Boles, Merl Lee

Merl Lee Boles, born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, on May 17, 1881, became one of the oldest old-timers in the Coalinga oil fields. Raised in California from the age of five, he lived briefly in the Lone Star district before attending public schools in Los Angeles. At fourteen, he began working in the Los Angeles oil fields as a tool dresser on North Figueroa Street before moving to the Coalinga field in 1898. At that time, the entire district contained only four producing wells. His early employment involved dressing tools for the Old Home Company and various other local outfits.

His career advanced significantly in 1905 when he became a driller for the Pittsburgh-Coalinga Oil Company, later bringing in a well yielding 5,000 barrels a day for the W. K. and Turner Oil Company. By 1914, he took over as superintendent for the Coalinga-Mohawk Oil Company, eventually becoming its manager and a stockholder in 1917. Under his leadership in 1919, the company penetrated a deep sand below 4,200 feet that produced high gravity oil and record-breaking gas volumes. Locally, he married Oregon native Lilian Stickler, with whom he had two children named Earl and Evelyn. He was also an active member of the Masons, the Elks, the Coalinga Growlers Club, and supported the Coalinga War Fund Association during wartime drives.