Colonel Edwin L. Drake, a retired railway…

Colonel Edwin L. Drake, a retired railway man, drills the first oil well in the United States, near Titusville, Pennsylvania, on August 27, 1859, starting the Pennsylvania oil rush.

The main use of petroleum, or oil, at this time is as a medicine for both animals and humans.

Although there is no appreciable market for it, studies of crude oil have shown it to be a good source of kerosene if enough can be obtained.

Seneca Oil Company (formerly the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company) seek enough crude oil to establish a new enterprise, providing kerosene for lamps.

Oil is known to exist in Titusville, Pennsylvania, a slow-growing and peaceful lumber-industry community lying along the banks of Oil Creek, but there is no practical way to extract it.

Seneca had sent Drake, partly because he has free use of the rail, to start drilling on a piece of leased land just south of Titusville near what is now Oil Creek State Park.

Drake has hired a salt well driller, William A. Smith.

After many difficulties, on August 27 at the site of an oil spring just south of Titusville, they finally drill a well that could be commercially successful.

It truly is an event that changes the world, beginning with all the surrounding vicinity.

Within a day of Drake's striking oil, Drake’s methods are being imitated by others along Oil Creek and in the immediate area.

Property prices in the area skyrocket and teamsters are needed immediately to transport the oil to markets.