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diff --git a/old/53672-0.txt b/old/53672-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 979cbda..0000000 --- a/old/53672-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,25515 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches in Crude-oil, by John J. McLaurin - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Sketches in Crude-oil - Some accidents and incidents of the petroleum development - in all parts of the globe - -Author: John J. McLaurin - -Release Date: December 6, 2016 [EBook #53672] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES IN CRUDE-OIL *** - - - - -Produced by KD Weeks, Chris Curnow and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Transcriber’s Note: - -This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. -Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. - -The columns employed in the list of Portraits and Illustrations have -been reduced to a single column. - -The positions of most illustrations have been adjusted slightly to fall -on paragraph breaks. In most cases, any text included in the -illustrations has been presented as a caption. - -Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please -see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding -the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. - -[Illustration: John J. McLaurin.] - - SKETCHES IN - RUDE-OIL - - _SOME ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF THE PETROLEUM - DEVELOPMENT IN ALL PARTS OF - THE GLOBE_ - - WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS - - ---------- - - BY JOHN J. MCLAURIN, - - _Author of “A Brief History of Petroleum,” “The Story of - Johnstown,” Etc._ - -[Illustration: decoration] - - “Write the vision * * * that he may run that readeth it.”—_Habakkuk - 11:2 - “I heard a song, a mighty song.”—_Ibsen_ - “Was it all a dream, some jugglery that daylight might expose?”—_N. A. - Lindsey_ - “I will a round unvarnish’d tale deliver.”—_Shakespeare_ - -[Illustration: decoration] - - - _SECOND EDITION—REVISED AND ENLARGED_ - - - ---------- - - HARRISBURG, PA. - PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR - 1898 - - - - - COPYRIGHTED, 1896 - COPYRIGHTED, 1898 - BY JOHN J. MCLAURIN - -[Illustration: Dedication] - -To— - -my neighbor and friend for many years, a man of large heart and earnest -purpose - -——HON. CHARLES MILLER—— - - FRANKLIN. PA., - -whose sterling qualities have achieved the highest success in life and -won the confidence and esteem of his fellows, this Volume is - -——Respectfully Dedicated. - - - - -“_He cometh unto you with a tale which holdeth children from play and - old men from the chimney-corner._”—_SIR PHILIP SIDNEY._ - -“_What is writ is written, would it were better._”—_SHAKESPEARE._ - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - -Life is too short to compile a book that would cover the subject fully, -hence this work is _not_ a detailed history of the great petroleum -development. Nor is it a mere collection of dry facts and figures, set -forth to show that the oil business is a pretty big enterprise. But it -_is_ a sincere endeavor to print something regarding petroleum, based -largely upon personal observation, which may be worth saving from -oblivion. The purpose is to give the busy outside world, by anecdote and -incident and brief narration, a glimpse of the grandest industry of the -ages and of the men chiefly responsible for its origin and growth. Many -of the portraits and illustrations, nearly all of them now presented for -the first time, will be valuable mementoes of individuals and localities -that have passed from mortal sight forever. If the reader shall find -that “within is more of relish than of cost” the writer of these -“Sketches” will be amply satisfied. - - SECOND EDITION - -The first edition of five-thousand copies having been exhausted, the -second is now issued. The oil-development is progressive, hence numerous -illustrations and much new matter are added. Hearty thanks are returned -hosts of friends and the public generally for kindly appreciation of the -work. Perhaps something not thanks may be due the lonely few who “care -for none of these things.” This will likely end the pleasant task of -reviewing petroleum’s wide field and “living the old days over again,” -so it is fitting to pray, with Tiny Tim, “God bless us every one.” - - - - -“_No man likes mustard by itself._”—_BEN JONSON._ - -“_He has carried every point who has mixed the useful with the - agreeable._”—_HORACE._ - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - PAGES - - CHAPTER I. THE STAR IN THE EAST 1-14 - Petroleum in Ancient Times—Known from an Early Period - in the World’s History—Mentioned in the Scriptures - and by Primitive Writers—Solomon Sustained—Stumbling - Upon the Greasy Staple in Various Lands—Incidents and - Anecdotes of Different Sorts and Sizes—Over Asia, - Africa and Europe. - - CHAPTER II. A GLIMMER IN THE WEST 15-24 - Numerous Indications of Oil on this Continent—Lake of - Asphaltum—Petroleum Springs in New York and - Pennsylvania—How History is Manufactured—Pioneers - Dipping and Utilizing the Precious Fluid—Tombstone - Literature—Pathetic Episode-Singular Strike—Geology - Tries to Explain a Knotty Point. - - CHAPTER III. NEARING THE DAWN 27-40 - Salt-Water Helping Solve the Problem—Kier’s Important - Experiments—Remarkable Shaft at Tarentum—West - Virginia and Ohio to the Front—The Lantern Fiend—What - an Old Map Showed—Kentucky Plays Trumps—The Father of - Flowing Wells—Sundry Experiences and Observations at - Various Points. - - CHAPTER IV. WHERE THE BLUE-GRASS GROWS 43-58 - Interesting Petroleum Developments in Kentucky and - Tennessee—The Famous American Well—A Boston Company - Takes Hold—Providential Escape—Regular Mountain - Vendetta—A Sunday Lynching Party—Peculiar Phases of - Piety—An Old Woman’s Welcome—Warm Reception—Stories - of Rustic Simplicity. - - CHAPTER V. A HOLE IN THE GROUND 61-80 - - The First Well Drilled for Petroleum—The Men Who - Started Oil on Its Triumphant March—Colonel Drake’s - Operations—Setting History Right—How Titusville was - Boomed and a Giant Industry Originated—Modest - Beginning of the Greatest Enterprise on Earth—Side - Droppings that Throw Light on an Important Subject. - - CHAPTER VI. THE WORLD’S LUBRICANT 83-114 - A Glance at a Pretty Settlement—Evans and His Wonderful - Well—Heavy Oil at Franklin to Grease all the Wheels - in Creation—Origin of a Popular Phrase—Operations on - French Creek—Excitement at Fever Heat—Galena and - Signal Oil-Works—Rise and Progress of a Great - Industry—Crumbs Swept Up. - - CHAPTER VII. THE VALLEY OF PETROLEUM 117-154 - Wonderful Scenes on Oil Creek—Mud and Grease - Galore—Rise and Fall of Phenomenal Towns—Shaffer, - Pioneer and Petroleum Centre—Fortune’s Queer - Vagaries—Wells Flowing Thousands of Barrels—Sherman, - Delamater and “Coal-Oil Johnnie”—From Penury to - Riches and Back—Recitals that Discount Fairy-Tales. - - CHAPTER VIII. PICKING RIPE CHERRIES 157-170 - Juicy Streaks Bordering Oil Creek—Famous Benninghoff - Robbery—Close Call for a Fortune—City Set Upon a - Hill—Allemagooselum to the Front—Cherry Run’s - Whirligig—Romance of the Reed Well—Smith and McFate - Farms—Pleasantville, Shamburg and Red Hot—Experiences - Not Unworthy of the Arabian Nights. - - CHAPTER IX. A GOURD IN THE NIGHT 173-188 - The Meteoric City that Dazzled Mankind—From Nothing to - Sixteen-Thousand Population in Three Months—First - Wells and Fabulous Prices—Noted Organizations at - Pithole—A Foretaste of Hades—Excitement and - Collapse—Speculation Run Wild—Duplicity and - Disappointment—The Wild Scramble for the Almighty - Dollar. - - CHAPTER X. UP THE WINDING RIVER 191-210 - Along the Allegheny from Oil Creek—The First Petroleum - Company’s Big Strike—Ruler of President—Fagundas, - Tidioute and Triumph Hill—The Economites—Warren and - Forest—Cherry Grove’s Bombshell—Scouts and Mystery - Wells—Exciting Experiences in the Middle - Field—Draining a Juicy Section of Oildom. - - CHAPTER XI. A BEE-LINE FOR THE NORTH 213-230 - The Great Bradford Region Looms Up—Miles of First-Class - Territory—Leading Operators—John McKeown’s - Millions—Many Lively Towns—Over the New-York - Border—All Aboard for Richburg—Crossing into - Canada—Shaw’s Strike—The Polar Region Plays a Strong - Hand in the Game of Tapping Nature’s Laboratory. - - CHAPTER XII. DOWN THE ZIG-ZAGGED STREAM 233-256 - Where the Allegheny Flows—Reno Contributes a Generous - Mite—Scrubgrass Has a Short Inning—Bullion Looms Up - with Dusters and Gushers—A Peep Around - Emlenton—Foxburg Falls into Line—Through the Clarion - District—St. Petersburg, Antwerp, Turkey City and - Dogtown—Edenburg Has a Hot Time—Parker on Deck. - - CHAPTER XIII. ON THE SOUTHERN TRAIL 259-290 - Butler’s Rich Pastures Unfold Their Oleaginous - Treasures—The Cross-Belt Deals Trumps—Petrolia, Karns - City and Millerstown—Thorn Creek Knocks the - Persimmons for a Time—McDonald Mammoths Break All - Records—Invasion of Washington—Green County Has Some - Surprises—Gleanings of More or Less Interest. - - CHAPTER XIV. MORE OYSTERS IN THE STEW 293-308 - Ohio Calls the Turn at Mecca—Macksburg, Marietta, Lima - and Findlay Heard From—West Virginia Not Left - Out—Volcano’s Early Risers—Sistersville and - Parkersburg Drop In—Hoosiers Come Out of Their - Shell—Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming, Texas and California - Help Flavor the Petroleum Tureen. - - CHAPTER XV. FROM THE WELL TO THE LAMP 311-342 - Transporting Crude-Oil by Wagons and Boats—Unfathomable - Mud and Swearing Teamsters—Pond - Freshets—Establishment of Pipe-Lines—National-Transit - Company and Some of Its Officers—Speculation in - Certificates—Exchanges at Prominent Points—The - Product That Illumines the World at Various Stages of - Progress. - - CHAPTER XVI. THE LITERARY GUILD 345-380 - Clever Journalists Who Have Catered to People of the - Oil-Regions—Newspapers and the Men Who Made - Them—Cultured Writers, Poets and Authors—Notable - Characters Portrayed Briefly—Short Extracts from Many - Sources—A Bright Galaxy of Talented Thinkers—Words - and Phrases that Will Enrich the Language for all - Time. - - CHAPTER XVII. NITRO-GLYCERINE IN THIS 383-406 - Explosives as Aids to the Production of Oil—The Roberts - Torpedo Monopoly and Its Leaders—Unprecedented - Litigation—Moonlighters at Work—Fatalities from the - Deadly Compound—Portraits and Sketches of Victims—Men - Blown to Fragments—Strange Escapes—The Loaded - Porker—Stories to Accept or Reject. - - CHAPTER XVIII. THE STANDARD OIL-COMPANY 409-426 - Growth of a Great Corporation—Misunderstood and - Misrepresented—Improvements in Treating and - Transporting Petroleum—Why Many Refineries - Collapsed—Real Meaning of the Trust—What a - Combination of Brains and Capital has - Accomplished—Men Who Built Up a Vast Enterprise that - has no Equal in the World. - - CHAPTER XIX. JUST ODDS AND ENDS 429-452 - How Natural Gas Played Its Part—Fire and Water Much in - Evidence—Changes in Methods and Appliances—Deserted - Towns—Peculiar Coincidences and Fatalities—Railroad - Episodes—Reminiscences of Bygone Scenes—Practical - Jokers—Sad Tragedies—Lights and Shadows Intermingle - and the Curtain Falls Forever. - - - - - PORTRAITS. - - _Name_ _Page_ - Abbott, William H. 320 - Adams, Rev. Clarence A. 112 - Albee, J. P. 187 - Allen, Col. M. N. 344 - Ames, Gov. Oliver 46 - Anderson, George K. 116 - Andrews, Charles J. 388 - Andrews, Frank W. 116 - Andrews, William H. 389 - Angell, Cyrus D. 111 - Archbold, John D. 420 - Armor, William C. 374 - - Babcock, John 442 - Barber, F. H. 373 - Barnsdall, Theodore 217 - Barnsdall, William 60 - Bates, Joseph 32 - Baum, William T. 82 - Bayne, S. G. 9 - Beatty, David 191 - Beers, Henry I. 165 - Bell, Edwin C. 368 - Benninghoff, John 157 - Bishop, Coleman E. 344 - Bissell, George H. 60 - Bleakley, Col. James 87 - Bloss, Henry C. 344 - Bloss, William W. 344 - Boden, Frederick 218 - Booth, J. Wilkes 104 - Borland, James B. 349 - Bowen, Frank W. 359 - Bowman, J. H. 344 - Boyle, Patrick C. 357 - Brewer, Dr. F. B. 60 - Brigham, Samuel P. 350 - Brown, Samuel Q. 149 - Brownson, Marcus 258 - Buchanan, George 22 - - Cady, Daniel 70 - Cain, Col. John H. 90 - Campbell, John R. 323 - Carnegie, Andrew 443 - Carroll, Reuben 229 - Carroll, R. W. 229 - Carter, Col. John J. 222 - Chambers, Wesley 150 - Clapp, Edwin E. 194 - Cochran, Alexander 102 - Cochran, Robert L. 346 - Colman, Moses J. 104 - Cone, Andrew 354 - Cone, Mrs. Andrew 354 - Conver, Peter O. 351 - Cornen, Peter P. 165 - Crane, Rev. Ezra G. 112 - Crawford, Dr. A. W. 240 - Crawford, John P. 107 - - _Name_ _Page_ - Crawford, William R. 82 - Criswell, Robert W. 366 - Crocker, Frederick 214 - Crossley, David 60 - Cummings, Capt. H. H. 266 - - Delamater, George W. 123 - Delamater, George B. 42 - Dennison, David D. 371 - Densmore, Emmett 446 - Densmore, James 446 - Densmore, Joel D. 446 - Densmore, William 446 - Dewoody, J. Lowry 88 - Dimick, George 261 - Dodd, Levi 87 - Dodd, Samuel C. T. 423 - Dougall, David 259 - Drake, Col. Edwin L. 60 - - Eaton, John 448 - Eaton, Rev. S. J. M. 376 - Egbert, Dr. A. G. 60 - Egbert, Dr. M. C. 133 - Emery, David 60 - Emery, Lewis 217 - Evans, James 82 - - Fassett, Col. L. H. 449 - Fertig, John 127 - Fertig, Samuel S. 121 - Fisher, Frederick 317 - Fisher, Henry 317 - Fisher, John J. 317 - Forman, George V. 326 - Forst, Barney 285 - Frew, William 32 - Fox, William L. 243 - Funk, Capt. A. B. 127 - - Galey, John H. 254 - Galloway, John 180 - Goe, Bateman 218 - Grandin, Elijah B. 202 - Grandin, John L. 202 - Gray, Samuel H. 377 - Greenlee, C. D. 285 - Griffith, W. E. 283 - Grimm, Daniel 82 - Guffey, James M. 250 - Guffey, Wesley S. 250 - - Haffey, Col. J. K. 371 - Hanna, J. Lindsay 87 - Harley, Henry 320 - Harley, Stephen W. 368 - Hasson, Capt. William 116 - Henry, Col. James T. 344 - Hess, Michael Edic 295 - Heydrick, Jesse 191 - - _Name_ _Page_ - Hoover, Col. James P. 82 - Hopkins, Edward 323 - Hughes, S. B. 196 - Hulings, Marcus 246 - Hunter, Jahu 266 - Hunter, Dr. W. G. 36 - Hyde, Charles 60 - - Irvin, Samuel P. 370 - - James, Henry F. 82 - Janes, Heman 142 - Jennings, Edward H. 293 - Jennings, Richard 261 - Johns, Walter R. 344 - Johnston, Dr. Frank H. 377 - Jones, Edward C. 373 - Jones, Capt. J. T. 217 - - Kantner, H. Beecher 349 - Karns, Stephen D. 261 - Kern, Thomas A. 371 - Kerr, J. Melville 379 - Kier, Samuel M. 30 - Kirk, David 217 - Koch, George 448 - - Lambing, James M. 254 - Leckey, Robert 218 - Lee, John H. 246 - Leonard, Charles C. 362 - Lock, Jonathan 77 - Lockhart, Charles 32 - Longwell, W. H. 344 - - Mapes, George E. 366 - Martin, Z. 79 - Martindale, Thomas 440 - Mather, John A. 175 - Metcalfe, L. H. 344 - Miller, Charles 96 - Miller, T. Preston 447 - Mitchell, Foster W. 149 - Mitchell, John L. 149 - Mitchell, J. Plumer 399 - Moorhead, Joseph 373 - Morton, Col. L. M. 344 - Munson, William 391 - Murray, F. F. 366 - Muse, James B. 349 - Myers, J. J. 239 - McCalmont, S. P. 348 - McCargo, David 443 - McClintock, Homer 357 - McCray, James S. 137 - McCullagh, W. J. 357 - McDonough, Col. Thos. 113 - McDowell, Col. Alex. 20 - McKeown, John 221 - McKinney, J. Curtis 273 - - McKinney, John L. 273 - McLaurin, John J. Front - McMullan, W. S. 90 - McMullen, Justus C. 374 - - Needle, George A. 368 - Negley, John H. 369 - Nesbitt, George H. 261 - Neyhart, Adnah 202 - Nicklin, James P. 84 - Noble, Orange 42 - - O’Day, Daniel 323 - Oesterlin, Dr. Charles 432 - Osmer, James H. 236 - - Painter, William 88 - Persons, Charles E. 371 - Phillips, Isaac N. 135 - Phillips, John T. 135 - Phillips, Thomas M. 135 - Phillips, Charles M. 135 - Phillips, William 116 - Phillips, Fulton 375 - Phipps, Porter 166 - Place, James M. 366 - Post, A. G. 443 - Plumer, Frederick 246 - Plumer, Warren C. 344 - Ponton, John 362 - Pratt, Charles 421 - Prentice, Frederic 109 - - Rattigan, P. A. 369 - Raymond, Aaron W. 87 - Reed, William 162 - Reineman, Isaac 447 - Reisinger, Col. J. W. H. 350 - - Reno, Gen. Jesse L. 234 - Rial, Edward 88 - Roberts, Col. E. A. L. 382 - Roberts, Dr. Walter B. 382 - Rockefeller, John D. 409 - Rouse, Henry R. 116 - Rowland, James W. 300 - Rumsey, George 239 - - Satterfield, John 258 - Seep, Joseph 335 - Shamburg, Dr. G. 167 - Shannon, Philip M. 198 - Shaw, John 226 - Sheakley, Gov. James 182 - Sheasley, Jacob 82 - Showalter, J. B. 445 - Sibley, Edwin H. 377 - Sibley, Joseph C. 96 - Simonds, Joseph W. 104 - Simpson, Robert 359 - Siviter, William H. 357 - Smiley, Alfred W. 181 - Smiley, Edwin W. 347 - Smiley, J. Howard 347 - Smith, George P. 90 - Smith, J. Harrison 347 - Smith, William A. 61 - Smithman, John B. 447 - Snell, Alfred L. 374 - Snowden, Rev. N. R. 20 - Speechly, Samuel 432 - Staley, W. H. 210 - Stevens, William H. 442 - Stewart, Samuel 169 - Stone, Charles W. 206 - Stuck, Col. Edward H. 357 - Swan, B. E. 101 - - Tarbell, Franklin S. 116 - Tarr, James S. 292 - Taylor, Frank H. 357 - Taylor, Hascal L. 258 - Taylor, O. P. 223 - Thompson. William A. 392 - Thomson, Frank 442 - Thropp, Miss Amelia 354 - Titus, Jonathan 65 - Truesdell, Frank W. 366 - Tyson, James 362 - - Vanausdall, John 116 - Vandergrift, Capt. J. J. 326 - Vandergrift, T. J. 209 - - Watson, D. T. 446 - Watson, Jonathan 60 - Watson, Lewis F. 206 - Welch, Philip C. 359 - Wenk, Jacob 350 - Wetter, Henry 252 - Whitaker, Albert P. 346 - Whitaker, William S. 346 - White, Charles E. 357 - Wicker, Charles C. 360 - Williams, Samuel L. 364 - - Yewens, Rev. Harry L. 345 - Young, Samuel 370 - Young, W. J. 269 - Youngson, A. B. 443 - Youngson, J. J. 443 - - Zane, John P. 116 - Zeigler, H. C. 300 - Zeigler, Col. Jacob 370 - - -------------- - - - ILLUSTRATIONS. - - _Page_ - - Oil-Wells in India 6 - - View in Oil City, Pa., after 26 - the flood, March 17, 1867 - - Baku, Russia and Bakany Views 14 - - Notable Wells on Oil Creek in 42 - 1861-2-3 - - Map of Venango County 59 - - Early Operators on Oil Creek 60 - - Group Picture—Maj. W. T. Baum, 82 - Jacob Sheasley, Henry F. - James, James Evans, W. R. - Crawford, Daniel Grimm, Col. - Jas. P. Hoover - - Miller & Sibley’s Prospect 115 - Hill Stock Farm, Franklin, - Pa. - - Group Picture—John Vanausdall, 116 - G. K. Anderson, Wm. - Phillips, F. S. Tarbell, F. - W. Andrews, Capt. Wm. - Hasson, Henry R. Rouse, John - P. Zane. D. W. Kenney’s - Allemagoozelum City Well No. - 2 - - Petroleum Centre, 1894 131 - - Wells on Benninghoff Run, 156 - Venango Co., Pa., in 1866 - - General View of Pithole in 172 - August, 1895 - - _Page_ - - Parker Oil Exchange in 1874 190 - - Up the Allegheny River 212 - - Views at St. Petersburg, 232 - Edenburg and Other Places - - Karns City, Greece City, 258 - Petrolia, 1873; Group of - Hascal L. Taylor, Marcus - Brownson and John - Satterfield - - Group Picture—Richard 261 - Jennings, S. D. Karns, - George Nesbit and George - Dimick - - Armstrong Well 281 - - Views on the Tarr Farm, Oil 292 - Creek, in 1863-6. Refinery - and Oil-Wells at Russia and - Baku - - Pond Freshet at Oil City, 310 - March, ’63 - - A Cluster of Pioneer Editors 344 - - Group Picture—F. F. Murray, 366 - Frank W. Truesdell, R. W. - Criswell, James M. Place and - George E. Mapes - - Group Picture—Col. J. K. 371 - Haffey, D. A. Dennison, - Thomas A. Kern and Charles - F. Persons - - Well Flowing Oil After 382 - Torpedoing - - Standard Building, 26 408 - Broadway, N.Y. - - - - - I. - THE STAR IN THE EAST. - -PETROLEUM IN ANCIENT TIMES—KNOWN FROM AN EARLY PERIOD IN THE WORLD’S - HISTORY—MENTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES AND BY PRIMITIVE WRITERS—SOLOMON - SUSTAINED—STUMBLING UPON THE GREASY STAPLE IN VARIOUS - LANDS—INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF DIFFERENT SORTS AND SIZES—OVER - ASIA, AFRICA AND EUROPE FOR THE STUFF. - - ---------- - -“The morning star in all its splendor was rising in the East.”—_Felix - Dahn._ - -“Alone in the increasing darkness * * * it is a beacon - light.”—_Disraeli._ - -“It were all one that I should love a bright particular - star.”—_Shakespeare._ - -“The years that are gone roll before me with their deeds.”—_Ossian._ - -“Oil out of the flinty rock.”—_Deuteronomy xxxii: 13._ - -“And the rock poured me out rivers of oil.”—_Job xxix: 6._ - -“Will the Lord be pleased with * * * ten-thousands of rivers of - oil?”—_Micah vi: 7._ - -“I have myself seen pitch drawn out of the lake and from water in - Zacynthus.”—_Herodotus._ - -“The people of Agrigentum save oil in pits and burn it in - lamps.”—_Dioscorides._ - -“Can ye not discern the signs of the times?”—_St. Matthew xvi: 3._ - - ---------- - -Petroleum, a name to conjure with and weave romances around, helps out -Solomon’s oft-misapplied declaration of “No new thing under the sun.” -Possibly it filled no place in domestic economy when the race, if the -Darwinian theory passes muster, sported as ring-tailed simians, yet the -Scriptures and primitive writers mention the article repeatedly. Many -intelligent persons, recalling the tallow-dip and lard-oil lamp of their -youth, consider the entire petroleum-business of very recent date, -whereas its history goes back to remotest antiquity. Naturally they are -disappointed to find it, in various aspects, “the same thing over -again.” Men and women in the prime of life have forgotten the flickering -pine-knot, the sputtering candle or the smoky sconce hardly long enough -to associate rock-oil with “the brave days of old.” This idea of newness -the host of fresh industries created by oil-operations has tended to -deepen in the popular mind. Enjoying the brilliant glow of a modern -argand-burner, double-wicked, silk-shaded, onyx-mounted and altogether a -genuine luxury, it seems hard to realize that the actual basis of this -up-to-date elegance has existed from time immemorial. Of derricks, -drilling-tools, tank-cars, refineries and pipe-lines our ancestors were -blissfully ignorant; but petroleum itself, the foundation of the -countless paraphernalia of the oil-trade of to-day, flourished “ere -Noah’s flood had space to dry.” Although used to a limited extent in -crude-form for thousands of years, it was reserved for the present age -to introduce the grand illuminant to the world generally. After sixty -centuries the game of “hide-and-seek” between Mother Earth and her -children has terminated in favor of the latter. They have pierced -nature’s internal laboratories, tapping the huge oil-tanks wherein the -products of her quiet chemistry had accumulated “in bond,” and up came -the unctuous fluid in volumes ample to fill all the lamps the universe -could manufacture and to grease every axle on this revolving planet! The -demon of darkness has been exorcised from the gloomy caverns of old to -make room for the modern angel of light. Science, the rare alchemist -which converts the tear of unpaid labor into a steam-giant that turns -with tireless arm the countless wheels of toil, lays bare the deepest -recesses of the past to bring forth treasures for the present. - -The capital invested in petroleum in this country has increased from -one-thousand dollars, raised in 1859 to drill the first well in -Pennsylvania, to six-hundred-millions. It is just as easy to say -six-hundred-million dollars as six-hundred-million grains of sand, but -the possibilities of such a sum of money afford material for endless -flights of the imagination. Thirty-thousand miles of pipe-lines handle -the output most expeditiously, conveying it to the seaboard at less than -teamsters used to receive for hauling it a half-mile. Ten-thousand -tank-cars have been engaged in its transportation. Seventy-five -bulk-steamers and fleets of sailing-vessels carry refined from -Philadelphia and New York to the most distant ports in Europe, Africa -and Asia. “Astral Oil” and “Standard White” have penetrated “wherever a -wheel can roll or a camel’s foot be planted.” In Pennsylvania, -South-eastern Ohio and West Virginia thirty-five-million barrels have -been produced and eight-thousand wells drilled in a single year. Add to -this the results of operations in North-eastern Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, -Tennessee, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and California, and it must be -acknowledged that petroleum is entitled to the chief seat in the -synagogue. Edward Bellamy may, perhaps, be imitated profitably and -pleasantly in this connection by “Looking-Backward.” - - Looking forward is the proper kink, - Smooth as skating in an icy rink, - In one’s planning how to fill a chink - At manifold times and places; - But for winning in a thoughtful think, - Past and present joining with a link - Guaranteed to wash and never shrink, - Looking backward holds four aces. - -[Illustration: THE BAD BOY’S IDEA OF ADAM’S FALL.] - -Precisely how, why, when, where and by whom petroleum was first -discovered and utilized nobody living can, and nobody dead will, tell -anxious inquirers. The information has “gone where the woodbine -twineth,” to join the dodo, the megatherium, the ichthyosaurus and the -“lost arts” Wendell Phillips embalmed in fadeless prose. An erratic -Joe-Millerite has traced the stuff to the Garden of Eden in a fashion -akin to the chopping logic of the Deacon’s “Wonderful One-Horse Shay.” -Hear him: - -“Adam had a fall?” - -“Sure as death and taxes.” - -“Why did he fall with such neatness and dispatch?” - -“Maybe he took a spring to fall.” - -“Naw! Because everything was greased for the occasion! Unquestionably -the only lubricant on this footstool just then was the petroleum brewed -in God’s own subterranean stills. Therefore, petroleum figured in Eden, -which was to be demonstrated according to Hoyle. See?” - -There is no “irrepressible conflict” between this reasoning, the version -of the Pentateuch and the idea of Peck’s Bad Boy that “Adam clumb a -appul-tree to put coal-oil onto it to kill the insecks, an’ he sawed a -snaik, an’ the oil made the tree slippy, an’ he fell bumpety-bump!” What -a heap of trouble would have been avoided if that pippin had been soaked -in crude-oil, that Eve might turn up her nose at it and give the serpent -the marble heart! As Miss Haney expresses it: - - “O Eve, little Eve, if you only had guess’d - Who it was that tempted you so, - You’d have kept out of mischief, nor lost your nice home - For the sake of an apple, I know.” - -Other wags attribute the longevity of antediluvian veterans to their -unstinted use of petroleum for internal and external ailments! Had -medical almanacs, patent nostrums and circus-bill testimonials been -evolved at that interesting period, the oleum-vender would have hit the -bull’s-eye plump in the center. Guess at the value of recommendations -like these, with the latest accompaniment of “before-and-after” pictures -in the newspapers: - -LAND OF NOD, _April 1, B. C. 5678.—This is to certify that I keep my -strength up to blacksmith pitch by frequent applications of Petroleum -Prophylactic and six big drinks of Benzine Bitters daily. Lifting an -elephant, with one hand tied behind me, is my favorite trick. - - SANDOW TUBAL-CAIN. - -MT. ARARAT, _July 4, B. C. 4004.—Your medicine is out of sight in our -family. It relieved papa of an overdose of fire-water, imbibed in honor -of his boat distancing Dunraven’s barge on this glorious anniversary, -and cured Ham of trichina yesterday. Mamma’s pug slid off the upper deck -into the swim and was fished out in a comatose condition. A solitary -whiff of your Pungent Petroleum Pastils revived him instantly, and he -was able to howl all night. - - SHEM & JAPHETH. - -SOMEWHERE IN ASIA, _Dec. 21, B. C. 4019.—Your incomparable Petroleum -Prophylactic, which I first learned about from a college chum, is a -daisy-cutter. Thanks to its superlative virtues, I have lived to be a -trifle older than the youngest ballet-girl in the “Black Crook.” I -celebrated my nine-hundred-and-sixty-ninth birth-day by walking umsteen -miles before luncheon, playing left-tackle with the Y. M. C. A. -Foot-ball Team in the afternoon and witnessing “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”—two -Topsys, two Markses, two Evas, two donkeys and four Siberian -Bloodhounds—in the evening. Next morning’s paper flung this ticket to -the breeze: - - “For Mayor of Jeroosalum - We nominate Methoosalum.” - -By sticking faithfully and fearlessly to your unrivaled elixir I expect -to round out my full thousand years and run for a second term. Refer -silver-skeptics and gold-bug office-seekers to me for particulars as to -the proper treatment. - - GROVER LINGER LONGER METHUSELAH. - -PLEASANT VALLEY, _Oct. 30, B. C. 5555.—I just want to shout “Eureka,” -“Excelsior,” “Hail Columbia,” “E Pluribus Unum,” and give three cheers -for your Kill-em-off Kerosene! Both my mothers in-law, who had bossed me -seventy decades, tried a can of it on a sick fire this morning. Their -funeral is billed for four o’clock p. m. to-morrow. Send me ten gallons -more at once. - - BRIGHAM YOUNG LAMECH. - -ISLES OF GREECE.—I defy the Jersey Lighting to knock me out while your -Benzine Bitters are in the ring. “A good thing; push it along.” - - SULLIVAN AJAX. - -Leaving the realm of conjecture, it is quite certain that the “pitch” -which coated the ark and the “slime” of the builders of Babel were -products of petroleum. Genesis affirms that “the vale of Siddim was full -of slime-pits”—language too direct to be dismissed by hinting vaguely at -“the mistakes of Moses.” Deuteronomy speaks of “oil out of the flinty -rock” and Micah puts the pointed query: “Will the Lord be pleased with * -* * ten thousands of rivers of oil?” To the three friends who condoled -with him in his grievous visitation of boils the patriarch of Uz -asserted: “And the rock poured me out rivers of oil.” Whatever his -hearers might think of this apparent stretch of fancy, Job’s forecast of -the oleaginous output was singularly felicitous. Evidently the -Old-Testament writers, whose wise heads geology had not muddled, knew a -good deal about the petroleum situation in their day. - -[Illustration: Well, this beats the deuce!] - -A follower of Voltaire was accustomed to wind up his assaults on -inspiration by criticising these oily quotations unmercifully. “Could -anything be more absurd,” he would ask, “than to talk of ‘oil from a -flinty rock’ and ‘rocks pouring forth rivers of oil?’ If anything were -needed to prove the Bible a fool-book from start to finish, such -utterances would settle the matter beyond dispute. Rocks yielding rivers -of oil cap the climax of ridiculous nonsense! Next they’ll want folks to -believe that Jonah swallowed the whale, hair and hide and breeches. -Bah!” - -Months and years passed away swiftly, as they have a habit of doing, and -the sturdy agnostic continued arguing pluckily. At length tidings of -oil-wells flowing thousands of barrels of crude reached him from William -Penn’s broad heritage. He came, he saw and, unlike Julius Cæsar, he -surrendered unconditionally. Remarking, “This beats the deuce!” the -doubter doubted no more. He revised his opinions, humbly accepted the -gospel and professed religion, openly and above-board. Hence the -petroleum-development is entitled to the credit of one notable -conversion, at least, and the balance is on the right side of the -ledger, assuming that a human soul outweighs the terrestrial globe in -the unerring scales of the Infinite. - - Can they be wrong, who think the stingy soul - That grudges honest toil its scanty dole - Not worth its weight in slaty, sulphur coal? - -Whether petroleum, which literally signifies “rock-oil,” be of mineral, -vegetable or animal origin matters little to the producer or consumer, -who views it from a commercial standpoint. In its natural state it is a -variable mixture of numerous liquid hydro-carbons, holding in solution -paraffine and solid bitumen, or asphaltum. The fountains of Is, on the -Euphrates, were familiar to the founders of Babylon, who secured -indestructible mortar for the walls of the city by pouring melted -asphaltum between the blocks of stone. These famous springs attracted -the attention of Alexander, Trajan and Julian. Even now asphaltum -procured from them is sold in the adjacent villages. The commodity is -skimmed off the saline and sulphurous waters and solidified by -evaporation. The ancient Egyptians used another form of the same -substance in preparing mummies, probably obtaining their supplies from a -spring on the Island of Zante, described by Herodotus. It was flowing in -his day, it is flowing to-day, and a citizen of Boston owns the -property. Wells drilled near the Suez canal in 1885 found petroleum. So -the gay world jogs on. Mummified Pharaohs are burned as fuel to drive -locomotives over the Sahara, while the Zantean fount whose oil besmeared -“the swathed and bandaged carcasses” is purchased by a Massachusetts -bean-eater! Yet victims of “that tired feeling” turn to namby-pamby -novels of the Laura-Jean-Libby brand for real romance! - - “For truth is strange, stranger than fiction.” - -Asphaltum is found in the Dead Sea, the supposed site of Sodom and -Gomorrah, and on the surface of a chain of springs along its banks, far -below the level of the ocean. Strabo referred to this remarkable feature -two thousand years ago. The destruction of the two ill-fated cities may -have been connected with, if not caused by, vast natural stores of this -inflammable petroleum. The immense accumulations of hardened rock-oil in -the center and on the banks of the sea were oxidized into rosin-like -asphalt. Pieces picked up from the waters are frequently carved, in the -convents of Jerusalem, into ornaments, which retain an oily flavor. -Aristotle, Josephus and Pliny mention similar deposits at Albania, on -the shores of the Adriatic. Dioscorides Pedanius, the Greek historian, -tells how the citizens of Agrigentum, in Sicily, burned petroleum in -rude lamps prior to the birth of Christ. For two centuries it lighted -the streets of Genoa and Parma, in northern Italy. Plutarch describes a -lake of blazing petroleum near Ecbatana. Persian wells have produced oil -liberally for ages, under the name of “naphtha,” the descendants of -Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes consuming the fluid for its light. The earliest -records of China refer to petroleum and small quantities have been found -in Thibet. An oil-fountain on one of the Ionian Islands has gushed -steadily for over twenty centuries, without once going on a strike or -taking a vacation. Austria and France likewise possess oil-springs of -considerable importance. Thomas Shirley, in 1667, tested the contents of -a shallow pit in Lancashire, England, which burned readily. Rev. John -Clayton visited it and wrote in 1691: - -“I saw a ditch where the water burned like brandy. Country-folk boil -eggs and meat in it.” - -Near Bitche, a small fort perched on the top of a peak, at the entrance -of one of the defiles of Lorraine, opening into the Vosges Mountains-a -fort which was of great embarrassment to the Prussians in their last -French campaign—and in the valley guarded by this fortress stand the -chateau and village of Walsbroun, so named from a strange spring in the -forest behind it. In the middle ages this fountain was famous. -Inscriptions, ancient coins and the relics of a Roman road attest that -it had been celebrated even in earlier times. In the sixteenth century a -basin and bath for sick people existed. No record of its abandonment has -been preserved. In the last century it was rediscovered by a medical -antiquarian, who found the naphtha, or white petroleum, almost -exhausted. - -Nine years ago Adolph Schreiner died in a Vienna hospital, destitute and -alone. Yet he was the only son of a man known in Galicia as “the -Petroleum King” and founder of the great industry of oil-refining. The -father shared the lot of many inventors and benefactors, increasing the -world’s wealth untold millions and poverty-stricken himself in his last -days. Schreiner owned a piece of ground near Baryslaw from which he took -a black, tarry muck the peasants used to heal wounds and grease -cart-axles. He kneaded a ball from the slime, stuck a wick into it and a -red flame burned until the substance exhausted. This was _the first -petroleum-lamp_! Later Schreiner heard of distillation, filled a kettle -with the black earth and placed it on the fire. The ooze boiled over and -exploded, shivering the kettle and covering the zealous experimenter -with deep scars. He improved his apparatus, produced the petroleum of -commerce and sold bottles of the fluid to druggists in 1853. He drilled -the first Galician oil-well in 1856 and built a real refinery, which -fire destroyed in 1866. He rebuilt the works on a larger scale and fire -blotted them out, ruining the owner. Gray hairs and feebleness had come, -he ceased the struggle, drank to excess and died in misery. His son, -from whom much was expected, failed as a merchant and peddled matches in -Vienna from house to house, just as the aged brother of Signor Blitz, -the world-famed conjuror, is doing in Harrisburg to-day. Dying at last -in a public hospital, kindred nor friends followed the poor outcast to a -pauper’s grave. “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and vexation of -spirit.” - - Life’s page holds each man’s autograph— - Each has his time to cry or laugh, - Each reaps his share of grain or chaff, - But all at last the dregs must quaff— - The tombstone holds their epitaph. - -[Illustration: OIL IN SUMATRA.] - -Around the volcanic isles of Cape Verde oil floats on the water and to -the south of Vesuvius rises through the Mediterranean, exactly as when -“the morning stars sang together.” Hanover, in Germany, boasts the most -northerly of European “earth-oils.” The islands of the Ottoman -Archipelago and Syria are richly endowed with the same product. Roumania -is literally flowing with petroleum, which oozes from the Carpathians -and pollutes the water-springs. Turkish domination has hindered the -development of the Roumanian region. Southern Australia is blessed with -bituminous shales, resembling those in Scotland, good for sixty gallons -of petroleum to the ton. The New-Zealanders obtained a meager supply -from the hill-sides, collecting carefully the droppings from the -interior rocks, and several test-wells have resulted satisfactorily. The -unsophisticated Sumatrans, whose straw-huts and squeaky music rendered -the Javanese village at the Columbian Exposition a tip-top novelty, -stick pipes in rocks and hills that trickle petroleum and let the liquid -drop upon their heads until their bodies are sleek and slippery as an -eel. Chauncey F. Lufkin, of Lima, Ohio, inventor of the “Disk Powers” -that make oil-wells almost pump themselves, says it is funnier than a -three-ringed circus to watch a group of half-clad girls and women, -two-thirds of them carrying babies, taking turns at this operation. He -has traveled through the oil-fields of Sumatra, India and Russia and his -kodak has reproduced many odd scenes for the delectation of his friends. -Two companies drilling in Java propose to find out all about its -oil-resources as quickly as the tools can reach the decisive spot. -Ultimately Java coffee may be tinged with an oily flavor that will -tickle the palates of consumers and set them wondering how the new aroma -escaped their notice so persistently. Verily, “no pent-up Utica -confines” petroleum within the narrow compass of a nation or a -continent. With John Wesley it may exultingly exclaim: “The whole earth -is my parish,” or echo the Shakespearean refrain: “The world’s mine -oyster.” - -J. W. Stewart, of Clarion, has been in Africa drilling for oil. An -English syndicate is behind the enterprise and test-wells are to be -bored in the goldfields on the southern coast. Stewart, who returned -lately, says it is amusing to see the monkeys climb up a derrick and -watch the drillers at work. Just how amused they will be, if the -Englishmen strike a spouter that drenches the monkeys and the derrick, -each must diagram for himself until the result of carrying the -petroleum-war into Africa is decided. C. E. Seavill, since 1874 -mining-and-land agent at Kimberley, in the diamond-fields of South -Africa, has organized a company with seventy-five-thousand dollars -capital to operate at Ceres, eighty miles north of Cape Town. He has -leased enormous tracts of land, which American experts pronounce likely -to prove rich oil-territory, and the first well will be drilled at a -spot selected by W. W. Van Ness, of New York, an authority on petroleum. -Mr. Seavill spent years endeavoring to educate the people up to the -notion that South Africa might be good for something besides gold and -precious stones. A series of gushers in the Ceres district, big enough -to discount yellow nuggets and sparkling gems, should be the fitting -reward of his enterprise. Perhaps Heber’s missionary-hymn may yet start -like this, when the Hottentots pose as oil-operators: - - From Java’s spicy mountains, - From Afric’s golden strand, - Come tales of oily fountains - Roll’d up by the third sand. - -[Illustration: OIL-WELLS IN INDIA.] - -The Rangoon district of India long yielded four-hundred-thousand -hogsheads annually, the Hindoos using the oil to heal diseases, to -preserve timber and to cremate corpses. Birma has been supplied from -this source for an unknown period. The liquid, which is of a -greenish-brown color and resembles lubricating-oil in density, gathers -in pits sunk twenty to ninety feet in beds of sandy clays, overlying -slates and sandstones. Clumsy pots or buckets, operated by quaint -windlasses, hoist the oil slowly to the mouth of the pits, whence it is -often carried across the country in leathern bags, borne on men’s -shoulders, or in earthern jars, packed into carts drawn by oxen. Major -Michael Symes, ambassador to the Court of Ava in 1765, published a -narrative of his sojourn, in which is this passage: - -“We rode until two o’clock, at which hour we reached Yaynangheomn, or -Petroleum Creek. * * * The smell of the oil is extremely offensive. It -was nearly dark when we approached the pits. There seemed to be a great -many pits within a small compass. Walking to the nearest, we found the -aperture about four feet square and the sides lined, as far as we could -see down, with timber. The oil is drawn up in an iron-pot, fastened to a -rope passed over a wooden cylinder, which revolves on an axis supported -by two upright posts. When the pot is filled, two men take hold of the -rope by the end and run down a declivity, which is cut in the ground, to -a distance equal to the depth of the well. When they reach the end of -the track the pot is raised to its proper elevation; the contents, water -and oil together, are discharged into a cistern, and the water is -afterward drawn through a hole in the bottom. * * * When a pit yielded -as much as came up to the waist of a man, it was deemed tolerably -productive; if it reached his neck it was abundant, and that which -reached no higher than his knee was accounted indifferent.” - -Labor-saving machinery has not forged to the front to any great degree -in the oil-fields of the East Indies. For the Burmese trade flat-boats -ascend the Irrawaddy to Rainanghong, a town inhabited almost exclusively -by the potters who make the earthen jars in which the oil is kept for -this peculiar traffic. The methods of saving and handling the greasy -staple have not changed one iota since John the Baptist wore his suit of -camel’s-hair and curry-combed the Sadducees in the Judean wilderness. -Progress cuts no ice beneath the shadows of the Himalayas, -notwithstanding the missionary efforts of Xavier, Judson, Carey, -Morrison and Duff. - -[Illustration: GROUP OF NATIVE OIL-OPERATORS IN INDIA DOWN FROM THE -HILLS.] - -Petroleum in India occurs in middle or lower tertiary rock. In the -Rawalpindi district of the Panjab it is found at sixteen localities. At -Gunda a well yielded eleven gallons a day for six months, from a boring -eighty feet deep, and one two-hundred feet deep, at Makum, produced a -hundred gallons an hour. The coast of Arakan and the adjacent islands -have long been famed for mud-volcanoes caused by the eruption of -hydrocarbon gases. Forty-thousand gallons a year of petroleum have been -exported by the natives from Kyoukpyu. The oil is light and pure. In -1877 European enterprise was attracted to this industry and in 1879 work -was undertaken by the Borongo Oil-Co. The company started on a large -scale and in 1883 had twenty-four wells in operation, ranging from -five-hundred to twelve-hundred feet in depth, one yielding for a few -weeks one-thousand gallons daily. The total pumped from ten wells during -the year was a quarter-million gallons; and in 1884 the company had to -suspend payment. Large supplies of high-class petroleum might be -obtained from this region, if suitable methods of working were employed. - -[Illustration: WOMEN IN JAPAN CARRYING OIL ON THEIR BACKS.] - -Japan also takes a position in the oleiferous procession allied to that -of the yellow dog under the band-wagon. At the base of Fuji-Yama, a -mountain of respectable altitude, the thrifty subjects of the Mikado -manage a cluster of oil-pits in the style practiced by their -forefathers. The mirv holes, the creaking apparatus and the general -surroundings are second editions of the Rangoon exhibits. Yum-Yum’s -countrymen are clever students and they have much to learn concerning -petroleum. Twenty-one years ago a Japanese nobleman inspected the -Pennsylvania oil-fields, sent thither to report to the government all -about the American system of operating the territory. His observations, -embodied in an official statement, failed to amend the moss-grown -processes of the Fuji-Yamans, who preferred to “fight it out on the old -line if it took all summer.” Two others followed on a similar mission in -1897. Fifty wells, from one thousand to eighteen hundred feet deep, are -producing in the Echigo province of Japan. The largest flowed -five-hundred barrels the first day, declining to eight or ten, the -customary average. The sand is white and the oil is of two grades, one -amber of 38° gravity, the other much darker and of 310 gravity. The -methods of refining and transporting are of the rudest, women carrying -the crude from the wells on their backs as squaws in North America tote -their papooses. - -[Illustration: S. G. BAYNE.] - -In 1874 S. G. Bayne, now president of the Seaboard Bank of New-York -City, visited these oriental regions. The hard fate of the benighted -heathen moved him to briny tears. They had never heard or read of “the -annealed steel coupling,” “the Palm link,” the tubing, casing, engines -and boilers the distinguished tourist had planted in every nook and -corner of Oildom. With the spirit of a true philanthropist, Bayne -determined to “set them on a higher plane.” His choicest Hindostanee -persiflage was aired in detailing the advantages of the Pennsylvania -plan of running the petroleum-machine. Tales of fortunes won on Oil -Creek and the Allegheny River were garnished with scintillations of -Irish wit that ought to have convulsed the listeners. Alas! the supine -Asiatics were not built that way and the good seed fell upon barren -soil. The story and, despite the finest lacquer and veneer -embellishments, the experience were repeated in Japan. What better could -be expected of pagans who wore skirts for full-dress, practiced -hari-kari and knew not a syllable about Brian Boru? Their conduct was -another convincing evidence of “the stern Calvinistic doctrine” of total -depravity. The Japs voted to stay in their venerable rut and not monkey -with the Yankee buzz-saw. “And the band played on.” - -Years afterwards two cars of drilling-tools and well-machinery were -shipped to Calcutta and a couple of complete rigs to Yeddo—“only this -and nothing more.” The genial Bayne attempted to square the account by -printing his eastern adventures and sending marked copies of -translations to the Indo-Japanese press. Doubtless the waste-basket -received what the office-cat spared of this unusual consignment. Mr. -Bayne began his prosperous career as an oilman by striking a snug well -in 1869, on Pine Creek, near Titusville. He has written a book on -Astronomy which twinkles with gobs of astral science Copernicus, -Herschell, Leverrier, Proctor or Maria Mitchell never dreamed of. His -unique advertisements have spread his fame from the Atlantic to the -Pacific. Digest these random samples of originality worthy of John J. -Ingalls: - -“We never make kite-track records; our speed takes in the full circle.” - -“The graveyards of the enemy are the monuments of our success.” - -“We never speak of our goods without glancing at the bust of George -Washington which squats on the top of our annealed steel safe; a -twenty-five cent plaster cast of George lends an atmosphere of veracity -to a trade which in these days it sometimes needs.” - -“Abdul Azis, the late Sultan of Morocco, bought a cheap boiler to drill -a water-well. It bu’st and he is now Abdul Azwas.” - -“We will never be buried with the ‘unknown dead’—we advertise.” - -“Our patent coupling is the precipitated vapor of fermented progress.” - -“The intellectual and æsthetic are provided for in consanguinity to -their taste.” - -“Our conversational soloists never descend to orthochromatic photography -in their orphean flights; they hug the shore of plain Anglo-Saxon and -scoop the doubting Thomas.” - -“It will never do to shake a man because the lambrequins begin to appear -on the bottom of his pants and he wears a ‘dickey’ with a sinker.” - -“The Forget-me-nots of to-day are frequently found the Has-beens of -to-morrow.” - -“Credit is the flower that blooms in life’s buttonhole.” - -“Many a man who now gives dinner-parties in a Queen-Anne front would be -nibbling his Frankfurter in a Mary-Ann back had we not given him a -helping hand at the right moment.” - -[Illustration: CLASSIC GROUND OF PETROLEUM.] - -The classic ground of Petroleum is the little peninsula of Okestra, -jutting into the Caspian Sea. Extraordinary indications of oil and gas -extend over a strip of country twenty-five miles long by a half-mile -wide, in porous sandstone. Springs of heavier petroleum flow from hills -of volcanic rocks in the vicinity. Open wells, in which the oil settles -as it oozes from the rocks, are dug sixteen to twenty feet deep. For -countless generations the simple natives dipped up the sticky fluid and -carried it great distances on their backs, to burn in its crude state, -besides sending a large amount yearly to the Shah’s dominions. It is a -forbidding spot-rocky, desolate, without a stream or a sign of -vegetation. The unfruitful soil is saturated with oil, which exudes from -the neighboring hills and sometimes filters into receptacles hewn in the -rock at a prehistoric epoch. On gala days it was part of the program to -pour the oil into the Caspian and set it ablaze, until the sea and land -and sky appeared one unbroken mass of vivid, lurid, roaring flame. The -“pillar of fire” which guided the wandering Israelites by night could -scarcely have presented a grander spectacle. The sight might well convey -to awe-stricken beholders intensely realistic notions of the place of -punishment Col. Ingersoll and Henry Ward Beecher have sought by tongue -and pen to abolish. “Old Nick,” however, at last advices was still doing -a wholesale business at the old stand! - -Near Belegan, six miles from the chief village of the Baku district, the -grandest of these superb exhibitions was given in 1817. A column of -flame, six-hundred yards in diameter, broke out naturally, hurling rocks -for days together and raising a mound nine-hundred feet high. The roar -of steaming brine was terrific. Oil and gas rise wherever a hole is -bored. The sides of the mountain are black with dark exudations, while a -spring of white oil issues from the foot. A clay-pipe or hollow reed, -steeped in lime water and set upright in the floor of a dwelling, serves -as a sufficient gas-pipe. No wonder such a land as Baku, where in the -fissures of the earth and rock the naphtha-vapors flicker into flame, -where a boiling lake is covered with flame devoid of sensible heat, -where after the autumn showers the surrounding country seems wrapped in -fire, where the October moon lights up with an azure tint the entire -west and Mount Paradise dons a robe of fiery red, where innumerable jets -envelope the plains on moonless nights, where all the phenomena of -distillation and combustion can be studied, should have aroused the -religious sentiment of oriental mystics. The adoring Parsee and the -cold-blooded chemist might worship cheek-by-jowl. Amidst this devouring -element men live and love, are born and die, plant onions and raise -sheep, as in more prosaic regions. - -At the southern extremity of the peninsula oil and gas shot upward in a -huge pyramid of light. Here was “the eternal fire of Aaku,” burning -two-thousand-years as when Zoroaster reverently beheld it and flame -became the symbol of Deity to the entranced Parsees. Here the poor -Gheber gathered the fuel to feed the sacred fire which burned -perpetually upon his altar. Hither devout pilgrims journeyed even from -far-off Cathay, to do homage and bear away a few drops of the precious -oil, before the wolf had suckled Romulus or Nebuchadnezzar had been -turned out to pasture. The “Eternal Fire,” unquenched for twenty-five -centuries, the digging of wells that tapped its supply of fuel put out a -generation ago. Modern greed, respecting neither ancient association nor -religious sentiment, drew too lavishly upon the bountiful stock that fed -throughout the ages the grandest flame in history. At Lourakhanel, not -far from Baku, is a temple built by the fire-worshipers. The sea in -places has such quantities of gas that it can be lighted and burned on -the surface of the water until extinguished by a strong wind. Strange -destiny of petroleum, first and last, to be the panderer of -idolatry—fire-worship in the olden time, mammon-worship in this era of -the “Almighty Dollar!” - -Developments from Baku to the region north of the Black Sea, -seven-hundred miles westward, have revealed vast deposits of petroleum. -Hundreds of wells have been drilled, some flowing one-hundred-thousand -barrels a day! Nobel Brothers’ No. 50, which commenced to spout in 1886, -kept a stream rising four-hundred feet into the air for seventeen -months, yielding three million barrels. This would fill a ditch five -feet wide, six feet deep, and a hundred miles long. These monsters eject -tons of sand daily, which piles up in high mounds. Stones weighing forty -pounds have been thrown out. The common way of obtaining the oil is to -raise it by means of long metal-cylinders with trap-bottoms. Pumps are -impossible on account of the fine sand coming up with the oil. These -cylinders, which will hold from one to four barrels, on being raised to -the surface are discharged into pipes or ditches. Each trip of the -bucket or cylinder takes a minute-and-a-half and the well is worked day -and night. The average daily yield of a Russian well is about -two-hundred barrels. - -Pipe-lines, refineries and railroads have been provided and the three -big companies operating the whole field consolidated in 1893. The -Rothschilds combined with the Nobels and a prohibitory tariff prevents -the importation of foreign oils. Tank-steamers ply the Caspian Sea and -the Volga, many of the railways use the crude-oil for fuel and the -supply is practically unlimited. The petroleum-products are carried in -these steamers to a point at the mouth of the Volga River called Davit -Foot, about four-hundred miles north of Baku and ninety miles from -Astrakhan, and transferred into barges. These are towed by small -tug-boats to the various distributing points on the Volga, where tanks -have been constructed for railway-shipments. The chief distributing -point upon the Volga is Tsaritzin, but there is also tankage at Saratof, -Kazan, and Nijni-Novgorod. From these points it is distributed all over -Russia in tank-cars. Some is exported to Germany and to Austria. Russian -refined may not be as good an illuminant as the American, but it is made -to burn well enough for all purposes and emits no disagreeable odor. -After taking from crude thirty per-cent. illuminating distillate, about -fifteen per-cent. is taken from the residuum. It is called “solar oil” -and the lubricating-oil distillate is next taken off. From this -distillate a very good lubricant is obtained, affected neither by -intense heat nor cold. The lubricating oil is made in Baku, but great -quantities of the distillate are shipped to England, France, Belgium and -Germany and there purified. - -Russian competition was for years the chief danger that confronted -American producers. Three partial cargoes of petroleum were sent to the -United States as an experiment, netting a snug profit. Heaven favors the -hustler from Hustlerville, who hoes his own row and doesn’t squat on a -stump expecting the cow will walk up to be milked, and American oilmen -are not easily downed. They have perfected such improvements in -handling, transporting, refining and marketing their product that the -major portion of Europe and Asia, outside of the czar’s dominions, is -their customer. Nailing their colors to the mast and keeping their -powder dry, the oil-interests of this glorious climate don’t propose to -quit barking until the last dog is dead! - -The early Persians and Tartars burned crude-oil for light in stoneware -jugs, with a spout on one side to hold the flax-wick, that answered the -purpose of lamps. In 1851 a chemist of Polish Austria exhibited a small -quantity of distilled petroleum at the World’s Fair in London. The -Austrian Emperor rewarded this step towards refining crude-oil by making -the chemist a prince. - -All these things prove conclusively that petroleum is a veritable -antique, always known and prized by millions of people in Asia, Africa -and Europe, and not a mushroom upstart. Indeed, its pedigree sizes up to -the most exacting Philadelphia requirement. Mineralogists think it was -quietly distilling “underneath the ground” when the majestic fiat went -forth: “Let there be light!” Happily “age does not wither nor custom -stale the infinite variety” of its admirable qualities. Neither is it a -hot-house exotic, adapted merely to a single clime or limited to one -favored section of any country. It is scattered widely throughout the -two hemispheres, its range of usefulness is extending constantly and it -is not put up in retail packages, that exhaust speedily. Alike in the -tropics and the zones, beneath cloudless Italian skies and the bleak -Russian firmament, amid the flowery vales of Cashmere and the -snow-crowned heights of the Caucasus, by the banks of the turbid Ganges -and the shores of the limpid Danube, this priceless boon has ever -contributed to the comfort and convenience of mankind. - -The Star in the East was crowding into line as the full orb of day. - - A PETROLEUM IDYL. - -A ragged street-Arab, taken to Sunday-school by a kind teacher, heard -for the first time the story of Christ’s boundless love and sufferings. -Big tears coursed down his grimy cheeks, until he could no longer -restrain his feelings. Springing upon the seat, the excited urchin threw -his tattered cap to the ceiling and screamed “Hurrah for Jesus!” It was -an honest, sincere, reverent tribute, which the Recording Angel must -have been delighted to note. In like manner, considering its wondrous -past, its glowing present and its prospective future, men, women and -children everywhere, while profoundly grateful to the Divine Benefactor -for the transcendent gift, may fittingly join in a universal “Hurrah for -Petroleum!” - -[Illustration: - - WELL AT BAKU, RUSSIA, FLOWING 50,000 BARRELS - A DAY, THROUGH A 16-INCH PIPE. -] - - Don’t make the mistake that Petroleum, - Like the kodak, the bike, or linoleum, - Is something decidedly new; - Whereas it was known in the Garden - When Eve, in fig-leaf Dolly Varden - Gave Adam an apple to chew. - Nor deem it a human invention, - By reason of newspaper-mention - Just lately commanding attention, - Because it is Nature’s own brew. - - Repeatedly named in the Bible, - Let none its antiquity libel - Or seek to explain it away. - It garnish’d Methuselah’s table, - Was used by the builders of Babel - And pilgrims from distant Cathay; - When Pharaoh and Moses were chummy - It help’d preserve many a mummy, - Still dreadfully life-like and gummy, - In Egypt’s stone-tombs from decay! - - At Baku Jove’s thunderbolts fir’d it, - Devout Zoroaster admir’d it - As Deity symbol’d in flame; - Parsees from the realms of Darius, - Unweariedly earnest and pious, - Adoring and worshipping came. - It cur’d Noah’s Ham of trichina, - Greas’d babies and pig-tails in China, - Heal’d Arabs from far-off Medina— - The blind and the halt and the lame! - - Herodotus saw it at Zante, - It blazed in the visions of Dante - And pyres of supine Hindostan; - The tropics and zones have rich fountains, - It bubbles ’mid snow cover’d mountains - And flows in the pits of Japan. - Confin’d to no country or nation, - A blessing to God’s whole creation - For light, heat and prime lubrication, - All hail to this grand gift to man! - -[Illustration: TEMPLE OF THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS AT LOURAKHANEL, NEAR -BAKU.] - -[Illustration: BURNING OF OIL IN THE BOGADOFF SHIPPING-YARD, RUSSIA.] - -[Illustration: VIEW OF WELLS AT BAKANY, IN THE RUSSIAN OIL-FIELD.] - - - - - II. - A GLIMMER IN THE WEST. - -NUMEROUS INDICATIONS OF OIL ON THIS CONTINENT—LAKE OF - ASPHALTUM—PETROLEUM SPRINGS IN NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA—HOW HISTORY - IS MANUFACTURED—PIONEERS DIPPING AND UTILIZING THE PRECIOUS - FLUID—TOMBSTONE LITERATURE—PATHETIC EPISODE—SINGULAR STRIKE—GEOLOGY - TRIES TO EXPLAIN A KNOTTY POINT. - - ---------- - -“Thou who wouldst see where dawned the light at last must westward - go.”—_Edwin Arnold._ - -“America is the Lord’s darling.”—_Dr. Talmage._ - -“Thee, hid the bowering vales amidst, I call.”—_Euripides._ - -“A Mercury is not to be carved out of every wood.”—_Latin Proverb._ - -“Never no duck wasn’t hatched by a drake.”—_Hall Caine._ - -“Near the Niagara is an oil-spring known to the Indians.”—_De la Roche - D’Allion, A. D. 1629._ - -“There is a fountain at the head of the Ohio, the water of which is like - oil, has a taste of iron and seems to appease pain.”—_Captain de - Joncaire, A. D. 1721._ - -“It is light bottled up for tens-of-thousands of years—light absorbed by - plants and vegetables. * * * And now, after being buried long ages, - that latent light is again brought forth and made to work for human - purposes.”—_Stephenson._ - -“It is not a farthing glim in a bedroom.”—_Charles Reade._ - -“The west glimmers with some streaks of day.”—_Shakespeare._ - -“Even the night shall be light about me.”—_Psalms cxxxix: 11._ - - ---------- - -The Land Columbus ran against, by anticipating Horace Greeley’s advice -to “Go West,” was not neglected in the unstinted distribution of -petroleum. It abounds in South America, in the West Indies, the United -States and Canada. The most extensive and phenomenal natural fountain of -petroleum ever known is on the Island of Trinidad. Hot bitumen has -filled a basin four miles in circumference, three-quarters of a mile -from the sea, estimated to contain the equivalent of ten-millions of -barrels of crude-oil. The liquid boils up continually, observing no -holidays or Sundays, seething and foaming at the center of the lake, -cooling and thickening as it recedes, and finally becoming solid -asphaltum. The bubbling, hissing, steaming caldron emits a sulphurous -odor, perceptible for ten or twelve miles and decidedly suggestive of -the orthodox Hades. Humboldt in 1799 reported his impressions of this -spontaneous marvel, in producing which the puny hand of man had no -share. From it is derived the dark, tough, semi-elastic material, first -utilized in Switzerland for this purpose, which paves the streets of -scores of cities. Few stop to reflect, as they glide over the noiseless -surface on whirling bicycles or behind prancing steeds, that the smooth -asphaltum pavements and the clear “water-white” in the piano-lamp have a -common parentage. Yet bloomers and pantaloons, twin-creations of the -tailor, or diamonds and coal, twin-links of carbon, are not related more -closely. - - “Even men and monkeys may be kin.” - -The earliest printed reference to petroleum in America is by Joseph de -la Roche D’Allion, a Franciscan missionary who crossed the Niagara river -from Canada in 1629 and wrote of oil, in what is now New York, known to -the Indians and by them given a name signifying “plenty there.” Likely -this was the petroleum occupying cavities in fossils at Black Rock, -below Buffalo, in sufficient abundance to be an object of commerce. -Concerning the celebrated oil-spring of the Seneca Indians near Cuba, N. -Y., which D’Allion may also have seen, Prof. Benjamin Silliman in 1833 -said: - -“This is situated in the western part of the county of Alleghany, in the -state of New York. This county is the third from Lake Erie on the south -line of the state, the counties of Cattaraugus and Chautauqua lying west -and forming the southwestern termination of the state of New York. The -spring is very near the line which divides Alleghany and Cattaraugus. * -* * The country is rather mountainous, but the road running between the -ridges is very good and leads through a cultivated region rich in soil -and picturesque in scenery. Its geographical formation is the same as -that which is known to prevail in the western region; a silicious -sandstone with shale, and in some places limestone, is the immediate -basis of the country. * * * The oil-spring or fountain rises in the -midst of a marshy ground. It is a muddy, dirty pool of about eighteen -feet in diameter and is nearly circular in form. There is no outlet -above ground, no stream flowing from it, and it is, of course, a -stagnant water, with no other circulation than than which springs from -the changes in temperature and from the gas and petroleum that are -constantly rising through the pool. - -“We are told that the odor of petroleum is perceived at a distance in -approaching the spring. This may be true in particular states of the -wind, but we did not distinguish any peculiar smell until we arrived on -the edge of the fountain. Here its peculiar character became very -obvious. The water is covered with a thin layer of petroleum or mineral -oil, as if coated with dirty molasses, having a yellowish-brown color. - -“They collect the petroleum by skimming it like cream from a milk-pan. -For this purpose they use a broad, flat board, made thin at one edge -like a knife; it is moved flat upon and just under the surface of the -water and is soon covered by a coating of petroleum, which is so thick -and adhesive that it does not fall off, but is removed by scraping the -instrument upon the lip of a cup. It has then a very foul appearance, -but it is purified by heating and straining it while hot through -flannel. It is used by the people of the vicinity for sprains and -rheumatism and for sores on their horses.” - -The “muddy, dirty pool” was included in an Indian reservation, one mile -square, leased in 1860 by Allen, Bradley & Co., who drove a pipe into -the bog. At thirty feet oil began to spout to the tune of -a-barrel-an-hour, a rhythm not unpleasing to the owners of the venture. -The flow continued several weeks and then “stopped short, never to go -again.” Other wells followed to a greater depth, none of them proving -sufficiently large to give the field an orchestra-chair in the -petroleum-arena. - -It is told of a jolly Cuban, wearing a skull innocent of garbage as -Uncle Ned’s, who “had no wool on the top of his head in the place where -the wool ought to grow,” that he applied oil from the “dirty pool” to an -ugly swelling on the apex of his bare cranium. The treatment lasted a -month, by which time a crop of brand-new hair had begun to sprout. The -welcome growth meant business and eventually thatched the roof of the -happy subject with a luxuriant vegetation that would have turned -Paderewski, Absalom, or the most ambitious foot-ball kicker green with -envy! Tittlebat Titmouse, over whose excruciating experiences with the -“Cyanochaitanthropopoion” that dyed his locks a bright emerald readers -of “Ten-Thousand a Year” have laughed consumedly, was “not in it” -compared with the transformed denizen of the pretty village nestling -amid the hills of the Empire State. Those inclined to pronounce this a -bald-headed fabrication may see for themselves the precise spot the -mud-hole furnishing the oil occupied prior to the advent of the prosaic, -unsentimental driving-pipe. - -Captain de Joncaire, a French officer in colonial days, who had charge -of military operations on the Upper Ohio and its tributaries in 1721, -reported “a fountain at the head of a branch of the Ohio, the water of -which is like oil.” Undoubtedly this was the same “fountain” referred to -in the _Massachusetts Magazine_ for July, 1791, as follows: - -“In the northern part of Pennsylvania is a creek called Oil Creek, which -empties into the Allegheny river. It issues from a spring on which -floats an oil similar to that called Barbadoes tar, and from which one -may gather several gallons a day. The troops sent to guard the western -posts halted at this spring, collected some of the oil and bathed their -joints with it. This gave them great relief from the rheumatism, with -which they were afflicted.” - -[Illustration: OIL-SPRING ON OIL CREEK.] - -The history of petroleum in America commences with the use the pioneer -settlers found the red-men made of it for medicine and for painting -their dusky bodies. The settlers adopted its medicinal use and retained -for various affluents of the Allegheny the Indian name of Oil Creek. -Both natives and whites collected the oil by spreading blankets on the -marshy pools along the edges of the bottom-lands at the foot of steep -hill-sides or of mountain-walls that hem in the valleys supporting -coal-measures above. The remains of ancient pits on Oil Creek-the Oil -Creek ordained to become a household word—lined with timbers and -provided with notched logs for ladders, show how for generations the -aborigines had valued and stored the product. Some of these queer -reservoirs, choked with leaves and dirt accumulated during hundreds of -years, bore trees two centuries old. Many of them, circular, square, -oblong and oval, sunk in the earth fifteen to twenty feet and strongly -cribbed, have been excavated. Their number and systematic arrangement -attest that petroleum was saved in liberal quantities by a race -possessing in some degree the elements of civilization. The oil has -preserved the timbers from the ravages of decay, “to point a moral or -adorn a tale,” and they are as sound to-day as when cut down by hands -that crumbled into dust ages ago. - -Scientists worry and perspire over “the mound-builders” and talk glibly -about “a superior race anterior to the Indians,” while ignoring the -relics of a tribe smart enough to construct enduring storehouses for -petroleum. People who did such work and filled such receptacles with oil -were not slouches who would sell their souls for whiskey and their -forest-heritage for a string of glass-beads. Did they penetrate the rock -for their supply of oil, or skim it drop by drop from the waters of the -stream? Who were they, whence came they and whither have they vanished? -Surely these are conundrums to tax the ingenuity of imaginative solvers -of perplexing riddles. Shall Macaulay’s New-Zealand voyager, after -viewing the ruins of London and flying across the Atlantic, gaze upon -the deserted oil-wells of Venango county a thousand years hence and -wonder what strange creatures, in the dim and musty past, could have -bored post-holes so deep and so promiscuously? Rip Van Winkle was right -in his plaintive wail: “How soon are we forgotten!” - -[Illustration: FIRST OIL “SHIPPED” TO PITTSBURG.] - -The renowned “spring” which may have supplied these remarkable vats was -located in the middle of Oil Creek, on the McClintock farm, three miles -above Oil City and a short distance below Rouseville. Oil would escape -from the rocks and gravel beneath the creek, appearing like air-bubbles -until it reached the surface and spread a thin film reflecting all the -colors of the rainbow. From shallow holes, dug and walled sometimes in -the bed of the stream, the oil was skimmed and husbanded jealously. The -demand was limited and the enterprise to meet it was correspondingly -modest. Nathanael Cary, the first tailor in Franklin and owner of the -tract adjoining the McClintock, peddled it about the townships early in -the century, when the population was sparse and every good housewife -laid by a bottle of “Seneca Oil” in case of accident or sickness. Cary -would sling two jars or kegs across a faithful horse, belonging to the -class of Don Quixote’s “Rosinante” and too sedate to scare at anything -short of a knickerbockered feminine astride a rubber-tired wheel. -Mounting this willing steed, which transported him steadily as “Jess” -carried the self-denying physician of “Beside the Bonnie Brier-Bush.” -the tailor-peddler went his rounds at irregular intervals. Occasionally -he took a ten-gallon cargo to Pittsburg, riding with it eighty miles on -horseback and trading the oil for cloth and groceries. His memory should -be cherished as the first “shipper” of petroleum to “the Smoky City,” -then a mere cluster of log and frame buildings in a patch of cleared -ground surrounding Fort Pitt. “Things are different now.” - -The Augusts, a family living in Cherrytree township and remembered only -by a handful of old residents, followed Cary’s example. Their stock was -procured from springs farther up Oil Creek, especially one near -Titusville, which achieved immortality as the real source of the -petroleum-development that has astounded the civilized world. They sold -the oil for “a quarter-dollar a gill” to the inhabitants of neighboring -townships. The consumption was extremely moderate, a pint usually -sufficing a household for a twelvemonth. Nature’s own remedy, it was -absolutely pure and unadulterated, a panacea for “the thousand natural -shocks that flesh is heir to,” and positively refused to mix with water. -If milk and water were equally unsocial, would not many a dispenser of -the lacteal fluid train with Othello and “find his occupation gone?” -Don’t “read the answer in the stars;” let the overworked pumps in -thousands of barnyards reply! - -No latter-day work on petroleum, no book, pamphlet, sketch or magazine -article of any pretensions has failed to reproduce part of a letter -purporting to have been sent in 1750 to General Montcalm, the French -commander who perished at Quebec nine years later, by the commander of -Fort Du Quesne, now Pittsburg. A sherry-cobbler minus the sherry would -have been pronounced less insipid than any oil-publication omitting the -favorite extract. It has been quoted as throwing light upon the -religious character of the Indians and offered as evidence of their -affinity with the fire-worshippers of the orient! Official reports -printed and endorsed it, ministers embodied it in missionary sermons and -it posed as infallible history. This is the paragraph: - -“I would desire to assure you that this is a most delightful land. Some -of the most astonishing natural wonders have been discovered by our -people. While descending the Allegheny, fifteen leagues below the mouth -of the Conewango and three above the Venango, we were invited by the -chief of the Senecas to attend a religious ceremony of his tribe. We -landed and drew up our canoes on a point where a small stream entered -the river. The tribe appeared unusually solemn. We marched up the stream -about half-a-league, where the company, a band, it appeared, had arrived -some days before us. Gigantic hills begirt us on every side. The scene -was really sublime. The great chief then recited the conquests and -heroism of their ancestors. The surface of the stream was covered with a -thick scum, which, upon applying a torch at a given signal, burst into a -complete conflagration. At the sight of the flames the Indians gave -forth the triumphant shout that made the hills and valleys re-echo -again. Here, then, is revived the ancient fire-worship of the East; -here, then, are the Children of the Sun.” - -The style of this popular composition, in its adaptation to the occasion -and circumstances, rivals Chatterton’s unsurpassed imitations of the -antique. Montcalm was a gallant soldier who lost his life fighting the -English under General Wolfe, the hero whose noble eulogy of the poet -Gray—“I would rather be the author of the ‘Elegy Written in a Country -Churchyard’ than the captor of Quebec”—should alone crown him with -unfading laurels. The commander of Fort Du Quesne also “lived and moved -and had a being.” The Allegheny River meanders as of yore, the Conewango -empties into it at Warren, the “Venango” is the French Creek which joins -the Allegheny at Franklin. The “small stream” up which they marched -“about half-a-league” was Oil Creek and the destination was the -oil-spring of Joncaire and “Nat” Cary. The “gigantic hills” have not -departed, although the “thick scum” is stored in iron tanks. But neither -of the French commanders ever wrote or read or heard of the much-quoted -correspondence, for the excellent reason that it had not been evolved -during their sojourn on this mundane sphere! - -Franklin, justly dubbed “The Nursery of Great Men,” gave birth to the -pretty story. Sixty-six years ago a bright young man was admitted to the -bar and opened a law-office in the attractive hamlet at the junction of -the Allegheny River and French Creek. He soon ranked high in his -profession and in 1839 was appointed judge of a special district-court, -created to dispose of accumulated business in Venango, Crawford, Erie -and Mercer counties. The same year a talented divinity-student was -called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church in Franklin. The -youthful minister and the new judge became warm friends and cultivated -their rare literary tastes by writing for the village-paper, a -six-column weekly. Among others they prepared a series of fictitious -articles, based upon the early settlement of Northwestern Pennsylvania, -designed to whet the public appetite for historic and legendary lore. In -one of these sketches the alleged letter to Montcalm was included. -Average readers supposed the minute descriptions and bold narratives -were rock-ribbed facts, an opinion the authors did not care to -controvert, and at length the “French commander’s letter” began to be -reprinted as actual, bona-fide, name-blown-in-the-bottle history! - -[Illustration: REV. NATHANIEL R. SNOWDEN.] - -One of the two writers who coined this interesting “fake” was Hon. James -Thompson, the eminent jurist, who learned printing in Butler, practiced -law in Venango county, served three terms—the last as speaker—in the -Legislature and one in Congress, was district-judge six years and sat on -the Supreme bench fifteen years, five of them as chief-justice of this -state. Judge Thompson removed to Erie in 1842 and finally to -Philadelphia. He married a daughter of Rev. Nathaniel R. Snowden, first -pastor of the First Presbyterian church in Harrisburg, in 1794-1803, and -afterwards master of a noted academy at Franklin. Mr. Snowden’s wife was -the daughter of Dr. Gustine, a survivor of the frightful Wyoming -massacre. Their son, an eminent Franklin physician of early times, was -the father of the late Dr. S. Gustine Snowden and of Major-General -George R. Snowden, of Philadelphia, commander of the National-Guard of -Pennsylvania. The good minister died in Armstrong county, descending to -the grave as a shock of wheat fully ripe for the harvest. - -[Illustration: COL. ALEXANDER MCDOWELL.] - - ——“What is death - To him that meets it with an upright heart? - A quiet haven, where his shatter’d bark - Harbors secure till the rough storm is past, - After a passage overhung with clouds.” - -Judge Thompson’s literary co-worker was the Rev. Cyrus Dickson, D. D., -who resigned his first charge in 1848, settled in the east and gained -distinction in the pulpit and as a forcible writer. How thoroughly these -kindred spirits, now happily reunited “beyond the smiling and the -weeping,” must have enjoyed the overwhelming success of their ingenious -plot and laughed at the easy credulity which accepted every line of -their contributions as gospel-truth! They could not fail to relish the -efforts, prompted mainly by their fanciful scene on Oil Creek, to -identify as Children of the Sun the savage braves in buckskin and -moccasins whose noblest conception of heaven was an eternal surfeit of -dog-sausage! - - The Indian may be superstitious, - His tastes may be wholly pernicious; - But he bitterly spurns—can we blame him?— - The cranks who are ready to claim him - And with a white pedigree shame him. - -Signs of petroleum in the Keystone State were not confined to Oil-Creek. -Ten miles westward, in water-wells and in the bed and near the mouth of -French Creek, the indications were numerous and unmistakable. The first -white man to turn them to account was Marcus Hulings, of Franklin, the -original Charon of Venango county. Each summer he would skim a quart or -two of “earth-oil” from a tiny pond, formed by damming a bit of the -creek, the fluid serving as a liniment and medicine. This was the small -beginning of one whose relative and namesake, two generations later, was -to rank as a leading oil-millionaire. Hulings “ferried” passengers -across the unbridged stream in a bark-canoe and plied a keel-boat to -Pittsburg, the round-trip frequently requiring four weeks. Passengers -were “few and far between,” consequently a book-keeper and a treasurer -were not engaged to take care of the receipts. The proprietor of the -canoe-ferry cleared a number of acres, raised corn and potatoes and -lived in a log-cabin, not far from the site of the brush-factory, which -stood for fifty years after his death. Probably he was buried in the -north-west corner of the old graveyard, beside his wife and son, of whom -two sunken headstones record: - - In - memory of - Michael Hulings who - departed this life: the 9th - of August, 1797. Aged - 27 years, 1 month & - 14 days. - -[Illustration] - - Massar, - wife of - Marcus Hulings - Died - Feb. 9. 1813. - Aged 67 yrs, - 2 ms and 22 ds. - -The once hallowed resting-place of many worthy pioneers sadly needs the -kindly ministrations of some “Old Mortality” to replace broken slabs, -restore illegible inscriptions and brush away the obnoxious weeds. -Quaint spelling and lettering and curious epitaphs are not uncommon. -Observe these examples: - - In - memory of James - and Catherine Ha - nne Ho departed - this life July 3 1830 - JAMES AGED TWO - years one months, - ten days CETHERIN - E AGED two months - and 14 days. - - JANE consort of - DAVID KING - who departed this - life. April 14 1829 - aged 31 years - O may I see thy tribes rejoic - and aid their triumphs - with my voice this all. my - Glory Lord to be joined to - thy saints and near to. thee - - In memory of - Samuel Riddle, Esq. - Born Aug. 4, 1821 - At Scrubgrass. - Died May 28, 1853, - At Franklin, - Venango County, Pa. - Here lies an honest lawyer, - Honored and respected living, - Lamented and mourned dead. - -Trains on the Lake-Shore Railroad thunder past the lower end of the -quiet “God’s Acre,” close to the mounds of the McDowells, the -Broadfoots, the Bowmans, the Hales and other early settlers, but the -peaceful repose of the dead can be disturbed only by the blast of -Gabriel’s trumpet on the resurrection morning. - -The venerable William Whitman, familiarly called “Doctor,” over whose -grave the snows of twenty-five long years have drifted, often told me -how, when a youngster, he carried water to the masons building Colonel -Alexander McDowell’s stone house, on Elk street. He hemmed in a pool on -the edge of French Creek, soaked up the greasy scum with a piece of -flannel, wrung out the cloth and filled several bottles with -dark-looking oil. The masons would swallow doses of it, rub it on their -bruised hands and declare it a sovereign internal and external remedy. -In early manhood Mr. Whitman settled in Canal township, eleven miles -northwest of Franklin, cultivated a farm and reared a large family. It -was the dream of his old age to see oil taken from his own land. In 1866 -two wells were drilled on the Williams tract, across the road from -Whitman’s, with encouraging prospects. Depressed prices retarded -operations and these wells remained idle. Four years later my uncle, -George Buchanan, and myself drilled on the Whitman farm. The patriarch -watched the progress of the work with feverish interest, spending hours -daily about the rig. A string of driving-pipe, up to that time said to -be the longest—153 feet—ever needed in an oil-well, had to be forced -down. Three feet farther a vein of sparkling water, tinged with sulphur, -spouted above the pipe and it has flowed uninterruptedly since. The -heavy tools pierced the rock rapidly and the delight of the “Doctor” was -unbounded. He felt confident a paying well would result and waited -impatiently for the decisive test. A boy longing for Christmas or his -first pair of boots could not be more keenly expectant. His fondest wish -was not to be gratified. He took sick and died, after a very short -illness, in 1870, four days before the well was through the sand and -pumping at the rate of fifty barrels per diem! - -[Illustration: GEORGE BUCHANAN.] - -This singular well merits a brief notice. From the first sand, not a -trace of which was met in the two wells on the other side of the road, -oil and gas arose through the water so freely that drilling was stopped -and tubing inserted. In twenty-four hours the well yielded fifty-eight -barrels of the blackest lubricant in America, 28° gravity, the hue of a -stack of ebony cats and with plenty of gas to illuminate the -neighborhood. Subsiding quickly, the tubing was drawn and the hole -drilled in quest of the third sand, the rock which furnished the lighter -petroleum on Oil Creek. Eight feet were found seven-hundred feet towards -the antipodes, a torpedo was exploded, the tubing was put back and the -well produced two barrels a day for a year, divided between the sands -about equally, the green and black oils coming out of the pipe -side-by-side and positively declining to merge into one. Other wells -were drilled years afterwards close by, without finding the jugular. Mr. -Whitman sleeps in the Baptist churchyard near Hannaville, the sleep that -shall have no awakening until the Judgment Day. Mr. Buchanan, who -operated at Rouseville, Scrubgrass, Franklin and Bradford, left the -oil-regions nine years ago for the Black Hills and died in South Dakota -on March twenty-eighth, 1897. He was a man of sterling attributes, nobly -considerate and unselfish. No truer, braver heart e’er beat in human -breast. - - “Yes, we must follow soon, will glad obey - When a few suns have rolled their cares away; - Tired with vain life, will close the weary eye— - ’Tis the great birthright of mankind to die.” - -Excavating for the Franklin canal in 1832, on the north bank of French -Creek, opposite “the infant industry” of Hulings forty years previously, -the workmen were annoyed by a persistent seepage of petroleum, -execrating it as a nuisance. A well dug on the flats ten years later, -for water, encountered such a glut of oil that the disgusted wielder of -the spade threw up his job and threw his besmeared clothes into the -creek! When the oil-excitement invaded the county-seat the greasy well -was drilled to the customary depth and proved hopelessly dry! At -Slippery Rock, in Beaver county, oil exuded abundantly from the sandy -banks and bed of the creek, failing to pan out when wells were put down. -Something of the same sort occurred in portions of Lawrence county and -on the banks of many streams in different sections of the country. A -geological expert endeavors to make it as clear as mud in this manner: - -“‘Surface shows’ have been the fascination of many. The places of most -copious escape to the surface were regarded as the favored spots where -‘the drainage from the coal measures, in defiance of the laws of gravity -and hydro-dynamics, had obligingly deposited itself. Such shows’ were -always illusory. A great ‘surface show’ is a great waste; where nature -plays the spendthrift she retains little treasure in her coffers. The -production of petroleum in quantities of economical importance has -always been from reservoirs in which nature has been hoarding it up, -instead of making a superficial and deceptive display of her wealth.” - -Applying this method, the place to find petroleum is where not a symptom -of it is visible! An honest Hibernian, asked his opinion of a notorious -falsifier, answered that “he must be chock-full ov truth, fur bedad he -niver lets any ov it git out!” The above explanation is of this stripe. -“Flee to the mountains of Hepsidam” rather than attempt to bore for oil -in localities having “shows” of the very thing you are after! These -dreadfully deceptive “shows” show that the oil has got out and emptied -the “reservoirs in which nature had been hoarding it up!” This is a -pretty rough joke on poor deluded nature! How could these “surface -shows” have strayed off anyhow, unless connected with reservoirs of -genuine petroleum at the outset? The first wells on Oil Creek and at -Franklin were drilled beside “surface shows” which revealed the -existence of petroleum and supplied Cary, August, McClintock and Hulings -with the coveted oil. These wells produced petroleum “in quantities of -economical importance,” demonstrating that “such shows were _not_ always -illusory.” Is nature buncoing petroleum-seekers by hanging out a -Will-o’-the-Wisp signal where there is “little treasure in her coffers?” -The failures at Slippery Rock and divers other places resulted from the -fact that the seepages had traveled considerable distances to find -breaks in the rocks that would permit of the “most copious escape.” - -Central and South America are fairly stocked with petroleum-indications. -In the early days of the Panama Railroad and during the construction of -the ill-fated canal numerous efforts were made to explore the -coal-regions of the Atlantic, in proximity to the ports of Colon and -Panama. These researches led to the discovery of bituminous shales and -lignite near the port of Boca del Toro, on the Caribbean Sea. The map of -Colombia shows a great indenture on the Atlantic Coast of the department -of Cauca, formed by the Gulfo de Uraba, or Darian del Nord. Into this -gulf flow the Atrato, Arboletes, Punta de Piedra and many small streams. -Explorations on the Gulf of Uraba and its tributaries disclosed -extensive strata of “oil-rock” and “oil-springs” near the Rio Arboletes. -The largest of forty of these springs has a twelve-inch crater, which -gushes oil sufficient to fill a six-inch pipe. Near this Brobdignagian -spring is a petroleum-pond sixty feet in diameter and from three to ten -feet deep. The flow of these oil-springs deserves the attention of -geologists and investors. They lie at a distance of one to three miles -from the shores of the gulf. The oil is remarkably pure, passing through -a bed of coral, which seems to act as a filter and refiner. A proper -survey of the oil-region of the Uraba would be interesting from a -scientific and an industrial standpoint. The proper development of its -possibilities might result in the control of the petroleum-market of -South America. The climate is too sultry for the display of seal sacques -and fur-overcoats, a palm-hat constituting the ordinary garb of the -average citizen. This providential dispensation eliminates dudes and -tailor-made girls, stand-up collars and bifurcated skirts from the -domestic economy of the happy Isthmians. - -In the canton of Santa Elena, Ecuador, embracing the entire area of -country between the hot springs of San Vicinte and the Pacific coast, -petroleum is found in abundance. It is of a black color, its density -varies, it is considered superior to the Pennsylvania product and is -entirely free from offensive odor. Little has been done towards working -these wells. The people are unacquainted with the proper method of -sinking them and no well has exceeded a few feet in depth. Geologists -think, when the strata of alumina and rock are pierced, reservoirs will -be found in the huge cavities formed by volcanic convulsions of the -Andes. Venezuela is in the same boat. - -From the Chira to the Fumbes river, a desert waste -one-hundred-and-eighty miles in length and fifteen miles in width, -lying along the coast between the Pacific ocean and the Andes, the -oil-field of Peru is believed to extend. For two centuries oil has -been gathered in shallow pits and stored in vats, precisely as in -Pennsylvania. The burning sun evaporated the lighter parts, leaving a -glutinous substance, which was purified and thickened to the -consistency of sealing-wax by boiling. It was shipped to southern -ports in boxes and used as glazing for the inside of Aguardiente jars. -The Spanish government monopolized the trade until 1830, when M. Lama -purchased the land. In 1869 Blanchard C. Dean and Rollin Thorne, -Americans, “denounced” the mine, won a lawsuit brought by Lama and -drilled four wells two-hundred-and-thirty feet deep, a short distance -from the beach. Each well yielded six to ten barrels a day, which -deeper drilling in 1871-2 augmented largely. Frederic Prentice, the -enterprising Pennsylvania operator, secured an enormous grant in 1870, -bored several wells—one a thousand-barreler—erected a refinery, -supplied the city of Lima with kerosene and exported considerable -quantities to England and Australia. The war with Chili compelled a -cessation of operations for some years. Dr. Tweddle, who had -established a refinery at Franklin, tried to revive the Peruvian -fields in 1887-8. He drilled a number of wells, refined the output, -enlisted New-York capital and shipped cargoes of the product to San -Francisco. Hon. Wallace L. Hardison, who represented Clarion in the -Legislature and operated at Bradford and in California, is now -exploring the Peruvian field for flowing oil-wells and gold-nuggets. -Qualified judges have no doubt that, “in the sweet-bye-and-bye,” the -oleaginous goose may hang altitudinum in Peru. - -A larger percentage of the oil-product of the United States is sent -abroad than of any other except cotton, while nearly every home in the -land is blessed with petroleum’s beneficent light. America has toed the -mark so grandly that the petroleum-industry is the one circus bigger -inside the canvas than on the posters. Beginning with 1866, the exports -of illuminating oils were doubled in 1868, again in 1871, again in 1877 -and again in 1891. The average exports per week in 1894 were as much as -for the entire year 1864. Not less impressive is the marvelous reduction -in the price of refined, so that it has found a welcome everywhere. -Export-oil averaged, in 1861, 61½ cents per gallon; in 1871, 23⅝ cents -per gallon; in 1881, 8 cents per gallon; in 1891, 6⅞ cents per gallon; -in 1892, 6 cents per gallon; in 1894, 5⅙ cents per gallon, or -one-twentieth that in 1861. But this decrease, great as it is, does not -represent the real reduction in the price of oil, as the cost of the -barrel is included in these prices. A gallon of bulk-oil cost in 1861 -not less than 58 cents; in 1894, not more than 3½ cents, or hardly -one-seventeenth. In January, 1871, the price was 75 cents; in January, -1894, one-twenty-fifth that of thirty-three years before. Consumers have -received the benefit of constant improvements and reductions in prices, -while thirteen-hundred-million dollars have come from abroad to this -country for petroleum. - -The glimmer has broadened and deepened into noon-day brightness. - - THE BABY HAS GROWN. - - PRODUCTION AND PRICES OF CRUDE PETROLEUM IN PENNSYLVANIA, WEST VIRGINIA - AND - SOUTH-EASTERN OHIO, QUANTITY AND VALUE OF OIL (REFINED REDUCED TO CRUDE - EQUIVALENT) EXPORTED FROM THE UNITED STATES, WELLS COMPLETED, AND - AVERAGE YEARLY PRICE OF REFINED AT NEW YORK, FROM SEPTEMBER - 1ST, 1859, TO DECEMBER 31ST, 1896. - - ---------- - - If needs be, petroleum may well be defiant; - The baby has grown to be earth’s greatest giant. - - TOTAL LOWEST HIGHEST YEARLY TOTAL TOTAL TOTAL REFINED - BARRELS MONTHLY AVERAGE WELLS GALLONS VALUE AT PER GAL. - YEARS. PRODUCED. AVERAGE PRICE. PRICE. DRILLED. EXPORTED. NEW YORK. NEW YORK. - 1859 1,873 $20 00 $20 00 $20 00 4 - 1860 547,439 2 75 19 25 9 60 175 1,300 $850 - 1861 2,119,045 10 1 00 49 340 12,700 5,800 $0 61½ - 1862 3,153,183 10 2 25 1 05 425 400,000 146,000 36⅜ - 1863 2,667,543 2 25 3 37½ 3 15 514 1,000,000 450,000 44¾ - 1864 2,215,150 4 00 12 12½ 9 87½ 937 22,210,369 10,782,689 65 - 1865 2,560,200 4 62½ 8 25 6 59 890 25,496,849 16,563,413 58¾ - 1866 3,385,105 2 12½ 4 50 3 74 830 50,987,341 24,830,887 42½ - 1867 3,458,113 1 75 3 55 41 876 70,255,581 24,407,642 28⅜ - 1868 3,540,670 1 95 5 12½ 3 62½ 1,055 79,456,888 21,810,676 29½ - 1869 4,186,475 4 95 6 95 5 63¾ 1,149 100,636,684 31,127,433 32¾ - 1870 5,308,046 3 15 4 52½ 3 89 1,653 113,735,294 32,668,960 26⅜ - 1871 5,278,072 3 82½ 4 82½ 4 34 1,392 149,892,691 36,894,810 24¼ - 1872 6,505,774 3 15 4 92½ 3 64 1,183 145,171,583 34,058,390 23⅝ - 1873 9,849,508 1 00 2 60 1 83 1,263 187,815,187 42,050,756 17⅞ - 1874 11,102,114 55 1 90 1 17 1,317 247,806,483 41,245,815 13 - 1875 8,948,749 1 03 1 75 1 35 2,398 221,955,308 30,078,568 13 - 1876 9,142,940 1 80 3 81 2 56¼ 2,920 243,650,152 32,915,786 19⅛ - 1877 13,230,330 1 80 3 53¼ 2 42 3,939 309,198,914 61,789,438 15½ - 1878 15,272,491 82½ 1 65¼ 1 19 3,064 338,841,303 46,574,974 10¾ - 1879 19,835,903 67⅛ 1 18⅛ 85⅞ 3,048 378,310,010 40,305,249 08⅛ - 1880 26,027,631 80 1 10¼ 94½ 4,217 423,964,699 36,208,625 09 - 1881 27,376,509 81¼ 95½ 85¼ 3,880 397,660,262 40,315,609 08 - 1882 30,053,500 54½ 1 27⅛ 78⅝ 3,304 559,954,590 51,232,706 07⅜ - 1883 23,128,389 92½ 1 16⅞ 1 06¾ 2,847 505,931,622 44,913,079 08 - 1884 23,772,209 63¾ 1 11¼ 83¾ 2,265 513,660,092 47,103,248 08⅛ - 1885 20,776,041 70⅞ 1 05½ 88½ 2,761 574,628,180 50,257,747 08 - 1886 25,798,000 62⅛ 88¾ 71¼ 3,478 577,781,752 50,199,844 07⅛ - 1887 21,478,883 59¼ 80 66⅝ 1,660 592,803,267 46,824,933 06¾ - 1888 16,488,668 76 93¾ 87 1,515 578,351,638 47,042,409 07½ - 1889 21,487,435 83¼ 1 08⅛ 94 5,434 616,195,459 49,913,677 07⅛ - 1890 30,065,867 68⅞ 1 05 86½ 6,435 664,491,498 51,403,089 07⅜ - 1891 35,742,152 59 77¾ 66¾ 3,390 710,124,077 52,026,734 06⅞ - 1892 33,332,306 52 64⅛ 55⅛ 1,954 715,471,979 44,805,992 06 - 1893 31,362,890 53½ 78⅜ 64 1,980 804,337,168 42,142,058 05¼ - 1894 29,597,614 80 91⅜ 84 3,756 908,281,968 41,499,806 05⅙ - 1895 31,147,235 95⅝ 1 79⅝ 1 35¼ 7,138 853,126,180 56,223,425 07⅓ - 1896 33,298,437 1 40 1 50 1 19 7,811 927,431,959 62,132,432 06⅞ - —————————— —————-————— —————————— ————————— - Totals 593,232,488 93,197 13,110,140,927 $6,332,963,049 - WELLS BARRELS STOCKS - OPERATIONS IN 1896. DRILLED. PRODUCED. DEC. 31. - Pennsylvania, West Virginia, South-eastern Ohio 7,811 33,298,437 9,550,582 - North-eastern Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, - Kansas, - Colorado, Wyoming, California 5,895 22,491,500 23,985,000 - ———— ————— ————— - TOTALS 13,706 55,789,937 33,535,582 - - ---------- - - Breadstuffs and cotton, iron and coal - All have been distanc’d; oil has the pole. - -[Illustration: VIEW IN OIL CITY, PA., AFTER THE FLOOD, MARCH 17, 1865.] - - - - - III. - NEARING THE DAWN. - -SALT-WATER HELPING SOLVE THE PROBLEM—KIER’S IMPORTANT - EXPERIMENTS—REMARKABLE SHAFT AT TARENTUM—WEST VIRGINIA AND OHIO TO - THE FRONT—THE LANTERN FIEND—WHAT AN OLD MAP SHOWED—KENTUCKY PLAYS - TRUMPS—THE FATHER OF FLOWING WELLS—SUNDRY EXPERIENCES AND - OBSERVATIONS AT VARIOUS POINTS. - - ---------- - -“Just now the golden-sandaled dawn.”—_Sappho._ - -“The first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into the full, - clear light.”—_Newton._ - -“Let there be light.”—_Genesis i: 3._ - -“Come into the bright light beyond.”—_Wilson Barrett._ - -“Watchman, what of the night? The morning cometh.”—_Isaiah xxi: 11-12._ - -“The for’ard light’s shining bright and all’s well.”—_Richard Harding - Davis._ - -“A salt-well dug in 1814, to the depth of four-hundred feet, near - Marietta, discharged oil periodically at intervals of two to four - days.”—_Dr. Hildreth, A. D. 1819._ - -“Nearly all the Kanawha salt-wells contained more or less - petroleum.”—_Dr. Hale, A. D. 1825._ - -“There are numerous springs of this mineral-oil in various regions of - the West and South.”—_Prof. B. Silliman, A. D. 1833._ - -“The morning star was turning golden-white, like cream in a violet - sky.”—_S. R. Crockett._ - -“Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid.”—_Bishop Heber._ - -“As dawn and twilight meet in northern clime.”—_Lowell._ - -“I waited underneath the dawning hills.”—_Tennyson._ - -“She saw herself * * * cleaning the Kerosene-lamp.”—_Tasma._ - -“Even the night shall be light about me.”—_Psalms cxxxi: 11._ - - ---------- - - - - -While cannel-coal in the western end of Pennsylvania and other sections -of the country, bitumen and shales from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake -Huron, chapapote or mineral pitch in Cuba and San Domingo, oozings in -Peru and Ecuador, asphaltum in Canada and oil-springs in Columbia and a -half-dozen states of the Union from California to New York denoted the -presence of petroleum over the greater part of this hemisphere, wells -bored for salt were leading factors in bringing about its full -development. Scores of these wells pumped more or less oil long before -it “entered into the mind of man” to utilize the unwelcome intruder. -Indeed, so often were brine and petroleum found in the same geological -formation that scientists ascribed to them a kindred origin. The first -borings to establish this peculiarity were on the Kanawha River, in West -Virginia, a state destined to play an important part in oleaginous -affairs. Dr. J. P. Hale, a reputable authority, claims oil caused much -annoyance in Ruffner Brothers’ salt-well, begun in 1806, bored sixty -feet with an iron-rod and two-inch chisel-bit attached by a rope to a -spring-pole, completed in 1808 and memorable as the _first -artesian-well_ on this continent. The fluid came from the territory once -famous as the “Kanawha Salines,” reputed to produce an unsurpassed -table-salt. Before the advent of the white man the Indians made salt -from the saline springs a short distance above the site of Charleston. -There Daniel Boone had a log-cabin and George Washington, as long ago as -1775, for military services was awarded lands containing a “burning -spring.” Fired by the tidings of the saline springs, Joseph Ruffner sold -his possessions in the Shenandoah Valley and journeyed beyond the -mountains in 1794 to establish salt-works on the Kanawha. He leased the -salt-interest to Elisha Brooks, who took brine from the shallow -quicksands. Joseph Ruffner dying, his sons, Joseph and David, acquired -his lands and salt-springs and resolved to try some better plan of -procuring the brine. A section of a hollow sycamore-tree, sunk into the -quicksands, suggested the idea of wooden casing and the wisdom of boring -a little way from the spring. A piece of oak, bored from end to end as -log-pumps used to be, was set in the hole. The ingenious brothers -devised a chisel-like drill to pierce the rock, fastened it to a rope -fixed to a spring-pole and bounced the tools briskly. To shut out the -weak brine above from the strong brine beneath they put in _tin-tubing_, -around which they tied a _leather-bag_ filled with flax-seed. Thus, -three generations ago, Joseph and David Ruffner, aided later by William -Morris and his invention of “jars” in drilling-tools, stumbled upon the -basis of casing, seed-bagging and boring oil-wells. All honor to the -memory of these worthy pioneers, groping in the dark to clear the road -for the great petroleum-boom! Dr. Hale continues: - -“Nearly all the Kanawha salt-wells have contained more or less -petroleum, and some of the deeper wells a considerable flow. Many -persons now think, trusting to their recollections, that some of the -wells afforded as much as twenty-five to fifty barrels per day. This was -allowed to flow over from the top of the salt-cisterns to the river, -where, from its specific gravity, it spread over a large surface, and by -its beautiful iridescent hues and not very savory odor could be traced -for many miles down the stream. It was from this that the river received -the nickname of ‘Old Greasy,’ by which it was long known by Kanawha -boatmen and others.” - -At the mouth of Hawkinberry Run, three miles north of Fairmount, in -Marion county, a well for salt was put down in 1829 to the depth of -six-hundred feet. “A stinking substance gave great trouble,” an owner -reported, “forming three or four inches on the salt-water tank, which -was four feet wide and sixteen feet long.” They discovered the stuff -would burn, dipped it off with buckets and consumed it for fuel under -the salt-pan. J. J. Burns in 1865 leased the farm, drilled the abandoned -well deeper, stuck the tools in the hole and had to quit after -penetrating sixty feet of “a fine grit oil-rock.” Mr. Burns wrote in -1871: - -“The second well put down in this county was about the year 1835, on the -West Fork River, just below what is now known as the Gaston mines. The -well was sunk by a Mr. Hill, of Armstrong county, Pa., who found -salt-water of the purest quality and in a great quantity, same as in the -first well. He died just after the well was finished, so nothing was -done with it. About the time this well was completed one was drilled in -the Morgan settlement, just below Rivesville. Salt-water was found with -great quantities of gas. Twenty-five years since the farmers on Little -Bingamon Creek formed a company and drilled a well—I think to a depth of -eight-hundred feet—in which they claimed to have found oil in paying -quantities. You can go to it to-day and get oil out of it. The president -told me he saw oil spout out of the tubing forty or fifty feet, just as -they started the pump to test it. The company got to quarreling among -themselves, some of the stockholders died and part of the stock got into -the hands of minor heirs, so nothing more was done.” - -Similar results attended other salt-wells in West Virginia. The first -oil-speculators were Bosworth, Wells & Co., of Marietta, Ohio, who as -early as 1843 bought shipments of two to five barrels of crude from -Virginians who secured it on the Hughes River, a tributary of the Little -Kanawha. This was sold for medical purposes in Pittsburg, Baltimore, New -York and Philadelphia. - -Notable instances of this kind occurred on the Allegheny River, opposite -Tarentum, twenty miles above Pittsburg, as early as 1800. Wells sunk for -brine to supply the salt-works were troubled with what the owners called -“odd, mysterious grease.” Samuel M. Kier, a Pittsburg druggist, whose -father worked some of these wells, conceived the idea of saving the -“grease,” which for years had run waste, and in 1846 he bottled it as a -medicine. He knew it had commercial and medicinal value and spared no -exertions to introduce it widely. He believed implicitly in the greenish -fluid taken from his salt-wells, at first as a healing agent and farther -on as an illuminant. A bottle of the oil, corked and labeled by Kier’s -own hands, lies on my desk at this moment, in a wrapper dingy with age -and redolent of crude. A four-page circular inside recites the good -qualities of the specific in gorgeous language P. T. Barnum himself -would not have scorned to father. For example: - -“Kier’s Petroleum, or Rock Oil, Celebrated for its Wonderful Curative -Powers. A Natural Remedy! Procured from a Well in Allegheny Co., Pa., -Four-Hundred Feet below the Earth’s Surface. Put up and Sold by Samuel -M. Kier, 363 Liberty Street, Pittsburgh, Pa. - - “The healthful balm, from Nature’s secret spring, - The bloom of health and life to man will bring; - As from her depths this magic liquid flows - To calm our sufferings and assuage our woes. - -“The Petroleum has been fully tested! It was placed before the public as -A REMEDY OF WONDERFUL EFFICACY. Every one not acquainted with its -virtues doubted its healing qualities. The cry of humbug was raised -against it. It had some friends—those who were cured through its -wonderful agency. Those spoke in its favor. The lame through its -instrumentality were made to walk—the blind to see. Those who had -suffered for years under the torturing pains of RHEUMATISM, GOUT AND -NEURALGIA were restored to health and usefulness. Several who were blind -were made to see. If you still have doubts, go and ask those who have -been cured! * * * We have the witnesses, crowds of them, who will -testify in terms stronger than we can write them to the efficacy of this -remedy; cases abandoned by physicians of unquestionable celebrity have -been made to exclaim, “THIS IS THE MOST WONDERFUL REMEDY YET -DISCOVERED!” * * * Its transcendent power to heal MUST and WILL become -known and appreciated. * * * The Petroleum is a Natural Remedy; it is -put up as it flows from the bosom of the earth, without anything being -added to or taken from it. It gets its ingredients from the beds of -substances which it passes over in its secret channel. They are blended -together in such a way as to defy all human competition. * * * Petroleum -will continue to be used and applied as a Remedy as long as man -continues to be afflicted with disease. Its discovery is a new era in -medicine.” - -A host of certificates of astonishing cases of curable and incurable -ailments, from blindness to colic, followed this preliminary -announcement. The “remedy” was trundled about by agents in vehicles -elaborately gilt and painted with representations of the Good Samaritan -ministering to a wounded Hebrew writhing in agony under a palm-tree. Two -barrels of oil a day were sold at fifty cents a half-pint. The expense -of bottling and peddling it consumed the bulk of the profits. Kier -experimented with it for light, about 1848, burning it at his wells and -racking his fertile brain for some means to get rid of the offensive -smoke and odor. To be entirely successful the oil must have some other -than this crude form. The tireless experimenter went to Philadelphia to -consult a chemist, who advised distillation, without a hint as to the -necessary apparatus. Fitting a kettle with a cover and a worm, the first -outcome of the embryo refiner’s one-barrel still was a dark substance -little superior to the crude. Learning to manage the fires so as not to -send the oil over too rapidly, by twice distilling he produced an -article the color of cider, which had a horrible smell, as he knew -nothing of the treatment with acids that has revolutionized the light of -the world and brought petroleum to the front. - -Slight changes in the camphene-lamp enabled him to burn the distillate -without smoke. Improvements in the lamp, especially the addition of the -“Virna burner,” and in the quality of the fluid brought the -“carbon-oil,” as it was usually termed, to a goodly measure of -perfection. One lot of oil used in these experiments was a purchase of -three barrels in April, 1853, from Charles Lockhart, now an officer of -the Standard Oil-Company in Pittsburg. It came from the Huff well, a -mile down the river from Tarentum. “Carbon-oil” sold readily for a -dollar-fifty per gallon and provided a market for all the petroleum the -salt-wells in the vicinity could produce. The day was dawning and the -great light of the nineteenth century had been foreshadowed in the broad -commonwealth that was to send it forth on its shining mission to all -mankind. - -[Illustration: SAMUEL M. KIER.] - -Samuel M. Kier slumbers in Allegheny cemetery, resting in peace “after -life’s fitful fever.” He was the first to appreciate the value of -petroleum and to purify it by ordinary refining. His product was in -brisk demand for illuminating purposes. He invented a lamp with a -four-pronged burner, arranged to admit air and give a steady light. If -he failed to reap the highest advantage from his researches, to patent -his process and to sink wells for petroleum alone, he paved the way for -others, enlarged the field of the product’s usefulness and by his labors -suggested its extensive development. Has not he earned a monument more -enduring than brass or marble? - - “As in a building - Stone rests on stone, and wanting the foundation - All would be wanting, so in human life - Each action rests on the foregoing event - That made it possible, but is forgotten - And buried in the earth.” - -These operations at Tarentum and Pittsburg led to an extraordinary -attempt to fathom the petroleum-basin by _digging_ to the oil-bearing -rock! Through Kier’s experiments the crude had become worth from fifty -cents to one dollar a gallon. Among the owners of Tarentum’s salt-wells -was Thomas Donnelly, who sold his well on the Humes farm to Peterson & -Irwin. The senior partner, ex-Mayor Louis Peterson, of Allegheny, lived -until recently to recount his interesting experiences with the coming -light. He thought the Donnelly well, which produced salt-water only, if -enlarged and pumped vigorously, would produce oil. Humes received -twenty-thousand dollars for his farm. The hole was reamed out and -yielded five barrels of petroleum a day. This was in 1856. A specimen -sent to Baltimore was used successfully in oiling wool at the -carding-mills and the total production was shipped to that city for -eight years. Eastern capitalists bought the farm and well in 1864, -organized “The Tarentum Salt-and-Oil-Company” and determined to dig a -shaft down to the source of supply! The wells were four-hundred to -five-hundred feet deep. The officers of the company argued that it was -feasible to reach that far into the bowels of the earth with pick and -shovel and discover a monstrous cave of brine and oil! They picked a -spot twenty rods from the Donnelly well, sent to England for skilled -miners and started a shaft about eight feet square. Over two years were -employed and forty-thousand dollars spent in sinking this shaft. Heavy -timbers walled the upper portion, the hard rock below needing none. The -water was pumped through iron-pipes, nine men formed each shift and the -work progressed merrily to the depth of four-hundred feet. Then the -salt-water in the Donnelly well was affected by the fresh-water in the -shaft, losing half its strength whenever the latter was let stand a few -hours, showing their intimate connection by veins or crevices. Mr. -Peterson said of it: - -“The digging of the shaft was finally abandoned in the darkest period of -the war, from the necessities of the time. A New Yorker named Ferris, -and Wm. McKeown, of Pittsburg, bought the property, shaft and all. The -daring piece of engineering was neglected and finally commenced to fill -up with cinders and dirt, until at last it was level again with the -surface of the ground. You may walk over it to-day and I could point it -out to you if I was up there. Dig it out and you will find those iron -pipes and timbers still there, just as they were originally put in.” - -Dyed-in-the-wool Tarentumites insist that natural gas caused the -suspension of work, flowing into the shaft at such a gait that the -miners refused to risk the chances of a speedy trip to Kingdom Come by -suffocation or the ignition of the subtile vapor. This was the case -with two shafts at Tidioute and Petroleum Centre, neither of them -nearly the depth of “the daring piece of engineering” which “set the -pace” for enterprises of this novel brand. The New-York -Enterprise-and-Mining-Company projected the former, intending to sink -a shaft eight feet by twelve to the third sand and tunnel the rock for -petroleum by wholesale. The shaft reached oil-producing sand at -one-hundred-and-sixty feet. The miners worked in squads, eight-hour -turns. Holes had been drilled into the rock at various angles and a -lot of conglomerate brought to the surface. Once a short delay -occurred in changing squads, during which the air-pump, employed to -exhaust the gases from the pit and supply pure ozone from above, was -let stand idle. Mr. Hart was seated on a timber across the shaft when -the men were ready to go down. As was the custom, a man dropped a -taper into the opening to test the air. Natural gas had filled the -shaft and it ignited from the burning torch, causing a terrific -explosion. The workmen were thrown in all directions and lay stunned -and burned. When they regained consciousness Hart was nowhere to be -seen and flames rose from the mouth of the pit to the tree-tops. -Hart’s body was eventually recovered from the bottom of the shaft, -horribly mangled and charred. Work was abandoned and the hole was -partly filled up and covered, none caring to pry farther into the -petroleum-secrets of nature. Were meddlers who seek to poke their -noses into the secrets of other people dealt with thus summarily, what -a thinning out of the population there would be! - -Peterson & Irwin’s treatment of the Donnelly well brings out clearly -that the sole object was to procure oil. This is important, in view of -the claim that the first well drilled exclusively for petroleum was put -down in 1859. Practically the two Pittsburgers anticipated this by three -years, a circumstance to remember when considering the varied events -which led up to the petroleum development. - -“We do homage to the claims of the ancients and neglect those of later -date.” - -Charles Lockhart, still an honored resident of Pittsburg, may fairly -claim to be the oldest oil-operator in the United States. His first -transaction in petroleum was the purchase, in April of 1853, of three -barrels of crude from Isaac Huff, who brought the stuff in a skiff from -a salt-well at Tarentum. Huff sold the lot at thirty-two cents a gallon -to his friend Lockhart, then connected with a leading mercantile house, -and agreed to furnish him all the well produced during the year at the -same price. The contract might seem like an elephant on his hands, but -Lockhart’s faith in the new industry was not a plant too delicate to -stand alone. Shrewd and far-seeing, the young dealer did not need a Lick -telescope with a Peate lens to discern that this “mysterious grease” -must soon be utilized for the general benefit. Believing a grand future -was about to dawn upon petroleum, he disposed of the Huff oil and -contract at a handsome profit to Samuel M. Kier, who had a small -refinery on Seventh Avenue and the old Canal, and at once secured -control of the Tarentum salt-works. From that date to the present—1853 -to 1897—a period of forty-four years, Charles Lockhart has been an -oil-producer, active in furthering the best interests of the business, a -leader in improvements to foster its growth and never lacking the pluck -and enterprise essential to the highest success. - -[Illustration: CHARLES LOCKHART.] - -[Illustration: JOSEPH BATES.] - -[Illustration: WILLIAM FREW.] - -In the fall of 1859 he formed a partnership with William Frew, William -Phillips, John Vanausdall and A. V. Kipp to lease lands and put down -oil-wells in Venango County. The five partners drilled on the Tarr Farm -and the east bank of the Allegheny River. The Crystal Palace, an old -keel-boat that cost them twenty-five dollars, horses towed to Oil City -with their machinery and provisions. Accommodations were decidedly -scarce in the settlement, just sprouting at the mouth of Oil Creek, and -the boat served the workmen as a lodging and boarding-place. They cooked -their own meals, of which pork and beans, coffee and molasses were prime -constituents, washed their own clothes and not seldom carried flour -three miles into the country to have a farmer’s wife bake it into -digestible bread. The hardy fellows could navigate the Ohio or the -Allegheny, brave the terrors of a Chilkoot Pass, punch a hole hundreds -of feet into the rock, fry bacon to a turn and dish up a savory meal, -but baking real loaves stumped them every time. The first well—the -Albion, across the river—yielded forty barrels a day. From it, in March -of 1860, the owners shipped sixty barrels of crude, per the steamboat -Venango, Captain Reynolds commanding, _the first oil boated to -Pittsburg_ from the Pennsylvania oil-fields. It was hauled to the store -of J. McCully & Co., on Wood street, near Liberty—Lockhart and Frew were -junior members of the firm—and rolled upon the pavement. Much excitement -followed the landing of the barrels, to which thick layers of Venago’s -mud stuck wickedly. Hundreds of curious Pittsburgers viewed the -importation with extreme interest, curling their noses upwards as the -petroleum-aroma assailed them with an odor resembling liquid Limburger -rather than brut wine. Bungs were taken out to let visitors inspect the -fluid, inhale the unmixed odor and wonder what “in the name of Sam Hill” -people wanted with “the nasty stuff.” A small refinery on the -Fifth-Avenue extension of the city paid thirty-four cents a gallon for -the oil. Such was the humble beginning of a traffic fated to outstrip -coal, iron and cotton and give even breadstuffs a stiff run for first -money. - - “Perfection is made up of trifles, but perfection is no trifle.” - -The quintette drilled numerous wells, one of them the largest on Oil -Creek, and prospered greatly. Phillips, Vanausdall and Kipp sold out to -their partners, who organized as Lockhart & Frew. It was an ideal union -of capacity and capital, not a mismating of cut-glass aspiration with -tin-cup attainment, and its wheel of fortune did not travel with a -punctured tire. The new firm shipped extensively, built the Brilliant -Refinery in 1861 and speedily stepped to the front in handling the -greasy staple. In May of 1860 Mr. Lockhart went to Europe with samples -of crude and refined-distillate to establish a market in England. These -were _the first samples_ of crude-petroleum and its products ever -carried across the Atlantic. The mission was most successful, a large -foreign demand springing up quickly. Lockhart & Frew exerted vast -influence in the petroleum-trade, opened branch-agencies throughout the -oil-regions and eventually combined with the Standard Oil-Company. Major -Frew, a man of rare sagacity and broad ideas, died in March of 1880. He -disliked ostentation, was quiet in his tastes and habits, managed the -accounts and office-work of the firm with scrupulous exactness, was -always kindly and genial, helped the needy, served as treasurer of the -Christian Commission and left a fine estate. Time has dealt gently with -Mr. Lockhart, who is young in heart and sympathy and good-fellowship. -His compliments have the juiciness of the peach, his pleasant jokes are -spiced with originality, his years sit upon him lightly and his old -friends are not forgotten. He is happy in his social and business -relations, in recalling the past and awaiting the future, in wealth -gained worthily and enjoyed wisely and in a life crowded with usefulness -and blessing. - - “A bough from an oak, not from a willow.” - -The late Joseph Bates was closely associated with the early shippers of -petroleum on the Allegheny River. He held the confidence of Lockhart & -Frew and was esteemed everywhere for probity and enterprise. Coming to -the oil-regions in the sixties, he resided at Oil City many years and -operated in different sections of the field. With his friends he was -ever jaunty, jolly and perfectly at home. Judging by the French -standard, that a man is only as old as he feels, he had to the very end -of his sixty years few juniors at Oil City, Parker, Petrolia or -Pittsburg. He was never ill-natured nor uncompanionable, whether his -wells proved unexpectedly large or disappointingly small. His sunny -composition bore no “thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice” to repel and -chill those with whom he came in contact. His steadfast friend, Samuel -B. Harper, who has had charge of the books from about the commencement -of Lockhart & Frew’s partnership, is in Mr. Lockhart’s office to-day. A -record so honorable to all concerned, with its long performance of duty -and unwavering appreciation, is deserving of special remark in these -days of lightning-changes, impaired confidence and devil-may-care -recklessness generally. - -[Illustration: AN OLD OIL-SPRING IN OHIO.] - -On an old map of the United States, printed in England in 1787, the -word “petroleum” is marked twice, indicating that the “surface-shows” -of oil had attracted the notice of the earliest explorers of Southern -Ohio and Northwestern Pennsylvania a century ago. In one instance it -is placed at the mouth of the stream since famed the world over as Oil -Creek, where Oil City is situated; in the other on a stream -represented as emptying into the Ohio River, close to the site of what -is now the village of Macksburg. When that section of Ohio was first -settled, various symptoms of greasiness were detected, thin films of -oil floating on the waters of Duck Creek and its tributaries, globules -rising in different springs and seepings occurring frequently in the -same manner as in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Thirty miles north -of Marietta, on Duck Creek, a salt-well sunk by Mr. McKee, in 1814, to -the depth of four-hundred-and-seventy-five feet, discharged -“periodically, at intervals of from two to four days and from three to -six hours’ duration, thirty to sixty gallons of petroleum at each -inception.” Eighteen years afterwards the discharges were less -frequent and the yield of oil diminished to one barrel a week, finally -ceasing altogether. Once thirty or forty barrels stored in a cistern -took fire from the gas at the well having been ignited by a workman -carrying a light. The burning oil ran into the creek, blazed to the -tops of the trees and exhibited for hours to the amazed settlers the -novelty of a rivulet on fire. Ten miles above McConnellsville, on the -Muskingum River, results almost identical attended the boring of -salt-wells in 1819. Dr. S. P. Hildreth, of Marietta, in an account of -the region, written that year, says of the borings for salt-water: - -“They have sunk two wells more than four-hundred feet; one of them -affords a strong and pure water, but not in great quantity; the other -discharges such vast quantities of petroleum, or as it is vulgarly -called “Seneca Oil,” and besides is subject to such tremendous -explosions of gas * * * that they make little or no salt. Nevertheless, -the petroleum affords considerable profit and is beginning to be in -demand for workshops and manufactories. It affords a clear, brisk light, -when burned in this way, and will be a valuable article for lighting the -street-lamps in the future cities of Ohio.” - -The last sentence bears the force of a prophecy. Writing about the year -1832 the same observant author directs attention to another peculiar -feature: - -“Since the first settlement of the regions west of the Appalachian range -the hunters and pioneers have been acquainted with this oil. Rising in a -hidden and mysterious manner from the bowels of the earth, it soon -arrested their attention and acquired great value in the eyes of the -simple sons of the forest. * * * From its success in rheumatism, burns, -coughs, sprains etc., it was justly entitled to its celebrity. * * * It -is also well adapted to _prevent friction in machinery_, for, being free -of gluten, so common to animal and vegetable oils, it preserves the -parts to which it is applied for a long time in free motion; where a -heavy vertical shaft runs in a socket it is preferable to all or any -other articles. This oil rises in greater or less abundance in most of -the salt-wells and, collecting where it rises, is removed from time to -time with a ladle.” - -Is it not strange that, with the sources of supply thus pointed out in -different counties and states and the useful applications of petroleum -fairly understood, its real value should have remained unappreciated and -unrecognized for more than thirty years and be at last determined -through experiments upon the distillation of bituminous shales and -coals? Wells sunk hundreds of feet for salt water produced oil in -abundance, yet it occurred to no one that, if bored expressly for -petroleum, it could be found in paying quantity! Hamilton McClintock, -owner of the “oil-spring” famed in history and romance, when somebody -ventured to suggest that he should _dig_ into the rock a short distance, -instead of skimming the petroleum with a flannel-cloth, retorted hotly: -“I’m no blanked fool to dig a hole for the oil to get away through the -bottom!” - -[Illustration: KENTUCKY’S FIRST OIL-WELL.] - -If West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio played trumps in the exciting -game of Brine vs. Oil, Kentucky held the bowers. The home of James -Harrod and Daniel Boone, Henry Clay and George D. Prentice was noted -for other things besides backwoods fighters, statesmanship, sparkling -journalism, thoroughbred horses, superb women and moonshine-whiskey. -Off in the southeast corner of Wayne county, near the northeast corner -of a six-thousand-acre tract of wild land, David Beatty bored a well -for salt about the year 1818. The land extended four miles westward -from the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River, its eastern boundary, -and three miles down the Fork from Tennessee, its southern line. The -well was located on a strip of flat ground between the stream and a -rocky bluff, streaked with veins of coal and limestone. Five yards -from the water a hole nine feet square was dug ten feet to the rock -and timbered. The well, barely three inches in diameter, was punched -one-hundred-and-seventy feet by manual labor, steam-engines not having -penetrated the trackless forests of Wayne at that period. To the -intense disgust of the workmen a black, sticky, viscid liquid -persisted in coming up with the salt-water and a new location was -chosen two miles farther down the creek. Extra care not to drill too -deep averted an influx of the disagreeable fluid which spoiled the -first venture. Salt-works were established and flourished for years, a -simon-pure oasis in the interminable wilderness. - -Beatty was elected to Congress, serving his constituents faithfully and -illustrating the Mulberry-Sellers policy of “the old flag and an -appropriation.” He secured a liberal grant for a road to his property on -the South Fork and constructed a passable thoroughfare. Traces of deep -cuttings, log-culverts and blasted rocks, still discernible amid the -underbrush that well-nigh hides them from view, are convincing evidences -of the magnitude and difficulty of the task. “The rocky road to Dublin” -was a mere bagatelle in comparison with this long-deserted pathway. -“Jordan is a hard road to travel,” says an old song, and the sentiment -would fit equally well in this case. At one rugged point holes were cut -in a rock as steep as the roof of a house, to afford footing for the -mules engaged in drawing salt from the works! Considering the roughness -of the country, the height of the hills, the depth of the chasms and the -scanty facilities available, Beatty’s road was quite as remarkable a -feat as Bonaparte’s passage across the Alps or Ben Butler’s “Dutch-Gap -Canal.” Its spirited projector lived and died at Monticello, the -county-seat, where his descendants resided until recently. - -The abandoned well did not propose to be snuffed out unceremoniously or -to enact the role of “Leah the Forsaken.” In its bright lexicon the word -fail was not to be inserted merely because it was too fresh to -participate in the salt-trade. Far from retiring permanently, it spouted -petroleum at a Nancy-Hanks quickstep, filling the pit, running into the -Fork and covering mile after mile of the water with a top-dressing of -oil. Somehow the floating mass caught fire and mammoth pyrotechnics -ensued. The stream blazed and boiled and sizzled from the well to the -Cumberland River, thirty-five miles northward, calcining rocks and -licking up babbling brooks on its fiery march! Trees on its banks burned -and blistered and charred to their deepest roots. Iron-pans at the -salt-wells got red-hot, shriveled, warped, twisted and joined the -junk-pile! Was not that a sweet revenge for plucky No. 1, the well its -owner “had no use for” and devoutly wished at the bottom of the sea? - -The Chicago fire “couldn’t hold a candle” to this rural conflagration, -which originated the expressive phrase of “hell with the lid off,” -applied sixty years afterwards by James Parton to the flaming furnaces -at Pittsburg. Unluckily, the region was populated so sparsely that few -spectators had front seats at “the greatest show on earth.” The deluge -of oil ceased eventually, the fire following suit. Anon the salt -industry began to languish and the works were dismantled. No more the -forest-road echoed the sharp crack of the teamster’s whip or heard his -lusty oaths. The district along the South Fork was left as silent as -“the harp that once through Tara’s halls the soul of music shed,” ready -to be labeled “Ichabod,” and tradition alone preserved the name and -record of the “Beatty Well,” THE FIRST OIL-SPOUTER IN AMERICA! - - To future generations tell - The story of the Beatty Well, - The father of oil-spouters! - In spite of quips and jibes and sneers - Of arrant cranks and doubters, - Whose forte is flinging wretched jeers, - It richly merits hearty cheers - From true petroleum-shouters. - -[Illustration: DR. W. GODFREY HUNTER.] - -Accompanied by Dr. W. G. Hunter, and a native as guide, it was my good -fortune to visit this memorable locality in 1877. The start was from -Burksville, Cumberland county, the doctor’s home and my headquarters for -a twelvemonth. At Albany, Clinton county, sure-footed mules, the only -animals that could be ridden safely through the rough country, took the -place of our horses. Soon the last signs of civilization disappeared and -we plunged into the thick woods, a crooked, tortuous trail pointing the -way. Hills, rocks, ravines, fallen trees and mountain-streams by turns -impeded our progress, as we rode in Indian file for thirty miles. Birds -twittered and snakes hissed at the invasion of their solitudes. Several -times the path touched the line of Beatty’s forgotten road and once a -ruined cabin, with three grave-like mounds in a corner of the small -clearing, met our gaze. The guide explained how, twenty years before, -the poor family tenanting the wretched hovel had been poisoned by eating -some kind of berries, the parents and their only child dying alone and -unattended. No human eye beheld their struggles, no soft hand cooled the -fevered brows of the sufferers whose lives went out in that desolate -waste. - - “Oh God! How hard it is to die alone!” - -Provisions in our saddle-bags, a clear brook and evergreen boughs -supplied us with food, drink and an open-air bed. Next morning we -traversed a broad plateau, ending abruptly at the top of a precipitous -bluff a hundred feet high. Beneath us lay a stretch of bottom-land, with -the Big South Fork on its east side and the Cumberland Mountains rearing -their bold crests five miles away. In the center of a patch of cleared -ground stood a shanty, built of poles and roofed with split slabs of -oak. From an open space in one end smoke escaped freely, showing that -the place was inhabited. Tethering the mules and throwing the saddles -upon the grass, we crawled down a slope formed by the collapse of a -portion of the bluff. A shot from my revolver—everybody carried a -pistol—shattered the atmosphere and brought the inmates to the side of -the dwelling. The father, mother, a child in arms and two boys entering -their teens watched our approach. As we drew nigh they scampered into -the shanty and took refuge under a queer structure of rails, straw and -blankets that did duty as a bed for the household! A blanket hung over -the space cut for a door. Drawing this aside, the frightened family -could be seen crouching on the bare soil, for the abode had neither -door, window, floor nor chinking between the logs. It was quite unfit to -shelter a decent porker. Not a chair, table, stove, looking-glass, -bureau or any of the articles of furniture deemed necessary for modern -comfort was in sight! A bench hewn out of timber with an axe, two -metal-pots, some tin-dishes and knives and forks composed the domestic -outfit! Yet it was “home” to the squalid beings huddled in the dark, -damp, musty angle farthest from the intruders who had dropped in upon -them as unexpectedly as a Peary meteor. - -[Illustration: AT THE BEATTY WELL IN 1877.] - -Calling them to come out and speak with us a moment, the woman appeared, -bearing the inevitable baby. She was truly a revelation, with unkempt -brindle-hair and sallow skin to match. Her raiment consisted of a single -jean-garment, dirty and tattered beyond description, too narrow to -encircle her waist and too short to reach within a dozen inches of her -naked feet. Compared with the flimsy toilet of “a living picture,” this -costume was simplicity itself. The poor creature smoked a cob-pipe -viciously. A request to see her husband evoked the command: “Old man, I -reckon you best git out hyer!” The “old man” heeded this summons and -emerged from his hiding-place, trembling violently. His attire was in -harmony with his wife’s, threadbare jean-pants and shirt comprising it. -Head and feet were bare. His trembling ceased the instant he saw our -guide, whom he knew and greeted cordially. Introductions followed and we -asked if he could show us the way to the Beatty Well. He answered in -perfect English, with the grace of a Chesterfield: “It will be the -greatest pleasure I have known for many a day.” - -A brisk walk brought us to the well. Dirt and leaves had filled the pit -nearly level, forming a depression which one might pass without special -notice. Scraping away the rubbish, blackened fragments of the timbered -walls appeared. But not a drop of oil had issued from the veteran-well -for scores of years. One man alone survived of those who had gazed upon -the flow of petroleum previous to the fire which checked the greasian -tide forever. He lived ten miles northwest and his short story was -learned on the return-trip by another route. The scattered rustics were -accustomed to go to the well once or twice a year and dip enough oil to -medicate and lubricate whoever or whatever needed it. The fluid was dark -and heavy and for years rose to within a few feet of the surface. At -length the well clogged up and was almost obliterated. The dim eyes of -the aged narrator sparkled as he recalled the big blaze, concluding with -the emphatic words: “It jes’ looked ez if the devil had hitched up the -hull bottomless pit fur a torch-light percession!” - -Except the squatter on the tract of land, which Dr. Hunter and myself -had secured the winter of our visit, the nearest settler lived five -miles distant! The Cincinnati-Southern Railroad, now the Queen & -Crescent route, had not crossed the meandering Kentucky River and the -country was practically inaccessible. Men and women grew up without ever -hearing of a church, a school, a book, a newspaper, a preacher, a -doctor, a wheeled vehicle or a lucifer-match! The heathen of -Bariaboola-Gha were as well informed concerning God and a future state. -They herded in miserable cabins, lived on “corn-dodgers and sow-belly,” -drank home-made whiskey and never wandered ten miles from their own -fireside. Of the great outside world, of moral obligations, of religious -conviction and of current events they were profoundly ignorant. Think of -people fifty, sixty, seventy years old, born and reared in the United -States, who never saw a loaf of wheat-bread, a wagon, a cart or a -baby-carriage, to say nothing of a plum-pudding, railway-coach, a -trolley-car or a tandem-bicycle! It seems incredible, in this advanced -age and bang-up nation, that such conditions should be possible, yet -they existed in Southeastern Kentucky. And the American eagle flaps his -wings, while Americans boast of their culture and send barrels of cold -cash to buy flannel-shirts for perspiring Hottentots and goody-goody -tracts for jolly cannibals! - - “Consistency’s a jewel.” - -Small need of barbed-wire fences to shut out the cattle and chickens of -neighbors five miles apart! Their children did not quarrel and sulk and -yell “You can’t play in our yard!” Our host, who took us over the -property and told us all he knew about it, had not seen a strange face -for twenty-nine weary months! Then the neighbor five miles off had come -in the vain search of a cruse of oil from the old well to rub on an -afflicted hog! Three years had rolled by since his last expedition to -the cross-roads, fourteen miles away, to trade “coon-skins” for jeans -and groceries. Could isolation be more complete? Was Alexander Selkirk -less blessed with companionship on his secluded island? Had Coleridge’s -Ancient Mariner, “on a wide, wide sea,” greater cause for an attack of -the blues? - -The steel-track and the iron-horse are prime civilizers and eighteen -years have wrought a wondrous change in the section bordering upon the -Cumberland Mountains. The schoolmaster has come in with the railroad and -improvement is the prevailing order. Farmers have turned their forests -into cultivated fields and bought the latest implements. Their boys read -the papers, yearn for the city, smoke cigarettes, dabble in politics and -dream of unbounded wealth. The girls, no longer content with homespun -frocks and sunbonnets, dress in silk and velvet, wear stylish hats, -devour French novels, sport high-heeled shoes and balloon-sleeves, play -Beethoven and Chopin, waltz divinely and are altogether lovable! - -An apparition muttering “I am thy father’s ghost” would not have -surprised us so much as the politeness of our half-clad, barefooted, -bareheaded pilot to the neglected well. His manners and his language -were faultless. Not a coarse word or grammatical error marred his fluent -speech. At noon he invited us to share his humble dinner, apologizing -with royal dignity for the poverty of his surroundings. “Gentlemen,” he -said, “I regret that parched corn and fat bacon are all I can offer, but -I beg you to honor me with your presence at my table!” Remembering the -cabin and its presiding divinity, we felt obliged to decline and -requested him to lunch with us. It was a positive pleasure to see with -what relish he ate the baked chicken, biscuit and good things Mrs. -Hunter had packed in our saddle-bags. After the meal we prepared to -depart. The end of a Louisville paper under the flap of my saddle -attracted the old man’s attention. - -“Is that a newspaper?” he inquired. - -“Yes, do you want it?” - -“Oh, thank you a thousand times! It is fifteen years since I have seen a -paper and this will be such a treat!” - -He seized the sheet eagerly, dropped upon the grass and glanced over the -printed page. In an instant he jumped to his feet and tears coursed down -his wrinkled cheeks. - -“I did not mean to be rude,” he said earnestly, “but you cannot imagine -how my feelings mastered me, after so many years of separation from the -world, at sight of a paper from the city of my birth!” - -The next moment the good-byes were uttered and we had left the hermit of -South Fork, to meet no more this side of eternity. He stood peering -after us until the woods shut us from his wistful gaze. Six years later -death, the grim detective no vigilance can elude, claimed the guardian -of the Beatty Well. His family removed to parts unknown. He rests in an -unmarked grave, beneath a spreading oak, near the murmuring stream. The -lonely exile has reached home at last! - -Who on earth was this educated, courteous, gentlemanly personage, and -how did he drift into such a place? This perplexing problem beat the -fifteen-puzzle, “Pigs in Clover,” or the confusing dogma of Freewill and -Predestination. Our guide enlightened us. The old man was reared in -Louisville, graduated from college and entered an office to study law. -In a bar-room row one night a young man, with whom he had some trouble, -was stabbed fatally. Fearing he would be accused of the deed, the -student fled to the woods. For years he shunned mankind, subsisting on -game and fruit and sleeping in a cave. Every rustling leaf or snapping -twig terrified him with the idea that officers were at his heels. -Ultimately he gained courage and sought the acquaintance of the few -settlers in his vicinity. Striving to forget the past, he cohabited with -the woman he called his wife, erected a shanty and brought up three -children. Fire destroyed his hut and its contents, leaving him -destitute, and he located where we met him. The fear of arrest could not -be shaken off and he supposed we had come to take him a prisoner, after -twenty-five years of hiding, for a crime of which he was innocent. This -explained his retreat under the bed and violent trembling. He carried -his secret in his own bosom until 1873, when he was believed to be dying -and disclosed it to a friend, our guide, with a sealed letter giving his -true name. He recovered, the letter was handed back unopened and the -fugitive’s identity was never revealed. What an existence for a man of -refinement and collegiate training! What volumes of unwritten, -unsuspected tragedies environ us, could we but pierce the outward mask -and read the tablets of the heart! - -Eight or ten years ago J. O. Marshall, a Pennsylvania oil-operator, -cleaned out the Beatty Well and drilled another a half-mile north. -Neither yielded any oil, although the second was put down nine-hundred -feet. Mr. Marshall leased a great deal of land in Wayne and adjacent -counties, expecting to operate extensively, but he died without seeing -his purposes accomplished. He was a genial, enterprising, whole-souled -fellow, whose faith in Kentucky as an oil-field never faltered. - -Dr. Hunter, my esteemed associate on many a delightful trip, was -practicing at Newcastle, Pa., when the civil war broke out. He sold his -drug-store, offered his services to the Government and was placed in -charge of a medical department, where he made a first-class record. He -amputated the leg of General James A. Beaver, subsequently Governor of -Pennsylvania. At the close of the war he settled in Cumberland county, -married a prominent young lady, built up an immense practice and -acquired a competence. He served with signal ability and credit in the -Legislature and in Congress, elected time and again in a district -overwhelmingly against his party. He was chairman of the Republican -State-Committee, and ought to be the successor of Blackburn in the -United-States Senate. - -Seventy years ago William Morris, a practical driller, whose name oilmen -should perpetuate, invented the contrivance that culminated in “jars” -for drilling-tools. This contrivance, which enabled the Ruffners and -other salt-borers to go a thousand feet or more for brine, renders it -possible to drill a mile for oil, if ambitious operators desire to get -so far towards the antipodes. The manner in which the oil-resources of -West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky were thrown away by the early pioneers -is a surprising feature in the history of human affairs. Fifty years -before Pennsylvania oil-wells had been heard of the Kanawha salt-seekers -were drilling what to-day would be paying oil-wells. Instead of saving -the oil, which is enriching West Virginia operators now, they wasted it -and saved the salt-water. They wasted the natural gas, the best fuel of -the century, and boiled their salt-water with wood, the most expensive -and least satisfactory fuel of the valley. That is often the way -humanity gropes in the dark. The men who rushed to California drove -their ox-wagons past the big bonanzas of the Comstock lode, while the -men who later went to the Comstock went past the rich carbonates of -Leadville, just as later prospectors ran over the Cripple-Creek silver -and gold-leads in the search for things farther distant and the crowds -hurrying to Alaska ignored the teeming ledges of the Black Hills. The -Kanawha salt-men scorned the oil, yet drilled the first oil-wells, and -in doing it invented the methods which have come into use throughout the -entire oil-territory. If Joseph and David Ruffner and William Morris had -displayed half the wisdom in utilizing the oil they manifested in -inventing tools to find salt-water, theirs would be the familiar names -in Oildom down to the end of time. - -“Fellow-citizens,” shouted a free-silver orator to a host of starving -coal-miners three months after the last Presidential inauguration, “they -tell us Major McKinley is the advance-agent of prosperity, but, if so, -he seems to be a deuce of a way ahead of the show!” In like fashion the -Ruffners were a long way ahead of the petroleum-development, but the -show got there at last, heralded by salt-wells that pointed unerringly -towards the dawn. - - THEY NOTICED IT. - -Writing of several Jesuits who, about 1642, penetrated the territory of -the Eries, probably near what is now Cuba, N. Y., Charlevoix says: - -“They found a thick, oily, stagnant matter which would burn like -brandy.” - -The map of the Missionaries Dollier and Galinèe, printed in 1670, has a -hint of the presence of petroleum in the north-western part of New York. -Near the spot which was to become the site of Cuba these words are -marked: - -“Fonteaine de Bitume.” - -In 1700 the Earl of Bellmont, Governor of New York, thus instructed -Engineer Wolfgang W. Romer to visit the Five Nations: - -“You are to go and view a well or spring which is eight miles beyond the -Seneks’ farthest castle, which they told me blazes up in a flame when a -lighted coal or firebrand is put into it. You will do well to taste the -said water and * * * bring with you some of it.” - -Sir William Johnson, who visited Niagara in 1767, in his journal says -with reference to the spring at Cuba: - -“Arcushan came in with a quantity of curious oyl, taken at the top of -the water of some very small lake near the village he belongs to.” - -David Leisberger, the Moravian Missionary, went up the Allegheny River -in 1767, established a mission near the mouth of Tionesta Creek and in -1770 removed to Butler county. His manuscript records: - -“I have seen three kinds of oil-springs—such as have an outlet, such as -have none and such as rise from the bottom of the creeks. From the first -water and oil flow out together, the oil impregnating the grass and -soil; in the second it gathers on the surface of the water to the depth -of the thickness of a finger; from the third it rises to the surface and -flows with the current of the creek. The Indians prefer wells without an -outlet. From such they first dip the oil that has accumulated, then stir -the well and, when the water has settled, fill their kettles with fresh -oil, which they purify by boiling. It is used medicinally, as an -ointment for toothache, headache, swellings, rheumatism and sprains. -Sometimes it is taken internally. It is of a brown color and can also be -used in lamps. It burns well.” - -Dr. John David Schopf, a surgeon in the British service, visited -Pittsburg in 1783 and in an account of his journey remarked: - -“Petroleum was found at several places up the Allegheny, particularly at -a spring and a creek, which were covered with this floating substance.” - -General William Irvine, in a letter to John Dickinson, dated “Carlisle, -August 17, 1785,” tells of exploring the western part of Pennsylvania. -He says: - -“Oil Creek takes its name from an oily or bituminous matter being found -floating on its surface. Many cures are attributed to this oil. * * * It -rises in the bed of the creek at very low water. In a dry season I am -told it is found without any mixture of water and is pure oil. It rises -when the creek is high from the bottom in small globules.” - -George Henry Loskiel, in his “Geschichte der Mission der Evangelischen -Bruder unter der Indianen in Nordamerika,” published in 1789, noted: - -“One of the most favorite medicines used by the Indians is Fossil-oil -exuding from the earth, commonly with water * * * This oil is of a brown -color and smells like tar. * * * They use it chiefly in external -complaints. Some take it inwardly and it has not been found to do harm. -It will burn in a lamp. The Indians sometimes sell it to the white -people at four guineas a quart.” - -An officer of the United States Army, who descended the Ohio River in -1811, wrote a book of travels in which he remarks: - -“Not far from the mouth of the Little Beaver a spring has been found, -said to rise from the bottom of the river, from which issues an oil -which is highly inflammable and is called Seneca oil. It resembles -Barbadoes tar and is used as a remedy for rheumatic pains.” - -[Illustration: NOTABLE WELLS ON OIL CREEK IN 1861-2-3.] - - - - - IV. - WHERE THE BLUE-GRASS GROWS. - -INTERESTING PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENTS IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE—THE FAMOUS - AMERICAN WELL—A BOSTON COMPANY TAKES HOLD—PROVIDENTIAL - ESCAPE—REGULAR MOUNTAIN VENDETTA—A SUNDAY LYNCHING PARTY—PECULIAR - PHASES OF PIETY—AN OLD WOMAN’S WELCOME—WARM RECEPTION—STORIES OF - RUSTIC SIMPLICITY. - - ---------- - -“He who would search for pearls must dive below.”