Charlie Fairbank, great-grandson of John Henry Fairbank who founded their family oil company in 1861 in Oil Springs, Ontario. Standing in the middle of the Rig or Powerhouse that powers the pump jacks using the original "jerker line" technology.
Images by Dave Chidley
Words by Mario Toneguzzi
When people think about the oil industry in Canada, their immediate thoughts are likely concentrated on Alberta’s oil sands.
Perhaps some might think about the offshore industry in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Few will consider Ontario.
But the heart of North America’s oil patch, its roots, lie in southern Ontario, where the industry first set its home.
It all started with innovation. The first production came from hand-dug pits that was refined into lamp oil (kerosene) and other consumer products.
“This area of Ontario pre-dates the Middle East, it pre-dates Alberta, it pre-dates Texas,” says Patricia McGee, author of The Story of Fairbank Oil: Four Generations of the Family Producing Oil Longer Than Anyone in the World.
"Drillers from here starting in 1873 went to 86 countries around the world to help open oil fields – this wonderful new energy source. Oil Springs and the nearby town of Petrolia were a springboard, and the technology and the ingenuity is incredible.”
The unique challenges of southern Ontario swamps and local geology presented problems that required innovation and disruption to solve. In 1852, the Tripp Brothers — Charles, and Henry — came to Enniskillen Township to make their fortunes by developing the oil that seeped to the surface near Oil Springs, into asphalt.
They applied to the government of Upper Canada for a permit to form the International Mining and Manufacturing Company. The charter was granted on December 9, 1854, creating the world's first petroleum company. The Tripps struggled to get their asphalt to market and eventually fell into financial ruins and were forced to sell off their oil fields.
James Miller Williams purchased this property and was the first to capture, refine and market crude oil, making him the “father of the world’s petrochemical industry”. In 1858, he hand-dug the first commercial oil well in North America in Oil Springs which produced a steady supply of crude oil.
He formed the Canadian Oil Company and started a legacy of innovation that persists in Lambton County to the present day.
John Henry Fairbank founded Fairbank Oil in 1861 in Oil Springs and it has operated under four generations with current owner Charlie Fairbank, his great-grandson. (photo on right)
“The whole history of oil is imprinted on this particular property,” Fairbank says.
It’s still producing oil. The majority of its 320 oil wells, on a 600-acre site, run on the authentic technology of the 1860s and produce about 24,000 barrels of oil each year.
The oil is shipped to the Imperial Oil refinery in nearby Sarnia. Fairbank Oil has been supplying crude to Imperial Oil since the oil giant began in 1880 in London, Ontario.
“This makes us very rare in the world,” says McGee.
Oil is also still delivered to Imperial’s Sarnia refinery from nearby historic Petrolia.
(photo left) The Petrolia Oil Discovery centre is a living, functioning museum still pumping oil in the centre of the site of the 1860’s oil boom in Ontario. The Centre features the original methods and showcases Canadian innovations.
Liz Welsh, chair of Petrolia Discovery Foundation, says the site, a learning and discovery centre, is home to equipment dating from the 1860s.
“Currently we have 14 operating wells and four or five are being powered by the original rig which was built in 1903 by the Canadian Oil Company,” she says "We’re currently pumping about 24 cubic metres a month.”
There’s a famous rig there named after Frederick Fitzgerald, the first president of Imperial Oil. Originally steam-powered, it now runs on a small electric motor.
The Petrolia Discovery is a place where people can walk in the footsteps of the pioneers of the country’s black gold heritage, Welsh says.
“Essentially, Oil Springs is where the first official oil refinery was created in North America. They boomed for a long time,” she says.
The Oil Museum of Canada in the County of Lambton in southern Ontario opened its doors on July 1, 1960.
Educational program coordinator Christina Sydorko says most people don’t know about the roots of the oil industry in southern Ontario and part of the mission of her role is to educate the public about the history and heritage of the site and about the technical innovation that spurred an industry.
“It didn’t start in the United States. It didn’t start anywhere else. It started here in Oil Springs because you can physically step in the oil. The oil is very pronounced. You can smell it, you can step in it, you can see it oozing out through the grass,” she says.
The Canadian Oil Company not only harvested the crude but refined it and marketed it, including on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Right) Douglas Munro cuts his lawn around operating pump jacks on the back lawn of his Petrolia, Ontario home. Signs of the Oil industry are everywhere in the region. Most of the extraction is being done by family owned and operated companies.
“Canadian technologically started an industry that continues to impact and radically changed the way that we live our lives and it started here in southwestern Ontario,” Sydorko says.
“We need to take ownership of that history and that legacy for how that industry has changed the world that we live in [and] continues to change the world that we live in.”
(photo) Ken Goulds work in the field on a well for Lambton Area Industries Ltd. in Petrolia, Ontario. The company is in production on the original Oil Field discovered, in the 1850’s.
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