After the Civil War, Johnson Newlon Camden made money from the Burning Springs (Wirt County) oil rush. In 1869, Camden started an oil refining business, one of at least six in Parkersburg, which cleanses the product for various commercial uses. By 1875, he and his partners had secretly sold out to John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil but kept operating in name only as Camden Consolidated Oil Company. Camden helped Standard Oil take over the oil industry in West Virginia by buying out rivals and shutting down all but one refinery in which he had a controlling interest. As a result, Standard Oil, headquartered in Cleveland, became the center of the early oil industry. Later, Standard Oil sent Camden to Washington as a lobbyist, and he soon became a U.S. senator.