As the Olinda oil field grew in importance in the waning years of the 19th-century, Olinda Ranch founder William Hervey Bailey continued to work to improve his position within the field. Having already sold or leased large portions of the ranch he established a decade prior during the fabled Boom of the Eighties, Bailey formed the Olinda Oil Company and the Richfield Oil Company.
In early October 1899, however, he moved to expand his reach, as announced by the Los Angeles Times in an article on the 3rd, which announced that "there seems no longer to be any doubt as to the important position Orange county [sic] is to occupy in the development of oil on this Coast." Referring to important sales of oil land in the area, the paper offered that "yet the general public has but little conception of the real extent to which the development of this industry is destined to go." In truth, the paper had little idea either, given the oil production had not seen the advent, in any major way, of the emerging automobile industry and the Wright brothers and their airplane were still a few years off.
Interestingly, the Times indicated that, while oil was found in Olinda only within the previous few years, "it was believed to be in very small quantities—scarcely enough top justify development." After, however, "several men with capital were attracted to this locality," lands deemed only usable for sheep grazing became highly prized for the petroleum potential.
This led to the news that "today four deeds were filed here transferring over eight thousand acres of oil land to the Consolidated Olinda Oil Company, the aggregate consideration being $340,000." The paper went on to state that "this land was formerly owned by W. S. Bailey, Jr.," though they certainly meant William H. Bailey, Sr., not his 26-year old son. The next sentence has a little syntax and grammar problem: "The Olinda Oil Company, the Richfield Oil Company, and the Olinda Ranch Company, the Consolidated Olinda Oil Company, has secured control of the oil interests of the other companies above mentioned." What this seems to mean is that the new consolidated firm absorbed all the interest in the former Olinda Ranch of the ranch company, as well as those of the Olinda and Richfield entities. The article closed by noting that "this company will make extensive developments in the oil district in this county during the next few months."
Just two days later, though, the Times reported "that the big oil deal a few days ago, by which the Consolidated Olinda Oil Company became the owner of more than 8000 acres of oil-bearing land in this county, and for which they paid $340,000, was made in the interest of the Union Oil Company." In addition, a Union Oil representative appeared before the Board of Supervisors in Santa Ana "to present a petition for permission to pay an oil pipe line from the oil wells back of Fullerton along certain county roads to the Alamitos beet-sugar factory." Moreover, it was observed that Union first proposed securing a right-of-way to Newport Beach, but "that the use of the wharf at Newport could not be procured." Further, the company intended to build the line from Los Alamitos (near where the San Gabriel River empties into the Pacific at the border of Seal Beach and Long Beach [and, therefore, at the junction of Orange and Los Angeles counties]) and over to the harbor at San Pedro, recently the subject of massive federal appropriations for creating a man-made port facility that led to the modern day Port of Los Angeles.
The following day, on 6 October, the Times noted that the Consolidated Olinda Oil Company filed its articles of incorporation at Santa Ana and that $500,000 of stock was to be issued, divided into 50,000 shares at a par value of $10 each. At the time, though, only $1,220 was subscribed among those stockholders who constituted the Board of Directors. These were William Hervey Bailey and T. V. Bakewell of Oakland, Ralph Jones and a Mr. Donzel of San Francisco and Bailey's brother-in-law, Warren Olney, Jr., also of Oakland. Notably, Bailey held $1,000 of the initial subscription amount, while Olney and Donzel took $100 and Bakewell and Jones but one share of $10 apiece.
A little sidenote of interest: Olney was married to Bailey's sister. His namesake father was from frontier Iowa and was a teacher (one of his students was the legendary Texas judge, Wyatt Earp) before serving in the Union Army in Missouri during the Civil War. Warren, Sr. earned a law degree from the University of Michigan and then migrated to San Francisco in 1868. Although a sucessful attorney and mayor of Oakland from 1903 to 1905, the senior Olney is perhaps best known as a founder with John Muir of the Sierra Club and wrote its first charter, as well as serving as vice-president. As to Olney, Jr., he also had a distinguished legal career as an attorney and served on the California Supreme Court from 1919 to 1921. The younger Olney's son, Warren III, continued the family tradition of law and was Assistant Attorney General under President Eisenhower in the 1950s and oversaw the criminal division of the Department of Justice. More well-known than them all, though, is Warren Olney IV, a longtime news reporter, anchorman, and radio personality in Los Angeles.
