In September, 1919, Harry F. Sinclair gathered all of his manifold petroleum operations together. He created the Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation, a holding company for 28 operating subsidiaries. From the outset, the group was important in the oil world, a truly integrated structure through which flowed every process of the industry from crude oil production to marketing, both at home and abroad.

The Sinclair domain now was four times the size of the original company. But its stated assets of $216 million were optimistic. A realistic write-down in 1932 reduced the computed book value of stock from $43.77 to $18.36 a share, even though by then assets had doubled.

After the consolidation, the new organization had 1,761 oil wells in the United States and Mexico, producing 40,000 barrels of crude oil every day. From ten refineries gushed 1,260,000 gallons daily. Seven extraction plants made 22,000 gallons daily of "natural" gasoline from 66 gas wells. The pipeline was the second largest U.S. system, serving 90 percent of mid-America. Shipping totaling 154,000 tons carried Sinclair wares along the coast to strategic terminals from Houston, Texas, to New York harbor and on to Tiverton, Rhode Island. Ninety percent of the Mexican oil was sold in Cuba, while 85 percent of the lubricating oils and greases from Wellsville--unsurpassed in quality--were distributed in Europe. Intensive retail sales had been established in 20 states. Of the nation's gasoline outlets, Sinclair owned 400 and served 800 others. It was a leading supplier in the rapidly expanding fuel oil market and one of the largest exporters of petroleum products in bulk.

All this yielded, in the first full year, net earnings of more than $18.5 million. But more than that, it made Sinclair a front runner in the race for service to the incredibly-proliferating automotive industry. In 1919, there were more than six million pleasure cars in America. By 1929 there would be that many new registrations each year. The Sinclair companies now set out to get and hold the petroleum products bonanza generated by the internal combustion engine boom on the road, at sea, in the air, in industry and on the farm.

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