Firmstone Lakewood Fuels Company History

Company Background

Firmstone Oil Co., T/A: Firmstone Lakewood Fuels is a petroleum distributor with offices located in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. The company’s primary business is the delivery of heating oil, kerosene, gasoline, and diesel fuel throughout the northeastern most corner of Pennsylvania. We also cover western Sullivan & Delaware Counties in New York State. Please click to see map of our coverage area.

A little history…

George Firmstone, father of the current President, Jim Firmstone, founded Firmstone Oil Company in 1937. George started the company with “Firmstone Service Station” on Main Street in Honesdale. For over 73 years, we still operate our service station at this original location. At the end of World War II, George’s brother Francis joined him in the business, and the two men expanded the operation in 1947, when they purchased the local petroleum holdings from the Atlantic Refining Company of Philadelphia. With the bulk plant and warehouse purchase, the company became an Atlantic branded Jobber/Distributor.

The management of Firmstone Oil Company was passed to brothers John and James Firmstone, upon the death of their father George in 1964. The second generation of brother’s helped expand the company’s wholesale gasoline distribution as the company supplied gasoline to many smaller Atlantic branded stations. Small, rural gas stations were very common during the latter part of the 19th century, and at least one could be found in almost every small village.

In the late 1960’s under a merger with Richfield, the Atlantic brand changed to ARCO. Firmstone Oil Company supplied gasoline to nearly a dozen branded locations, until ARCO stopped marketing in the eastern United States in the mid 1980’s. This was also an active time for lots of family dairy farms, and our company supplied fuel to many area farms.

In 1994, John Firmstone passed away and James took over sole management until his sons, Steven and Ronald, joined him in more recent years.

Lakewood Oil Company can trace its roots to Lakewood, PA in northern Wayne County, and to a feed company started circa 1915. This company, owned by Harry Balldinger, would soon diversify and became a distributer of petroleum products refined and marketed by the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. This refiner would later be known by the trade name of Esso, and finally Exxon. Ownership of Lakewood Oil would eventually pass to Sam Shair, and finally to his daughter, Sally Shair Weiss.

On August 1, 1985, Firmstone Tire & Auto Service Station became a branded Exxon dealer for gasoline through the distributor agreement of Lakewood Oil Company. This business relationship between Firmstone Oil and Lakewood Oil would culminate with the purchase of Lakewood Oil by Firmstone Oil, upon the retirement of Lakewood’s owner, Sally Shair Weiss. In November of 2007, Firmstone Lakewood Fuels was created as a result of the 2 companies merging to become the area’s leading heating fuel supplier.