Back to Olinda. Readers of posts on Tonner Canyon will recall that the Union Oil Company, founded in Santa Paula by Pennsylvania veterans of the oil industry like Lyman Stewart, Thomas Bard and Wallace Hardison, will recall that Hardison's sister married William Benjamin Scott, one of the "three brothers" of Tres Hermanos Ranch in upper Tonner Canyon in Diamond Bar/Chino Hills, and founder of the Columbia Oil Company, which had a significant presence in Olinda. William Hervey Bailey's Consolidated Olinda Oil Company as a front of sorts for Union was further expounded upon by the Times in an editorial on 8 October 1899, when it referred to the recent deal with Consolidated as a transfer "from the Olinda Oil Company to the Union Oil Company." Because, "the latter is known to have very heavy capital," it was fully expected that Union was going to get its product from the field via pipelines to ports for transfer. This presaged a great boom for Olinda and, indeed, this was the case.
Yet, it is interesting to note that, on 13 October 1899, the Times reported that Consolidated Olinda filed a lawsuit against Columbia Oil, William Benjamin Scott, Wallace Hardison and others to take possession of 320 acres of land which it claimed it owned and which was said to be oil-bearing, as well as seeking $500 in damages. The outcome of that case has not been found by this blogger.
Meantime, in early November, the Southern California Railway petitioned Orange County's Board of Supervisors for a right-of-way across public roads because "it is the intention of the railroad to construct a branch from the Santa Ana Cañon to the location of the company's oil wells [the Santa Fe lease] in the vicinity of Olinda." This spur line will be the subject of a future post and reflected another example of important infrastructure to get crude oil from Olinda to shipping points. While Union Oil was looking at a lengthy pipeline system to San Pedro Harbor, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe via the Southern California Railway was relying on a shorter, simpler transport by rail.
Another sidenote in the same 8 November 1899 Times column from above: Burdette Chandler, a principal in the Puente Oil Company operating a few miles west and north of Olinda in modern Rowland Heights, also owned some oil lands in the vicinity of the junction of Tonner and Brea canyons and just consummated a deal to sell 200 acres to the new Brea Cañon Oil Company.
As 1900 dawned, the action was increasing with greater force and speed. More to come next entry.
Showing posts with label Richfield Oil Company. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richfield Oil Company. Show all posts
29 August 2011
27 August 2011
Olinda Oil Field History: Origins of Olinda, Part 7
With the successful launch of the Olinda oil field, courtesy of a joint venture between Edward Doheny and the Southern California Railway (as owned by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad), in 1897, it was not long before other oil companies came into being and then the battles in the courtroom followed.
As noted last post, William Hervey Bailey, founder of the Olinda Ranch in 1887, teamed up with other investors to create the Richfield Oil Company (later Atlantic Richfield, now known as ARCO) to develop portions of the ranch for oil development. Moreover, the San Francisco-based real estate firm of Eldridge, Easton and Company, which had also recently been hired to sell and develop land in the east end of Carbon Canyon located within the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, was hired by Bailey's Olinda Ranch Company to do the same on his holdings.
With the formation of Richfield Oil, the idea was to transfer all viable oil lands within Olinda Ranch from the ranch company to the oil firm. This was based on an agreement entered into between the two entities in April 1898.
Alas, a year later, problems arose amongst the principals involved in the agreement, when suit was filed in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana by Easton, Eldridge and Company (consisting of four men: George Easton, D. Easton, W. L. Valentine, and L. Phipps) against Bailey and the Olinda Ranch Company. The allegation was that, although some Olinda Ranch lands that had bearing oil deposits were transferred to Richfield as stipulated in the Spring 1898 compact, other properties that were determined to have oil at some point before 1 April 1899 were not. Easton, Eldridge and Company were asking the court to compel Bailey to transfer those properties and to pay for the plaintiffs costs and attorney's fees, amounting to $1000.
