From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell System

Mark Cuccia prepared an interesting history of Standard Oil and some very relevant comparisons to the history of the 'Bell System'. I hope you will find this as interesting as I did. This first appeared in the Digest about nine years ago, the summer of 1996.

PAT

Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 15:58:18 -0700 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Some History of Standard Oil (and Bell)

The following is some of the history of the Standard Oil Trust and the continued history of the separated Standard Oil companies (plural), after the Trust was dissolved by the US Supreme Court in 1911. In many ways Standard and Bell have similar histories, so I have prepared the following, and compare some of Standard Oil and its later divested companies with that of The Bell System, and AT&T and the divested Bell companies.

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Recently, (in 1996) Pat mentioned some of the different marketing names of service stations used in various areas, as these different names were used to differentiate marketing territory of the different Standard Oil companies, in "Re: What does A/B Carrier Mean?", regarding cellular service.

Many years back, the oil company service stations used to give out

*FREE* road maps with their logos and other advertisement on them, as a marketing tool and a courtesy to the motoring public. These maps usually werent printed by the oil companies themselves, but by Rand McNally, Gousha, Donnelly, and others, using ad-copy provided by the oil companies or service station companies. Back in the 1960's and 70's, I used to collect these free road maps, and I always wondered why many service station chains used different marketing names in various states, or why the name "Standard" was used in some states by one service station chain and by a different group of service stations in other states. When folded closed, the back of many of these maps would mention something like to look for these other names/logos/signs of service stations when travelling in other states, to gas-up or to purchase other products for your car. And sometimes, a credit card issued by one oil company would be honored by the service stations of another oil company, but not necessarily in every state of the card-honoring oil company. All of these inconsistancies date back to the days of the dissolution of the old Standard Oil Trust and the subsequent relationships of the different separated Standard Oil companies.

There are also many similarities between the corporate histories and legal structures of the Standard Oil companies, and that of the Bell System -- AT&T and the local Bell telephone companies. What follows is not intended to be a complete history of Standard Oil, but rather to give some historical highlights, and show some similarities with the telephone industry.

In 1870, John D. Rockafeller and others incorporated the Standard Oil Company, in Cleveland Ohio.

(In 1869, Gray and Barton started what became Western Electric in Cleveland, although it was moved to Chicago shortly after the partnership began.)

In 1882, the New Jersey branch of Standard Oil was started. A trust was formed as Standard Oil began to buy out or took control of other smaller "independent" oil companies. A reorganization of the trust in

1889 made Standard Oil of New Jersey the holding or parent company of the entire Standard Oil organization.

(For decades, Bell Labs has had several locations in New Jersey. Most of AT&T's main offices have been in that state since the 1980's. Bellcore also maintains most of their offices in New Jersey.)

Throughout the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, Standard was constantly involved in legal and regulatory matters, both state and federal, regarding monopolization of the oil industry. Also, the public mood was against monopolies. While Standard may have owned or controlled other oil companies, these "afflilate" companies frequently retained their original names. Sometimes the name "Standard Oil (of a particular state)" was used, usually by affiliates *created* by Standard of New Jersey. Some of these companies were made actual divisions of Standard of New Jersey, others were wholly-owned subsidiaries, while others were majority owned, even if "Jersey Standard" owned only 50% plus one share.

The legal matters which had been occurring over the years culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court decision of 15 May 1911, which dissolved the old Standard Oil Trust. Thirty-three subsidiaries of "Jersey Standard" were now legally separated from their parent company. The now separated "Jersey Standard" still was by far larger than the other thirty-three companies, and it continued to hold many subsidiaries and divisions, including Standard Oil of Louisiana.

(Two years later, in 1913, AT&T vice-president Nathan Kingsbury signed the agreement known as the Kingsbury Commitment, regarding a change in AT&T's relationship with the independent telcos, and which included the sale of AT&T's stock in the Western Union Telegraph Company. There had been increasing governmental pressure on AT&T in the years prior to "Kingsbury". In early 1982, when AT&T agreed to the divestiture to take effect in 1984, to end the ten year old DOJ suit filed against them in 1974, news reports frequently mentioned that the "breakup of Bell" was the largest "trust-bust" in America since the 1911 Supreme Court decision dissolving the old Standard Oil Trust. Even after AT&T and the BOC's were then legally separated companies, AT&T still held on to Western Electric and Bell Labs.)

