It All Began in Hanover
Today's vast petroleum industry was conceived when Dartmouth men first recognized the great value of "rock oil" nearly one hundred years ago
THE Year is 1853. The preceding year the first railroad crossed the Mississippi; Singer patented his sewing machine; Uncle Tom's Cabin was published in book form; Tufts College was chartered; and Dartmouth's Daniel Webster (after being one of those nominated by the Whigs for President of the United States) died. The following year chronicled the birth of the Republican party, the first meeting of the Y.M.C.A., the opening of the Crimean War, and the extension westward of the Pennsylvania Railroad to Pittsburgh and of the Illinois Central Railroad to Chicago.
The year 1853 itself records the birth of Cecil Rhodes, James Whitcomb Riley, Sir Hall Caine, Hudson Maxim, Sir H. Beerbohm Tree, Stanford White and Vincent Van Gogh; the incorporation of the New York Central Railroad; the inauguration of Franklin Pierce as President; the opening of the first railroad in India; the arrival in Japan of Commodore Perry; the authorization by Congress of exploration and a survey for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast—and theconception of the Petroleum Industry.
The Place is Hanover, New Hampshire. The four Dartmouth graduates who fathered the petroleum industry were: Dr. Francis Beattie Brewer, Class of 1843 George Henry Bissell, Class of 1845 Dr. Dixi Crosby, Medical Class of 1824 Albert Harrison Crosby, Class of 1848
Francis Beattie Brewer was born October 8, 1820, in Keene, N.H., the son of Ebenezer and Julia (Emerson) Brewer. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1843 and received his medical degree from the Dartmouth Medical School in 1846. After five years of practice in Barnet, Vt., Plymouth, Mass., Manchester, Pa., and Westfield N.Y., Dr. Brewer in 1851 moved to Titusville, Pa., and became associated with the lumbering firm of Brewer, Watson and Company, of which his father was a senior partner.
Paul H. Giddens in the Birth of the OilIndustry writes: "Immediately he became interested in the old oil spring located near Upper Mill on the Company's property, about two miles below Titusville and within a few rods of Oil Creek. A thorough examination of the spring and other surface conditions along the entire length of Oil Creek convinced Dr. Brewer that the oil had great possibilities, and after much discussion with other members of the firm he persuaded them that they should utilize the oil and make it profitable. As a result Brewer, Watson and Company made a lease with J.O. Angier of Titusville on July 4, 1853, first lease in the United States in connection with the development of the petroleum business. Angier agreed, for five years, to repair and keep the spring in order, construct new springs, and gather oil; when the expenses had been deducted from the proceeds, the balance, if any, was to be equally divided. Angier dug crude trenches to convey the oil and water to a central basin, and by means of some crude and simple machinery, erected at a cost of about $200, separated the oil from the water and thus increased the supply of petroleum for lighting the mills and lubricating the machinery. Three or four gallons a day and sometimes as many as six were collected." This amount was not sufficient for profitable operation and the venture was soon abandoned.
Dr. Brewer's interest in the oil spring not abate with the abandonment of the Angier lease, however, for in the early fall of 1853 he visited Hanover, and carried with him a bottle of rock oil from the Brewer, Watson oil spring. He presented this for examination to his uncle, Dr. Dixi Crosby of the Dartmouth Medical School, and to Professor Oliver P. Hubbard of the Dartmouth Chemistry Department, who for many years (1837-1883) taught also in the Medical School. These men pronounced it "valuable indeed."
Dr. Dixi Crosby took his medical degree at Dartmouth in 1824 and for more than thirty years, 1838 to 1870, was Professor of Surgery and Obstetrics in the Medical School. At the time Dr. Brewer visited Hanover with his bottle of rock oil, Dr. Crosby was widely known as a skillful surgeon and was in great demand as a consultant in medical matters. A man of spirit, receptive to new ideas, he introduced some ingenious new methods in surgery; and it was quite in keeping with his character that he should recognize the potentialities of rock oil and pronounce it valuable.
Dr. Brewer left the bottle of petroleum with Dr. Crosby. A few weeks later George H. Bissell visited Hanover, called on Dr. Crosby, and was shown the rock oil. There is no record of the conversation, nor even of the exact date of the visit in the fall of 1853, but the petroleum industry was conceived in Dixi Crosby's office at the moment Bissell saw the bottle of petroleum. Six years were to pass before Drake struck oil at the spot from which this bottle of oil had been collected. Vicissitudes, delays and disagreements were to ensue, yet the pattern was set on the day Crosby and Bissell met in what is now Crosby Hall.
