William Cooper Stiles, Jr., born in Philadelphia on July 27, 1839, became one of the earliest operators in the West Virginia and Ohio oil fields. After investing in test wells near Fifteen Mile Creek in Ohio in 1863 and finding no oil, he returned to Philadelphia, then went to the White Oak region of West Virginia in 1864, purchased several thousand acres, and began drilling. Following an ominous start, he made a major strike and later revolutionized the oil industry by introducing the endless cable pumping system, adapted from the cable system that powered streetcars in Philadelphia. He built the Volcanic Oil and Coal Company into a major force in the local oil industry and in 1866 helped drive construction of the Laurel Fork and Sand Hill Railroad, a standard gauge line that transported oil to refineries in Parkersburg. For his contributions to Volcano, he became known as the father of Volcano, served as a county commissioner from 1881 to 1885, and died at Thornhill on December 17, 1896. His wife, Ella Magill Stiles, born on July 7, 1839, married him in Philadelphia on September 4, 1861, died unexpectedly at Thornhill in March 1875 of hydrothorax after living there less than a year, and was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. She and William had six children, four of whom lived to adulthood. After William's death in 1896, his sons Robert and Samuel took over operation of the estate and divided their time between Volcano and Parkersburg. In 1879 the Thornhill farm included 66 tilled acres, 20 acres of permanent meadow, pasture, orchard or vineyard, and 322 acres of woods and forest, with a farm value of $25,000, implements and machinery valued at $1,000, livestock valued at $2,500, labor costs of $3,600, and estimated farm production worth $4,000, along with livestock and farm output that included horses, oxen, milk cows, sheep, lambs, swine, hay, butter, and wool.