The Sinclair Companies history

In 1862, T.M. and his cousin, John, opened an American branch of the company in New York before looking to the west to establish production closer to the source of the product.

Thomas McElderry (T.M.) and Caroline Sinclair moved to Cedar Rapids in 1871 as newlyweds.

By 1872, the company purchased 16 acres of land along the Cedar River, just outside of the city limits.

In 1894, George and Walter partnered to form Douglas & Company which produced linseed oil.

In 1903, the brothers' shifted focus and formed the Douglas Starch Works, which produced cooking starch and oil, laundry starch, animal feed, soap stock, and industrial starches.

His work took him to the newly opened Oklahoma oil fields, which by 1912 had become so busy that he moved to Tulsa to be near the bulk of his holdings.

By 1913, competition from Danish sources of bacon and ham in the British market weakened the Sinclair & Co. business and the Chicago firm Schwarzchild and Sulzberger purchased the company.

The pipeline was completed at the rate of a mile a day, becoming the second largest pipeline in the United States, serving 90 percent of mid-America. It made Sinclair the 10th largest oil company in America, and before the end of 1916, the Sinco trademark adorned service stations from Oklahoma to Iowa, from Colorado to New York.

In 1919, Howard and his friend and business partner John Jay purchased a controlling interest in the Carmody Foundry.

Incredibly, the plant was able to reopen as it was purchased in 1920 by Penick and Ford.

Three years later, John suggested they purchase several buildings on Sixteenth Street NE. They incorporated the former Bertschey Engineering Company as Iowa Manufacturing Company in 1923.

But in 1930, Sinclair sold its half to Standard Oil Company, along with its 50 percent interest in the Sinclair Crude Oil Purchasing Company, for $72.5 million cash.

The dinosaur became so popular that Sinclair registered it as a trademark in 1932, and the campaign continued to be extraordinarily successful for many years to come.

In 1935, Sinclair issued a dinosaur stamp album and released accompanying dinosaur stamps weekly at service stations.

American film producer Walt Disney highlighted it, along with other dinosaurs, in Fantasia (1940), and a young animated Brontosaurus-like sauropod…

By the time of his retirement in 1949, Sinclair Oil was said to have assets of $1.2 billion, with earnings of $68 million.

Sinclair Oil’s assets in 1952 were over $1 billion.

Sinclair Oil Corporation, A Great Name in Oil: Sinclair Through Fifty Years (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966).

In conclusion, the Pan American Sulfur Company purchased the Sinclair Oil assets in 1972.

Twenty years later Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) purchased the company, and in 1976 ARCO released portions of it, including the name, to Robert Earl Holding.

Kenny A. Franks, The Oklahoma Petroleum Industry (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980).

Wilson & Co. operated the plant in Cedar Rapids until July 2, 1984 when it was purchased by Farmstead Foods and operated by Cedar Rapids Meats, Inc.

The Cedar Rapids plant closed March 8, 1990, and six days later, Farmstead Foods filed for bankruptcy.

After severe flooding in 2008, the City of Cedar Rapids initiated demolition of the buildings on the site.