![]() He had been a partner in a lumber business prior to the success of the Drake well. He owned the land where Drake's well was drilled. The first oil millionaire was Jonathan Watson, a resident of Titusville. The exchange moved from the city, but returned in 1881 in a new, brick building before being dissolved in 1897. In 1871, the first oil exchange in the United States was established here. Titusville grew from 250 residents to 10,000 almost overnight and in 1866 it incorporated as a city. Drilling tools were needed and several iron works were built. Other oil-related businesses quickly exploded on the scene. Grant visited Titusville to view this important region. That line became part of the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad in 1871. The Union City & Titusville Railroad was built in 1865. The next year the railroad line was extended south to Petroleum Centre and Oil City. In 1865 pipelines were laid directly to the rail line and the demand for teamsters practically ended. Transporting methods improved and in 1862 the Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad was built between Titusville and Corry where it was transferred to other, larger east-west lines. Teamsters were needed immediately to transport the oil to markets. They had many difficulties, but on August 27 at the site of an oil spring just south of Titusville, they finally drilled a well that could be commercially successful. Drake hired a salt well driller, William A. Drake, to start drilling on a piece of leased land just south of Titusville near what is now Oil Creek State Park. In the late 1850s Seneca Oil Company (formerly the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company) sent Col. Its main use at that time had been as a medicine for both animals and humans. Oil was known to exist here, but there was no practical way to extract it. Titusville was a slow-growing community until the 1850s, when petroleum was discovered in the region. ![]() Titusville in 1896, by Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |