The Story of Union Oil Company

 

Wallace L. Hardison,, the first treasurer of Union Oil Company, which he helped to found, was one of the leaders in tunneling for oil into the side of Sulphur Mountain in Ventura County. Crude flowed out of the tunnels into pits.	Workers at the Hardison & Stewart Oil Company refinery at Santa Paula in 1887.
The Hardison & Stewart refinery at Santa Paula. Constructured in 1887, the refinery had a capacity of approximately fourteen thousand barrels its first year. It produced asphaltum, greases, lubricants, and illuminating oils. It was destroyed by fire in 1896 and we never rebuilt.
Men at work in a tool shop owned by Union Oil Company at Santa Paula near the turn of the century.
The corner, second-floor office of this building in Santa Paula was where the incorporation papers for were signed in 1890.	A typical well at Tar Creek prior to 1900. The steam boiler in the foreground provided power to raise the heavy drill so it could be dropped repeatedly into the hole, thus pounding its way through the earth.
David Swartz (left) and Hall Proudfoot in the derrick house of a Hardison & Stewart well at Tar Creek in 1883. Note the large "bull wheel" and heavy cable used to raise and drop the drill bit when the rig was "making hole."
Hardison & Stewart's Robertson Well No. 1 at Bardsdale as it appeared in 1890. This was the firm's last well before it merged with other interests to become Union Oil Company of California. The steam boiler can be seen in the extreme left of the picture. The "walking beam," extending from the derrick was powered by the boiler in an up-and-down motion, which in turn was used by the driller to raise and drop the drill bit.