The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-19

brother. and the company was Roeke-
 feller & Andrews"
 MT. Rockefeller said the refinery el
 this company was in Cleveland and that
 afterward another company under the
 name of William Rockefeller was or
 ganized in New York. The same mem
 bers of. the firm that composed the | Cleveland company composed the New
 York company
 Asked what had been the course of
 the oil business up to the time of the 1 organization of the Standard Oil com pany of OEio MT. Rock efeller replied
 We had had a steady growth and increase from the organization from the first firm in 1860 or 1862 until that time"
 Whole Firm Busy. MT Rockefeller said every member of the firm devoted his entire time and attention to promoting the company s growth and that none of them had any l other business.
 Mr Rockefeller said the company did a refining and a warehouse business and | that his brother. William Rockefeller. took up his residence in New York to develop the business there and to save expense.
 When did the next change take plaee?f Tn 1867 all the properties of Roeke feller & Andrews, William Rockefeller & :. Co. and Rockefeller &s Co., were taken over under the firm name of Rockefeller. Andrews x Flager. MT. Faagler was a man of large business experience and was valuable addition to the firm. A large amount of capital was put into the firm"
 l Mr. Rockefeller said that this company ] ehgaged in the refining of oil which sold in this country and abroad.
 What was the next change?"
 T think that three years later. in 1870. 1 the Standard oil company Of Ohio was l organized with a capital of S10O0. GOO, and l we enlisted much capital in the com pany."
 First oil Field.
 "The first field for the production of crude oil was Venango county, in the l western part of Pennsylvania, said MT. l Rockefeller. He looked to Ohio to ob- ! tain the crude oil and the refining plants i of the company were at Cleveland, Pitts burg, Baltimore and New York.
 What were the refining points in the ] oil region?'
 i "Titusville was an important point and l Oil City, too, and there were other re- flneries up and down oil creek
 How did you get the crude oll?"
 Well. we brought 1t over the railroad l to Cleveland"
 i What had been the course of the l development of the industry at that time?"
 There had been rapid development in l the cleansing and refining of oil"
 The business of refining oil was profit able and as a result he said many re- i fineries were built.
 Many people turned to this business of refining oil who were not necessarily the best trained business men," said MT. l Rockefeller. "All sorts of rehneries were ! built. according to the means and capital l at the command of the builders"
 The Standard oil company put up all the refneries possible but in general the l buildings were not up to the average of those in Cleveland. Was MT. Andrews a practical refiner?" l That was the reason he was given a part In the business" said MT. Rockefel- 1 Ter.
 Practical Refiner. He was a practical refiner of oil and l 1t gave him an excellent opportunity to associate himself in the business in this way"
 Now tell us of the advantages and 1 disadvantages of Cleveland as a refining 1 point" said MT. Milburn. 1 T should say that Cleveland was the 1 best distributing point to obtain the do- i n1estic trade" replied MT. Rockefeller. l 'I suppose it had natural advantages. We always had the trade that we could supply by the lakes. Many railroads led into the west and into the eastward, we 1 had the Lake Shore, Atlantic and Great l Western, the New Y York Central, the Erie and at times we availed ourselves of the Pennsylvania railroad We generally availed ourselves of the northern lines, such as the Lake Shore, New York Gen. 1 tral Atlanta and Great Western. We i also had a water route to New York by i nFT alya I~rt1 I7,fA i the Hudson river. This was an advantage l as we had the capital to take this slower 1 route of transportation. The disad- vantage of Cleveland was that we had i a long haul to the seaboard for the ex- port trade. We also had to haul the crude oil to Cleveland What was the comparative size of 1 your refinery to others at this time, in 1S7O?''
 Largest In Country. T believe it was the largest in the country at. that time.
 The company was capitalized at $1, l O0o00o; was that considered a large eapi- talization?" asked MT. Milburn. Yes" replied MT. Rockefeller. Tt was considered very large, We thought it very large as we started in 1860 with s4OOO"
 Were many Improvements noted in the business?''
 Yes many Improvements were made" said MT. Rockefeller. we bought inn l proved machinery and made our own bar l rels We bought the barrels which held ] about A gallons from the coopers and we thought we were paying a high price | at about s25O apiece. Some Of these : barrels were made of green wood and i often the insides were damp. This caused i shrinkage after the barrels were filled. 1 We then bought the wood ourselves and l dried it in our own kilns in the forest i Thus we had dry wood. We made ou1 i own barrels which not only were sat l isfactory because they reduced leakage, 1 but they were increased in size, increas- 1 ing the capacity by nearly five gallons. ] These barrels cost us when we made them