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Louis Blaustein And His Son, Jacob
Louis Blaustein was born in Lithuania, on January 16, 1868, and
emigrated to the United States in 1884. He opened a small wholesale
grocery business, where he was successful in the sale of coal oil
(kerosene).
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America's First Gas Station
In 1910, with one tank wagon and a horse (below left), Louis
founded the American Oil Company, and from that modest beginning
developed one of America's major oil companies. Jacob joined his
father in the business at age 18. They rented a yard on the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad tracks, which included a stable for
the horses and a small warehouse that held the original Blaustein
office (below right). The business was successful from the start,
due to "a policy of honest values, honestly described, honestly
sold." (Jacob Blaustein)
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Rockefeller Looked The Other Way
Somehow this Lithuanian immigrant defied Rockefeller and grew
to be the world's largest oil distributor.
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War Profiteer
During World War II, Amoco employees put much of
their energy into providing gasoline and other products to the
American military.
US warplanes flew on Amoco aviation fuel. Soldiers in the trenches
peeled Amoco-made paraffin seals off their food rations at mealtimes.
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The Blausteins In Vietnam
Another war they sat out in Harvard.
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They Sell Off At The Top
In 1998, Amoco and British Petroleum announced that they had
merged, combining their world-wide operations into a single
organization. Overnight, the new company, BP Amoco, became the largest
producer of both oil and natural gas in the US.
At the start of the new millennium, Amoco service stations in the
United States were re-branded BP, although Amoco gasoline continued to
flow from the pumps.
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Today's Crown Prince
Henry Rosenberg Jr. is the chief executive and chairman of Crown
Central Petroleum. Other branches of the Blausteins, such as
Hoffberger and Thalheimer, are heading up the family's real estate,
office products and sound equipment businesses.
The Blaunstein fortune is estimated at
$4.2 billion.
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