Background
Jacob Jay was born on April 10, 1827, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. He was the son of William and Sophia (Sarver) Vandergrift.
Jacob Jay was born on April 10, 1827, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. He was the son of William and Sophia (Sarver) Vandergrift.
Vandergrift attended private and public schools in Pittsburgh but was thrown on his own resources at an early age and became a cabin boy successively on the river steamboats Bridgewater and Pinta.
Employed subsequently on boats plying the Allegheny River, Vandergrift attracted the attention of his employers because of his industry and energy, and advanced rapidly. He was the first captain with sufficient courage and determination to utilize the space in front of his boat as well as on the sides in towing barges. Prior to 1853 he was in command of the Hail Columbia, one of the finest steamboats on the Wabash River. By 1858 he had purchased part interest in the Red Fox and in the Conestoga. Just before the Civil War he went to what is now West Virginia, attracted by newspaper accounts of the oil wells there.
The outbreak of the war forced him to sacrifice his investments and leave the state. Going to Oil City, Pennsylvania, then little more than a wilderness, he became a shipper of oil, and later a dealer, making much money through his transactions. About 1868 he formed a partnership with George V. Forman, under the firm name of Vandergrift, Forman & Company, and entered upon extensive operations, laying miles of pipes for facilitating oil transportation from wells to shipping depots. In 1872, John Pitcairn joined the firm, which about that time established the Imperial Refinery, having a daily capacity of two thousand barrels. Although not the builder of the first pipe line, Vandergrift is said to have been the first to make a pipe line profitable.
In 1877, the "United Pipe Lines of Vandergrift, Forman & Company" were consolidated with others as "United Pipe Lines, " which, in turn, in 1884 was merged into the National Transit Company. Vandergrift and his partner Pitcairn also laid what was probably the first natural gas line of any importance and demonstrated to the manufacturing world the value of gas. Vandergrift subsequently formed gas companies in neighboring West Virginia. In addition to founding the Pittsburgh Petroleum Exchange and the Seaboard National Bank of New York, he was interested in iron and steel production and built the town of Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, as a model dwelling place for the employees of his Apollo Iron and Steel Company. He was also a large investor in Pittsburgh real estate, and made his home in that city after 1881.
On the morning of the day of his death, Vandergrift went to his office and worked until noon as was his custom. He was buried in Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh.
From his ample fortune, Vandergrift built an orphan home and aided churches and hospitals.
Vandergrift was twice married: first, December 29, 1853, to Henrietta Morrow of Pittsburgh, who bore him four daughters and five sons; she died in 1881, and on December 4, 1883, he married Frances G. (Anshutz) Hartley.
12 January 1805 - 18 February 1877
5 July 1804 - 19 June 1895
5 January 1833 - 25 December 1881
1854 - 7 April 1900
16 May 1864 - 3 July 1959
1862 - 28 March 1930
17 October 1858 - 3 December 1887
13 February 1856 - 9 January 1890
30 June 1866 - 21 September 1926
23 August 1868 - 23 May 1915
