The Great Depression Before the “New Deal”

What was America like in the early days of the Great Depression? What steps could the federal government take to help the American public? American life would be transformed forever as the country slipped further into an economic decline. 

            

As the 1920s neared an end, many were convinced that prosperous times would go on forever. On September 3, 1929, stock prices reached their highest level yet, but a slow decline began.  On October 24th, an abrupt dip led bankers to attempt stemming the tide.  On October 29th, Black Tuesday, a record 16,410,030 shares were traded as huge blocks of stock were dumped for whatever they would bring. 

By December 1st, stocks on the New York Stock Exchange had dropped in value by $26,000,000,000 ($391,770,000,000 today). The day after the crash President Herbert Hoover assured the public that the business of the country was on a sound and prosperous basis.  All that was needed was time. In November 1929, he had summoned business leaders to the White House and secured promises to maintain wages. He also received commitments  to spend $1.8 billion ($15 billion) for new construction and repairs to stimulate employment. 

     At first, Hoover was praised by the press for his actions, which allowed Long Beach and other parts of the nation to grow throughout most of 1930.  In Long Beach, the Ford Motor factory opened, ground was broken for the Procter & Gamble soap plant, a new wharf to allow bigger cargo ships access to the harbor was completed, and a $100,000 water plant was put into service.  Residential districts such as Bixby Knolls started selling new homes, and two new schools, Lindbergh and Naples, opened to meet the educational needs of the many families moving to Long Beach. Economic conditions improved somewhat in early 1931 until a series of bank collapses in Europe and the drought and dust hitting the Plains states sent another wave of terror through the American economy. Farmers were unable to sustain their crops and, as a result, some 2.5 million people would leave the Plains states, most headed to California.

            Long Beach did have oil, new industries, and a seemingly bright future, but it could not deal with all of the displaced workers from Dust Bowl states seeking employment in Long Beach.   In an attempt to remedy the downturn in the job market, the American Legion asked that only American citizens be employed by business firms, resulting in the repatriation of 120,000 Mexican laborers from California.  Going a bit further, the Long Beach City Council passed an ordinance mandating that only residents of the city could be hired to build the new municipal auditorium. 

                By late November 1930, the veneer that everything was O.K. began to crumble.  Long Beach churches were asked to open their doors and give homeless men a night’s lodging.  Nearby Fort MacArthur furnished 100 cots and bedding for the itinerant men who had come to seemingly prosperous Long Beach looking for work.  Business sales were sagging. 

            In January 1931, those municipal employees not dependent on their salaries for a living, were asked to take a leave of absence so their jobs could be filed by men who had to support their families.  Married women were chiefly affected by this proposal.  At a county conference in Los Angeles, it was agreed that every possible dollar of county money should be spent in employing manpower.  Contractors doing public work were asked to abandon machines and use hand labor so far as possible.  One rule was that persons who refused to work, although able to do so, would not be carried on the charity list, and would have to "shift for themselves."

            In March 1931, $174,000  ($3 million) was appropriated by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for Long Beach street projects. Men paid $4 ($68) a day were employed two days a week. Under this system as many as 1500 were put to work.

  

          The five-month period, which ended in May 1931, marked the heaviest drain ever on the social service organizations of the city.  The Social Welfare League, American Red Cross and Catholic Welfare Bureau went into 4,000 Long Beach homes, providing relief in the form of food, fuel and clothing.  Five thousand grocery orders were distributed by the agencies; 2000 pairs of shoes and 11,000 pieces of clothing were given out.  From December 1, 1930 to May 1, 1931, the Salvation Army served 10,473 meals and provided beds for 7100 men.  By mid-May 1931 the resources of these agencies were beginning to wear thin, agencies were forced to evaluate requests for aid based on need.

            The City Council looked at ways to cut expenditures.  Oil revenues were down and Long Beach was feeling severe financial pressures.  A cost-savings study recommended a ten percent reduction in all salaries.  Police and Fire wages could not be touched, however, since they were mandated under a city ordinance.  On June 11, 1931, the City Manager decided to set an example and announced plans to cut his own salary, even though the city charter said he should not be paid less than $7500 ($128,000) a year.  Establishment of a five-day work week (employees used to work 9-1 on Saturdays), with appropriate salary cuts to reflect the shortened work period, was also recommended.  City employee sick leave cost the city $28,000 ($475,000) per year; it was proposed employees receive no pay for the first three days of illness and that a nurse from the Health Department visit them to verify they were really sick.

            City Manager Claude C. Lewis worked on consolidating departments; when city managers retired they were not replaced, their duties assigned to another department head. Lewis, however, did create a new position, that of Assistant City Manager whose job duties included being director of personnel and looking into the efficiency of each city department. 

            New taxes were considered.  The city began to charge for the collection of garbage from business places, hotels, clubs and restaurants. Individual houses were still exempt.  A business and professional tax was also instituted--any member of any profession who maintained or occupied an office or place of business within the city was required to pay a license tax.

Ford Motor Co. Long Beach

            By year's end, the Ford Motor company had laid off 500 employees and trimmed their operations to a bare minimum. In February 1932, Seaside National Bank was forced to close its doors.  County funds were depleted, and money no longer available to cities to provide jobs for the unemployed.  In January 1932, the City Council put a public relief bond measure on the ballot.  It was the only way Long Beach could legally raise money for public relief.  The measure was overwhelmingly defeated.  People had lost confidence in city government; they didn't like the new taxes or the unemployment situation.  In 1932, a recall petition to oust the City Council, City Manager and City Attorney was instituted.

            The City Council told the public that a recall measure would bring disaster.  There was no provision in the City Charter to hold a special election to fill the vacancies should the recall prove successful.  The running of Long Beach would be turned over to the State.  The 1932 recall election was defeated, but in 1934 a recall was approved and eleven city officials were without a job.

            Public relief was something city, county, state and federal governments had never dealt with before.  It had always been handled by charitable institutions.  Now new rules and new players were getting into the game.  Long Beach had done what it legally could to raise money for public relief, and the measure had been defeated.  While they were looking into the legality of tapping into Gas Department revenues, the American Legion proposed holding a drive to raise $100,000 ($1.7 million) for employing out-of-work men in planting trees along Long Beach streets.

