by Paul R. Spitzzeri
After a significant expenditure of time, effort and money in 1883 and 1884 at his Petrolia project drilling for oil in Soquel Canyon in northeast Orange County just east of what became the important Olinda field, the first in the county, Los Angeles resident Burdette Chandler experienced the ups and downs commonly found in such speculative enterprises, especially as the technology for petroleum prospecting was slowly evolving.
He’d taken on partners during this period, including J.G. Bower and the brothers William and George Chaffey, the latter with the incorporated Chandler Oil Company, which sought to raise funds from stock sales to pursue further work at Petrolia. The Los Angeles Herald newspaper, which had interests in what was likely the adjacent Telegraph Canyon, was particularly supportive of Chandler’s efforts, as well. Reports from it and other papers, such as the Anaheim Gazette, indicate that some significant quantities of heavy oil for lubrication were extracted, but the lighter grade for other purposes seems to have largely remained elusive.
1885 turned out to be a quiet year at Petrolia, though, in its 17 April edition, the Herald reported that Chandler began boring a new well and the 15 1/2 inch drill was the largest used to date in the region and the idea being to get deeper than previously and avoid the casing at higher levels that was usually installed.
With a steam-powered engine, derrick, pulleys and tackle and other materiel, Chandler was ready and also showed the paper a half-dozen bottles of oil that he refined from the crude which he said could include all the ranges of product needed for various uses. The paper concluded,
It is to the interest of everyone here that these newly discovered oil wells should prove successful and turn out as well as anticipated by their owners, and we join in the hope that their brightest expectations may be realized in a fortune.
In July, it appears a new partnership emerged by Abram E. Pomeroy, who came to Los Angeles in 1881 and engaged in real estate, recently developing, among many projects, the town of Puente with George W. Stimson. Yet, in September, Pomeroy sold the same tract he’d just purchased for the same amount, so it is unclear whether a rift emerged between him and Chandler.
In mid-November, however, another partner was found, this being Walter S. Maxwell, along with his brother-in-law Walter S. Moore, best known for being the Los Angeles Fire Department chief. Maxwell, a coal dealer who also was a real estate speculator and involved in streetcar projects in the Angel City, as well. Meanwhile, toward the end of the year, Chandler was pursuing oil drilling north of Los Angeles and it was also mentioned that natural gas was found northwest of downtown near where he’d experimented with drilling in the late 1870s off the extension of Temple Street—in fact, this would be near where, several years later, Charles Canfield and Edward L. Doheny, with modest cash and primitive equipment, brought in a well that opened the great Los Angeles oil field.
With the onset of 1886 and likely because of Maxwell’s investment, there was some renewed vigor exercised at Petrolia. The Herald of 22 February generally observed that “steps have been taken to develop more actively the supply of petroleum that lies in a subterranean basin across the whole county from west to east,” including at the ranchos La Brea and Rodeo de las Aguas, west of downtown and the last of which, encompassing what became Beverly Hills, was part-owned by William Workman in the 1860s.
The article ended with the report and hope that,
In Petrolia, 25 miles east of the city, active work is going forward in sinking wells, under the direction of Mr. Burdett[e] Chandler. Two wells there are producing oil at present, and more will soon be added to these. The Puente wells [which Chandler initially developed with William R. Rowland, but the latter worked more closely with Los Angeles pipe manufacturer William Lacy of late] are turning out oil abundantly. The day of development has dawned in full orbed splendor, and is marching forward without let or hindrance.
A little over a month later, in its issue of 27 March, the Herald offered more “Petrolia News” based on Chandler’s report after coming to town. He told the paper that two wells reached 400 and 200 feet in depth and that the latter, with a 14-inch diameter, was “the largest ever bored to that depth in the State.” Moreover, he leased property to investors who planned to sink four wells shortly. As to Puente, Chandler stated that a well producing 25 barrels daily was to have a pipeline carrying the crude “to the [Southern Pacific Railroad] depot in the new Puente settlement,” this leading the paper to comment that, “petroleum prospects seem to be brightening.”
Another two months passed with the Herald briefly stating that Chandler was in town to rest for a few days after his work at Petrolia, which included “a new oil well 259 feet deep, [and] 12 inches in diameter, with a good show of oil and a fine show of gas.” At the end of June the paper recorded that “the great petroleum basin, some four miles in extent, of Messrs. W.S. Maxwell and Burdett[e] Chandler, and the Chandler Oil Company, at Petrolia, will soon be heard from in the most interesting manner.”
This was because shallow wells were producing steady supplies of crude “while that veteran [Chandler] is sinking a well that he believes will astonish the country.” Maxwell, the paper added, was possessed by “the wholesome fear that oil will drive out the use of coal” and so “has invested in 1,000 acres of oil land to hedge against the disuse of coal.” A lease of some of that land was effected with a pair of investors, Dan McFarland and Lyman Stewart, the former very active in real estate and the latter soon to found Union Oil, who had tools and machinery near Chandler’s first well and it was anticipated that “they will probably make a sensation before long in the Petrolia basins.”
The new owners of land were deemed “irrepressible,” while Maxwell was said to have “the nerve of a bull dog” and Chandler “has enthusiasm enough for all, ” so that it was asserted that “great news may in the future be expected from Petrolia.” Also of note was the report that “a carload of asphaltum has been sent to his city to be used on the new Spring street pavement,” this marking a change for downtown thoroughfares, and the article ended with the observation that, “there is a general boom in oil and asphaltum in that part of the county, that is equal to the movement in real estate.”
In fact, at the end of 1885, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad completed a direct transcontinental link to greater Los Angeles that soon was pivotal in helping to usher in the Boom of the Eighties, so the reference in the Herald is especially interesting given the dramatic transformation that was just beginning and would great intensify in subsequent years.
