1925 Ford Model T (White Eagle Oil and Refining Company)

1925 Ford Model T (White Eagle Oil and Refining Company)

There are times when you can drive by the Schwanke Museum (which is located next to Menards on south 71 in Willmar) there sits a 1925 Model T Ford Truck with a three stage fuel dispensing tank on the back which reads White Eagle Oil and Refining Company. This was a recent purchase by Virgil Schwanke to add to his collection (March or April). The truck came out of North Dakota originally. There were some repairs need to be done to the truck. It had a few dings here and there and the engine need to be gone through so that it could run. So Mike Schwanke our resident mechanic and body man went to work and restored the truck to running order so it could be displayed.

1925 Ford Model T

Front view of the 1925 Model T Truck 

View from the back showing the filler connectors

Brown Certified Tank made by the Brown Sheet Iron and Steel Company, St. Paul, Mn.

Interior view of the 1925 Model T Truck

A view of the strap to open the window

The Ford Truck is a basic model with straps to raise and lower the windows. Three speed transmission, four cylinder engine, electric start (after market which was added later), tilt front windshield, and on the back a three stage fuel dispensing tank, which would carry gasoline, kerosene, and fuel oil.

The tank is made by the Brown Sheet Iron and Steel Company out Of St. Paul Minnesota. When researching the tank on the back of the truck I found that the Brown Sheet Iron and Steel Company has become the Mammoth Inc., producer of air conditioning and refrigeration units. They purchase Brown Sheet Iron and Steel Company in 1935, and then change its name. I wrote to the company to get more history about the Brown Sheet Iron and Steel Company and have yet to receive a reply from them. I have written to Mammoth Inc. several times now hoping to at least get some kind of reply, my thought are either they are too busy to answer a few questions from a small museum about their history or (and I hate to say this, but I will) they just don’t care, like so many large businesses today. I love history and I think it is important, mostly because it shows where we start and how far we have come (Sorry don’t mean to rant) and much of our history has been lost and that is part of the reason I write this blog, because I am at least saving part of history for others to read about.

I originally started this article back in May when we opened for the season; I wanted to start my blog off with the truck because of what was found inside the truck. There was compartment that held a gas receipt book from 1925, which started in May of that year and I want to follow the price of gas in 1925 compared to what it is today. The first receipt from the book showed that on May 15^th of 1925 the price of gasoline was a whopping 13cents a gallon compared the May 15^th price of gasoline here in Willmar of $3.79 a gallon. Now that I am finally going to add this article to the blog in august of 1925 gas price had risen to a whopping 15cents a gallon where as in the second week of august of 2011 we have prices of $3.69 a gallon.

Other things that are noteworthy about the 1925 Ford Model T are even thought head lights are standard and the basic model, this Model T comes with three kerosene lamps two in the front and one on the back. I am not sure what the purposes of these three lights are for, so if anyone know please let me know. (Thank you)    

So without going into a long and wordy article on the Ford truck. I decided to just write a quick article 1925 Ford Truck that features the White Eagle Oil and Refining Company.

So here is a short history of the Ford truck.

Henry Ford turned out his first truck in 1900 it was the third vehicle he had built. He would use the Model A framework and would feature a wood spoke rims and wood body leaving only the engine compartment using metal. Later in 1918 he would improve on his fist design where Ford would introduce the Model T One-Ton truck chassis, its first chassis specifically built for trucks.  

The first factory-assembled pickup that came off the assembly line would feature a modified rear body that could be ordered with a cargo box, adjustable tailgate, four stake pockets and heavy-duty rear springs it could also be order with or without these options. It debuted in 1925 and sold for US$281and it is estimated that 34,000 were built that first year. Henry Ford billed it as the "Ford Model T Runabout with Pickup Body." 

Ford felt he could improve his truck line so in 1928 he would reintroduce the Model A which would replaced the Model T. Ford introduce the first closed-cab pickup and it would sported innovations like a safety glass windshield, roll-up side windows and three-speed transmission. It was powered by a four-cylinder L-head engine capable of 40 horsepower (30 kW).

Then again in1932 Ford would introduce the 65 horsepower (48 kW) Ford flathead V8 engine it was offered as an option in the truck in the Model A truck. By 1936, Ford had produced over 3 million trucks and led the industry in building trucks.



I did find some information about the White Eagle Oil and Refining Company but what I did find was brief and if anyone has additional information I would love to see it.

A brief history of White Eagle Oil and Refining Company.

White Eagle Oil and Refining Company this company was named for a Chief of the Ponca Indian partly in respect for the tribe from which the land was purchased, the name change for the company came about as a result of the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911. White Eagle Oil was widely sold throughout the Midwestern states, In addition to 1800 service stations located in fourteen central states which gave it slightly more than one half of one percent of US sales. Here are just a few states White Eagle Oil Company had stations in, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Iowa and parts of Colorado and Kansas during the 1910′s and 1920′s.

The White Eagle Oil Company had crude production and refining in Kansas and Wyoming, five refineries were operating in these states, and this included some small operations at Greybull and Cowley. By 1923, Casper alone would boast five refineries and they consisted of the tiny Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Company facility on South Center Street which was built in 1895, The Belgo-American refinery which would later be known as the Midwest Refinery it was built east of Highland Cemetery in 1903. The giant Standard Oil refinery was just southwest of Casper and that opened in March 1914 with the growing use of oil related product it would again expanded in 1922 which would make it the largest gasoline-producing refinery in the world at the time in history. The Texaco refinery was just three miles east of Casper and it would open in 1923 and that just leaves the small White Eagle refinery which opened the same year.

Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony) would acquire the White Eagle Oil & Refining Co which would bring them into the Midwest market for the first time and with the purchase of the company in1930 they also purchased thousands of gas stations that were 11 states. Socony would now need even more crude oil to supply these additional market outlets that came along with their acquisition, and like most of the other big international oil concerns, Socony would have to look to the Middle East.

One of the things that remind people of that day and age is that on every gasoline pump belonging to White Eagle Petroleum was a beautiful, molded glass white eagle and many of these if not all of the eagle have become highly collectible. Even though the White Eagle Company was absorbed into the Socony and pretty much lost to history. The name lived on through a non related company. Today there is a company by the name of White Eagle Oil and refining company but it is base out of Canada. But much of the original history of the white eagle oil and refining history is lost. White Eagle oil was just one of the many companies that would become the oil giant it is today and the company is Exxon – Mobil list below is a list of the many companies it absorb to become the giant it is today.

Exxon - Mobil Oil Company (today)
Today’s Exxon - Mobil Oil Company is made up of several oil companies that were bought or absorbed over the years, like Vacuum Oil was part of Standard Oil it was incorporated in 1866, later Socony would purchase all the assets from Standard Oil in1931 and would rename the company Socony-Vacuum corp., Socony was formed in1882 and later became its own entity in 1911 with the breakup of Standard Oil, General Petroleum of California (1926), Magnolia (1918), Lubrite (1929) a refining and marketing company based in St. Louis, Wadhams, White Star (1930) and  White Eagle (1930), Gilmore, Socony-Vacuum Corp. changes its name to Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc (1934). In (1955), Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc, would change its name to Socony Mobil Oil Company and then again in (1966) to Mobil Oil Corporation. Mobil Oil Co. becomes the North American Division; Mobil International becomes the International Division, with coordinating responsibility for Mobil Petroleum Co. Inc and in (1998) Exxon and Mobil Oil Company would merge.

I plan on writing more on Exxon - Mobile Oil later in an upcoming blog. So stay tuned.