                By October 21, 1932, the County was giving aid to 151,628 people, or one-tenth of the county population.  On the charity rolls were an ex-brigadier general, working for $3.20 ($60) a day; an ex-State's attorney of a Midwestern State, an Austrian countess who formerly mingled with the crowned heads of Europe, a graduate of West Point and a former head of a newspaper publishers association who turned down the chance to become Governor of his home State eight years earlier in order to go into business in California.  Southern California was becoming the Mecca of transient families from all parts of the country.  Lured by the fine climate and promise of a better future, thousands left their homes for the sunshine of the Southland.  Such wanderings created untold problems for the areas they wanted to call home.

            Though a Republican town by tradition, Long Beach gave Franklin D. Roosevelt a majority of 7181 votes in the November election.  It was time for a change and new solutions to the economic woes of the nation.

            More about the Roosevelt’s “New Deal” in the 4^th and final part of this series.

How Oil Speculation Pauperized Thousands

                Prosperous times swept America following the discovery of oil on Signal Hill, helping end the Depression of 1920-1921. A new industry had been born. By 1924 oil surpassed agriculture as the leading industry in California.  In Southern California alone that year 230 million barrels of crude oil was pumped out of the ground. Everyone seemed to want to make a quick buck from all the oil flowing on and around Signal Hill.  Oil deals were being made every day, many of them by Long Beach businessmen like Willard C. Campbell, John McDuffie, Walter Lee Tully, Charles P. Knight and William R. Buck of the Bay Hills Oil and Land Company. 

                In the fall of 1922, the five original promoters of the Bay Hills Oil and Land Company contributed $5000 ($77,000) each to begin their corporation.  Their first course of business was to buy five town lots on Signal Hill for $20,000 ($308,500). John McDuffie made the purchase in his name, taking title and later transferring title to the company for $35,000 ($540,000)--- the five investors pocketing the $15,000 ($231,375) profit.  With actual land in their possession, they quickly lured backers into purchasing 2250 units of stock for $100 ($1545) per unit, telling investors they would drill one oil well when $225,000 ($3,471,000) was raised.  Fifty percent of those encouraged by “oily” talks of promoters were women over 60 years of age, who invested their life savings in the company. The promoters promised their shareholders they themselves would derive no money from the sale of any unit until the investors had received all their money back.  This was an out and out lie, for Campbell, McDuffie, Tully, Knight and Buck were drawing monthly salaries ranging from $1000 ($15450) to $1500 ($23,137) each.

                Other transgressions followed.  After the original stock was sold, the five set up another company, the Special Delivery Oil Syndicate, which they opened to investors.  Questionable practices included purchasing an oil lease for $12,500 ($193,000) and then selling it to the Special Delivery Oil Syndicate for $15,000 ($231,375) , splitting the profit between them.

                 On October 14, 1924, Willard C. Campbell, who had become one of the most prominent and respected oil stock salesmen in Long Beach, was arrested for mail fraud along with John McDuffie, Walter Lee Tully, Charles P. Knight, William R. Buck and their attorney Joseph G. Richardson.  Mail fraud was one of the few legal ways to pursue the sharks who fed off the hopes of the small investor. Long Beach folk were shocked that such noteworthy members of the community had been scam artists.

                John H. McDuffie, president of the Bay Hills Land and Oil Company of Long Beach and its subsidiary the Special Delivery Oil Syndicate, denied the company ever did any business through the mails.  Instead, he claimed, they hired passenger buses to bring the public to the oil fields.  It was common practice among oil promoters.  Every morning the buses lined the streets in Los Angeles and other Southern California communities advertising free lunches, and band concerts as well as a chance to see the gushers first hand.  McDuffie neglected to mention that along the way salesmen made their pitch.  As they motored past the mansions of business tycoons, movie stars and especially oil moguls, oil promoters made sure to point out that anyone could live a life of leisure if they invested in oil development. The passengers, primed by the promotion, responded emotionally, rather than rationally, and lined up eagerly to purchase shares in not only Bay Hills Land and Oil, but other oil companies as well. 

Prospective investors

                McDuffie told the press that the trouble with his oil firm was brought about not through any intent to defraud anyone, but by poor management.  Somehow, McDuffie said, the bills began to pile up and creditors began to demand payment until investors began to get worried.  Shareholders weren’t buying his sob story.

                On July 6, 1925, the Bay Hills Oil partners and the company’s attorney Joseph Richardson went on trial for mail fraud, having delayed the legal action as long as they could. Investors wanted their money.

                “The law is full of loopholes,” Los Angeles Times writer Walter V. Woehlke later wrote about another fraud, the Julian Pete scandal. “To the layman it is perfectly clear that a criminal fraud of vast proportions has been committed, that tens of thousands of innocent people have been bunked out of an unknown number of millions, but the way to legal proof and conviction lies through a jungle of technicalities in which it is easy to get lost.” (Los Angeles Times, 10/17/1927)

                Woehlke was right. Though Willard C. Campbell, John McDuffie, Walter Lee Tully, Charles P. Knight, Joseph G. Richardson and William R. Buck had defrauded 5000 investors of $750,000 ($11.6 million) , they merely got a slap on the hand, fined $2500 ($38,500) each and given ten months suspended jail sentences.  However, the story has a happy ending.

                In February 1929, “Special Delivery No. 1,” located at Locust and 31^st Street, which had been taken over by the Cypress Petroleum Company, hit pay dirt, with promises of over 2,000 barrels of oil a day. The property that was nearly lost for taxes and given up as hopeless, had now became a valuable asset. However, few had recorded their deeds to the well and over half of the “unit holders” could not be found. Those that had recorded their deeds were entitled to a portion of the earnings. For those that couldn’t verify a legal filing, the funds accrued would revert to the state in five years.  Many were lucky to recover their original investment, but little else. The Great Depression would see the price of oil fall to an all-time low.

                Though this story had a happy ending, this was just the tip of the iceberg, the first of several local oil scandals to follow.

             

 

C.C. Julian

  The biggest Ponzi scheme of all involved Courtenay Chauncey Julian---“C.C.” as he was known to millions---who appeared so folksy and down to earth that investors believed his sales pitch and that he really cared for the little guy. Born in Manitoba, Canada, son of an impoverished farmer, Julian had worked in the Texas oil fields before drifting to Southern California.  He soon began to speculate in oil leases, and from his point of view his luck was phenomenal.  On a four-acre lease he drilled five wells and all five came in, producing gushers.  Now, as a successful independent operator, he decided to form a production, refining, and distributing company to compete with the major oil companies, and open his company to small investors.  Soon he was acquiring more leases, and opening gas stations which sold his appropriately named gasoline, “Defiance.”