GEORGE HENRY BISSELL was born November 8, 1831, in Hanover, the son of Isaac and Nina (WEMPE) Bissell. The death of his father in 1833 threw young Bissell on his own, and for twelve years he supported himself while studying at the Military Institute in Norwich, Vt., at Kimball Union Academy, and at Dartmouth. He graduated from Dartmouth in the Class of 1845. A year later he was chosen Principal of the new City High School of New Orleans, and in 1848 was made Superintendent of the New Orleans Public-Schools. Impaired health caused him to redid turn in the summer of 1853 to the North where he formed a partnership with Jonathan G. Eveleth, and the two opened an office in New York City. A visit to Hanover to see his mother immediately followed. It was during this visit that Bissell dropped into the office of Dr. Dixi Crosby and saw the sample of rock oil from the Brewer, Watson property.
There is no question, of Dr. Dixi Crosby's enthusiasm about the sample, and there is no question of the optimism which it engendered in George Bissell. No one, it is true, up to and including Colonel Drake himself had any concept ion of the importance and immensity of the industry which they were bringing into being, but George Bissell's moves from this point forward show a continued belief in the importance of producing and marketing the oil. If as Dr. Crosby pointed out this oil was valuable, and if it could be produced in quantity, then petroleum rather than coal could be the source of a valuable and profitable illuminant. Lack of capital, dissensions among the parties subsequently involved, the financial condition of the country culminating in the panic of 1857, and the widespread expressions of doubt and derision which almost invariably attend the beginnings of any new venture—all these hampered and delayed the birth of the petroleum industry. The conception nevertheless was now a fact.
Bissell left Hanover and went to New York where he and his partner Jonathan G. Eveleth began formulating plans for buying the property and organizing a company to develop the oil spring and to market the product.
In the summer of 1854 the fourth Dartmouth graduate actively enters the picture. Albert Harrison Crosby was the son of Dr. Dixi Crosby and graduated from Dartmouth in the Class of 1848. Young Crosby, evidently greatly interested in the prospects from the beginning, went to Titusville in August of 1854 as a representative of Bissell and Eveleth, to investigate and report on the Oil Creek properties. He and Dr. Brewer conducted a survey of the lands adjoining the stream, and when the latter remarked that the Brewer, Watson Company didn't wish to use their capital for oil development, Crosby said: "Damn lumber —I would rather have McClintock's Farm than all the timber in Pennsylvania."
As a result of his glowing report Bissell and Eveleth went into action. On November 10, 1854 they secured the deed to the Hibbard Farm on the Brewer, Watson property for $5,000, with two leases also signed: one giving Bissell and Eveleth permission to raise, gather, and collect oil on additional lands of the lumber company, the other giving Brewer, Watson and Company permission to use the Hibbard Farm mill-race and other privileges necessary in conducting the lumber business. With the organization of a company an inherent part of the negotiation, no cash changed hands, but Bissell and Eveleth gave their joint and several notes for the land.
Some weeks previous to this purchase of the Hibbard Farm, Bissell and Eveleth journeyed to New Haven, Conn., at the request of the Reverend Anson Sheldon, a retired minister. It was Sheldon's belief that certain New Haven capitalists could be interested in buying into the venture. It was at this time that Bissell and Eveleth met among others James M. Townsend, president of the City Savings Bank of New Haven. Paul Giddens in his Beginnings ofthe Oil Industry writes: "In the end, Bissell fired the enthusiasm of Townsend and others in New Haven who saw the possibilities of making money out of petroleum." The New Haven group insisted on having a scientific analysis of the oil, so Bissell and Eveleth engaged Luther Atwood of Boston and Professor Benjamin Silliman of Yale to analyze the rock oil from the Brewer, Watson farm. Atwood's favorable report on the excellent quality of the oil and the indicated uses was received shortly but Silliman's comprehensive and detailed report was delayed until the following spring.
After their trip to New Haven, the arrangements for the services of Atwood and Silliman, and the purchase of the Hibbard Farm, Bissell and Eveleth proceeded with the organization of the first petroleum company in the United States.
The certificate of incorporation of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of New York was filed in Albany on December 30, 1854, with capital stock of $250,000, divided into ten thousand shares at $25.00 each. Article II states: "The objects for which said Company is formed are to raise, procure, manufacture and sell Rock Oil." The first board of trustees consisted of George H. Bissell, J. G. Eveleth, Franklin Reed, James H. Salisbury—all of New York —and Francis B. Brewer of Titusville and Anson Sheldon of New Haven.