The paper’s edition of 25 July, which mentioned that Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas owners and hoteliers Hammel and Denker were readying to drill for oil, also reported that “a proposition is on foot to extend a small iron pipe from the Chandler oil wells at Petrolia to San Pedro harbor, where it will steadily discharge a small stream of oil on the water and make it a placid sea, on whose breast the ships that float shall have no barnacles.” Imagine it being desirable to have oil in the ocean!
Three days later, the Herald, in addition to reporting on a fire at the Rancho La Puente, formerly the lands of William Workman and owned by “Lucky” Baldwin, that consumed 5,000 acres of corn and wheat, stated that Chandler and Maxwell went to Petrolia “to prepare a place for melting and cleansing asphaltum . . . to be used for street paving” and that this was to be for the Angel City’s thoroughfares because “at present the supply is very short.”
The issue of 5 August, under the heading of “Important Developments,” remarked that McFarland and Stewart transported three cars of lumber, machinery and tools as well as laborers “to proceed at once to put down a series of wells in the great Petrolia oil basin,” with the assumption that the effort would be swift to get to “fountains of oil.”
Moreover, a San Francisco man examined the Petrolia region on behalf of capitalists who, it was said, were in negotiations with Chandler and Maxwell “for the asphaltum in about four and a half miles in length of their land in the oil belt east of the Puente” field. The latter were reported to have finalized arrangements for refining the crude and to have “an immense supply of the best asphaltum in the world” to the tune of 1,000 tons a week for paving, pipe covering, lining water reservoirs and for making fuel and gas.
The piece went on to remark that McFarland and Stewart were taking over the Chandler and Maxwell well and drill down into “the deep oil basin,” up to 1,000 feet, if needed. It was assumed, however, that 750 feet was enough so that “the fragrant oil will come forth as it does in the Puente wells.” This news led the paper, boosters as always, to prophesy that, with Chandler and Maxwell and the Chandler Oil Company controlling 1,800 acres in the Petrolia area and “rosy prospects before them,”
This movement of capital and enterprise into the oil regions of Los Angeles county means millions [of dollars] for the people, and the addition of 10,000 people to the population who will thrive by this development . . . There is progress in the air all ’round the sky.
Nearly three months later, the Herald updated readers on “Petrolia Items” with the note that Chandler reported that an 11-inch diameter well was drilled down 325 feet and cased in iron “and has a good show of gas and some small veins of oil,” while the machinery was recently repaired so that crews could seek more crude further down.
It appears that McFarland gave way to Wallace L. Hardison, a partner of Stewart in Ventura County wells (the two having met in Pennsylvania, where Chandler also once worked) that led to the formation of Union Oil in 1890, and it was reported that the well they leased on land from Chandler was down 560 feet, so that it was in oil-bearing sand “with gas and some veins of oil in light gravity.” This was considered a good sign and had the distinction of being “the first time that light oil has been struck in that locality.”
Given this cheery news, the paper remarked that “these gentlemen with their fine machinery and unconquerable ambition will go down till they reach the great oil basin below them. Moreover, the article concluded, “it appears from present indications that they will not have long to wait for a reward for their services” as “a well of light oil is a treasure that must be owned to be appreciated.”
Six days later, the Herald updated readers based on a Gazette report that the Hardison and Stewart well (it continued using McFarland’s name, however) was one of a quartet that were planned to go down to 1,500 feet. This effort was adjudged to be done “quietly, but diligently, and with such success as to satisfy the projectors that they will strike it big.” For Chandler and Maxwell, however, they were stymied on their well, a half-mile from the other, because of a problem with the boiler.
The account praised the Petrolia prospectors as “having the necessary experience, financial ability and determination to succeed” as “oil is there, and they are bound to have it.” The Anaheim paper also commented that,
Truck loads of black, sticky-looking casks filled with crude petroleum from the oil wells to the railroad station, and truck loads of well pipe, machinery and empty casks from the depot bound to the wells, are frequent sights on our streets, and evidence of something being done at the wells just north of Anaheim.
Lastly, it was remarked that a pipeline was expected to be laid soon as “one of the attendant necessities of the enterprise” and “any day may bring the expected flow of oil to the surface.” Continuing its avid promotion of Petrolia, the Herald of 10 December reported that Chandler and Maxwell had almost two dozen workers busy there as they brought up and refined crude, using fifteen furnaces, with planned exporting to Europe, presumably for street paving as was being done in the Angel City.
Finally, on the 19th, the paper reported that Griffith J. Griffith, who settled in Los Angeles in 1882, purchased the Rancho Los Feliz and later became notorious for shooting his wife in a drunken fit, for which he served time at San Quentin before donating more than 3,000 acres of the ranch for a massive public park, was touring the “oil belt” of the region. A refinery for asphaltum was being moved from the city to Petrolia, while the Hardison and Stewart well, for which the refining works were being sent out, was said to be in sand and finding “a moderate yield of oil and some gas,” with plans to go deeper for the light gravity oil.
We’ll halt for now and continue our own deep digging into the history of what became the Olinda oil field with a seventh part, so check back for that soon.
It seems that today’s capital games have remained unchanged, tracing back over the past 150 years. Companies like Chandler’s stock company continued to release positive news about their oil prospecting, while partnered media outlets with vested interests, such as the Los Angeles Herald, consistently reported on their strong performance and promising potential. The goal was clear: to entice and lure the public into buying more of their shares.
Hi Larry, recall also that the Herald looks to have had some direct financial investment in its “Herald Canyon.” The Los Angeles Times, only several years old at that time, would become a huge booster of the Angel City with significant ties of its owners and publishers, Harrison Gray Otis and Harry Chandler, to the economic elite.