                In June 1924 his new company, the Julian Petroleum Corporation, purchased the holdings of the Grump-Steele Company of Long Beach, including contracts on the production of twenty Signal Hill oil wells for $75,000  ($1.13 million today).  Julian also had interests in the Alamitos Heights oil field with wells near Colorado Avenue and Ultimo Avenue. This was but a small portion of Julian’s supposed massive oil investments.

                Julian bypassed the usual techniques used by oil promoters who laid siege to Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles each morning.  Impressive buses heading for the oil fields filled the streets advertising free lunches, band concerts as well as a chance to see the wells up close.  Julian’s approach was different.  He didn’t rely on bus rides to entice people.  Instead, he wrote his own ads which encapsulated the hopes and dispelled the fears of the small investor. He charmed many into putting money into his oil syndicate, despite warnings from the California Corporations Department and Harry Chandler of the Los Angeles Times who finally caught on to Julian’s schemes and refused to print his ads.  Penniless when he began, Julian managed to raise a lot of money from those he conned. C.C. Julian was the Bernie Madoff of his day.  It was not long before 40,000 folks had invested $11 million ($166 million)  in the stock of Julian Petroleum. His appeals for funds were so successful that one particular stock issue was oversubscribed by $75,000 ($1.13 million).   However, the law eventually caught up with him.

                Bribes and high salaries to bankers and government officials hid what was really happening---more Julian stock was being traded than was supposed to exist.  But the Ponzi scheme, where early investors are paid off with the money of later investors, began to spin faster and faster, demanding more and more cash.  As the “little guy” investors began to get a putrid whiff of what was really happening panic spread.  The “Average Joe” saw his money in Julian vaporize.

               The Julian fiasco was merely the prelude to the devastation that came after 1929.  When the Richfield Oil Company went into receivership in 1931, an audit revealed an operating loss of $54 million ($920 million).  Items such as alimony, hotel rooms, purchases of jewelry, repair of speedboats and so forth had been blithely charged to the company.  Then the Guaranty Building and Loan Association failed (its president had embezzled $8 million), then the American Mortgage Company failed for $18 million ($306 million).  Nearly every major financial debacle involved some political figure, a judge, public official or some well know fixer, Carey McWilliams wrote in Southern California Country. McWilliams also pointed out that in earlier times investors had purchased something physical, such as property (at whatever inflated price), but with Julian stock certificates all they had were pieces of paper.

                The Julian scandal, coinciding with the onslaught of the Depression, pauperized at least 500,000 Southern Californians. Its consequences would ripple on and on, gaining force until in 1930 the region led the nation in the number of bankruptcies and in the amount of net losses in bankruptcy proceedings. The scandal contributed to the collapse of the First National Bank, the election of former Ku Klux Klansman John Porter as mayor of Los Angeles, and the defeat of California Governor C.C. Young in his bid for re-election.

              As a librarian, I feel obliged to tell you to read Oil by Upton Sinclair, if you want to learn Prohibition Madness).  Sinclair wrote the book while living in Belmont Shore, in it he described the transformation of Paradise (Long Beach), from “a quiet little seaside village where retired Iowa farmers pitched horseshoes,” into a bustling boom town porcupined with derricks.  The road into Paradise, Sinclair wrote, was “lined with placards big and little, oil lands for sale or lease, and shacks and tents in which the selling and leasing was done.  Somebody would buy a lot and build a house and move in, and the following week they would sell the house, and the purchaser would move it away, and start an oil derrick.  A great many never got any further than the derrick---for subdividers of real estate had made the discovery that all the advertising in the world was not equal to the presence of one such structure on the tract.”
More about this time in my book Prohibition Madness.

Did Signal Hill Oil Save the Country from Economic Collapse?

                What was the world like after World War I and the influenza pandemic? Time, not medicine, had lessened the deaths from influenza. There was no prevention and no treatment. Isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, and limits on public gatherings were used to control the spread…sound familiar?  But what were the effects of the disease economically?  Here is a look at the economic depression that struck soon after the war and the influenza pandemic ended.

               

We all have heard of the Great Depression that encompassed the world in the 1930s. A little talked about Depression brought economic collapse and massive job losses in the years following World War I and the influenza pandemic.  Those were the days when there was no government aid available to businesses and individuals, no Social Security or welfare. People had to fend for themselves.

               

According to today’s economists, the Depression lasted from January 1920 to July 1921, but there were signs of things to come months earlier.  In November 1919, panic conditions threw Wall Street into turmoil and interfered with the operation of the whole Federal Reserve System. Restless speculation forced “call money” up to 25 percent overnight. This “unnatural” demand for cash affected not only the business world; it affected all other parts of the economy. Farmers who wished to raise money on prospective crops found it more difficult to do so; small town merchants were inconvenienced in restocking their stores and builders were kept from purchasing their building supplies.  Unemployment rose sharply. Automobile production declined by 60% and total industrial production by 30%. Southern California, however, escaped the economic crisis because of a major discovery – oil.

                Gas emanations, seepages of oil and asphaltum deposits had long been known throughout Southern California.  Native Americans as well as mission fathers used these substances as roofing materials, natural lubricants and as liniments.  The first oil boom actually occurred in 1859 when it was found that petroleum could be used to make kerosene lamp oil, an inexpensive alternative to whale and coal oil in use at the time. With California gold production diminishing, oil speculation seized the minds of many still eager to make their fortune.  By 1865, sixty-five California oil companies had sprung into existence, though many never got further than just issuing stock certificates and pocketing investors’ money.  Those that did get around to drilling didn’t have enough capital to bore the wells very deep, and only a small amount of oil was obtained.  The modest quantity that was pumped was found to have little value. It wasn’t the same grade as eastern oil, which was perfect for kerosene production and at the time the only valuable use for petroleum.  Oil investors became discouraged and by 1884 there were only four California companies remaining that were actually producing oil.

 

One of Doheny's first wells

               In 1892, Edward Doheny was sitting on the porch of a Los Angeles hotel when he saw a decrepit wagon hauling chunks of a greasy, brown substance.  Curious as to what it was, the newly arrived miner ran after the wagon and asked the driver what he was hauling.  The driver replied “brea,” the Spanish word for pitch.  He told Doheny it came from a great hole oozing gobs of the sticky stuff in an area of the city called Westlake Park.  The driver was transporting it to a nearby ice factory where it would be used for fuel in place of coal.  A light bulb went off in Doheny’s head as he realized this was a new fuel which could become the new energy source of the nation.  The far seeing Doheny leased a three-lot parcel of land near the “great hole” at Patton and State streets in Los Angeles. It was swampland, bubbling with the tarry crude.  From this find, and convincing the Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to substitute oil for coal in their locomotives, the oil industry we know today came to be.

