Some History of Standard Oil and Bell
TELECOM Digest Editor
Our regular contributor Mark Cuccia has prepared an interesting
history of Standard Oil and some very relevant comparisons to
the history of the 'Bell System'. I hope you will find this as
interesting as I did.
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 15:58:18 -0700
From: "Mark J. Cuccia" <mcu...@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu>
Subject: Some History of Standard Oil (and Bell)
The following is some of the history of the Standard Oil Trust and the
continued history of the separated Standard Oil companies (plural), after
the Trust was dissolved by the US Supreme Court in 1911. In many ways
Standard and Bell have similar histories, so I have prepared the following,
and compare some of Standard Oil and its later divested companies with that
of The Bell System, and AT&T and the divested Bell companies.
--------------------------------------------------------
Recently, Pat mentioned some of the different marketing names of service
stations used in various areas, as these different names were used to
differentiate marketing territory of the different Standard Oil companies,
in "Re: What does A/B Carrier Mean?", regarding cellular service.
Many years back, the oil company service stations used to give out *FREE*
road maps with their logos and other advertisement on them, as a marketing
tool and a courtesy to the motoring public. These maps usually werent
printed by the oil companies themselves, but by Rand McNally, Gousha,
Donnelly, and others, using ad-copy provided by the oil companies or
service station companies. Back in the 1960's and 70's, I used to collect
these free road maps, and I always wondered why many service station chains
used different marketing names in various states, or why the name
"Standard" was used in some states by one service station chain and by a
different group of service stations in other states. When folded closed,
the back of many of these maps would mention something like to look for
these other names/logos/signs of service stations when travelling in other
states, to gas-up or to purchase other products for your car. And
sometimes, a credit card issued by one oil company would be honored by the
service stations of another oil company, but not necessarily in every state
of the card-honoring oil company. All of these inconsistancies date back to
the days of the dissolution of the old Standard Oil Trust and the
subsequent relationships of the different separated Standard Oil companies.
There are also many similarities between the corporate histories and legal
structures of the Standard Oil companies, and that of the Bell System--
AT&T and the local Bell telephone companies. What follows is not intended
to be a complete history of Standard Oil, but rather to give some
historical highlights, and show some similarities with the telephone
industry.
In 1870, John D. Rockafeller and others incorporated the Standard Oil
Company, in Cleveland Ohio.
(In 1869, Gray and Barton started what became Western Electric in
Cleveland, although it was moved to Chicago shortly after the
partnership began.)
In 1882, the New Jersey branch of Standard Oil was started. A trust
was formed as Standard Oil began to buy out or took control of other
smaller "independent" oil companies. A reorganization of the trust in
1889 made Standard Oil of New Jersey the holding or parent company of
the entire Standard Oil organization.
(For decades, Bell Labs has had several locations in New Jersey. Most
of AT&T's main offices have been in that state since the 1980's. Bellcore
also maintains most of their offices in New Jersey.)
Throughout the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, Standard was
constantly involved in legal and regulatory matters, both state and
federal, regarding monopolization of the oil industry. Also, the
public mood was against monopolies. While Standard may have owned or
controlled other oil companies, these "afflilate" companies frequently
retained their original names. Sometimes the name "Standard Oil (of a
particular state)" was used, usually by affiliates *created* by
Standard of New Jersey. Some of these companies were made actual
divisions of Standard of New Jersey, others were wholly-owned
subsidiaries, while others were majority owned, even if "Jersey
Standard" owned only 50% plus one share.
The legal matters which had been occurring over the years culminated in the
U.S. Supreme Court decision of 15 May 1911, which dissolved the old
Standard Oil Trust. Thirty-three subsidiaries of "Jersey Standard" were now
legally separated from their parent company. The now separated "Jersey
Standard" still was by far larger than the other thirty-three companies,
and it continued to hold many subsidiaries and divisions, including
Standard Oil of Louisiana.
(Two years later, in 1913, AT&T vice-president Nathan Kingsbury signed the
agreement known as the Kingsbury Commitment, regarding a change in AT&T's
relationship with the independent telcos, and which included the sale of
AT&T's stock in the Western Union Telegraph Company. There had been
increasing governmental pressure on AT&T in the years prior to "Kingsbury".
In early 1982, when AT&T agreed to the divestiture to take effect in 1984,
to end the ten year old DOJ suit filed against them in 1974, news reports
frequently mentioned that the "breakup of Bell" was the largest
"trust-bust" in America since the 1911 Supreme Court decision dissolving
the old Standard Oil Trust. Even after AT&T and the BOC's were then legally
separated companies, AT&T still held on to Western Electric and Bell Labs.)
