OIL

CITY  , a city of Venango county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Allegheny river, at the mouth of Oil Creek, about 55 M . S.S.E. of Erie and about 135 M . N. of Pittsburg . Pop . (189o) 10,932; (1900) 13,264, of whom 2001 were foreign-born and 184 were negroes; (1910 census) 15,6J7 . It is served by the Pennsylvania (two lines), the Erie, and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railways . The city lies about I000 ft. above the sea, and is divided by the river and the creek into three sections connected by bridges . The business part of the city is on the low ground north of the river; the residential districts are the South Side, a portion of the flats, the West Side, and Cottage Hill and Palace Hill on the North Side . Oil City is the centre ' and the principal market of the Pennsylvania oil region . It has extensive oil refineries and foundries and machine shops, and manufactures oil-well supplies and a few other commodities . The city's factory products were valued at $5,164,059 in 1900 and at $3,217,208 in 1905, and in the latter year foundry and machine-shop products were valued at $2,317,505, or 72 % of the total . Natural gas is used for power, heat and light .

Oil City was founded in 186o, incorporated as a

borough in 1863 and chartered as a city in 1874 . The city was partially destroyed by 'flood in 1865, and by flood and fire in 1866 and again in 1882; on this last occasion Oil Creek was swollen by a loud-burst on the 5th of June, and several tanks farther up the valley, which seem to have been struck by lightning, gave way and a mass of burning oil was carried by the creek to Oil City, where some sixty lives were lost and property valued at moreethan $1,000,000 was destroyed .