USA > West Virginia > Prominent men of West Virginia: biographical sketches, the growth and advancement of the state, a compendium of returns of every election, a record of every state officer; > Part 15
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No portion of Mr. Camden's history more fully demonstrates his business capacity than the successful establishment of these and other enterprises in connection with the Standard Company, and more fully measures his share in building up the matchless commercial success of that organization. Some one has said that the growth of that corporation is "the romance of com- merce." It stands without a rival among the corporate bodies in the trade of the world. From small beginnings it has ex- panded until it controls the oil trade of the globe. Its success is the result of invincible energy, shrewd organization and patient fidelity to the details of a great enterprise, and creative genius, which rank among the most conspicuous traits of Mr. Camden's character, are the elements which have made it pow- erful.
In an article contributed by Mr. Camden to the North Amer- ican Review of February, 1882, the work accomplished by it is referred to, and as in most of it he has borne some part, a por- tion of the artiele then furnished would seem to belong to this biography.
After reviewing the history of petroleum since the opening of the first oil well in Pennsylvania, August 28, 1859, down to the year 1882, and admitting that to our national character- istics is to be largely attributed the unprecedented development of the American petroleum industry, he refers to the agencies through which it was wrought. "The specific agency through which this development has been mainly effected," he wrote, "is the organization known as the Standard Oil Company, which may be defined to be an association of business houses united under one management in such a manner as to insure har- mony of interests and a consolidation of capital adequate to any possible business emergency, yet each retaining its individuality and even competing sharply with the others.
" In order to appreciate what the Standard Oil Company has achieved, it is first necessary to glance at the condition of the oil industry at the time when this company entered it. All the circumstances surrounding the first production of petroleum tended to make it an unbusiness-like enterprise. The novelty of the article, the romance of the search for it in the wilderness, the sudden and fabulous wealth that rewarded success, all these attracted especially the unsettled and adventurous elements
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of the community and made the oil regions in 1865 almost the counterpart of California fifteen years before. * * * In such a condition of affairs the state of the oil industry was of course deplorable from a business standpoint. The universality of speculation, the utter disregard of the laws of supply and de- mand, aggravated by the haste of each land owner to multiply his wells and get as large a share as possible of the underlying oil pool which his neighbors were sucking up; the lack of handling facilities resulting in prodigal waste, the apparent in- stability of the whole business which was hourly expected to vanish and in many instances did vanish as suddenly as it had appeared-all this conspired to make the oil regions a pande- monium of excitement and confusion, and the simple statement of a man's connection with oil was a severe blow to his credit. The refining of oil at this early period was on a basis but little better than its production. Processes were extremely crude and their product would be to-day unmerchantable for illumi- nating purposes. Still the demand for it was great and grow- ing and refineries multiplied. The competent and incompetent rushed into the business in shoals, until the refining capacity of the country was more than three times that for consumption. Reaction, failures and demoralization were the inevitable con- sequences.
" The refiners recognized the dangerous and demoralized condition into which their excessive capacity had brought them. The world would take only so much refined oil as it. needed for immediate consumption and no more, and the manufactured article, unlike the crude, could not be stored for any length of time. Various efforts were made to correct the evil of over-production, through pools and running arrangements, restricting capacity, but pools were broken and agreements were ineffectual until the lowest ebb in the oil business was reached. By this time bankruptcy had overtaken a large portion of the refining interest and was threatening all. Such in general was the situation out of which was developed the Standard Oil Company as a necessity to arrest the condi- tions which were driving all connected with the business to bankruptcy and ruin. To limit production was impossible. The extent of the oil field was a matter of conjecture while the number of persons who would engage in boring wells and in
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prospecting for new territory was without limit. Leaving pro- duction, therefore, to take care of itself, the labors of the Standard Company were concentrated upon the refining interest with the object of stopping the disastrous over-production of the manufactured products. Without entering into the details of their progress, how the principal refining interests were first united under the management of the Standard Company, and how others gradually came into co-operation, while those less hopeful of the future of the business were bought out for money ; how ineligibly located or poorly equipped refineries were dis- mantled and others better adapted to their purposes were im- proved-it is only necessary to state that their success was such as to vindicate the wisdom of their broad plans and to establish the superiority of their business methods. It did more than this. It demonstrated that under such firm and intelligent control the oil business had possibilities which the doubting ones and the public generally had not seen, and this demonstration was followed by an antagonism to the company such as all great and successful organizations have to meet. How those possi- bilities have been developed is indicated by the facts that a day's work of the Standard Company at this time involves among other things, the handling of more than 60,000 barrels of oil, the putting together of ninety tons of tank iron and the making of 100,000 tin cans, holding five gallons of refined oil each, and 25,000 oak barrels, to hoop which requires 150 tons of iron.