The private motorcar or automobile was becoming quite popular after the
first World War, in the late "teens" and into the 1920's. Many paved
highways suitable for automobile travel were being constructed during this
period. Also during this time, the various oil companies were starting to
market their gasoline and other products for the motoring public, including
through service stations using their brand names. However, some of the
various separated Standard Oil companies were using the brand name
"Standard" or a derivative of the word Standard, in their respective
marketing territories. In the early 1920's, this didn't seem to matter
much, as none of the different Standard companies were yet nationwide in
scope when it came to marketing their brands and products via service
stations. It would be a problem later on.
The pre-1911 Standard Oil Trust was both a vertically and horizontally
integrated operation, similar to the former Bell System. Through its
subsidiaries, the old Standard Oil Trust was involved in almost every
aspect of the oil and petroleum industry, such as exploration, drilling,
research and development, refining, transportation and pipelines,
commercial marketing, etc. When the Standard Trust was dissolved in 1911,
each of the thirty-three former subsidiary companies were still involved in
various aspects of the industry, but none as a complete single unit. These
now separated companies still maintained relationships with each other, but
now as individual distinct corporate entities.
(Since 1984, the Bell companies have relations with each other, AT&T,
and now other carriers, but not as part of a single "Bell system".)
In addition to Standard of New Jersey, the following nine companies of the
thirty-three separated former subsidiaries entered into marketing their
products to the motoring public through service stations:
Atlantic Refining Company Standard Oil of California
Continental Oil Company Standard Oil of Indiana
Ohio Oil Company Standard Oil of Kentucky
Vacuum Oil Company Standard Oil of New York
Standard Oil of Ohio
Since 1911, some of these former Standard Oil subsidiaries have bought out
other independent oil companies or have merged with each other. Many of the
former Standard Trust subsidiaries have entered into joint venture
arrangements with each other and with other independent oil companies for
exploration and drilling in overseas and international locations. The
Justice Department frequently reviewed such mergers, take-overs, and
joint-ventures. There were times when the DOJ turned down such proposals or
requests.
(Judge Greene, the DOJ, and the FCC have frequently reviewed such mergers,
take-overs, and joint-ventures between the Bells and AT&T and other
carriers, and have approved or denied them on a case-by-case basis.)
In 1931, Standard of New York and the Vacuum Oil Company merged. Standard
of New York had Socony service stations in the northeast, while Vacuum Oil
had their Vacuum Service stations with a winged flying red Pegasus horse
logo in the midwest. This logo was adopted by the new merged Socony-Vacuum
Oil Company, which in 1955 became Socony-Mobil (Mobilgas service stations),
and in 1966 the Socony name was dropped altogather to simply become Mobil.
Socony was formed in 1882 as a part of the old Standard Trust; Vacuum Oil
began in 1866 (probably before just about any other oil company in
existence today or which can trace its history back to the 1800's), and
became a part of the Standard Trust in 1879.
Standard Oil of New Jersey introduced the "Esso" brand name in the early
1920's. "Esso" is a pronunciation of the letters "S.O." for Standard Oil.
Initially, the Esso name was confined only to "Jersey Standard's" stations
in their merketing territory, which included the Jersey-held Standard of
Louisiana. In the late 1930's, Jersey Standard attempted to market using
the Esso brand in parts of the midwest. However, this was the traditional
marketing territory of now separated Indiana Standard, who jealously
guarded their "exclusive" use of the "Standard" name in their marketing
territory. Indiana Standard sued Jersey Standard over the use of Esso, and
they won. Standard Oil of New York (SOCONY) didn't want Jersey Standard
using the Esso name in New York state or in the northeast, neither.
In the 1930's, as radio broadcasting became a popular advertising and
marketing tool, both locally and nationally through a network hook-up, the
oil companies wanted to expand and market nationwide, and advertise through
network radio. However there were difficulties in advertising a "Standard"
name or derivative on nationwide network radio. The same thing happened
after WW-II as people became even more mobile than in the depression years
of the 1930's, and television became a new marketing medium. The different
Standard Oil companies had difficulties in sponsoring a nationwide radio or
TV program. A popular live network news broadcast on both radio and TV in
the 1950's was called "Your Esso Reporter". However, it couldn't be aired
in the midwest nor out on the west coast, as Indiana Standard and Standard
of California objected to the Esso name being used "on their turf". It
really woudn't have mattered anyway, as Jersey Standard had no Esso
stations in those states anyhow; but also Jersey wouldn't want to be buying
advertising airtime for markets they didn't serve anyway.
