William Hawkins Abbott was a Connecticut boy, an Ohio merchant at twenty-five and a visitor to the Drake well in February of 1860. He remained two days, paid ten-thousand dollars for three one-eighth interests in farms below the town and two days after William Barnsdall struck a fifty-barrel well on one of the properties. He located at Titusville, established a market for crude in New York, shipped extensively and in the fall of 1860, with James Parker and William Barnsdall as partners, began the erection of the first complete refinery in the oil-region. To convey the boilers and stills from Oil City, whither they were shipped from Pittsburg by water, was a task greater than the labors of Hercules. The first car-load of coal ever seen in Titusville Mr. Abbott laid down in the fall of 1862. He opened a coal-yard and superintended the refinery. Oil fluctuated at a rate calculated to make refiners bald-headed. In January of 1861 Abbott paid ten dollars a barrel for crude and one-twenty-five in March. In October of 1862 Howe & Nyce stored five-hundred barrels of crude on the first railroad-platform at Titusville, selling it to Abbott at two-sixty a barrel, packages included. In January of 1863 Abbott sold the oil from the same platform for fourteen dollars and in March the same lot—it had never been moved—brought eight dollars. Thirty days later Abbott bought it again at three dollars a barrel and refined it. He was interested in the Noble well, bought a large share in the Pithole and Miller Farm Pipe-Line and in 1866 formed a partnership with Henry Harley. He contributed largely to the Titusville and Pithole plank-road and all local enterprises likely to benefit the community. His generosity was comprehensive and discerning. He donated a chapel to the Episcopal congregation, projected the Union & Titusville Railroad and was a most exemplary, public-spirited citizen. To give bountifully was his delight. He bore financial disaster heroically and labored incessantly to save others from loss. At seventy-two he is patient and helpful to those about him, his daily life illustrating his real worth and illumining the pathway of his declining years.
Born in Ohio in 1839 and graduated from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as a civil-engineer in 1858, Henry Harley supervised the construction of the Hoosac Tunnel until the war and settled at Pittsburg in 1862 as active partner of Richardson, Harley & Co. The firm had a large petroleum commission-house and Harley removed to Philadelphia in 1863 to manage its principal branch. He purchased large tracts in West Virginia which did not meet his expectations, withdrew from the commission-firm and in the latter part of 1865 built his first pipe-line. He was the confidential friend of Jay Gould and James Fisk, whose support placed him in a position to organize the Pennsylvania Transportation Company. For years Harley swam on the topmost wave and was a high-roller of the loftiest stripe. Henry Villard was not more magnetic. He told good stories, dealt out good cigars, knew champagne from seltzer and had no trace of the miser in his intercourse with the world. He lived at Titusville in regal style and made “the grand tour of Europe” in 1872. He was on intimate terms with railroad magnates, big politicians and Napoleons of finance. The Pipe-Line Company got into deep waters, prosecutions and legal entanglements crippled it and Henry Harley tumbled with the fabric his genius had reared. He drifted to New York, was a familiar figure around Chautauqua several seasons and died in 1892. His widow lives in New York and his brother George, a popular member of the Oil-City Oil-Exchange, died last year.
In November of 1865 the Oil City & Pithole Railroad Company began a railroad between the two towns, pushing the work with such energy that the first train from Pithole to Oil City was run on March tenth, 1866. Vandergrift & Forman equipped the Star Tank-Line to carry oil in tank-cars and laid the Star Pipe-Line from West Pithole to Pithole to connect with the railroad. An unequivocal success from the start, this pipe-line has been regarded as the real beginning of the present system of oil-transportation. The lower oil-country enlarged the field for pipe-line stations. Lines multiplied in Venango, Clarion, Armstrong and Butler. Some of these were controlled by Vandergrift & Forman, who brought the business to a high standard of perfection. Each district had one or more lines running to the nearest railroad. The Pennsylvania Transportation Company secured a charter in 1875 to construct a line to the seaboard. Nothing was done except to build more lines in the oil-region. The number grew continually. Clarion had a half-dozen, the Antwerp heading the list. Parker had a brood of small-fry and Butler was net-worked. It was the fashion to talk of trunk-lines, call public meetings, subscribe for stock and—let the project die. Dr. Hostetter, the Pittsburg millionaire of “Bitters” fame, built the Conduit Line from Millerstown to the city of smoke and soot. The Karns, the Relief and others ran to Harrisville. Every fellow wanted a finger in the pipe-line pot-pie. A war of competition arose, rates were cut, business was done at heavy loss and the weaker concerns went to the wall. The companies issued certificates or receipts, instead of paying cash for crude received by their lines. When the producer ran oil into the storage-tanks of some companies he was not certain the certificates given him in return would have any value next day. He must either use the lines or leave the oil in the ground. The necessity of combining the badly-managed competitive companies into a solid organization was urgent. The Union Pipe-Line Company acquired a number of lines and operated its system in connection with the Empire Line. Under the act of 1874 Vandergrift & Forman organized the United Pipe-Lines, into which numerous local lines were merged. The first grand step had been taken in the direction of settling the question of oil-transportation for all time.
