Kyso (officially the Standard Oil Company of Kentucky) was an oil company, gasoline distributor, and direct descendant of Standard Oil that operated in the southeastern United States from 1886 until it was acquired by Standard Oil of California (today known as

Chevron Corporation Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened t ...

) in 1961.Thompson, Eric V
A Brief History Of Major Oil Companies In The Gulf Region
Arabian Peninsula and Gulf Studies Program, Retrieved 2019-09-27 After the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911, the company was awarded rights to run the oil operation of

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, and

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

History

Formation and early years

The Standard Oil Company of Kentucky was incorporated on October 8, 1886, under Kentucky laws.Standard Oil Company – 1928
Scripophily.com, 1996–2006. Retrieved November 22, 2006. It was founded as a division of the

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

Trust to handle the assets of the Chess, Carley & Company, which Standard had acquired to handle product marketing and distribution for the southeastern U.S. It maintained corporate offices in all of the states it serviced, and also owned an oil refinery in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

, with a 500,000 barrel/year capacity. In 1892, it acquired the properties of Consolidated Tank Line Company.

Breakup of Standard Oil

When the

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

was broken up as an illegal trust in the US Supreme Court case ''

Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States ''Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States''(1911), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled that John D. Rockefeller's petroleum conglomerate Standard Oil had illegally monopolized the American petroleum industry and order ...

'' in 1911, Kyso was spun off to market to the states of

, and

. As was common at the time, though no longer controlled by a single entity, the various "Baby Standards" still continued to cooperate. For example, Kyso was supplied by fellow "Baby Standard"

Standard Oil of New Jersey Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the modern company was formed ...

, better known as Esso. The company avoided the consolidation prevalent in the industry throughout the first half of the century, and continued to sell various Esso and

Mobil Mobil Oil Corporation, now known as just Mobil, is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, formerly known as Exxon, which took its current name after history of ExxonMobil#merger, it and Mobil merge ...

products. In 1930, it acquired the assets of Reed Oil Corp. of

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

.Standard Oil Company – 1928
Scripophily.com, 1996–2006. Retrieved November 22, 2006 The Riverside Refinery, built by Kyso circa 1918 in West Louisville, Kentucky, is still the source of considerable study due to environmental concerns Harland Sanders, founder of

Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC (an abbreviation of Kentucky Fried Chicken), is an American fast food restaurant chain specializing in fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's s ...

, started his first restaurant, the Sanders Court and Cafe, as part of a Standard Oil station in Corbin, Kentucky, in 1930.

Acquisition by Standard Oil of California

In 1961, Kyso was acquired by Standard Oil of California, effectively pushing Esso out of the former Kyso territory. Esso began marketing itself across the region as the "official" Standard brand oil. In 1966, Chevron sued over the use of Standard, and won, forcing Esso to rebrand itself as Enco over the former Kyso territory. During and after the merger, Kyso constructed the Pascagoula Refinery in

Pascagoula, Mississippi Pascagoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula metropolitan area, and is part of the Gulfport, Mississippi, Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi, Biloxi–Pascag ...

, which began operations in 1963, and continues to operate today. In 1984, Standard Oil of California merged with

Gulf Oil Gulf Oil was a major global oil company in operation from 1901 to 1985. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the Seven Sisters (oil companies), Seven Sisters oil companies. ...

and renamed itself to Chevron; the newly formed company changed over all of the former Kyso stations to the Chevron logo while retaining the Standard brand name. It still maintains some Standard-branded stations in all of its former territories, including the former Kyso states, in order to protect its use of the brand in those areas. Following the acquisition by Chevron, the "Kyso" name fell out of use. In 2010, Chevron discontinued its retailing operations in Kentucky, leaving ownership of the Standard trademark in Kentucky in limbo. Ironically, in 2016

ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...

(the former Standard Oil of New Jersey, which had merged with Mobil in 1999 and still has stations in Kentucky to this day) was allowed to resume using the Esso trademark nationwide and thus the Esso logo returned to minor station signage at all

Exxon Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the modern company was form ...

and Mobil stations, effectively giving ExxonMobil de facto rights to the Standard name in Kentucky, though they are still owned by Chevron. Neither Chevron nor BP (which acquired

Standard Oil of Ohio The Standard Oil Company (Ohio) was an American petroleum industry, petroleum company that existed from 1870 to 1987. The company, known commonly as Sohio, was founded by John D. Rockefeller. It was established as one of the separate entities cre ...

and

Amoco Amoco ( ) is a brand of filling station, fuel stations operating in the United States and owned by British conglomerate BP since 1998. The Amoco Corporation was an American chemical and petroleum, oil company, founded by Standard Oil Company i ...

and thus gained Standard trademarks) objected to the ruling. Though now a defunct brand, Kyso

road map A road map, route map, or street map is a map that primarily displays roads and transport links rather than physical geography, natural geographical information. It is a type of navigational map that commonly includes border, political boundar ...

s published during the company's prominence in the 1930s and 1940s, are highly sought after by map collectors."When Maps Reflected the Romance of the Road"
''The New York Times'', November 12, 2006. Retrieved November 22, 2006 ''note:subscription required''.

Bibliography

1904 book by Ida M. Tarbell on PageTutor.com

References

{{Chevron Corporation Standard Oil Defunct oil companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Kentucky Energy companies established in 1886 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1886 Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 1960 1886 establishments in Kentucky 1960 disestablishments in Kentucky Chevron Corporation Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange