Oil & Progressive Politics
1859 | First oil well in United States is drilled 69 feet deep at Titusville, Pennsylvania by Colonel Edwin Drake (Aug 27, 1859). |
1865 | Thomas Bard acquired Rancho San Francisco as anagent for Thomas A. Scott's Philadelphia and California Petroleum Company. |
1866 | Oil is collected from tunnels dug at Sulphur Mountain in Ventura County by the brothers of Leland Stanford. |
1866 | First steam-powered rig in California drills an oil well at Ojai, not far from the Sulphur Mountain seeps. |
1872 | Oil producers and refiners in North-Western Pennsylvania boycott Standard Oil |
1876 | First commercial oil field in California at Pico Canyon (near Newhall). |
1883 | Lyman Stewart and W.L. Hardison leased land just east of Pico Canyon. Four out of five were 'dry holes.' |
1883 | Formation of Hardison, Stewart & Company |
1885 | Oil burners on steam engines in the California oil fields, and later on steam locomotives, create new crude oil markets. |
1886 | Gasoline-powered automobiles introduced in Europe by Karl Benz and Wilhelm Daimler create additional markets for California oil. |
1887 | David Emery, deepened Drake Well about 500 feet (153 m). He was the founder and chief officer of the Octave Oil Co. in which Milton Stewart was involved |
1888 | A steel-hulled tanker sailed from Ventura to San Francisco, eleven years after the 1877 sailing of a Russian tanker across the Caspian sea at Baku. |
1889 | The Torrey Canyon Oil Company (T. C. O.) was incorporated. (May 21, 1889) |
1889 | The W.L. Hardison wooden oil tanker exploded at the pier in Ventura (Port Huneume) (June 25, 1889) |
1890 | Harvey Hardison, Wallace's right-hand man in field operations was killed by and explosion of gas in one of H. & S.'s tunnels on Sulphur Mountain. |
1890 | First oil well in Fullerton (approximate date). The oil fields were located in the northern reaches of the town, much of which is now in Brea. |
1892 | First oil well in Los Angeles drilled by Edward L. Doheny, located along Glendale Boulevard between Beverly Boulevard and Colton Avenue |
1895 | California Direct Legislation League founded by Dr. John Randolph Haynes of Philadelphia. |
1896 | Wallace Hardison and C.P. Collins found the Inca Mining Company to operate a gold mine in the Peruvian Andes. |
1896 | S. C. Graham, working for Sisar Oil and Asphalt Company, brought in the first of five new wells in November at 420 feet for twenty barrels a day. |
1898 | S.C. Graham founded Graham-Loftus Oil Company and worked a field near Fullerton. |
1898 | Coalinga (Oil City Field) was opened to production, initially 700 barrels per day. |
1904 | T. Bard and Graham-Loftus make a play in the Coalinga field. |
1907 | Lincoln-Roosevelt Club formed in Los Angeles to promote reform. S.C. Graham chosen as first president. |
1908 | Hiram Johnson takes of as prosecutor in San Francisco graft case. |
1909 | In the California Legislature, the Anti-Racetrack Gambling bill was adopted (the Lincoln-Roosevelt League elected Assemblymen from several counties, including Alameda) Mott, Pulcifer and Feeley (unreliable) |
1909 | Discovery of the Greater Coyote Hills Field in the Los Angeles Basin in the extreme northern portion of Orange County and three miles northwest of Fullerton (April 26, 1909) |
1910 | Progressive Hiram Johnson elected governor |
1911 | About two miles northeast of Fullerton, the East Coyote Pool was located, originally known as the La Habra Field. |
Last updated October 8, 2012