Topic summary
Arthur Fremont Gilmore
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Gilmore Oil Company.
History
Arthur Fremont Gilmore moved to California in the 1870s and, with another farmer Julius Carter, established a dairy farm in Compton. In 1880, they acquired a 256-acre (104 ha) tract of James Thompson, who had gone bankrupt, and established another dairy farm. In 1890, Gilmore's partnership with Carter was dissolved and they drew straws to divide their farms – Gilmore got the property. He lived with his family in the adobe farmhouse there and, around 1903, drilled for water so that he could expand their dairy herd. Instead of water, he struck oil. This find was part of the substantial Salt Lake Oil Field and the farm was converted to oil production. The A. F. Gilmore Oil Co. initially sold the petroleum and tar for lubrication and paving, but Gilmore saw the potential of the automobile and started refining the crude oil into gasoline.