Before the Civil War, people had skimmed oil from creeks, where it

had seeped tp the earths surface.  I t wasn’t until 1859 when retired

railroad conductor Edwin L. Drake successfully used a stema engine

to drill for oil near Titusville, Pennsylvania, that removing it from

beneath the earths surface became practical.  This technological break

through touched off an oil boom that spread to Kentucky, Ohio,

Illinois and Indiana.  Petroleum refining industries grew up in cleveland

and Pittsburgh as entrepreneurs rushed to transform the oil into precious

kerosene.  Gasoline, a by product of the refining process, originally

was thrown away.