Drainage

It was a beautiful film about a different time in California. When they poked and prodded,'till the earth gave up her oil. Some of my ancestry was a part of this decidedly greedy legacy. I've mentioned them before. My great great grandfather struck oil in Bakersfield in the 1880's. He became a wealthy man because of this, and he added to his wealth when he sold his tract to Standard Oil. They came through and bought much of that oil rich landscape. As did Union Oil and other very eager companies.


And we all know how that played out. It feels weird, knowing that my relatives played any part in creating the angry behemoth that is Chevron today. But as my wise older daughter said: 'It's o.k. We're 'poor' now, so the score is settled...' (I wonder.)


There was a cool moment when Plainview/Daniel Day Lewis is looking to buy up the land surrounding an oil-rich tract. He mentions the names of the families that own the tracts, and Blodget is one of the names. That'd be my great great grand-daddy, Hugh. They drank his milkshake.

Roots & Vines

Thompson Seedless Grapes
Carleton E. Watkins
Kern County, California, 1880
Albumen silver print

My paternal great-great grandfather arrived in Bakersfield, California in 1875. He'd come to Bakersfield from Windsor, California. The beginning of his life was spent in Sugar Hill, Pennsylvania.

Why did he go to Bakersfield? Unfortunately, it wasn't to grow grapes. He got into the oil business, and thrived. (Uncool, I know.)

I know a lot about him as well as that branch of my family, thanks to a book written by my first cousin. It was an amazing time in the history of my family and the state.

Carleton Watkins, who took the above photo, also took a picture of the house great-great granddad built. He documented much of this state in it's early years. I will post that picture before long. And maybe some stories of my family's travails.

My dad went and saw There Will Be Blood a few weeks ago, and sent me an enthusiastic email. He noted that our family name is mentioned in the film, and that there are Bakersfield scenes, although it was filmed primarily in Texas. In reading about the production of the movie, I learned this:

"Originally, Paul Thomas Anderson had been working on a screenplay about two fighting families. He struggled with the script and soon realized it just wasn't working.Homesick, he purchased a copy of Upton Sinclair's Oil! in London and was immediately drawn to the cover illustration of a California oilfield. As he read, Anderson became even more fascinated with the novel and adapted the first 150 pages to a screenplay. He began to get a real sense of where his script was going after making countless trips to museums dedicated to early oilmen in Bakersfield"


...To be continued