The private motorcar or automobile was becoming quite popular after the first World War, in the late "teens" and into the 1920's. Many paved highways suitable for automobile travel were being constructed during this period. Also during this time, the various oil companies were starting to market their gasoline and other products for the motoring public, including through service stations using their brand names. However, some of the various separated Standard Oil companies were using the brand name "Standard" or a derivative of the word Standard, in their respective marketing territories. In the early

1920's, this didn't seem to matter much, as none of the different Standard companies were yet nationwide in scope when it came to marketing their brands and products via service stations. It would be a problem later on.

The pre-1911 Standard Oil Trust was both a vertically and horizontally integrated operation, similar to the former Bell System. Through its subsidiaries, the old Standard Oil Trust was involved in almost every aspect of the oil and petroleum industry, such as exploration, drilling, research and development, refining, transportation and pipelines, commercial marketing, etc. When the Standard Trust was dissolved in 1911, each of the thirty-three former subsidiary companies were still involved in various aspects of the industry, but none as a complete single unit. These now separated companies still maintained relationships with each other, but now as individual distinct corporate entities.

(Since 1984, the Bell companies have relations with each other, AT&T, and now other carriers, but not as part of a single "Bell system".)

In addition to Standard of New Jersey, the following nine companies of the thirty-three separated former subsidiaries entered into marketing their products to the motoring public through service stations:

Atlantic Refining Company Standard Oil of California Continental Oil Company Standard Oil of Indiana Ohio Oil Company Standard Oil of Kentucky Vacuum Oil Company Standard Oil of New York Standard Oil of Ohio

Since 1911, some of these former Standard Oil subsidiaries have bought out other independent oil companies or have merged with each other. Many of the former Standard Trust subsidiaries have entered into joint venture arrangements with each other and with other independent oil companies for exploration and drilling in overseas and international locations. The Justice Department frequently reviewed such mergers, take-overs, and joint-ventures. There were times when the DOJ turned down such proposals or requests.

(Judge Greene, the DOJ, and the FCC have frequently reviewed such mergers, take-overs, and joint-ventures between the Bells and AT&T and other carriers, and have approved or denied them on a case-by-case basis.)

In 1931, Standard of New York and the Vacuum Oil Company merged. Standard of New York had Socony service stations in the northeast, while Vacuum Oil had their Vacuum Service stations with a winged flying red Pegasus horse logo in the midwest. This logo was adopted by the new merged Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, which in 1955 became Socony-Mobil (Mobilgas service stations), and in 1966 the Socony name was dropped altogather to simply become Mobil. Socony was formed in 1882 as a part of the old Standard Trust; Vacuum Oil began in 1866 (probably before just about any other oil company in existence today or which can trace its history back to the 1800's), and became a part of the Standard Trust in 1879.

Standard Oil of New Jersey introduced the "Esso" brand name in the early 1920's. "Esso" is a pronunciation of the letters "S.O." for Standard Oil. Initially, the Esso name was confined only to "Jersey Standard's" stations in their merketing territory, which included the Jersey-held Standard of Louisiana. In the late 1930's, Jersey Standard attempted to market using the Esso brand in parts of the midwest. However, this was the traditional marketing territory of now separated Indiana Standard, who jealously guarded their "exclusive" use of the "Standard" name in their marketing territory. Indiana Standard sued Jersey Standard over the use of Esso, and they won. Standard Oil of New York (SOCONY) didn't want Jersey Standard using the Esso name in New York state or in the northeast, neither.