—_Dryden_. - -“Often do the spirits of great events stride on before the - events.”—_Coleridge._ - -“Coming events cast their shadows before.”—_Thomas Campbell._ - -“In Cumberland county, Kentucky, a run of pure oil was struck.”—_Niles’ - Register, A. D. 1829._ - -“Indications of oil are plentiful at Chattanooga, Tennessee.”—_Robert B. - Roosevelt, A. D. 1863._ - -“Ever since the first settlement of the country oil has been gathered - and used for medicinal purposes.”—_Cattlesburg, Ky., Letter, A. D. - 1884._ - -“Everythink has changed, everythink except human natur’.”—_Eugene - Field._ - -“To all appearance it was chiefly by Accident and the grace of - Nature.”—_Carlyle._ - - ---------- - -Interesting and unexpected results from borings for salt-water in -Kentucky were not exhausted by the initial experiment on South Fork. -Special peculiarities invest that venture with a romantic halo -essentially its own, but “there are others.” Wayne county was not to -monopolize the petroleum-feature of salt-wells by a large majority. -“Westward the star of empire takes its way” affirmed Bishop Berkeley -two-hundred years ago, with the instinct of a born prophet, and it was -so with the petroleum-star of Kentucky, however it might be with -brilliant Henri Watterson’s “star-eyed goddess of Reform.” - -The storm-center next shifted to Cumberland county, the second west of -Wayne, Clinton separating them. Hardy breadwinners, braving the -hardships and privations of pioneer-life in the backwoods, early in this -century settled much of the country along the Cumberland River. Upon one -section of irregular shape, its southern end bordered by Tennessee, the -state of Davy Crockett and Andrew Jackson, the name of the winding river -intersecting it was appropriately bestowed. A central location, between -the west bank of the Cumberland and the foot of a lordly hill, was -selected for the county-seat and christened Burksville, in honor of a -respected citizen who owned the site of the embryo hamlet. From a -cross-roads tavern and blacksmith-shop the place expanded gradually into -an inviting village of one-thousand population. It has fine stores, good -churches and schools, a brick court-house, and for years it boasted the -only college in Kentucky for the education of girls. - -Burksville pursued “the even tenor of its way” slowly and surely. Forty -miles from a railroad or a telegraph-wire, its principal outlet is the -river during the season of navigation. The Cumberland retains the -fashion of rising sixty to eighty feet above its summer-level when the -winter rains set in and dwindling to a mere brooklet in the dry, hot -months. Old-timers speak of “the flood of 1826” as the greatest in the -history of the community. The rampant waters overflowed fields and -streets, invaded the ground-floors of houses and did a lot of unpleasant -things, the memory of which tradition has kept green. In January of 1877 -the moist experience was repeated almost to high-water mark. Saw-logs -floated into kitchens and parlors and improvised skiffs navigated -back-yards and gardens. Seldom has the town cut a wide swath in the -metropolitan press, because it avoided gross scandals and attended -strictly to home-affairs. The chief dissipation is a trip by boat to -Nashville or Point-Burnside, or a drive overland to Glasgow, the -terminus of a branch of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. - -The first great event to stir the hearts of the good people of -Cumberland county occurred in 1829. A half-mile from the mouth of Rennix -Creek, a minor stream that empties into the Cumberland two miles north -of the county-town, a well was sunk one-hundred-and-eighty feet for -salt-water. Niles’ _Register_, published the same year, told the tale -succinctly: - -“Some months since, in the act of boring for salt-water on the land of -Mr. Lemuel Stockton, situated in the county of Cumberland, Kentucky, a -run of pure oil was struck, from which it is almost incredible what -quantities of the substance issued. The discharges were by floods, at -intervals of from two to five minutes, at each flow vomiting forth many -barrels of pure oil. I witnessed myself, on a shaft that stood upright -by the aperture in the rock from which it issued, marks of oil 25 or 30 -feet perpendicularly above the rock. These floods continued for three or -four weeks, when they subsided to a constant stream, affording many -thousand gallons per day. This well is between a quarter and a half-mile -from the bank of the Cumberland River, on a small rill (creek) down -which it runs to the Cumberland. It was traced as far down the -Cumberland as Gallatin, in Sumner county, Tennessee, nearly a hundred -miles. For many miles it covered the whole surface of the river and its -marks are now found on the rocks on each bank. - -[Illustration: FAMOUS “AMERICAN WELL.”] - -“About two miles below the point on which it touched the river, it was -set on fire by a boy, and the effect was grand beyond description. An -old gentleman who witnessed it says he has seen several cities on fire, -but that he never beheld anything like the flames which rose from the -bosom of the Cumberland to touch the very clouds.” - -This was the beginning of what was afterwards known from the equator to -the poles as the “American Well.” The flow of oil spoiled the well for -salt and the owners quitted it in disgust, sinking another with better -success in an adjacent field. For years it remained forsaken, an object -of more or less curiosity to travelers who passed close by on their way -to or from Burksville. It was very near the edge of the creek, on flat -ground most of which has been washed away. Neighboring farmers dipped -oil occasionally for medicine, for axle-grease and—“tell it not in Gath, -publish it not in Askelon”—to kill vermin on swine! - -Job Moses, a resident of Buffalo, N. Y., visited the locality about the -year 1848. He had read of the oil-springs in New York, Pennsylvania, -West Virginia and Ohio and he decided that the hole on Rennix Creek -ought to be a prize-package. His moderate offer for the well was -accepted by the Bakers, into whose hands the Stockton tract had come. He -drilled the well to four-hundred feet and erected a pumping-rig. The -five or six barrels a day of greenish-amber fluid, 42° gravity, he put -up in half-pint bottles, labeled “American Rock Oil” and sold at fifty -cents, commending it as a specific for numberless complaints. He reaped -a harvest for several years, until trade languished and the well was -abandoned. - -With the proceeds of his enterprise Moses bought a large block of land -at Limestone, N. Y., adjoining the northern boundary of McKean county, -Pa., and built a mansion big enough for a castle. He farmed -extensively, raised herds of cattle, employed legions of laborers and -dispensed a bountiful hospitality. In 1862-3 he drilled three wells -near his dwelling, finding a trifling amount of gas and oil. Had he -drilled deeper he would inevitably have opened up the phenomenal -Bradford field a dozen years in advance of its actual development. -Wells twelve-hundred to three-thousand feet deep had not been dreamt -of in petroleum-philosophy at that date, else Job Moses might have -diverted the whole current of oil-operations northward and postponed -indefinitely the advent of the Clarion and Butler districts! Boring a -four-inch hole a few hundred feet farther would have done it! - -On what small causes great effects sometimes depend! Believing a -snake-story induced our first parents to sample “the fruit of that -forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought sin into our world and all our -woe.” Ambition to be a boss precipitated Lucifer “from the battlements -of heaven to the nethermost abyss.” A dream released Joseph from prison -to be “ruler over Egypt.” The smiles of a wanton plunged Greece into war -and wiped Troy from the face of the earth. A prod on the heel slew -Achilles, a nail—driven by a woman at that—finished Sisera and a pebble -ended Goliath. The cackling of a goose saved Rome from the barbarous -hordes of Brennus. A cobweb across the mouth of the cave secreting him -preserved Mahomet from his pursuers and gave Arabia and Turkey a new -religion. The scorching of a cake in a goatherd’s hut aroused King -Alfred and restored the Saxon monarchy in England. The movements of a -spider inspired Robert Bruce to renewed exertions and secured the -independence of Scotland. An infected rag in a bundle of Asiatic goods -scourged Europe with the plague. The fall of an apple from a tree -resulted in Sir Isaac Newton’s sublime theory of gravitation. The -vibrations of a tea-kettle lid suggested to the Marquis of Worcester the -first conception of the steam-engine. A woman’s chance-remark led Eli -Whitney to invent the cotton-gin. The twitching of a frog’s muscles -revealed galvanism. A diamond-necklace hastened the French Revolution -and consigned Marie Antoinette to the guillotine. Hacking a cherry-tree -with a hatchet earned George Washington greater glory than the victory -of Monmouth or the overthrow of Cornwallis. A headache helped cost -Napoleon the battle of Waterloo and change the destiny of twenty -kingdoms. An affront to an ambassador drove Germany to arms, exiled -Louis Napoleon and made France a republic. Mrs. O’Leary’s kicking cow -laid Chicago in ashes and burst up no end of insurance-companies. An -alliterative phrase defeated James G. Blaine for President of the United -States. An epigram, a couplet or a line has been known to confer -immortality. A new bonnet has disrupted a sewing-society, split a -congregation and put devout members on the toboggan in their hurry to -backslide. An onion-breath has severed doting lovers, cheated parsons of -their wedding-fees and played hob with Cupid’s calculations. Statistics -fail to disclose the awful havoc wrought in millions of homes by such -observations, on the part of thoughtless young husbands, as “this isn’t -the way mother baked,” or “mother’s coffee didn’t taste like this!” - -Moses lived to produce oil from his farms and to witness, five miles -south of Limestone, the grandest petroleum-development of any age or -nation. He was built on the broad-gauge plan, physically and mentally, -and “the light went out” peacefully at last. The Kentucky well was never -revived. The rig decayed and disappeared, a timber or two lingering -until carried off by the flood in 1877. - -[Illustration: GOVERNOR AMES.] - -In the autumn of 1876 Frederic Prentice, a leading operator, engaged me -to go to Kentucky to lease and purchase lands for oil-purposes. Shortly -before Christmas he wished me to meet him in New York and go from there -to Boston, to give information to parties he expected to associate with -him in his Kentucky projects. Together we journeyed to the city of -culture and baked-beans and met the gentlemen in the office of the -Union-Pacific Railroad-Company. The gathering was quite notable. Besides -Mr. Prentice, who had long been prominent in petroleum affairs, Stephen -Weld, Oliver Ames, Sen., Oliver Ames, Jun., Frederick Ames, F. Gordon -Dexter and one or two others were present. Mr. Weld was the richest -citizen of New England, his estate at his death inventorying twenty-two -millions. The elder Oliver Ames, head of the giant shovel-manufacturing -firm of Oliver Ames & Sons, was a brother of Oakes Ames, the creator of -the Pacific Railroads, whom the Credit-Mobilier engulfed in its ruthless -destruction of statesmen and politicians. His nephew and namesake was a -son of Oakes Ames and Governor of Massachusetts in 1887-8-9. He began -his career in the shovel-works, learning the trade as an employé, and at -thirty-five had amassed a fortune of ten-millions. He occupied the -finest house in Boston, entertained lavishly, spent immense sums for -paintings and bric-a-brac and died in October of 1895. Frederick Ames, -son of the senior Oliver, has inherited his father’s executive talent -and he maintains the family’s reputation for sagacity and the -acquisition of wealth. F. Gordon Dexter is a multi-millionaire, a power -in the railroad-world and a resident of Beacon street, the swell avenue -of the Hub. - -Such were the men who heard the reports concerning Kentucky. They did -not squirm and hesitate and wonder where they were at. Thirty-five -minutes after entering the room the “Boston Oil Company” was organized, -the capital was paid in, officers were elected, a lawyer had started to -get the charter and authority was given me to draw at sight for whatever -cash was needed up to one-hundred-thousand dollars! This record-breaking -achievement was about as expeditious as the Chicago grocer, who closed -his store one forenoon and pasted on the door a placard inscribed in -bold characters: “At my wife’s funeral—back in twenty minutes!” - -Oliver Ames, the future governor, invited the party to lunch at the -Parker House, Boston’s noted hostelry. An hour sped quickly. My -return-trip had been arranged by way of Buffalo and the Lake-Shore Road -to Franklin. The time to start arrived, the sleigh to take me to the -depot was at the door, the good-byes were said, the driver tucked in the -robes and grasped the lines. At that instant Oliver Ames, Sen., called: -“Please come into the hotel one moment; I want to jot down something you -told us about the American Well.” The other gentlemen looked on, the -explanation was penciled rapidly, my seat in the sleigh was resumed and -Mr. Dexter jokingly said to the Jehu: “You’ll have to hustle, or your -fare will miss his train!” - -Through the narrow, twisted, crowded streets the horses trotted briskly. -Rushing into the station, the train was pulling out and the -ticket-examiner was shutting the iron-gates. He refused to let me -attempt to catch the rear car and my disappointment was extreme. A train -for New York and Pittsburg left in fifteen minutes. It bore me, an -unwilling passenger, safely and satisfactorily to the “Smoky City.” -There the news reached me of the frightful railway-disaster at -Ashtabula, in which P. P. Bliss and fourscore fellow-mortals, filled -with fond anticipations of New-Year reunions, perished in the icy waters -ninety feet beneath the treacherous bridge that dropped them into the -yawning chasm! The doomed train was the same that would have borne me to -Ashtabula and—to death, had not Mr. Ames detained me to make the entry -in his memorandum-book! Call it Providence, Luck, Chance, what you will, -an incident of this stamp is apt to beget “a heap of tall thinking.” - - “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends.” - -[Illustration: GIRL CLIMBING A DERRICK.] - -Returning to Burksville in January, the work of leasing went ahead -merrily. The lands around the American Well were taken at one-eighth -royalty. Forty rods northeast of the American, in a small ravine, a well -was drilled eight-hundred feet. At two-hundred feet some gas and oil -appeared, but the well proved a failure. While it was under way the gas -in a deserted salt-well twenty rods northwest of the American burst -forth violently, sending frozen earth, water and pieces of rock high -into the air. The derrick at the Boston Well, rising to the height of -seventy-two feet, was a perennial delight to the natives. Youths, boys -and old men ascended the ladder to the topmost round to enjoy the -beautiful view. Pretty girls longed to try the experiment and it was -whispered that six of them, one night when only the man in the moon was -peeping, performed the perilous feat. Certain it is that a winsome -teacher at the college, who climbed the celestial stair years ago, -succeeded in the effort and wrecked her dress on the way back to solid -ground. A dining-room girl at Petrolia, in 1873, stood on top of a -derrick, to win a pair of shoes banteringly offered by a jovial oilman -to the first fair maiden entitled to the prize. Lovely woman and -Banquo’s ghost will not “down!” - -Three miles northeast of the American Well, at the mouth of Crocus -Creek, C. H. English drilled eight shallow wells in 1865. They were -bunched closely and one flowed nine-hundred barrels a day. -Transportation was lacking, the product could not be marketed and the -promising field was deserted. Twelve years later the Boston Oil-Company -drilled in the midst of English’s cluster, to discover the quality of -the strata, and could not exhaust the surface-water by the most -incessant pumping. The company also drilled on the Gilreath farm, across -the Cumberland from Burksville, where Captain Phelps found heavy oil in -paying quantity back in the sixties. The well produced nicely and would -have paid handsomely had a railroad or a pipe-line been within reach. A -well two miles west of the American, drilled in 1891, had plenty of sand -and showed for a fifty-barreler. - -Six miles south-west of Burksville, at Cloyd’s Landing, J. W. Sherman, -of Oil-Creek celebrity, drilled a well in 1865 which spouted a thousand -barrels of 40° gravity oil in twenty-four hours. He loaded a barge with -oil in bulk, intending to ship it to Nashville. The ill-fated craft -struck a rock in the river and the oil floated off on its own hook. -Sherman threw up the sponge and returned to Pennsylvania. Three others -on the Cloyd tract started finely, but the wonderful excitement at -Pithole was breaking out and operations elsewhere received a cold chill. -Dr. Hunter purchased the Cloyd farm and leased it in 1877 to Peter -Christie, of Petrolia, who did not operate on any of the lands he -secured in Kentucky and Tennessee. Micawber-like, Cumberland county is -“waiting for something to turn up” in the shape of facilities for -handling oil. When these are assured the music of the walking-beam will -tickle the ears of expectant believers in Kentucky as the coming -oil-field. - -Wayne and Cumberland had been heard from and Clinton county was the -third to have its inning. On the west bank of Otter Creek, a sparkling -tributary of Beaver Creek, a well bored for salt fifty or more years ago -yielded considerable oil. Instead of giving up the job, the owners -pumped the water and oil into a tank, over the side of which the lighter -fluid was permitted to empty at its leisure. The salt-works came to a -full stop eventually and the well relapsed into “innocuous desuetude.” -L. D. Carter, of Aurora, Ill., sojourning temporarily in Clinton for his -health, saw the old well in 1864. He dipped a jugful of oil, took it to -Aurora, tested it on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, found it -a good lubricant and concluded to give the well a square trial. The -railroad-company agreed to buy the oil at a fair price. Carter pumped -six or eight barrels a day, hauled it in wagons over the hills to the -Cumberland River and saved money. He granted Mr. Prentice an option on -the property in 1877. The day the option expired J. O. Marshall bought -the well, farm and ten-thousand acres of leases conditionally, for a -Butler operator who “didn’t have the price,” and the deal fell through. - -The well stood idle until 1892, when J. Hovey, an ex-broker from New -York and relative of a late Governor of Indiana, drilled a short -distance down the creek. The result was a strike which produced -twenty-four hundred barrels of dark, heavy, lubricating oil in fifty -days. It was shut down for want of tankage and means to transport the -product to market. The Carter again yielded nicely, as did three more -wells in this neighborhood. In 1895 the Standard Oil-Company was given a -refusal of the Hovey and surrounding interests, in order to test the -territory fully and lay a pipe-line to Glasgow or Louisville, should the -production warrant the expenditure. Wells have been sunk east of the -Carter nearly to Monticello, eighteen miles off, finding gas and -indications of oil. Every true Clintonite is positive an ocean of -petroleum underlies his particular neck of woods, impatient to be -relieved and burden landholders and operators alike with excessive -wealth! - -A hard-headed youth, out walking with his best girl in the dog-days, -told her a fairy-story of the dire effects of ice-cream upon the -feminine constitution. “I knew a girl,” he declared, “who ate six plates -of the dreadful stuff and died next day!” The shrewd damsel exclaimed -rapturously: “Oh, wouldn’t it be sweet to die that way? Let us begin on -six plates now!” And wouldn’t it be nice to be loaded with riches, not -gained by freezing out some other fellow, by looting a bank, by wedding -an unloved bride, by grinding the poor, by manipulating stocks, by -cornering grain or by practices that make the angels weep, but by -bringing oil honestly from the bowels of the earth? - -About the year 1839 a salt-well in Lincoln county, eight miles from the -pretty town of Stanford, struck a vein of oil unexpectedly. The -inflammable liquid gushed out with great force, took fire and burned -furiously for weeks. The owner was a grim joker in his way and he aptly -remarked, upon viewing the conflagration: “I reckon I’ve got a little -hell of my own!” Four more wells were drilled farther up the stream, two -getting a show of oil. One was plugged and the other, put down by the -late Marcus Hulings, the wealthy Pennsylvania operator, proved dry. -Surface indications in many quarters gave rise to the belief that oil -would be found over a wide area, and in 1861 a well was bored at -Glasgow, Barren county, one-hundred-and-ten miles below Louisville. It -was a success and a hundred have followed since, most of which are -producing moderately. Col. J. C. Adams, formerly of Tidioute, Pa., was -the principal operator for twenty years. A suburban town, happily termed -Oil City, is “flourishing like a green bay-horse.” The oil, dark and -ill-flavored, smelling worse than “the thousand odors of Cologne,” is -refined at Glasgow and Louisville. It can be deodorized and converted -into respectable kerosene. Sixteen miles south of Glasgow, on Green -River, four shallow wells were bored thirty years ago, one flowing at -the rate of six-hundred barrels, so that Barren county is by no means -barren of interest to the oil-fraternity. - -At Bowling Green a well was sunk two-hundred feet, a few gallons of -green-oil bowling to the surface. Torpedoing was unknown, or the fate of -many Kentucky wells might have been reversed. John Jackson, of Mercer, -Pa., in 1866 drilled a well in Edmonson county, twenty-five miles -north-west of Glasgow. The tools dropped through a crevice of the -Mammoth Cave, but neither eyeless fish nor slippery petroleum repaid the -outlay of muscle and greenbacks. As if to add insult to injury, the well -hatched a mammoth cave that buried the tools eight-hundred feet out of -sight! - -Loyal to his early training and hungry for appetizing slapjacks, Jackson -once imported a sack of the flour from Louisville and asked the obliging -landlady of his boarding-house to have buckwheat-cakes for breakfast. He -was on hand in the morning, ready to do justice to the savory dish. The -“cakes” were brought in smoking hot, baked into biscuit, heavy as lead -and irredeemably unpalatable! The sack of flour went to fatten the -denizens of a neighbor’s pig-pen. Jackson was a pioneer in the Bradford -region, head of the firm of Jackson & Walker, clever and generous. The -grass and the flowers have grown on his grave for ten years, “the -insatiate archer” striking him down in the prime of vigorous manhood. - -Sandy Valley, in the north-eastern section of the state, contributed its -quota to the stock of Kentucky petroleum. From the first settlement of -Boyd, Greenup, Carter, Johnson and Lawrence counties oil had been -gathered for medical purposes by skimming it from the streams. About -1855 Cummings & Dixon collected a half-dozen barrels from Paint Creek -and treated it at their coal-oil refinery in Cincinnati, with results -similar to those attained by Kier in Pittsburg. They continued to -collect oil from Paint Creek and Oil-Spring Fork until the war, at times -saving a hundred barrels a month. In 1861 they drilled a well -three-hundred feet on Mud Lick, a branch of Paint Creek, penetrating -shale and sandstone and getting light shows of oil and gas. Surface-oil -was found on the Big-Sandy River, from its source to its mouth, and in -considerable quantities on Paint, Blaine, Abbott, Middle, John’s and -Wolf Creeks. Large springs on Oil-Spring Fork, a feeder of Paint Creek, -yielded a barrel a day. At the mouth of the Fork, in 1860, Lyon & Co. -drilled a well two-hundred feet, tapping three veins of heavy oil and -retiring from the scene when “the late unpleasantness” began to shake up -the country. The same year a well was sunk one-hundred-and-seventy feet, -on the headwaters of Licking River, near the Great Burning Spring. Gas -and oil burst out for days, but the low price of crude and the impending -conflict prevented further work. What an innumerable array of nice -calculations this cruel war nipped in the bud! - -[Illustration: NORTH-EASTERN KENTUCKY.] - -J. Hinkley bored two-hundred feet in 1860, on Paint Creek, eight miles -above Paintville, meeting a six-inch crevice of heavy-oil, for which -there was no demand, and the capacity of the well was not tested. -Salt-borers on a multitude of streams had much difficulty, fifty or -sixty years ago, in getting rid of oil that persisted in coming to the -surface. These old wells have been filled with dirt, although in some -the oil works to the top and can be seen during the dry seasons. The -Paint-Creek region had a severe attack of oil-fever in 1864-5. Hundreds -of wells were drilled, boats were crowded, the hotels were thronged and -the one subject of conversation was “oil—oil—oil!” Various causes, -especially the extraordinary developments in Pennsylvania, compelled the -plucky operators to abandon the district, notwithstanding encouraging -symptoms of an important field. Indeed, so common was it to find -petroleum in ten or fifteen counties of Kentucky that land-owners ran a -serious risk in selling their farms before boring them full of holes, -lest they should unawares part with prospective oil-territory at -corn-fodder prices! - -Tennessee did not draw a blank in the awards of petroleum-indications. -Along Spring Creek many wells, located in 1864-5 because of -“surface-shows,” responded nobly, at a depth comparatively shallow, to -the magic touch of the drill. The product was lighter in color and -gravity than the Kentucky brand. Twelve miles above Nashville, on the -Cumberland River, wells have been pumped at a profit. Around Gallatin, -Sumner county, decisive tests demonstrated the presence of petroleum in -liberal measure. On Obey Creek, Fentress county, sufficient drilling has -been done to justify the expectation of a rich district. Near -Chattanooga, on the southern border of the state, oil seepages are “too -numerous to mention.” The Lacy Well, eighteen miles south of the Beatty, -drilled in 1893, is good for thirty barrels every day in the week. The -oil is of superior quality, but the cost of marketing it is too great. A -dozen wells are going down in Fentress, Overton, Scott and Putnam. Some -fine day the tidal wave of development will sweep over the -Cumberland-River region, with improved appliances and complete -equipment, and give the country a rattling “show for its white alley!” -Surely all these spouting-wells, oil-springs and greasy oozings mean -something. To quote a practical oilman, who knows both states from a to -z: “Twenty counties in Kentucky and Tennessee are sweating petroleum!” - - “Jes’ nail dat mink to de stable do’— - De niggahs’ll dance when de oil-wells flo!” - -Picking up a million acres of supposed oil-lands in the Blue-Grass and -Volunteer States had its serio-comic features. The ignorant squatters in -remote latitudes were suspicious of strangers, imagining them to be -revenue-officers on the trail of “moonshiners,” as makers of untaxed -whisky were generally called. More than one northern oilman narrowly -escaped premature death on this conjecture. J. A. Satterfield, the -successful Butler operator, went to Kentucky in the winter of 1877 to -superintend the leasing of territory for his firm, between which and the -Prentice combination a lively scramble had been inaugurated. Somebody -thought he must be a Government agent and passed the word to the lawless -mountaineers. The second night of his stay a shower of bullets riddled -the window, two lodging in the bed in which Satterfield lay asleep! -Daylight saw him galloping to the railroad at a pace eclipsing -Sheridan’s ride to Winchester, eager to “get back to God’s country.” -“Once was enough for him” to figure as the target of shooters who seldom -failed to score “a hit, a palpable hit.” The grim archer didn’t miss him -in 1894. - -[Illustration: THREE DANGLING FROM A TREE.] - -Arriving late one Saturday at Mt. Vernon, the county-seat of Rockcastle, -the colored waiter on Sunday morning inquired: “Hes yo done gone an’ -seen em?” Asking what he meant, he informed me that three men were -dangling from a tree in the court-house yard, lynched by an infuriated -mob during the night on suspicion of horse-stealing, “the unpardonable -sin” in Kentucky. A party of citizens had started for the cabin of a -notorious outlaw, observed skulking homeward under cover of darkness, -intending to string him up. The desperado was alert. He fired one shot, -which killed a man and stampeded the assailants. They returned to the -village, broke into the jail, dragged out three cowering wretches and -hanged them in short metre! The bodies swung in the air all day, a -significant warning to whoever might think of “walkin’ off with a hoss -critter.” - -On that trip to Rockcastle county the train stopped at a wayside-station -bearing the pretentious epithet of Chicago. A tall, gaunt, unshaven, -uncombed man, with gnarled hands that appealed perpetually for soap and -water, high cheekbones, imperfect teeth and homespun-clothes of the -toughest description, stood on the platform in a pool of tobacco-juice. -A rustic behind me stuck his head through the car-window and addressed -the hard-looking citizen as “Jedge.” Honors are easy in Kentucky, where -“colonels,” “majors” and “judges” are “thick as leaves in Vallambrosa,” -but the title in this instance seemed too absurd to pass unheeded. When -the train started, in reply to my question whether the man on the -platform was a real judge, his friendly acquaintance took the pains to -say: “Wal, I can’t swar es he’s zackly, but las’ year he wuz jedge ov a -chicken-fight down ter Si Mason’s an’ we calls ’im jedge ever sence!” - -[Illustration: A MOUNTAIN VENDETTA.] - -Kentucky vendettas have often figured in thrilling narratives. Business -took me to the upper end of Laurel county one week. Litigants, witnesses -and hangers-on crowded the village, for a suit of unusual interest was -pending before the “’squar.” The principals were farmers from the hilly -region, whose fathers and grandfathers had been at loggerheads and -transmitted the quarrel to their posterity. Blood had been shed and -hatred reigned supreme. The important case was about to begin. Two shots -rang out so closely together as to be almost simultaneous, followed by a -regular fusilade. Everybody ran into the street, where four men lay -dead, a fifth was gasping his last breath and two others had ugly -wounds. The tragedy was soon explained. The two parties to the suit had -met on their way to the justice’s house. Both were armed, both drew -pistols and both dropped in their tracks, one a corpse and the second -ready for the coroner in a few moments. Relatives and adherents -continued the dreadful work and five lives paid the penalty of -ungovernable passion. The dead were wrapped in horse-blankets and carted -home. The case was not called. It had been “settled out of court.” - -[Illustration: “A BIGGER MAN ’N GEN’RAL GRANT.”] - -The spectators of this dreadful scene manifested no uncommon concern. -“It’s what might be expected,” echoed the local oracle; “when them -mountain fellers gets whiskey inside them they don’t care fur nuthin’!” -Within an hour of the shooting a young man stopped me on the -street-corner, where stood a wagon containing two bodies. “Kunnel,” he -went on to say, “I’ve h’ard es yo’s th’ man es got our farm fur oil. Dad -an’ Cousin Bill’s ’n that ar wagon, an’ I want yo ter giv’ me a job -haulin’ wood agin yo starts work up our way.” He mounted the vehicle and -drove off with his ghastly freight without a quiver of emotion. - -At Crab Orchard, one beautiful Sunday, the clerk chatted with me on the -hotel-porch. A stalwart individual approached and my companion -ejaculated: “Thar’s a bigger man ’n Gen’ral Grant!” Next instant Col. -Kennedy was added to my list of Kentucky acquaintances. He was very -affable, wished oil-operations in the neighborhood success and, with -characteristic Southern hospitality, invited me to visit him. After he -left us the clerk, in answer to my desire to learn the basis of -Kennedy’s greatness, naively said: “Why, he’s killed eight men!” - - “Some have greatness thrust upon them.” - -Politics and religion were staple wares, the susceptible negroes -inclining strongly to the latter. Their spasms of piety were extremely -inconvenient at times. News of a “bush meetin’” would be circulated and -swarms of darkeys would flock to the appointed place, taking provisions -for a protracted siege. No matter if it were the middle of harvest and -rain threatening, they dropped everything and went to the meeting. -“Doant ’magine dis niggah’s gwine ter lose his ’mo’tal soul fer no load -uv cow-feed” was the conclusive rejoinder of a colored hand to his -employer, who besought him to stay and finish the haying. - -“In de Lawd’s gahden ebery cullud gentleman has got ter line his hoe.” - -Rev. George O. Barnes, the gifted evangelist, who resigned a -five-thousand-dollar Presbyterian pastorate in Chicago to assist Moody, -was reared in Kentucky and lived near Stanford. He would traverse the -country to hold revivals, staying three to six weeks in a place. His -personal magnetism, rare eloquence, apostolic zeal, fine education, -intense fervor and catholic spirit made him a wonderful power. Converts -he numbered by thousands. He preferred Calvary to Sinai, the gentle -pleadings of infinite mercy to the harsh threats of endless torment. His -daughter Marie, with the voice of a Nilsson and the face of a Madonna, -accompanied her father in his wanderings, singing gospel-hymns in a -manner that distanced Sankey and Philip Phillips. Her rendering of “Too -Late,” “Almost Persuaded,” and “Only a Step to Jesus,” electrified and -thrilled the auditors as no stage-song could have done. Raymon Moore’s -hackneyed verses had not been written, yet the boys called Miss Barnes -“Sweet Marie” and thronged to the penitent-bench. The evangelist and his -daughter tried to convert New York, but the Tammany stronghold refused -to budge an inch. They invaded England and enrolled hosts of recruits -for Zion. The Prince of Wales is said to have attended one of their -meetings in the suburbs of London. Mr. Barnes finally proposed to cure -diseases by “anointing with oil and laying on of hands.” His pink -cottage became a refuge for cranks and cripples and patients, until a -mortgage on the premises was foreclosed and the queer aggregation -scattered to the winds. - -Albany, the county-seat of Clinton, experienced a Barnes revival of the -tip-top order. Business with Major Brentz, the company’s attorney, -landed me in the cosy town on a bright March forenoon. Not a person was -visible. Stores were shut and comer-loungers absent. What could have -happened? Halting my team in front of the hotel, nobody appeared. -Ringing the quaint, old-fashioned bell attached to a post near the pump, -a lame, bent colored man shuffled out of the barn. - -“Pow’ful glad ter see yer, Massa,” he mumbled, “a’l put up de hosses.” - -“Where is the landlord?” - -“Done gone ter meetin’.” - -“Will dinner soon be ready?” - -“Soon the folkses gits back frum meetin’.” - -“All right, take good care of the horses and I’ll go over to the -court-house.” - -“No good gwine dar, dey’s at the meetin’.” - -It was true. Mr. Barnes was holding three services a day and the village -emptied itself to get within sound of his voice. For five weeks this -kept up. Lawyers quit their desks, merchants locked their stores, woman -deserted their houses and young and old thought only of the meetings. -Hardly a sinner was left to work upon, even the village-editor and the -disciples of Blackstone joining the hallelujah band! No wonder Satan’s -imps wailed sadly: - - “And the blow almost killed father!” - -An African congregation at Stanford had a preacher black as the ace of -spades and wholly illiterate, whom many whites liked to hear. “Brudders -an’ sistahs, niggahs and white folks,” he closed an exhortation by -saying, “dar’s no use ’temptin’ to sneak outen de wah ’tween de good -Lawd an’ de black debbil, ’cos dar’s on’y two armies in dis worl’ an’ -bofe am a-fitin’ eberlastingly! So ’list en de army ob light, ef yer -want ter gib ole Satan er black eye an’ not roast fureber an’ eber in de -burnin’ lake whar watah-millions on ice am nebber se’ved for dinnah!” -Could the most astute theological hair-splitter have presented the issue -more concisely and forcibly to the hearers of the sable Demosthenes? - -The first and only circus that exhibited at Burksville produced an -immense sensation. It was “Bartholomew’s Equescurriculum,” with -gymnastics and ring exercises to round out the bill. Barns, shops and -trees for miles bore gorgeous posters. Nast’s cartoons, which the most -ignorant voters could understand, did more to overthrow Boss Tweed than -the masterly editorials of the New-York _Times_. The flaming pictures -aroused the Cumberlanders, hundreds of whom could not read, to the -highest pitch of expectation. Monday was the day set for the show. On -Saturday evening country-patrons began to camp in the woods outside the -village. A couple from Overton county, Tennessee, and their four -children rode twenty-eight miles on two mules, bringing food for three -days and lodging under the trees! A Burksville character of the stripe -Miss Ophelia styled “shiftless” sold his cooking-stove for four dollars -to get funds to attend! “Alf,” the ebony-hued choreman at Alexander -College, who built my fires and blacked my shoes, was worked up to -fever-heat. “Befo’ de Lawd,” he sobbed, “dis chile’s er gone coon, ’less -yer len’ er helpin’ han’! Mah wife’s axed her mudder an’ sister ter th’ -ci’cus an’ dar’s no munny ter take ’em an’ mah sister!” Giving him the -currency for admission dried the mourner’s tears and “pushed them clouds -away.” - -[Illustration: AN AFRICAN TALE OF WOE.] - -At noon on Sunday the circus arrived by boat from Nashville. Service was -in progress in one church, when an unearthly sound startled the -worshippers. The wail of a lost soul could not be more alarming. Simon -Legree, scared out of his boots by the mocking shriek of the wind -blowing through the bottle-neck Cassy fixed in the garret knot-hole, had -numerous imitators. Again and again the ozone was rent and cracked and -shivered. The congregation broke for the door, the minister jerking out -a sawed-off benediction and retreating with the rest. A half-mile down -the river a boat was rounding the bend. A steam-calliope, distracting, -discordant and unlovely, belched forth a torrent of paralyzing notes. -The whole population was on the bank by the time the boat stopped. The -crowd watched the landing of the animals and belongings of the circus -with unflinching eagerness. Few of the surging mass had seen a theatre, -a circus, or a show of any sort except the Sunday-school Christmas -performance. They were bound to take in every detail and that Sunday was -badly splintered in the peaceful, orderly settlement. - -With the earliest streak of dawn the excitement was renewed. Groups of -adults and children, of all ages and sizes and complexions, were on hand -to see the tents put up. By eleven o’clock the town was packed. A -merry-go-round, the first Burksville ever saw, raked in a bushel of -nickels. The college domestics skipped, leaving the breakfast-dishes on -the table and the dinner to shift for itself. A party of friends went -with me to enjoy the fun. Beside a gap in the fence, to let wagons into -the field, sat “Alf,” the image of despair. Four weeping females—his -wife, sister, mother-in-law and sister-in-law—crouched at his feet. As -our party drew near he beckoned to us and unfolded his tale of woe. “Dem -fool-wimmin,” he exclaimed bitterly, “hes done spended de free dollars -yer guv me on de flyin’-hosses! Dey woodn’t stay off nohow an’ now dey -caint see de ci’cus! Oh, Lawd! Oh, Lawd!” The purchase of tickets poured -oil on the troubled waters. The Niobes wiped their eyes on their -jean-aprons and “Richard was himself again.” How the antics of the -clowns and the tricks of the ponies pleased the motley assemblage! Buck -Fanshaw’s funeral did not arouse half the enthusiasm in Virginia City -the first circus did in Burksville. - -[Illustration: A WELCOME IN JUGS.] - -It was necessary for me to visit Williamsburg, the county-seat of -Whitley, to record a stack of leases. Somerset was then the nearest -railway-point and the trip of fifty miles on horseback required a guide. -The arrival of a Northerner raised a regular commotion in the well-nigh -inaccessible settlement of four-hundred population. The landlord of the -public-house slaughtered his fattest chickens and set up a bed in the -front parlor to be sure of my comfort. The jailer’s fair daughter, who -was to be wedded that evening, kindly sent me an invitation to attend -the nuptials. By nine o’clock at night nearly every business-man and -official in the place had called to bid me welcome. Before noon next day -seventeen farmers, whose lands had been leased, rode into town to greet -me and learn when drilling would likely begin. Each insisted upon my -staying with him a week, “or es much longer es yo kin,” and fourteen of -them brought gallon-jugs of apple-jack, their own straight goods, for my -acceptance! Such a reception a king might envy, because it was entirely -unselfish, hearty and spontaneous. Williamsburg has got out of -swaddling-clothes, the railway putting it in touch with the balance of -creation. - -Thirteen miles of land, in an unbroken line, on a meandering stream, had -been tied-up, with the exception of a single farm. The owner was -obdurate and refused to lease on any terms. Often lands not regarded -favorably as oil territory were taken to secure the right-of-way for -pipe-lines, as the leases conveyed this privilege. Driving past the -stubborn farmer’s homestead one afternoon, he was chopping wood in the -yard and strode to the gate to talk. His bright-eyed daughter of four -summers endeavored to clamber into the buggy. Handing the cute fairy in -coarse jeans a new silver-dollar, fresh from the Philadelphia mint, the -father caught sight of the shining coin. - -“Hev yo mo’ ov ’em ’ar dollars about yo?” he asked. - -“Plenty more.” - -“Make out leases fur my three farms an’ me an’ the old woman’ll sign -’em! I want three ov ’em kines, for they be th’ slickest Demmycratic -money my eyes hes sot onto sence I fit with John Morgan!” - -The documents were filled up, signed, sealed and delivered in fifteen -minutes. The chain of leased lands along Fanny Creek was intact, with -the “missing link” missing at last. - -The simplicity of these dwellers in the wilderness was equaled only by -their apathy to the world beyond and around them. Parents loved their -children and husbands loved their wives in a quiet, unobtrusive fashion. -“She wuz a hard-workin’ woman,” moaned a middle-aged widower in Fentress -county, telling me of his deceased spouse, “an’ she allers wore a frock -five year, an’ she bed ’leven chil’ren, an’ she died right in -corn-shuckin’!” He was not stony-hearted, but twenty-five years of -married companionship meant to him just so many days’ work, so many -cheap frocks, child-bearing, corn-cake and bacon always ready on time. -Among these people woman was a drudge, who knew nothing of the higher -relations of life. Children were huddled into the hills to track game, -to follow the plough or to drop corn over many a weary acre. Reading and -writing were unknown accomplishments. Jackson, “the great tradition of -the uninformed American mind,” and Lincoln, whose name the tumult of a -mighty struggle had rendered familiar, were the only Presidents they had -ever heard of. “Where ignorance is bliss ’tis folly to be wise” may be a -sound poetical sentiment, but it was decidedly overdone in South-eastern -Kentucky and North-eastern Tennessee so recently as the year of the -Philadelphia Centennial. - -Opposite the Hovey and Carter wells in Clinton county lives a portly -farmer who “is a good man and weighs two-hundred-and-fifty pounds.” He -is known far and wide as “Uncle John” and his wife, a pleasant-faced -little matron, is affectionately called “Aunt Rachel.” A log-church a -mile from “Uncle John’s” is situated on a pretty hill. There the young -folks are married, the children are baptized and the dead are buried. -The “June meetin’,” when services are held for a week, is the grand -incident of the year to the people for a score of miles. In December of -1893 Dr. Phillips, of Monticello, drove me to the wells. We stopped at -“Uncle John’s.” As we neared the house a dog barked and the hospitable -farmer came out to meet us. Behind him walked a man who greeted the -Doctor cordially. He glanced at me, recognition was mutual and we -clasped hands warmly. He was Alfred Murray, formerly connected with the -Pennsylvania-Consolidated Land-and-Petroleum-Company in Butler and at -Bradford. Fourteen years had glided away since we met and there were -many questions to ask and answer. He had been in the neighborhood a -twelvemonth, keeping tab on oil movements and indications, hoping, -longing and praying for the speedy advent of the petroleum-millenium. We -pumped the Hovey Well one hour, rambled over the hills and talked until -midnight about persons and things in Pennsylvania. Meeting in so dreary -a place, under such circumstances, was as thorough a surprise as -Stanley’s discovery of Livingstone in Darkest Africa. During our -conversation regarding the roughest portion of the county, bleak, -sterile and altogether repellant, selected by a hermit as his lonely -retreat, my friend remarked: “I have heard that the poor devil was -troubled with remorse and, as a sort of penance, vowed to live as near -Sheol as possible until he died!” - -The stage that bore me from Monticello to Point Burnside on my homeward -journey stopped half-way to take up a countryman and an aged woman. Room -was found inside for the latter, a stout, motherly old creature, into -whose beaming face it did jaded mortals good to look. She said “howdy” -to the three passengers, a local trader, a farmer’s young wife and -myself, sat down solidly and fixed her gaze upon me intently. It was -evident the dear soul was fairly bursting with impatience to find out -about the stranger. Not a word was spoken until she could restrain her -inquisitive impulse no longer. - -“Yo don’t liv’ eroun’ these air parts?” she interrogated. - -“No, madam, my home is in Pennsylvania.” - -“Land sakes! Be yo one ov ’em air ile-fellers?” - -“Yes.” - -“Wal, I be orful glad ter see yo!” and she stretched out her hand and -shook mine vigorously. “Hope yo’re right peart, but yo’ be a long way -from home! Did yo see ’em wells over thar by Aunt Rachel’s?” - -“Oh, yes, I saw the wells and stayed at Aunt Rachel’s all night.” - -[Illustration: “I BE ORFUL GLAD TER SEE YO!”] - -“I ain’t seed Aunt Rachel for nigh a year an’ a half. My old man bed -roomatiz and we couldn’t get ter meetin’ this summer. He sez thar’s ile -onto our farm. I be seventy-four an’ him on the ruf be my son’n-law. Yo -see he married, Jess did, my darter Sally an’ tha moved ter a place tha -call Kansas. Tha’s bin thar seventeen year an’ hes six chil’ren. Jess he -cum back las’ week ter see his fokeses an’ he be takin’ me ter Kansas -ter see Sally an’ the babies. I never seed ’em things Jess calls cyars, -an’ he sez tha ain’t drord by no hoss nuther! I wuz bo’n eight mile down -hyar an’ never wuz from home more’n eighteen mile, when we goes ter June -meetin’. But I be ter Monticeller six times.” - -Truly this was a natural specimen, bubbling over with kindness, -unspoiled by fashion and envy and frivolity and superficial pretense. -Here was the counterpart of Cowper’s humble heroine, who “knew, and knew -no more, her Bible true.” The wheezy stage was brighter for her -presence. She told of her family, her cows, her pigs, her spinning and -her neighbors. She lived four miles from the Cumberland River, yet never -went to see a steamboat! When we alighted at the Burnside station and -the train dashed up she looked sorely perplexed. “Jess” helped her up -the steps and the “cyars” started. The whistle screeched, daylight -vanished and the train had entered the tunnel below the depot. A fearful -scream pierced the ears of the passengers. The good woman seventy-four -years old, who “never seed ’em things” before, was terribly frightened. -We tried to reassure her, but she begged to be let off. How “Jess” -managed to get her to Kansas safely may be imagined. But what a story -she would have to tell about the “cyars” and “Sally an’ the babies” when -she returned to her quiet home after such a trip! Bless her old heart! - -[Illustration: “EF YO KNOW’D COUSIN JIM.”] - -Although the broad hills and sweeping streams which grouped many sweet -panoramas might be dull and meaningless to the average Kentuckian of -former days, through some brains glowing visions flitted. Two miles -south of Columbia, Adair county, on the road to Burksville, a heap of -stones and pieces of rotting timber may still be seen. Fifty-five years -ago the man who owned the farm constructed a huge wheel, loaded with -rocks of different weights on its strong arms. Neighbors jeered and -ridiculed, just as scoffers laughed at Noah’s ark and thought it -wouldn’t be much of a shower anyway. The hour to start the wheel arrived -and its builder stood by. A rock on an arm of the structure slipped off -and struck him a fatal blow, felling him lifeless to the earth! He was a -victim of the craze to solve the problem of Perpetual Motion. Who can -tell what dreams and plans and fancies and struggles beset this obscure -genius, cut off at the moment he anticipated a triumph? The wheel was -permitted to crumble and decay, no human hand touching it more. The heap -of stones is a pathetic memento of a sad tragedy. Not far from the spot -Mark Twain was born and John Fitch whittled out the rough model of the -first steamboat. - -Riding in Scott county, Tennessee, at full gallop on a rainy afternoon, -a cadaverous man emerged from a miserable hut and hailed me. The -dialogue was not prolonged unduly. - -“Gen’ral,” he queried, “air yo th’ oilman frum Pennsylvany?” - -“Yes, what can I do for you?” - -“I jes’ wanted ter ax ef yo know’d my cousin Jim!” - -“Who is your cousin Jim?” - -“Law, Jim Sickles! I tho’t ez how ev’rybody know’d Jim! He went up No’th -arter th’ wah an’ ain’t cum back yit. Ef yo see ’im tell ’im yo seed -me!” - -A promise to look out for “Jim” satisfied the verdant backwoodsman, who -probably had never been ten miles from his shanty and deemed “up No’th” -a place about the size of a Tennessee hunting-ground! - -The South-Penn and the Forest Oil-Companies, branches of the Standard, -have drilled considerably in Kentucky and Tennessee, sometimes finding -oil in regular strata and occasionally encountering irregular -formations. More operating is required to determine precisely what place -to assign these pebbles on the beach as sources of oil-production. - - Fair women, pure Bourbon and men extra plucky, - No wonder blue-grass folks esteem themselves lucky— - But wait till the oil-boom gets down to Kentucky! - - Let Fortune assume forms and fancies Protean, - No matter for that, there will rise a loud pæan - So long as oil gladdens the proud Tennesseean! - -[Illustration: - - Map - of - VENANGO COUNTY - Pennsylvania -] - -[Illustration: - - EARLY OPERATORS ON OIL CREEK. - WM. BARNSDALL. - GEO. H. BISSELL. DR. F. B. BREWER. - DR. A. G. EGBERT. JONATHAN WATSON. COL. E. L. DRAKE. - DAVID EMERY. CHARLES HYDE. - DAVID CROSSLEY. -] - - - - - V. - A HOLE IN THE GROUND. - -THE FIRST WELL DRILLED FOR PETROLEUM—THE MEN WHO STARTED OIL ON ITS - TRIUMPHANT MARCH—COLONEL DRAKE’S OPERATIONS—SETTING HISTORY - RIGHT—HOW TITUSVILLE WAS BOOMED AND A GIANT INDUSTRY - ORIGINATED—MODEST BEGINNING OF THE GREATEST ENTERPRISE ON EARTH—SIDE - DROPPINGS THAT THROW LIGHT ON AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT. - - ---------- - -“Was it not time that Cromwell should come?”—_Edwin Paxton Hood._ - -“He who would get at the kernel must crack the shell.”—_Plautus._ - -“We should at least do something to show that we have lived.”—_Cicero._ - -“I have tapped the mine.”—_E. L. Drake._ - -“Petroleum has come to be King.”—_W. D. Gunning._ - -“It is our mission to illuminate all creation.”—_Robert Bonner._ - -“Tell the truth or trump, but take the trick.”—_Mark Twain._ - -“How far that little candle throws his beams!”—_Shakespeare._ - -“Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth.”—_St. James iii:5._ - -“Judge of the size of the statue of Hercules from that of the - foot.”—_Latin Proverb._ - - ---------- - - -Nature certainly spared no effort to bring petroleum into general notice -ages before James Young manufactured paraffine-oil in Scotland or Samuel -M. Kier fired-up his miniature refinery at Pittsburg. North and south, -east and west the presence of the greasy staple was manifested -positively and extensively. The hump of a dromedary, the kick of a mule -or the ruby blossom on a toper’s nose could not be more apparent. It -bubbled in fountains, floated on rivulets, escaped from crevices, -collected in pools, blazed on the plains, gurgled down the mountains, -clogged the ozone with vapor, smelled and sputtered, trickled and seeped -for thousands of years in vain attempts to divert attention towards the -_source_ of this prodigal display. Mankind accepted it as a liniment and -lubricant, gulped it down, rubbed it in, smeared it on and never thought -of seeking whence it came or how much of it might be procured. Even -after salt-wells had produced the stuff none stopped to reflect that the -golden grease must be imprisoned far beneath the earth’s surface, only -awaiting release to bless the dullards callous to the strongest hints -respecting its headquarters. The dunce who heard Sydney Smith’s -side-splitting story and sat as solemn as the sphinx, because he -couldn’t see any point until the next day and then got it heels over -head, was less obtuse. Puck was right in his little pleasantry: “What -fools these mortals be!” - -Dr. Abraham Gesner obtained oil from coal in 1846 and in 1854 patented -an illuminator styled “Kerosene,” which the North American Kerosene -Gaslight Company of New York manufactured at its works on Long Island. -The excellence of the new light—the smoke and odor were eliminated -gradually—caused a brisk demand that froze the marrow of the animal-oil -industry. Capitalists invested largely in Virginia, Kentucky and -Missouri coal-lands, saving the expense of transporting the “raw -material” by erecting oil-works at the mines. Exactly in the ratio that -mining coal was cheaper than catching whales mineral-oil had the -advantage in competing for a market. Realizing this, men owning fish-oil -works preserved them from extinction by manufacturing the -mineral-product Young and Gesner had introduced. Thus Samuel Downer’s -half-million-dollar works near Boston and colossal plant at Portland -were utilized. Downer had expanded ideas and remarked with -characteristic emphasis, in reply to a friend who criticised him for the -risk he ran in putting up an enormous refinery at Corry, as the -oil-production might exhaust: “The Almighty never does a picayune -business!” Fifty or sixty of these works were turning out oil from -bituminous shales in 1859, when the influx of petroleum compelled their -conversion into refineries to avert overwhelming loss. Maine had one, -Massachusetts five, New York five, Pennsylvania eight, Ohio twenty-five, -Kentucky six, Virginia eight, Missouri one and one was starting in -McKean county, near Kinzua village. The Carbon Oil-Company, 184 Water -street, New York City, was the chief dealer in the illuminant. The -entire petroleum-traffic in 1858 was barely eleven-hundred barrels, most -of it obtained from Tarentum. A shipment of twelve barrels to New York -in November, 1857, may be considered the beginning of the history of -petroleum as an illuminator. How the baby has grown! - -The price of “kerosene” or “carbon-oil,” always high, advanced to two -dollars a gallon! Nowadays people grudge ten cents a gallon for oil -vastly clearer, purer, better and safer! One good result of the high -prices was an exhaustive scrutiny by the foremost scientific authorities -into all the varieties of coal and bitumen, out of which comparisons -with petroleum developed incidentally. Belief in its identity with -coal-oil prompted the investigations which finally determined the -economic value of petroleum. Professor B. Silliman, Jun., Professor of -Chemistry in Yale College, in the spring of 1855 concluded a thorough -analysis of petroleum from a “spring” on Oil Creek, nearly two miles -south of Titusville, where traces of pits cribbed with rough timber -still remained and the sticky fluid had been skimmed for two -generations. In the course of his report Professor Silliman observed: - -“It is understood and represented that this product exists in great -abundance on the property; that it can be gathered wherever a well is -sunk, over a great number of acres, and that it is unfailing in its -yield from year to year. The question naturally arises, Of what value is -it in the arts and for what uses can it be employed? * * * The Crude-Oil -was tried as a means of illumination. For this purpose a weighed -quantity was decomposed by passing it through a wrought-iron retort -filled with carbon and ignited to redness. It produced nearly pure -carburetted hydrogen gas, the most highly illuminating of all carbon -gases. In fact, the oil may be regarded as chemically identical with -illuminating gas in a liquid form. It burned with an intense flame. * * -* The light from the rectified Naphtha is pure and white, without odor, -and the rate of consumption less than half that of Camphene or -Rosin-Oil. * * * Compared with Gas, the Rock-Oil gave more light than -any burner, except the costly Argand, consuming two feet of gas per -hour. These photometric experiments have given the Oil a much higher -value as an illuminator than I had dared to hope. * * * As this oil does -not gum or become acid or rancid by exposure, it possesses in that, as -well as in its wonderful resistance to extreme cold, important qualities -for a lubricator. * * * It is worthy of note that my experiments prove -that nearly the _whole_ of the raw product may be manufactured without -waste, solely by one of the most simple of all chemical processes.” - -Notwithstanding these researches, which he spent five months in -prosecuting, the idea of artesian-boring for petroleum—naturally -suggested by the oil in the salines of the Muskingum, Kanawha, -Cumberland and Allegheny—never occurred to the learned Professor of -Chemistry in Yale! If he had been the Yale football, with Hickok -swatting it five-hundred pounds to the square inch, the idea might have -been pummeled into the man of crucibles and pigments! Once more was -nature frustrated in the endeavor to “bring out” a favorite child. The -faithful dog that attempted to drag a fat man by the seat of his pants -to the rescue of a drowning master, or Diogenes in his protracted quest -for an honest Athenian, had an easier task. The “spring” which furnished -the material for Silliman’s experiments was on the Willard farm, part of -the lands of Brewer, Watson & Co.—Ebenezer Brewer and James Rynd, -Pittsburg, Jonathan Watson, Rexford Pierce and Elijah Newberry, -Titusville—extensive lumbermen on Oil Creek. They ran a sawmill on an -island near the east bank of the creek, at a bend in the stream, a few -rods south of the boundary-line between Venango and Crawford counties. -Close to the mill was the rusty-looking “spring” from which the oil to -burn in rude lamps, smoky and chimneyless, and to lubricate the circular -saw was derived. The following document explains the first action -retarding the care and development of the “spring.” - -“Agreed this fourth day of July, A.D. 1853, with J. D. Angier, of -Cherrytree Township, in the County of Venango, Pa., that he shall repair -up and keep in order the old oil-spring on land in said Cherrytree -township, or dig and make new springs, and the expenses to be deducted -out of the proceeds of the oil and the balance, if any, to be equally -divided, the one-half to J. D. Angier and the other half to Brewer, -Watson & Co., for the full term of five years from this date, if -profitable.” - -All parties signed this agreement, pursuant to which Angier, for many -years a resident of Titusville, dug trenches centering in a basin from -which a pump connected with the sawmill raised the water into shallow -troughs that sloped to the ground. Small skimmers, nicely adjusted to -skim the oil, collected three or four gallons a day, but the experiment -did not pay and it was dropped. In the summer of 1854 Dr. F. B. Brewer, -son of the senior member of the firm owning the mill and “spring,” -visited relatives at Hanover, New Hampshire, carrying with him a bottle -of the oil as a gift to Professor Crosby, of Dartmouth College. Shortly -after George H. Bissell, a graduate of the college, practicing law in -New York with Jonathan G. Eveleth, while on a visit to Hanover called to -see Professor Crosby, who showed him the bottle of petroleum. Crosby’s -son induced Bissell to pay the expenses of a trip to inspect the -“spring” and to agree, in case of a satisfactory report, to organize a -company with a capital of a quarter-million dollars to purchase lands -and erect such machinery as might be required to collect all the oil in -the vicinity. - - “Great minds never limit their designs in their plans.” - -Complications and misunderstandings retarded matters. Everything was -adjusted at last. Brewer, Watson & Co. conveyed in fee-simple to George -H. Bissell and Jonathan G. Eveleth one-hundred-and-five acres of land in -Cherrytree township, embracing the island at the junction of Pine Creek -and Oil Creek, on which the mill of the firm and the Angier ditches were -situated. The deed was formally executed on January first, 1855. Eveleth -and Bissell gave their own notes for the purchase-money—five-thousand -dollars—less five-hundred dollars paid in cash. The consideration -mentioned in the deed was twenty-five-thousand dollars, five times the -actual sum, in order not to appear such a small fraction of the total -capital—two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars—as to injure the sale of -stock. On December thirtieth, 1854, articles of incorporation of The -Pennsylvania Rock-Oil-Company were filed in New York and Albany. The -stock did not sell, owing to the prostration of the money-market and the -fact that the company had been organized in New York, by the laws of -which state each shareholder in a joint-stock company was liable for its -debts to the amount of the par value of the stock he held. New-Haven -parties agreed to subscribe for large blocks of stock if the company -were reorganized under the laws of Connecticut. A new company was formed -with a nominal capital of three-hundred-thousand dollars, to take the -name and property of the one to be dissolved and levy an assessment to -develop the island “by trenching” on a wholesale plan. - -Eveleth & Bissell retained a controlling interest and Ashael Pierpont, -James M. Townsend and William A. Ives were three of the New-Haven -stockholders. Bissell visited Titusville to complete the transfer. On -January sixteenth he and his partner had given a deed, which was not -recorded, to the trustees of the original company. At Titusville he -learned that lands of corporations organized outside of Pennsylvania -would be forfeited to the state. The new company was notified of this -law and to avoid trouble, on September twentieth, 1855, Eveleth & -Bissell executed a deed to Pierpont and Ives, who gave a bond for the -value of the property and leased it for ninety-nine years to a company -formed two days before under certain articles of association. It really -seemed that something definite would be done. The first oil-company in -the history of nations had been organized. Pierpont, an eminent -mechanic, was sent to examine the “spring,” with a view to improve -Angier’s machinery. Silliman’s reports had a stimulating effect and the -Professor was president of the company. But the monkey-and-parrot time -was renewed. Dissensions broke out, Angier was fired and the enterprise -looked to be “as dead as Julius Cæsar,” ready to bury “a hundred fathoms -deep.” - -[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF LABEL ON KIER’S PETROLEUM.] - -One scorching day in the summer of 1856 Mr. Bissell, standing beneath -the awning of a Broadway drug-store for a moment’s shade, noticed a -bottle of Kier’s Petroleum and a queer show-bill, or label, in the -window. It struck him as rather odd that a four-hundred-dollar bill—such -it appeared—should be displayed in that manner. A second glance proved -that it was an advertisement of a substance that concerned him deeply. -He stepped inside and requested permission to scan the label. The -druggist told him to “take it along.” For an instant he gazed at the -derricks and the figures—four-hundred feet! A thought flashed upon -him—bore artesian wells for oil! Artesian wells! Artesian wells! rang in -his ears like the Trinity chimes down the street, the bells of London -telling “Dick” Whittington to return or the pibroch of the Highlanders -at Lucknow. The idea that meant so much was born at last. Patient nature -must have felt in the mood to turn somersaults, blow a tin-horn and -dance the fandango. It was a simple thought—merely to bore a hole in the -rock—with no frills and furbelows and fustian, but pregnant with -astounding consequences. It has added untold millions to the wealth of -the country and conferred incalculable benefits upon humanity. To-day -refined petroleum lights more dwellings in America, Europe, Asia, Africa -and Australia than all other agencies combined. - -To put the idea to the test was the next wrinkle. Mr. Eveleth agreed -with Bissell’s theory. Their first impulse was to bore a well -themselves. Reflection cooled their ardor, as this course would involve -the loss of their practice for an uncertainty. Mr. Havens, a Wall-street -broker, whom they consulted, offered them five-hundred dollars for a -lease from the Pennsylvania Rock-Oil Company. A contract with Havens, by -the terms of which he was to pay “twelve cents a gallon for all oil -raised for fifteen years,” financial reverses prevented his carrying -out. The idea of artesian boring was too fascinating to lie dormant. Mr. -Townsend, president of the company, Silliman having resigned, employed -Edwin L. Drake, to whom in the darker days of its existence he had sold -two-hundred-dollars’ worth of his own stock, to visit the property and -report his impressions. Mrs. Brewer and Mrs. Rynd had not joined in the -power-of-attorney by which the agent conveyed the Brewer-Watson lands to -the company, hence they would be entitled to dower in case the husbands -died. Drake was instructed to return by way of Pittsburg and procure -their signatures. Illness had forced him to quit work—he was conductor -on the New-York & New-Haven Railroad—for some months and the opportunity -for change of air and scene was embraced gladly. Shrewd, far-seeing -Townsend, who still lives in New Haven and has been credited with “the -discovery” of petroleum, addressed legal documents and letters to -“Colonel” Drake, no doubt supposing this would enhance the importance of -his representative in the eyes of the Oil-Creek backwoodsmen. The -military title stuck to the diffident civilian whose name is interwoven -with the great events of the nineteenth century. - -[Illustration: JONATHAN TITUS.] - -Stopping on his way from New Haven to view the salt-wells at Syracuse, -about the middle of December, 1857, Colonel Drake was trundled into -Titusville—named from Jonathan Titus—on the mail-wagon from Erie. The -villagers received him cordially. He lodged at the American Hotel, the -home-like inn “Billy” Robinson, the first boniface, and Major Mills, -king of landlords, rendered famous by their bountiful hospitality. The -old caravansary was torn down in 1880 to furnish a site for the Oil -Exchange. Drake stayed a few days to transact legal business, to examine -the lands and the indications of oil and to become familiar with the -general details. Proceeding to Pittsburg, he visited the salt-wells at -Tarentum, the picture of which on Kier’s label suggested boring for oil, -and hastened back to Connecticut to conclude a scheme of operating the -property. On December thirtieth the three New-Haven directors executed a -lease to Edwin E. Bowditch and Edwin L. Drake, who were to pay the -Pennsylvania Rock-Oil-Company “five-and-a-half cents a gallon for the -oil raised for fifteen years.” Eight days later, at the annual meeting -of the directors, the lease was ratified, George H. Bissell and Jonathan -Watson, representing two-thirds of the stock, protesting. Thereupon the -consideration was placed at “one-eighth of all oil, salt or paint -produced.” The lease was sent to Franklin and recorded in Deed Book P, -page 357. A supplemental lease, extending the time to forty-five years -on the conditions of the grant to Havens, was recorded, and on March -twenty-third, 1858, the Seneca Oil-Company was organized, with Colonel -Drake as president and owner of one-fortieth of the “stock.” No stock -was issued, for the company was in reality a partnership working under -the laws governing joint-stock associations. - -[Illustration: THE FIRST DRAKE WELL, ITS DRILLERS AND ITS COMPLETE RIG.] - -Provided with a fund of one-thousand dollars as a starter, Drake was -engaged at one-thousand dollars a year to begin operations. Early in -May, 1858, he and his family arrived in Titusville and were quartered at -the American Hotel, which boarded the Colonel, Mrs. Drake, two children -and a horse for six-dollars-and-a-half per week! Money was scarce, -provisions were cheap and the quiet village put on no extravagant airs. -Not a pick or shovel was to be had in any store short of Meadville, -whither Drake was obliged to send for these useful tools! Behold, then, -“the man who was to revolutionize the light of the world,” his mind full -of a grand purpose and his pockets full of cash, snugly ensconced in the -comfortable hostelry. Surely the curtain would soon rise and the drama -of “A Petroleum-Hunt” proceed without further vexatious delays. - -Drake’s first step was to repair and start up Angier’s system of -trenches, troughs and skimmers. By the end of June he had dug a shallow -well on the island and was saving ten gallons of oil a day. He found it -difficult to get a practical “borer” to sink an artesian-well. In August -he shipped two barrels of oil to New Haven and bargained for a -steam-engine to furnish power for drilling. The engine was not furnished -as agreed, the “borer” Dr. Brewer hired at Pittsburg had another -contract and operations were suspended for the winter. In February, -1859, Drake went to Tarentum and engaged a driller to come in March. The -driller failed to materialize and Drake drove to Tarentum in a sleigh to -lasso another. F. N. Humes, who was cleaning out salt-wells for -Peterson, informed him that the tools were made by William A. Smith, -whom he might be able to secure for the job. Smith accepted the offer to -manufacture tools and bore the well. Kim Hibbard, favorably known in -Franklin, was dispatched with his team, when the tools were completed, -for Smith, his two sons and the outfit. On May twentieth the men and -tools were at the spot selected for the hole. A “pump-house” had been -framed and a derrick built. A room for “boarding the hands” almost -joined the rig and the sawmill. The accompanying illustration shows the -well as it was at first, with the original derrick enclosed to the top, -the “grasshopper walking-beam,” the “boarding-house” and part of the -mill-shed. “Uncle Billy” Smith is seated on a wheelbarrow in the -foreground. His sons, James and William, are standing on either side of -the “pump-house” entrance. Back of James his two young sisters are -sitting on a board. Elbridge Lock stands to the right of the Smiths. -“Uncle Billy’s” brother is leaning on a plank at the corner of the -derrick and his wife may be discerned in the doorway of the -“boarding-house.” This interesting and historic picture has never been -printed until now. The one with which the world is acquainted depicts -the _second_ rig, with Peter Wilson, a Titusville druggist, facing -Drake. In like manner, the portrait of Colonel Drake in this volume is -from the first photograph for which he ever sat. The well and the -portrait are the work of John A. Mather, the veteran artist and Drake’s -bosom-friend, who ought to receive a pension and no end of gratitude for -preserving “counterfeit presentments” of a host of petroleum-scenes and -personages that have passed from mortal sight. - -Delays and tribulations had not retreated from the field. In -artesian-boring it is necessary to drill in rock. Mrs. Glasse’s old-time -cook-book gained celebrity by starting a recipe for rabbit-pie: “First -catch your hare.” The principle applies to artesian-drilling: “First -catch your rock.” The ordinary rule was to dig a pit or well-hole to the -rock and crib it with timber. The Smiths dug a few feet, but the hole -filled with water and caved-in persistently. It was a fight-to-a-finish -between three men and what Stow of Girard—he was Barnum’s hot-stuff -advance agent—wittily termed “the cussedness of inanimate things.” The -latter won and a council of war was summoned, at which Drake recommended -driving an iron-tube through the clay and quicksand to the rock. This -was effectual. Colonel Drake should have patented the process, which was -his exclusive device and decidedly valuable. The pipe was driven -thirty-six feet to hard-pan and the drill started on August fourteenth. -The workmen averaged three feet a day, resting at night and on Sundays. -Indications of oil were met as the tools pierced the rock. Everybody -figured that the well would be down to the Tarentum level in time to -celebrate Christmas. The company, tired of repeated postponements, did -not deluge Drake with money. Losing speculations and sickness had -drained his own meagre savings. R. D. Fletcher, the well-known -Titusville merchant, and Peter Wilson endorsed his paper for six-hundred -dollars to tide over the crisis. The tools pursued the downward road -with the eagerness of a sinner headed for perdition, while expectation -stood on tiptoe to watch the progress of events. - -On Saturday afternoon, August twenty-eighth, 1859, the well had reached -the depth of sixty-nine feet, in a coarse sand. Smith and his sons -concluded to “lay off” until Monday morning. As they were about to quit -the drill dropped six inches into a crevice such as was common in -salt-wells. Nothing was thought of this circumstance, the tools were -drawn out and all hands adjourned to Titusville. Mr. Smith went to the -well on Sunday afternoon to see if it had moved away or been purloined -during the night. Peering into the hole he saw fluid within eight or ten -feet. A piece of tin-spouting was lying outside. He plugged one end of -the spout, let it down by a string and pulled it up. Muddy water? No! It -was filled with PETROLEUM! - -“The fisherman, unassisted by destiny, could not catch fish in the -Tigris.” - -That was the proudest hour in “Uncle Billy” Smith’s forty-seven years’ -pilgrimage. Not daring to leave the spot, he ran the spout again and -again, each time bringing it to the surface full of oil. A straggler out -for a stroll approached, heard the story, sniffed the oil and bore the -tidings to the village. Darkness was setting in, but the Smith boys -sprinted to the scene. When Colonel Drake came down, bright and early -next morning, they and their father were guarding three barrels of the -precious liquid. The pumping apparatus was adjusted and by noon the well -commenced producing at the rate of twenty barrels a day! The problem of -the ages was solved, the agony ended and petroleum fairly launched upon -its astonishing career. - -The news flew like a Dakota cyclone. Villagers and country-folk flocked -to the wonderful well. Smith wrote to Peterson, his former employer: -“Come quick, there’s oceans of oil!” Jonathan Watson jumped on a horse -and galloped down the creek to lease the McClintock farm, where -Nathanael Cary dipped oil and a timbered crib had been constructed. -Henry Potter, still a citizen of Titusville, tied up the lands for miles -along the stream, hoping to interest New York capital. William Barnsdall -secured the farm north of the Willard. George H. Bissell, who had -arranged to be posted by telegraph, bought all the Pennsylvania Rock-Oil -stock he could find and in four days was at the well. He leased farm -after farm on Oil Creek and the Allegheny River, regardless of -surface-indications or the admonition of meddling wiseacres. - -The rush for property resembled the wild scramble of the children when -the Pied Piper of Hamelin blew his fatal reed. Titusville was in a -whirlpool of excitement. Buildings arose as if by magic, the hamlet -became a borough and the borough a city of fifteen-thousand inhabitants. -Maxwell Titus sold lots at two-hundred dollars, people acquired homes -that doubled in value and speculation held undisputed sway. Jonathan -Titus, from whom it was named, lived to witness the farm he cleared -transformed into “The Queen City,” noted for its tasteful residences, -excellent schools, manufactories, refineries and active population. One -of his neighbors in the bush was Samuel Kerr, whose son Michael went to -Congress and served as Speaker of the House. Many enterprising men -settled in Titusville for the sake of their families. They paved the -streets, planted shade-trees, fostered local industries, promoted -culture and believed in public improvements. When Christine Nilsson -enraptured sixteen-hundred well-dressed, appreciative listeners in the -Parshall Opera-House, the peerless songstress could not refrain from -saying that she never saw an audience so keen to note the finer points -of her performance and so discriminating in its applause. “Praise from -Sir Hubert is praise indeed” and the compliment of the Swedish -Nightingale compressed a whole encyclopedia into a sentence. Titusville -has had its ups and downs, but there is no more desirable place in the -State. - - “Auld Ayr, wham ne’er a town surpasses.” - -[Illustration: MAIN STREET, TITUSVILLE, IN 1861.] - -[Illustration: DANIEL CADY.] - -Matches are supposed to be made in Heaven and the inspiration that led -to the choice of such a site for the future city must have been derived -from the same source. Healthfulness and beauty of location attest the -wisdom of the selection. Folks don’t have to climb precipitous hills or -risk life and limb crossing railway-tracks whenever they wish to -exercise their fast nags. Driving is a favorite pastime in fine weather, -the leading thoroughfares often reminding strangers of Central Park on a -coaching-day. Main, Walnut and Perry streets are lined with trees and -residences worthy of Philadelphia or Baltimore. Comfortable homes are -the crowning glory of a community and in this respect Titusville does -not require to take a back-seat. Near the lower end of Main street is -Ex-Mayor Caldwell’s elegant mansion, built by Jonathan Watson in the -days of his prosperity. Farther up are John Fertig’s, the late Marcus -Brownson’s, Mrs. David Emery’s and Mrs. A. N. Perrin’s. Franklin S. -Tarbell, a former resident of Rouseville, occupies an attractive house. -Joseph Seep, who has not changed an iota since the halcyon period of -Parker and Foxburg, shows his faith in the town by building a home that -would adorn Cleveland’s aristocratic Euclid Avenue. The host is the -cordial Seep of yore, quick to make a point and not a bit backward in -helping a friend. David McKelvy, whom everybody knew in the lower -oil-fields, remodeled the Chase homestead, a symphony in red brick. -Close by is W. T. Scheide’s natty dwelling, finished in a style -befitting the ex-superintendent of the National-Transit Pipe-Lines. -Byron D. Benson—he died in 1889—nine times elected president of the -Tidewater Pipe-Line-Company, lived on the corner of Oak and Perry -streets. Opposite is John L. McKinney’s luxurious residence, a credit to -the liberal owner and the city. J. C. McKinney’s is “one of the finest.” -James Parshall, W. B. Sterrett, O. D. Harrington, J. P. Thomas, W. W. -Thompson, Charles Archbold and hundreds more erected dwellings that -belong to the palatial tribe. Dr. Roberts—he’s in the cemetery—had a -spacious place on Washington street, with the costliest stable in -seventeen counties. E. O. Emerson’s house and grounds are the admiration -of visitors. The grand fountain, velvet lawns, smooth walks, tropical -plants, profusion of flowers, mammoth conservatory and Marechal-Niel -rose-bushes bewilder the novice whose knowledge of floral affairs stops -at button-hole bouquets. George K. Anderson—dead, too—constructed this -delightful retreat. Col. J. J. Carter, whose record as a military -officer, merchant, railroad-president and oil-operator will stand -inspection, has an ideal home, purchased from John D. Archbold and -refitted throughout. It was built and furnished extravagantly by Daniel -Cady, once a leading spirit in the business and social life of -Titusville. He was a man of imposing presence and indomitable pluck, the -confidant of Jay Gould and “Jim” Fisk, dashing, speculative and popular. -For years whatever he touched seemed to turn into gold and he computed -his dollars by hundreds of thousands. Days of adversity overtook him, -the splendid home was sacrificed and he died poor. To men of the stamp -of Watson, Anderson, Abbott, Emery, Fertig and Cady Titusville owes its -real start in the direction of greatness. Much of the froth and fume of -former days is missing, but the baser elements have been eliminated, -trade is on a solid basis and important manufactures have been -established. There are big refineries, Holly water-works, a race-track, -ball-grounds, top-notch hotels, live newspapers, inviting churches and a -lovely cemetery in which to plant good citizens when they pass in their -checks. Pilgrims who expect to find Titusville dead or dying will be as -badly fooled as the lover whose girl eloped with the other fellow. - -Unluckily for himself, Colonel Drake took a narrow view of affairs. -Complacently assuming that he had “tapped the mine”—to quote his own -phrase—and that paying territory would not be found outside the -company’s lease, he pumped the well serenely, told funny stories and -secured not one foot of ground! Had he possessed a particle of the -prophetic instinct, had he grasped the magnitude of the issues at stake, -had he appreciated the importance of petroleum as a commercial product, -had he been able to “see an inch beyond his nose,” he would have gone -forth that August morning and become “Master of the Oil Country!” “The -world was all before him where to choose,” he was literally “monarch of -all he surveyed,” but he didn’t move a peg! Money was not needed, the -promise of one-eighth or one-quarter royalty satisfying the easy-going -farmers, consequently he might have gathered in any quantity of land. -Friends urged him to “get into the game;” he rejected their counsel and -never realized his mistake until other wells sent prices skyward and it -was everlastingly too late for his short pole to knock the persimmons. -Yet this is the man whom numerous writers have proclaimed “the -discoverer of petroleum!” Times without number it has been said and -written and printed that he was “the first man to advise boring for -oil,” that “his was the first mind to conceive the idea of penetrating -the rock in search of a larger deposit of oil than was dreamed of by any -one,” that “he alone unlocked one of nature’s vast storehouses” and “had -visions of a revolution in light and lubrication.” Considering what -Kier, Peterson, Bissell and Watson had done years before Drake ever -saw—perhaps ever heard of—a drop of petroleum, the absurdity of these -claims is “so plain that he who runs may read.” Couple with this his -incredible failure to secure lands after the well was drilled—wholly -inexcusable if he supposed oil-operations would ever be important—and -the man who thinks Colonel Drake was “the first man with a clear -conception of the future of petroleum” could swallow the fish that -swallowed Jonah! - -Above all else history should be truthful and “hew to the line, let -chips fall where they may.” Mindful that “the agent is but the -instrument of the principal,” why should Colonel Drake wear the laurels -in this instance? Paid a salary to carry out Bissell’s plan of boring an -artesian-well, he spent sixteen months getting the hole down seventy -feet. For a man who “had visions” and “a clear conception” his movements -were inexplicably slow. He encountered obstacles, but salt-wells had -been drilled hundreds of feet without either a steam-engine or -professional “borer.” The credit of suggesting the driving-pipe to -overcome the quicksand is justly his due. Quite as justly the credit of -suggesting the boring of the well belongs to George H. Bissell. The -company hired Drake, Drake hired Smith, Smith did the work. Back of the -man who possessed the skill to fashion the tools and sink the hole, back -of the man who acted for the company and disbursed its money, back of -the company itself is the originator of the idea these were the means -employed to put into effect. Was George Stephenson, or the foreman of -the shop where the “Rocket” was built, the inventor of the locomotive? -Was Columbus, or the man whose name it bears, the discoverer of America? -In a conversation on the subject Mr. Bissell remarked: “Let Colonel -Drake enjoy the pleasure of giving the well his name; history will set -us all right.” So it will and this is a step in that direction. If the -long-talked-of monument to commemorate the advent of the petroleum-era -ever be erected, it should bear in boldest capitals the names of Samuel -M. Kier and George H. Bissell. - -Edwin L. Drake, who is linked inseparably with the first oil-well in -Pennsylvania, was born on March eleventh, 1819, at Greenville, Greene -county, New York. His father, a farmer, moved to Vermont in 1825. At -eighteen Edwin left home to begin the struggle with the world. He was -night-clerk of a boat running between Buffalo and Detroit, worked one -year on a farm in the Wolverine state, clerked two years in a Michigan -hotel, returned east and clerked in a dry-goods store at New Haven, -clerked and married in New York, removed to Massachusetts, was -express-agent on the Boston & Albany railroad and resigned in 1849 to -become conductor on the New-York & New-Haven. His younger brother died -in the west and his wife at New Haven, in 1854, leaving one child. While -boarding at a hotel in New Haven he met James M. Townsend, who persuaded -him to draw his savings of two-hundred dollars from the bank and buy -stock of the Pennsylvania Rock-Oil-Company, his first connection with -the business that was to make him famous. Early in 1857 he married Miss -Laura Dow, sickness in the summer compelled him to cease punching -tickets and his memorable visit to Titusville followed in December. In -1860 he was elected justice-of-the-peace, an office worth -twenty-five-hundred dollars that year, because of the enormous number of -property-transfers to prepare and acknowledge. Buying oil on commission -for Shefflin Brothers, New York, swelled his income to five-thousand -dollars for a year or two. He also bought twenty-five acres of land from -Jonathan Watson, east of Martin street and through the center of which -Drake street now runs, for two-thousand dollars. Unable to meet the -mortgage given for part of the payment, he sold the block in 1863 to Dr. -A. D. Atkinson for twelve-thousand dollars. Forty times this sum would -not have bought it in 1867! With the profits of this transaction and his -savings for five years, in all about sixteen-thousand dollars, in the -summer of 1863 Colonel Drake left the oil-regions forever. - -Entering into partnership with a Wall-street broker, he wrecked his -small fortune speculating in oil-stocks, his health broke down and he -removed to Vermont. Physicians ordered him to the seaside as the only -remedy for his disease, neuralgic affection of the spine, which -threatened paralysis of the limbs and caused intense suffering. Near -Long Branch, in a cottage offered by a friend, Mr. and Mrs. Drake drank -the bitter cup to the dregs. Their funds were exhausted, the patient -needed constant attention and helpless children cried for bread. The -devoted wife and mother attempted to earn a pittance with her needle, -but could not keep the wolf of hunger from the door. Medicine for the -sick man was out of the question. All this time men in the region the -Drake well had opened to the world were piling up millions of dollars! -One day in 1869, with eighty cents to pay his fare, Colonel Drake -struggled into New York to seek a place for his twelve-year-old boy. The -errand was fruitless. The distressed father was walking painfully on the -street to the railway-station, to board the train for home, when he met -“Zeb” Martin of Titusville, afterwards proprietor of the Hotel -Brunswick. Mr. Martin noted his forlorn condition, inquired as to his -circumstances, learned the sad story of actual privation, procured -dinner, gave the poor fellow twenty dollars and cheered him with the -assurance that he would raise a fund for his relief. The promise was -redeemed. - -At a meeting in Titusville the case was stated and forty-two hundred -dollars were subscribed. The money was forwarded to Mrs. Drake, who -husbanded it carefully. The terrible recital aroused such a feeling that -the Legislature, in 1873, granted Colonel Drake an annuity of -fifteen-hundred dollars during his life and his heroic wife’s. -California had set a good example by giving Colonel Sutter, the -discoverer of gold in the mill-race, thirty-five-hundred dollars a year. -The late Thaddeus Stevens, “the Great Commoner,” hearing that Drake was -actually in want, prepared a bill, found among his papers after his -death, intending to present it before Congress for an appropriation of -two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars for Colonel Drake. In 1870 the -family removed to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Years of suffering, borne -with sublime resignation, closed on the evening of November ninth, 1881, -with the release of Edwin L. Drake from this vale of tears. A faithful -wife and four children survived the petroleum-pioneer. They lived at -Bethlehem until the spring of 1895 and then moved to New England. -Colonel Drake was a man of pronounced individuality, affable, genial and -kindly. He had few superiors as a story-teller, neither caroused nor -swore, and was of unblemished character. He wore a full beard, dressed -well, liked a good horse, looked every man straight in the face and his -dark eyes sparkled when he talked. Gladly he laid down the heavy burden -of a checkered life, with its afflictions and vicissitudes, for the -peaceful rest of the grave. - - “Since every man who lives is born to die * * * - Like pilgrims to the appointed place we tend; - The world’s an inn, and death the journey’s end.” - -George H. Bissell, honorably identified with the petroleum-development -from its inception, was a New-Hampshire boy. Thrown upon his own -resources at twelve, by the death of his father, he gained education and -fortune unaided. At school and college he supported himself by teaching -and writing for magazines. Graduating from Dartmouth College in 1845, he -was professor of Greek and Latin in Norwich University a short time, -went to Washington and Cuba, did editorial work for the New Orleans -_Delta_ and was chosen superintendent of the public schools. Impaired -health forced him to return north in 1853, when his connection with -petroleum began. From 1859 to 1863 he resided at Franklin, Venango -county, to be near his oil-interests. He operated largely on Oil Creek, -on the Allegheny river and at Franklin, where he erected a -barrel-factory. He removed to New York in 1863, established the Bissell -Bank at Petroleum Centre in 1866, developed oil-lands in Peru and was -prominent in financial circles. His wife died in 1867 and long since he -followed her to the tomb. Mr. Bissell was a brilliant, scholarly man, -positive in his convictions and sure to make his influence felt in any -community. His son and daughter reside in New York. - - “Pass some few years, - Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer’s ardent strength, - Thy sober Autumn fading into age, - And pale concluding Winter comes at last - And shuts the scene.” - -William A. Smith, born in Butler county in 1812, at the age of twelve -was apprenticed at Freeport to learn blacksmithing. In 1827 he went to -Pittsburg and in 1842 opened a blacksmith-shop at Salina, below -Tarentum. Samuel M. Kier employed him to drill salt-wells and -manufacture drilling-tools. After finishing the Drake well, he drilled -in various sections of the oil-regions, retiring to his farm in Butler a -few years prior to his death, on October twenty-third, 1890. “Uncle -Billy,” as the boys affectionately called him, was no small factor in -giving to mankind the illuminator that enlightens every quarter of the -globe. The farm he owned in 1859 and on which he died proved good -territory. - -Dr. Francis B. Brewer was born in New Hampshire, studied medicine in -Philadelphia and practiced in Vermont. His father in 1840 purchased -several thousand acres of land on Oil Creek for lumbering, and the firm -of Brewer, Watson & Co. was promptly organized. Oil from the “spring” on -the island at the mouth of Pine Creek was sent to the young physician in -1848 and used in his practice. He visited the locality in 1850 and was -admitted to the firm. Upon the completion of the Drake well he devoted -his time to the extensive oil-operations of the partnership for four -years. In 1864 Brewer, Watson & Co. sold the bulk of their oil-territory -and the doctor, who had settled at Westfield, Chautauqua county, N. Y., -instituted the First National Bank, of which he was chosen president. A -man of solid worth and solid wealth, he has served as a Member of -Assembly and is deservedly respected for integrity and benevolence. - -Jonathan Watson, whose connection with petroleum goes back to the -beginning of developments, arrived at Titusville in 1845 to manage the -lumbering and mercantile business of his firm. The hamlet contained ten -families and three stores. Deer and wild-turkeys abounded in the woods, -John Robinson was postmaster and Rev. George O. Hampson the only -minister. Mr. Watson’s views of petroleum were of the broadest and his -transactions the boldest. He hastened to secure lands when oil appeared -in the Drake well. At eight o’clock on that historic Monday morning he -stood at Hamilton McClintock’s door, resolved to buy or lease his -three-hundred-acre farm. A lease was taken and others along the stream -followed during the day. Brewer, Watson & Co. operated on a wholesale -scale until 1864, after which Watson continued alone. Riches poured upon -him. He erected the finest residence in Titusville, lavished money on -the grounds and stocked a fifty-thousand dollar conservatory with -choicest plants and flowers. A million dollars in gold he is credited -with “putting by for a rainy day.” He went miles ahead, bought huge -blocks of land and drilled scores of test-wells. In this way he barely -missed opening the Bradford field and the Bullion district years before -these productive sections were brought into line. His well on the -Dalzell farm, Petroleum Centre, in 1869, renewed interest in that -quarter long after it was supposed to be sucked dry. An Oil-City -clairvoyant indicated the spot to sink the hole, promising a -three-hundred-barrel strike. Crude was six dollars a barrel and Watson -readily proffered the woman the first day’s production for her services. -A check for two-thousand dollars was her reward, as the well yielded -three-hundred-and-thirty-three barrels the first twenty-four hours. Mrs. -Watson was an ardent medium and her husband humored her by consulting -the “spirits” occasionally. She became a lecturer and removed to -California long since. The tide of Watson’s prosperity ebbed. Bad -investments and dry-holes ate into his splendid fortune. The -gold-reserve was drawn upon and spent. The beautiful home went to -satisfy creditors. In old age the brave, hardy, indefatigable -oil-pioneer, who had led the way for others to acquire wealth, was -stripped of his possessions. Hope and courage remained. He operated at -Warren and revived some of the old wells around the Drake, which -afforded him subsistence. Advanced years and anxiety enfeebled the -stalwart fame. His steps faltered, and in 1893 protracted sickness -closed the busy, eventful life of the man who, more than any other, -fostered and developed the petroleum-industry. - - “I am as a weed - Flung from the rock, on ocean’s foam to sail - Where’er the surge may sweep, the tempest’s breath prevail.” - -The Drake well declined almost imperceptibly, yielding twelve barrels a -day by the close of the year. It stood idle on Sundays and for a week in -December. Smith had a light near a tank of oil, the gas from which -caught fire and burned the entire rig. This was the first “oil-fire” in -Pennsylvania, but it was destined to have many successors. Possibly it -brought back vividly to Colonel Drake the remembrance of his childish -dream, in which he and his brother had set a heap of stubble ablaze and -could not extinguish the flames. His mother interpreted it: “My son, you -have set the world on fire.” - -The total output of the well in 1859 was under eighteen-hundred barrels. -One-third of the oil was sold at sixty-five cents a gallon for shipment -to Pittsburg. George M. Mowbray, the accomplished chemist, who came to -Titusville in 1860 and played a prominent part in early refining, -disposed of a thousand barrels in New York. The well produced moderately -for two or three years from the first sand, until shut down by low -prices, which made it ruinous to pay the royalty of twelve-and-a-half -cents a gallon. A compromise was effected in 1860, by which the Seneca -Oil-Company retained a part of the land as fee and surrendered the lease -to the Pennsylvania Rock-Oil-Company. Mr. Bissell purchased the stock of -the other shareholders in the latter company for fifty-thousand dollars. -He drilled ten wells, six of which for months yielded eighty barrels a -day, on the tract known thenceforth as the Bissell farm, selling it -eventually to the Original Petroleum-Company. The Drake was deepened to -five-hundred feet and two others, drilled beneath the roof of the -sawmill in 1862, were pumped by water. - -The Drake machinery was stolen or scattered piecemeal. In 1876 J. J. -Ashbaugh, of St. Petersburg, and Thomas O’Donnell, of Foxburg, conveyed -the neglected derrick and engine-house to the Centennial at -Philadelphia, believing crowds would wish to look at the mementoes. The -exhibition was a fizzle and the lumber was carted off as rubbish. -Ex-Senator Emery saved the drilling-tools and he has them in his private -museum at Bradford. They are pigmies compared with the giants of to-day. -A man could walk away with them as readily as Samson skipped with the -gates of Gaza. Sandow and Cyril Cyr done up in a single package couldn’t -do that with a modern set. The late David Emery, a man of heart and -brain, contemplated reviving the old well—the land had come into his -possession—and bottling the oil in tiny vials, the proceeds to be -applied to a Drake monument. He put up a temporary rig and pumped a -half-barrel a week. Death interrupted his generous purpose. Except that -the trees and the saw-mill have disappeared, the neighborhood of the -Drake well is substantially the same as in the days when lumbering was -at its height and the two-hundred honest denizens of Titusville slept -without locking their doors. There is nothing to suggest to strangers or -travelers that the spot deserves to be remembered. How transitory is -human achievement! - -[Illustration: LOCATION AND SURROUNDINGS OF THE DRAKE WELL IN 1897.] - -William Barnsdall, Boone Meade and Henry R. Rouse started the second -well in the vicinity, on the James Parker farm, formerly the Kerr tract -and now the home of Ex-Mayor J. H. Caldwell. The location was north and -within a stone’s throw of the Drake. In November, at the depth of eighty -feet, the well was pumped three days, yielding only five barrels of oil. -The outlook had an indigo-tinge and operations ceased for a week or two. -Resuming work in December, at one-hundred-and-sixty feet indications -were satisfactory. Tubing was put in on February nineteenth, 1860, and -the well responded at the rate of fifty barrels a day! In the language -of a Hoosier dialect-poet: “Things wuz gettin’ inter-restin’!” William -H. Abbott, a gentleman of wealth, reached Titusville on February ninth -and bought an interest in the Parker tract the same month. David -Crossley’s well, a short distance south of the Drake and the third -finished on Oil Creek, began pumping sixty barrels a day on March -fourth. Local dealers, overwhelmed by an “embarrassment of riches,” -could not handle such a glut of oil. Schefflin Brothers arranged to -market it in New York. Fifty-six-thousand gallons from the Barnsdall -well were sold for seventeen-thousand dollars by June first, 1860. J. D. -Angier contracted to “stamp down a hole” for Brewer, Watson & Co., in a -pit fourteen feet deep, dug and cribbed to garner oil dipped from the -“spring” on the Hamilton-McClintock farm. Piercing the rock by -“hand-power” was a tedious process. December of 1860 dawned without a -symptom of greasiness in the well, from which wondrous results were -anticipated on account of the “spring.” One day’s hand-pumping produced -twelve barrels of oil and so much water that an engine was required to -pump steadily. By January twentieth, 1861, the engine was puffing and -the well producing moderately, the influx of water diminishing the yield -of oil. These four, with two getting under way on the Buchanan farm, -north of the McClintock, and one on the J. W. McClintock tract, the site -of Petroleum Centre, summed up all the wells actually begun on Oil Creek -in 1859. - -Three of the four were “kicked down” by the aid of spring-poles, as were -hundreds later in shallow territory. This method afforded a mode of -development to men of limited means, with heavy muscles and light -purses, although totally inadequate for deep drilling. An elastic pole -of ash or hickory, twelve to twenty feet long, was fastened at one end -to work over a fulcrum. To the other end stirrups were attached, or a -tilting platform was secured by which two or three men produced a -jerking motion that drew down the pole, its elasticity pulling it back -with sufficient force, when the men slackened their hold, to raise the -tools a few inches. The principle resembled that of the treadle-board of -a sewing-machine, operating which moves the needle up and down. The -tools were swung in the driving-pipe or the “conductor”—a wooden tube -eight or ten inches square, placed endwise in a hole dug to the rock—and -fixed by a rope to the spring-pole two or three feet from the workmen. -The strokes were rapid and a sand-pump—a spout three inches in diameter, -with a hinged bottom opening inward and a valve working on a -sliding-rod, somewhat in the manner of a syringe—removed the borings -mainly by sucking them into the spout as it was drawn out quickly. -Horse-power, in its general features precisely the kind still used with -threshing-machines, was the next step forward. Steam-engines, employed -for drilling at Tidioute in September of 1860, reduced labor and -expedited work. The first pole-derricks, twenty-five to thirty-five feet -high, have been superseded by structures that tower seventy-two to -ninety feet. - -[Illustration: “KICKING DOWN” A WELL.] - -Drilling-tools, the chief novelty of which are the “jars”—a pair of -sliding-bars moving within each other—have increased from two-hundred -pounds to three-thousand in weight. George Smith, at Rouseville, forged -the first steel-lined jars in 1866, for H. Leo Nelson, but the steel -could not be welded firmly. Nelson also adopted the “Pleasantville Rig” -on the Meade lease, Rouseville, in 1866, discarding the “Grasshopper.” -In the former the walking-beam is fastened in the centre to the -“samson-post,” with one end attached to the rods in the well and the -other to the band-wheel crank, exactly as in side-wheel steamboats. -George Koch, of East Sandy, Pa., patented numerous improvements on -pumping-rigs, drilling-tools and gas-rigs; for which he asked no -remuneration. Primitive wells had a bore of three or four inches, half -the present size. To exclude surface-water a “seed-bag”—a leather-bag -the diameter of the hole—was tied tightly to the tubing, filled with -flax-seed and let down to the proper depth. The top was left open and in -a few hours the flax swelled so that the space between the tubing and -the walls of the well was impervious to water. Drilling “wet holes” was -slow and uncertain, as the tools were apt to break and the chances of a -paying well could not be decided until the pump exhausted the water. It -is surprising that over five-thousand wells were sunk with the rude -appliances in vogue up to 1868, when “casing”—a larger pipe inserted -usually to the top of the first sand—was introduced. This was the -greatest improvement ever devised in oil-developments and drilling has -reached such perfection that holes can be put down five-thousand feet -safely and expeditiously. Devices multiplied as experience was gained. - -The tools that drilled the Barnsdall, Crossley and Watson wells were the -handiwork of Jonathan Lock, a Titusville blacksmith. Mr. Lock attained -his eighty-third year, died at Bradford in March of 1895 and was buried -at Titusville, the city in which he passed much of his active life. He -was a worthy type of the intelligent, industrious American mechanics, a -class of men to whom civilization is indebted for unnumbered comforts -and conveniences. John Bryan, who built the first steam-engine in Warren -county, started the first foundry and Machine-shop in Oildom and -organized the firm of Bryan, Dillingham & Co., began the manufacture of -drilling-tools in Titusville in 1860. - -[Illustration: JONATHAN LOCK.] - -Of the partners in the second well William Barnsdall survives. He has -lived in Titusville sixty-four years, served as mayor and operated -extensively. His son Theodore, who pumped wells on the Parker and Weed -farms, adjoining the Barnsdall homestead, is among the largest and -wealthiest producers. Crossley’s sons rebuilt the rig at their father’s -well in 1873, drilled the hole deeper and obtained considerable oil. -Other wells around the Drake were treated similarly, paying a fair -profit. In 1875 this spasmodic revival of the earliest territory died -out—Machinery was removed and the derricks rotted. Jonathan Watson, in -1889, drilled shallow wells, cleaned out several of the old ones and -awakened brief interest in the cradle of developments. Gas burning and -wells pumping, thirty years after the first strike, seemed indeed -strange. Not a trace of these repeated operations remains. The Parker -and neighboring farms north-west and north of Titusville proved -disappointing, owing to the absence of the third sand, which a hole -drilled two-thousand feet by Jonathan Watson failed to reveal. The -Parker-Farm Petroleum Company of Philadelphia bought the land in 1863 -and in 1870 twelve wells were producing moderately. West and south-west -the Octave Oil-Company has operated profitably for twenty years and -Church Run has produced generously. Probably two-hundred wells were sunk -above Titusville, at Hydetown, Clappville, Tryonville, Centerville, -Riceville, Lincolnville and to Oil-Creek Lake, in vain attempts to -discover juicy territory. - -Ex-Mayor William Barnsdall is the oldest living pioneer of Titusville. -Not only has he seen the town grow from a few houses to its present -proportions, but he is one of its most esteemed citizens. Born at -Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, England, on February sixth, 1810, he lived -there until 1831, when he came to America. In 1832 he arrived at what is -known as the English Settlement, seven miles north of Titusville. The -Barnsdalls founded the settlement, Joseph, a brother of William, -clearing a farm in the wilderness that then covered the country. -Remaining in the settlement a year, in 1833 William Barnsdall came to -the hamlet of Titusville, where he has ever since resided. He -established a small shop to manufacture boots and shoes, continuing at -the business until the discovery of oil in 1859. Immediately after the -completion of the Drake strike he began drilling the second well on Oil -Creek. Before this well produced oil, in February of 1860, he sold a -part interest to William H. Abbott for ten-thousand dollars. He -associated himself with Abbott and James Parker and, early in 1860, -commenced the first oil-refinery on Oil Creek. It was sold to Jonathan -Watson for twenty-five-thousand dollars. From those early days to the -present Mr. Barnsdall has been identified with the production of -petroleum. At the ripe age of eighty-seven years, respected as few men -are in any community and enjoying an unusual measure of mental and -physical strength, he calmly awaits “the inevitable hour.” - -Hon. David Emery, the last owner of the Drake well, was for many years a -successful oil-operator. At Pioneer he drilled a number of prime wells, -following the course of developments along Oil Creek. He organized the -Octave Oil-Company and was its chief officer. Removing to Titusville, he -erected a fine residence and took a prominent part in public affairs. -His purse was ever open to forward a good cause. Had the Republican -party, of which he was an active member, been properly alive to the -interests of the Commonwealth, he would have been Auditor-General of -Pennsylvania. In all the relations and duties of life David Emery was a -model citizen. Called hence in the vigor of stalwart manhood, multitudes -of attached friends cherish his memory as that “of one who loved his -fellow-men.” - -Born in England in 1818, David Crossley ran away from home and came to -America as a stowaway in 1828. He found relatives at Paterson, N.J., and -lived with them until about 1835, when he bound himself out to learn -blacksmithing. On March seventeenth, 1839, he married Jane Alston and in -the winter of 1841-2 walked from New York to Titusville, walking back in -the spring. The following autumn he brought his family to Titusville. -For a few years he tried farming, but gave it up and went back to his -trade until 1859, when he formed a partnership with William Barnsdall, -William H. Abbott and P. T. Witherop, under the firm-name of Crossley, -Witherop & Co., and began drilling the third well put down on Oil Creek. -The well was completed on March tenth, 1860, having been drilled -one-hundred-and-forty feet with a spring-pole. It produced at the rate -of seventy-five barrels per day for a short time. The next autumn the -property was abandoned on account of decline in production. In 1865 -Crossley bought out his partners and drilled the well to a depth of -five-hundred-and-fifty feet, but again abandoned it because of water. In -1872 he and his sons drilled other wells upon the same property and in a -short time had so reduced the water that the investment became a paying -one. In 1873 he and William Barnsdall and others drilled the first -producing well in the Bradford oil-field. His health failed in 1875 and -he died on October eleventh, 1880, esteemed by all for his manliness and -integrity. - -[Illustration: Z. MARTIN] - -Z. Martin, who befriended Drake in his sad extremity, landed at -Titusville in March of 1860 and pumped the Barnsdall, Mead & Rouse well -on Parker’s flat, the first well in Crawford county that produced oil. -In 1861 he went to the Clapp farm, above Oil City, as superintendent of -the Boston Rock-Oil-Company, only three of whose eighteen wells were -paying ventures. The Company quitting, Martin bought and shipped crude -to Pittsburg for Brewer, Burke & Co., traveling to the wells on -horseback to secure oil for his boats. He bought the Eagle Hotel at -Titusville in 1862, conducted it two years and sold the building to C. -V. Culver for bank-purposes. Mr. Martin resided at Titusville many years -and was widely known as the capable landlord of the palatial Hotel -Brunswick. He was the intimate friend of Colonel Drake, Jonathan Watson, -George H. Bissell and the pioneer operators on Oil Creek. His son, L. L. -Martin, is running the Commercial Hotel at Meadville, where the father -makes his home, young in everything but years and always pleased to -greet his oil-region acquaintances. - -Thus dawned the petroleum-day that could not be hidden under myriads of -bushels. The report of the Drake well traveled “from Greenland’s icy -mountains” to “India’s coral strands,” causing unlimited guessing as to -the possible outcome. Crude-petroleum was useful for various things, but -a farmer who visited the newest wonder hit a fresh lead. Begging a jug -of oil, he paralyzed Colonel Drake by observing as he strode off: -“This’ll be durned good tew spread onto buckwheat-cakes!” - -Bishop Simpson once delivered his lecture on “American Progress,” in -which he did not mention petroleum, before an immense Washington -audience. President Lincoln heard it and said, as he and the eloquent -speaker came out of the hall: “Bishop, you didn’t ‘strike ile’!” - -When the Barnsdall well, on the Parker farm, produced hardly any oil -from the first sand, the coming Mayor of Titusville quietly clinched the -argument in favor of drilling it deeper by remarking: “It’s a long way -from the bottom of that hole to China and I’m bound to bore for -tea-leaves if we don’t get the grease sooner!” - -“De Lawd thinks heaps ob Pennsylvany,” said a colored exhorter in -Pittsburg, “fur jes’ ez whales iz gettin’ sca’ce he pints outen de way -fur Kunnel Drake ter ’scoveh petroleum!” A solemn preacher in Crawford -county held a different opinion. One day he tramped into Titusville to -relieve his burdened mind. He cornered Drake on the street and warned -him to quit taking oil from the ground. “Do you know,” he hissed, “that -you’re interfering with the Almighty Creator of the universe? God put -that oil in the bowels of the earth to burn the world at the last day -and you, poor worm of the dust, are trying to thwart His plans!” No -wonder the loud check in the Colonel’s barred pantaloons wilted at this -unexpected outburst, which Drake often recounted with extreme gusto. - -The night “Uncle Billy” Smith’s lantern ignited the tanks at the Drake -well the blaze and smoke of the first oil-fire in Pennsylvania ascended -high. A loud-mouthed professor of religion, whose piety was of the brand -that needed close watching in a horse-trade, saw the sight and scampered -to the hills shouting: “It’s the day of judgment!” How he proposed to -dodge the reckoning, had his surmise been correct, the terrified victim -could not explain when his fright subsided and friends rallied him on -the scare. - -The Drake well blazed the path in the wilderness that set petroleum on -its triumphant march. This nation, already the most enlightened, was to -be the most enlightening under the sun. An Atlantic of oil lay beneath -its feet. America, its young, plump sister, could laugh at lean Europe. -War raged and the old world sought to drain the republic of its gold. -The United States exported mineral-fat and kept the yellow dross at -home. Petroleum was crowned king, dethroning cotton and yielding a -revenue, within four years of Drake’s modest strike, exceeding that from -coal and iron combined! Talk of California’s gold-fever, Colorado’s -silver-furore and Barney Barnato’s Caffir-mania. - -American petroleum is a leading article of commerce, requiring hundreds -of vessels to transport it to distant lands. Its refined product is -known all over the civilized world. It has found its way to every part -of Europe and the remotest portions of Asia. It shines on the western -prairie, burns in the homes of New England and illumines miles of -princely warehouses in the great cities of America. Everywhere is it to -be met with, in the Levant and the Orient, in the hovel of the Russian -peasant and the harem of the Turkish pasha. It is the one article -imported from the United States and sold in the bazaars of Bagdad, the -“City of the Thousand-and-One-Nights.” It lights the dwellings, the -temples and the mosques amid the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh. It is the -light of Abraham’s birthplace and of the hoary city of Damascus. It -burns in the Grotto of the Nativity at Bethlehem, in the Church of the -Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, on the Acropolis of Athens and the plains -of Troy, in cottage and palace along the banks of the Bosphorus, the -Euphrates, the Tigris and the Golden Horn. It has penetrated China and -Japan, invaded the fastnesses of Tartary, reached the wilds of Australia -and shed its radiance over African wastes. Pennsylvania petroleum is the -true cosmopolite, omnipresent and omnipotent in fulfilling its mission -of illuminating the universe! A product of nature that is such a -controlling influence in the affairs of men may well challenge attention -to its origin, its history and its economic uses. - -All this from a three-inch hole seventy feet in the ground! - - A grape-seed is a small affair, - Yet, swallow’d when you sup, - In your appendix it may stick - Till doctors carve you up. - - A coral-insect is not large, - Still it can build a reef - On which the biggest ship that floats - May quickly come to grief. - - A hint, a word, a look, a breath - May bear envenom’d stings, - From all of which the moral learn: - Despise not little things! - - IN A NUTSHELL. - -Colonel Drake used the first driving pipe. - -Adolph Schreiner, of Austria, made the first petroleum-lamp. - -The first oil-well drilled by steam power was opposite Tidioute, in -1860. - -Jonathan Watson put down the first deep well on Oil Creek—2,130 feet—in -1866. - -William Phillips boated the first cargo of oil down the Allegheny to -Pittsburg in March, 1860. - -The Chinese were the first to drill with tools attached to ropes, which -they twisted from rattan. - -The Liverpool Lamp, devised by an unknown Englishman, was the first to -have a glass-chimney and do away with smoke. - -The first tubing in oil-wells was manufactured at Pittsburg, with brass -screw-joints soldered on the pipe, the same as at Tarentum salt-wells. - -The first steamboat reached the mouth of Oil Creek in 1828, with a load -of Pittsburgers. The first train crossed Oil Creek into Oil City on a -track on the ice. - -William A. Smith, who drilled the Drake well, made the first rimmer. -While enlarging a well with a bit the point broke off, after which -greater progress was noted. The accident suggested the rimmer. - -The first white settler in the Pennsylvania oil-regions was John -Frazier, who built a cabin at Wenango—Franklin—in 1745, kept a gun-shop -and traded with the Indians until driven off by the French in 1753, the -year of George Washington’s visit. - -Jonathan Titus located at Titusville in 1797, on land made famous by the -Drake well. In that year the first oil skimmed from Oil Creek to be -marketed was sold at Pittsburg, then a collection of log-cabins, at -_sixteen dollars a gallon_! Now people kick at half that many cents for -the refined article. - -Early well-owners found the tools and fuel, paid all expenses but labor -and paid three-dollars-and-fifty-cents per foot to the contractor, yet -so many contractors failed that a lien-law was passed. George Koch, in -November of 1873, took out a patent on fluted drills, which did away -with the rimmer, reduced the time of drilling a well from sixty days to -twenty and reduced the price from three dollars per foot to fifty cents. - -Sam Taft was the first to use a line to control the engine from the -derrick, at a well near McClintockville, in 1867. Henry Webber was the -first to regulate the motion of the engine from the derrick. He drilled -a well near Smoky City, on the Porter farm, in 1863, with a rod from the -derrick to the throttle-valve. He also dressed the tools, with the forge -in the derrick, perhaps the first time this was done. He drilled this -well six-hundred feet with no help. Near this well was the first -plank-derrick in the oil-country. - -The first derricks were of poles, twelve feet base and twenty-eight to -thirty feet high. The ladder was made by putting pins through a corner -of a leg of the derrick. The Samson-post was mortised in the ground. The -band-wheel was hung in a frame like a grindstone. A single bull-wheel, -made out of about a thousand feet of lumber, placed on the side of the -derrick next to the band-wheel, with a rope or old rubber-belt for a -brake, was used. When the tools were let down the former would burn and -smoke, the latter would smell like ancient codfish. - -[Illustration: - - MAJ. W. T. BAUM. - JACOB SHEASLEY. HENRY F. JAMES. - JAMES EVANS. - W. R. CRAWFORD. COL. JAMES P. HOOVER - DANIEL GRIMM. -] - - - - - VI. - THE WORLD’S LUBRICANT. - -A GLANCE AT A PRETTY SETTLEMENT—EVANS AND HIS WONDERFUL WELL—HEAVY OIL - AT FRANKLIN TO GREASE ALL THE WHEELS IN CREATION—ORIGIN OF A POPULAR - PHRASE—OPERATIONS ON FRENCH CREEK—EXCITEMENT AT FEVER HEAT—GALENA - AND SIGNAL OIL-WORKS—RISE AND PROGRESS OF A GREAT INDUSTRY—CRUMBS - SWEPT UP. - - ---------- - -“The race was on, the souls of the racers were in it.”