ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY, Volume 16 (Winter 1957), p. 335
ARKANSAS' FIRST OIL REFINERY
BY ANNIE LAURIE SPENCER
El Dorado, Arkansas
Arkansas' first oil refinery was owned and operated by William Brown 12 miles east of El Dorado during the War for Southern Independence according to a few bits of evidence and world-of-mouth hearsay.*
As early as 1857 the lignite beds in Ouachita County were being used for the recovery of coal-oil (1). By 1860 the Camden Coal Mining Company had more than 2900 acres and the Union Coal Company had 200 acres north of the Camden Coal.
Union Coal Company erected an oil manufactory for the distillation of oil from lignite in 1860 (2). These were the best beds in South Arkansas and many of the early reports gave accounts of these lignite beds.
Lignite at the drift of the Camden Coal Mine in Section 12, Township 12 South, Range 18 west, was 50 feet above high water of the Ouachita and five and a half feet thick lying six inches below the surface (3).
Lignite was distilled in a small iron crucible to which a glass receiver was attached and kept cool with water. The first product that came over was gas with a feeble odor of sulphurous acid and burning with a bright flame. As the heat increased the gas was soon accompanied by ammoniacal water, a yellowish oil and a waxy product---the latter rising into the exit pipe of the glass receiver whenever the fire was a little too strong, which proves it to be very volatile; but when condensed it has the consistency of lard and color of beeswax.
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- * This article is copyrighted by Annie Laurie Spencer
- 1. Conservation in Arkansas by C. Armitage Harper and Ewing W. Kinkead (Little Rock, 1956), 164
- 2. Second Report of a Geological Reconnaissance of the Middle and Southern Counties of
- 1. Conservation in Arkansas by C. Armitage Harper and Ewing W. Kinkead (Little Rock, 1956), 164
- Arkansas by David Dale Owen, Principal Geologist-assisted by Robert Peter, Chemical Assistant, M. Leo Lesquereux, Botanist (Philadelphia, 1860), 131. Hereafter cited as Second Report.
- 3. Second Report, 129.
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