My Genealogy Hound

HON. FRANCIS BEATTIE BREWER, M.D., a resident of Westfield for over thirty years, and an ex-member of Congress, who conceived, planned and developed the present methods of producing and utilizing petroleum, one of the great sources of national wealth and reveuue, was born at Keene, New Hampshire, October 8, 1820, and is a son of Capt. Ebenezer and Julia (Emerson) Brewer. Francis Beattie Brewer is a descendant of Revolutionary stock, his grandfather, Ebenezer Brewer, having held the rank of colonel and participated in the struggle of the old Thirteen Colonies, or “sea-shore republics,” for independence. His father, Ebenezer Brewer, was familiar with the trying scenes of Revolutionary days and afterwards held a captain’s commission during the War of 1812, in which he served with credit and distinction. He and his father were both natives and lifelong residents of New Hampshire.

Francis B. Brewer spent his earlier years at Barnet, Vermont, where his father was engaged in lumbering and the mercantile business. His preparation for college was made at Newbury seminary, Vt., and Meriden academy, N. H. After graduating from Dartmouth college he was engaged in teaching for several months at Barnet and in Peacham academy, Vt., and then (1843) commenced the study of medicine with Dr. W. G. Nelson. In 1844 he attended lectures at Dartmouth Medical college where he also studied nine months with the faculty, and then completed his medical course with Dr. W. W. Gerhart, of Philadelphia, Pa. He received his degree of M.D. from Dartmouth Medical college in 1846, practiced at Barnet until December, 1849, and then removed to Plymouth, Mass., where he remained for two years. In 1851 he went to Titusvllle, Pa., where he was actively and extensively engaged for ten years in lumbering and the general mercantile business. He was a member of the firm of Brewer, Watson & Co., who owned several thousand acres of timbered land along Oil creek and its tributaries. On their land, and near one of their lumber mills was an old Indian well, remarkable for producing oil. This oil was extensively used as a medicine, and was collected by absorbing the oil from the surface of the water with woolen blankets. In 1852 the idea occurred to Dr. Brewer, of using this oil in the lumber mills, both as an illuminator and a lubricator. The well was then enlarged and deepened; a pump was worked in it by wires attached to the machinery of the mill, and in this way a large quantity of oil was obtained. Thus commenced the oil business. From this date Dr. Brewer gave his time, means and efforts to discover the best manner of producing and utilizing this valuable product. Although discouraged, but never disheartened, success finally crowned the enterprise which he justly claims to have conceived, planned and developed, and which has proved to be one of the great discoveries of the age. The oil business which he inaugurated as a branch of commerce, has attained gigantic proportions and has added immensely to the wealth of the world. The first oil lease on record was made July 4, 1853, between Brewer, Watson & Co., and J. D. Angler, and the first oil company, “The Penna. Rock Oil Co.,” was organized in New York City, in 1854, of which Dr. Brewer was one of the incorporators and directors, and this territory formed the basis of the company’s operations.

On July 20, 1848, he married Susan H. Rood, daughter of Rev. Prof. Heman Rood, of Haverhill, N. H., but formerly of Gilmanton Theological seminary. Dr. and Mrs. Brewer have four children: Eben, born May 14, 1849; Francis Beattie and Frances Moody (wife of W. C. Fitch of Buffalo,) born October 16, 1852; and George Emerson, born July 28, 1861.

In 1861 Dr. Brewer came to Westfield to reside. He owns a beautiful farm on the shore of Lake Erie. He is interested in several large business enterprises, outside of petroleum, in which he has large investments and does a large commission business in Pittsburg, Pa., as a member of the firm of Brewer, Burke & Co. In 1864 Dr. Brewer organized the First National Bank of Westfield, and was made president of the same, which position he held for ten years. He was also president of the Townsend Manufacturing Co. His various business interests have caused him to travel widely in the United States and Europe. During the late war he was appointed by the Governor of New York as a special State agent, with the rank of Major, to visit the hospitals connected with the Army of the Potomac, and in that capacity rendered valuable aid to the sick and wounded sons of the Empire State. In 1873 he was elected a member of the New York Assembly and after serving creditably throughout two terms was appointed as a government director of the Union Pacific railroad, which position he held for four years under Presidents Grant and Hayes. He served for some time by appointment of Gov. Cornell as a manager of the State asylum at Buffalo, and was afterwards elected in 1873, as a republican member of the Forty-eighth Congress from the thirty-third congressional district of New York, receiving 12,123 votes, against 9,591 received by Lowery, the democratic candidate, 1,020 for Sellers, prohibitionist; and 856 for Randall, Greenbacker. At the expiration of his term of service in Congress, Dr. Brewer returned to Westfield, where he has been ever since prominently identified with various leading and successful business enterprises. From the small beginning of Dr. Brewer in the oil business in the backwoods of Venango county, Pa., has grown the great petroleum industry which now gives employment to thousands of men in its different departments of production, piping, refining and shipping, in the oil-fields of Pennsylvania and New York, which have produced already nearly four hundred million barrels of oil and yield an annual revenue of many millions of dollars.