In the early 1880’s Wallace Hardison and Lyman Stewart, oil men from Pennsylvania came to California with their inventions which improved drilling techniques needed to penetrate irregular rock formations to drill for oil at great depths.

The Beginning Of Change….

In 1886, the Hardison and Stewart Oil Company moved from the Newhall area and established headquarters in Santa Paula.  It was at this time that the first oil pipeline was built from Newhall to Ventura for oil shipments to San Francisco in barrels by railroad.

The Hardison and Stewart Oil Company barely stayed above water as a business until 1888 when a well in Adams Canyon (called Wild Bill) started to produce 500 barrels of oil per day.  This was described as the first California gusher.

Inventiveness And Persuasion……

The Hardison and Stewart Oil Company was still cash poor because of the high transportation cost of shipping oil but their properties were appraised at $ 1,800,000.  They still pursued expansion and in association with Thomas Bard organized the Torrey Canyon Oil Company.  It was at this time that Lyman Stewart built and designed the first rail oil tanker to ship bulk oil to northern markets.

Shipping cost were drastically reduced from $ 1.00 per barrel to 30 cents a barrel.  A significant savings for the company and the first major step in marketing its product and show savings to other businesses that oil was far better economically than coal.

Birth Of A Company: Union Oil;  Birth Of A City:  Santa Paula…….

Recognizing the combined wealth the three business men decided to merge all operations into what is now the Union Oil Company (October 17, 1890).  The corporations first president was Thomas Bard as president, with Lyman Stewart vice president and Wallace Hardison as treasurer. 

 Between 1890 until 1900 Santa Paula was prospering with brick and stone building being built along with schools and enjoying the drama of  traveling theatrical groups and minstrel shows.  In the latter part of the 1890’s Santa Paula people were talking over the telephone and starting to travel roads by automobile.

So was the start of things to come nationally with oil and the expansion of Santa Paula into orange orchards and field crops.

Sources and References:

(a) Images of America Santa Paula by Mary Alice Orcutt Henderson.

(b) A History of Santa Paula From Metates to Macadam by The Santa Paula Historical Society.