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Michael Late Benedum, “The Great Wildcatter,” was born July 16, 1869, in Bridgeport, WV., one of five surviving children of Emanuel and Caroline Southworth Benedum. His father, “Squire Benedum,: owned a general store, was also a woodworker, mayor of the town and Justice of the Peace.
Michael Benedum’s entire boyhood was spent in Bridgeport. As a youth, he worked in several area flour mills and as sales agent for a milling machinery company.
While on a train to Parkersburg to seek new employment, a chance meeting with John Worthington, General Superintendent of South Penn Oil Company, a producing company of Standard Oil, led to his start in the oil and gas industry, a career that was to span 70 years.
Benedum rose rapidly to become, in 1892, Assistant General Land Agent. In 1896 he left South Penn to strike out as an independent producer with his brother Charles. At this time he met Joseph Trees, who was to become a life-long partner in his enterprises.
On May 17, 1896, he was married to Sarah Lantz in Monongalia County. A son, Claude Worthington, was born in 1897 in Cameron, W.V.
Meanwhile, his interests had expanded to include banking and manufacturing, and the legend was begun.
On September 17, 1900, Michael Benedum and Joseph Trees formed the Benedum-Trees Oil Company and, in 1907, moved offices to Pittsburgh where their oil and gas interests continued to flourish. By the mid-1920’s Michael Benedum was ruler of a complex industrial empire and chief stockholder in half a dozen enterprises. From that time until his death, his empire continued to expand, with oil fields developed not only in many states of the U.S. but in foreign countries. However, Michael Benedum often declared, “I would rather find an oil field in West Virginia that did not bring me one dollar of profit than to discover one elsewhere that brought millions."
He retained a lifelong affection for West Virginia, Bridgeport, Clarksburg and Harrison County which he expressed through many philanthropic projects. The first was the restoration and beautification of Bridgeport Cemeteries.
Next came the construction of a new Methodist Church, completed in 1953 and known as one of the most beautiful small churches in the country. Its outstanding feature in a magnificent stained glass window in memory of Michael and Sarah’s beloved only son and child, Claude, who died of pneumonia in 1918 at age 21 while in military service.
The most recent project was a Civic Center for the citizens of Bridgeport, located at the site of the home where Michael Benedum was born and reared.
In 1944, Michael and Sarah established the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, another memorial to their son, for the purpose of furthering higher education for deserving West Virginia boys and girls in addition to aiding charitable, religious, scientific and educational institutions.
Michael Benedum’s philanthropies encompassed a wide range of interests, always for the benefit of his fellow man. His concern for the welfare of others was part of the man, not the legend. To all who came in contact with him, he was a very “human” being, remembered with warmth and esteem.
In his lifetime, Michael Benedum was the recipient of numerous honors – among them the title “Oil Man of the Century: conferred upon him by the city of Pittsburgh in 1955, and in 1956 “Foremost Oil Pioneer of All Time” by the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association. There were also several honorary college degrees, but he declared on the dedication of Benedum Airport in Clarksburg that none of the many honors he had received “meant one-half so much to me as this expression of respect and good will of the people of Clarksburg and Harrison County.”
Michael Late Benedum, the greatest wildcatter of them all, died in 1959.
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