The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1909-10-18
KANSAS OIL QUEEN,
Miss kaessman, Who Operates a
Big Refinery.
is IN FINANCIAL TROUBLE.

20 Wrest Her Half Million Dollar
Company From Her-Doss Not Blame
Standard.
Miss Hermana Kaessman, head OF
the sunhower State Refining company,
who has been lighting legal proceed
ines TO have her company put in the
hands OF a receiver. is known in Kan
sas as .the woman queen of the oil
industry"
She is the principal owner and con-
ductor OF the refinery at Niotaze. kan.
The largest in the midcontinent oil field
and the most complete institution Of
its kind west Of the Mississippi river.
which has sucked the oil from under
the Kansas prairies and converted it
into a product OF commerce and sent
it out to the people by the hundreds
of carloads.
7 Ii is a brown eyed. soft voiced. cul-
tured gentlewoman Of forty. from
! Rochester. n Y, who has held Der
hand TO the helm OF this big enterprise
and guided it 10 such great success
that. starting with a capital Of $780,
600. $4,000 in debts and So in the
treasury. it has grown 10 the proper
tions OF an investment Of more than
s5O0.OO0 with factory buildings cover
ing thirty-fye acres Of Kansas prairie.
with forty miles OF pipe lines. owned
and operated by the company. reach
ing out into the oil fields OF Chautau.
qua county, seven miles OF gas pipe
lines furnishing fuel from 1900 acres
of Chautauqua county gas lands te
keep the big refinery engines going and
ffty-nine tank cars. either owned ol
leased BIZ the company. to carry its
product into the hands Of the ultimate
/ consumers OF the middle west.
Began In Oil Business In 1893.
Miss Kaessman's connection witt
the oil industry started back in Roch
ester. y. Y. in 1908. The Kansas oi
fields were then in the earlier stage
Of their development. Miss Hermani
Kaessman. a principal in the schools
of Rochester, talked TO the teachers il
the Rochester schools aud her womeI
friends in the social set in which sh'
moved Of this new oil field in th'
? west. And as she talked they lis
! tened. for before ever she set foot Of
Kansas soil she had made. through
her savings and investments in. to
bacco stocks, something in the neigh
borhood Of a personal fortune 0
5000. coo and had demonstrated he
right to speak with authority on snh
jects touching finance.
Some Of this money had come to he
Z through inheritance. but the great bull
! Of it had come to her because o
brains. And so these schoolteaeher
together with some widows an
some maidens, women Of independen
means-invested in a concern whic
operated. as producers, in the Kansa
oil fields in the vicinity of Waysid'
in Chautauqua county.
This concern was known as th
Richardson-Mott company. 1t is no'
the Sunhower State Refining compan.
with Miss Kaessman at its head.
Standard Not TO Blame, She Says.
Miss Kaessman declares that he
company's financial embarrassment
are only temporary and are due to ce
tain producers who. she says, are tr1
ing without warrant to create distrui
Of her concern among the banks an
TO destroy her credit They are ais
aiming at taking the company fro
her. she says. She does not blame Ii
Standard Oil company She says thi
the Standard has shown her court
t. sizes. She admits It may be becaus
: she is a woman. although she doe
. not believe it. On one occasion whe
her storage capacity for fuel oil wa
exhausted the Standard allowed cal
TO be diverted from its own quota
help her out Of the difficulty. She b.
not found them using with her Il
methods which they are reputed
apply to competing concerns.
1t may be chiTalry, she admits,
It may be some new policy Of the Q
trust. but certain she is that they hay
treated her with unusual courtesy.