Encyclopedia of Petroliana

My roots are firmly embedded in the business of oil and gas and the vast amount of items that have resulted from its manufacture, sale and containment. My great grandfather founded the Continental Refining Company, better known as CORECO, in my home town of Oil City, Pennsylvania, in 1885. His name was Thomas Anderton, and he founded the company with two other men, who he bought out that same year. They went off in separate directions, too, and were quite successful in their own endeavors. Louis Waltz went on to form the Penn Refining Works, or as it is known today, Pennzoil. By 1915, CORECO had numerous local and regional distributors of its products. It consisted of more than fifty service stations spread out over three Canadian provinces, plus dozens of rail facilities and an ocean port facility in Pennsylvania. CORECO used the trademarks Pennselect, Continental Motor Oil, CORECO and Penntinental, and also produced a wide variety of other products including floor oil, dry cleaning agents, glass cleaners and even livestock sprays. Unfortunately, little remains today of what was once a flourishing refinery. After the war, crude oil, which had once been so plentiful and dependable, could be found no longer. Without these valuable resources for refinement, business became more difficult. Besides that, competitors began to merge into major refineries and the smaller companies were forced out of business. Today is a sharp contrast from the early years of the company, when many of my uncles as well as my father worked for CORECO. The company I started in 1989, Collectors Auction Services, specializes in the sale of early Gas and Oil memorabilia. We hold, and continue to establish, many world records in the sale of these artifacts of a bygone era. Collectors Auction Services holds several catalogued sales a year that include the finest Oil and Gas memorabilia that has ever been offered for sale. The company also sponsors the Historic Oil Region’s Annual Oil & Gas Swap Meet in Oil City, Pennsylvania, each July.