In the following several months great efforts were made to sell stock, but with little success. Times were hard, and a universal distrust of the enterprise was evident—in Titusville, in New Haven, and in New York. It was hoped that Professor Silliman's report would facilitate matters. An explosion necessitated all new apparatus for him, and this Bissell and Eveleth furnished. Finally on April 16, 1855 the report was delivered and sent to the printers. The total cost was over $600, and it was with difficulty that the partners raised the cash to pay Silliman. In the middle of the last century $600 was a fairly tidy sum, and Bissell and Eveleth at this period were certainly not wealthy in any sense of the word.
Professor Silliman's "Report on the Rock Oil, or Petroleum, from Venango County, Pennsylvania" is now recognized as an epochal document in the ensuing history of the petroleum industry, and its immediate effect was the dissipation of many of the doubts concerning the value and use of the oil. Silliman pointed out practically all the uses to which petroleum was to be put in the next fifty years, and wrote: "In conclusion, gentlemen, it appears to me that there is much ground for encouragement in the belief that your company have in their possession a raw material from which, by simple and not expensive process, they may manufacture very valuable products. It is worthy to note that my experiments prove that nearly the whole of the raw product may be manufactured without waste, and this solely by a well directed process which is in practice, one of the most simple chemical processes."
Difficulty was still encountered in the matter of selling stock because of the incorporation in the State of New York, under which a stockholder of a joint stock company was liable for the debts of the company. Under pressure of this fact Bissell and Eveleth decided to reorganize the company under the laws of Connecticut, and by June 25, 1855 two-thirds of the stock in the new Connecticut corporation had been taken, mostly by prominent and influential New Haven capitalists. A committee of two was sent to Titusville and their enthusiastic report led to the complete subscription of stock in the new company.
The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of Connecticut was incorporated on September 18, 1855 with a capitalization of $300,000, divided into 12,000 shares. Article III of the association articles states:
"The purposes for which said corporation is established are the following, viz to raise, procure, manufacture and sell rock oil, coal, paints, salt, or any minerals or natural productions which may be found in any spring or mines, or on any lands that may come into the possession of said company, by deed or lease, and generally to perform all acts and transact any business incidental to, or that may be necessary in the prosecution of said business."
Bissell and Eveleth remained the largest stockholders in the new Connecticut company, with control of 4,320 shares, and Francis Brewer and his father had 1,360 shares, but the new company took on a distinctly New Haven hue with about a dozen New Haven shareholders, who, according to the bylaws, would elect a majority of the directors. Furthermore New Haven would be the headquarters of the company, and Professor Silliman himself the first president. On October 5, 1855, Bissell and Eveleth deeded the Hibbard property to Asahel Pierpont and William A. Ives of New Haven, and the latter promptly leased it for 99 years to the newly incorporated Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of Connecticut. October appeared a happy month—Bissell married, and was "happy as a King"; Franklin Reed of New Haven was presented with an heir; and Eveleth was anticipating the same. But trials and tribulations were still to be encountered.
A new company had been formed, real capital was now available, the oil was known to be present, but how to get sufficient quantities of it to make for profitable operations was still the vital question.
Here again enters George Bissell in this last phase in the conception of the petroleum industry. Before the industry could have its birth at the Drake Well on August 27, 1859, a means of bringing oil forth from the earth in quantity must be found. Someone must find the method for surfacing petroleum. George Henry Bissell was the man. In 1856 (over three years before the strike in 1859) he conceived the idea of boring or drilling for oil. This fact is generally recognized, and from the voluminous material available the following sources chronicle the fact.
From Derrick and. Drill, by Edward Morris, published by James Miller, New York City 1865: "Mr. Bissell gets the credit of first conceiving the idea of boring for oil ... all these gentlemen [Bissell, Prentice, Clarke, Seely, Watson, Brown and McClintock] entering the region early (Mr. Bissell, indeed, being the actual founder of the oil-mining business in America), were of that faith and nerve, the lack of which might then have suffered the universal cry of humbug to postpone the advent of petroleum into the world as a merchantable article, to an indefinite future period. Sticking by their colors, and proving the source of their confidence step by step, men like these finally established the fact that oil was to be had for the boring. It is a matter of congratulation that they have held to their enterprises still, assisting to guide, with a keen sagacity, a calculating foresight, and a ripe business experience, the introduction, the development, and the application of so extensive a product."