As often happens in matters of civil law, the parties found a way to resolve their differences without going to to the further and greater expense of a trial. In early May, the Los Angeles Times reported that the case had been dismissed, because a deal was made out of court. A four-party transaction involving the Olinda Ranch Company, Richfield Oil Company, George Easton (principal figure in Easton, Eldridge and Company) and a portion of the stockholders of the first two firms was consummated,
in which it is agreed that in consideration of the sum of $575 paid to the Olinda Ranch Company by the Richfield Oil Company and other valuable concessions, the Olinda Ranch Company conveys to George Easton of Los Angeles city fifty acres of land . . . transferred with this land are valuable oil wells which are now largely productive.
Clearly, despite the previous indications that there were four Easton, Eldridge and Company litigants, there was really just George Easton who was pursuing the matter and he seems to have obtained much or all of what he sought in the settlement.
Meantime, within a week, William Hervey Bailey moved to create his own oil company, although it is not clear whether he parted ways with Richfield to do so. At any rate, he formed the Olinda Oil Company with $100,000 in stock and took on his son William, Jr. and Los Angeles investors J. W. Briggs, J. G. Mossin, and T. W. Phelps as fellow directors.
In August, the Times reprinted a lengthy article by the Santa Ana Blade, later absorbed into the Santa Ana Register, which gave some detail about the emerging Olinda field. Notably, the unnamed Blade reporter referred to "the Santa Fe group of wells," noting that this name came from its ownership by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad and its partner, Edward Doheny. Also of note was that the crude generated from the "Santa Fe wells" "is hauled to Richfield Station, four miles distant," this being the Southern California Railway depot in present Atwood in Placentia. The Blade also reported that there were ten operating wells and four others in the process of drilling.
Meantime, there were a growing number of companies and individuals mentioned at Olinda in addition to the Santa Fe/Doheny enterprise. These included the Columbia Oil Company (which has been mentioned in this blog fairly recently as a firm headed by William B. Scott, William R. Rowland and Harry Chandler, the main figures in the later purchase of much of Tonner Canyon for the Tres Hermanos Ranch) though the Columbia was then occupied principally at Brea Canyon; the Graham-Loftus Company (William Loftus, in 1910, provided a detailed update on Olinda progress, as covered in this blog before); Charles Victor Hall, another recent notable covered here, thanks to contact from a descendant; and the others mentioned above, namely Easton, Eldridge and Company and the new Olinda Oil Company.
According to the Blade, "so far as we could learn there have been no failures," which seemed to indicate that all drilled wells came up with crude, although the paper then drew the erroneous conclusion that "there seems to be every reason to believe that oil may be developed at almost any point upon the strike [geological formation] from Los Angeles to some point east of the Santa Fe development." It was correct, though, that "the fields already partially explored will be greatly extended," and that, "the life of the wells developed is probably very great."
As for extended activity in the fields, the next post will cover further maneuverings involving Olinda Ranch owner William Hervey Bailey as well as an important development for "the Santa Fe wells."
As noted last post, William Hervey Bailey, founder of the Olinda Ranch in 1887, teamed up with other investors to create the Richfield Oil Company (later Atlantic Richfield, now known as ARCO) to develop portions of the ranch for oil development. Moreover, the San Francisco-based real estate firm of Eldridge, Easton and Company, which had also recently been hired to sell and develop land in the east end of Carbon Canyon located within the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, was hired by Bailey's Olinda Ranch Company to do the same on his holdings.
With the formation of Richfield Oil, the idea was to transfer all viable oil lands within Olinda Ranch from the ranch company to the oil firm. This was based on an agreement entered into between the two entities in April 1898.
Alas, a year later, problems arose amongst the principals involved in the agreement, when suit was filed in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana by Easton, Eldridge and Company (consisting of four men: George Easton, D. Easton, W. L. Valentine, and L. Phipps) against Bailey and the Olinda Ranch Company. The allegation was that, although some Olinda Ranch lands that had bearing oil deposits were transferred to Richfield as stipulated in the Spring 1898 compact, other properties that were determined to have oil at some point before 1 April 1899 were not. Easton, Eldridge and Company were asking the court to compel Bailey to transfer those properties and to pay for the plaintiffs costs and attorney's fees, amounting to $1000.
