The Standard Oil Company
cants and burning oils, and in this way rapidly increased the demand in the arts for the refined product. In even greater measure it encouraged the production of crude petroleum. Within a year after Drake’s success wells had been sunk all around Oil City and along the Alleghany River. In 1864 had occurred the Cherry "run,” followed by the Benninghoff and the Pioneer “runs” and the sensational exploitation of Pithole Creek. While Mr. Rockefeller was erecting his little refinery, Pithole City—now a field sown with wheat—had a post-office nearly as large as that of Philadelphia. From Manitoulin Island to Alabama, and from Missouri to Central New York, wells had been bored for oil. So rapid had been the increased demand for the products of petroleum, and so unexpected had been the increase of supply, that in 1865 existing refineries proved quite inadequate to the business suddenly thrust upon them.
The difficulties besetting refiners in 1865
5