—_Gen. Lew - Wallace._ - -“Wild rumors are afloat in Jericho.”—_J. L. Barlow._ - -“Carthage has crossed the Alps; Rome, the sea.”—_Victor Hugo._ - -“There shall be no Alps.”—_Napoleon._ - - “We must not hope to be mowers - Until we have first been sowers.”—_Alice Cary._ - -“Gained the lead, and kept it, and steered his journey free.”—_Will - Carleton._ - -“A cargo of petroleum may cross the ocean in a vessel propelled by steam - it has generated, acting upon an engine it lubricates and directed - by an engineer who may grease his hair, limber his joints, and - freshen his liver with the same article.”—_Petrolia, A.D. 1870._ - -“Friction, not motion, is the great destroyer of - machinery.”—_Engineering Journal._ - -“Here was * * * a battle of Marengo to be gained.”—_Balzac._ - - ---------- - - -[Illustration: BIG ROCK BELOW FRANKLIN.] - -Cheap and abundant light the island-well on Oil Creek assured the -nations sitting in darkness. If there are “tongues in trees” and -“sermons in stones” the trickling stream of greenish liquid murmured: -“Bring on your lamps—we can fill them!” The _second_ oil-well in -Pennsylvania, eighteen miles from Col. Drake’s, changed the strain to: -“Bring on your wheels—we can grease them!” America was to be the world’s -illuminator and lubricator—not merely to dispel gloom and chase -hobgoblins, but to increase the power of machinery by decreasing the -impediments to easy motion. Friction has cost enough for extra wear and -stoppages and breakages “to buy every darkey forty acres and a mule.” -The first coal-oil for sale in this country was manufactured at Waltham, -Mass., in 1852, by Luther Atwood, who called it “Coup Oil,” from the -recent _coup_ of Louis Napoleon. Although highly esteemed as a -lubricator, its offensive odor and poor quality would render it -unmerchantable to-day. Samuel Downer’s hydro-carbon oils in 1856 were -marked improvements, yet they would cut a sorry figure beside the -unrivaled lubricant produced from the wells at Franklin, the county-seat -of Venango. It is a coincidence that the petroleum era should have -introduced light and lubrication almost simultaneously, one on Oil -Creek, the other on French Creek, and both in a region comparatively -isolated. “Misfortunes never come singly,” said the astounded father of -twins, in a paroxysm of bewilderment; but happily blessings often come -treading closely on each other’s heels. - -[Illustration: J. B. NICKLIN.] - -Pleasantly situated on French Creek and the Allegheny River, Franklin -is an interesting town, with a history dating from the middle of the -eighteenth century. John Frazer, a gunsmith, occupied a hut and traded -with the Indians in 1747. Four forts, one French, one British and two -American, were erected in 1754, 1760, 1787 and 1796. Captain Joncaire -commanded the French forces. George Washington, a British lieutenant, -with no premonition of fathering a great country, visited the spot in -1753. The north-west was a wilderness and Pittsburg had not been laid -out. Franklin was surveyed in 1795, created a borough in 1829 and a -city in 1869, deriving its chief importance from petroleum. Lofty -hills and winding streams are conspicuous. Spring-water is abundant, -the air is invigorating and healthfulness is proverbial. James -Johnston, a negro-farmer of Frenchcreek township, stuck it out for -one-hundred-and-nine summers, lamenting that death got around six -months too soon for him to attend the Philadelphia Centennial. Angus -McKenzie, of Sugarcreek, whose strong-box served as a bank in early -days, reached one-hundred-and-eight. Mrs. McDowell, a pioneer, was -bright and nimble three years beyond the century-mark. Galbraith -McMullen, of Waterloo, touched par. John Morrison, the first -court-crier, rounded out ninety-eight. A successor, Robert Lytle, was -summoned at eighty-seven, his widow living to celebrate her -ninety-fourth birthday. David Smith succumbed at ninety-nine and -William Raymond at ninety-three. Mr. Raymond was straight as an arrow, -walked smartly and in youth was the close friend of John J. Pearson, -who began to practice law at Franklin and was President Judge of -Dauphin county thirty-three years. J. B. Nicklin, fifty years a -respected citizen, died in 1890 at eighty-nine. To the end he retained -his mental and physical strength, kept the accounts of the Baptist -church, was at his desk regularly and could hit the bullseye with the -crack shots of the military company. William Hilands, county-surveyor, -was a familiar figure on the streets at eighty-seven. Rev. Dr. Crane -preached, lectured, visited the sick and continued to do good at -eighty-six. Grandma Snyder is eighty-eight and Benjamin May, a few -miles up the Allegheny, is hardy and hearty at ninety-one. At -eighty-five “Uncle Billy” Grove, of Canal, would hunt deer in Forest -county and walk farther and faster than any man in the township. The -people who have rubbed fourscore would fill a ten-acre patch. Of -course, some get sick and die young, or the doctors would starve, -heaven would be short of youthful tenants and the theories of Malthus -might have to be tried on. - -Franklin boasts the finest stone side-walks in the State. There are -imposing churches, shady parks, broad streets, cosy homes, spacious -stores, first-class schools, fine hotels and inviting drives. For -years the Baptist quartette has not been surpassed in New York or -Philadelphia. The opera-house is a gem. Three railroads—a fourth is -coming that will lop off sixty-five miles between New York and -Chicago—and electric street-cars supply rapid transit. Five -substantial banks, a half-dozen millionaires, two-dozen -hundred-thousand-dollar-citizens and multitudes of well-to-do -property-holders give the place financial backbone. Manufactures -flourish, wages are liberal and many workmen own their snug houses. -Probably no town in the United States, of seven-thousand population, -has greater wealth, better society and a kindlier feeling clear -through the community. - -On the south bank of French Creek, at Twelfth and Otter streets, James -Evans, blacksmith, had lived twenty years. A baby when his parents -settled farther up in 1802, he removed to Franklin in 1839. His house -stood near the “spring” from which Hulings and Whitman wrung out the -viscid scum. In dry weather the well he dug seventeen feet for water -smelled and tasted of petroleum. Tidings of Drake’s success set the -blacksmith thinking. Drake had bored into the well close to the “spring” -and found oil. Why not try the experiment at Franklin? Evans was not -flush of cash, but the hardware-dealer trusted him for the iron and he -hammered out rough drilling-tools. He and his son Henry rigged a -spring-pole and bounced the drill in the water-well. At seventy-two feet -a crevice was encountered. The tools dropped, breaking off a fragment of -iron, which obstinately refused to be fished out. Pumping by hand would -determine whether a prize or a blank was to be drawn in the greasian -lottery. Two men plied the pump vigorously. A stream of dark-green fluid -gushed forth at the rate of twenty-five barrels a day. It was heavy oil, -about thirty degrees gravity, free from grit and smooth as silk. The -greatest lubricant on earth had been unearthed! - -Picture the pandemonium that followed. Franklin had no such convulsion -since the William B. Duncan, the first steamboat, landed one Sunday -evening in January, 1828. The villagers speeded to the well as though -all the imps of sheol were in pursuit. November court adjourned in half -the number of seconds Sut Lovingood’s nest of hornets broke up the -African camp-meeting. Judge John S. McCalmont, whose able opinions the -Supreme Court liked to adopt, decided there was ample cause for action. -A doctor rushed to the scene hatless, coatless and shoeless. Women -deserted their households without fixing their back-hair or getting -inside their dress-parade toggery. Babies cried, children screamed, dogs -barked, bells rang and two horses ran away. At prayer-meeting a ruling -elder, whom the events of the day had wrought to fever-heat, raised a -hilarious snicker by imploring God to “send a shower of blessings—yea, -Lord, twenty-five barrels of blessings!” Altogether it was a red-letter -forenoon, for twenty-five barrels a day of thirty-dollar oil none felt -inclined to sneeze at. - -That night a limb of the law, “dressed in his best suit of clothes,” -called at the Evans domicile. Miss Anna, one of the fair daughters of -the house, greeted him at the door and said jokingly: “Dad’s struck -ile!” The expression caught the town, making a bigger hit than the well -itself. It spread far and wide, was printed everywhere and enshrined -permanently in the petroleum-vernacular. The young lady married Miles -Smith, the eminent furniture-dealer, still trading on Thirteenth street. -In 1875 Mr. Smith revisited his native England, after many years’ -absence. Meeting a party of gentlemen at a friend’s house, the -conversation turned upon Pennsylvania. “May I awsk, Mr. Smith,” a -Londoner inquired, “if you hever ’eard in your ’ome about ‘dad’s stwuck -ile’? I wead it in the papahs, doncherknow, but I fawncied it nevah -weally ’appened.” Mr. Smith _had_ “’eard” it and the delight of the -company, when he recited the circumstances and told of marrying the -girl, may be conceived. The phrase is billed for immortality. - -Sufficient oil to pay for an engine was soon pumped. Steam-power -increased the yield to seventy barrels! Franklin became the Mecca of -speculators, traders, dealers and monied men. Frederic Prentice, a -leader in aggressive enterprises, offered forty-thousand dollars for the -well and lot. Evans rejected the bid and kept the well, which declined -to ten or twelve barrels within six months. The price of oil shrank like -a flannel-shirt, but the lucky disciple of Vulcan realized a nice -competence. He enjoyed his good fortune some years before journeying to -“that bourne from which no traveler e’er returns.” Mrs. Evans long -survived, dying at eighty-six. The son removed to Kansas, three -daughters died and one resides at Franklin. The old well experienced its -complement of fluctuations. Mosely & Co., of Philadelphia, leased it. It -stood idle, the engine was taken away, the rig tumbled and the hole -filled up partially with dirt and wreckage. Prices spurted and the well -was hitched to a pumping-rig operating others around it. Captain S. A. -Hull ran a group of the wells on the flats and a dozen three miles down -the Allegheny. He was a man of generous impulses, finely educated and -exceedingly companionable. His death, in 1893, resulted in dismantling -most of these wells, hardly a vestige remaining to tell that the Evans -and its neighbors ever existed. - -James Evans was not “left blooming alone” in the search for oily worlds -to conquer. Companies were organized while he was yanking the tools in -the well that “set ’em crazy.” The first of these—The Franklin -Oil-and-Mining-Company—started work on October fifth, twenty rods below -Evans, finding oil at two-hundred-and-forty-one feet on January twelfth, -1860. The well pumped about one-half as much as the Evans for several -months, but did not die of old age. The forty-two shares of stock -advanced ten-fold in one week, selling at a thousand dollars each. Three -or four wells were put down, the company dissolving and members -operating on their own hook. It was strongly officered, with Arnold -Plumer as president; J. P. Hoover, vice-president; Aaron W. Raymond, -secretary; James Bleakley, Robert Lamberton, R. A. Brashear, J. L. Hanna -and Thomas Hoge, executive committee. Mr. Plumer was a dominant factor -in Democratic politics, largely instrumental in the nomination of James -Buchanan for President, twice a member of Congress, twice -State-Treasurer, Canal-Commissioner and founder of the First-National -Bank. At his death, in 1869, he devised his family an estate that -appraised several million dollars, making it the largest in Venango -county. Judge Lamberton opened the first bank in the oil-regions, owned -hundreds of houses and in 1885 bequeathed each of his eight children a -handsome fortune. Colonel Bleakley rose by his own exertions, keen -foresight and skillful management. He invested in productive realty, -drilled scores of wells around Franklin, built iron-tanks and -brick-blocks, established a bank, held thousands of acres of lands and -in 1884 left a very large inheritance to his sons and daughters. Mr. -Raymond developed the Raymilton district—it was named from him—in which -hundreds of fair wells have rewarded Franklin operators, and at -eighty-nine was exceedingly quick in his movements. Mr. Brashear, a -civil engineer and exemplary citizen, has been in the grave twenty -years. Mr. Hanna operated heavily in oil, acquired numerous farms and -erected the biggest block—it contained the first opera-house—in the -city. He is handling real-estate, but his former partner, John Duffield, -slumbers in the cemetery. Mr. Hoge, an influential politician, elected -to the Legislature two terms and Mayor one term, has also joined the -silent majority. - -In February, 1860, Caldwell & Co., a block southeast of Evans, finished -a paying well at two-hundred feet. The Farmers and Mechanics’ Company, -Levi Dodd, president, drilled a medium producer at the foot of High -street, on the bank of the creek. Mr. Dodd was an old settler, -originator of the first Sabbath-school in Franklin and a ruling-elder -for over fifty years. Numerous companies and individuals pushed work in -the spring. Holes were sunk in front yards, gardens and water-wells. -Derricks dotted the landscape thickly. Franklin was the objective point -of immense crowds of people. The earliest wells were shallow, seldom -exceeding two-hundred feet. The Mammoth, near a huge walnut tree back of -the Evans lot, began flowing on May fifteenth to the tune of a hundred -barrels. This was the first “spouter” in the district and it quadrupled -the big excitement. Four-hundred barrels of oil were shipped to -Pittsburg, by the steamboat Venango, on April twenty-seventh. Twenty-two -wells were drilling and twenty producing on July first. Farms for miles -up French Creek had been bought at high prices and the noise of the -drill permeated the summer ozone. Four miles west of Franklin, zig-zag -Sugar Creek shared in the activity. Then the prices “came down like a -thousand of brick.” Pumping was expensive, lands were scarce and dear, -hauling the oil to a railroad cost half its value and hosts of small -wells were abandoned. On November first, within the borough limits, -fifteen were yielding one-hundred-and-forty barrels. Curtz & Strain had -bored five-hundred feet in October, the deepest well in the -neighborhood, without finding additional oil-bearing rock. The -Presidential election foreboded trouble, war-clouds loomed up and the -year closed gloomily. - -[Illustration] - - LEVI DODD. - COL. BLEAKLEY. - J. LINDSAY HANNA. - AARON W. RAYMOND. - -The advantages of Franklin heavy-oil as a lubricant were quickly -recognized. It possessed a “body” that artificial oils could not rival. -In the crude state it withstood a cold-test twenty degrees below zero. -Here is where it “had the bulge” on alleged lubricants which solidify -into a sort of liver with every twitch of frost. The producing-area of -heavy-oil is restricted to a limited section, where the first sand is -thirty to sixty feet thick and the lower sands were entirely omitted in -the original distribution of strata. For years operators hugged the -banks of the streams and the low grounds, keeping off the hills more -willingly than General Coxey kept off the Washington grass. The famous -“Point Hill,” across French Creek from the Evans well, went begging for -a purchaser. At its southern base Mason & Lane, Cook & Co., Welsby & -Smith, Shuster, Andrews, Green and others had profitable wells, but -nobody dreamed of boring through the steep “Point” for oil. J. Lowry -Dewoody offered the lordly hill, with its forty acres of dense -evergreen-brush, to Charles Miller for fifteen-hundred dollars. He -wanted the money to drill on the flats and the hill was an elephant on -his hands. - -During the Columbian Exposition an aged man alighted from a western -train at the union-depot in Chicago. His rifle and his buckskin-suit -indicated the Kit-Carson brand of hunter. He gazed about him in -amazement and a crowd assembled. “Wal,” ejaculated the white-haired -Nimrod, “this be Chicago, eh? Sixty years ago I killed lots ov game -right whar we stan’ an’ old man Kinzey fell all over hisse’f to trade me -a hunnerd acre ov land fur a pair ov cowhide boots! I might hev took him -up, but, consarn it, I didn’t hev the boots!” - -[Illustration: J. LOWRY DEWOODY.] - -[Illustration: WILLIAM PAINTER.] - -[Illustration: EDWARD RIAL.] - -Something of this kind would apply to Mr. Miller and the Dewoody -proposition. He had embarked in the business that was to bring him -wealth and honor, but just at that time “didn’t hev” the fifteen-hundred -to spare from his working-capital for the fun of owning a hill presumed -to be worthless except for scenery. Colonel Bleakley and Dr. A. G. -Egbert bought it later at a low figure. Operators scaled the slopes and -hills and the first well on the “Point” was of the kind to whet the -appetite for more. Bleakley & Egbert pocketed a keg of cold-cash from -their wells and the royalty paid by lessees. Daniel Grimm’s production -put him in the van of Franklin oilmen. He came to the town in 1861, had -a dry-goods store in partnership with the late William A. Horton and in -1869 drilled his first well. W. J. Mattem and Edward Rial & Son had a -rich slice. The foundation of a dozen fortunes was laid on the “Point,” -which yields a few barrels daily, although only a shadow of its former -self. From the western end of the hill thousands of tons of a peculiar -shale have been manufactured into paving-brick, the hardest and toughest -in America. A million dollars would not pay for the oil taken from the -hill that found no takers at fifteen-hundred! - -Dewoody, over whose grave the storms of a dozen winters have blown, was -a singular character. He cared not a continental for style and was -independent in speech and behavior. Bagging a term in the Legislature as -a Democratic-Greenbacker, his rugged honesty was proof against the -allurements of the lobbyists, jobbers and heelers who disgrace common -decency. His most remarkable act was a violent assault on the -Tramp-Bill, a measure cruel as the laws of Draco, which Rhoads of -Carlisle contrived to pass. He paced the central aisle, spoke in the -loudest key and gesticulated fiercely. Tossing his long auburn hair like -a lion’s mane, he wound up his torrent of denunciation with terrible -emphasis: “If Jesus Christ were on earth this monstrous bill would jerk -him as a vagrant and dump him into the lock-up!” - -Gradually developments crept north and east. The Galloway—its Dolly -Varden well was a daisy—Lamberton and McCalmont farms were riddled with -holes that repaid the outlay lavishly. Henry F. James drilled scores of -paying wells on these tracts. In his youth he circled the globe on -whaling voyages and learned coopering. Spending a few months at Pithole -in 1865, he returned to Venango county in 1871, superintended the -Franklin Pipe-Line five years and operated judiciously. He was active in -agriculture and served three terms in the Legislature with distinguished -fidelity. He defeated measures inimical to the oil-industry and promoted -the passage of the Marshall Bill, by which pipe-lines were permitted to -buy, sell or consolidate. This sensible law relieves pipe-lines in the -older districts, where the production is very light, from the necessity -of maintaining separate equipments at a loss or ruining hundreds of -well-owners by tearing up the pipes for junk and depriving operators of -transportation. The late Casper Frank, William Painter—he was killed at -his wells—Dr. Fee, the Harpers, E. D. Yates and others extended the -field into Sugarcreek township. Elliott, Nesbett & Bell’s first well on -the Snyder farm, starting at thirty barrels and settling down to regular -work at fifteen, elongated the Galloway pool and brought adjoining lands -into play. Kunkel & Newhouse, Stock & Co., Mitchell & Parker, Crawford & -Dickey, Dr. Galbraith and M. O’Connor kept many sets of tools from -rusting. The extension to the Carter and frontier-farms developed oil of -lighter gravity, but a prime lubricator. Mrs. Harold, a Chicago lady, -dreamed a certain plot, which she beheld distinctly, would yield -heavy-oil in abundance. She visited Franklin, traversed the district a -mile in advance of developed territory, saw the land of her dream, -bargained for it, drilled wells and obtained “lashin’s of oil!” Still -there are bipeds in bifurcated garments who declare woman’s “sphere” is -the kitchen, with dish-washing, sock-darning and meal-getting as her -highest “rights!” - -Jacob Sheasley, who came from Dauphin county in 1860 and branched into -oil in 1864, is the largest operator in the bailiwick. He drilled at -Pithole, Parker, Bradford, on all sides of Franklin and put down a -hundred wells the last two years. He enlarged the boundaries of the -lubricating section by leasing lands previously condemned and sinking -test-wells in 1893-4, with gratifying results. Rarely missing his guess -on territory, he has been almost invariably fortunate. His son, George -R., has operated in Venango and Butler counties and owns a bunch of -desirable wells on Bully Hill, with his brother Charles as partner. The -father and two sons are “three of a kind” hard to beat. - -A mile north of Franklin, in February of 1870, the Surprise well on -Patchel Run, a streamlet bearing the name of the earliest hat-maker, -surprised everybody by its output. It foamed and gassed and frothed -excessively, filling the pipe with oil and water. Throngs tramped the -turnpike over the toilsome hill to look at the boiling, fuming tank into -which the well belched its contents. “Good for four-hundred barrels” was -the verdict. A party of us hurried from Oil Creek to judge for -ourselves. Although the estimate was six times too great, a lease of -adjacent lands would not be bad to take. Rev. Mr. Johns, retired pastor -of the Presbyterian church at Spartansburg, Crawford county, had charge -of the property. My acquaintance with Mr. Johns devolved upon me the -duty of negotiating for the tract. He received me graciously and would -be pleased to lease twenty acres for one-half the oil and one-thousand -dollars an acre bonus! Br’er John’s exalted notions soared far too high -to be entertained seriously. The Surprise fizzled down to four or five -barrels in a week and the good minister—for twenty years he has been -enjoying his treasure in heaven—never fingered a penny from his land -save the royalty of two or three small wells. - -Major W. T. Baum has operated in the heavy-oil field thirty-two years, -beginning in 1864. He passed through the Pithole excitement and drilled -largely at Foster, Pleasantville, Scrubgrass, Bullion, Gas City, -Clarion, Butler and Tarkiln. His faith in Scrubgrass territory has been -recompensed richly. In 1894 he sank a well on the west bank of the -Allegheny, opposite Kennerdell Station, in hope of a ten-barrel strike. -It pumped one-hundred-and-fifty barrels a day for months and it is doing -fifty barrels to-day, with three more of similar caliber to keep it -company! The Major’s persevering enterprise deserves the reward Dame -Fortune is bestowing. He owns the wells and lands on Patchel Run, which -yield a pleasant revenue. Colonel J. H. Cain, Colonel L. H. Fassett and -J. W. Grant, all successful operators, have their wells in the vicinity. -Modern devices connect wells far apart, by coupling them with rods two -to ten feet above ground, so that a single engine can pump thirty or -forty in shallow territory. The downward stroke of one helps the upward -stroke of the other, each pair nearly balancing. This enables the owners -of small wells to pump them at the least expense. Heavy-oil has sold for -years at three-sixty to four dollars a barrel, consequently a -quarter-barrel apiece from forty wells, handled by one man and engine, -would exceed the income from a quarter-million dollars salted down in -government bonds. It is worth traveling a long distance to stand on the -hill and watch the pumping of Baum’s, Grimm’s, Cain’s, Grant’s, -Sheasley’s and James’s wells, some of them a mile from the power that -sets the strings of connecting-rods in motion. - -[Illustration: COL. JOHN H. CAIN.] - -[Illustration: GEORGE PLUMER SMITH.] - -[Illustration: W. S. M’MULLAN] - -On Two-Mile Run, up the Allegheny two miles, W. S. McMullan drilled -several wells in 1871-2. The product was the blackest of black oils, -indicating a deposit separated from the main reservoir of the -lubricating region. Subsequent operations demonstrated that a dry streak -intervened. Captain L. L. Ray put down fair wells near the river in -1894. Mr. McMullan resided at Rouseville and had valuable interests on -Oil Creek. He served a term in the State Senate, reflecting honor upon -himself and his constituents. A man of integrity and capacity, he could -be trusted implicitly. Fifteen years ago he removed to Missouri to -engage in lumbering. Senator McMullan, Captain William Hasson, member of -Assembly, and Judge Trunkey, who presided over the court and later -graced the Supreme Bench, were three Venango-county men in public life -whom railroad-passes never swerved from the path of duty. They refused -all such favors and paid their way like gentlemen. If lawgivers and -judges of their noble impress were the rule rather than the exception—“a -consummation devoutly to be wished”—grasping corporations would not own -legislatures and “drive a coach and four” through any enactment with -impunity. - -George P. Smith’s tract of land between Franklin and Two-Mile Run netted -him a competence in oil and then sold for one-hundred-thousand dollars. -Mr. Smith dispenses liberally to charitable objects, assists his friends -and uses his wealth properly. He owns his money, instead of letting it -own him. He has traveled much, observed closely and profited by what he -has seen and read. He is verging on fourscore, his home is in -Philadelphia and “the world will be the better for his having lived in -it.” - -The production of heavy-oil in 1875 aggregated -one-hundred-and-thirty-thousand barrels. In 1877 it dropped to -eighty-eight-thousand barrels and in 1878 to seventy thousand. -Thirteen-hundred wells produced sixty-thousand barrels in 1883. Taft & -Payn’s pipe-line was laid in 1870 from the Egbert and Dewoody tracts to -the river, extended to Galloway in 1872 and combined with the Franklin -line in 1878. The Producers’ Pipe-Line Company began to transport oil in -1883. J. A. Harris, who died in 1894, had the first refinery in the -oil-regions in 1860. His plant was extremely primitive. Colonel J. P. -Hoover built the first refinery of note, which burned in the autumn of -1861. Sims & Whitney had one in 1861 and the Norfolk Oil-Works were -established the same year, below the Allegheny bridge. Samuel Spencer, -of Scranton, expended thirty-thousand dollars on the Keystone Oil-Works, -near the cemetery, in 1864. Nine refineries, most of them running the -lighter oils, were operated in 1854-5, after which the business -collapsed for years. Dr. Tweddle, a Pittsburg refiner who had suffered -by fire, organized a company in 1872 to start the Eclipse Works. At -different periods many of the local operators have been interested in -refining, now the leading Franklin industry. - -For some time heavy-oil was used principally in its natural state. At -length improvements of great value were devised, out of which have grown -the oil-works devoted solely to the manufacture of lubricants. Among -these the most important and successful was that adopted in 1869 by -Charles Miller, of Franklin, protected by letters-patent of the United -States and since by patents covering the complete method. Besides -improvements in the method of manufacturing, he recognized the value of -lead-oxide as an ingredient in lubricating oils and a patent was secured -for the combination of whale-oil, oxide of lead and petroleum. The -Great-Northern Oil-Company, once a big organization, had built a -refinery in 1865 on the north bank of French Creek, below the Evans -Well, and leased it in 1868 to Colonel Street. In May of 1869 Mr. Miller -and John Coon purchased the Point Lookout Oil-Works, as the refinery was -called, Street retiring. The total tankage was one-thousand barrels and -the daily manufacturing capacity scarcely one-hundred. The new firm, of -which R. L. Cochran became a member in July, pushed the business with -characteristic energy, doubling the plant and extending the trade in all -directions. Mr. Cochran withdrew in January of 1870, R. H. Austin buying -his interest. The following August fire destroyed the works, entailing -severe loss. A calamity that would have disheartened most men seemed -only to imbue the partners with fresh vigor. Colonel Henry B. Plumer, a -wealthy citizen of Franklin, entered the firm and the Dale light-oil -refinery, a half-mile up the creek, was bought and remodeled throughout. -Reorganized on a solid basis as the “Galena Oil-Works,” a name destined -to gain world-wide reputation, within one month from the fire the new -establishment, its buildings and entire equipment changed and adapted to -the treatment of heavy-oil, was running to its full capacity night and -day! Such enterprise and pluck augured happily for the future and they -have been rewarded abundantly. - -Orders poured in more rapidly than ever. The local demand spread to the -adjoining districts. Customers once secured were sure to stay. In -addition to the excellence of the product, there was a vim about the -business and its management that inspired confidence and won patronage. -Messrs. Coon, Austin and Plumer disposed of their interest, at a -handsome figure, to the Standard Oil Company in 1878. The Galena -Oil-Works, Limited, was chartered and continued the business, with Mr. -Miller as president. Increasing demands necessitated frequent -enlargements of the works, which now occupy five acres of ground. Every -appliance that ingenuity and experience can suggest has been provided, -securing uniform grades of oil with unfailing precision. - -The machinery and appurtenances are the best money and skill can supply. -The same sterling traits that distinguished the smaller firm have all -along marked the progress of the newer and larger enterprise. The -standard of its products is always strictly first-class, hence patrons -are never disappointed in the quality of any of the celebrated Galena -brands of “Engine,” “Coach,” “Car,” “Machinery,” or “Lubricating” oils. -Steadfast adherence to this cardinal principle has borne its legitimate -fruit. Railway-oils are manufactured exclusively. The daily capacity is -three-thousand barrels. “Galena Oils” are used on _over ninety per -cent._ of the railway-mileage of the United States, Canada and Mexico. -Such patronage has never before been gained by any one establishment and -it is the result of positive merit. The Franklin district furnishes more -and better lubricating oil than all the rest of the continent and the -Galena treatment brings it to the highest measure of perfection. Reflect -for a moment upon the enormous expansion of the Galena Works and see -what earnest, faithful, intelligent effort and straightforward dealing -may accomplish. - -The first three railroads that tried the “Galena Oils” in 1869 have used -none other since. Could stronger proof of their excellence be desired? -It was a pleasing novelty for railway-managers to find a lubricant that -would neither freeze in winter nor dissipate in summer and they made -haste to profit by the experience. The severest tests served but to -place it far beyond all competition. At twenty degrees below zero it -would not congeal, while the fiercest heat of the tropical sun affected -it hardly a particle. As the natural consequence it speedily superseded -all others on the principal railroads of the country. The axles of the -magnificent Pullman and Wagner coaches on the leading lines have their -friction reduced to the minimum by “Galena Oil.” It adds immeasurably to -the smoothness and speed of railway-travel between the Atlantic and the -Pacific, from Maine to the Isthmus, from British Columbia to Florida. -Passengers detained by a “hot box” and annoyed by the fumes of rancid -grease frying in the trucks beneath their feet may be certain that the -offending railways _do not_ use “Galena Oil.” The “Galena” is not -constructed on that plan, but stands alone and unapproachable as the -finest lubricator of the nineteenth century. - -This is a record-breaking age. The world’s record for fast time on a -railroad was again captured from the English on September -eleventh, 1895. The New-York-Central train, which left New -York that morning, accomplished the trip to Buffalo at the -greatest speed for a continuous journey of any train over any -railroad in the world. The distance—four-hundred-and-thirty-six -miles—was covered in four-hundred-and-seven minutes, a rate of -sixty-four-and-one-third miles per hour. Until that feat the English -record of sixty-three-and-one-fifth miles an hour for five-hundred miles -was the fastest. In other words, the American train of four heavy cars, -hauled to Albany by engine No. 999, the famous World’s Fair locomotive, -smashed the English record more than a mile an hour, in the teeth of a -stiff head-wind. Father Time, who has insisted for many years that -travelers spend at least twenty-four hours on the journey between -Chicago and New York, received a fatal shock on October twenty-fourth, -1895. Two men who left Chicago at three-thirty in the morning visited -five theatres in New York that night! A special New-York-Central train, -with Vice-President Webb and a small party of Lake-Shore officials, ran -the nine-hundred-and-eighty miles in seventeen-and-three-quarter hours, -averaging sixty-five miles an hour to Buffalo, beating all previous -long-distance runs. For the first time copies of Chicago newspapers, -brought by gentlemen on the train, were seen in New York on the day of -their publication. Every axle, every journal, every box, every wheel of -both these trains, from the front of the locomotive to the rear of the -hind-coach, was lubricated with “Galena Oil.” - -Later a train in Scotland, keeping step with the oatmeal-and-haggis fad -that has deluged the land with Highland-dialect tales, snatched the -garland by adding a mile or more to the Central’s achievement. The -Scottish triumph was very brief. “Ian McLaren,” Barree and Crockett -might shine in literature, but no foreign line could be permitted to fix -the record for railroad-speed. Engineer Charles H. Fahl, of the Reading -system, believed American railways to be the best on earth and backed up -his opinion by solid proof. During the past summer he ran the famous -flyer between Camden and Atlantic City the entire season on time every -trip. The train, scheduled to travel the fifty-six miles in fifty-two -minutes, always started at least two minutes late, owing to the -ferryboats not connecting promptly. Yet Engineer Fahl made up this loss -and reached Atlantic City a trifle ahead of time, without missing once. -The trips averaged _forty-eight minutes_, or a fraction above -_sixty-nine miles an hour_! This was not one experimental test, but a -regular run day after day the whole season, generally with six -passenger-coaches crowded from end to end. Week in and week out the -flyer sped across the sandy plains of New Jersey, with never a skip or a -break, at the pace which placed the record of Train 25, of the -Atlantic-City branch of the Reading Railroad, upon the top rung of the -ladder. This performance, unequaled in railway-history at home or -abroad, brought Engineer Fahl a commendatory letter from Vice-President -Theodore Voorhees. It was rendered possible only by the exclusive use, -on locomotive and coaches alike, of the Galena Oils, which prevented the -hot-journals and excessive friction that are fatal to speed-records. - -The works are situated in the very heart of the heavy-oil district. Two -railroads, with a third in prospect, and a paved street front the -spacious premises. The main building is of brick, covering about an acre -and devoted chiefly to the handling of oil for manufacture or in course -of preparation, the repairing and painting of barrels and the -accommodation of the engines and machinery. To the rear stands a -substantial brick-structure, containing the steam-boilers, the -electric-light outfit and the huge agitators in which the oil is -treated. Big pumps next force the fluid into large vessels, where it is -submitted to a variety of special processes, which finally leave it -ready for the consumer. A dozen iron-tanks, each holding many thousand -barrels, receive and store crude to supply the works for months. As this -is piped directly from the wells the largest orders are filled with the -utmost dispatch. Nothing is lacking that can ensure superiority. The -highest wages are paid and every employee is an American citizen or -proposes to become one. The men are regarded as rational, responsible -beings, with souls to save and bodies to nourish, and treated in -accordance with the Golden Rule. They are well-fed, well-housed, -prosperous and contented. A strike, or a demand for higher wages or -shorter hours, is unknown in the history of this model institution. Is -it surprising that each year adds to its vast trade and wonderful -popularity? The unrivalled “Galena Oil-Works,” of Franklin, Venango -county, Pennsylvania, must be ranked among the most noteworthy -representative industries of Uncle Sam’s splendid domain. - - Have you a somewhat cranky wife, - Whose temper’s apt to broil? - To ease the matrimonial strife - Just lubricate when trouble’s rife— - Pour on Galena Oil! - - Has life some rusty hinge or joint - That vexes like a boil, - And always sure to disappoint? - The hindrance to success anoint - As with Galena Oil! - - Does business seem to jar and creak, - Despite long years of toil, - Till wasted strength has left you weak? - Reduce the friction, so to speak— - Apply Galena Oil! - - Are your affairs all run aground, - The cause of sad turmoil? - To see again “the wheels go ’wound,” - Smooth the rough spots wherever found— - Soak in Galena Oil! - -The Signal Oil-Works, Franklin, manufacture Sibley’s Perfection -Valve-Oil for locomotive-cylinders and Perfection Signal-Oil. More than -twenty-five years ago Joseph C. Sibley commenced experimenting with -petroleum-oils for use in steam-cylinders under high pressure. He found -that where the boiler-pressure was not in excess of sixty pounds the -proper lubrication of a steam-cylinder with petroleum was a matter of -little or no difficulty. With increase in pressure came increase in -temperature. As a result the oil vaporized and passed through the -exhaust. The destruction of steam-chests and cylinders through fatty -acids incident to tallow, or tallow and lard-oils, cost millions of -dollars annually; but it was held as a cardinal point in mechanical -engineering that these were the only proper steam-lubricants. Mr. Sibley -carried on his experiments for years. He conversed with leading -superintendents-of-machinery in the United States and with leading -chemists. Almost invariably he was laughed at when asserting his -determination to produce a product of petroleum, free from fatty acids, -capable of better lubrication even than the tallow then in use. Many of -his friends in the oil-business, who thought they understood the nature -of petroleum, expressed the deepest sympathy with Mr. Sibley’s -hallucination. Amid partial successes, interspersed with many failures, -he continued the experiments. So incredulous were chemists and -superintendents-of-machinery, so fearful of disasters to their machinery -through the use of such a compound, that he had in many instances to -guarantee to assume any damages which might occur to a locomotive -through its use. He rode thousands of miles upon locomotives, watching -the use of the oil, daily doubling the distance made by engineers. -Success at last crowned his efforts and the Perfection Valve-Oil has -been for nearly twenty years the standard lubricant of valves and -cylinders. To-day there is scarcely a locomotive in the United States -that does not use some preparation of petroleum and the steam-chests and -cylinders of _more than three-fourths_ of all in the United States are -lubricated with Perfection Valve-Oil. - -The results have been astounding. Destruction of steam-joints by fatty -acids from valve-lubricants is now an unknown thing. Not only this, but -as a lubricant the Perfection Valve-Oil has proved itself so much -superior that, where valve-seats required facing on an average once in -sixty days, they do not now require facing on an average once in two -years. The steam-pressure carried upon the boilers at that time rarely -exceeded one-hundred-and-twenty pounds. With the increase of pressure -and the corresponding increase of temperature it was found next to -impossible to properly lubricate the valves and cylinders to prevent -cutting. The superintendent-of-machinery of a leading American railway -sent for Mr. Sibley at one time, told him that he proposed to build -passenger-locomotives carrying one-hundred-and-eighty pounds pressure -and asked if he would undertake to lubricate the valves and cylinders -under that pressure. The reply was: “Go ahead. We will guarantee perfect -lubrication to a pressure very much higher than that.” And to-day the -higher type of passenger-locomotives carry one-hundred-and-eighty pounds -pressure regularly. - -When it was clearly demonstrated that the Perfection Valve-Oil was a -success, oil-men who had pronounced it impossible and had been backed in -their opinion by noted chemists commenced to make oils similar to it in -appearance. While many of them may have much confidence in their own -product, the highest testimonial ever paid to Perfection Valve-Oil is -that no competitor claims he has its superior. Some urge their product -with the assurance that it is the equal of Perfection Valve-Oil, thus -unconsciously paying the highest tribute possible to the latter. - -The works also make Perfection Signal-Oil for use in railway-lamps and -lanterns. Since 1869 this oil has been before the public. It is in daily -use in more than three-fourths of the railway-lanterns of the United -States and it is the proud boast of Mr. Sibley that, during that time, -there has never occurred an accident which has cost either a human limb -or life or the destruction of one penny’s worth of property, through the -failure of this oil to perform its work perfectly. Making but the two -products, Valve and Signal-Oils, catering to no other than -railroad-trade, studying carefully the demands of the service, keeping -in touch with the latest developments of locomotive-engineering and -thoroughly acquainted with the properties of all petroleum in -Pennsylvania, the company may well believe that, granted the possession -of equal natural abilities with competitors, under the circumstances it -is entitled to lead all others in the production of these two grades of -oils for railroad-use. - -[Illustration: - - CHARLES MILLER. - JOSEPH C. SIBLEY. -] - -Hon. Charles Miller, president of the Galena Oil-Works, and Hon. Joseph -C. Sibley, president of the Signal Oil-Works, are brothers-in-law and -proprietors of the great stock-farms of Miller & Sibley. Mr. Miller is -of Huguenot ancestry, born in Alsace, France, in 1843. The family came -to this country in 1854, settling on a farm near Boston, Erie county, -New York. At thirteen Charles clerked one year in the village-store for -thirty-five dollars and board. He clerked in Buffalo at seventeen for -one-hundred-and-seventy-five dollars, without board. In 1861 he enlisted -in the New-York National Guard. In 1863 he was mustered into the United -States service and married at Springville, N. Y., to Miss Ann Adelaide -Sibley, eldest child of Dr. Joseph C. Sibley. In 1864 he commenced -business for himself, in the store in which he had first clerked, with -his own savings of two-hundred dollars and a loan of two-thousand from -Dr. Sibley. In 1866 he sold the store and removed to Franklin. Forming a -partnership with John Coon of Buffalo, the firm carried on a large -dry-goods house until 1869, when a patent for lubricating oil and a -refinery were purchased and the store was closed out at heavy loss. The -refinery burned down the next year, new partners were taken in and in -1878 the business was organized in its present form as “The Galena -Oil-Works, Limited.” The entire management was given Mr. Miller, who had -built up an immense trade and retained his interest in the works. He -deals directly with consumers. Since 1870 his business-trips have -averaged five days a week and fifty-thousand miles a year of travel. No -man has a wider acquaintance and more personal friends among -railroad-officials. His journeys cover the United States and Mexico. -Wherever he may be, in New Orleans or San Francisco, on the train or in -the hotel, conferring with a Vanderbilt or the humblest manager of an -obscure road, receiving huge orders or aiding a deserving cause, he is -always the same genial, magnetic, generous exemplar of practical belief -in “the universal fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.” - -Major Miller is one whom money does not spoil. He is the master, not the -servant, of his wealth. He uses it to extend business, to foster -enterprise, to further philanthropy, to alleviate distress and to -promote the comfort and happiness of all about him. His benefactions -keep pace with his increasing prosperity. He is ever foremost in good -deeds. He gives thousands of dollars yearly to worthy objects, to the -needy, to churches, to schools, to missions and to advance the general -welfare. In 1889 he established a free night-school for his employés and -the youth of Franklin, furnishing spacious rooms with desks and -apparatus and engaging four capable teachers. This school has trained -hundreds of young men for positions as accountants, book-keepers, -stenographers and clerks. The First Baptist church, which he assisted in -organizing, is the object of his special regard. He bore a large share -of the cost of the brick-edifice, the lecture-room and the parsonage. He -and Mr. Sibley have donated the massive pipe-organ, maintained the -superb choir, paid a good part of the pastor’s salary, erected a -branch-church and supported the only services in the Third Ward. For -twenty-five years Mr. Miller has been superintendent of the -Sabbath-school, which has grown to a membership of six-hundred. His -Bible-class of three-hundred men is equalled in the state only by John -Wanamaker’s, in Philadelphia, and James McCormick’s, in Harrisburg. The -instruction is scriptural, pointed and business-like, with no taint of -bigotry or sectarianism. No matter how far away Saturday may find him, -the faithful teacher never misses the class that is “the apple of his -eye,” if it be possible to reach home. Often he has hired an engine to -bring him through on Saturday night, in order to meet the adult pupils -of all denominations who flock to hear his words of wisdom and -encouragement. Alike in conversation, teaching and public-speaking he -possesses the faculty of interesting his listeners and imparting -something new. He has raised the fallen, picked poor fellows out of the -gutter, rescued the perishing and set many wanderers in the straight -path. Not a few souls, “plucked as brands from the burning,” owe their -salvation to the kindly sympathy and assistance of this earnest layman. -Eternity alone will reveal the incalculable benefit of his night-school, -his Bible-class, his church-work, his charity, his personal appeals to -the erring and his unselfish life to the community and the world. - - “No duty could overtask him, no need his will outrun; - Or ever our lips could ask him, his hand the work had done.” - -Twice Mr. Miller served as mayor of Franklin. Repeatedly has he declined -nominations to high offices, private affairs demanding his time and -attention. He is president or director of a score of commercial and -industrial companies, with factories, mines and works in eight states. -He has been president time after time of the Northwestern Association of -Pennsylvania of the Grand Army of the Republic, Ordnance-Officer and -Assistant Adjutant-General of the Second Brigade of Pennsylvania and -Commander of Mays Post. He is a leading spirit in local enterprises. He -enjoys his beautiful home and the society of his wife and children and -friends. He prizes good horses, smokes good cigars and tells good -stories. In him the wage-earner and the breadwinner have a steadfast -helper, willing to lighten their burden and to better their condition. -In short, Charles Miller is a typical American, plucky, progressive, -energetic and invincible, with a heart to feel, genius to plan and -talent to execute the noblest designs. - -Hon. Joseph Crocker Sibley, eldest son of Dr. Joseph Crocker Sibley, was -born at Friendship, N.Y., in 1850. His father’s death obliging him to -give up a college-course for which he had prepared, in 1866 he came to -Franklin to clerk in Miller & Coon’s dry-goods store. From that time his -business interests and Mr. Miller’s were closely allied. In 1870 he -married Miss Metta E. Babcock, daughter of Simon M. Babcock, of -Friendship. He was agent of the Galena Oil-Works at Chicago for two -years, losing his effects and nearly losing his life in the terrible -fire that devastated that city. His business-success may be said to date -from 1873, when he returned to Franklin. After many experiments he -produced a signal-oil superior in light, safety and cold-test to any in -use. The Signal Oil-Works were established, with Mr. Sibley as president -and the proprietors of the Galena Oil-Works, whose plant manufactured -the new product, as partners. Next he compounded a valve-oil for -locomotives, free from the bad qualities of animal-oils, which is now -used on three-fourths of the railway mileage of the United States. - -Every newspaper-reader in the land has heard of the remarkable -Congressional fight of 1892 in the Erie-Crawford district. Both counties -were overwhelmingly Republican. People learned with surprise that Hon. -Joseph C. Sibley, a resident of another district, had accepted the -invitation of a host of good citizens, by whom he was selected as the -only man who could lead them to victory over the ring, to try -conclusions with the nominee of the ruling party, who had stacks of -money, the entire machine, extensive social connections, religious -associations—he was a preacher—and a regular majority of five-thousand -to bank upon. Some wiseacres shook their heads gravely and predicted -disaster. Such persons understood neither the resistless force of -quickened public sentiment nor the sterling qualities of the candidate -from Venango county. Democrats, Populists and Prohibitionists endorsed -Sibley. He conducted a campaign worthy of Henry Clay. Multitudes crowded -to hear and see a man candid enough to deliver his honest opinions with -the boldness of “Old Hickory.” The masses knew of Mr. Sibley’s courage, -sagacity and success in business, but they were unprepared to find so -sturdy a defender of their rights. His manly independence, ringing -denunciations of wrong, grand simplicity and incisive logic aroused -unbounded enthusiasm. The tide in favor of the fearless advocate of -fair-play for the lowliest creature no earthly power could stem. His -opponent was buried out of sight and Sibley was elected by a sweeping -majority. - -Mr. Sibley’s course in Congress amply met the expectations of his most -ardent supporters. The prestige of his great victory, added to his -personal magnetism and rare geniality, at the very outset gave him a -measure of influence few members ever attain. During the extra-session -he expressed his views with characteristic vigor. A natural leader, -close student and keen observer, he did not wait for somebody to give -him the cue before putting his ideas on record. In the silver-discussion -he bore a prominent part, opposing resolutely the repeal of the Sherman -act. His wonderful speech “set the ball rolling” for those who declined -to follow the administration program. The House was electrified by -Sibley’s effort. Throughout his speech of three hours he was honored -with the largest Congressional audience of the decade. Aisles, halls, -galleries and corridors were densely packed. Senators came from the -other end of the Capitol to listen to the brave Pennsylvanian who dared -plead for the white metal. For many years Mr. Sibley has been a close -student of political and social economics and he so grouped his facts as -to command the undivided attention and the highest respect of those who -honestly differed from him in his conclusions. Satire, pathos, bright -wit and pungent repartee awoke in his hearers the strongest emotions, -entrancing the bimetalists and giving their enemies a cold chill, as the -stream of eloquence flowed from lips “untrained to flatter, to dissemble -or to play the hypocrite.” Thenceforth the position of the -representative of the Twenty-sixth district was assured, despite the -assaults of hireling journals and discomfited worshippers of the golden -calf. - -He took advanced ground on the Chinese question, delivering a speech -replete with patriotism and common-sense. An American by birth, habit -and education, he prefers his own country to any other under the blue -vault of heaven. The American workman he would protect from pauper -immigration and refuse to put on the European or Asiatic level. He -stands up for American skill, American ingenuity, American labor and -American wages. Tariff for revenue he approves of, not a tariff to -diminish revenue or to enrich one class at the expense of all. The -tiller of the soil, the mechanic, the coal-miner, the coke-burner and -the day-laborer have found him an outspoken champion of their cause. -Small wonder is it that good men and women of all creeds and parties -have abiding faith in Joseph C. Sibley and would fain bestow on him the -highest office in the nation’s gift. - -Human nature is a queer medley and sometimes manifests streaks of envy -and meanness in queer ways. Mr. Sibley’s motives have been impugned, his -efforts belittled, his methods assailed and his neckties criticised by -men who could not understand his lofty character and purposes. The -generous ex-Congressman must plead guilty to the charge of wearing -clothes that fit him, of smoking decent cigars, of driving fine horses -and of living comfortably. Of course it would be cheaper to buy -hand-me-down misfits, to indulge in loud-smelling tobies, to walk or -ride muleback, to curry his own horses and let his wife do the washing -instead of hiring competent helpers. But he goes right ahead increasing -his business, improving his farms, developing American trotters and -furnishing work at the highest wages to willing hands in his factories, -at his oil-wells, on his lands, in his barns and his hospitable home. He -dispenses large sums in charity. His benevolence and enterprise reach -far beyond Pennsylvania. He does not hoard up money to loan it at -exorbitant rates. As a matter of fact, from the hundreds of men he has -helped pecuniarily he never accepted one penny of interest. He has been -mayor of Franklin, president of the Pennsylvania State-Dairymen’s -Association, director of the American Jersey-Cattle Club and member of -the State Board of Agriculture. He is a brilliant talker, a profound -thinker, a capital story-teller and a loyal friend. “May he live long -and prosper!” - -Miller & Sibley’s Prospect-Hill Stock-Farm is one of the largest, best -equipped and most favorably known in the world. Different farms -comprising the establishment include a thousand acres of land adjacent -to Franklin and a farm, with stabling for two-hundred horses and the -finest kite-track in the United States, at Meadville. On one of these -farms is the first silo built west of the Allegheny mountains. Trotting -stock, Jersey cattle, Shetland ponies and Angora goats of the highest -grades are bred. For Michael Angelo, when a calf six weeks old, -twelve-thousand-five-hundred dollars in cash were paid A. B. Darling, -proprietor of the Fifth-Avenue Hotel, New York City. Animals of the best -strain were purchased, regardless of cost. In 1886 Mr. Sibley bought -from Senator Leland Stanford, of California, for ten-thousand dollars, -the four-year-old trotting-stallion St. Bel. Seventy-five thousand were -offered for him a few weeks before the famous sire of numerous -prize-winners died. Cows that have broken all records for milk and -butter, and horses that have won the biggest purses on the leading -race-tracks of the country are the results of the liberal policy pursued -at Prospect-Hill. Charles Marvin, the prince of horsemen, superintends -the trotting department and E. H. Sibley is manager of all the Miller & -Sibley interests. Hundreds of the choicest animals are raised every -year. Prospect-Hill Farm is one of the sights of Franklin and the -enterprise represents an investment not far short of one-million -dollars. Wouldn’t men like Charles Miller and Joseph C. Sibley sweep -away the cobwebs, give business an impetus and infuse new life and new -ideas into any community? - -Franklin had tallied one for heavy-oil, but its resources were not -exhausted. On October seventeenth, 1859, Colonel James P. Hoover, C. M. -Hoover and Vance Stewart began to drill on the Robert-Brandon—now the -Hoover—farm of three-hundred acres, in Sandycreek township, on the west -bank of the Allegheny river, three miles south of Franklin. They found -oil on December twenty-first, the well yielding one-hundred barrels a -day! This pretty Christmas gift was another surprise. Owing to its -distance from “springs” and the two wells—Drake and Evans—already -producing, the stay-in-the-rut element felt confident that the Hoover -Well would not “amount to a hill of beans.” It was “piling Ossa on -Pelion” for the well to produce, from the _second sand_, oil with -properties adapted to illumination and lubrication. The Drake was for -light, the Evans for grease and the Hoover combined the two in part. -Where and when was this variegated dissimilarity to cease? Perhaps its -latest phase is to come shortly. Henry F. James is beginning a well -south-west of town, on the N. B. Myers tract, between a sweet and a sour -spring. Savans, scientists, beer-drinkers, tee-totalers and -oil-operators are on the ragged edge of suspense, some hoping, some -fearing, some praying that James may tap a perennial fount of creamy -’alf-and-’alf. - -Once at a drilling-well on the “Point” the tools dropped suddenly. The -driller relieved the tension on his rope and let the tools down slowly. -They descended six or eight feet! The bare thought of a crevice of such -dimensions paralyzed the knight of the temper-screw, all the more that -the hole was not to the first sand. What a lake of oil must underlie -that derrick! He drew up the tools. They were dripping amber fluid, -which had a flavor quite unlike petroleum. Did his nose deceive him? It -was the aroma of beer! A lick of the stuff confirmed the nasal -diagnosis—it had the taste of beer! The alarm was sounded and the -sand-pump run down. It came up brimming over with beer! Ten times the -trip was repeated with the same result. Think of an ocean of the -delicious, foamy, appetizing German beverage! Word was sent to the -owners of the well, who ordered the tubing to be put in. They tried to -figure how many breweries the production of their well would retire. -Pumping was about to begin, in presence of a party of impatient, thirsty -spectators, when an excited Teuton, blowing and puffing, was seen -approaching at a breakneck pace. Evidently he had something on his mind. -“Gott in Himmel!” he shrieked, “you vas proke mit Grossman’s vault!” The -mystery was quickly explained. Philip Grossman, the brewer, had cut a -tunnel a hundred feet into the hill-side to store his liquid-stock in a -cool place. The well chanced to be squarely over this tunnel, the roof -of which the tools pierced and stove in the head of a tun of beer! -Workmen who came for a load were astonished to discover one end of a -string of tubing dangling in the tun. It dawned upon them that the -drillers three-hundred feet above must have imagined they struck a -crevice and a messenger speeded to the well. The saddened crowd slinked -off, muttering words that would not look nice in print. The tubing was -withdrawn, the hogshead was shoved aside, the tools were again swung and -two weeks later the well was pumping thirty barrels a day of -unmistakable heavy-oil. - -The Hoover strike fed the flame the Evans Well had kindled. Lands in the -neighborhood were in demand on any terms the owners might impose. From -Franklin to the new well, on both sides of the Allegheny, was the -favorite choice, on a theory that a pool connected the deposits. Leases -were snapped up at one-half royalty and a cash-bonus. Additional wells -on the Hoover rivaled No. 1, which produced gamely for four years. The -tools were stuck in cleaning it out and a new well beside it started at -sixty barrels. The “Big-Emma Vein” was really an artery to which for -years “whoa, Emma!” did not apply. Bissell & Co. and the Cameron -Petroleum-Company secured control of the property, on which fifteen -wells were producing two-hundred barrels ten years from the advent of -the Hoover & Vance. Harry Smith, a city-father, is operating on the -tract and drilling paying wells at reasonable intervals. Colonel James -P. Hoover died on February fourth, 1871, aged sixty-nine. Born in Centre -county, he settled in the southern part of Clarion, was appointed by -Governor Porter in 1839 Prothonotary of Venango county and removed to -Franklin. The people elected him to the same office for three years and -State-Senator in 1844. The Canal-Commissioners in 1851 appointed him -collector of the tolls at Hollidaysburg, Blair county, for five years. -He filled these positions efficiently, strict adherence to principle and -a high sense of duty marking his whole career. The esteem and confidence -he enjoyed all through his useful life were attested by universal regret -at his death and the largest funeral ever witnessed in Franklin. His -estimable widow survived Colonel Hoover twenty years, dying at the -residence of her son-in-law, Arnold Plumer, in Minnesota. Their son, C. -M. Hoover, ex-sheriff of the county, has been interested in the street -railway. Vance Stewart, who owned a farm near the lower river-bridge, -removed to Greenville and preceded his wife and several children, one of -them Rev. Orlando V. Stewart, to the tomb. Another son, James Stewart, -was a prominent member of the Erie bar. - -[Illustration: B. E. SWAN.] - -The opening months of 1860 were decidedly lively on the Cochran Farm, in -Cranberry township, opposite the Hoover. The first well, the Keystone, -on the flats above where the station now stands, was a second-sander of -the hundred-barrel class. The first oil sold for fourteen dollars a -barrel, at which rate land-owners and operators were not in danger of -bankruptcy or the poor-house. Fourteen-hundred dollars a day from a -three-inch hole would have seemed too preposterous for Munchausen before -the Pennsylvania oil-regions demonstrated that “truth is stranger than -fiction.” The Monitor, Raymond, Williams, McCutcheon and other wells -kept the production at a satisfactory figure. Dale & Morrow, Horton & -Son, Hoover & Co., George R. Hobby, Cornelius Fulkerson and George S. -McCartney were early operators. B. E. Swan located on the farm in May of -1865 and drilled numerous fair wells. He has operated there for -thirty-two years, sticking to the second-sand territory with a tenacity -equal to the “perseverance of the saints.” When thousands of producers, -imitating the dog that let go the bone to grasp the shadow in the water, -quit their enduring small wells to take their chance of larger ones in -costlier fields, he did not lose his head and add another to the -financial wrecks that strewed the greasian shore. Appreciating his moral -stamina, his steadfastness and ability, Mr. Swan’s friends insist that -he shall serve the public in some important office. Walter Pennell—his -father made the first car-wheels—and W. P. Smith drilled several snug -wells on the uplands, Sweet & Shaffer following with six or eight. -Eighteen wells are producing on the tract, which contains -one-hundred-and-forty acres and has had only two dry-holes in its -thirty-six years of active developments. - -[Illustration: ALEXANDER COCHRAN.] - -Alexander Cochran, for forty years owner of the well-known farm bearing -his name, is one of the oldest citizens of Franklin. Winning his way in -the world by sheer force of character, scrupulous integrity and a fixed -determination to succeed, he is in the highest and best sense a -self-made man. Working hard in boyhood to secure an education, he taught -school, clerked in general stores, studied law and was twice elected -Prothonotary without asking one voter for his support. In these days of -button-holing, log-rolling, wire-pulling, buying and soliciting votes -this is a record to recall with pride. Marrying Miss Mary Bole—her -father removed from Lewistown to Franklin seventy-five years ago—he -built the home at “Cochran Spring” that is one of the land-marks of the -town and established a large dry-goods store. As his means permitted he -bought city-lots, put up dwelling-houses and about 1852 paid -sixteen-hundred dollars for the farm in Cranberry township for which in -1863, after it had yielded a fortune, he refused seven-hundred-thousand! -The farm was in two blocks. A neighbor expostulated with him for buying -the second piece, saying it was “foolish to waste money that way.” In -1861, when the same neighbor wished to mortgage his land for a loan, he -naively remarked: “Well, Aleck, I guess I was the fool, not you, in -1852.” A man of broad views, Mr. Cochran freely grants to others the -liberality of thought he claims for himself. A hater of cant and sham -and hollow pretence, he believes less in musty creeds than kindly deeds, -more in giving loaves than tracts to the hungry, and takes no stock in -religion that thinks only of dodging punishment in the next world and -fails to help humanity in this. In the dark days of low-priced oil and -depressed trade, he would accept neither interest from his debtors nor -royalty from the operators who had little wells on his farm. He never -hounded the sheriff on a hapless borrower, foreclosed a mortgage to grab -a coveted property or seized the chattels of a struggling victim to -satisfy a shirt-tail note. There is no shred of the Pecksniff, the -Shylock or the Uriah-Heep in his anatomy. At fourscore he is hale and -hearty, rides on horseback, cultivates his garden, attends to business, -likes a good play and keeps up with the literature of the day. The -productive oil-farm is now owned by his daughters, Mrs. J. J. McLaurin, -of Harrisburg, and Mrs. George R. Sheasley, of Franklin. The proudest -eulogy he could desire is Alexander Cochran’s just desert: “The Poor -Man’s Friend.” - -Down to Sandy Creek many wells were drilled from 1860 to 1865, producing -fairly at an average depth of four-hundred-and-fifty to five-hundred -feet. These operations included the Miller, Smith and Pope farms, on the -west side of the river, and the Rice, Nicklin, Martin and Harmon, on the -east side, all second-sand territory. North of the Cochran and the -Hoover work was pushed actively. George H. Bissell and Vance Stewart -bored twelve or fifteen medium wells on the Stewart farm of two-hundred -acres, which the Cameron Petroleum Company purchased in 1865 and Joseph -Dale operated for some years. It lies below the lower bridge, opposite -the Bleakley tract, from which a light production is still derived. -Above the Stewart are the Fuller and the Chambers farms, the latter -extending to the Allegheny-Valley depot. Scores of eager operators -thronged the streets of Franklin and drilled along the Allegheny. Joseph -Powley and Charles Cowgill entered the lists in the Cranberry district. -Henry M. Wilson and George Piagett veered into the township and sank a -bevy of dry-holes to vary the monotony. That was a horse on Wilson, but -he got ahead of the game by a deal that won him the nicest territory on -Horse Creek. Stirling Bonsall and Colonel Lewis—they’re dead now—were in -the thickest of the fray, with Captain Goddard, Philip Montgomery, Boyd, -Roberts, Foster, Brown, Murphy and many more whom old-timers remember -pleasantly. Thomas King, whole-souled, genial “Tom”—no squarer man e’er -owned a well or handled oil-certificates—and Captain Griffith were “a -good pair to draw to.” King has “crossed over,” as have most of the -kindred spirits that dispelled the gloom in the sixties. - -Colonel W. T. Pelton, nephew of Samuel J. Tilden, participated in the -scenes of that exciting period. He lived at Franklin and drilled wells -on French Creek. He was a royal entertainer, shrewd in business, finely -educated and polished in manner and address. He and his wife—a lovely -and accomplished woman—were fond of society and gained hosts of friends. -They boarded at the United-States Hotel, where Mrs. Pelton died -suddenly. This affliction led Colonel Pelton to sell his oil-properties -and abandon the oil-regions. Returning to New York, when next he came -into view as the active agent of his uncle in the secret negotiations -that grew out of the election of 1876, it was with a national fame. His -death in 1880 closed a busy, promising career. - -In the spring of 1864 a young man, black-haired, dark-eyed, an Apollo in -form and strikingly handsome, arrived at Franklin and engaged rooms at -Mrs. Webber’s, on Buffalo street. The stranger had money, wore good -clothes and presented a letter of introduction to Joseph H. Simonds, -dealer in real-estate, oil-wells and leases. He looked around a few days -and concluded to invest in sixty acres of the Fuller farm, Cranberry -township, fronting on the Allegheny river. The block was sliced off the -north end of the farm, a short distance below the upper bridge and the -Valley station. Mr. Simonds consented to be a partner in the -transaction. The transfer was effected, the deed recorded and a well -started. It was situated on the hill, had twenty feet of second-sand and -pumped twenty barrels a day. The owner drilled two others on the bluff, -the three yielding twenty barrels for months. The ranks of the -oil-producers had received an addition in the person of—John Wilkes -Booth. - -The firm prospered, each of the members speculating and trading -individually. M. J. Colman, a capital fellow, was interested with one or -both in various deals. Men generally liked Booth and women admired him -immensely. His lustrous orbs, “twin-windows of the soul,” could look so -sad and pensive as to awaken the tenderest pity, or fascinate like “the -glittering eye” of the Ancient Mariner or the gaze of the basilisk. -“Trilby” had not come to light, or he might have enacted the hypnotic -role of Svengali. His moods were variable and uncertain. At times he -seemed morose and petulant, tired of everybody and “unsocial as a clam.” -Again he would court society, attend parties, dance, recite and be “the -life of the company.” He belonged to a select circle that exchanged -visits with a coterie of young folks in Oil City. A Confederate -sympathizer and an enemy of the government, his closest intimates were -staunch Republicans and loyal citizens. William J. Wallis, the veteran -actor who died in December of 1895, in a Philadelphia theater slapped -him on the mouth for calling President Lincoln a foul name. Booth’s -acting, while inferior to his brother Edwin’s, evinced much dramatic -power. He controlled his voice admirably, his movements were graceful -and he spoke distinctly, as Franklinites whom he sometimes favored with -a reading can testify. - -[Illustration: JOSEPH H. SIMONDS.] - -[Illustration: J. WILKES BOOTH.] - -[Illustration: MOSES J. COLMAN.] - -One morning in April, 1865, he left Franklin, telling Mr. Simonds he was -going east for a few days. He carried a satchel, which indicated that he -did not expect his stay to be prolonged indefinitely. His wardrobe, -books and papers remained in his room. Nothing was heard of him until -the crime of the century stilled all hearts and the wires flashed the -horrible news of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. The excitement in -Franklin, the murderer’s latest home, was intense. Crowds gathered to -learn the dread particulars and discuss Booth’s conduct and utterances. -Not a word or act previous to his departure pointed to deliberate -preparation for the frightful deed that plunged the nation in grief. -That he contemplated it before leaving Franklin the weight of evidence -tended to disprove. He made no attempt to sell any of his property, to -convert his lands and wells into cash, to settle his partnership -accounts or to pack his effects. He had money in the bank, wells -bringing a good income and important business pending. All these things -went to show that, if not a sudden impulse, the killing of Lincoln was -prompted by some occurrence in Washington that fired the passionate -nature John Wilkes Booth inherited from his father. The world is -familiar with the closing chapters of the dark tragedy—the assassin’s -flight, the pursuit into Virginia, the burning barn, Sergeant Corbett’s -fatal bullet, the pathetic death-scene on the Garrett porch and the last -message, just as the dawn was breaking on the glassy eyes that opened -feebly for a moment: “Tell my mother I died for my country. I did what I -thought was best.” - -The wells and the land on the river were held by Booth’s heirs until -1869, when the tract changed hands. The farm is producing no oil and the -Simonds-Booth wells have disappeared. Had he not intended to return to -Franklin, Booth would certainly have disposed of these interests and -given the proceeds to his mother. “Joe” Simonds removed to Bradford to -keep books for Whitney & Wheeler, bankers and oil-operators, and died -there years ago. He was an expert accountant, quick, accurate and neat -in his work and most fastidious in his attire. A blot on his paper, a -figure not exactly formed, a line one hair-breath crooked, a spot on his -linen or a speck of dust on his coat was simply intolerable. He was -correct in language and deportment and honorable in his dealings. Colman -continued his oil-operations, in company with W. R. Crawford, a -real-estate agency, until the eighties. He married Miss Ella Hull, the -finest vocalist Franklin ever boasted, daughter of Captain S. A. Hull, -and removed to Boston. For years paralytic trouble has confined him to -his home. He is “one of nature’s nobleman.” - -“French Kate,” the woman who aided Ben Hogan at Pithole and followed him -to Babylon and Parker, was a Confederate spy and supposed to be very -friendly with J. Wilkes Booth. Besides his oil-interests at Franklin, -the slayer of Abraham Lincoln owned a share in the Homestead well at -Pithole. A favorite legend tells how, by a singular coincidence, which -produced a sensation, the well was burned on the evening of the -President’s assassination. It caught fire about the same instant the -fatal bullet was fired in Ford’s Theater and tanks of burning oil -enveloped Pithole in a dense smoke when the news of the tragedy flashed -over the trembling wires. The Homestead well was not down until Lincoln -had been dead seven weeks, Pithole had no existence and there were no -blazing tanks; otherwise the legend is correct. Two weeks before his -appalling crime Booth was one of a number of passengers on the scow -doing duty as a ferry-boat across the Allegheny, after the Franklin -bridge had burned. The day was damp and the water very cold. Some -inhuman whelp threw a fine setter into the river. The poor beast swam to -the rear of the scow and Booth pulled him on board. He caressed the dog -and bitterly denounced the fellow who could treat a dumb animal so -cruelly. At another time he knocked down a cowardly ruffian for beating -a horse that was unable to pull a heavy load out of a mud-hole. He has -been known to shelter stray kittens, to buy them milk and induce his -landlady to care for them until they could be provided with a home. -Truly his was a contradictory nature. He sympathized with horses, dogs -and cats, yet robbed the nation of its illustrious chief and plunged -mankind into mourning. To newsboys Booth was always liberal, not -infrequently handing a dollar for a paper and saying: “No change; buy -something useful with the money.” The first time he went to the -Methodist Sunday-school, with “Joe” Simonds, he asked and answered -questions and put a ten-dollar bill in the collection-box. - -Over the hills to the interior of the townships developments spread. -Bredinsburg, Milton and Tarkiln loomed up in Cranberry, where Taylor & -Torrey, S. P. McCalmont, Jacob Sheasley, B. W. Bredin and E. W. Echols -have sugar-plums. In Sandycreek, between Franklin and Foster, Angell & -Prentice brought Bully Hill and Mount Hope to the front. The biggest -well in the package was a two-hundred barreler on Mount Hope, which -created a mount of hopes that were not fully realized. George V. Forman -counted out one-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars for the Mount Hope -corner. The territory lasted well and averaged fairly. Bully Hill -merited its somewhat slangy title. Dr. C. D. Galbraith, George R. -Sheasley and Mattern & Son are among its present operators. Angell and -Prentice parted company, each to engage in opening up the Butler region. -Prentice, Crawford, Barbour & Co. did not let the grass grow under their -feet. They “knew a good thing at sight” and pumped tens-of-thousands of -barrels of oil from the country south of Franklin. The firm was notable -in the seventies. Considerable drilling was done at Polk, where the -state is providing a half-million-dollar Home for Feeble-Minded -Children, and in the latitude of Utica, with about enough oil to be an -aggravation. The Shippen wells, a mile north of the county poor-house, -have produced for thirty years. West of them, on the Russell farm, the -Twin wells, joined as tightly as the derricks could be placed, pumped -for years. This was the verge of productive territory, test wells on the -lands of William Sanders, William Bean, A. Reynolds, John McKenzie, -Alexander Frazier and W. Booth, clear to Cooperstown, finding a trifle -of sand and scarcely a vestige of oil. The Raymonds, S. Ramage, John J. -Doyle and Daniel Grimm had a very tidy offshoot at Raymilton. On this -wise lubricating and second-sand oils were revealed for the benefit of -mankind generally. The fly in the ointment was the clerical crank who -wrote to President Lincoln to demand that the producing of heavy-oil be -stopped peremptorily, as it had been stored in the ground to grease the -axletree of the earth in its diurnal revolution! This communication -reminded Lincoln of a “little story,” which he fired at the fellow with -such effect that the candidate for a strait-jacket was perpetually -squelched. - -[Illustration: ANGELL & PRENTICE’S WELLS BELOW FRANKLIN IN 1873.] - -[Illustration: JOHN P. CRAWFORD.] - -Hon. William Reid Crawford, a member of the firm of Prentice, Crawford, -Barbour & Co., lives in Franklin. His parents were early settlers in -north-western Pennsylvania. Alexander Grant, his maternal grandfather, -built the first stone-house in Lancaster county, removed to Butler -county and located finally in Armstrong county, where he died sixty-five -years ago. In 1854 William R. and four of his brothers went to -California and spent some time mining gold. Upon his return he settled -on a farm in Scrubgrass township, Venango county, of which section the -Crawfords had been prominent citizens from the beginning of its history. -Removing to Franklin in 1865, Mr. Crawford engaged actively in the -production of petroleum, operating extensively in various portions of -the oil-regions for twenty years. He acquired a high reputation for -enterprise and integrity, was twice a city-councillor, served three -terms as mayor, was long president of the school-board, was elected -sheriff in 1887 and State-Senator in 1890. Untiring fidelity to the -interests of the people and uncompromising hostility to whatever he -believed detrimental to the general welfare distinguished his public -career. Genial and kindly to all, the friend of humanity and benefactor -of the poor, no man stands better in popular estimation or is more -deserving of confidence and respect. His friends could not be crowded -into the Coliseum without bulging out the walls. Ebenezer Crawford, -brother of William R., died at Emlenton in August of 1897, on his -seventy-sixth birthday. John P. Crawford, another brother, who made the -California trip in 1849, still resides in the southern end of the county -and is engaged in oil-operations. E. G. Crawford, a nephew, twice -prothonotary of Venango and universally liked, passed away last June. -His cousin, C. J. Crawford, a first-class man anywhere and everywhere, -served as register and recorder with credit and ability. The Crawfords -“are all right.” - - For money may come and money may go, - But a good name stays to the end of the show. - -Captain John K. Barbour, a man of imposing presence and admirable -qualities, removed to Philadelphia after the dissolution of the firm. -The Standard Oil-Company gave him charge of the right-of-way department -of its pipe-line service and he returned to Franklin. Two years ago, -during a business visit to Ohio, he died unexpectedly, to the deep -regret of the entire community. S. A. Wheeler operated largely in the -Bradford field and organized the Tuna-Valley Bank of Whitney & Wheeler. -For a dozen years he has resided at Toledo, his early home. Like Captain -Barbour, “Fred,” as he was commonly called, had an exhaustless mine of -bright stories and a liberal share of the elements of popularity. One -afternoon in 1875, three days before the fire that wiped out the town, a -party of us chanced to meet at St. Joe, Butler county, then the centre -of oil-developments. An itinerating artist had his car moored opposite -the drug-store. Somebody proposed to have a group-picture. The motion -carried unanimously and a toss-up decided that L. H. Smith was to foot -the bill. The photographer brought out his camera, positions were taken -on the store-platform and the pictures were mailed an hour ahead of the -blaze that destroyed most of the buildings and compelled the artist to -hustle off his car on the double-quick. Samuel R. Reed, at the extreme -right, operated in the Clarion field. He had a hardware-store in company -with the late Dr. Durrant and his home is in Franklin. James Orr, -between whom and Reed a telegraph-pole is seen, was connected with the -Central Hotel at Petrolia and later was a broker in the Producers’ -Exchange at Bradford. On the step is Thomas McLaughlin, now oil-buyer at -Lima, once captain of a talented base-ball club at Oil City and an -active oil-broker. Back of him is “Fred” Wheeler, with Captain Barbour -on his right and L. H. Smith sitting comfortably in front. Mr. Smith -figured largely at Pithole, operated satisfactorily around Petrolia and -removed years ago to New York. Cast in a giant mould, he weighs -three-hundred pounds and does credit to the illustrious legions of -Smiths. He is a millionaire and has an office over the Seaboard Bank, at -the lower end of Broadway. Joseph Seep, the king-bee of good fellows, -sits besides Smith. Pratt S. Crosby, formerly a jolly broker at Parker -and Oil City, stands behind Seep. Next him is “Tom” King, who has “gone -to the land of the leal,” J. J. McLaurin ending the row. James Amm, who -went from an Oil-city clerkship to coin a fortune at Bradford—a street -bears his name—sits on the platform. Every man, woman, child and baby -near Oil City knew and admired “Jamie” Amm, who is now enjoying his -wealth in Buffalo. Two out of the eleven in the group have “passed -beyond the last scene” and the other nine are scattered widely. - - “Friend after friend departs, - Who hath not lost a friend?” - -[Illustration: GROUP AT ST. JOE, BUTLER COUNTY, IN 1874.] - -Frederic Prentice, one of the pluckiest operators ever known in -petroleum-annals, was the first white child born on the site of Toledo, -when Indians were the neighbors of the pioneers of Northern Ohio. His -father left a fine estate, which the son increased greatly by extensive -lumbering, in which he employed three-thousand men. Losses in the panic -of 1857 retired him from the business. He retrieved his fortune and paid -his creditors their claims in full, with ten per cent. interest, an act -indicative of his sterling character. Reading in a newspaper about the -Drake well, he decided to see for himself whether the story was fast -colors. Journeying to Venango county by way of Pittsburg, he met and -engaged William Reed to accompany him. Reed had worked at the Tarentum -salt-wells and knew a thing or two about artesian-boring. The two -arrived at Franklin on the afternoon of the day Evans’s well turned the -settlement topsy-turvy. Next morning Prentice offered Evans -forty-thousand dollars for a controlling interest in the well, -one-fourth down and the balance in thirty, sixty and ninety days. Evans -declining to sell, the Toledo visitor bought from Martin & Epley an acre -of ground on the north bank of French Creek, at the base of the hill, -and contracted with Reed to “kick down” a well, the third in the -district. Prentice and Reed tramped over the country for days, locating -oil-deposits by means of the witch-hazel, which the Tarentumite handled -skillfully. This was a forked stick, which it was claimed turned in the -hands of the holder at spots where oil existed. Various causes delayed -the completion of the well, which at last proved disappointingly small. -Meanwhile Mr. Prentice leased the Neeley farm, two miles up the -Allegheny, in Cranberry township, and bored several paying wells. A -railroad station on the tract is named after him and R. G. Lamberton has -converted the property into a first-class stock-farm. Favorable reports -from Little Kanawha River took him to West Virginia, where he leased and -purchased immense blocks of land. Among them was the Oil-Springs tract, -on the Hughes River, from which oil had been skimmed for generations. -Two of his wells on the Kanawha yielded six-hundred barrels a day, which -had to be stored in ponds or lakes for want of tankage. Confederate -raiders burned the wells, oil and machinery and drove off the workmen, -putting an extinguisher on operations until the Grant-Lee episode -beneath the apple-tree at Appomattox. - -Assuming that the general direction of profitable developments would be -north-east and south-west, Mr. Prentice surveyed a line from Venango -county through West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. This idea, really -the foundation of “the belt theory,” he spent thousands of dollars to -establish. Personal investigation and careful surveys confirmed his -opinion, which was based upon observations in the Pennsylvania fields. -The line run thirty years ago touched numerous “springs” and “surface -shows” and recent tests prove its remarkable accuracy. On this theory he -drilled at Mount Hope and Foster, opening a section that has produced -several-million barrels of oil. C. D. Angell applied the principle in -Clarion and Butler counties, mapping out the probable course of the -“belt” and leasing much prolific territory. His success led others to -adopt the same plan, developing a number of pools in four states, -although nature’s lines are seldom straight and the oil-bearing strata -are deposited in curves and beds at irregular intervals. - -[Illustration: FREDERIC PRENTICE.] - -In company with W. W. Clark of New York, to whom he had traded a portion -of his West-Virginia lands, Mr. Prentice secured a quarter-interest in -the Tarr farm, on Oil Creek, shortly before the sinking of the Phillips -well, and began shipping oil to New York. They paid three dollars apiece -for barrels, four dollars a barrel for hauling to the railroad and -enormous freights to the east. The price dropping below the cost of -freights and barrels, the firm dug acres of pits to put tanks under -ground, covering them with planks and earth to prevent evaporation. -Traces of these storage-vats remain on the east bank of Oil Creek. Crude -fell to twenty-five cents a barrel at the wells and the outlook was -discouraging. Clark & Prentice stopped drilling and turned their -attention to finding a market. They constructed neat wooden packages -that would hold two cans of refined-oil, two oil-lamps and a dozen -chimneys and sent one to each United-States Consul in Europe. Orders -soon rushed in from foreign countries, especially Germany, France and -England, stimulating the erection of refineries and creating a large -export-trade. Clark & Summer, who also owned an interest in the Tarr -farm, built the Standard Refinery at Pittsburg and agreed to take from -Clark & Prentice one-hundred-thousand barrels of crude at a dollar a -barrel, to be delivered as required during the year. Before the delivery -of the first twenty-five-thousand barrels the price climbed to one-fifty -and to six dollars before the completion of the contract, which was -carried out to the letter. The advance continued to fourteen dollars a -barrel, lasting only one day at this figure. These were vivifying days -in oleaginous circles, never to be repeated while Chronos wields his -trusty blade. - -When crude reached two dollars Mr. Prentice bought the -Washington-McClintock farm, on which Petroleum Centre was afterwards -located, for three-hundred-thousand dollars. Five New-Yorkers, one of -them the president of the Shoe and Leather Bank and another the -proprietor of the Brevoort House, advanced fifty-thousand dollars for -the first payment. Within sixty days Prentice sold three-quarters of his -interest for nine-hundred-thousand dollars and organized the Central -Petroleum Oil-Company, with a capital of five-millions! Wishing to repay -the New-York loan, the Brevoort landlord desired him to retain his share -of the money and invest it as he pleased. For his ten-thousand dollars -mine host received eighty-thousand in six months, a return that leaves -government-bond syndicates and Cripple-Creek speculations out in the -latitude of Nansen’s north-pole. The company netted fifty-thousand -dollars a month in dividends for years and lessees cleared three or four -millions from their operations on the farm. Greenbacks circulated like -waste-paper, Jules Verne’s fancies were surpassed constantly by actual -occurrences and everybody had money to burn. - -Prentice and his associates purchased many tracts along Oil Creek, -including the lands where Oil City stands and the Blood farm of -five-hundred acres. In the Butler district he drilled hundreds of wells -and built the Relief Pipe-Line. Organizing The Producers’ Consolidated -Land-and-Petroleum-Company, with a capital of two-and-a-half millions, -he managed it efficiently and had a prominent part in the Bradford -development. Boston capitalists paid in twelve-hundred-thousand dollars, -Prentice keeping a share in his oil-properties representing -thirteen-hundred-thousand more. The company is now controlled by the -Standard, with L. B. Lockhart as superintendent. Its indefatigable -founder also organized the Boston Oil Company to operate in Kentucky and -Tennessee, put down oil-wells in Peru and gas-wells in West Virginia, -produced and piped thousands of barrels of crude daily and was a vital -force in petroleum-affairs for eighteen years. The confidence and esteem -of his compatriots were attested by his unanimous election to the -presidency of the Oilmen’s League, a secret-society formed to resist the -proposed encroachments of the South-Improvement Company. The League -accomplished its mission and then quietly melted out of existence. - -Since 1877 Mr. Prentice has devoted his attention chiefly to lumbering -in West Virginia and to his brown-stone quarries at Ashland, Wisconsin. -The death of his son, Frederick A., by accidental shooting, was a sad -bereavement to the aged father. His suits to get possession of the site -of Duluth, the city of Proctor Knott’s impassioned eulogy, included in a -huge grant of land deeded to him by the Indians, were scarcely less -famous than Mrs. Gaines’s protracted litigation to recover a slice of -New Orleans. The claim involved the title to property valued at -twelve-millions of dollars. From his Ashland quarries the owner took out -a monolith, designed for the Columbian Exposition in 1893, forty yards -long and ten feet square at the base. Beside this monster stone -Cleopatra’s Needle, disintegrating in Central Park, Pompey’s Pillar and -the biggest blocks in the pyramids are Tom-Thumb pigmies. At -seventy-four Mr. Prentice, foremost in energy and enterprise, retains -much of his youthful vigor. Earnest and sincere, a master of business, -his word as good as gold, Frederic Prentice holds an honored place in -the ranks of representative oil-producers, “nobles of nature’s own -creating.” - -[Illustration: CYRUS D. ANGELL.] - -A native of Chautauqua county, N. Y., where he was born in 1826, Cyrus -D. Angell received a liberal education, served as School-Commissioner -and engaged in mercantile pursuits at Forestville. Forced through -treachery and the monetary stringency of the times to compromise with -his creditors, he recovered his financial standing and paid every cent -of his indebtedness, principal and interest. In 1867 he came to the -oil-regions with a loan of one-thousand dollars and purchased an -interest in property at Petroleum Centre that paid handsomely. Prior to -this, in connection with Buffalo capitalists, he had bought Belle -Island, in the Allegheny River at Scrubgrass, upon which soon after his -arrival he drilled three wells that averaged one-hundred barrels each -for two years, netting the owners over two-hundred-thousand dollars. -Operations below Franklin, in company with Frederic Prentice, also -proved highly profitable. His observations of the course of developments -along Oil Creek and the Allegheny led Mr. Angell to the conclusion that -petroleum would be found in “belts” or regular lines. He adopted the -theory that two “belts” existed, one running from Petroleum Centre to -Scrubgrass and the other from St. Petersburg through Butler county. -Satisfied of the correctness of this view, he leased or purchased all -the lands within the probable boundaries of the “belt” from Foster to -Belle Island, a distance of six miles. The result justified his -expectations, ninety per cent. of the wells yielding abundantly. With -“the belt theory,” which he followed up with equal success farther -south, Mr. Angell’s name is linked indissolubly. His researches enriched -him and were of vast benefit to the producers generally. He did much to -extend the Butler region, drilling far ahead of tested territory. The -town of Angelica owed its creation to his fortunate operations in the -neighborhood, conducted on a comprehensive scale. Reverses could not -crush his manly spirit. He did a large real-estate business at Bradford -for some years, opening an office at Pittsburg when the Washington field -began to loom up. Failing health compelling him to seek relief in -foreign travel, last year he went to Mexico and Europe to recuperate. -Mr. Angell is endowed with boundless energy, fine intellectual powers -and rare social acquirements. During his career in Oildom he was an -excellent sample of the courageous, unconquerable men who have made -petroleum the commercial wonder of the world. - -An old couple in Cranberry township, who eked out a scanty living on a -rocky farm near the river, sold their land for sixty-thousand dollars at -the highest pitch of the oil-excitement around Foster. This was more -money than the pair had ever before seen, much less expected to handle -and own. It was paid in bank-notes at noon and the log-house was to be -vacated next day. Towards evening the poor old woman burst into tears -and insisted that her husband should give back the money to the man that -“wanted to rob them of their home.” She was inconsolable, declaring they -would be “turned out to starve, without a roof to cover them.” The idea -that sixty-thousand dollars would buy an ideal home brought no comfort -to the simple-minded creature, whose hopes and ambitions were confined -to the lowly abode that had sheltered her for a half-century. A promise -to settle near her brother in Ohio reconciled her somewhat, but it -almost broke her faithful heart to leave a spot endeared by many tender -associations. John Howard Payne, himself a homeless wanderer, whose song -has been sung in every tongue and echoed in every soul, jingled by -innumerable hand-organs and played by the masters of music, was right: - - “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.” - -The refusal of his wife to sign the deed conveying the property enabled -a wealthy Franklinite to gather a heap of money. The tract was rough and -unproductive and the owner proposed to accept for it the small sum -offered by a neighboring farmer, who wanted more pasture for his cattle. -For the first time in her life the wife declined to sign a paper at her -husband’s request, saying she had a notion the farm would be valuable -some day. The purchaser refused to take it subject to a dower and the -land lay idle. At length oil-developments indicated that the “belt” ran -through the farm. Scores of wells yielded freely, netting the land-owner -a fortune and convincing him that womanly intuition is a sure winner. - -A citizen of Franklin, noted for his conscientiousness and liberality, -was interested in a test-well at the beginning of the Scrubgrass -development. He vowed to set aside one-fourth of his portion of the -output of the well “for the Lord,” as he expressed it. To the delight of -the owners, who thought the venture hazardous, the well showed for a -hundred barrels when the tubing was put in. On his way back from the -scene the Franklin gentleman did a little figuring, which proved that -the Lord’s percentage of the oil might foot up fifty dollars a day. This -was a good deal of money for religious purposes. The maker of the vow -reflected that the Lord could get along without so much cash and he -decided to clip the one-fourth down to one-tenth, arguing that the -latter was the scripture limit. Talking it over with his wife, she -advised him to stick to his original determination and not trifle with -the Lord. The husband took his own way, as husbands are prone to do, and -revisited the well next day. Something had gone wrong with the -working-valve, the tubing had to be drawn out and the well never pumped -a barrel of oil! The disappointed operator concluded, as he charged two -thousand dollars to his profit-and-loss account, that it was not the -Lord who came out at the small end of the horn in the transaction. - -[Illustration: REV. C. A. ADAMS, D.D.] - -[Illustration: REV. EZRA F. CRANE, D.D.] - -Rev. Clarence A. Adams, the eloquent ex-pastor of the First Baptist -Church at Franklin, is the lucky owner of a patch of paying territory at -Raymilton. Recently he finished a well which pumped considerable -salt-water with the oil. Contrary to Cavendish and the ordinary custom, -another operator drilled very close to the boundary of the Adams lease -and torpedoed the well heavily. Instead of sucking the oil from the -preacher’s nice pumper, the new well took away most of the salt-water -and doubled the production of petroleum! Commonly it would seem rather -mean to rob a Baptist minister of water, but in this case Dr. Adams is -perfectly resigned to the loss of aqueous fluid and gain of dollar-fifty -crude. A profound student of Shakespeare, Browning and the Bible, a -brilliant lecturer and master of pulpit-oratory, may he also stand on a -lofty rung of the greasian ladder and attain the goodly age of -Franklin’s “grand old man,” Rev. Dr. Crane. This “father in Israel,” -whose death in February of 1896 the whole community mourned, left a -record of devoted service as a physician and clergyman for over sixty -years that has seldom been equaled. He healed the sick, smoothed the -pillow of the dying, relieved the distressed, reclaimed the erring, -comforted the bereaved, turned the faces of the straying Zionward and -found the passage to the tomb “a gentle wafting to immortal life.” Let -his memory be kept green. - - “Though old, he still retained - His manly sense and energy of mind. - Virtuous and wise he was, but not severe, - For he remembered that he once was young; - His kindly presence checked no decent joy. - Him e’en the dissolute admired. Can he be dead - Whose spiritual influence is upon his kind?” - -The late Thomas McDonough, a loyal-hearted son of the Emerald Isle, was -also an energetic operator in the lubricating region. He had an -abundance of rollicking wit, “the pupil of the soul’s clear eye,” and an -unfailing supply of the drollest stories. Desiring to lease a farm in -Sandy-Creek township, supposed to be squarely “on the belt,” he started -at daybreak to interview the owner, feeling sure his mission would -succeed. An unexpected sight presented itself through the open door, as -the visitor stepped upon the porch of the dwelling. The farmer’s wife -was setting the table for breakfast and Frederic Prentice was folding a -paper carefully. McDonough realized in a twinkling that Prentice had -secured the lease and his trip was fruitless. “I am looking for John -Smith” he stammered, as the farmer invited him to enter, and beat a -hasty retreat. For years his friends rallied the Colonel on his search -and would ask with becoming solemnity whether he had discovered John -Smith. The last time we met in Philadelphia this incident was revived -and the query repeated jocularly. The jovial McDonough died in 1894. It -is safe to assume that he will easily find numerous John Smiths in the -land of perpetual reunion. One day he told a story in an office on -Thirteenth street, Franklin, which tickled the hearers immensely. A -full-fledged African, who had been sweeping the back-room, broke into a -tumultuous laugh. At that moment a small boy was riding a donkey -directly in front of the premises. The jackass heard the peculiar laugh -and elevated his capacious ears more fully to take in the complete -volume of sound. He must have thought the melody familiar and believed -he had stumbled upon a relative. Despite the frantic exertions of the -boy, the donkey rushed towards the building whence the boisterous guffaw -proceeded, shoved his head inside the door and launched a terrific bray. -The bystanders were convulsed at this evidence of mistaken identity, -which the jolly story-teller frequently rehearsed for the delectation of -his hosts of friends. - -[Illustration: THOMAS M’DONOUGH.] - -Looking over the Milton diggings one July day, Col. McDonough met an -amateur-operator who was superintending the removal of a wooden-tank -from a position beside his first and only well. A discussion started -regarding the combustibility of the thick sediment collected on the -bottom of the tank. The amateur maintained the stuff would not burn and -McDonough laughingly replied, “Well, just try it and see!” The fellow -lighted a match and applied it to the viscid mass before McDonough could -interfere, saying with a grin that he proposed to wait patiently for the -result. He didn’t have to wait “until Orcus would freeze over and the -boys play shinny on the ice.” In the ninetieth fraction of a second the -deposit blazed with intense enthusiasm, quickly enveloping the well-rig -and the surroundings in flames. Clouds of smoke filled the air, -suggesting fancies of Pittsburg or Sheol. Charred fragments of the -derrick, engine-house and tank, with an acre of blackened territory over -which the burning sediment had spread, demonstrated that the amateur’s -idea had been decidedly at fault. The experiment convinced him as -searchingly as a Roentgen ray that McDonough had the right side of the -argument. “If the ‘b. s.’ had been as green as the blamed fool, it -wouldn’t have burned,” was the Colonel’s appropriate comment. - -Miss Lizzie Raymond, daughter of the pioneer who founded Raymilton and -erected the first grist-mill at Utica, has long taught the infant-class -of the Presbyterian Sunday-school at Franklin. Once the lesson was about -the wise and the foolish virgins, the good teacher explaining the -subject in a style adapted to the juvenile mind. A cute little tot, -impressed by the sad plight of the virgins who had no oil in their -lamps, innocently inquired: “Miss ’Aymond, tan’t oo tell ’em dirls to -turn to our house an’ my papa ’ll div’ ’em oil f’um his wells?” Heaven -bless the children that come as sunbeams to lighten our pathway, to -teach us lessons of unselfishness and prevent the rough world from -turning our hearts as hard as the mill-stone. - -Judge Trunkey, who presided over the Venango court a dozen years and was -then elected to the Supreme Bench, was hearing a case of desertion. An -Oil-City lawyer, proud of his glossy black beard, represented the -forsaken wife, a comely young woman from Petroleum Centre, who dandled a -bright baby of twenty months on her knee. Mother and baby formed a -pretty picture and the lawyer took full advantage of it in his closing -appeal to the jury. At a brilliant climax he turned to his client and -said: “Let me have the child!” He was raising it to his arms, to hold -before the men in the box and describe the heinous meanness of the -wretch who could leave such beauty and innocence to starve. The baby -spoiled the fun by springing up, clutching the attorney’s beard and -screaming: “Oh, papa!” The audience fairly shrieked. Judge Trunkey -laughed until the tears flowed and it was five minutes before order -could be restored. That ended the oratory and the jury salted the -defendant handsomely. Hon. James S. Connelly, an Associate Judge, who -now resides in Philadelphia and enjoys his well-earned fortune, was also -on the bench at the moment. Judge Trunkey, one of the purest, noblest -men and greatest jurists that ever shed lustre upon Pennsylvania, passed -to his reward six years ago. - - In your wide peregrinations from the poles to the equator, - Should you hear some ignoramus—let out of his incubator— - Say the heavy-oil of Franklin is not earth’s best lubricator, - Do as did renown’d Tom Corwin, the great Buckeye legislator, - When a jabberwock in Congress sought to brand him as a traitor, - Just “deny the allegation and defy the allegator!” - -[Illustration: MILLER & SIBLEY’S PROSPECT-HILL STOCK FARM FRANKLIN, PA.] - - KEEPING STEP. - -The Shasta was Karns City’s first well. - -Missouri has two wells producing oil. - -North Dakota has traces of natural-gas. - -Ninety wells in Japan pump four-hundred barrels. - -Elk City, in the Clarion field, once had two-thousand population. - -The Rob Roy well, at Karns City, has produced a quarter-million barrels -of oil. - -Alaska-oil is cousin of asphalt-pitch, very heavy, and thick as -New-Orleans molasses in midwinter. - -Wade Hampton, postmaster of Pittsburg, and cousin of Governor Wade -Hampton, organized one of the first petroleum companies in the United -States. - -General Herman Haupt, of Philadelphia, now eighty-one years old, -surveyed the route and constructed the first pipe-line across -Pennsylvania. - -Robert Nevin, founder of the Pittsburg _Times_, drilled a dry-hole -four-hundred feet, ten miles west of Greensburg, in 1858, a year before -Drake’s successful experiment in Oil Creek. - -The Powell Oil-Company, superintended by Col. A. C. Ferris, still a -resident of New York, paid fifty-thousand dollars in cash for the Shirk -farm, half way between Franklin and Oil City, drilled a dry-hole and -abandoned the property. - - The gentle wife who seeks your faults to cover - You don’t deserve; prize naught on earth above her; - Keep step and be through life her faithful lover. - -The new town of Guffey, the liveliest in Colorado, thirty miles from -Cripple Creek, is fitly named in honor of James M. Guffey, the -successful Pennsylvania oil-producer and political leader, who has big -mining interests in that section. - -The Fonner pool, Greene county, was the oil-sensation of 1897 in -Pennsylvania. The Fonner well, struck in March, and territory around it -sold for two-hundred-thousand dollars. Elk Fork wore the West-Virginia -belt, Peru took the Hoosier biscuit and Lucas county the Buckeye -premium. - - Say, boys, seein’ how fast th’ ranks iz thinnin’— - Th’ way thar droppin’ out sets my head spinnin’— - An’ knownin’ ez how death may take an innin’ - An’ clean knock out our underpinnin’, - I kalkilate we oughter swar off sinnin’, - Jes’ quit fer keeps our dog-gon’ chinnin’, - Start in th’ narrer road fer a beginning’, - An’ so strike oil in Heav’n fer a sure winnin’ - When up the golden-stairs we goes a-shinnin’. - -When the biggest well in Indiana flowed oil fifty feet above the -derrick, at Van Buren, a local paper noted the effect thus: “The strike -has given the town a tremendous boom. Several real-estate offices have -opened and the town-council has raised the license for faro-banks from -five dollars a year to twelve dollars.” At this rate Van Buren ought -soon to be in the van. - -[Illustration: - - JOHN VANAUSDALL. WM. PHILLIPS. - GEO. K. ANDERSON. - F. S. TARBELL. F. W. ANDREWS. - ORIGINAL D. W. KENNEY’S ALLEMAGOOZELUM-CITY WELL No 2. - CAPT. WM. HASSON. JOHN P. ZANE. - HENRY R. ROUSE. -] - - - - - VII. - THE VALLEY OF PETROLEUM. - -WONDERFUL SCENES ON OIL CREEK—MUD AND GREASE GALORE—RISE AND FALL OF - PHENOMENAL TOWNS—SHAFFER, PIONEER AND PETROLEUM CENTRE—FORTUNE’S - QUEER VAGARIES—WELLS FLOWING THOUSANDS OF BARRELS—SHERMAN, DELAMATER - AND “COAL-OIL JOHNNIE”—FROM PENURY TO RICHES AND BACK—RECITALS THAT - DISCOUNT FAIRY-TALES. - - ---------- - -“I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba and cry, ‘’Tis all - barren.’”—_Sterne._ - -“This beginning part is not made out of anybody’s head; it’s - real.”—_Dickens._ - -“Some ships come into port that are not steered.”—_Seneca._ - -“God has placed in his great bank—mother earth—untold wealth and many a - poor man’s check has been honored here for large amounts of - oil.”—_T. S. Scoville, A. D. 1861._ - -“Ain’t that well spittin’ oil?”—_Small Boy, A. D. 1863._ - -“Wonderful, most wonderful, marvelous, most marvelous, are the stories - told of the oil-region. It is another California.”—_John W. Forney, - A. D. 1863._ - -“Derricks peered up behind the houses of Oil City, like dismounted - steeples, and oil was pumping in the back-yards.”—_London Post, A. - D. 1865._ - -“From this place and from this day henceforth commences a new - era.”—_Goethe._ - -“The chandelier drives off with its splendor the darkness of - night.”—_Henry Stanton._ - -“The onlookers were struck dumb with astonishment.”—_Charles Kingsley._ - -“Either I will find a way or make one.”—_Norman Proverb._ - -“I bid you look into the past as if it were a mirror.”