The Town of Petrolia

Petrolia, a name derived from Petroleum was a boom town like no other. When the quest for oil in southern Enniskillen Township spread northward, gushers by the score were found in the flat fields surrounding what is now Petrolia, with a population of over 5200.

Like Oil Springs and Bothwell, Petrolia began with a bang and a boom. In November, 1866 Captain B. King struck Petrolia’s first gusher with a well producing 265 barrels each day. It triggered a boom that stretched on for more than 40 years and made Petrolia the oil capital of Canada. It was here that the industry blossomed, not only in production but also with ingenious technology. These were tumultuous times with explosions of nitro-glycerin, fortunes won and lost, rapid expansion and fires. John Henry Fairbank had already established his hardware store here in 1865 and bought lots of land. Industries sprung up almost overnight - refineries, tool making, the Oil Well Supply, horse-drawn wagons and plenty of hotels. By 1867, Petrolia was financing its own railway spur to link with the major east-west line in Wyoming. This was also the year when a disastrous fire struck the King Wells. It roared over 20 acres and burned for weeks. In the 1870s, Canada’s first pipelines began here and for the first time, oil producers united in Petrolia to regulate\ prices. And in 1879, Jake Englehart built the gigantic Silver Star refinery, the largest in the country. It sprawled across 50 acres. The 1880s were ushered in with 19 refiners forming Imperial Oil in London with Jake Englehart as its first vice-president. Within four years, the company moved its barrel plant to Petrolia, bought Englehart’s refinery and made Petrolia its headquarters. By the end of the decade, Petrolia was bustling and major manufacturing businesses began like the Stevenson Boiler Works and the Petrolia Wagon Works. Brick buildings lined the main street, handsome houses were built including J.H. Fairbank’s mansion, and the stately Victoria Hall was erected, complete with opera house, town hall, fire station, police station and jail. This was also the decade Petrolia’s famous Foreign Drillers began taking their expertise to the far-flung corners of the globe to open new oil fields. The 1890s were a roller coaster. The Stephenson Boiler Works had to be rescued from financial collapse. And in a crushing blow to Petrolia in 1897, Imperial Oil moved its head office to Sarnia. Soon, it moved its refinery. After this, American oil magnate J.D.Rockefeller’s company, Standard Oil Trust gained control of Imperial Oil. Petrolia reeled but did not falter. By this time J.H. Fairbank was the largest single oil producer in the country and had interests in lumber, farming and rail. In 1903, Canadian Oil Fields Limited built the largest powerhouse in Canada, the Fitzgerald Rig. Its bull wheel was 23 feet across (almost 8 metres) that could pump 350 wells at once. (This is now part of Petrolia Discovery.) In time, the oil waned leaving a rich legacy. Petrolia Daytripping: Pat Mc Gee

PetroliaVisual History