St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1909-04-17
THE OIL CO.
Will Build q $4,000, 900
Refinery at Baton
Rouge. La.
-
w hiCh is To Be a DiStrib-
uting Point for Prod
ucts of Company.

in its domicile of Baton Rouge to-day,
its charter being filed in the Court
house and published in the daily pa
pers Of the city, Operations will be-
gin as soon as materials can be brought
on the construction of So, 600, 900 re-
finery and distributing plant which is
intended to serve the Standards in
terests for all their holdings and ac-
tivities in Louisiana, eastern Texas
pnd southeastern Oklahoma. This
plant will be erected on the tract of
land purchased some weeks ago for
&8,00 from Messrs. Dougherty,
Hummell and Herman, located on the
high lands Immediately above the Illi-
nois Central property of the city of
Baton Rouge. BY pipe line it will be
connected with the oil fields in Louisi-
ana, while barge lines will ply between
Baton Rouge and Port Arthur. Event
ually it is intended TO erect wharves
and landings here, and from this point
handle the Standards export trade
from the United States to all the
world, Baton Rouge being the natural
transfer point on the water highway
from Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio and
Missouri to all trans-sea points.
The officers of this new branch of
the Standard Oil are: E. w. Weller of
New York, president; P. S. Morris of
New Orleans, vice president; R. C.
Bernice of New Orleans, secretary
and treasurer; Chas. T. White of New
York, assistant secretary; W. P. How
of New York, assistant treasurer.
Hunter C. Leake drafted the cor
poration papers of the company and
has been it's legal representative both
in the purchase of the land near Ba-
ton Rouge and in the organization of
the company. With him has been as
sociated Johnston Armstrong of New
Orleans. 7. w. Towl of New York
was the gentleman who, with Mr..
Weller, handled the negotiations for
the site near Baton Rouge. He and
Mr.. Weller had been concerned in oil
land transactions in Oklahoma and in
Texas, and the Prairie Oil Company,
of Oklahoma, was the corporation
most closely identified hitherto with
their work, this being branch of the
Standard.
President Weller is in town to-day,
accompanied by his chief engineer
and two assistants. An inspection of
the property is being made and Mr..
Leake officially announced that opera
tions would begin just as soon as ma
terial could be brought to the ground.
1t will be remembered that when Mr..
Towl and Mr.. Weller were here before
they informed the original owners of
the land that to construct the plant
at least 1000 brick masons and struc-
tural iron workers would be kept at
work for more than year, and that
the plant when finished would give
employment to from 500 to 750 men.
Mr.. Leake, who has for years been
close student of transportation
problems in this section and whose
familiarity with conditions and ad-
vantages at Baton Rouge is not sur
passed by that of any citizen Of the
town, said to-day that the new COM
pany undoubtedly intended to develop
this point as its distributing center.
"This will be the biggest thing of
its sort in the entire South" said Mr..
Leake to-day. 'These people have
come here, voluntarily to Louisiana,
organizing a Louisiana corporation,
domiciled in the State Capital, and
intending to handle in Louisiana all
the crude products of their holdings
and interests for the State. It means
that Louisiana will not only produce
the oil, but will turn it into it's finish
ed products. / believe am not going
outside the probabilities when / say
that this plant will be the largest in
the South, if not in the country.
1t will be remembered that Baton
Rouge is at the point on the Missis-
sippi where the pipe lines would ex-
tend on the shortest route, both to
Caddo, Oklahoma and to the fields of
southwestern Louisiana; that it is on
a direct water line to Ohio, Pennsyl-
vania, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, and
will soon be on the direct water route
to the Great Lakes. Baton Rouge is
also on the last highlands above the
gulf, where floods will never come,
and yet where the great ships that
enter the Jetties can take on cargo
with the same ease that they can in
New Orleans.
This gives color to the indiction
that Baton Rouge will eventually be
the great central exporting point for
all the allied Standard Oil interests of
the United States.
The property to be used as the site
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