On this day in 1859 Colonel Edwin Drake strikes oil at 69 feet near Titusville, Pennsylvania. It would be the world’s first successful oil well.
Colonel Drake was not a good businessman though. He failed to get a patent on his drilling invention. He lost all his savings in oil speculation. He ended up a poor old man due to losing his savings in oil speculation in 1863. The state of Pennsylvania granted him an annuity in 1872. Colonel Drake died in 1880 at the age of 61.
slicethelife 
Reblogged this on Time Will Tell and commented:
Forget Texas, Pennsylvania is the home of Big Oil! I’d been thinking about writing something about this and then I saw this blog.
We visited Oil City about five years ago – I think the most amazing part of the trip was visiting the boom town that sprouted in a matter of six months in response to the first oil rush. Apparently it went overnight from tents to a genuine city.
Now it’s an empty field. Nothing left of the town at all.
I’ve never been that way but would like to. A lot of those boom towns..turned into ghost towns in a short period of time…