In the 1930's, as radio broadcasting became a popular advertising and marketing tool, both locally and nationally through a network hook-up, the oil companies wanted to expand and market nationwide, and advertise through network radio. However there were difficulties in advertising a "Standard" name or derivative on nationwide network radio. The same thing happened after WW-II as people became even more mobile than in the depression years of the 1930's, and television became a new marketing medium. The different Standard Oil companies had difficulties in sponsoring a nationwide radio or TV program. A popular live network news broadcast on both radio and TV in the 1950's was called "Your Esso Reporter". However, it couldn't be aired in the midwest nor out on the west coast, as Indiana Standard and Standard of California objected to the Esso name being used "on their turf". It really woudn't have mattered anyway, as Jersey Standard had no Esso stations in those states anyhow; but also Jersey wouldn't want to be buying advertising airtime for markets they didn't serve anyway.

Where Jersey Standard couldn't use the Esso brand, they used other names in different parts of the country, such as Humble (Jersey bought the majority of Humble Oil in Texas around 1920), Carter, Pate, Oklahoma, and Penola. In 1959, Jersey Standard still wasn't completely national, even using different names, but they wanted to become national *and* reduce the number of various brands used. Also around

1960, Jersey bought the remaining outstanding shares of Humble Oil. A new brand name was introduced by Jersey/Humble, namely Enco, which stood for "The Energy Company". Some Jersey officials agreed to changing most of the various service station names to Enco, while others wanted to retain Esso and even attempt to force its use nationwide. The Humble Oil name was also adopted as an alternative brand to be used nationally. In some states (Ohio and Texas), Humble was used as the "exclusive" name of the service stations, and continued to remain so in Ohio. Service stations in Texas continued to use the Humble alternative name, but the actual name of the stations was changed to Enco. And throughout the 1960's, Enco was introduced in new states where Esso hadn't been used.

In 1961, Standard of California bought Standard of Kentucky, which had Kyso service stations in five southeastern states. Jersey Standard, through its subsidiary Louisiana Standard, supplied commercial products to Kentucky Standard prior to 1961. Jersey/Humble and its other subsidiaries agreed not to market directly to the motoring public in the five southeastern Kyso states. With California Standard's purchase of Kyso, Jersey Standard lost its supply contract with Kyso to California Standard. So Jersey/Humble decided to open Esso stations in those five southeastern states. California Standard and Kyso sued Jersey/Humble for infringement on its exclusive use of the "Standard" name or derivative in the old Kyso territory, and they won. So by the mid to late 1960's, all of the recently opened Esso stations in the five southeastern states were renamed Enco.

All of these various brand names and frequent changes of names was a major marketing and advertising headache for Jersey Standard and the other former subsidiaries which continued to have the name "Standard". Around 1970, Jersey/Humble had closed-door meetings on choosing a single brand name to be used. There were various memory and sound tests done, and by the Spring of 1972, they announced that all Esso, Enco and Humble stations nationwide would *all* be changing to Exxon. Even the corporate name of Standard Oil of New Jersey would officially change to Exxon. The new Exxon name was even introduced overseas to some Esso stations in Europe, however the Esso name wasn't really a problem internationally, as the *other* Standard Oil companies didn't use the name Standard or a derivative for marketing purposes outside of the US. In Canada, Esso continues to be used as a brand name today, through Exxon's Canadian subsidiary, Imperial Oil. And I think that Enco has been used in some other foreign countries (Mexico?), but I don't know if Enco continues to be used outside of the US today, or if it has been changed to Exxon or maybe even Esso. Some of the reasons that Jersey/Humble didn't change the Esso (and Enco) name to Exxon everywhere outside of the US was that they didn't always own the majority of their international holdings, and that they would have had to go through legal trademark name changes in *every* country where the name Exxon would be used in place of Esso (and Enco).

