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History
A Brief
History of Titusville Pennsylvania
Titusville's history is almost all about oil. The name was
derived from Jonathan Titus who was the first settler,
coming to this lush valley in Crawford County in 1796.
Within 14 years others bought and improved the land near
him. A village grew that he named Edinburg(h), although
local usage referred to the little village as Titusville.
The village was incorporated as a borough in 1847.
Titusville was a slow-growing and peaceful community, lying
along the banks of Oil Creek until the 1850s. Lumber was the
principal industry with at least 17 sawmills in the area.
Oil was known to exist here, but there was no practical way
to extract it. Generally, its main use to that time had been
as a medicine for both animals and humans. In the late 1850s
Seneca Oil Company (formerly the Pennsylvania Rock Oil
Company) sent Col. Edwin L. Drake, to start drilling on a
piece of leased land just south of Titusville near what is
now Oil Creek State Park. Drake hired a salt well driller,
William A. Smith, in the summer of 1859. They had many
difficulties, but on August 27 at the site of an oil spring
just south of Titusville, they finally drilled a well that
could be commercially successful. It truly was an event that
changed the world, beginning with all the surrounding
vicinity. |
