He was hired on a salary of $1,000 a year to investigate the oil seeps on land owned by Seneca Oil. But his job opportunity with the company arose because both parties were staying in the same hotel in Titusville. Before being offered a job by Bissell and Eveleth, Drake bought stock in Seneca Oil. Interest in the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company was initially low until a report commissioned by Bissell and Eveleth showed that there was significant economic value in petroleum. Bissell found that the “rock oil” would be a practical alternative if a method could be devised to extract the oil from the ground. They created the company after catching wind of reports that petroleum collected from an oil spring in Titusville, Pennsylvania was suitable for use as lamp fuel. Seneca Oil, originally called the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, was founded by George Bissell and Jonathan Eveleth. Along with a new lamp to burn Kier’s product a new market to replace whale oil as a lamp oil began to develop in 1854. After further experimenting, he discovered an economical way to produce kerosene and he became the first person in the United States to refine crude oil into lamp oil ( kerosene). Neither product proved to be a commercial success. In 1848, he began packaging petroleum oil as a patent medicine charging $0.50 per bottle.He also produced petroleum butter (petroleum jelly) and sold it as a topical ointment. Samuel Martin Kier is credited with founding the first American oil refinery in Pittsburgh. While petroleum oil was already known, there was no appreciable market for it. Thus, by 1858, the Drake family found themselves living in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Ill health forced his retirement in 1857, but it also opened a new opportunity for him. He spent the early parts of his life working the railways around New Haven, Connecticut as a clerk, express agent and conductor for the New York and New Haven Railroad. He grew up on family farms around New York State and Castleton, Rutland County, Vermont before leaving home at the age of 19.

Titusville, PennsylvaniaĮdwin Drake was born in Greenville, Greene County, New York, as son of Lyman and Laura Drake. His success launched an Oil Rush and brought the world a new energy source.

He is popularly credited with being the first to drill for oil in the United States. On March 29, 1819, Petroleum entrepreneur Edwin Laurentine Drake, also known as Colonel Drake, was born.

Edwin drake