Tyler County, West Virginia The Carter Oil Company and Carter Family This file was submitted by Joan Wyatt, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, Page 246 Col. John J. Carter, an oil operator of Pennsylvania, came to West Virginia in 1893, and on his own account bought producing oil properties in Tyler Co., West Virginia, at and in the vicinity of the town of Sistersville, known as the Victor, Shay, Ludwig, Mooney and Gillespie holdings. On May 1,1893, The Carter Oil Company was incorporated and organized as a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), and Colonel Carter's holdings were transferred to the new company, its officers being: Col. John J. Carter, president and general manager, and George A. Eckbert, secretary-treasurer. The main office was at Titusville, Pennsylvania, until August, 1915, when Col. Carter and Mr. Eckbert retired and were succeeded by A.F. Corwin, president: C.B. Ware, treasurer, and A. Clarke Bedford, secretary. F.C. Harrington became vice president in 1915. For a number of years prior to that time Mr. Harrington had been general superintendent of the company, with offices at Sistersville. The general offices were removed to Sistersville in 1915, and in 1918 to Parkersburg, the present headquarters. Also, in 1915, Eastern and Western Divisions were created, the Eastern Division comprising to Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, the Western comprising Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Wyoming. The present officers of the company are: A.F. Corwin, president; A.V. Hoenig, vice president and general manager of the Eastern Division; R.M. Young, vice president and general manager of the Western Division; C.B. Ware, treasure; and Richardson Pratt, secretary. The oil wells inSistersville field produce large quanties of water with the oil, and about the time Col. Carter became interested it was generally thought by oil operators that the oil could not be produced on account of the water. It was Col. Carter's belief that systematic and continuing pumping would overcome this condition, and his belief was justified by subsequent operations. The wells in this field still produce much water with the oil, but a large number of wells are still producing oil in sufficient quantities to warrant their operation. From that section the company extended its holdings until it became one of the largest oil producers in Wet Virginia, its principal operations being in Wetzel, Tyler, Pleasants, Ritchie, Doddridge, Roane, Jackson, Lincoln, Calhoun and Kanawha counties, West Virginia, and also large operations in Ohio and Kentucky, inadditions to the operations of the Western Division in Oklahoma, Kansas, Wyoming and New Mexico. About 1910 experiments demonstrated that gasoline could be produced from the natural gas from oil wells, by what is known as the Compression process. Casing-head gas from oil wells is especially rich in gasoline, and as such gas was for the most part at that time a waste product its utilization was desirable, not only to the producer but also to the land owner. W.H. Cooper, employed as a mechanical engineer, was given charge of his work, and in 1911 he constructed the company's first Compression Gasoline Plant at Sistersville. The company now has upward of thirty compression plants and several plants which utilize what is known as the Absorption process for producing gasoline from natural gas. The production of gasoline from natural gas has become on of the important features of the company's business. In its operations for oil, the company has drilled many wells which produce gas only,, the product from which is increasingly valuable.