McClintocksville, Pennsylvania

McClintockville, Pennsylvania was a small community in Cornplanter Township in Venango County located in the state of Pennsylvania in the United States.

History

McClintocksville in 1862

Venango County, Pennsylvania was home to an oil boom in the years following discovery of natural oil (petroleum) in the mid-1850s.

George Bissell, a Yale University chemistry professor, and Edwin L. Drake, a former railroad conductor, made the first successful use of a drilling rig on August 28, 1859 at Titusville, Pennsylvania. This single well soon exceeded the entire cumulative oil output of Europe since the 1650s. The principal product of the oil was kerosene.

In 1861, McClintockville was the location of Wamsutta Oil Refinery, the first business venture of Henry Huttleston Rogers, who became a leading United States capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. Rogers and his young wife Abbie Palmer Gifford Rogers lived in a one-room shack there along Oil Creek for several years.

Shortly later, Rogers met oil pioneer Charles Pratt who purchased the entire output of the tiny Wamsutta Oil Refinery. In 1867, Rogers joined Pratt in forming Charles Pratt and Company, which was purchased by Standard Oil in 1874. Rogers became one of the key men in John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust.

After joining Standard Oil, Rogers invested heavily in various industries, including copper, steel, mining, and railways. The Virginian Railway is widely considered his final life's achievement. Rogers amassed a great fortune, estimated at over $100 million, and became one of the wealthiest men in the United States.

He was also a generous philanthropist, providing many public works for his hometown of Fairhaven and financially assisting helping such notables as Mark Twain, Helen Keller, and Booker T. Washington.

Near McClintockville and Oil City, in western Pennsylvania, there is a Pennsylvania State Park and many heritage sites to tell the story and memorialize the people of the oil boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Features of Venango County, Pennsylvania

People	Charles Almanzo Babcock Orrin Dubbs Bleakley John Wilkes Booth Mai Rogers Coe Cornplanter William Holmes Crosby Charles Vernon Culver Hildegarde Dolson William L. Durkin Albert Gallatin Egbert Frank Evans Gabby Gabreski John Galbraith Leon H. Gavin Calvin Willard Gilfillan Alexander Hays Samuel Hays Stevin Hoover John W. Howe Shauna Howe Willis James Hulings Chris Kirkpatrick Johnny Appleseed Kathryn Kuhlman Rolland Lawrence Ted Marchibroda Alexander McDowell James H. Osmer Spencer Peterson Arnold Plumer Jesse L. Reno Abbie G. Rogers Henry H. Rogers Milton William Shreve Joseph C. Sibley Dave Smalley Peter Moore Speer Tubby Spencer Ida M. Tarbell John Wesley Van Dyke Howard Zahniser

Geography	Allegheny River Clear Creek State Forest Cornplanter State Forest East Sandy Creek French Creek Oil Creek

History	Drake's Well Fort Franklin Fort Le Boeuf Fort Machault Fort Venango McClintocksville Petroleum industry Pithole Pontiac's Rebellion USS Venango Wamsutta Oil Refinery National Register of Historic Places

Industry	Joy Mining Machinery Pennzoil Quaker State

Attractions	Applefest Custaloga Town DeBence Antique Music World Drake Well Museum Oil Creek State Park Oil Region Astronomical Observatory Franklin Silver Cornet Band Venango Regional Airport

Coordinates: 41°31′30″N 79°36′22″W / 41.525°N 79.606°W / 41.525; -79.606

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