials, but in order to secure the opportunity to demonstrate that efficiency, he had to make guarantees against injury to bearings, valves and machinery if Galena oils were put in on trial ! How well Galena oils made good and have continued to do so through all these years is probably best evidenced by the fact that the first three railroads to use Galena products are still using them and have done so continuously for nearly half a century.
It is a period of only about thirty years from the date of the first electric car in America to the. comfortable, high-speed, efficient electric car of to-day. Naturally this rapid progress in modern methods would not have been pos- sible without concurrent progress in every de- partment of the railway business. Greater speed, increased weight of equipment, longer runs and other factors have naturally created a need for more efficient lubrication. Galena oils and the service that goes with them have met this need throughout the whole period of modern railway development. Galena meth- ods have never stood still. They have always improved. Galena products were tried by a few railroads at first. Their superior value was demonstrated beyond question. Their use increased rapidly. As lubricating demands be- came more exacting, Galena oils met the new conditions.
Digitized by Google
158
VENANGO COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
Galena service was developed and broad- ened so that the cost of lubricating railway equipment could be reduced and better lubri- cating methods would be adopted by the in- dustry. That this service is a real one-that Galena products have played a big part in the growth of the railway industry-is evidenced by the fact that today the equipment of prac- tically every steam road and a majority of the electric railways of the United States and Canada are lubricated with Galena oils under Galena contract supervised by Galena experts.
This company also manufactures signal oil, which is considered to be unequaled for signal lamps, for headlights, marker and clas- sification lamps, to secure greatest candle power and purity of light. It is valuable for switch and semaphore lights as it burns for a long time.
General Miller guaranteed results to his cus- tomers. This he could do, for he knew by long years of experience and study that it was safe to do so.
The following plants are among the impor- tant manufacturing concerns of Franklin, giv- ing employment to hundreds of people and pay- ing out annually hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages and salary: The Colburn Machine Tool Company, The Venango Man- ufacturing Company, the American Steel Foundries Company, the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company, the Franklin Manufacturing Company, and the General Manifold and Printing Company.
General Miller took an active part in encour- aging these companies to locate here, and was doubtless the deciding factor in bringing them to Franklin. The Galena Company has a fine record in regard to the wages of its employes. They have been looked after during sickness and misfortune and are pensioned on arriving at the age of sixty or sixty-five, after twenty years of satisfactory service.
The Franklin Steel Works, Edward E. Hughes, general manager, C. F. Mackey, as- sistant general manager, F. H. Allison, cashier, have rolling mills located at No. 602 Atlantic avenue. This has an important place in Frank- lin's manufacturing industries. It employs at present over two hundred men in the manu- facture of steel for concrete reinforcement, angles, channels, channeled flats and miscel- laneous shapes used in the manufacture of agricultural implements and metal furniture. One of its specialties is the making of steel poles and towers for all overhead construction. It also produces a brake beam, known as the
"creco" beam, which has become famous and is used by railroads at home and abroad.
The American Steel Foundries Company, Percy P. Allen, works manager, R. William Freed, assistant works manager, has a plant at No. 240 Howard street, in the Third ward. It is extensive and is one of the nine large plants of the American Steel Foundries Com- pany, whose general offices are in the McCor- mick building in Chicago, with branch offices in the principal cities of the country. The Franklin concern employs 470 men and man- ufactures all kinds of steel castings.
The French Creek Foundry Company .- This company makes a specialty of grey iron cast- ings of all weights from ten pounds to ten tons. The officials are as follows: Robert Ramsey, manager; Edward P. Stanton, foun- dry department foreman; Edwin M. Liddle, shipping department foreman; Frederick L. Liddle, secretary ; Willis C. Mong, master me- chanic; Nellie Ramsey, cashier; James A. Jolly, foreman core department; Thomas P. Sweeney, foreman night force. The new plant began operations in Febuary, 1916, hav- ing taken over the business of the old com- pany, whose plant was destroyed by fire the previous year. From the start the concern has been taxed to its full capacity, which is two hundred and fifty tons of castings monthly. The main building is a steel and concrete struc- ture, containing a molding room with a fifteen- ton handling crane. The employes number eighty-five men which force will be increased as improvements and additions are made. The main product of the plant is cylinder castings up to eight tons in weight. A large portion of the product is used locally, but the company has a market as far west as British Columbia and south to New Orleans. Much has also been shipped to the Atlantic seaboard.
The Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company .- The officials of this company are: W. H. Cal- lan, general manager, Franklin, Pa .; T. B. Groshart, superintendent of Plant No. 1, Franklin, Pa .; O. C. Estergreen, superintend- ent Plant No. 2, Franklin, Pa .; E. H. Crossen, engineer, Franklin, Pa .; W. E. Nichols, chief patternmaker ; Leon F. Hoffman, chief drafts- man ; M. A. Eakin, production clerk and store- keeper ; R. P. Cowin, purchasing agent and office manager. The company employs 275 men. The output consists largely of pneumatic hoists and drills. The Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company has been in operation for twenty years.
The Franklin Air Compressor Company be-
Digitized by Google
159
VENANGO COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
gan operations in 1901, largely through the in- fluence of Gen. Charles Miller. The Chicago company bought the Franklin company in 1907. For some time previous to that air com- pressors were manufactured, and until 1914. Then fuel oil, gas, and steam engines were made. The company also manufactures gas- oline engines, gas compressors, gas expanders and vacuum pumps. It operates two plants in Franklin, No. I Plant located at No. 20 North Thirteenth street being the manufactur- ing plant. No. 2, at No. 150 Howard street, is for the assembling of parts. This institu- tion is a wonderful manufacturing concern re- quiring workmen of the highest skill and would be a credit to any city. The seventeenth cen- tury is remarkable for the invention of the air pump, which remained simply a piece of scientific apparatus for one hundred and fifty years. This company applies the principle of the air pump both as a compressor and ex- pander of air and gases to the needs of manu- facturing. Compressed air may be used wher- ever steam can be, and is frequently much more convenient in its application.
The Producers' Supply Company .- The present company was organized in 1904. Be- fore that date it was run by George Maloney for twenty-five years, prior to that by Andrew McElhiney and George Maloney. The offi- cers are: Charles H. Sheasley, president ; John A. Stone, vice president ; J. A. Flood, secretary and treasurer. This company is the exclusive manufacturer of valveless gas en- gines, and castiron working barrels for pump- ing oil and salt water. Many of these pumps have been in use for fifty years without rust- ing. This peculiar property of cast iron of not rusting in salt water was taken advantage of by Secretary McAdoo in laying the tubes connecting New York, Brooklyn and Jersey City. The heavy oil wells in Franklin yield enormous quantities of strong brine with very little oil, and therefore for the last half cen- tury have furnished a capital test of the su- periority of cast iron to resist the corroding power of salt.
The Colburn Machine Tool Company is one of the solid concerns of Franklin. Its officers are: Gen. Charles Miller, president; W. E. Barrow, secretary ; H. W. Breckenridge, treas- urer : L. H. Colburn, general manager. This company manufactures machine tools. It is lo- cated at Nos. 301-331 Buffalo, corner of Third street. The employes number 240 men, and thirteen women. The product consists of spe- cial tools ; for example, machines to cut screws which can be started and be run for a month
without attention or till the supply of raw ma- terial is exhausted, and other machines for va- rious purposes.
The General Manifold and Printing Com- pany employs 225 men and 110 women. It manufactures sheets with printed headings and carbon backs, with blank sheets between, so that four copies may be made at one impression with pen, pencil, or typewriter and all of them distinct. The demand for the output is in- creasing steadily. The plant is located on Sixth street, corner of Buffalo street. Gen. Charles Miller is president of the company; Clifford Barnard, vice president and general manager ; M. A. Drake, secretary and treasurer; R. L. Satterwhite, assistant general manager.
The Franklin Manufacturing Company man- ufactures magnesia asbestos and journal pack- ing. Justin R. Swift is vice president and gen- eral manager ; E. C. Davis, treasurer; Thad. L. Farnham, general manager of sales; W. H. Bosworth, sales department. The plant is located at No. 10 Orchard street and Nos. 130- 140 Howard street. It owns an asbestos mine in a neighboring county. The asbestos rock is ground up into powder and manufactured into asbestos waste for packing car journals. This takes the place of cotton waste and is far more satisfactory, being less liable to heat and al- most indestructible. Asbestos cloth for boiler lagging or lining and for covering steam pipes is also manufactured. The company employs 185 men and nine women. Another of its prod- ucts is calcine for absorbing medicine in solu- tions.
