George Henry Bissell, founder of the first oil company in the U.S.
In the early 1850's, George Bissell, a New York lawyer, heard about petroleum collected from an oil spring in Titusville, Pennsylvania and conceived a plan to try and produce this oil commercially. Benjamin Silliman Jr, a chemist at Yale University, and one of America's leading chemists, was hired to analyze the properties of the "Seneca Oil" as an illuminant. He determined that the oil could be distilled into several fractions, one of which was a very high quality illuminant.
With this positive information, Bissell was able to get together some financial backers, including James Townsend, president of a bank in New Haven, Connecticut, and formed the "Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company".
With Silliman’s endorsement, some New Haven men said they would invest, but only if Bissell and Eveleth would reorganize the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co. in Connecticut. Given the difficult economic times in the country and only small interest in the venture, seen as highly speculative, in the tight capital markets of New York City, Bissell and Eveleth agreed and reorganized as a Connecticut corporation on September 18, 1855. The New York men also agreed to some very demanding and unusual bylaws which stated all board meetings would be in New Haven and the majority of the board of, first, three directors and, later, five would always be residents of New Haven. This was how the men of New Haven came to control the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company.
While the men from New Haven soon left the Pennsylvania Oil Region, George Bissell left his full time law practice in New York and moved to Franklin, Pennsylvania to devote his attentions to developing his new oil interests. Mr. Bissell’s partner, Jonathan Eveleth was sickly and remained in New York. He passed away in 1862. Bissell lived in Franklin as a legal Pennsylvania resident until 1864.
During the time he lived in Pennsylvania, he and his New York City financial partners invested heavily in purchasing and developing oil farms and property first around Franklin and then all along Oil Creek from the George McClintock Farm at Petroleum Centre to the mouth of Oil Creek at Oil City.
Empire Well, from the Drake Well Museum Collection, Titusville, Pa.
The first great flowing well in the history of the oil industry was the Empire well on Funk Farm. Completed in September 1861, it initially flowed at 3,000 barrels a day.
He developed these producing and commercial properties as well as railroads with millions of out-of-state investment capital, and these investments paid immense returns. When the oil and bank panics hit the Oil Region in 1866, Bissell opened a bank, George H. Bissell & Co., in Oil City and a branch in Petroleum Centre betting on the viability of the young, struggling oil industry. Bissell’s strong regard among New York money center banks and financial interests was clearly an asset to the early oil region in the Pennsylvania wilderness.
Among the great oil pioneers of the first decades, Bissell was a giant. The oil men recognized it was Bissell’s early vision, initiative, unwavering commitment, personal sacrifice, proven integrity, and fifteen years of entrepreneurial risk that put the American oil industry on its feet. The oil men and writers of the nineteenth century as one recognized George Bissell as the patriarch of their industry.
Written by Neil McElwee, 2007. References: Report On The Rock Oil Or Petroleum from Venango County, Pennsylvania, B. Silliman, Jr., New Haven, 1855 The Early And Later History Of Petroleum, J. T. Henry, Philadelphia, 1873 Petrolia, Andrew Cone and Walter Johns, New York, 1870 Sketches In Crude Oil, John J. McLaurin, Harrisburg, 1898 The American Petroleum Industry, Age of Illumination 1859-1899, Williamson and Daum, Evanston, 1959 Venango County Pennsylvania Deed Book “O” Venango County Pennsylvania Deed Book “P” Pennsylvania Petroleum 1750-1872, Paul Giddens, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1947
This Slipper Chair is at the Collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The chair from 1844–67 is attributed to: John Henry Belter, American, 1804–1863 Attributed to: J.H. Belter and Company, 1844–1867 New York, New York Overall: 114.3 x 45.7 x 43.2 cm (45 x 18 x 17 in.) Rosewood, laminated, carved and replaced upholstery. From the Bissell family deed of gift: "The property was acquired by inheritance from my father President Justice Pelham St George Bissell of the Municipal Court of the City of New York in the spring of 1946. Judge Bissell had acquired these pieces from his Aunt Florence Wemple Bissell Platt. She had inherited them from her father George Henry Bissell upon his death in 1884. This is the same George Henry Bissell who with his partner J.G. Eveleth organized the first Petroleum company in the United States or elsewhere in 1854."
The Bissell Connection to George Henry Bissell, Oilman
5th Cousin, five times removed from the Bissell “3G” Generation
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Joyce, Meredith, George, Gwen, Roger, Arthur, Eleanor, Chip, Carolyn, Betsy, Clyde
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Adelaide Lyon Boutelle --- Richard Meredith Bissell
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Mertie Ella Bisbee ----- Herbert Hunt Bissell
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Julie Ann Richardson ---- John Hatch Bissell
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George Henry Bissell, b. 8 Nov 1821 Mercy Ann Searle ---- Benoni Bliss Bissell
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Isaac Bissell, Jr. -- Nancy Wemple Tirzah Pierce ---- Solomon Bissell
b. 31 Mar 1779 b. 22 Oct 1781 ]
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Isaac Bissell --- Amelia Leavitt Eunice Olcott ---- Noah Bissell
b. 25 Jan 1749 b. 12 Dec 1757 ]
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Samuel Bissell -- Mary Kibbe Silence Burt ---- Noah Bissell
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Jeremiah Bissell -- Mehitable White Ruth Warner -- David Bissell
b. 22 Jun 1677 b. 14 Mar 1682/83 ]
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Lt. John Bissell, Jr. -- Israel Mason Mindwell Moore ---- Nathaniel Bissell
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[------------------- Capt. John Bissell & Mary -------------------------]