Petroleum Pioneers of Pittsburgh

 

There are a surprising amount of small metal plaques dotted around Whithorn, to Jack Brent, for the Manse, for 'The Wicker Man' and as above in front of a house to Charles Lockhart who built the first commercial oil refinery. See PDF here he was the first to buy crude oil and refine it. 

Charles Lockhart (1818–1905) was an early and leading figure in western Pennsylvania’s oil industry, rising, as his New York Times obituary said, from "kilt and barefoot" in his native Scotland to one of the wealthiest men in Allegheny County. With fellow Gilded Age titans John D. Rockefeller, Henry M. Flagler, and William G. Warden, Lockhart was one of the "big four" founders of Standard Oil Company. He was involved in many industries throughout the country (gold, freight, railroad, lumber, telegraph, and mining, to name but a few), and locally served as president of the Lockhart Iron and Steel Co. From here