The advantages of the consolidation quickly commended the new order of things to the public. The United Lines erected hundreds of iron-tanks for storage and connected with every producing-well. Needless pipes and pumps and stations were removed to be utilized as required. The best appliances were adopted, improving the service and diminishing its cost. Uniform rates were established and every detail was systematized. Captain Vandergrift, president of the United Lines, was ably assisted in each department. Daniel O’Day, a potent force in pipe-line affairs, developed the system to an exact science. He learned the shipping-business from the very rudiments in the great Empire Line. His thorough knowledge, industry and practical talent were of incalculable value to the United Lines. He possessed in full measure the qualities adapted especially to the expansion and improvement of the giant enterprise. He had the skill to plan wisely and the ability to execute promptly. His sagacity and experience foresaw the magnificent future of the system and he laid the foundations of the United Lines broad and deep. To-day Daniel O’Day is a master-spirit of the pipe-line world, a millionaire and vice-president of the National Transit Company, which transports nine-tenths of the oil produced in the United States. He has risen by personal desert, without favoritism or partiality. His elevation has not subtracted one whit from the manly character that gained him innumerable friends in the oil-region.
DANIEL O’DAY
J R CAMPBELL EDWARD HOPKINS.
PUMPING OIL FROM TROUTMAN WELL.
Edward Hopkins, first manager of the United Pipe-Lines, was an efficient officer and died young. John R. Campbell has been treasurer from the incorporation of the lines in 1877. Born in Massachusetts and graduated from Rev. Samuel Aaron’s celebrated school at Norristown, he served his apprenticeship in the Baldwin Locomotive Works and manufactured printing-inks in Philadelphia, with William L. and Charles H. Lay as partners. In March of 1865 he visited the oil-region and in August removed to Oil City. He acquired oil-interests, published the Register and was treasurer for the receiver of the Oil City & Pithole Railroad Company. In 1867 he became book-keeper for Vandergrift & Lay, afterwards for Captain Vandergrift and later for Vandergrift & Forman, who appointed him treasurer of their pipe-lines in 1868. He retained the position in the United Lines and he is still treasurer of that division of the National Transit Company. To Mr. Campbell is largely due the accurate and comprehensive system of pipe-line accounts now universally adopted. He aided in devising negotiable oil-certificates, reliable as government bonds and convertible into cash at any moment. He enjoys to the fullest extent the confidence and esteem of his associates and is treasurer of a dozen large corporations. He was president term after term of the Ivy Club, one of the finest social organizations in Pennsylvania, and a liberal promoter of important enterprises. His abiding faith in Oil City he manifests by investing in manufactures and furthering public improvements. Active, helpful and popular in business, in society and in the church, no eulogy could add to the high estimation in which John R. Campbell is held wherever known.