From Petroleum—A History of the OilRegion of Venango County, Pennsylvania, by Rev. S.J.M. Eaton, published by J.P. Skelly & Company, Philadelphia, 1866: "It had its origin with George H. Bissell, Esq., a gentleman of great intelligence and worth, and a graduate of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. From Mr. Bissell's interest and enterprises in the matter, he is justly considered to be the pioneer in the petroleum business."
From Petrolia, by Andrew Cone and Walter R. Johns, D. Appleton and Company, 1870: "We claim that the honor of originating the present Petroleum development, of Venango County, to which, too, the world owes its present source of light, clearly belongs to George H. Bissell, formerly of the firm of Eveleth & Bissell [Eveleth died in 1863], now a resident of New York City."
From The History of the Standard OilCompany by Ida M. Tarbell McClure, Phillips and Company, 1904: "Hundreds of men had seen the label ['Kier's Petroleum or Rock Oil'] but this [Bissell] was the first to look at it with a 'seeing eye.' As quickly as the bottle of rock oil in the Dartmouth laboratory had awakened in Mr. Bissell's mind the determination to find out the true value of this strange substance, the label gave him the solution of the problem of getting oil in quantities—it was to bore down into the earth where it was stored and pump it up."
From The Golden Flood, by Herbert Asbury, Alfred A. Knopf, 1941: "Drilling an artesian well to find petroleum was suggested to George H. Bissell by an incident, 'as trifling as that which disclosed the law of gravitation.' The story of the birth of this epoch-making idea was first told by J.T. Henry in his Early and Later Historyof Petroleum, published in 1873:
"While seeking shelter beneath the awning of a Broadway drug store, one scorching day in the summer of 1856, Mr. Bissell's eye fell upon a remarkable show bill lying beside a bottle of Kier's Petroleum in the window. His attention was arrested by the singularity of displaying a four-hundred-dollar bank note in such a place; but a closer look disclosed to him that it was only an advertisement of a substance in which he was deeply interested. He stepped in and asked permission to examine it. The druggist took it from the window, and having plenty of them, told him to keep it. For a moment he scanned it, scrutinizing the derricks and remarking the depth from which the oil was drawn, till instantly, like an inspiration, it flashed upon him, that this was the way their lands must be developed—by artesian wells. It seems a very simple thought, but how astounding have been its results!'
"Greatly excited over his idea, and rightly believing that it would solve the problem of production, Bisselll consulted his partner, Jonathan Eveleth, who was equally enthusiastic. At a meeting of the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, Bissell proposed to find someone to develop the property, on condition that Townsend and other New Haven investors would subscribe to additional stock amounting to one-fourth of their holdings. This was done, and then Bissell succeeded in interesting R.N. Havens, of the New York real estate firm of Lyman & Havens, who had been largely identified with railroad and other construction work in the West. Havens agreed to bore an exploratory well at Titusville, and on November 26, 1856, the land surrounding the oil spring was leased to Lyman & Havens for ten years at a graduated royalty of from fifteen to twenty-two cents a gallon. The lease empowered them to 'bore, dig, mine, search for and obtain in and from such lands, oil, salt water, coal and all other materials and minerals.'
"Lyman and Havens were given a year in which to start operations, but the firm crashed in the financial panic of 1857, and the lease was surrendered before anything was done."
It should be noted that here for the first time we find the word bore and this proves that Bissell's idea of boring for oil antedated by over a year both the Bowditch and Drake lease, and the formation of the Seneca Oil Company. After the failure of Lyman & Havens to work the lease, the New Haven group in December 1857 leased the property to Edwin B. Bowditch and Edwin L. Drake. On March 19, 1858 the Seneca Oil Company was organized by E. L. Drake, W.A. Ives and J. F. Marchal, who were the original stockholders and directors. On March 23, James M. Townsend Edwin B. Bowditch, Asahel Pierpont, and Henry L. Pierpont were added as directors. On April it was "voted that Edwin L. Drake be appointed general agent of this Company to raise and dispose of Oil with a Salary of one Thousand Dollars per Annum for one year from the date here of." On April 5 Drake transferred 8,269 of the 8.926 shares in his name from himself to Messrs. Townsend, Ives and the two Pierponts.
From The Titusville Herald, Vol. 70, No. 59, "Diamond Jubilee Oil Edition," August 22, 1934: "The awakening to the possibility of a petroleum industry may be said to have been due chiefly to the missionary activities of George H. Bissell He was the leader in launching the first company organized to produce oil; by the dissemination of the Silliman report he attracted public attention to its potential value, and he was evidently the first to suggest drilling for it. He deserves a prominent place of honor as an oil pioneer.
