This Victorian Gothic structure with its onion-domed turret was named "Algrunix" for its three owners: Edward Allen, building contractor; Samuel Grumbine, self-trained attorney; and Hattie Nixon, wife of another building contractor. . . . — — Map (db m138222) HM
William H. Daugherty lived in Titusville before founding the Daugherty Refinery in Petrolia, PA.
Amalie was created in 1903 when L. Sonneborn & Sons
bought Daugherty Refinery. It was the first refiner of mineral oils in the United States.
In . . . — — Map (db m134080) HM
ATLANTIC REFINING COMPANY
1859: Charles Lockhart and William Frew came to this region to drill for oil on the south bank of the Allegheny across from the mouth of Oil Creek in Venango County. Subsequently they bought out the Tarr Farm and . . . — — Map (db m134083) HM
Minerva and Byron David Benson's children built the library as a memorial to their parents in 1902. Mr. Benson had organized and was the first president of the Titusville Library Association. He further demonstrated his commitment to . . . — — Map (db m138427) HM
This elm planted
by
Canadohta Chapter
Daughters of
the American Revolution
to commemorate the
two hundredth anniversary
of the birth of
George Washington
1732 - 1932
"There has been no greater . . . — — Map (db m138469) HM
A Steel and Wrought Iron Baltimore Through Truss Design, 175-foot span locally known as the Brown Street Bridge, was constructed on this site crossing Oil Creek between 1898-1899. Prior to replacement in 1991 the bridge was recorded and placed in . . . — — Map (db m107775) HM
Burgess Park
A community project
for the benefit
and enjoyment
of all the people
————————
This park
was presented to
the People of Titusville
by
Mr. and . . . — — Map (db m138918) HM
A founder and first president of Tidewater Pipe Co., est. 1878. He transformed the shipment of oil with a larger 6-inch pipe that covered greater distances than ever before. This pipeline was first to carry Pa. crude directly to coastal . . . — — Map (db m64972) HM
A dedication ball, held in early December in spite of nearly impassable muddy streets, was attended by a "very select and brilliant assembly." There were tasteful decorations of flags and evergreens, "exceedingly good" music, and a 1:00 . . . — — Map (db m138227) HM
Charles Burgess came to the United States from England in 1866. Skilled in the art of making iron and steel, Burgess purchased the Eames Petroleum Iron Works in Titusville in 1884. He changed the struggling wrought-iron company's name to . . . — — Map (db m138904) HM
Edwin I. Drake, a former railroad conductor , traveled to Titusville in 1857 to find and produce oil in commercial quantities
Partnering with salt well driller and blacksmith "Uncle Billy" Smith, they persevered to strike oil in August 27, 1859 . . . — — Map (db m133796) HM
The first refinery in the Oil Creek Region for crude petroleum was built nearby in 1860. The first run of oil was made in 1861. Oil was first refined at Pittsburgh, about 1854, by Samuel Kier. — — Map (db m64971) HM
Exxon origins can be traced to Titusville's Carter Oil, founded in 1893 by John J. Carter. Irish immigrant and Civil War veteran John J. Carter was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery at the Battle of Antietam. After the war, he moved to . . . — — Map (db m133824) HM
The early Scots-Irish established a small Presbyterian congregation in 1802, the first in Titusville. They began by worshipping outdoors or in barns. By 1815 they had built a primitive log meeting house, which was soon followed by a . . . — — Map (db m138429) HM
George Custer was a dealer in oil and real estate. In 1869 he built this brick Italianate home, which was unusual in Titusville where lumber was plentiful and inexpensive. It remains one of the oldest brick residences still standing in . . . — — Map (db m138376) HM
Gulf Oil was one of the many companies formed at
Spindletop in January 1901. In late 1901, James M. Guffey bought out the interests of his partners in the Lucas Well (Galey and Lucas) and formed the J.M. Guffey Petroleum Company. Guffey received . . . — — Map (db m133640) HM
Lumberman Charles Hyde built this Italianate home on land once owned by Jonathan Titus, founder of Titusville. It was the first brick residence in the city. Hyde invested wisely in oil, and was founder and president of the Second National . . . — — Map (db m138386) HM
Noted oil historian, biographer of Lincoln, journalist, lived in this house about six years. She was graduated from the Titusville High School in 1875. — — Map (db m50497) HM
Ida Tarbell was one of the most famous investigative journalists in American history. She was raised in Titusville during the oil boom. Her father, Franklin Tarbell, was an oil producer and investor.
In 1872, she witnessed the destruction of her . . . — — Map (db m133624) HM
Photographer of oil industry from 1860, lived in this house. His thousands of views form an extraordinary record of an industry that began here. Born, Bury, England, in 1829; died Titusville, 1915. — — Map (db m50498) HM
Shortly after John Heisman's birth in 1869, the Heisman family moved to Titusville where his father, Michael Heisman, was an oil investor and cooper.