—_Terence._ - - ---------- - - - - -Forty-three farms of manifold shapes and sizes lay along the stream from -the Drake well to the mouth of Oil Creek, sixteen miles southward. For -sixty years the occupants of these tracts had forced a bare subsistence -from the reluctant soil. “Content to live, to propagate and die,” their -requirements and their resources were alike scanty. They knew nothing of -the artificial necessities and extravagances of fashionable life. To -most of them the great, busy, plodding world was a sealed book, which -they had neither the means nor the inclination to unclasp. The world -reciprocated by wagging in its customary groove, blissfully unconscious -of the scattered settlers on the banks of the Allegheny’s tributary. A -trip on a raft to Pittsburg, with the privilege of walking back, was the -limit of their journeyings from the hills and rocks of Venango. Hunting, -fishing and hauling saw-logs in winter aided in replenishing the -domestic larder. None imagined the unproductive valley would become the -cradle of an industry before which cotton and coal and iron must “hide -their diminished heads.” No prophet had proclaimed that lands on Oil -Creek would sell for more than corner-lots in London or New York. Who -could have conceived that these bold cliffs and patches of clearing -would enlist ambitious mortals from every quarter of the globe in a mad -race to secure a foothold on the coveted acres? What seventh son of a -seventh son could foresee that a thousand dollars spent on the Willard -farm would yield innumerable millions? Who could predict that a tiny -stream of greenish fluid, pumped from a hole on an island too -insignificant to have a name, would swell into the vast ocean of -petroleum that is the miracle of the nineteenth century? Fortune has -played many pranks, but the queerest of them all were the vagaries -incidental to the petroleum-development on Oil Creek. - -The Bissell, Griffin, Conley, two Stackpole, Pott, Shreve, two Fleming, -Henderson and Jones farms, comprising the four miles between the Drake -well and the Miller tract, were not especially prolific. Traces of a -hundred oil-pits, in some of which oak-trees had grown to enormous size, -are visible on the Bissell plot of eighty acres. A large dam, used for -pond-freshets, was located on Oliver Stackpole’s farm. Two refineries of -small capacity were built on the Stackpole and Fletcher lands, where -eighteen or twenty wells produced moderately. The owner of a flowing -well on the lower Fleming farm, imitating the man who killed the goose -that laid the golden eggs, sought to increase its output by putting the -tubing and seed-bagging farther down. The well resented the -interference, refusing to yield another drop and pointing the obvious -moral: “Let well enough alone!” The Miller farm of four-hundred acres, -on both sides of the creek, was purchased in 1863 from Robert Miller by -the Indian Rock-Oil Company of New York. Now a railroad-station and -formerly the principal shipping-point for oil, refineries were started, -wells were drilled and the stirring town of Meredith blossomed for a -little space. The Lincoln well turned out sixty barrels a day, the -Boston fifty, the Bobtail forty, the Hemlock thirty and others from ten -to twenty-five, at an average depth of six-hundred feet. The Barnsdall -Oil-Company operated on the Miller and the Shreve farms, drilling -extensively on Hemlock Run, and George Bartlett ran the Sunshine -Oil-Works. The village, the refineries and the derricks have disappeared -as completely as Herculaneum or Sir John Franklin. - -George Shaffer owned fifty acres below the Miller farm, divided by Oil -Creek into two blocks, one in Cherrytree township and the other in -Allegheny. Twenty-four wells, eight of them failures, were put down on -the flats and the abrupt hill bordering the eastern shore of the stream. -Samuel Downer’s Rangoon and three of Watson & Brewer’s were the largest, -ranking in the fifty-barrel list. In July of 1864 the Oil-Creek Railroad -was finished to Shaffer farm, which immediately became a station of -great importance. From one house and barn the place expanded in sixty -days to a town of three-thousand population. And such a town! -Sixteen-hundred teams, mainly employed to draw oil from the wells down -the creek, supported the stables, boarding-houses and hotels that sprang -up in a night. Every second door opened into a bar-room. The buildings -were “balloon frames,” constructed entirely of boards, erected in a few -hours and liable to collapse on the slightest pretext. Houses of cards -would be about as comfortable and substantial. Outdo Hezekiah, by -rolling back time’s dial thirty-one years, and in fancy join the crowd -headed for Shaffer six months after the advent of the railway. - -Start from Corry, “the city of stumps,” with the Downer refinery and a -jumble of houses thrown around the fields. Here the Atlantic & -Great-Western, the Philadelphia & Erie and the Oil-Creek Railroads meet. -The station will not shelter one-half the motley assemblage bound for -Oildom. “Mother Cary is plucking her geese” and snow-flakes are dropping -thickly. Speculators from the eastern cities, westerners in quest of “a -good thing,” men going to work at the wells, capitalists and farmers, -adventurers and drummers clamor for tickets. It is the reverse of “an -Adamless Eden,” for only three women are to be seen. At last the train -backs to the rickety depot and a wild struggle commences. Scrambling for -the elevated cars in New York or Chicago is a feeble movement compared -with this frantic onslaught. Courtesy and chivalry are forgotten in the -rush. Men swarm upon the steps, clog the platforms, pack the -baggage-car, thrust the women aside, stick to the cowcatcher and clamber -on the roofs of the coaches. Over the roughest track on earth, which -winds and twists and skirts the creek most of the way, the train rattles -and jolts and pitches. The conductor’s job is no sinecure, as he -squeezes through the dense mass that leaves him without sufficient -elbow-room to “punch in the presence of the passenjare.” Derricks—tall, -gaunt skeletons, pickets of the advancing army—keep solemn watch here -and there, the number increasing as Titusville comes in sight. - -A hundred people get off and two-hundred manage somehow to get on. Past -the Drake well, past a forest of derricks, past steep cliffs and -tortuous ravines the engineer speeds the train. Did you ever think what -a weight of responsibility rests upon the brave fellow in the -locomotive-cab, whose clear eye looks straight along the track and whose -steady hand grasps the throttle? Should he relax his vigilance or lose -his nerve one moment, scores of lives might be the fearful penalty. A -short stop at Miller Farm, a whiff of refinery-smells and in five -minutes Shaffer is reached. The board-station is on the right hand, -landings on the left form a semi-circle hundreds of feet in length, -freight-cars jam the double track and warehouses dot the bank. The -flat-about thirty rods wide-contains the mushroom-town, bristling with -the undiluted essence of petroleum-activity. Three-hundred teamsters are -unloading barrels of oil from wagons dragged by patient, abused horses -and mules through miles of greasy, clayey mud. Everything reeks with -oil. It pervades the air, saturates clothes and conversation, floats on -the muddy scum and fills lungs and nostrils with its peculiar odor. One -cannot step a yard without sinking knee-deep in deceptive mire that -performs the office of a boot-jack if given “a ghost of a show.” -Christian’s Slough of Despond wasn’t a circumstance to this adhesive -paste, which engulfs unwary travelers to their trouser-pockets and -begets a dreadful craving for roads not - - “Wholly unclassable, - Almost impassable, - Scarcely jackassable.” - -The trip of thirty-five miles has shaken breakfast clear down to the -pilgrims’ boots. Out of the cars the hungry passengers tumble as -frantically as they had clambered in and break for the hotels and -restaurants. A dollar pays for a dinner more nearly first-class in price -than in quality. The narrow hall leading to the dining-room is crammed -with men—Person’s Hotel fed four-hundred a day—waiting their turn for -vacant chairs at the tables. Bolting the meal hurriedly, the next -inquiry is how to get down the creek. There are no coupés, no prancing -steeds, no stages, no carriages for hire. The hoarse voice of a hackman -would be sweeter music than Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” or -Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March.” Horseback-riding is impracticable and -walking seems the only alternative. To wade and flounder twelve -miles—Oil City is that far off—is the dreary prospect that freezes the -blood. Hark! In strident tones a fierce-looking fellow is shouting: -“Packet-boat for Oil City! This way for the packet-boat! Packet-boat! -Packet-boat!” Visions of a pleasant jaunt in a snug cabin lure you to -the landing. The “packet-boat” proves to be an oily scow, without sail, -engine, awning or chair, which horses have drawn up the stream from Oil -City. It will float back at the rate of three miles an hour and the fare -is three-fifty! The name and picture of “Pomeroy’s Express,” the best of -these nondescript Oil-Creek vessels, will bring a smile and warm the -cockles of many an old-timer’s heart! - -[Illustration: “POMEROY’S EXPRESS” BETWEEN SHAFFER AND OIL CITY.] - -Perhaps you decide to stay all night at Shaffer and start on foot early -in the morning. A chair in a room thick with tobacco-smoke, or a quilt -in a corner of the bar, is the best you can expect. By rare luck you may -happen to pre-empt a half-interest in a small bed, tucked with two or -three more in a closet-like apartment. Your room-mates talk of “flowing -wells—five-hundred-thousand dollars—third sand—big strike—rich in a -week—thousand-dollars a day,” until you fall asleep to dream of wells -spouting seas of mud and hapless wights wading in greenbacks to their -waists. Awaking cold and unrefreshed, your brain fuddled and your -thoughts confused, you gulp a breakfast of “ham ’n eggs ’n fried -potatoes ’n coffee” and prepare to strike out boldly. Encased in -rubber-boots that reach above the thighs, you choose one of the two -paths—each worse than the other—pray for sustaining grace and begin the -toilsome journey. Having seen the tips of the elephant’s ears, you mean -to see the end of his tail and be able to estimate the bulk of the -animal. Night is closing in as you round up at your destination, -exhausted and mud-coated to the chin. But you have traversed a region -that has no duplicate “in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in -the waters under the earth,” and feel recompensed a thousand-fold for -the fatigue and exposure. Were your years to exceed Thomas Parr’s and -Methuselah’s combined, you will never again behold such a scene as the -Oil-Creek valley presented in the days of “the middle passage” between -Shaffer and Oil City. Rake it over with a fine-comb, turn on the X-rays, -dig and scrape and root and to-day you couldn’t find a particle of -Shaffer as big as a toothpick! When the railroad was extended the -buildings were torn down and carted to the next station. - -Widow Sanney’s hundred-acre farm, south of the Shaffer, had three -refineries and a score of unremunerative wells. David Gregg’s -two-hundred acres on the west side of Oil Creek, followed suit with -forty non-paying wells, three that yielded oil and the Victoria and -Continental refineries. The McCoy well, the first put down below the -Drake, at two-hundred feet averaged fifteen barrels a day from March -until July, 1860. Fire burning the rig, the well was drilled to -five-hundred feet and proved dry. R. P. Beatty sold his two-hundred -acres on Oil Creek and Hemlock Run to the Clinton Oil-Company of New -York, a bunch of medium wells repaying the investment. James Farrell, -a teamster, for two-hundred dollars purchased a thirty-acre bit of -rough land south of Beatty, on the east side of Oil Creek and Bull -Run, the extreme south-west corner of Allegheny—now Oil -Creek—township. In the spring of 1860 Orange Noble leased sixteen -acres for six hundred dollars and one-quarter royalty. Jerking a -“spring-pole” five months sank a hole one-hundred-and-thirty feet, -without a symptom of greasiness, and the well was neglected nearly -three years. The “third sand” having been found on the creek, the -holders of the Farrell lease decided to drill the old hole deeper. -George B. Delamater and L. L. Lamb were associated with Noble in the -venture. They contracted with Samuel S. Fertig, of Titusville, whose -energy and reliability had gained the good-will of operators, to drill -about five-hundred feet. Fertig went to work in April of 1863, using a -ten-horse boiler and engine and agreeing to take one-sixteenth of the -working-interest as part payment. He had lots of the push that long -since placed him in the van as a successful producer, enjoying a -well-earned competence. Early in May, at four-hundred-and-fifty feet, -a “crevice” of unusual size was encountered. Fearing to lose his -tools, the contractor shut down for consultation with the well-owners. -Noble was at Pittsburg on a hunt for tubing, which he ordered from -Philadelphia. The well stood idle two weeks, waiting for the tubing, -surface-water vainly trying to fill the hole. - -[Illustration: SAMUEL S. FERTIG.] - -On the afternoon of May twenty-seventh, 1863, everything was ready. -“Start her slowly,” Noble shouted from the derrick to Fertig, who stood -beside the engine and turned on the steam. The rods moved up and down -with steady stroke, bringing a stream of fresh water, which it was hoped -a day’s pumping might exhaust. Then it would be known whether two of the -owners—Noble and Delamater—had acted wisely on May fifteenth in -rejecting one-hundred-thousand dollars for one-half of the well. Noble -went to an eating-house near by for a lunch. He was munching a sandwich -when a boy at the door bawled: “Golly! Ain’t that well spittin’ oil?” -Turning around, he saw a column of oil and water rising a hundred feet, -enveloping the trees and the derrick in dense spray! The gas roared, the -ground fairly shook and the workmen hastened to extinguish the fire -beneath the boiler. The “Noble well,” destined to be the most profitable -ever known, had begun its dazzling career at the dizzy figure of -three-thousand barrels a day! - -Crude was four dollars a barrel, rose to six, to ten, to -thirteen! Compute the receipts from the Noble well at these -quotations—twelve-thousand, eighteen-thousand, thirty-thousand, -thirty-nine-thousand dollars a day! Sinbad’s fabled Valley of Diamonds -was a ten-cent side-show in comparison with the actual realities of the -valley of Oil Creek. - -Soon the foaming volume filled the hollow close to the well and ran into -the creek. What was to be done? In the forcible jargon of a driller: -“The divil wuz to pay an’ no pitch hot!” For two-hundred dollars three -men crawled through the blinding shower and contrived to attach a -stop-cock device to the pipe. By sunset a seven-hundred-barrel tank was -overflowing. Boatmen down the creek, notified to come at once for all -they wanted at two dollars a barrel, by midnight took the oil directly -from the well. Next morning the stream was turned into a -three-thousand-barrel tank, filling it in twenty-one hours! -Sixty-two-thousand barrels were shipped and fifteen-thousand tanked, -exclusive of leakage and waste, in thirty days. Week after week the flow -continued, declining to six-hundred barrels a day in eighteen months. -The superintendent of the Noble & Delamater Oil Company—organized in -1864 with a million capital—in February of 1865 recommended pulling out -the tubing and cleaning the well. Learning of this intention, Noble and -Delamater unloaded their stock at or above par. The tubing was drawn, -the well pumped fifteen barrels in two days, came to a full stop and was -abandoned as a dry-hole! - -The production of this marvelous gusher—over seven-hundred-thousand -barrels—netted upwards of four-million dollars! One-fourth of this -lordly sum went to the children of James Farrell—he did not live to see -his land developed—James, John, Nelson and their sister, now Mrs. -William B. Sterrett, of Titusville. Noble and Delamater owned one-half -the working-interest, less the sixteenth assigned to S. S. Fertig, who -bought another sixteenth from John Farrell while drilling the well and -sold both to William H. Abbott for twenty-seven-thousand dollars. Ten -persons—L. L. Lamb, Solomon and W. H. Noble, Rev. L. Reed, James and L. -H. Hall, Charles and Thomas Delamater, G. T. Churchhill and Rollin -Thompson—held almost one-quarter. Even this fractional claim gave each a -splendid income. The total outlay for the lease and well—not quite -four-thousand dollars—was repaid one-thousand times in twenty months! Is -it surprising that men plunged into speculations which completely -eclipsed the South-Sea Bubble and Law’s Mississippi-Scheme? Is it any -wonder that multitudes were eager to stake their last dollar, their -health, their lives, their very souls on the chance of such winnings? - -Thirteen wells were drilled on the Farrell strip. The Craft had yielded -a hundred-thousand barrels and was doing two-hundred a day when the -seed-bag burst, flooding the well with water and driving the oil away. -The Mulligan and the Commercial did their share towards making the -territory the finest property in Oildom, with third sand on the flats -and in the ravine of Bull Run forty feet thick. Not a fragment of tanks -or derricks is left to indicate that twenty fortunes were acquired on -the desolate spot, once the scene of tremendous activity, more coveted -than Naboth’s vineyard or Jason’s Golden Fleece. On the Caldwell farm of -two-hundred acres, south of the Farrell, twenty-five or thirty wells -yielded largely. The Caldwell, finished in March of 1863, at the -north-west corner of the tract, flowed twelve-hundred barrels a day for -six weeks. Evidently deriving its supply from the same pool, the Noble -well cut this down to four-hundred barrels. A demand for one-fourth the -output of the Noble, enforced by a threat to pull the tubing and destroy -the two, was settled by paying one-hundred-and-forty-five-thousand -dollars for the Caldwell well and an acre of ground. “Growing smaller by -degrees and beautifully less,” within a month of the transfer the -Caldwell quit forever, drained as dry as the bones in Ezekiel’s vision! - -Hon. Orange Noble, the son of a New-York farmer, dealt in sheep and -cattle, married in 1841 and in 1852 removed to Randolph, Crawford -county, Pa. He farmed, manufactured “shooks” and in 1855 opened a store -at Townville in partnership with George B. Delamater. The partners and -L. L. Lamb inspected the Drake well in October of 1859, secured leases -on the Stackpole and Jones farms and drilled two dry-holes. Other wells -on different farms in 1860-1 resulted similarly, but the Noble -compensated richly for these failures. The firm wound up the -establishment at Townville in 1863, squared petroleum-accounts, and in -1864 Mr. Noble located at Erie. There he organized banks, erected -massive blocks, served as mayor three terms, built the first grain -elevator and contributed greatly to the prosperity of the city. Blessed -with ample wealth—the Noble well paid him eight-hundred-thousand -dollars—a vigorous constitution and the regard of his fellows, he has -lived to a ripe age to enjoy the fruits of his patient industry and -remarkable success. - -[Illustration: GEORGE W. DELAMATER.] - -Hon. George B. Delamater, whose parents settled in Crawford county in -1822, studied law and was admitted to the Meadville bar in 1847. He -published a newspaper at Youngsville, Warren county, two years and in -1852 started in business at Townville. Clients were not plentiful in -the quiet village, where a lawsuit was a luxury, and the young -attorney found boring juries much less remunerative than he afterwards -found boring oil-wells. Returning to Meadville in 1864, with -seven-hundred-thousand dollars and some real-estate at his command, he -built the magnificent Delamater Block, opened a bank, promoted many -important enterprises and engaged actively in politics. Selected to -oppose George K. Anderson—he, too, had a bar’l—for the State Senate in -1869, Delamater carried off the prize. It was a case of Greek meeting -Greek. Money flowed like water, Anderson spending thirty-thousand -dollars and his opponent twenty-eight-thousand on the primaries alone! -This was the beginning of the depletion of the Delamater fortune and -the political demoralization that scandalized Crawford county for -years. Mr. Delamater served one term, declined to run again and -Anderson succeeded him. His son, George W., a young lawyer of ability -and superior address, entered the lists and was elected Mayor of -Meadville and State-Senator. He married an accomplished lady, occupied -a brick-mansion, operated at Petrolia, practiced law and assisted in -running the bank. Samuel B. Dick headed a faction that opposed the -Delamaters bitterly. Nominated for Governor of Pennsylvania in 1890, -George W. Delamater was defeated by Robert E. Pattison. He conducted -an aggressive campaign, visiting every section of the state and -winning friends by his frank courtesy and manly bearing. Ruined by -politics, unable longer to stand the drain that had been sapping its -resources, the Delamater Bank suspended two weeks after the -gubernatorial election. The brick-block, the homes of the parents and -the sons, the assets of the concern—mere drops in the bucket—met a -trifling percentage of the liabilities. Property was sacrificed, suits -were entered and dismissed, savings of depositors were swept away and -the failure entailed a host of serious losses. The senior Delamater -went to Ohio to start life anew at seventy-one. George W. located in -Chicago and quickly gathered a law-practice. That he will regain -wealth and honor, pay off every creditor and some day represent his -district in Congress those who know him best are not unwilling to -believe. The fall of the Delamater family—the beggary of the aged -father—the crushing of the son’s honorable ambition—the exile from -home and friends—the suffering of innocent victims—all these -illustrate the sad reverses which, in the oil-region, have “come, not -single spies, but in battalions.” - -James Bonner, son of an Ohio clergyman and book-keeper for Noble & -Delamater, lodged in the firm’s new office beside the well. Seized with -typhoid fever, his recovery was hopeless. The office caught fire, young -Bonner’s father carried him to the window, a board was placed to slide -him down and he expired in a few moments. His father, overcome by smoke, -was rescued with difficulty; his mother escaped by jumping from the -second story. - -James Foster owned sixty acres on the west side of Oil Creek, opposite -the Farrell and Caldwell tracts. The upper half, extending over the hill -to Pioneer Run, he sold to the Irwin Petroleum Company of Philadelphia, -whose Irwin well pumped two-hundred barrels a day. The Porter well, -finished in May of 1864, flowed all summer, gradually declining from -two-hundred barrels to seventy and finally pumping twenty. Other wells -and a refinery paid good dividends. J. W. Sherman, of Cleveland, leased -the lower end of the farm and bounced the “spring-pole” in the winter of -1861-2. His wife’s money and his own played out before the second sand -was penetrated. It was impossible to drill deeper “by hand-power.” A -horse or an engine must be had to work the tools. “Pete,” a white, -angular equine, was procured for one-sixteenth interest in the well. The -task becoming too heavy for “Pete,” another sixteenth was traded to -William Avery and J. E. Steele for a small engine and boiler. Lack of -means to buy coal—an expensive article, sold only for “spot cash”—caused -a week’s delay. The owners of the well could not muster “long green” to -pay for one ton of fuel! For another sixteenth a purchaser grudgingly -surrendered eighty dollars and a shot-gun! The last dollar had been -expended when, on March sixteenth, 1862—just in season to celebrate St. -Patrick’s day—the tools punctured the third sand. A “crevice” was hit, -the tools were drawn out and in five minutes everything swam in oil. The -Sherman well was flowing two-thousand barrels a day! Borrowing the -phrase of the parrot stripped of his feathers and blown five-hundred -feet by a powder-explosion, people might well exclaim: “This beats the -Old Scratch!” - -To provide tankage was the first concern. Teams were dispatched for -lumber and carpenters hurried to the scene. Near the well a mudhole, -between two stumps, could not be avoided. In this one of the wagons -stuck fast and had to be pried out, John A. Mather chanced to come along -with his photograph apparatus. The men posed an instant, the horses -“looked pleasant,” the wagon didn’t stir and he secured the artistic -picture reproduced here thirty-five years after. It is an interesting -souvenir of former times—times that deserve the best work of pen and -pencil, camera and brush, “to hold them in everlasting remembrance.” - -[Illustration: STUCK IN A MUDHOLE NEAR THE SHERMAN WELL IN 1862.] - -The Sherman well “whooped it up” bravely, averaging nine-hundred barrels -daily for two years and ceasing to spout in February of 1864. Pumping -restored it to seventy-five barrels, which dwindled to six or eight in -1867, when fire consumed the rig and the veteran was abandoned. The -product sold at prices ranging from fifty cents to thirteen dollars a -barrel, the total aggregating seventeen-hundred-thousand dollars! How -was that for a return? It meant one-hundred-thousand dollars for the man -who traded “Pete,” one-hundred-thousand for the man who invested eighty -dollars and a rusty gun, one-hundred-thousand for the two men who -furnished the second-hand engine, and a million—deducting the -royalty—for the man who had neither cash nor credit for a load of coal! - -None of the other fifty or sixty wells on the Foster farm, some of them -Sherman’s, was particularly noteworthy. The broad flat, the sluggish -stream and the bluffs across the creek remain as in days of yore, but -the wells, the shanties, the tanks, the machinery and the workmen have -vanished. Sherman, long hale and hearty, struck a spouter in Kentucky, -operated two or three years at Bradford and took up his abode at Warren. -It was a treat to hear his vivid descriptions of life on Oil Creek in -the infancy of developments—life crowded with transformations far -surpassing the fantastic changes of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” He died -at Cleveland last year. - -Among the teamsters who hauled oil from the Sherman well in its prime -was “Con” O’Donnell, a fun-loving, impulsive Irishman. He saved his -earnings, secured leases for himself, owned a bevy of wells at Kane City -and operated in the Clarion field. Marrying a young lady of -Ellicottville, N. Y., his early home, he lived some years at Foxburg and -St. Petersburg. He was the rarest of practical jokers and universally -esteemed. Softening of the brain afflicted him for years, death at last -stilling as warm and kindly a heart as ever throbbed in a manly breast. -“Con” often regaled me with his droll witticisms as we rode or drove -through the Clarion district. “Peace to his ashes.” - -Late in the fall of 1859, “when th’ frost wuz on th’ punkin’ an’ th’ -bloom wuz on th’ rye,” David McElhenny sold the upper and lower -McElhenny farms—one-hundred-and-eighty acres at the south-east corner of -Cherrytree township—to Captain A. B. Funk, for fifteen-hundred dollars -and one-fourth of the oil. Joining the Foster farm on the north, Oil -Creek bounded the upper tract on the east and south and Pioneer Run -gurgled through the western side. Oil Creek flowed through the northern -and western sides of the lower half, which had the Espy farm on the -east, the Boyd south and the Benninghoff north and west. McElhenny’s -faith in petroleum was of the mustard-seed order and he jumped at Hussey -& McBride’s offer of twenty-thousand dollars for the royalty. Captain -Funk—he obtained the title from running steamboats lumbering on the -Youghiogheny river—in February of 1860 commenced the first well on the -lower McElhenny farm. All spring and summer the “spring-pole” bobbed -serenely, punching the hole two-hundred-and-sixty feet, with no -suspicion of oil in the first and second sands. The Captain, believing -it a rank failure, would gladly have exchanged the hole “for a yellow -dog.” His son, A. P. Funk, bought a small locomotive-boiler and an -engine and resumed work during the winter. Early in May, 1861, at -four-hundred feet, a “pebble rock”—the “third sand”—tested the temper of -the center-bit. Hope, the stuff that “springs eternal in the human -breast,” took a fresh hold. It languished as the tools bored thirty, -forty, fifty feet into the “pebble” and not a drop of oil appeared. Then -something happened. Flecks of foam bubbled to the top of the conductor, -jets of water rushed out, oil and water succeeded and a huge pillar of -pure oil soared fifty yards! The Fountain well had tapped a fountain in -the rock ordained thenceforth to furnish mankind with Pennsylvania -petroleum. The _first well put down to_ “the third sand,” and really the -_first on Oil Creek that flowed_ from any sand, it revealed -oil-possibilities before unknown and unsuspected. - -More tangible than the mythical Fountain of Youth, the Fountain well -tallied three-hundred barrels a day for fifteen months. The flow ended -as suddenly as it began. Paraffine clogged and strangled it to death, -sealing the pores and pipes effectually. A young man “taught the young -idea how to shoot” at Steam Mills, east of Titusville, where Captain -Funk had lumber-mills. A visit to the Drake and Barnsdall wells, in -December of 1859, determined the schoolmaster to have an oil-well of his -own. Funk liked the earnest, manly youth and leased him five acres of -the upper McElhenny farm. Plenty of brains, a brave heart, robust -health, willing hands and thirty dollars constituted his capital. -Securing two partners, “kicking down” started in the spring of 1860. Not -a sign of oil could be detected at two-hundred feet, and the partners -departed from the field. Summer and the teacher’s humble savings were -gone. He earned more money by drilling on the Allegheny river, four -miles above Oil City. While thus engaged the Fountain well -revolutionized the business by “flowing” from a lower rock. The -ex-wielder of the birch—he had resigned the ferrule for the -“spring-pole”—hastened to sink the deserted well to the depth of Funk’s -eye-opener. The second three-hundred-barrel gusher from the third sand, -it rivaled the Fountain and arrived in time to help 1861 crimson the -glorious Fourth! - -[Illustration: JOHN FERTIG. \CAPT. A. B. FUNK.] - -Hon. John Fertig, of Titusville, the plucky schoolmaster of 1859-60, -has been largely identified with oil ever since his initiation on the -McElhenny lease. The Fertig well, in which David Beatty and Michael -Gorman were his partners originally, realized him a fortune. Born in -Venango county, on a farm below Gas City, in 1837, he completed a -course at Neilltown Academy and taught school several terms. Soon -after embarking in the production of oil he formed a partnership with -the late John W. Hammond, which lasted until dissolved by death twenty -years later. Fertig & Hammond operated in different sections with -great success, carried on a refinery and established a bank at -Foxburg. Mr. Fertig was Mayor of Titusville three terms, -School-Controller, State Senator and Democratic candidate for -Lieutenant-Governor in 1878. He has been vice-president of the -Commercial Bank from its organization in 1882 and is president of the -Titusville Iron-Works. Head of the National Oil-Company, he was also -chief officer of the Union Oil-Company, an association of refining -companies. For three years its treasurer—1892-5—he tided the -United-States Pipe-Line Company over a financial crisis in 1893. As a -pioneer producer—one of the few survivors connected with developments -for a generation—a refiner and shipper, banker, manufacturer and -business-man, John Fertig is most distinctively a representative of -the oil-country. From first to last he has been admirably prudent and -aggressive, conservative and enterprising in shaping a career with -much to cherish and little to regret. - -Frederick Crocker drilled a notable well on the McElhenny, near the -Foster line, jigging the “spring-pole” in 1861 and piercing the sand at -one-hundred-and-fifty feet. He pumped the well incessantly two months, -getting clear water for his pains. Neighbors jeered, asked if he -proposed to empty the interior of the planet into the creek and advised -him to import a Baptist colony. Crocker pegged away, remembering that -“he laughs best who laughs last.” One morning the water wore a tinge of -green. The color deepened, the gas “cut loose,” and a stream of oil shot -upwards! The Crocker well spurted for weeks at a thousand-barrel clip -and was sold for sixty-five-thousand dollars. Shutting in the flow, to -prevent waste, wrought serious injury. The well disliked the treatment, -the gas sought a vent elsewhere, pumping coaxed back the yield -temporarily to fifty barrels and in the fall it yielded up the ghost. - -Bennett & Hatch spent the summer of 1861 drilling on a lease adjoining -the Fountain, striking the third sand at the same depth. On September -eighteenth the well burst forth with thirty-three-hundred barrels per -day! This was “confusion worse confounded,” foreigners not wanting “the -nasty stuff” and Americans not yet aware of its real value. The addition -of three-thousand barrels a day to the supply—with big additions from -other wells—knocked prices to twenty cents, to fifteen, to ten! All the -coopers in Oildom could not make barrels as fast as the Empire -well—appropriate name—could fill them. Bradley & Son, of Cleveland, -bought a month’s output for five-hundred dollars, loading -one-hundred-thousand barrels into boats under their contract! The -despairing owners, suffering from “an embarrassment of riches,” tried to -cork up the pesky thing, but the well was like Xantippe, the scolding -wife of Socrates, and would not be choked off. They built a dam around -it, but the oil wouldn’t be dammed that way. It just gorged the pond, -ran over the embankment and greased Oil Creek as no stream was ever -greased before! Twenty-two-hundred barrels was the daily average in -November and twelve-hundred in March. The torrent played April-fool by -stopping without notice, seven months from its inception. Cleaning out -and pumping restored it to six-hundred barrels, which dropped two-thirds -and stopped again in 1863. An “air blower” revived it briefly, but its -vitality had fled and in another year the grand Empire breathed its -last. - -These wells boomed the territory immensely. Derricks and engine-houses -studded the McElhenny farms, which operators hustled to perforate as -full of holes as a strainer. To haul machinery from the nearest railroad -doubled its cost. Pumping five to twenty barrels a day, when adjacent -wells flowed more hundreds spontaneously, lost its charm and most of the -small fry were abandoned. Everybody wanted to get close to the -third-sand spouters, although the market was glutted and crude ruinously -cheap. A town—Funkville—arose on the northern end of the upper farm, -sputtered a year or two, then “folded its tent like the Arabs and -silently stole away.” A search with a microscope would fail to unearth -an atom of Funkville or the wells that created it. Fresh strikes in 1862 -kept the fever raging. Davis & Wheelock’s rattler daily poured out -fifteen-hundred barrels. The Densmore triplets, bunched on a two-acre -lease, were good for six-hundred, four-hundred and five-hundred -respectively. The Olmstead, American, Canfield, Aikens, Burtis and two -Hibbard wells, of the vintage of 1863, rated from two-hundred to -five-hundred each. A band of less account—thirty to one-hundred -barrels—assisted in holding the daily product of the McElhenny farms, -from the spring of 1862 to the end of 1863, considerably above -six-thousand barrels. The mockery of fate was accentuated by a dry-hole -six rods from the Sherman and dozens of poor wells in the bosom of the -big fellows. Disposing of his timber-lands and saw-mills in 1863, -Captain Funk built a mansion and removed to Titusville. Early in 1864 he -sold his wells and oil-properties and died on August second, leaving an -estate of two-millions. He built schools and churches, dispensed freely -to the needy and was honest to the core. Pleased with the work of a -clerk, he deeded him an interest in the last well he ever drilled, which -the lucky young man sold for one-hundred-thousand dollars. - -Almost simultaneously with the Empire, in September of 1861, the Buckeye -well, on the George P. Espy farm, east of lower McElhenney, set off at a -thousand-barrel jog. It was located on a strip of level ground too -narrow for tanks, which had to be erected two-hundred feet up the hill. -The pressure of gas sufficed to force the oil into these tanks for a -year. The production fell to eighty barrels and then, tiring of a -climbing job that smacked of Sisyphus and the rolling stone, took a -permanent rest. From this famous well J. T. Briggs, manager of the -Briggs and the Gillettee Oil-Companies, shipped to Europe in 1862 the -first cargo of petroleum ever sent across the Atlantic. The Buckeye -Belle stood about hip-high to its consort, a dozen other wells on the -Epsy produced mildly and Northrup Brothers operated a refinery. - - “Vare vos dose oil-wells now? Gone vhare dogs can’t bow-wow.” - -[Illustration: PIONEER AS IT LOOKED IN 1864-5.] - -Improved methods of handling and new uses for the product advanced crude -to five dollars in the spring of 1864. Operations encroached upon the -higher lands, exploding the notion that paying territory was confined to -flats bordering the streams. Pioneer Run, an affluent of Oil Creek, -bisecting the western end of the upper McElhenney and Foster farms, -panned out flatteringly. Substantial wells, yielding fifteen barrels to -three-hundred lined the ravine thickly. The town of Pioneer attracted -the usual throngs. David Emery and Lewis Emery, Frank W. Andrews and not -a few leading operators resided there for a time. The Morgan House, a -rude frame of one story, dished up meals at which to eat beef-hash was -to beefashionable. Clark & McGowen had a feed-store, offices and -warehouses abounded, tanks and derricks mixed in the mass and boats -loaded oil for refineries down the creek or the Allegheny river. The -characteristic oil-town has faded from sight, only the weather-beaten -rail road-station and a forlorn iron-tank staying. John Rhodes, the last -resident, was killed in February of 1892 by a train. He lived alone in a -small house beside the track, which he was crossing when the engine hit -him, the noisy waters in the culvert drowning the sound of the cars. -Rhodes hauled oil in the old days to Erie and Titusville, became a -producer, met with reverses, attended to some wells for a company, -worked a bit of garden and felt independent and happy. - -Matthew Taylor, a Cleveland saloonist, whom the sequel showed to be no -saloonatic, took a four-hundred-dollar flyer at Pioneer, on his first -visit to Oildom. A well on the next lease elevated values and Taylor -returned home in two weeks with twenty-thousand dollars, which -subsequent deals quadrupled. A Titusville laborer—“a broth of a b’y wan -year frum Oireland”—who stuck fifty dollars into an out-of-the-way -Pioneer lot, sold his claim in a month for five-thousand. He bought a -farm, sent across the water for his colleen and “they lived happily ever -after.” The driver of a contractor’s team, assigned an interest in a -drilling-well for his wages, cleaned up thirty-thousand dollars by the -transaction and went to Minnesota. Could the mellowest melodrama unfold -sweeter melodies? - - “The jingle of gold is earth’s richest music.” - -Although surrounded by farms unrivaled as oil-territory and sold to -Woods & Wright of New York at a fancy price, James Boyd’s seventy-five -acres in Cornplanter township, south of the lower McElhenny, dodged the -petroleum-artery. The sands were there, but so barren of oil that -nine-tenths of the forty wells did not pay one-tenth their cost. The -Boyd farm was for months the terminus of the railroad from Corry. Hotels -and refineries were built and the place had a short existence, a brief -interval separating its lying-in and its laying-out. - -G. W. McClintock, in February of 1864, sold his two-hundred-acre farm, -on the west side of Oil Creek, midway between Titusville and Oil City, -to the Central Petroleum Company of New York, organized by Frederic -Prentice and George H. Bissell. This notable farm embraced the site of -Petroleum Centre and Wild-Cat Hollow, a circular ravine three-fourths of -a mile long, in which two-hundred paying wells were drilled. Brown, -Catlin & Co.’s medium well, finished in August of 1861, was the first on -the McClintock tract. The company bored a multitude of wells and granted -leases only to actual operators, for one-half royalty and a large bonus. -For ten one-acre leases one-hundred-thousand dollars cash and one-half -the oil, offered by a New-York firm in 1865, were refused. The -McClintock well, drilled in 1862, figured in the thousand-barrel class. -The Coldwater, Meyer, Clark, Anderson, Fox, Swamp-Angel and Bluff wells -made splendid records. Altogether the Central Petroleum-Company and the -corps of lessees harvested at least five-millions of dollars from the -McClintock farm! - -[Illustration] - - RYND FARM “KING OF THE HILLS” - PETROLEUM CENTRE-1894- - BOYD FARM-1864 - STORY FARM. - -Aladdin’s lamp was a miserly glim in the light of fortunes accruing from -petroleum. The product of a flowing-well in a year would buy a tract of -gold-territory in California or Australia larger than the oil-producing -regions. Millions of dollars changed hands every week. The Central -Company staked off a half-dozen streets and leased building-lots at -exorbitant figures. Board-dwellings, offices, hotels, saloons and wells -mingled promiscuously. It mattered nothing that discomfort was the rule. -Poor fare, worse beds and the worst liquors were tolerated by the hordes -of people who flocked to the land of derricks. Edward Fox, a railroad -contractor who “struck the town” with eighty-thousand dollars, -felicitously baptised the bantling Petroleum Centre. The owners of the -ground opposed a borough-organization and the town traveled at a -headlong go-as-you-please. Sharpers and prostitutes flourished, with no -fear of human or divine law, in the metropolis of rum and debauchery. -Dance-houses, beside which “Billy” McGlory’s Armory-Hall and “The.” -Allen’s Mabille in New York were Sunday-school models, nightly counted -their revelers by hundreds. In one of these dens Gus Reil, the -proprietor, killed poor young Tait, of Rouseville. Fast women and faster -men caroused and gambled, cursed and smoked, “burning the candle at both -ends” in pursuit of—pleasure! Frequently the orgies eclipsed Monte -Carlo—minus some of the glitter—and the Latin Quartier combined. Some -readers may recall the night two “dead game sports” tossed dice twelve -hours for one-thousand dollars a throw! But there was a rich leaven of -first-class fellows. Kindred spirits, like “Sam” Woods, Frank Ripley, -Edward Fox and Col. Brady were not hard to discover. Spades were trumps -long years ago for Woods, who has taken his last trick and sleeps in an -Ohio grave. Ripley is in Duluth, Fox is “out west” and Brady is in -Harrisburg. Captain Ray and A. D. Cotton had a bank that handled barrels -of money. For two or three years “The Centre”—called that for convenient -brevity—acted as a sort of safety-valve to blow off the surplus -wickedness of the oil-regions. Then “the handwriting on the wall” -manifested itself. Clarion and Butler speedily reduced the four-thousand -population to a mere remnant. The local paper died, houses were removed -and the giddy Centre became “a back number.” The sounds of revelry were -hushed, flickering lights no longer glared over painted harlots and the -streets were deserted. Bissell’s empty bank-building, three dwellings, -the public school, two vacant churches and the drygoods box used as a -railway-station—scarcely enough to cast a shadow—are the sole survivors -in the ploughed field that was once bustling, blooming, surging, foaming -Petroleum Centre! - -Across the creek from Petroleum Centre, on the east side of the stream, -was Alexander Davidson’s farm of thirty-eight acres. A portion of this -triangular “speck on the map” consisted of a mud-flat, a smaller portion -of rising ground and the remainder set edgewise. Dr. A. G. Egbert, a -young physician who had recently hung out his shingle at Cherrytree -village, in 1860 negotiated for the farm. Davidson died and a hitch in -the title delayed the deal. Finally Mrs. Davidson agreed to sign the -deed for twenty-six-hundred dollars and one-twelfth the oil. Charles -Hyde paid the doctor this amount in 1862 for one-half his purchase and -it was termed the Hyde & Egbert farm. The Hollister well, drilled in -1861, the first on the land, flowed strongly. Owing to the dearness and -scarcity of barrels, the oil was let run into the creek and the well was -never tested. The lessees could not afford, as their contract demanded, -to barrel the half due the land-owners, because crude was selling at -twenty-five cents and barrels at three-fifty to four dollars! A company -of Jerseyites, in the spring of 1863, drilled the Jersey well, on the -south end of the property. The Jersey—it was a Jersey Lily—flowed -three-hundred barrels a day for nine months, another well draining it -early in 1864. The Maple-Shade, which cast the majority into the shade -by its performance, touched the right spot in the third sand on August -fifth, 1863. Starting at one-thousand barrels, it averaged eight-hundred -for ten months, dropped to fifty the second year and held on until 1869. -Fire on March second, 1864, burned the rig and twenty-eight tanks of -oil, but the well kept flowing just the same, netting the owners a clear -profit of fifteen-hundred-thousand dollars! “Do you notice it?” A plump -million-and-a-half from a corner of the “measly patch” poor Davidson -offered in 1860 for one-thousand dollars! And the Maple Shade was only -one of twenty-three flowing wells on the despised thirty-eight acres! - -Companies and individuals tugged and strained to get even the smallest -lease Hyde & Egbert would grant. The Keystone, Gettysburg, Kepler, -Eagle, Benton, Olive Branch, Laurel Hill, Bird and Potts wells, not to -mention a score of minor note, helped maintain a production that paid -the holders of the royalty eight-thousand dollars a day in 1864-5! E. B. -Grandin and William C. Hyde, partners of Charles Hyde in a store at -Hydetown, A. C. Kepler and Titus Ridgway obtained a lease of one acre on -the west side of the lot, north of the wells already down, subject to -_three-quarters royalty_. A bit of romance attaches to the transaction. -Kepler dreamed that an Indian menaced him with bow and arrow. A young -lady, considered somewhat coquettish, handed him a rifle and he fired at -the dusky foe. The redskin vamoosed and a stream of oil burst forth. -Visiting his brother, who superintended the farm, he recognized the -scene of his dream. The lease was secured, on the biggest royalty ever -offered. Kepler chose the location and bored the Coquette well. The -dream was a nightmare? Wait and see. - -Drilling began in the spring of 1864 and the work went merrily on. Each -partner would be entitled to one-sixteenth of the oil. Hyde & Ridgway -sold their interest for ten-thousand dollars a few days before the tools -reached the sand. This interest Dr. M. C. Egbert, brother of the -original purchaser of the farm, next bought at a large advance. He had -acquired one-sixth of the property in fee and wished to own the -Coquette. Grandin and Kepler declined to sell. The well was finished and -did not flow! Tubed and pumped a week, gas checked its working and the -sucker-rods were pulled. Immediately the oil streamed high in the air! -Twelve-hundred barrels a day was the gauge at first, settling to steady -business for a year at eight-hundred. A double row of tanks lined the -bank, connected by pipes to load boats in bulk. Oil was “on the jump” -and the first cargo of ten-thousand barrels brought ninety-thousand -dollars, representing ten days’ production! Three months later Grandin -and Kepler sold their one-eighth for one-hundred-and-forty-five thousand -dollars, quitting the Coquette with eighty-thousand apiece in their -pockets. Kepler was a dreamer whom Joseph might be proud to accept as a -chum. - -[Illustration: DR. M. C. EGBERT.] - -Dr. M. C. Egbert retained his share. Riches showered upon him. His -interests in the land and wells yielded him thousands of dollars a day. -Once his safe contained, by tight squeezing, eighteen-hundred-thousand -dollars in currency and a pile of government bonds! He built a -comfortable house and lived on the farm. He and his family traveled over -Europe, met shoals of titled folks and saw all the sights. In company -with John Brown, subsequently manager of a big corporation at Bradford -and now a resident of Chicago, he engaged in oil-shipments on an -extensive scale. To control this branch of the trade, as the Standard -Oil-Company has since done by combinations of capital, was too gigantic -a task for the firm and failure resulted. The brainy, courageous doctor -went to California, returned to Oildom and operated in McKean county. He -has secured a foothold in the newer fields and lives in Pittsburg, frank -and urbane as in the palmiest days of the Hyde & Egbert farm. If Dame -Fortune was strangely capricious on Oil Creek, the pluck of the men with -whom “the fickle jade” played whirligig was surely admirable. - -Probably no parcel of ground in America of equal size ever yielded a -larger return, in proportion to the expenditure, than the Hyde & Egbert -tract. Six weeks’ production of the Coquette or Maple Shade would drill -all the wells on the property. Charles Hyde and Dr. A. G. Egbert cleared -at least three-million dollars, the latter selling one-twelfth of the -Coquette alone for a quarter-million cash. Profits of others interested -in the land and of the lessees trebled this alluring sum. The -aggregate—eight to ten millions—in silver-dollars would load a -freight-train or build a column twenty miles high! Fused into a lump of -gold, a dozen mules might well decline the task of drawing it a mile. -Done up into a bundle of five-dollar bills, Hercules couldn’t budge the -bulky package. A “promoter” of the Mulberry-Sellers brand wanted an -owner of the farm, when the wells were at their best, to launch the -whole thing into a stock-company with five-millions capital. “Bah!” -responded the gentleman, “five millions—did you say five-millions? Don’t -waste your breath talking until you can come around with twenty-five -millions!” - -A native of New-York, born in 1822, Charles Hyde was fifteen when the -family settled on a farm two miles south of Titusville, now occupied by -the Octave Oil-Company. At twenty he engaged with his father and two -brothers, W. C. and E. B. Hyde, in merchandising, lumbering and the -manufacture of salts from ashes. In 1846 he assumed charge of the -lumber-mills John Titus sold the firm, originating the thrifty village -of Hydetown, four miles above Titusville. The Hydes frequently procured -oil from the “springs” on Oil Creek, selling it for medicine as early as -1840-1. From their Hydetown store Colonel Drake obtained some tools and -supplies Titusville could not furnish. Samuel Grandin, of Tidioute, in -the spring of 1860 induced Charles Hyde to buy a tenth-interest in the -Tidioute and Warren Oil-Company for one-thousand dollars. The company’s -first well, of which he heard on his way to Pittsburg with a raft, laid -the foundation of Hyde’s great fortune in petroleum. He organized the -Hydetown Oil-Company, which leased the McClintock farm, below -Rouseville, from Jonathan Watson and drilled a two-hundred-barrel well -in the summer of 1860. Mr. Hyde operated on the Clapp farm, south of -McClintock, and at different points on Oil Creek and the Allegheny -River. His gains from the Hyde & Egbert farm approximated two-millions. -Starting the Second National Bank of Titusville in 1865, he has always -been its president and chief stockholder. In 1869 he removed to -Plainfield, New Jersey, cultivating four-hundred acres of suburban land -and maintaining an elegant home. - -Dr. Albert G. Egbert, born in Mercer county in 1828, belonged to a -family of eminent physicians, his grandfather, father, two uncles, three -brothers and one son practicing medicine. Predicating a future for oil -upon the Drake well, his good judgment displayed itself promptly. -Agreeing to purchase the Davison farm, which his modest income at -Cherrytree would not enable him to pay for, his sale of a half-interest -to Charles Hyde provided the money to meet the entire claim. After the -wonderful success of that investment the doctor located at Franklin. He -carried on oil-operations, farming and coal-mining and was always active -in advancing the general welfare. Elected to Congress against immense -odds, he served his district most capably, attending sedulously to his -official duties and doing admirable work on committees. In public and -private life he was enterprising and liberal, zealous for the right and -a helpful citizen. True to his convictions and professions, he never -turned his back to friend or foe. To the steady, masterful purpose of -men like Dr. Egbert the oil-industry owes its rapid strides and -commanding position as a commercial staple. His demise on March -twenty-eighth, 1896, severs another of the links that bind the eventful -past and the important present of petroleum. Early operators on Oil -Creek are reduced to a handful of men whose heads are white with the -snows no July sun can melt. - - “He has walk’d the way of nature; - The setting sun, and music at the close, - As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last.” - -[Illustration: - - ISAAC N. PHILLIPS CHARLES M. PHILLIPS JOHN T. PHILLIPS - THOS. M. PHILLIPS -] - -The rich pickings around Petroleum Center set many on the straight -cinder-path to prosperity. The four Phillips brothers—Isaac N., Charles -M., John I. and Thomas M. came from Newcastle to coin money operating a -farm south of the Espy. Prolific wells on the Niagara tract, Cherrytree -Run, back of the Benninghoff farm, added to their wealth. They cut a -wide swath in all the Pennsylvania fields. Three of the brothers have -“ascended to the hill of frankincense and to the mountain of myrrh.” -Thomas M. was a millionaire congressman. During the heated debates on -free-silver, in 1894, he scored the hit of the season by suggesting to -convert each barrel of Petroleum into legal-tender for a dollar and let -it go at that. Crude was selling at sixty cents, which gave the Phillips -proposition a point “sharper than a serpent’s tooth” or a Demosthenean -philippic. Dr. Egbert offered Isaac Phillips an interest in the Davidson -farm in 1862. The offer was not accepted instantly, Phillips saying he -would “consider it a few days.” Two weeks later he was ready to close -the deal, but the plum had fallen into the lap of Charles Hyde and -diverted prospective millions into another channel. - -George K. Anderson figured conspicuously in this latitude, his receipts -for two years exceeding five-thousand dollars a day! He built a -sumptuous residence at Titusville, sought political preferment and -served a term in the State Senate. Holding a vast block of -Pacific-Railroad stock, he was the bosom friend of the directors and -trusted lieutenant of William H. Kemble, the Philadelphia magnate whose -“addition, division and silence” gave him notoriety. He bought thousands -of acres of land, plunged deeply into stocks and insured his life for -three-hundred-and-fifteen-thousand dollars, at that time the largest -risk in the country. If he sneezed or coughed the agents of the -insurance-companies grew nervous and summoned a posse of doctors to -consult about the case. Outside speculations swamped him at last. The -stately mansion, piles of bonds and scores of farms passed under the -sheriff’s hammer in 1880. Plucky and unconquerable, Anderson tried his -hand in the Bradford field, operating on Harrisburg Run. The result was -discouraging and he entered an insurance-office in New York. Five years -ago he accepted a government-berth in New Mexico. Meeting him on -Broadway the week before he left New York, his buoyant spirits seemed -depressed. He spoke regretfully of his approaching departure, yet hoped -it might turn out advantageously. He arrived at his post, sickened and -died in a few days, “a stranger in a strange land.” Relatives and loved -ones were far away when he went down into the starless night of the -grave. No gentle wife or child or valued friend was there to smooth the -pillow of the dying man, to cool the fevered brow, to catch the last -whisper, to close the glassy eyes and fold the rigid hands above the -lifeless breast. The oil-regions abound with pathetic experiences, but -none surpassing George K. Anderson’s. Wealthy beyond the dreams of -avarice, the courted politician, the confidant of presidents and -statesmen, a social favorite in Washington and Harrisburg, the owner of -a home beautiful as Claude Melnotte pictured to Pauline, he drained the -cup of sorrow and misfortune. Reverses beset him, his riches took wings, -bereavements bore heavily upon him, he was glad to secure a humble -clerkship, and death ended the sad scene in a distant territory. Does -not human life contain more tears than smiles, more pain than pleasure, -more cloud than sunshine in the passage from the cradle to the tomb? - -Frank W. Andrews, born in Vermont and reared in Ohio, taught school in -Missouri, hunted for gold at Pike’s Peak and landed on Oil Creek in the -winter of 1863-4. Hauling oil nine months supplied funds to operate on -Cherrytree Run. He drilled four dry holes. One on the McClintock farm -and three more on Pithole Creek followed. This was not a flattering -start, but Andrews had lots of sand and persistence. Emerging from the -Pithole excitement with limited cash and unlimited machinery, he -returned to Oil Creek and operated extensively. His first well at -Pioneer flowed three-hundred barrels a day. Fifty others at Shamburg, on -the Benninghoff farm and Cherrytree Run brought him hundreds of -thousands of dollars. He was rated at three-millions in 1870. Keeping up -with the tidal wave southward, he put down two-hundred wells in the -Franklin, Clarion and Butler districts. Failures of banks and -manufactories in which he had a large stake shattered his fortune. With -the loss of money he did not lose his manliness and self-reliance. In -the Bradford region he pressed forward vigorously. Again he “plucked the -flower of success” and was fast recuperating when thrown from his horse -and fatally injured. Upright, unassuming and refined, Andrews merited -the confidence and esteem of all. - -The bluff overlooking Petroleum Centre from the east formed the western -side of the McCray farm. At its base, on the Hyde & Egbert plot, were -several of the finest wells in Pennsylvania, the Coquette almost -touching McCray’s line. Dr. M. C. Egbert leased part of the slope and -drilled three wells. Other parties drilled five and the eight behaved so -handsomely that the owner of the land declined an offer, in 1865, of a -half-million dollars for his eighty acres. A well on top of the hill, -not deep enough to hit the sand and supposed to be dry, postponed -further operations five years. His friends distanced Jeremiah in their -lamentations that McCray had spurned the five-hundred-thousand dollars. -He may have thought of Shakespeare’s “tide in the affairs of men,” but -he sawed wood and said nothing. Jonathan Watson, advised by a -clairvoyant, in the spring of 1870 drilled a three-hundred-barrel well -on the uplands of the Dalzell farm, close to the southern boundary of -the McCray. The clairvoyant’s astonishing guess revived interest in -Petroleum Centre, which for a year or two had been on the down grade. -Besieged for leases, McCray could not meet a tithe of the demand at -one-thousand dollars an acre and half the oil. Derricks clustered -thickly. Every well tapped the pool underlying fifteen acres, pumping as -if drawing from a lake of petroleum. Within four months the daily -production was three-thousand barrels. This meant nineteen-hundred -barrels for the land-owner—fifteen-hundred from royalty and four-hundred -from wells he had drilled—a regular income of nine-thousand dollars a -day! Cipher it out—nineteen-hundred barrels at four-fifty to five -dollars, with eleven-hundred barrels for the lessees—and what do you -find? Fourteen-thousand dollars a day for the last quarter of 1870 and -nine months of 1871, from one-sixth of a farm sold in 1850 for -seventeen-hundred dollars! Say, how was that for high? - -James S. McCray, a farmer’s son, born in 1824 on the flats below -Titusville, at twenty-two set out for himself with two dollars in his -pocket. Working three years in a saw-mill on the Allegheny, he saved his -earnings and in 1850 was able to buy a team and take up the farm decreed -to enrich him beyond his wildest fancies. He married Miss Martha G. -Crooks, a willing helpmeet in adversity and wise counsellor in -prosperity. His first venture in oil, a share in a two-acre lease at -Rouseville, he sold to drill a well on the Blood farm, elbowing his own. -From this he realized seventy-thousand dollars. For his own farm he -refused a million dollars in 1871. Sharpers dogged his footsteps and -endeavored to rope him into all sorts of preposterous schemes. He told -me one project, which was expected to control the coal-trade of the -region, bled him two-hundred-and-sixty-thousand dollars! Instead of -selling his oil right along, at an average figure of nearly five -dollars, he stored two-hundred-thousand barrels in iron-tanks, to await -higher prices. In my presence H. I. Beers, of McClintockville, bid him -five-thirty-five a barrel for the lot. McCray stuck out for five-fifty. -He kept the oil for years, losing thousands of barrels by leakage and -evaporation, and sold the bulk of it at one to two dollars. Had he dealt -with Beers he would have been six-hundred-thousand dollars richer! Mr. -McCray removed to Franklin in 1872 and died some years ago. He rests in -the cemetery beside his faithful wife and only daughter. The wells on -his farm drooped and withered and the famous fifteen-acre field has long -been a pasture. A robust character, strong-willed and kindly, sometimes -queerly contradictory and often misjudged, James S. McCray could adopt -the words of King Lear: “I am a man more sinned against than sinning.” - -[Illustration: - - HYDE & EGBERT TRACT AND McCRAY FARM IN 1870. - JAS. S. McCRAY FARM. JAS. S. McCRAY. -] - -The Dalzell or Hayes farm, on which the first well—fifty barrels—was -drilled in 1861, boasted the Porcupine, Rhinoceros, Ramcat, Wildcat, and -a menagerie of thirty others ranging from ten barrels to three-hundred. -At the north end of the farm, in the rear of the Maple-Shade and Jersey -wells, the Petroleum Shaft-and-Mining-Company attempted to sink a hole -seven feet by seventeen to the third sand. The shaft was dug and blasted -one-hundred feet, at immense cost. The funds ran out, gas threatened to -asphyxiate the workmen, the big pumps could not exhaust the water and -the absurd undertaking was abandoned. - -The story of the Story farm does not lack romantic ingredients. William -Story owned five-hundred acres south of the G. W. McClintock farm, Oil -Creek, the Dalzell and Tarr farms bounding his land on the east. He sold -in 1859 to Ritchie, Hartje & Co., of Pittsburg, for thirty-thousand -dollars. George H. Bissell had negotiated for the property, but Mrs. -Story objected to signing the deed. Next day Bissell returned to offer -the wife a sufficient inducement, but the Pittsburg agent had been there -the previous evening and secured her signature to the Ritchie-Hartje -deed by the promise of a silk dress! Thus a twenty-dollar gown changed -the ultimate ownership of millions of dollars! The long-haired novelist, -who soars into the infinite and dives into the unfathomable, may try to -imagine what the addition of a new bonnet would have accomplished. - -The seven Pittsburgers organized a stock company in 1860 to -develop the farm. By act of Legislature this was incorporated on -May first, 1861, as the Columbia Oil-Company, with a nominal -capital of two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars—ten-thousand -shares of twenty-five dollars each. Twenty-one-thousand barrels of -oil were produced in 1861 and ninety-thousand in 1862, shares -selling at two to ten dollars. Foreign demand for oil improved -matters. On July eighth, 1863, the first dividend of thirty per -cent. was declared, followed in August and September by two of -twenty-five per cent. and in October by one of fifty per cent. -Four dividends, aggregating one-hundred-and-sixty per cent., were -declared the first six months of 1864. The capital was increased -to two-and-a-half-millions, by calling in the old stock and giving -each holder of a twenty-five-dollar share five new ones of fifty -dollars apiece. Four-hundred per cent. were paid on this capital -in six years. The original stockholders received their money back -_forty-three_ times and had ten times their first stock to keep on -drawing fat dividends! Suppose a person had bought one-hundred -shares in 1862 at two dollars, in eight years he would have been -paid one-hundred-and-seven-thousand dollars for his two hundred -and have five-hundred fifty-dollar shares on hand! From a mere -speck of the Story farm the Columbia Oil-Company in ten years -produced oil that sold for ten-millions of dollars! Wonder not -that men, dazzled by such returns, blind to the failures that -littered the oily domain, clutched at the veriest phantoms in the -mad craze for boundless wealth. - -Splendidly managed throughout, the policy of the Columbia Company was to -operate its lands systematically. Wells were not drilled at random over -the farm, nor were leases granted to speculators. There was no effort to -make a big showing of production and exhaust the territory in the -shortest time possible. For twenty-five years the Story farm yielded -profitably. The wells, never amazingly large, held on tenaciously. The -Ladies’ well produced sixty-five-thousand barrels, the Floral -sixty-thousand, the Big Tank fifty-thousand, the Story Centre -forty-five-thousand, the Breedtown forty-thousand, the Cherry Run -fifty-five-thousand, the Titus pair one-hundred-thousand and the Perry -thirty-five-thousand. The company erected machine-shops, built houses -for employés, and the village of Columbia prospered. The Columbia Cornet -Band, superbly appointed, its thirty members in rich uniforms, its -instruments the finest and its drum-major an acrobatic revelation, could -have given Gilmore’s or Sousa’s points in ravishing music. G. S. -Bancroft superintended the wells and D. H. Boulton, now of Franklin, -assisted President D. B. Stewart, of Pittsburg, in conducting affairs -generally. The village has vanished, the cornet band is hushed forever, -the fields are the prey of weeds and underbrush and brakemen no more -call out “Columby!” A few small wells, hidden amid the hills, produce a -morsel of oil, but the farm, despoiled of sixteen-million dollars of -greasy treasure, would not bring one-fourth the price paid William Story -for it in the fall of 1859. “So passes away earthly glory” is as true -to-day as when Horace evolved the classic phrase two-thousand years ago. - - “Man wants but little, nor that little long; - How soon must he resign his very dust, - Which frugal nature lent him for an hour!” - -On the east side of Oil Creek, opposite the southern half of the Story -farm, James Tarr owned and occupied a triangular tract of two-hundred -acres. He was a strong-limbed, loud-voiced, stout-hearted son of toil, -farming in summer and hauling lumber in winter to support his family. -Although uneducated, he had plenty of “horse sense” and native wit. His -quaint speech coined words and terms that are entrenched firmly in the -nomenclature of Oildom. Funny stories have been told at his expense. One -of these, relating to his daughter, whom he had taken to a seminary, has -appeared in hundreds of newspapers. According to the revised version, -the principal of the school expressing a fear that the girl had not -“capacity,” the fond father, profoundly ignorant of what was meant, drew -a roll of greenbacks from his pocket and exclaimed: “Damn it, that’s -nothing! Buy her one and here’s the stuff to pay for it!” The fact that -it is pure fiction may detract somewhat from the piquancy of this -incident. Tarr realized his own deficiencies from lack of schooling and -spared no pains, when the golden stream flowed his way, to educate the -children dwelling in the old home on the south end of the farm. His -daughters were bright, good-looking, intelligent girls. Scratching the -barren hills for a meager corn-crop, hunting rabbits on Sundays, rafting -in the spring and fall and teaming while snow lasted barely sufficed to -keep the gaunt wolf of hunger from the door of many a hardy Oil-Creek -settler. To their credit be it said, most of the land-owners whom -petroleum enriched took care of their money. Rough diamonds, uncut and -unpolished, they possessed intrinsic worth. James Tarr was of the number -who did not lose their heads and squander their substance. The richest -of them all, he bought a delightful home near Meadville, provided every -comfort and convenience, spent his closing years enjoyably and died in -1871. “Put yourself in his place” and, candidly, would you have done -better? - -For himself, George B. Delamater and L. L. Lamb, in the summer of 1860 -Orange Noble leased seven acres of the Tarr farm, at the bend in Oil -Creek. Dry holes the partners “kicked down” on the Stackpole and Jones -farms dampening their ardor, they let the Tarr lease lie dormant some -months. Contracting with a Townville neighbor—N. S. Woodford—to juggle -the “spring-pole,” he cracked the first sand in June, 1861. The Crescent -well—so called because the faith of the owners was increasing—tipped the -beam at five-hundred barrels. The first well on the Tarr farm, it flowed -an average of three-hundred barrels a day for thirteen months, quitting -without notice. Cleaning it out, drilling it deeper and pumping it for -weeks were of no avail. Not a drop of oil could be extracted and the -Crescent was abandoned. Crude was so low during most of its -existence—ten to twenty-five cents—that the well, although it produced -one-hundred-and-twenty-thousand barrels, did not pay the owners a dollar -of profit! Drilling, royalty and tankage absorbed every nickel. Like the -victories of Pyrrhus, the more such strikes a fellow achieved the sooner -he would be undone! - -On the evening of August first, 1861, as James Tarr sat eating his -supper of fried pork and johnny-cake, Heman Janes, of Erie, entered the -room. “Tarr,” he said, “I’ll give you sixty-thousand dollars in spot -cash for your farm!” Tarr almost fell off his chair. A year before -one-thousand dollars would have been big money for the whole plantation. -“I mean it,” continued the visitor; “if you take me up I’ll close the -deal right here!” Tarr “took him up” and the deal, which included a -transfer of several leases, was closed quickly. Janes planked down the -sixty-thousand and Tarr, within an hour, had stepped from poverty to -affluence. This was the first large _cash_ transaction in oil-lands on -the creek and people promptly pronounced Janes a fool of the -thirty-third degree. An Irishman, on trial for stealing a sheep, asked -by the judge whether he was guilty or not guilty, replied: “How can I -tell till I hear the ividence?” Don’t endorse the Janes verdict “till -you hear the ividence.” - -A short distance below the Crescent well William Phillips, who had -leased a narrow strip the entire length of the farm, was also urging a -“spring-pole” actively. Born in Westmoreland county in 1824, he passed -his boyhood on a farm and earned his first money mining coal. Saving his -hard-won wages, he bought the keel-boat Orphan Boy and started -freighting on the Ohio and Allegheny rivers. The business proving -remunerative, he drilled salt-wells at Bull Creek and Wildcat Hollow. On -his last trip from Warren to Pittsburg, in September of 1859, he noticed -a scum of oil in front of Thomas Downing’s farm, where South Oil City -now stands. The story of the Drake well was in everybody’s mouth and it -occurred to Phillips that he could increase his growing fortune by -drilling on the Downing land. At Pittsburg he consulted Charles -Lockhart, William Frew, Captain Kipp and John Vanausdall and with them -formed the partnership of Phillips, Frew & Co. Returning at once, he -leased from Downing, erected a pole-derrick and proceeded to bore a well -on the water’s edge. With no machine-shops, tools or appliances nearer -than Pittsburg, a hundred-and-thirty miles off, difficulties of all -kinds retarded the work nine months. Finally the job was completed and -the Albion well, pumping forty barrels a day, raised a commotion. - -The Albion brought Phillips to the front as an oil-operator. James Tarr -readily leased him part of his farm and he began Phillips No. 1 well in -the spring of 1861. The Crescent’s unexpected success spurred him to -greater efforts. Hurrying an engine and boiler from Pittsburg, he -started his second well on the flat hugging the stream twenty rods north -of the Crescent. Steam-power rushed the tools at a boom-de-ay gait. The -first sand, from which meanwhile No. 1 was rivaling the Crescent’s -yield, had not a pinch of oil. The solid-silver lining of the -petroleum-cloud assumed a plated look, but Phillips heeded it not. An -expert driller, he hustled the tools and on October nineteenth, at -four-hundred-and-eighty feet, pierced the shell above the third sand. At -dusk he shut down for the night. The weather was clear and the moon -shone brightly. Suddenly a vivid flame illumined the sky. Reuben -Painter’s well on the Blood farm, a mile southward, had caught fire and -blazed furiously. The rare spectacle of a burning well attracted -everybody for miles. Phillips and Janes were among those who hastened to -the fire, returning about midnight. An hour later they were summoned -from bed by a man yelling at the Ella-Yaw pitch: “The Phillips is -bu’sted and runnin’ down the creek!” People ran to the spot on the -double-quick, past the Crescent and down the bank. Gas was settling -densely upon the flats and into the creek oil was pouring lavishly. -Dreading a fire, lights were extinguished on the adjoining tracts and -needful precautions taken. For three or four days the flow raged -unhindered, then a lull occurred and tubing was inserted. After the -seed-bag swelled, a stop-cock was placed on the tubing and thenceforth -it was easy to regulate the flow. When oil was wanted the stop-cock was -opened and wooden troughs conveyed the stuff to boats drawn up the creek -by horses, the chief mode of transportation for years. The oil was -forty-four gravity and four-thousand barrels a day gushed out! In June -of 1862, when Phillips and Major Frew, with their wives and a party of -friends, inspected the well, a careful gauge showed it was doing -thirty-six-hundred-and-sixty barrels! The Phillips well held the -champion-belt twenty-seven years. It produced until 1871, getting down -to ten or twelve barrels and ceasing altogether the night James Tarr -expired, having yielded nearly _one-million_ barrels! Cargoes of the oil -were sold to boatmen at five cents a barrel, thousands of barrels were -wasted, tens of thousands were stored in underground tanks and much was -sold at three to thirteen dollars. - -[Illustration: WOODFORD WELL. TARR FARM IN 1862. PHILLIPS WELL.] - -N. S. Woodford, Noble & Delamater’s contractor, had the foresight to -lease the ground between the Crescent and the Phillips No. 2. His -three-thousand barreler, finished in December, 1861, drew its grist from -the Phillips crevice and interfered with the mammoth gusher. When the -two became pumpers neither would give out oil unless both were worked. -If one was stopped the other pumped water. Ultimately the Phillips crowd -paid Woodford a half-million for his well and lease, a wad for which a -man would ford even the atrocious Tarr-farm mud and complacently whistle -“Ta-ra-ra.” He retired to his pleasant home, with six-hundred-thousand -dollars to show for eighteen months’ operations on Oil Creek, and never -bothered any more about oil. The Woodford well repaid its enormous cost. -Lockhart and Frew bought out their partners at a high price and put the -Phillips-Woodford interests into a stock-company capitalized at -two-million dollars. The Phillips well—one result of a keen-eyed -boatman’s observing an oily scum on the Allegheny River—enriched all -concerned. Had Phillips failed to see the speck of grease that September -day, who can tell how different oil-region history might have been? -Happily for a good many persons, the Orphan Boy was not one of the -“Ships that Pass in the Night.” What a field Oil Creek presents for the -fervid fancy of a Dumas, a Dickens, a Wilkie Collins or a Charles Reade! - -Comrades in business and good-fellowship, William Phillips and John -Vanausdall removed to South Oil-City, lived neighbors and died twenty -years ago. They resembled each other in appearance and temper, in -charitable impulse and kindness to the poor. Phillips drilled dozens of -wells—none of them dry—aided Oil-City enterprises and was a member of -the shipping firm of Munhall & Co. until its dissolution in 1876. He was -the first man to ship oil by steamer, the Venango taking the first load -to Pittsburg, and the first to run crude in bulk down the creek. One -son, John C. Phillips, and a married daughter live at Oil City and two -sons at Freeport. - -[Illustration: HEMAN JANES.] - -Heman Janes, of Erie, the first purchaser of the Tarr farm, from 1850 to -1861 shipped large quantities of lumber to the eastern market. Passing -through Canada in 1858, he heard oil was obtained from gum-beds in -Lambton county, south of Lake Huron, and visited the place. John -Williams was dipping five barrels a day from a hole ten feet square and -twenty feet deep. The best gum-beds spread over two-hundred acres of -timbered land, which Mr. Janes bought at nine dollars an acre, the owner -selling because “the stinking oil smelled five miles off.” Leasing -four-hundred acres more, in 1860 he sold a half-interest in both tracts -for fifteen-thousand dollars and retired from lumbering to devote his -attention to oil. Large wells on his Canadian lands enabled him to sell -the second half of the property in 1865 for fifty-five-thousand dollars. -In February, 1861, he secured a thirty-day option on the J. Buchanan -farm, the site of Rouseville, and tendered the price at the stipulated -time, but the transaction fell through. In March of that year he went to -West Virginia and leased one-thousand acres on the Kanawha River, -including the famous “Burning Spring.” U. E. Everett & Co. agreed to pay -fifty-thousand dollars for one-half interest in the property, at -Parkersburg, on April twelfth. All parties met, a certified check was -laid on the table and Attorney J. B. Blair started to draw the papers. -At that moment a boy ran past, shouting: “Fort Sumpter’s fired on!” The -gentlemen hurried out to learn the particulars. “The cat came back,” but -Everett didn’t. A message told him to “hold off,” and he is holding off -still. Janes stayed as long as a Northerner dared and was thankful to -sell the batch of leases for seventy-five-hundred dollars. In 1862 he -sued the owners of the Phillips well for his royalty _in barrels_. They -refused to furnish the barrels, which were scarce and expensive, and the -well was shut down for months pending the litigation. The suit was for -one-hundred-and-twelve-thousand dollars, up to that time the largest -amount ever involved in a case before the Venango court. Edwin M. -Stanton, soon to be known as the illustrious War-Secretary, was one -of the attorneys engaged by the plaintiff, for a fee of -twenty-five-thousand dollars. A compromise was arranged for half the -oil. The first oil sold after this agreement was at three dollars a -barrel, taken from the first twelve-hundred-barrel tank ever seen in the -region. A wooden tank of that size excited more curiosity in those days -than a hundred iron-ones of forty-thousand barrels in this year of -grace. Janes sold back half the farm to Tarr for forty-thousand dollars -and two-thirds of the remaining half to Clark & Sumner for -twenty-thousand, leaving him one-sixth clear of cost, the same month he -bought the tract. He first suggested casing wells to exclude the water, -built the first bulk-boat decked over—six-hundred barrels—to transport -oil and was identified with the first practicable pipe-line. Paying -seventy-five-thousand dollars for the Blackmar farm, at Pithole, he -drilled three dry holes and then got rid of the land at a snug advance. -Since 1878 Mr. Janes has been interested in the Bradford field and -living at Erie. A man of forceful character and executive ability, -hearty, vigorous and companionable, he deserves the large measure of -success that rewarded him as an important factor in petroleum-affairs. -In the words of the good Scottish mother to her son: “May your lot be -wi’ the rich in this warld and wi’ the puir in the warld to come.” - -The amazing output of the Phillips and Woodford wells stimulated the -demand for territory to the boiling point. Men were infinitely less -eager to “read their title clear to mansions in the skies” than to -secure a title to a fragment of the Tarr farm. Rigs huddled on the bank -and in the water, for nobody thought oil existed back in the hilly -sections. Sixty yards below the Phillips spouter J. F. Crane sank a well -that responded as pleasantly as “the swinging of the crane.” Densmore -Brothers, at the lower end of the farm, drilled a seven-hundred-barreler -late in 1861. A zoological freak introduced the animal-fad, which named -the Elephant, Young Elephant, Tigress, Tiger, Lioness, Scared Cat, -Anaconda and Weasel wells. Reckless speculation held the fort unchecked. -The third sand was sixty feet thick, the territory was durable and -three-hundred walking-beams exhibited “the poetry of motion” to the -music of three-four-five-six-eight-ten-dollar oil. Mr. Janes built a -commodious hotel and a town of two-thousand population flourished. James -Tarr sold his entire interest in 1865, for gold equivalent to -two-millions in currency, and removed to Crawford county. Another -million would hardly cover his royalties. Three-million dollars ahead of -the game in four years, he could afford to smile at the jibes of -small-souled retailers of witless ridicule. If “money talks,” -three-millions ought to be pretty eloquent. The churches, stores, -houses, offices, wells and tanks have “gone glimmering.” Tarr-Farm -station appears no more on railroad time-tables. Modern maps do not -reveal it. Few know and fewer care who owns the place once the apple of -the oilman’s eye, now a shadowy relic not worth carting off in a -wheelbarrow! - -Producers have enjoyed quite a reputation for “resolving,” and the first -meeting ever held to regulate the price of crude was at Tarr farm in -1861. The moving spirits were Mr. Janes, General James Wadsworth and -Josiah Oakes, the latter a New-York capitalist. The idea was to raise -five-hundred-thousand dollars and buy up the territory for ten miles -along Oil Creek. Wadsworth and Oakes raised over three-hundred-thousand -dollars for this purpose, when the panic arising from the war ended the -scheme. A contract was also made with Erie parties to lay a four-inch -wooden pipe-line from Tarr farm to Oil City. On the advice of Col. -Clark, of Clark & Sumner, and Sir John Hope, the eminent London banker, -it was decided to abandon the project and apply for a charter for a -pipe-line. This was done in the winter of 1861-2, Hon. Morrow B. Lowry, -who represented the district in the State Senate, favoring the -application. Hon. M. C. Beebe, the local member of the Legislature, -opposed it resolutely, because, to quote his own words: “There are -four-thousand teams hauling oil and my constituents won’t stand this -interference.” The measure failing to carry, Clark & Hope built the -Standard refinery at Pittsburg. - -Resistance to the South-Improvement-Company welded the producers solidly -in 1872. The refiners organized to force a larger margin between crude -and refined. To offset this and govern the production and sale of crude, -the producers established a “union,” “agencies” and “councils.” In -October of 1872 every well in the region was shut down for thirty days. -The “spirit of seventy-six” was abroad and individual losses were borne -cheerfully for the general good. This was the heroic period, which -demonstrated the manly fiber of the great body of oil-operators. E. E. -Clapp, of President, and Captain William Harson, of Oil City, were the -chief officers of these remarkable organizations. Suspensions of -drilling in 1873-4-5 supplemented the memorable “thirty-day shut-down.” -At length the “union,” the “councils” and the “agencies” wilted and -dissolved. The area of productive territory widened and strong companies -became a necessity to develop it. The big fish swallowed the little -ones, hence the _personal_ feature so pronounced in earlier years has -been almost eliminated. Many of the operators are members of the -Producers’ Association, in which Congressman Phillips, Lewis Emery, -David Kirk and T. J. Vandergrift are prime factors. Its president, Hon. -J. W. Lee, practiced law at Franklin, served twice as State-Senator and -located at Pittsburg last year. He is a cogent speaker, not averse to -legal tilts and not backward flying his colors in the face of the enemy. - -South of the Story and Tarr farms, on both sides of Oil Creek, were John -Blood’s four-hundred-and-forty acres. The owner lived in an unpainted, -weatherbeaten frame house. On five acres of the flats the Ocean -Petroleum-Company had twelve flowing wells in 1861. The Maple-Tree -Company’s burning well spouted twenty-five-hundred barrels for several -months, declined to three-hundred in a year and was destroyed by fire in -October of 1862. The flames devastated twenty acres, consuming ten wells -and a hundred tanks of oil, the loss aggregating a million dollars. A -sheet of fire, terribly grand and up to that date the most extensive and -destructive in Oildom, wrapped the flats and the stream. Blood Well No. -1, flowing a thousand barrels, Blood No. 2, flowing six hundred, and -five other gushers never yielded after the conflagration, prior to which -the farm was producing more oil than the balance of the region. Brewer & -Watson, Ballard & Trax, Edward Filkins, Henry Collins, Reuben Painter, -James Burrows and J. H. Duncan were pioneer operators on the tract. -Blood sold in 1863 for five-hundred-and-sixty-thousand dollars and -removed to New York. Buying a brownstone residence on Fifth avenue, he -splurged around Gotham two or three years, quit the city for the country -and died long since. The Blood farm was notably prolific, but its glory -has departed. Stripped bare of derricks, houses, wells and tanks, naught -is left save the rugged hills and sandy banks. “It is no matter, the cat -will mew, the dog will have his day.” - -Neighbors of John Blood, a raw-boned native and his wife, enjoyed an -experience not yet forgotten in New York. Selling their farm for big -money, the couple concluded to see Manhattanville and set off in high -glee, arrayed in homespun-clothes of most agonizing country-fashion. -Wags on the farm advised them to go to the Astor House and insist upon -having the finest room in the caravansary. Arriving in New York, they -were driven to the hotel, each carrying a bundle done up in a colored -handkerchief. Their rustic appearance attracted great attention, which -was increased when the man marched to the office-counter and demanded -“the best in the shebang, b’gosh.” The astounded clerk tried to get the -unwelcome guest to go elsewhere, assuring him he must have made a -mistake. The rural delegate did not propose to be bluffed by coaxing or -threats. At length the representative of petroleum wanted to know “how -much it would cost to buy the gol-darned ranche.” In despair the clerk -summoned the proprietor, who soon took in the situation. To humor the -stranger he replied that one-hundred-thousand dollars would buy the -place. The chap produced a pile of bills and tendered him the money on -the spot! Explanations followed, a parlor and bedroom were assigned the -pair and for days they were the lions of the metropolis. Hundreds of -citizens and ladies called to see the innocents who had come on their -“first tower” as green and unsophisticated as did Josiah Allen’s Wife -twenty years later. - -Ambrose Rynd, an Irish woolen-factor, bought five-hundred acres from the -Holland Land-Company in 1800 and built a log-cabin at the mouth of -Cherrytree Run. He attained the Nestorian age of ninety-nine. His -grandson, John Rynd, born in the log-cabin in 1815, owned three-hundred -acres of the tract when the petroleum-wave swept Oil Creek. The Blood -farm was north and the Smith east. Cherrytree and Wykle Runs rippled -through the western half of the property, which Oil Creek divided -nicely. Developments in 1861 were on the eastern half. Starting at -five-hundred barrels, the Rynd well flowed until 1863. The Crawford -“saw” the Rynd and “went it one better,” lasting until June of 1864. Six -fair wells were drilled on Rynd Island, a dot at the upper part of the -farm. The Rynd-Farm Oil-Company of New York purchased the tract in 1864. -John Rynd moved to Fayette county and died in the seventies. Hume & -Crawford, Porter & Milroy, B. F. Wren, the Ozark, Favorite, Frost, -Northern and a score of companies operated vigorously. The third sand -thickened and improved with the elevation of the hills. Five refineries -handled a thousand barrels of crude per week. A snug village bloomed on -the west side, the broad flat affording an eligible site. The late John -Wallace and Theodore Ladd were prominent in the later stage of -operations. Cyrus D. Rynd returned in 1881 to take charge of the farm -and served as postmaster six years. Rynd, once plump and juicy, now lean -and desiccated, resembles an orange which a boy has sucked and thrown -away the rind. - -Two museum-curio wells on the Rynd farm illustrated practically Chaplain -McCabe’s “Drinking From the Same Canteen.” A dozen strokes of the pump -every hour caused the Agitator to flow ten or fifteen minutes. The pious -Sunday well, its companion, loafed six days in the week while the other -worked, flowing on the Sabbath when the Agitator pump rested from its -labors. This sort of affinity, which cost William Phillips and Noble & -Delamater a mint of money, was evinced most forcibly on the McClintock -farm, west side of Oil Creek, south of Rynd. William McClintock, -original owner of the two-hundred acres, dying in 1859, the widow -remained on the farm with her grandson, John W. Steele, whom the couple -had adopted at a tender age, upon the decease of his mother. Nearly half -the farm was bottom-land, fronting the creek, on the bank of which the -first wells were sunk in 1861. The Vanslyke flowed twelve-hundred -barrels a day, declined slowly and in its third year pumped -fourteen-thousand. The Lloyd, Eastman, Little Giant, Morrison, Hayes & -Merrick, Christy, Ocean, Painter, Sterrett, Chase and sixty more each -put up fifty to four-hundred barrels daily. Directly between the -Vanslyke and Christy, a few rods from either, New-York parties finished -the Hammond well in May, 1864. Starting to flow three-hundred barrels a -day, the Hammond killed the Lloyd and Christy and reduced the Vanslyke -to a ten-barrel pumper. Its triumph was short-lived. Early in June the -New Yorkers, elated over its performance, bought the royalty of the well -and one-third acre of ground for two-hundred thousand dollars. The end -of June the tubing was drawn from the Excelsior well, on the John -McClintock farm, five-hundred yards east, flooding the Hammond and all -the wells in the vicinity. The damage was attributed to Vandergrift & -Titus’s new well a short distance down the flat, nobody imagining it -came from a hole a quarter-mile off. Retubing the Excelsior quickly -restored one-half the Hammond’s yield, which increased as the -Excelsior’s lessened. An adjustment followed, but the final pulling of -the tubing from the Excelsior drowned the affected wells permanently. -Geologists and scientists reveled in the ethics suggested by such -interference, which casing wells has obviated. The Widow-McClintock farm -produced hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil and changed hands -repeatedly. For years it was owned by a man who as a boy blacked -Steele’s boots. In 1892 John Waites renovated a number of the old wells. -Pumping some and plugging others, to shut out water, surprised and -rewarded him with a yield that is bringing him a tidy fortune. The -action of the stream has washed away the ground on which the Vanslyke, -the Sterrett and several of the largest wells were located. “Out, out, -brief candle!” - -Mrs. McClintock, like thousands of women since, attempted one day in -March of 1863 to hurry up the kitchen-fire with kerosene. The result was -her fatal burning, death in an hour and the first funeral to the account -of the treacherous oil-can. The poor woman wore coarse clothing, worked -hard and secreted her wealth about the house. Her will, written soon -after McClintock’s exit, bequeathed everything to the adopted heir, John -W. Steele, twenty years old when his grandmother met her tragic fate. At -eighteen he had married Miss M. Moffett, daughter of a farmer in -Sugarcreek township. He hauled oil in 1861 with hired plugs until he -could buy a span of stout horses. Oil-Creek teamsters, proficient in -lurid profanity, coveted his varied stock of pointed expletives. The -blonde driver, of average height and slender build, pleasing in -appearance and address, by no means the unlicked cub and ignorant boor -he has been represented, neither smoke nor drank nor gambled, but “he -could say ‘damn’!” Climbing a hill with a load of oil, the end-board -dropped out and five barrels of crude wabbled over the steep bank. It -was exasperating and the spectators expected a special outburst. Steele -“winked the other eye” and remarked placidly: “Boys, it’s no use trying -to do justice to this occasion.” The shy youth, living frugally and not -the type people would associate with unprecedented antics, was to figure -in song and story and be advertised more widely than the sea-serpent or -Barnum’s woolly-horse. Millions who never heard of John Smith, Dr. Mary -Walker or Baby McKee have heard and read and talked about the -one-and-only “Coal-Oil Johnnie.” - -The future candidate for minstrel-gags and newspaper-space was hauling -oil when a neighbor ran to tell him of Mrs. McClintock’s death. He -hastened home. A search of the premises disclosed two-hundred-thousand -dollars the old lady had hoarded. Wm. Blackstone, appointed his -guardian, restricted the minor to a reasonable allowance. The young -man’s conduct was irreproachable until he attained his majority. His -income was enormous. Mr. Blackstone paid him three-hundred-thousand -dollars in a lump and he resolved to “see some of the world.” He saw it, -not through smoked glass either. His escapades supplied no end of -material for gossip. Many tales concerning him were exaggerations and -many pure inventions. Demure, slow-going Philadelphia he colored a -flaming vermilion. He gave away carriages after a single drive, kept -open-house in a big hotel and squandered thousands of dollars a day. -Seth Slocum was “showing him the sights” and he fell an easy victim to -blacklegs and swindlers. He ordered champagne by the dozen baskets and -treated theatrical companies to the costliest wine-suppers. Gay ballet -girls at Fox’s old play-house told spicy stories of these midnight -frolics. To a negro-comedian, who sang a song that pleased him, he -handed a thousand-dollar pin. He would walk the streets with bank-bills -stuck in the buttonholes of his coat for Young America to grab. He -courted club-men and spent cash like the Count of Monte Cristo. John -Morrissey sat a night with him at cards in his Saratoga gambling-house, -cleaning him out of many thousands. Leeches bled him and sharpers -fleeced him mercilessly. He was a spendthrift, but he didn’t light -cigars with hundred-dollar bills, buy a Philadelphia hotel to give a -chum nor destroy money “for fun.” Usually somebody benefited by his -extravagances. - -Occasionally his prodigality assumed a sensible phase. -Twenty-eight-hundred dollars, one day’s receipts from his wells and -royalty, went toward the erection of the soldiers’ monument—a -magnificent shaft of white marble—in the Franklin park. Except Dan -Rice’s five-thousand memorial at Girard, Erie county, this was the first -monument in the Union to the fallen heroes of the civil war. Ten, twenty -or fifty dollars frequently gladdened the poor who asked for relief. He -lavished fine clothes and diamonds on a minstrel-troupe, touring the -country and entertaining crowds in the oil-regions. John W. Gaylord, an -artist in burnt-cork and member of the troupe, has furnished these -details: - -“Yes. ‘Coal-Oil Johnnie’ was my particular friend in his palmiest days. -I was his room-mate when he cut the shines that celebrated him as the -most eccentric millionaire on earth. I was with the Skiff & Gaylord -minstrels. Johnnie saw us perform in Philadelphia, got stuck on the -business and bought one-third interest in the show. His first move was -to get five-thousand dollars’ worth of woodcuts at his own expense. They -were all the way from a one-sheet to a twenty-four-sheet in size and the -largest amount any concern had ever owned. The cartoon, which attracted -so much attention, of ‘Bring That Skiff Over Here,’ was in the lot. We -went on the road, did a monstrous business everywhere, turned people -away and were prosperous. - -“Reaching Utica, N. Y., Johnnie treated to a supper for the company, -which cost one-thousand dollars. He then conceived the idea of traveling -by his own train and purchased an engine, a sleeper and a baggage-car. -Dates for two weeks were cancelled and we went junketing, Johnnie -footing the bills. At Erie we had a five-hundred-dollar supper; and so -it went. It was here that Johnnie bought his first hack. After a short -ride he presented it to the driver. Our dates being cancelled, Johnnie -insisted upon indemnifying us for the loss of time. He paid all -salaries, estimated the probable business receipts upon the basis of -packed houses and paid that also to our treasurer. - -“In Chicago he gave another exhibition of his eccentric traits. He -leased the Academy of Music for the season and we did a big business. -Finally he proposed a benefit for Skiff & Gaylord and sent over to rent -the Crosby Opera-House, then the finest in the country. The manager sent -back the insolent reply: ‘We won’t rent our house for an infernal -nigger-show.’ Johnnie got warm in the collar. He went down to their -office in Root & Cady’s music-store. - -“‘What will you take for your house and sell it outright?’ he asked Mr. -Root. - -“‘I don’t want to sell.’ - -“‘I’ll give you a liberal price. Money is no object.’ - -“Then Johnnie pulled out a roll from his valise, counted out -two-hundred-thousand dollars and asked Root if that was an object. Mr. -Root was thunderstruck. ‘If you are that kind of a man you can have the -house for the benefit free of charge.’ The benefit was the biggest -success ever known in minstrelsy. The receipts were forty-five-hundred -dollars and more were turned away than could be given admission. Next -day Johnnie hunted up one of the finest carriage-horses in the city and -presented it to Mr. Root for the courtesy extended. - -“Oh, Johnnie was a prince with his money. I have seen him spend as high -as one hundred-thousand dollars in one day. That was the time he hired -the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia and wanted to buy the Girard -House. He went to the Continental and politely said to the clerk: ‘Will -you please tell the proprietor that J. W. Steele wishes to see him?’ -‘No, sir,’ said the clerk; ‘the landlord is busy.’ Johnnie suggested he -could make it pay the clerk to accommodate the whim. The clerk became -disdainful and Johnnie tossed a bell-boy a twenty-dollar gold-piece with -the request. The result was an interview with the landlord. Johnnie -claimed he had been ill-treated and requested the summary dismissal of -the clerk. The proprietor refused and Johnnie offered to buy the hotel. -The man said he could not sell, because he was not the entire owner. A -bargain was made to lease it one day for eight-thousand dollars. The -cash was paid over and Johnnie installed as landlord. He made me -bell-boy, while Slocum officiated as clerk. The doors were thrown open -and every guest in the house had his fill of wine and edibles free of -cost. A huge placard was posted in front of the hotel: ‘Open house -to-day; everything free; all are welcome!’ It was a merry lark. The -whole city seemed to catch on and the house was full. When Johnnie -thought he had had fun enough he turned the hostelry over to the -landlord, who reinstated the odious clerk. Here was a howdedo. Johnnie -was frantic with rage. He went over to the Girard and tried to buy it. -He arranged with the proprietor to ‘buck’ the Continental by making the -prices so low that everybody would come there. The Continental did -mighty little business so long as the arrangement lasted. - -“The day of the hotel-transaction we were up on Arch street. A rain -setting in, Johnnie approached a hack in front of a fashionable store -and tried to engage it to carry us up to the Girard. The driver said it -was impossible, as he had a party in the store. Johnnie tossed him a -five-hundred-dollar bill and the hackman said he would risk it. When we -arrived at the hotel Johnnie said: ‘See here, Cabby, you’re a likely -fellow. How would you like to own that rig?’ The driver thought he was -joking, but Johnnie handed him two-thousand dollars. A half-hour later -the delighted driver returned with the statement that the purchase had -been effected. Johnnie gave him a thousand more to buy a stable and that -man to-day is the wealthiest hack-owner in Philadelphia.” - -Steele reached the end of his string and the farm was sold in 1866. When -he was flying the highest Captain J. J. Vandergrift and T. H. Williams -kindly urged him to save some of his money. He thanked them for the -friendly advice, said he had made a living by hauling oil and could do -so again if necessary, but he couldn’t rest until he had spent that -fortune. He spent a million and got the “rest.” Returning to Oildom -“dead broke,” he secured the position of baggage-master at Rouseville -station. He attended to his duties punctually, was a model of domestic -virtue and a most popular, obliging official. Happily his wife had saved -something and the reunited couple got along swimmingly. Next he opened a -meat-market at Franklin, built up a nice business, sold the shop and -moved to Ashland, Nebraska. He farmed, laid up money and entered the -service of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad some years ago as -baggage-master. His manly son, whom he educated splendidly, is -telegraph-operator at Ashland station. The father, “steady as a clock,” -is industrious, reliable and deservedly esteemed. Recently a fresh crop -of stories regarding him has been circulated, but he minds his own -affairs and is not one whit puffed up that the latest rival of Pears and -Babbitt has just brought out a brand of “Coal-Oil Johnnie Soap.” - -John McClintock’s farm of two-hundred acres, east of Steele and south of -Rynd, Chase & Alden leased in September of 1859, for one-half the oil. -B. R. Alden was a naval officer, disabled from wounds received in -California, and an oil-seeker at Cuba, New York. A hundred wells -rendered the farm extremely productive. The Anderson, sunk in 1861 near -the southeast corner, on Cherry Run, flowed constantly three years, -waning gradually from two-hundred barrels to twenty. Efforts to stop the -flow in 1862, when oil dropped to ten or fifteen cents, merely imbued it -with fresh vigor. Anderson thought the oil-business had gone to the -bow-wows and deemed himself lucky to get seven-thousand dollars in the -fall for the well. It earned one-hundred-thousand dollars subsequently -and then sold for sixty-thousand. The Excelsior produced fifty-thousand -barrels before the interference with the Hammond destroyed both. The -Wheeler, Wright & Hall, Alice Lee, Jew, Deming, Haines and Taft wells -were choice specimens. William and Robert Orr’s Auburn Oil-Works and the -Pennechuck Refinery chucked six-hundred barrels a week into the stills. -The McClintocks have migrated from Venango. Some are in heaven, some in -Crawford county and some in the west. If Joseph Cooke’s conundrum—“Does -Death End All?”—be negatived, there ought to be a grand reunion when -they meet in the New Jerusalem and talk over their experiences on Oil -Creek. - -[Illustration: SAMUEL Q. BROWN, FOSTER W. MITCHELL, JOHN L. MITCHELL] - - SAMUEL Q. BROWN - FOSTER W. MITCHELL - JOHN L. MITCHELL - -Eight miles east of Titusville, at Enterprise, John L. and Foster W. -Mitchell, sons of a pioneer settler of Allegheny township, were -lumbering and merchandising in 1859. They had worked on the farm and -learned blacksmithing from their father. The report of Col. Drake’s -well stirred the little hamlet. John L. Mitchell mounted a horse and -rode at a John-Gilpin gallop to lease Archibald Buchanan’s big farm, -on both sides of Oil Creek and Cherry Run. The old man agreed to his -terms, a lease was executed, the rosy-cheeked mistress and all the -pupils in the log school-house who could write witnessed the -signatures and Mitchell rode back with the document in his pocket. He -also leased John Buchanan’s two hundred acres, south of Archibald -Buchanan’s three-hundred on the same terms—one-fourth the oil for -ninety years. Forming a partnership with Henry R. Rouse and Samuel Q. -Brown, he “kicked down” the first well in 1860 to the first sand. It -pumped ten barrels a day and was bought by A. Potter, who sank it and -another to the third sand in 1861. A three-hundred-barreler for -months, No. 1 changed hands four times, was bought in 1865 by Gould & -Stowell and produced oil—it pumped for fifteen years—that sold for -two-hundred-and-ninety-thousand dollars! This veteran was the third or -fourth producing well in the region. The Curtis, usually considered -“the first flowing-well,” in July of 1860 spouted freely at -two-hundred feet. It was not tubed and surface-water soon mastered the -flow of oil. The Brawley—sixty-thousand barrels in eight months—Goble -& Flower, Shaft and Sherman were moguls of 1861-2. Beech & Gillett, -Alfred Willoughby, Taylor & Rockwell, Shreve & Glass, Allen Wright, -Wesley Chambers—his infectious laugh could be heard five squares—and a -host of companies operated in 1861-2-3. Franklin S. Tarbell, E. M. -Hukell, E. C. Bradley, Harmon Camp, George Long and J. T. Jones -arrived later. The territory was singularly profitable. Mitchell & -Brown erected a refinery, divided the tracts into hundreds of -acre-plots for leases and laid out the town of Buchanan Farm. Allen -Wright, president of a local oil-company, in February of 1861 printed -his letter-heads “Rouseville” and the name was adopted unanimously. - -Rouseville grew swiftly and for a time was headquarters of the oil -industry. Churches and schools arose, good people feeling that man lives -not by oil alone any more than by bread. Dwellings extended up Cherry -Run and the slopes of Mt. Pisgah. Wells and tanks covered the flats and -there were few drones in the busy hive. If Satan found mischief for the -idle only, he would have starved in Rouseville. Stores and shops -multiplied. James White fitted up an opera-house and C. L. Stowell -opened a bank. Henry Patchen conducted the first hotel. N. W. Read -enacted the role of “Petroleum V. Nasby, wich iz postmaster.” The -receipts in 1869 exceeded twenty-five-thousand dollars. Miss Nettie -Dickinson, afterwards in full charge of the money-order department at -Pittsburg and partner with Miss Annie Burke in a flourishing Oil-City -bookstore, ran the office in an efficient style Postmaster-General -Wilson would have applauded. Yet moss-backed croakers in pants, left -over from the Pliocene period, think the gentle sex has no business with -business! The town reached high-water mark early in the seventies, the -population grazing nine-thousand. Production declined, new fields -attracted live operators and in 1880 the inhabitants numbered -seven-hundred, twice the present figure. Rouseville will go down in -history as an oil-town noted for progressiveness, intelligence, crooked -streets and girls “pretty as a picture.” - - You could always count on a lively rustle— - The boys knew how to get up and hustle, - And of course the girls had plenty of bustle. - -[Illustration: WESLEY CHAMBERS.] - -The Buchanan-Farm Oil-Company purchased Mitchell & Brown’s interest and -the Buchanan Royalty Oil-Company acquired the one-fourth held by the -land-owners. Both realized heavily, the Royalty Company paying its -stock-holders—Arnold Plumer, William Haldeman and Dr. C. E. Cooper were -principals—about a million dollars. The senior Buchanan, after receiving -two or three-hundred-thousand dollars—fifty times the sum he would ever -have gained farming—often denounced “th’ pirates that robbed an old man, -buyin’ th’ farm he could ’ave sold two year later fur two millyun!” The -old man has been out of pirate range twenty-five years and the Buchanan -families are scattered. Most of the old-time operators have handed in -their final account. Poor Fred Rockwell has mouldered into dust. Wright, -Camp, Taylor, Beech, Long, Shreve, Haldeman, Hostetter, Cooper, Col. -Gibson and Frank Irwin are “grav’d in the hollow ground.” Death claimed -“Hi” Whiting in Florida and last March stilled the cheery voice of -Wesley Chambers. The earnest, pleading tones of the Rev. R. M. Brown -will be heard no more this side the walls of jasper and the gates of -pearl. Scores moved to different parts of the country. John L. Mitchell -married Miss Hattie A. Raymond and settled at Franklyn. He organized the -Exchange Bank in 1871 and was its president until ill-health obliged him -to resign. Foster W. Mitchell also located at the county-seat and built -the Exchange Hotel. He operated extensively on Oil Creek and in the -northern districts, developed the Shaw Farm and established a bank at -Rouseville, subsequently transferring it to Oil City. He was active in -politics and in the producers’ organizations, treasurer of the -Centennial Commission and an influential force in the Oil-Exchange. -David H. Mitchell likewise gained a fortune in oil, founded a bank and -died at Titusville. Samuel Q. Brown, their relative and associate in -various undertakings, was a merchant and banker at Pleasantville. -Retiring from these pursuits, he removed to Philadelphia and then to New -York to oversee the financial work of the Tidewater Pipe-Line. He -procured the charter for the first pipe-line and acquired a fortune by -his business-talent and wise management. - - “Let Hercules himself do what he may, - The cat will mew, the dog will have his day.” - -Born in New York in 1824, Henry R. Rouse studied law, taught school in -Warren county and engaged in lumbering and storekeeping at Enterprise. -He served in the legislatures of 1859-60, acquitting himself manfully. -Promptly catching the inspiration of the hour, he shared with William -Barnsdall and Boone Meade the honor of putting down the third oil-well -in Pennsylvania. With John L. Mitchell and Samuel Q. Brown he leased the -Buchanan farm and invested in oil-lands generally. Fabulous wealth began -to reward his efforts. Had he lived “he would have been a giant or a -bankrupt in petroleum.” Operations on the John Buchanan farm were pushed -actively. Near the upper line of the farm, on the east side of Oil -Creek, at the foot of the hill, Merrick & Co. drilled a well in 1861, -eight rods from the Wadsworth. On April seventeenth, at the depth of -three-hundred feet, gas, water and oil rushed up, fairly lifting the -tools out of the hole. The evening was damp and the atmosphere -surcharged with gas. People ran with shovels to dig trenches and throw -up a bank to hold the oil, no tanks having been provided. Mr. Rouse and -George H. Dimick, his clerk and cashier, with six others, had eaten -supper and were sitting in Anthony’s Hotel discussing the fall of Fort -Sumter. A laborer at the Merrick well bounded into the room to say that -a vein of oil had been struck and barrels were wanted. All ran to the -well but Dimick, who went to send barrels. Finishing this errand, he -hastened towards the well. A frightful explosion hurled him to the -earth. Smouldering coals under the Wadsworth boiler had ignited the gas. -In an instant the two wells, tanks and an acre of ground saturated with -oil were in flames, enveloping ninety or a hundred persons. Men digging -the ditch or dipping the oil wilted like leaves in a gale. Horrible -shrieks rent the air. Dense volumes of black smoke ascended. Tongues of -flame leaped hundreds of feet. One poor fellow, charred to the bone, -died screaming with agony over his supposed arrival in hell. Victims -perished scarcely a step from safety. Rouse stood near the derrick at -the fatal moment. Blinded by the first flash, he stumbled forward and -fell into the marshy soil. Throwing valuable papers and a wallet of -money beyond the circuit of fire, he struggled to his feet, groped a -dozen paces and fell again. Two men dashed into the sea of flame and -dragged him forth, his flesh baked and his clothing a handful of shreds. -He was carried to a shanty and gasped through five hours of excruciating -torture. His wonderful self-possession never deserted him, no word or -act betraying his fearful suffering. Although obliged to sip water from -a spoon at every breath, he dictated a concise will, devising the bulk -of his estate in trust to improve the roads and benefit the poor of -Warren county. Relatives and intimate friends, his clerk and hired boy, -the men who bore him from the broiling furnace and honest debtors were -remembered. This dire calamity blotted out nineteen lives and disfigured -thirteen men and boys permanently. The blazing oil was smothered with -dirt the third day. Tubing was put in the well, which flowed -ten-thousand barrels in a week and then ceased. Nothing is left to mark -the scene of the sad tragedy. The Merrick, Wadsworth, Haldeman, Clark & -Banks, Trundy, Comet and Imperial wells, the tanks and the dwellings -have been obliterated. Dr. S. S. Christy—he was Oil City’s first -druggist—Allen Wright, N. F. Jones, W. B. Williams and William H. -Kinter, five of the six witnesses to Rouse’s remarkable will, are in -eternity, Z. Martin alone remaining. - -Warren’s greatest benefactor, the interest of the half-million dollars -Rouse bequeathed to the county has improved roads, constructed bridges -and provided a poor-house at Youngsville. Rouse was distinguished for -noble traits, warm impulses, strong attachments, energy and decision of -character. He dispensed his bounty lavishly. It was a favorite habit to -pick up needy children, furnish them with clothes and shoes and send -them home with baskets of provisions. He did not forget his days of -trial and poverty. His religious views were peculiar. While reverencing -the Creator, he despised narrow creeds, deprecated popular notions of -worship and had no dread of the hereafter. To a preacher, in the little -group that watched his fading life, who desired an hour before the end -to administer consolation, he replied: “My account is made up. If I am a -debtor, it would be cowardly to ask for credit now. I do not care to -discuss the matter.” He directed that his funeral be without display, -that no sermon be preached and that he be laid beside his mother at -Westfield, New York. Thus lived and died Henry R. Rouse, of small -stature and light frame, but dowered with rare talents and heroic soul. -Perhaps at the Judgment Day, when deeds outweigh words, many a strict -Pharisee may wish he could change places with the man whose memory the -poor devoutly bless. As W. A. Croffut has written of James Baker in “The -Mine at Calumet”: - - “‘Perfess’? He didn’t perfess. He hed - One simple way all through— - He merely practiced an’ he sed - That that wud hev to do. - ‘Under conviction’? The idee! - He never done a thing - To be convicted fer. Why, he - Wuz straighter than a string.” - -Seventy-five wells were drilled on Hamilton McClintock’s four-hundred -acres in 1860-1. Here was Cary’s “oil-spring” and expectations of big -wells soared high. The best yielded from one-hundred to three-hundred -barrels a day. Low prices and the war led to the abandonment of the -smaller brood. A company bought the farm in 1864. McClintockville, a -promising village on the flat, boasted two refineries, stores, a hotel -and the customary accessories, of which the bridge over Oil Creek is the -sole reminder. Near the upper boundary of the farm the Reno Railroad -crossed the valley on a giddy center-trestle and timber abutments, not a -splinter of which remains. General Burnside, the distinguished -commander, superintended the construction of this mountain-line, -designed to connect Reno and Pithole and never completed. Occasionally -the dignified general would be hailed by a soldier who had served under -him. It was amusing to behold a greasy pumper, driller or teamster step -up, clap Burnside on the shoulder, grasp his hand and exclaim: “Hello, -General! Deuced glad to see you! I was with you at Fredericksburg! Come -and have a drink!” - -The Clapp farm of five-hundred acres had a fair allotment of long-lived -wells. George H. Bissell and Arnold Plumer bought the lower half, in the -closing days of 1859, from Ralph Clapp. The Cornplanter Oil Company -purchased the upper half. The Hemlock, Cuba, Cornwall—a -thousand-barreler—and Cornplanter, on the latter section, were notably -productive. The Williams, Stanton, McKee, Elizabeth and Star whooped it -up on the Bissell-Plumer division. Much of the oil in 1862-3 was from -the second sand. Four refineries flourished and the tract coined money -for its owners. A mile east was the prolific Shaw farm, which put -two-hundred-thousand dollars into Foster W. Mitchell’s purse. Graff & -Hasson’s one-thousand acres, part of the land granted Cornplanter in -1796, had a multitude of medium wells that produced year after year. In -1818 the Indian chief, who loved fire-water dearly, sold his reservation -to William Connely, of Franklin, and William Kinnear, of Centre county, -for twenty-one-hundred-and-twenty-one dollars. Matthias Stockberger -bought Connely’s half in 1824 and, with Kinnear and Reuben Noyes, -erected the Oil-Creek furnace, a foundry, mill, warehouses and -steamboat-landing at the east side of the mouth of the stream. William -and Frederick Crary acquired the business in 1825 and ran it ten years. -William and Samuel Bell bought it in 1835 and shut down the furnace in -1849. The Bell heirs sold it to Graff, Hasson & Co. in 1856 for -seven-thousand dollars. James Hasson located on the property with his -family and farmed five years. Graff & Hasson sold three-hundred -acres in 1864 to the United Petroleum Farms Association for -seven-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars. James Halyday settled on the -east side in 1803. His son James, the first white baby in the -neighborhood, was born in 1809. The Bannon family came in the forties, -Thomas Moran built the Moran House—it still lingers—in 1845 and died in -1857. Dr. John Nevins arrived in 1850 and in the fall of 1852 John P. -Hopewell started a general store. Hiram Gordon opened the “Red Lion -Inn,” Samuel Thomas shod horses and three or four families occupied -small habitations. And this was the place, when 1860 dawned, that was to -become the petroleum-metropolis and be known wherever men have heard a -word of “English as she is spoke.” - -Cornplanter was the handle of the humble settlement, towards which a -stampede began with the first glimmer of spring. To trace the uprising -of dwellings, stores, wharves and boarding-houses would be as difficult -as perpetual motion. People huddled in shanties and lived on barges -moored to the bank. Derricks peered up behind the houses, thronged the -marshy flats, congregated on the slopes, climbed the precipitous bluffs -and established a foothold on every ledge of rock. Pumping-wells and -flowing-wells scented the atmosphere with gas and the smell of crude. -Smoke from hundreds of engine-houses, black, sooty and defiling, -discolored the grass and foliage. Mud was everywhere, deep, unlimited, -universal—yellow mud from the newer territory—dark, repulsive, oily mud -around the wells—sticky, tricky, spattering mud on the streets and in -the yards. J. B. Reynolds, of Clarion county, and Calvin and William J. -McComb, of Pittsburg, opened the first store under the new order of -things in March of 1860. T. H. and William M. Williams joined the firm. -They withdrew to open the Pittsburg store next door. Robson’s -hardware-store was farther up the main street, on the east side, which -ended abruptly at Cottage Hill. William P. Baillee—he lives in -Detroit—and William Janes built the first refinery, on the same street, -in 1861, a year of unexampled activity. The plant, which attracted -people from all parts of the country—Mr. Baillee called it a -“pocket-still”—was enlarged into a refinery of five stills, with an -output of two-hundred barrels of refined oil every twenty-four hours. -Fire destroyed it and the firm built another on the flats near by. On -the west side, at the foot of a steep cliff, Dr. S. S. Christy opened a -drug-store. Houses, shops, offices, hotels and saloons hung against the -side of the hill or sat loosely on heaps of earth by the creek and -river. One evening a half-dozen congenial spirits met in Williams & -Brother’s store. J. B. Reynolds, afterwards a banker, who died several -years since, thought Cornplanter ought to be discarded and a new name -given the growing town. He suggested one which was heartily approved. -Liquid refreshments were ordered and the infant was appropriately -baptized OIL CITY. - -[Illustration: MAIN STREET, EAST SIDE OF OIL CREEK, OIL CITY, IN 1861.] - -Peter Graff was laid to rest years ago. The venerable James Hasson -sleeps in the Franklin cemetery. His son, Captain William Hasson, is an -honored resident of the city that owes much to his enterprise and -liberality. Capable, broad-minded and trustworthy, he has been earnest -in promoting the best interests of the community, the region and the -state. A recent benefaction was his splendid gift of a public park—forty -acres—on Cottage Hill. He was the first burgess and served with -conspicuous ability in the council and the legislature. Alike as a -producer, banker, citizen, municipal officer and lawgiver, Captain -Hasson has shown himself “every inch a manly man.” - -When you talk of any better town than Oil City, of any better section -than the oil-regions, of any better people than the oilmen, of any -better state than Pennsylvania, “every potato winks its eye, every -cabbage shakes its head, every beet grows red in the face, every onion -gets stronger, every sheaf of grain is shocked, every stalk of rye -strokes its beard, every hill of corn pricks up its ears, every foot of -ground kicks” and every tree barks in indignant dissent. - -Such was the narrow ravine, nowhere sixty rods in width, that figured so -grandly as the Valley of Petroleum. - -[Illustration: FARMS ON OIL CREEK, VENANGO COUNTY, PA., IN 1860-65.] - - A SPLASH ON OIL CREEK. - - The dark mud of Oil Creek! Unbeautiful mud, - That couldn’t and wouldn’t be nipped in the bud! - Quite irreclaimable, - Wholly untamable; - There it was, not a doubt of it, - People couldn’t keep out of it; - On all sides they found it, - So deep none dare sound it— - No way to get ’round it. - To their necks babies crept in it, - To their chins big men stept in it; - Ladies—bless the sweet martyrs! - Plung’d far over their garters; - Girls had no exemption, - Boys sank past redemption; - To their manes horses stall’d in it, - To their ear-tips mules sprawl’d in it! - It couldn’t be chain’d off, - It wouldn’t be drain’d off; - It couldn’t be tied up, - It wouldn’t be dried up; - It couldn’t be shut down, - It wouldn’t be cut down. - Riders gladly abroad would have shipp’d it, - Walkers gladly at home would have skipp’d it. - Frost bak’d it, - Heat cak’d it; - To batter wheels churned it, - To splashes rains turned it, - Bad teamsters gol-durned it! - Each snow-flake and dew-drop, each shower and flood - Just seem’d to infuse it with lots of fresh blood, - Increasing production, - Increasing the ruction, - Increasing the suction! - Ev’ry flat had its fill of it, - Ev’ry slope was a hill of it, - Ev’ry brook was a rill of it; - Ev’ry yard had three feet of it, - Ev’ry road was a sheet of it; - Ev’ry farm had a field of it, - Ev’ry town had a yield of it. - No use to glare at it, - No use to swear at it; - No use to get mad about it, - No use to feel sad about it; - No use to sit up all night scheming - Some intricate form of blaspheming; - No use in upbraiding— - You _had_ to go wading, - Till wearied humanity, - Run out of profanity, - Found rest in insanity; - Or winged its bright way—unless dropp’d with a thud— - To the land of gold pavements and no Oil-Creek mud! - -[Illustration: - - WELLS ON BENNINGHOFF RUN, VENANGO COUNTY, PA., IN 1866. - [From a photograph taken one hour before they were destroyed by - lightning.] -] - - - - - VIII. - PICKING RIPE CHERRIES. - -JUICY STREAKS BORDERING OIL CREEK—FAMOUS BENNINGHOFF ROBBERY—CLOSE CALL - FOR A FORTUNE—CITY SET UPON A HILL—ALEMAGOOSELUM TO THE FRONT—CHERRY - RUN’S WHIRLIGIG—ROMANCE OF THE REED WELL—SMITH AND MCFATE - FARMS—PLEASANTVILLE, SHAMBURG AND RED HOT—EXPERIENCES NOT UNWORTHY - OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS. - - ---------- - -“Who can view the ripened rose, nor seek to wear it?”—_Byron._ - -“Black’s not so black, nor white so very white.”—_Canning._ - -“Wild and eerie is the story, but it is true as Truth.”—_Hall Caine._ - -“No two successes ever were alike.”—_Hawthorne._ - -“There is nothing so great as the collection of the minute.”—_Vitus - Auctor._ - - “The toad beneath the harrow knows - Exactly where each tooth-point goes.”—_Kipling._ - -“The crop is always greater on the lands of another.”—_Ovid._ - -“It didn’t rain, the water simply fell out of the clouds.”—_Cy Warman._ - -“There are days when every stream is Pachlus and every man is - Crœsus.”—_Richard Le Gallienne._ - -“We shall not fail, if we stand firm.”—_Abraham Lincoln._ - - ---------- - - -[Illustration: JOHN BENNINGHOFF, HARKINS WELLS ON BENNINGHOFF FARM] - -Rich pickings, luscious as the clustering grapes beyond the fox’s reach, -were not limited to the wonderful Valley of Petroleum. Live operators -quickly learned that big wells could be found away from the low banks of -Oil Creek. Anon they climbed the hills, ascended the ravines and invaded -the near townships. Very naturally the tributary streams were favored at -first, until experience inspired courage and altitude failed to be a -serious obstacle. In this way many juicy streaks were encountered, -broadening men’s ideas and the area of profitable developments to a -marvelous degree. Alaska nuggets are fly-specks compared with the golden -spoil garnered from oil-wells on scores of farms in Allegheny, -Cherrytree and Cornplanter. Tales of the petroleum-seesaw’s ups and -downs, without any “mixture rank of midnight weeds” that savor of -“something rotten in Denmark,” need no Klondyker’s imagination, -measureless as the ice-floes of the Yukon, to awaken interest and be -worthy of attention. - -By the side of the romance, the pathos, the tragedy and the startling -incidents of the oil-regions thirty years ago the gold-excitements of -California and Australia and the diamond-fever of South Africa are tame -and vapid. Prior to the oil-development settlers in the back-townships -lived very sparingly. Children grew up simple-minded and untutored. The -sale of a pig or a calf or a turkey was an event looked forward to for -months. Petroleum made not a few of these rustics wealthy. Families that -had never seen ten dollars suddenly owned hundreds-of-thousands. -Lawless, reckless, wicked communities sprang up. The close of the war -flooded the region with paper-currency and bold adventurers. Leadville -or Cheyenne at its zenith was a camp-meeting compared with Pithole, -Petroleum Centre or Babylon. Men and women of every degree of decency -and degradation huddled as closely as the pig-tailed Celestials in -Chinatown. Millions of dollars were lost in bogus stock-companies. -American history records no other such era of riotous extravagance. The -millionaire and the beggar of to-day might change places to-morrow. -Blind chance and consummate rascality were equally potent. Of these -centers of sin and speculation, strange transformations and wild -excesses, scarcely a trace remains. Where hosts of fortune-seekers and -devotees of pleasure strove and struggled nothing is to be seen save the -bare landscape, a growth of underbrush or a grassy field. Sodom was not -blotted out more completely than Pithole, the type of many oil-towns -that have been utterly exterminated. - -North and west of the lower McElhenny farm, at the bend in Oil Creek, -lay John Benninghoff’s two big blocks of land, through which Benninghoff -Run flowed southward. Pioneer Run crossed the north-east corner of the -property, the greater part of which was on the hills. Five acres on Oil -Creek and the slopes on Pioneer Run were first developed. Leases for a -cash-bonus and liberal royalty were gobbled greedily. Up Benninghoff Run -and back of the hills operations spread. For one piece of ground the -owner declined tempting offers, because he would not permit his -potato-patch to be trodden down! Some wells pumped and some flowed from -twenty-five to three-hundred barrels a day seven days in the week. -William Jenkins, the Huidekoper Oil-Company, the DeKalb Oil-Company and -Edward Harkins had regular bonanzas. The Lady Herman, which Robert -Herman had the politeness to name for his wife, was a genuine beauty. -The first well ever cased and the first pump-station—it hoisted oil to -Shaffer—were on the hillside at the mouth of Benninghoff Run. The -platoon of wells in the illustration of that locality, as they appeared -in 1866, includes these and a hint of the barn beside the homestead. The -busy scene—pictured now for the first time—was photographed within an -hour of its obliteration. The artist had not finished packing his outfit -when lightning struck one of the derricks and a disastrous fire swept -the hill as bare as Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard! Wealth deluged the -thrifty land-holder, oil converting his broad acres into a veritable -Golconda. He awoke one morning to find himself rich. He was awakened one -night to find himself famous, the newspapers devoting whole pages—under -“scare-heads”—to the unpretending farmer in the southern end of Cherry -tree. “And thereby hangs a tale.” - -Suspicious of banks, Benninghoff stored his money at home. Purchasing a -cheap safe, he placed it in a corner of the sitting-room and stocked it -with a half-million dollars in gold and greenbacks! Cautious friends -warned him to be careful, lest thieves might “break through and steal.” -James Saeger, of Saegertown, a handsome, popular young fellow, who -sometimes played cards, heard of the treasure in the flimsy receptacle. -“Jim” belonged to a respectable family and had been a merchant at -Meadville. Napoleon melted silver statues of the apostles to put the -precious metal in circulation and Saeger concluded to give Benninghoff’s -pile an airing. He spoke to George Miller of the ease with which the -safe could be cracked and engaged two Baltimore burglars, McDonald and -Elliott, to manage the job. Jacob Shoppert, of Saegertown, and Henry -Geiger, who worked for Benninghoff and slept in the house, were -enlisted. The deed, planned with extreme care not to miss fire, was -fixed for a night when Joseph Benninghoff, the son, was to attend a -dance. - -On Thursday evening, January sixteenth, 1868, Saeger, Shoppert, -McDonald and Elliott left Saegertown in a two-horse sleigh for -Petroleum Centre, twenty-nine miles distant. At midnight they knocked -at Benninghoff’s door. Geiger answered the rap and was quickly gagged, -said to be as arranged previously. John Benninghoff, his wife and -daughter were bound and the experts proceeded to open the safe. The -frail structure was soon ransacked. The marauders bundled up their -booty, sampled Mrs. Benninghoff’s pies, drank a gallon of milk and -departed at their leisure, leaving the inmates of the house securely -tied. Joseph returned in an hour or two and relieved the prisoners -from their unpleasant predicament. An examination of the safe showed -that two-hundred-and-sixty-five-thousand dollars had been taken! The -bulk of this was in gold. A package of two-hundred-thousand dollars, -in large bills, done up in a brown paper, the looters passed -unnoticed! The alarm was given, the wires flashed the news everywhere -and the press teemed with sensational reports. By noon on Friday the -oil-regions had been set agog and people all over the United States -were talking of “the Great Benninghoff Robbery.” - -Saegar and his pals drove back and stopped at Louis Warlde’s hotel to -divide the spoils. McDonald, Elliott and Saeger took the lion’s share, -Geiger and Shoppert received smaller sums and Warlde accepted -thirteen-hundred dollars for his silence. The Baltimore toughs lingered -in the neighborhood a week and then sought the wintry climate of Canada, -Saeger staying around home. Intense excitement prevailed. Hundreds of -detectives, eager to gain reputation and the reward of ten-thousand -dollars, spun theories and looked wise. Ex-Chief-of-Police Hague, of -Pittsburg, was especially alert. For three months the search was vain. -George Miller, whom McDonald wished to put out of the road “to keep his -mouth shut,” in a quarrel with Saeger over a game of cards, blurted out: -“I know about the Benninghoff robbery!” Saeger pacified Miller with a -thousand dollars, which the latter scattered quickly. Jacob Shoppert was -his boon companion and the pair spent money at a rate that caused -officers to shadow them. Shoppert visited a town on the edge of Ohio and -was arrested. Calling for a pen and paper, he wrote to Louis Warlde, the -Saegertown hotel-keeper, reproaching him for not sending money. The -jailer handed the detectives the letter, on the strength of which -Warlde, who had started a brewery in Ohio, and Miller were arrested. The -three were convicted and sentenced to a short term in the penitentiary. -Geiger’s complicity in the plot could not be proved beyond a doubt and -he was acquitted. Officer Hague captured McDonald and Elliott in -Toronto, but Canadian lawyers picked flaws in the papers and they could -not be extradited. Escaping to Europe, they were heard of no more. -Saeger, who had not been suspected until after his departure, went west -and was lost sight of for many a day. - -Three years later a noted cattle king of the Texas-Colorado trail -entered a saloon in Denver to treat a party of friends. The bar-tender, -Gus. Peiflee, formerly of Meadville, recognized the customer as “Jim.” -Saeger. He telegraphed east and Chief-of-Police Rouse, of Titusville, -posted off to Denver with Joseph Benninghoff. They secured -extradition-papers and arrested Saeger, who coolly remarked: “You’ll be -a devilish sight older before you see me in Pennsylvania.” Their lawyers -informed them that a hundred of Saeger’s cowboys were in the -city—reckless, lawless fellows, certain to kill whoever attempted to -take him away. Rouse and Benninghoff dropped the matter and returned -alone. Saeger is living in Texas, prosperous and respected. He is just -in his dealings, a bountiful giver, and not long ago sent five-thousand -dollars to the widow of George Miller. Perhaps he may yet turn up in -Washington as Congressman or United-States Senator. This is the story of -a robbery that attracted more attention than the first woman in -bloomers. - -John Benninghoff was born in Lehigh county, where his ancestors were -among the first German immigrants, on Christmas Day, 1801. His father, -Frederick Benninghoff, settled near New Berlin, Union county, in John’s -boyhood. There the son married Elizabeth Heise in 1825 and in 1828 -located on a farm near Oldtown, Clearfield county. Thence he removed to -Venango county, living close to Cherry tree village four years. In 1836 -he bought a piece of land on the south border of Cherrytree township, -near what was to become Petroleum Centre. He added to his purchase as -his means permitted, until he owned about three-hundred acres, with -solid buildings and modern improvements. He was in easy circumstances -prior to the oil-developments that enriched him. Contrary to the general -opinion, the robbery did not impoverish him, as one-half the money was -untouched. His twelve children—eight boys and four girls—grew up and -eight are still living. Selling his farms in Venango, he removed to -Greenville, Mercer county, in the spring of 1868 and died in March, -1882. At his death he had sixty-one grandchildren and fifteen -great-grandchildren. He left his family a large estate. The Benninghoff -farms, so far as oil is concerned, are utterly deserted. - -West and north of Benninghoff were the farms of John and R. Stevenson. -On the former, extending south to Oil Creek, Reuben Painter, a live -operator, drilled a well in 1863. The contractor reporting it dry, -Painter moved the machinery and surrendered the lease. He and his -brothers operated profitably in Butler and McKean counties, Reuben dying -at Olean in 1892. In November of 1864 the Ocean Oil-Company of -Philadelphia bought John Stevenson’s lands. The Ocean well began flowing -at a six-hundred-barrel pace on September first, 1865, with the Arctic a -good second. Fifty others varied from fifty to two-hundred barrels. -Thomas McCool built a refinery and the farm paid the company about -two-thousand per cent! The principal wells on both Stevenson tracts -clustered far above the flats, the derricks and buildings resembling “a -city set on a hill.” Major Mills, justly proud of his King of the Hills, -an elegant producer, delighted to visit it with his wife and two young -daughters, one of them now Mrs. John D. Archbold, of New York. Painter’s -supposed dry-hole, drilled seventeen feet deeper, gushed furiously, -proving to be the best well in the collection! Said the Ocean manager, -as he watched the oily stream ascend “higher ’n a steeple”: “A million -dollars wouldn’t touch one side of this property!” Sinking a four-inch -hole seventeen feet farther would have given Reuben Painter this -splendid return two years earlier! He missed a million dollars by only -seventeen feet! A Gettysburg soldier, from whose nose a rifle-ball -shaved a piece of cuticle the size of a pin-head, wittily observed: -“That shot came mighty near missing me!” Inverting this remark, Painter -had cause to exclaim: “That million came mighty near hitting me!” - - “A miss is as good as a mile.” - -Various companies bored three-hundred wells on Cherrytree Run and its -tiny branches without jarring the trade particularly. Prolific strikes -on the Niagara tract, in the rear of the Benninghoff lands, added to the -wealth of Phillips Brothers. Kane City, two miles north of Rynd, raised -Cain in mild style, “wearing like leather.” Farther back D. W. Kenney’s -wells, lively as the Kilkenny cats, stirred a current that wafted in -Alemagooselum City. Its unique name, the biggest feature of the “City,” -was worked out by Kenney, a fun-loving genius, known far and wide as -“Mayor of Alemagooselum.” He and his wells and town have long been “out -of sight.” Kane City casts an attenuated shadow. - -[Illustration: ELLS ON THE NIAGARA TRACT, CHERRYTREE RUN.] - -Rev. William Elliott, who united in one package the fervor of Paul and -the snap of Ebenezer Elliott, “the Corn-Law Rhymer,” lived and preached -at Rynd. He organized a Sunday-school in Kenney’s parish, which a devout -settler undertook to superintend. At the close of the regular service on -the opening day, Mr. Elliott asked the pious ruralist to “say a few -words.” The good man, wishing to clinch the lesson—about Mary -Magdalene—in the minds of the youngsters, implored them to follow the -example of “Miss Magdolin.” The older brood tittered at this -Hibernianism, the laugh swelled into a cloudburst. Mr. Elliott nearly -swallowed his pocket-handkerchief trying to shut in his smiles and a new -query was born, which had a long run. It was fired at every visitor to -the settlement. Small boys hurled it at the defenceless superintendent, -who resigned his job and broke up the school the next Sunday. Possibly -Br’er Elliott, when ushered into Heaven, would not be one whit surprised -to hear some white-winged cherub from Alemagooselum sing out: “Say, do -you know Miss Mag Dolin?” - -[Illustration: FISHING OUT THE PREACHER’S HORSE.] - -The scanty herbage on the tail of the parson’s horse gave rise to -endless surmises. The animal stranded in a mud-hole and keeled over on -his side. Four sturdy fellows tried to fish him out. In his misguided -zeal one of the rescuers, tugging at the caudal appendage, pulled so -hard that half the hair peeled off, leaving the denuded nag a fitting -mate for Tam O’Shanter’s tailless Meg. - -A Kane-City youngster prayed every morning and night that a well her -father was drilling would be a good one. It was a hopeless failure, -finished the day before Christmas. The result disturbed the child -exceedingly. That night, as the loving mother was preparing her for bed, -the little girl observed: “I dess it’s no use prayin’ till after Kismas, -’cos God’s so busy helpin’ Santa Claus He hasn’t time for nobody else!” - -[Illustration: - - VAMPIRE AND WADE WELLS-CHERRY RUN - OLD REED WELL - W. REED - ROUSEVILLE 1868 - MT. PISCAH, NEAR ROUSEVILLE -] - -Cherry Run, once the ripest cherry in the orchard, had a satisfactory -run. A spice of romance flavored its actual realities. Not two miles up -the stream William Reed, in 1863, drilled a dry-hole six-hundred feet -deep. Two miles farther, in the vicinity of Plumer, a test well was sunk -seven-hundred feet, with no better result. Wells near the mouth of the -ravine produced very lightly. Fifty-thousand dollars would have been an -extreme price for all the land from Rouseville to Plumer, the tasteful -village Henry McCalmont named in honor of Arnold Plumer. In May of 1864 -Taylor & Rockwell opened a fresh vein on the run. At two-hundred feet -their well threw oil above the derrick and flowed sixty barrels a day -regularly. Operators reversed their opinion of the territory. To the -surprise of his acquaintances, who deemed him demented, Reed started -another well four rods below his failure of the previous year. It was on -the right bank of the run, on a five-acre patch bought from John Rynd in -1861 by Thomas Duff, who sold two acres to Robert Criswell. Reed was not -over-stocked with cash and Criswell joined forces with him to sink the -second well. I. N. Frazer took one-third interest. At the proper depth -the outlook was gloomy. The sand appeared good, but days of pumping -failed to bring oil. On July eighteenth, 1864, the well commenced -flowing three-hundred barrels a day, holding out at this rate for -months. Criswell realized thirty-thousand dollars from his share of the -oil and then sold his one-fourth interest in the land and well for -two-hundred-and-eighty-thousand to the Mingo Oil-Company. He operated in -the Butler field, lived at Monterey, removed to Ohio and died near -Cincinnati. One son, David S., a well-known producer, resides at Oil -City; another, Robert W., is on the editorial staff of a New-York daily. -Frazer sold for one-hundred-thousand dollars and next loomed up as “the -discoverer of Pithole.” Reed sold to Bishop & Bissell for -two-hundred-thousand dollars, after pocketing seventy-five-thousand from -oil. Coming to Venango county with Frederic Prentice in 1859, he drilled -wells by contract, sometimes “a solid Muldoon” and sometimes “a broken -Reed.” He returned east—his birthplace—with the proceeds of the -world-famed well bearing his name. An idea haunted him that Captain -Kidd’s treasure was buried at a certain part of the Atlantic coast. He -boarded at a house on the shore and hunted land and sea for the hidden -deposit. He would dig in the sand, sail out some distance and peer into -the water. One day he went off in his skiff, a storm arose, the boat -drifted away and that was the last ever seen of William Reed. He was a -liberal supporter of the United-Presbyterian church and his nearest -relatives live in the vicinity of Pittsburg. - -The Reed well put Cherry Run at the head of the procession. Within sixty -days it enriched Reed, Criswell and Frazer nearly seven-hundred-thousand -dollars. The new owners drilled three more on the same acre, getting -back every cent of their purchase-money and fifty per cent. extra for -good measure. In other words, the five-acre collection of rocks and -stumps, with eleven producing wells and one duster, harvested -two-million dollars! The Mountain well mounted high, the Phillips & -Egbert was a fillip and the Wadsworth & Wynkoop rolled out oil in wads -worth a wine-coop of gold-eagles. The fever to lease or buy a spot to -plant a derrick burned fiercely. The race to gorge the ravine with rigs -and drilling appliances would shut out Edgar Saltus in his “Pace that -Kills.” Soon three-hundred wells lined the flats and lofty banks -guarding the purling streamlet. Clanking tools, wheezy engines and -creaking pumps assailed the ears. Smoke from a myriad soft-coal fires -attacked the eyes. An endless cavalcade of wagons churned the soil into -vicious batter. The activities of the Foster, McElhenny, Farrell, -Davison and Tarr farms were condensed into one surging, foaming caldron, -quickening the pulse-beats and sending the brain see-sawing. - -Across the run the Curtin Oil-Company farmed out forty acres. The Baker -well, an October biscuit, flowed one-hundred barrels a day all the -winter of 1864-5 and pumped six years. Water, bane of flannel-suits and -uncased oil-wells, deluged it and its neighbors. Hugh Cropsey, a -New-York lawyer and last owner of the well nearest the Baker, “ran -engine,” saved a trifle, pulled up stakes in 1869 and tried his luck at -Pleasantville. Returning to Cherry Run, he resuscitated a well on the -hill and was suffocated by gas in a tank containing a few inches of -fresh crude. His heirs sold me the old well, which pumped nine months -without varying ten gallons in any week