[1] His businesses included oil companies, banks, railroads, and substantial real estate in New York.

At his death in 1884, his son Pelham would inherit his fortune, making him among the richest men in the United States.

Bissell attended Dartmouth College, paying his way by teaching and writing newspaper articles.

Bissell then continued to earn a living as a teacher at Norwich Academy and also traveled, working as a journalist.

[7] In 1853, during a social visit to Dr. Dixi Crosby, a professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, Bissell saw samples of what was then known as "rock oil," which had been obtained from the ground.

[10] Recognizing the potential for rock oil in 1854, Bissell and his law partner Jonathan Eveleth, a Harvard graduate, decided to start their own firm.

Despite having received a lucrative offer from Kier, Brewer, Watson & Co decided to accept the one of Bissell and Eveleth, as they intended to sell the stock of their new enterprise through New York's financial markets, and Brewer, Watson & Co. perceived that they could therefore develop an equity position in the new business.

Bissell and Eveleth had a royalty dispute with the investors in Seneca Oil Co., although a business relationship resulted.

Bissell, through Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co., invested heavily in the surrounding region with significant financial success.

The matter was resolved when Bissell and Eveleth agreed to forgive the unpaid royalties in exchange for taking full title to the portion of the Hibbard Farm that Seneca Oil controlled.

They supplied most of the oil in west South America, exporting the surplus to Australia, England and New Zealand.

[21] As the decade progressed, large producers like John D. Rockefeller would learn at his expense, and would begin to consolidate the oil wells and refineries in Pennsylvania.

[24][25] Other competitors also emerged in the oil industry, such as the Nobel family through Branobel, later known for their Nobel Prize award, and the French branch of the Rothschild family, through the Caspian and Black Sea Oil Company led by Alphonse de Rothschild.

[29][11] Bissell and his enterprises are also featured in the Pulitzer award book The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power.

[30] His son, Pelham St. George Bissell, a millionaire of 1892, married to Helen Alsop French, daughter of Colonel Thomas J.

[33][34][35][36] Her mother, Mary Valentine Yale (1870-1916), niece of Dr. Leroy Milton Yale Jr., was the wife of Eugene Van Name Bissell, and sister-in-law of shipping magnate Edgar F. Luckenbach, whose niece was daughter of Charles Yost, United Nations Ambassador under President Nixon.

One of their children, Pelham St. George Bissell III, was Lieutenant-Colonel during World War II, Judge of Manhattan's Civil Court for 30 years, and a graduate from Columbia University.

[44] A daughter, Ophelia Molla Bissell, married Brigadier General William Wilbur.