The City of Parker
Bridge at Parker's Landing
Parker’s Landing was nothing more then a few ferry houses and an insignificant landing for boats that mainly served the village of Lawrenceburg that was the village at the top of the river hill. The area would see some activity as it became a steamboat landing and a lumber station. Although the movement of the oil excitement began to move south into the Lower Oil Region, which produced the discovery of the first oil well drilled at Parker’s Landing (Clarion Well No.1 1865), oil excitement at Parker’s Landing did not fluctuate until the latter half of 1869.
As seen in the oil and gas map from 1915 on the main page, oil pools were prevalent in the region where Butler County and Armstrong County boarder each other. Referenced on the Petrolia page, this area became the center of the Lower Oil Region as the “Fourth Oil Sand” was discovered which produced numerous oil boomtowns. Parker’s Landing would become one of those boomtowns. The area went from producing 310 barrels of oil per day in July of 1869 to 1,500 in January of 1870 and 2,200 in March of 1870 with over 200 producing oil wells. Over these years and the next few years, oil dwellers flooded into the river landing site. Buildings were rapidly constructed as the population exploded over these years from less than 1,000 to more than 20,000 at one point. Eventually, Parker’s Landing engulfed the village of Lawrenceburg at the top of the hill and on March 4, 1873 the two locations merged and became the City of Parker.
Many people of Parker believed their oil town would not be labeled as an oil boomtown; that is, it would not eventually die out as the oil wells ran dry. This is evident in many articles of the Oil Man’s Journal in Parker as they stated, “Thus business may go on prospering and to prosper, while a basis may be established for the oil business which will make it profitable for all time,” (August 31, 1872) and “We have frequently heard it said that oil towns don’t last. This saying will not apply to the Parker oil region…Permanent, substantial buildings have recently been erected which are calculated to endure for ages…But when you come down to business, be assured that Parker is the business headquarters of the oil region, and is destined to remain so for all time to come.” (November 9, 1872) Confidence in the oil supply is evident but Parker residents had good reason to believe in this for no other large oil towns such as theirs was in the vicinity. As oil production grew, so did this confidence and by 1876, the City of Parker had 1,002 wells that produced 9,904 barrels per day. But one article in the March 7, 1873 Oil Man’s Journal gave early indication of what would come later on in the decade, “So much is said about the large oil strikes being made daily away at the front, and in the vicinity of Petrolia, Fairview, and other points, that operators have been gradually stopping operations near Parker and moving to these points…In doing so they are carried away by the excitement incident to all new oil fields.” Indeed, this was the nature of the oil industry in the 1870s and as many had confidence that Parker would become a great permanent city, they found out by the end of the decade this nature of “follow the producing wells” would hit the City of Parker hard.
Many factors eventually led to the rapid decline of the City of Parker which would secure it as on of the many oil boomtowns of the Pennsylvania Oil Region. To start, Fullerton Parker who owned the majority of farmland where most of the wells in the area were drilled, rented out land instead of selling it. This consequently allowed the majority of the population that flooded into Parker’s Landing and Lawrenceburg to not be bound to the land. If Parker sold the land, it would have “…tied many business men to the young city, and they would have been residents today, instead of helping boom some other city.” (McKinney, 350) Also, “the years 1878-79 were witness to a decline in the overall oil business” (McKinney, 363) due to overproduction which hastened many oil wells in the “Fourth Oil Sand” to dry up by this time. These major factors forced the City of Parker into a rapid decline and on February 11, 1888, “Parker’s famous oil exchange was sold for ground rent by the constable.” (McCall, 258)
The City of Parker had other businesses that sprouted from the oil craze along with lumber, coal, and gas industries that helped it survive as a large town. However, “the railroads, which were so much a part of life at the turn of the [Twentieth] Century, are now gone…” (McCall, 231) and the population of Parker, in 2006, was almost 800 residents. Because Parker was given a charter to be a city back when it prospered during the oil craze of the 1870s, it is considered the smallest charted city in the U.S.
As seen in the oil and gas map from 1915 on the main page, oil pools were prevalent in the region where Butler County and Armstrong County boarder each other. Referenced on the Petrolia page, this area became the center of the Lower Oil Region as the “Fourth Oil Sand” was discovered which produced numerous oil boomtowns. Parker’s Landing would become one of those boomtowns. The area went from producing 310 barrels of oil per day in July of 1869 to 1,500 in January of 1870 and 2,200 in March of 1870 with over 200 producing oil wells. Over these years and the next few years, oil dwellers flooded into the river landing site. Buildings were rapidly constructed as the population exploded over these years from less than 1,000 to more than 20,000 at one point. Eventually, Parker’s Landing engulfed the village of Lawrenceburg at the top of the hill and on March 4, 1873 the two locations merged and became the City of Parker.
Many people of Parker believed their oil town would not be labeled as an oil boomtown; that is, it would not eventually die out as the oil wells ran dry. This is evident in many articles of the Oil Man’s Journal in Parker as they stated, “Thus business may go on prospering and to prosper, while a basis may be established for the oil business which will make it profitable for all time,” (August 31, 1872) and “We have frequently heard it said that oil towns don’t last. This saying will not apply to the Parker oil region…Permanent, substantial buildings have recently been erected which are calculated to endure for ages…But when you come down to business, be assured that Parker is the business headquarters of the oil region, and is destined to remain so for all time to come.” (November 9, 1872) Confidence in the oil supply is evident but Parker residents had good reason to believe in this for no other large oil towns such as theirs was in the vicinity. As oil production grew, so did this confidence and by 1876, the City of Parker had 1,002 wells that produced 9,904 barrels per day. But one article in the March 7, 1873 Oil Man’s Journal gave early indication of what would come later on in the decade, “So much is said about the large oil strikes being made daily away at the front, and in the vicinity of Petrolia, Fairview, and other points, that operators have been gradually stopping operations near Parker and moving to these points…In doing so they are carried away by the excitement incident to all new oil fields.” Indeed, this was the nature of the oil industry in the 1870s and as many had confidence that Parker would become a great permanent city, they found out by the end of the decade this nature of “follow the producing wells” would hit the City of Parker hard.
Many factors eventually led to the rapid decline of the City of Parker which would secure it as on of the many oil boomtowns of the Pennsylvania Oil Region. To start, Fullerton Parker who owned the majority of farmland where most of the wells in the area were drilled, rented out land instead of selling it. This consequently allowed the majority of the population that flooded into Parker’s Landing and Lawrenceburg to not be bound to the land. If Parker sold the land, it would have “…tied many business men to the young city, and they would have been residents today, instead of helping boom some other city.” (McKinney, 350) Also, “the years 1878-79 were witness to a decline in the overall oil business” (McKinney, 363) due to overproduction which hastened many oil wells in the “Fourth Oil Sand” to dry up by this time. These major factors forced the City of Parker into a rapid decline and on February 11, 1888, “Parker’s famous oil exchange was sold for ground rent by the constable.” (McCall, 258)
The City of Parker had other businesses that sprouted from the oil craze along with lumber, coal, and gas industries that helped it survive as a large town. However, “the railroads, which were so much a part of life at the turn of the [Twentieth] Century, are now gone…” (McCall, 231) and the population of Parker, in 2006, was almost 800 residents. Because Parker was given a charter to be a city back when it prospered during the oil craze of the 1870s, it is considered the smallest charted city in the U.S.