                It took a while for the use of oil to catch on, but as World War I got underway the need for petroleum increased. In 1916, oil wells began to dot Signal Hill. First it was Union Oil Company, then in 1917 St. Helen’s Petroleum Company and Kern River Oil Fields, Inc.  In 1920, Shell Oil Company arrived on the scene, leasing city owned land for oil drilling, but it wasn’t until 1921 that the speculation that Long Beach and Signal Hill was sitting on a vast oil reserve proved true.   On June 23, around 5 p.m. Shell Oil Company struck a huge deposit of oil at its well at Temple and Hill Street.

Oil - Signal Hill

                Oil fever quickly spread.  Sandberg Petroleum Company, with massive Signal Hill oil holdings, was swamped with people wanting to invest in their company.  Within 48 hours of the Shell discovery, Sandberg sold $112,000  ($1.6 million today) worth of stock.   Real estate promoters in the area on and surrounding Signal Hill could barely keep up with sales.  The City of Long Beach owned 36 acres of land between the Shell and Sandberg holdings and envisioned itself becoming the richest city in the world---a city that would end taxation.

                Shell well no. 2, Nesa, on the west slope of Signal Hill, struck oil at 12:45 a.m. on September 2.  It came in with such an explosion that everyone thought an earthquake had struck. People as far away as Los Angeles were awakened by the blast.  Other wells came in on October 26, November 17 and December 13.  On November 28, the city owned municipal oil well hit pay dirt, shooting two hundred barrels of fluid above the top of the derrick.  For many years afterwards this single well brought $360 ($5,200 today) a day into city coffers.

                Amid all of this oil, Signal Hill, which had been renowned for its scenic grandeur, productive soil and magnificent homes, was transformed.  Building restrictions, paved streets and walks and curbs were supplanted by oil leases, oil stocks, derricks and drills.  Palm trees and rose gardens were removed to make way for boilers and tool houses.   It was now dangerous living on the Hill, residents were regularly routed from their homes by blowouts from the oil wells.  Families escaped through the rain of greasy crude oil, leaving behind everything but the clothes they were wearing.  They would pile into their automobile, trying to drive to safety but finding it difficult to get through the oil that coated everything.  On returning home they found their once white home  now black, trees in their orchard destroyed, stripped of branches by the clinging oil, the contents of their homes worthless, and the building, soaked with highly flammable oil, a fire trap in which no one could safely live.  

  

Long Beach/Signal Hill oil field

              Because of oil, Long Beach and the rest of Southern California was able to escape the economic recession striking the rest of the United States in 1920.  Signal Hill was considered the greatest oil field in the United States.  A multitude of new industries associated with oil fields and interests were springing up.  Gas refineries, absorption plants, casing-head gasoline plants and several hundred miles of pipe lines were being built.  But all was not as rosy in the rest of America.  The United States was experiencing a severe, post-war recession due to industrial overproduction and elimination of defense related industries.  The result was widespread wage cuts and unemployment that reached 5.7 million in August 1921.  Thousands traveled west to Long Beach to take advantage of the jobs and other benefits accompanying the oil boom.  On October 7, 1921, Long Beach Mayor Charles Buffum spoke about the “propaganda” being spread through the east calling attention to the alleged employment advantages of Southern California.  "We can take care of the people we have here, but the continued invasion of the army of the unemployed will result most seriously for those who come", he said in an article in the Daily Telegram. "Keep the idle away from the City, Long Beach can take care of its own people, but the influx must stop."

                But the influx did not stop. In the decade 1920-1930, over 2,000,000 people moved into California, 72% of whom settled in Southern California.  The migration into Southern California in this decade was the largest internal migration in the history of the American people, according to author Carey McWilliams. In 1923, oil from Signal Hill alone caused ship traffic through the Panama Canal to double By 1924  (the same year Signal Hill decided to become its own city), oil surpassed agriculture as the leading industry in California.  In Southern California alone that year 230 million barrels of crude oil was pumped out of the ground. 

                The 1920s ---which brought Prohibition, rum runners, jazz, gambling ships and gangsters---also brought tremendous growth to the Southland. But speculation in the oil industry became rampant, with many swindlers out to make a quick buck.  More about this next time when I will tell of how this uncapped speculation pauperized at least 500,000 Southern Californians.

The Signal Hill Library

          Fifty years ago it was hard to find Signal Hill’s public library. The catacomb library was hidden deep beneath the city’s City Hall. It was the smallest municipally owned library in Los Angeles County, and perhaps the entire nation.

  

From 1934-1978 Signal Hill City Hall housed the library, initially on the second floor, later the basement

        Head librarian, and only full time employee, Mrs. Kathleen Brady found the neat cellar library with its 13,500 books a much better place than when she came to work for the city in 1962. Then the library occupied a small 800 square foot room which could house about 4,000 books on the second floor of City Hall. The move to the larger quarters in 1965 not only increased the number of books the library could hold to 20,000, but also saw an increase in patronage. In 1967-68 a total of 13,594 books were checked out by local residents. It also became a place to study with its brightly lit rooms polished floors and catacomb-like atmosphere.

The basement entry that once led to the Signal Hill library

          The “new” basement library, however, wasn’t what the city had hoped for. In January 1964 Mayor William F. Mendenhall announced plans for a $300,000 circular new library building to be erected on city property on the west side of Hill Street, west of the fire station. The newly formed Signal Hill Rotary Club had pledged to collect all the money to construct the 25,000 book classic style library through public subscription.  An architect had prepared preliminary plans for the 2-story 13,317 square foot library which would be circular and completely enclosed in glass, with an interior patio. The childrens’ library would be on the ground floor, along with a vault, audio visual room, bindery and storage area. A play area for the youngsters would be conveniently located on the first floor. Plans called for the library to have an entry bridge off Hill Street leading into the main lobby on the second floor. There one would find the adult section, an office, book stacks, magazine racks and reading tables. Parking space was to be at the rear of the property.

          This “new” library was not to be.  The public library remained in the basement until December 1978 when it moved into the old city fire station. The obsolete fire building had been renovated as part of a $1.5 million urban renewal project that also brought the city a new police station.

Rendering of the new 2019 library

          Signal Hill will finally have a new library 93 years after Mary Maude Chandler Trodd convinced W. E. Hinshaw to give her a room rent free for a library in his new brick building at Twenty-first and Cherry.  With space for a library guaranteed she managed to cajole the City Council into giving her $30 for shelving. She then went from door to door collecting magazines and books.