John Heisman was educated at Titusville schools and
played varsity guard on the football team, . . . — — Map (db m133875) HM
John Aked Mather came from England to America in 1856. Having apprenticed himself to a traveling photographer, Mather arrived in Titusville in 1860 and began an unparalleled documentation of the oil industry. He followed every aspect of . . . — — Map (db m138356) HM
Renowned college football coach and name-sake for the sport’s highest amateur honor, the Heisman Memorial Trophy. His innovations included legalizing the forward pass, the center snap, the scoreboard, and game quarters. Heisman promoted player . . . — — Map (db m50493) HM
About one hundred feet east of
this point stood the home of
Jonathan Titus
Founder of Titusville
1796
During the Sixties
the old Titus Home was rebuilt
as the Moore House,
famous hostelry of early oil days, . . . — — Map (db m138175) HM
The Seep family emigrated from Germany in 1849 when Joseph was eleven years old. He moved to Titusville in 1869. Joseph became involved in the oil business, working for a firm that almost immediately was absorbed by the Standard Oil . . . — — Map (db m138496) HM
John C. Bryan, an Irish emigrant who established the first iron foundry and machine shop in the area, built this home in 1871. The home in 1872 was sold to John D. Archbold who succeeded Rockefeller as president of Standard Oil. Colonel . . . — — Map (db m138334) HM
Along this stream the first white explorers found Indians skimming surface oil. From 1859 to 1865, the center of oil production and its refining was along the banks of Oil Creek. — — Map (db m50494) HM
The Oil Creek Refining Company was founded by Dennis
McGraw and incorporated in 1919-20.
It was a "home-owned” oil refinery and operated in East Titusville. The company was the first to market motor oil in refinery-sealed, disposable cans . . . — — Map (db m134081) HM
The Penn Drake brand was originated by the American Oil Works of Titusville.
Michael Heisman (John Heisman's father), Frank VonTacky, William Teege, and Louis Walz created the American Oil Works in Titusville in 1885.
Pennsylvania Refining . . . — — Map (db m133880) HM
The Pennzoil brand comes from a long history of foundings and mergers that date back to 1886 when local men Henry Suhr, Samuel Justus, and Louis Walz founded the Penn Refining Company
In 1914, Penn Refining merged with Germania Refining Company, . . . — — Map (db m133876) HM
Here lie many of the
founders
of this community,
men who helped to blaze
the westward path
of civilization.
———————
Respect their dust;
revere their memory. . . . — — Map (db m138565) HM
In 1914, Thomas and Hopewell Phinny of Oil City created Phinny's Quaker State Medium Oil. The Phinnys were granted a trademark for Quaker State in August 1921.
Quaker State was financed and marketed by J.B. Berry Brothers of Oil City. The . . . — — Map (db m133879) HM
First successful device for increasing the flow of oil by setting off an explosion deep in a well. It was publicly demonstrated in 1865. The nitroglycerin was made .4 mile south of here, along Hammond Run. — — Map (db m50495) HM
In 1890, Josiah Benton, superintendent of Tidewater Pipeline and co-founder of Titusville Forge Company, purchased this Italianate house. Benton made such lavish changes that the Titusville Herald wrote, "...interior is said... to . . . — — Map (db m138502) HM
In 1955, the Second National Bank was the oldest bank in Crawford County in continuous operation. The 90th anniversary celebration featured displays of real and counterfeit bills for comparison, and currency dating from 1862. Over 700 . . . — — Map (db m138224) HM
Dedicated to
CHARLES BURGESS,
founder of the Titusville plant,
and to the specialty steelmakers
of Titusville, Pennsylvania.
1884-1984 — — Map (db m138914) HM
Anthony F. Lucas began drilling a salt dome well with the Gladys City Company near Beaumont, Texas in 1899.
When Lucas and his company ran out of money, John H. Galey and James M. Guffey, financed Lucas and formed a partnership named J.M. Guffey . . . — — Map (db m133830) HM
The Bishop of Pennsylvania, deciding that it was important to establish a mission in the boisterous oil region, sent the Reverend Henry Purdon (shown) to gather a congregation. The first membership was small and consisted mostly of women. . . . — — Map (db m138426) HM
Many Roman Catholics came into the area during the oil boom which began in 1859. The Reverend Father DeLarouque, who had been presiding over mass in a cooper shop, decided a church was needed. Ground was broken on this property in 1862 and the . . . — — Map (db m107779) HM
John D. Rockefeller organized the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He owned wells in Titusville and Cleveland and began buying refineries in Pennsylvania and Ohio. By 1882, Standard Oil controlled 90% of the entire nation's refining capacity. The . . . — — Map (db m133636) HM
Sterling Oil was created in the 1890s by P.J. Bayer as a marketing vehicle for Emlenton Refinery's "Sterling" cylinder engine and Dynamo oil for Erie and Western New York. It was acquired by Eastern Refining Company during World War I. For the . . . — — Map (db m133716) HM
Titusville residents Joseph Pew and E.O. Emerson organized the Sun Oil Company in March 1890.
Based in Pennsylvania, Sun Oil was operated by the Pew
family who became giants in refining and shipbuilding.
The company went public in 1922 and was . . . — — Map (db m133600) HM
Texaco was formed at Spindletop in 1901 by Joseph Cullinan and Arnold Schlaet as the Texas Fuel Company.
Cullinan served as president and general manager of Texaco.
Joseph Cullinan was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania and lived part of his early . . . — — Map (db m133839) HM
William Hawkins Abbott was born in Connecticut in 1819, moved to Ohio, then came to Titusville in 1860. He invested in oil wells, including the Crossley which came in at 70 barrels a day. Recognizing oil as a marketable commodity when . . . — — Map (db m138491) HM
Ida Minerva Tarbell, best known for her History of Standard Oil, moved to Titusville in 1870. In her autobiography, All in the Day's Work, she described her home this way.
"...when I was thirteen I found myself in . . . — — Map (db m138366) HM
In 1865, Titusville residents Byron Benson, Robert Hopkins and David McKelvy started a sawmill in Enterprise (located just outside Titusville) to finance their drilling operation; which they named the Enterprise Oil and Lumber Company.
In . . . — — Map (db m134082) HM
The first machine shop and foundry built to serve the oil industry was located "a year and a mile from Drake Well." In 1889, new owners organized it as the Titusville Iron Company, Limited, under executive officers John Fertig and James Curtis . . . — — Map (db m107782) HM
[Enlargements from company sales catalogs]
The Plant of the Titusville Iron Works Company, Titusville, Pennsylvania. "Founded in 1860, within a year and a mile of the first (Drake) Oil Well." The first plant built in America devoted . . . — — Map (db m138305) HM
The industry's first permanent oil exchange was organized in 1871 by producers, refiners, dealers, brokers. Starting in the American Hotel on this spot, it moved to other sites; returned here in a new three-story brick building, 1881. Dissolved . . . — — Map (db m50496) HM
Titusville by 1870 had become the commercial capital of the developing oil industry. Oilmen realized an organization was needed to keep track of business transactions. "In January 1871 one hundred and sixteen dealers, producers, refiners, . . . — — Map (db m138226) HM
"There are few bank buildings in America which equal this in permanence and quality of construction..." remarked architect Arthur Zimm. The Titusville Herald reported that "...few were prepared for the beauties revealed when its doors were . . . — — Map (db m79974) HM
In ancient seabottom rocks exposed in this stream, the Holotype Specimen of a rare fossil sponge was found by Paleontologist Kenneth E. Caster. In 1939 in recognition of the support which brought the sciences of geology and paleontology to such . . . — — Map (db m64970) HM
This bell was located in the Episcopal Chapel in Townville, Pennsylvania. Albert Broadhurst, Rector of St. James Memorial Episcopal Church of Titusville, served that chapel. The bell, part of the estate of James A. and Elva B. Gillette, . . . — — Map (db m138335) HM
Created in part by Cherrytree-born brothers Milton and Lyman Stewart, Union Oil Company of California was formed in 1890.
After an early start not far from here in
the Shamburg oil field, and serving in the Civil War, Lyman moved to Calfornia . . . — — Map (db m133872) HM
In 1867 Dr. John Ellis developed cylinder oils in Pennsylvania and in 1873 was awarded a trademark for Valvoline.
He marketed it as superior in quality to lard and fat in lubrication and was used by many railroads. Valvoline became the standard . . . — — Map (db m133883) HM
In 1860, Thomas Struthers and his partners formed the Oil Creek Railroad to haul freight, coal, and oil between Corry and Petroleum Centre. The original station was destroyed in Titusville's great flood and fire of 1892, but rebuilt later that year. . . . — — Map (db m107785) HM
In 1879, A.L. Confer constructed a refining still 18 miles from here in Reno, PA called the Empire Oil Works.
He recognized a need for a better illuminating oil and used
carefully controlled temperatures to create a high-quality kerosene. In . . . — — Map (db m133887) HM
The man who sank the first oil well is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, and is commemorated by Niehaus's bronze figure of "The Driller." Drake Well is now a State park, a mile and a half south of Titusville. — — Map (db m50476) HM
The first functional railway oil tank car was invented and constructed in 1865 by James and Amos Densmore at nearby Miller Farm along Oil Creek. It consisted of two wooden tanks placed on a flat railway car; each tank held 40-45 barrels of crude . . . — — Map (db m88570) HM
This native boulder marks the plot
where through the foresight, energy
and persistence of
Edwin L. Drake
The first well was drilled for oil.
On August 27, 1859 oil was found
at a depth of sixty-nine feet.
This great discovery . . . — — Map (db m39968) HM
On this site "Col." Edwin Drake struck oil Aug. 27, 1859; the birth of the petroleum industry.
Administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. — — Map (db m50477) HM
This plaque is dedicated to the memory of Samuel Van Syckel whose inventive mind and business ability planned and built the first successful oil pipeline in the world in September, 1865, from Pithole to Miller Farm, PA. Thus was set in motion a . . . — — Map (db m133595) HM
