>> EXCERPT ONE: The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin reported, “Hawaii sends to the [1876] Centennial Exhibition a creditable, varied and very interesting display of her products and industries. The Sandwich Islands are not the abode of cannibals, as some are apt to believe, but thriving, busy places, where civilization has made good progress.”
>> EXCERPT TWO: Pennsylvania was the home of the first commercially drilled oil well. In 1859, near Titusville, Pennsylvania, the Seneca Oil Company sent Col. Edwin L. Drake, to start drilling on a piece of leased land just south of Titusville, near what is now Oil Creek State Park. They had many difficulties but, on August 27, at the site of an oil spring just south of Titusville, they finally drilled a well that could be commercially successful.