Franklin Portable Crane and Hoist Com- pany, John P. Frazier, secretary and treasurer. This plant is located at No. 46 West Park street. The product is portable cranes for hoisting articles weighing four thousand to five thousand pounds, by hand power, to almost any required height. The machine is moved about on wheels.
The Venango Manufacturing Company makes railway appliances and devices and em- ploys 220 men and twenty-nine women. They have contracts disposing at a profit of all their output. Their location is at Liberty and First streets. J. S. Coffin 'is president ; D. D. Mal- lory, secretary; C. H. Patterson, superin- tendent.
The Macy Engineering Company is located at Twelfth and Otter streets. William A. Muir is president ; John A. Wilson, vice pres- ident ; O. D. Bleakley, secretary and treasurer ; C. H. Sheasley, general manager. This con- cern manufactures aeroplane controls and automatic altitude adjusters.
Digitized by Google
160
VENANGO COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
R. E. Jones & Company manufacture all kinds of sheet metal works. Steel tanks for field or storage uses are made in every size from ten barrels to sixty thousand barrels, and can be erected anywhere. A specialty is also made of refinery work. The R. E. Jones Com- pany consists of R. E. Jones and M. P. Brown. Its location is on Chestnut street and Hillside avenue, Franklin.
The Foco Oil Company has the following officers : President, H. F. Grant ; vice president, W. A. Edsall; secretary and treasurer, S. J. Black ; assistant secretary and treasurer, P. G. Heath ; manager of refinery, C. E. McElhiney. The company has done a general jobbing busi- ness, buying and selling oils throughout the United States, having branch offices in Chi- cago and Kansas City, and a warehouse also in Kansas City. The capital is $250,000. It has a refinery in Franklin capable of refining all the Franklin heavy oil production of about forty thousand barrels a year. This oil has been worth four dollars a barrel for the last forty years. The company recently advanced the Franklin oil from four dollars to five dol- lars a barrel. It makes a fine lubricating oil. The company has built a model refinery costing $150,000, practically fireproof, consisting en- tirely of concrete and steel. It owns the Frank- lin Pipe Line, Limited, forty miles long, ex- tending to all the wells in the Franklin field and having storage tanks of seventy-five thou- sand-barrels capacity.
The Eclipse Oil Works of The Atlantic Re- fining Company has a wonderful record which has been reflected in the growth of Franklin industrially and demonstrated that the making of working conditions pleasant, safe and sani- tary pays in dollars and cents. During all of its more than forty years of history it has been one of the standbys of Franklin industrially, and has never had a strike or labor trouble of any kind. Taking into consideration that the business is unusually hazardous, the fact that only two men employed by the company have been killed while in the performance of their duty during all these years is a remark- able record. Not even satisfied with this show- ing, the present management has organized a committee of safety from its employes and their suggestions looking to greater safety of em- ployes are gladly carried out. The history of the Eclipse Oil Works is really a history of industrial Franklin and unfolds a romantic story of the growth of the oil business. The works were founded in 1872 by Dr. Herbert W. C. Tweddle, who came from Pittsburgh, where he had operated a small refinery, and
purchased eight acres of land, erecting a re- finery with a capacity of one hundred barrels per day on the site of the present office build- ing. The Eclipse Lubricating Oil Company, Limited, was organized in 1873 by Franklin capitalists, with Dr. A. G. Egbert as president, C. W. Mackey, vice president, John B. Moor- head, secretary, Forster W. Mitchell, treasurer, and Dr. Tweddle, manager. In 1876 the con- cern passed into the hands of the Standard Oil Company. At that time the plant consisted of ten small stills, one. 7,000-barrel tank, two 2,000-barrel tanks, and one 1,500-barrel tank, with smaller tanks. The Standard Oil Com- pany placed the late Thomas Brown in charge of the plant as manager and he continued in that capacity for several years. In 1884 Col. S. C. Lewis was made president and the late Duncan McIntosh secretary and treasurer.
In 1902 the Eclipse Works was made a part of the Atlantic Refining Company, which also has plants in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and distributing stations in every city and town in the State. With its acquirement by the Atlan- tic Refining Company, Colonel Lewis became general manager and Mr. McIntosh assistant general manager. Mr. McIntosh retired in 1913 on account of ill health and was succeeded as assistant manager by G. E. Glines. Upon the retirement of Colonel Lewis, the following year, Mr. Glines became general manager. When it is recalled that in 1881, when Colonel Lewis and Duncan McIntosh took charge of the plant, the entire works did not extend above the present office building and included only a few small stills, the wonderful growth under their direction is more fully realized. There is at present only one building standing that was in operation at that time. There are twen- ty-one 300-barrel stills, ten 200-barrel stills, eight of 350 barrels, four of 500 barrels and twenty-three of 1,000 barrels, and more than 300 tanks, from a capacity of 35,000 barrels down. The plant now stretches along both sides of the public highway for one and three- fourths miles and its greatest width is three- fourths of a mile.
