Petroleum Centre flourished from 1865 to 1873 as an oil-boom town whose twin livelihoods were oil and entertainment. With over 5000 residents, it quickly developed Washington and Main streets as major thoroughfares and, within a few years of its founding, had a theatre, a bank, three churches, 12 dry goods stores, several hotels, livery stables, and an unknown number of brokerage offices, saloons, gambling dives and houses of ill-repute. Because it was a company-owned town, it had no municipal government, no law enforcement except for the county sheriff, and no sanitation or public works. Coal Oil Johnny said of it, "For pure, unadulterated wickedness it eclipsed any town. . . For open, flaunted vice and sin, it laid over any other on the map..."