Part 4/9:
In 1859, the drilling of the first successful oil well in Pennsylvania ignited a chaotic boom in the oil industry. While others rushed into oil drilling merely as speculators, Rockefeller saw the entire industry as a mess, ripe for control and efficiency. With a small loan and a partnership with Maurice Clark, he launched the Rockefeller and Clark company, refining crude oil into kerosene and quickly becoming a formidable force in Cleveland’s burgeoning oil refining industry.