Driller, Oil Expert. Born in Sullivan County, New York, Mareau spent the first half of his life in Pennsylvania, then Lima, Ohio, where his original surname of LeViness gradually changed to LaViness. Growing up around the oil fields, he began his lifelong affair with the oil wells at the young age of twelve. When the oil industry moved west, LaViness was there. Beginning in the late 1800s, newspapers in Kansas and the Indian Territory chronicled his frequent travels to the Territory and some of the better-known wells he drilled. He was often referred to as the superintendent of Cudahy Oil Company's operations in the Territory. At the 1927 International Petroleum Exposition in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he was named "Father of the Oil Industry in Oklahoma." According to an article published in the Tulsa Daily World directly after the event, M. F. LaViness earned that distinction by drilling the first two Oklahoma oil wells that produced marketable quantities in the 1800s; one in Muskogee and the other in Bartlesville. During his last years in Lima, Ohio, the family home at 760 Bellefontaine Avenue was destroyed by the Great Flood of 1913. He, four children, and three grandchildren were rescued from the wreckage. Shortly afterward, LaViness moved his family to Oklahoma. Even then, he was on the go, soon working the oil fields around Wichita County, Texas. He spent the last years of his life at 227 East Wood Street in Drumright, Oklahoma, where his obituary on the front page of the the The Evening Derrick claimed he was well-known in the town and the oil fields.
Driller, Oil Expert. Born in Sullivan County, New York, Mareau spent the first half of his life in Pennsylvania, then Lima, Ohio, where his original surname of LeViness gradually changed to LaViness. Growing up around the oil fields, he began his lifelong affair with the oil wells at the young age of twelve. When the oil industry moved west, LaViness was there. Beginning in the late 1800s, newspapers in Kansas and the Indian Territory chronicled his frequent travels to the Territory and some of the better-known wells he drilled. He was often referred to as the superintendent of Cudahy Oil Company's operations in the Territory. At the 1927 International Petroleum Exposition in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he was named "Father of the Oil Industry in Oklahoma." According to an article published in the Tulsa Daily World directly after the event, M. F. LaViness earned that distinction by drilling the first two Oklahoma oil wells that produced marketable quantities in the 1800s; one in Muskogee and the other in Bartlesville. During his last years in Lima, Ohio, the family home at 760 Bellefontaine Avenue was destroyed by the Great Flood of 1913. He, four children, and three grandchildren were rescued from the wreckage. Shortly afterward, LaViness moved his family to Oklahoma. Even then, he was on the go, soon working the oil fields around Wichita County, Texas. He spent the last years of his life at 227 East Wood Street in Drumright, Oklahoma, where his obituary on the front page of the the The Evening Derrick claimed he was well-known in the town and the oil fields.
Bio by: JesPiddlin
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