Floor plan of the new 2019 library

The library, with its few shelves of books, opened in March 1926. The library eventually expanded, placed on the top floor of Signal Hill’s new City Hall at 2175 Cherry in 1934, later moving to the basement in 1965, and old fire station in 1978. Mary would be very happy to learn the small steps she had taken to create the Signal Hill Public Library have paid off. Finally Signal Hill will have a library in a brand new building, all its own, thanks in no small part to Mary Maude Chandler Trodd’s dream.  (For more on Mary Trodd and the creation of the Signal Hill Public Library read my June 2017 blog on Signal Hill history).

     The 14000 square foot new library is scheduled to open August 10, 2019, at 1800 E. Hill Street. Festivities begin at 11 a.m. and continue until 4 p.m. 

Oil - The Tragic Cost of Doing Business

               On Thursday, June 23, 1921, the Shell Oil Company struck oil at its well at Temple Avenue and Hill Street, on Signal Hill. A new era was born, and a new city, Signal Hill, came into being.  The City of Signal Hill has been built on oil, so has much of Long Beach, which has benefited from wells drilled on its properties in the Signal Hill oil field.   The Signal Hill oil field runs from northwest to southwest, about five miles long by one mile across. In the northwest, the field begins near the junction of the San Diego Freeway (I-405) and the Long Beach Freeway (I-710) and roughly parallels the 405 freeway near the intersection of Lakewood Boulevard and Pacific Coast highway at the traffic circle. Portions of the field also extend into the Alamitos Heights area by Recreation Park, and the Los Cerritos area of Long Beach, though these areas are no longer productive.

Source: Wikipedia

                Revenues from the oil industry fuel the treasury in both cities, but what brought much wealth also has had costs.  There were numerous explosions, fires and deaths in the oil fields.  Only a few of the tragedies have been remembered.  I’ve included three of the most well-known in this article, followed by a chronological list of other reported accidents and deaths I’ve been able to find in my research.  As you will realize when you see the list there were many.

Fisher Fire

                Fires, explosions and accidents were common in the early days of Signal Hill oil. The newly formed city didn’t have its own Fire Department until 1926 and had to rely on Long Beach for fire protection.  One of them was the 1924 Fisher fire which destroyed four derricks and two storage tanks about 8 a.m. on July 15, 1924.

               The blaze started at the Walter Fisher well No. 7, located in the densest part of the oil field around Lovelady and Crescent streets.  The fire spread quickly to nearby wells but approximately 350 fire fighters, recruited mostly from the oil workers of the Signal Hill field and two companies of the Long Beach Fire Department fought the blaze. Signal Hill had no water system and the nearest hydrant was at Hill and California avenues, nearly a mile away. Connection was made with this hydrant, however, through more than 5000 feet of hose.

 

Fisher fire, 1924.

               The 2000 barrel Fisher Company tank burst into flames with a terrific explosion at 1 p.m. after fire fighters thought they had conquered the blaze and checked its spread. This was followed by a second explosion when tank no. 2 caught fire. Fearing these tanks might rip open due to the heat causing a river of blazing oil to rush down Lovelady Street destroying everything in its path, a dyke was hastily constructed across the street with tractors. Things continued to look bad as unrelenting flames shot from the tanks and it was expected the steel walls would give way at any moment.  However, by 8 p.m. the flames had died down and the danger lessened. The fire, which threatened to destroy the entire oil field, had taken firefighters 12 hours to control.

                Wayne Fisher estimated total damage at $100,000 ($14.3 million today).  By all accounts, the Los Angeles Times reported, Mrs. Z. T. Nelson, Signal Hill’s mayor was the heroine of the fire. Jessie Nelson organized and headed a relief committee to aid the 350 firefighters, saw to it that they were fed in shifts and personally passed among them giving them encouragement.

                The day’s most spectacular feat was that of Alex Scott, one of the crew of the Foster wells. While fighting the Fisher fire he saw the top of his own derrick burst into flames and climbed to the top with a hose strapped to his back in sight of thousands of spectators. He later received $100 for his bravery.

                Fortunately there were no deaths. The only casualty was Fred Harold who tripped and fell badly burning his arm as a stream of blazing oil escaped from one of the oil tanks.

                The cause of the explosion was thought to have been caused by one of the burning derricks falling into the oil tank, causing an instant explosion.

                The story of well owner Walter H. Fisher is similar to many who made a fortune on oil. Fisher and his family arrived in Los Angeles with only $5. He opened an insurance business, and made an early investment in oil, forming the General Petroleum Company.  At the time of his death in June 1926 his estimated worth was $5,000,000 ($69.2 million in today’s money).

 Richfield Oil Fire

                Another disaster occurred 85 years ago on June 2, 1933. This time it was an explosion at the Richfield Oil Company at Twenty-Seventh Street and Lime Avenue which killed ten, and injured thirty-five. 

Richfield field ablaze, 1933.

                It was a horrible tragedy that began with a tremendous refinery blast that was felt in cities thirty miles away.  The fire that followed reached two homes, but the heroic efforts of 500 men, armed with shovels, prevented the oil that flowed from broken storage vats from igniting and spreading the fire further into residential areas. All in all fifty dwellings were damaged and a dozen other small buildings destroyed.

                One body taken to Seaside Hospital was so mutilated staff could not tell if it was a man or woman.  A belt buckle was all that helped identify what was left of 34-year-old Robert Bennett, of 3056 East Second Street, whose remains were pulled from beneath a pile of charred building   Equipment numbers found near other remains were traced back to those who had checked them out, allowing for further identification.  One of the victims was Carl Robinson (226 ½ Covina Street), whose wife told local police that the day of the blast had been the first work her husband had been able to obtain in nine months.

materials the following day.

  

Richfield fire aftermath.

              Not all casualties were oil workers.  The Carlyon’s were “oil people,” having spent seventeen years in the oil fields surrounding Bakersfield. The family moved to Long Beach when the oil in the Kern River fields began to close down.  Little did they realize it would be the mother and daughter, not the oil worker husband that would die because of oil.

                 Lottie Carlyon and her 8-year-old daughter Marilyn were burned to death before firemen could get near enough to put out the flames that engulfed their home.  The mother and the little girl had been knocked unconscious by the blast and were unable to get out of the house before it caught fire. Ironically Lottie Carlyon’s husband, Tom, was directing a crew of men in a derrick near his home when the blast snuffed out the lives of his family.  He was closer to the explosion than his wife and daughter, but was able to stagger from the burning area before being trapped by flames.   The rest of the dead were trapped inside the absorption plant when the blast flattened it.