and repaid twice its cost. -Unchangeable as the laws of the Medes and Persians, its production was -the steadiest in the chronicles of grease. One Saturday evening N. P. -Stone, superintendent of the St. Nicholas Oil-Company, bought it from me -at the original price. His men took charge of it at noon on Tuesday. At -five o’clock the well quit forever, “too dead to skin!” Cleaning out, -drilling deeper, casing, torpedoing and weeks of pumping could not -persuade it to shed another drop of oil or water. This close shave was a -small by-play in a realistic drama teeming with incidents far stranger -than “The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown.” B. H. Hulseman, president -of the St. Nicholas Oil-Company, was a wealthy leather-merchant in -Philadelphia. He spent much of his time on Cherry Run, lost heavily in -speculations, entered the oil-exchange and died at Oil City. -Kind-hearted, sincere and unpretending, his good remembrance is a legacy -to cherish lovingly. - - “Nothing in his life - Became him like the leaving it; he died - As one who had been studied in his death, - To throw away the dearest thing he owned, - As ’twere a careless trifle.” - -Two-hundred yards above the Baker a half-dozen wells crowded upon a -half-acre. True to its title, the Vampire sucked the life-blood from its -pal and produced bounteously. The Munson, owned by the first sacrifice -to nitro-glycerine, sustained the credit of its environment. The Wade -was the star-performer of the group. James Wade, an Ohio teamster, -earned money hauling oil. Concluding to wade in, he secured a bantam -lease and engaged Thomas Donnelly to drill a well. It surpassed the -Reed, flowing four-hundred barrels a day at the start. Frank Allen, -agent of a gilt-edged New-York company, rode from Oil City to see a well -described to him as “livelier than chasing a greased pig at a -county-fair.” His exalted conceptions of petroleum befitted the -representative of a company capitalized at three-millions, in which -August Belmont, Russell Sage and William B. Astor were said to be -stockholders. The fuming, gassing stream of oil suited him to a t. “I’ll -give you three-hundred-thousand dollars for it,” he said to Wade, whom -the offer well-nigh paralyzed. The two men went into the grocery close -by, Wade signed a transfer of the well and Allen handed him a New-York -draft. The happiest being in the pack, Wade packed his carpet-bag, -hitched his horses to the wagon, bade the boys good-bye and drove to Oil -City to get the paper cashed. He wore greasy clothes and did not wear -the air of a millionaire. “Is Mr. Bennett in?” he asked a clerk at the -bank. “Naw; what do you want?” was the reply. “I want a draft cashed.” -“Oh, you do, eh? I guess I can cash it!” The clerk’s haughty demeanor -fell below zero upon beholding the draft. He invited Wade to be seated. -Mr. Bennett, the urbane cashier, returned in a few moments. The bank -hadn’t half the currency to meet the demand on the instant. Wade left -directions to forward the money to his home in Ohio, where he and his -faithful steeds landed two days later. He bought fine farms for his -brothers and himself, invested two-hundred-thousand dollars in -government-bonds and wisely enjoyed, amid the peaceful scenes of -agricultural life, the fruits of his first and last oil-venture. Few -have been as sensible, for the petroleum-coast is encrusted with -financial wrecks—vast fortunes amassed only to be lost on the perilous -sea of speculation. The world has heard of the _prizes_ in the lottery -of oil, while the _blanks_—tenfold more numerous—are glossed over by the -glamour of the Sherman, Empire, Noble, Phillips, Reed and other wells, -“familiar as household words.” - -[Illustration: PETER P. CORNEN] - -[Illustration: HENRY I. BEERS] - -Thomas Johnson, of Oil City, held one-eighth of the Curtin interest and -Patrick Johnson had a bevy of patrician wells at the summit of the -tallest hill in the valley. The curtain has been rung down, the lights -are out, the players have dispersed and none can hint of “Too Much -Johnson.” The farm of sixty acres adjacent to the Curtin and the -Criswell nook Hamilton McClintock traded to Daniel Smith in 1858 for a -yoke of oxen. Smith sold it in 1860 for five-hundred dollars and sank -the cash in a dry-hole on Oil Creek. P. P. Cornen and Henry I. Beers -bought the farm in 1863 for twenty-five-hundred dollars, clearing -two-millions from the investment. Cornen served as State-Senator in -Connecticut and died in 1893. His sons operate in Warren county and down -the Allegheny. Mr. Beers, who settled at McClintockville, for thirty -years has been prominent in business and politics. He was a California -argonaut, spent three years in San Francisco, built the first house in -that city after the first great fire and revisited the East to marry -“the girl he left behind him” in 1849. The Yankee well, erratic as -George Francis Train, was the first glory of the Smith tract. The Reed -caused a rush for one-acre leases at four-thousand-dollars bonus and -half the oil. Picking up gold-dollars at every step would have been less -lucrative. The wells were stayers and Daniel Smith was not “a Daniel -come to judgment” in his estimate of the farm he implored J. W. Sherman -to buy for two-hundred-and-fifty dollars. - -Cornen & Beers first leased a half-dozen plots six rods square at -one-half royalty. Two New-Englanders and Cyrus A. Cornen, son of Peter -P. Cornen and nephew of Mr. Beers, drilled the first well, the queer -Yankee. Some gas and no oil looked promising for a dry-hole, but the -owners put in small tubing and pumped a plump day. They decided to draw -the tubing, seed-bag higher and try it once more for luck. The tubing -had been raised only a foot when the well flowed “like Mount Vesuvius -spilling lava.” The flow lasted five minutes, stopped twenty, flowed -five more, stopped twenty and kept up this program regularly twenty-one -months. Sixty barrels a day was the average yield month after month, -until one day the Yankee concluded to retire from active duty. Much of -its product sold at ten to thirteen dollars a barrel, enriching all -concerned. The Yankee boomed the crush for leases and was altogether a -tempting plum. The Auburn, the second well on the Smith farm, was a good -second to the Yankee, the Gromiger and Cattaraugus traveled in the -one-hundred-and-fifty-barrel class, while the Watkins toed the -two-hundred mark, with the Aazin and Fry chasing it closely. - -S. S. Watkins, who died at St. Paul in the fall of 1896, was given a lot -for a grocery, with the privilege of sinking one well for half the oil. -He opened the store and sold the oil-right to Wade Brothers for -twenty-five-hundred dollars. The Wades sold one-eighth of the -working-interest to the Pittsburg Petroleum-Company, used the proceeds -to drill the hole and stuck the tools in the third sand. The lookout for -a paying strike was exceedingly poor, but James Wade held on and tubed -the well above the tools. It flowed three-hundred barrels a day and Wade -sold his seven-eighths to Frank Allen, who offered the Pittsburg -Petroleum-Company seventy-five-thousand dollars for its eighth. When the -Wade declined to fifty barrels the company pulled the tubing, moved the -derrick three feet and drilled another, with no better result. Thereupon -the Wade was abandoned, after having netted the Great-Republic -Oil-Company a quarter-million dead loss. In 1864 Cornen & Beers -organized the Cherry-Valley Oil-Company, sold twelve or fifteen leases -and put down all the other wells themselves. The partnership dissolved -in 1876, Mr. Beers maintaining the farm and Mr. Cornen dying at his -Connecticut home in 1893. The Smith rated among the best properties in -the region and it still rewards its fortunate owner with a moderate -production, although merely a shadow of its former greatness. - -[Illustration: PORTER PHIPPS.] - -Blacklegs, thieves and murderers ran little risk of punishment in the -early days of oil-developments, unless they became unusually -obstreperous and were brought to a period with a shot-gun. Scoundrels -lay in wait for victims at every turn and stories of their misdeeds -could be told by the hundred. The McFate farm was one of the first on -Cherry Run to be sold at a fancy price. S. J. McFate, one of the -brothers owning the property, two weeks after the sale in 1862, walked -down to Oil City to draw several-thousand dollars from the bank. He -displayed the money freely and left for home late at night. The road was -dark and lonely and next morning, in a clump of bushes a mile above Oil -City, his lifeless body was discovered. A ghastly wound in the head and -the absence of the money explained the tragedy and the motive. No clue -to the murderer was ever found, although squads of detectives “worked on -the case” and queer fictions regarding the mysterious assassin were -printed in many newspapers. - -Queerly enough, the farms above the Smith were failures. Hundreds of -wells clear up to Plumer never paid the expense of recording the leases. -The territory was a roast for scores of stock-companies. Below Plumer a -mile Bruns & Ludovici, of New York, built the Humboldt Refinery in 1862. -Money was lavished on palatial quarters for the managers, enclosed -grounds, cut-stone walls, a pipe-line to Tarr Farm and the largest -refining capacity in America. Inconvenient location and improved methods -of competitors forced the Humboldt to retire. Part of the machinery was -removed, the structures crumbled and some of the dressed stone forms the -foundations of the National Transit Building at Oil City. Plumer, which -had a grist-mill, store, blacksmith-shop and tavern in 1840 and -four-thousand population in 1866, is quiet as its briar-grown graveyard. -The Brevoort Oil-Company, Murray & Fawcett and John P. Zane raked in -shekels on Moody Run, which emptied into Cherry Run a half-mile -south-west of the Reed well. Zane, whole-souled, resolute and manly, -operated in the northern district and died at Bradford in 1894. A -“forty-niner,” he supported John W. Geary for Mayor of San Francisco, -built street-railways and worked gold-mines in California. He wrote on -finance and petroleum, hated selfishness and stood firmly on the -platform laid down in the beatitudes by the Man of Galilee. - - “The good die first, - And they whose hearts are dry as summer-dust - Burn to the socket.” - -In the winter of 1859-60 Robert Phipps, of Clinton township, sold a -horse to D. Knapp, who owned a farm, “between Plumer and the mouth of -Oil Creek,” that extended across Cherry Run some distance above the -Smith patch. Phipps followed up the horse-sale by paying Knapp -twenty-five dollars and one-eighth the oil for one acre of his land. He -took A. Lowry for a partner, and sent his son, Porter Phipps, and John -Haas, a German blacksmith, to “kick down” a well. Haas constructed a set -of light tools—the augur stem was one-inch iron—lumber for a shanty and -the rig was drawn from Hood’s Mill on Pithole Creek and a forty-foot -hemlock served as a spring-pole. Drilling began in April of 1860 at the -first well on the bank of Cherry Run. Young Phipps would carry the bit -or the reamer daily on his shoulder to be dressed at a blacksmith-shop -on Hamilton McClintock’s farm. The work had continued three months, when -one day the tools struck a crevice at a hundred feet, a gurgling sound -greeted the ears of the expectant drillers and they awaited the flow. -Sulphur-water, not oil, was the outcome and the well was abandoned. -Robert Phipps “exchanged mortality for life” at a ripe old age. His -parents settled in Venango county a century ago and the Phipps family -has always been noted for intelligence and progressiveness. Porter -Phipps, known everywhere as ’Squire, was reared on the farm, had his -initial tussle with oil-wells in 1860 and operated at Bullion and in -Butler county. He is Vice-president of the Monroe Oil-Company and makes -Pittsburg his headquarters. - -[Illustration: DR. G. SHAMBURG.] - -Two miles east of Miller-Farm station, on the eighty-acre tract of -Oliver Stowell, the Cherry-Run Petroleum-Company finished a well in -February of 1866. It was eight-hundred feet deep, drilled through the -sixth sand and pumped one-hundred barrels a day. The company operated -systematically, using heavy tools, tall derricks and large casing. It -was managed by Dr. G. Shamburg, a man of character and ability, who -studied the strata carefully and gathered much valuable data. The second -well equalled No. 1 in productiveness and longevity, both lasting for -years. J. B. Fink’s, a July posy of two-hundred barrels, was the third. -The grand rush began in December, 1867, the Fee and Jack-Brown wells, on -the Atkinson farm, flowing four-hundred barrels apiece. A lively town, -eligibly located in a depression of the table-lands, was properly named -Shamburg, as a compliment to the genial doctor. The Tallman, Goss, -Atkinson and Stowell farms whooped up the production to three-thousand -barrels. Frank W. and W. C. Andrews, Lyman and Milton Stewart, John W. -Irvin and F. L. Backus had bought John R. Tallman’s one-hundred acres in -1865. Their first well began producing in September, 1867, and in 1868 -they sold two-hundred-thousand barrels of oil for nearly -eight-hundred-thousand dollars! A. H. Bronson—bright, alert, keen in -business and popular in society—paid twenty-five-thousand for the -Charles Clark farm, a mile north-east. His first well—three-hundred -barrels—paid for the property and itself in sixty days. Operations in -the Shamburg pool were almost invariably profitable and handsome -fortunes were realized. A peculiarity was the presence of green and -black oils, a line on the eastern part of the Cherry-Run Company’s land -defining them sharply. Their gravity and general properties were -identical and the black color was attributed to oxide of iron in the -rock. Dr. Shamburg died at Titusville and the town he founded is taking -a perpetual vacation. - -Carl Wageforth, a genius well known in early days as one of the owners -of the Story farm, started a “town” in the woods two miles above -Shamburg. The “town” collapsed, Wageforth clung to his store a season -and next turned up in Texas as the founder of a German colony. He -secured a claim in the Lone-Star State about thrice the size of Rhode -Island, settled it with thrifty immigrants from the “Faderland” and -bagged a bushel of ducats. He made and lost fortunes in oil and could no -more be kept from breaking out occasionally than measles or small-pox. - -East of Petroleum Centre three miles, on the bank of a pellucid stream, -John E. McLaughlin drilled a well in 1868 that flowed fourteen-hundred -barrels. The sand was coarse, the oil dark and the magnitude of the -strike a surprise equal to the answer of the dying sinner who, asked by -the minister if he wasn’t afraid to meet an angry God, unexpectedly -replied: “Not a bit; it’s the other chap I’m afraid of!” Excepting the -half-dozen mastodons on Oil Creek, the McLaughlin was the biggest well -in the business up to that date. Wide-awake operators struck a bee-line -for leases. A town was floated in two weeks, a Pithole grocer erecting -the first building and labeling the place “Cash-Up” as a gentle hint to -patrons not to let their accounts get musty with age. The name fitted -the town, which a twelvemonth sufficed to sponge off the slate. Small -wells and dry-holes ruled the roost, even those nudging “the big ’un” -missing the pay-streak. The McLaughlin—a decided freak—declined -gradually and pumped seven years, having the reservoir all to itself. -Located ten rods away in any direction, it would have been a duster and -Cash-Up would not have existed! A hundred surrounding it did not cash-up -the outlay for drilling. - -[Illustration: WELLS IN THE PLEASANTVILLE FIELD IN 1871.] - -Attracted by the quality of the soil and the beauty of the -location—six-hundred feet above the level of Oil Creek and abundantly -watered—in 1820 Abraham Lovell forsook his New York farm to settle in -Allegheny township, six miles east by south of Titusville. Aaron -Benedict and Austin Merrick came in 1821. John Brown, the first -merchant, opened a store in 1833. A pottery, tannery, ashery, store and -shops formed the nucleus of a village, organized in 1850 as the borough -of Pleasantville. Three wells on the outskirts of town, bored in 1865-6, -produced a trifling amount of oil. Late in the fall of 1867 Abram James, -an ardent spiritualist, was driving from Pithole to Titusville with -three friends. A mile south of Pleasantville his “spirit-guide” assumed -control of Mr. James and humped him over the fence into a field on the -William Porter farm. Powerless to resist, the subject was hurried to the -northern end of the field, contorted violently, jerked through a species -of “couchee-couchee dance” and pitched to the ground! He marked the spot -with his finger, thrust a penny into the dirt and fell back pale and -rigid. Restored to consciousness, he told his astonished companions it -had been revealed to him that streams of oil lay beneath and extended -several miles in a certain direction. Putting no faith in “spirits” not -amenable to flasks, they listened incredulously and resumed their -journey. James negotiated a lease, borrowed money—the “spirit-guide” -neglected to furnish cash—and planted a derrick where he had planted the -penny. On February twelfth, 1868, at eight-hundred-and-fifty feet, the -Harmonial Well No. 1 pumped one-hundred-and-thirty barrels! - -The usual hurly-burly followed. People who voted the James adventure a -fish-story writhed and twisted to drill near the spirited Harmonial. New -strikes increased the hubbub and established the sure quality of the -territory. Scores of wells were sunk on the Porter, Brown, Tyrell, -Beebe, Dunham and other farms for miles. Prices of supplies advanced and -machine-shops in the oil-regions ran night and day to meet orders. Land -sold at five-hundred to five-thousand dollars an acre, often changing -hands three or four times a day. Interests in wells going down found -willing purchasers. Strangers crowded Pleasantville, which trebled its -population and buildings during the year. It was a second edition of -Pithole, mildly subdued and divested of frothy sensationalism. If -gigantic gushers did not dazzle, dry-holes did not discourage. If nobody -cleared a million dollars at a clip, nobody cleared out to avoid -creditors. Nobody had to loaf and trust to Providence for daily bread. -Providence wasn’t running a bakery for the benefit of idlers and work -was plentiful at Pleasantville. The production reached three-thousand -barrels in the summer of 1868, dropping to fifteen-hundred in 1870. -Three banks prospered and imposing brick-blocks succeeded unsubstantial -frames. Fresh pastures invited the floating mass to Clarion, Armstrong -and Butler. Small wells were abandoned, machinery was shipped southward -and the pretty village moved backward gracefully. Pleasantville had -“marched up the hill and then marched down again.” - -Abram James, a man of fine intellect, nervous temperament and lofty -principle, lived at Pleasantville a year. He located a dozen paying -wells in other sections, under the influence of his “spirit-guide.” The -Harmonial was his greatest hit, bringing him wealth and distinction. His -worst break—a dry-hole on the Clarion river eighteen-hundred feet -deep—cost him six-thousand dollars in 1874. None questioned his absolute -sincerity, although many rejected his theories of the supernatural. -Whether he is still in the flesh or has become a spirit has not been -manifested to his old friends in Oildom. - -Samuel Stewart, an old resident and prosperous land-owner, is a leading -citizen of Cherrytree township. He operated successfully in his own -neighborhood and around Pleasantville. His acquaintance with men and -affairs is not surpassed in Venango county. He is half-brother of Mrs. -William R. Crawford, Franklin. Lyman and Milton Stewart, of Titusville, -have not stayed in the rear. They drilled hundreds of wells in -Pennsylvania and invested liberally in California territory. Good men -and true are the Stewarts from beginning to end. - -[Illustration: SAMUEL STEWART.] - -Red-Hot, in the palmy era of the Shamburg excitement a place of much -sultriness, is cold enough to chill any stray visitor who knew the -mushroom at its warmest stage. Windsor Brothers, of Oil City—they -built the Windsor Block—drilled a well in 1869 that flowed -three-hundred-and-fifty barrels. Others followed rapidly, people -flocked to the newest centre of attraction and a typical oil-town -strutted to the front. The territory lacked the staying quality, the -Butler region was about to dawn and 1871 saw Red-Hot reduced to three -houses, a half-dozen light wells and a muddy road. Lightning-rod -pedlars, book-agents and medical fakirs no longer disturb its calm -serenity. Not a scrap of the tropical town has been visible for two -decades. - -[Illustration: RED-HOT, A TYPICAL OIL-TOWN, IN 1870.] - -Tip-Top filled a short engagement. Operations around Shamburg and -Pleasantville directed attention to the Captain Lyle and neighboring -farms, midway between these points. “Ned” Pitcher’s well, drilled in -1866 on the Snedaker farm, east of Lyle, had started at eighty barrels -and pumped twenty for two years. Pithole was booming and nobody thought -of Ned’s pitcher until 1868. Many of the wells produced fairly, but the -territory soon depreciated and the elevated town—aptly named by a poet -with an eye to the eternal fitness of things—lost its hold and glided -down to nothingness. The hundred-eyed Argus could not find a sliver that -would prick a thumb or tip a top. - -[Illustration: VIEW AT M’CLINTOCKVILLE IN 1862.] - -Picking cherries was sometimes a mixed operation in the land of grease. - - OILY OOZINGS. - -Kerosene is often the last scene. - -The ladies—God bless them!—are nothing if not consistent—at times. It -used to be a fad with Bradford wives to keep a stuffed owl in the parlor -for ornament and a stuffed club in the hall for the night-owl’s benefit. - - The Oil-Creek girls are the dandy girls, - For their kiss is most intense; - They’ve got a grip like a rotary-pump - That will lift you over the fence. - -The steel of a rimmer was lost in a drilling well on Cherry Run. After -fishing for it for a longtime the well-owner, becoming discouraged, -offered a man one-thousand dollars to take it out. He broomed the end of -a tough block, ran it down the well attached to the tools and in ten -minutes had the steel out. - - The woman who eagerly seized the oil-can - And to pour kerosene in the cook-stove began, - So that people for miles to quench the fire ran, - While she soar’d aloft like a flash in the pan, - Didn’t know it was loaded. - -At a drilling well near Rouseville the tools were lowered on Monday -morning and, after running a full screw, were drawn minus the bit, with -the stem-box greatly enlarged. After fishing several days for it the -drillers were greatly surprised to find the lost bit standing in the -slack-tub. The tools had been lowered in the darkness with no bit on. - - An Oil-City tramp on the pavement drear - Saw something that seem’d to shine; - He pick’d it up and gave a big cheer— - ’Twas a nickel bright, the price of a beer— - And shouted “The world is mine!” - -William McClain, grandfather of Senator S. J. M. McCarrell, Harrisburg, -once owned and occupied the Tarr farm, on Oil Creek. Fifty or more years -ago he sold the tract to James Tarr for a rifle and an old gray horse -named Diamond. McClain removed to Washington county and settled on a -farm which his son inherited and sold before oil was found in the -neighborhood. Like the Tarr farm on Oil Creek, the McClain farm in -Washington county proved a petroleum-bonanza to the purchasers. - - Said a Shamburg young maiden: “Alas, Will, - You come every night, - And talk such a sight, - And burn so much light, - My papa declares you’re a Gas Bill!” - -All kinds of engines, from one to fifty horse-power, were used on Oil -Creek in the sixties. The old “Fabers,” with direct attachment, will -recall many a broad grin. The boys called them “Long Johns.” The -Wallace-engine had hemp-packing on the piston, and the inside of the -cylinder, rough as a rasp, soon used it up and leaked steam like a -sieve. The Washington-engine was the first to come into general use. C. -M. Farrar, of Farrar & Trefts, whose boilers and engines have stood -every test demanded by improvements in drilling, made the drawing for -the first locomotive-pattern boiler on a drilling well—a wonderful -stride in advance of the old-time boiler. Trefts made the castings for -the engine that pumped the Drake well and was the first man, in company -with J. Willard, to use ropes on Oil Creek in drilling. This was on the -Foster farm, near the world-famed Empire well, in 1860. Willard made the -second set of jars on the creek. Senator W. S. McMullan was a stalwart -blacksmith, who made drilling-tools noted for their enduring quality. - -[Illustration: - - GRANT WELL EUREKA WELL - GENERAL VIEW OF PITHOLE IN AUG 95 - UNITED STATES WELL HOLMDEN ST. -] - - - - - IX. - A GOURD IN THE NIGHT. - -THE METEORIC CITY THAT DAZZLED MANKIND—FROM NOTHING TO SIXTEEN-THOUSAND - POPULATION IN THREE MONTHS—FIRST WELLS AND FABULOUS PRICES—NOTED - ORGANIZATIONS AT PITHOLE—A FORETASTE OF HADES—EXCITEMENT AND - COLLAPSE—SPECULATION RUN WILD—DUPLICITY AND DISAPPOINTMENT—THE WILD - SCRAMBLE FOR THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR. - - ---------- - - “The gourd came up in a night and perished in a night.”—_Jonah, - iv:10._ - -“The earth hath bubbles, as the water has.”—_Shakespeare._ - -“All things rise to fall and flourish to decay.”—_Sallust._ - -“A lively place in days of yore, but something ails it - now.”—_Wordsworth._ - -“Ah! who shall lift that wand of magic power?”—_Longfellow._ - - “Wealth flowed from wood and stream and soil, - The rock poured forth its amber oil, - And, lo! a magic city rose.”—_Marjorie Meade._ - -“It went up like a rocket and came down like a stick.”—_Thomas Paine._ - -“Yet golde all is not that doth golden seeme.”—_Spenser._ - -“Can it be that this is all remains of life.”—_Bryon._ - -“What it is to eat forbidden fruit and find it a turnip!”—_Flora Annie - Steel._ - -“Old Rhinestein’s walls are crumbled now.”—_Birch Arnold._ - -“For this will never hold water again.”—_J. Fenimore Cooper._ - -“Of the vanished drama no image was there left.”—_William Morris._ - - ---------- - - -Pithole, “the magic city,” had little in its antecedents to betoken the -meteoric rise and fall of the most remarkable oil-town that ever “went -up like a rocket and came down like a stick.” The unpoetic name of -Pithole Creek was applied to the stream which flows through Allegheny -township and bounds Cornplanter for several miles on the east. It -empties into the Allegheny River eight miles above Oil City and was -first mentioned by Rev. Alfred Brunson, an itinerant Methodist minister, -in his “Western Pioneer” in 1819. Upheavals of rock left a series of -deep pits or chasms on the hills near the mouth of the stream. From the -largest of these holes a current of warm air repels leaves or pieces of -paper. Snow melts around the cavity, which is of unknown depth, and the -air is a mephitic vapor or gas. A story is told of three hunters who, -finding the snow melted on a midwinter day, determined to investigate. -One of them swore it was an entrance to the infernal regions and that he -intended to warm himself. He sat on the edge of the hole, dangled his -feet over the side, thanked the devil for the opportune heat, inhaled -the gas and tumbled back insensible. His companions dragged him away and -the investigation ended summarily. Seven miles up the creek, in the -northeast corner of Cornplanter, Rev. Walter Holmden was a -pioneer-settler. Choosing a tract of two-hundred acres, he built a -log-house on the west bank of the creek, cleared a few acres, struggled -with poverty and died in 1840. Mr. Holmden was a fervent Baptist -preacher. Thomas Holmden occupied the farm after the good old man’s -decease, with the Copelands and Blackmers and James Rooker as neighbors. -Developments had covered the farms from the Drake well to Oil City. -Operators ventured up the ravines, ascended the hills and began to take -chances miles from either side of Oil Creek. Successful wells on the -Allegheny River broadened opinions regarding the possibilities of -petroleum. Nervy men invaded the eastern portion of Cornplanter, picking -up lands along Pithole Creek and its tributaries. I. N. Frazer, fresh -from his triumph on Cherry Run as joint-owner of the Reed well, desired -fresh laurels. He organized the United-States Oil-Company, leased part -of the Holmden farm for twenty years and started a well in the fall of -1864. The primitive derrick was reared in the woods below the Holmden -home. At six-hundred feet the “sixth sand”—generally called that at -Pithole—was punctured. Ten feet farther the tools proceeded, the -drillers watching intently for signs of oil. On January seventh, 1865, -the torrent broke loose, the well flowing six-hundred-and-fifty barrels -a day and ceasing finally on November tenth. A picture of the well, -showing Frazer with his back to the tree beside his horse and a group of -visitors standing around, was secured in May. Kilgore & Keenan’s Twin -wells, good for eight-hundred barrels, were finished on January -seventeenth and nineteenth. The unfathomable mud and disastrous floods -of that memorable season retarded the hegira from other sections, only -to intensify the excitement when it found vent. Duncan & Prather bought -Holmden’s land for twenty-five-thousand dollars and divided the flats -and slopes into half-acre leases. The first of May witnessed a small -clearing in the forest, with three oil-wells, one drilling-well and -three houses as its sole evidences of human handiwork. - -[Illustration: FRAZER WELL, ON HOLMDEN FARM, PITHOLE, IN MAY, 1865.] - -Ninety days later the world heard with unfeigned surprise of a “city” of -sixteen-thousand inhabitants, possessing most of the conveniences and -luxuries of the largest and oldest communities! Capitalists eager to -invest their greenbacks thronged to the scene. Labor and produce -commanded extravagant figures, every farm for miles was leased or bought -at fabulous rates, money circulated like the measles and for weeks the -furore surpassed the frantic ebullitions of Wall Street on Black Friday! -New strikes perpetually inflated the mania. Speculators wandered far and -wide in quest of the subterranean wealth that promised to outrival the -golden measures of California or the silver-lodes of Nevada. The value -of oil-lands was reckoned by millions. Small interests in single wells -brought hundreds-of-thousands of dollars. New York, Philadelphia, Boston -and Chicago measured purses in the insane strife for territory. Hosts of -adventurers sought the new Oil-Dorado and the stocks of countless -“petroleum-companies” were scattered broadcast over Europe and America. -An ambitious operator sold _seventeen_-sixteenths in one well and shares -in leases were purchased ravenously. A half-acre lease on the Holmden -farm realized bonuses of twenty-four-thousand dollars before a well was -drilled on the property and the swarm of dealers resembled the plague of -locusts in Egypt in number and persistence! - -Everything favored the growth of Pithole. The close of the war had left -the country flooded with paper currency and multitudes of men thrown -upon their own resources. Hundreds of these flocked to the inviting -“city,” which presented manifold inducements to venturesome spirits, -keen shysters, unscrupulous stock-jobbers, needy laborers and dishonest -tricksters. The post-office speedily ranked third in Pennsylvania, -Philadelphia and Pittsburg alone excelling it. Seven chain-lightning -clerks assisted Postmaster S. S. Hill to handle the mail. Lines of men -extending a block would await their turns for letters at the -general-delivery. It was a roystering time! Hotels, theaters, saloons, -drinking-dens, gambling-hells and questionable resorts were counted by -the score. A fire-department was organized, a daily paper established -and a mayor elected. Railways to Reno and Oleopolis were nearly -completed before “the beginning of the end” came with terrible -swiftness. In November and December the wells declined materially. The -laying of pipe-lines to Miller Farm and Oleopolis, through which the oil -was forced to points of shipment by steam-pumps, in one week drove -fifteen-hundred teams to seek work elsewhere. Destructive fires -accelerated the final catastrophe. The graphic pen of Dickens would fail -to give an adequate idea of this phenomenal creation, whose career was a -magnified type of dozens of towns that suddenly arose and as suddenly -collapsed in the oil-regions of Pennsylvania. - -[Illustration: JOHN A. MATHER.] - -Pithole had many wells that yielded freely for some time. The Homestead, -on the Hyner farm, finished in June of 1865, proved a gusher. On August -first the Deshler started at one-hundred barrels; on August second the -Grant, at four-hundred-and-fifty barrels; on August twenty-eighth the -Pool, at eight-hundred barrels; on September fifth the Ogden, at -one-hundred barrels, and on September fifteenth Pool & Perry’s No. 47, -at four-hundred barrels. The Frazer improved during the spring to -eight-hundred barrels, while the Grant reached seven-hundred in -September. On November twenty-second the Eureka joined the chorus at -five-hundred barrels. The daily production of the Holmden farm exceeded -five-thousand barrels for a limited period, with a proportionate yield -of seven-dollar crude from adjacent tracts. John A. Mather, the veteran -Titusville photographer, discarded his camera to become a full-fledged -oilman. He bored a well that tinctured the suburban slope of Balltown a -glowing madder. The frenzy spread. J. W. Bonta and James A. Bates paid -James Rooker two-hundred-and-eighty-thousand dollars for his -hundred-acre farm, south of the Holmden. Rooker, a hard-working tiller -of the soil, lived in a kind of rookery and earned a poor subsistence by -constant toil. He stuck to the money derived from the sale of his farm, -and he is still living at a goodly age. The Grand Dutch S well would -have given Lillian Russell new wrinkles in her delineation of the “Grand -Duchess of Gerolstein.” A neighbor refused eight-hundred-thousand -dollars for his barren acres. “I don’t keer ter hev my buckwheat tramped -over,” he explained, “but you kin hev this farm next winter fur a -million!” He kept the farm, reaped his crop and was not disturbed until -death compelled him to lodge in a plot six by two. - -[Illustration: GRAND DUTCH S WELL.] - -[Illustration: VIEW OF PITHOLE IN THE FALL OF 1865.] - -Bonta & Bates did not linger for “two blades of grass to grow where one -grew before.” Within two months they disposed of ninety leases for -four-hundred-thousand dollars and half the oil! They spent -eighty-thousand on the Bonta House, a sumptuous hostlery. Duncan & -Prather leased building-lots at a yearly rental of one-hundred to -one-thousand dollars. First, Second and Holmden streets bristled with -activity. The Danforth House stood on a lot subleased for -fourteen-thousand dollars bonus. Sixty hotels could not accommodate the -influx of guests. Beds, sofas and chairs were luxuries for the few. -“First come, first served,” was the rule. The many had to seek the -shaving-pile, the hay-cock or the tender side of a plank. Some mingled -promiscuously in “field-beds”—rows of “shake-downs” on attic floors. -Besides the Bonta and Danforth, the United States, Chase, Tremont, -Buckley, Lincoln, Sherman, St. James, American, Northeast, Seneca, -Metropolitan, Pomeroy and fifty hotels of minor note flourished. If -palaces of sin, gorgeous bar-rooms, business-houses and places of -amusement abounded, churches and schools marked the moral sentiment. -Fire wiped out the Tremont and adjoining houses in February of 1866. -Eighty buildings went up in smoke on May first and June thirteenth. -Thirty wells and twenty-thousand barrels of oil went the same road in -August. The best buildings were torn down, to bloom at Pleasantville or -Oil City. The disappearance of Pithole astonished the world no less than -its marvelous growth. The Danforth House sold for sixteen dollars, to -make firewood! The railroads were abandoned and in 1876 only six voters -remained. A ruined tenement, a deserted church and traces of streets -alone survive. Troy or Nineveh is not more desolate. - -In July of 1865 Duncan & Prather granted Henry E. Picket, George J. -Sherman and Brian Philpot, of Titusville, a thirty-day option on the -Holmden farm for one-million-three-hundred-thousand dollars. Mr. Sherman -arranged to sell the property in New York at sixteen-hundred-thousand! -The wells already down produced largely, seventy more were drilling and -the annual ground-rents footed up sixty-thousand dollars. The Ketcham -forgeries tangled the funds of the New-Yorkers and negotiations were -opened with H. H. Honore, of Chicago. After dark on the last day of the -option Honore tendered the first payment—four-hundred-thousand dollars. -It was declined, on the ground that the business day expired at sundown, -and litigation ensued. A compromise resulted in the transfer of the -property to Honore. The deal involved the largest sum ever paid in the -oil regions for a single tract of land. The bubble burst so quickly that -the Chicago purchaser, like Benjamin Franklin, “paid too much for the -whistle.” Col. A. P. Duncan commanded the Fourth Cavalry Company, the -first mustered in Venango county, every member of which carried to the -war a small Bible presented by Mrs. A. G. Egbert, of Franklin. Tall, -erect, of military bearing and undoubted integrity, he lived at Oil City -and died years ago. Duncan & Prather owned one of the two banks that -handled car-loads of money in the dizziest town that ever blasted -radiant hopes and shriveled portly pocket-books. - -[Illustration: UNITED STATES OIL COMPANY'S OFFICE.] - -[Illustration: BONTA HOUSE, PITHOLE.] - -The Pithole bubble was blown at an opportune moment to catch suckers. -Hundreds of oil-companies had come into existence in 1864, hungry for -territory and grasping at anything within rifle-shot of an actual or -prospective “spouter.” The speculative tide flowed and ebbed as never -before in any age or nation. Volumes could be written of amazing -transitions of fortune. Scores landed at Pithole penniless and departed -in a few months “well heeled.” Others came with “hatfuls of money” and -went away empty-handed. Thousands of stockholders were bitten as badly -as the sailor, whom the shark nipped off by the waist-band. It was -rather refreshing in its way for “country Reubens” to do up Wall-street -sharpers at their own game. Shrewd Bostonians, New-Yorkers and -Philadelphians, magnates in business and finance, were snared as readily -as hayseeds who buy green-goods and gold-bricks. There are no flies on -the smooth, glib Oily Gammon whose mouth yielded more lubricating oil -than the biggest well on French Creek. His favorite prey was a pilgrim -with a bursting wallet or the agent of an eastern petroleum-company. A -well pouring forth three, six, eight, ten, twelve or fifteen-hundred -barrels of five-dollar crude every twenty-four hours was a spectacle to -fire the blood and turn the brain of the most sluggish beholder. “Such a -well,” he might calculate, “would make me a millionaire in one year and -a Crœsus in ten.” The wariest trout would nibble at bait so tempting. -The schemer with property to sell had “the very thing he wanted” and -would “let him in on the ground-floor.” He met men who, driving mules or -jigging tools six months ago, were “oil-princes” now. Here lay a tract, -“the softest snap on top of the earth,” only a mile from the Great -Geyser, with a well “just in the sand and a splendid show.” He could -have it at a bargain-counter sacrifice—one-hundred-thousand dollars and -half the oil. The engine had given out and the owner was about to order -a new one when called home by the sudden death of his mother-in-law. -Settling the old lady’s estate required his entire attention, therefore -he would consent to sell his oil-interests “dirt-cheap” to a responsible -buyer who would push developments. The price ought to be two or three -times the sum asked, but the royalty from the big wells sure to be -struck would ultimately even up matters. The tale was plausible and the -visitor would “look at the property.” He saw real sand on the -derrick-floor and everything besmeared with grease. The presence of oil -was unmistakable. Drilling ten feet into the rich rock would certainly -tap the jugular and—glorious thought!—perhaps outdo the Great Geyser -itself. He closed the deal, telegraphed for an engine—he was dying to -see that stream of oil climbing skywards—and chuckled gleefully. The -keen edge of his delight might have been dulled had he known that the -well was _through_, not merely _to_, the sand and absolutely guiltless -of the taint of oil! He did not suspect that barrels of crude and -buckets of sand from other wells had been dumped into the hole at night, -that the engine had been disabled purposely and that another innocent -was soon to cut his wisdom-teeth! He found out when the well “came in -dry” that Justice Dogberry was not a greater ass and that the -fool-killer’s snickersnee was yearning for him. Possibly he might by -persistent drilling find paying wells and get back part of his money, -but nine times out of ten the investment was a total loss and the -disgusted victim quit the scene with a new interpretation of the -scriptural declaration: “I was a stranger and ye took me in.” Butler -anticipated Pithole when he wrote in Hudibras: - - “Make fools believe in their foreseeing - Of things before they are in being; - To swallow gudgeons ere they’re catched, - And count their chickens ere they’re hatched.” - -The methods of “turning an honest penny” varied to fit the case. To -“doctor” a well by dosing it with a load of oil was tame and -commonplace. In three instances wells sold at fancy prices were -connected by underground pipes with tanks of oil at a distance. When the -parties arrived to “time the well” the secret pipe was opened. The oil -ran into the tubing and pumped as though coming direct from the sand! -The deception was as perfect as the oleomargarine the Pennsylvania State -Board of Agriculture pronounced “dairy butter of superior quality!” -“Seeing is believing” and there was the oil. They had seen it pumping a -steady stream into the tank, timed it, gauged it, smelled it. The -demonstration was complete and the cash would be forked over, a -twenty-barrel well bringing a hundred-barrel price! A smart widow near -Pithole sold her farm at treble its value because of “surface -indications” she created by emptying a barrel of oil into a spring. The -farm proved good territory, much to the chagrin of the widow, who -roundly abused the purchasers for “cheatin’ a poor lone woman!” Selling -stock in companies that held lands, or interests in wells to be drilled -“near big gushers”—they might be eight or ten miles off—was not -infrequent. On the other hand, a very slight risk often brought an -immense return. Parties would pay five-hundred dollars for the refusal -of a tract of land and arrange with other parties to sink a well for a -small lease on the property. If the well succeeded, one acre would pay -the cost of the entire farm; if it failed, the holders of the option -forfeited the trifle that secured it and threw up the contract. It was -risking five-hundred dollars on the chance, not always very remote, of -gaining a half-million. - -Sometimes the craze to invest bordered upon the ludicrous. Sixteenths -and fractions of sixteenths in producing, non-producing, drilling, -undrilled and never-to-be-drilled wells “went like hot cakes” at two to -twenty-thousand dollars. A newcomer, in his haste to “tie onto -something,” shelled out one-thousand dollars for a share in a gusher -that netted him two quarts of oil a day! Another cheerfully paid -fifteen-thousand for the sixteenth of a flowing well which discounted -the Irishman’s flea—“you put your finger on the varmint and he wasn’t -there”—by balking that night and declining ever to start again! At a -fire in 1866 water from a spring, dashed on the blaze, added fuel to the -flames. An examination showed that oil was filling the spring and -water-wells in the neighborhood. From the well in Mrs. Reichart’s yard -the wooden pump brought fifty barrels of pure oil. L. L. Hill’s well and -holes dug eight or ten feet had the same complaint. Excitement blew off -at the top gauge. The _Record_ devoted columns to the new departure. Was -the oil so impatient to enrich Pitholians that, refusing to wait for the -drill to provide an outlet, it burst through the rocks in its eagerness -to boom the district? Patches of ground the size of a quilt sold for -two, three or four-hundred dollars and rows of pits resembling open -graves decorated the slope. In a week a digger discovered that a break -in the pipe-line supplied the oil. The leak was repaired, the pits dried -up, the water-wells resumed their normal condition and the fiasco ended -ignominiously. It was a modern version of the mountain that set the -country by the ears to bring forth a mouse. - -Joseph Wood, proprietor of the St. James Hotel at Paterson, N.J., died -on May thirteenth, 1896. He was a wit and story-teller of the best kind, -a gallant fighter for the Union and for a year lived at Pithole. A -fortune made by operating and speculation he lost by fire in a year. He -conducted hotels at Hot Springs, Washington, Chicago and Milwaukee and -was one of the famous Bonifaces of the United States. On his -business-cards he printed these “religious beliefs:” - -“Do not keep the alabaster-boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up -until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak -approving, cheering words while their ears can hear them and while their -hearts can be thrilled and made happier by them. The kind things you -mean to say when they are gone say before they go. The flowers you mean -to send to their coffins send to brighten and sweeten their homes before -they leave them. If my friends have alabaster-boxes laid away, full of -fragrant perfumes of sympathy and affection, which they intend to break -over my dead body, I would rather they would bring them out in my weary -and troubled hours and open them, that I may be refreshed and cheered by -them while I need them. I would rather have a plain coffin without a -flower, a funeral without a eulogy, than a life without the sweetness of -love and sympathy. Let us learn to anoint our friends beforehand for -their burial. Post-mortem kindness does not cheer the burdened spirit. -Flowers on the coffin cast no fragrance backward over the weary way.” - -Let down the bars and enter the field that was once the seething, -boiling caldron called Pithole. A poplar-tree thirty feet high grows in -the cellar of the National Hotel. Stones and underbrush cover the site -of the Metropolitan Theater and Murphy’s Varieties. This bit of sunken -ground, clogged with weeds and brambles, marks the Chase House. Here was -Main street, where millions of dollars changed hands daily. For years -the Presbyterian church stood forsaken, the bell in the tower silent, -the pews untouched and the pulpit-Bible lying on the preacher’s desk. -John McPherson’s store and Dr. Christie’s house were about the last -buildings in the place. Not a human-being now lives on the spot. All the -old-timers moved away. All? No, a score or two quietly sleep among the -bushes and briars that run riot over the little graveyard in which they -were laid when the dead city was in the throes of a tremendous -excitement. - - The rate at which towns rose was surely most terrific - Nothing to rival it from Maine to the Pacific; - The rate at which they fell has never had an equal— - Woods, city, ruin’d waste—the story and the sequel. - -[Illustration: JOHN GALLOWAY.] - -Pithole was the Mecca of a legion of operators whose history is part and -parcel of the oil-development. Phillips Brothers, giants on Oil Creek, -bought farms and drilled extensively. Frederic Prentice and W. W. Clark, -who figured in two-thirds of the largest transactions from Petroleum -Centre to Franklin, held a full hand. Frank W. Andrews, John -Satterfield, J. R. Johnson, J. B. Fink, A. J. Keenan—the first -burgess—D. H. Burtis, Heman Janes, “Pap” Sheakley, L. H. Smith and -hundreds of similar caliber were on deck. John Galloway, known in every -oil-district of Pennsylvania and West Virginia as a tireless hustler, -did not let Pithole slip past unnoticed. He has been an operator in all -the fields since his first appearance on Oil Creek in the fall of 1861. -Sharing in the prosperity and adversity of the oil-regions, he has never -been hoodooed or bankrupted. His word is his bond and his promise to pay -has always meant one-hundred cents on the dollar. More largely -interested in producing than ever, he attends to business at Pittsburg -and lives at Jamestown, happy in his deserved success, in the love of -his family and the esteem of countless friends. Mr. Galloway’s -pedestrian feats would have crowned him with olive-wreaths at the -Olympic games. Deerfoot could hardly have kept up with him on a -twenty-mile tramp to see an important well or hit a farmer for a lease -before breakfast. He’s a good one! - -The Swordsman’s Club attained the highest reputation as a social -organization. One night in 1866, when Pithole was at the zenith of its -fame, John Satterfield, Seth Crittenden, Alfred W. Smiley, John -McDonald, George Burchill, George Gilmore, Pard B. Smith, L. H. Smith, -W. H. Longwell and other congenial gentlemen met for an evening’s -enjoyment. The conversation turned upon clubs. Smiley jumped to his feet -and moved that “we organize a club.” All assented heartily and the -Swordman’s Club was organized there and then, with Pard B. Smith as -president and George Burchill as secretary. Elegant rooms were fitted -up, the famous motto of “R. C. T.” was adopted and the club gave a -series of most elaborate “promenade-concerts and balls” in 1866-7. -Invitations to these brilliant affairs were courted by the best people -of Oildom. The club dissolved in 1868. Its membership included four -congressmen, two ex-governors wore its badge and scores of men -conspicuous in the state and nation had the honor of belonging to the -Swordman’s. At regular meetings “the feast of reason and the flow of -soul” blended merrily with the flowing bowl. Sallies of bright wit, -spontaneous and never hanging fire, were promptly on schedule time. Good -fellowship prevailed and C. C. Leonard immortalized the club in his -side-splitting “History of Pithole.” Verily the years slip by. Long ago -the ephemeral town went back to its original pasture, long ago the -facetious historian went back to dust, long ago many a good clubman’s -sword turned into rust. Pard B. Smith runs a livery in Cleveland, -Longwell is in Oil City, Smiley—he represented Clarion county twice in -the Legislature—manages the pipe-line at Foxburg, L. H. Smith is in New -York and others are scattered or dead. On November twenty-first, 1890, -the “Pioneers of Pithole”—among them a number of Swordsmen—had a reunion -and banquet at the Hotel Brunswick, Titusville. These stanzas, composed -and sung by President Smith and “Alf” Smiley, were vociferously cheered: - - “’Twas side by side, as Swordsmen true, - In Pithole long ago, - We met the boys on common ground - And gave them all a show. - In social as in business ways - Our honor was our law, - And when a brother lost his grip - He on the boys could draw. - - CHORUS: “We’re the boys, the same old boys, - Who were there in sixty-five; - If any Swordsman comes our way - He’ll find us still alive. - - “What if grim age creeps on apace, - Our souls will ne’er grow old; - We will, as in the Pithole days, - Stand true as Swordsmen bold. - In those old days we had our fun, - But stood for honor true; - Here, warmly clasping hand-to-hand, - Our friendship we renew.” - -“Spirits” inspired four good wells at Pithole. One dry hole, a mile -south-east of town, seriously depressed stock in their skill as -“oil-smellers.” An enthusiastic disciple of the Fox sisters, assured of -“a big well,” drilled two-hundred feet below the sixth sand in search of -oil-bearing rock. He drilled himself into debt and Sheriff C. S. -Mark—six feet high and correspondingly broad—whom nobody could mistake -for an ethereal being, sold the outfit at junk-prices. - -[Illustration: ALFRED W. SMILEY.] - -In the swish and swirl of Pithole teamsters—a man with two stout horses -could earn twenty dollars a day clear—drillers and pumpers played no -mean part. They received high wages and spent money freely. -Variety-shows, music-halls—with “pretty waiter-girls”—dance-houses, -saloons, gambling-hells and dens of vice afforded unlimited -opportunities to squander cash and decency and self-respect. Many a -clever youth, flushed with the idea of “sowing his wild oats,” -sacrificed health and character on the altars of Bacchus and Venus. Many -a comely maiden, yielding to the wiles of the betrayer, rounded up in -the brothel and the potter’s field. Many a pious mother, weeping for the -wayward prodigal who was draining her life-blood, had reason to inquire: -“Oh, where is my boy to-night?” Many a husband, forgetting the trusting -wife and children at home, wandered from the straight path and tasted -the forbidden fruit. Many a promising life was blighted, many a hopeful -career blasted, many a reputation smirched and many a fond heart broken -by the pitfalls and temptations of Pithole. Dollars were not the only -stakes in the exciting game of life—good names, family ties, bright -prospects, domestic happiness and human souls were often risked and -often lost. “The half has never been told.” - -[Illustration: GOVERNOR SHEAKLEY.] - -Scarcely less noted was the organization heralded far and wide as -“Pithole’s Forty Thieves.” Well-superintendents, controlling the -interests of outside companies, were important personages. Distant -stockholders, unable to understand the difficulties and uncertainties -attending developments, blamed the superintendents for the lack of -dividends. No class of men in the country discharged their duties more -faithfully, yet cranky investors in wildcat stocks termed them “slick -rascals,” “plunderers” and “robbers.” Some joker suggested that once a -band of Arabian Knights—fellows who stole everything—associated as “The -Forty Thieves” and that the libeled superintendents ought to organize a -club. The idea captured the town and “Pithole’s Forty Thieves” became at -once a tangible reality. Merchants, producers, capitalists and -business-men hastened to enroll themselves as members. Hon. James -Sheakley, of Mercer, was elected president. Social meetings were held -regularly and guying greenhorns, who supposed stealing to be the object -of the organization, was a favorite pastime. The practical pranks of the -“Forty” were laughed at and relished in the whole region. Nine-tenths of -the members were young men, honorable in every relation of life, to whom -the organization was a genuine joke. They enjoyed its notoriety and -delighted to gull innocents who imagined they would purloin engines, -derricks, drilling-tools, saw-mills and oil-tanks. Ten years after the -band disbanded its president served in Congress and was a leading -debater on the Hayes-Tilden muddle. “Pap” Sheakley—as the boys -affectionately called him—was the embodiment of integrity, kindliness -and hospitality. He operated in the Butler field and lived at -Greenville. Bereft of his devoted wife and lovely daughters by “the fell -sergeant, Death,” he sold his, desolated home and accepted from -President Cleveland the governorship of Uncle Sam’s remotest Territory. -His administration was so satisfactory that President Harrison -reappointed him. There was no squarer, truer, nobler man in the public -service than James Sheakley, Ex-Governor of Alaska. - -Rev. S. D. Steadman, the first pastor at Pithole, a zealous -Methodist—was universally respected for earnestness and piety. The -“forty thieves” sent him one-hundred-and-fifty dollars at Christmas of -1866, with a letter commending his moral teachings, his courtesy and -charity. Another minister inquired of a Swordsman what the letters of -the club’s motto—“R. C. T.”—signified, “Religious Councils Treasured” -was the ready response. This raised the club immensely in the divine’s -estimation and led to a sermon in which he extolled the jolly -organization! He “took a tumble” when a deacon smilingly informed him -that the letters—a fake proposed in sport—symbolized “Rum, Cards, -Tobacco.” - -[Illustration: AN INVOLUNTARY MUD-BATH.] - -Mud was responsible for the funniest—to the spectators—mishap that ever -convulsed a Pithole audience. A group of us stood in front of the -Danforth House at the height of the miry season. Thin mud overflowed the -plank-crossing and a grocer laid short pieces of scantling two or three -feet apart for pedestrians to step on. A flashy sport, attired in a -swell suit and a shiny beaver, was the first to take advantage of the -improvised passage. Half-way across the scantling to which he was -stepping moved ahead of his foot. In trying to recover his balance the -sport careened to one side, his hat flew off and he landed plump on his -back, in mud and water three feet deep! He disappeared beneath the -surface as completely as though dropped into the sea, his head emerging -a moment later. Blinded, sputtering and gasping for breath, he was a -sight for the gods and little fishes! Mouth, eyes, nose and ears were -choked with the dreadful ooze. Two men went to his assistance, led him -to the rear of the hotel and turned the hose on him. His clothes were -ruined, his gold watch was never recovered and for weeks small boys -would howl: “His name is Mud!” - -John Galloway, on one of his rambles for territory, ate dinner at the -humble cabin of a poor settler. A fowl, tough, aged and peculiar, was -the principal dish. In two weeks the tourist was that way again. A boy -of four summers played at the door, close to which the visitor sat down. -A brood of small chickens approached the entrance. “Poo’, ittey sings,” -lisped the child, “oo mus’ yun away; here’s ’e yasty man ’at eated up -oos mammy.” The good woman of the shanty had stewed the clucking-hen to -feed the unexpected guest. - -A maiden of uncertain age owned a farm which various operators vainly -tried to lease. Hoping to steal a march on the others, one smooth talker -called the second time. “I have come, Miss Blank,” he began, “to make -you an offer.” He didn’t get a chance to add “for your land.” The old -girl, not a gosling who would let a prize slip, jumped from her chair, -clasped him about the neck and exclaimed: “Oh! Mr. Blank, this is so -sudden, but I’m yours!” The astounded oilman shook her off at last and -explained that he already had a wife and five children and wanted the -Farm only. The clinging vine wept and stormed, threatened a -breach-of-promise suit and loaded her dead father’s blunderbuss to be -prepared for the next intruder. - -W. J. Bostford, who died at Jamestown in November of 1895, operated at -Pithole in its palmy days. Business was done on a cash basis and -oil-property was paid for in money up to hundreds-of-thousands of -dollars. Bostford made a big sale and started from Pithole to deposit -his money. A cross-country trip was necessary to reach Titusville. -Shortly after leaving Pithole he was attacked by robbers, who took all -the money and left him for dead upon the highway. He was picked up -alive, with a broken head and many other injuries, which he survived -thirty years. - -[Illustration: THE DINNER HOUR AT WIGGINS’S HOTEL.] - -The first “hotel” at Pithole—a balloon-frame rushed up in a day—bore the -pretentious title of Astor House. Before its erection pilgrims to the -coming city took their chance of meals at the Holmden farm-house. As a -guest wittily remarked: “It was table d’hote for men and also table -d’oat for horses.” The viands were all heaped upon large dishes and -everybody helped himself. The Morey-Farm Hotel, just above Pithole, -charged twenty-one dollars a week for board, had gas-light, steam-heat, -telegraph-office, barber-shop, colored waiters and “spring-mattresses.” -Its cooking rivalled the best in the large cities. At Wiggins’s Hotel, a -three-story boarding-house in the Tidioute field, two-hundred men would -often wait their turn to get dinner. This was a common experience in the -frontier towns, to which big throngs hurried before houses could be -erected for their accommodation. E. H. Crittenden’s hotel at Titusville -was the finest Oildom boasted in the sixties. Book & Frisbee’s was -notable at the height of the Parker development. A dollar for a meal or -a bed, four dollars a day or twenty-eight dollars a week, be the stay -long or short, was the invariable rate. Peter Christie’s Central Hotel, -at Petrolia, was immensely popular and a regular gold-mine for the -owner. Oil City’s Petroleum House was a model hostelry, under “Charley” -Staats and “Jim” White. The Jones House cleared Jones forty-thousand -dollars in nine months. Its first guest was a Mr. Seymour, who spent one -year collecting data for a statistical work on petroleum. His -manuscripts perished in the flood of 1865. The last glimpse my eyes -beheld of Jones was at Tarport, where he was driving a dray. Bradford’s -Riddell House and St. James Hotel both sized up to the most exacting -requirements. Good hotels and good restaurants were seldom far behind -the triumphant march of the pioneers whose successes established -oil-towns. - -Col. Gardner, “a big man any way you take him,” was Chief-of-Police at -Pithole. He has operated at Bradford and Warren, toyed with politics and -military affairs and won the regard of troops of friends. Charles H. -Duncan, of Oil City—his youthful appearance suggests Ponce de Leon’s -spring—served in the borough-council, of which James M. Guffey, the -astute Democratic leader and successful producer, was clerk. Col. Morton -arrived in August of 1865 with a carpet-bag of job-type. His first -work—tickets for passage over Little Pithole Creek—the first printing -ever done at Pithole, was never paid for. The town had shoals of trusty, -generous fellows—“God’s own white boys,“ Fred Wheeler dubbed them—whose -manliness and enterprise and liberality were always above par. - -When men went crazy at Pithole and outsiders thought the oil-country was -“flowing with milk and honey” and greenbacks, a party of wags thought to -put up a little joke at the expense of a new-comer from Boston. They -arranged with the landlord for some coupon-bonds to use in the -dining-room of the hotel and to seat the youth at their table. The -New-Englander was seated in due course. The guests talked of oil-lands, -fabulous strikes and big fortunes as ordinary affairs. Each chucked -under his chin a five-twenty government-bond as a napkin. One lay in -front of the Bostonian’s plate, folded and creased like a genuine -linen-wiper. Calmly taking the “paper” from its receptacle, the chap -from The Hub wiped his brow and adjusted the valuable napkin over his -shirt-bosom. A moment later he beckoned to a servant and said: “See -here, waiter, this napkin is too small; bring me a dish of soup and a -‘ten-forty.’” The jokers could not stand this. A laugh went around the -festive board that could have been heard at the Twin Wells and the -matter was explained to the bean-eater. He was put on the trail of “a -soft snap” and went home in a month with ten-thousand dollars. “Bring me -a ten-forty” circulated for a twelve-month in cigar-shops and bar-rooms. - -Ben Hogan was one of the motley crew that swarmed to Pithole “broke.” He -taught sparring and gave exhibitions of strength at Diefenbach’s -variety-hall. He fought Jack Holliday for a purse of six-hundred dollars -and defeated him in seven rounds. Four-hundred tough men and tougher -women were present, many of them armed. Hogan was assured before the -fight he would be killed if he whipped his opponent. He was shot at by -Marsh Elliott during the mill, but escaped unhurt. Ben met Elliott soon -thereafter and knocked him out in four brief rounds, breaking his nose -and using him up generally. Next he opened a palatial sporting-house, -the receipts of which often reached a thousand dollars a day. An -adventure of importance was with “Stonehouse Jack.” This desperado and -his gang had a grudge against Hogan and concocted a scheme to kill him. -Jack was to arrange a fight with Ben, during which Hogan was to be -killed by the crowd. Ben saw his enemy coming out of a dance-house and -blazed away at him, but without effect. The fusillade scared -“Stonehouse” away from Pithole and on January twenty-second, 1866, a -vigilance committee at Titusville drove the villain out of the -oil-region, threatening to hang him or any of his gang who dared return. -This committee was organized to clear out a nest of incendiaries and -thugs. The vigilants erected a gallows near the smoking embers of E. B. -Chase & Co.’s general store, fired the preceding night, and decreed the -banishment of hordes of toughs. “Stonehouse Jack” and one-hundred other -men, with a number of vile women came under this sentence. The whole -party was formed in line in front of the gallows, the “Rogue’s March” -was played and the procession, followed by a great crowd of people, -proceeded to the Oil-Creek Railroad station. The prisoners were ordered -on board a special train, with a warning that if they ever again set -foot upon the soil of Titusville they would be summarily executed. This -salutary action ended organized crime in the oil-region. - -North of Pithole the tide crossed into Allegheny township. Balltown, a -meadow on C. M. Ball’s farm in July, 1865, at the end of the year -paraded stores, hotels, a hundred dwellings and a thousand people. Fires -in 1866 scorched it and waning production did the rest. Dawson Centre, -on the Sawyer tract, budded, frosted and perished. The Morey House, on -the Copeland farm, was the oasis in the desert, serving meals that -tickled the midriff and might cope with Delmonico’s. Farms on Little -Pithole Creek were riddled without swelling the yield of crude -immoderately. Where are those oil-wells now? Echo murmurs “where?” In -all that section of Cornplanter and Allegheny townships a derrick, an -engine-house or a tank would be a novelty of the rarest breed. - -Eight miles north-east of Titusville, where Godfrey Hill drilled a -dry-hole in 1860 and two companies drilled six later, the Colorado -district finally rewarded gritty operators. Enterprise was benefited by -small wells in the vicinity. Down Pithole Creek to its junction with the -Allegheny the country was punctured. Oleopolis straggled over the slope -on the river’s bank, a pipe-line, a railroad to Pithole and minor wells -contributing to its support. The first well tackled a vein of natural -gas, which caught fire and consumed the rig. The driller was alone, the -owner of the well having gone into the shanty. In a twinkling flames -enveloped the astonished knight of the temper-screw, who leaped from the -derrick, clothes blazing and hair singed off, and headed for the water. -“Boss,” he roared in his flight, “jump into the river and say your -prayers quick! I’ve bu’sted the bung and hell’s running out.” - -“Breathe through the nostrils” is good advice. People should breathe -through the nose and not use it so much for talking and singing through. -Yet every rule has exceptions. A pair of mules hauled oil from Dawson -Centre in the flush times of the excitement. The mud was practically -bottomless. A visitor was overheard telling a friend that the bodies of -the mules sank out of sight and that they were breathing through their -ears, which alone projected above the ooze. Dawson and many more -departed oil-towns suggest the jingle: - - “There was an old woman lived under a hill; - If she hadn’t moved she’d be there still: - But she moved!” - -About St. Valentine’s Day in 1866, when the burning of the Tremont House -led to the discovery of oil in springs and wells, was a hilarious time -at Pithole. Every cellar was fairly flooded with grease. People pumped -it from common pumps, dipped it from streams, tasted it in tea, inhaled -it from coffee-pots and were afraid to carry lights at night lest the -very air should cause explosion and other unhappiness. It became a -serious question what to drink. The whiskey could not be watered—there -was no water. Dirty shirts could not be washed—the very rain was crude -oil. Dirt fastened upon the damask cheeks of Pithole damsels and found -an abiding-place in the whiskers of every bronzed fortune-hunter. Water -commanded an enormous price and intoxicating beverages were cheap, since -they could scarcely be taken in the raw. The editor of the _Record_, a -strict temperance man, was obliged to travel fourteen miles every -morning by stone-boat to get his glass of water. Stocks of oil-companies -were the only thing in the community thoroughly watered. Tramps, hobos, -wandering vagrants and unwashed disbelievers that “cleanliness is next -to Godliness” pronounced Pithole a terrestrial paradise. They were -willing to reverse Muhlenburg’s sentiment and “live alway” in that kind -of dry territory. - -“You’re not fit to sit with decent people; come up here and sit along -with me!” thundered a Dawson teacher who sat at his desk hearing a -recitation, as he discovered at a glance the worst boy in school -annoying his seatmate. - -Charles Highberger, who had lost a leg, was elected a justice of the -peace at Pithole in 1866. Attorney Ruth, who came from Westmoreland -county, was urging the conviction of a miserable whelp when he noticed -Highberger had fallen asleep, as was his custom during long arguments. -Mr. Ruth aroused him and remarked: “I wish your honor would pay -attention to the points which I am about to make, as they have an -important bearing on the case.” Highberger opened his eyes, glared -around the room and rose on his crutches in great wrath, exclaiming: -“There has been too much blamed chin-whacking in this case; you have -been talking two hours and I haven’t seen a cent of costs. The prisoner -may consider himself discharged. The court will adjourn to Andy -Christy’s drug-store.” This was the way justice was dispensed with in -those good old days when “go as you please” was the rule at Pithole. - -John G. Saxe once lectured at Pithole and was so pleased with the people -and place that he donated twenty-five dollars to the charity-fund and -wrote columns of descriptive matter to a Boston newspaper. “If I were -not Alexander I would be Diogenes,” said the Macedonian conqueror. -Similarly Henry Ward Beecher remarked, when he visited Oil City to -lecture, “If I were not pastor of Plymouth church I would be pastor of -an Oil-City church.” The train conveying Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, -through the oil-region stopped at Foxburg to afford the imperial guest -an opportunity to see an oil-well torpedoed. He watched the filling of -the shell with manifest interest, dropped the weight after the torpedo -had been lowered and clapped his hands when a column of oil rose in the -air. An irreverent spectator whispered: “This beats playing pedro.” - -[Illustration: J. P. ALBEE.] - -J. P. Albee, laborer, painter, carpenter, rig-builder, pumper, -pipe-liner, merchant and insurance-agent, was born in Warren county, -reared on a farm in the Wisconsin lead-mining regions, enlisted in 1861, -served three years gallantly and was discharged because of a wound in -the breast by a rifle-ball. He struck Pithole in September of 1865, -shared in the ups and downs of the transitory excitement and was one of -the founders, if not the full-fledged father, of Cash-Up. The brave -veteran was a pioneer in shoving ahead and demonstrating where oil was -_not_ to be expected. He owned fourteen dry-holes in whole or part, a -number sufficient to establish quite a record. Drifting to Butler with -the tide of developments, he engaged in various pursuits with varying -success. Hosts of friends relish his tales of army-life and of ventures -in Oildom, a knapsack of which he has constantly on hand. The years -speed quickly, bringing many changes in their wake, and thousands who -once waded through the muddy streets of Pithole are now treading the -golden pavements of the Celestial City. Those who linger here a while -longer love to recall the times that can never be repeated under the -blue canopy. - -Mud-veins in the third sand on Oil Creek and at Pithole would often -stick the tools effectually. On Bull Run three wells in one derrick were -abandoned with tools stuck in the third sand. The theory was that the -mud vein was a stratum of slate in the sand, which became softened and -ran into the well when water came in contact with it. Casing has robbed -it of its terrors. - -Before casing was introduced it was often difficult to tell if oil was -found. Oilmen would examine the sand, look for “soot” on the -sand-pumpings and place a lighted match to the sand-pump immediately -after it was drawn from the well, as a test for gas. If the driller was -sure the drill dropped two or three feet, with “soot” on the -sand-pumpings, the show was considered worth testing. A seed-bag was put -on the tubing and the well was allowed to stand a day or two to let the -seed swell. To exhaust the water sometimes required weeks, but when all -hope of a producer was lost and the last shovel of coal was in the -boiler the oil might come. There seemed to be a virtue in that last -shovel of coal. The shoemaker who could make a good seed-bag was a big -man. The man who tied on the seed-bag for a well that proved a good -producer was in demand. If, after oil showed itself, flax-seed was seen -coming from the pipe the well-owner’s heart could be found in his boots. -The bag was burst, the water let in and the operator’s hopes let out. - -A young divine preached a sermon at Pithole, on the duty of -self-consecration, so effectively that a hearer presented him with a -bundle of stock in a company operating on the Hyner farm. The preacher -sold his shares for ten-thousand dollars and promptly retired from the -pulpit to study law! Rev. S. D. Steadman, while a master of sarcasm that -would skewer a hypocrite on the point of irony, was particularly at home -in the realm of the affections and of the ideal. In matters of the heart -and soul few could with surer touch set aflow the founts of tender -pathos. He met his match occasionally. Rallying a friend on his -Calvinism, he said, “I believe Christians may fall from grace.” “Brother -Steadman,” was the quick rejoinder, “you need not argue that; the flock -you’re tending is convincing proof that the doctrine is true of your -membership.” - -A good deal of fun has been poked at the Georgia railroad which had -cow-catchers at the rear, to keep cattle from walking into the cars, and -stopped in the woods while the conductor went a mile for milk to -replenish a crying baby’s nursing-bottle. On my last trip to Pithole by -rail there were no other passengers. The conductor sat beside me to chat -of former days and the decadence of the town at the northern end of the -line. Four miles from Oleopolis fields of wild strawberries “wasted -their sweetness on the desert air.” In reply to my hint that the berries -looked very tempting, the conductor pulled the bell-rope and stopped the -train. All hands feasted on the luscious fruit until satisfied. -Coleridge, who observed that “Doubtless the Almighty _could_ make a -finer fruit than the wild strawberry, but doubtless He never did,” would -have enjoyed the scene. “Don’t hurry too much,” the conductor called -after me at Pithole “we can start forty minutes behind time and I’ll -wait for you!” The rails were taken up and the road abandoned in the -fall, but the strawberry-picking is as fresh as though it happened -yesterday. - -Long ago teamsters would start from the mines with twenty bushels of -fifteen-cent coal. By the time they reached Pithole it would swell to -thirty-five bushels of sixty-cent coal. With oil for back-loading the -teamsters made more money then than a bond-juggler with a cinch on the -United-States treasury. - -A farmer’s wife near Dawson Centre, who had washed dishes for forty -years, became so tired of the monotony that, the day her husband leased -the farm for oil-purposes, she smashed every piece of crockery in the -house and went out on the woodpile and laughed a full hour. It was the -first vacation of her married life and dish-washing women will know how -to sympathize with the poor soul in her drudgery and her emancipation. - -Pithole, Shamburg, Red-Hot, Tip-Top, Cash-Up, Balltown and Oleopolis -have passed into history and many of their people have gone beyond the -vale of this checkered pilgrimage, yet memories of these old times come -back freighted with thoughts of joyous days that will return no more -forever. - - “Better be a young June-bug than an old bird of Paradise.” - - PITHOLE REVISITED. - -The following lines, first contributed by me to the Oil-City _Times_ in -1870, went the rounds twenty-five years ago: - - Not a sound was heard, not a shrill whistle’s scream, - As our footsteps through Pithole we hurried; - Not a well was discharging an unctuous stream - Where the hopes of the oilmen lay buried! - - We walk’d the dead city till far in the night— - Weeds growing where wheels once were turning— - While seeking to find by the struggling moonlight - Some symptom of gas dimly burning. - - No useless regret should encumber man’s breast, - Though dry-holes and Pitholes may bound him; - So we lay like a warrior taking his rest, - Each with his big overcoat ’round him. - - Few and short were the prayers we said, - We spoke not a sentence of sorrow, - But steadfastly gazed on the place that was dead - And bitterly long’d for the morrow! - - We thought, as we lay on our primitive bed, - An old sand-pump reel for a pillow, - How friends, foes and strangers were heartily bled - And ruin swept on like a billow! - - Lightly we slept, for we dreamt of the scamp, - And in fancy began to upbraid him, - Who swindled us out of our very last stamp— - In the grave we could gladly have laid him! - - We rose half an hour in advance of the sun, - But little refreshed for retiring! - And, feeling as stiff as a son of a gun, - Set off on a hunt for some firing. - - Slowly and sadly our hard-tack went down, - Then we wrote a brief sketch of our story - And struck a bee-line for Oil City’s fair town, - Leaving Pithole alone in its glory! - -[Illustration: PARKER OIL EXCHANGE IN 1874.] - -TOP ROW— - J. D. Emery - Warren Gray. - —— Harris. - E. Seldon. - C. Seldon. - Nelson Cochran. - Col. Sellers. - Unknown. - Milo Marsden. - W. A. Pullman. - L. W. Waters. - Lemuel Young. - Chas. Archbold. - Unknown. - Unknown. - Harry Parker. - Hugh McKelvy. - James Green. - James McCutcheon. - J. M’Donald. - Dr. Thorn. - Unknown. - Unknown. - -MIDDLE ROW— - O J. Greer. - Fullerton Parker. - Full. Parker, Jr. - James Goldsborough. - W. C. Henry. - Thos. McLaughlin. - Col. Brady. - Sam. Morrow. - Joseph Seep. - Charles Hatch. - John Barton. - R. Moorhead. - H. W. Batchelor. - —— Gephardt. - Shep. Morehead. - -LOWER ROW— - Capt. J. T. Chalfant. - Thos. McConnell. - Weston Howland. - James Lowe. - Chas. Riddell. - Richard Conn. - Rem Offley. - Ren. Kerr. - Harry Marlin. - H. Beers. - Jas. Garrett. - Chas. W. Ball. - Walter Fleming. - Chas. J. Frazer. - - - - - X. - UP THE WINDING RIVER. - -ALONG THE ALLEGHENY FROM OIL CREEK—THE FIRST PETROLEUM COMPANY’S BIG - STRIKE—RULER OF PRESIDENT—FAGUNDAS, TIDIOUTE AND TRIUMPH HILL—THE - ECONOMITES—WARREN AND FOREST—CHERRY GROVE’S BOMBSHELL—SCOUTS AND - MYSTERY WELLS—EXCITING EXPERIENCES IN THE MIDDLE FIELD—DRAINING A - JUICY SECTION OF OILDOM. - - ---------- - - “The ocean is vast and our craft is small.”—_Norman Gunnison._ - - “Heaven sends us good meat, but the devil sends cooks.”—_Garrick._ - - “Stay, stay thy crystal tide, - Sweet Allegheny! - I would by thee abide, - Sweet Allegheny.”—_Marjorie Meade._ - - “Keep account of crises and transactions in this life.”—_Mrs. - Browning._ - - “Five minutes in a crisis is worth years.”—_Freeman Hunt._ - - “It does upset a man’s calculations most confoundedly.”—_Grant - Allen._ - - “Run if you like, but try to keep your breath.”—_Holmes._ - - “Then it was these Philistine sinners’ turn to be skeered and they - broke for the brush.”—_Dr. Pierson._ - - “And all may do what has by man been done.”—_Edward Young._ - - “Spurr’d boldly on and dashed through thick and thin.”—_Dryden._ - - ---------- - - -[Illustration: DAVID BEATTY.] - -[Illustration: JESSE A. HEYDRICK.] - -In transforming the unfruitful, uninteresting Valley of Oil Creek into -the rich, attractive Valley of Petroleum the course of developments was -southward from the Drake well. Although some persons imagined that a -pool or a strip bordering the stream would be the limit of successful -operations, others entertained broader ideas and believed the -petroleum-sun was not doomed to rise and set on Oil Creek. The Evans -well at Franklin confirmed this view. Naturally the Allegheny River was -regarded with favor as the base of further experiments. Quite as -naturally the town at the junction of the river and the creek was -benefited. The Michigan Rock-Oil-Company laid out building-lots and Oil -City grew rapidly in wealth, ambition, enterprise and population. From a -half-dozen dwellings, two unbridged streams, the remnants of an -iron-furnace and a patch of cleared land on the flats it speedily -advanced to a hustling settlement of five-thousand souls, “out for the -stuff” and all eager for profit. Across the Allegheny, on the Downing -and Bastian farms, William L. Lay laid out the village of Laytonia in -1863 and improved the ferriage. Phillips & Vanausdall, who struck a -thirty-barrel well on the Downing farm in 1861, established a ferry -above Bastian’s and started the suburbs of Albion and Downington. In -1865 these were merged into Imperial City, which in 1866 was united with -Laytonia and Leetown to form Venango City. In 1871 the boroughs of -Venango City and Oil City were incorporated as the city of Oil City, -with William M. Williams as mayor. Three passenger-bridges, one railroad -bridge and an electric street-railway connect the north and south sides -of the “Hub of Oildom.” Beautiful homes, first-class schools and -churches, spacious business-blocks, paved streets, four railroads, -electric-lights, water-works, pipe-line offices, strong banks, enormous -tube-works, huge refineries, bright newspapers, a paid fire-department, -all the modern conveniences and twelve-thousand clever people make Oil -City one of the busiest and most desirable towns in or out of -Pennsylvania. - -The largest of twenty-five or thirty wells drilled around Walnut Bend, -six miles up the river, in 1860-65, was rated at two-hundred barrels. -Four miles farther, two miles north-east of the mouth of Pithole Creek, -John Henry settled on the north bank of the river in 1802. Henry’s Bend -perpetuates the name of this brave pioneer, who reared a large family -and died in 1858. The farm opposite Henry’s, at the crown of the bend, -Heydrick Brothers, of French Creek township, leased in the fall of 1859. -Jesse Heydrick organized the Wolverine Oil-Company, the second ever -formed to drill for petroleum. Thirty shares of stock constituted its -capital of ten-thousand-five-hundred dollars. The first well, -one-hundred-and-sixty feet deep, pumped only ten barrels a day, giving -Wolverine shares a violent chill. The second, also sunk in 1860, at -three-hundred feet flowed fifteen-hundred barrels! Beside this giant the -Drake well was a midget. The Allegheny had knocked out Oil Creek at a -stroke, the production of the Heydrick spouter doubling that of all the -others in the region put together. It was impossible to tank the oil, -which was run into a piece of low ground and formed a pond through which -yawl-boats were rowed fifty rods! By this means seven-hundred barrels a -day could be saved. At last the tubing was drawn, which decreased the -yield and rendered pumping necessary. The well flowed and pumped about -one-hundred-thousand barrels, doing eighty a day in 1864-5, when the -oldest producer in Venango county. It was a celebrity in its time and -proved immensely profitable. In December of 1862 Jesse Heydrick went to -Irvine, forty miles up the river, to float down a cargo of empty -barrels. Twenty-five miles from Irvine, on the way back, the river was -frozen from bank to bank. He sawed a channel a mile, ran the barrels to -the well, filled them, loaded them in a flat-boat and arrived at -Pittsburg on a cold Saturday before Christmas. Oil was scarce, the -zero-weather having prevented shipments, and he sold at thirteen dollars -a barrel. A thaw set in, the market was deluged with crude and in four -days the price dropped to two dollars! Stock-fluctuations had no -business in the game with petroleum. - -Wolverine shares climbed out of sight. Mr. Heydrick bought the whole -batch, the lowest costing him four-thousand dollars and the highest -fifteen-thousand. He sold part of his holdings on the basis of -fifteen-hundred-thousand dollars for the well and farm of two-hundred -acres, forty-three-thousand times the original value of the land! -Heydrick Brothers bored seventy wells on three farms in President -township, one of which cost eighteen months’ labor and ten-thousand -dollars in money and produced nine barrels of oil. They disposed of it, -the new owner fussed with it and for five years received fifteen barrels -of oil a day. - -Accidents and incidents resulting from the Wolverine operations would -fill a dime-novel. Jesse Heydrick, organizer of the company, went east -with two or three-hundred-thousand dollars, presumably to “play Jesse” -with the bulls and bears of Wall Street. He returned in a year or more -destitute of cash, but loaded with entertaining tales of adventure. He -told a thrilling story of his abduction from a New-York wharf and -shipment to Cuba by a band of kidnappers, who stole his money and -treated him harshly. He endured severe hardships and barely escaped with -his life and a mine of experience. Working his way north, he resumed -surveying, prepared valuable maps of the Butler field and was a standard -authority on oil-matters in the district. For years he was connected -with a pipe-line in Ohio, returning thence to Butler, his present -residence, to engage in oil-operations. Mr. Heydrick is cultured and -social, brimful of information and interesting recitals, and not a -bilious crank who thinks the world is growing worse because he lost a -fortune. A brother at Franklin was president of the Oil-City Bank, -incorporated in 1864 as a bank of issue and forced to the wall in 1866, -and served a year on the Supreme Bench. James Heydrick was a skilled -surveyor and Charles W. resided at the old homestead on French Creek. -Heydrick Brothers were “the Big Four” in developments that brought the -Allegheny-River region into the petroleum-column. It is singular that -the Heydrick well, located at random thirty-seven years ago, was the -largest ever struck on the banks of the zig-zagged, ox-bowed stream. - - It set the pace to serve as an example, - But not another could come up to sample. - -Eight rods square on the Heydrick tract leased for five-thousand dollars -and fifty per cent. of the oil, while the Wolverine shares attested the -increasing wealth of the oil-interest and the pitch to which oil-stocks -might rise. Hussey & McBride secured the Henry farm and obtained a large -production in 1860-1. The Walnut Tree and Orchard wells headed the list. -Warren & Brother pumped oil from Pithole to Henryville, a small town on -the flats, of whose houses, hotels, stores and shipping-platforms no -scrap survives. The Commercial Oil-Company bought the Culbertson farm, -above Henry, and drilled extensively on Muskrat and Culbertson Runs. -Patrick McCrea, the first settler on the river between Franklin and -Warren, the first Allegheny ferryman north of Franklin and the first -Catholic in Venango county, migrated from Virginia in 1797 to the wilds -of North-western Pennsylvania. C. Curtiss purchased the McCrea tract of -four-hundred acres in 1861 and stocked it in the Eagle Oil-Company of -Philadelphia. Fair wells were found on the property and the town of -Eagle Rock attained the dignity of three-hundred buildings. An eagle -could fly away with all that is left of the town and the wells. - -[Illustration: EDWIN E. CLAPP.] - -Farther along Robert Elliott, who removed from Franklin, owned -one-thousand acres on the south side of the river and built the first -mill in President township. Rev. Ralph Clapp built a blast-furnace in -1854-5, a mile from the mouth of Hemlock Creek, at the junction of which -with the Allegheny a big hotel, a store and a shop are situated. Mr. -Clapp gained distinction in the pulpit and in business, served in the -Legislature and died in 1865. His son, Edwin E. Clapp, had a block of -six-thousand acres, the biggest slice of undeveloped territory in -Oildom. Productive wells have been sunk on the river-front, but Clapp -invariably refused to sell or lease except once. To Kahle Brothers, for -the sake of his father’s friendship for their father, he leased -two-hundred acres, on which many good wells are yielding nicely. -Preferring to keep his own lands untouched until he “got good and -ready,” he operated largely at Tidioute, he and his brother, John M. -Clapp, acquiring great wealth. He was chairman of the Producers’ Council -and active in the memorable movements of 1871-3. He built for his home -the President Hotel, furnishing it with every comfort and luxury except -the one no _bachelor_ can possess. From him Macadam, Talbot and -Nicholson could have learned much about road-making. At his own expense -he constructed many a mile of first-class roads in President, grading, -ditching and leveling in a fashion to make a bicycler’s mouth water. -There was not a scintilla of pride or affectation in his composition. It -is told that an agent of the Standard Oil-Company appointed a time to -meet him “on important business.” The interview lasted two minutes. -“What is the business?” interrogated Clapp. “Our company authorizes me -to offer you one-million dollars for your lands in President and I am -prepared to pay you the money.” “Anything else?” “No.” “Well, the land -isn’t for sale; good-morning!” Off went Clapp as coolly as though he had -merely received a bid for a bushel of potatoes. Whether true or not, the -story is characteristic. As a friend to swear by, a helper of the poor, -a believer in fair-play, a prime joker and an inimitable weaver of comic -yarns few could equal, none excel, the “President of President.” He died -in July, 1897. - -Around Tionesta, the county-seat of Forest, numerous holes were punched. -Thomas Mills, who operated in Ohio and missed opening the Sistersville -field by a scratch, drilled in 1861-2. The late George S. Hunter—he -built Tionesta’s first bridge and ought to have a monument for -enterprise—hunted earnestly for paying territory. Up Tionesta Creek -operations extended slowly, but developments in 1882-3 atoned for the -delay. Then Forest county was “the cynosure of all eyes,” each week -springing fresh surprises. Balltown had a crop of dry-holes, followed by -wells of all grades from twenty barrels to fifteen-hundred. At Henry’s -Mills and on the Cooper lands, north-east of Balltown and running into -Warren county, spouters were decidedly in vogue. Reno No. 1 well, -finished in December of 1882, flowed twenty-eight-hundred barrels! Reno -No. 2, McCalmont Oil-Company’s No. 1, Patterson’s and the Anchor -Oil-Company’s No. 14 went over the fifteen-hundred mark. In the midst of -these gushers Melvin, Walker & Shannon’s duster indicated spotted -territory, uncertain as the verdict of a petit jury. The Forest splurge -held the entire oil-trade on the ragged edge for months. Every time one -or more fellows took to the woods to manipulate a wildcat-well oil took -a tumble. Notwithstanding the magnitude of the business, with -thirty-six-million barrels of oil in stock and untold millions of -dollars invested, the report from Balltown or Cooper of a new strike -caused a bad break. Some owners of important wells worked them as -“mysteries” to “milk the trade.” Derricks were boarded tightly, armed -men kept intruders from approaching too near and information was -withheld or falsified until the gang of manipulators “worked the -market.” To offset this leading dealers employed “scouts,” whose mission -was to get correct news at all hazards. The duties of these trusty -fellows involved great labor, night watches, incessant vigilance and -sometimes personal danger. The “mystery” racket and the introduction of -“scouts” were new elements in the business, necessitated by the peculiar -tactics of a small clique whose methods were not always creditable. The -passing of the Forest field, which declined with unprecedented rapidity, -practically ended the system that had terrorized the oil-exchanges in -New York, Oil City, Bradford and Pittsburg. The collapse of the Cooper -pool was more unexpected than the striking of a gusher would be under -any circumstances. Its influence upon oil-values was ridiculously -disproportionate to its merits, just as the tail sometimes wags the dog. - -[Illustration: IN THE MIDDLE FIELD.] - -Closely allied to Balltown and Cooper in its principal features, its -injurious effects and sudden depreciation, was the field that taught the -Forest lesson. On May nineteenth, 1882, the oil-trade was paralyzed by -the report of a big well in Cherry-Grove township, Warren county, miles -from previous developments. The general condition of the region was -prosperous, with an advancing market and a favorable outlook. The new -well—the famous “646”—struck the country like a cyclone. Nobody had -heard a whisper of the finding of oil in the hole George Dimick was -drilling near the border of Warren and Forest. The news that it was -flowing twenty-five-hundred barrels flashed over the wires with -disastrous consequences. The excitement in the oil-exchanges, as the -price of certificates dropped thirty to fifty per cent. in a few -moments, was indescribable. Margins and small-fry holders were wiped out -in a twinkling and the losses aggregated millions. It was a panic of the -first water, far-reaching and ruinous. A plunge from one-thirty to -fifty-five cents for crude meant distress and bankruptcy to thousands of -producers and persons carrying oil. Men comfortably off in the morning -were beggared by noon. Other wells speedily followed “646.” The Murphy, -the Mahoopany and scores more swelled the daily yield to thirty-thousand -barrels. Five-hundred wells were rushed down with the utmost celerity. -Big companies bought lands at big prices and operated on a big scale. -Pipe-lines were laid, iron-tanks erected and houses reared by the -hundred. Cherry Grove dwarfed the richest portions of the region into -insignificance. It bade fair to swamp the business, to flood the world -with cheap oil, to compel the abandonment of entire districts and to -crush the average operator. But if the rise of Cherry Grove was vividly -picturesque, its fall was startlingly phenomenal. One dark December -morning the workmen noticed that the Forest Oil-Company’s largest gusher -had stopped flowing. Within a week the disease had spread like an -epidemic. Spouters ceased to spout and obstinately declined to pump. The -yield was counted by dozens of barrels instead of thousands. In January -one-fourth the wells were deserted and the machinery removed. -Three-hundred wells on April first yielded hardly two-thousand barrels, -three-quarters what “646” or the Murphy had done alone! The suddenness -of the topple cast Oil Creek into the shade and eclipsed Pithole itself. -Piles of junk represented miles of pipe-lines and acres of tanks. The -Cooper fever was breaking out and, with Henry’s Mills and Balltown, -repeated in 1883 the hurrah of 1882. For eleven months the Forest-Warren -pools fretted and fumed, producing five-million barrels of oil and -having the trade by the throat. In that brief period Cherry Grove came -and went, Cooper threatened and subsided, and Balltown was bowled out. -Nine-tenths of the operators figured as heavy losers. Pennsylvania’s -production shrank from ninety-thousand barrels to sixty-thousand and a -healthy reaction set in. Petroleum-developments often presented -remarkable peculiarities, but the strangest of all was the readiness -with which speculators time and again fell a prey to the schemes of -Forest-Warren jobbers, whose “picture is turned to the wall.” - -[Illustration: S. B. HUGHES.] - -The professional “oil-scout” first became prominent at Cherry Grove. He -was neither an Indian fighter nor a Pinkerton detective, although -possessing the courage and sharpness of both. He combined a knowledge of -woodcraft and human-nature with keen discernment, acute judgment and -infinite patience. S. B. Hughes, J. C. Tennent, P. C. Boyle, J. C. -McMullen, Frank H. Taylor, Joseph Cappeau, James Emery and J. H. Rathbun -were captains in the good work of worrying and circumventing the -“mystery” men. Hughes rendered service that won the confidence of his -employers and brought him a competence. Never caught napping, for one -special feat he was said to have received ten-thousand dollars. It was -not uncommon for him and his comrades to keep their boots on a week at a -stretch, to snatch a nap under a tree or on a pile of casing, to creep -on all-fours inside the guard-lines and watch pale Luna wink merrily and -the bright stars twinkle while reclining on the damp ground to catch the -faintest sound from a mystified well. Boyle and Tennent made brilliant -plays in the campaign of 1882-3. Captain J. T. Jones, failing to get -correct information regarding “646,” lost heavily on long oil when the -Cherry-Grove gusher hypnotized the market and sent Tennent from Bradford -to size up the wells and the movements of those manipulating them. -Michael Murphy, learning that Grace & Dimick were quietly drilling a -wildcat-well on lot 646, smelled a large-sized rodent and concluded to -share in the sport. For one-hundred dollars an acre and one-eighth the -usufruct Horton, Crary & Co., the Sheffield tanners, sold him lot 619, -north-east of 646. Murphy had cut his eye-teeth as an importer—John S. -Davis was his partner—of oil-barrels, an exporter of crude and an -operator at Bradford. He pushed a well on the south-west corner of his -purchase and secured lands in the vicinity. Grace & Dimick held back -their well a month to tie up lots and complete arrangements regarding -the market. Everything was managed adroitly. The trade had not a glimmer -of suspicion that a bombshell might be fired at any moment. Murphy’s rig -burned down on May fifteenth, he was in Washington trying to close a -deed for another tract and “646” was put through the sand. On June -second Murphy’s No. 1, which he guarded strictly after rebuilding the -rig, flowed sixteen-hundred barrels. His No. 2, finished on July third, -flowed thirty-six-hundred barrels in twenty-four hours! The Mahoopany -and a half-dozen others aided in the demoralization of prices. Murphy -sold eighty acres of lot 619 for fifty-thousand dollars to the McCalmont -Oil-Company. The Anchor Oil-Company’s gusher on lot 647 caught fire, -without curtailing the flow, and was burning furiously as “Jim” Tennent -arrived from Bradford. The scouts had their hands full, with the -“white-sand pools” and the keenest masters of “mystery wells” to demand -their best licks. - -Watching Murphy’s dry-hole on lot 633 was Tennent’s initial job. The -Whale Oil-Company’s duster on lot 648 next claimed the attention of the -scouts. It had been drilled below the sand-level and the tools left at -the bottom. On Sunday night, July ninth, 1882, Boyle, Tennent and two -companions raised the tools by hand, measured the well with a steel-line -and telegraphed their principals that it was dry. This report jumped the -market on Monday morning from forty-nine cents to sixty. The Shannon -well on the Cooper tract needed constant care and the scouts divided the -labor. Tennent and Rathbun one night sought to crawl near the well. A -twig snapped off and a guard fired, the ball grazing “Jim’s” ear. In -December Boyle and W. C. Edwards drilled Grandin No. 4 below the sand -before the owners knew the rock had been reached. Its failure surprised -the trade as much as the success of “646.” Boyle actually posted the -guards to keep intruders away and they refused to let W. W. Hague, an -owner of the well, inside the line until the contractor appeared and -permitted him to pass! Boyle and Tennent did fine work north of the -Cooper field. At the Shultz well Tennent, in order to make a quick trip -of a half-mile to the pipe-line telegraph, clung to the tail of -Cappeau’s horse and kept up with the animal’s gallop. Mercury might not -have endorsed that style of locomotion, but it served the purpose and -got the news to Jones ahead of everybody else. Tennent played the market -skillfully, cleared twenty-five-thousand dollars on Macksburg lands and -operated with tolerable success in McKean county. Nine years ago he -removed to his thousand-acre prairie-farm in Kansas, the land of -sockless statesman and nimble grasshoppers. - -Boyle, brimful of novel resources, puzzled the “mystery” chaps by his -bold ingenuity and usually beat them at their own game. He squarely -overmatched the field-marshals of manipulation. His fertile brain -originated the plan of drilling Grandin No. 4 and other test wells. The -night he went to drill the Grace well through the sand he paid the -ferryman at Dunham’s Mills not to answer any calls until morning, thus -cutting off all chance of pursuit and surprise. At the well Boyle wrote -an order to deliver the well to Tennent, signing it Pickwick, and the -drillers retired to bed! Somebody had been there before them and poured -back the sand-pumpings. At the Patterson well Boyle devised a code of -tin-horn signals that outwitted the men inside the derrick and flashed -the result to Gusher City. The number of expedients continually devised -was a marvel. Thanks to the energy and ability of these tireless scouts, -of whose midnight exploits, wild rides, hairbreadth escapes and queer -adventures many pages could be written, the effect of “mysteries” was -frequently neutralized and at length the whole system of guarded wells, -bull-dogs and shot-guns was eliminated. - -[Illustration: P. M. SHANNON.] - -The Forest-Warren white-sand pools marked a new era in developments, -with new ideas and new methods to hoodoo speculation. Cherry Grove had -wilted from twenty-five-thousand barrels in September to three-thousand -in December, when Cooper Hill loomed above the horizon and Balltown -appeared on deck. Shallow wells had been sunk far up Tionesta Creek in -1862-3. Near the two dwellings, saw-mill, school-house and barn dubbed -Foxburg, the stamping-ground of deer-hunters and bark-peelers, Marcus -Hulings—his name is a synonym for successful wildcatting—in 1876 drilled -a well that smacked of oil. The derrick stood ten years and globules of -grease bubbled up from the depths, a thousand feet beneath. C. A. -Shultz, a piano-tuner, taking his cue from the Hulings well, interested -Frederick Morck, a Warren jeweler, and leased the Fox estate and -contiguous lands in 1881. The Blue-Jay and two Darling wells, small -producers, created a ripple which dry-holes evaporated. They were on -Warrant 2991, Howe township, known to fame as the Cooper tract, -north-west of Foxburg. The conditions of the lease required a well at -the western end of the warrant. Cherry Grove was at its zenith, crude -was flirting with the fifties and operators considered the Blue-Jay -chick a lean bird. J. Mainwaring leased one-hundred acres from Morck & -Shultz and built a rig at the head of a wild ravine, in the sunless -woodland, a half-mile from Tionesta Creek. He lost faith and the -Mainwaring lease and rig passed to P. M. Shannon, of Bradford. Born in -Clarion county, Philip Martin Shannon enlisted at fourteen, served -gallantly through the war, traveled as salesman for a Pittsburg house -and in 1870 cast his lot with the oilmen at Parker. A pioneer at -Millerstown and its burgess in 1874, he filled the office capably and in -1876 received a big majority at the Republican primary for the -legislative nomination. The county-ring counted him out. He drifted with -the tide to Bullion, removed to Bradford in 1879, was elected mayor in -1885 and discharged his official duties with excellent discretion. -Temperate in habits and upright in conduct, Mayor Shannon had been an -observer and not a participant in the nether side of oil-region life and -knew where to draw the line. He was a favorite in society, high in -Masonic circles and efficient in securing lands for firms with which he -had become connected. Pittsburg is now his home and he manages the -company that is developing the Wyoming field. Mr. Shannon is always -generous and courteous. He could give a scout “the marble heart,” -lecture an offender, denounce a wrong or decline to furnish points -regarding his mystery-well in a good-natured way that disarmed -criticism. He retains his old-time geniality and prosperity has not -compelled him to buy hats three sizes larger than he wore at Parker and -Millerstown “in the days of auld lang-syne.” - -A. B. Walker and T. J. Melvin joined Shannon in his Cooper venture. A -road was cut through the dense forest from the Fox farm-house up the -steep hill to the Mainwaring derrick. An engine and boiler were dragged -to the spot and Captain Haight contracted to drill the hole. Melvin and -Walker, believing the well a failure at eighteen-hundred feet, went to -Cherry Grove on July twenty fifth, 1882. Shannon stayed to urge the -drill a trifle farther and it struck the sand at one o’clock next day. -He drove in two pine-plugs, sent a messenger for his partners and filled -the well with water to shut in the oil. The well wouldn’t consent to be -plugged and drowned. The stream broke loose at three o’clock, hurling -the tools and plugs into the Forest ozone. Shannon and Haight, standing -in the derrick, narrowly escaped death as the tools crashed through the -roof and fell to the floor. More plugs, sediment and old clothes were -jammed down to conceal the true inwardness of the well, news of which -was expected to pulverize the market. Heavy flows following the -expulsion of the tools led the owners to anticipate a big strike. -Outposts were established and guards, each armed with a Winchester -rifle, were changed every six hours. The wildcat-well, eight miles from -a telegraph-wire, became an entrenched camp with a half-dozen wakeful -scouts besieging the citadel. Vicksburg was not guarded more vigilantly. -If a twig cracked or an owl hooted a shower of bullets whizzed in the -direction of the noise. Through August the well was permitted to -slumber, oil that forced a passage in spite of the obstructions running -into pits inside “the dead-line.” The trade staggered under the adverse -fear of the mystery. Bradford operators formed a syndicate with the -owners in lands and speculation and sold a million barrels of crude -short. When everything was ready to spring the trap some of the parties -went to drill out the plugs and usher in the market-crusher. “We have a -jack-pot to open at our pleasure” remarked one of them, voicing the -sentiment of all. None looked for anything smaller than fifteen-hundred -barrels. The four drillers were discharged and two trusted lieutenants -turned the temper-screw and dressed the bits. Ten plugs and a mass of -dirt must be cleaned out. From a distance the scouts timed every motion -of the walking-beam, gluing their eyes to field-glasses that not a -symptom of a flow might slip their eager gaze, “like stout Cortez when -he stared at the Pacific upon a peak in Darien.” Swift horses were -fastened to convenient trees, saddled and bridled for a race to the -telegraph-office. A slice of bread and a can of beans served for food. -For days the drilling continued. On September fourteenth the last -splinter of the plugs was extracted, the sand was cut deeper and—the -well didn’t respond worth a cent! The faithful scouts, who had stood -manfully between the trade and the manipulators, rushed the report. It -was a bracer to the market. Bears who pinned their hopes to the Shannon -well, the pivot upon which petroleum hinged, scrambled to cover their -shorts at heavy loss. Balltown duplicated some of the Cooper -experiences, mystery-wells on Porcupine Run agitating the trade in the -spring of 1883. The Cherry-Grove, Cooper-Hill and Balltown pools yielded -eight or nine-million barrels. Operations extended to Sheffield and the -cream was soon skimmed off. The middle field had enjoyed a very lively -inning. - -Two miles back of Trunkeyville, on the west side of the Allegheny, -Calvert, Gilchrist & Risley drilled the Venture well in April, 1870, on -the Tuttle farm. Fisher Brothers, of Oil City, and O. D. Harrington, of -Titusville, bought the well for fifteen-thousand dollars when it touched -the third sand. It was eight-hundred feet deep, flowed three-hundred -barrels and started the Fagundas field. The day after it began flowing -the Fishers, Adnah Neyhart, Grandin Brothers and David Bently paid -one-hundred-and-twenty-thousand dollars for the Fagundas farm of -one-hundred-and-sixty acres. Mrs. Fagundas, one son and one daughter -died within three months of the sale. Neyhart & Grandin bought a -half-interest in David Beatty’s farm for ninety-thousand dollars. The -Lady Burns well, on the Wilkins farm, finished in June, seconded the -Venture. A daily production of three-thousand barrels and a town of -twenty-five-hundred population followed quickly. A mile from Fagundas -operations on the Hunter, Pearson, Guild and Berry farms brought the -suburb of Gillespie into being. The territory lasted and a small yield -is obtained to-day. A half-dozen houses, the Venture derrick, Andrews & -Co.’s big store and the office in which whole-souled M. Compton—he’s in -Pittsburg with the Forest Oil-Company now—labored as secretary of the -Producers’ Council, hold the fort on the site of well-nigh-forgotten -Fagundas. William H. Calvert, who projected the Venture well, died at -Sistersville, West Virginia, on February seventeenth, 1896. He had -drilled on Oil Creek and at Pithole, operated in the southern field and -was negotiating for a block of lands near Sistersville when a clot of -blood on the brain cut short his active life. - -David Beatty had drilled on Oil Creek in 1859-60 with John Fertig. He -settled on a farm in Warren county “to get away from the oil.” His farm -was smothered in oil by the Fagundas development. He removed to the -pretty town of Warren, building an elegant home on the bank of Conewango -Creek. Fortune hounded him and insisted upon heaping up his riches. John -Bell drilled a fifty-barrel well eighty rods above the mansion. Wells -surrounding his lot and in his yard emitted oil. Mr. Beatty resigned -himself to the inevitable and lived at Warren until called to his final -rest some years ago. His case resembled the heroine in Milton Nobles’s -Phenix, where “the villain still pursued her.” The boys used to relate -how a negro, the first man to die at Oil City after the advent of -petroleum, was buried in a lot on the flats. Somebody wanted that -precise spot next day to drill a well and the corpse was planted on the -hill-side. The next week that particular location was selected for a -well and the body was again exhumed. To be sure of getting out of reach -of the drill the friends of the deceased boated his remains down the -river to Butler county. Twelve years later the bones were disinterred—an -oil-company having leased the old graveyard—and put in the garden of the -dead man’s son, to be handy for any further change of base that may be -required. - -At East Hickory the Foster well, drilled in 1863, flowed three-hundred -barrels of amber oil. Two-hundred wells were sunk in the Hickory -district, which proved as tough as Old Hickory to nineteen-twentieths of -the operators. Three Hickory Creeks—East Hickory and Little Hickory on -the east and West Hickory—enter the river within two miles. Near the -mouth of West Hickory three Scotchmen named McKinley bored a well -two-hundred-and-thirty feet in 1861. They found oil and were preparing -to tube the well when the war broke out and they abandoned the field. A -well on the flats, drilled in 1865, flowed two-hundred barrels of -lubricating oil, occasioning a furore. One farm sold for a -hundred-thousand dollars and adjacent lands were snapped up eagerly. - -Ninety-five years ago hardy lumbermen settled permanently in Deerfield -township, Warren county, thirty miles above the mouth of Oil Creek. -Twenty years later a few inhabitants, supported by the lumber trade, had -collected near the junction of a small stream with the Allegheny. Bold -hills, grand forests, mountain rills and the winding river, sprinkled -with green islets, invested the spot with peculiar charms. Upon the -creek and hamlet the poetic Indian name of Tidioute, signifying a -cluster of islands, was fittingly bestowed. Samuel Grandin, who located -near Pleasantville, Venango county, in 1822, removed to Tidioute in -1839. He owned large tracts of timber-lands and increased the mercantile -and lumbering operations that gave him prominence and wealth. Mr. -Grandin maintained a high character and died at a ripe age. His oldest -son, John Livingston Grandin, returned from college in 1857 and engaged -in business with his father, assuming almost entire control when the -latter retired from active pursuits. News of Col. Drake’s well reached -the four-hundred busy residents of the lumber-center in two days. Col. -Robinson, of Titusville, rehearsed the story of the wondrous event to an -admiring group in Samuel Grandin’s store. Young J. L. listened intently, -saddled his horse and in an hour purchased thirty acres of the Campbell -farm, on Gordon Run, below the village, for three-hundred dollars. An -“oil-spring” on the property was the attraction. Next morning he -contracted with H. H. Dennis, a man of mechanical skill, to drill a well -“right in the middle of the spring.” The following day a derrick—four -pieces of scantling—towered twenty feet, a spring-pole was procured, the -“spring” was dug to the rock, and the “tool” swung at the _first_ -oil-well in Warren county and among the first in Pennsylvania. Dennis -hammered a drilling-tool from a bar of iron three feet long, flattening -one end to cut two-and-a-half inches, the diameter of the hole. In the -upper end of the drill he formed a socket, to hold an inch-bar of round -iron, held by a key riveted though and lengthened as the depth required. -Two or three times a day, when the “tool” was drawn out to sharpen the -bit and clean the hole, the key had to be cut off at each joint! With -this rude outfit drilling began the first week of September, 1859, and -the last week of October the well was down one-hundred-and-thirty-four -feet. Tubing would not go into the hole and it was enlarged to four -inches. The discarded axle of a tram-car, used to carry lumber from -Gordon Run to the river, furnished iron for the reamer. Days, weeks and -months were consumed at this task. At last, when the hole had been -enlarged its full depth, the reamer was let down “to make sure the job -was finished.” It stuck fast, never saw daylight again and the well sunk -with so much labor had not one drop of oil! - -Other wells in the locality fared similarly, none finding oil nearer -than Dennis Run, a half-mile distant. There scores of large wells -realized fortunes for their owners. In two years James Parshall was a -half-million ahead. He settled at Titusville and built the Parshall -House—a mammoth hotel and opera-house—which fire destroyed. The “spring” -on the Campell farm is in existence and the gravel is impregnated with -petroleum, supposed to percolate through fissures in the rocks from -Dennis Run. - -During the summer of 1860 developments extended across and down the -river a mile from Tidioute. The first producing well in the district, -owned by King & Ferris, of Titusville, started in the fall at -three-hundred barrels and boomed the territory amazingly. It was on the -W. W. Wallace lands—five-hundred acres below town—purchased in 1860 by -the Tidioute & Warren Oil-Company, the third in the world. Samuel -Grandin, Charles Hyde and Jonathan Watson organized it. J. L. Grandin, -treasurer and manager of the company, in eight years paid the -stockholders twelve-hundred-thousand dollars dividends on a capital of -ten-thousand! He leased and sub-leased farms on both sides of the -Allegheny, drilling some dry-holes, many medium wells and a few large -ones. He shipped crude to the seaboard, built pipe-lines and iron-tanks -and became head of the great firm of Grandins & Neyhart. Elijah Bishop -Grandin—named from the father of C. E. Bishop, founder of the Oil-City -_Derrick_—who had carried on a store at Hydetown and operated at -Petroleum Centre, resumed his residence at Tidioute in 1867 and -associated with his brother and brother-in-law, Adnah Neyhart, in -producing, buying, storing and transporting petroleum. Mr. Neyhart and -Joshua Pierce, of Philadelphia, had drilled on Cherry Run, on Dennis Run -and at Triumph and engaged largely in shipping oil to the coast. Pierce -& Neyhart—J. L. Grandin was their silent partner—dissolved in 1869. The -firm of Grandins & Neyhart, organized in 1868, was marvelously -successful. Its high standing increased confidence in the stability of -financial and commercial affairs in the oil-regions. The brothers -established the Grandin Bank and Neyhart, besides handling one-fourth of -the crude produced in Pennsylvania, opened a commission-house in New -York to sell refined, under the skilled management of John D. Archbold, -now vice-president of the Standard Oil-Company. They and the Fisher -Brothers owned the Dennis Run and Triumph pipe-lines and piped the oil -from Fagundas, where they drilled a hundred prolific wells and were the -largest operators. They bought properties in different portions of the -oil-fields, extended their pipe-lines to Titusville and erected tankage -at Parker and Miller Farm. The death of Mr. Neyhart terminated their -connection with oil-shipments. - - “There is no parley with death.” - -[Illustration: J. L. GRANDIN.] - -[Illustration: ADNAH NEYHART.] - -[Illustration: E. B. GRANDIN.] - -Owning thousands of acres in Warren and Forest counties, the -Grandins were heavily interested in developments at Cherry Grove, -Balltown and Cooper. As those sections declined they gradually -withdrew from active oil-operations, sold their pipe-lines and wound -up their bank. J. L. Grandin removed to Boston and E. B. to -Washington, to embark in new enterprises and enjoy, under most -favorable conditions, the fruits of their prosperous career at -Tidioute. Their business for ten years has been chiefly loaning -money, farming and lumbering in the west. They purchased -seventy-two-thousand acres in the Red-River Valley of Dakota—known -the world over as “the Dalrymple Farm”—and in 1895 harvested -six-hundred-thousand bushels of wheat and oats. They employ hundreds -of men and horses, scores of ploughs and reapers and steam-threshers -and illustrate how to farm profitably on the biggest scale. With -Hunter & Cummings, of Tidioute, and J. B. White, of Kansas City, as -partners, they organized the Missouri-Lumber-and-Mining-Company. The -company owns two-hundred-and-forty-thousand acres of timber-land in -Missouri and cut fifty-million feet of lumber last year in its vast -saw-mills at Grandin, Carter county. Far-seeing, clear-headed, of -unblemished repute and liberal culture, such men as J. L. and E. B. -Grandin reflect honor upon humanity and deserve the success an -approving conscience and the popular voice commend heartily. - -Above Tidioute a number of “farmers’ wells”—shallow holes sunk by hand -and soon abandoned—flickered and collapsed. On the islands in the river -small wells were drilled, most of which the great flood of 1865 -destroyed. Opposite the town, on the Economite lands, operations began -in 1860. Steam-power was used for the first time in drilling. The wells -ranged from five barrels to eighty, at one-hundred-and-fifty feet. They -belonged to the Economites, a German society that enforced celibacy and -held property in common. About 1820 the association founded the village -of Harmony, Butler county, having an exclusive colony and transacting -business with outsiders through the medium of two trustees. The members -wore a plain garb and were distinguished for morality, simplicity, -industry and strict religious principles. Leaving Harmony, they located -in the Wabash Valley, lost many adherents, returned to Pennsylvania and -built the town of Economy, in Beaver county, fifteen miles below -Pittsburg. They manufactured silks and wine, mined coal and accumulated -millions of dollars. A loan to William Davidson, owner of eight-thousand -acres in Limestone township, Warren county, obliged them to foreclose -the mortgage and bid in the tract. Their notions of economy applied to -the wells, which they numbered alphabetically. The first, A well, -yielded ten barrels, B pumped fifty and C flowed seventy. The trustees, -R. L. Baker and Jacob Henrici, erected a large boarding-house for the -workmen, whose speech and manners were regulated by printed rules. Pine -and oak covered the Davidson lands, which fronted several miles on the -Allegheny and stretched far back into the township. Of late years the -Economite Society has been disintegrating, until its membership has -shrunk to a dozen aged men and women. Litigation and mismanagement have -frittered away much of its property. It seems odd that an organization -holding “all things in common” should, by the perversity of fate, own -some of the nicest oil-territory in Warren, Butler and Beaver counties. -A recent strike on one of the southern farms flows sixty barrels an -hour. Natural gas lighted and heated Harmony and petroleum appears bound -to stick to the Economites until they have faded into oblivion. - -Below the Economite tract numerous wells strove to impoverish the -first sand. G. I. Stowe’s, drilled in 1860, pumped eight barrels a -day for six years. The Hockenburg, named from a preacher who wrote -an essay on oil, averaged twelve barrels a day in 1861. The -Enterprise Mining-and-Boring-Company of New-York leased fifteen rods -square on the Tipton farm to sink a shaft seven feet by twelve. -Bed-rock was reached at thirty feet, followed by ten feet of shale, -ten of gray sand, forty of slate and soap-rock and twenty of first -sand. The shaft, cribbed with six-inch plank to the bottom of the -first sand, tightly caulked to keep out water, was abandoned at -one-hundred-and-sixty feet, a gas-explosion killing the -superintendent and wrecking the timbers. Of forty wells on the -Tipton farm in 1860-61 not a fragment remained in 1866. - -Tidioute’s laurel wreath was Triumph Hill, the highest elevation in the -neighborhood. Wells nine-hundred feet deep pierced sixty feet of -oil-bearing sand, which produced steadily for years. Grandins, Fisher -Brothers, M. G. Cushing, E. E. Clapp, John M. Clapp and other leading -operators landed bounteous pumpers. The east side of the hill was a -forest of derricks, crowded like trees in a grove. Over the summit and -down the west side the sand and the development extended. For five years -Triumph was busy and prosperous, yielding hundreds-of-thousands of -barrels of oil and advancing Tidioute to a town of five-thousand -population. Five churches, the finest school-buildings in the county, -handsome houses, brick blocks, superior hotels and large stores greeted -the eye of the visitor. The Grandin Block, the first brick structure, -built of the first brick made in Deerfield township, contained an -elegant opera-house. Three banks, three planing-mills, two foundries and -three machine-shops flourished. A dozen refineries turned out -merchantable kerosene. Water-works were provided and an iron bridge -spanned the river. Good order was maintained and Tidioute—still a tidy -village—played second fiddle to no town in Oildom for intelligence, -enterprise and all-round attractiveness. - -[Illustration: VIEW ON WEST SIDE OF TRIUMPH HILL IN 1874.] - -The tidal wave effervesced at intervals clear to the Colorado district. -Perched on a hill in the hemlock woods, Babylon was the rendezvous of -sports, strumpets and plug-uglies, who stole, gambled, caroused and did -their best to break all the commandments at once. Could it have spoken, -what tales of horror that board-house under the evergreen tree might -recount! Hapless wretches were driven to desperation and fitted for the -infernal regions. Lust and liquor goaded men to frenzy, resulting -sometimes in homicide or suicide. In an affray one night four men were -shot, one dying in an hour and another in six weeks. Ben. Hogan, who -laughed at the feeble efforts of the township-constable to suppress his -resort, was arrested, tried for murder and acquitted on the plea of -self-defence. The shot that killed the first victim was supposed to have -been fired by “French Kate,” Hogan’s mistress. She had led the -demi-monde in Washington and led susceptible congressmen astray. Ben met -her at Pithole, where he landed in the summer of 1865 and ran a -variety-show that would make the vilest on the Bowery blush to the roots -of its hair. He had been a prize-fighter on land, a pirate at sea, a -bounty-jumper and blockade-runner, and prided himself on his title of -the “Wickedest Man in the World.” Sentenced to death for his crimes -against the government, President Lincoln pardoned him and he joined the -myriad reckless spirits that sought fresh adventures in the Pennsylvania -oil-fields. In a few months the Scripture legend—“Babylon has -fallen”—applied to the malodorous Warren town. The tiger can “change his -spots”—by moving from one spot to another—and so could Hogan. He was of -medium height, square-shouldered, stout-limbed, exceedingly muscular and -trained to use his fists. He fought Tom Allen at Omaha, sported at -Saratoga and in 1872 ran “The Floating Palace”—a boat laden with harlots -and whiskey—at Parker. The weather growing too cold and the law too hot -for comfort, he opened a den and built an opera-house at Petrolia. In -“Hogan’s Castle” many a clever young man learned the short-cut to -disgrace and perdition. Now and then a frail girl met a sad fate, but -the carnival of debauchery went on without interruption. Hogan put on -airs, dressed in the loudest style and would have been the burgess had -not the election-board counted him out! A fearless newspaper forcing him -to leave Petrolia, Hogan went east to engage in “the sawdust swindle,” -returned to the oil-regions in 1875, built an opera-house at Elk City, -decamped from Bullion, rooted at Tarport and Bradford and departed by -night for New York. Surfeited with revelry and about to start for Paris -to open a joint, he heard music at a hall on Broadway and sat down to -wait for the show to begin. Charles Sawyer, “the converted soak,” -appeared shortly, read a chapter from the Bible and told of his rescue -from the gutter. Ben was deeply impressed, signed the pledge at the -close of the service, agonized in his room until morning and on his -knees implored forgiveness. How surprised the angels must have been at -the spectacle of the prodigal in this attitude! After a fierce struggle, -to quote his own words, “peace filled my soul chock-full and I felt -awful happy.” He claimed to be converted and set to work earnestly to -learn the alphabet, that he might read the Scriptures and be an -evangelist. He married “French Kate,” who also professed religion, but -it didn’t strike in very deep and she eloped with a tough. Mr. Moody -welcomed Hogan and advised him to traverse the country to offset as far -as possible his former misdeeds. Amid the scenes of his grossest -offenses his reception varied. High-toned Christians, who would not -touch a down-trodden wretch with a ten-foot pole, turned up their -delicate noses and refused to countenance “the low impostor.” They -forgot that he sold his jewelry and most of his clothes, lived on bread -and water and endured manifold privations to become a bearer of the -gospel-message. Even ministers who proclaimed that “the blood of Christ -cleanses from _all_ sin” doubted Hogan’s salvation and showed him the -cold shoulder in the chilliest orthodox fashion. He stuck manfully and -for eighteen years has labored zealously in the vineyard. Judging from -his struggles and triumphs, is it too much to believe that a front seat -and a golden crown are reserved for the reformed pugilist, felon, -robber, assassin of virtue and right bower of Old Nick? Unlike -straddlers in politics and piety, who want to go to Heaven on -velvet-cushions and pneumatic tires, - - “He doesn’t stand on one foot fust, - An’ then stand on the other, - An’ on which one he feels the wust - He couldn’t tell you nuther.” - -[Illustration: LEWIS F. WATSON.] - -The expectation of an extension of the belt northward was not fulfilled -immediately. Wells at Irvineton, on the Brokenstraw and tributary runs, -failed to find the coveted fluid. Captain Dingley drilled two wells on -Sell’s Run, three miles east of Irvineton, in 1873, without slitting the -jugular. A test well at Warren, near the mouth of Conewango Creek, bored -in 1864 and burned as pumping was about to begin, had fair sand and a -mite of oil. John Bell’s operations in 1875 opened an amber pool up the -creek that for a season crowded the hotels three deep with visitors. -They bored dozens of wells, yet the production never reached -one-thousand barrels and in four months the patch was cordoned by dry -holes and as quiet as a cemetery. The crowds exhaled like morning dew. -Warren is a pretty town of four-thousand population, its location and -natural advantages offering rare inducements to people of refinement and -enterprise. Its site was surveyed in 1795 and the first shipment of -lumber to Pittsburg was made in 1801. Incorporated as a borough in 1832, -railroad communication with Erie was secured in 1859, with Oil City in -1867 and with Bradford in 1881. Many of the private residences are -models of good taste. Massive brick-blocks, solvent banks, churches, -stores, high-grade schools, shaded streets and modern conveniences -evidence its substantial prosperity. Hon. Thomas Struthers—he built -sections of the Philadelphia & Erie and the Oil-Creek railroads and -established big iron-works—donated a splendid brick building for a -library, opera-house and post-office. His grandson, who inherited his -millions and died in February, 1896, was a mild edition of “Coal-Oil -Johnnie” in scattering money. Lumbering, the principal industry for -three generations, enriched the community. Col. Lewis F. Watson -represented the district twice in Congress and left an estate of -four-millions, amassed in lumber and oil. He owned most of the township -bearing his name. Hon. Charles W. Stone, his successor, ranks with the -foremost members of the House in ability and influence. A Massachusetts -boy, he set out in life as a teacher, came to Warren to take charge of -the academy, was county-superintendent, studied law and rose to eminence -at the bar. He was elected Lieutenant-Governor of the State, served as -Secretary of the Commonwealth and would be Governor of Pennsylvania -to-day had “the foresight of the Republicans been as good as their -hindsight.” He has profitable oil-interests, is serving his fourth term -in Congress and may be nominated the fifth time. Alike fortunate in his -political and professional career, his social relations, his business -connections and his personal friendships, Charles W. Stone holds a place -in public esteem few men are privileged to attain. - -[Illustration: CHARLES W. STONE.] - -At Clarendon and Stoneham hundreds of snug wells yielded three-thousand -barrels a day from a regular sand that did not exhaust readily. -Southward the Garfield district held on fairly and a narrow-gauge -railroad was built to Farnsworth. The Wardwell pool, at Glade, four -miles east of Warren, fizzed after the manner of Cherry Grove, rich in -buried hopes and dissipated greenbacks. P. M. Smith and Peter Grace -drilled the first well—a sixty-barreler—close to the ferry in July of -1873. Dry-holes and small wells alternated with provoking uncertainty -until J. A. Gartland’s twelve-hundred-barrel gusher on the Clark farm, -in May of 1885, inaugurated a panic in the market that sent crude down -to fifty cents. The same day the Union Oil-Company finished a -four-hundred-barrel spouter and May ended with fifty-six wells producing -and a score of dusters. June and July continued the refrain, values -see-sawing as reports of dry-holes or fifteen-hundred-barrel-strikes, -some of them worked as “mysteries,” bamboozled the trade. Wardwell’s -production ascended to twelve-thousand barrels and fell by the dizziest -jumps to as many hundred, the porous rock draining with the speed of a -lightning-calculator. Tiona developed a lasting deposit of superior oil. -Kane has a tempting streak, in which Thomas B. Simpson and other -Oil-City parties are interested. Gas has been found at Wilcox, -Johnsonburg and Ridgway, Elk county, taking a slick hand in the game. -Kinzua, four miles north-east of Wardwell, revealed no particular cause -why the spirit of mortal ought to be proud. Although Forest and Warren, -with a slice of Elk thrown in, were demoralizing factors in 1882-3-4, -their aggregate output would only be a light luncheon for the polar bear -in McKean county. - -The Tidioute belt, varying in narrowness from a few rods to a half-mile, -was one of the most satisfactory ever discovered. When lessees fully -occupied the flats Captain A. J. Thompson drilled a two-hundred-barrel -well on the point, at the junction of Dingley and Dennis Runs. Quickly -the summit was scaled and amid drilling wells, pumping wells, oil-tanks -and engine-houses the town of Triumph was created. Triumph Hill turned -out as much money to the acre as any spot in Oildom. The sand was the -thickest—often ninety to one-hundred-and-ten feet—and the purest the -oil-region afforded. Some of the wells pumped twenty years. Salt-water -was too plentiful for comfort, but half-acre plots were grabbed at -one-half royalty and five-hundred dollars bonus. Wells jammed so closely -that a man could walk from Triumph to New London and Babylon on the -steam-boxes connecting them. Percy Shaw—he built the Shaw House—had a -“royal flush” on Dennis Run that netted two-hundred-thousand dollars. -From an investment of fifteen-thousand dollars E. E. and J. M. Clapp -cleared a half-million. - -“Spirits” located the first well at Stoneham and Cornen Brothers’ gasser -at Clarendon furnished the key that unlocked Cherry Grove. Gas was piped -from the Cornen well to Warren and Jamestown. Walter Horton was the -moving spirit in the Sheffield field, holding interests in the Darling -and Blue Jay wells and owning forty-thousand acres of land in Forest -county. McGrew Brothers, of Pittsburg, spent many thousands seeking a -pool at Garland. Grandin & Kelly’s operations below Balltown exploded -the theory that oil would not be found on the south side of Tionesta -Creek. Cherry Grove was at its apex when, in July of 1884, with -Farnsworth and Garfield boiling over, two wells on the Thomas farm, a -mile south-east of Richburg, flowed six-hundred barrels apiece. They -were among the largest in the Allegany district, but a three-line -mention in the Bradford _Era_ was all the notice given the pair. - -To the owner of a tract near “646,” who offered to sell it for -fifty-thousand dollars, a Bradford operator replied: “I would take it at -your figure if I thought my check would be paid, but I’ll take it at -forty-five-thousand whether the check is paid or not!” The check was not -accepted. - -Tack Brothers drilled a dry-hole twenty-six-hundred feet in Millstone -township, Elk county. Grandin & Kelly drilled four-thousand feet in -Forest county and got lots of geological information, but no oil. - -Get off the train at Trunkeyville—a station-house and water-tank—and -climb up the hill towards Fagundas. After walking through the woods a -mile an opening appears. A man is plowing. The soil looks too poor to -raise grasshoppers, yet that man during the oil-excitement refused an -offer of sixty-thousand dollars for this farm. His principal reason was -that he feared a suitable house into which to move his family could not -be obtained! On a little farther a pair of old bull-wheels, lying -unused, tells that the once productive Fagundas pool has been reached. A -short distance ahead on an eminence is a church. This is South Fagundas. -No sound save the crowing of a chanticleer from a distant farm-yard -breaks the silence. The merry voices heard in the seventies are no -longer audible, the drill and pump are not at work, the dwellings, -stores and hotels have disappeared. The deserted church stands alone. A -few landmarks linger at Fagundas proper. There is one store and no place -where the weary traveler can quench his thirst. The nearest resemblance -to a drinking-place is a boy leaning over a barrel drinking rain-water -while another lad holds him by the feet. Fagundas is certainly “dry.” -The stranger is always taken to the Venture well. Its appearance differs -little from that of hundreds of other abandoned wells. The conductor and -the casing have not been removed. Robert W. Pimm, who built the rig, -still lives at Fagundas. He will be remembered by many, for he is a -jovial fellow and was “one of the boys.” The McQuade—the biggest in the -field—the Bird and the Red Walking-beam were noted wells. If Dr. -Stillson were to hunt up the office where he extracted teeth “without -pain” he would find the building used as a poultry-house. Men went to -Fagundas poor and departed with sufficient wealth to live in luxury the -rest of their lives; others went wealthy and lost everything in a vain -search for the greasy fluid. Passing through what was known as Gillespie -and traversing three miles of a lonely section, covered with scrub-oak -and small pine, Triumph is reached. It is not the Triumph oil-men knew -twenty-five years ago, when it had four-thousand population, four good -hotels, two drug-stores, four hardware-stores, a half-dozen groceries -and many other places of business. No other oil-field ever held so many -derricks upon the same area. The Clapp farm has a production of twelve -barrels per day. Traces of the town are almost completely blotted out. -The pilgrim traveling over the hill would never suspect that a rousing -oil-town occupied the farm on which an industrious Swede has a crop of -oats. Along Babylon hill, once dotted with derricks thickly as trees in -the forest, nothing remains to indicate the spot where stood the -ephemeral town. - - “We are such stuff as dreams are made of.” - -John Henderson, a tall, handsome man, came from the east during the -oil-excitement in Warren county and located at Garfield. In a fight at a -gambling-house one night George Harkness was thrown out of an -upstairs-window and his neck broken. Foul play was suspected, although -the evidence implicated no one, and the coroner’s jury returned a -verdict of accidental death. Harkness had left a young bride in -Philadelphia and was out to seek his fortune. Henderson, feeling in a -degree responsible for his death, began sending anonymous letters to the -bereaved wife, each containing fifty to a hundred dollars. The letters -were first mailed every month from Garfield, then from Bradford, then -from Chicago and for three years from Montana. In 1893 she received from -the writer of these letters a request for an interview. This was -granted, the acquaintance ripened into love and the pair were married! -Henderson is a wealthy stockman in Montana. In 1867 an English vessel -went to pieces in a terrible storm on the coast of Maine. The captain -and many passengers were drowned. Among the saved were two children, the -captain’s daughters. One was adopted by a merchant of Dover, N. H. He -gave her a good education, she grew up a beautiful woman and it was she -who married George Harkness and John Henderson. - -[Illustration: T. J. VANDERGRIFT.] - -Balltown was the chief pet of T. J. Vandergrift, now head and front of -the Woodland Oil-Company, and he harvested bushels of money from the -middle-field. “Op” Vandergrift is not an apprentice in petroleum. He -added to his reputation in the middle-field leading the opposition to -the mystery-dodge. Napoleon or Grant was not a finer tactician. His -clever plans were executed without a hitch or a Waterloo. He neither -lost his temper nor wasted his powder. The man who “fights the devil -with fire” is apt to run short of ammunition, but Vandergrift knew the -ropes, kept his own counsel, was “cool as a cucumber” and won in an easy -canter. He is obliging, social, manfully independent and a zealous -worker in the Producers’ Association. It is narrated that he went to New -York three years ago to close a big deal for Ohio territory he had been -asked to sell. He named the price and was told a sub-boss at Oil City -must pass upon the matter. “Gentlemen,” he said, “I am not going to Oil -City on any such errand. I came prepared to transfer the property and, -if you want it, I shall be in the city until noon to-morrow to receive -the money!” The cash—three-hundred-thousand dollars—was paid at eleven -o’clock. Mr. Vandergrift has interests in Pennsylvania, Ohio, -West-Virginia and Kentucky. He knows a good horse, a good story, a good -lease or a good fellow at sight and a wildcat-well does not frighten him -off the track. His home is at Jamestown and his office at Pittsburg. - -The Anchor Oil-Company’s No. 1, the first well finished near “646,” in -Warren county, flowed two-thousand barrels a day on the ground until -tanks could be provided. It burned when flowing a thousand barrels and -for ten days could not be extinguished. One man wanted to steam it to -death, another to drown it, another to squeeze its life out, another to -smother it with straw, another to dig a hole and cut off the flow, -another to roll a big log over it, another to blow out its brains with -dynamite, another to blind it with carbolic acid, another to throw up -earth-works and so on until the pestered owners wished five-hundred -cranks were in the asylum at North Warren. Pipes were finally attached -in such a way as to draw off the oil and the flame died out. - -The first funeral at Fagundas was a novelty. A soap-peddler, stopping at -the Rooling House one night, died of delirium-tremens. He was put into a -rough coffin and a small party set off to inter the corpse. Somebody -thought it mean to bury a fellow-creature without some signs of respect. -The party returned to the hotel with the body, a large crowd assembled -in the evening, flowers decorated the casket, services were conducted -and at dead of night two-hundred oil-men followed the friendless -stranger to his grave. - -This year, at a drilling well near Tiona, the workmen of Contractor -Meeley were surprised to strike oil three feet from the surface. A -stream of the real stuff flowed over the top of the derrick, scattering -seven men who happened to be standing on the floor. Fortunately no fire -was about the structure, hence a thorough soaking with seventy-cent -crude was the chief damage to the crew and the spectators. Visions of a -new sand close to the grass-roots filled the minds of all beholders. At -that rate every man, woman, boy, girl and baby who could burrow a yard -into the earth might have a paying well. The cool-headed foreman, R. G. -Thompson, decided to investigate before ordering tankage and taking down -the tools. He discovered that the derrick had been set directly above a -six-inch pipe-line, which the bit had punctured, thus letting the oil -escape under the heavy pressure of a fifty-ton pump. Word was sent to -the pump-station to shut off the flow, a new joint of pipe was put in -and drilling proceeded to the third sand without further disturbance. - -[Illustration: W. H. STALEY.] - -One bright day in the summer of 1873 an active youth, beardless and -boyish in appearance, dropped into Fagundas. With little cash, but no -end of energy and pluck, he soon picked up a lease. Fortune smiled upon -him and he followed the surging tide to the different pastures as they -came into line. He operated at Bradford, Tiona, Clarendon, in Clarion -county, in Ohio and Indiana. West Virginia has been his best hold for -some years, and the boys all know W. H. Staley as a live oilman, who has -stayed with the procession two-dozen years. - -Stories of the late E. E. Clapp’s rare humor and rare goodness of heart -might be recited by the score. He never grew weary helping the poor and -the unfortunate. Once a zealous Methodist minister, whose meagre salary -was not half-paid, thought of leaving his mission from lack of support. -Clapp heard the tale and handed the good man a sealed envelope, telling -him not to open it until he reached home and gave it to his wife. It -contained a check for five-hundred-dollars. Like thousands of producers, -Clapp was sued by the torpedo-monopoly for alleged infringement of the -Roberts patent. Meeting Col. E. A. L. Roberts at Titusville while the -suit was pending, he was invited to go through the great building -Roberts Brothers were completing. The delegate from President peered -into the corners of the first room as though looking for something. The -Colonel’s curiosity was aroused and he inquired what the visitor meant. -“Oh,” came the quick rejoinder, “I’m only trying to find where the -twenty-thousand-dollars I’ve paid you for torpedoes may be built in -these walls!” A laugh followed and Roberts proposed to square the suit, -which was done forthwith. At a country-fair E. Harvey, the Oil-City -music-dealer, played and sang one of Gerald Massey’s sublime -compositions with thrilling effect. Among the eager listeners was E. E. -Clapp, beside whom stood a farmer’s wife. The woman shouted to Harvey: -“Tech it off agin, stranger, but don’t make so much noise yerself!” Poor -Harvey—dead long ago—subsided and Clapp took up the expression, which he -often quoted at the expense of loquacious acquaintances. Humanity lost a -friend when Edwin Emmett Clapp left the smooth roads of President to -walk the golden streets of the New Jerusalem. - -Up the winding river proved in not a few instances the straight path to -a handsome fortune, while some found only shoals and quicksands. - - THE AMEN CORNER. - -Better a kink in the hair than a kink in the character. - -Good creeds are all right, but good deeds are the stuff that won’t -shrink in the washing. - -Domestic infidelity does more harm than unbelieving infidelity and -hearsay knocks heresy galley-west as a mischief-maker. - - Stick to the right with iron nerve, - Nor from the path of duty swerve, - Then your reward you will deserve. - -The Baptists of Franklin offered Rev. Dr. Lorimer, the eminent Chicago -divine, a residence and eight-thousand dollars a year to become their -pastor. How was that for a church in a town of six-thousand population? - -“Pray—pray—pray for—” The good minister bent down to catch the whisper -of the dying operator, whom he had asked whether he should petition the -throne of grace—“pray for five-dollar oil!” - -St. Joseph’s church, Oil City, is the finest in the oil-region and has -the finest altar in the state. Father Carroll, for twenty years in -charge of the parish, is a priest whose praises all denominations carol. - - You “want to be an angel?” - Well, no need to look solemn; - If you haven’t got what you desire, - Put an ad. in the want column. - -The Presbyterian church at Rouseville, torn down years ago, was built, -paid for, furnished handsomely and run nine months before having a -settled pastor. Not a lottery, fair, bazaar or grab-bag scheme was -resorted to in order to raise the funds. - -The Salvation Army once scored a sensational hit in the oil-regions. A -lieutenant struck a can of nitro-glycerine with his little tambourine -and every house in the settlement entertained more or less -Salvation-Army soldier for a month after the blow-up. - - “Like a sawyer’s work is life— - The present makes the flaw, - And the only field for strife - Is the inch before the saw.” - -“What are the wages of sin?” asked the teacher of Ah Sin, the first -Chinese laundryman at Bradford, who was an attentive member of a class -in the Sunday-school. Promptly came the answer: “Sebenty-flive cente a -dozen; no checkee, no washee!” - -The first sound of a church-bell at Pithole was heard on Saturday -evening, March 24, 1866, from the Methodist-Episcopal belfry. The first -church-bell at Oil City was hung in a derrick by the side of the -Methodist church, on the site of a grocery opposite the _Blizzard_ -office. At first Sunday was not observed. Flowing-wells flowed and -owners of pumping wells pumped as usual. Work went right along seven -days in the week, even by people who believed the highest type of church -was not an engine-house, with a derrick for its tower, a well for its -Bible and a tube spouting oil for its preacher. - - “If you have gentle words and looks, my friends, - To spare for me—if you have tears to shed - That I have suffered—keep them not I pray - Until I hear not, see not, being dead.” - -Many people regard religion as they do small-pox; they desire to have it -as light as possible and are very careful that it does not mark them. -Most people when they perform an act of charity prefer to have it like -the measles—on the outside where it can be seen. Oil-region folks are -not built that way. - -[Illustration: UP THE ALLEGHENY RIVER.] - - -RICHBURG, N.Y. 1879- -TARPORT AND TUNA VALLEY- - GENERAL VIEW OF BRADFORD. - ECONOMITE WELLS OPPOSITE TIDIOUTE - A GLIMPSE OF WARREN - -BABYLON- - EXCHANGE HOTEL TIDIOUTE 1863 - TIDIOUTE 1876 - - - - - XI. - A BEE-LINE FOR THE NORTH. - -THE GREAT BRADFORD REGION LOOMS UP—MILES OF FIRST-CLASS - TERRITORY—LEADING OPERATORS—JOHN MCKEOWN’S MILLIONS—MANY LIVELY - TOWNS—OVER THE NEW-YORK BORDER—ALL ABOARD FOR RICHBURG—CROSSING INTO - CANADA—SHAW’S STRIKE—THE POLAR REGION PLAYS A STRONG HAND IN THE - GAME OF TAPPING NATURE’S LABORATORY. - - ---------- - -“Like youthful steers unyoked, they take their courses - north.”