From Pennsylvania Petroleum 1750-1872 by Paul H. Giddens, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1947: "Owing to a lack of harmony which unexpectedly developed between the New Haven and the New York stockholders over different things, little progress was made. While matters were at a standstill, Bissell, attracted one day by an advertisement on a bottle of Kier's rock oil in window in New York City, conceived the idea of drilling for petroleum a! they drilled for salt. He persuaded Lyman and Havens, prominent Wall Street real estate brokers, to lease the Hibbard farm and drill for oil."
THE true and realistic faith which George H. Bissell had of the possibilities in petroleum was constant. His reactions to the strike at the Drake Well prove this. He received the word by telegraph and after buying up, in four days, enough additional stock to control the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company he was in Titusville, leasing and purchasing farm after farm on Oil Creek and the Allegheny. Within two months his purchases came to over $200,000, and he was planning a large refinery as early as November 9, 1859.
The following years showed him as one of the most successful of the permanent oil men of the period. In 1864 he organized the Central Petroleum Company which owned and developed the "famous and fabulously rich" McClintock Farm upon which grew the town of Petroleum Center. He built a railroad, owned a barrel works, engaged extensively in banking, and later was president of the Peruvian Petroleum Company. Following the Drake strike he was in Pennsylvania until 1863 when he returned to New York and beta me one of the largest operators in dealing in New York real estate, while at the same time maintaining his petroleum interests. He seems to have been the Only one of the leading factors in the first oil venture who made and retained a fortune from petroleum.
A major controversy has raged for years as to whether Bissell, Drake, or Townsend should get the major credit for the strike of petroleum in 1859. It would appear now that the controversy should be ended. James H. Townsend of New Haven was president of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of Connecticut in 1858 when the Seneca Oil Company was organized and Edwin L. Drake was sent to Titusville as its general agent, "to raise, procure, manufacture and sell Oils of all kinds, Paints, Salt, Coal or any Mineral production which may be found in any Spring or Mines on any lands that may come into possession of Said Company by Deed or Lease. . . ." The New Haven group furnished most of the capital, and Townsend personally, when the others had become discouraged, continued to back Drake. To James H. Townsend all credit!
Drake went to Titusville in the spring of 1858 and for over a year faced ridicule, delays, lack of funds and little active support from any side. With the arrival of "Uncle Billy" Smith he finally began drilling in mid-August of 1859 and his persistence and courage in the face of obstacles finally paid off when the Drake Well came in on August 27 of that year. To Colonel Edwin L. Drake all credit! This was the birth of the industry.
But the conception of the industry had been six years in the making, and George Henry Bissell had fathered all the early contributory steps leading to the birth of the petroleum industry:
i. In 1853 he, Brewer and the two Crosbys first realized the potentialities involved in substituting petroleum for coal in the making of Illuminants.
2. He and Eveleth were the first to buy and to lease lands for the sole purpose of obtaining petroleum.
3. He and Eveleth were the first to secure a scientific analysis of petroleum.
4. He and Eveleth worked long and laboriously in organizing the first petroleum company in the United States.
5. He was the first man to conceive the idea of drilling for oil, and he and Eveleth were the first to lease land for that precise purpose.
To George H. Bissell all credit!
MAJOR DARTMOUTH FIGURES in the Hanover events leading up to the birth of the petroleum industry were (I to r) Dr. Dixi Crosby, Med. 1824; George H. Bissell, 1845; and Dr. Francis B. Brewer, 1843. Bissell had by far the biggest part in promoting interest and action in drilling for oil at Titusville, Pa.
Courtesy American fe*rolnuiih institute FIRST OIL WELL: The Drake Well at Titusville, Pa., where the petroleum industry was born in 1859. Colonel Edwin L. Drake, who directed drilling operations, is in the foreground, wearing the top hat.
THE IDEA OF DRILLING for oil, instead of skimming it from the surface of a deep hole, was inspired by this circular advertising Kier's "rock oil" medicine. The salt wells pictured on the circular gave Bissell the idea of using the same method to get out the petroleum hundreds of feet under ground.
A TANGIBLE REMINDER of Bissell's sharing in the financial success of the first striking of oil is provided by Bissell Hall, which he gave to Dartmouth in 1867 as a gymnasium. Later used as the home of Thayer School, the building will be razed to create a site for the new Hopkins Center at some future date.