The Eclipse Oil Works has to a considerable extent blazed the way in the manufacture of petroleum products by originating a number of new processes and methods which have been adopted by other refineries in all parts of the world, a flattering recognition of the success attained by the Franklin plant in its own busi- ness. In another direction where the Eclipse has been exceedingly successful, and which has had far reaching effects, is in the training of young men. Young men who learned the
Digitized by Google
1
161
VENANGO COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
details of the petroleum industry under the di- rection of Colonel Lewis and Duncan McIn- tosh are to-day occupying positions of trust and power almost in every refinery and oil field of the world. These men, schooled in Eclipse ways and methods, have followed the lure of petroleum into West Virginia and Ohio, Indi- ana and Illinois, Kansas and Oklahoma, Texas and California, into South America and far-off Burmah and Sumatra, and into Roumania, Austria and Russia, and they have made good. Their success reflects not a little credit on the two men who were their friends and advisors as well as employers.
The Eclipse Oil Works manufactures every product of petroleum, including all different grades of gasoline, kerosene, lubricating oils, spindle oils, steam cylinder oils, greases, petro- latums, paraffin waxes, medicinal oils, as- phalts, pitches, fuel and gas oils. The works have a capacity of 8,000 barrels a day of crude oil and use mainly the higher grades of Penn- sylvania crude, produced in southwestern Penn- sylvania, southeastern Ohio and West Vir- ginia. The Eclipse buys and uses practically all the local second-sand oil and 500 barrels per day of Illinois crude. That the Eclipse is doing its full share to keep motor-driven ma- chinery in operation is shown by the fact that its daily output of gasoline is 1,500 barrels or 75,000 gallons. The monthly output of par- affin wax runs from 1,250,000 to 1,500,000 pounds. With more than four hundred em- ployes and an annual payroll of $600,000, wholly for wages of those actually employed at the Eclipse works, the material influence of the Eclipse on the prosperity of Franklin can hardly be estimated.
Encouraged by the management of the com- pany, the Eclipse Athletic Association was or- ganized two years ago. Since then the em- ployes have manifested much interest in ath- letics, maintaining a baseball team, basketball team, gun club, rifle club, bowling teams and war gardens.
The Eclipse pension system, which is a model of its kind, was inaugurated several years ago and at present twenty-eight veteran employes are enabled to pass their declining years free from financial worries when their earnings in the ordinary course of events would have stopped. That this pension system as well as the kindly treatment in general is appreciated by the employes, is indicated by the large num- ber that spend their entire working life in the service of the company. At present 110 are on the rolls who have been employed for fifteen years or more. The large proportion of em- 11
ployes who own their own homes reflects credit upon their industry and indicates the high standard of the workingmen. Since the estab- lishment of the plant the hustling village of Rocky Grove, with approximately 2,500 resi- dents, and all the advantages of a modern suburban town, has sprung into being.
In order to do its share in abating the smoke nuisance, about a year ago the Eclipse began the erection of a new boiler house and central power house which will produce 8,000 horse power with its eight Sterling fate tube boilers, equipped with Green chain grates and latest devices for crushing and handling coal and ashes and for treating the feed water. The building is 35x120 feet, 85 feet high. The chimney is of tile, 300 feet high, with an in- side diameter of 35 feet at the bottom and 17 feet at the top. 12- and io-inch mains will carry the steam 2,000 feet in each direction with the necessary branch lines. When the new power plant is completed the company will do away with all the old boilers and twenty- one smokestacks will be abandoned. No smoke will issue from the new smokestack. The plant burns four hundred tons of coal per day. Seventy per cent of this is used under the boilers and the rest under the stills. The stills for the present will produce smoke, but the company expects at the earliest possible mo- ment to equip the stills with automatic stokers. The construction of the power house has been delayed by the scarcity of labor and materials, but it is hoped to have four of the new boilers in operation Thanksgiving Day.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.