Jacob Englehart was born on November2 1847. Originally, Jacob was a merchant in New York but he moved t London, Ont. and opened a refinery called J.L Englehart
and Company. Not too long after
he moved to Petrolia and opened a
new refinery called Silver Star Refinery.
He was one of 16 operators at Petrolia
who merged their interests in 1880 to
form IMPERIAL OIL.
Charles Fairbank was born in 1852.
He was the son of famous Petrolia
oil pioneer, John Henry Fairbank.
The family founded Fairbank Oil
in 1861, and it is still in operation.
Although Charles worked in the oil
fields he had a degree in Doctoring
and Medicine. He died in 1925.
The “Little Doctor” and “Jake” were
said to be very good friends during the
boom days!
Oil was found in 1858 when a
man named James Williams
went out to dig a well but
found oil instead of water. The
discovery made North America's
first oil rush! The very same
year of the discovery the town's
name was changed to Oil Springs.
Within a few years the town was
full, with almost 4 thousand
residents and in the 'peak days'
there was street lamps, paved
roads, and horse drawn buses!
Then John Fairbank invented the
jerker line, which was a unique way
of drawing oil from several wells.
When oil was hit in Petrolia,
Oil Springs was almost a
ghost town. Then oil was found
deeper and another oil boom
occurred.
Pauline McGibbon was born
on October 21 1910, in Sarnia.
She was the 22 Lieutenant
governor and the first to
be a woman. She served
her position from 1974 to
1980. As well as
being the first woman in that
position, Pauline was also the
first woman Vice Regal
representative! She went to
school at the University of
Toronto and got a degree in
Modern history. Pauline enjoyed
dancing and singing. Pauline
died on December 14 2001.