—_Shakespeare._ - -“Be sure you’re right, then go ahead.”—_Davy Crockett._ - -“Jes foller de no’th star an’ yu’ll come out right, shuah.”—_Joel - Chandler Harris._ - -“Better a year of Bradford than a cycle of Cathay.”—_L. M. Morton._ - -“He did it with all his heart, and prospered.”—_II Chronicles xxxi: 21._ - -“The Temple of Fame has, you see, many departments.”—_Walter Besant._ - -“Bid the devil take the hindmost.”—_Butler._ - -“When Greeks joined Greeks then was the tug of war.”—_Lee._ - -“Nature must give way to art.”—_Dean Swift._ - -“The wise and active conquer by daring to attempt.”—_Rowe._ - -“God helps them that help themselves.”—_Franklin._ - -“The north breathes steadily beneath the stars.”—_Shelley._ - - ---------- - - -[Illustration: M’KEAN COUNTY, PA.] - -Oil Creek and its varied branches, Pithole and its suburbs, Forest and -Warren had figured creditably in oil-developments, but the Mastodon of -the North was yet to come. “The goal of yesterday shall be the starting -point of to-morrow” is especially true of oil-operations. At times men -have supposed the limits of juicy territory had been reached, only to be -startled by the unexpected opening of a larger, grander field than any -that preceded it. Guessing the weather a month ahead is child’s play in -comparison with guessing where oil may be found in paying quantity. -Geology is liable to shoot wide of the mark, so that the drill is the -one indisputable test, from which there is no appeal for an injunction -or a reversal of the verdict. Years of waiting sharpened the appetite of -the polar bear for the feast to be spread in McKean county and across -the New-York border. Tempting tidbits prepared the hungry animal to -digest the rich courses that were to follow in close succession, until -the whole world was cloyed and gorged, and surfeited with petroleum. It -could not hold another mouthful, and the surplus had to be stored in -huge tanks ready for the demand certain to come some day and empty the -vast receptacles of their last drop. - - “Still linger, in our northern clime, - Some remnants of the good old time.” - -The United States Land-Company, holding a quarter-million acres in -McKean and adjoining counties, in 1837 sent Col. Levitt C. Little from -New Hampshire to look after its interests. He located on Tuna Creek, -eight miles from the southern border of New-York state. The Websters -arrived in 1838, journeying by canoe from Olean. Other families settled -in the valley, founding the hamlet of Littleton, which in 1858 adopted -the name of Bradford and became a borough in 1872, with Peter T. Kennedy -as burgess. The vast forests were divided into huge blocks, such as the -Bingham, Borden, Clark & Babcock, Kingsbury and Quintuple tracts. Lumber -was rafted to distant points and thousands of hardy woodmen “shantied” -in rough huts each winter. They beguiled the long evenings singing -coarse songs, playing cards, imbibing the vintage of Kentucky or New -England from a black jug and telling stories so bald the mules drooped -their ears to hide their blushes. But they were open-hearted, sternly -honest, sticklers for fair-play, hard-working and admirable forerunners -of the approaching civilization. To the sturdy blows of the rugged -chopper and raftsman all classes are indebted for fuel, shelter and -innumerable comforts. Like the rafts they steered to Pittsburg and the -wild beasts they hunted, most of these brave fellows have drifted away -never to return. - -[Illustration: FREDERICK CROCKER.] - -Six-hundred inhabitants dwelt peacefully at Bradford ten years after the -Pithole bubble had been blown and pricked. The locomotive and track of a -branch of the Erie Railroad had supplanted A. W. Newell’s rude engine, -which transported small loads to and from Carrollton. An ancient coach, -weather-beaten and worm-eaten, sufficed for the scanty passenger-traffic -and the quiet borough bade fair to stay in the old rut indefinitely. The -collection of frames labeled Tarport—a suit of tar and feathers -presented to a frisky denizen begot the name—snuggled on a muddy road a -mile northward. Seven miles farther, at Limestone, the “spirits” -directed Job Moses to buy ten-thousand acres of land. He bored a -half-dozen shallow wells in 1864, getting some oil and gas. Jonathan -Watson skirmished two miles east of Limestone, finding slight tinges of -greasiness. A mile south-west of Moses the Crosby well was dry. Another -mile south the Olmsted well, on the Crooks farm, struck a vein of oil at -nine-hundred feet and flowed twenty barrels on July fourteenth, 1875. -The sand was poor and dry-holes south and west augured ill for the -territory. Frederick Crocker drilled a duster early in 1875 on the -Kingsbury lands, east side of Tuna Creek. He had grit and experience and -leased an angular piece of ground formed by a bend of the creek for his -second venture. It was part of the Watkins farm, a mile above Tarport. A -half-mile south-west, on the Hinchey farm, the Foster Oil-Company had -sunk a twenty-barrel well in 1872, which somehow passed unnoticed. On -September twenty-sixth, 1875, from a shale and slate at nine-hundred -feet, the Crocker well flowed one-hundred-and-seventy barrels. This -opened the gay ball which was to transmute the Tuna Valley from its -arcadian simplicity to the intense bustle of the grandest -petroleum-region the world has ever known. The valley soon echoed and -re-echoed the music of the tool-dresser and rig-builder and the click of -the drill as well as the vigorous profanity of the imported teamster. -Frederick Crocker, who drilled on Oil Creek in 1860 and devised the -valve which kept the Empire well alive, had won another victory and the -great Bradford field was born. He lived at Titusville fifteen years, -erected the home afterwards occupied by Dr. W. B. Roberts, sold his -Bradford property, operated in the Washington district and died at -Idlewild on February twenty-second, 1895. Mr. Crocker possessed real -genius, decision and the qualities which “from the nettle danger pluck -the flower success.” Active to the close of his long and useful -eighty-three years, he met death calmly and was laid to rest in the -cemetery at Titusville. - -Scarcely had the Crocker well tanked its initial spurt ere “the fun grew -fast and furious.” Rigs multiplied like rabbits in Australia. -Train-loads of lively delegates from every nook and cranny of Oildom -crowded the streets, overran the hotels and taxed the commissary of the -village to the utmost. Town-lots sold at New-York prices and buildings -spread into the fields. At B. C. Mitchell’s Bradford House, headquarters -of the oil-fraternity, operators and land-holders met and drillers “off -tour” solaced their craving for “the good things of this life” playing -billiards and practising at the hotel-bar. Hundreds of big contracts -were closed in the second-story room where Lewis Emery, “Judge” Johnson, -Dr. Book and the advance-guard of the invading hosts assembled. Main -street blazed at night with the light of dram-shops and the gaieties -incidental to a full-fledged frontier-town. Noisy bands appealed to -lovers of varieties to patronize barnlike-theatres, strains of syren -music floated from beer-gardens, dance-halls of dubious complexion were -thronged and gambling-dens ran unmolested. The free-and-easy air of the -community, too intent chasing oil and cash to bother about morality, -captivated the ordinary stranger and gained “Bad Bradford” notoriety as -a combination of Pithole and Petroleum Centre, with a dash of Sodom and -Pandemonium, condensed into a single package. In February of 1879 a -city-charter was granted and James Broder was elected mayor. Radical -reforms were not instituted with undue haste, to jar the sensitive -feelings of the incongruous masses gathered from far and near. Their -accommodating nature at last adapted itself to a new state of affairs -and accepted gracefully the restrictions imposed for the general -welfare. Checked temporarily by the Bullion spasm in 1876-7, the influx -redoubled as the lower country waned. Fires merely consumed -frame-structures to hasten the advent of costly brick-blocks. Ten -churches, schools, five banks, stores, hotels, three newspapers, -street-cars, miles of residences and fifteen-thousand of the liveliest -people on earth attested the permanency of Bradford’s boom. Narrow-gauge -railroads circled the hills, traversed spider-web trestles and brought -tribute to the city from the outlying districts. The area of -oil-territory seemed interminable. It reached in every direction, until -from sixteen-thousand mouths seventy-five thousand acres poured their -liquid treasure. The daily production waltzed to one-hundred-thousand -barrels! Iron-tanks were built by the thousand to store the surplus -crude. Two, three or four-thousand-barrel gushers were lacking, but -wells that yielded twenty-five to two-hundred littered the slopes and -valleys. The field was a marvel, a phenomenon, a revelation. Bradford -passed the mushroom-stage safely and was not snuffed out when -developments receded and the floaters wandered south in quest of fresh -excitement. To-day it is a thriving railroad and manufacturing centre, -the home of ten-thousand intelligent, independent, go-ahead citizens, -proud of its past, pleased with its present and confident of its future. - -To trace operations minutely would be an endless task. Crocker sold a -half-interest in his well and drilled on an adjacent farm. Gillespie, -Buchanan & Kelly came from Fagundas in 1874 and sank the two Fagundas -wells—twenty and twenty-five barrels—a half-mile west of Crocker, in the -fall and winter. Butts No. 1, a short distance north, actually flowed -sixty barrels in November of 1874. Jackson & Walker’s No. 1, on the -Kennedy farm, north edge of town, on July seventeenth, 1875, flowed -twenty barrels at eleven-hundred feet. The dark, pebbly sand, the best -tapped in McKean up to that date, encouraged the belief of better strata -down the Tuna. On December first, two months after Crocker’s strike, the -yield of the Bradford district was two-hundred-and-ten barrels. The -Crocker was doing fifty, the Olmsted twenty-five, the Butts fifteen, the -Jackson & Walker twenty and all others from one to six apiece. The oil, -dark-colored and forty-five gravity, was loaded on Erie cars direct from -the wells, most of which were beside the tracks. The Union Company -finished the first pipe-line and pumped oil to Olean the last week of -November. Prentice, Barbour & Co. were laying a line through the -district and 1875 closed with everything ripe for the millenium these -glimmerings foreshadowed. - -Lewis Emery, richly dowered with Oil-Creek experience and the -get-up-and-get quality that forges to the front, was an early arrival at -Bradford. He secured the Quintuple tract of five-thousand acres and -drilled a test well on the Tibbets farm, three miles south of town. Its -success confirmed his judgment of the territory and began the wonderful -Quintuple development. The Quintuple rained staying wells on the lucky, -plucky graduate from Pioneer, quickly placing him in the -millionaire-class. He built blocks and refineries, opened an immense -hardware-store, constructed pipe-lines, established a daily-paper, -served two terms in the Senate and opposed the Standard “tooth and -toe-nail.” Thoroughly earnest, he champions a cause with unflinching -tenacity. He owns a big ranche in Dakota, big lumber-tracts and -saw-mills in Kentucky, a big oil-production and a big share in the -United-States Pipe-Line. He has traveled over Europe, inspected the -Russian oil-fields and gathered in his private museum the rarest -collection of curiosities and objects of interests in the state. Senator -Emery is a staunch friend, a fighter who “doesn’t know when he is -whipped,” liberal, progressive, fluent in conversation and firm in his -convictions. - - “A prince can mak’ a belted knight, - A marquis, duke and a’ that; - But an honest man’s aboon his might— - Guid faith, he maunna fa’ that.” - -Hon. David Kirk sticks faithfully to Emery in his hard-sledding to array -petroleumites against the Standard. He manages the McCalmont -Oil-Company, which operated briskly in the Forest pools, at Bradford and -Richburg. Mr. Kirk is a rattling speaker, positive in his sentiments and -frank in expressing his views. He extols Pennsylvania petroleum, backs -the outside pipe-lines and is an influential leader of the Producers’ -Association. - -Dr. W. P. Book, who started at Plumer, ran big hotels at Parker and -Millerstown and punched a hole in the Butler field occasionally, leased -nine-hundred acres below Bradford in the summer of 1875. He bored -two-hundred wells, sold the whole bundle to Captain J. T. Jones and went -to Washington Territory with eight-hundred-thousand dollars to engage in -lumbering and banking. Captain Jones landed on Oil Creek after the war, -in which he was a brave soldier, and drilled thirteen dry-holes at -Rouseville! Repulses of this stripe would wear out most men, but the -Captain had enlisted for the campaign and proposed to stand by his guns -to the last. His fourteenth attempt—a hundred-barreler on the Shaw -farm—recouped former losses and inaugurated thirty years of remarkable -prosperity. Fortune smiled upon him in the Clarion field. Pipe-lines, -oil-wells, dealings in the exchanges, whatever he touched turned into -gold. Not handicapped by timid partners, he paddled his own canoe and -became the largest individual operator in the northern region. Acquiring -tracts that proved to be the heart of the Sistersville field, he is -credited with rejecting an offer last year of five-million dollars for -his West-Virginia and Pennsylvania properties! From thirteen wells, good -only for post-holes if they could be dug up and retailed by the foot, to -five-millions in cash was a pretty stretch onward and upward. He -preferred staying in the harness to the obscurity of a mere -coupon-clipper. He lives at Buffalo, controls his business, enjoys his -money, remembers his legions of old friends and does not put on airs -because of marching very near the head of the oleaginous procession. - -[Illustration: - - -THEO BARNSDALL- - -LEWIS EMERY- - DAVID KIRK CAPT. J. T. JONES -] - -Theodore Barnsdall has never lagged behind since he entered the arena in -1860. He operated on Oil Creek and has been a factor in every important -district. Marcus Hulings, reasoning that a paying belt intersected it -diagonally, secured the Clark & Babcock tract of six-thousand acres on -Foster Brook, north-east of Bradford. Hundreds of fine wells verified -his theory and added a half-million to his bank-account. Sitting -beside me on a train one day in 1878, Mr. Hulings refused -three-hundred-thousand dollars, offered by Marcus Brownson, for his -interest in the property. He projected the narrow-gauge railroad from -Bradford to Olean and a bevy of oil-towns—Gillmor, Derrick City, Red -Rock and Bell’s Camp—budded and bloomed along the route. Frederic -Prentice built pipe-lines and tanks, leased a half-township, started -thirty wells in a week on the Melvin farm and organized the Producers’ -Consolidated Land-and-Petroleum-Company, big in name, in quality and in -capital. The American Oil-Company’s big operations wafted the late W. A. -Pullman a million and the presidency of the Seaboard Bank in New York, -filled Joseph Seep’s stocking and saddled a hundred-thousand dollars on -James Amm. The Hazlewood Oil-Company, guided by Bateman Goe’s prudent -hand, drilled five-hundred wells and counted its gains in columns of six -figures. Robert Leckey, a first-class man from head to foot, was a royal -winner. Frederick Boden—true-blue, clear-grit, sixteen ounces to the -pound—forsook Corry to extract a stream of wealth from the Borden lands, -six miles east of Tarport. Prompt, square and manly, he merited the good -luck that rewarded him in Pennsylvania and followed him to Ohio, where -for four years he has been operating extensively. Boden’s wells boosted -the territory east and north. From its junction with the Tuna at -Tarport—Kendall is the post-office—to its source off in the hills, -Kendall Creek steamed and smoked. Tarport expanded to the proportions of -a borough. Two narrow-gauge roads linked Bradford and Eldred, Sawyer -City, Rew City, Coleville, Rixford and Duke Centre—oil-towns in all the -term implies—keeping the rails from rusting. Other narrow-gauges -diverged to Warren, Mt. Jewett and Smethport. The Erie extended its -branch south and the Rochester & Pittsburg crossed the Kinzua gorge over -the highest railway viaduct—three-hundred feet—in this nation of tall -projects and tall achievements. - -[Illustration: BATEMAN GOE.] - -[Illustration: FREDERICK BODEN.] - -[Illustration: ROBERT LECKEY.] - -Twenty-nine years ago a stout-hearted, strong-limbed, wiry youth, fresh -from the Emerald Isle, asked a man at Petroleum Centre for a job. Given -a pick and shovel, he graded a tank-bottom deftly and swiftly. He dug, -pulled tubing, drove team and earned money doing all sorts of chores. -Reared in poverty, he knew the value of a dollar and saved his pennies. -To him Oildom, with its “oil-princes”—George K. Anderson, Jonathan -Watson, Dr. M. C. Egbert, David Yanney, Sam Woods, Joel Sherman and the -Phillips Brothers were in their glory—was a golden dream. He learned to -“run engine,” dress tools, twist the temper-screw and handle drilling -and pumping-wells expertly. Although neither a prohibitionist nor a -prude, he never permitted mountain-dew, giddy divinities in petticoats -or the prevailing follies to get the better of him in his inordinate -desire for riches. Drop by drop for three years his frugal store -increased and he migrated to Parker early in the seventies. Such was the -young man who “struck his gait” in the northern end of Armstrong county, -who was to outshine the men he may have envied on Oil Creek, to scoop -the biggest prize in the petroleum-lottery and weave a halo of -glittering romance around the name of John McKeown. - -Working an interest in an oil-well, he hit a paying streak and joined -the pioneers who had sinister designs on Butler county, proverbial for -“buckwheat-batter” and “soap-mines.” At Lawrenceburg, a suburb of -Parker, he boarded with a comely widow, the mother of two bouncing kids -and owner of a little cash. He married the landlady and five boys -blessed the union of loyal hearts. His wife’s money aided him to develop -the Widow Nolan farm, east of the coal-bank near Millerstown. Regardless -of Weller’s advice to “beware of vidders,” he wedded one and from -another obtained the lease of a farm on which his first well produced -one-hundred-and-fifty barrels a day for a year, a fortune in itself. -This was the beginning of McKeown’s giant strides. In partnership with -William Morrisey, a stalwart fellow-countryman—dead for years—he drilled -at Greece City, Modoc and on the Cross-Belt. He held interests with -Parker & Thompson and James Goldsboro, played a lone hand at -Martinsburg, invested in the Karns Pipe-Line and avoided speculation. He -agreed with Thomas Hayes, of Fairview, in 1876, to operate in the -Bradford field. Hayes went ahead to grab a few tracts at Rixford, -McKeown remaining to dispose of his Butler properties. He sold every -well and every inch of land at top figures. No slave ever worked harder -or longer hours than he had done to gain a firm footing. No task was too -difficult, no fatigue too severe, no undertaking too hazardous to be met -and overcome. Avarice steeled his heart and hardened his muscles. -Wrapped in a rubber-coat and wearing the slouch-hat everybody -recognized, he would ride his powerful bay-horse knee-deep in mud or -snow at all hours of the night. It was his ambition to be the leading -oil-operator of the world. While putting money into Baltimore blocks, -bank-stocks and western ranches, he always retained enough to gobble a -slice of seductive oil-territory. Plunging into the northern field -“horse, foot and dragoons,” he bought out Hayes, who returned to -Fairview with a snug nest-egg, and captured a huge chunk of the Bingham -lands. Robert Simpson, agent of the Bingham estate, fancied the bold, -resolute son of Erin and let him pick what he wished from the -fifty-thousand acres under his care. McKeown selected many juicy tracts, -on which he drilled up a large production, sold portions at excessive -prices and cleared at least a million dollars in two or three years! As -Bradford declined he turned his gaze towards the Washington district, -bought a thousand acres of land and at the height of the excitement had -ten-thousand barrels of oil a day! His object had been attained and John -McKeown was the largest oil-producer in the universe. - -Down in Washington, as in Butler and McKean, he attended personally to -his wells, hired the workmen, negotiated for all materials and managed -the smallest details. He removed his family to the county-seat and lived -in a plain, matter-of-fact way. It had been his intention to erect a -forty-thousand-dollar house and reside at Jamestown, N. Y. Ground was -purchased and the foundation laid. The local papers spoke of the -acquisition he would be to the town, one suggesting to haul him into -politics and municipal improvements, and McKeown resented the notoriety -by pulling up stakes and locating at Washington. It often amused me to -hear him denounce the papers for calling him rich. He was more at home -in a derrick than in a drawing-room. The din of the tools boring for -petroleum was sweeter to his ears than “Lohengrin” or “The Blue Danube.” -Watching oil streaming from his wells delighted his eye more than a -Corot or a Meissonier in a gilt frame. For claw-hammer coats, tooth-pick -shoes and vulgar show he had no earthly use. Democratic in his habits -and speech, he heard the poor man as patiently as the banker or the -schemer with a “soft snap.” Clothes counted for nothing in his judgment -of people. He enjoyed the hunt for riches more than the possession. In -no sense a liberal man, sometimes he thawed out to friends who got on -the sunny side of his frosty nature and wrote checks for church or -charity. Hard work was his diversion, his chief happiness. His wells and -lands and income grew to dimensions it would have strained the nerves -and brains of a half-dozen men to supervise. He had mortgaged his robust -constitution by constant exposure and the foreclosure could not always -be postponed. Repeated warnings were unheeded and the strong man broke -down just when he most needed the vitality his lavish drafts exhausted. -Eminent physicians hurried from Pittsburg and Philadelphia to his -relief, but the paper had gone to protest and on Sunday forenoon, -February eighth, 1891, at the age of fifty-three, John McKeown passed -into eternity. Father Hendrich administered the last rites to the dying -man. He sank into a comatose state and his death was painless. The -remains were interred in the Catholic cemetery at Lawrenceville, in -presence of a great multitude that assembled to witness the curtain fall -on the most eventful life in the oil-regions. - -One touching little tale about McKeown, which might adorn the pages of a -Sunday-school library, has drifted out of Bradford. Landing on the -platform of the dilapidated Erie-Railroad station, upon his first visit -to the metropolis of mud and oil, John McKeown, wearing his greasiest -suit, asked a group of boys to direct him to the Parker House. “I’ll -tell you for a quarter,” said one. “I’ll show you where it is for ten -cents,” chimed in another. “Say, I’ll do it for five cents,” remarked a -third. “Mister,” said bright-eyed Jimmie Duffy, “I will show you the -place for nothing.” So the stranger went with Jimmie. He took the lad to -a clothing-store, arrayed him sumptuously in the best hand-me-downs that -Bradford could afford and sent the boy away with a five-dollar -gold-piece. Jimmie bought a shoeblack-outfit and began to “shine ’em up” -at ten cents a clip. His good work, cheerfulness and ready wit brought -him many a quarter. Soon he hired a number of assistants, built a -“parlor,” controlled every stand in town and at nineteen went west with -seven-thousand dollars in his pockets. Jimmie Duffie’s luck set all the -Bradford urchins to lying in wait for strangers in greasy garments lined -with gold-pieces. - -[Illustration: JOHN MCKEOWN.] - -Estimates of McKeown’s wealth ranged from three-millions to ten. A guess -midway would probably be near the mark. When asked by Dun or Bradstreet -how he should be rated, his invariable answer was: “I pay cash for all I -get.” O. D. Bleakley, of Franklin, was appointed guardian of the sons -and Hon. J. W. Lee is Mrs. McKeown’s legal adviser. The oldest boy has -married, has received his share of the estate and is spending it freely. -A younger son was drowned in a pond at the school to which his mother -sent the bright lad. Once McKeown, desiring to have Dr. Agnew’s candid -opinion at the lowest cost, put on his poorest garb and secured a rigid -examination upon his promise to pay the great Philadelphia practitioner -ten dollars “as soon as he could earn the money.” He thanked the doctor, -returned in a business-suit, told of the ruse he had adopted and -cemented the acquaintance with a check for one-hundred dollars. In -Baltimore he posed as a hayseed at a forced sale of property the -mortgagors calculated to bid in at a fraction of its value. He deposited -a million dollars in a city-bank and appeared at the sale in the old -suit and slouched hat he had packed in his satchel for the occasion. -Stylish bidders at first ignored the seedy fellow whose winks to the -auctioneer elevated the price ten-thousand dollars a wink. One of them -hinted to the stranger that he might be bidding beyond his limit. “I -guess not,” replied John, “I pay cash for what I get.” The property was -knocked down to him for about six-hundred-thousand dollars. He requested -the attorney to telephone to the bank whether his check would be -honored. “Good for a million!” was the response. Now his triumphs and -his spoils have shrunk to the little measure of the grave! - - “Through the weary night on his couch he lay - With the life-tide ebbing fast away. - When the tide goes out from the sea-girt lands - It bears strange freight from the gleaming sands: - The white-winged ships, which long may wait - For the foaming wave and the wind that’s late; - The treasures cast on a rock-bound shore - From stranded ships that shall sail no more, - And hopes that follow the shining seas— - Oh! the ocean wide shall win all these. - But saddest of all that drift to the sea - Is the human soul to eternity, - Floating away from a silent shore, - Like a fated ship, to return no more.” - -The Bradford Oil-Company—J. T. Jones, Wesley Chambers, L. G. Peck and L. -F. Freeman were the principal stockholders—owned a good share of the -land on which Greater Bradford was built and ten-thousand acres in the -northern field. The company drilled three-hundred wells in McKean and -Allegany, realized fifty-thousand dollars from city-lots and its stock -rose to two-thousand dollars a share. In 1881 Captain Jones bought out -his copartners. The Enterprise Transit-Company, managed by John Brown, -achieved reputation and currency. The McCalmont Oil-Company—organized -during the Bullion phantom by David Kirk, I. E. Dean, Tack Brothers and -F. A. Dilworth—humped itself in the middle and northern fields, -sometimes paying three-hundred-thousand dollars a year in dividends. -Kirk & Dilworth founded Great Belt City, in Butler county, cutting up a -farm and selling hundreds of lots. “Farmer” Dean, manager of the -company, operated in the lower fields, lived two years at Richburg, -toured the country to preach the gospel according to the Greenbackers -and won laurels on the rostrum. Frank Tack—frank and trustworthy—was -vice-president of the New-York Oil-Exchange and his brother is dead. The -Emery Oil-Company, the Quintuple, Mitchell & Jones, Whitney & Wheeler, -Melvin and Fuller, George H. Vanvleck, George V. Forman, John L. -McKinney & Co., Isaac Willets and Peter T. Kennedy were shining lights -in the McKean-Allegany firmament. Kennedy owned the saw-mill when -Bradford was a lumber camp and his estate—he died at fifty—inventoried -eleven-hundred-thousand dollars. Hundreds of small operators left -Bradford happy as men should be with as much money as their wives could -spend; other hundreds dumped their well-earnings into the insatiable maw -of speculation. - -[Illustration: COL. JOHN J. CARTER.] - -The Bradford field was young when Col. John J. Carter, of Titusville, -paid sixty-thousand dollars for the Whipple farm, on Kendall Creek. -Friends shook their heads over the purchase, up to that time the largest -by a private individual in the district, but the farm produced -fifteen-hundred-thousand barrels of oil and demonstrated the wisdom of -the deed. Other properties were developed by this indefatigable worker, -until his production was among the largest in the northern region and he -could have sold at a price to number him with the millionaires. -Unanimously chosen president of the Bradford, Bordell & Kinzua -Railroad-Company, he completed the line in ninety days from the issue of -the charter and in eighteen months returned the stockholders eighty per -cent. in dividends. President Carter’s ability in handling the property -saved it to its owners, while every other narrow-gauge in the system -fell into the clutches of receivers or sold as junk to meet -court-charges for costly litigation. - -All “Old-Timers” remember the “Gentlemen’s Furnishing-House of John J. -Carter,” the finest establishment of the kind west of New York. Young -Carter, with a splendid military record, located at Titusville in the -summer of 1865, immediately after being mustered out of the service, and -engaged in mercantile pursuits ten years. Like other progressive men, he -took interests in the wild-cat ventures that made Pithole, Shamburg, -Petroleum Centre and Pleasantville famous. From large holdings in -Venango, Clarion and Forest he reaped a rich harvest. One tract of -four-thousand acres in Forest, purchased in 1886 and two-thirds of it -yet undrilled, he expects to hand down to his children as a proof of -their father’s business-foresight. He scanned the petroleum-horizon -around Pittsburg carefully and retained his investments in the middle -and upper fields. Taylorstown and McDonald, with their rivers of oil, -burst forth with the fury of a flood and disappeared. Sistersville, in -West Virginia, had given the trade a taste of its hidden treasures from -a few scattered wells. Much salt-water, little oil and deep drilling -discouraged operators. How to produce oil at a profit, with such -quantities of water to be pumped out, was the problem. Col. Carter -visited the scene, comprehended the situation, devised his plans and -bought huge blocks of the choicest territory before the oil-trade -thought Sistersville worth noticing. This bold stroke added to the value -of every well and lease in West Virginia, inspired the faltering with -courage and rewarded him magnificently. Advancing prices rendered the -princely yield of his scores of wells immensely profitable. Purchases -based on fifty-cent oil—the trade had small faith in the outcome—he sold -on the basis of dollar-fifty oil. Col. Carter is in the prime of -vigorous manhood, ready to explore new fields and surmount new -obstacles. He occupies a beautiful home, has a superb library, is a -thorough scholar and a convincing speaker. His recent argument before -the Ohio Legislature, in opposition to the proposed iniquitous tax on -crude-petroleum, was a masterpiece of effective, pungent, unanswerable -logic. None who admire a brave, manly, generous character will say that -his success is undeserved. - -[Illustration: O. P. TAYLOR.] - -Five townships six miles square—Independence, Willing, Alma, Bolivar and -Genesee, with Andover, Wellsville, Scio, Wirt and Clarksville north—form -the southern border of Allegany county, New York. The first well bored -for oil in the county—the Honeyoe—was the Wellsville & Alma Oil -Company’s duster in Independence township, drilled eighteen-hundred feet -in September, 1877. Gas at five-hundred feet caught fire and burned the -rig, and signs of oil were found at one-thousand feet. The second was O. -P. Taylor’s Pikeville well, Alma township, finished in November, 1878. -Taylor, the father of the Allegany field, decided to try north of Alma, -and in July of 1879 completed the Triangle No. 1, in Scio township, the -first in Allegany to produce oil. It originated the Wellsville -excitement and first diverted public attention from Bradford. Triangle -No. 2, drilled early in 1880, pumped twelve barrels a day. S. S. -Longabaugh, of Duke Centre, sank a dry-hole, the second well in Scio, -three miles north-east of Triangle No. 1. Operations followed rapidly. -Richburg No. 1, Wirt township, in which Taylor enlisted three -associates, responded at a sixty barrel gait in May of 1881 to a huge -charge of glycerine. Samuel Boyle, who had struck the first big well at -Sawyer City, completed the second well at Richburg in June, manipulated -it as a “mystery” and torpedoed it on July thirteenth. It flowed -three-hundred barrels of blue-black oil, forty-two gravity, from fifty -feet of porous sand and slate. Taylor’s exertions and perseverance -showed indomitable will, bravery and pluck. He was a Virginian by birth, -a Confederate soldier and a cigar-manufacturer at Wellsville. It is -related that while drilling his first Triangle well the tools needed -repairs and he had not money to send them to Bradford. His Wellsville -acquaintances seemed amazingly “short” when he attempted a loan. His -wife had sold her watch to procure food and she gave him the cash. The -tools were fixed, the well was completed and it started Taylor on the -road to the fortune he and his helpmeet richly earned. The pioneer died -in the fall of 1883. The record of his adventures, trials and -tribulations in opening a new oil-district would fill a volume. He was -prepared for the message: “Child of Earth, thy labors and sorrows are -done.” - -Eighteen lively months sufficed to define the Allegany field, which was -confined to seven-thousand acres. Twenty-nine-hundred wells were bored -and the maximum yield of the district was nineteen-thousand barrels. -Richburg and Bolivar, both old villages, quadrupled their size in three -months. Narrow-gauge railroads soon connected the new field with Olean, -Friendship and Bradford. The territory was shallow in comparison with -parts of McKean, where eighteen-hundred feet was not an uncommon depth -for wells. Timber and water were abundant, good roads presented a -pleasing contrast to the unfathomable mud of Clarion and Butler and the -country was decidedly attractive. Efforts to find an outlet to the belt -failed in every instance. The climax had been reached and a gradual -decline set in. Allegany was the northern limit of remunerative -developments in the United States, which the next turn of the wheel once -more diverted southward. The McCalmont Oil-Company and Phillips Brothers -were leaders in the Richburg field. The country had been settled by -Seventh-day Baptists, whose “Sunday was on Saturday.” Not to offend -these devout people by discriminating in favor of Sunday, operators -“whipped the devil around the stump” by drilling and pumping their wells -seven days a week! - -The Chipmunk pool, a dozen miles north of Bradford, was trotted out in -1895. For a season its shallow wells promised a glut of real oil, the -daily production rising to twenty-six-hundred barrels. The area of -creamy territory was quickly defined. Captain E. H. Barnum, long an -enterprising Bradford operator, drilled a test-well near Arkwright, -Chautauqua County, N.Y., in 1897. He put twenty-five-hundred feet of -six-inch and three-hundred feet of eight-inch casing in the hole, which -proved barren of oil or gas and was abandoned when three-thousand feet -deep. The Watsonville pool, south-west of Bradford, lively drilling -brought to the nine-thousand-barrel notch for a time this season. - -The town of Ceres, which celebrated its one-hundredth birthday this -year, has had some peculiar experiences. Located on the state-line -between New York and Pennsylvania, the boundary has figured in many -curious ways since the pioneers erected the first log-cabin in 1797. The -first squabble related to the post-office, which was established on the -south-side of the line, in Pennsylvania, with a basket to hold the mail. -By some hocus-pocus the department permitted the office to be removed to -the north-side, in New York, fifty or more years ago. Every President -from Andrew Jackson to William McKinley has been importuned to change it -back again, but the population is so nearly divided that the question -bids fair, like Tennyson’s brook, “to go on forever.” Ceres was strictly -in it as a Gretna Green. The little Methodist church, the only one in -the village, is built against the line, the porch extending into New -York. The parsonage is in the same fix. To avoid securing a license, -Pennsylvania couples had merely to step out of the parsonage to the -porch and be married in New York. Eloping couples have had some lively -rides to Ceres. For many years Justice Peabody was very popular at -knot-tying. He was aroused one midnight by a man who wanted a warrant -for the arrest of a pair of elopers. The judge was friendly to the young -fellow in love. As he was making out the papers a rap at the door -interrupted him. The caller was the young man himself. The judge stepped -outside behind a stump-fence, across the state-line, married the eloping -couple and then returned to the house to finish making out the warrant. -A hotel built by a bright genius close to the line had an addition for a -barroom. The barroom extended over the line and its sole entrance was -from the Pennsylvania side. The bartender, by stepping a foot either way -from the center of the bar, could pass from one state to another. He was -arrested for illegal selling many times, but in each instance he would -swear that the whisky he sold was disposed of in the other state. One -day a Pennsylvania prisoner slipped his handcuffs when the sheriff was -not looking, jumped out of the dining-room into New York, made faces at -the minion of the law and defied arrest. For fifty years state-pride -kept the people apart on the school-question. They had a small -district-school on each side of the line in preference to a graded -school, because the latter would demand a surrender of state-pride. Four -years ago the differences were patched up and a graded-school was -provided. The engine of the steam saw-mill is in Pennsylvania and the -boiler in New York. The logs enter the mill in Pennsylvania and are -sawed in New York, the boards are edged in Pennsylvania and the lumber -is piled up crosswise on the state-line. At the grist-mill the grain -entered on the New-York side, was ground in Pennsylvania and carried -back into New York by the bolting-machinery. When the oil-boom was on at -Bolivar and Richburg two narrow-gauge railroads passed through Ceres. -One station was in New York and the other in Pennsylvania, with tracks -parallel to Bolivar. The schedules of the passenger-trains were alike -and some of the fastest rides ever taken on a narrow-gauge road -resulted. Oil-developments did not hit Ceres hard, wells around the tidy -village failing to tap the greasy artery. Possibly Nature thought the -folks had enough fun over the boundary complications to compensate for -the lack of petroleum. - -Canada has oil-fields of considerable importance. The largest and oldest -is in Enniskillen township, Lambton county, a dozen miles from Port -Sarnia, at the foot of Lake Huron. Black Creek, a small tributary of the -Detroit river, flows through this township and for many years its waters -had been coated with a greasy liquid the Indians sold as a specific for -countless diseases. The precious commodity was of a brown color, -exceedingly odorous, unpleasant to the taste and burned with great -intensity. In 1860 several wells were started, the projectors believing -the floating oil indicated valuable deposits within easy reach of the -surface. James Williams, who had previously garnered the stuff in pits, -finished the first well that yielded oil in paying quantity. Others -followed in close succession, but months passed without the sensation of -a genuine spouter. Late in the summer of the same year that operations -commenced, John Shaw, a poor laborer, managed to get a desirable lease -on the bank of the creek. He built a cheap rig, provided a spring-pole -and “kicked down” a well, toiling all alone at his weary task until -money and credit and courage were exhausted. Ragged, hungry and -barefooted, one forenoon he was refused boots and provisions by the -village-merchant, nor would the blacksmith sharpen his drills without -cash down. Reduced to the verge of despair, he went back to his derrick -with a heavy heart, ate a hard crust for dinner and decided to leave for -the United States next morning if no signs of oil were discovered that -afternoon. He let down the tools and resumed his painful task. Twenty -minutes later a rush of gas drove the tools high in the air, followed -the next instant by a column of oil that rose a hundred feet! The roar -could be heard a mile and the startled populace rushed from the -neighboring hamlet to see the unexpected marvel. Canada boasted its -first flowing-well and the tidings flew like wild-fire. Before dark -hundreds of excited spectators visited the spot. For days the oil gushed -unchecked, filling a natural basin an acre in extent, then emptying into -the creek and discoloring the waters as far down as Lake St. Clair. None -knew how to regulate its output and bring the flow under control. Thus -it remained a week, when a delegate from Pennsylvania showed the owner -how to put in a seed-bag and save the product. The first attempt -succeeded and thenceforth the oil was cared for properly. Opinions -differ as to the actual production of this novel strike, although the -best judges placed it at five-thousand barrels a day for two or three -weeks! The stream flowed incessantly the full size of the hole, a strong -pressure of gas forcing it out with wonderful speed. The well produced -generously four months, when it “stopped for keeps.” Persons who visited -the well at its best will recall the surroundings. A pond of oil large -enough for a respectable regatta lay between it and Black Creek, whose -greasy banks for miles bore traces of the lavish inundation of crude. -The locality was at once interesting and high-flavored and a conspicuous -feature was Shaw himself. Radiant in a fresh suit of store-clothes, he -moved about with the complacency incident to a green ruralist who has -“struck ile.” - -[Illustration: JOHN SHAW.] - -One of the persons earliest on the ground after the well began to flow -was the storekeeper who had refused the proprietor a pair of boots that -morning. With the cringing servility of a petty retailer he hurried to -embrace Shaw, coupling this outbreak of affection with the assurance -that everything in the shop was at his service. It is gratifying to note -that Shaw had the spirit to rebuke this puppyism. Bringing his ample -foot into violent contact with the dealer’s most vital part, he -accompanied a heavy kick with an emphatic command to go to the place -Heber Newton and Pentecost have ruled out. Shaw was uneducated and fell -a ready prey to sharpers on the watch for easy victims. Cargoes of oil -shipped to England brought small returns and his sudden wealth slipped -away in short order. Ere long the envied possessor of the big well was -obliged to begin life anew. For a few years he struggled along as an -itinerant photographer, traveling with a “car” and earning a precarious -substance taking “tin-types.” Death closed the scene in 1872, the -luckless pioneer expiring at Petrolea in absolute want. Thus sadly ended -another illustration of the adverse fortune which frequently overtakes -men whose energy and grit confer benefits upon mankind that surely -entitle them to a better fate. Mr. Williams saved money, served in -parliament and died in the city of Hamilton years ago. He was the -intimate friend of Hon. Isaac Buchanan, the distinguished Canadian -statesman, whose sons are well-known operators at Oil City and -Pittsburg. - - “The stars shall fade away, the sun himself - Grow dim with age and nature sink in years; - But thou shall flourish in immortal youth.” - -As might be imagined, Shaw’s venture gave rise to operations of great -magnitude. Hosts flocked to the scene in quest of lands and developments -began on an extensive scale. Among others a rig was built and a well -drilled without delay as close to the Shaw as it was possible to place -the timbers. The sand was soon reached by the aid of steam-power and -once more the oil poured forth enormously, the new strike proving little -inferior to its neighbor. It was named the Bradley, in honor of the -principal owner, E. C. Bradley, afterwards a leading operator in -Pennsylvania, president of the Empire Gas-Company and still a resident -of Oildom. The yield continued large for a number of months, then ceased -entirely and both wells were abandoned. Of the hundreds in the vicinity -a good percentage paid nicely, but none rivalled the initial spouters. -The influx of restless spirits led to an “oil-town,” which for a brief -space presented a picture of activity rarely surpassed. Oil Springs, as -the mushroom city was fittingly termed, flourished amazingly. The -excessive waste of oil filled every ditch and well, rendering the water -unfit for use and compelling the citizens to quench their thirst with -artificial drinks. The bulk of the oil was conveyed to Mandaumin, -Wyoming or Port Sarnia, over roads of horrible badness, giving -employment to an army of teamsters. A sort of “mud canal” was formed, -through which the horses dragged small loads on a species of flat-boats, -while the drivers walked along the “tow-path” on either side. The mud -had the consistency of thin batter and was seldom under three feet deep. -To those who have never seen this unique system of navigation the most -graphic description would fail to convey an adequate idea of its -peculiar features. Unlike the Pennsylvania oil-fields, the -petroleum-districts of Canada are low and swampy, a circumstance that -added greatly to the difficulty of moving the greasy staple during the -wet season. Ultimately roads were cut through the soft morasses and -railways were constructed, although not before Oil Springs had seen its -best days and begun a rapid descent on the down grade. Salt-water -quickly put a stop to many wells, the production declined rapidly and -the town was depopulated. Operations extended towards the north-west, -where Petrolea, which is yet a flourishing place, was established in -1864. Bothwell, twenty-six miles south of Oil Springs, had a short -career and light production. Canadian operators were slower than the -Yankees of the period and the tireless push of the Americans who crowded -to the front at the beginning of the developments around Oil Springs was -a revelation to the quiet plodders of Enniskillen and adjacent -townships. The leading refineries are at London, fifty miles east of -Wyoming and one of the most attractive cities in the Dominion. - -[Illustration: - - OIL ON THE - PENINSULA OF GASPE. -] - -Petroleum has long been known to exist in considerable quantity in the -Gaspe Peninsula, at the extreme eastern end of Quebec. The Petroleum -Oil-Trust, organized by a bunch of Canadians to operate the district, -put down eight wells in 1893, finding a light green oil. The Trust -continued its borings in 1894, on the left bank of the York River, south -of the anticlinal of Tar Point. Several of the ten wells yielded -moderately, and operations extended to the portion of Gaspe Basin called -Mississippi Brook. One well in that section, completed in July of 1897, -flowed from a depth of fifteen-hundred feet. Hundreds of barrels were -lost before the well could be controlled. Its first, pumping produced -forty barrels, and two others in the vicinity are of a similar stripe. -The results thus far are deemed sufficiently encouraging to warrant -further tests in hope of developing an extensive field. The oil comes -from a coarse rock of sandy texture, and in color and gravity resembles -the Pennsylvania article. The formation around the newest strikes is -nearly flat, while the shallow wells in the section first prospected -were bored at a sharp angle, to keep in touch with the dip of the rock, -just as diamond drills follow the gold-bearing ledges in the Black Hills -of South Dakota. Crossing the continent, oil has been tapped in the -gold-diggings of British Columbia, although in amounts too small to be -important commercially. - -John Shaw, whose gusher brought the “gum-beds” of Enniskillen into the -petroleum-column, narrowly escaped anticipating Drake three years. Shaw -removed from Massachusetts to Canada in 1838, and was regarded as a -visionary schemer. In 1856 he sought to interest his neighbors in a plan -to _drill a well through the rock_ in search of the reservoir that -supplied Bear Creek with a thick scum of oil. They hooted at the idea -and proposed to send Shaw to the asylum. This tabooed the subject and -postponed the advent of petroleum until the end of August, 1859. - -Not content to crown Alaska with mountains of gold and valleys of yellow -nuggets, inventors of choice fables have invested the hyperborean region -with an exhaustless store of petroleum. In July of 1897 this paragraph, -dated Seattle, went the rounds of the press: - -“What is said to be the greatest discovery ever made is reported from -Alaska. Some gold-prospectors several months ago ran across what seemed -to be a lake of oil. It was fed by innumerable springs and the -surrounding mountains were full of coal. They brought supplies to -Seattle and tests proved it to be of as high grade as any ever taken out -of Pennsylvania wells. A local company was formed and experts sent up. -They have returned on the steamer Topeka, and their report has more than -borne out first reports. It is stated there is enough oil and coal in -the discovery to supply the world. It is close to the ocean; in fact, -the experts say that the oil oozes out into the salt-water.” - -William H. Seward’s purchase from Russia, for years ridiculed as good -only for icebergs and white-bears, may be credited with Klondyke placers -and vast bodies of gold-bearing quartz, but a “lake of oil” is too great -a stretch of the long bow. If “a lake of oil” ever existed, the lighter -portions would have evaporated and the residue would be asphaltum. The -story “won’t hold water” or oil. - -A thief broke into a Bradford store and pilfered the cash-drawer. Some -months later the merchant received an unsigned letter, containing a -ten-dollar bill and this explanatory note: “I stole seventy-eight -dollars from your money-drawer. Remorse gnaws at my conscience. When -remorse gnaws again I will send you some more.” - -It is not surprising that evil travels faster than good, since it takes -only two seconds to fight a duel and two months to drill an oil-well at -Bradford. - -“The Producers’ Consolidated Land-and-Petroleum-Company,” the formidable -title over the Bradford office of the big corporation, is apt to suggest -to observant readers the days of old long sign. - -[Illustration: REUBEN CARROLL.] - -Hon. Reuben Carroll, a pioneer-operator, was born in Mercer county in -1823, went to Ohio to complete his education, settled in the Buckeye -State, and was a member of the Legislature when developments began on -Oil Creek. Solicited by friends to join them in an investment that -proved fortunate, he removed to Titusville and cast his lot with the -producers. He operated extensively in the northern fields, residing at -Richburg during the Allegheny excitement. He took an active interest in -public affairs, and contributed stirring articles on politics, finance -and good government to leading journals. He opposed Wall-street -domination and vigorously upheld the rights of the masses. Upon the -decline of Richburg he located at Lily Dale, New York. As a -representative producer he was asked to become a member of the South -Improvement-Company in 1872. The offer aroused his inflexible sense of -justice and was indignantly spurned. He knew the sturdy quality and -large-heartedness of the Oil-Creek operators and did not propose to -assist in their destruction. At seventy-four, Mr. Carroll is vigorous -and well-preserved, ready to combat error and champion truth with tongue -and pen. An intelligent student of the past and of current events, a -close observer of the signs of the times and a keen reasoner, Reuben -Carroll is a fine example of the men who are mainly responsible for the -birth and growth of the petroleum-development. - -[Illustration: RALPH W. CARROLL.] - -There is much uncertainty as to the youngest soldier in the civil-war, -the oldest Mason, the man who first nominated McKinley for President, -and who struck Billie Patterson, but none as to the youngest dealer in -oil-well supplies in the oil-region. This distinction belongs to Ralph -W. Carroll, a native of Youngstown, Ohio, and son of Hon. Reuben -Carroll. Born in 1860, at eighteen he was at the head of a large -business at Rock City, in the Four-Mile District, five miles south-west -of Olean. Three brothers were associated with him. The firm was the -first to open a supply-store at Richburg, with a branch at Allentown, -four miles east, and an establishment later at Cherry Grove. In 1883 -Ralph W. succeeded the firm, his brothers retiring, and located at -Bradford. In 1886 he opened offices and warehouses at Pittsburg and in -1894 removed to New York to engage in placing special investments. The -young merchant was secretary of the Producers’ Protective Association, -organized at Richburg in 1891, and a member of the executive committee -that conducted the fight against the Roberts Torpedo-Company. Hon. David -Kirk, Asher W. Milner, J. E. Dusenbury and “Farmer” Dean were his four -associates on this important committee. Roscoe Conkling, for the Roberts -side, and General Butler, for the Producers’ Association, measured -swords in this legal warfare. Mr. Carroll has a warm welcome for his -oil-region friends, a class of men the like of whom for geniality, -sociability, liberality and enterprise the world can never duplicate. - -The Beardsleys, Fishers, Dollophs and Fosters were the first inhabitants -in the wilds of Northern McKean. Henry Bradford Dolloph, whose house -above Sawyer City was shattered by a glycerine-explosion, was the first -white child who saw daylight and made infantile music in the Tuna -Valley. One of the first two houses where Bradford stands was occupied -by the Hart family, parents and twelve children. When the De Golias -settled up the East Branch a road had to be cut through the forest from -Alton. Hon. Lewis Emery’s No. 1, on the Tibbets farm, the first good -well up the Branch, produced oil that paid two or three times the cost -of the entire property. - -The United-States Pipe-Line has overcome legal obstructions, laid its -tubes under railroads that objected to its passage to the sea and will -soon pump oil direct to refineries on the Jersey coast. Senator Emery, -the sponsor of the line, is not the man to be bluffed by any -railroad-popinjay who wants him to get off the earth. The -National-Transit Line has ample facilities to transport all the oil in -Pennsylvania to the seaboard, but Emery is a true descendant of the -proud Highlander who wouldn’t sail in Noah’s ark because “ilka McLean -has a boat o’ his ain.” He was born in New-York State, reared in -Michigan, whither the family removed in his boyhood, and learned to be a -miller. Arriving at Pioneer early in the sixties, he cut his eye-teeth -as an oil-operator on Oil Creek and had much to do with bringing the -great Bradford district to the front. He served one term in the -Legislature and two in the Senate, gaining a high reputation by his -fearless opposition to jobbery and corruption. - -Michael Garth, a keen-witted son of the Emerald Isle, has the easiest -snap in the northern region. Scraping together the funds to put down a -well on his rocky patch of ground near Duke Centre, he rigged a -water-wheel to pump the ten barrels of crude the strike yielded daily. -Another well of similar stripe was drilled and the faithful creek drives -the wooden-wheel night and day, without one cent of expense or one -particle of attention on the part of the owner. Garth can go fishing -three days at a lick, to find the wells producing upon his return just -as when he left. Such a picnic almost compels a man to be lazy. - -The Devonian Oil Company, of which Charles E. Collins is the -clear-brained president and guiding star, has operated on the wholesale -plan in the northern region and in West Virginia. In October of 1897 the -Devonian, the Watson and the Emery companies sold a part of their -holdings north and south to the West Penn, a producing wing of the -Standard, for fourteen-hundred-thousand dollars in spot cash. The -largest cash sale of wells and territory on record, this transaction was -negotiated by John L. and J. C. McKinney acting in behalf of the buyer, -and Charles E. Collins and Lewis Emery representing the sellers. - -“Hell in harness!” Davy Crockett is credited with exclaiming the first -time he saw a railroad train tearing along one dark night. Could he have -seen an oil-train on the Oil-Creek Railroad, blazing from end to end and -tearing down from Brocton at sixty miles an hour, the conception would -have been yet more realistic. Engineer Brown held the throttle, which he -pulled wide open upon discovering a car of crude on fire. Mile after -mile he sped on, thick smoke and sheets of flame each moment growing -denser and fiercer. At last he reached a long siding, slackened the -speed for the fireman to open the switch and ran the doomed train off -the main track. He detached the engine and two cars, while the rest of -the train fell a prey to the fiery demon. A similar accident at -Bradford, caused by a tank at the Anchor Oil-Company’s wells overflowing -upon the tracks of the Bradford & Bordell narrow-gauge, burned two or -three persons fatally. The oil caught fire as the locomotive passed the -spot and enveloped the passenger-coach in flames so quickly that escape -was cut off. - -Bradford, Tarport, Limestone, Sawyer, Gillmor, Derrick, Red Rock, State -Line, Four-Mile, Duke Centre, Rexford, Bordell, Rew City, Coleville, -Custer and De Golia, with their thousands of wells, their hosts of live -people, their boundless activity, their crowded railways, their endless -procession of teams and their unlimited energy, were for the nonce the -brightest galaxy of oil-towns that ever flourished in the busy realm of -petroleum. Some have vanished, others are mere skeletons and Bradford -alone retains a fair semblance of its pristine greatness. - -The bee-line for the north was fairly and squarely “on the belt.” - - THE SEX MEN ADORE. - -A little girl at Titusville, when she prayed to have herself and all of -her relations cared for during the night, added: “And, dear God, do try -and take good care of yourself, for if anything should happen to you we -should all go to pieces. Amen.” - -A young lady at Sawyer City accepted a challenge to climb a derrick on -the Hallenback farm, stand on top and wave her handkerchief. She was to -receive a silk-dress and a ten-dollar greenback. The feat was performed -in good shape. It is probably the only instance on record where a woman -had the courage to climb an eighty-foot derrick, stand on top and wave -her handkerchief to those below. It was done and the enterprising girl -gathered in the wager. - -Mrs. Sands, formerly a resident of Oil City, built the Sands Block and -owned wells on Sage Run. McGrew Brothers, of Pittsburg, struck a spouter -in 1869 that boomed Sage Run a few months. A lady at Pleasantville, who -had coined money by shrewd speculations in oil-territory, purchased -two-hundred acres near the McGrew strike, while the well was drilling -and nobody thought it worth noticing. The lady was Mrs. Sands, who -enacted the role of “a poor lone widow,” anxious to secure a patch of -ground to raise cabbage and garden-truck, to get the property. She -worked so skillfully upon the sensibilities of the Philadelphians owning -the land that they sold it for a trifle “to help a needy woman!” Her -first well, finished the night before the “thirty-day shut down,” flowed -five-hundred barrels each twenty-four hours. The “poor lone widow” -valued the tract at a half-million dollars and at one time was rated at -six-hundred-thousand, all “earned by her own self.” Yet weak-minded men -and strong-minded women talk of the suppressed sex! - -A Franklin lady asked her husband one morning to buy five-thousand -barrels of oil on her account, saying she had an impression the price -would advance very soon. To please her he promised to comply. At dinner -she inquired about it and was told the order had been filled by an -Oil-City broker. In the afternoon the price advanced rapidly. Next -morning the lady asked hubby to have the lot sold and bring her the -profits. The miserable husband was in for it. He dared not confess his -deception and the only alternative was to pay the difference and keep -mum. His sickly smile, as he drew fifteen-hundred dollars out of the -bank to hand his spouse, would have cracked a mirror an inch thick. -Solomon got a good deal of experience from his wives and that Franklin -husband began to think “a woman might know something about business -after all.” - -Mrs. David Hanna, of Oil City, is not one of the women whose idea of a -good time is to go to a funeral and cry. She tried a bit of speculation -in certificates and the market went against her. She tried again and -again, but the losses exceeded the profits by a large majority. The -phenomenal spurt in April of 1895 was her opportunity. She held down a -seat in the Oil-Exchange gallery three days, sold at almost the top -notch and cleared twelve-thousand dollars. People applauded and declared -the plucky little woman “had a great head.” - -[Illustration] - - SCHRUBRASS FERRY 1873 - SUMMIT CITY - ACROSS THE BELT AT BARRINGER - TURKEY CITY IN 1874 - FIRST HOUSE AT TRIANGLE CITY - MAIN STREET, ST. PETERSBURG. - VIEW IN EDENBURG. - - - - - XII. - DOWN THE ZIG-ZAGGED STREAM. - -WHERE THE ALLEGHENY FLOWS—RENO CONTRIBUTES A GENEROUS MITE—SCRUBGRASS - HAS A SHORT INNING—BULLION LOOMS UP WITH DUSTERS AND GUSHERS—A PEEP - AROUND EMLENTON—FOXBURG FALLS INTO LINE—THROUGH THE CLARION - DISTRICT—ST. PETERSBURG, ANTWERP, TURKEY CITY AND DOGTOWN—EDENBURG - HAS A HOT TIME—PARKER ON DECK. - - ---------- - -“He left the barren-beaten thoroughfare.”—_Tennyson._ - -“Who, grown familiar with the sky, will grope * * * among - groundlings?”—_Browning._ - -“What lavish wealth men give for trifles light and small!”—_W. S - Hawkins._ - -“How soon our new-born light attains to full-aged noon.”—_Francis - Quarles._ - - “Liberal as noontide speeds the ambient ray - And fills each crevice in the world with day.”—_Lytton._ - -“We must take the current when it serves or lose our - ventures.”—_Shakespeare._ - -“Let us battle for elbow-room.”—_James Parish Steele._ - -“Peter Oleum came down like a wolf on the fold.”—_Byron Parodied._ - -“Plunged into darkness or plunged into light.”—_Hester M. Poole._ - -“Lord love us, how we apples swim!”—_Mallett._ - -“The best-laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft a-gley.”—_Robert Burns._ - -“Fortune turns everything to the advantage of her - favorites.”—_Rochefoucauld._ - -“Good, the more communicated, more abundant grows.”—_Milton._ - -“A gorgeous sunset is coloring the whole sky.”—_Julius Stinde._ - - ---------- - - -South and west of Oil Creek for many miles the petroleum-star shed its -effulgent luster. Down the Allegheny adventurous operators groped their -way patiently, until Clarion, Armstrong, Butler, Washington and West -Virginia unlocked their splendid store-houses at the bidding of the -drill. Aladdin’s wondrous lamp, Stalacta’s wand or Ali Babi’s magic -sesame was not so grand a talisman as the tools which from the bowels of -the earth brought forth illimitable spoil. No need of fables to varnish -the tales of struggles and triumphs, of disappointments and successes, -of weary toil and rich reward that have marked the oil-development from -the Drake well to the latest strike in Tyler county. Men who go miles in -advance of developments to seek new oil-fields run big chances of -failure. They understand the risk and appreciate the cold fact that -heavy loss may be entailed. But “the game is worth the powder” in their -estimation and impossibility is not the sort of ability they swear by. -“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win” is -a maxim oil-operators have weighed carefully. The man who has faith to -attempt something is a man of power, whether he hails from Hong Kong or -Boston, Johannesburg or Oil City. The man who will not improve his -opportunity, whether seeking salvation or petroleum, is a sure loser. -His stamina is as fragile as a fifty-cent shirt and will wear out -quicker than religion that is used for a cloak only. Muttering long -prayers without working to answer them is not the way to angle for -souls, or fish, or oil-wells. It demands nerve and vim and enterprise to -stick thousands of dollars in a hole ten, twenty, fifty or “a hundred -miles from anywhere,” in hope of opening a fresh vein of petroleum. -Luckily men possessing these qualities have not been lacking since the -first well on Oil Creek sent forth the feeble squirt that has grown to a -mighty river. Hence prolific territory, far from being scarce, has -sometimes been too plentiful for the financial health of the average -producer, who found it hard to cipher out a profit selling dollar-crude -at forty cents. As old fields exhausted new ones were explored in every -direction, those south of the original strike presenting a very -respectable figure in the oil-panorama. If “eternal vigilance is the -price of liberty,” eternal hustling is the price of oil-operations. -Maria Seidenkovitch, a fervid Russian anarchist, who would rather hit -the Czar with a bomb than hit a thousand-barrel well, has written: - - “There is no standing still! Even as I pause - The steep path shifts and I slip back apace; - Movement was safety; by the journey’s laws - No help is given, no safe abiding-place; - No idling in the pathway, hard and slow— - I must go forward or must backward go!” - -[Illustration: GEN. JESSE L. RENO.] - -Down the Allegheny three miles, on a gentle slope facing bold hills -across the river, is the remnant of Reno, once a busy, attractive town. -It was named from Gen. Jesse L. Reno, who rose to higher rank than any -other of the heroes Venango “contributed to the death-roll of -patriotism.” He spent his boyhood at Franklin, was graduated from West -Point in the class with George B. McClellan and “Stonewall” Jackson, -served in the Mexican war, was promoted to Major-General and fell at the -battle of South Mountain in 1862. The Reno Oil-Company, organized in -1865 as the Reno-Oil-and-Land Company, owns the village-site and -twelve-hundred acres of adjacent farms. The company and the town owed -their creation to the master-mind of Hon. C. V. Culver, to whose rare -faculty for developing grand enterprises the oil-regions offered an -inviting field. Visiting Venango county early in the sixties, a canvass -of the district convinced him that the oil-industry, then an infant -beginning to creep, must attain giant proportions. To meet the need of -increased facilities for business, he conceived the idea of a system of -banks at convenient points and opened the first at Franklin in 1861. -Others were established at Oil City, Titusville and suitable -trade-centres until the combination embraced twenty banks and -banking-houses, headed by the great office of Culver, Penn & Co. in New -York. All enjoyed large patronage and were converted into corporate -banks. The speculative mania, unequaled in the history of the world, -that swept over the oil-regions in 1864-5, deluged the banks with -applications for temporary loans to be used in purchasing lands and -oil-interests. Philadelphia alone had nine-hundred stock-companies. New -York was a close second and over seven-hundred-million dollars were -capitalized—on paper—for petroleum-speculations! The production of oil -was a new and unprecedented business, subject to no known laws and -constantly overturning theories that set limits to its expansion. There -was no telling where flowing-wells, spouting thousands of dollars daily -without expense to the owners, might be encountered. Stories of sudden -fortunes, by the discovery of oil on lands otherwise valueless, pressed -the button and the glut of paper-currency did the rest. - -Mr. Culver directed the management and employment of fifteen-million -dollars in the spring of 1865! People literally begged him to handle -their money, elected him to Congress and insisted that he invest their -cash and bonds. The Reno Oil-Company included men of the highest -personal and commercial standing. Preliminary tests satisfied the -officers of the company that the block of land at Reno was valuable -territory. They decided to operate it, to improve the town and build a -railroad to Pithole, in order to command the trade of Oil Creek, Cherry -Run and “the Magic City.” Oil City opposed the railroad strenuously, -refusing a right-of-way and compelling the choice of a circuitous route, -with difficult grades to climb and ugly ravines to span. At length a -consolidation of competing interests was arranged, to be formally -ratified on March twenty-ninth, 1866. Meanwhile rumors affecting the -credit of the Culver banks were circulated. Disastrous floods, the close -of the war and the amazing collapse of Pithole had checked speculation -and impaired confidence in oil-values. Responsible parties wished to -stock the Reno Company at five-million dollars and Mr. Culver was in -Washington completing the railroad-negotiations which, in one week, -would give him control of nearly a million. A run on his banks was -started, the strain could not be borne and on March twenty-seventh, -1866, the failure of Culver, Penn & Co. was announced. The assets at -cost largely exceeded the liabilities of four-million dollars, but the -natural result of the suspension was to discredit everything with which -the firm had been identified. The railroad-consolidation, confessedly -advantageous to all concerned, was not confirmed and Reno stock was -withheld from the market. While the creditors generally co-operated to -protect the assets and adjust matters fairly, a few defeated measures -looking to a safe deliverance. These short-sighted individuals -sacrificed properties, instituted harassing prosecutions and -precipitated a crisis that involved tremendous losses. Many a man -standing on his brother’s neck claims to be looking up far into the sky -watching for the Lord to come! - -The fabric reared with infinite pains toppled, pulling down others in -its fall. The Reno, Oil-Creek & Pithole Railroad, within a mile of -completion, crumbled into ruin. The architect of the splendid plans that -ten days of grace would have carried to fruition displayed his manly -fiber in the dark days of adversity and he has been amply vindicated. -Instead of yielding to despair and “letting things take their course,” -he strove to realize for the creditors every dollar that could be saved -from the wreck. Animated by a lofty motive, for thirty years Mr. Culver -has labored tirelessly to discharge the debts of the partnership. No -spirit could be braver, no life more unselfish, no line of action more -steadfastly devoted to a worthy object. He had bought property and -sought to enhance its value, but he had never gambled in stocks, never -dealt in shares on the mere hazard of a rise or gone outside the -business—except to help customers whose necessities appealed to his -sympathy—with which he was intimately connected. Driven to the wall by -stress of circumstances and general distrust, he has actually paid off -all the small claims and multitudes of large ones against his banks. How -many men, with no legal obligation to enforce their payment, would toil -for a generation to meet such demands? Thistles do not bear figs and -banana-vendors are not the only persons who should be judged by their -fruits. It is a good thing to achieve success and better still to -deserve it. Gauged by the standard of high resolve, earnest purpose and -persistent endeavor—by what he has tried to do and not by what may have -been said of him—Charles Vernon Culver can afford to accept the verdict -of his peers and of the Omniscient Judge, who “discerns the thoughts and -intents of the heart.” - - “I will go on then, though the limbs may tire, - And though the path be doubtful and unseen; - Better with the last effort to expire - Than lose the toil and struggle that have been, - And have the morning strength, the upward strain, - The distance conquered in the end made vain.” - -[Illustration: JAMES H. OSMER.] - -Reorganized in the interest of Culver, Penn & Co.’s creditors, the Reno -Company developed its property methodically. No. 18 well, finished in -May of 1870, pumped two-hundred barrels and caused a flutter of -excitement. Fifty others, drilled in 1870-1, were so satisfactory that -the stockholders might have shouted “Keno!” The company declined to -lease and very few dry-holes were put down on the tract. Gas supplied -fuel and the sand, coarse and pebbly, produced oil of superior gravity -at five to six-hundred feet. Reno grew, a spacious hotel was built, -stores prospered, two railroads had stations and derricks dotted the -banks of the Allegheny. The company’s business was conducted admirably, -it reaped liberal profits and operated in Forest county. Its affairs are -in excellent shape and it has a neat production today. Mr. Culver and -Hon. Galusha A. Grow have been its presidents and Hon. J. H. Osmer is -now the chief officer. Mr. Osmer is a leader of the Venango bar and has -lived at Franklin thirty-two years. His thorough knowledge of law, -sturdy independence, scorn of pettifogging and skill as a pleader gained -him an immense practice. He has been retained in nearly all the most -important cases before the court for twenty-five years and appears -frequently in the State and the United-States Supreme Courts. He is a -logical reasoner and brilliant orator, convincing juries and audiences -by his incisive arguments. He served in Congress with distinguished -credit. His two sons have adopted the legal profession and are -associated with their father. A man of positive individuality and -sterling character, a friend in cloud and sunshine, a deep thinker and -entertaining talker is James H. Osmer. - -Cranberry township, a regular petroleum-huckleberry, duplicated the Reno -pool at Milton, with a vigorous offshoot at Bredinsburg and nibbles -lying around loose. Below Franklin the second-sand sandwich and -Bully-Hill successes were special features. A mile up East Sandy -Creek—it separates Cranberry and Rockland—was Gas City, on a toploftical -hill twelve miles south of Oil City. A well sunk in 1864 had heaps of -gas, which caught fire and burned seven years. E. E. Wightman and -Patrick Canning drilled five good wells in 1871 and Gas City came into -being. Vendergrift & Forman constructed a pipeline and telegraph to Oil -City. Gas fired the boilers, lighted the streets, heated the dwellings -and great quantities wasted. The pressure could be run up to -three-hundred pounds and utilized to run engines in place of steam, were -it not for the fine grit with the gas, which wore out the cylinders. -Wells that supplied fuel to pump themselves seemed very similar to mills -that furnished their own motive-power and grist for the hoppers. A cow -that gave milk and provided food for herself by the process could not be -slicker. Gas City vaporized a year or two and flickered out. The last -jet has been extinguished and not a glimmer of gas or symptom of wells -has been visible for many years. - -Fifteen of the first sixteen wells at Foster gladdened the owners by -yielding bountifully. To drill, to tube, to pump, to get done-up with a -dry-hole, “aye, there’s the rub” that tests a fellow’s mettle and -changes blithe hope to bleak despair. Foster wells were not of that -complexion. They lined the steep cliff that resembles an Alpine farm -tilted on end to drain off, the derricks standing like sentries on the -watch that nobody walked away with the romantic landscape. Lovers of the -sterner moods of nature would revel in the rugged scenery, which -discounts the overpraised Hudson and must have fostered sublime emotions -in the impassive redmen. Indian-God Rock, inscribed with untranslatable -hieroglyphics, presumably tells what “Lo” thought of the surroundings. -Six miles south of the huge rock, which somebody proposed to boat to -Franklin and set in the park as an interesting memento of the -aborigines, was “the burning well.” For years the gas blazed, -illuminating the hills and keeping a plot of grass constantly fresh and -green. The flood in 1865 overflowed the hole, but the gas burned just as -though water were its native element. It was the fad for sleighing -parties to visit the well, dance on the sward when snow lay a yard deep -ten rods away and hold outdoor picnics in January and February. This -practically realized the fancy of the boy who wished winter would come -in summer, that he might coast on the Fourth of July in shirt-sleeves -and linen-pants. Here and there in the interior of Rockland township -morsels of oil have been unearthed and small wells are pumping to-day. - -C. D. Angell leased blocks of land from Foster to Scrubgrass in 1870-71 -and jabbed them with holes that confirmed his “belt theory.” His first -well—a hundred-barreler—on Belle Island, a few rods below the station, -opened the Scrubgrass field. On the Rockland side of the river the -McMillan and 99 wells headed a list of remunerative producers. Back a -quarter-mile the territory was tricky, wells that showed for big strikes -sometimes proving of little account. A town toddled into existence. -Gregory—the genial host joined the heavenly host long ago—had a hotel at -which trains stopped for meals. James Kennerdell ran a general store and -the post-office. The town was busy and had nothing scrubby except the -name. The wells retired from business, the depot burned down, the people -vanished and Kennerdell Station was established a half-mile north. -Wilson Cross continued his store at the old stand until his death in -March, 1896. Within a year paying wells have been drilled near the -station and two miles southward. On the opposite bank Major W. T. Baum, -of Franklin, has a half-dozen along the base of the hill that net him a -princely return. A couple of miles north-west, in Victory township, -Conway Brothers, of Philadelphia, recently drilled a well forty-two -hundred feet. The last sixty feet were sand with a flavor of oil, the -deepest sand and petroleum recorded up to the present time. Careful -records of the strata and temperature were taken. Once a thermometer -slipped from Mr. Conway’s hand and tumbled to the bottom of the well, -the greatest drop of the mercury in any age or clime. - -Sixty farmers combined in the fall of 1859 to drill the first well in -Scrubgrass township, on the Rhodabarger tract. They rushed it like sixty -six-hundred feet, declined to pay more assessments, kicked over the -dashboard and spilled the whole combination. The first productive well -was Aaron Kepler’s, drilled on the Russell farm in 1863, and John -Crawford’s farm had the largest of the early ventures. On the Witherup -farm, at the mouth of Scrubgrass Creek, paying wells were drilled in -1867. Considerable skirmishing was done at intervals without startling -results. The first drilling in Clinton township was on. the Kennerdell -property, two miles west of the Allegheny, the Big-Bend Oil-Company -sinking a dry-hole in 1864-5. Jonathan Watson bored two in 1871, finding -traces of oil in a thin layer of sand. The Kennerdell block of -nine-hundred acres figured as the scene of milling operations from the -beginning of the century. David Phipps—the Phipps families are still -among the most prominent in Venango county—built a grist-mill on the -property in 1812, a saw-mill and a woolen-factory, operated an -iron-furnace a mile up the creek and founded a natty village. Fire -destroyed his factory and Richard Kennerdel bought the place in 1853. He -built a woolen-mill that attained national celebrity, farmed -extensively, conducted a large store and for thirty years was a leading -business-man. A handsome fortune, derived from manufacturing and -oil-wells on his lands, and the respect of all classes rewarded the -enterprise, sagacity and hospitality of this progressive citizen. The -factory he reared has been dismantled, the pretty little settlement amid -the romantic hills of Clinton is deserted and the man to whom both owed -their development rests from his labors. Mr. Kennerdell possessed -boundless energy, decision and the masterly qualities that surmount -obstacles, build up a community and round out a manly character. Cornen -Brothers have a production on the Kennerdell tract, which they purchased -in 1892. During the Bullion furore a bridge was built at Scrubgrass and -a railroad to Kennerdell was constructed. Ice carried off the bridge and -the faithful old ferry holds the fort as in the days of John A. Canan -and George McCullough. - -Phillips Brothers, who had operated largely on Oil Creek and in Butler -county, leased thousands of acres in Clinton and drilled a number of -dry-holes. Believing a rich pool existed in that latitude, they were not -deterred by reverses that would have stampeded operators of less -experience. On August ninth, 1876, John Taylor and Robert Cundle -finished a two-hundred-barrel spouter on the George W. Gealy farm, two -miles north of Kennerdell. They sold to Phillips Brothers, who were -drilling on adjacent farms. The new strike opened the Bullion field, -toward which the current turned forthwith. H. L. Taylor and John -Satterfield, the biggest operators in Butler, visited the Gealy well and -offered a half-million dollars for the Phillips interests in Clinton. A -hundred oilmen stood watching the flow that August morning. The parties -consulted briefly and Isaac Phillips invited me to walk with him a few -rods. He said: “Taylor & Satterfield wish to take our property at -five-hundred-thousand dollars. This is a good deal of money, but we have -declined it. We think there will be a million in this field for us if we -develop it ourselves.” They carried out this programme and the estimate -was approximated closely. - -[Illustration: J. J. MYERS.] - -The Sutton, Simcox, Taylor, Henderson, Davis, Gealy, Newton and -Berringer farms were operated rapidly. Tack Brothers paid ten-thousand -dollars to Taylor for thirty acres and Porter Phipps leased fifteen -acres, which he sold to Emerson & Brownson, whose first well started at -seven-hundred barrels. Phillips Brothers’ No. 3 well, on the Gealy farm, -was a four-hundred-barreler. In January, 1877, Frank Nesbit’s No. 2, -Henderson farm, flowed five-hundred barrels, and in February the -Galloway began at two-hundred. The McCalmont Oil-Company’s Big Medicine, -on the Newton Farm, tipped the beam at one-thousand barrels on June -seventh. Mitchell & Lee’s Big Injun flowed three-thousand barrels on -June eighteenth, the biggest yield in the district. Ten yards away a -galaxy of Franklinites drilled the driest kind of a dry-hole. In August -the McCalmont No. 31 and the Phillips No. 7 gauged a plump thousand -apiece. These were the largest wells and they exhausted speedily. The -oil from the Gealy No. 1 was hauled to Scrubgrass until connections -could be laid to the United Pipe-Lines. The Bullion field, in which a -few skeleton-wells produce a few barrels daily, extended seven miles in -length and three-eighths of a mile in width. Like the business-end of a -healthy wasp, “it was little, but—oh, my!” It swerved the tide from -Bradford and ruled the petroleum-roost eighteen months. Summit City on -the Simcox farm, Berringer City on the Berringer farm, and Dean City on -the McCalmont farm flourished during the excitement. The first house at -Summit was built on December eighth, 1876. In June of 1877 the town -boasted two-hundred buildings and fifteen-hundred population. Abram -Myers, the last resident, left in April of 1889. All three towns have -“faded into nothingness” and of the five-hundred wells producing at the -summit of Bullion’s short-lived prosperity not a dozen survive. Westward -a new strip was opened, the wells on several farms yielding their owners -a pleasant income. J. J. Myers, whose home is now at Hartstown, operated -successfully in this district. George Rumsey, an enterprising citizen, -is the lucky owner of a number of slick wells. The pretty town of -Clintonville has been largely benefited by oil-operations in the -vicinity. It is surrounded by a fine agricultural country and possesses -many desirable features as a place of residence. Bullion had its turn -and others were to follow in short meter. - -[Illustration: GEO. RUMSEY.] - - “’Tis not too late to seek a newer world, - Tho’ much is taken, much abides.” - -[Illustration: VIEW ON RITCHEY RUN.] - -Major St. George—the kindly old man sleeps in the Franklin cemetery—had -a bunch of wells and lived in a small house close to the -Allegheny-Valley track, near the siding in Rockland township that bears -his name. At Rockland Station a stone chimney, a landmark for many -years, marked the early abode of Hon. Elisha W. Davis, who operated at -Franklin, was speaker of the House of Representatives and the -State-Senate five terms and spent the closing years of his active life -in Philadelphia. Emlenton, the lively town at the south-eastern corner -of Venango county, was a thriving place prior to the oil-development. -The wells in the vicinity were generally medium, Ritchey Run having some -of the best. This romantic stream, south of the town, borders Clarion -county for a mile or two from its mouth. John Kerr, a squatter, cleared -a portion of the forest and was drowned in the river, slipping off a -flat rock two miles below his bit of land. The site of Emlenton was -surveyed and the warrant from the state given in 1796 to Samuel B. Fox, -great-grandfather of the late William Logan Fox and J. M. Fox, of -Foxburg. Joseph M., son of Samuel B. Fox, settled on the land in 1827. -Andrew McCaslin owned the tract above, from about where the Valley Hotel -and the public-school now stand. He was elected sheriff in 1832 and -built an iron-furnace. As a compliment to Mrs. Fox—Miss Hanna Emlen—he -named the hamlet Emlenton. Doctor James Growe built the third house in -the settlement. The covered wooden-bridge, usually supposed to have been -brought over in the Mayflower, withstood floods and ice-gorges until -April of 1883. John Keating, who had the second store, built a furnace -near St. Petersburg and held a thousand acres of land. Oil-producers -were well represented in the growing town, which has been the home of -Marcus Hulings, L. E. Mallory, D. D. Moriarty, M. C. Treat and R. W. -Porterfield. James Bennett, a leader in business, built the brick -opera-house and the flour-mills and headed the company that built the -Emlenton & Shippenville Railroad, which ran to Edenburg at the height of -the Clarion development. Emlenton is supplied with natural-gas and noted -for good schools, good hotels and get-up-and-get citizens and is -wide-awake in every respect. - -[Illustration: DR. A. W. CRAWFORD.] - -Dr. A. W. Crawford, of Emlenton, who served in the Legislature, was -appointed consul to Antwerp by President Lincoln in 1861. At the time he -reached Antwerp a cheap illuminant was unknown on the continent. Gas was -used in the cities, but the people of Antwerp depended mainly upon -rape-seed oil. Only wealthy people could afford it and the poorer folks -went to bed in the dark. From Antwerp to Brussels the country was -shrouded in gloom at night. Not a light could be seen outside the towns, -in the most populous section on earth. A few gallons of American refined -had appeared in Antwerp previous to Dr. Crawford’s arrival. It was -regarded as an object of curiosity. A leading firm inquired about this -new American product and Dr. Crawford was the man who could give the -information. He was from the very part of the country where the new -illuminant was produced. The upshot of the matter was that Dr. Crawford -put the firm in communication with American shippers, which led to an -order of forty barrels by Aug. Schmitz & Son, Antwerp dealers. The -article had tremendous prejudice to overcome, but the exporters -succeeded in finally disposing of their stock. It yielded them a net -return of forty francs. The oil won its way and from the humble -beginning of forty barrels in 1861, the following year witnessing a -demand for fifteen-hundred-thousand gallons. By 1863 it had come largely -into use and since that time it has become a staple article of commerce. -Dr. Crawford served as consul at Antwerp until 1866, when he returned -home and began a successful career as an oil-producer. It was fortunate -that Col. Drake chanced upon the shallowest spot in the oil-regions -where petroleum has ever been found, when he located the first well, and -equally lucky that a practical oilman represented the United States at -Antwerp in 1861. Had Drake chanced upon a dry-hole and some other man -been consul at Antwerp, oil-developments might have been retarded for -years. - - “Oft what seems a trifle, - A mere nothing in itself, in some nice situations - Turns the scale of Fate and rules important actions.” - -It is interesting to note that in the original land-warrants to Samuel -M. Fox certain mineral-rights are reserved, although oil is not -specified. A clause in each of the documents reads: - -* * * “To the use of him, the said Samuel M. Fox, his heirs and assigns -forever, free and clear of all restriction and reservation as to mines, -royalties, quit-rents or otherwise, excepting and reserving only the -fifth part of all gold and silver-ore for the use of this Commonwealth, -to be delivered at the pit’s mouth free of all charges.” - -The lands of Joseph M. Fox extended five miles down the Allegheny, to -the north bank of the Clarion River. He built a home a mile back of the -Allegheny and endeavored to have the county-seat established at the -junction of the two streams. The village of Foxburg, which bears the -family-name and is four miles below Emlenton, had no existence until -long after his death. Contrary to the accepted opinion, he was not a -Quaker, nor do his descendants belong to the Society of Friends or any -religious denomination in particular. - -The prudence and wisdom of his father’s policy left the estate in -excellent shape when its management devolved largely upon W. L. Fox. -Progressive and far-seeing, the young man possessed in eminent degree -the business-qualities needed to handle vast interests successfully. His -honored mother and his younger brother aided him in building up and -constantly improving the rich heritage. Oil-operations upon and around -it added enormously to the value of the property. Hundreds of prolific -wells yielded bounteously and the town of Foxburg blossomed into the -prettiest spot on the banks of the Allegheny. The Foxes erected a -spacious school and hotel, graded the streets, put up dainty residences -and fostered the growing community most generously. A bank was -established, stores and dwellings multiplied, the best people found the -surroundings congenial and the lawless element had no place in the -attractive settlement. The master-hand of William Logan Fox was visible -everywhere. With him to plan was to execute. He constructed the railroad -that connected Foxburg with St. Petersburg, Edenburg and Clarion. The -slow hacks gave way to the swift iron-horse that brought the interior -towns into close communication with each other and the world outside. It -would be impossible to estimate the advantage of this enterprise to the -producers and the citizens of the adjacent country. - -[Illustration: RAILROAD BRIDGE NEAR CLARION.] - -The narrow-gauge railroad from Foxburg to Clarion was an engineering -novelty. It zig-zagged to overcome the big hill at the start, twisted -around ravines and crossed gorges on dizzy trestles. Near Clarion was -the highest and longest bridge, a wooden structure on stilts, curved and -single-tracked. One dark night a drummer employed by a Pittsburg house -was drawn over it safely in a buggy. The horse left the wagon-road, got -on the railroad-track, walked across the bridge—the ties supporting the -rails were a foot apart—and fetched up at his stable about midnight. The -drummer, who had imbibed too freely and was fast asleep in the vehicle, -knew nothing of the drive, which the marks of the wheels on the -approaches and the ties revealed next morning. The horse kept closely to -the center of the track, while the wheels on the right were outside the -rails. Had the faithful animal veered a foot to the right, the buggy -would have tumbled over the trestle and there would have been a vacant -chair in commercial ranks and a new voice in the celestial choir. That -the horse did not step between the ties and stick fast was a wonder. The -trip was as perilous as the Mohammedan passage to Paradise over a -slack-wire or Blondin’s tight-rope trip across Niagara. - -Mr. Fox’s busy brain conceived even greater things for the benefit of -the neighborhood. Millions of capital enabled him to carry out the ideas -of his resourceful mind. He created opportunities to invest his wealth -in ways that meant the greatest good to the greatest number. The family -heartily seconded his efforts to advance the general welfare. He built -and operated the only extensive individual pipe-line in the oil-regions. -To extend the trade and influence of Foxburg he devised new lines of -railway, which would traverse a section abounding in coal, timber and -agricultural products. He outlined the plan of an immense refinery, -designed to employ a host of skilled workmen and utilize the crude-oil -derived from the wells within several miles of his home. In the midst of -these and other useful projects, in the very heyday of vigorous manhood, -just as the full fruition of his highest hopes seemed about to be -grandly realized, the end of his bright career came suddenly. His death, -met in the discharge of duty, was almost tragic in its manner and -results. - -[Illustration: WILLIAM LOGAN FOX.] - -In February of 1880 Conductor W. W. Gaither, of the Foxburg-Clarion -Railroad, ejected a peddler named John Clancy from his train, near -King’s Mills, for refusing to pay his fare. Clancy shot Gaither, who -died in a few days from the wound. W. L. Fox was the president of the -road and a warm personal friend of the murdered conductor. He took -charge of the pistol and became active in bringing Clancy to punishment. -Clancy was placed on trial at Clarion. President Fox was to produce the -pistol in court. Leaving home on the early train for Clarion, he had -proceeded some distance from Foxburg when he discovered he had forgotten -the pistol. He stopped the train and ran back to get the weapon. When he -returned he was almost exhausted. W. J. McConnell, beside whom he was -sitting, attempted to revive him, but he sank into unconsciousness and -expired in the car near the spot where his friend Gaither was shot. -Clancy was convicted of murder in the second degree and sentenced to -eight years in the penitentiary. His wife and twelve-year-old son were -left destitute. The boy went to work for a farmer near St. Petersburg. A -week later, it is said, he was crossing a field in which a vicious bull -was feeding. The bull attacked him, ripped his side open, tossed him -from the field into the road and the boy died in a short time. Besides -these fatalities resulting from Clancy’s crime, the business of Foxburg -was seriously crippled. The village depended mainly upon the -oil-business of the Fox estate, of which Mr. Fox, although only -twenty-nine years old, was manager. Its three-thousand acres of -oil-territory, but partially developed, yielded forty-five-thousand -barrels of crude a month. The refinery was never built, the pipe-line -was sold and extensive development of the property practically ceased. -The pathetic death of William Logan Fox took the distribution of a -million dollars a year from the region about Foxburg. The stricken -family erected a splendid church to his memory, but it is seldom used. -Much of its trade and population has sought other fields and the pretty -town is merely a shadow of the past. - - “The massive gates of circumstance - Are turned upon the smallest hinge, - And thus some seeming pettiest chance - Oft gives our life its after tinge.” - -Fertig & Hammond drilled numerous wells on the Fox estate in 1870-71 and -started a bank. Operations were pressed actively by producers from the -upper districts. Foxburg was the jumping off point for pilgrims to the -Clarion field, which Galey No. 1 well, on Grass Flats, inaugurated in -August, 1871. Others on the Flats, ranging from thirty to eighty -barrels, boomed Foxburg and speedily advanced St. Petersburg, three -miles inland, from a sleepy village of thirty houses to a busy town of -three-thousand population. In September of 1871 Marcus Hulings, whose -great specialty was opening new fields, finished a hundred-barrel well -on the Ashbaugh farm, a mile beyond St. Petersburg. The town of Antwerp -was one result. The first building, erected in the spring of 1872, in -sixty days had the company of four groceries, three hotels, innumerable -saloons, telegraph-office, school-house and two-hundred dwellings. Its -general style was summed up by the victim of a poker-game in the -expressive words: “If you want a smell of brimstone before supper go to -Antwerp!” Fire in 1873 wiped it off the face of the planet. - -Charles H. Cramer, now proprietor of a hotel in Pittsburg, left the -Butler field to drill the Antwerp well, in which he had a -quarter-interest. James M. Lambing, for whom he had been drilling, -jokingly remarked: “When you return ‘broke’ from the wildcat well on the -Ashbaugh farm I will have another job for you.” It illustrates the ups -and downs of the oil business in the seventies to note that, when the -well was completed, Lambing had met with financial reverses and Cramer -was in a position to give out jobs on his own hook. Victor Gretter was -one of the spectators of the oil flowing over the derrick. The waste -suggested to him the idea of the oil-saver, which he patented. This -strike reduced the price of crude a dollar a barrel. Antwerp would have -been more important but for its nearness to St. Petersburg, which -disastrous fires in 1872-3 could not prevent from ranking with the best -towns of Oildom. Stages from Foxburg were crowded until the narrow-gauge -railroad furnished improved facilities for travel. Schools, churches, -hotels, newspapers, two banks and an opera-house flourished. The -Pickwick Club was a famous social organization. The Collner, Shoup, -Vensel, Palmer and Ashbaugh farms and Grass Flats produced -three-thousand barrels a day. Oil was five to six dollars and business -strode ahead like the wearer of the Seven-League Boots. Now the -erstwhile busy town is back to its pristine quietude and the farms that -produced oil have resumed the production of corn and grass. - -A jolly Dutchman near St. Petersburg, who married his second wife soon -after the funeral of the first, was visited with a two-hours’ serenade -in token of disapproval. He expostulated pathetically thus: “I say, -poys, you ought to be ashamed of myself to be making all dish noise ven -der vas a funeral here purty soon not long ago.” This dispersed the -party more effectually than a bull-dog and a revolver could have done. - -A girl just returned to St. Petersburg from a Boston high-school said, -upon seeing the new fire-engine at work: “Who would evah have dweamed -such a vewy diminutive looking apawatus would hold so much wattah!” - -“Where are you going?” said mirth-loving Con. O’Donnell to an elderly -man in a white cravat whom he overtook on the outskirts of Antwerp and -proposed to invite to ride in his buggy. “I am going to heaven, my son. -I have been on my way for eighteen years.” “Well, good-bye, old fellow! -If you have been traveling toward heaven for eighteen years and got no -nearer than Antwerp, I will take another route.” - -The course of operations extended past Keating Furnace, up and beyond -Turkey Run, a dozen miles from the mouth of the Clarion River. Good -wells on the Ritts and Neeley farms originated Richmond, a small place -that fizzled out in a year. The Irwin well, a mile farther, flowed -three-hundred barrels in September of 1872. The gas took fire and burned -three men to death. The entire ravine and contiguous slopes proved -desirable territory, although the streak rarely exceeded a mile in -breadth. Turkey City, in a nice expanse to the east of the famous -Slicker farm, for months was second only to St. Petersburg as a frontier -town. It had four stages to Foxburg, a post-office, daily mail-service -and two passable hotels. George Washington, who took a hack at a -cherry-tree, might have preferred walking to the drive over the rough, -cut-up roads that led to and from Turkey City. The wells averaged -eleven-hundred feet, with excellent sand and loads of gas for fuel. -Richard Owen and Alan Cochran, of Rouseville, opened a jack-pot on the -Johnson farm, above town. Wells lasted for years and this nook of the -Clarion district could match pennies with any other in the business of -producing oil. - -Northward two miles was Dogtown, beautifully situated in the midst of a -rich agricultural section. The descendents of the first settlers retain -their characteristics of their German ancestors. Frugal, honest and -industrious, they live comfortably in their narrow sphere and save their -gains. The Delo farm, another mile north, was for a time the limit of -developments. True to his instincts as a discoverer of new territory, -Marcus Hulings went six miles north-east of St. Petersburg, leased B. -Delo’s farm and drilled a forty-barrel well in the spring of 1872. -Enormous quantities of gas were found in the second sand. The oil was -piped to Oil City. A half-mile east, on the Hummell farm, Salem -township, Lee & Plumer struck a hundred-barreler in July of 1872. The -Hummell farm had been occupied for sixty years by a venerable Teuton, -whose rustic son of fifty-five summers described himself as “the -pishness man ov the firm.” The new well, twelve-hundred feet deep, had -twenty-eight feet of nice sand and considerable gas. Its success bore -fruit speedily in the shape of a “town” dubbed Pickwick by Plumer, who -belonged to the redoubtable Pickwick Club at St. Petersburg. A -quarter-mile ahead, on a three-cornered plot, Triangle City bloomed. The -first building was a hotel and the second a hardware store, owned by -Lavens & Evans. Charles Lavens operated largely in the Clarion region -and in the northern field, lived at Franklin several years and removed -to Bradford. He is president of the Bradford Commercial Bank and a -tip-top fellow at all times and under all circumstances. Evans may claim -recognition as the author, in the muddled days of shut-downs and -suspensions in 1872, of the world-famed platform of the Grass-Flats -producers: “Resolved that we don’t care a damn!” The three tailors of -Tooley street, who issued a manifesto as “We, the people of England,” -were outclassed by Evans and his friends. News of their action was -flashed to every “council” and “union” in the oil-country, with more -stimulating effect than a whole broadside of formal declarations. -Triangle, Pickwick and Paris City have passed to the realm of -forgetfulness. - -Marcus Hulings, a leader in the world of petroleum, was born near -Philipsburg, Clarion county, and began his career as a producer in 1860. -For some years he had been a contractor and builder and he turned his -practical knowledge of mechanics to good account. His earliest -oil-venture was a well on the Allegheny River above Oil City, for which -he refused sixty-thousand dollars. To be nearer the producing-fields, he -removed to Emlenton and resided there a number of years. The Hulings -family had been identified with Venango county from the first -settlement, one of them establishing a ferry at Franklin a century ago. -Prior to that date the family owned and lived on what is now Duncan’s -Island, at the junction of the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, fifteen -miles north-west of Harrisburg. Marcus was a pathfinder in Forest county -and opened the Clarion region. He leased Clark & Babcock’s six-thousand -acres in McKean county and drilled hundreds of paying wells. Deciding to -locate at Oil City, he built an elegant home on the South Side and -bought a delightful place in Crawford county for a summer residence. His -liberality, enterprise and energy seemed inexhaustible. He donated a -magnificent hall to Allegheny College, Meadville, aided churches and -schools, relieved the poor and was active in political affairs. Besides -his vast oil-interests he had mines in Arizona and California, mills on -the Pacific coast and huge lumber-tracts in West Virginia. Self-poised -and self-reliant, daring yet prudent, brave and trustworthy, he was one -of the grandest representatives of the petroleum-industry. Neither -puffed up by prosperity nor unduly cast down by adversity, he met -obstacles resolutely and accepted results manfully. My last talk with -him was at Pittsburg, where he told of his endeavor to organize a -company to develop silver-claims in Mexico. He had grown older and -weaker, but the earnestness of youth was still his possession. His eyes -sparkled and his face lightened as he shook my hand at parting and said: -“You will hear from me soon. If this company can be organized I would -not exchange my Mexican properties for the wealth of the Astors!” - -[Illustration: - - FREDERICK PLUMER - MARCUS HULINGS JOHN LEE -] - -He died in a few weeks, his dream unfulfilled. Losses in the west had -reduced his fortune without impairing his splendid courage, hope and -patience. He united the endurance of a soldier with the skill of a -commander. Marcus Hulings deserved to enjoy a winter of old age as green -as spring, as full of blossoms as summer, as generous as autumn. His -son, Hon. Willis J. Hulings, served in the Legislature three terms. He -introduced the bills prohibiting railroad-discriminations and was a -strong debater on the floor. Senator Quay favored him for State -Treasurer and attempted to stampede the convention which nominated -William Livsey. This was the beginning of the differences between Quay -and the combine which culminated in the rout of the latter and the -triumph of the Beaver statesman in 1895-6. Mr. Hulings lives at Oil -City, has a beautiful home and is colonel of the Sixteenth Regiment of -the National Guards. He practiced law in 1877-81, then devoted his -attention to oil-operations, to mining and lumbering, in which he is at -present actively engaged. - -John Lee drilled his first well on the Hoover farm, near Franklin, in -1860, and he is operating to-day in Clinton and Rockland townships. He -has had his share of storm and sunshine, from dusters at Nickelville to -a slice of the Big Injun at Bullion, in the shifting panorama of -oil-developments for thirty-six years, but his fortitude and manliness -never flinched. He is no sour dyspeptic, whose conduct depends upon what -he eats for breakfast and who cannot believe the world is O. K. if he -drills a dry-hole occasionally. - -Frederick C. Plumer and John Lee, partners in the Clarion and Butler -fields, were successful operators. Their wells on the Hummell farm -netted handsome returns. By a piece of clever strategy they secured the -Diviner tract, drilled a well that extended the territory two miles -south of Millerstown and sold out for ninety-thousand dollars. Plumer -quit with a competence, purchased his former hardware-store at -Newcastle, took a flyer in the Bullion district and died at Franklin, -his birthplace and boyhood home, in 1879. “Fred” was a thorough man of -affairs, prompt, courteous, affable and popular. His long sickness was -borne cheerfully and he faced the end—he died at thirty-one—without -repining. His wife and daughter have joined him in the land of deathless -reunions. - - “Over the river! - Sailing on waters where lotuses smile, - Passing by many a tropical isle, - Sighting savannas there mile upon mile, - Over the river! - Music forever and beauty for aye, - Sunlight unending—the sunlight and day, - Never a farewell to weep on the way, - Over the river!” - -[Illustration: BEAVER CREEK AT JEFFERSON FURNACE.] - -East, north and west the area of prolific territory widened. Wells on -the Young farm started a jaunty development at Jefferson Furnace. Once -the scene of activity in iron-manufacture, the old furnace had been -neglected for three decades. Oil awakened the spot from its -Rip-Van-Winkle slumber. A narrow-gauge railroad crossed Beaver Creek on -a dizzy trestle, which afforded an enticing view of derricks, streams, -hills, dales, cleared farms and wooded slopes. The wells have pumped -out, the railroad has been switched off and the stout furnace stands -again in its solitary dignity. James M. Guffey, J. T. Jones, Wesley -Chambers and other live operators kept branching out until Beaver City, -Mongtown, Mertina, Edenburg, Knox, Elk City, Fern City and Jerusalem, -with Cogley as a supplement, were the centers of a production that -aggregated ten-thousand barrels a day. The St. Lawrence well, on the -Bowers farm, a mile north of Edenburg, was finished in June of 1872 and -directed attention to Elk township. For two years it pumped sixty-nine -barrels a day, six days each week, the owners shutting it down on -Sunday. Previously Captain Hasson, of Oil City, and R. Richardson, then -of Tarr Farm and now of Franklin, had drilled in the vicinity. Ten -dusters north of the Bowers farm augured poorly for the St. Lawrence. It -disappointed the prophets of evil by striking a capital sand and -producing with a regularity surpassed only by one well on Cherry Run. It -was not “a lovely toy, most fiercely sought, that lost its charm by -being caught.” - -The St. Lawrence jumped the northern end of the Clarion district to the -front. Hundreds of wells ushered in new towns. Knox, on the Bowers farm, -attained a post-office, a hardware store and a dozen dwellings, its -proximity to Edenburg preventing larger growth. The cross-roads -collection of five houses and a store known as Edenburg progressed -immensely. John Mendenhall and J. I. Best’s farm-houses, ’Squire -Kribbs’s country-store and justice-mill, a blacksmith-shop and three -dwellings constituted the place at the date of the St. Lawrence advent. -The nearest hotel—the Berlin House—was three miles northward. In six -months the quiet village became a busy, hustling, prosperous town of -twenty-five hundred population. It had fine hotels, fine stores, banks -and people whom a destructive fire—it eliminated two-thirds of the -buildings in one night—could not “send to the bench.” When the flames -had been subdued, a crowd of sufferers gathered at two o’clock in the -morning, sang “Home, Sweet Home,” and at seven were clearing away the -embers to rebuild. Narrow-gauge railroads were built and the folks -didn’t scare at the cars. Elk City flung its antlers to the breeze two -miles east. Isaac N. Patterson—he is president of the Franklin Savings -Bank and a big operator in Indiana—had a creamy patch on the Kaiser -farm. Jerusalem’s first arrival—Guffey’s wells created it—was a Clarion -delegate with a tent and a cargo of liquids. He dealt the drink over a -rough board, improvised as a counter, so briskly that his receipts in -two days footed up seven-hundred dollars. He had no license, an officer -got on the trail and the vendor decamped. He is now advance-agent of a -popular show, wears diamonds the size of walnuts and tells hosts of -oil-region stories. The Clarion field was not inflamed by enormous -gushers, but the wells averaged nicely and possessed the cardinal virtue -of enduring year after year. It is Old Sol, steady and persevering, and -not the flashing meteor, “a moment here, then gone forever,” that lights -and heats the earth and is the fellow to bank upon. - -An Edenburg mother fed her year-old baby on sliced cucumbers and milk, -and then desired the prayers of the church “because the Lord took away -her darling.” “How is the baby?” anxiously inquired one lady of another -at Beaver City. “Oh, baby died last week, I thank you,” was the -equivocal reply. - -Some of the oilmen were liberally endowed with the devotional sentiment. -When the news of a blazing tank of oil at Mertina reached Edenburg, a -jolly operator telegraphed the fact to Oil City, with the addendum: -“Everything has gone hellward.” A half-hour later came his second -dispatch: “The oil is blazing, with big flames going heavenward.” Such a -happy blending of the infernal with the celestial is seldom witnessed in -ordinary business. - -The behavior of some people in a crisis is a wonderful puzzle, sometimes -funnier than a pig-circus. At the St. Petersburg fire, which sent half -the town up in smoke, an old woman rescued from the Adams House, with a -bag of money containing four-hundred dollars, was indignant that her -fifty-cent spectacles had been left to burn. A male guest stormed over -the loss of his satchel, which a servant had carried into the street, -and threatened a suit for damages. The satchel was found and opened. It -had a pair of dirty socks, two dirty collars, a comb and a toothbrush! -The man with presence of mind to throw his mother-in-law from the -fourth-story window and carry a feather-pillow down stairs was not on -hand. St. Petersburg had no four-story buildings. - -John Kiley and “Ed.” Callaghan headed a circle of jolly jokers at -Triangle City and Edenburg. Hatching practical sells was their meat and -drink. One evening they employed a stranger to personate a constable -from Clarion and arrest a pipe-line clerk for the paternity of a bogus -offspring. In vain the astonished victim protested his innocence, -although he acknowledged knowing the alleged mother of the alleged kid. -The minion of the law turned a deaf ear to his prayers for release, but -consented to let him go until morning upon paying a five-dollar note. -The poor fellow thought of an everlasting flight from Oildom and was -leaving the room to pack up his satchel when the “constable” appeared -with a supply of fluids. The joke was explained and the crowd liquidated -at the expense of the subject of their pleasantry. Kiley was an oilman -and operated in the northern fields. Callaghan slung lightning in the -telegraph-office. He married at Edenburg and went to Chicago. His wife -procured a divorce and married a well-known Harrisburger. - -A letter from his feminine sweetness, advising him to hurry up if he -wished her not to marry his rival, so flustrated an Edenburg druggist -that he imbibed a full tumbler of Jersey lightning. An irresistible -longing to lie down seized him and he stretched himself for a nap on a -lounge in a room back of the store. John Kiley discovered the sleeping -beauty, spread a sheet over him and prepared for a little sport. He let -down the blinds, hung a piece of crape on the door and rushed out to -announce that “Jim” was dead. People flocked to learn the particulars. -Entering the drug-store a placard met their gaze: “Walk lightly, not to -disturb the corpse!” They were next taken to the door of the rear -apartment, to see a pair of boots protruding from beneath a sheet. -Nobody was permitted to touch the body, on a plea that it must await the -coroner, but the friends were invited to drink to the memory of the -deceased pill-dispenser and suggest the best time for his funeral. Thus -matters continued two hours, when the “corpse” wakened up, kicked off -the sheet and walked out! His friends at first refused to recognize him, -declaring the apparition was a ghost, but finally consented to renew the -acquaintance upon condition that he “set ’em up” for the thirsty -multitude. - -A Clarion operator, having to spend Sunday in New York, strayed into a -fashionable church and was shown to a swell seat. Shortly after a -gentleman walked down the aisle, glared at the stranger, drew a pencil -from his pocket, wrote a moment and handed him a slip of paper -inscribed, “This is my pew.” The unabashed Clarionite