As often happens in matters of civil law, the parties found a way to resolve their differences without going to to the further and greater expense of a trial. In early May, the Los Angeles Times reported that the case had been dismissed, because a deal was made out of court. A four-party transaction involving the Olinda Ranch Company, Richfield Oil Company, George Easton (principal figure in Easton, Eldridge and Company) and a portion of the stockholders of the first two firms was consummated,
in which it is agreed that in consideration of the sum of $575 paid to the Olinda Ranch Company by the Richfield Oil Company and other valuable concessions, the Olinda Ranch Company conveys to George Easton of Los Angeles city fifty acres of land . . . transferred with this land are valuable oil wells which are now largely productive.
Clearly, despite the previous indications that there were four Easton, Eldridge and Company litigants, there was really just George Easton who was pursuing the matter and he seems to have obtained much or all of what he sought in the settlement.
Meantime, within a week, William Hervey Bailey moved to create his own oil company, although it is not clear whether he parted ways with Richfield to do so. At any rate, he formed the Olinda Oil Company with $100,000 in stock and took on his son William, Jr. and Los Angeles investors J. W. Briggs, J. G. Mossin, and T. W. Phelps as fellow directors.
In August, the Times reprinted a lengthy article by the Santa Ana Blade, later absorbed into the Santa Ana Register, which gave some detail about the emerging Olinda field. Notably, the unnamed Blade reporter referred to "the Santa Fe group of wells," noting that this name came from its ownership by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad and its partner, Edward Doheny. Also of note was that the crude generated from the "Santa Fe wells" "is hauled to Richfield Station, four miles distant," this being the Southern California Railway depot in present Atwood in Placentia. The Blade also reported that there were ten operating wells and four others in the process of drilling.
Meantime, there were a growing number of companies and individuals mentioned at Olinda in addition to the Santa Fe/Doheny enterprise. These included the Columbia Oil Company (which has been mentioned in this blog fairly recently as a firm headed by William B. Scott, William R. Rowland and Harry Chandler, the main figures in the later purchase of much of Tonner Canyon for the Tres Hermanos Ranch) though the Columbia was then occupied principally at Brea Canyon; the Graham-Loftus Company (William Loftus, in 1910, provided a detailed update on Olinda progress, as covered in this blog before); Charles Victor Hall, another recent notable covered here, thanks to contact from a descendant; and the others mentioned above, namely Easton, Eldridge and Company and the new Olinda Oil Company.
According to the Blade, "so far as we could learn there have been no failures," which seemed to indicate that all drilled wells came up with crude, although the paper then drew the erroneous conclusion that "there seems to be every reason to believe that oil may be developed at almost any point upon the strike [geological formation] from Los Angeles to some point east of the Santa Fe development." It was correct, though, that "the fields already partially explored will be greatly extended," and that, "the life of the wells developed is probably very great."
As for extended activity in the fields, the next post will cover further maneuverings involving Olinda Ranch owner William Hervey Bailey as well as an important development for "the Santa Fe wells."
12 August 2011
Olinda Oil Field History: Origins of Olinda, Part 6
After the first oil well at Olinda was brought into production in April 1897 by Edward Doheny in association with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad's Southern California Railway subsidiary, matters moved rapidly toward the development of the area, which was called the Fullerton field.
In June 1898, the Los Angeles Times did a brief profile on the Olinda Ranch, noting that the 4500-acre parcel was subdivided during the great Boom of the Eighties a decade before "with a townsite in the middle of the tract, named Carlton." It referenced founder W. H. Bailey and his transfer of the ranch to the Olinda Ranch Company. Yet, as the paper pointed out, "few sales were made, and most of the townsite has now been transformed into acreage," meaning larger lots of probably the 5, 10 and 40 acre ones promoted for the ranch outside the Carlton townsite.