                Witnesses said there were actually two explosions.  The first, a minor one, caused the second.  The second blast was so intense it wrecked homes and other structures within a radius of several blocks and shattered plate glass windows thirty miles away.  At first everyone thought another earthquake had hit (the massive Long Beach Earthquake had occurred March 10, 1933), but they quickly realized it was an explosion when an immense column of smoke and flame shot skyward.

                Five hundred firemen, police, sailors, marines and volunteers fought for four hours to put out the fire which razed an area of two city blocks.  Fifteen thousand spectators gathered to watch the inferno and the thousands of barrels of crude oil which flowed through Long Beach streets like a river.

                A storage tank failure was ruled as the cause of the explosion which was the worst in the history of the Signal Hill oil field.

Hancock Fire

                Many may still remember the shattering explosions and raging flames from the Hancock Oil refinery fire on Signal Hill in 1958.  Several articles were written about the event on the 50th anniversary of the disaster which occurred on May 22, 1958.  It was indeed a day to remember as a sea of sticky, boiling oil streamed down from Signal Hill as firemen tried to contain the flames to the tank farm area of the 10-acre plant. Homes for miles around – in San Pedro, Long Beach, Wilmington, Seal Beach, Lakewood and other communities – shook as if hit by a series of sonic booms as the explosions continued.  One resident a block away said he heard at least 15 to 20 explosions within a five minute period.

Hancock fire, 1958.

                 It seemed to have started with an explosion in the loading area of the refinery located south of the Municipal Airport and Spring Street.  The first blast tore up a tank containing crude oil; burning petroleum gushed to the ground and quickly spread the fire from tank to tank.  Other explosions followed in rapid succession.  Fifty workers fled for their lives; two, Woodward Langford and James Edwards, didn't make it.

                The stream of oil threatened the airport and the Long Beach Municipal Gas Department plant with its huge storage tanks.  Fire fighters concentrated efforts around this area to prevent further devastation.  A vast cloud of black smoke spread eastward, forcing the evacuation of Long Beach General Hospital's 410 patients.  Sooty oil from the billowing ebony cloud was carried by the wind over neighboring areas damaging homes, cars and everything else in its path.  Bulldozers roared through the night as high earth dikes were built in the area of Termino and Spring to halt the flow of oil from the burst tanks.  Yet some of the oil escaped entering storm drains emptying into Los Cerritos drainage channel.  A quantity also found its way to Marine Stadium, despite attempts to vacuum it up using vacuum trucks at points along the channel.

                After a 52-hour fight by 600 men, the Hancock Refinery fire was extinguished.  However, firefighters could still see the grotesque shapes of twisted metal though lingering ribbons of smoke.  Woodrow H. Langford, 44, and James W. Edwards, 66, lost their lives, eight were injured and property loss was estimated to be in the millions.

                The exact cause of the fire was never determined, but it happened at the same time that rumors surfaced that a large eastern oil company was interested in buying the company.

Signal Hill, 1928. Cemeteries shown.

Reported accidents from the Signal Hill field include:

·         September 2, 1921, a fire occurred as the well was being drilled at Shell’s Mesa No. 1 well. No one was injured but tools and a rig were destroyed with a loss of $12,000.

·         November 17, 1921, asbestos clad expert firefighters were called in to dynamite the blaze at Shell’s Martin #1 well. A column of blazing gas shot 150 feet into the air and scattered thousands of grains of sand for miles around. Adjacent wells and derricks were also destroyed. Damages of $24,000.

·         December 14, 1921, the third fire in four months at Shell Oil Co. resulting from gas escaping from newly dug Wilbur #1 well.  Damages $20,000.

·         May 9, 1923, carelessness in turning on a gas valve to a connecting line was listed as the cause of the blaze near Orange Avenue. No damage estimate given.

·         May 27, 1923, a fire destroyed a derrick at Shell’s Alamitos No. 7 well on Obispo. Damages $50,000.

·         July 10, 1923, a 500 gallon tank of the Gilmore Refining Company threatened to spread downhill into Long Beach threatening homes. $150,000 in damages.

·         October 15, 1923, fires destroy two wells on Arabella Avenue, two firemen injured. Damages $25,000.

·         April 21, 1924, three absorbing towers and the engine room of the Golden State Refinery on East Hill Street were destroyed when fumes from a gas pipe ignited.  $35,000 in damages.

·         May 10, 1924, explosion and fire destroyed the derrick and equipment on Fry #2 well at Freeman Street and Summit Road.  Two die – Frank Guisinger and J.F. Bownds.  Third victim, George Stubblefield also injured.

·         June 20, 1924, four workmen (Thomas Watson, Everett Johnson, A. A. Cochran, J.B. Rose) on the Patton-Shore #2 well on California Street are hurt when a drill pipe falls.

·         July 6, 1924, fire razes Betz oil derrick. 

·         July 15, 1924, Fisher fire. See article in this blog.  

·         August 6, 1924, waste oil which had been accumulating for several months in a gully north of Sunnyside Cemetery caught fire from a spark from a welding gun.  For a time the Lomita Gas Company was threatened by the grass fire which spread quickly. No damage estimates.

·         October 3, 1924, flames from a welding torch started an explosion which destroyed 9 storage tanks of the Hursh Refining Company, 19th and Rose Avenue. Damages $25,000.

·         October 23, 1924, a fire and two explosions occurred at the absorption plant of the Pan-American Refining Company on the north side of the hill at Arabella and Temple. Harry Perry was killed.  Approximately $50,000 in damages.

·         November 27, 1924, two fires, one resulting from an explosion. The Davis-McMillan well at Orizaba and Summit was the most destructive which resulted when a spark of unknown origin ignited gas in the hole. A sump hole filled with waste oil on Spring, west of American (Long Beach Blvd.), was the scene of the second blaze which was started by a grass fire.  Theodore Deihl seriously hurt in first fire.  $20,000 in damages to the first fire little lost in the second.

·         January 13, 1925, two badly burned in refinery explosion.

·         February 19, 1925, spectacular fire razes derrick on Signal Hill; blaze is seen on all roads into Long Beach.

