Santa Clara County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
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ROBERT C. McPHERSON
 
            Up to the present time the development of the petroleum resources of 
Santa Clara County, and, in fact, of California, has been entirely the work of 
one man � Mr. Robert C. McPherson.  He was born in Buffalo, New York, May 6, 
1840, and was reared and educated there.  His father, John McPherson, was a 
Scotchman and had settled in Buffalo when it was a small village.  His business 
was that of a beef and pork packer.  In 1859, when the first oil excitement 
occurred in Pennsylvania, Robert, with his brother Angus, went there and 
operated until 1873, when he came to California.  At that time there had been 
some desultory prospecting in the southern counties, particularly in what is 
known as the Pico District.  Oil had been found by shallow wells but no 
intelligent and thorough effort had been made toward a complete development.  
The work had been done principally by the San Francisco Petroleum Company, the 
directors of which did not seem inclined to make expensive experiments.  When 
Mr. McPherson came upon the ground, his experienced eye at once saw that the 
prospecting had been of a very superficial character.  Against the protests of 
the company and against the remonstrances of his friends, he commenced sinking a 
well with the determination to reach the reservoir, which he calculated was at a 
depth of about thirteen hundred feet.  After much expense and many 
discouragements he struck the oil-bearing sand at a depth of twelve hundred and 
ninety-five feet.  The oil flowed over the top of the derrick, eighty feet high. 
 This was the first deep well ever drilled in California, and from it sprung the 
oil interests of Southern California.  There was no lack of capital for the work 
after Mr. McPherson had shown the company how to employ it to advantage.  He 
operated there until 1874, when he sold the controlling interest to Charles N. 
Felton, and came to Santa Clara County, where he had leased land in Moody�s 
Gulch and vicinity.  Here he commenced drilling in 1878, and up to the present 
time, has made ten wells.  As a matter of history the operations at these wells 
are important, not only as to what has already been accomplished, but as a 
starting-point for future work.
 
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, 
Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 
1888.
Pg. 164
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler