Lima, Ohio
Encyclopedia : L : LI : LIM : Lima, Ohio
Lima (IPA pronunciation: [laɪ mʌ]) is a city in Allen County, Ohio, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 40,081. It is the county seat of Allen County[Geographic references#6GR6]. Lima is located in northwestern Ohio, north of Dayton along Interstate 75; it was founded in 1831.
Industry
At various times, Lima has manufactured railroad equipment, tanks, automotive engines, buses, various machinery, and electrical goods. A limestone quarry is nearby. The city once was an oil pipeline center and today has an oil refinery and a petrochemical plant. The city serves as a regional health care center. Its largest employers include St. Rita's Medical Center, which has experienced rapid growth in recent years.Lima, Ohio, was the nation’s most affordable housing market, according to the revised National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) for the third quarter of 2004.
Oil History of Lima, Ohio
The discovery of oil in Lima, Ohio began a series of events that came to be called the “Oil Boom of Northwest Ohio.” It was of relatively short duration, but notable for three reasons. First, from 1886 to 1900, the Lima Oilfield was the world’s leading producer of crude oil. Second, the boom led to technological advances in refining “sour crude.” Third, the rapid expansion of the Standard Oil Trust monopoly in northwest Ohio significantly contributed to the enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1911, resulting in the break up of Standard Oil.The process of discovery actually began in Findlay, Ohio, a town approximately forty miles north of Lima. The discovery of natural gas deposits there in 1884 led to national marketing efforts advertising free gas, as Findlay’s business leaders tried to “boom” the town. In 1885, Benjamin C. Faurot of Lima was one of hundreds of businessmen who visited Findlay to see the seemingly unlimited supply of natural gas burning day and night. Faurot owned the Lima Paper Mill, a strawboard manufacturing operation that spent $2,500 on energy consumption annually. Water for his operation was also a problem. So Faurot decided to drill in Lima – for gas or water.
Although Edward Orton, Ohio’s state geologist, openly dismissed the possibility of discovering sizable quantities of gas or oil in the Trenton Rock formation of northwest Ohio, the prospects still excited local citizens. So Faurot’s first oil, found along the Ottawa River (near the present site of Lima High School), was more an accidental discovery than a deliberate scientific experiment.
Faurot contracted with two Pennsylvania drillers. If the proposed well successfully supplied gas for the paper mill, the drillers would receive $10,000; otherwise, nothing. Starting in February 1885, the drillers used dynamite to break through the frozen ground. By April, they had drilled nearly 1,000 feet hoping to reach a gas deposit by 1,400 feet. When they reached about 1,250 feet they found enough gas to light the mill. Expecting to hit larger reserves, they continued to drill. When the drill hit the Trenton Limestone formation and they recovered some oil, the drillers recommended that drilling for gas be abandoned in favor of “shooting the well” for oil. During the first week, the well produced more than 200 barrels of oil. “Like gold in 1848, every corner of the U.S. heard about Lima oil; men came to obtain land options, to work in the fields, to form syndicates and companies – to get rich,” wrote The Lima News in a centennial article.
Benjamin Faurot quickly organized local businessmen into a syndicate that would purchase oil leases. The group leased land from farm owners for 30 years, on the condition that a well must be down in five years, and if oil were struck, the owner would receive one-eighth. The company was called the Trenton Rock Oil Company, and by 1886, the company had 250 wells from Lima to St. Marys, Ohio and west to Indiana.
When the news broke that northwest Ohio had oil, Standard Oil of Cleveland decided to build a refinery in Lima. Unlike Pennsylvania’s oil, northwest Ohio’s “sour crude” was high in sulphur content, smelling like rotten eggs, and customers shunned it. The charge of Lima’s new Solar Refinery was to solve the sulphur problem. But until that happened, Standard bought and stored as much northwest Ohio crude as was possible in order to maintain their monopoly. It also dropped the price of crude from more than sixty cents a barrel to forty cents in an attempt to discourage further production.
Oil drilling fever hit northwest Ohio and “boom towns” sprang up over night. The additional crude glutted the market, and trying to slow production, Standard Oil lowered its price to fifteen cents a barrel. This decision had little impact on the large producers elsewhere, but the smaller Lima producers, whose oil wells could not keep up, found themselves severely hampered. Fourteen independent Lima producers formed a combine – the Ohio Oil Company. Eventually, it became Marathon Oil, currently located in Findlay, Ohio.