" But while a commanding position in refining was thus being won, the Standard managers were equally active in the mechani- cal and chemical departments of the business. Under their di- rection the process of refining was improved more rapidily than ever before. Oils grew better, cheaper and more uniform, and as the problems of distribution were grasped and solved, the markets for these products widened continually. In a word the phenomenal genius for organization which all concede to the Standard, produced its natural results throughout the entire business, and from being one of the most irregular and unprofit- able of American industries, oil refining and selling became thoroughly systematized and in the train of system followed economy and success.
" The question of oil transportation and storage early engaged
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the attention of the Standard corporation. At the outset the methods of carrying oil were as primitive as might be expected. Imperfect barrels, carried upon wagons, were jolted to and fro upon the corduroy roads which connected with the streams, where rafts and flat-boats received them for further laborious transportation. With such methods as these and a universal craze for well boring, it is small wonder that a large proportion of the oil brought to the surface had to soak back into the earth or float off through the water courses of the vicinity.
" This condition of things, however, did not last long. Rail- roads were built, tank cars invented and finally, in 1865, iron pipes began to be laid to bring oil from the wells. During the ten years following a number of pipe line companies were organ- ized for running and storing the crude liquid. Each company covered certain territory and producers availed themselves of the pipe line facilities. Each producer received a certificate of deposit for his oil, redeemable in oil at any time on payment of storage charges. These certificates, which were not negotiable, were influenced somewhat in value by the pecuniary standing of the company, but more particularly affected by the nature of the territory the pipe line covered. It was like old State Bank currency. Outside of its particular territory a pipe line certifi- cate was at a discount. In 1877 the Standard Oil Company consolidated these various organizations under its own control as the United Pipe Lines. The result is that to-day an oil cer- tificate, like a greenback, is as good in one part of country as another and can be negotiated at any of our commercial centres.
" These brief statements, however, give only an outline of what the Standard Oil Company has accomplished. It has been the instrument if not the cause of almost the whole development of the oil industry, production excepted, during the last decade; of vastly improving and bringing to uniformity all oil manufac- tures ; of cheapening these latter to an unprecedented degree and pushing the introduction of American petroleum to the re- motest parts of the earth; of furnishing employment to a host of men equal in number to the standing army of the United States and of giving an impulse of prosperity to every locality in which its operations are conducted. It has probably had less trouble with its enormous laboring force than any other corpor- ation of comparable importance in the world."
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One phase of Mr. Camden's career which has commended him to the admiration and affection of West Virginians has been his constant attention to the development of his native State. At home or abroad, whether engaged in enterprises which required the world for a field of action, or those which were limited to his own immediate neighborhood, he has never lost faith in the promise of the State as a mining, manufacturing, commercial and agricultural centre, nor ceased his efforts to bring out its magnificent possibilities. When he began his work in the val- ley of the Little Kanawha the various sections of the State were unconnected by any satisfactory or reliable means of communi- cation. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad connected the North- ern and Eastern Panhandles, but the Northern and Southern portions of the State were practically disconnected during a con- siderable portion of the year, and water transportation between them was at all times limited and unreliable, while the interior of the State still lay remote from the paths of progress and de- velopment. The improvement of the Little Kanawha river and the establishment of slackwater navigation from Parkersburg was the first public enterprise in which Mr. Camden bore a part, in connection with General Jackson and other enterprising citi- zens of the Little Kanawha valley, and the work still stands as the pioneer of the splendid system of river and harbor improve- ments now in progress on other streams of the Commonwealth. By the time this improvement was established he had made his earliest successful ventures in developing the oil interests of the State, and it is characteristic of the man that with the first fruits of his enterprise he undertook to open up the section in which Itis boyhood days were spent and around which his fondest as- sociations clustered.
He joined in the project of a narrow-gauge railroad between Clarksburg and Weston, and with his accustomed vigor pushed it through to successful completion. Once established, its suc- cessful management demonstrated the availability of the narrow gauge system as a means of developing other portions of the interior of the State, and the result was its extension to Buck- hannon, in Upshur county, and the incorporation of the narrow gauge roads which are reaching out to the county seats of Braxton, Gilmer, Jackson and other counties of the State hitherto inaccessible by railroad transit.
