Chicago Petroleum Corporation stock certificate 1902 (Arizona) 

Little known oil company with elaborate printed stock.  Vignettes include - main left image of oil fields, gold underprint at bottom of oil fields, upper right border image of old oil storage, right border image of gushing oil well, lower right border image of horses pulling oil cart, and lower left border image of a steam train. Issued and not cancelled. Dated 1902. Folds and Incorporated in Arizona which was common at the time but operated in Chicago, IL (company seal).

It is most likely (?) a smaller Chicago oil refiner which was absorbed by one of the major regional corporations or otherwise put out of business

Chicago was not among the earliest locations of the petroleum industry, but when oil refining finally came to the area, it came with a bang. When the Standard Oil Company opened its new refinery in Whiting, Indiana, in 1890, the facility ranked as the largest refinery in the world. A century later, the Whiting facility still stood among the largest in the world, and the Chicago region remained an important refining center.

In 1902, the Chicago-adjacent petroleum sector was dominated by Standard Oil’s massive regional operations at the Whiting Refinery just across the state line in Indiana, alongside early petroleum distribution and market availability tracked in municipal records. Chicago served as the primary commercial and corporate hub distributing petroleum products throughout the Midwest at the dawn of the automotive age.

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