Where Jersey Standard couldn't use the Esso brand, they used other names in
different parts of the country, such as Humble (Jersey bought the majority
of Humble Oil in Texas around 1920), Carter, Pate, Oklahoma, and Penola. In
1959, Jersey Standard still wasn't completely national, even using
different names, but they wanted to become national *and* reduce the number
of various brands used. Also around 1960, Jersey bought the remaining
outstanding shares of Humble Oil. A new brand name was introduced by
Jersey/Humble, namely Enco, which stood for "The Energy Company". Some
Jersey officials agreed to changing most of the various service station
names to Enco, while others wanted to retain Esso and even attempt to force
its use nationwide. The Humble Oil name was also adopted as an alternative
brand to be used nationally. In some states (Ohio and Texas), Humble was
used as the "exclusive" name of the service stations, and continued to
remain so in Ohio. Service stations in Texas continued to use the Humble
alternative name, but the actual name of the stations was changed to Enco.
And throughout the 1960's, Enco was introduced in new states where Esso
hadn't been used.
In 1961, Standard of California bought Standard of Kentucky, which had Kyso
service stations in five southeastern states. Jersey Standard, through its
subsidiary Louisiana Standard, supplied commercial products to Kentucky
Standard prior to 1961. Jersey/Humble and its other subsidiaries agreed not
to market directly to the motoring public in the five southeastern Kyso
states. With California Standard's purchase of Kyso, Jersey Standard lost
its supply contract with Kyso to California Standard. So Jersey/Humble
decided to open Esso stations in those five southeastern states. California
Standard and Kyso sued Jersey/Humble for infringement on its exclusive use
of the "Standard" name or derivative in the old Kyso territory, and they
won. So by the mid to late 1960's, all of the recently opened Esso stations
in the five southeastern states were renamed Enco.
All of these various brand names and frequent changes of names was a major
marketing and advertising headache for Jersey Standard and the other former
subsidiaries which continued to have the name "Standard". Around 1970,
Jersey/Humble had closed-door meetings on choosing a single brand name to
be used. There were various memory and sound tests done, and by the Spring
of 1972, they announced that all Esso, Enco and Humble stations nationwide
would *all* be changing to Exxon. Even the corporate name of Standard Oil
of New Jersey would officially change to Exxon. The new Exxon name was even
introduced overseas to some Esso stations in Europe, however the Esso name
wasn't really a problem internationally, as the *other* Standard Oil
companies didn't use the name Standard or a derivative for marketing
purposes outside of the US. In Canada, Esso continues to be used as a brand
name today, through Exxon's Canadian subsidiary, Imperial Oil. And I think
that Enco has been used in some other foreign countries (Mexico?), but I
don't know if Enco continues to be used outside of the US today, or if it
has been changed to Exxon or maybe even Esso. Some of the reasons that
Jersey/Humble didn't change the Esso (and Enco) name to Exxon everywhere
outside of the US was that they didn't always own the majority of their
international holdings, and that they would have had to go through legal
trademark name changes in *every* country where the name Exxon would be used
in place of Esso (and Enco).
Standard Oil of California was founded in 1879 as the Pacific Coast Oil
Company. It was acquired by the Standard Oil Trust in 1900, and became
known as Standard of California. It became a separate company in 1911 as
being separated from the Jersey Standard Trust. The separated Standard of
California began to market its products through service stations on the
west coast in the 1920's and 30's known as "SoCal", "Standard" and later
"Chevron". For the most part, California Standard didn't begin to market or
open up stations in other Standard's regions. There was an incident in the
1950's where they tried to open up SoCal stations in Texas, but Jersey
Standard and Humble objected. California Standard also bought the Signal
Oil Company's (of California) service stations in 1947, and later sold them
to Jersey/Humble in 1967. In the 1960's, California Standard began to
expand its marketing territory under the Chevron name, which eventually
became the name used nationwide, as well as its corporate name in 1984.
Also in 1984, Chevron purchased the Gulf Oil Company and most of its Gulf
stations, but not all of them. Gulf was founded in 1901 by the Mellon
family. Gulf had its own complex marketing situation of brand names. I
think that most of this was cross-marketing, supply contracts, and credit
card honoring among other independent oil companies and service stations,
such as Union 76 of California, Skelly, Wilshire and others.