·         February 23, 1926, the presence of a tremendous gas field was found after the eruption of a series of wells in a new area of drilling in the Los Cerritos area in the northwest edition to the original field. Coombs #5 well was the first to explode (2/22/1926), with others following.  Damages to the Coombs well was estimated to be in excess of $50,000. Five workmen injured (J.J. Biller, A.B. McMillan, D.B. McCutcheon, J. Morean, Dewey Davis). Firemen William Minter and Fred Campbell also injured.

·         March 25, 1926, Wilbur-McAlpin-Craig #3 well shoots out jet of fire, crew dynamites well in effort to stop blaze.

·         June 5, 1926, one overcome, two hurt in gas flames as derrick burns on Signal Hill.

·         May 29, 1927, seven burned in explosion at Alamitos Heights, blast shakes J. Paul Getty derrick.

·         June 26, 1927, five wells were destroyed from a blast and fire from the Julian Petroleum Corporations Fuller well no.1 at Colorado and Flint. Losses estimated to be $1 million.

·         October 19, 1927, spectacular oil blaze menaces field, Julian derrick destroyed by fire.

·         February 10, 1928, a refinery explosion kills Ray Thompson at a Signal Oil plant at Atlantic and 32nd Street.  Damages estimated to be between $200,000-$300,000.

·         February 11, 1928, the second of two refinery explosions within two days of each other destroyed the California Petroleum Company’s absorption plant. Damages $50,000.

·         August 5, 1929, fire destroyed 4 oil derricks in the Bixby Heights section of the Signal Hill oil field belonging to the Macmillan concern.  Damages $16,000.

·         August 19, 1929, two gas trucks exploded at the Rio Grande refinery on Reservoir Hill. Fifty foot columns of fire erupted into the air and the fire spread downhill threatening homes. Carl Bonner seriously injured.

·         November 26, 1929, five derricks and ten oil tanks were destroyed in an explosion which threw boiling oil over the tank farm. The fire originated when a storage tank of the Conductor’s Oil Company overheated and steam allowed seepage of oil which was ignited by a boiler. One man, Fred Strong, injured. George F. Storey dies. Damages $50,000.

·         December 4, 1929, brothers Lynn and Dean Titus were killed when fumes  from an empty crude oil tank ignited a fire at the General Petroleum Fulton McKee well #1 (Long Beach Blvd. and Pepper Drive). Two others were also injured. Loss was minimal.

·         December 12, 1929, spectacular fire hits Signal Hill, but loss is light.

·         May 11, 1930, three wooden derricks (Foster well #65, Featherstone & Preston #8, Bolsa Chica #4) and two 15,000 gallon tanks went up in smoke. The fire was on Lovelady Avenue between Willow and Burnett.  $25,000 in damages.

·         August 2, 1930, four were injured in an explosion at the Olympic #15 well of the Western Oil and Refining Company. Friction was said to be the cause. Damages minimal.

·         August 26, 1930, huge derrick topples in flames, blaze caused when fumes of tank are ignited by a nearby boiler. Damages $50,000.

·         September 17, 1930, an explosion of a tank of crude oil at the Macmillan-Wellman lease, Locust and Pepper Drive, started a fire which threatened the Los Cerritos section of the Signal Hill oil field. $6,000 in damages.

·         August 7, 1931, fire damages Los Cerritos oil well; explosion of gas picket blamed. Damages $5000.

·         December 28, 1931, occurred at the O’Donnell-Slater well no. 1 in which two 75,000 gallon storage tanks caught fire. $5,000 in damages.

·         October 1, 1931, wind and lightning do heavy damage; east Coyote field suffers when electric flash strikes tank farm. Damages $35,000.

·         June 11, 1932, a large pool of waste oil was ignited by a grass fire in an area known as “Frog Pond.”  No major damages, but the smoke enveloped the area, blocking the sun for miles around.

·         October 4, 1932, a fire destroyed the Masters and Daniel #1 derrick. A small explosion ignited the blaze. $5000 in damages.  

·         June 2, 1933, Richfield fire. See article in this blog.

·         November 23, 1935, an explosion, probably caused by an accumulation of gas ignited by friction, seriously injured five men at the M and M well #1 near Burnett and Orange. Damages not reported.

·         December 11, 1938, bursting from a refining tube, barrels of scalding oil sprayed a small platform of the Hancock Oil Refinery bringing a flaming death to 3 workers: Homer Huffman, William Hill, Walter Rohrig.

·         May 24, 1939, J.W. Browder was burning grass off a lot he owned on Signal Hill when the fire sped, destroying the engine house and derrick of the Jamesco #5 well at 36th and Elm. Damages $5,000.

·         March 30, 1943, a fire started in a pump engine room and damaged the E.B. Campbell well #4 derrick at Obispo and Pacific Coast Highway.

·         July 27, 1943, an explosion of a retort at the Comet Oil Company refinery at 2930 Cherry Avenue caused $1,000 in damages.

·         October 5, 1945, Harold Rogers was atop a dehydrator tank at the Cree lease on Signal Hill when it blew up. Fire did not erupt, but Rogers was killed when he was hurled 750 feet.  Damage minimal.

·         January 4, 1946, a fire at Ansco Construction Company, 23rd and Walnut, destroyed an asphalt tank and damaged heating equipment at the road oil plant. Damages not reported.

·         July 31, 1946, two derricks and other equipment were destroyed in an oil well fire at Miller #1 and #2 wells in the 3500 block of Pacific Avenue. Damages $10,000.

·         January 26, 1947, a fire of unknown origin broke out at the Hancock Oil Refinery at 28th and Junipero. No report on damages.

·         December 17, 1947, a fire originating in a well on the Signal Oil & Gas lease on Willow between Cherry and Walnut, leaped to two other derricks and two storage tanks. Damages $15,000.

·         May 3, 1948, oil rig fire at 635 E. Wardlow.

·         September 6, 1948, oil storage tank blows up at 31st and Long Beach Boulevard.

·         September 23, 1948, oil well on the crest of Signal Hill, known as Brown & Stack #1, erupted mud and oil as a crew worked puling its casing. 

·         February 2, 1950, an S. D. Coates-Tailor oil derrick fire erupted at Atlantic and 29th Street. Damage estimated at $5,000.

·         May 3, 1950, sparks from a drive belt started a fire in the Trinity Oil Company pumping well at Alamitos Heights.  Damages $2,500.

·         July 20, 1950, the Emperor derrick and pump house were destroyed by fire. Damages $10,000.

·         July 10, 1951, the friction of a belt started a blaze at the Apex Oil Company property at 2450 Gundry.  $10,000 in damages.

·         November 11, 1951, Exeter Oil Company pumping well set ablaze. Well located at 23rd and Junipero. Fire started in the belt house.

