101 Ranch Oil Company

As an attorney representing local coal and oil interests of Pittsburgher James M. Guffey, the nation's largest oil and gas producer and the principal investor in Beaumont Texas’ Spindletop discovery, Marland became interested in geology and by the age of 33, the young lawyer had become involved in a series of local coal and oil promotions which soon made him a small fortune.

Marland returned to Pittsburgh and raised $500,000[notes 1] for a new oil venture, naming it the 101 Ranch Oil Company with himself as president and taking into the company as directors, O. W. Ainslie, the chef at Pittsburgh's Boyer Hotel, J. G. McCaskey, a sauerkraut producer, Marland's relative, F. R. Kenney, a retired chair manufacturer, George Miller of the 101 Ranch, and Marland's father-in-law, Samuel Collins who was also elected Treasurer.

[1] Then John G. McCaskey, the “Sauerkraut King”, a wealthy investor and young Pittsburgh adulthood friend of Marland's reorganized the company.

McFadden, Pittsburgh Alderman J. J. Kirby, J. M. Weaver, Brownlee Harper Gibson, a 1906 Princeton graduate and insurance broker and Hemphill's son in law, C. L. Stevens a Pennsylvania Medical Society member, J. J. Kearns, President of Electric Service Company, and Marland's father-in-law Samuel C. Collins.

Later, McCaskey appointed Lewis Haines Wentz, an employee in his sauerkraut operation, Secretary of the company.

For a $1,000 annual payment and a 12.5% override, a lease was obtained and on June 11, 1911, that well “Willie-Cries-For-War” struck oil, at 120 barrels per day and stayed in production until 1976 (The year that Willie Cries for War died), bringing wealth to the company and its investors.