Of note, however, was the fact that a new entity was entering the field at Olinda (fortunately, the name "Oil Center" proposed in April 1897 went nowhere!) As reported by the Times, this was the "Richfield Oil Company," which, the paper continued, "has secured extensive rights of development, pipe-line privileges, etc., from the Olinda Ranch Company, and proposed operating not only directly, but by subleasing lands for oil development . . ." Observing that "the Olinda Ranch lies south and west of the Santa Fe wells," which was not technically the case, as the "Santa Fe wells" were within the original Olinda Ranch property, the paper noted that W. L. Watts of the California Mining Bureau had visited the ranch to assess its oil-bearing potential. Because of Watts' favorable report, the Richfield Oil Company, later the Atlantic Richfield Company now known as ARCO, was formed to work the field.
Also of interest is the fact that Richfield was then composed of "San Francisco and local capitalists" and that oil men in the Orange County and surrounding areas would have the opportunity to sublease from Richfield. Readers of this blog's posts about the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino will recall that, during the 1890s, a San Francisco-based real estate firm, Easton, Eldridge and Company, were hired to market and sell sections of that ranch. When the incorporation papers for the Richfield Oil Company were filed, this was done by Easton, Eldridge and Company, thus providing another tangible link between Olinda and Chino.
On 3 July, the Times reported that the Mining Bureau's Watts as back in the area reviewing oil properties from Puente Hills to Olinda and further east and south along what is now known as the Chino Hills, but then considered part of the Puente chain, to the Santa Ana River. Watts, however, believed that there was no indication of oil bearing lands anywhere east of Olinda, which has proven to be the case. As a sidenote, some attention was paid in the article to Watts' investigations in a canyon near the Southern California Railway's Gypsum side track (this, of course, being Gypsum Canyon) and that a favorable indication of coal was located where existing efforts to mine the material had already been made. Coal Canyon, naturally, is where Watts was conducting his investigation. In 1900, Watts completed a report, including a series of maps, that were the first comprehensive effort to examine and interpret the oil lands of southern California generally, including the new Olinda segment of the Fullerton field.
As to Richfield Oil Company's efforts, an article in the same paper from two weeks later, noted that "work on the first of a series of wells to be put down on the Olinda ranch commenced this week." Commenting that oil experts were favorably impressed with the potential at Olinda, the Times reported that "if expectations are realized, plans made for an extensive pipe-line sustem will be put in effect at once." This system was projected to run "from the ranch to Richfield station on the Santa Fe [Southern California Railway]." This refers to the station at what became Atwood, along today's Richfield Avenue in Placentia, where the railroad track still runs parallel to Orangethorpe Avenue. From that point, the article continued, "from Richfield, over an easy route, the line will be run to this city [Los Angeles], coming in at the west-end depot of the Southern Pacific. From there it will be run to Los Alamitos, where, it is said, the sugar factory will be supplied with oil for fuel," a contract apparently being imminent. By sugar factory, this was a sugar beet facility like the one Richard Gird established at Chino, though, eventually, sugar beets as a source of sugar dissipated in favor of protected tariffs for production from Louisiana and Hawaii's sugar cane fields.
As to the wells owned by the Santa Fe Railroad, an August 1898 feature in the Times noted that 8000 barrels of crude were extracted and shipped from Olinda by the company in July and that expectations were for a larger proportion in August. Well #1 continued to be the best producer, at 125 barrels per day, but an unspecified number (probably a few) were also in production. Of course, Well #1 is still in operation today and is a feature of the Olinda Oil Museum within the Olinda Ranch housing subdivision on the old Santa Fe property. Another tangential tidbit: the article referred to two officials from the Santa Fe being at Olinda looking over the situation, one of these men being Chief Engineer for the company, Fred Perris. He, of course, is the namesake for the Riverside County city of Perris, a station stop on a company-owned line (once on the California Southern Railway) from San Bernardino to San Diego.
More on early Olinda oil fields next time!
In June 1898, the Los Angeles Times did a brief profile on the Olinda Ranch, noting that the 4500-acre parcel was subdivided during the great Boom of the Eighties a decade before "with a townsite in the middle of the tract, named Carlton." It referenced founder W. H. Bailey and his transfer of the ranch to the Olinda Ranch Company. Yet, as the paper pointed out, "few sales were made, and most of the townsite has now been transformed into acreage," meaning larger lots of probably the 5, 10 and 40 acre ones promoted for the ranch outside the Carlton townsite.
