The second bike I ever owned--the second hand-me-down from my older brother--was a Columbia cruiser, and it had a little chain oiler built into the chain-guard. A little metal reservoir with a flip-top; it fed oil to a felt pad that brushed the top of the chain. No excess, no lack (as long as you topped off the reservoir now and then).
Some very early bikes had fully-enclosed chaincases that had an actual oil bath in the bottom of them, but I think they leaked pretty badly if the bike wasn't upright. Likely problematic for wheel removal, too.