Jacob J. Vandergrift helped transform the shipment of oil by river, by rail, and ultimately by pipeline. He arrived in Oil City in 1861 as a river captain. Beginning in 1868, Vandergrift, Forman and Company laid miles of pipe to move oil from wells to shipping depots. In 1877 he consolidated much of the oil pipeline industry into his United Pipe Lines, which he merged in 1881 into the National Transit Company, part of Rockefeller's Standard Oil holdings.