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AMONG OURSELVES

Published Monthly for and by the

Employees of the Standard Oil Company of California
Publication Office
Standard Oil Building, San Francisco

VOLUME IX SEPTEMBER,1929 NUMBER 7

It Was Many Years Ago ...

OUNG man, searching for wagons!" But to think of the Far W H EN we came to this Com-
A some documents thrnugh West producing oil in quantity of pany some years ago, a
the dusty recesses of a cer- any commercial value- that was slight, gray-haired gentleman, of
tain vault in this Company's Home preposterous! unobtrusive manner and with
Office building the other day, came Let us now stop a few moments kindly eyes, used to greet us every
across a slim packet of quaint- to learn something about the story · time we met in the corridors or
looking papers. represented by these faded docu- elevators of the Home Office build-
"What are thesef" he exclaimed. ments lying forgotten in our ing. Young, strange to the busi-
"I never heard of this outfit be- vaults. Let us hear of that small ness world, we conjectured often
fore-the California Star Oil company and what it had to do as to this man who treated every-
Works Company. Why, these are with our present organization. one so courteously. "That is Mr.
stock certificates! They look more Scofield, our president," we were
like receipts, don't theyf' - hu- told. "He's the same to everyone,
morously displaying one of the from the members of his board to
plain-appearing slips of paper. the youngest office boy."
"Let's see, when was this company Perhaps many readers may not
incorporated - 1876 ! Well, that be familiar with the name of D.
was before our time." And he G. Scofield, let alone having met
toseed the bundle back into the the man, .for in the long period 9f
vault and continued his quest. years this Company has existed
"Just a moment," we pleaded, many men have come and gone.
taking the faded papers to the But this pleasant official came to
window. These were the stock cer- California as a youth, nearly sixty
tificates of the little organization years ago, when "oil" was the
of stout-hearted pioneers whose word on everyone's lips.
cournge, faith, and capital meant The great fabulous tales of the
so much to California more than East were bandied from mouth to
a half-century ago. They were mouth. There were strange stories
relics of a time when there was too of oil seepages seen in the
no oil industry in the state, when mountains on the Pacific Coast not
commercial production was a mere far from San Buenaventura. Ad-
dream inspired by the glamorous ventui:ous souls had tunneled into
tales of discoveries of petroleum the mountainsides and petroleum
in Pennsylvania and other East- It is eminently fitting that a his- was said to have run out in
torical outline of our Company
ern states. should open with a picture of the streams. Attempts had been made
There were scoffers in that dny late Mr. D. G. Scofield. The impor- to sink wells. But, when oil was
as there have been from the be- tant part he played, not only in encountered, it proved to be a
the Standard Oil Company itself
ginning of time. "Oil f hah ! " they heavy fluid commanding no mar-
but also in its predecessors, makes
would answer. "A few pools of his name symbolical of the pio- ket.
sticky, smelly stuff just good for neering activities of our Shrewdly, Scofield traveled over
Indians to rub on rheumatic organization this region in southern California
joints, or to take the squeaks from from whence the many rumors