Standard Oil of California was founded in 1879 as the Pacific Coast Oil Company. It was acquired by the Standard Oil Trust in 1900, and became known as Standard of California. It became a separate company in 1911 as being separated from the Jersey Standard Trust. The separated Standard of California began to market its products through service stations on the west coast in the 1920's and 30's known as "SoCal", "Standard" and later "Chevron". For the most part, California Standard didn't begin to market or open up stations in other Standard's regions. There was an incident in the 1950's where they tried to open up SoCal stations in Texas, but Jersey Standard and Humble objected. California Standard also bought the Signal Oil Company's (of California) service stations in 1947, and later sold them to Jersey/Humble in 1967. In the 1960's, California Standard began to expand its marketing territory under the Chevron name, which eventually became the name used nationwide, as well as its corporate name in 1984. Also in 1984, Chevron purchased the Gulf Oil Company and most of its Gulf stations, but not all of them. Gulf was founded in 1901 by the Mellon family. Gulf had its own complex marketing situation of brand names. I think that most of this was cross-marketing, supply contracts, and credit card honoring among other independent oil companies and service stations, such as Union 76 of California, Skelly, Wilshire and others.

Standard Oil of Indiana was organized in 1889 by Standard Oil of New Jersey. Indiana Standard became separated from Jersey Standard in the "trust bust" of 1911. They marketed their products using the Standard name in a fifteen state territory in the midwest. Through mergers with other companies, they were able to market under the names Pan-Am, American and Amoco by the early 1920's. In 1956, Indiana Standard bought Utah Oil and began marketing out west under the name Utoco, using the same red-white-blue shield with torch and flame. By 1960 or so, they changed all Pan-Am and Utoco stations to either American or Amoco. By the early 1970's, all American stations were changed to Amoco. They didn't drop the use of Standard as a name at that time. I don't know if the red-white-blue oval shield with torch and flame logo still carries the name "Standard" in the mid-west. (Pat?)

Standard Oil of Ohio was the original Standard, incorporated by Rockafeller, in Cleveland in 1870. It too became separated from Jersey Standard in 1911. The Sohio brand name was used on its stations in Ohio and other states where there were no other "Standard" conflicts. Where there could be a conflict with other "Standard" brand names, the name Boron was used. I had also seen the name Fleet-Wing associated with Sohio and Boron stations. In 1987, BP (British Petroleum) purchased Ohio Standard.

The Ohio Oil Company was founded in 1887 and was taken over by the Standard Trust in 1889. It was separated from the Trust in 1911. In

1962, Ohio Oil acquired Plymouth Oil and changed its name to Marathon, which it had been using for marketing purposes since the late 1930's.

The Atlantic Refining Company was founded in 1866 in Pennsylvania as the Atlantic Petroleum Storage Company. In 1870 it was renamed Atlantic Refining. It became an affiliate of the Standard Oil Trust in

1874, and was separated from the Trust in 1911. In 1966, Atlantic purchased the independent Richfield Oil Company (California), founded as the Rio Grande Oil Company in 1905. After Atlantic's purchase of Richfield, many stations of both companies were renamed Arco, over several years. In 1969, Atlantic-Richfield purchased Sinclair Oil, founded in 1916 by Henry F. Sinclair. I don't think that every Sinclair station became an Arco station, as I've seen the Sinclair dinosaur logo throughout the 1970's and 80's.

The Continental Oil Company marketed in the mountain states area out west. It was founded as the Continental Oil and Transportation Company of California in 1877. It became a Standard Oil "affiliate" in

1884, and was separated with the 1911 dissolution of the Trust. Conoco's logo was a minuteman soldier. In 1929, Continental merged with Marland Oil, which had the red triangle logo, and the new merged company used the Conoco name and the Marland triangle logo.

As I mentioned earlier in this report, there had been complex arrangements through the 1970's regarding one oil company or service station chain honoring the credit cards issued by another service station chain. Some of the mutual card-honoring agreements between different former Standard companies were only in certain states, but not others. Most every oil company issued their own credit cards in the 1920's and even through the 1970's. Today, "generic" non-industry-specific credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, etc. have become more popular than the need for multiple oil company cards. But the complex arrangement of card-issuance and card-honoring, and non-acceptance or cancellation of mutual arrangements is happening today, in the *telephone* industry's calling cards, between AT&T and the various LEC's, and the confusion when calling from a payphone or motel system and billing to a particular card.