Of note, however, was the fact that a new entity was entering the field at Olinda (fortunately, the name "Oil Center" proposed in April 1897 went nowhere!) As reported by the Times, this was the "Richfield Oil Company," which, the paper continued, "has secured extensive rights of development, pipe-line privileges, etc., from the Olinda Ranch Company, and proposed operating not only directly, but by subleasing lands for oil development . . ." Observing that "the Olinda Ranch lies south and west of the Santa Fe wells," which was not technically the case, as the "Santa Fe wells" were within the original Olinda Ranch property, the paper noted that W. L. Watts of the California Mining Bureau had visited the ranch to assess its oil-bearing potential. Because of Watts' favorable report, the Richfield Oil Company, later the Atlantic Richfield Company now known as ARCO, was formed to work the field.
Also of interest is the fact that Richfield was then composed of "San Francisco and local capitalists" and that oil men in the Orange County and surrounding areas would have the opportunity to sublease from Richfield. Readers of this blog's posts about the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino will recall that, during the 1890s, a San Francisco-based real estate firm, Easton, Eldridge and Company, were hired to market and sell sections of that ranch. When the incorporation papers for the Richfield Oil Company were filed, this was done by Easton, Eldridge and Company, thus providing another tangible link between Olinda and Chino.
On 3 July, the Times reported that the Mining Bureau's Watts as back in the area reviewing oil properties from Puente Hills to Olinda and further east and south along what is now known as the Chino Hills, but then considered part of the Puente chain, to the Santa Ana River. Watts, however, believed that there was no indication of oil bearing lands anywhere east of Olinda, which has proven to be the case. As a sidenote, some attention was paid in the article to Watts' investigations in a canyon near the Southern California Railway's Gypsum side track (this, of course, being Gypsum Canyon) and that a favorable indication of coal was located where existing efforts to mine the material had already been made. Coal Canyon, naturally, is where Watts was conducting his investigation. In 1900, Watts completed a report, including a series of maps, that were the first comprehensive effort to examine and interpret the oil lands of southern California generally, including the new Olinda segment of the Fullerton field.
As to Richfield Oil Company's efforts, an article in the same paper from two weeks later, noted that "work on the first of a series of wells to be put down on the Olinda ranch commenced this week." Commenting that oil experts were favorably impressed with the potential at Olinda, the Times reported that "if expectations are realized, plans made for an extensive pipe-line sustem will be put in effect at once." This system was projected to run "from the ranch to Richfield station on the Santa Fe [Southern California Railway]." This refers to the station at what became Atwood, along today's Richfield Avenue in Placentia, where the railroad track still runs parallel to Orangethorpe Avenue. From that point, the article continued, "from Richfield, over an easy route, the line will be run to this city [Los Angeles], coming in at the west-end depot of the Southern Pacific. From there it will be run to Los Alamitos, where, it is said, the sugar factory will be supplied with oil for fuel," a contract apparently being imminent. By sugar factory, this was a sugar beet facility like the one Richard Gird established at Chino, though, eventually, sugar beets as a source of sugar dissipated in favor of protected tariffs for production from Louisiana and Hawaii's sugar cane fields.
As to the wells owned by the Santa Fe Railroad, an August 1898 feature in the Times noted that 8000 barrels of crude were extracted and shipped from Olinda by the company in July and that expectations were for a larger proportion in August. Well #1 continued to be the best producer, at 125 barrels per day, but an unspecified number (probably a few) were also in production. Of course, Well #1 is still in operation today and is a feature of the Olinda Oil Museum within the Olinda Ranch housing subdivision on the old Santa Fe property. Another tangential tidbit: the article referred to two officials from the Santa Fe being at Olinda looking over the situation, one of these men being Chief Engineer for the company, Fred Perris. He, of course, is the namesake for the Riverside County city of Perris, a station stop on a company-owned line (once on the California Southern Railway) from San Bernardino to San Diego.
More on early Olinda oil fields next time!
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