Petrolia blew up at least once.It was decided to move the nitro factories beyond the town’s boundaries to prevent nitro delivery wagons from using Petrolia’s bumpy streets as a shortcut to the oil fields.Soon there were newspapers in addition to several oil refineries and oil-related businesses. New laws forced builders to use fire resistant materials like brick and stone,and Petrolia became known for its beautiful Victorian brick architecture. Everything from mansions to churches to an opera house were constructed. Petrolia, within 50 years,became a place to enjoy life rather than simply a place to make a quick fortune.
In 1869, the village council decided to hire a town constable.
The most respected and feared town constable was Thomas Grey Jackson.
Mr. Jackson was born on May 19, 1843 in Northern Ireland and moved to Canada when he was 17 years old. He and his wife moved to
Petrolia in 1872. Two years later he was made the town constable and remained town constable until 1901. He was over 6 feet tall and 200 pounds. His strength was legendary and he was fearless when it came time to break up a brawl. After he retired he remained as
night watchman and County Magistrate.
Petrolia, originally called Petrolea, was little more than a stagecoach stop a few miles north of Oil Spring. Then Captain Bernard King struck a very large oil well in 1865 and soon Petrolia replaced Oil Springs as Canada’s oil
capital.
Oil prices were up to $10.00 a barrel (worth about $140.00 today), enough to make many Petrolians very wealthy.
The settlement grew quickly and was incorporated as a village in 1866. In the same year a group of oilmen raised the funds
to build a railway to Wyoming to ship the oil barrels faster. There were taverns, stables, hotels, stores, factories, rooming houses, slaughter houses and refineries built so close to each other with no building or fire codes. The streets were crowded with wooden wagons carrying crude oil and men
walking around in oil-soaked clothes. After two major fires in 1867, fire departments were built at opposite ends of the town. The firemen were paid by the fire so they often raced
to the fires and then fought to decide who got to handle the fire. By 1872 Petrolia was booming in more ways than one.
Nitroglycereine was used to “torpedo” the oil wells. Almost every nitroglycerine factory in