James M. Guffey

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

James McClurg Guffey (January 19, 1839 – March 20, 1930) was an American oil pioneer from Pennsylvania and a long-time Democratic politician. Born in Westmoreland County, he grew up on a family farm and worked as a clerk for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, then for the Adams Southern Express Company in Nashville. In 1872 he returned to Pennsylvania to work in selling oil, learning the business and starting his own ventures. He helped develop oil and gas fields in Ohio and West Virginia. Guffey and John H. Galey started the Guffey and Galey Company in the 1880s, which at one time was the largest oil producer in the world. The partners helped fund the Spindletop oil strike in Texas, which began the Texas oil boom in 1901. Guffey held five-eighths of the venture, Galey a quarter, and Anthony Lucas an eighth. In May 1901 he formed the J. M. Guffey Petroleum Company and bought Galey and Lucas’s shares. In 1907 their companies merged to form Gulf Oil Corporation, and Guffey sold his seven-fifteenths stake for about $3 million. Politically, Guffey served as Pennsylvania’s representative to the Democratic National Committee in 1897 and again after 1912. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1901 and 1903, losing to Republicans Matthew Quay and Boies Penrose respectively. In 1910 his properties were placed in receivership with about $700,000 in liabilities, though his assets were listed at more than $15 million. A tanker named the USS J. M. Guffey honored him and served in World War I under the British Ministry of War Transport.