Jonathan Greenleaf Eveleth (May 8, 1821 – December 10, 1861) founded the first oil company in America with George Bissell in 1854. Partners in the

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

law firm of Eveleth & Bissell, the two formed the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company with 5 other investors from New York, New Haven, and

Titusville, Pennsylvania Titusville is a city in the far eastern corner of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 5,601 at the 2010 census and an estimated 5,158 in 2019. Titusville is known as the birthplace of the American oil industry and for ...

, to "raise, procure, manufacture, and sell Rock Oil." Eveleth was born in

New Gloucester, Maine New Gloucester is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, in the United States. It is home to the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, the last active Shaker village in the U.S. The town's population was 5,676 at the 2020 census. New Gloucester is part ...

, on May 8, 1821, to James and Hannah Austin Eveleth. His father was a leather tanner and boot and shoe maker and a descendant of early colonial families of Massachusetts. He was a direct descendant of Joseph Eveleth, juror in the

Salem Witch trial The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people ...

of John Proctor, and a second cousin of

Theophilus Parsons Theophilus Parsons (February 24, 1750October 30, 1813) was an American jurist. Life Born in Newbury, Massachusetts to a clergyman father, Parsons was one of the early students at the Dummer Academy (now The Governor's Academy) before matricu ...

, Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Eveleth married Mary Weeks of Bath, Maine, in 1852. He graduated from

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

in 1847 and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

in 1854. He was Principal of the Liberal Institute (1848–1849) a college preparatory school in

Norway, Maine Norway is a town in Oxford County, Maine, United States. The population was 5,077 at the 2020 census. It is home to Lake Pennesseewassee, a recreation area. History Fertile soil and abundant fauna surrounding the Pennessewasse Lake supported ...

, and then, following law school, joined Fessenden & Deblois, the

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

law firm of U.S. Representative Thomas Fessenden's family. He later formed his own firm with Bissell in New York at 14 Wall Street. His New York practice was eventually closed in 1859 to allow the partners to fully pursue their oil business venture. Bissell and Eveleth initially invested $5,000 to purchase and lease over of what they believed were the principal oil fields in Titusville, PA. The company collected oil in trenches and sold small quantities at high prices ($1.50 per gallon) primarily for medicinal purposes. Believing in the mineral's greater economic potential and in order to gain the interest of additional investors, the two partners engaged at their own expense renowned

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

chemist,

Benjamin Silliman, Jr. Benjamin Silliman Jr. (December 4, 1816 – January 14, 1885) was a professor of chemistry at Yale University and instrumental in developing the oil industry. His father Benjamin Silliman Sr., also a famous Yale chemist, developed the process ...

, to investigate crude oil samples from the Pennsylvania site for its properties and commercial usefulness. Silliman submitted in 1855 his historic report to "Messrs. Eveleth, Bissell, and Reed" concluding, "gentlemen ... there is much ground for encouragement in the belief that your Company have in their possession a raw material from which they may manufacture... very valuable products", thus marking a major scientific milestone for the university as well the birth of the American petroleum industry. The company was then reorganized to include additional New Haven investors, and Silliman was appointed president, with Eveleth and Bissell maintaining controlling interest. Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company later leased its property to Seneca Oil, which under the management of

Edwin Drake Edwin Laurentine Drake (March 29, 1819 – November 9, 1880), also known as Colonel Drake, was an American businessman and the first American to successfully drill for oil. Early life Edwin Drake was born in Greenville, New York on March 2 ...

, drilled the first oil well in the United States and became the first to strike oil in 1859. Bissell continued to considerably expand his and the New York investors' land in the Titusville region, in Franklin and Petroleum Center, PA. However, Eveleth's life was cut short only 2 years later due to illness. Bissell went on to become known as "the father of the

American oil industry Petroleum has been a major industry in the United States since shortly after the oil discovery in the Oil Creek area of Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. The industry includes exploration, production, processing (refining), transportati ...

". Eveleth was described as "sage, cautious, and tenacious" and the "principal promoter" of the company who made many of the major decisions.Pees, Samuel T. ''Oil History'' a
petroleumhistory.org
/ref> He died in New York City on December 10, 1861, after suffering from nephritis. His son and only child, Charles W. Eveleth, died in Germany while a student at Ober Gymnasium.

Notes

References

*Henry, J. T. (1873). ''The Early and Later History of Petroleum with Authentic Facts with Regard to Its Development in Western Pennsylvania''. Jas. B. Rogers Co., Philadelphia

*Cleaveland, Nehemiah (1882). ''History of Bowdoin College''. James Ripley Osgood & Co., Boston

*Yale Engineering Through the Centurie
Timeline
*Butcher, Jonathan B. (1975). ''A History of the Eveleth Family''

*McLaurin, John J. (1896) ''Sketches in Crude-Oil

*Evans, Harold; with Buckland, Gail; Lefer, David. (2004). ''They Made America''. Little, Brown, and Company. *The Encyclopedia Americana (1919)

External links

Oil HistoryOil 150
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eveleth, Jonathan Greenleaf 1821 births 1861 deaths Harvard Law School alumni Bowdoin College alumni Founders of the petroleum industry 19th-century American businesspeople People from New Gloucester, Maine Businesspeople from Maine