Standard Oil of Indiana was organized in 1889 by Standard Oil of New
Jersey. Indiana Standard became separated from Jersey Standard in the
"trust bust" of 1911. They marketed their products using the Standard name
in a fifteen state territory in the midwest. Through mergers with other
companies, they were able to market under the names Pan-Am, American and
Amoco by the early 1920's. In 1956, Indiana Standard bought Utah Oil and
began marketing out west under the name Utoco, using the same
red-white-blue shield with torch and flame. By 1960 or so, they changed all
Pan-Am and Utoco stations to either American or Amoco. By the early 1970's,
all American stations were changed to Amoco. They didn't drop the use of
Standard as a name at that time. I don't know if the red-white-blue oval
shield with torch and flame logo still carries the name "Standard" in the
mid-west. (Pat?)
Standard Oil of Ohio was the original Standard, incorporated by
Rockafeller, in Cleveland in 1870. It too became separated from Jersey
Standard in 1911. The Sohio brand name was used on its stations in Ohio and
other states where there were no other "Standard" conflicts. Where there
could be a conflict with other "Standard" brand names, the name Boron was
used. I had also seen the name Fleet-Wing associated with Sohio and Boron
stations. In 1987, BP (British Petroleum) purchased Ohio Standard.
The Ohio Oil Company was founded in 1887 and was taken over by the Standard
Trust in 1889. It was separated from the Trust in 1911. In 1962, Ohio Oil
acquired Plymouth Oil and changed its name to Marathon, which it had been
using for marketing purposes since the late 1930's.
The Atlantic Refining Company was founded in 1866 in Pennsylvania as the
Atlantic Petroleum Storage Company. In 1870 it was renamed Atlantic
Refining. It became an affiliate of the Standard Oil Trust in 1874, and was
separated from the Trust in 1911. In 1966, Atlantic purchased the
independent Richfield Oil Company (California), founded as the Rio Grande
Oil Company in 1905. After Atlantic's purchase of Richfield, many stations
of both companies were renamed Arco, over several years. In 1969,
Atlantic-Richfield purchased Sinclair Oil, founded in 1916 by Henry F.
Sinclair. I don't think that every Sinclair station became an Arco station,
as I've seen the Sinclair dinosaur logo throughout the 1970's and 80's.
The Continental Oil Company marketed in the mountain states area out west.
It was founded as the Continental Oil and Transportation Company of
California in 1877. It became a Standard Oil "affiliate" in 1884, and was
separated with the 1911 dissolution of the Trust. Conoco's logo was a
minuteman soldier. In 1929, Continental merged with Marland Oil, which had
the red triangle logo, and the new merged company used the Conoco name and
the Marland triangle logo.
As I mentioned earlier in this report, there had been complex arrangements
through the 1970's regarding one oil company or service station chain
honoring the credit cards issued by another service station chain. Some of
the mutual card-honoring agreements between different former Standard
companies were only in certain states, but not others. Most every oil
company issued their own credit cards in the 1920's and even through the
1970's. Today, "generic" non-industry-specific credit cards such as Visa,
MasterCard, American Express, Discover, etc. have become more popular than
the need for multiple oil company cards. But the complex arrangement of
card-issuance and card-honoring, and non-acceptance or cancellation of
mutual arrangements is happening today, in the *telephone* industry's
calling cards, between AT&T and the various LEC's, and the confusion when
calling from a payphone or motel system and billing to a particular card.
Over the past twenty or thirty years, the "Standard" name or a derivative
seems to have disappeared from most service station chains of the former
Standard Oil Trust subsidiaries. And only BellSouth, SBC (Southwestern
Bell) and Bell Atlantic have continued to retain the old Bell name as well
as logo. I think that NYNEX still uses the bell logo when it comes to the
local operating company providing POTS, even though they don't have the
Bell name as part of their corporate name. I'm not sure if US West or
Ameritech has the Bell logo with their corporate name, as a local service
provider. Pacific Telesis uses the touchtone star ('*') as its corporate
logo.
Prior to divestiture, the California operating company was called
Pacific Telephone (and Telegraph), but used the Bell logo. After
divestiture, it was renamed Pacific Bell, but took its parent's new
corporate logo of the touchtone star. Nevada's operating company has
always been known as Nevada Bell (or Bell of Nevada), and kept the
Bell name at divestiture, but dropped the logo in favor of its
parent's new corporate touchtone star logo as well. So maybe the
"Bell" name is going the way of the "Standard Oil" name, just a
footnote in history. And even though AT&T chose the name "Lucent"
(?!?) for WECO, they *did* keep the name *BELL* Labs which will be a
part of Lucent.
MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497
WORK: mcu...@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497)
Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to
Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks very much for your well-researched
and very interesting report. This file will have a permanent home in
the Telecom Archives 'history' collection. Remember please, that your
subscrtiptions and sponsorships of the Digest and Archives help me
continue to present the special reports I have sent out to you over
this weekend. Your letters and gifts are very important to me and I
encourage you to stay in touch. PAT]
Wes Leatherock
"Mark J. Cuccia" <mcu...@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu> wrote:
[ ... text deleted ... ]
> In 1931, Standard of New York and the Vacuum Oil Company merged.
> Standard of New York had Socony service stations in the northeast,
> while Vacuum Oil had their Vacuum Service stations with a winged flying
> red Pegasus horse logo in the midwest. This logo was adopted by the new
> merged Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, which in 1955 became Socony-Mobil
> (Mobilgas service stations), and in 1966 the Socony name was dropped
> altogather to simply become Mobil. Socony was formed in 1882 as a part
> of the old Standard Trust; Vacuum Oil began in 1866 (probably before
> just about any other oil company in existence today or which can trace
> its history back to the 1800's), and became a part of the Standard
> Trust in 1879.
This overlooks General Petroleum Company of California and
Magnolia Petroleum Company (southwestern states). There was also a
company called something like White Eagle which operated in Kansas and
probably some other states. All of these used the flying red horse
and sold Mobilgas and Mobiloil. There are Magnolia buildings still in
Dallas and Oklahoma City; the Oklahoma City one once had a service
station as part of it. It has been restored as a historic building,
but not the service station part.
The operations of this company were always called "the
Magnolia" when I was young, but it was well understood it was part of
the Socony-Vacuum (Mobil) empire; it may even have said so on their
road maps.
> Standard Oil of New Jersey introduced the "Esso" brand name in the
> early 1920's. "Esso" is a pronunciation of the letters "S.O." for
> Standard Oil. Initially, the Esso name was confined only to "Jersey
> Standard's" stations in their merketing territory, which included the
> Jersey-held Standard of Louisiana. In the late 1930's, Jersey Standard
> attempted to market using the Esso brand in parts of the midwest.
> However, this was the traditional marketing territory of now separated
> Indiana Standard, who jealously guarded their "exclusive" use of the
> "Standard" name in their marketing territory. Indiana Standard sued
> Jersey Standard over the use of Esso, and they won. Standard Oil of New
> York (SOCONY) didn't want Jersey Standard using the Esso name in New
> York state or in the northeast, neither.
[ ... text deleted ... ]
> Where Jersey Standard couldn't use the Esso brand, they used other
> names in different parts of the country, such as Humble (Jersey bought
> the majority of Humble Oil in Texas around 1920), Carter, Pate,
> Oklahoma, and Penola. In 1959, Jersey Standard still wasn't completely
> national, even using different names, but they wanted to become
> national *and* reduce the number of various brands used. Also around
> 1960, Jersey bought the remaining outstanding shares of Humble Oil. A
> new brand name was introduced by Jersey/Humble, namely Enco, which
> stood for "The Energy Company". Some Jersey officials agreed to
> changing most of the various service station names to Enco, while
> others wanted to retain Esso and even attempt to force its use
> nationwide. The Humble Oil name was also adopted as an alternative
> brand to be used nationally. In some states (Ohio and Texas), Humble
> was used as the "exclusive" name of the service stations, and continued
> to remain so in Ohio. Service stations in Texas continued to use the
> Humble alternative name, but the actual name of the stations was
> changed to Enco. And throughout the 1960's, Enco was introduced in new
> states where Esso hadn't been used.
"Humble," under that name, was probably the dominant brand in
Texas. However, the premium (ethyl) gasoline they sold was "Esso
Extra." (The regular was "Humble".) And the motor oils they sold had
the same name as used by Jersey Standard. The architecture and the
signage of the stations and pumps was the same as Esso stations
except, of course, for the "Humble" name on the main sign and on the
pumps for regular gasoline. (And their maps were the product of
General Drafting Company, which apparently were distributed exclus-
ively by Jersey Standard and its affiliates.)
Standard of Indiana (the corporate name, I believe, was simply
"Standard Oil Company;" all their materials, letterheads, etc., had
"Incorporated in Indiana" just below the "Standard Oil Company" name.)
In Texas they marketed as Pan-Am or Pan-American, then Amoco, but
never became a real factor and finally pulled out.
[ ... text deleted ... ]
> ... And I think that Enco has been used in some other foreign
> countries (Mexico?), but I don't know if Enco continues to be used
> outside of the US today, or if it has been changed to Exxon or maybe
> even Esso.
In Mexico, unless it's changed quite recently, all service
stations are operated by the government oil company, Petroleos
Mexicanos (Pemex), although I believe other companies' lubricating
oils are available.