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Still later he joined with ex-Senator Henry G. Davis and others in the construction of the West Virginia Central Railroad now running from Piedmont, in Mineral county, through the Elk Garden coal section beyond Fairfax stone, and which is likely in the near future to have connections with tidewater at Alexandria and the coal sections of the Kanawha valley. Of the Ohio River Railroad, now opened between Wheeling and Huntington, it may be said that its existence is mainly due to Mr. Camden's zeal and energy. Begun as the Wheeling, Par- kersburg and Charleston Railroad, and having as its primary object the bringing of Charleston, the State Capital, into closer connection with other important sections of the State, the com- pletion of the Kanawha and Ohio, from Point Pleasant, on the Ohio, to Charleston, required only the construction of the pres- ent Ohio River Railroad, a distance of only 171 miles along the lowlands of the Ohio valley from Wheeling to Point Pleasant, to bring the two extremities of the State into close communion. This work has been successfully accomplished. In its construc- tion Mr. Camden not only has the largest money interest, but he may be said to have furnished the means for its construc- tion, the great bulk of the investment having been subscribed by his business friends and associates, who pinned their faith upon his judgment of the enterprise. More than this, he has given his personal care and attention to the details of the work, pushing it through seasons of apathy and disaster as earnestly as in seasons of enthusiasm and success, and whatever may be its future he can point to the work accomplished as an earnest of his patient, resolute endeavor to succeed.
A glance at the map shows the present and prospective value to the State of the railroad enterprises which Mr. Camden has been largely instrumental in securing. As before stated, the Ohio River Railroad follows the Ohio river from Wheeling to Huntington, and at Point Pleasant connects with the Kanawha and Ohio, furnishing a through route from Wheeling to Charles- ton, the State capital, and the coal fields of the Upper Kanawha.
The Monongahela River Railroad from Fairmont to Clarks- burg develops one of the finest coal fields in the State, it being a continuation of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville veins into West Virginia. In connection with this road Mr. Camden also organized a Coal and Coke Company, in which he is largely inter-
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ested, with a capital of two million dollars, for the development of the coal and the erection of coke ovens along the line of the road. This company has purchased a large amount of coal, and has five hundred coke ovens about completed. It is be- lieved that this coal field, that remained neglected so long, is destined to make West Virginia the rival of the Pennsylvania fields of the same veins of coal, both for fuel and coke. This enterprise of itself is sufficient to entitle Mr. Camden to the highest consideration of the people of West Virginia, as it will also likely prove the most important of all his undertakings.
The Clarksburg, Weston and Midland Road connects with the Monongahela River Railroad at Clarksburg, and forms a continuation of the same line to Weston, and thence to Braxton C. H. on Elk river. These roads also form a direct line from Elk river by way of the Monongahela valley and Morgantown to Pittsburgh. The road from Weston to Buckhannon, and thence up the Buckhannon river in the direction of Webster C. II. opens up a vast territory of country rich in timber, minerals and good lands, which would have remained practically inac- cessible except for railroad facilities. These, with other roads projected by Mr. Camden, will probably leave him without a rival in substantial improvements to his State.
A former biographer has noted one phase of Mr. Camden's career which is worthy of remark and emulation. He has never been a dickerer or speculator. He never organized a company into which he did not put his own money and energy, and in all his creations and operations he has been governed by broad business principles.
Mr. Camden's political life has been marked by the same boldness and vigor which appear so prominently in his business history. He came to the front in 1867 as a leader of the move- ment to enfranchise citizens of the State who had been denied the right of suffrage for their adherence to the fortunes of the Southern Confederacy. The Conservative party, as those who supported this movement were termed, nominated him for Governor a year later, and he made an aggressive and well- organized campaign, but the operation of the disfranchising statutes reduced his support to the extent that he was defeated by 2,500 majority.
During the two years following an amendment was sub-
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mitted to repeal the disfranchising clause of the State Constitu- tion and modify other clauses of it not in harmony with amendments to the Federal Constitution already adopted. Mr. Camden endorsed the proposed amendment thoughout, and thereby prevented his re-nomination by the Democratic party of the State in 1870, but in 1872 the Democrats of the State again made him their standard-bearer, with the exception of those who united with the Republicans to defeat the new Cons- titution of the State, adopted in that year. This combination again deferred Mr. Camden's success, but rendered him none the less prominent among the leaders of his party. He had a large and devoted support in the Senatorial contest of 1874, and in 1880 was almost the unanimous choice of the Democratic caucus for United States Senator and was promptly elected by the Legislature of that year. At the expiration of his six years' term of service in the Senate, he was again the nominee of his party caucus for a second term, but by means of a dis- affection in his party ranks-the majority on joint ballot being small-he was not re-elected, although he had the power to name and elect the gentleman who succeeded him March 4, 1887.
As a Senator, Mr. Camden was a worker rather than a talker, although he has the faculty of expressing his views clearly and forcefully when the necessity arises. His business experience, added to the professional training of his younger years enabled him to take hold intelligently of the varied questions presented for the consideration of the Senate, and close attention to the duties of his position and courteous bearing toward his associ- ates gave him a position and influence in that body which enabled him to represent the State ably and efficiently.
