Writings on Ontario’s Oil History

 

This year Oil Springs, Ontario is celebrating its incredible oil history. It was 150 years ago that the modern oil industry was created in this village when James Miller Williams, dug a well, refined it and began selling it. It was big news back in 1858 and the oil industry took off like a brush fire to become the global juggernaut it is today.

 

 Here’s a quick list of books that tell different tales of this amazing story.

 

The books listed below can be ordered through any book store

 

The Great Canadian Oil Patch – Second Edition

The Petroleum Era from Birth to Peak

- By Earle Gray (published 2005)

This book delivers both depth and breadth. It’s a thoroughly comprehensive study of Canadian oil, from Abraham Gesner and Oil Springs’ famous Tripp brothers right up to carbon sequestration. 

584 pages. Published by June Warren Publishing Ltd. (price: $115.95)

 

Hard Oiler!

The Story of Early Canadians’ Quest for Oil at Home and Abroad

- By Gary May (published 1998)

With their expertise gained in  Oil Springs and Petrolia, the “Foreign Drillers” helped open oil fields in more than 50 countries around the world in a 70-year time period.

270 pages. Published by Dundurn Press. 1998 (price: $22.99)

 

Petrolia Ontario- Canada

150 years, 1854-2004

- By Edward Phelps, Charles Whipp and Lee Pethick (published 2004)

The oil boom that started in 1866 lasted more than four decades, making Petrolia the oil capital of Canada. From the days of Imperial Oil’s headquarters here to the need to diversify the town’s economy, this book covers a lot.

187 pages. Published by VanTuyl and Fairbank, Inc. 2004 (price: $29.95)

 

The Story of Fairbank Oil

Four Generations of the Family Producing Oil Longer Than Anyone in the World

- By Patricia McGee (published 2004. Second printing 2006)

Using the Fairbank family documents, photographs, maps and many interviews this book tells the story of how The Fairbank family has been pumping oil on this Oil Springs property since 1861. Today, it’s a National Historic Site and it continues to pump 24,000 barrels a year using the technology of the pioneers.

201 pages. Published by Words Unlimited Ink. (price: $23.95)

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                              

 

Rivers of Oil

The Founding of North America’s Petroleum Industry

- By Hope Morritt (published 1993)

Starting in Oil Springs, the book traces the development of oil in Lambton County, the establishing of Imperial Oil and the rise and fall of Canada’s first oil barons.

194 pages. Published by Quarry Press.  (price: $19.99)

 

 

Canada’s Victorian Oil Town

The Transformation of Petrolia from Resource Town into a Victorian Community

- By Christina Burr (published 2006)

Interdisciplinary in scope, this study draws from the history of imperialism, gender studies, science, resource development, local history and cultural geography.

295 pages. Published by McGill-Queen’s University Press (price: $85.)

 

 

Books and Booklets Available at The Oil Museum of Canada or Needing A Special Order:

 

19th Century Petroleum Technology in North America

- By Dr. Emory Kemp and Michael W. Caplinger (published 2008)

This book not only describes and lavishly illustrates the early Canadian technology in Oil Springs and Petrolia; it also places these developments in the broader context of the world. 179 pages. Sponsored by the Charles Fairbank Oil Properties, Ltd. Petrolia, Canada and the Institute for the History of Technology and Industrial Archaelogy, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, U.S.A., Printed by Browns Graphics, Petrolia. 179 pages.  (price: $35.)

 

The Oil Heritage Tour of Lambton County:

The Birthplace of the Canadian Oil Industry

- By Robert O. Cochrane and Charles O. Fairbank (published 2000)

With geological charts and detailed descriptions of the early oil technology and some architectural history, this book showcases the interesting stops to make in Oil Springs and Petrolia. 86 pages. (price: $20.)

 

Oil Springs…The Birthplace of the Oil Industry

- By Michael O’Meara (published 1958. Second edition 2008)

Written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of James Miller Williams establishing the world’s first commercial oil well and refinery, the author captures all the colour and exhilaration of North America’s first oil boom town. 30  pages. Browns Printing and Graphics Inc., Petrolia.23 pages. (price:   ???)

 

 

Canada’s Tale of Toil & Oil

- By Patricia McGee. Drawings by George Rickard (published 1996)

The technology developed by the pioneers of Oil Springs and Petrolia was ingenious. Simply described, beautifully illustrated are the pumpjack, the field wheel, the rig, the jerker line and much more.30 pages. Published by The Petrolia Discovery Foundation Inc. (Price: $7.50)

 

 

Canada West’s Last Frontier

A History of Lambton

Jean Turnbull Elford (published 1982)

Starting in 1835 when the county surveyed the 10 ten townships, this book covers the early history and continues to the early 1980s.Published by the Lambton County Historical Society. 189 pages (price: $20.)

*note – this is available through The Bookkeeper in Sarnia, to order contact the store at bookkeeper@ebtech.net

 

Oil Road and Toll Gates: A Short History of Plank Road

- By Maxine McBryan. Research by Betty Lou Snetselaar (2000)

The Plank Road was a key transportation route for shipping oil from the swamp land of Oil Springs to Sarnia. It has a long and colourful past. Published by the Lambton County Historical Association. 26 pages. (Price: $5.)

 

A History of The Chemical Industry in Lambton County

- By R.W. Ford (published in 1964. Fourth edition in 2000)

The chemical history begins in Oil Springs and it was in 1857 when James Miller Williams started his first refinery. Ford traces the development of Imperial Oil from Petrolia to Sarnia and all the petrochemical companies that sprang up at the beginning of World War II. The story is updated to the 1990s.Produced with support form the Society of Industrial Archeology and the Sarnia-Lambton Environmental Association. 24  pages. (price: $3.)

 

 

Excellent Books Found Only in the Reference Section of Lambton Libraries. They are out of print.

 

Belden’s Historical Atlas of the County of Lambton, Ontario, 1880

N.P. Belden, 1881, Reprint Sarnia, Ontario by Edward Phelps, 1973

80 pages

 

Petrolia 1866-1966

- By Charles Whipp and Edward Phelps (published in 1966)

From a shanty town to Canada’s oil capital, the history of Petrolia is a colourful one. 70 pages. Published by The Petrolia Advertiser Topic and the Petrolia Centennial Committee, Petrolia.

 

 

Petrolia 1874-1974

- By Edward Phelps (published in 1974)

Starting with the glorious Victorian Petrolia with its famous Foreign Drillers, Phelps delves into the Petrolia’s economic depression from 1910 to World War II  and then onto more modern day developments. 96  pages. Published by Petrolia Print and Litho Limited, Petrolia.

 

Lambton County’s Hundred Years 1849 -1949

- By Victor Lauriston (published in 1949)

Often quoted by historians, this book captures in detail the progress of Oil Springs and Petrolia brought about by its “black gold”.

Haines Frontier Printing Company, Sarnia, 1949, 335 pages.

 

John Henry Fairbank of Petrolia

- By Edward Phelps, (written in 1965)

Phelps uses a massive amount of research and tells the story of how J.H. Fairbank rose from a visiting surveyor to becoming an oil magnate, banker, hardware dealer, wagon builder and member of parliament. Unpublished master thesis. 321 pages.