Over the past twenty or thirty years, the "Standard" name or a derivative seems to have disappeared from most service station chains of the former Standard Oil Trust subsidiaries. And only BellSouth, SBC (Southwestern Bell) and Bell Atlantic have continued to retain the old Bell name as well as logo. I think that NYNEX still uses the bell logo when it comes to the local operating company providing POTS, even though they don't have the Bell name as part of their corporate name. I'm not sure if US West or Ameritech has the Bell logo with their corporate name, as a local service provider. Pacific Telesis uses the touchtone star ('*') as its corporate logo.

Prior to divestiture, the California operating company was called Pacific Telephone (and Telegraph), but used the Bell logo. After divestiture, it was renamed Pacific Bell, but took its parent's new corporate logo of the touchtone star. Nevada's operating company has always been known as Nevada Bell (or Bell of Nevada), and kept the Bell name at divestiture, but dropped the logo in favor of its parent's new corporate touchtone star logo as well. So maybe the "Bell" name is going the way of the "Standard Oil" name, just a footnote in history. And even though AT&T chose the name "Lucent" (?!?) for WECO, they *did* keep the name *BELL* Labs which will be a part of Lucent.

MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: snipped-for-privacy@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail

[TELECOM Digest Editor's 1996 Note: Thanks very much for your well-researched and very interesting report. This file will have a permanent home in the Telecom Archives 'history' collection. Remember please, that your subscrtiptions and sponsorships of the Digest and Archives help me continue to present the special reports I have sent out to you over this weekend. Your letters and gifts are very important to me and I encourage all of you to stay in touch. PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sinclair Oil Company (and its more recent name Arco) always played a large and important role here in Independence, and Standard Oil (under its recent name Amoco) played a large role in the town of Neodesha (pronounced Nee-Odah-Shay), Kansas although Amoco and Arco have been gone from this area now for many years. Harry Sinclair lived in the large, very glamorous and (still) well-maintained house at 5th Street and Maple. Two of his neighbors in those long ago times were Vivian Vance ('Ethel' of 'I Love Lucy') and Bill Kurtis (of 'A&E Network' on cable television as well as CBS.) One of the Rockefeller clan (I do not know which one by name) lived here but superintended the Standard Oil Refinery at Neodesha, which is about ten miles north of Independence. We also had prominent writers/playrights living here in our town including William Inge.

Their presence is still felt here: The Independence Community College has a large theatre given to them several years ago by the family of William Inge (also they do a series of plays each year via his endowement), Bill Kurtis owns our radio station (KIND and KIND-FM as well as endowing the broadcasting department at the college) and of course there is the Arco Building, downtown at 9th and Laurel Streets. When Arco moved what remained of their corporate offices to Texas several years ago, they said to the City of Independence, "Harry (Sinclair) said you should have it" and they left the _entire_ building to our city, and thus the 'Arco Corporate Offices' became the 'Independence Corporate Offices' and although City Hall did not move there, they mostly rent out the space to various state agencies such as SRS (Social and Rehabilitative Services, i.e. 'Welfare') and the Driver's License Bureau and the local Parole/Probation offices. Terra World is located there, plus (gasp!) some large telemarketing operation.) People around town just refer to it as 'the Arco Building'. Kurtis and Vivian Vance both do a lot for Independence High School also, and our Memorial Hall (municipal auditorium downtown) was given by a consortium of business men years ago including Harry Sinclair and the Rockefeller-person who superintended the Refinery at Neodesha.

So oil was _big business_ around here many years ago. Both my father (who died in 1991) and my maternal grandfather (died in 1961) were in the oil industry. Dad retired in 1978 and decided to 'come back home' to here in Independence, and I decided to do the same, albiet my retirement was a bit premature and earlier than I expected due to the brain aneurysm. And I do love living here on the southeast side of town ('original Independence') in my mother's old house and just three or four blocks away from the mansions which were once occupied by Harry Sinclair and Vivian Vance (1930's) and Bill Kurtis (1950's). PAT]

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