Hottest Brand Going … The Conoco Story Part 1
By Wayne Henderson

It really is a great picture. Hampton, Virginia, maintains its claim to be the oldest continuous English speaking settlement in the United States. That said, even before most cities were aware of their own history, Hampton was very much interested in recording its historic story. While still in grade school I volunteered to work with the local historical commission, and one of the tasks that I was assigned was identification and labeling of a group of photographs that had been donated to the city's historical collection. I had been interested in local history for a year or two, and had become knowledgeable on what we now call "twentieth century commercial archeology". It was while I was sorting and identifying the hundreds of negatives in the collection that I ran across the picture. At first I assumed that the photo was taken elsewhere, in another city somewhere in the Midwest, and somehow the negative had gotten mixed in with this collection. For further study I requested a print, and within a few days the photo was ready for me to study. In it we see a classic scene of a Conoco service station, attendants ready, tankwagon truck parked outside waiting to bring in the next load of Conoco Bronzzz Gasoline. The station was identified as "York Tire Company" which I knew was listed in the old city directories as being located on E. Queen Street in Hampton, VA. I was dumbfounded to learn that there had been, at one time, a Conoco service station located right on the main street in the city where I was born in eastern Virginia.

I had first encountered the Conoco brand years before, but from what I had knowledge of as a child, they were a western company, with stations no closer to the East Coast than Missouri or Western Tennessee. Now I knew that there was one in Virginia, so there must have been more. A year or two later I was in an antique shop in Staunton, VA when I discovered a 1936 Conoco map of Virginia, with cities where Conoco stations were located marked by a triangle on the map. There were hundreds of them, maybe even more than 500. Like an anthropologist who had just discovered fossils from some previously unknown creature I had to wonder, "What had happened to them?" Beyond answering that question, I set out to locate some remnant of Conoco marketing in the East.

This year we celebrate the 125th anniversary of the founding of Continental Oil Company, and for this month's feature, we're going to take a look at the history of their famous brand, Conoco. True to the image that I'd had in mind, Continental was born as the oil company to serve the West - the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains. It was in 1874 that Isaac Blake left Pennsylvania, where he had made and lost a fortune in crude oil speculation, and travelled west to California before eventually settling in Ogden, Utah in late 1874. At Ogden he envisioned a different sort of oil venture, a marketing company that would distribute finished petroleum products to a customer base through out the West, not at all unlike today's local oil jobber. With the advantage of Blake's contacts back in Pennsylvania, he was able to establish advantageous purchasing arrangements and distribute refined products, essentially kerosene, throughout the area. Within several years he was back in California, distributing petroleum products in that most prosperous western state. While in California he was involved in the creation of a new company, Pacific Coast Oil Company, which would eventually become Standard Oil of California.

From newly established operations in California, it was a short step to a significant exporting business, production of a diverse array of products, all manner of petroleum transportation - including innovative railcar transport of refined petroleum. In 1883 all of Blake's enterprises were brought together under the corporate structure of Continental Oil and Transportation Company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. The success of Continental had not escaped notice by Standard Oil, and in 1884 Standard began to make overtures toward Continental, allowing Continental to distribute Standard products throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Then, as of January 1, it was announced that Continental had been purchased by Standard, and would continue to serve as that company's Rocky Mountain distributor. It was in this capacity that Continental would continue until the 1911 breakup of Standard Oil. During the 26 years Continental had been part of Standard innovation had continued, and at the point Continental became independent once again, the company was well established throughout it's chosen marketing area.

Reorganized and reincorporated in 1913, Continental Oil Company by this time had begun offering gasoline for automotive use at bulk plants and sales offices throughout the marketing territory. In 1915 Conoco's first official "filling stations" were opened in the headquarters city, and in 1916 acquired a refinery in order to have assured supply of products needed by an evermore petroleum dependent public. To support the refinery, a network of filling stations was built across an ever-larger territory, from the western slope of the Rockies to the Mid-Atlantic states. The trademark displayed in association with this expansion was the famed Continental soldier, a proud Minuteman displayed against a yellow background. Items bearing this classic logo are among the most prized Conoco artifacts today. During the time while Conoco was in this expansion mode, another oil company was being formed. In Ponca City, Oklahoma in 1917, oil exploration pioneer E. W. Marland assembled his holdings into one unit, forming Marland Oil Company. In 1920 Marland also began marketing gasoline, and by 1922 nearly 600 Marland stations were found in 11 mid-continent states, from North Dakota to Oklahoma and as far east as Indiana. Growth required capital, however, and Marland was continually strapped. Turning to investment banker J.P. Morgan and Company, Marland was able to secure financial backing for continued expansion, but with expansion came a hefty price. By 1928 Marland had been forced out by Morgan interests, who placed former Texaco executive Dan Moran in charge upon Marland's departure. Marland would later serve as Governor of and Congressman from Oklahoma.

With orders from Morgan and Company to put Marland Oil back in the black, Moran set out to acquire key assets that would round out the Marland operation, allowing for increased financial stability. Marland management began to look around for a partner, a company with complimentary assets, an operation that would perhaps consider a merger. Talks began with Continental Oil along these lines in late 1928, and the merger was approved in the spring of 1929. In the meantime, Marland Oil had also acquired Baltimore based Prudential Refining, since a refinery with East Coast marketing access would serve as a processing outlet for Marland's crude oil production. With the merger with Continental, the Baltimore facility would serve to supply Continental's existing Mid Atlantic marketing efforts, allowing for substantial growth in the number of retail service stations and the increased cash flow related to that increase in sales. In June of 1929 the merger was approved, and although Marland Oil had essentially been the "purchaser", the management chose to retain the older and more accepted name. Continental Oil Company, in its modern form, came into being at this time combining all of the assets of the former Continental Oil, Marland Oil, Prudential Oil and other, lesser known production affiliates of the companies listed. Headquarters for the new company were to be Marland's old Ponca City, Oklahoma offices, with the former Conoco offices in Denver being retained as a district office. The new marketing logo would be a combination of the two previous logos, the Conoco name emblazoned on the crossbar of the famed Marland red triangle. It was an emblem that would remain in use, with minimal change, for the next 40-plus years. The largest reproduction of this emblem was displayed atop the Denver offices for Continental Oil. This huge sign, the Conoco triangle over 50 feet tall, replaced an earlier sign displaying the soldier logo, and remained in use until the early 1970s, a beacon on Denver's skyline.

End of Part 1

Article and image courtesy of ‘Petroleum Collectibles Monthly’