Shryock, James J., 1821-1898

James J. Shryock was a merchant of Meadville, Crawford County, Pa.

The Atlantic & Great Western Rail Road Company was organized in Pennsylvania in 1858 and in New York and Ohio in 1860. Initially projected as a local road in the Meadville area, it soon grew into a major trunk line leading from the New York & Erie RR toward Cincinnati. In 1859, just as construction was begun, petroleum was discovered on a commercial scale on Oil Creek. By chance, the A&GW became the closest railroad to the oil fields. The railroad's foreign financiers, the Anglo-Irish promoter James McHenry, and the Spanish banker, Don Jose de Salamanca, moved to exploit the oil traffic.

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