Editing Venango County, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
[[File:McLaurin(1902) pic.088 Oil Rush in Venango County, PA, in 1866.jpg|thumb|Wells along Benninghoff Run in 1866]]
[[File:Drake Well, August 2006.jpg|thumb|[[Drake Well Museum]] in [[Cherrytree Township, Pennsylvania|Cherrytree Township]]]]
Venango County was created on March 12, 1800, from parts of [[Allegheny County, Pennsylvania|Allegheny]] and [[Lycoming County, Pennsylvania|Lycoming]] Counties. The name "Venango" is derived from the Native American name of the region, ''Onenge'', meaning ''Otter.'' This was corrupted in English as the ''Venango River''.<ref>{{cite web|last=Donehoo|first=George|title=French Creek|work=Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania|publisher=Gateway Press|year=1995|url=http://www.crawfordcopa.com/history/FrenchCk.html|access-date=January 24, 2007}}</ref> The settlement at its mouth was likewise called ''Venango,'' which since March 3, 1871, has been the South Side of [[Oil City, Pennsylvania|Oil City]]. Venango County was home to an [[Petroleum industry|oil]] boom in the years following discovery of natural oil (petroleum) in the mid-1850s.

[[George Bissell (industrialist)|George Bissell]], a [[Yale University]] chemistry professor, and [[Edwin L. Drake]], a former railroad conductor, made the first successful use of a drilling rig on August 28, 1859, near [[Titusville, Pennsylvania|Titusville]]. (Although Titusville is in Crawford County, the first oil well was drilled outside of town, less than a mile inside of the Venango County boundary) This single well soon exceeded the entire cumulative oil output of Europe since the 1650s. Within weeks, oil derricks were erected all over the area. Other oil boom towns located in Venango County included Franklin, Oil City, and the now defunct [[Pithole, Pennsylvania|Pithole City]]. The principal product of the oil was [[kerosene]].

[[McClintocksville, Pennsylvania|McClintocksville]] was a small community in [[Cornplanter Township, Pennsylvania|Cornplanter Township]] in Venango County. In 1861, it was the location of [[Wamsutta Oil Refinery]], the first business venture of [[Henry H. Rogers|Henry Huttleston Rogers]], who became a leading United States [[capitalism|capitalist]], businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist.<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 10, 1914 |title=Charles P. Ellis Dies – Pioneer Oil Man Was Early Associate of H. H. Rogers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-charles-p-ellis-obit/15470954/ |access-date=2024-05-11 |work=[[The New York Times]] |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> Rogers and his young wife [[Abbie Palmer Gifford Rogers]] lived in a one-room shack there along Oil Creek for several years beginning in 1862.

After joining Standard Oil, Rogers invested heavily in various industries, including copper, steel, mining, and railways. The [[Virginian Railway]] is widely considered his final life's achievement. Rogers amassed a great fortune, estimated at over $100&nbsp;million, and became one of the wealthiest men in the United States. He was also a generous philanthropist, providing many public works for his hometown of [[Fairhaven, Massachusetts]], and financially assisting helping such notables as [[Mark Twain]], [[Helen Keller]], and [[Booker T. Washington|Dr. Booker T. Washington]].

A little girl named [[Ida M. Tarbell]], whose father was an independent producer whose small business was ruined by the [[South Improvement Company]] scheme of 1871 and the conglomerate which became Standard Oil. Introduced to each other in 1902 by their mutual friend Twain, Tarbell, who had become an [[investigative journalist]] and Rogers, who knew of her work, shared meetings and information over a two-year period which led to her epoch work, ''[[The History of the Standard Oil Company]]'', published in 1904, which many historians feel helped fuel public sentiment against the giant company and helped lead to the court-ordered break-up of it in 1911.

The oil heritage of Venango County is commemorated by a Pennsylvania State Park and many heritage sites which help tell the story and memorialize the people of the oil boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.