·         May 10, 1952, the top of the incinerator at Envoy Petroleum Refinery at 1601 E. Spring blew off when oil coming through the vapor line ignited. Firefighter Lawrence Elder burned.  Damages $5000.

·         April 4, 1953, oil from a broken line spilled onto a superheating flame in a retort at the Cal-State Refinery, 2930 Cherry.  $10,000-$15,000 in damages.

·         August 8, 1954, wind-swept flames engulfed three oil derricks and threatened others when friction from a slipping belt caused a fire.  No estimate of damages.

·         March 28, 1955, fire in oil well near 2817 Gaviota. Timbers snapped power lines, narrowly missing storage tanks.

·         October 15, 1955, a fire originated at the Hancock Oil Refinery, 2823 Junipero, when a hot oil line broke and fumes ignited a fire. Damage minor, but Fenton Oveson injured.

·         March 27, 1957, fire engulfed an 80 foot derrick of the Coast Supply Company’s B & H well #2. Blazing timbers snapped a power line and caused a transformer to explode. A brush fire was also ignited.  Damages $15,000.

·         May 22, 1958, Woodrow H. Langford and James Edwards die in the Hancock Fire. See article in this blog.

·         December 16, 1958, an oil well fire completely destroyed an 80-year-old wooden derrick and threatened five 500 barrel tanks full of crude oil. Cause and damage estimates not given.

·         November 5, 1959, a broken oil line caused a spectacular fire at the Calstate Refining Company, 2930 Cherry. Damages not provided.

·         March 20, 1960, friction of a slipping pump belt caused a fire at Brighton Petroleum on the SW corner of Willow and Orange.  $6,000 in damages.

·         December 23, 1960, a friction spark from a Victory Oil Company well set fire to a 20,000 crude oil storage tank nearby.  $15,000-$20,000 in damages.

·         December 26, 1964, an explosion and fire in a waste oil sump ignited crude oil in five storage tanks of the MacMillan Petroleum Corporation. The blaze was started either by a spark of an electric motor or an overheated steam line. Damage minimal.

·         May 17, 1969, pipeline rupture permits 150 barrels of oil to bubble to the surface at DeForest Avenue and 27th Street.

·         December 1, 1980, an ARCO oil pipeline ruptured at Gale and 28th Street. Two, Robert Davis and Richard Nieto, were injured.  A newly hired operator failed to open two valves on the pipeline resulting in excessive pressure, rupturing the line. Nine homes destroyed. Damages $600,000. Accident resulted in stricter oil pipeline regulations.

·         September 10, 1986, Michael Miller and Michael White were preparing to weld a heater at the MacMillan Oil Co. refinery when the blast occurred. The fire was quickly contained and did not spread to an adjacent Walnut Avenue elementary school. Cause of the fire was not immediately known and no damage estimate was available.

·         November 24, 1992, a 20,000-gallon tank containing unrefined gasoline exploded at the Petrolane Co. plant, 2901 Orange Ave, which processes natural gas for sale primarily to the Long Beach Gas Department. Estimate of damages not given.

Oil in the streets, 1922.

Fatalities:

·         August 16, 1922, an explosion at a Signal Hill oil refinery kills John K. Sligh.

·         March 6, 1923. While employed as a derrick man on the Jergins-City lease Paul Wright slipped and fell into a hot mass of mud. He died several days later.

·         June 2, 1923, C. Thomas Lavender killed when a well cable snapped striking him across the back.

·         September 19, 1923. Paul F. Robinson was caught in the catline as a joint drill pipe was being tightened and he was jerked into the cathead and crushed before the tension of the rope could be released.

·         September 22, 1923. Andrew Daly crushed under a fallen iron pipe. He was instantly killed when a load of well casing slipped.

·         December 11, 1923. Edward Wood was struck in the face as the drum on the Bolsa Chica well #3 hurled through the air hitting Wood and killing him immediately.

·         February 19, 1924. G.W. Richards killed at the Wadolene Refining Corporation at Cherry near Anaheim in a refinery blast.

·         May 10, 1924, explosion and fire destroyed the derrick and equipment on Fry No. 2 well at Freeman Street and Summit Road.  Two die – Frank Guisinger and J.F. Bownds. 

·         October 23, 1924, Harry Perry killed when a fire and two explosions occurred at the absorption plant of the Pan-American Refining Company on the north side of the hill at Arabella and Temple.

·         February 11, 1927, H.L. Ward killed in fall from derrick.

·         February 10, 1928, a refinery explosion killed Ray Thompson at a Signal Oil plant at Atlantic and 32nd Street. 

·         July 22, 1928, Forrest Glenn Penney crushed by engine backfire at Standard Oil plant.

·         November 26, 1929, George F. Storey dies when five derricks and ten oil tanks were destroyed in an explosion which threw boiling oil over the tank farm.

·         December 4, 1929, brothers Lynn and Dean Titus were killed when fumes  from an empty crude oil tank ignited a fire at the General Petroleum Fulton McKee well #1 (Long Beach Blvd. and Pepper Drive)

·         June 2, 1933, Richfield oil fire. Ten killed Robert Bennett, Carl Robinson, Lottie Carlyon, Marilyn Carlyon, Ollie V. Jones, Duke Gaughan, Ed Weiler, C.J. Brown, Charles Cope, and J.L. Shumway. See article in this blog.

·         February 23, 1937, GeorgeT. Hinds is blown to pieces as dehydrator in oil field blows up. December 11, 1938, bursting from a refining tube, barrels of scalding oil sprayed a small platform of the Hancock Oil Refinery bringing a flaming death to 3 workers: Homer Huffman, William Hill, Walter Rohrig.

·         October 13, 1944; Darrold W. Peterson killed climbing oil derrick.

·         May 22, 1958, Woodrow H. Langford and James Edwards die in the Hancock Fire. See article in this blog.

·         February 28, 1986, funeral held for refinery blast victim James Broadway.

·         April 3, 1986, two die as pipe breaks at a Long Beach oil island, Steven Linn and Stephen Lowe.

NOTE 1: Accidents and reports of fatalities became so common they were no longer covered by the press. Many of the fatalities reported here were gathered from obituaries (1880-1923) with were indexed by Long Beach Public Library staff.  There were undoubtedly more.

NOTE 2: The Long Beach Collection at the Main Library has maps, reports, etc. on oil wells in Signal Hill and Long Beach.  The library’s Petroleum Collection only has non-Long Beach related items.

Claudine Burnett

August  2018