WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 25 Today's Topics: #1 Bio- Arthur V. Hoenig, Sistersvill [Joan Wyatt ] #2 Bio- The Carter Oil Company, Tyler [Joan Wyatt ] ______________________________X-Message: #1 Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 06:29:16 -0500 From: Joan Wyatt To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <38899488.4E239BC6@uakron.edu> Subject: Bio- Arthur V. Hoenig, Sistersville, WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume 11 Page 245 Bio- Arthur V. Hoenig, Sisterville, WV Arthur V. Hoenig. Elsewhere in this volume is a brief history of The Carter Oil Company, one of the oldest and most extensive oil producing companies operating in the state of West Virginia. This company was incorporated in 1893, and just four years later Arthur V. Hoenig entered its service in the home offices at Titusville, Pennsylvania, and with the exception of a few years since has been continuously with that corporation. He was born at Titusville, Pennsylvania, June 29, 1877, son of Joseph and Mary (Mayer) Hoenig. His parents were born and reared in Germany, coming to the United States in 1852, and were married after arrival in this country. Arthur V. Hoenig grew up in his native city, attended public schools there, and finished his education in Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1897 he became a clerk with The Carter Oil Company. and soon was transferred from their main business offices in Titusville, Pennsylvania, to their field headquarters at Sistersville, West Virginia. After about a year in the Sisterville offices he was successively engaged in the Sistersville Yard in connection with shipping; in field work in connection with leasehold operations, drilling, pumping and development purposes. Subsequently he was returned to producing operations, first as assistant superintendent and then as district superintendent of general oil well operations. In 1903 Mr. Hoenig, together with D.A.Bartlett, of Marietta, Ohio, engaged independently in the business of prospecting for oil in Ohio and West Virginia. The partnership was dissolved in 1904, and Mr. Hoenig, with others from Titusville, entered the Oklahoma oil fields, where he was similarly engaged for a year. Early in 1906 he resumed his connection with The Carter Oil Company as superintendent of properties in the Woodsfield, Ohio district. The company in 1909 transferred him to Bremen, Ohio, in a similar capacity. In 1916 he was sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the same year transferred to Wichita, Kansas, and in both cities was superintendent of The Carter Oil Company (Western Division) properties. In 1919 Mr. Hoenig had charge for the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) of a party of geologists in a survey of Venezuela and Columbia, South America, for the purpose of taking up land for oil development. InMay of the same year Mr. Hoenig returned to the United States and made his official report, but in July again returned to South America. In September, 1919, he returned to the United States, and since October of that year has been located at Parkersburg as vice president and general manager of the Eastern Division of The Carter Oil Company, and also interested in developing the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) properties acquired in Venezuela and other foreign countries. Mr. Hoenig is a republican in politics. He is a catholic and is a member of the Rotary, Country, Blennerhasset and Elks Club at Parkersburg. In 1905, at Sistersville, West Virginia, he married Miss Grace E. Marsh. They have two children, Karl M. and Martha J. ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 09:11:24 -0500 From: Joan Wyatt To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <3889BA83.2D95344A@uakron.edu> Subject: Bio- The Carter Oil Company, Tyler, WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published in 1923, The American Historical Society Inc. Chicago and New York Volume 11 Page 246 The Carter Oil Company, Tyler Co., WV 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.