Bolivar Refinery Plans Shutdown; 55 Lose Jobs
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Bolivar - Allegany Refiners Inc., a totally owned subsidiary of the Quaker State Oil Company, and the principal industry of this village of 1,800, will cease operations next week Thursday, its employees were notified yesterday.
The notification came within 24 hours after word was received that the Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern Railroad, only line serving Bolivar, will discontinue operations on March 31.
The notice to its 55 employees, on the plant bulletin board, was signed by the refinery manager, Arthur K. Wickham, who said the orders came from the company's home office at Oil City, Pa. It reads that runs of crude oil will cease that day and the plant will be shut down and dismantled as soon afterward as possible.
Wickham said 40 percent of the Allegany Refiners output is shipped by railroad tank cars, and that he knows of no refinery in the country which is operating without railroad facilities with which to deliver its products to its customers.
The plant was organized during November, 1935, by a group of Allegany County oil producers who were faced with no market for their so-called "black oil." First runs of oil to the refinery were made on Jan. 1, 1934.
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
Friday, March 14, 1947