Fresno County, California Biographies Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919) History By Paul E. Vandor Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919 Notes: Missing+page1185-1186 Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Z. L. PHELPS. � To go against the advice and judgment of men skilled in geology and win out is not given to many men, but Mr. Phelps is one who did it. He is the pioneer oil-man of the West Side in the Coalinga field and drilled the first successful oil-well there, contrary to the geologists who claimed there was no oil to be had south of the old Coalinga coal mine. Since that time he has struck it rich many times, and large companies have devel- oped lands and there are now hundreds of producing wells over this area. Zerah Lambert Phelps, known among his friends as Zed Phelps, was born at Marion Station, Marion County, Ore., February 24, 1878. His father, O. B. Phelps, was born in Michigan, and came to Oregon with his father Capt. Benj. Phelps, a pioneer of Oregon. They crossed the plains with an ox team, following the old Oregon trail. Benj. Phelps was a captain in the Yakima Indian War, and was a pioneer of Salem. He died there at the age of ninety-five years. The father came to California from Oregon and en- gaged in mining at Mt. Diablo, Contra Costa County, in the Diamond coal mine. He was married there to Miss Esther Robertson, a native Californian, born near Sacramento. She is the daughter of George Robertson, who crossed the plains to California in 1849. He was killed at Kingston by desperadoes in the early days, and buried there. After his marriage the father returned to Oregon and engaged in farm- ing near Salem. In 1885 he came back to California, stopping at Visalia, Tulare County, and then located at Traver. This was in 1886 when the town was just started. He ran the warehouse there and took up a homestead of 160 acres east of Traver, improved it and resided there for a time, when he moved to Piano, Tulare County, where his wife died. He was engaged in the grain-raising business until he removed to Bakersfield, where he started in the oil business, operating in the Kern River fields. He, with T. C. Read, M. O'Dell, Frank Pitney and others, located the first oil lands in the Kern River field, sixteen sections being their possessions, but they sold most of the land at one dollar per acre. The father retired after this sale and removed to San Francisco for three years, after which he spent several years in Alaska and when he returned to California he resided with Mr. and Mrs. Z. L. Phelps, in Coalinga ; he died in Fresno County, January 2, 1918, aged seventy-two years. There were six children, three of whom are living. Zed Phelps was the third oldest of the family. He was brought up in Oregon until 1885, when he came to California with his parents and attended public school at Traver. At the age of sixteen he began in the livery business for himself at Sanger. This was in 1894, and he remained there until 1898, when oil was discovered in the Kern River field. He sold his business at Sanger and removed to the Kern River field and engaged in oil business. He worked for George W. Smith as a driller, then was in the employ of different com- panies drilling for oil. He remained in this field until 1901, when he went to Los Angeles and stayed there for two years, contracting and drilling wells in the old Los Angeles fields. He returned to Bakersfield for one year and then located in Coalinga and organized the Lucile Oil Company in 1904, bought forty acres and sunk a well. Mr. Phelps was superintendent of the company, and this well proved a good one. He has been in the producing business ever since, continuing actively in the company until two years ago, when he left to look after other interests. He is still one of the large stock- holders in the Lucile. In 1909, Mr. Phelps organized the Silver Tip Oil Company, bought land and drilled a well which proved to be a gusher � 20,000 barrels a day, and it is still flowing, the oldest flowing well in the state. It has flowed uninter- ruptedly, without having to be cleaned out. Mr. Phelps was superintendent and vice-president of this company, and in 1910 he sold his interest in it. He has organized the Marion Oil Company and was a stockholder in the Blue Moon Company, of both of which he was superintendent, and at one time he was superintendent of all the different oil companies he was inter- ested in, and they were all producers. He finally sold out his interests in oil companies except the Lucile. He owns oil lands in different parts of the Coalinga field. During all this time his headquarters have been in Coalinga, where he has his residence. He has also erected the Phelps Building, a three-story brick, the most pretentious building in the city of Coalinga. He owns a 160- acre ranch one and a half miles from Coalinga, where he has developed two water wells and installed a pumping-plant. He has set out a large orchard of peaches and apricots, and with his own irrigation plant has made a com- mercial success of his fruit, and his is the pioneer and first commercial orchard in the Coalinga district. He owns other valuable property in Coalinga. Mr. Phelps was married in Los Angeles, on May 10, 1901, to Miss Pearl Overton, a native Californian, whose birthplace is in Sacramento County, but who was reared in Santa Barbara County. They have one son, Edward, a graduate of the Class of 1919, Coalinga Union High School. Mr. Phelps is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Eagles, and is a Past Sachem of the Red Men, and is also a member of the Growlers Club. He was at one time a member of the board of trustees of Coalinga, and its chairman, and as a member of Coalinga District War Fund Association, he took an active part in putting the district over the top in the different war fund and bond drives, and with his wife is a member of the Red Cross. He is abreast of the times, and always interested in the progress of his home city and community.