[ ... text deleteed ... ]
> ... The separated Standard of California began to market its
> products through service stations on the west coast in the 1920's and
> 30's known as "SoCal", Standard" and later "Chevron". For the most
> part, California Standard didn't begin to market or open up stations
> in other Standard's regions. There was an incident in the 1950's
> where they tried to open up SoCal stations in Texas, but Jersey
> Standard and Humble objected.
Standard Stations (and Chevron) were common in West Texas.
They were operated by a SoCal subsidiary named Standard of Texas.
Chevron, I believe, was used throughout SoCal territory for
dealer-operated stations, while "Standard Stations" were company-owned
and -operated.
No one was using the "Standard" name for stations in East and
Central Texas, or South Texas, and perhaps this was the territory
which Humble disputed.
[ ... text deleted ... ]
> In 1969, Atlantic-Richfield purchased Sinclair Oil, founded in 1916 by
> Henry F. Sinclair. I don't think that every Sinclair station became an
> Arco station, as I've seen the Sinclair dinosaur logo throughout the
> 1970's and 80's.
The Anti-Trust Division required them to divest Sinclair
marketing operations in a number of areas as a condition for approval
of the merger, and these were acquired by some group. The present
Sinclair is no relations to the earlier Sinclair except that its
genesis was in the Sinclair stations Arco was required to divest and
the trade marks that went with the Sinclair name. I don't believe the
corporate name was originally "Sinclair", but it is now.
There are Sinclair operations in many states, mostly to the
north and west of Louisiana. I have seen them in Arkansas, and they
are at least fairly common in Oklahoma. (A Sinclair dealer in Ardmore,
Oklahoma, found one of the old round "Sinclair" signs somewhere and
uses it as the main sign in front of his station.)
Their territory extends into Colorado and Utah, and probably
many other Rocky Mountain states.
> The Continental Oil Company marketed in the mountain states area out
> west. It was founded as the Continental Oil and Transportation Company
> of California in 1877. It became a Standard Oil "affiliate" in 1884,
> and was separated with the 1911 dissolution of the Trust. Conoco's logo
> was a minuteman soldier. In 1929, Continental merged with Marland Oil,
> which had the red triangle logo, and the new merged company used the
> Conoco name and the Marland triangle logo.
E. W. Marland always felt he was squeezed out of his oil
company, and later became governor of Oklahoma. His mansion and
estate at Ponca City are tourist attractions as well as a conference
facility. And Conoco still maintains a vast operation in Ponca City,
including a refinery, R&D facilities and their credit card operation.
> As I mentioned earlier in this report, there had been complex
> arrangements through the 1970's regarding one oil company or service
> station chain honoring the credit cards issued by another service
> station chain. Some of the mutual card-honoring agreements between
> different former Standard companies were only in certain states, but
> not others. Most every oil company issued their own credit cards in the
> 1920's and even through the 1970's.
They still do. I don't think there is one that doesn't
except for Arco.
> ... Today, "generic" non-industry-specific credit cards such as
> Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, etc. have become more
> popular than the need for multiple oil company cards. But the complex
> arrangement of card-issuance and card-honoring, and non-acceptance or
> cancellation of mutual arrangements is happening today, in the
> *telephone* industry's calling cards, between AT&T and the various
> LEC's, and the confusion when calling from a payphone or motel system
> and billing to a particular card.
But the back of the cards clearly indicated what stations
hey were good at (including, as you noted, what states in cases where
it was not universal). And service stations are marked with very
clear trademarks, while pay phones have only a tiny notice and motels
often none at all.
The Standard companies often had credit card interchange
agreements with non-Standard companies; some of them did not inter-
change with any of the other Standard companies, but had extensive
interchange arrangements with companies which had no Standard ties.
Hardly any oil companies' cards are good any more at stations
other than those of the issuing company.
Wes Leatherock
wes.lea...@hotelcal.com
wes.lea...@origins.bbs.uoknor.edu
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Don't you just wish you could have
lived in the 1800's and been one of the very bright guys of that
time who got into the things which completely transformed America in
those days: the oil industry; the steel industry, etc. And then of
course along came automobiles and if the steel/oil industries had
not made a fortune by then, the need to make automobiles and the
need for fuel to operate them *really* was the impetus that made
Big Steel and Big Oil into the giants they are now.
A very old, but still very good book worth reading is 'The History
of Standard Oil'. It was written by Ida Tarbell, a muckraking sort
of author who wrote for the newspapers back in in the early years
of this century. Ms. Tarbell wrote her history of Standard Oil
back about 1910-15 or so; then a big two-volume treatise on the
incredible empire of John Rockefeller. I would have loved to have
known that man personally; even to have had the privilege of just
walking along with him for a single day and trying to learn from him.
Look for Ida Tarbell's book 'The History of Standard Oil' in a
library. Some that specialize in older collections will have it. One
of my favorite old photographs is a picture of John Rockefeller and
William Rainey Harper (founding president of the University of Chicago)
walking together down the sidewalk on 59th Street. The photo dates
to about 1895. The photo shows JDR elegantly dressed with top hat
and tails, the formal dress of those days, with a walking stick.
And now, late twentieth century, it is computers and computer
networking. I would not want to be anywhere but where I am now with my
own niche in this new promise for America. Would you? Are *we* going
to have a history to tell fifty years from now!!!!
To conclude this thread, I think the oil company credit cards are like
the general purpose cards in that the first few digits in your account
number indicate *which* company issued it. For quite a long time, and
maybe still, Amoco cards always started out with the first three
digits 450 through 499, while 'Standard of Indiana' always started out
500 through 599. The east coast Exxon, Esso, Standard of New Jersey
cards always started out with a 1, 2 or 3. The west coast company used
700-900 as the first three digits. This was so the central credit card
processing offices knew which company to issue the payments to,
etc. And like the telcos, the various Standard Oil entities had an
annual settlement among themselves to clear the charges and credits
created by their card holders.
We know of course that all the major credit cards identify themselves
the same way today: Visa always has a four digit number beginning with
a 4 to identify their member bank while MC always has a four digit
number beginning with a 5 to identify their member bank. Discover
always starts out '6011' in case you had not noticed, and for many
years Diners Club was always '3781' as their first four digits. I do
not know what American Express is using these days as I have not had
one of their cards in years, since back when I used be relatively
rich. I do know thirty years ago they used the oil company scheme and
had 001 through 010 as their first three digits. 000 was always
reserved for 'credit cards' issued by the federal General Services
Administration to federal agencies for gasoline purchases while Grey-
hound Bus had 'credit cards' beginning with 012 for its use. I am
speaking of the 1950-70 era now. Another three digit series was used
for 'aviation fuel and services' at small airports. PAT]
Ron Bean
> By the early 1970's, all American stations were changed to
> don't know if the red-white-blue oval shield with torch and flame logo
> still carries the name "Standard" in the mid-west. (Pat?)
They were all supposed to change to Amoco at some point, but I
don't know exactly when.
I used to work for a uniform rental company, and part of my job was
to order the little embroidered company emblems that we sewed onto the
customers' shirts. The torch and flame logo was available as either
"Amoco" or "Standard", but at one point we were informed that the
Standard logo had been discontinued some time earlier and we weren't
supposed to be using them -- apparently we had been buying old stock
from the emblem company's warehouse and they finally ran out. A few of
the local station owners still wanted the "Standard" emblem, and we
had to make up an official-looking memo to convince them that they had
to change the name of "their" business. I assume they had been told by
Amoco as well, but were hoping to ignore it (I always wondered which
sign they had out front).
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have not seen any 'Standard Oil'
stations around here in years. Actually, the official corporate tree
looked like this:
Parent company: Standard Oil of Indiana (although headquartered
here in Chicago.)
Marketing: Amoco Oil Company (everywhere in USA except for
five midwestern states.)
Standard Oil Division of Amoco Oil Company (in
five midwestern states.)
It seems to me in Ohio that 'Standard Oil' referred to Standard Oil
of Ohio. The same company did/does business here in the Chicago area
under the name 'Sohio'. A Mobil station near my house has been 'Mobil'
for about twenty years. The dealer, who has been there much longer
than that said he started as 'Sinclair' then one day his marketing
rep came in to visit and said, "From now on we are going to be Mobil
stations in this territory ...". All the old signs came down and new
ones went up, but the same people he had always dealt with continued
to be around. He said this happened back about 1975 or so and at the
time the sales rep told him to go ahead and take either Sinclair
credit cards or Mobile credit cards, ... 'it does not matter either
way, they get handled by the credit card office which does all the
Standard Oil Companies ...' (which was in Chicago previously, but
about that time breaking into two parts i.e. Amoco and some others to
Raleigh, NC and 'Standard' setting up a new credit card back office in
Des Moines, Iowa). Then a few years later the configuration changed
again with Amoco putting its credit card operation in Des Moines where
'Standard Oil' was located along with *certain types* of Diner's Club
cards (!) (the ones they called 'Torch Club' at that time) and other
'special billing' accounts such as the US Government GSA credit cards,
Greyhound, large truck fleets, etc. Meanwhile, other stations which
had been 'Sinclair' suddenly became 'Arco' as in Atlantic-Richfield
Oil Commpany which is headquartered in Independence, Kansas.