The enormous production of the Bradford field, the increased distances and the construction of lines to the sea presented new and difficult problems. A natural increase in size led to a demand for pipe of better quality, for heavier fittings and improved machinery. The largest line prior to Bradford’s advent was a four-inch pipe from the Butler field to Pittsburg, in 1875. Excepting this and three-inch lines to Raymilton and Oil City, none of the main lines exceeded twelve miles in length. Many were gravity-lines and others used small tubing and light pumps. The greater quantities and longer distances in the northern district—the oil also congealed at a higher temperature and was harder to handle than the product of the lower fields—required greater power, larger pipes and increased facilities. The first six-inch line was laid from Tarport to Carrollton in the spring of 1879. Two four-inch lines had preceded it and a four-inch line from Tarport to Kane was completed the same season, five six-inch lines following later. The first long-distance line, a five-inch pipe from Hilliards—near Petrolia—to Cleveland, was completed in the summer of 1879. Trunk-lines to the eastern coast were begun in 1879-80. The trunk-line to Philadelphia starts at Colegrove, McKean county, and extends two-hundred-and-thirty-five miles—six-inch pipe—with a five-inch branch of sixty-six miles from Millway to Baltimore. Starting at Olean, two six-inch lines were paralleled to Saddle River, N.J. They separated there, one connecting with the refineries at Bayonne and the other going under the North and East Rivers to Hunter’s Point, on Long Island. The New-York line is double under the Hudson—one pipe inside another, with tight-fitting sleeve-joints. The ends of the jacket-pipe were separated twelve inches to permit the enclosed pipe to be screwed home. The sleeve was then pushed over the gap and the space between the pipes filled with melted lead. The line is held in place by two sets of heavy chains, parallel with and about twenty feet from the pipe, one on each side. At intervals of three-hundred feet a guide-chain connects the pipe with the lateral chains and beyond each of these connections an anchor, weighing over a ton, keeps the whole in place. The completion of this part of the line was an engineering triumph not much inferior to the laying of Cyrus W. Field’s Atlantic Cable.
The United Pipe-Lines Association moved forward steadily, avoiding the pitfalls that had wrecked other systems. It bought or combined the Oil-City, Antwerp, Union, Karns, Grant, Conduit, Relief, Pennsylvania, Clarion and McKean divisions of the American-Transfer, Prentice, Olean, Union Oil-Company’s at Clarendon, McCalmont at Cherry Grove and smaller lines, covering the oil-region from Allegany to Butler. The United owned three-thousand miles of lines, thirty-five-million barrels of iron-tankage and one-hundred-and-eighteen local pump-stations. Even these extraordinary resources were strained by the overflowing demand. Bradford was the Oliver Twist of the region, continually crying for “More!” Ohio and West Virginia entered the race and required facilities for handling an amazing amount of oil. To meet any contingency and secure the advantages of consolidation in the states producing oil the National-Transit Company increased its capital to thirty-two-million dollars. The company held the original charter granted to the Pennsylvania Company under the act of 1870. In 1880 it absorbed the American-Transfer Company, an extensive concern. On April first, 1884, it acquired the plant and business of the United Lines, thus ranking with the most powerful corporations in the land.
Men entirely familiar with the minutest details of oil-transportation and storage guided the National Transit. Captain Vandergrift was influential in the management until his retirement from active duty in 1892. President C. A. Griscom was succeeded by Benjamin Brewster and he by H. H. Rogers, the present official head of the company. John Bushnell was secretary, Daniel O’Day general manager, and James R. Snow general superintendent. Skillful, practical and keenly alive to the necessities of the oil-region, they were not kid-gloved idlers whose chief aim was to draw fat salaries. Mr. Rogers made his mark on Oil Creek in pioneer times as a forceful, intelligent, progressive business-man. He had brains, earnestness, integrity and industry and rose by positive merit to the presidency of the greatest transportation-company of the age. He is a first-class citizen, a liberal patron of education and an apostle of good roads. He endows schools and colleges, abounds in kindly deeds and does not forget his experiences in Oildom. Daniel O’Day—clever and capable, “whom not to know is to argue one’s self unknown”—who has not heard of the plucky, invincible vice-president of the National Transit Company? Everybody admires the genial, resolute son of Erin whose clear head, willing hands, strong individuality and sterling qualities have raised him to a position Grover Cleveland might covet. James R. Snow invented a pump so perfect that oil would fairly flow up hill for a chance to pass through the machine. From their Broadway offices Rogers, O’Day and Snow direct by telephone and telegraph the movements of regiments of employés in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana. They are in direct communication with every office of the company, every purchasing-agency, every pump-station on the trunk-lines and every oil-producing section of four states. No army Napoleon, Wellington or Grant commanded was better officered, better disciplined, better equipped and better managed than the grand army of National-Transit pipe-men. If “poets are born, not made,” what shall be said of the wide-awake solvers of the problem of rapid transit for oil—the pipe-liners who, combining the maximum of efficiency with the minimum of cost, have placed a great staple within reach of the lowliest dwellers beneath the Stars and Stripes? Candidly, is “the best in the shop” too good for them?