[2] The Tripp brothers learned of the bitumen deposits in Lambton County through a series of Geological Survey of Canada reports by Alexander Murray and Thomas Sterry Hunt and moved to Enniskillen Township in the early 1850s.
[6] The charter stipulated that the International Mining and Manufacturing Company's goals were to “erect works for the purpose of making oils, paints, burning fluids, varnishes, and other things of the like from their properties in Enniskillen.
[18] Throughout the American Civil War, he reportedly explored Louisiana and Texas for minerals under the orders of Edmund Kirby Smith and Henry Watkins Allen.
[18] After the end of the Civil War, Tripp learned of the oil discoveries on his forfeited land and returned to Canada to see if he could lay claim to his former property.
[13] Tripp abandoned Cornish when he left for the United States in November 1856, and in 1862 she applied to remove him and Richard Martin as trustees on her Enniskillen properties.
[19] During a public auction of Tripp's land in May 1866, Cornish attempted to secure a 200-acre lot, but she lost the bid after failing to pay the deposit.
[18] In 1997, Tripp and his brother Henry were inducted into the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame for discovering the bitumen deposits in Enniskillen township and establishing North America's first incorporated oil company.