A reader wrote to me saying that in his town for several years, an
Amoco station sat right next to a Standard station and he never had
known why that was. Then one day the Standard station changed to a
Socony (Standard Oil New York) station and the Sinclair station in
another part of town became a Mobil station which in turn sat across
the street from another Mobil station which had always been there
under that name. When traveling, his out of state license plates
allowed him to use any of two or three oil credit cards at any station
under those names but in his home town he was only allowed to use the
card specific to the station he was at. PAT]
Kendrick
Pat,
I very much enjoyed Mark Cuccia's Standard history. He asked if Amoco
still used the Standard name on their logo shield. Indeed they do!
Some stations I have seen in Kansas and Oklahoma have the Amoco brand
on the building and a Standard sign out front, often with an Amoco
sign as well. Also, he is right about Sinclair still being
alive. There are Sinclair stations here in Colorado and in Oklahoma.
Randy Kendrick
ICG Telecom Group
Englewood, CO
R. Van Valkenburgh
TELECOM Digest Editor noted:
> A very old, but still very good book worth reading is 'The History
> of Standard Oil'. It was written by Ida Tarbell, a muckraking sort
> of author who wrote for the newspapers back in in the early years
> of this century. Ms. Tarbell wrote her history of Standard Oil
> back about 1910-15 or so; then a big two-volume treatise on the
> incredible empire of John Rockefeller. I would have loved to have
> known that man personally; even to have had the privilege of just
> walking along with him for a single day and trying to learn from him.
> Look for Ida Tarbell's book 'The History of Standard Oil' in a
> library. Some that specialize in older collections will have it. One
> of my favorite old photographs is a picture of John Rockefeller and
> William Rainey Harper (founding president of the University of Chicago)
> walking together down the sidewalk on 59th Street. The photo dates
> to about 1895. The photo shows JDR elegantly dressed with top hat
> and tails, the formal dress of those days, with a walking stick.
I, too, wish I could have known the man. A couple of years ago, my
grandmother (now deceased) explained to me and my then fiance (now my
wife) about these hobnail glasses she had. (I remember seeing them in
a china cabinet for years. I had always thought they were so ugly.)
It turns out that they had been a Christmas gift from J. D. Rockefeller
to her father (my great-grandfather).
My great grandfather, of Cleveland, was J.D.'s blacksmith at the time.
It's hard for me to imagine a time when Cleveland had blacksmiths.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is hard to imagine, because of our
difficulty in visualizing a time when there were no automobiles and
getting somewhere quickly meant riding a horse and making it go as
fast as you could. The oldest bus maintainence facility and garage
operated by the Chicago Transit Authority dates back about a hundred
years. Motorized vehicles are stored/serviced there now but a century
ago it was a stable; a barn where the horses were fed and sheltered
when they were not pulling a street car around.
Another photograph of JDR was taken on the day when apparently there
had been a fire in the Standard Oil office in Chicago. He is standing
on the sidewalk on Michigan Avenue downtown with a group of men who
from their uniforms appear to be firefighters. In the picture we see
him and the men, and next to them a wagon with a big tank used to hold
water. On the side of the tank are the words "Chicago Fire Department"
and a team of horses is hitched up to the wagon. The caption states,
"Mr. Rockefeller thanks and praises the men who put out the fire in
the company's offices yesterday." (From the {Chicago Daily News} of
uncertain date.) The tanks were always kept full of water and spare
teams of horses were always available so that when a fire was reported
a team of horses was hitched to the front of the water tank; the
firemen would climb on board and the horses would go racing down
the street pulling the water tank. A bell with a clapper was mounted
on the top of the whole thing and as the horses raced down the street
pulling the tank of water with the firemen riding on top they would
bang on the bell with the clapper stick to warn people to get out of
the way and let them past.
If you were a teenager growing up in Chicago in those days one of
the best jobs you could have was working for the Chicago Fire Depart-
ment in their stables feeding and watering the horses and keeping
the stables clean. Horses tend to ... well you know ... do 'it' when-
ever and wherever they feel like doing it. If it was a particularly
busy day for the firemen and they had been going from one fire direct
to another fire then the horses would be very tired so the stable
boys would take a fresh team of horses from the barn out to the site
of the (current) fire. They would 'swap out' the horses with the
team that had been pulling the water tank around and lead the horses
that had been working all day back to the stable for food and rest.
In the photo, JDR is seen giving cigars to the firemen. PAT]