After retiring from the Senate, Mr. Camden was urged by his party friends to allow his name to be used in connection with a nomination for the Gubernatorial office. He refused, declaring his intention of retiring from politics, and at the same time stating that by giving his entire time and energies to the development of the great natural resources of his native State, he hoped to be able to prove himself, to some extent, a bene- factor of his fellow-citizens. This was a wise determination, for with his vast means and wide acquaintance with wealthy and influential men in other States, by the carrying out of the vast public enterprises in which he is now engaged, he will
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rear for himself a monument that party dissenters cannot tear down, and which will cause his name to be remembered for generations to come.
Mr. Camden's personal appearance is a very fair index of his mental characteristics. Heavily framed, his tall stout figure still suggests the military training of his early days although time has rounded out its ample outlines. A good gray head and beard likewise whitened with "the snow that never melts," show the advance of age, but there is no suggestion of antiquity in his firm movement, and his whole appearance indicates a vigorous and well-sustained physical organization. Keen grey eyes, a prominent nose, and lips that close firmly under a clipped moustache give his countenance a firm look in repose, but the features lighten up with animation in conversa- tion, and the general expression is pleasant and kindly. Ordinarily slow of speech and guarded in his statements, choosing his words with deliberation and evidently weighing his remarks well before giving them utterance, his manner as well as his matter inspires confidence in business conversation and conveys the impression of a modest and careful, but self- contained and resolute character, cautious in forming conclu- sions but ready to act upon them when formed. In social intercourse there are few men more entertaining and attractive. A good liver, hospitable and generous, true to his friends and singularly free from continued resentments, with the ability to separate himself entirely from business cares in social circles, and a mind cultivated by reading, travel and observation, he can adapt himself readily to any surroundings and there are few people thrown into social communication with him who do not become his admiring friends.
In his domestic life he has been as fortunate as in his busi- ness and political career. In 1858 he was married to Miss Anna Thompson, daughter of the late Judge George W. Thompson, of Wheeling. Two children of this marriage, a son and daughter, are still living, and with their mother make up a home circle of marked cultivation and refinement.
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JOHN S. CARLILE.
H ION. JOHN S. CARLILE was born at Winchester, Virginia, December 16, 1817. He was educated by his mother, who was a woman of high culture, until he was fourteen years of age. He then entered a dry goods store as salesman and clerk, remaining till his seventeenth year, when he commenced busi- ness for himself. At an early age, having a decided taste for the profession, he began the study of law, was admitted to the bar in 1840, settled at Beverly, Randolph county, and began practice. He was elected to the Senate of Virginia in 1847, and served until 1851. His associates were not long in finding in Mr. Carlile a man of untiring energy, a close student, a diligent legislator, and a ready and forceful debater. He took a leading rank in the Senate, which was filled with the ablest men of Virginia. In 1850 he was elected a delegate from Ran- dolph county to the Constitutional Convention to revise the Constitution of the State. In this body of learned and dis- tinguished Virginians, Mr. Carlile's splendid natural abilities added to his experience of four years in the Senate made him influential, and placed him along side of the ablest men in that body. The people by this time recognized Mr. Carlile's com- manding abilities, and in 1855, nominated him as a candidate for Congress and elected him in one of the most spirited cam- paigns, peculiar to that day. He served one term and returned to the practice of his profession, which had become large and lucrative.
To secure better opportunities for the display of his superior legal attainments, Mr. Carlile removed his residence to Clarks- burg, Harrison county. He was employed in all the important cases in litigation in County, Circuit, Federal and Supreme Courts in that portion of the State, and accordingly achieved great distinction as a member of the bar. At the breaking out of the war he was an avowed Unionist, and threw all of his great powers on the side of the Government. He was a mem- ber of the Wheeling Convention that established the Restored Government of Virginia, and was one of the leading spirits in all of its councils. He was elected to the Thirty-seventh Con- gress from the Wheeling District in 1861, and remained a member until his promotion to the Senate of the United States, the latter part of that year, from the Restored Government of
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Virginia. While in the Senate he served as a member of the Committee on Public Lands and Territories. His Senatorial term expired in 1865, when he retired to private life at Clarks- burg and resumed the practice of his profession.
As an orator, Mr. Carlile had but few, if any, superiors in Virginia. He died at his home in Clarkburg in 1878.
JOHN G. JACKSON.
HE subject of this brief sketch was one of the very prominent men of Western Virginia for a great many years before the division of the State. He was born in Harri- son county in 1774, and died at his residence in Clarksburg in 1828. IIe married a Miss Payne, at the " White House," a sister of President James Madison's wife. His second wife was the daughter of General Meigs, the first Governor of the Territory of Ohio. At the time of his second marriage, Mr. Jackson was the Government Surveyor under Governor Meigs. He was a Representative in Congress from the Wheeling District from 1795 to 1797, and from 1799 to 1810, and again from 1813 to 1817. He was appointed United States Judge for the Western District of Virginia in 1822, and held the office till the time of his death, in 1828. Judge Jackson was a man of unusual force, and wielded a powerful political and social influence in his day.
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