Lima’s Solar Refinery solved the distillation problem for sour crude. General manager John Van Dyke worked closely with Herman Frasch, Standard’s chemist, to devise a method for removing the sulphur from the crude. The gamble that John D. Rockefeller took building pipelines and storage tanks for stockpiling Ohio’s sour crude, paid off. By 1901, the excitement over Ohio oil slowed down with the news of a Beaumont, Texas, gusher producing 100,000 barrels a day.
In 1911, the courts declared the Standard Oil Trust a monopoly and broke it into several companies. Between 1887 and 1905, the Trenton Rock/Lima Oil Field was a world-class producer, yielding 300 million barrels. Lima was also a pipeline center; within three years of the discovery of oil, a trunk line reached Chicago. Lima oil lit the buildings of the 1893 World’s Fair. But production peaked in 1904, and then dropped off rapidly. By 1910, the field was regarded as virtually played out. Still, the Lima Refinery has survived, continuing to operate for more than 120 years under a succession of owners—Standard Oil, then British Petroleum (1987), Clark USA (1998), Premcor (2000), and most recently Valero Energy Corp. (2005).
Geography
Lima is located at (40.740700, -84.114997)[Geographic references#1GR1].
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 33.4 km² (12.9 mi²). 33.1 km² (12.8 mi²) of it is land and 0.3 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.78%) is water.
The Ottawa River flows through the city. Locals sometimes refer to the river as "Hawg Creek". This resembles a traditional local name used dating back to the Hog Creek Shawnee community that existed between Lima and present Ada, prior to the Shawnee removal of 1831. This removal made possible the official founding of "Lima" as a formal town in that year.
Lima is at the intersection of State Route 309 (the original Lincoln Highway) and Interstate 75, which replaced U.S. Route 25, one of the routes of the Dixie Highway.
Demographics
As of the census[Geographic references#2GR2] of 2000, there were 40,081 people, 15,410 households, and 9,569 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,210.9/km² (3,135.0/mi²). There were 17,631 housing units at an average density of 532.7/km² (1,379.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 71.30% White, 24.48% African American, 0.31% Native American, 0.51% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.97% from other races, and 2.42% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.97% of the population.
There were 15,410 households out of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.3% were married couples living together, 19.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.9% were non-families. 32.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 3.06.
In the city the population was spread out with 27.2% under the age of 18, 11.5% from 18 to 24, 28.7% from 25 to 44, 19.4% from 45 to 64, and 13.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 100.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.3 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $27,067, and the median income for a family was $32,405. Males had a median income of $29,149 versus $22,100 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,882. About 19.2% of families and 22.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 33.3% of those under age 18 and 14.3% of those age 65 or over.
Cultural relevance
According to legend, the town was named for Lima, capital city of Peru. Early elected officials gathered at Daniel's Cabin in 1830 to select a name for their town. Several names were written on pieces of paper and placed in a hat. One of those early founders noticed a nearby crate imprinted with the shipping label of Lima, Peru. His paper was pulled from the hat. Malaria was a common disease of the early Black Swamp area, and quinine was shipped to northwest Ohio from Peru. The white powdery substance, which reduced fever and chills, was generously applied to whatever was served at the dinner table.
Lima has sometimes been used as an example of a typical Midwestern American town. The town's opera house was a prominent spot on the Vaudeville circuit of the 1920s and 1930s. Reputedly, Lima audiences were so unreceptive to the humor that "Lima" became an inside joke among performers for an unpleasant or unproductive engagement. The joke "first prize, one week in.../ second prize, two weeks in..." was originally about Lima. Comedian Lenny Bruce had a routine called "Lima, Ohio" in his act, based on a booking he had there as a young comedian. He used Lima as a metaphor for small towns across America and his experiences in them.
A documentary titled Lost in Middle America (and What Happened Next) (PBS) was made about Lima, Ohio, the film's title being the acronym "LIMA". The documentary attempted to reflect the crisis known as the Rust Belt by showing how Lima's industries fell one by one and how the crisis was a typical experience of small towns across the United States.
Famous people from Lima
- Bud Collins, tennis announcer, author
- Pamela Kyle Crossley, historian and author
- Phyllis Diller, comedian, actress
- Hugh Downs, television personality (Worked in Lima)
- Joe Henderson, jazz musician ( tenor saxophone)
- Al Jardine, of The Beach Boys
- Helen O'Connell, popular singer
- Al Snow, WWE Wrestler (formerly WWF)
- William White, former NFL football Player
- Bryan Hollon aka boom bip, composer and musician
References
External links
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