James Miller Williams
Encyclopedia
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. He represented Hamilton
Hamilton (electoral district)
Hamilton was a federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1904 and a provincial riding in the Ontario Legislature from 1867 to 1894. It was located in the province of Ontario and consisted of the city of Hamilton....
in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...
from 1867 to 1879. He is also commonly viewed as the father of the petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
industry in Canada.
He was born in 1818 in Camden, New Jersey
Camden, New Jersey
The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...
, and apprenticed as a carriage
Carriage
A carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people, usually horse-drawn; litters and sedan chairs are excluded, since they are wheelless vehicles. The carriage is especially designed for private passenger use and for comfort or elegance, though some are also used to transport goods. It may be light,...
maker. He came to London
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
in Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
with his family in 1840. With a partner, he set up a business manufacturing carriages, eventually buying out his partner. He moved to Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
and expanded his business, manufacturing vehicles for public transit and also railway cars.
In 1855, he entered the business of refining petroleum in Lambton County
Lambton County, Ontario
Lambton County is a census division of the Canadian province of Ontario. The county is located in Southwestern Ontario. It is bordered on the north by Lake Huron, which flows into the St. Clair River, the county's western border and part of the Canada-United States border. To the south is Lake...
by taking over the International Mining and Manufacturing Company from Charles Nelson Tripp
Charles Nelson Tripp
Charles Nelson Tripp was a pioneering geologist and bitumen businessman in Ontario....
. Already operating a small 150 gallon/day asphalt well in the Village of Oil Springs
Oil Springs, Ontario
Oil Springs is a village in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada, located along Former Provincial Highway 21 south of Oil City. The village, an enclave within Enniskillen Township, is home to the Oil Museum of Canada....
, Williams set out during a drought in 1858 to dig a drinking water well down-slope from it but struck free oil instead, thereby becoming the first person to produce a commercial oil well
Oil well
An oil well is a general term for any boring through the earth's surface that is designed to find and acquire petroleum oil hydrocarbons. Usually some natural gas is produced along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce mainly or only gas may be termed a gas well.-History:The earliest...
in North America, one year before Edwin Drake
Edwin Drake
Edwin Laurentine Drake , also known as Colonel Drake, was an American oil driller, popularly credited with being the first to drill for oil in the United States.-Early life:...
. He is also credited with setting up Canada's first refinery of crude oil to produce kerosene, based on the laboratory work of Abraham Gesner.
Two years later in 1860, he set up the Canada Oil Company which produced, refined and marketed petroleum resources in the area; he later sold the company to his son. He was also involved with insurance companies, railways and the manufacturing of tin ware. In 1879, he was appointed registrar for Wentworth County
Wentworth County, Ontario
Wentworth County, area , is a historic county in the Canadian province of Ontario.It was created in 1816 as part of the Gore District in what was then Upper Canada and later Canada West...
and served until his death in Hamilton in 1890.
In 2008 Canada Post
Canada Post stamp releases (2005-2009)
In the latter half of the decade, Canada Post continued to issue a large number of stamps with different designs and themes. One of the key changes in the decade was that Canada Post issued series of stamps on a yearly basis. An example is the 400th Anniversary of the French Settlement in North...
issued a stamp commemorating the first commercial oil well, featuring portraits of Charles Tripp and Williams.