Synoptic History of Emlenton

Synoptic History of Emlenton. . A few years prior to 1820. Andrew McCaslin, an enterprising young Irishman, poled up the Allegheny River on a flat boat in search of building stone. Enchanted with the beauty of the surrounding hills, he settled on the site which later became the Borough of Emlenton. Others had started coming to the area (particularly across the river in Scrubgrass Township) shortly after 1798 when the US. Congress declared the land open for settlement. , , McCaslin was joined by other adventurous souls and soon a wharf and a tavern were established, creating a village. By 1834 homes were being erected and lumbering was a prospering business. By 1839 twenty iron furnaces were in operation within a sixteen-mile radius of the new community from which barges carried pig iron downriver. , , Emlenton received its name from Hannah Emlen, the wife of Joseph Fox, a wealthy Quaker from Philadelphia who owned vast acreage in both Venango (including much of the town site) and Clarion Counties. The village was incorporated as a borough in 1859, Emlenton was well established as a trading center when the first oil well was drilled just outside Titusville that same year. , , Soon "black gold fever" radiated southward and in 1867 Emlenton's first oil well was drilled on Ritchey Run. In the excitement of early oil, the presence of "natural gas" was considered a hazard and a nuisance. It took the imagination of a group of local men to envision that this elusive byproduct could be harnessed as a reliable commercial lighting and fuel source. In 1881 the forerunner of the Emlenton Gas Light and Fuel Company was formed the first organized natural gas company in Venango County, and, in 1882, one of the first to be chartered in the state and the third such in the United States. This was the earliest beginning of the Columbia Gas System. During the same period local oil producers banded together and in 1891 formed the Emlenton Producers Oil Company. Other oil companies in the region were organized and in 1931 a merger among nineteen firms resulted in the formation of Quaker State Oil Refining Corporation. In 1990 the local Quaker State plant was sold. Honeywell was the owner of the refinery at the time of its permanent closure in January, 2000.