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.