Oil City's Early History

The following early book about Oil City is interesting on several accounts. 1. It provides an early look into the history of Oil City written by the people who were actually living in that time. 2. The book is a prose on how the writers of the time wrote, spelled and possibly spoke the English language. 3. As seen by the many photographs, Oil City has seen a massive transformation over time from how the entire area was permeated with the Oil Industry until now. 4. And lastly, a comment from me (William L. Passauer) on the politics of the day and "The Oil City Derrick". If you read the detailed history of Monarch Park on my Monarch Park website, you see mention of a local oil broker named Mr. Smithman. He was a very rich and progressive man in the time this book was published. He was singularly responsible for the introduction and building of Oil City's first electric trolley system and the building of Smithman Park, later called Monarch Park. In fact, both the trolley system and Smithman park were in place when this book was published. However, if you were to review this entire volume, while there are many prominent men written about in this book, there is not one word about Mr. Smithman. This is because the editor of "The Oil City Derrick" had it out politically for Mr. Smithman. Had it not been for "The Oil City Derrick", Mr. Smithman's electrical trolley system might have been the first of its kind in the world. In fact, "The Oil City Derrick" fought against Mr. Smithman at every turn.