didn’t bluff a -little bit. He wrote and handed back the paper: “It’s a darned nice pew. -How much rent do you ante up for it?” The New-Yorker saw the joke, sat -down quietly and when the service closed shook hands with the intruder -and asked him to dinner. The acquaintance begun so oddly ripened into a -poker-game next evening, at which the oilman won enough from the city -clubman to pay ten years’ pew-rent. At parting he remarked: “Who’s in -the wrong pew now?” Then he whistled softly: “Let me off at Buffalo!” - -Clarion’s products were not confined to prize pumpkins, mammoth corn and -oil-wells. The staunch county supplied the tallest member of the -National Guard, in the person of Thomas Near, twenty-one years old, six -feet eleven in altitudinous measurement and about twice the thickness of -a fence-rail. The Clarion company was mustered in at Meadville. General -Latta’s look of astonishment as he surveyed the latitude and longitude -of the new recruit was exceedingly comical. He rushed to Governor -Hartranft and whispered, “Where in the name of Goliath did you pick up -that young Anak?” At the next annual review Near stood at the end of the -Clarion column. A staff-officer, noticing a man towering a foot above -his comrades, spurred his horse across the field and yelled: “Get down -off that stump, you blankety-blank son of a gun!” The tall boy did not -“get down” and the enraged officer did not discover how it was until -within a rod of the line. His chagrin rivaled that of Moses Primrose -with the shagreen spectacles. Poor Near, long in inches and short in -years, was not long for this world and died in youthful manhood. - -[Illustration: JAMES M. GUFFEY.] - -[Illustration: WESLEY S. GUFFEY.] - -Hon. James M. Guffey, one of Pennsylvania’s most popular and successful -citizens, began his career as a producer in the Clarion district. Born -and reared on a Westmoreland farm, his business aptitude early -manifested itself. In youth he went south to fill a position under the -superintendent of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. The practical -training was put to good use by the earnest young Pennsylvanian. Its -opportunities for dash and energy to gain rich rewards attracted him to -the oil-region. Profiting by what he learned from the experiences of -others in Venango—a careful observer, he did not have to scorch himself -to find out that fire is hot—he located at St. Petersburg in 1872. -Clarion was budding into prominence as a prospective oil-field. Handling -well-machinery as agent of the Gibbs & Sterrett Manufacturing Company -brought him into close relations with operators and operations in the -new territory. He improved his advantages, leased lands, secured -interests in promising farms, drilled wells and soon stepped to the -front as a first-class producer. Fortune smiled upon the plucky -Westmorelander, whose tireless push and fearless courage cool judgment -and sound discretion tempered admirably. While always ready to accept -the risks incident to producing oil and developing untried sections, he -was not a reckless plunger, going ahead blindly and not counting the -cost. He decided promptly, moved forward resolutely and took nobody’s -dust. Those who endeavored to keep up with him had to “ride the horse of -Pacolet” and travel fast. He invested in pipe-lines and local -enterprises, helped every deserving cause, stood by his friends and his -convictions, believed in progress and acted strictly on the square. Not -one dollar of his splendid winnings came to him in a manner for which he -needs blush, or apologize or be ashamed to look any man on earth -straight in the face. He did not get his money at the expense of his -conscience, of his self-respect, of his generous instincts or of his -fellow-men. Of how many millionaires, in this age of shoddy and -chicanery, of jobbery and corruption, of low trickery and inordinate -desire for wealth, can this be said? - -Mr. Guffey is an ardent Democrat, but sensible voters of all classes -wished him to represent them in Congress and gave him a superb send-off -in the oil-portion of the Clarion district. Unfortunately the fossils in -the back-townships prevented his nomination. The uncompromising foe of -ring-rule, boss-domination and machine-crookedness, he is a leader of -the best elements of his party and not a noisy ward-politician. His -voice is potent in Democratic councils and his name is familiar in every -corner of the producing-regions. His oil-operations have reached to -Butler, Forest, Warren, McKean and Allegheny counties. He furnished the -cash that unlocked the Kinzua pool and extended the Bradford field miles -up Foster Brook. In company with John Galey, Michael Murphy and Edward -Jennings, he drilled the renowned Matthews well and owned the juiciest -slice of the phenomenal McDonald field. He started developments in -Kansas, putting down scores of wells, erecting a refinery and giving the -state of Mary Ellen Lease a product drouths cannot blight nor -grasshoppers devour. He was largely instrumental in developing the -natural-gas fields of Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, heading -the companies that piped it into Pittsburg, Johnstown, Wheeling, -Indianapolis and hundreds of small towns. He owns thousands of acres of -the famous gas-coal lands of his native county, vast coal-tracts in West -Virginia and valuable reality in Pittsburg. He lives in a handsome house -at East Liberty, brightened by a devoted wife and four children, and -dispenses a bountiful hospitality. Quick to mature and execute his -plans, he dispatches business with great celerity, keeping in touch -constantly with the details of his manifold enterprises. He is the soul -of honor in his dealings, liberal in his benefactions and always -approachable. His charm of manner, kindness of heart, keen intuition and -rare geniality draw men to him and inspire their confidence and regard. -He is a striking personality, his lithe frame, alert movements, flowing -hair, luxuriant mustache, rolling collar, streaming tie, frock-coat and -broad-brimmed hat suggesting General Custer. When at last the vital -fires burn low, when his brave heart beats weak and slow, when the -evening shadows lengthen and he enters the deepening dusk at the ending -of many happy years, James M. Guffey will have lived a life worth living -for its worth to himself, to his family, to the community and to the -race. - - “The grass is softer to his tread - For rest it yields unnumber’d feet; - Sweeter to him the wild rose red - Because it makes the whole world sweet.” - -Wesley S. Guffey, for many years a prominent operator, resembles his -brother in enterprise, activity and the manly qualities that win -respect. He owns scores of productive wells, and the firm of Guffey & -Queen ranks high in the southern fields. He has labored zealously to -secure political reform and free Pittsburg, where he has his beautiful -home and office, from the odious thraldom of corrupt bossism. Unhappily -the last legislature defeated the efforts of good citizens in this -direction. Mr. Guffey is a fluent talker, knows lots of rich stories and -reckons his friends by whole battalions. Pride and meanness he despises -and “his word is his bond.” Another brother, John Guffey, has been -sheriff of Westmoreland county and is a leading citizen. The Guffeys are -men to trust implicitly, to tie to, to swear by and to bank upon at all -times and under all circumstances. - -[Illustration: HENRY WETTER.] - -Major Henry Wetter, the embodiment of honor and energy, was the largest -operator in the Clarion district until swamped by the low price of oil. -Death overtook him while struggling against heavy odds to recuperate his -health and fortune. How sad it is that the flower must die before the -fruit can bloom. A terrible decline in oil-values caused his failure in -1877 and compelled Merrick & Conley’s Edenburg bank to close. - - “I falter where I firmly trod.” - -Edenburg, in its prime the liveliest inland town the Clarion district -could boast, is in Beaver township, ten miles from Foxburg and Emlenton. -It was named by. J. G. Mendenhall, who located on a big farm and opened -the Eden Inn fifty years ago. Two farms, one two miles north and the -other a mile south-west of his home-farm, he dubbed Jerusalem and Egypt -respectively. Mendenhall lived to see all three tracts productive -oil-territory, with a busy town occupying part of the central tract. J. -I. Best, who died in 1880, was his early neighbor and P. F. Kribbs -started a country-store opposite the Mendenhall homestead. In the spring -of 1872 Balliet & Co. drilled a duster on the Best farm. Hahn & Co. had -similar ill-luck on the Kiser farm, a mile south, following in the wake -of W. J. Brundred’s dry-hole on the Eischelman tract a month previous. -The St. Lawrence strike changed the aspect of affairs and brought the -territory into notice. Wooden buildings were hurried up, wells were -rushed through the sand, crowds thronged the streets and Edenburg became -the centre of attraction. Page Maplestone had the first hotel, to which -Robert Orr quickly succeeded. The Winebrennerians had the first church, -chased closely by the Methodists. Two banks, countless stores and shops, -plenty of saloons, hundreds of houses and hosts of operators were soon -in evidence. Knox, Elk City, Slam Bang, Wentling, Jefferson, Beaver and -other suburban oil-towns put in an appearance. Ross Haney, D. J. -Wyncoop, Charles Lavens, A. J. Urquhart, Gray Brothers, G. M. Cushing, -Clark Hayes, B. F. Painter, J. D. Wolff, G. W. Moltz, Joseph E. Zuver, -James Travis, M. E. Hess, Charles Shaw and dozens of others were -familiar figures. J. M. Gifford launched the _Herald_, J. Edd Leslie -exploited the _Spirit_, Campbell Brothers loaded the _Oil-Times_ and Tom -Whittaker fired off the malodorous _Gattling Gun_. Col. J. S. Brown -dealt in real-estate and wrote breezily for the Oil-City _Derrick_. Sam -Magee, M. M. Meredith and William Wirt Johnson practised law. Major J. -B. Maitland managed the United Pipe-Lines and Goss Brothers owned the -best well in the diggings. Narrow-gauge railroads were built from -Emlenton and Foxburg, a borough charter was obtained and 1877 saw the -town at its highest point. Severe fires scourged it frightfully, the -Butler field lured many of the operators and Edenburg relapsed into a -tidy village. - -Thomas McConnell, Smith K. Campbell, W. D. Robinson and Col. J. B. -Finlay, of Kittanning, in 1860 purchased two acres of land on the west -bank of the Allegheny, ninety rods above Tom’s Run, from Elisha -Robinson. Organizing the Foxburg Oil-Company of sixteen shares, they -drilled a well four-hundred-and-sixty feet. An obstruction delayed work -a few days, the war broke out and the well was abandoned. The same -parties paid Robinson five-thousand dollars in 1865 for one-hundred -acres and sold thirty to Philadelphia capitalists. The latter formed the -Clarion and Allegheny-River Oil-Company and sunk a well which struck oil -on October tenth, the first produced in the upper end of Armstrong -county and the beginning of the Parker development. Venango was drooping -and operators sought the southern trail. The Robinson farm was not -perforated as quickly as “you could say Jack Robinson,” the owners -choosing not to cut it into small leases, but other tracts were seized -eagerly. Drilled deeper, the original Robinson well was utterly dry! Had -it been finished in 1860-1 the territory might have been condemned and -the Parker field never heard of! - -John Galey’s hundred-barrel well, drilled in 1869 on the island above -Parker, relieved the monotony of commonplace strikes—twenty to fifty -barrels—on the Robinson and adjacent farms and elevated the district to -the top rung of the ladder. Parker’s Landing—a ferry and a dozen -houses—named from a pioneer settler, ambled merrily to the head of the -procession. The center of operations that stretched into Butler county -and demonstrated the existence of three greasy streaks, Parker speedily -became a red-hot town of three-thousand inhabitants. Hotels, stores, -offices, banks and houses crowded the strip of land at the base of the -steep cliff, surged over the hill, absorbed the suburbs of Lawrenceburg -and Farrentown and proudly wore the title of “Parker City.” Hosts of -capital fellows made life a perpetual whirl of business and jollity. -Operators of every class and condition, men of eminent ability, -indomitable hustlers, speculators, gamblers and adventurers thronged the -streets. It was the vim and spice and vigor of Oil City, Rouseville, -Petroleum Centre and Pithole done up in a single package. A hundred of -the liveliest laddies that ever capered about a “bull-ring” traded jokes -and stories and oil-certificates at the Oil-Exchange. Two fires -obliterated nine-tenths of the town, which was never wholly rebuilt. -Developments tended southward for years and the sun of Parker set -finally when Bradford’s rose in the northern sky. The bridge and a few -buildings have held on, but the banks have wound up their accounts, the -multitudes have dispersed, the residence-section of the cliff is a waste -and the glory of Parker a tradition. As the ghost of Hamlet’s father -observed concerning the bicycle academy, where beginners on wheels were -plentiful: “What a falling off was there!” - -Galey leased lands, sunk wells and sold to Phillips Brothers for a -million dollars. He played a strong hand in Butler and Allegheny and -removed to Pittsburg, his present headquarters. He possessed nerve, -energy and endurance and, like the country-boy applying for a job, “wuz -jam’d full ov day’s work.” He would lend a hand to tube his wells, lay -pipes, move a boiler or twist the tools. There wasn’t a lazy bone in his -anatomy. Rain, mud, storm or darkness had no terrors for the bold rider, -who bestrode a raw-boned horse and “took Time by the forelock.” A young -lady from New York, whose father was interested with Galey in a tract of -oil-land, accompanied him on one of his visits to Millerstown. She had -heard a great deal about her father’s partner and the producers, whom -she imagined to be clothed in broadcloth and diamonds. When the stage -from Brady drew up at the Central Hotel a gorgeous chap was standing on -the platform. He sported a stunning suit, a huge gold-chain, a -diamond-pin and polished boots, the whole outfit got up regardless of -expense. “Oh, papa, I see a producer! That must be Mr. Galey,” exclaimed -the girl as this prototype of the dude met her gaze. The father glanced -at the object, recognized him as a neighboring bar-tender and spoiled -his daughter’s fanciful notion by the curt rejoinder: “That blamed fool -is a gin-slinger!” Butler had long been a sort of by-word for poverty -and meanness, the settlers going by the nickname of “Buckwheats.” This -was an unjust imputation, as the simple people were kind, honest and -industrious, in these respects presenting a decided contrast to some of -the new elements in the wake of the petroleum-development. The New-York -visitor drove out in the afternoon to meet his business-associate. A -mile below the Diviner farm a man on horseback was seen approaching. Mud -covered the panting steed and his rider. The young lady, anxious to show -how much she knew about the country, hazarded another guess. “Oh! papa,” -she said earnestly, “I’m sure that’s a Buckwheat!” The father chuckled, -next moment greeted the rider warmly and introduced him to his -astonished daughter as “My partner, Mr. Galey!” A hearty laugh followed -the father’s version of the day’s incidents. - -[Illustration: JOHN H. GALEY.] - -[Illustration: JAMES M. LAMBING.] - -John H. Galey has been engaged in oil-operations for a generation. -Coming from Clarion county to Oil Creek in the sixties, he participated -in the Pithole excitement, drilled a test-well that broadened the -Pleasantville field and started the Parker furore with his -island-strike. He is every inch a petroleum-pioneer. To him belongs the -honor of ushering in various new districts in Pennsylvania and the -oil-developments in Kansas and Texas. Well-earned success has rewarded -his persistent, indomitable energy. He owns a fat slice of the finest -silver-mine in Idaho and holds a large stake in California, Colorado and -Nova-Scotia gold-mines. Mr. Galey is thoroughly practical and -companionable, has traveled much and observed closely, nor can any excel -him in narrating reminiscences and experiences of life in the -oil-regions. - -John McKeown drilled on the Farren hill and the slopes bordering the -north bank of Bear Creek. Glory Hole popped up on B. B. Campbell’s -Bear-Creek farm. Campbell-bluff, whole-souled “Ben”—is a Pittsburg -capitalist, big in body and mind, outspoken and independent. “The -Campbells are coming” could not have found a better herald. He produced -largely, bought stacks of farms, refined and piped oil and was an -important factor in the Armstrong-Butler development. At the Ursa Major -well, the first on the farm, large casing and heavy tools were first -used, with gratifying results. “Charley” Cramer juggled the temper-screw -and laughed at the chaps who solemnly predicted the joints would not -stand the strain and the engine would not jerk the tools out of the -hole. The tool-dresser on Cramer’s “tower”—drilling went on night and -day, each “tower” lasting twelve hours and the men changing at noon and -midnight—was A. M. Lambing, now the learned and zealous parish-priest at -Braddock. The well, completed in June of 1871 and good for a hundred -barrels, was owned by James M. Lambing, to whom more than any other man -the world is indebted for the extension of the Butler field. - -Born in Armstrong county, in 1861 young Lambing concluded to invest some -time and labor—his sole capital—in a well at the mouth of Tubb’s Run, -two miles above Tionesta. A dry-hole was the poor reward of his efforts. -Enlisting in the Eighty-third Regiment, he received disabling injuries, -was discharged honorably, returned to Forest county in 1863, -superintended the Denver Petroleum-Company, dealt in real estate and in -1866 commenced operating at Tidioute. A vein of bad luck in 1867 -exhausting his last dollar, he sold his gold-watch and chain to pay the -wages of his drillers. Facing the future bravely, he worked by the day, -contracted to bore wells at Pleasantville, Church Run, Shamburg and Red -Hot and bore up cheerfully during three years of adversity. In the -winter of 1869 he traded an engine for an interest in a well at Parker -that smelled of oil. For another interest he drilled the Wilt & Crawford -well and secured leases on Tom’s Run. His Pharos, Gipsy Queen and Lady -Mary wells enabled him to strike out boldly. In company with his -brother—John A. Lambing—C. D. Angell and B. B. Campbell, he ventured -beyond the prescribed limits to the Campbell, Morrison and Gibson farms. -He “wildcatted” farther south, at times with varying success, pointing -the way to Modoc and Millerstown. Reverses beset him temporarily, but -hope and courage and integrity remained and he recovered the lost -ground. Charitable, enterprising and sincere, no truer, squarer, manlier -man than James M. Lambing ever marched in the grand cavalcade of -Pennsylvania oil-producers. He and John A. retired from the business -years ago to engage in other pursuits. James M. settled at Corry and -served so capably as mayor that the citizens wanted to elect him for -life. His noble, womanly wife, a real helpmeet always, made his -hospitable home an earthly paradise. He had an office in Pittsburg and -customers for his Ajax machinery wherever oil is produced. He died in -January, 1897. “Who can blot his name with any just reproach?” - -Counselled by “spirits,” Abram James selected a block of land on Blyson -Run, twenty miles up the Clarion River, as the location of a rich -petroleum-field. His luck at Pleasantville induced numbers to believe -him an infallible oil-smeller. The test-well that was to deluge Blyson -with crude was bored eighteen-hundred feet. It had no sand or oil and -the tools were stuck in the hole! The “spirits” couldn’t have missed the -mark more widely if they had directed James to mine for gold in a -snow-bank. - -The Big-Injun well at Bullion, owned originally by Prentice, Wheeler & -Crawford, was located in the center of a wheat-patch by William R. -Crawford, of Franklin, a member of the firm. His opinion carried against -the choice of his partners, who preferred a spot fifteen rods eastward, -where a well drilled later was “dry as a powder-horn.” The direction -“Smiley’s Frog” might happen to jump was less uncertain than the outcome -of many a Bullion well before the tools pierced the sand to the last -foot and settled the matter positively. - -On October third, 1875, the boiler at the Goss well, J. I. Best farm, -exploded, fatally injuring Alonzo Goss and instantly killing A. Wilson, -the man in charge. - -The first pipe-line in Clarion County was laid in 1871, by Martin & -Harms, on lands of the Fox estate. In October of 1877 the Rev. Dr. -Newman, President Grant’s pastor in Washington, dedicated the second -church the Methodists built at Edenburg. Fire cremated the structure and -seriously damaged the third one on the site in 1879. Probably no other -town of its size on the face of the earth has suffered so repeatedly and -disastrously at the hands of incendiaries as Edenburg. The third great -conflagration, on October thirteenth, 1878, destroyed two-hundred -buildings and thirteen oil-wells. - -Sad accidents happened before drillers learned how to manage a flowing -oil-well with casing in it. At Frank Fertig’s well, Antwerp, a man was -burned to death. The burning of the Shoup & Vensel well at Turkey City -cost three lives and led to an indignation-meeting at St. Petersburg to -protest against casing. Danger from its use was soon removed by Victor -Gretter’s invention of the oil-saver. Gretter, a small, dark-haired, -dark-eyed man, lived at St. Petersburg. He was an inventive genius and a -joker of the first water. His oil-saver doubtless saved many lives, by -preventing gas and oil from escaping when a vein was tapped and coming -in contact with the tool-dresser’s fire in the derrick. - -Captain John Kissinger, a pioneer settler, died in 1880 at the age of -eighty-five. He was the father of thirty-four children, nine of whom -perished by his dwelling taking fire during the absence of the parents -from home. His second wife, who survived him ten years, weighed -three-hundred pounds. - -Lillian Edgarton, the plump and talented platform-speaker, was billed to -appear at Franklin. She traveled from Pittsburg by rail. A Parker broker -was a passenger on the train and wired to the oil-exchange that Josie -Mansfield was on board. The news flew and five-hundred men stood on the -platform when the train arrived. The broker jumped off and said the lady -had a seat near the center of the coach he had just left. The boys -climbed on the car-platform, opened the door and marched in single file -along the aisle to get a look at “Josie.” The conductor tore his hair in -anguish that the train would not carry such a crowd as struggled to get -on, but he was dumbfounded when the long procession began to get off. -The sell was not discovered until next morning, by which time the author -of the joke had started on his summer-vacation and could not be reached -by the vigilance-committee. - -Down the zig-zagged stream proved to not a few operators a pleasant -voyage to wealth and to others the direct road to disaster. Venango, -Clarion and Armstrong counties had been explored, with Butler on deck to -surprise mankind by the extent and richness of its amazing territory. - - WHERE IGNORANCE IS BLISS. - -The first building at Triangle bore in bold letters and bad spelling a -sign labeled “Tryangle Hotel.” - -“A Black Justice of the Peace” ran the off-color legend, painted by an -artist not up in punctuation, on the weather-beaten sign of ’Squire -Black, at Shippenville. - -An honest Dutchman near Turkey City declined to lease his farm at -one-fourth royalty, insisting upon _one-eighth_ as the very lowest he -would accept. He did not discover that one-eighth was not twice -one-fourth until he received his first instalment of oil, when he fired -off the simple expletive, “Kreutzmillionendonnerwetter!” - -A farmer rather shy on grammar, who represented Butler county in the -Legislature at the outset of developments around Petrolia, “brought down -the house” and a unanimous appropriation by his maiden-speech: “Feller -citizens, if we’uns up to Butler county wuz yu’uns down to Harrisburg -we’uns would give yu’uns what we’uns is after!” - -At Oil City in 1863-4 J. B. Allen, of Michigan, a first-class chemist, -had charge of the prescription-department in Dr. Colbert and Dr. -Egbert’s drug-store. He could read Greek as readily as English, declaim -in Latin by the hour, quote from any of the classics and speak three or -four modern languages. To raise money to pay off a mortgage on his -father’s farm he walked across the Allegheny on a wire thirty feet above -the water. He carried a large flag, attached to a frame mounted on a -pulley-wheel, which he shoved with one hand, holding a balance-pole in -the other. It was a feat Blondin could not excel. Allen was decidedly -eccentric and the hero of unnumbered stories. Once a mud-bespattered -horseman rushed into the store with a prescription that called for a -deadly poison. The horseman was informed it was not safe to fill it, but -he insisted upon having it, saying it bore a prominent doctor’s -signature and there could be no mistake. Allen filled it and wrote on -the label: “Caution—If any damphool takes this prescription it will kill -him as dead as the devil!” - -General Reed, of Erie, the largest vessel-owner on the lakes, -represented his district in Congress and desired a second term. The -Democrats nominated Judge Thompson and Clarion county was the pivot upon -which the election turned. The contest waxed furious. Near its close the -two candidates brought up at a big meeting in the wilds of Clarion to -debate. Lumbermen and furnacemen were out in force. Reed led off and on -the homestretch told the people how he loved them and their county. He -had built the fastest craft on the lakes and named the vessel Clarion. -As the craft sailed from Buffalo to Erie, and from Cleveland to Detroit, -and from Saginaw to Mackinaw, to Oconomowoc and Manitowoc, Oshkosh, -Milwaukee and Chicago, in every port she folded her white wings and told -of the county that honored him with a seat in Congress. The people were -untutored in nautical affairs and listened with rapt attention. As the -General closed his speech the enthusiasm was unbounded. Things looked -blue for Judge Thompson. After a few moments required to get the -audience out of the seventh heaven of rapture, he stepped to the front -of the platform, leaned over it, motioned to the crowd to come up close -and said: “Citizens of Clarion, what General Reed has told you is true. -He has built a brig and a grand one. But where do you suppose he painted -the proud name of Clarion?” Turning to General Reed, he said: “Stand up -here, sir, and tell these honest people where you had the painter put -the name of Clarion. You never thought the truth would reach back here. -I shall tell these people the truth and I challenge you to deny one word -of it. Yes, fellow-citizens, he painted the proud name of Clarion under -the stern of the brig—under her stern, gentlemen!” The indignation of -the people found vent in groans and curses. General Reed sat stunned and -speechless. No excuses would be accepted and the vote of proud Clarion -made Judge Thompson a Congressman. - -[Illustration: HASCAL L. TAYLOR.] - -[Illustration: MARCUS BROWNSON.] - -[Illustration: JOHN SATTERFIELD.] - -[Illustration] - - PARKER—FROM PROSPECT ROCK - ARGYLE CITY-1872. - KARNS CITY-1873 - GREECE CITY 1873 - MILLERSTOWN 1874 - PETROLIA 1873 - - - - - XIII. - ON THE SOUTHERN TRAIL. - -BUTLER’S RICH PASTURES UNFOLD THEIR OLEAGINOUS TREASURES—THE CROSS-BELT - DEALS TRUMPS—PETROLIA, KARNS CITY AND MILLERSTOWN—THORN CREEK KNOCKS - THE PERSIMMONS FOR A TIME—MCDONALD MAMMOTHS BREAK ALL - RECORDS—INVASION OF WASHINGTON—GREEN COUNTY HAS SOME - SURPRISES—GLEANINGS OF MORE OR LESS INTEREST. - - ---------- - -“I’m comin’ from de Souf, Susanna, do’ant yo cry.”—_Negro Melody._ - -“Again the lurid light gleamed out.”—_J. Boyle O’Reilly._ - -“I have never been known to miss one end of the trail.”—_J. Fennimore - Cooper._ - -“An eagle does not catch flies.”—_Latin Proverb._ - -“Step by step one goes very far.”—_French Proverb._ - -“The light fell like a halo upon their bent heads.”—_Rev. John Watson._ - -“Either I will find a way or make one.”—_Norman Crest._ - -“I stretch lame hands of faith and grope.”—_Tennyson._ - -“We but catch at the skirts of the thing we would be.”—_Owen Meredith._ - -“Where are frost and snow when the hawthorn blooms?”—_Julius Stinde._ - -“The things we see are shadows of the things to be.”—_Phœbe Cary._ - -“Oh! but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp.”—_Robert Browning._ - -“These little things are great to little man.”—_Oliver Goldsmith._ - -“So will a greater fame redound to thee.”—_Dante._ - -“Every white will have its black and every sweet its sour.”—_Dr. Percy._ - - ---------- - - -[Illustration: DAVID DOUGALL.] - -Klondyke nuggets, cold, yellow and glittering, could not be more -fascinating to lovers of the most exciting methods of gaining wealth -than were the oil-wells that started Parker on the highway to -prosperity. All eyes turned instinctively southward, believing the next -center of activity lay in that direction. The Israelites scanning the -horizon for a glimpse of the promised land were less earnest and -anxious. Butler, not Canaan, was on everybody’s lips. “On to Richmond,” -the frenzied cry during the civil war, appeared in the new dress of “On -to Butler!” For a time, just to catch breath for the supreme movement, -operators groped their way cautiously. But Napoleon scaled the Alps and -the advance-couriers of the coming host of oilmen climbed Farren Hill -and the slopes beyond. Julius Cæsar crossed the Rubicon in days of old, -so Campbell and Lambing in 1871 crossed Bear Creek, three miles -south-west of Parker, to plant the tall derricks which signified that -the invasion of Butler by the petroleumites was about to begin and to be -carried through to a finish. With Richard each of the bold invaders -might declare: - - “I have set my life upon a cast, - And I will stand the hazard of the die.” - -Butler, the county-seat of Butler county, was laid out in 1802 by the -Cunninghams, two brothers from Lancaster, who repose in the old -cemetery. The surveyor was David Dougall, who lived seventy-five years -alone, in a shanty near the court-house, dying at ninety-eight. He owned -a row of tumble-down frames on the public-square, eye-sores to the -community, but would not sell lest his poor tenants might suffer by a -change of proprietors! His memory of local events was marvelous. He -walked from Detroit through the forest to Butler, following an Indian -trail, and remembered when Pittsburg had only three brick-buildings. He -was agent of the McCandless family and once consented to spend a night -at the mansion of his friends in Pittsburg. To do honor to the occasion -he wore trousers made of striped bed-ticking. Fearing fire, he would not -sleep up-stairs and a bed was provided in the parlor. About midnight an -alarm sounded. Dougall jumped up, grabbed his shoes and hat and walked -home-thirty-three miles-before breakfast. He was an eccentric bachelor -and had his coffin ready for years. It was constructed of oak, grown on -one of his farms, which he willed to a friend upon condition that the -legatee buried him at the foot of a particular tree and kept a -night-watchman at his grave one year. He was the last of his race and -the last survivor of the bold pioneers to whom Butler owed its -settlement. - -[Illustration: BUTLER COUNTY] - -Well-known operators figured in the vicinity of Bear Creek. Joseph Overy -drilled rows of good wells, pushed south and founded the town embalmed -as St. Joe in compliment to its progenitor. Marcus Brownson—he was -active in Venango and McKean and died at Titusville—had a walkover on -the Walker farm, a mile in advance. On Donnelly’s eleven-hundred acres, -offered in 1868 for six-thousand-dollars, scores of medium wells yielded -from 1871 to 1878. S. D. Karns drained the Morrison farm and John -McKeown hit the “sucker-rod belt”—so called from its extreme -narrowness—near Martinsburg. Ralph Brothers tickled the sand on the -Sheakley farm. Up the stream operations jogged and Argyle City sprouted -on the hillside. Two miles ahead, upon the line dividing the Jameson and -Blaney farms, Dimick, Nesbit & Co. finished a wildcat well on April -seventeenth, 1892. This was the noted Fanny Jane—gallantly named in -honor of a pretty girl—which pumped one-hundred barrels and gave birth -to Petrolia, seven miles south by west of Parker. George H. Dimick, -examining lands in Fairview township, Butler county, decided that a -natural basin at the junction of South Bear Creek and Dougherty Run was -oil-territory. Fifty men were raising a barn on the Campbell farm, -overlooking this basin. Proceeding to the spot, he proposed to drill a -test well if the owners of the soil would lease enough land to warrant -the undertaking. Terms were agreed upon which secured twenty acres of -the Blaney farm, sixteen of the Jameson, ten of the W. A. Wilson, ten of -the James Wilson and ten of the Graham, at one-eighth royalty. The -nearest producing wells at that date were three miles north. The Fanny -Jane stirred the blood of the oil-clans. The moving mass began to-arrive -in May and by July two-thousand people had their home at Petrolia. - -A charter was obtained and Mr. Dimick was chosen burgess at the first -borough-election, in February of 1873. The town expanded like the turnip -Longfellow said “grew and it grew and it grew all it was able.” Hotels, -stores, shops and offices lined the valley and dwellings crowned the -hills. A narrow-gauge railroad from Parker was built in 1874, extended -to Karns City and Millerstown and ultimately to Butler. Fisher Brothers -paid sixty-thousand dollars for the Blaney farm and wells multiplied in -all directions. A dog-fight or a street-scrap would gather hundreds of -spectators. The Argyle Savings Bank handled hundreds-of-thousands of -dollars daily. Ben Hogan erected a big opera-house and May Marshall was -the Cora Pearl of the frail sisterhood. R. W. Cram ran the post-office -and news-room. “Steve” Harley wafted newsy items to the newspapers. Dr. -Frank H. Johnston, now of Franklin, was the first physician. Kindred -spirits met at “Sam” McBride’s drug-store and Peter Christie’s Central -Hotel. Poor “Sam,” “Dave” Mosier, H. L. McCance and S. S. Avery are in -their graves and others have wandered nobody knows whither. Petrolia -continued the metropolis four years and then dropped out of the game. -Some straggling houses and left-over derricks alone remain of the -gayest, sprightliest, hottest, busiest town that bloomed and withered in -old Butler. - -[Illustration: - - RICHARD JENNINGS - GEO NESBIT S. D. KARNS. - GEORGE DIMICK -] - -George H. Dimick, the son of a Wisconsin farmer and sire of Petrolia, is -liberally stocked with the never-say-die qualities of the breezy -Westerner. At nineteen he taught a Milwaukee school, landed on Oil Creek -in 1860 and was appointed superintendent of the two Buchanan farms by -Rouse & Mitchell. He drilled on his own account in the spring of 1861, -aided in settling the Rouse estate, enrolled as a private in “Scott’s -Nine-Hundred” and came out a captain at the close of the war. In May of -1865 he bent his footsteps towards Pithole, sold lands for the United -States Petroleum-Company and drilled eleven dry-holes on the McKinney -farm! Interests in the Poole, Grant, Eureka and Burchill spouters offset -these losses and added thousands of dollars a week to his wealth. -Staying at Pithole too long, values had shrunk to such a degree that he -was virtually penniless at his departure from the “Magic City” in 1867. -A whaling voyage of fifteen months in the Arctic seas and a sojourn at -his boyhood home improved his health and he returned in time to share in -the Pleasantville excitement. He located at Parker’s Landing in 1871 as -partner of McKinney & Nesbit in the sale of oil-well supplies. He -operated in the Parker field, at St. Petersburg, Petrolia, Greece City -and Slippery Rock. Disposing of his properties in these localities, he -and Captain Peter Grace drilled the wildcat-well that opened Cherry -Grove and paralyzed the market in 1882. He had been active at Bradford -and the middle field felt the influence of his shrewd movements. He has -kept abreast of developments in the southern districts, sometimes -getting several lengths ahead. He is now interested in West Virginia and -Kentucky. Those who know his quick perception, his executive ability and -his intense love for opening new fields would not wonder to hear of his -striking a gusher at Oshkosh or Kamtschatka. Mr. Dimick is a man of -active temperament, high character and sturdy industry, a genuine -pathfinder and tireless explorer. - -An Erie boy of fifteen when he left his father’s house for the -oil-region in 1862, George H. Nesbit first fired a still in a Titusville -refinery and in 1863 engaged with Dinsmore Brothers at Tarr Farm. He -built a small refinery at Shaffer, sold it in 1864 and in the spring of -1865 drilled wells for himself on Benninghoff and Cherry-Tree Runs. He -spent two years at Pithole, gaining a fortune and remaining until the -collapse swallowed the bulk of his profits. He operated at Pioneer in -1867 and a year later at Pleasantville. He and George H. Dimick -prospected in 1869 for oil-belts and fresh territory, located rich -leases on Hickory Creek and established the line of the Venture well at -Fagundas. In 1870 Nesbit moved to Parker and, in company with John L. -McKinney, sold oil-well machinery and oil-lands. McKinney & Nesbit -drilled along Bear Creek, especially on the Black and Dutchess farms, -prospering greatly. The firm ranked with the most enterprising and -realized large returns from wells at St. Petersburg and Parker. Dimick & -Nesbit, with Mr. McKinney as their associate, opened the Petrolia field -in 1872. William Lardin, the contractor of the Fanny Jane, bought -McKinney’s interest in the well and leases. The three partners were -right in the swim, their first six wells at Petrolia yielding them a -thousand barrels a day. Nesbit bought the Patton farm, below town, in -1872 for twenty-thousand dollars, selling five-eighths. Five third-sand -wells ranged from thirty to one-hundred barrels and oil ruled at three -to five dollars. The fourth-sand was found in 1873, and in January of -1874 Nesbit & Lardin struck a thousand-barrel gusher on the Patton. The -farm paid enormously and Nesbit became an “oil-prince.” He developed -hundreds of acres and displayed masterly tact. His check was good for a -half-million any day and his luck was so remarkable that, had he fallen -into the river, probably he would not have been wet. He paid the highest -wages and met his bills at sight. He entered the oil-exchange at Parker, -for a time was a high-roller and ended a bankrupt! The desk on which he -wrote his bold, round signature on checks aggregating many -hundred-thousand dollars was stored away among shocks of corn and -sheaves of oats in the weather-stained barn on the Patton farm. J. N. -Ireland bought the tract for seven-thousand dollars. Nesbit drifted -about aimlessly, heard from occasionally at Macksburg and fetching up at -last in Cincinnati. His prestige was gone, his star had waned and he -never “caught on” again. He was no sluggard in business, no dullard in -society, no niggard with money, no laggard in the petroleum-column. -Surely the oil-region has furnished its full allotment of sad romances -from real life. Nesbit died July eighth, 1897. - - “Time, with a face like a mystery, - And hands as busy as hands can be, - Sits at the loom with its warp outspread, - To catch in its meshes each glancing thread. - Click, click! there’s a thread of love wove in! - Click, click! and another of wrong and sin! - What a checkered thing this web will be - When we see it unrolled in eternity!” - -James E. Brown, to whom Nesbit sold one-quarter of the Patton farm, made -his mark upon the industries of the state. A carpenter’s son, he started -a store on the site of Kittanning, saved money, purchased lands and at -his death in 1880 left his family four-millions. He manufactured iron at -various furnaces and owned a big block of stock in the rolling-mills at -East Brady. Samuel J. Tilden was a stockholder in the works, which -employed sixteen hundred men, turned out the first T-rails west of the -Alleghenies and tottered to their fall in 1874. Mr. Brown cleared -eight-hundred-thousand dollars in 1872 by the advance in iron. He owned -oil-farms in Butler county, took stock in the Parker Bridge, the Parker -& Karns City Railroad and the Karns Pipe-Line Company and conducted a -bank at Kittanning. His granddaughter, Miss Findley, who inherited half -his wealth, married Lord Linton, a British baronet. The aged banker—he -stuck it out to eighty-two—knew how to pile up money. - -Stephen Duncan Karns, who had a railroad and a town named in his honor, -was a picturesque figure in the Armstrong-Butler district. With his two -uncles he operated the first West-Virginia well, at the mouth of -Burning-Spring Run, in 1860. His experience at his father’s Tarentum -salt-wells enabled him to run engine, to sharpen tools and clean out an -old salt-well to be tested for oil. The well pumped forty barrels a day -during the winter of 1860-1. Fort Sumter was bombarded, several Kanawha -operators were killed and young Karns escaped by night in a canoe. He -enlisted, served three years, led his company at Antietam and -Chancellorsville and in 1866 leased one acre at Parker’s Landing from -Fullerton Parker. His first well, starting at one barrel a day, by -months of pumping was increased to twelve barrels and earned him -twenty-thousand dollars. From the Miles Oil-Company of New York he -leased a farm and an abandoned well a mile below Parker. He drilled the -well through the sand and it produced twenty-five barrels a day. This -settled the question of oil south of Parker. “Dunc,” as he was usually -called by his friends, leased the Farren farm, drilled on Bear Creek, -secured the famous Stonehouse farm of three-hundred acres and in 1872 -enjoyed an income of five-thousand dollars a day! A mile south of -Petrolia, on the McClymonds farm, Cooper Brothers were about to give up -their first well as a hopeless duster. Karns thought the hole not deep -enough, bought the property, resumed drilling and in two days the well -was flowing one-hundred barrels! The town of Karns City blossomed into a -community of twenty-five-hundred people, with three big hotels, stores, -offices and dwellings galore. It fell a prey to the flames eventually. -The McClymonds, Riddle and J. B. Campbell farms doubled “Dunc’s” big -income for many moons. He had the second well at Greece City and for a -year or more was the largest producer in the oil-region. He built a -pipe-line from Karns City to Harrisburg to fight the United Lines, held -fifty-five-thousand dollars’ stock in the Parker Bridge and controlled -the Parker & Karns-City Railroad and the Exchange Bank. - -Near Freeport, on the Allegheny River, thirty miles above Pittsburg, he -lassoed a great farm and erected a fifty-thousand-dollar mansion. -Fourteen race-horses fed in his palatial stables. Guests might bathe in -champagne and the generous host spent money royally. A good strike or a -point gained meant a general jollification. He played billiards -skillfully, handled cards expertly and wagered heavily on anything that -hit his fancy. He and his wife were in Paris during the siege. Upon his -return from Europe he built the Fredericksburg & Orange Railroad, in -Virginia. The glut of crude from Butler wells dropped the price in 1874 -to forty cents. Losses of different kinds cramped Karns and the man -worth three-millions in 1872-3 was obliged to surrender his stocks and -lands and wells and begin anew! James E. Brown secured Glen-Karns, the -beautiful home below Freeport. In 1880 Karns induced E. O. Emerson, the -wealthy Titusville producer, to start a cattle-ranch in Western -Colorado. For six years he superintended the herds on the immense -plains, joining the round-ups, sleeping on the ground with the boys, -roping and branding cattle and accumulating a stock of health and muscle -which he thinks will carry him to the hundred-year mark. Emerson had -bought from Karns the Riddle farm for eleven-thousand dollars. He -deepened one well—supposed dry—to the fourth sand. It flowed six-hundred -barrels and Emerson sold the tract in sixty days for ninety-thousand -dollars. Karns returned from the west, practiced law a short while in -Philadelphia and for some years has managed a Populist paper at -Pittsburg. He ran against John Dalzell for Congress and walked at the -head of the parade when General Coxey’s “Army of the Commonweal” marched -through the Smoky City. He enjoyed making money more than handling it, -was honorable in his dealings, intensely active, comprehensive in his -views and positive in his opinions. His “yes” or “no” was given -promptly. “Dunc” is of slender build and nervous temperament, easy in -his manners, frank in his utterances and not scared by spooks in -politics or trade. He had his share of light and shade, struggle and -triumph, defeat and victory, incident and adventure in his pilgrimage. - - “How chances mock, - And changes fill the cup of alteration - With divers liquors!” - -Richard Jennings, over whose head the grass and flowers are growing, and -his brother-in-law, the late Jacob L. Meldren, did much to develop the -territory east of Petrolia. Coming from England to Armstrong county a -half-century ago, they located at what is now Queenstown. Meldren bought -the farm at the head of Armstrong Run on which the noted Armstrong well -was struck in 1870. It opened “the Cross-Belt,” an abnormal strip -running nearly at right angles to the main lines and remarkable for -mammoth gushers. This unprecedented “belt” upset the theories of -geologists and operators. The first and only one of its kind, it -resembled the mule that “had no pride of ancestry and no hope of -posterity.” Mr. Jennings drilled on many farms and gathered a large -fortune. He was a man of character and ability, with a priceless -reputation for integrity and truthfulness. Once he sent his foreman, -Daniel Evans, to secure the Dougherty farm, on the southern edge of -Petrolia, owned by two maiden sisters. The foreman knocked at the door, -engaged board for a week, was engaged to the elder sister before the -week expired and had the pleasure of reaping a harvest of greenbacks -from the property in due course. It is satisfactory to find such -enterprise abundantly recompensed. Not so lucky was a gay and festive -operator with an ancient maiden who owned a tempting patch of land near -Millerstown. He exhausted every art to get a lease, in desperation -finally hinting at matrimony. The indignant lady exploded like a ton of -dynamite, seizing a broom and compelling the bold visitor to beat an -ungraceful retreat through the window, minus his hat and gloves! Evans -leased part of the farm to his former employer, who finished the -Dougherty spouter on November twenty-second, 1873. It flowed -twenty-seven-hundred barrels a day from the fourth sand, loading -Jennings with greenbacks and sending the speculative trade into -convulsions. A patriotic citizen, devoted parent and genuine -philanthropist, Richard Jennings was sincerely respected and his death -was deeply mourned. His sons inherited their father’s sagacity and manly -principle. They have operated in the McDonald field and are prominent in -banking and business at Pittsburg. - -The “Cross-Belt” crossed the petroleum-horizon in dead earnest in March -of 1874. Taylor & Satterfield’s Boss well, on the James Parker farm, two -miles east of Petrolia, flowed three-thousand barrels a day! William -Hartley—General Harrison Allen defeated him for Auditor-General in -1872—organized the Stump Island Oil-Company and drilled from the mouth -of the Clarion River six miles south, in 1866-7. He and John Galey owned -the Island-King well at Parker’s Landing and a hundred others, some of -which crept well down into Armstrong county. Richard Jennings and Jacob -L. Meldren had punched holes on Armstrong Run and around Queenstown, but -the spouter in the Parker-farm ravine was the fellow that touched the -spot and hypnotized the trade. A solid stream of oil poured into the -tank as if butted through the pipe by a hundred hydraulic-rams. The -billowy mass of fluid heaved and foamed and boiled and tried its level -best to climb over the wooden walls and unload the roof. David S. -Criswell, of Oil City, had an interest in the gusher, and Criswell -City—a shop, a lunch-room and five or six dwellings—was imprinted on -Heydrick & Stevenson’s map. Stages between Petrolia and Brady halted at -the bantling town for the convenience of pilgrims to the shrine of the -Boss—a “boss” representing innumerable “bar’ls.” Wells were hurried down -at a spanking gait, to divy up the oily freshet. “The best-laid schemes -o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley” and the uncertainty of fourth-sand -wells was forcibly illustrated. Jennings had dry-holes on the Steele and -Bedford farms, the latter ten rods north-west of the mastodon. Taylor & -Satterfield’s No. 2, thirty rods west, was a small affair. Dusters and -light pumpers studded the road from Criswell to Petrolia, with the -Hazelwood Oil-Company’s two-hundred-barreler a trifle north to tantalize -believers in a straight “belt.” Lines and belts and theories and former -experiences amounted to little or nothing. The only safe method was to -“go it blind” and bear with exemplary resignation whatever might turn -up, be it a big gusher or a measly duster. - -[Illustration: H. H. CUMMINGS. JAHU HUNTER.] - -The Boss weakened to eleven-hundred barrels in July and to a humble -pumper by the end of the year. Forty rods east, on the Crawford farm, -Hunter & Cummings plucked a September pippin. Their Lady Hunter, -sixteen-hundred feet deep and flowing twenty-five-hundred barrels, was a -trophy to enrapture any hunter coming from the chase. The Boss and the -Lady Hunter were the lord and lady of the manor, none of the others -approaching them in importance. Hunter & Cummings laid a pipe-line to -East Brady, to load their oil on the Allegheny-Valley Railroad. The -railroad company refused to furnish cars, urging a variety of pretexts -to disguise the unfair discrimination. The owners of the oil had a -Roland for the Oliver of the officials. They quietly gauged their output -and let it run upon the ground, notifying the company to pay for the -oil. A new light dawned upon the railroaders, who discovered they had to -deal with men who knew their rights and dared maintain them. Crawling -off their high stool, they footed the bill, apologized meekly and -thenceforth took precious care Hunter & Cummings should not have reason -to complain of a car-famine. Simon Legree was not the only braggart whom -good men have been obliged to knock down to inspire with decent respect -for fair-play. - -Hunter & Cummings stayed in the business, opening the “Pontius Pool,” -east of Millerstown, and sinking many wells at Herman Station, where -they acquired a snug production. They operated on the lands of the -Brady’s Bend Iron-company, putting down the wells on the hills opposite -East Brady and a number in the Bradford region. They owned the Tidioute -Savings Bank and large tracts in North Dakota—the scene of their -“bonanza farming”—and were interested with the Grandins in the great -lumber-mills at Grandin, Missouri, the largest in the south-west. In -connection with these mills they were building railroads to develop -their two-hundred-thousand acres of timber lands and establish -experimental farms. Both members of the firm were the architects of -their own fortunes, public-spirited, generous and eminently deserving of -the liberal measure of success that has attended their labors during the -twenty-three years of their association as partners. - -Jahu Hunter was born on a farm two miles above Tidioute in 1830. From -seventeen to twenty-seven he lumbered and farmed, in 1857 engaged in -merchandising and in 1861 sold his store and embarked in oil. He -operated moderately five years, increasing his interests largely in -1866 and forming a partnership with H. H. Cummings in 1873, which -death ended. Mr. Hunter married Miss Margaret R. Magee in 1860 and one -son, L. L. Hunter, survives to aid in managing his extensive -business-enterprises. He occupied a delightful home at Tidioute, was -president of the Savings Bank and of the chair-factory, a Mason of the -thirty-second degree and a leader in all progressive movements. He had -lands in various states and was prospered in manifold undertakings. He -served as school-director fifteen years, contributing time and money -freely in behalf of education. He believed in bettering humanity, in -relieving distress, in befriending the poor, in helping the struggling -and in building up the community. Retired from active work, the -evening of Jahu Hunter’s useful life was serene and unclouded. As the -shadows lengthened he reviewed the past with calm content and awaited -the future without apprehension. He died last March. - -Captain H. H. Cummings removed from Illinois, his birthplace in 1840, to -Ohio and was graduated from Oberlin College at twenty-two. Enlisting in -July, 1862, he shared the privations and achievements of the Army of the -Cumberland until mustered out in June, 1865. Three months later he -visited the oil-region and in January of 1866 located at Tidioute in -charge of Day & Co.’s refinery. Becoming a partner, he refined and -exported oil seven years and was interested in wells at Tidioute and -Fagundas. The firm dissolving in 1873, he joined hands with Jahu Hunter -and operated extensively in the lower country. Hunter & Cummings stood -in the front rank as representative producers. Captain Cummings is -president of the Missouri Mining and Lumbering Company, which has a -paid-up capital of five-hundred-thousand dollars and saws forty-million -feet of lumber a year. L. L. Hunter is secretary, E. B. Grandin is -treasurer and Hon. J. B. White, formerly a member of the Legislature -from Warren county, is general manager. As Commander of the Grand Army -of the Republic in Pennsylvania, Judge Darte succeeding him this year, -Captain Cummings is favorably known to veterans over the entire state. -He is a man of fine attainments, broad views and noble traits—a man who -sizes up to a high ideal, who can be trusted and whose friendship “does -not shrink in the wash.” - -Taylor & Satterfield began operations in the lower fields in 1870, -secured much of the finest territory in Butler and became one of the -wealthiest firms in the oil-region. Harvesters rather than sowers, their -usual policy was to buy lands tested by one or more wells and avoid the -risk of wildcatting. In this way they acquired productive farms in every -part of the district, which yielded thousands of barrels a day when -fully developed. Their transactions footed up many millions yearly. They -established banks at Petrolia and Millerstown, employed an army of -drillers and pumpers and clerks and were always ready fora big purchase -that promised fat returns. In company with Vandergrift & Forman, John -Pitcairn and Fisher Brothers, they built the Fairview Pipe-Line from -Argyle to Brady, the nucleus of the magnificent National-Transit system -of oil-transportation. Captain J. J. Vandergrift, George V. Forman and -John Pitcairn were associated with them in their gigantic -producing-operations, which in 1879 extended to the Bradford field and -grew to such magnitude that the Union Oil-Company was formed in 1881, -with five-millions capital. The Union was almost uniformly successful, -owning big wells and paying big dividends. In 1883 it paid Forman a -million dollars for his separate holdings in Allegany county, up to that -date the largest individual sale in the region. All its properties were -sold to the Forest Oil-Company and the Union was dissolved, Taylor -retiring and Satterfield continuing to assist in the management some -months. - -Hascal L. Taylor was first known in Oildom as a member of the firm of -Taylor & Day, Fredonia, N. Y., whose “buckboards” had a tremendous sale -in Venango, Clarion, Armstrong and Butler. He lived at Petrolia several -years, having charge of the office of Taylor & Satterfield and general -oversight of the Argyle Savings Bank. After his retirement from the -oil-business with an ample fortune he lived at Buffalo, speculated in -real-estate and purchased miles of Florida lands. He died last year, as -he was arranging to erect a fifteen-story office-block in Buffalo. Mr. -Taylor was of medium height and stout build, energetic, resourceful and -notable in the busy world of petroleum. His only son, Emory G., clerked -in the bank at Petrolia, engaged in manufacturing at Williamsport a year -or two and removed to Buffalo before his father’s death. He and his -sister inherited the estate. - -John Satterfield, a man of heart and brain, imposing in stature, frank -in speech and square in his dealings, was a Mercer boy. He served four -years in a regiment organized at Greenville and opened a grocery at -Pithole in 1865, with James A. Waugh as partner. Selling the remnants of -the grocery in 1867, he superintended wells at Tarr Farm three years and -went to Parker in 1870. His work in the Butler field increased his -excellent reputation for honesty and enterprise. He married Miss Matilda -Martin, of Allentown, lived four years at Millerstown, removed to -Titusville and built an elegant house on Delaware avenue, Buffalo. When -the Union Oil-Company’s accounts were closed, the books balanced and the -assets transferred to the Forest he engaged in banking. He was -vice-president of the Third National Bank of Buffalo and president of -the Fidelity Trust Company, whose new bank-building is the boast of the -Bison City. George V. Forman and Thomas L. McFarland joined him in the -Fidelity. Mr. McFarland, formerly cashier of the bank at Petrolia and -secretary of the Union Company, is exceedingly affable, capable and -popular. Failing health induced Mr. Satterfield to go on a trip designed -to include France, the Mediterranean Sea and the warmer countries of the -east. With his brother-in-law, Dr. T. J. Martin, he reached Paris, took -seriously ill and died on April sixth, 1894, in his fifty-fourth year. -Besides his wife, who was on the ocean hastening to his bedside when the -end came, he left one son and one daughter. Dr. Martin cremated the -body, pursuant to the wish of the deceased, and brought the ashes home -for interment. Charitable and unostentatious, upright and active, all -men liked and trusted “Jack” Satterfield, whom old friends miss sadly -and remember tenderly. - - The sinless land some of his friends have enter’d long ago, - Some others stay a little while to struggle here below; - But, be the conflict short or long, life’s battle will be won - And lovingly he’ll welcome us when earthly toil is done. - Nor will our joy be less sincere—we’ll slap him on the back, - Clasp his brave hand and warmly say: “We’re glad to see you, Jack!” - -[Illustration: W. J. YOUNG.] - -The Forest Oil-Company, into which the Union was merged, reckons its -capital by millions, numbers its wells by thousands and is at the head -of producing companies. Its operations cover five states. The company -has hundreds of wells and farms in Pennsylvania, operates extensively in -Ohio, is developing large interests in Kansas and seems certain to place -Kentucky and Tennessee high up in the petroleum-galaxy. From its -inception as a Limited Company the management has been progressive and -efficient. To meet the increasing demands of new sections the original -company was closed out and the present one incorporated, with Captain -Vandergrift as president and W. J. Young as vice-president and general -manager. Mr. Young, who was also elected treasurer in 1890, was -peculiarly fitted for his responsible duties by long experience and -executive ability. Born and educated in Pittsburg, he entered the employ -of a leather-merchant in 1856, spent six years in the establishment and -in 1862 went to Oil City to take charge of the forwarding and storage -business of John and William Hanna. The Hannas owned the steamboat -Allegheny Belle No. 4 and Hanna’s wharf, the site of the -National-Transit machine-shops in the Third Ward. Captain John Hanna -dying, John Burgess & Co. bought the firm’s storage interests and -admitted Young as a partner. Burgess & Co. sold to Fisher Brothers, who -used the wharf and yard for shipping and appointed Mr. Young their -financial agent. How capably he filled the place every operator on Oil -Creek can attest. He and John J. Fisher, under the name of Young & Co., -bought and shipped crude-oil in bulk-barges. His relations with the -Fishers ceased in 1872 with his appointment as book-keeper of the -Oil-City Savings Bank. Elected cashier of the Oil-City Trust Company in -1874, he was afterwards vice-president and president, holding the latter -office until 1891. John Pitcairn retiring from the firm of Vandergrift, -Pitcairn & Co., he purchased an interest in the business. The firm of -Vandergrift, Young & Co. was organized and sold its property to the -Forest Oil-Company, of which Mr. Young was one of the incorporators and -chairman. The business of the Forest necessitated his removal to -Pittsburg in 1889. He is president of the Washington Oil-Company and the -Taylorstown Natural-Gas Company and has his offices in the Vandergrift -building, on Fourth avenue. During his twenty-seven years’ residence in -Oil City he was active in promoting the welfare of the community. In -1866 he married Miss Morrow, sister-in-law and adopted daughter of -Captain Vandergrift. Two daughters, one the wife of Lieutenant P. E. -Pierce, West Point, N. Y., and the other a young lady residing with her -parents, blessed the happy union. The hospitable home at Oil City was a -delightful center of moral and social influence. Mr. Young represented -the First Ward nine years in Common and Select Councils and was -school-director six years. He furthered every good cause and was a -helpful, honored citizen. Now at the meridian of life, his judgment -matured and his acute perceptions quickened, young in heart and earnest -in spirit, a wider sphere enlarges his opportunities. Of W. J. Young, -true and tried, faithful and competent, a loyal friend and prudent -counsellor, it can never be said: “Thou art weighed in the balance and -found wanting.” - -Fairview, charmingly located two miles south-west of Petrolia, was on -one side of the greased streak. James M. Lambing’s gas-well a mile west -lighted and heated the town, but vapor-fuel and pretty scenery could not -offset the lack of oil and the dog-in-the-manger policy of greedy -land-holders. Portly Major Adams—under the sod for years—built a -spacious hotel, which William Lecky, Isaac Reineman, William Fleming and -kindred spirits patronized. A mile-and-a-half east of Fairview and as -far south of Petrolia, on a branch of Bear Creek, the Cooper well -originated Karns City in June of 1872. S. D. Karns laid down -eight-thousand dollars for the supposed dry-hole on the McClymonds farm, -drilled forty feet and struck a hundred-barreler. Cooper Brothers -finished the second well—it flowed two-hundred barrels for months—on the -Saturday preceding “the thirty-day shut-down.” Tabor & Thompson and -Captain Grace had moguls on the Riddle and Story farms. Big-hearted, -open-handed “Tommy” Thompson—a whiter man ne’er drew breath—operated -profitably in Butler and McKean and was active in the movements that -made 1872-3 memorable to oil-producers. The biggest well in the bunch -was A. J. Salisbury’s five-hundred-barrel spouter on the J. B. Campbell -farm, in January of 1873. Salisbury conducted the favorite Empire House, -which perished in the noon-day blaze that extinguished two-thirds of -Karns City in December of 1874. One day he bought a wagon-load of -potatoes from a verdant native, who dumped the tubers into the cellar -and was given a check for the purchase. He gazed at the check long and -earnestly, finally breaking out: “Vot for you gives me dose paper?” -Salisbury explained that it was payment for the murphies. “Mein Gott!” -ejaculated the ruralist, “you dinks me von tarn fool to take dot papers -for mein potatoes?” The proprietor strove to enlighten the farmer, -telling him to step across the street to the bank and get his money. “I -see nein monish there,” replied the innocent, looking at John Shirley’s -hardware-store, part of which a bank occupied. Discussing finance with -the rustic would be useless, so “Jack” sent the hotel-clerk for the cash -and counted it out in crisp documents bearing the serpentine autograph -of General Spinner. - -Vandergrift & Forman paid ninety-thousand dollars for the McCafferty -farm, a mile south-west of Karns City. Mr. Forman closed the deal, going -to the house with a lawyer and a New-York draft. The honest granger, not -familiar with bank-drafts, would not receive anything except actual -greenbacks. The parties journeyed to the county-seat to convert the -draft into legal-tenders, which the seller of the property carried home. -William McCafferty was a thrifty tiller of the soil and cultivated his -farm thoroughly. He bought a home at Greenville, near John -Benninghoff’s, put his money in Government bonds and died in 1880. Half -the farm was fine territory and repaid its cost several times. -One-twentieth of the price in 1873 would be good value to-day for the -broad acres. For John Blaney’s farm, adjoining the McCafferty, Melville, -Payne & Fleming put up fifteen-thousand dollars, bored a well and sold -out to Vandergrift & Forman at fifty-thousand. The Rob Roy well, on the -McClymonds farm, produced forty-thousand barrels of fourth-sand oil, -while a dry hole was sunk thirty yards away. Colonel Woodward, Mattison -& McDonald, Tack & Moorhead and John Markham owned wells good for thirty -to eight-hundred barrels. A cloud of dry-holes encompassed the May -Marshall, on the Wallace farm. Haysville, on the Thomas Hays farm, had a -brief run, a harvest of small strikes and dusters nipping it off -prematurely. The epitaph of the Philadelphia baby would about fit: - - “Died when young and full of promise, - Our own little darling Thomas; - We can’t have things here to please us— - He has gone to dwell with Jesus.” - -Branching off a mile south of Karns City, on January thirty-first, 1873, -the first well—one-hundred and fifty barrels—was finished on the Moore & -Hepler farm of three-hundred acres. Another in February strengthened -“the belt theory,” belief in which induced C. D. Angell, John L. -McKinney, Phillips Brothers and O. K. Warren to form a company and test -the tract. Their faith was recompensed “an hundred fold” by an array of -dandy wells and the unfolding of Angelica. Operators were feeling their -way steadfastly. Two miles south-east of Angelica, on the Simon Barnhart -farm, Messimer & Backus’s wild-cat—also a February plant—pumped eight -barrels a day. Shreve & Kingsley’s, on the Stewart farm, a mile -north-east, found good sand and flowed one-hundred-and-forty barrels, in -April, 1873. The fickle tide turned in that direction and Millerstown, a -dingy, pokey hamlet on a side-elevation in Donegal township, a half-mile -south-east of the Shreve-spouter, was on everybody’s lips. Some persons -and some communities have greatness thrust upon them and Millerstown was -of this brood. The natives awakened one April morning to find their -settlement invaded by the irrepressible oilmen. - -For sixty years the quiet hamlet of Barnhart’s Mills—a colony of -Barnharts settled in Donegal when the nineteenth century was in its -teens—stuck contentedly in the old rut, “the world unknowing, by the -world unknown.” It consisted chiefly of log-houses, looking sufficiently -antiquated to have been imported in William Penn’s good ship Welcome. A -church, a school, a blacksmith-shop, a grocery, a general store and a -tavern had existed from time immemorial. A grist-mill ground wheat and -the name of Barnhart’s Mills was adopted by the post-office authorities. -It yielded to Millerstown and finally to Chicora. The two-hundred -villagers went to bed at dark and breakfasted by candle-light in winter. -A birth, a marriage or a funeral aroused profound interest. At last news -of oil “from Parker down” was heard occasionally. Petrolia arose and the -Millerites shivered with apprehension. Was the petroleum-wave to -submerge their peaceful homes? The Shreve well answered the query -affirmatively and the invasion was not delayed. Crowds came, properties -changed hands, old houses were razed and by July the ancient borough was -disguised as a modern oil-town. Dr. Book built a grand hotel, Taylor & -Satterfield established a bank, the United and Relief Pipe-Lines opened -offices, the best firms were represented and “on to Millerstown” was the -shibboleth of the hour. McFarland & Co.’s seventy-barrel well on the -Thorn farm, a mile north-east of town, the third in the district, fed -the oily flame. Dr. James, on R. Barnhart’s lands, finished the fourth, -an eighty-barreler, in June, a half-mile west of the Shreve & Kingsley, -which Clark & Timblin bought for twenty-thousand dollars. Wyatt, Fertig -& Hammond’s mammoth flowed one-thousand barrels a day! Col. Wyatt was a -real Virginian, chivalric, educated and high-strung. Hon. John Fertig -was a pioneer on Oil Creek and had operated at Foxburg with John W. -Hammond. The Wyatt spouted for months. - -McKeown & Morissey drilled rib-ticklers on the Nolan farm. Warden & -Frew, F. Prentice, Taylor & Satterfield, Captain Grace, John Preston, -Cook & Goldsboro, Samuel P. Boyer, C. D. Angell and multitudes more -scored big hits. McKinney Brothers & Galey secured the Hemphill and -Frederick farms, on which they drilled scores of splendid wells. James -M. Lambing had a chunk near the Wyatt, with Col. Brady next door. Lee & -Plumer, fresh from their triumphs in Clarion, leased the Diviner farm, -two miles south-west of Millerstown, for two-hundred dollars an acre -bonus and one-eighth royalty. Their first well flowed fifteen-hundred -barrels and they sold to Taylor & Satterfield for ninety-thousand -dollars after its production paid the bonus and the drilling. Henry -Greene drilled on the Johnson farm, two miles straight south of the -village, and P. M. Shannon’s, on the Boyle, was the lion of the eastern -belt. A dry strip divided the field into two productive lines. P. H. -Burchfield opened the Gillespie farm and Joseph Overy touched the Mead, -four miles south of Millerstown, for a two-hundred-barreler that -installed St. Joe. Dr. Hunter, of Pittsburg, monkeyed a well on the -Gillespie for many weeks, inaugurating the odious “mystery” racket. -Millerstown was a peach of the most approved pattern, holding its own -bravely until Bradford overwhelmed the southern region. A narrow-gauge -railroad connected it with Parker in 1876. Fire in 1875 swept away the -central portion of the town and blotted out seven lives. Oil has -receded, the operators have departed and the town is once more a placid -country village. - -The Barnhart and Hemphill farms yielded McKinney Brothers a lavish -return, the wells averaging fifty to three-hundred barrels month after -month. The two brothers, John L. and J. C., were not amateurs in -oil-matters. Sons of a well-to-do lumberman and farmer in Warren county, -they learned business-methods in boyhood and were fitted by habit and -education to manage important enterprises. Their connection with -petroleum dated back to the sixties, in the oldest districts. The -knowledge stored up on Oil Creek and around Franklin and at -Pleasantville was of immense benefit in the lower fields. Organizing the -firm of McKinney Brothers in 1890, to operate at Parker, they kept pace -with the trend of developments southward. Millerstown impressed them -favorably and they paid seventy-thousand dollars for the Barnhart and -two Hemphill farms, two-hundred-and-seventy acres in the heart of the -richest territory. John Galey purchased an interest in the properties, -which the partners developed judiciously. J. C. McKinney and Galey -resided at Millerstown to oversee the numerous details of their -extensive operations. In 1877, H. L. Taylor, John Satterfield, John -Pitcairn and the brothers formed the partnership known as John L. -McKinney & Co. It was controlled and managed by the McKinneys, until the -sale of its interests to the Standard Oil-Company. John L. and J. C. -McKinney sold their Ohio lands and wells in 1889 and their Pennsylvania -oil-properties in 1890, since which period they have been associated -with the Standard in one of its great producing branches, the South Penn -Oil-Company. Noah S. Clark is president of the South Penn, with -headquarters at Oil City and Pittsburg. This company has thousands of -wells in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The wise policy that has -made the Standard the world’s foremost corporation has nowhere been -manifested more effectively than in the formation of such companies as -the Forest and the South Penn. Letting sellers of production share in -the ownership and management of properties united in one grand system -secures the advantages of concerted action, unlimited capital, identity -of interest and combined experience. Thus men of the highest skill join -hands for the good of all, using the latest appliances, buying at -wholesale for cash, producing oil at the smallest cost and giving the -public the fruits of systematic coöperation. In this free country “the -poor man’s back-yard opens into all out-doors” and many producers, like -John McKeown, Captain Jones “The.” Barnsdall and Michael Murphy have -been conspicuously successful going it alone. Sometimes a growl is heard -about monopoly, centralization and the octave of similar phrases, just -as folks grumble at the weather, the heat and cold and think they could -run the universe much better than its Creator does it. - - “Oh, many a wicked smile they smole, - And many a wink they wunk; - And, oh, it is an awful thing - To think the thoughts they thunk.” - -[Illustration: JOHN L. MCKINNEY.] - -[Illustration: J. C. MCKINNEY.] - -Hon. John L. McKinney’s talent for business displayed itself in youth. -“The boy’s the father to the man” and at sixteen he assumed charge of -his father’s accounts, superintending the sale of lumber and -farm-products three years. At nineteen, in the fall of 1861, he drilled -his first well, a dry-hole south of Franklin. Two leases on Oil Creek -fared better and in the spring he purchased one-third of a drilling well -and lease on the John McClintock farm, near Rouseville. The well was -spring-poled three-hundred feet, horse-power put it to four-hundred and -an engine to five-hundred, at which depth it flowed six-hundred barrels, -lasting two years, lessening slowly and producing enough oil to enrich -the owners. Young McKinney worked his turn, “kicking the pole” all -summer and visiting his home in Warren county when steam was substituted -for human and equine muscle. During his absence the sand was prodded, -the golden stream responded and his partner sold out for a round sum, -taking no note of his share! He heard of the strike and found the -purchasers in full possession upon his return. His contract had not been -recorded, one day remained to file it with the register and he saved his -claim by a few hours! He bought interests on Cherry Run that profited -him two-hundred thousand dollars, in 1864 leased large tracts in Greene -county and in 1865 removed to Philadelphia. He operated on Benninghoff -Run in 1866, the crash of 1867 swept away his gains and he began again -“at the top of the ground.” With his younger brother, J. C. McKinney, he -drilled at Pleasantville in 1868 and the next year located at Parker’s -Landing, operating constantly and managing an agency for the sale of -Gibbs & Sterrett machinery. Success crowded upon him in 1871 and in 1873 -McKinney Brothers & Galey were the leaders in the Millerstown field. -Mrs. McKinney, a beautiful and accomplished woman, died in 1894. Mr. -McKinney built an elegant home at Titusville and he has been an -influential citizen of “the Queen City of Oildom” for twenty years. He -is president of the Commercial Bank and a heavy stockholder in local -industries. He has resisted pressing demands for his services in public -office, preferring the private station, yet participating actively in -politics. John L. McKinney is earnest and manly everywhere, steadfast in -his friendships, true to his professions, liberal and honorable always. - -J. C. McKinney engaged with an engineer-corps of the Pennsylvania -Railroad Company in 1861, at the age of seventeen, to survey lines -southward from Garland, on the Philadelphia & Erie Road. The survey -ending at Franklin in 1863, he left the corps and started a lumber-yard -at Oil City. His father was a lumberman at Pittsfield, Warren county, -and the youth of nineteen knew every branch of the business thoroughly. -He opened a yard at Franklin in 1864, resided there a number of years -and in 1868 married Miss Agnes E. Moore. His first well, drilled at -Foster in 1865, produced moderately. In company with C. D. Angell, he -drilled on Scrubgrass Island—Mr. Angell changed the name to Belle Island -for his daughter Belle—in 1866 and at Pleasantville in 1868 with his -brother, John L. Operating for heavy-oil at Franklin in 1869-70, he sold -his wells to Egbert, Mackey & Tafft and settled at Parker’s Landing in -1870. The firm’s operations in Butler county requiring his personal -attention, he built a house and resided at Millerstown several years. -There he worked zealously, purchasing blocks of land and drilling a -legion of prolific wells. Upon the subsidence of the Butler field he -removed to Titusville, buying and remodeling the Windsor mansion, which -he made one of the finest residences in the oil-region. He assists in -managing the South Penn Oil-Company, to which McKinney Brothers disposed -of their interests in Ohio and Pennsylvania. In the flush of healthful -vigor, wealthy and respected, he enjoys “the good the gods provide.” He -keeps fast horses, handles the ribbons skillfully, can guide a big -enterprise or an untamed bicycle deftly, is companionable and utterly -devoid of affectation. To the McKinneys, men of positive character and -strict integrity, the Roman eulogy applies: “A pair of noble brothers.” - -“Plumer’s Ride to Diviner” discounted Sheridan’s Ride to Winchester in -the estimation of Millerstown hustlers. Various operators longed and -prayed for the Diviner farm of two-hundred acres, two miles south of -Millerstown, which “Ed” Bennett’s three-hundred barrel well on the Boyle -farm rendered very desirable. The old, childless couple owning it -declined to lease or sell, not wishing to move out of the old house. Lee -& Plumer were on the anxious seat with the rest of the fraternity. -Plumer overheard a big operator tell his foreman one morning to offer -three-hundred dollars an acre for the farm. “Fred” lost not a moment. -Ordering his two-twenty horse to be saddled instantly, he galloped to -the Diviner domicile in hot haste and said: “I’ll give you two-hundred -dollars an acre and one-eighth the oil for your land and let you stay in -the house!” The aged pair consulted a moment, accepted the offer and -signed an agreement to transfer the property in three days. The ink was -not dry when the foreman rode up, but “Fred” met him in the yard with a -smile that expressed the gospel-hymn: “Too late, too late, ye cannot -enter in!” The first well repaid the whole outlay in thirty days, when -Taylor & Satterfield paid ninety-thousand dollars for Lee & Plumer’s -holdings, a snug sum to rake in from a two-mile horseback-ride. With a -fine sense of appreciation the well was labeled “Plumer’s Ride to -Diviner,” a board nailed to the walking-beam bearing the protracted -title in artistic capitals. - -The Millerstown fire ended seven human lives, four of them at Dr. Book’s -Central Hotel. A. G. Oliver, of Kane City, was roasted in the room -occupied by me the previous night. Norah Canty, a waitress, descended -the stairs, returned for her trunk and was burned to a cinder. Nellie -McCarthy jumped from a high window to the street, fracturing both legs -and sustaining injuries that crippled her permanently. In loss of life -the fire ranked next to the dreadful tragedy of the burning-well at -Rouseville. - -P. M. Shannon, first burgess of Millerstown, had a fashion of saluting -intimate friends with the query: “Where are we now?” Possibly this was -the origin of the popular phrase, “Where are we at?” A zealous officer -arrested a drunken loafer one afternoon. The fellow struggled to get -free and the officer halted a wagon to haul the obstreperous drunk to -the lock-up. The prisoner was laid on his back in the wagon and his -captor tried to hold him down. - -[Illustration: “WHERE ARE WE NOW?”] - -A crowd gathered and the burgess got aboard to assist the peeler. He was -holding the feet of the law-breaker, with his back to the end-board, at -the instant the wheels struck a plank-crossing. The shock keeled Shannon -backwards over the end-board into the deep, vicious mud! The spectators -thought of shedding tears at the sad plight of their chief magistrate, -who sank at full length nearly out of sight. As he raised his head a -ragged urchin bawled out: “Where are we now?” The laugh that ensued was -a risible earthquake and thenceforth the expression had unlimited -circulation in the lower districts. - -The Millerstown field produced ten-thousand barrels a day at its prime -and the temptation to enlarge the productive area even St. Anthony, had -he been an oil-operator, would have found it hard to resist. A half-mile -west, at the Brick Church, J. A. Irons punched a hole and started a -hardware-store that hatched out Irons City. St. Joe, where two-hundred -lots were sold in thirty days and a beer-jerker’s tent was the first -business-stand, was the outcome of good wells on the Now, Meade, Boyd, -Neff and Graham farms, four miles south. Three miles farther dry-holes -blasted the budding hopes of Jeffersonville. Three miles south-west of -Millerstown, on an elevated site, Buena Vista bade fair to knock the -persimmons. The territory exhausted too speedily for comfort, other -points lured the floaters, hotels and stores stood empty and a fire sent -three-fourths of the neat little town up in smoke. Two miles west the -Hope Oil-Company’s Troutman well, reported on March twenty-second, 1873, -“the biggest strike since ’sixty-five,” flowed twelve-hundred barrels. -The tools hung in the hole seven months, by which time the well had -produced ninety-six-thousand barrels. The gusher was on the Troutman -farm, a patch of rocks and stunted trees tenanted by a Frenchman. I. E. -Dean, Lecky & Reineman, Captain Grace, Captain Boyer, the Reno -Oil-Company and others jostled neck and neck in the race to drain the -Ralston, Harper, Starr, Jenkins and Troutman lands. The result was a -series of spouters that aggregated nine-thousand barrels a day. Phillips -Brothers paid eighty-thousand dollars for the Starr farm and trebled -their money in a year. William K. Vandergrift’s Blackhawk was a -five-hundred barreler and dozens more swelled the production and the -excitement. The day before Husselton & Thompson’s seven-hundred -barreler, on the Gruber farm, struck the sand the boiler exploded. Two -men were standing on a tank discussing politics. They saw a ton of iron -heading directly towards them, concluded to postpone the argument and -leaped from the tank as the flying mass tore off half the roof. The -Ralston farm evoluted the embryo town of Batesville, named for the late -Joseph Bates, of Oil City, and Modoc planted its wigwams on the Starr -and Sutton. - -Modoc stood at the top of the class for mud. The man who found a -gold-dollar in a can of tomatoes and denounced the grocer for selling -adulterated goods would have had no reason to grumble at the mud around -Modoc. It was pure, unmixed and unstinted. The voyager who, in the -spring or fall of 1873, accomplished the trip from Troutman to the -frontier wells without exhausting his stock of profanity earned a -free-pass to the happy hunting-grounds. Twenty balloon-structures were -erected by May first and a red-headed dispenser of stimulants answered -to the title of “Captain Jack.” Modoc was not a Tammany offshoot, but -the government had an Indian war on hand and red-skinned epithets -prevailed. The town soon boasted three stores, four hotels, liveries and -five-hundred people. By and by the spouters wilted badly, degenerating -into pumpers. On a cold, rainy night in the autumn of 1874 fire started -in Max Elasser’s clothing-store and one-half the town was absent at dawn -next morning. Biting wind and drenching showers added to the sadness of -the dismal scene. Women and children, weeping and homeless, crouched in -the fields until daylight and shelter arrived. That was the last chapter -in the history of Modoc. The American Hotel and a few houses escaped the -flames, but the destroyed buildings were not replaced. It would puzzle a -tourist now to find an atom of Modoc or the wells that vegetated about -the Troutman whale. - -Two miles south of Modoc the McClelland farm made a bold effort to -outshine the Troutman. Phillips Brothers owned the biggest wells, -luscious fellows that salt-water killed off prematurely. They paid -forty-five-thousand dollars for the Stahl & Benedict No. 1 well. The -farmer leased the tract to George Nesbit and John Preston. Nesbit placed -timbers for a rig on the ground and entrenched a force of men behind a -fence. Preston’s troops scaled the fence, dislodged the enemy, carried -the timbers off the premises, built a rig and drilled a well. Such -disputes were liable to occur from the ignorance or knavery of the -natives, some of whom leased the same land to several parties. In one of -these struggles for possession Obadiah Haymaker was shot dead at -Murraysville, near Pittsburg. Milton Weston, a Chicago millionaire, who -hired and armed the attacking party, was sent to the penitentiary for -manslaughter. Haymaker was pleasant, sociable and worthy of a better -fate. - -David Morrison leased ten acres of the Jamison farm, three miles below -Modoc and seven south of Petrolia, at one-fiftieth royalty. The -property was situated on Connoquinessing Creek, a tributary of Beaver -River, in the bosom of a rugged country. On August twenty-fourth, -1872, the tools pricked the sand, gas burst forth and oil flowed -furiously. The gas sought the boiler-fire and the entire concern was -speedily in a blaze. Unlike many others in the oil-region, the -Morrison well suffered no injury from the fire. It flowed -three-hundred barrels a day for a month and in October was sold to -Taylor & Satterfield for thirty-eight-thousand dollars. They cleaned -out the hole, which mud had clogged, restoring the yield to -two-hundred barrels. S. D. Karns completed the Dogleg well, the second -in the field, on Christmas day, and the third early in January, the -two wells flowing seven-hundred barrels. John Preston’s No. 1, a -half-mile northward, flowed two-hundred barrels on January twelfth. -Preston was a strong-limbed, black-haired, courageous operator, who -cut his eye-teeth in the upper fields. He augmented his pile at -Parker, Millerstown and Greece City, landing at last in Washington -county. He was not averse to a hand at cards or a gamble in -production. His word was never broken and he vied with John McKeown -and John Galey in untiring energy. A truer, livelier, braver lot of -men than the Butler oil-operators never stepped on God’s green carpet. -A mean tyrant might as well try to climb into heaven on a greased pole -as to keep them at the bottom of the heap. - -The first new building on the Jamison farm, a frame drug-store, was -erected on September tenth. Eight-hundred people inhabited Greece City -by the end of December. Drinking dens drove a thriving trade and three -hotels could not stow away the crowds. J. H. Collins fed five-hundred a -day. Theodore Huselton established a bank and Rev. Mr. Thorne a -newspaper. A post-office was opened at New-Year. Two pipe-lines conveyed -oil to Butler and Brady, two telegraph-offices rushed messages, a church -blossomed in the spring and a branch of the West Penn Railroad was -proposed. Greece City combined the muddiness and activity of Shaffer and -Funkville with the ambition of Reno. Fifty wells were drilling in -February and the surrounding farms were not permitted to “linger longer, -Lucy,” than was necessary to haul machinery and set the walking-beam -sawing the atmosphere. Joseph Post—a jolly Rousevillean, who weighed -two-hundred pounds, operated at Bradford and retired to a farm in -Ohio—tested the Whitmire farm, two miles south. An extensive water-well -was the best the farm had to offer and Boydstown, built in expectation -of the oil that never came, scampered off. The third sand was only -twelve to fifteen feet thick and the wells declined with unprecedented -suddenness. The bottom seemed to drop out of the territory in a -twinkling. The town wilted like a paper-collar in the dog-days. Houses -were torn down or deserted and rigs carted to Millerstown. In December -fire licked up three-fourths of what removals had spared, summarily -ending Greece City at the fragile age of thirteen months. “The isles of -Greece, were burning Sappho loved and sung,” may have been pretty slick, -but the oil of Greece City would have burned out Sappho in one round. - -“The meanest man I ever saw,” a Butler judge remarked to a company of -friends at Collins’s Hotel, “has never appeared in my court as a -defendant and it is lucky for him. As a matter of course he was a -newspaper man—a rascal of a reporter for the Greece City _Review_, -printed right in this town, and there he stands! One day he was playing -seven-up with a young lady and guess what he did? He told her that -whenever she had the jack of trumps it was a sure sign her lover was -thinking of her. Then he watched her and whenever she blushed and looked -pleased he would lead a high card and catch her jack. A man who would do -that would steal a hot stove or write a libellous joke about me.” The -judge was a rare joker and the young man whom he apostrophised for fun -didn’t know a jack from a load of hay. - -Parker, Martinsburg, Argyle, Petrolia, the “Cross Belt,” Karns City, -Angelica, Millerstown, St. Joe, Buena Vista, Modoc and Greece City had -passed in review. The “belt” extended fifteen miles and the Butler field -acknowledged no rival. The great Bradford district was about to distance -all competitors and leave the southern region hopelessly behind, yet -operators did not desist from their efforts to discover an outlet below -Greece City and St. Joe. Two miles west of the county-seat Phillips -Brothers stumbled upon the Baldridge pool, which produced largely. The -old town of Butler, settled at the beginning of the century and not -remarkable for enterprise until the oilmen shoved it forward, was dry -territory. Eastward pools of minor note were revealed. William K. -Vandergrift, whose three-hundred-barrel well on the Pontius farm ushered -in Buena Vista’s short-lived reign, drilled at Saxonburg. Along the -West-Penn Railroad fair wells encouraged the quest. David Kirk entered -Great Belt City in the race and the country was punctured like a -bicycle-tire tripping over a road strewn with tacks pointing skyward and -loaded for mischief. South of St. Joe gas blew off and Spang & Chalfant -laid a line from above Freeport to pipe the stuff into their -rolling-mills at Pittsburg. The search proceeded without big surprises, -Bradford monopolizing public interest and Butler jogging on quietly at -the rear. But the old field had plenty of ginger and was merely -recovering some of the breath expended in producing forty-million -barrels of crude. “I smell a rat,” felicitously observed Sir Boyle -Roche, “and see him floating in the air.” The free play of the drill -could hardly fail to ferret out something with the smell of petroleum in -the soap-mine county, beyond the cut-off at Greece City and Baldridge. -Bradford was sliding down the mountain it had ascended and Butler -furnished the answer to the conundrum of where to look for the next -fertile spot. - -Col. S. P. Armstrong, who experienced a siege of hard luck in the upper -latitudes, in 1884 leased a portion of the Marshall farm, on Thorn -Creek, six miles south-west of the town of Butler. Operators had been -skirmishing around the southern rim of the basin, looking for an annex -to the Baldridge pool. Andrew Shidemantle was drilling near the mouth of -the creek, on the north bank of which Johnson & Co.’s well, finished in -May, found plenty of sand and salt-water and a taste of oil. More than -once Armstrong was pressed for funds to pay the workmen drilling the -well he began on the little stream and he sold an interest to Boyd & -Semple. A vein of oil was met on June twenty-seventh, gas ignited the -rig and for a week the well burned fiercely. The flames were subdued -finally, the well pumped and flowed one-hundred-and-fifty barrels a day -and No. 2 was started fifty rods north-east. Meanwhile Phillips Brothers -set the tools dancing on the Bartlett farm, adjoining the Marshall on -the north. They hit the sand on August twenty-ninth and the well flowed -five-hundred barrels next day. Drilling ten feet deeper jagged a -veritable reservoir of petroleum, the well flowing forty-two-hundred -barrels on September fifteenth! At last Phillips & Vanausdall’s spouter -on Oil Creek had been eclipsed. The trade was “shaken clear out of its -boots.” Glowing promises of a healthy advance in prices were -frost-bitten. Scouts had been hovering around and their reckoning was -utterly at fault. Brokers knew not which way to turn. Crude staggered -into the ditch and speculators on the wrong side of the market went down -like the Louisiana Tigers at Gettysburg. The bull-element thought the -geyser “a scratch,” quite sure not to be duplicated, and all hands -awaited impatiently the completion of Hezekiah Christie’s venture on a -twenty-five acre plot hugging the Phillips lease. The one redeeming -feature of the situation was that nobody had the temerity to remark, “I -told you so!” - -[Illustration: TELEGRAPH-OFFICE IN CARRIAGE, GROUP OF SCOUTS AND -PHILLIPS WELL, THORN CREEK.] - -A telegraph office was rigged up near the Phillips well in an abandoned -carriage, one-third mile from the Christie. About it the sharp-eyed -scouts thronged night and day. On October eleventh the Christie was -known to be nearing the critical point. Excitement was at fever-heat -among the group of anxious watchers. In the afternoon some knowing-one -reported that the tools were twenty-seven feet in the sand, with no show -of oil. The scouts went to condole with Christie, who was sitting in the -boiler-house, over his supposed dry-hole. One elderly scout, whose -rotundity made him “the observed of all observers,” was especially warm -in his expressions of sympathy. “That’s all right, Ben,” said Christie, -“but before night you’ll be making for the telegraph-office to sell your -oil at a gait that will make a euchre-game on your coat-tails an easy -matter.” When the scout had gone he walked into the derrick and asked -his driller how far he was in the sand. “Only twenty-two feet and we are -sure to strike oil before three o’clock. Those scouts don’t know what -they’re talking about.” Christie went back to the boiler-house and -waited. It was an interesting scene. About the old buggy were the -self-confident scouts, many of whom had already wired their principals -that the well was dry. The intervals between the strokes of the drill -appeared to be hours. At length the well began to gas. Then came a low, -rumbling sound and those about the carriage saw a cloud-burst of oil -envelop the derrick. The Christie well was in and the biggest gusher the -oil-country had ever known! The first day it did over five-thousand -barrels, seven-thousand for several days after torpedoing, and for a -month poured out a sea of oil. Christie refused one-hundred-thousand -dollars for his monster, which cast the Cherry Grove gushers completely -into the shade. Phillips No. 3, four-hundred barrels, Conners No. 1, -thirty-seven-hundred, and Phillips No. 2, twenty-five hundred, were -added to the string on October eighteenth, nineteenth and twenty-first. -Crude tumbled, the bears pranced wildly and everybody wondered if Thorn -Creek had further surprises up its sleeve. Bret Harte’s “heathen Chinee” -with five aces was less of an enigma. - -All this time Colonel Armstrong, who borrowed money to build his first -derrick and buy his first boiler, was pegging away at his second well. -The sand was bored through into the slate beneath and the contractor -pronounced the well a failure. The scouts agreed with him unanimously -and declared the contractor a level-headed gentleman. The owner, who -looked for something nicer than salt-water and forty-five feet of -ungreased sand, did not lose every vestige of hope. He decided to try -the persuasive powers of a torpedo. At noon on October twenty-seventh -sixty quarts of nitro-glycerine were lowered into the hole. The usual -low rumbling responded, but the expected flow did not follow -immediately. One of the scouts laughingly offered Armstrong a cigar for -the well, which the whole party declared “no good.” They broke for the -telegraph-office in the buggy to wire that the well was a duster. Prices -stiffened and the bulls breathed more freely. - -The scouts changed their minds and their messages very speedily. The -rumbling increased until its roar resembled a small Niagara. A sheet of -salt-water shot out of the hole over the derrick, followed by a shower -of slate, stones and dirt. A moment later, with a preliminary cough to -clear its passage, the oil came with a mighty rush. A giant stream -spurted sixty feet above the tall derrick, dug drains in the ground and -saturated everything within a radius of five-hundred feet! The Jumbo of -oil-wells had been struck. Thousands of barrels of oil were wasted -before the cap could be adjusted on the casing. Tanks had been provided -and a half-dozen pipes were needed to carry the enormous mass of fluid. -It was an inspiring sight to stand on top of the tank and watch the -tossing, heaving, foaming deluge. The first twenty-four hours Armstrong -No. 2 flowed _eight-thousand-eight-hundred barrels_! It dropped to -six-thousand by November first, to six-hundred by December first and -next morning stopped altogether, having produced eighty-nine-thousand -barrels in thirty-seven days! Armstrong then divided his lease into -five-acre patches, sold them at fifteen-hundred dollars bonus and half -the oil and quit Thorn Creek in the spring a half-million ahead. - -[Illustration: - - MILLER & YEAGLE FLOWING INTO TANK - ARMSTRONG FLOWING INTO TANK - ARMSTRONG WELL -] - -Fisher Brothers were the largest operators in the field. From the -Marshall farm of three-hundred acres—worth ten dollars an acre for -farming—they took four-hundred-thousand dollars’ worth of oil. Their -biggest well flowed forty-two-hundred barrels on November fifteenth, -when the total output of the field was sixteen-thousand, its highest -notch. Miller & Yeagle’s spouter put forty-five-hundred into the tank, -sending out a stream that filled a five-inch pipe. Thomas B. Simpson, of -Oil City, joined with Thomas W. Phillips in leasing the Kennedy farm and -drilling a three-thousand-barrel well. They sold to the Associated -Producers in December for eighty-thousand dollars and Simpson, a -sensible man every day in the year, presented his wife with a Christmas -check for his half of the money. McBride and Campbell, two young -drillers who had gone to Thorn Creek in search of work, went a mile in -advance of developments and bored a well that did five-thousand barrels -a day. They sold out to the Associated Producers for ninety-thousand and -six months later their big well was classed among the small pumpers. -Campbell saved what he had made, but success did not sit well on -McBride’s shoulders. After lighting his cigars awhile with five-dollar -bills he touched bottom and went back to the drill. Hell’s Half Acre, a -crumb of land owned by the Bredin heirs, emptied sixty-thousand barrels -into the tanks of the Associated Producers. The little truck-farm of -John Mangel put ninety-thousand into its owner’s pocket, although a -losing venture to the operators, producing barely a hundred-thousand -barrels. For the half-acre on which the red school-house was built, ten -rods from the first Phillips well, the directors were offered -fifty-thousand dollars. This would have endowed every school in the -township, but legal obstacles prevented the sale and the district was -the loser. By May the production declined to seven-thousand barrels and -to one-thousand by the end of 1885. The sudden rise of the field made a -score of fortunes and its sudden collapse ruined as many more. Thorn -Creek, like reform measures in the Legislature, had a brilliant opening -and an inglorious close. - -The Thorn-Creek white-sanders encouraged wildcatting to an extraordinary -degree. In hope of extending the pool or disclosing a fresh one, “men -drilled who never drilled before, and those who always drilled but -drilled the more.” Johnson & Co., Campbell & McBride, Fisher Brothers -and Shidemantle’s dusters on the southern end of the gusher-farms -condemned the territory in that direction. Painter Brothers developed a -small pool at Riebold Station. Craig & Cappeau, who struck the initial -spouter at Kane, and the Fisher Oil-Company failed to open up a field in -Middlesex township. Some oil was found at Zelienople and gas at numerous -points in raking over Butler county. The country south-west of Butler, -into West Virginia and Ohio, was overrun by oil-prospectors, intent upon -tying up lands and seeing that no lurking puddle of petroleum should -escape. Test wells crossed the lines into Allegheny and Beaver counties -and Shoustown, Shannopin, Mt. Nebo, Coraopolis, Undercliff and Economy -figured in the newspapers as oil-centers of more or less consequence. -Members of the old guard, fortified with a stack of blues at their elbow -to meet any contingency, shared in these proceedings. Brundred & Marston -drilled on Pine Creek, at the lower end of Armstrong county, in the -seventies, a Pittsburg company repeating the dose in 1886. At New -Bethlehem they bored two-thousand feet, finding seven-hundred feet of -red-rock. This rock varies from one to three-hundred feet on Oil Creek -and geologists assert is six-thousand feet thick at Harrisburg, -diminishing as it approaches the Alleghenies. The late W. J. Brundred, -agent at Oil City of the Empire Line until its absorption by the -Pennsylvania Railroad, was a skilled oil-operator, practical in his -ideas and prompt in his methods. His son, B. F. Brundred, is president -of the Imperial Refining Company and a prosperous resident of Oil City. -Joseph H. Marston died in California, whither he had gone hoping to -improve his health, in 1880. He was an artist at Franklin in the opening -years of developments and removed to Oil City. He owned the Petroleum -House and was exceptionally genial, enterprising and popular. - - “Through many a year - We shall remember, with a sad delight, - The friends forever gone from mortal sight.” - -Pittsburg assumed the airs of a petroleum-metropolis. Natural-gas in the -suburbs and east of the city changed its sooty blackness to a delicate -clearness that enabled people to see the sky. Oilmen made it their -headquarters and built houses at East Liberty and Allegheny. To-day more -representative producers can be seen in Pittsburg than in Oil City, -Titusville or Bradford. Within a hundred yards of the National-Transit -offices one can find Captain Vandergrift, T. J. Vandergrift, J. M. -Guffey, John Galey, Frank Queen, W. J. Young, P. M. Shannon, Frederick -Hayes, Dr. M C. Egbert, A. J. Gartland, Edward Jennings, Captain Grace, -S. D. Karns, William Fleming, C. D. Greenlee, John N. Lambing, John -Galloway, John J. Fisher, Henry Fisher, Frederick Fisher, J. A. -Buchanan, J. N. Pew, Michael Murphy, James Patterson and other veterans -in the business. These are some of the men who had the grit to open new -fields, to risk their cash in pioneer-experiments, to cheapen -transportation and to make kerosene “the poor man’s light.” They are not -youngsters any more, but their hearts have not grown old, their heads -have not swelled and the microbe of selfishness has not soured their -kindly impulses. They are of the royal stamp that would rather tramp the -cross-ties with honor than ride in a sixteen-wheeled Pullman -dishonestly. - -[Illustration: W. E. GRIFFITH.] - -Gas east and oil west was the rule at Pittsburg. Wildwood was the chief -sensation in 1889-90. This was the pet of W. E. Griffith, whose first -well on the Whitesell farm, twelve miles above Pittsburg, tapped the -sand in March of 1890, and flowed three-hundred barrels a day. This -prime send-off inaugurated Wildwood in good style. The Bear-Creek -Refining-Company drilled on the C. J. Gibson farm, Pine Creek, in 1888, -finding considerable gas. Later Barney Forst and Max Klein found third -sand and no oil in a well two-thirds of a mile west, on the Moon farm. -John M. Patterson went two miles south-east and drilled the Cockscomb -well, twin-link to a duster. J. M. Guffey & Co. hit sand and a taste of -oil near Perrysville, between which and the Cockscomb venture Gibson & -Giles had encouraging indications. Anon Griffith’s spouter touched the -jugular and opened a prolific pool. His No. 2 produced a quarter-million -barrels. Guffey & Co.’s No. 4, Rolsehouse farm, and Bamsdall’s No. 2, -Kress farm, started at three-thousand apiece the first twenty-four -hours. About three-hundred acres of rich territory were punctured, some -of the wells piercing the fifth sand at two-thousand feet. By the end of -1890 the district had yielded thirteen-hundred-thousand barrels, placing -it close to the top of the white-sand column. Wildwood is situated in -Allegheny county, on the Pittsburg & Western Railroad, and W. E. -Griffith is justly deemed the father of the nobby district. He is a -practical man, admirably posted regarding sands and oils and in every -respect worthy of the success that has crowned his efforts to hold up -his end of the string. - -Thirty-three wells at Wildwood realized Greenlee & Forst not far from a -quarter-million dollars. Five in “the hundred-foot” field west of Butler -repaid their cost and brought them fifty-thousand dollars from the -South-Penn Oil-Company. The two lucky operators next leased and -purchased eight-hundred acres at Oakdale, Noblestown and McDonald, in -Allegheny and Washington counties, fifteen to twenty miles west of -Pittsburg. The Crofton third-sand pool was opened in February of 1888, -the Groveton & Young hundred-foot in the winter of 1889-90 and the -Chartiers third-sand field in the spring of 1890. South-west of these, -on the J. J. McCurdy farm, five miles north-east of Oakdale, Patterson & -Jones drilled into the fifth sand on October seventeenth, 1890. The well -flowed nine-hundred barrels a day for four months, six months later -averaged two-hundred and by the end of 1891 had yielded a -hundred-and-fifty thousand. Others on the same and adjacent tracts -started at fifty to twenty-five-hundred barrels, Patterson & Jones alone -deriving four-thousand barrels a day from thirteen wells. In the summer -of 1890 the Royal Gas-Company drilled two wells on the McDonald estate, -two miles west of McDonald Station and ten south-west of McCurdy, -finding a show of oil in the so-called “Gordon sand.” On the farm of -Edward McDonald, west side of the borough, the company struck oil and -gas in the same rock the latter part of September. The well stood idle -two months, was bored through the fifth sand in November, torpedoed on -December twentieth and filled three tanks of oil in ten days. The tools -were run down to clean it out, stuck fast and the pioneer venture of the -McDonald region ended its career simultaneously with the ending of 1890. -Thorn Creek had been a wonder and Wildwood a dandy, yet both combined -were to be dwarfed and all records smashed by the greatest white-sand -pool and the biggest gushers in America. - -Geologists solemnly averred in 1883 that “the general boundaries of the -oil-region of Pennsylvania are now well established,” “we can have no -reasonable expectation that any new and extensive field will be found” -and “there are not any grounds for anticipating the discovery of new -fields which will add enough to the declining products of the old to -enable the output to keep pace with the consumption.” Notwithstanding -these learned opinions, Thorn Creek had the effrontery to “be found” in -1884, Wildwood in 1890 and the monarch of the tribe in 1891. The men who -want people to discard Genesis for their interpretation of the rocks -were as wide of the mark as the dudish Nimrod who couldn’t hit a -barn-door at thirty yards. He paralyzed his friends by announcing: “Wal, -I hit the bullseye to-day the vehwy fiwst shot!” Congratulations were -pouring in when he added: “Yaas, and the bweastly fawmeh made me pay -twenty-five dollahs fawh the bull I didn’t see when I fiwed, -doncherknow!” A raw recruit instructed the architect of his uniform to -sew in an iron-plate “to protect the most vital part.” The facetious -tailor, instead of fixing the plate in the breast of the coat, planted -it in the seat of the young fellow’s breeches. The enemy worsting his -side in a skirmish, the retreating youth tried to climb over a -stone-wall. A soldier rushed to transfix him with his bayonet, which -landed on the iron-plate with the force of a battering-ram. The shock -hurled the climber safely into the field, tilted his assailant backward -and broke off the point of the cold steel! The happy hero picked himself -up and exclaimed fervently: “That tailor knew a devilish sight better’n -me what’s my most vital part!” Operators who paid no heed to scientific -disquisitions, but went on opening new fields each season, believed the -drill was the one infallible test of petroleum’s most vital part. - -In May of 1891 the Royal Gas-Company finished two wells on the Robb and -Sauters tracts, south of town, across the railroad-track. The Robb -proved a twenty-barreler and the Sauters flowed one-hundred-and-sixty -barrels a day from the fifth sand. They attracted the notice of the -oilmen, who had not taken much stock in the existence of paying -territory at McDonald. Three miles north-east the Matthews well, also a -May-flower, produced thirty barrels a day from the Gordon rock. On July -first it was drilled into the fifth sand, increasing the output to -eight-hundred barrels a day for two months. Further probing the first -week in September increased it to _eleven-thousand barrels_! Scouts -gauged it at seven-hundred barrels an hour for three hours after the -agitation ceased! It yielded four-hundred-thousand barrels of oil in -four months and was properly styled Matthews the Great. The owners were -James M. Guffey, John Galey, Edward Jennings and Michael Murphy. They -built acres of tanks and kept ten or a dozen sets of tools constantly at -work. Mr. Guffey, a prime mover in every field from Richburg to West -Virginia, was largely interested in the Oakdale Oil-Company’s -eighteen-hundred acres. With Galey, Jennings and Murphy he owned the -Sturgeon, Bell and Herron farms, the first six wells on which yielded -twenty-eight-thousand barrels a day! The mastodon oil-field of the world -had been ushered in by men whose sagacious boldness and good judgment -Bradford, Warren, Venango, Clarion and Butler had witnessed repeatedly. - -[Illustration: - - C. D. GREENLEE. B. FORST. - GREENLEE & FORST WELL, McDONALD. -] - -C. D. Greenlee and Barney Forst, who joined forces west of Butler and at -Wildwood, in August of 1891 leased James Mevey’s two-hundred-and-fifty -acres, a short distance north-east of McDonald. Greenlee and John W. -Weeks, a surveyor who had mapped out the district and predicted it would -be the “richest field in Pennsylvania,” selected a gentle slope beside a -light growth of timber for the first well on the Mevey farm. The rig was -hurried up and the tools were hurried down. On Saturday, September -twenty-sixth, the fifth sand was cracked and oil gushed at the rate of -one-hundred-and-forty barrels an hour. The well was stirred a trifle on -Monday, September twenty-eighth, with startling effect. It put -_fifteen-thousand-six-hundred barrels_ of oil into the tanks in -twenty-four hours! The Armstrong and the Matthews had to surrender their -laurels, for Greenlee & Forst owned the largest oil-well ever struck on -this continent. On Sunday, October fourth, after slight agitation by the -tools, the mammoth poured out seven-hundred-and-fifty-barrels an hour -for four hours, a record that may, perhaps, stand until Gabriel’s horn -proclaims the wind-up of oil-geysers and all terrestrial things. The -well has yielded several-hundred-thousand barrels and is still pumping -fifty. Greenlee & Forst’s production for a time exceeded twenty-thousand -barrels a day and they could have taken two or three-million dollars for -their properties. The partners did not pile on the agony because of -their good-luck. They kept their office at Pittsburg and Greenlee -continued to live at Butler. He is a typical manager in the field, -bubbling over with push and vim. Forst had a clothing-store at -Millerstown in its busy days, waltzed around the bull-ring in the -Bradford oil-exchange and returned southward to scoop the capital prize -in the petroleum-lottery. - -Scurrying for territory in the Jumbo-field set in with the vigor of a -thousand football-rushes. McDonald tourists, eager to view the wondrous -spouters and hungry for any morsel of land that could be picked up, -packed the Panhandle trains. Rigs were reared on town-lots, in gardens -and yards. Gaslights glared, streams of oil flowed and the liveliest -scenes of Oil Creek were revived and emphasized. By November first -two-hundred wells were drilling and sixty rigs building. Fifty-four -October strikes swelled the daily production at the close of the month -to eighty-thousand barrels! What Bradford had taken years to accomplish -McDonald achieved in ninety days! Greenlee & Forst had thirty wells -drilling and three-hundred-thousand barrels of iron-tankage. Guffey, -Galey & Jennings were on deck with fifteen or twenty. The Fisher -Oil-Company, owning one-fourth the Oakdale’s big tract and the McMichael -farm, had sixteen wells reaching for the jugular, from which the -Sturgeon and Baldwin spouters were drawing ten-thousand barrels a day. -William Guckert—he started at Foster and was active at Edenburg, Parker, -Millerstown, Bradford and Thorn Creek—and John A. Steele had two -producing largely and eight going down on the Mevey farm. J. G. -Haymaker, a pioneer from Allegany county, N. Y., to Allegheny county, -Pa., and Thomas Leggett owned one gusher, nine drilling wells and -five-hundred acres of leases. Haymaker began at Pithole, drilled in -Venango and Clarion, was prominent in Butler and in 1878 optioned blocks -of land on Meek’s Creek that developed good territory and the thriving -town of Haymaker, the forerunner of the Allegheny field. He boosted -Saxonburg and Legionville and his brother, Obadiah Haymaker, opened the -Murraysville gas-field and was shot dead defending his property against -an attack by Weston’s minions. Veterans from every quarter flocked in -and new faces were to be counted by hundreds at Oakdale, Noblestown and -McDonald. The National-Transit Company laid a host of lines to keep the -tanks from overflowing and Mellon Brothers operated an independent -pipe-line. Handling such an avalanche of oil was not child’s play and it -would have been utterly impossible in the era of wagons and flat-boats -on Oil Creek. - -McDonald territory, if unparalleled in richness, in some respects -tallied with portions of Oil Creek and the fourth-sand division of -Butler. Occasionally a dry-hole varied the monotony of the reports and -ruffled the plumage of disappointed seekers for gushers. Even the Mevey -farm trotted out dusters forty rods from Greenlee & Forst’s -record-breaker. The “belt” was not continuous from McCurdy and dry-holes -shortened it southward and narrowed it westward, but a field so prolific -required little room to build up an overwhelming production. An engine -may exert the force of a thousand horses and the yield of the Greenlee & -Forst or the Matthews in sixty days exceeded that of a hundred average -wells in a twelvemonth. The remotest likelihood of running against such -a snap was terribly fascinating to operators who had battled in the -older sections. They were not the men to let the chance slip and stay -away from McDonald. Hence the field was defined quickly and the line of -march resumed towards the southward, into Washington county and -West-Virginia. - -Wrinkles, gray-hairs and sometimes oil-wells come to him who has -patience to wait. Just as 1884 was expiring, the discovery of oil in a -well on the Gantz lot, a few rods from the Chartiers-Railroad depot, -electrified the ancient borough of Washington, midway between Pittsburg -and Wheeling. The whole town gathered to see the grease spout above the -derrick. Hundreds of oilmen hurried to pick up leases and jerk the -tools. For six weeks a veil of mystery shrouded the well, which was then -announced to be of small account. Eight others had been started, but the -territory was deep, the rock was often hard, and the excited populace -had to wait six months for the answer to the drill. - -Traveling over Washington county in 1880, Frederick Crocker noticed its -strong geological resemblance to the upper oil-fields, which he knew -intimately. The locality was directly on a line from the northern -districts to points south that had produced oil. He organized the -Niagara Oil-Company and sent agents to secure leases. Remembering the -collapse of Washington companies in 1860-1, when wells on Dunkard Creek -attracted folks to Greene county, farmers held back their lands until -public-meetings and a house-to-house canvass satisfied them the Niagara -meant business. Blocks were leased in the northern tier of townships and -in 1882 a test well was drilled on the McGuigan farm. An immense flow of -gas was encountered at twenty-two-hundred feet and not a drop of oil. -Not disheartened, the company went west three miles and sank a well on -the Buchanan farm, forty-two-hundred feet. Possibly the hole contained -oil, but it was plugged and the drillers proceeded to bore -thirty-six-hundred feet on the Rush farm, four miles south. Jumping -eleven miles north-east, they obtained gas, salt-water and feeble spurts -of oil from a well on the Scott farm. About this stage of the -proceedings the People’s Light and Heat Company was organized to supply -Washington with natural-gas. From three wells plenty of gas for the -purpose was derived. A rival company drilled a well on the Gantz lot, -adjacent to the town, which at twenty-one-hundred feet struck the vein -of oil that threw the county-seat into spasms on the last day of 1884. - -The fever broke out afresh in July of 1885, by a report that the Thayer -well, on the Farley farm, a mile south-west in advance of developments, -had “come in.” This well, located in an oatfield in a deep ravine, was -worked as a mystery. Armed guards constantly kept watch and scouts -reclining on the hill-top contented themselves with an unsatisfactory -peep through a field-glass. One night a shock of oats approached within -sixty feet of the derrick. The guard fired and the propelling power -immediately took to its heels and ran. Another night, while a crowd of -disinterested parties jangled with the guards, scouts gained entrance to -the derrick from the rear, but discovered no oil. Previous to this a -scout had paid a midnight visit to the well, eluded the guards, boldly -climbed to the top of the derrick and with chalk marked the -crown-pulley. With the aid of their glasses the vigilant watchers on the -hill-top counted the revolutions and calculated the length of cable -needed to reach the bottom of the well. A bolder move was to crawl under -the floor of the derrick. This was successfully accomplished by several -daring fellows, one of whom was caught in the act. He weighed -two-hundred-and-forty pounds and his frantic struggles for a comfortable -resting-place led to his discovery. A handful of cigars and a long pull -at his pocket flask purchased his freedom. The well was a failure. R. H. -Thayer drilled four more good ones, one a gusher that netted him -three-thousand dollars a day for months. Other operators crowded in and -were rewarded with dusters of the most approved type. - -The despondency following the failure of Thayer’s No. 1 was dispelled on -August twenty-second. The People’s Light and Heat Company’s well, on the -Gordon farm, pierced a new sand two-hundred-and-sixty feet below the -Gantz formation, and oil commenced to scale the derrick. Again the -petroleum-fever raged. An owner of the well, at church on Sunday -morning, suddenly awakened from his slumbers and horrified pastor and -congregation by yelling: “By George! There she spouts!” The day previous -he had seen the well flow and religious thoughts had been temporarily -replaced by dreams of a fortune. This well’s best day’s record was -one-hundred-and-sixty barrels. Test wells for the new Gordon sand were -sunk in all directions and the Washington field had made a substantial -beginning. The effect on the inhabitants was marked. The price of wool -no longer formed the staple of conversation, the new industry entirely -superseding it. Real-estate values shot skyward and the borough -population strode from five-thousand to seventy-five-hundred. The sturdy -Scotch-Presbyterians would not tolerate dance-houses, gambling-hells and -dens of vice in a town that for twenty years had not permitted the sale -of liquor. Time works wonders. Washington county, which fomented the -Whisky Insurrection, was transformed into a prohibition stronghold. The -festive citizen intent upon a lark had to journey to Pittsburg or -Wheeling for his jag. - -Col. E. H. Dyer, whom the Gantz well allured to the new district, leased -the Calvin Smith farm, three miles north-east, and started the drill. He -had twenty years’ experience and very little cash. His funds giving out, -he offered the well and lease for five-hundred dollars. Willets & Young -agreed to finish the well for two-thirds interest. They pounded the -rock, drilled through the fifth sand and hit “the fifty-foot” nearer -China. In January of 1886 the well-Dyer No. 1—flowed four-hundred -barrels a day. Expecting gas or a dry-hole, from the absence of oil in -the customary sand, the owners had not erected tanks and the stream -wasted for several days. Dyer sold his remaining one-third to Joseph W. -Craig, a well-known operator in the Oil-City and Pittsburg -oil-exchanges, for seventy-five-thousand dollars. He organized the -Mascot Oil-Company, located the McGahey in another section of the field -and pocketed two-hundred-thousand dollars for his year’s work in -Washington county. The Smith proved to be the creamiest farm in the -field, returning Willets, Young and Craig six-hundred-thousand dollars. -Calvin Smith was a hired man in 1876, working by the month on the farm -he bought in 1883, paying a small amount and arranging to string out the -balance in fifteen annual instalments. His one-eighth royalty fattened -his bank-account in eighteen months to six figures, an achievement -creditable to the scion of the multitudinous Smith-family. - -From the sinking of the Dyer well drilling went on recklessly. Everybody -felt confident of a great future for Washington territory. Isaac -Willets, brother of an owner of the Smith tract, paid sixty-thousand -dollars for the adjoining farm—the Munce—and spent two-hundred-thousand -in wells that cleared him a plump half-million. John McKeown the same -day bought the farm of the Munce heirs, directly north of their uncle’s, -and drilled wells that yielded him five-thousand dollars a day. He -removed to Washington and died there. His widow erected a -sixty-thousand-dollar monument over his grave, something that would -never have happened if John, plain, hard-headed and unpretentious, could -have expressed his sentiments. Thayer No. 2, on the Clark farm, -adjoining the Gordon, startled the fraternity in May of 1886 by flowing -two-thousand barrels a day from the Gordon sand. It was the biggest -spouter in the heap. Lightning struck the tank and burned the gusher, -the blazing oil shooting flames a hundred feet towards the blue canopy. -At night the brilliant light illumined the country for miles, travelers -pronouncing it equal to Mt. Vesuvius in active eruption. The burning oil -ran to Gordon No. 1, on lower ground, setting it off also. In a week the -Thayer blaze was doused and the stream of crude turned into the tanks of -No. 1. Next night a tool-dresser, carrying a lantern on his way to -“midnight tower,” set fire to the gas which hung around the tanks. The -flames once more shot above the tree-tops, the tool-dresser saved his -life only by rolling into the creek, but the derrick was saved and no -damage resulted to the well. - -Captain J. J. Vandergrift leased the Barre farm, south of the Smith, and -drilled a series of gushers that added materially to his great wealth. -Disposing of the Barre, he developed the Taylorstown pool and reaped a -fortune. T. J. Vandergrift leased the McManis farm, six miles south of -Washington, and located the first Taylorstown well. Taylorstown is still -on duty and W. J. Young manages the company that acquired the -Vandergrift interests. South of the Barre farm James Stewart, vendor of -a cure-all salve, owned a shanty and three acres of land worth -four-hundred dollars. He leased to Joseph M. Craig for one-fourth -royalty. The one well drilled on the lot spouted two-thousand barrels a -day for weeks. It is now pumping fairly. This was salve for Stewart and -liniment for Craig, whose Washington winnings exceed a half-million. -“Mammy” Miller, an aged colored woman, lived on a small lot next to -Stewart and leased it at one-fourth royalty to a couple of local -merchants. They drilled a thousand-barrel well and “Mammy” became the -most courted negress in Pennsylvania. The Union Oil-Company took -four-hundred-thousand dollars from the Davis farm. Patrick Galligan, the -contractor of the Smith well, leased the Taylor farm and grew rich. Pew -& Emerson, who have made millions by natural-gas operations, leased the -Manifold farm, west of the Smith. The first well paid them -twenty-thousand dollars a month and subsequent strikes manifolded this a -number of times. Pew & Emerson have risen by their energy and shrewdness -and can occupy a front pew in the congregation of petroleumites. - -Samuel Fergus, once county-treasurer and a man of broad mould, struck a -geyser in the Fergus annex to the main pool. He drilled on his -twenty-four acres solely to accommodate Robert Greene, pumper for Davis -Brothers. Greene had much faith and no money, but he advised Fergus to -exercise the tools at a particular spot. Fergus might have kept the -whole hog and not merely a pork-chop. He sold three-eighths and carried -one-eighth for Greene, who refused twenty-thousand dollars for it the -day the well began flowing two-thousand barrels. “Bob” Greene, like -Artemas Ward’s kangaroo, was “a amoosin’ cuss!” Called to Bradford -shortly after the gusher was struck, he met an old acquaintance at the -station. His friend invited Bob into the smoker to enjoy a good cigar. -He declined and in language more expressive than elegant said: “I’ve -been a ridin’ in smokers all my life. Now I’m goin’ to turn a new leaf. -I’m goin’ to take a gentleman’s car to Pittsburg and from there to -Bradford I’m goin’ to have a Pullman, if it takes a hull day’s -production.” Bob took his first ride in a Pullman accordingly. The first -venture induced Fergus to punch his patch full of holes and do a turn at -wildcatting. His stalwart luck fired the hearts of many young farmers to -imitate him, in some instances successfully. Washington has not yet gone -out of the oil-business. The Cecil pool kept the trade guessing this -year, but its gushers lacked endurance and the field no longer -terrorizes the weakest lambkin in the speculative fold. - -Greene county experienced its first baptism of petroleum in 1861-2-3, -when many wells were drilled on Dunkard Creek. The general result was -unsatisfactory. The idea of boring two-thousand feet for oil had not -been conceived and the shallow holes did not reach the principal strata. -Of fourth sand, fifth sand, Gordon rock, fifty-foot rock, Trenton rock, -Berea grit, corn-meal rock, Big-Injun sand and others of the deep-down -brand operators on Dunkard Creek never dreamed. Some oil was detected -and more blocks of land were tied up in 1864-5. The credulous natives -actually believed their county would soon be shedding oil from every -hill and hollow, garden and pasture-field. The holders of the -tracts—lessees for speculation only—drilled a trifle, sold interests to -any suckers wanting to bite and the promised developments fizzled. E. M. -Hukill, who started in 1868 at Rouseville, leased twenty-thousand acres -in 1885 and located a well on D. L. Donley’s farm, one-third mile -south-east of the modest hamlet of Mt. Morris. Morris Run empties into -Dunkard Creek near the village. The tools were swung on March second, -1886. Fishing-jobs, hard rock and varied hindrances impeded the work. On -October twenty-first oil spouted, two flows occurred next day and a tank -was constructed. Saltwater bothered it and the well—twenty-two-hundred -feet—was not worth the pains taken for months to work it as a mystery. -Hukill drilled a couple of dusters and the Gregg well at Willowtree was -also a dry-hole at twenty-three hundred feet. Craig & Cappeau and James -M. Guffey & Co. swept over the south-western section in an expensive -search for crude. From the northern limit of McKean to the southern -border of Greene county Pennsylvania had been ransacked. The Keystone -players—Venango, Warren, Forest, Elk, McKean, Clarion, Armstrong, -Butler, Allegheny, Beaver and Washington—put up a stiff game and the -region across the Ohio was to have its innings. - -In the summer of 1881 Butler capitalists drilled a well on the Smith -farm, near Baldridge, seven miles south of the county-seat. It had a -nice white sand and a smell of oil. S. Simcox, J. J. Myers and Porter -Phipps leased the land on which Renfrew now stands and put down a hole -on the Hamill tract. The well showed only a freshet of salt-water until -thirty feet in the third sand, when it flowed crude at a hundred-barrel -gait. This strike, in March of 1882, boomed the territory below Butler -and ushered in Baldridge and Renfrew. Milton Stewart and Lyman Stewart -were interested with Simcox, Myers and Phipps in the property and helped -organize the Bullion Salt-Water Company. - -The Cecil pool, in Washington county, furnishes its oil from the -fifty-foot sand. One well, finished in April of 1895, on a village lot, -flowed thirty-three hundred barrels in twenty-four hours. The biggest -strike at Legionville, Beaver county, was Haymaker’s seven-hundred -barreler. The Shoustown or Shannopin field, also in Beaver, sixteen -miles from Pittsburg, is owned principally by James Amm & Co. Coraopolis -is a thriving oil town, fifteen miles west of the Smoky City. For miles -along the Ohio derricks are quite plentiful. Greene county has been -decidedly brisk in this year of grace and cheap petroleum. And so the -tide rolls on and “thus wags the world away.” - -The southern trail, with its magnificent Butler output, its Allegheny -geysers, its sixteen-thousand barrels a day in Washington and its -wonderful strikes in Greene, was big enough to fill the bill and lap -over all the edges. - -HITS AND MISSES. - -A Bradford minister, when the Academy of Music burned down, shot wide of -the mark in attributing the fire to “the act of God.” Sensible -Christians resented the imputation that God would destroy a dozen houses -and stores to wipe out a variety-theater, or that He had anything to do -with building up a trade in arson and figuring as an incendiary. - - He struck a match and the gas exploded; - An angel now, he knows it was loaded. - -“Mariar, what book was you readin’ so late last night?” asked a stiff -Presbyterian father at Franklin. “It was a novel by Dumas the elder.” -“‘Elder!’ I don’t believe it. What church was he elder on, Ish’d like to -know, and writ novels? Go and read Dr. Eaton’s Presbytery uv Erie.” - -Hymn-singing is not always appropriate, or a St. Petersburg leader would -not have started “When I Can Read My Title Clear” to the minstrel-melody -of “Wait for the Wagon and We’ll All Take a Ride!” At an immersion in -the river below Tidioute, as each convert, male or female, emerged -dripping from the water, the people interjected the revivalist chorus: - - “They look like men in uniform, - They look like men of war!” - -Mr. Gray, of Boston, once discovered a “non-explosive illuminating -gasoline.” To show how safe the new compound was, he invited a number of -friends to his rooms, whither he had taken a barrel of the fluid, which -he proceeded to stir with a red-hot poker. As they all went through the -roof he endeavored to explain to his nearest companion that the -particular fluid in the barrel had too much benzine in it, but the -gentleman said he had engagements higher up and could not wait for the -explanation. Mr. Gray continued his ascent until he met Mr. Jones, who -informed him that there was no necessity to go higher, as everybody was -coming down; so Mr. Gray started back to be with the party. Mr. Gray’s -widow offered the secret for the manufacture of the non-explosive fluid -at a reduced rate, to raise money to buy a silver-handled coffin with a -gilt plate for her departed husband. - - The speech of a youth who goes courting a lass, - Unless he’s a dunce at the foot of the class, - Is sure to be season’d with natural gas. - -Grant Thomas, train-dispatcher at Oil City of the Allegheny-Valley -Railroad, is one of the jolliest jokers alive. When a conductor years -ago a young lady of his acquaintance said to him: “I think that Smith -girl is just too hateful; she’s called her nasty pug after me!” “Oh,” -replied the genial ticket-puncher, in a tone meant to pour oil on the -troubled waters, “that’s nothing; half the cats in Oil City are called -after me!” The girl saw the point, laughed heartily and the angel of -peace hovered over the scene. - - “What’s in a name?” so Shakespeare wrote. - Well, a good deal when fellows vote, - Want a check cashed, or sign a note; - And when an oilman sinks a well, - Dry as the jokes of Digby Bell, - Dennis or Mud fits like a shell. - -[Illustration: VIEWS ON THE TARR FARM, OIL CREEK, IN 1863-6.] - - TARR HOMESTEAD IN 1862 - WELLS ON TARR FARM - LOWER TARR FARM - PHILLIPS AND WOODFORD WELLS - JAMES S. TARR - -[Illustration: REFINERY OF THE NOBELS AT BAKU, RUSSIA.] - - - - - XIV. - MORE OYSTERS IN THE STEW. - -OHIO CALLS THE TURN AT MECCA—MACKSBURG, MARIETTA, LIMA AND FINDLAY HEARD - FROM—WEST VIRGINIA NOT LEFT OUT—VOLCANO’S EARLY RISERS—SISTERSVILLE - AND PARKERSBURG DROP IN—HOOSIERS COME OUT OF THEIR SHELL—COLORADO, - KANSAS, WYOMING, TEXAS AND CALIFORNIA HELP FLAVOR THE PETROLEUM - TUREEN. - - ---------- - -“The world’s mine oyster.”—_Shakespeare._ - -“’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.”—_Tennyson._ - -“To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new.”—_Milton._ - -“Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea.”—_Holmes._ - - “I am his Highness’ dog at Kew, - Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?”—_Pope._ - -“The influence of a strong spirit makes itself felt.”—_Colmore._ - -“Nature fits all her children with something to do.”—Lowell. - - “Let us, then, be up and doing; - Still achieving, still pursuing.”—_Longfellow._ - -“An intense hour will do more than dreamy years.”—_Beecher._ - -“If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.”—_Queen Elizabeth._ - -“There yet remains one effort to be made.”—_Samuel Johnson._ - -“Do what lieth in thy power and God will assist thy good-will.”—_Thomas - à Kempis._ - - ---------- - - -[Illustration: EDWARD H. JENNINGS.] - -Pennsylvania was not to be the solitary oyster in the stew, the one and -only winner in the petroleum-game. Although the Keystone State raked in -the first jack-pot on Oil Creek with the Drake royal-flush, rival -players were billed for an early appearance. Ohio, always ready to -furnish presidents and office-holders for the whole nation, was equally -willing to gather riches by the oleaginous route and dealt Mecca as its -initial trump in the summer of 1860. Years before a farmer near the -quiet town in Trumbull county, digging a well for water, found an -evil-smelling liquid and promptly filled up the hole. This supplied a -cue to J. H. Hoxie, after the news of Drake’s experiment reached him, -and he sank a shallow well close to the farmer’s unlucky venture. -Piercing a covering of dirt twenty feet and coarse sand-rock ten feet, -the tools unlocked a reservoir of dark oil, which responded to the pump -with the vehemence of a Venango spouter. Estimates of the daily yield, -much of which floated down stream, varied from one-hundred to -three-hundred barrels. Probably forty to fifty would be nearer the real -figure. The oil, 26° gravity and very dark green in color, was a -superior lubricant. This new phase of “the Ohio Idea” brought multitudes -of visitors to the scene. Mecca became the mecca of all sorts, sizes and -conditions of worshippers at the greasian shrine. To come and see was to -desire a chance in the exciting lottery. Hoxie, elated beyond measure -over the strike, traveled around the country to magnify the field and -his own connection with it. Small leases were gobbled eagerly for a -small cash-bonus and a royalty, sometimes half the oil done up in -barrels. A three-pole derrick, a spring-pole and light tools hitched to -a rope sufficed to “kick down” a well. Depths ranged from thirty feet to -one-hundred. Portable engines and boilers followed when hand-power -weakened and the wells must be pumped steadily. Rude drilling-outfits -and board-shanties went up by hundreds. Needy adventurers might secure -an acre of ground and sprout into prosperous oilmen in twenty or thirty -days. The tempting bait was snapped at greedily. Rig-builders, -carpenters, teamsters, tool-dressers, laborers, shop-keepers, saloonists -and speculators crowded the busy spot in quest of jobs, locations or -easy victims. Mecca seemed too far off, so a genuine “oil-town,” lacking -none of the earmarks of such creations, was established on the James -Cowdey farm and labeled Oil Diggings. It soon sported a post-office, -which distributed stacks of mail, machine-shops, groceries and -boarding-houses galore; nor were groggeries, gambling-dens and the usual -incidentals difficult to discover. - -The opening months of 1861 swelled the excitement and the population. -The bright and the dark sides were not far apart. Many who came with -high expectations in January returned disappointed in June. The field -had extended south from Power’s Corners, substantial frames enclosed -numerous wells and a refinery was erected. Yet the good quality of the -oil was scantily appreciated until most of the wells had been about -exhausted. Often it went begging vainly for purchasers in Cleveland or -Buffalo. Then the price advanced, actually reaching fifty-two dollars a -barrel in 1863-4. Adulteration with cheaper oils deteriorated the -product and it dropped below a paying rate. Operators realized in the -autumn of 1861 that the territory was declining rapidly and the wiser -ones departed. Some held on a year or two longer, drilled their wells -five-hundred feet in hope of hitting other sands and quit at last. -George Moral, a one-eyed veteran of the war, has stuck to the Shaeffer -farm, at the southern end of the district, and he is still getting a -morsel of oil from a nest of shallow wells. The forest of derricks and -engine-houses has disappeared. Oil Diggings is a tradition and “Ichabod” -is written over the once stirring district. - - “Old Rhinestein’s walls are crumbled now. - Stern Ruin’s ploughshare drives elate full on thy bloom.” - -Mix & Force were, perhaps, the most successful Mecca operators. It was -hard to extract the heavy oil from the rock by ordinary processes. -Calvin Adams, of Pittsburg, conceived the idea of sinking a shaft and -drifting into the sand, exactly as in gold-mining. He employed four men, -pumped the oil and water that seeped in and hoisted lots of rock to the -surface, where steam was used to force out the greasy fluid that -saturated the sand. This novel method paid while oil was high-priced, -but was too expensive when the stuff went zero-wards. The oil-bearing -rock, known as Berea grit, lay in flat formations and was somewhat -porous. Mr. Rider removed his refinery to Oil Creek in 1862, since which -period refining has been a lost art in Trumbull county. Everybody has -heard of the resolute pioneer who, bound for Colorado by the overland -line of prairie-schooners, inscribed on his Conestoga wagon: “Pike’s -Peak or Bust!” He was distanced by a band of petroleum-seekers at Oil -Diggings. The jokers built their engine-house and belt-house parallel -with the public road and emblazoned in two-foot capitals on the derrick: -“Oil, Hell or China!” James A. Garfield, afterwards Chief Magistrate of -the United States—he was a pilgrim to Mecca and owned an interest in the -“Preachers’ Wells,” among the best in the bundle—once quoted this legend -in Congress. Paying his respects pointedly to “Sunset” Cox, who -represented an Ohio district in the House and had failed of re-election, -Garfield closed with these words: - -“My friend found in the late election a decided majority against him. -Evidently he is going down, down, down until, in the language of an -oil-explorer, he comes to ‘OIL, HELL OR CHINA!’” - -Garfield left Oil Diggings when the bubble burst, served term after term -in Congress, went to the White House and perished by the bullet of a -vile assassin. Cox left Ohio for New York, secured the good-will of -Tammany, went back to Congress repeatedly, died years ago and was -honored with a statue in Astor Place. Both were political leaders on -opposing sides and warm personal friends, both gained world-wide -celebrity, both were Ohioans and oil-producers, and both retained to the -last that “chastity of honor which felt a stain like a wound.” - -[Illustration: MICHAEL EDIC HESS.] - -M. E. Hess, for thirty years a respected citizen of Pennsylvania, began -his oil-career at Mecca. He came to Oil Creek in the sixties, formed a -partnership with Franklin S. Tarbell and operated largely in various -sections. He was prominent in the Clarion field and took up his abode at -Edenburg. There, as wherever he lived, he has been active in -church-work, in building up a religious sentiment and in furthering the -best interests of the community. He has served acceptably in the -borough-council and is now justice of the peace. Upright in his life and -character, sincere in his friendships, kind to the poor and trustworthy -everywhere, M. E. Hess deserves the high place he has always held in -popular regard. The passing years have touched him lightly, his heart is -young, he is “not slothful in business” and he trains with the “men who -can hear the Decalogue and feel no self-reproach.” - - “An honest man’s the noblest work of God.” - -The south-east border of Ohio next experienced the petroleum-revival. -The region about Marietta, where surface-signs of greasiness were noted -a century ago, for years enjoyed its full share of satisfactory -developments. Three or four counties have been covered satisfactorily, -producing from the Big Injun sand. The Benwood pool, in Monroe county, -introduced by a big well on the Price farm in August of 1896, has -yielded liberally and is still the object of respectful attention. -Macksburg, sufficiently important in 1881 to hold the entire oil-trade -in mortal suspense for weeks, is on hand with a small output. John -Denman, of Bradford, and Thomas Mills were pioneers in the field and did -a turn in working the “mystery racket.” Hundreds assembled to watch the -torpedoing of their frontier-well, four miles east of Macksburg, kept in -abeyance a month for speculative purposes. Natives, with their wives and -families, lined the hillside to behold the novel sight. Col. John J. -Carter had arranged a system of flag-signals and stationed men to wave -the news to Dexter City, five miles away. The swiftest horse in the -county was at my service, to bear my message to the nearest -telegraph-office for transmission to the New-York Oil-Exchange. George -H. Nesbit, L. E. Mallory, Denman and a dozen other Pennsylvania -operators stood by. Hours were frittered away, until the exchanges had -closed, before the shell was lowered into the hole. The reaction -following the explosion came at last. A column of water rose mildly a -few feet in the air and—that was all! The much-vaunted well, which -throttled the great petroleum-industry three or four weeks, was -practically a failure and never rose above the five-barrel grade! - - “The mountain labored and brought forth a mouse.” - -A thousand barrels a day was the average yield of the south-eastern -division in 1896. George Rice’s refinery at Marietta treated the bulk of -the production at the primitive stage of developments. It was a -rice-pudding for Rice, who is a thoroughbred hustler and wastes no love -upon anyone who may encroach upon his particular preserve. He has loads -of pluck and enterprise and the staying quality that is desirable alike -in oilmen and oil-territory, to say nothing of bull-dogs and -prize-fighters. - - “‘Thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just,’ - And four times he who gets his work in fust.” - -The great Lima field, spreading over a dozen counties in North-western -Ohio, was the star performer of the Buckeye galaxy. Centering in Allen, -Hancock, Wood and Seneca, it has grasped big slices of the bordering -counties, with a strip of Lucas for good measure. Gas-indications in -Hancock, which resulted in a large well at Findlay in 1884, set the ball -rolling. Others were drilled forthwith, one on the Kramer farm getting -five barrels of oil a day. Findlay and Bowling Green had dipped into the -Trenton rock profitably, but nobody thought a huge oil-field at all -likely to be encountered. The Strawboard Works at Lima, in Allen county, -south-west of Hancock, needed more water and the manager decided to -drill for water and gas. The hole was punched through the Trenton rock -and pronounced a rank failure for gas. The company exploded a torpedo in -the barren rock on April twelfth, 1885. To the astonishment of owners -and spectators, the well sent out a stream of oil. It was tubed and -pumped fifteen barrels a day. Such was the modest beginning of an -oil-district destined to cause a greater stir than Grover Cleveland’s -boy-baby or Albert Edward’s green necktie. - - There were no flies on Lima that glad day; - Great expectations had the right of way, - For the oil-boom had come, and come to stay. - -It was “the old, old story.” The Queen of Sheba doubted the reports of -Solomon’s grandeur until she sized up the outfit personally and -declared: “The half has not been told.” Outsiders doubted the truth of a -paying strike at Lima, and doubted its importance after seeing the well -and the contents of the tank. The oil had a sickly tint and an odor that -“smelled to heaven.” People sniffed the dreadful aroma and proclaimed -the oil good only for fuel. A few Limans thought differently and -organized the Citizens’ Gas-Company to help play the game to a finish. -Not a cloud of gas, but a forty-barrel pumper, was the result in -December. Regardless of tint or odor, outsiders and insiders hastened to -get drilling-sites. By May first, 1886, sixteen wells on town-lots were -producing nicely. George P. Waldorf and James B. Townsend, residents of -Lima, were the first to lease a farm in the neighborhood, at one-eighth -royalty. They visited Bradford, returned with David Kirk and Isaac E. -Dean, formed the Trenton-Rock Oil-Company, leased many lots and -fifty-thousand acres of land, set strings of tools boring and soon piled -up a tidy production. The year closed with two-hundred wells doing -nine-thousand barrels, which the Buckeye Pipe-Line transported and -stored. Operations extended north-east and south-west, until -thirty-thousand wells were drilled and a half-million acres of territory -opened. Findlay, Lima, Fostoria and Toledo were strictly in the swim. -The deluge of grease swelled to mammoth proportions. Iron-tanks stored -thirty-million barrels, while iron-pipes bore other millions east and -west. Refineries used what they could, Ohio oil netting a smaller -percentage of kerosene than Pennsylvania crude, and in 1889 the price -crawled down to fifteen cents. Think of it—fifteen cents for forty-two -gallons of oil pumped from twelve-hundred feet beneath the earth’s -surface! - -[Illustration: LIMA OIL-FIELDS.] - -Developments covered large areas in Hancock and Wood counties, took in a -strip of Allen and Auglaize one to three miles wide, and extended -south-west to St. Mary’s, thirty miles from Lima. They reached -north-east into Sandusky and Ottawa, east into Seneca, north into Lucas -and west into Van Wert and across the state-line into Indiana. Wood -county stood at the top of the heap, with the rest as offshoots. Its -first well, drilled three miles north of North Baltimore by T. J. -Vandergrift & Co., cantered off in March, 1888, at four-hundred barrels. -The second, put down three miles east a year later by Bowling-Green -tenderfeet, rated as a fifteen-hundred barreler. Smith & Zeigler’s, on -the adjoining farm, outdid this three to one by bowling out -five-thousand barrels per diem. The plot thickened very rapidly. Gushers -tumbled into line at a dizzy pace. Cygnet lots boasted clusters of -derricks that marked king-pin strikes. Agents of the Standard bought -thousands of wells and the cream of the territory. The product fed a -myriad furnace-fires in Chicago and the half-mile battery of -steam-boilers at the Columbian Exposition. In Sandusky county, whose -earliest wells, at Gibsonburg in 1888, were by no means aggressive, T. -E. Kirkbride called the turn on a six-thousand-barrel spouter in -November, 1894. Altogether the Ohio oil-region, with its eastern pool in -Trumbull county, its south-eastern branch in Washington, Monroe and -Noble and its vast deposit of gas and petroleum in the north-western -section, was a startling revelation. But all the territory was not -velvet, as eight-thousand dry-holes attest. No leopard could be more -spotted. The present average yield of the wells is under four barrels, -with sixty-six cents as the average price last year. Five-sixths of the -twenty-four-million barrels Ohio produced in 1896 must be credited to -the north-western colossus. - -Thomas E. Kirkbride, the man that owned the well that raised the smell -that set the pace that led the race that broke the slate that it was -fate that Coxey’s state should elevate, hails from Tidioute, where his -parents located in 1866. He started in oil young, operated in the Warren -and Bradford fields, caught the Ohio fever and landed at Findlay in -1890. His first ventures were around Gibsonburg, four miles west of -which, on the Jones farm, he drilled the gusher that smashed the Lima -record and fattened his bank-account six figures. - -Mr. Kirkbride lives at Toledo, in a handsome home gladdened by a devoted -wife and five children. S. M. Jones, the distinguished Mayor of Toledo, -also came from the Keystone State. He drilled in the lower oil-districts -in 1868, joined the tide for Bradford and located at Duke Centre. Thence -he migrated to Toledo, patented a sucker-rod improvement, erected a big -factory, dabbled skilfully in municipal affairs, advocated civic reforms -and won the mayoralty on the grand platform of “eight hours work a day.” -Mr. Jones helped organize the Western Oilmen’s Association, which -occupies fine quarters in the heart of the city. There Fred Boden, W. J. -McCullagh, Frank Steele, C. A. Lupher and other Keystoners often hang -out to welcome old friends from Pennsylvania. W. B. Nolan, who pumped at -Oil City in 1864 and operated from Edenburg to Bradford, has drilled -five-hundred wells in Ohio for himself or by contract. C. C. Harris, who -sold to the Ohio Oil-Company in 1890 for one-hundred-thousand dollars, -has put down four-hundred. Truly the Buckeye State is no slouch in -petroleum. - -[Illustration: WELLS ON TOWN LOTS AT CYGNET, OHIO.] - -A farmer in the Black Swamp of Wood county, half-starved on corn-bread -and bad water, leased his forty-acre patch for oil-purposes. The first -well, which was sunk a hundred yards from his cabin, flowed two-thousand -barrels a day. When the spurt began the old fellow happened to be -chopping wood beside his door. He saw the mass of oil climb into the -atmosphere, flung down his axe and shouted: “Bet yer life, no more -corn-dodgers an’ watered whisky for this chicken!” - -A barren streak in Mercer and Van Wert, on Ohio’s western border, seemed -to demonstrate the folly of seeking an extension of the Lima belt in -Indiana, despite convincing symptoms of oil at Geneva. To test the -matter the Northern-Indiana Oil-Company, composed mainly of Lima -operators, leased five-thousand acres along the boundary between Adams -and Jay counties and drilled several wells in 1892. Nearly the whole -range proved productive, showing that the belt stretched westward. -Portions of Wells, Blackford, Grant and Huntingdon joined the procession -in due course. Last year an important pool was unearthed near -Alexandria, Madison county, twenty-five miles south-west of the original -field, which demanded a pipe-line to Montpelier. This newest accession -is in the town of Peru, with spurs quite close to Cass county. This has -been the stellar attraction of Hoosierdom, fifty-five wells completed in -October of 1897 yielding thirty-five-hundred barrels. Roan, New Waverley -and Denver have not escaped and the drill has invaded Kokomo, twenty -miles south. Peru is the fad of the hour, the pride of the Wabash. Just -clear across the state, several wells at Terre Haute have revealed the -presence of sand, gas and oil. The average price of Indiana crude in -1896 was sixty-three cents, and five-million barrels were produced. - -[Illustration: BIT OF INDIANA OIL-TERRITORY.] - -The Indiana oil-region is a level country, about forty miles long east -and west and three to four wide. The oil, dark green in color and -thirty-six gravity, is found in the Trenton limestone, at a depth of a -thousand feet. Thirty to a hundred feet of driving-pipe and -three-hundred feet of casing are needed in each well. The main belt runs -in regular pools and may be considered ten-barrel territory. The -aggregate production of the field is twelve to fifteen-thousand barrels -a day. The largest well started at two-thousand barrels and some have -records of five-hundred to eight-hundred. The great gas-field, south of -the oil-belt, has boomed manufactures and contributed vastly to the -wealth of the Hoosiers. - -Last May the Byram Oil-Company of Indianapolis finished the first -oil-well, within sight of the village of Dundee, ever drilled by -electricity. A fifty-horse dynamo, which runs the small motors at a -dozen wells on the tract, supplied the power. Gas is used under the -boilers in the power-house, a substantial frame-building, which shelters -the central station. The entire plant cost five-thousand dollars and the -company votes it a success of the first magnitude. - -Hiram Tewksbury, of Montpelier, who pays taxes on six-hundred acres of -land in Wells county, is one of the few men whom getting into a lawsuit -enriched. When the Indiana field was in its infancy he contracted to -purchase the Howard farm for some oilmen, who refused to take it off his -hands and were sustained by the Court. He sued Howard to take it back, -the Supreme Court decided against him and Tewksbury had to keep the -land. It turned out to be the bosom of an oil-pool, the cream of the -district. One acre brought Tewksbury eleven-thousand dollars, and for -months his royalty exceeded five-hundred dollars a week. - -[Illustration: JAMES W. ROWLAND.] - -Peru, a natty place of ten-thousand inhabitants, twelve miles east of -Logansport, is the Indiana sensation of the year. Last June a bevy of -citizens drilled a duster on the Wallace farm, two miles east. This dose -of Peruvian bark spurred them to drill on the north-west edge of town in -July. The well flowed fifteen barrels a day through the casing, at -twenty feet in the Trenton rock, increasing ten-fold when tubed and -pumped. At once the oil craze ran riot in the wild rush for leases. -Tourists from Ohio and Pennsylvania led the long procession of -land-seekers. The Klondyke pool east of Toledo and the Hume south of -Lima were forgotten temporarily. Scores of slick wells demolished the -theory of a mere “pocket,” which the absence of gas and scarcity of -salt-water led would-be scientists to expect at the first blush. The -good work has crowded ahead and Peru roosts high on the petroleum-perch -in the center of the patch. - - A dandy thing it is to be on top, - Provided you don’t have to take a drop - And come down with a thud, kerflop. - -[Illustration: H. C. ZEIGLER.] - -Thirteen per cent. of the five-thousand wells drilled in Benjamin -Harrison’s state are dry-holes. Montpelier has benefited largely from -operations in Wells, Blackford and Jay counties. The Sibley Oil-Company, -Isaac N. Patterson, the Rowland-Zeigler Oil-Company and other -Pennsylvania firms and individuals have been prominent in the field. Mr. -Patterson lives at Franklin, is president of the savings bank and has -figured extensively in the chief districts since Petroleum Centre and -Pithole first tinctured the horizon a flaming red. James W. Rowland quit -mercantile-life in Franklin to conduct a bank at Emlenton and embark in -the oil-business. The success he richly merited attended him in banking, -producing and refining. He gained a liberal fortune, returned to -Franklin and took a leading share in developing the Indiana region. Mr. -Rowland is a first-class man of affairs, genial and generous, true to -his convictions, loyal in his friendships and always ready to further a -good cause. The Rowland-Zeigler Company sold to the Standard recently at -a price which hugged a quarter-million dollars closely. H. C. Zeigler, -who managed and was president of the company, began his oil-career as -owner of an interest in the first two producing wells at Raymilton, -drilled in 1869. Operating at Pleasantville a short season, the -fourth-sand development attracted him to Petrolia. In 1873 he and J. D. -Ritchey and W. T. Jackson procured a charter for the Cleveland -Pipe-Line, which was sold to S. D. Karns and merged into the Karns Line. -Assisting in the management of the Karns Line until the United Lines -absorbed it, he then engaged actively in producing oil. His circuit of -operations comprised Bullion, Cogley, Thorn Creek, Cherry Grove, -Bradford and Richburg. Moving westward, he participated in the early -development of the Ohio and Indiana fields. In company with Jacob S. -Smith he established the plant that supplied natural-gas to Chicago. His -master-stroke was the organization of the Rowland-Zeigler Company, which -alone realized him a competence. Mr. Zeigler is in his prime, hearty and -vigorous, quick to relieve distress and prompt to aid the right. None -better deserves the compliment George D. Prentice paid Mark M. Pomeroy: -“He is a brick.” - -John and Michael Cudahy, behind whom Philip Armour, the Swifts, -Fairbanks and Nelson Morris, the Chicago beef-magnates, are supposed to -pose, in 1895 purchased a huge slice of the Indiana field, laid a -pipe-line to the Windy City and talked of building a refinery that would -outshine the Standard giant at Whiting. The brothers are sons of an -Irish resident of Milwaukee, who taught them his own trade of -meat-packing. Michael Cudahy went to Chicago to manage a branch for John -Plankington, whom the Armours succeeded, and John “came tumbling after.” -John piled up millions by plunges in pork and lard that won him the -soubriquet of “Daring Jack” Cudahy, while Michael stuck to Armour -faithfully. John toppled and lost his wealth, Michael started him -afresh, he paid off a million of debts and built up another fortune. -Michael, several times a millionaire, has studied the swine as Sir John -Lubbock has studied the ant. No part of the hog is wasted under his -trained system, but thus far the Cudahys have not been able to hog the -Hoosier oil-fields. - -C. H. Shattuck had the first well in West Virginia drilled for oil. He -came from Michigan in the fall of 1859, secured land in Wirt county and -bored one-hundred feet by the tedious spring-pole process. The well was -on the bank of the Hughes river, from which the natives skimmed off a -greasy fluid to use for rheumatism and bruises. It was dry and Shattuck -settled at Parkersburg, his present abode. At Burning Springs a -“disagreeable fluid” flooded a salt-well, which the owner quit in -disgust. General Samuel Karns, of Pennsylvania, and his nephew, S. D. -Karns, rigged it up in 1860 and pumped considerable oil. The shallow -territory was operated extensively. Ford & Hanlon bored on Oil-Spring -Run, Ritchie county, in 1861-2, finding heavy oil in paying quantities. -W. H. Moore started the phenomenal eruption at Volcano in 1863, by -drilling the first well, which produced eight-thousand barrels of -lubricating oil. Sheafer & Steen’s, the second well, was a good second -and the Cornfield pumped seven-thousand barrels of thirty-five-gravity -oil in six months. William C. Stiles and the Oil-Run Petroleum Company -punched scores of wells. Volcano perched on the lubricating pedestal for -years, but it is now extinct. E. L. Gale—he built the railroad -freight-houses at Aspinwall and Panama and owned the site of Joliet and -half the land on which Milwaukee thrives—in 1854 purchased two-thousand -acres of bush twenty-five miles from Parkersburg. In 1866 the celebrated -Shaw well, the first of any note on his tract, flowed one-hundred -barrels of twenty-six-degree oil. Gale sent samples to the Paris -Exposition in 1867 and received the only gold-medal awarded for natural -oils. The Shaw well kicked up a fuss, leases brought large bonuses, -excitement ran high and the “Gale Oil Field” was king of the hour. -Land-grabbers annoyed Gale, who declined a million dollars for his -property. He routed the herd and died at an advanced age, leaving his -heirs ample means to weather the severest financial gale. The war had -driven northern operators from the field and heavy-oil developments -cleared the coast for the next act on the program. - -Charles B. Traverneir, in the spring of 1883, on Rock Run, put down the -first deep well in West Virginia. It encountered a strong flow of oil at -twenty-one-hundred feet and yielded for eleven years. Volcano and -Parkersburg had retired and light-oil territory was the object of the -ambitious wildcatter. At Eureka, situated in a plain contiguous to the -Ohio river, Brown & Rose struck the third sand in April, 1886, at -thirteen-hundred feet. The well flowed seven-hundred barrels of -forty-four-gravity oil, similar to the Macksburg variety and equal to -the Pennsylvania article for refining. The derrick burned, with the -tools at the bottom of the well, and the yield decreased to -three-hundred barrels in May. Oilmen pronounced Eureka the coming -oil-town and farmers asked ridiculous prices for their lands. Bradford -parties leased numerous tracts and bounced the drill merrily. The third -sand in West Virginia was found in what are known as “oil breaks,” at -irregular depths and sometimes cropping out upon the surface. Eureka is -still a center of activity. The surrounding country resembles the -Washington district in appearance and fertility of the soil. In 1891 -Thomas Mills, who operated at Tionesta in 1862 and at Macksburg in -1883-4, leased a bundle of lands near Sistersville and sank a well -sixteen-hundred feet. A glut of salt-water induced him to sell out -cheap. The first important results were obtained on the Ohio side of the -Ohio river, where many wells were bored. The Polecat well, drilled in -1890, daily pumped fifty barrels of oil and two-thousand of salt-water, -bringing Sistersville forward a peg. Eight wells produced a thousand -barrels of green oil per day in May of 1892. Operating was costly and -only wealthy individuals or companies could afford to take the risks of -opening such a field. Captain J. T. Jones, J. M. Guffey, Murphy & -Jennings, the Carter Oil-Company, the Devonian Oil-Company, the Forest -Oil-Company and the South-Penn have reduced the business to an exact -science and secured a large production. Sistersville, named from the two -Welles sisters, who once owned the site of the town, has been a magnet -to petroleumites for two years. Gushers worthy of Butler or Allegheny -have been let loose in Tyler, Wood, Ritchie, Marion and Doddridge. The -Big Moses, on Indian Creek, is a first-class gasser. Morgantown, -Mannington and Sistersville are as familiar names as McDonald, -Millerstown or Parker. Pipe-lines handle the product and old-timers from -Bradford, Warren and Petrolia are seen at every turn. West-Virginia is -on top for the moment, with the tendency southward and operators eagerly -seeking more petroleum-worlds to conquer in Kentucky and Tennessee. - -She was a radiant Sistersville girl. She descended the stairs quietly -and laid her hand on the knob of the door, hoping to steal out -stealthily in the gray dawn. Her father stood in the porch and she was -discovered. “My daughter,” said the white-haired old gentleman, “what is -that—what are those you have on?” She hung her head and turned the -door-knob uneasily back and forth between her fingers, but did not -answer. “Did you not promise me,” the old man went on, “that if I bought -you a bicycle you would not wear—that is, you would ride in skirts?” She -stepped impulsively toward him and paused. “Yes, father,” she said, “I -did and I meant it. But I didn’t know these then. The more I saw of them -the better I liked them. They improve on acquaintance, father. They grow -on one——” “My daughter,” he interrupted, “Eve’s garments grew on her!” -And so it has been with the West-Virginia oil-field—it grows on one and -the more he sees of it the better he likes it. - -Long after the Ruffners’ time Tyler county, the heart of the -West-Virginia region, was a backwoods district, two generations behind -the age and traveling at an ice-wagon gait, until it caught “the glow of -the light to come.” Its beginning was small, but men who sneer at little -things merely show that they have sat on a tack and been worsted in the -fray. It has taken grit and perseverance to bring a hundred-thousand -barrels of oil a day from the bowels of the earth in Pennsylvania, Ohio, -West-Virginia and Indiana. The man who has not a liberal stock of these -qualities should steep himself in brine before engaging in -oil-operations. He will only hit the nail on the thumb and be as badly -fooled as the chump who deems he has a cinch on heaven because he never -stole sheep. Petroleum is all right and a long way from its ninth -inning. The alarmist who thinks it is playing out would have awakened -Noah with the cry of “Fire!” - -[Illustration: BIG MOSES GAS-WELL IN WEST VIRGINIA.] - -Edward H. Jennings is among the most enterprising and fortunate -operators in West Virginia. His Kanawha Oil Company has a legion of -tip-top wells and miles of approved territory. Like his deceased father, -a pioneer in Armstrong and Butler, he decides promptly and acts -vigorously. With James M. Guffey, John H. Galey and one or two others he -owned the phenomenal Matthews well and the richest territory at -McDonald. The same gentlemen now own the famous Trade-Dollar Mine in -Idaho, the greatest silver-mine on earth to-day, and gold-mines in -California, Colorado and Nova Scotia that yield bountiful returns. Mr. -Jennings is president of the Columbia Bank and lives in the beautiful -East End of Pittsburg. He ranks high in business and finance. Brainy, -cultured, energetic and courageous, Mr. Jennings scored his mark through -well-directed effort and systematic industry - -Womanly intuition is a hummer that discounts science, philosophy and -red-tape. Mrs. Katherine E. Reed died at Sistersville in June of 1896. -Her foresight secured fortunes for herself and many other in Tyler -county. Left a widow five years ago, with eight children and a farm that -would starve goats to death, she leased the land for oil-purposes. The -test-well proving dry, Mrs. Reed implored the men to try again at a spot -she had proposed for the first venture. The drillers were hard up, but -consented to make a second trial when the good woman agreed to board -them for nothing in case no oil was found. The well was the biggest -gusher in the bundle. To-day it is producing largely and is known oil -over West Virginia as “The Big Kate.” Mrs. Reed cleared -two-hundred-thousand dollars from the sterile tract, which would sell -for as much more yet, and her children and neighbors are independent for -life. - -Do any of the Pioneers on Kanawha remember “Dick” Timms’s Half-way -House? The weather-beaten sign bore the legend, in faded letters: “Rest -for the Weary. R. Timms.” The exterior was rough and unpainted, but -inside was cheery and homelike in its snugness. When travelers rode up -to the door “Uncle Dick,” in full uniform of shirt and pantaloons, -barefooted and hatless, rough and uncouth in speech and appearance, but -with a heart so big that it made his fat body bulge and his whole face -light up with a cheerful smile, stood ready with his welcome salutation -of “Howdy, howdy? ’Light; come in.” - -Colorado counts confidently upon a production sufficient to give the -Centennial State a solid lodgment in the petroleum-column. Its earliest -development was a small well on the Lobach ranch, near Florence, in -1882. Other wells yielded enough crude to warrant the erection of a -refinery in 1885, by the Arkansas-Valley Oil-Company, to which the -United Oil-Company has succeeded. The United pumps ten or twelve-hundred -barrels a day from forty wells, refining the product into illuminating -oils, gasoline and lubricants of superior quality. The Florence -Oil-Company pumps a dozen wells, owns a little refinery and holds large -blocks of leased lands. The Rocky-Mountain Oil-Company, organized in -1890, has drilled forty-five wells south of the town of Florence, -twenty-four of which yield three-hundred barrels a day. The Eureka -Company is also operating briskly. The production of the Colorado region -is nearly two-thousand barrels a day, derived from wells that average -twenty-five hundred feet in depth, too expensive for persons of slender -means to tamper with. - - The lively folks who drill in Colorado - May justly be excused for some bravado, - Because their hopes are not based on a shadow. - -The Salt-Creek oil-field, the first worked in Wyoming, is in the -northern part of Natrona and the southern part of Johnson county, fifty -miles north of Caspar, the terminus of the Fremont, Elkhorn & -Missouri-Valley Railroad. As known to-day the field is eighteen by -thirty miles. It lies along Salt Creek and its tributaries, which drain -northward and empty into Powder River, and is a rough country, cut by -deep gulches, beneath which there are table-lands of small extent. -Vegetation is scanty and timber is found only on the highest bluffs. In -1889 the Pennsylvania Oil-Company, composed of Pennsylvanians and under -the management of George B. McCalmont, located on Salt Creek and drilled -a well which, early in the spring of 1890, struck oil. Obstacles of no -small magnitude were met with. The oil had to be freighted fifty miles -by wagon; railroad-freights were controlled by eastern oil producers, -rates that would justify shipments seemed almost impossible, and the oil -had to be proved before it could be placed upon the market in -competition with well-known brands. In the face of these difficulties -the company continued work, and in the spring of 1894 succeeded in -making arrangements to ship crude-oil. Storage-tanks were erected at the -wells and at the railroad, and a refinery is now in operation at Caspar. -The wells vary in depth from nine-hundred to fifteen-hundred feet and -three companies are operating. The oil is a valuable lubricant. The -transportation of the oil to the railroad is effected by freight-wagons -of the ordinary sort. Behind them is a fourth wagon, or the freighter’s -home, which has wide boards projecting from the sides of the wagon-box -over the wheels, making a box of unusual width covered with heavy canvas -over the ordinary wagon-bows and provided with a window in the back, a -door in front, a bed, cook-stove, table, cupboard and the necessary -equipment for keeping house. In this house on wheels the freighter -passes the night, and in breaking camp he is not bothered with his -camp-outfit. This novelty has been recently introduced by Mr. Johnson, -the leading freighter for the Pennsylvania Company. With sixteen mules -he draws his four wagons with nine tons of oil, over a very sandy road. - -Wyoming oil sells high at Caspar, which is becoming a place of some -consequence and may soon figure as the state-metropolis. It was a fort -in the days of wild beasts and wilder Indians. Soft rock, with a -provoking tendency to cave-in, and artesian water, impregnated with -sulphur and found just above the oil-sand, rendered drilling a difficult -task. The best well in the bunch produces from a rock five-hundred feet -down, while the deepest is sixteen-hundred feet and the sand is fifty -feet thick. Oil-basins on Caspar Creek, Powder River, Salt Creek and -Poison Spider indicate the existence of petroleum over a wide section of -the state. Wells on Salt Creek resemble those in Russia. True-blue -Wyomingites proudly anticipate the day when their gilt-edged basin will -hit the Baku mastodons a Fitzsimmons sock-dolager in the solar-plexus. - - My! Won’t the Czar feel like the deuceovitch - When the Wyoming wells cut looseovitch - And Baku spouters must vamooseovitch? - -[Illustration: TWELVE HORSES AND THREE WAGONS FOR HAULING OIL, AT -CASPAR, WYOMING, WITH “BARNEY” M’CALMONT IN THE FOREGROUND.] - -William M. Mills, boring for gas in 1892 near the east side of Neodesha, -Wilson county, Kansas, found sand with oil in two wells and plugged the -holes. John H. Galey, ever awake to the importance of prospective -territory, heard the news and proceeded to investigate. He examined the -sand and the oil—almost black in color and of heavy gravity—thought -favorably of the country, enlisted Mills for the campaign, leased -sixty-thousand acres for himself and James M. Guffey, located a number -of wells and prepared for extensive developments. Guffey & Galey’s first -well was rather slim. Their second, at Thayer, fourteen miles -north-east, was also small. Their third, twenty-five miles farther -north-east, at Humbolt, Allen county, had sand and gas and a feeble show -of oil. Similar results forty miles south-west of Neodesha confirmed -their opinion of plenty spotted territory to be worth testing to a -finish. They drilled twenty wells in the vicinity of Neodesha, the -majority of them fair. Several out of eighteen put down around Thayer, -in the winter of 1893-4, rated in the medium class. The principal -production of the Kansas field to-day—about five-hundred barrels derived -from a hundred or more wells—is at these two points. In all Guffey & -Galey drilled one-hundred-and-forty wells, averaging eight-hundred feet -deep and half of them dry, and sold to the Forest Oil-Company in 1895. - -[Illustration: WHERE OIL IS SOUGHT IN KANSAS.] - -E. E. Crocker, son of the Bradford pioneer, superintended the drilling -of numerous wells for the Forest in 1896-7. Scattered over Bourbon, -Crawford, Allen, Neosho, Woodson, Elk, Wilson and Montgomery counties, -two-thirds of these ventures were dusters. Three at Humboldt are the -farthest north that produce any oil. The farthest south are near Sedan -and Peru, Chautauqua county. This embraces about seventy-five miles -north-east and south-west. The whole district is as uncertain as the age -of the oldest Betsey Bobbet in the pack. Dry-holes may surround a fair -strike. The sand runs from eight to twenty feet. The oil is extremely -dark, twenty to thirty-five gravity, with asphalt base, no paraffine and -no sulphur. From the company’s refinery at Neodesha, which has a -capacity of one-thousand barrels, the first shipment of kerosene was -made last June. The refinery is designed to supply Kansas and portions -of Nebraska and Missouri. Most of the crude is produced so near the -refinery that pipe-lines have not been laid to transport it. - -Gas is struck ninety to a hundred feet below the oil-sand, sometimes in -large quantity and occasionally at about four-hundred feet from the -surface. Low pressure and water prevent piping gas in the shallow wells -long distances. It was a Fourth of July when the vapor illuminant was -first lighted at Neodesha. Enthusiasm and patriotism drew thousands to -the celebration. Jerry Simpson’s candidacy and Peffer’s whiskers were -side-tracked and forgotten. Darkness gathered and the impatient throng -waited for the torch to be applied to the tall stand-pipes. Their cheers -might be heard in Oklahoma when masses of flame lit up the sky and -bathed the town in a lurid glare. - -The Guiper Oil-Company, managed by William Guiper of Oil City, the -Palmer Oil-Company and James Amm & Co. have drilled many wells that did -not bear the market a little bit. Across the Kansas border, at Eufala, -Indian Territory, the Enterprise Oil-Company bored twenty-eight-hundred -feet without finding the stuff. Two wells in Creek county had white-sand -and a trifle of amber-oil at seven-hundred and a thousand feet. The -Cherokee Oil-Company drilled ten wells that produced a moderate amount -of heavy-oil from two slates. Wisconsin parties, making deep tests on -the Cherokee border, indulge in fond hopes that “Bleeding Kansas” and -the country south may shortly bleed petroleum from a half-score rich -arteries. - -Five wells near Litchfield, Illinois, pump fifty gallons of -lubricating-oil a day. Two in Bates county, Missouri, dribble enough to -grease wagon-axles and farm-implements. A New-York syndicate has -obtained large concessions of land from the government and is drilling -at Jalapa, Mexico, where oil was found in shallow wells a few years ago. -In Kentucky a host of small or dry wells have gone down since 1894. The -Bobs-Bar well, the only one producing in Tennessee, drilled in 1896, -flowed fifty barrels an hour, caught fire the first night and afterwards -pumped sixty barrels a day for a season. - -Believing an artesian-well would supply the community with abundant pure -water, a local company at Corsicana, Navarro county, Texas, three years -ago started the tools to pierce the “joint clay” in the south-west end -of town. Sixteen years before a well drilled nine-hundred feet failed to -accomplish this purpose and was filled up. Geologists gravely announced -that water—unfit to use at that—could not be had within -thirty-five-hundred feet. The company kept right along. At ten-hundred -feet the clay ceased and twenty feet of sandy shale, soft and bluish, -followed. Oil, real petroleum, hardly inferior to the best in -Pennsylvania, flowed strongly. Doubting Thomases felt sure this -unexpected glut of oil settled the water-question in the negative and -advised tubing the well. The company cased off the oil, resumed -drilling, pierced five-hundred feet more of “joint clay,” four-hundred -feet of “Dallas chalk” and another immense layer of clay. At twenty-five -hundred feet a crystal current of water gushed forth to the rhythm of -fifteen-thousand gallons an hour. The water-problem was solved happily, -the company was amply vindicated and the Corsicanans were -correspondingly jubilant. The geological freaks were confounded. Of -course, they knew more about the creation than Moses and could upset -Genesis in one round, but a six-inch hole on their own ground put them -floundering in the soup. - -John H. Galey read a brief report of the water-well and visited -Corsicana “on the quiet.” He had cart-loads of experience in oil-matters -and a faculty for opening new fields. He drilled on Oil Creek in the -sixties, had a hand in the Pithole pie, broadened the Pleasantville -limit, set the Parker district going, went to the front in Butler and -let no patch of creamy territory escape his vigilant eye. In Kansas he -had located and drilled the first wells—at Neodesha and Thayer—that -brought into play the only pools that have paid their way. He spent a -year in Texas picking up lands and putting down wells. As in Kansas, his -first and second wells were ten or twelve miles apart and both touched -the jugular. He sold his entire interest, four companies entered the -field and thirty wells are doing a thousand barrels a day. The first car -of Corsicana oil was shipped last July, amid the huzzas of a crowd of -cheering citizens. Senator Roger Q. Mills, the Democratic statesman, is -the lucky owner of a thousand acres of land on the outskirts of town. -The property has been leased and it bids fair to make the Senator a -millionaire. Petroleum may yet be the brightest star in the -constellation of the Lone-Star State. - -California is not content to have gold-mines, overgrown trees and -tropical fruits and leave petroleum out in the cold. For years -developments have been carried on, centering finally at Los Angeles. -City-lots are punctured with holes and three-hundred wells have been -drilled on two-hundred acres. Samuel M. Jones, formerly of the -Pennsylvania oil-region and now president of the Acme Sucker-Rod-Company -of Toledo, leveled his kodak at the Los-Angeles wells in 1895, securing -the view printed in the cut. Hon. W. L. Hardison, who operated in the -Clarion and Bradford fields and served a couple of terms in the -Legislature, and Lyman Stewart, of Titusville, have been largely -interested in the California field for ten years. Los-Angeles wells are -seven to nine-hundred feet deep, yield six barrels to seventy-five at -the start and employ six-hundred men. The oil is used for fuel and -lubrication, produces superior asphaltum and a distillate for -stove-burners and gasoline-engines. It cannot be refined profitably for -illuminating. The Los-Angeles field, about one mile long and six-hundred -feet wide, had a small beginning. The first wells, near the -Second-Street Park, were small, only to the first sand—four-hundred -feet—and yielded poorly. The operators lacked knowledge and bunched the -holes as closely as sardines in a box. Deeper drilling revealed richer -strata, from which four-hundred wells are producing eighteen-hundred -barrels a day. Railways, electric lines and manufacturing establishments -consume the bulk of the output—equivalent to seven-hundred tons of coal -daily—for fuel. The best wells have been pumping twenty months to two -years, a few starting at three-hundred barrels for a week. -Twenty-five-hundred dollars is the average cost of a California well and -the total yield of the district approximates two-million barrels up to -date. - -[Illustration: OIL-WELLS AT LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.] - -Los Angeles is a genuine California town, with oil-wells as an extra -feature. Derricks cluster on Belmont Hill, State street, Lakeshore -avenue, Second street, and leading thoroughfares. A six-inch line -conveys crude to the railroads and car-tanks are shipped over the -Southern Pacific and Santa Fé routes. At least one of the preachers -seems to be drilling “on the belt,” if a tourist’s tale of a prayer he -offered be true. Here it is: - -“O, Lord! we pray that the excursion train going east this morning may -not run off the track and kill any church-members that may be on board. -Thou knowest it is bad enough to run oil-wells on Sunday, but worse to -run Sunday excursions. Church-members on Sunday excursions are not in -condition to die. In addition to this, it is embarrassing to a minister -to officiate at a funeral of a member of the church who has been killed -on a Sunday excursion. Keep the train on the track and preserve it from -any calamity, that all church-members among the excursionists may have -opportunity for repentance, that their sins may be forgiven. We ask it -for Christ’s sake. Amen.” - -With juicy Ohio, plump West Virginia, nutritious Indiana, succulent -California, appetizing Texas and many other luscious bivalves to keep -fat Pennsylvania company, there is no lack of oysters in the stew. - - SOME OF THE BOYS. - -Michael Murphy, of “mystery” fame, lives in Chester county. - -William L. Lay, founder of South Oil-City, died last winter. - -W. J. Welch, a respected citizen, who operated at Bullion and Bradford -and for years belonged to the Oil-City Exchange, died in 1897. - -Ruel A. Watson, an active broker, as he lay gasping for breath, raised -his head, asked an attendant “What’s the market?” sank back on his -pillow and expired. “The ruling passion is strong in death.” - -John Vanausdall, partner of William Phillips in the biggest well on Oil -Creek, left his home at Oil City in the morning, took ill at Petrolia -and telegraphed for his wife. She reached his bedside just as he drew -his last breath. - - A man may seem to be a bang-up seraph, - Yet be a proper subject for the sheriff. - -John Wallace, an early oil-operator at Rouseville and merchant at Rynd, -died in 1880. Born in Great Britain, he served in the English army, -participated in the Crimean war and was one of the “Gallant Six Hundred” -in the desperate charge at Balaklava immortalized by Tennyson. - -The late H. L. McCance, long secretary of the Oil-City Exchange, was the -Thomas Nast of Oildom. Two of his cartoons—“When Oil is Seventy Cents” -and “When Oil is Three Dollars”—in this volume and those exposing the -South-Improvement infamy were especially striking. - -B. D. J. McKeown is probably the only millionaire ball-player in the -United States. He belongs to the Washington team, which is a member of -the Pennsylvania State-League, and has played first base with the nine -the entire season. He is a son of the late John McKeown, a keen man of -affairs, a clean fielder, heavy batter and swift base-runner. - - Many a chap who thinks he’s sure of Heaven, - But in his make-up lacks the kindly leaven, - Will find Old Nick on hand with a replevin. - -Col. W. H. Kinter, of Oil City, a man of kindliest impulses, genial and -whole-souled, greeting a neighbor one Sunday evening, remarked: -“Goodnight, old boy—no, make it good-bye; we may never meet again!” He -retired in excellent health and spirits. Next morning, feeling drowsy, -he asked his wife—a daughter of Hamilton McClintock—to bring him a cup -of tea. She returned in a short time to find her husband asleep in -death. - -The irrepressible “Sam” Blakely originated the term “shuffle,” which he -often practiced in his dealings in the oil-exchanges, and the phrase, -“Boys, don’t take off your shirts!” This expression spread far and wide -and was actually repeated by Osman Pasha—if the cablegrams told the -truth—at the battle of Plevna, when his troops wavered an instant in the -face of a dreadful rain of bullets. “Sam” also inaugurated the custom of -drinking Rhine-wine. Once he constituted himself a committee of one to -celebrate the Fourth of July at Parker. He printed a great lot of -posters, which announced a celebration on a gorgeous scale—horse-races, -climbing the greased pole, boat-races, orations, fireworks and other -attractions. These were posted about the city and on barns and fences -within a radius of ten miles. A friend asked him how his celebration was -likely to come off. “Oh,” he said, “we’re going to get all the hayseeds -in here and then we’ll give them the great kibosh.” On the glorious day -“Sam” mounted a box in front of the Columbia hose-house and delivered an -oration before four-thousand people, who pronounced it the funniest -thing they ever heard and accepted the situation good-naturedly. Some -impromptu games were got up and the day passed off pleasantly. - -[Illustration: POND-FRESHET AT OIL CITY, MARCH, 1863.] - - - - - XV. - FROM THE WELL TO THE LAMP. - -TRANSPORTING CRUDE-OIL BY WAGONS AND BOATS—UNFATHOMABLE MUD - AND SWEARING TEAMSTERS—POND FRESHETS—ESTABLISHMENT OF - PIPE-LINES—NATIONAL-TRANSIT COMPANY AND SOME OF ITS - OFFICERS—SPECULATION IN CERTIFICATES—EXCHANGES AT PROMINENT - POINTS—THE PRODUCT THAT ILLUMINES THE WORLD AT VARIOUS STAGES OF - PROGRESS. - - ---------- - -“Lamps were gleaming everywhere, gleaming from huge banks of - flowers.”—_Wilson Barrett._ - -“Nature must give way to Art.”—_Jonathan Swift._ - -“The flighty purpose never is o’ertook, unless the deed go with - it.”—_Shakespeare._ - -“My kingdom for a horse to haul my oil.”—_Richard III. Revised._ - - “We’ll all dip oil, and we’ll all dip oil, - We’ll dip, dip, dip, and we’ll all dip oil.”—_Pond-Freshet Song._ - -“Lines of truth run through the world of thought as pipe-lines to the - sea.”—_Mrs. C. A. Babcock._ - -“These be piping times.”—Popular Saw. - -“Seneca predicted another hemisphere, but Columbus presented - it.”—_Collins._ - -“Nature begets Merit and Fortune brings it into play.”—_La - Rochefoucauld._ - -“The wise and active conquer difficulties by daring to attempt - them.”—_Rowe._ - -“Perfection is attained by slow degrees.”—_Voltaire._ - - “One little bull on oil was I, - Bought a lot when the stuff was high, - Sold when low and it pumped me dry, - One little bull on oil.”—_Oil City Blizzard._ - -“It is just as dangerous to speculate in kerosene as to kindle the fire - with it.”—_Boston Herald._ - - ---------- - - -The tribulations of early operators did not cease with drilling and -tubing their wells. Oil might flow or be pumped readily, but it could -neither transport nor sell itself. Crude in the tank was not always -money in the purse without a good deal of engineering. The Irishman’s -contrary pig, which he headed for Cork to drive to Dublin, was much less -trouble to raise than to get to market. The first wells on Oil Creek -were so close to the water that the stuff could be loaded directly into -canoes or dug-outs and floated to the mouth of the stream. This -arrangement, despite its apparent convenience, had serious drawbacks. -The creek was too low in dry weather for navigation, except possibly by -the Mississippi craft that slipped along easily on the morning dew. To -overcome this difficulty recourse was had to artificial methods when the -production increased sufficiently to introduce flat-boats, which -dispensed with barrels and freighted the oil in bulk. The system of -pond-freshets was adopted. A dam at the saw-mill near the Drake well -stored the fluid until the time agreed upon to open the gates and let -the imprisoned waters escape. Rev. A. L. Dubbs was appointed -superintendent and shippers were assessed for the use of the water -stored in the pond. Usually two-hundred to eight-hundred boats—boats of -all shapes and sizes, from square-keeled barges, divided into -compartments by cross-partitions, to slim-pointed guipers—were pulled up -the stream by horses once or twice a week to be filled at the wells and -await the rushing waters. Expert rivermen, accustomed to dodging snags -and rocks in inland streams, managed the fleet. These skilled pilots -assumed the responsibility of delivering the oil to the larger boats at -Oil City, for conveyance to Pittsburg, at one-hundred to two-hundred -dollars per trip. - -[Illustration: HOW OIL IS TRANSPORTED IN RUSSIA—HAULING EMPTY BARRELS.] - -At the appointed moment the flood-gates were opened and the water rushed -forth, increasing the depth of the creek two or three feet. The boatmen -stood by their lines, to cast loose when the current was precisely -right. Sound judgment was required. The loaded boat, if let go too soon, -ran the risk of grounding in the first shallow-place, to be battered -into kindling-wood by those coming after. Such accidents occurred -frequently, resulting in a general jam and loss of vessels and cargoes. -The scene was more exciting than a three-ringed circus. Property and -life were imperiled, boats were ground to fragments, thousands of -barrels of oil were spilled and the tangle seemed inextricable. Men, -women and children lined the banks of the stream for miles, intently -watching the spectacle. Persons of all nationalities, kindreds and -conditions vociferated in their diversified jargon, producing a -confusion of tongues that outbabeled Babel three to one. Men of wealth -and refinement, bespattered and besmeared with crude—their trousers -tucked into boots reaching above the knee, and most likely wearing at -the same time a nobby necktie—might be seen boarding the boats with the -agility of a cat and the courage of warriors, shouting, managing, -directing and leading in the perilous work of safe exit. Sunday creeds -were forgotten and the third commandment, constantly snapped in twain, -gave emphasis to the crashing hulks and barrels. A pillar of the -Presbyterian church, seeing his barge unmanned, ran screaming at the top -of his voice: “Where in sheol is Parker?” This so amused his good -brethren that they used it as a by-word for months. - -The cry of “Pond Freshet” would bring the entire population of Oil City -to witness the arrival of the boats. Sometimes the tidal wave would -force them on a sand-bar in the Allegheny, smashing and crushing them -like egg-shells. Oil from overturned or demolished boats belonged to -whoever chose to dip it up. More than one solid citizen got his start on -fortune’s road by dipping oil in this way. If the voyage ended safely -the oil was transferred from the guipers—fifty barrels each—and small -boats to larger ones for shipment to Pittsburg. William Phillips, -joint-owner of the biggest well on Oil Creek, was the first man to take -a cargo of crude in bulk to the Smoky City. The pond-freshet was a great -institution in its day, with romantic features that would enrapture an -artist and tickle lovers of sensation to the fifth rib. One night the -lantern of a careless workman set fire to the oil in one of the boats. -Others caught and were cut loose to drift down the river, floating up -against a pier and burning the bridge at Franklin. Running the “rapids” -on the St. Lawrence river or the “Long Sault” on the Ottawa was not half -so thrilling and hair-raising as a fleet of oil-boats in a crush at the -mouth of Oil Creek. - -The fleet of creek and river-boats engaged in this novel traffic -numbered two-thousand craft. The “guiper,” scow-shaped and holding -twenty-five to fifty barrels, was the smallest. The “French Creekers” -held ten to twelve-hundred barrels and were arranged to carry oil in -bulk or barrels. At first the crude was run into open boats, which a -slight motion of the water would sometimes capsize and spill the cargo -into the stream. When prices ruled low oil was shipped in bulk; when -high, shippers used barrels to lessen the danger of loss. Thousands of -empty barrels, lashed together like logs in a raft, were floated from -Olean. The rate from the more distant wells to Oil City was one-dollar a -barrel. From Oil City to Pittsburg it varied from twenty-five cents to -three dollars, according to the weather, the stage of water or the -activity of the demand. Each pond-freshet cost two or three-hundred -dollars, paid to the mill-owners for storing the water and the use of -their dams. Twice a week—Wednesday and Saturday—was the average at the -busy season. The flood of petroleum from flowing-wells in 1862 exceeded -the facilities for storing, transporting, refining and burning the oil, -which dropped to ten cents a barrel during the summer. Thousands of -barrels ran into Oil Creek. Pittsburg was the chief market for crude, -which was transferred at Oil City to the larger boats. The steamer-fleet -of tow-boats—it exceeded twenty—brought the empties back to Oil City. -The “Echo,” Captain Ezekiel Gordon; the “Allegheny Belle No. 4,” Captain -John Hanna; the “Leclaire,” Captain Kelly; the “Ida Rees,” Captain Rees, -and the “Venango” were favorite passenger-steamers. The trip from -Pittsburg—one-hundred-and-thirty-three miles—generally required thirty -to thirty-six hours. Mattresses on the cabin-floor served as beds for -thirty or forty male passengers, who did not undress and rose early that -the tables might be set for breakfast. The same tables were utilized -between meals and in the evening for poker-games. The busiest man on the -boat was the bar-tender and the clerk was the most important. He carried -letters and money for leading oil-shippers. It was not uncommon for -Alfred Russell, of the “Echo,” John Thompson, of the “Belle No. 4,” and -Ruse Russ, of the “Venango,” to walk into Hanna’s or Abrams’s -warehouse-office with large packages of money for John J. Fisher, -William Lecky, John Mawhinney, William Thompson and others who bought -oil. No receipts were given or taken and, notwithstanding the apparent -looseness in doing business, no package was ever lost or stolen. The -boats usually landed at the lower part of the eddy to put off passengers -wishing to stop at the Moran and Parker Hotels. At Hanna & Co.’s and -Abrams & Co.’s landing, where the northern approach of the suspension -bridge now is, they put off the remaining passengers, freight and empty -oil-barrels. Many a Christian-looking man was heard to swear as he left -the gang-plank of the boat and struck the mud, tough and greasy and -deep. He would soon tumble to the situation, roll up his trousers and -“pull for the shore.” - -Horses and mules dragged the empty boats up Oil Creek, a terrible task -in cold weather. Slush or ice and floating oil shaved the hair off the -poor animals as if done with a razor. The treatment of the patient -creatures—thousands were literally murdered—was frightful and few -survived. For them the plea of inability availed nothing. They were -worked until they dropped dead. The finest mule, ears very long, coat -shiny, tail vehement, eye mischievous, heels vigorous and bray distinct -and melodious, quickly succumbed to the freezing water and harsh usage. -As a single trip realized more than would buy another the brutal driver -scarcely felt the financial loss. A story is told of a boatman who -started in the morning for the wells to bring down a load of oil. -Returning in the evening, he learned that he had been drafted into the -army. Before retiring to bed he had hired a substitute for one-thousand -dollars, the proceeds of his journey of eleven miles and back. William -Haldeman hauled a man over the coals for beating his exhausted horse, -told him to buy another and handed him five-hundred dollars for eight -horses to haul a boat to the gushers at Funkville. - -Pond-freshets were holidays in Oil City sufficiently memorable to go -gliding down the ages with the biggest kind of chalk-mark. Young and old -flocked to see the boats slip into the Allegheny, lodge on the -gravel-bar, strike the pier of the bridge or anchor in Moran’s Eddy. -Hundreds of boatmen, drillers, pumpers and operators would be on board. -Once the river had only a foot of water at Scrubgrass Ripple and large -boats could not get to or from Pittsburg. A ship-carpenter came from New -York to Titusville and spent his last dollar in lumber for six boxes -sixteen feet square and twelve inches deep. He covered them with -inch-boards and divided them into small compartments, to prevent the oil -from running from one end to the other and swamping the vessel. This -principle was applied to oil-boats thereafter and extended to -bulk-barges and bulk-steamships. The ingenious carpenter floated his -strange arks down to the Blood farm and bargained with Henry Balliott to -fill them on credit. He performed the voyage safely, returned in due -course, paid Balliott, built more boxes and went home in four months -with a snug fortune. His ship had come in. Railroads and pipe-lines have -relegated pond-freshets, oil-boats and Allegheny steamers to the rear, -but they were interesting features of the petroleum-development in early -days and should not be utterly forgotten. - -To haul oil from inland wells to shipping-points required thousands of -horses. This service originated the wagon-train of the oil-country, -which at its best consisted of six-thousand two-horse teams and wagons. -No such transport-service was ever before seen outside of an army on a -march. General M. H. Avery, a renowned cavalry-commander during the war, -organized a regular army-train at Pithole. Travelers in the oil-regions -seldom lost sight of these endless trains of wagons bearing their greasy -freight to the nearest railroad or shipping-point. Five to seven -barrels—a barrel of oil weighed three-hundred-and-sixty pounds—taxed the -strength of the stoutest teams. The mud was practically bottomless. -Horses sank to their breasts and wagons far above their axles. Oil -dripping from innumerable barrels mixed with the dirt to keep the mass a -perpetual paste, which destroyed the capillary glands and the hair of -the animals. Many horses and mules had not a hair below the eyes. A long -caravan of these hairless beasts gave a spectral aspect to the -landscape. History records none other such roads. Houses within a -quarter-mile of the roadside were plastered with mud to the eaves. Many -a horse fell into the batter and was left to smother. If a wagon broke -the load was dumped into the mud-canal, or set on the bank to be taken -by whoever thought it worth the labor of stealing. Teamsters would pull -down fences and drive through fields whenever possible, until the valley -of Oil Creek was an unfathomable quagmire. Think of the bone and sinew -expended in moving a thousand barrels of oil six or eight miles under -such conditions. Two-thirds of the work had to be done in the fall and -winter, when the elements spared no effort to increase the discomfort -and difficulty of navigation by boat or wagon. To haul oil a half-dozen -miles cost three to five dollars a barrel at certain periods of the -year. Thousands of barrels were drawn to Shaw’s Landing, near Meadville, -and thousands to Garland Station and Union City, on the Philadelphia & -Erie Railroad. The hauling of a few hundred barrels not infrequently -consumed so much time that the shipper, in the rapid fluctuations of the -market, would not realize enough to pay the wagon-freight. A buyer once -paid ten-thousand dollars for one-thousand barrels at Clapp farm, above -Oil City, and four-thousand for teaming it to Franklin, to be shipped by -the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad to New York. Even after a -plank-road had been built from Titusville to Pithole, cutting down the -teaming one-half or more, the cost of laying down a barrel of crude in -New York was excessive. In January of 1866 it figured as follows: - - Government tax $1 00 - Barrel 3 25 - Teaming from Pithole to Titusville 1 25 - Freight from Titusville to New York 3 65 - Cooperage and platform expenses 1 00 - Leakage 25 - ——— - Total $10 40 - ====== - -The Oil Creek teamster, rubber-booted to the waist and flannel-shirted -to the chin, was a picturesque character. He was skilled in profanity -and the savage use of the whip. A week’s earnings—ten, twenty and thirty -dollars a day—he would spend in revelry on Saturday night. Careless of -the present and heedless of the future, he took life as it came and -wasted no time worrying over consequences. If one horse died he bought -another. He regulated his charges by the depth and consistency of the -mud and the wear and tear of morality and live-stock. Eventually he -followed the flat-boat and barge and guiper to oblivion, railroads and -pipe-lines supplanting him as a carrier of oil. Some of the best -operators in the region adopted teaming temporarily, to get a start. -They saved their money for interests in leases or drilling-wells and not -a few went to the front as successful producers. The free-and-easy, -devil-may-care teamster of yore, brimful of oil and tobacco and not -averse to whiskey, is a tradition, remembered only by men whose polls -are frosting with silver threads that do not stop at sixteen to one. - -Wharves, warehouses and landings crowded Oil City from the mouth of Oil -Creek to the Moran House. Barrels filled the warehouse-yards, awaiting -their turn to be hauled or boated to the wells, filled with crude and -returned for shipment. Loaded and empty boats were coming and going -continually. Firms and individuals shipped thousands of barrels daily, -employing a regiment of men and stacks of cash. William M. Lecky, still -a respected citizen of Oil City, hustled for R. D. Cochran & Co., whose -“Tiber” was a favorite tow-boat. Parker & Thompson, Fisher Brothers, -Mawhinney Brothers and John Munhall & Co. were strong concerns. Their -agents scoured the producing farms to buy oil at the wells and arrange -for its delivery. Prices fluctuated enormously. Crude bought in -September of 1862 at thirty cents a barrel sold in December at eleven -dollars. John B. Smithman, Munhall’s buyer, walked up the creek one -morning to buy what he could at three dollars. A dispatch at Rouseville -told him to pay four, if necessary to secure what the firm desired. At -Tarr Farm another message quoted five dollars. By the time he reached -Petroleum Centre the price had reached six dollars and his last -purchases that afternoon were at seven-fifty. Business was done on honor -and every agreement was fulfilled to the letter, whether the price rose -or fell. Lecky, Thomas B. Simpson, W. J. Young and Isaac M. Sowers—he -was the second mayor of Oil City—clerked in these shipping-offices, -which proved admirable training-schools for ambitious youths. William -Porterfield and T. Preston Miller tramped over Oil Creek and Cherry Run -for the Fishers. Col. A. J. Greenfield, Bradley & Whiting and I. S. -Gibson bought at Rouseville and R. Richardson at Tarr Farm. “Pres” -Miller, “Hi” Whiting and “Ike” Gibson—square, manly and honorable—are -treading the golden-streets. John Mawhinney—big in soul and body, true -to the core and upright in every fiber—has voyaged to the haven of rest. -William Parker is president of the Oil City Savings Bank and Thompson -returned east years ago. John Munhall settled near Philadelphia and -William Haldeman removed to Cleveland. The iron-horse and the pipe-line -revolutionized the methods of handling crude and retired the shippers, -most of whom have shipped across the sea of time into the ocean of -eternity. - -Fisher Brothers have a long and enviable record as shippers and -producers of oil, “staying the distance” and keeping the pole in the -hottest race. Men have come and men have retreated in the mad whirl of -speculation and wild rush for the bottom of the sand, but they have gone -on steadily for a generation and are to-day abreast of the situation. -Whether a district etched its name on the Rainbow of Fame or mocked the -dreams of the oil-seeker, they did not lose their heads or their credit. -John J. Fisher went to Oil City in 1862 and Fisher Brothers began -shipping oil by the river to Pittsburg in 1863, succeeding John Burgess -& Co. The three brothers divided their forces, to give each department -personal supervision, John J. managing the buying and shipping at Oil -City and Frederick and Henry receiving and disposing of the cargoes at -Pittsburg. Competent men bought crude at the wells and handled it in the -yards and on the boats. The firm owned a fleet of bulk-boats and -tow-boats and acres of barrels. Each barrel was branded with a huge F on -either head. The “Big F”—widely known as Oil Creek or the Drake well—was -the trademark of fair play and spot cash. When railroads were built the -Fishers discarded boats and used more barrels than before. When -wooden-tanks—a car held two—were introduced they adopted them and let -the barrels slide. When pipe-lines were laid they purchased -certificate-oil and continued to be large shippers until seaboard lines -suspended the older systems of freighting crude by water or rail, in -barrels or in tanks. From the beginning to the end of the shipping-trade -Fisher Brothers were in the van. - -Next devoting their attention entirely to the production of oil and gas, -with the Grandins and Adnah Neyhart they invested heavily at Fagundas -and laid the first pipe-line at Tidioute. They operated below Franklin -and were pioneers at Petrolia. Organizing the Fisher Oil-Company, they -drilled in all the Butler pools and held large interests at McDonald and -Washington. At present they are operating in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West -Virginia, the Fisher ranking with the foremost companies in extent and -solidity. The brothers have their headquarters in the Germania Building, -Pittsburg, and juicy wells in a dozen counties. Time has dealt kindly -with all three, as well as with Daniel Fisher, ex-mayor of Oil City. -They have loads of experience and capital and too much energy to think -of adjusting their halo for retirement from active work. True men in all -the relations of life, Fisher Brothers worthily represent the splendid -industry they have had no mean part in making the greatest and grandest -of any age or nation. To natural shrewdness and the quick perception -that comes from contact with the activities of the world they joined -business-ability that would have proved successful in whatever career -they undertook to map out. - -[Illustration: - - FREDERICK FISHER - JOHN J. FISHER HENRY FISHER -] - -The first suggestion of improvement in transportation was made in 1860, -at Parkersburg, W. Va., by General Karns to C. L. Wheeler, now of -Bradford. An old salt-well Karns had resurrected at Burning Springs -pumped oil freely and he conceived the plan of a six-inch line of pipe -to Parkersburg to run the product by gravity. The war interfered and the -project was not carried out. At a meeting at Tarr Farm, in November of -1861, Heman Janes broached the idea of laying a line of four-inch -_wooden-pipes_ to Oil City, to obviate the risk, expense and uncertainty -of transporting oil by boats or wagons. He proposed to bury the pipe in -a trench along the bank of the creek and let the oil gravitate to its -destination. A contract for the entire work was drawn with James Reed, -of Erie. Col. Clark, of Clark & Sumner, grasped the vast possibilities -the method might involve and advised applying to the Legislature for a -general pipe-line charter. Reed’s contract was not signed and a bill was -introduced in 1862 to authorize the construction of a pipe-line from Oil -Creek to Kittanning. The opposition of four-thousand teamsters engaged -in hauling oil defeated the bill and the first effort to organize a -pipe-line company. - -J. L. Hutchings, a Jersey genius, came to the oil-country in the spring -of 1862 with a rotary-pump he had patented. To show its adaptation to -the oil-business he laid a string of tubing from Tarr Farm to the -Humboldt Refinery, below Plumer. He set his pump working and sent a -stream of crude over the hills to the refinery. The pipe was of poor -quality, the joints leaked and a good deal of oil fell by the wayside, -yet the experiment showed that the idea was feasible. Although eminent -engineers declared friction would be fatal, the result proved that -distance and grade were not insurmountable. Eminent engineers had -declared the locomotive would not run on smooth rails and that a cow on -the track would disrupt George Stephenson’s whole system of travel, -hence their dictum regarding pipe-lines had little weight. Dr. Dionysius -Lardner nearly burst a flue laughing at the absurdity of a vessel -without sails crossing the ocean and wrote a treatise to demonstrate its -impossibility, but the saucy Sirius steamed over the herring-pond all -the same. The rotary-pump at Tarr Farm confounded the scientists who -worshipped theory and believed friction would knock out steam and pipe -and American ingenuity and keep oil-operators forever subject to mud and -pond-freshets. The two-inch line to the Humboldt Refinery planted the -seed that was to become a great tree. Nobody saw this more plainly than -the teamsters, who proceeded to tear up the pipe and warn producers to -quit monkeying with new-fangled methods of transportation. That settled -the first pipe-line and left the rampant teamsters, modern imitators of -“Demetrius the silversmith,” the upper dog in the fight. - -Hutchings—the boys called him “Hutch”—had pump and pipe-line on the -brain and would not be suppressed. He put down a line in 1863 from the -big Sherman well to the terminus of the railroad at Miller Farm. The -pipes were cast-iron, connected by lead-sockets and laid in a shallow -ditch. The jarring of the pump loosened the joints and three-fourths of -the oil started at the well failed to reach the tanks, two miles north. -The teamsters were not in business solely for their health and they tore -up the line to be sure it would not cut off any of their revenue. -Hutchings persisted in his endeavors until debts overwhelmed him and he -died penniless and disappointed. The ill-starred inventor, who lived a -trifle ahead of the times, deserves a bronze statue on a shaft of -imperishable granite. - -The Legislature granted a pipe-line charter in 1864 to the Western -Transportation Company, which laid a line from the Noble & Delamater -well to Shaffer. The cast-iron pipe, five inches in diameter, was laid -on a regular grade in the mode of a water-pipe. The lead points leaked -like a fifty-cent umbrella, just as the Hutchings line had done, and the -attempt to improve transportation was abandoned. - -Samuel Van Syckle, a Jerseyite of inventive bent, arrived at Titusville -in the fall of 1864. The problem of oil-transportation, rendered -especially important by the opening of the Pithole field, soon engrossed -his attention. In August of 1865 he completed a two-inch line from -Pithole to Miller Farm. Mr. Wood and Henry Ohlen, of New York, held an -interest and the First National Bank of Titusville loaned the money to -forward the project. J. N. Wheeler screwed the first joints together. -Two pump-stations, a mile west of Pithole and at Cherry Run, at first -helped force the oil through the pipe, which was buried two feet under -ground “to be out of the way of the farmer’s plow.” Eight-hundred -barrels a day could be run and the frantic teamsters talked of resorting -to violence to cripple so formidable a rival. The pipeage was one dollar -a barrel, at which rate the Pithole and Miller Farm Pipe-Line ought to -have been a bonanza. Van Syckle traded heavily in oil and commanded -plenty of capital. A. W. Smiley managed the line and bought oil for Van -Syckle, who conducted this branch of business in his son’s name. -Smiley’s largest transaction was a purchase of one-hundred-thousand -barrels, at five dollars a barrel, from the United-States Petroleum -Company, in one lot. Young Van Syckle spent money as the whim struck -him. If Smiley refused his demand for a hundred or a thousand dollars, -the fly youth would refuse to sign drafts and threaten to stop the whole -concern. There was nothing to do in such cases but imitate Colonel -Scott’s coon and “come down.” The Culver failure in May of 1866 -compelled the First National Bank to press its claim against the line, -which passed into the hands of Jonathan Watson. J. T. Briggs and George -S. Stewart operated it for the bank and Watson until William H. Abbott -and Henry Harley purchased the entire equipment. - -Reverses beset Van Syckle, who induced George S. and Milton Stewart to -erect a big refinery at Titusville to test his pet theory of “continuous -distillation.” Failure, tedious litigation and heavy loss resulted. Van -Syckle’s mind teemed with new schemes and new devices for refining. He -possessed the rare faculty of finding friends willing to listen to his -plans and back him with cash. Some of his ideas were valuable and they -are in use to-day. Mismanagement swamped the enterprises he created and -Van Syckle finally removed to Buffalo, where his checkered life closed -peacefully on March second, 1894. While often unsuccessful financially, -earnest men like Samuel Van Syckle benefit mankind. The oil-business is -much better for the fertile brain and perseverance of the man whose -pipe-line was the first to deliver oil to a railroad. His example -stimulated other men combining keen perception and executive ability, -who could sift the wheat from the chaff and discard the useless and -impracticable. - -In the fall of 1865 Henry Harley began a pipe-line from Benninghoff Run -to Shaffer, the terminus of the Oil-Creek Railroad. Teamsters cut the -pipes, burned the tanks and retarded the work seriously. An armed patrol -arrested twenty of the ring-leaders, dispersed the mob and quelled the -riot. The line—two-inch tubing of extra weight—handled oil -expeditiously, a pump at Benninghoff forcing six to eight-hundred -barrels a day into the tanks at Shaffer. The system was a public -improvement, personal interest had to yield and four-hundred teams left -the region the week Harley’s line pumped its first oil. Abbott and -Harley owned an interest in the Pithole line and secured control by -purchasing Jonathan Watson’s claim, to run it in connection with the -Benninghoff line. They organized the firm of Abbott & Harley and -operated both lines several months. At Miller Farm they constructed -iron-tanks and loading-racks, which enabled two men to load a train of -oil-cars in a few hours. Avery & Hedden laid a line from Shamburg to -Miller Farm, establishing a station on the highest point of the Tallman -farm and running the oil to the railroad by gravity. Abbott & Harley -supplemented this with a branch from the Pithole line at the crossing of -Cherry Run. Crude was a good price, operators prospered and Miller Farm -became a busy place. Railroads extended to the region and pipe-lines -pumped oil directly from the wells to the cars or refineries. In the -fall of 1867 Abbott & Harley acquired control of the Western -Transportation Company, the only one empowered by the Legislature to -pipe oil to railway-stations. Under its charter they combined the -Western and their own two lines as the Allegheny Transportation Company. -The first board of directors, elected in January of 1869, consisted of -Henry Harley, president; W. H. Abbott, secretary; Jay Gould, J. P. -Harley and Joshua Douglass. T. W. Larsen was appointed treasurer and -William Warmcastle—genial, capable “Billy” Warmcastle—general -superintendent. Jay Gould purchased a majority of the stock in 1868 and -appointed Mr. Harley general oil-agent of the Atlantic & Great Western -and Erie Railroads. In 1871 the Commonwealth Oil and Pipe Company was -organized in the interest of the Oil-Creek Railroad. Harley contrived to -effect a combination and reorganize the Allegheny and the Commonwealth -as the Pennsylvania Transportation Company, with a capital of nearly -two-million dollars and five-hundred miles of pipes to Tidioute, -Triumph, Irvineton, Oil City, Shamburg, Pleasantville and Titusville, -centering at Miller Farm. Among the stock-holders were Jay Gould, Thomas -A. Scott, William H. Kemble, Mrs. James Fisk and George K. Anderson. The -new enterprise absorbed a swarm of small lines and was considered the -acme of pipe-line achievement. - -[Illustration: W. H. ABBOTT. PIPE-LINE AT MILLER FARM IN -1866. HENRY HARLEY.] - -William Hawkins Abbott was a Connecticut boy, an Ohio merchant at -twenty-five and a visitor to the Drake well in February of 1860. He -remained two days, paid ten-thousand dollars for three one-eighth -interests in farms below the town and two days after William Barnsdall -struck a fifty-barrel well on one of the properties. He located at -Titusville, established a market for crude in New York, shipped -extensively and in the fall of 1860, with James Parker and William -Barnsdall as partners, began the erection of the first complete refinery -in the oil-region. To convey the boilers and stills from Oil City, -whither they were shipped from Pittsburg by water, was a task greater -than the labors of Hercules. The first car-load of coal ever seen in -Titusville Mr. Abbott laid down in the fall of 1862. He opened a -coal-yard and superintended the refinery. Oil fluctuated at a rate -calculated to make refiners bald-headed. In January of 1861 Abbott paid -ten dollars a barrel for crude and one-twenty-five in March. In October -of 1862 Howe & Nyce stored five-hundred barrels of crude on the first -railroad-platform at Titusville, selling it to Abbott at two-sixty a -barrel, packages included. In January of 1863 Abbott sold the oil from -the same platform for fourteen dollars and in March the same lot—it had -never been moved—brought eight dollars. Thirty days later Abbott bought -it again at three dollars a barrel and refined it. He was interested in -the Noble well, bought a large share in the Pithole and Miller Farm -Pipe-Line and in 1866 formed a partnership with Henry Harley. He -contributed largely to the Titusville and Pithole plank-road and all -local enterprises likely to benefit the community. His generosity was -comprehensive and discerning. He donated a chapel to the Episcopal -congregation, projected the Union & Titusville Railroad and was a most -exemplary, public-spirited citizen. To give bountifully was his delight. -He bore financial disaster heroically and labored incessantly to save -others from loss. At seventy-two he is patient and helpful to those -about him, his daily life illustrating his real worth and illumining the -pathway of his declining years. - -Born in Ohio in 1839 and graduated from the Rensselaer Polytechnic -Institute as a civil-engineer in 1858, Henry Harley supervised the -construction of the Hoosac Tunnel until the war and settled at Pittsburg -in 1862 as active partner of Richardson, Harley & Co. The firm had a -large petroleum commission-house and Harley removed to Philadelphia in -1863 to manage its principal branch. He purchased large tracts in West -Virginia which did not meet his expectations, withdrew from the -commission-firm and in the latter part of 1865 built his first -pipe-line. He was the confidential friend of Jay Gould and James Fisk, -whose support placed him in a position to organize the Pennsylvania -Transportation Company. For years Harley swam on the topmost wave and -was a high-roller of the loftiest stripe. Henry Villard was not more -magnetic. He told good stories, dealt out good cigars, knew champagne -from seltzer and had no trace of the miser in his intercourse with the -world. He lived at Titusville in regal style and made “the grand tour of -Europe” in 1872. He was on intimate terms with railroad magnates, big -politicians and Napoleons of finance. The Pipe-Line Company got into -deep waters, prosecutions and legal entanglements crippled it and Henry -Harley tumbled with the fabric his genius had reared. He drifted to New -York, was a familiar figure around Chautauqua several seasons and died -in 1892. His widow lives in New York and his brother George, a popular -member of the Oil-City Oil-Exchange, died last year. - -In November of 1865 the Oil City & Pithole Railroad Company began a -railroad between the two towns, pushing the work with such energy that -the first train from Pithole to Oil City was run on March tenth, 1866. -Vandergrift & Forman equipped the Star Tank-Line to carry oil in -tank-cars and laid the Star Pipe-Line from West Pithole to Pithole to -connect with the railroad. An unequivocal success from the start, this -pipe-line has been regarded as the real beginning of the present system -of oil-transportation. The lower oil-country enlarged the field for -pipe-line stations. Lines multiplied in Venango, Clarion, Armstrong and -Butler. Some of these were controlled by Vandergrift & Forman, who -brought the business to a high standard of perfection. Each district had -one or more lines running to the nearest railroad. The Pennsylvania -Transportation Company secured a charter in 1875 to construct a line to -the seaboard. Nothing was done except to build more lines in the -oil-region. The number grew continually. Clarion had a half-dozen, the -Antwerp heading the list. Parker had a brood of small-fry and Butler was -net-worked. It was the fashion to talk of trunk-lines, call public -meetings, subscribe for stock and—let the project die. Dr. Hostetter, -the Pittsburg millionaire of “Bitters” fame, built the Conduit Line from -Millerstown to the city of smoke and soot. The Karns, the Relief and -others ran to Harrisville. Every fellow wanted a finger in the pipe-line -pot-pie. A war of competition arose, rates were cut, business was done -at heavy loss and the weaker concerns went to the wall. The companies -issued certificates or receipts, instead of paying cash for crude -received by their lines. When the producer ran oil into the -storage-tanks of some companies he was not certain the certificates -given him in return would have any value next day. He must either use -the lines or leave the oil in the ground. The necessity of combining the -badly-managed competitive companies into a solid organization was -urgent. The Union Pipe-Line Company acquired a number of lines and -operated its system in connection with the Empire Line. Under the act of -1874 Vandergrift & Forman organized the United Pipe-Lines, into which -numerous local lines were merged. The first grand step had been taken in -the direction of settling the question of oil-transportation for all -time. - -The advantages of the consolidation quickly commended the new order of -things to the public. The United Lines erected hundreds of iron-tanks -for storage and connected with every producing-well. Needless pipes and -pumps and stations were removed to be utilized as required. The best -appliances were adopted, improving the service and diminishing its cost. -Uniform rates were established and every detail was systematized. -Captain Vandergrift, president of the United Lines, was ably assisted in -each department. Daniel O’Day, a potent force in pipe-line affairs, -developed the system to an exact science. He learned the -shipping-business from the very rudiments in the great Empire Line. His -thorough knowledge, industry and practical talent were of incalculable -value to the United Lines. He possessed in full measure the qualities -adapted especially to the expansion and improvement of the giant -enterprise. He had the skill to plan wisely and the ability to execute -promptly. His sagacity and experience foresaw the magnificent future of -the system and he laid the foundations of the United Lines broad and -deep. To-day Daniel O’Day is a master-spirit of the pipe-line world, a -millionaire and vice-president of the National Transit Company, which -transports nine-tenths of the oil produced in the United States. He has -risen by personal desert, without favoritism or partiality. His -elevation has not subtracted one whit from the manly character that -gained him innumerable friends in the oil-region. - -[Illustration: - - DANIEL O’DAY - J R CAMPBELL EDWARD HOPKINS. - PUMPING OIL FROM TROUTMAN WELL. -] - -Edward Hopkins, first manager of the United Pipe-Lines, was an efficient -officer and died young. John R. Campbell has been treasurer from the -incorporation of the lines in 1877. Born in Massachusetts and graduated -from Rev. Samuel Aaron’s celebrated school at Norristown, he served his -apprenticeship in the Baldwin Locomotive Works and manufactured -printing-inks in Philadelphia, with William L. and Charles H. Lay as -partners. In March of 1865 he visited the oil-region and in August -removed to Oil City. He acquired oil-interests, published the _Register_ -and was treasurer for the receiver of the Oil City & Pithole Railroad -Company. In 1867 he became book-keeper for Vandergrift & Lay, afterwards -for Captain Vandergrift and later for Vandergrift & Forman, who -appointed him treasurer of their pipe-lines in 1868. He retained the -position in the United Lines and he is still treasurer of that division -of the National Transit Company. To Mr. Campbell is largely due the -accurate and comprehensive system of pipe-line accounts now universally -adopted. He aided in devising negotiable oil-certificates, reliable as -government bonds and convertible into cash at any moment. He enjoys to -the fullest extent the confidence and esteem of his associates and is -treasurer of a dozen large corporations. He was president term after -term of the Ivy Club, one of the finest social organizations in -Pennsylvania, and a liberal promoter of important enterprises. His -abiding faith in Oil City he manifests by investing in manufactures and -furthering public improvements. Active, helpful and popular in business, -in society and in the church, no eulogy could add to the high estimation -in which John R. Campbell is held wherever known. - -The enormous production of the Bradford field, the increased distances -and the construction of lines to the sea presented new and difficult -problems. A natural increase in size led to a demand for pipe of better -quality, for heavier fittings and improved machinery. The largest line -prior to Bradford’s advent was a four-inch pipe from the Butler field to -Pittsburg, in 1875. Excepting this and three-inch lines to Raymilton and -Oil City, none of the main lines exceeded twelve miles in length. Many -were gravity-lines and others used small tubing and light pumps. The -greater quantities and longer distances in the northern district—the oil -also congealed at a higher temperature and was harder to handle than the -product of the lower fields—required greater power, larger pipes and -increased facilities. The first six-inch line was laid from Tarport to -Carrollton in the spring of 1879. Two four-inch lines had preceded it -and a four-inch line from Tarport to Kane was completed the same season, -five six-inch lines following later. The first long-distance line, a -five-inch pipe from Hilliards—near Petrolia—to Cleveland, was completed -in the summer of 1879. Trunk-lines to the eastern coast were begun in -1879-80. The trunk-line to Philadelphia starts at Colegrove, McKean -county, and extends two-hundred-and-thirty-five miles—six-inch pipe—with -a five-inch branch of sixty-six miles from Millway to Baltimore. -Starting at Olean, two six-inch lines were paralleled to Saddle River, -N.J. They separated there, one connecting with the refineries at Bayonne -and the other going under the North and East Rivers to Hunter’s Point, -on Long Island. The New-York line is double under the Hudson—one pipe -inside another, with tight-fitting sleeve-joints. The ends of the -jacket-pipe were separated twelve inches to permit the enclosed pipe to -be screwed home. The sleeve was then pushed over the gap and the space -between the pipes filled with melted lead. The line is held in place by -two sets of heavy chains, parallel with and about twenty feet from the -pipe, one on each side. At intervals of three-hundred feet a guide-chain -connects the pipe with the lateral chains and beyond each of these -connections an anchor, weighing over a ton, keeps the whole in place. -The completion of this part of the line was an engineering triumph not -much inferior to the laying of Cyrus W. Field’s Atlantic Cable. - -The United Pipe-Lines Association moved forward steadily, avoiding the -pitfalls that had wrecked other systems. It bought or combined the -Oil-City, Antwerp, Union, Karns, Grant, Conduit, Relief, Pennsylvania, -Clarion and McKean divisions of the American-Transfer, Prentice, Olean, -Union Oil-Company’s at Clarendon, McCalmont at Cherry Grove and smaller -lines, covering the oil-region from Allegany to Butler. The United owned -three-thousand miles of lines, thirty-five-million barrels of -iron-tankage and one-hundred-and-eighteen local pump-stations. Even -these extraordinary resources were strained by the overflowing demand. -Bradford was the Oliver Twist of the region, continually crying for -“More!” Ohio and West Virginia entered the race and required facilities -for handling an amazing amount of oil. To meet any contingency and -secure the advantages of consolidation in the states producing oil the -National-Transit Company increased its capital to thirty-two-million -dollars. The company held the original charter granted to the -Pennsylvania Company under the act of 1870. In 1880 it absorbed the -American-Transfer Company, an extensive concern. On April first, 1884, -it acquired the plant and business of the United Lines, thus ranking -with the most powerful corporations in the land. - -Men entirely familiar with the minutest details of oil-transportation -and storage guided the National Transit. Captain Vandergrift was -influential in the management until his retirement from active duty in -1892. President C. A. Griscom was succeeded by Benjamin Brewster and he -by H. H. Rogers, the present official head of the company. John Bushnell -was secretary, Daniel O’Day general manager, and James R. Snow general -superintendent. Skillful, practical and keenly alive to the necessities -of the oil-region, they were not kid-gloved idlers whose chief aim was -to draw fat salaries. Mr. Rogers made his mark on Oil Creek in pioneer -times as a forceful, intelligent, progressive business-man. He had -brains, earnestness, integrity and industry and rose by positive merit -to the presidency of the greatest transportation-company of the age. He -is a first-class citizen, a liberal patron of education and an apostle -of good roads. He endows schools and colleges, abounds in kindly deeds -and does not forget his experiences in Oildom. Daniel O’Day—clever and -capable, “whom not to know is to argue one’s self unknown”—who has not -heard of the plucky, invincible vice-president of the National Transit -Company? Everybody admires the genial, resolute son of Erin whose clear -head, willing hands, strong individuality and sterling qualities have -raised him to a position Grover Cleveland might covet. James R. Snow -invented a pump so perfect that oil would fairly flow up hill for a -chance to pass through the machine. From their Broadway offices Rogers, -O’Day and Snow direct by telephone and telegraph the movements of -regiments of employés in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana. -They are in direct communication with every office of the company, every -purchasing-agency, every pump-station on the trunk-lines and every -oil-producing section of four states. No army Napoleon, Wellington or -Grant commanded was better officered, better disciplined, better -equipped and better managed than the grand army of National-Transit -pipe-men. If “poets are born, not made,” what shall be said of the -wide-awake solvers of the problem of rapid transit for oil—the -pipe-liners who, combining the maximum of efficiency with the minimum of -cost, have placed a great staple within reach of the lowliest dwellers -beneath the Stars and Stripes? Candidly, is “the best in the shop” too -good for them? - -No man has contributed more to the development of the oil-industry, -alike as a producer, refiner and transporter, than Captain J. J. -Vandergrift. His active connection with petroleum goes back to pioneer -operations, widening and expanding constantly. By his energy, -perseverance, uprightness and masterly traits of character he attained -prominence in all branches of the oil-business. His wonderful success -was not due to any caprice of fortune, but to stability of purpose, -patient application and honorable methods. Vigor and decision -supplemented the keen foresight that discovered the amazing -possibilities of petroleum as an article of universal utility. He -believed in the future of oil and shaped his course in accordance with -the broadest ideas. Allied with George V. Forman, clear-headed, quick to -plan and execute, the firm took a leading part in producing and carrying -oil. Vandergrift & Forman constructed the Star Pipe-Line and equipped -trains of tank-cars to convey crude from Pithole to Oil City. They -drilled hosts of wells in Butler county and built the Fairview -Pipe-Line, which finally crystallized with numerous others into the -United Pipe-Lines Association and the gigantic National-Transit Company. -The firm of H. L. Taylor & Co., of which they were members, originated -the Union Oil-Company. Vandergrift & Forman, Vandergrift, Pitcairn & Co. -and Vandergrift, Young & Co. consolidated as the Forest Oil-Company, -which holds the foremost place in the production of oil. Mr. Forman -operated in Allegany and McKean, developing large tracts of territory on -the Bingham and Barse lands. He resided at Olean and established the -finest stock-farm in the Empire State. Removing to Buffalo to engage in -banking, he organized the Fidelity Trust-Company and erected for its use -a palatial structure in the heart of the city. Under his presidency the -Fidelity is a power in the world of finance. Shrewd, prompt and -far-seeing, George V. Forman is richly dowered with the qualities of -business-leadership. His influence in the oil-country was not limited to -one corner or district or locality. He has enjoyed the pleasure of -making money and the greater pleasure of giving liberally. He is “a man -who thinks it out, then goes and does it.” - -[Illustration: - - PIPE LINE STATION. - CAPT. J. J. VANDERGRIFT. - OIL TANK CARS. - GEO. V. FORMAN. -] - -Born at Pittsburg in 1827, at fifteen Jacob Jay Vandergrift chose the -pathway that naturally opened before him and entered the -steamboat-service, then the chief medium of intercommunication between -his native city and the west. In ten years he rose from cabin-boy to -captain. He introduced the method of towing coal-barges that has since -been employed in the river-traffic. The innovation attracted wide -attention and gave a great impetus to mining in the Pittsburg -coal-fields. Captain Vandergrift was steamboating on the Ohio when the -war broke out and owned the staunch Red Fox, which the government -chartered and lost near Cairo. He transported oil down the Allegheny, -was concerned in West-Virginia wells—the Confederates destroyed them—and -removed to Oil City in 1863 to oversee his shipping-business, with -Daniel Bushnell as his first partner in producing oil. He organized the -firms out of which grew the Union, the Forest, the Washington -Oil-Company and the United Oil and Gas Trust. He was president of the -Forest and the Washington and a leading promoter of the Anchor -Oil-Company. The success of these great companies was owing largely to -his peculiar ability as an organizer and manager of important -enterprises. Other individuals and corporations produced oil profitably, -but to Vandergrift & Forman the marvelous advance in modes of -transportation is mainly attributable. They piped and railroaded oil -from Pithole, extended their lines through the different fields, devised -many improvements, perfected the methods of handling the product and -developed the system that has eliminated jaded horses, wooden-barrels, -mud-scows, slow freights and the thousand inconveniences of early -transportation. Captain Vandergrift’s sturdy integrity and wise -forethought planned the open, clear-cut manner in which his pipe-lines -conducted business. Throughout their entire existence he was president -of the United Pipe-Lines and of the United Division of the -National-Transit after the consolidation in 1884. Their splendid record -is an unqualified tribute to his business-skill and rare sagacity. He -found the region hampered by an expensive, tedious method of moving oil -and left it a transportation-system that serves the industry as no other -on earth is served. He substituted the steam-pump for the wearied mule, -the iron-artery for the roads of bottomless mire and the huge cistern of -boiler-plate for the portable tank of wooden staves that leaked at every -pore. To Oil City he was a munificent benefactor. He projected the -Imperial Refinery, with a capacity of fifteen-thousand barrels a week, -by the sale of which he became a stockholder and officer of the Standard -Oil-Company. He aided in establishing the Boiler-Works, the -Barrel-Works, river-bridges, manufactories, churches and public -improvements. He paid his workmen the highest wages, befriended the -humble toiler and assisted every worthy object. The poor blessed his -beneficent hand and all classes revered the modest citizen whose -unostentatious deeds of kindness no party, race, color or creed could -for one moment restrict. - -Very naturally, one thus interested in a special product and its -industries must be identified with its finance. Captain Vandergrift -founded the Oil-City Trust-Company, one of the leading banking -institutions of the state, and was prominent in organizing the -Oil-Exchange, the Seaboard-National Bank of New York and the Argyle -Savings-Bank at Petrolia. Removing to Pittsburg in 1881, he founded the -Keystone Bank and the Pittsburg Trust-Company—nine-hundred-thousand -dollars paid-up capital and four-millions deposits—and was unanimously -elected president of both. He provided spacious quarters for the -Oil-Exchange and established it on a sound basis. He erected the massive -Vandergrift Building on Fourth avenue, in which the National-Transit -Company, the Forest, the South-Penn, the Pennsylvania, the Woodland and -other oil-companies are commodiously housed. The owner occupies a suite -of offices on the second floor and the Pittsburg Trust-Company has its -bank on the ground floor of the granite structure. He also erected the -Conestoga Building, which has seven-hundred elegant offices, and the -Imperial Power-Building, with factory-construction and the latest -electric-motors throughout. In 1882 he organized the Pennsylvania -Tube-Works—eight-hundred-thousand dollars capital—to manufacture all -kinds of wrought-iron pipe. The output was so excellent that the capital -was increased to two-millions and the plant doubled. The works turn out -pipe from one-eighth inch to twenty-eight inches, the smallest and -largest sizes in the world. The Apollo Steel-Company, which he also -capitalized in 1885 at three-hundred-thousand dollars, has likewise -trebled its plant and enlarged its capital to two-millions. The Penn -Fuel-Company, the Bridgewater Gas Company, the Natural-Gas Company of -West Virginia, the Chartiers Natural-Gas Company, the United Oil and Gas -Trust, the Toledo Natural-Gas Company, the Fort-Pitt Natural-Gas Company -and a number more were incorporated by Captain Vandergrift. They -represent many millions of capital and have performed inestimable -service in developing the fuel that proved a veritable philosopher’s -stone to the iron-industries of Western-Pennsylvania. As in petroleum, -from the days of spring-poles and bulk-barges and pond-freshets down -through all the changes of the most remarkable industrial development -the world has ever seen, so Captain Vandergrift has been a pioneer, a -guide and a leader in natural-gas. His hand has never been off the helm, -nor has he ever grudged an atom of the energy bestowed upon the -cherished pursuits of his busy life. - -Forty miles north-east of Pittsburg, on a beautiful bend of the -Kiskiminetas River, the new town of Vandergrift has been laid out, under -the direction of Frederick Law Olmsted. It is located on a plot one mile -square, two miles below Apollo, the gentle slope overlooking the valley -and the river for leagues. Its residents will have within easy reach of -simple thrift what luxurious people enjoy in large cities at great -expense. They will have clean air and water and breathing-room, green -leaves and flowers and grass, paved streets and sewers and electricity, -parks and walks and drives, shade-trees and lawns and pleasant homes, -for Vandergrift will be the model town of Pennsylvania. The company is -paying sixty-thousand dollars a month at Apollo in wages and the big -works at Vandergrift will employ thrice as many men. At first the bulk -of the town will be the habitations of those employed by and associated -with the company. After a little others will note its advantages and -desire to share them. Provision will be made this year for an immediate -population of several thousand, with the means of living comfortably, -families owning their homes and controlling their own pursuits. The town -is not to be a fad, a hobby, or a visionary Utopia, but a good place for -men to live in, for the founder to use his money, for the world to look -at and learn from. These banks and business-blocks, pipe-lines and -refineries, mills and factories and the town that bears his name are -enduring monuments to the enterprise and wisdom of a man who recognizes -the responsibilities of wealth in his investments, in his works of -philanthropy and in his gifts to the children of misfortune. - -Captain Vandergrift’s home in Allegheny City is a center of good cheer -and genial hospitality. The host is the same kindly, companionable -gentleman by his own hearth, in his office or on the street. He casts -the lead of memory into the stream of the past and talks entertainingly -of the old days on the Ohio, the Allegheny and Oil Creek. He is never -too much engaged to welcome a comrade of his early years. He has not -lost touch with men or the spirit of sympathy with the struggling and -unsuccessful. His trials and vicissitudes, equally with his triumphs and -successes, have strengthened his moral fiber, his manly courage and his -nobility of character. Doubtful plans and purposes have had no place in -his policy. Strict honesty and fairness have governed his conduct and -respected the rights and privileges of his fellows. He has been quick to -discover and reward talent, to grasp the details and possibilities of -business and to mature plans for any emergency. Money has not shriveled -his soul and narrowed him to the prayer of selfishness: “Give _me_ this -day _my_ daily bread.” He prefers straightforwardness to a pedigree -running back to the Mayflower. He realizes that golden opportunities for -good are not traveling by a time-table and that men will not journey -this way again to repair omissions and rectify mistakes. He knows that -he who does right will be right and feel right. He does not lay aside -his sense of justice, his love of fair-play, his earnest convictions and -his desire to benefit mankind with his Sunday clothes. He believes that -principle which is not exercised every day will not keep sweet a week. -The story of J. J. Vandergrift’s life and labor is told wherever the -flame of natural-gas glows in the white heat of a furnace or the gleam -of an oil-lamp brightens a happy home. - - Somehow we all feel sure, boys, that when the game is o’er— - When the last inning’s play’d, boys, this side the other shore— - We’ll hear the Umpire say, boys: “The Captain’s made a score.” - -Few persons have any conception of the labor and capital involved in -storing and transporting petroleum. Only those familiar with the early -methods can appreciate fully the convenience and economy of the -pipe-line system. It puts the producer in direct communication with the -carrier and a market at all seasons, regardless of high or low water, -rain or storm, mud or dust. The tanks at his wells are connected with -the pipe-line by one or more of the two-inch feeders that spider-web the -producing-country. Small pumps force the crude, when the location of the -well prevents running it by gravity, from these tanks into a -receiving-tank of the line, whence it can be piped into the trunk-lines -or a storage-tank as desired. The producer who wishes his oil run -notifies the nearest office or agent of the company—usually this -requires about two minutes by wire—a gauger measures the feet and inches -of fluid in the tank, opens the stop-cock, turns the stream into the -line and, presto, change! the job is done. The gauger measures the oil -left at the bottom of the tank, gives the producer a receipt for the -difference between the two gauges and reports the result to the central -station of that section of the field. There tables of the measurements -of every tank in the locality are at hand, properly labeled and -numbered. The right table shows at a glance the amount of oil in barrels -corresponding to the feet and inches the gauger reports having run and -the producer is credited accordingly, just like a depositor in a bank. -These reports are summed up at a certain hour and the company learns -precisely how much oil has been received each day. By a similar process -the shipments are recorded and the exact quantity in the custody of the -company is known at the close of the day’s business. Runs and shipments -are published daily and a monthly synopsis is posted, in compliance with -the laws of Pennsylvania. The producer can leave his oil in the line, -subject to a slight charge for storage after thirty days, or sell it -immediately. He can take certificates or acceptances of one thousand -barrels each, payable on demand in crude-oil at any shipping-point in -the oil-region. These certificates, good as gold and negotiable as -certified checks, the holder can use as collateral to borrow money, sell -at sight or stow away if he looks for an advance in prices. It is not -Hobson’s choice with him. In an hour from the time of notifying the -office his oil may be run, the amount figured up, the sale made and the -currency in the owner’s pocket. He has not tugged and perspired loading -it in wagons or on cars, worn out his patience and his team and his -profanity driving it through an ocean of mud, or risked the chances of a -jam and a wreck ferrying it on the bosom of a pond-freshet. Nor has he -put up one penny for the service of the pipe-line, which collects twenty -cents a barrel when the oil is delivered to the purchaser. The company -is not a holder of oil on its own account, except what it necessarily -keeps to offset evaporation and sediment, acting merely as a -common-carrier between the producer and the refiner. The system is the -perfection of simplicity, accuracy and cheapness. - -Pipe-lines are the natural outgrowth of the petroleum-business, which -could no more get along without them than could the commerce of the -world without railroads and steamships. The movement of a thousand -barrels of crude in early times was a task of great magnitude, costly, -time-consuming and perplexing. Sometimes barrels were not to be had, the -water was too shallow for boating or the mud too deep for teaming. Often -a big well wasted half its product and gorged transportation, harassing -the soul and depleting the purse of the luckless owner. Fancy attempting -to handle a hundred-thousand barrels a day with the primitive -appliances! Whew! You might as well try to cart off Niagara in kegs. -Butler and McKean rushed wells by the hundred every week, swelling the -production extravagantly. The supply was enormously in excess of the -demand. Operators wouldn’t stop drilling and the surplus oil had to be -cared for in some way. The United Lines and the National-Transit Company -spent millions of dollars to provide adequate facilities. Not only was -the vast output to be taken from the wells, but a large percentage must -be stored. To pipe a hundred-and-forty-thousand barrels a day was a -grand achievement, even without the burden of husbanding much of the -stuff for weeks, months and years. A wilderness of iron-tanks—thirty to -forty thousand barrels each—went up at Olean, Oil City, Raymilton, -Parker and distributing points. Stocks increased and tanks multiplied -until forty-million barrels were piled up! Think of the mountains of -pipe, the acres of iron-plates, the legions of workmen and the stacks of -cash all this required. Six pipes were laid to New York and the -Tidewater Company built a six-inch line to New Jersey. The trunk-lines -of the National-Transit alone are five-thousand miles in length, besides -which the Tidewater and the United-States pipe oil eastward. -Fifty-thousand barrels of crude a day flow through these underground -arteries to the refineries at Hunter’s Point, Bayonne and Philadelphia. -Other thousands are piped to Baltimore, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburg -and refineries in the oil-region. The pipe used in transporting crude -would girdle the earth twice and leave a long string for extra-measure. -Truly “these be piping times.” - -McDonald gushers poured out their floods, but the National-Transit and -Mellon Lines were on deck with pumps and pipes that snatched the -contents of the tanks and whirled them to the sea. John McKeown’s -leviathan at Washington electrified the neighborhood by starting at -three-hundred barrels an hour, with only three small tanks to hold the -product. It filled the first in forty minutes. Superintendent Glenn -Braden set up a pump in thirty minutes more that would empty the tank in -a half-hour. All night it was nip and tuck between the spouter and the -pump, big Goliath and puny David. The pump won, the oil was safe in the -line and not a drop spilled! West-Virginia’s geysers burst forth and the -Southern Trunk-Line—three-hundred miles of eight-inch and six-inch -pipe—linked Morgantown to Philadelphia. Lima tried to drown Ohio in -crude and an eight-inch line quietly dumped the deluge into Chicago. -Part of it fired the half-mile row of boilers at the Columbian -Exposition, with not a cinder, a speck of ashes or a whiff of smoke to -dim the lustrous flame of fuel-oil. Indiana, the home of some pretty big -statesmen, some pretty big oil-territory and “the Hoosier Schoolmaster,” -had a surfeit of crude which the pipe-lines bore to the huge refinery at -Whiting, to Cleveland and the Windy City. Thus the development of new -fields, remote from railroads, has been rendered possible. - -Trunk-lines require pipe of extra weight, manufactured expressly for the -purpose from wrought-iron, lap-welded, cut into lengths of eighteen feet -and tested to a pressure of two-thousand pounds to the square inch. -Pumping-stations, supplied with powerful machinery, are located at -suitable points, generally twenty-five to thirty miles apart. The -stations on the National-Transit trunk-lines usually comprise a -boiler-house forty feet square, built of brick and roofed with -corrugated iron, lighted by electricity and containing seven or eight -tubular boilers of eighty to one-hundred horse-power. For greater safety -from fire the immense pumps are in a separate brick-building. The -largest pumps are triple-expansion crank and fly-wheel engines, the -invention of John S. Klein, superintendent of the company’s -machine-shops at Oil City. Each of these giants can force -twenty-five-thousand barrels of oil a day through three six-inch pipes -from one station to the next. A low-duty engine is run when the -main-pump is stopped for repairs or any cause. At each station two or -more storage-tanks—thirty to thirty-five thousand barrels apiece—are -provided. One receives the oil from the preceding station while the pump -is emptying the other into the receiver at the station beyond. The -movement is incessant. Night and day, never tiring and never resting, -the iron-arteries throb and pulsate with the greasy liquid that rushes -swiftly a yard beneath the surface, duplicate machinery obviating the -necessity of delay or interruption. Five or six boilers are fired at -once and two are held in reserve, in case of accident. Loops are laid -around some of the stations, that a pump may send the oil two or three -times the average distance and the total disability of a station not -blockade the line. When lofty hills are surmounted the pressure on the -pump reaches twelve to fifteen-hundred pounds. Independent -telegraph-lines connect the stations with one another and the -main-offices. The engineers handle the key and click messages expertly. -The lines are patrolled regularly to detect leaks, although the system -of checking from tank to tank makes it impossible for a serious break to -pass unnoticed. To clear the incrustations of paraffine, especially in -cold weather, a scraper or “go-devil” is sent through the pipes. The -best of these instruments—a spindle with a ball-and-socket-joint near -its center to follow the bends of the pipe, fitted with steel-blades set -radially and kept in position by three arms in front and rear—was -devised by Mr. Klein. Oblique vanes, put in motion by the running oil, -rotate the spindle and the blades scrape the pipe as the “go-devil” is -propelled forward. A catch-box is placed at the end of each division and -the queer traveler can be closely timed. The great battery of boilers, -the huge engine-pumps—one on the Lima-Chicago line weighs a hundred -tons—the electric-plants and the intricate maze of steam-pipes and -water-pipes suggest the machinery of an ocean-steamship. - -If the railroad is “the missionary of punctuality,” as Robert Burdette -concisely expresses it, surely the pipe-line is the messenger of -efficiency. With wondrous speed and unfailing certainty it conveys -crude-oil from the wells to the refineries in or out of the region, -climbing hills, descending ravines, fathoming rivers and traversing -plains and forests. Methods of refining have kept pace with progress in -transportation. The smoky, dangerous, inconvenient kettle-still of the -pioneer on Oil Creek has given place to the mammoth refinery of to-day, -with its labor-saving appliances, its hundreds of skilled employés and -its improved processes. Instead of the ill-smelling, sputtering, -explosive mixture of earlier years, the world now receives the -water-white kerosene that burns as steadily and safely as a wax-taper. -Seventy tank-vessels carry it over the seas to Europe, Asia and Africa. -It is delivered at your house in neat cans, or the grocer will sell it -by the pint, quart, gallon or barrel. The light is pure as heaven’s own -sunshine, grateful to the eye and beautifying to the home. No other -substance approaches petroleum in the number and utility of its -products. Long years of patient research and experiment have extracted -from it one-hundred-and-fifty articles of value in art, science, -mechanics and domestic economy. It supplies healing-salves, ointments, -cosmetics, soaps, dainty toilet-accessories and—oh, girly Vassar -girls—chewing-gum! Refuse tar and scum are converted into lamp-black and -coarse lubricants. Scarcely a particle of it goes to waste. Noxious -gases and poisonous acids no longer pollute the air and the streams -around refineries, offending human nostrils and killing helpless fish. -The amazing vastness of its development is equalled only by the -marvelous variety of petroleum’s commercial uses. - -At every stage of its journey from the hole in the ground to the abode -of the purchaser of kerosene, oil is handled with a view to the best -results. The pipe-line relieves the producer from worry and fatigue and -a large outlay, furnishing him prompt service and a cash market at his -own door every business-day in the year. It enables the refiner to fill -the consumer’s lamp at a trifling margin above the price of crude. For -seventy cents a barrel—less than half it cost formerly to haul it a -mile—the line collects oil from the wells, pumps it into the trunk-lines -and delivers it in New York. Contrast this charge with the four, five, -eight or ten dollars exacted in the days of boats and wagons, barrels -and tank-cars and endeavor to figure the saving to the public wrought by -the pipe-lines, to say nothing of greater convenience and expedition. -The existing transportation-system may be a monopoly, but the country is -hungry for more monopolies of the same sort. If it be monopoly to bring -order out of chaos, to build one strong enterprise from a dozen -weaklings, to consolidate into a grand corporation a score of feeble -lines and reduce freight-rates seventy-five to ninety-five per cent., -the National-Transit Company is the rankest monopoly of the century. It -practices the kind of monopoly that converts a row of tottering shanties -into a stately business-block. It is guilty of furnishing storage solid -as the Rock of Gibraltar to the men who drilled oil down to forty cents -a barrel and tiding them over the period of excessive production. This -is the brand of monopoly that keeps industry alive, that supplies -foreign nations with an American product and benefits humanity. If Van -Syckle, Abbott and Harley were plucky and courageous in braving the -wrath of four-thousand teamsters, how much more brain and brawn, muscle -and money, dollars and sense were needed to lay trunk-lines that sent -ten-thousand tank-cars to the junk-pile and diminished the revenues of -railroads millions of dollars annually! The owners of these lines have -grown rich, as they ought to do, because for every dollar of their -winnings they have saved producers and consumers of petroleum ten. - -Pipe-line certificates afforded an excellent medium for speculation. The -commodity they represented was subject to fluctuations of five to fifty -per cent., which made it particularly fascinating to speculators in -stocks. Oil-exchanges were established at Oil City, Titusville, Parker, -Bradford, Pittsburg, New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere. In a single -year the clearances exceeded eleven-billion barrels. Bulls and bears -reveled in excitement and brokers had customers from every quarter of -the country. The forerunner of these institutions was “the Curbstone -Exchange” at Oil City in 1870. The bulk of the buying and selling was -done in front of Lockhart, Frew & Co.’s office, Centre street, near the -railroad track. Producers, dealers and spectators would congregate on -the sidewalk, discuss the situation, tell stories and buy or sell oil. -The group in the illustration includes a number of well-known citizens. -Most of them have left Oil City and not a few have gone from earth. -Acquaintances will recognize Dr. Knox, John Mawhinney, James Mawhinney, -John D. Archbold, Dr. Baldwin, A. H. Bronson, P. H. Judd, L. D. Kellogg, -A. E. Fay, George Porter, Edward Higbee, William M. Williams, John W. -Austin, J. M. Butters, Joseph Bates, George W. Parker, William H. -Porterfield, Charles W. Frazer, Edward Simmons, Samuel H. Lamberton, -James H. Magee, Isaac Lloyd and William Elliott. Charles Lockhart and -William Frew were pioneer refiners at Pittsburg and heavy buyers of -crude at Oil City. William G. Warden entered into partnership with them -and established the great Atlantic Refinery at Point Breeze. In 1874 the -refineries controlled by Warden, Frew & Co. consolidated with the -Standard Oil-Company of Ohio, forming the nucleus of the Standard -Oil-Trust. Mr. Warden built the Gladstone, the first large -apartment-house in Philadelphia, and died in April of 1895. He married a -daughter of Daniel Bushnell and was one of the most enterprising and -charitable citizens of Pennsylvania. His surviving contemporaries are -old in reminiscences of Oil Creek and the days when pipe-lines and -oil-certificates were unguessed probabilities. - -[Illustration: OIL CITY “CURBSTONE EXCHANGE” IN 1870.] - -Trades were made in offices, at wells, on streets, anywhere and -everywhere. Purchasers for Pittsburg, Baltimore and Philadelphia -refiners started brokerage in 1868, on a commission of ten cents a -barrel from buyers and five from sellers. The Farmers’ Railroad, -completed to Oil City in 1867, brought so many operators to town that a -car was assigned them, in which they bought and sold “spot,” “regular” -and “future oil.” There were no certificates, no written obligations, no -margins to bind a bargain, but everything was done on honor and no man’s -word was broken. “Spot oil” was to be moved and paid for at once, -“regular” allowed the buyer ten days to put the oil on the cars and -“future” was taken as agreed upon mutually. Large lots frequently -changed hands in this passenger-car, really the first oil-exchange. The -business increased, an exchange on wheels had manifest disadvantages and -in December of 1869 it was decided to effect a permanent organization. -Officers were elected and a room was rented on Centre street. It removed -to the Sands Block in 1871, to the Opera-House Block in January of 1872 -and to a temporary shed next the Empire-Line office in the fall, when -South-Improvement complications dissolved the organization. For about -fifteen months hotels, streets, or offices sufficed for accommodations. -In February of 1864 the exchange was reorganized, with George V. Forman -as president, and occupied quarters in the Collins House four years. -Gradually rules were adopted and methods introduced that brought about -the system afterwards in vogue. In April of 1878 the formal opening of -the splendid Oil-Exchange Building took place. The structure contained -offices, committee-rooms, telegraph-lines, reading-rooms and all -conveniences for its four-hundred members. H. L. Foster, now of Chicago, -was president term after term. The late H. L. McCance, secretary for -years, was a first-class artist, with a skill for caricature worthy of -Thomas Nast. Some of the most striking cartoons pertaining to oil were -the work of his ready pencil. F. W. Mitchell & Co. inaugurated the -advancing of money on certificates, their bank’s transactions in this -line ranging from one to four-million dollars a day. The application of -the clearing-house system in 1882 simplified the routine and facilitated -deliveries. The volume of business was immense, the clearances often -amounting to ten or fifteen-million barrels a day. Only the New York and -the San Francisco stock-exchanges surpassed it. If speculation were -piety, everybody who inhaled the air of Oil City would have been saved -and the devil might have put up his shutters. During rapid fluctuations -the galleries would be packed with men and women who had “taken a flyer” -and watched the antics of the bulls and bears intently. Fortunes were -gained and lost. Many a “lamb” was shorn and many a “duck” lamed. It was -a raging fever, a delirium of excitement, compressing years of ordinary -anxiety and haste into a week. Now the exchange is deserted and -speculative trade in oil is dead. Part of the big building is a -clothier’s store and offices are rented for sleeping-apartments. Myer -Lowentritt, Stewart Simpson, “Eddie” Selden, Samuel Justus and a -half-dozen others are seen occasionally, but days pass without a -solitary transaction, the surging crowds have vanished and activity is a -dream of bygone years. - -Parker had a lively oil-exchange when the Armstrong and Butler fields -were at their height. The most prominent men in speculative trade lived -in the town or were represented in the exchange. Thomas B. Simpson was a -large operator. George Darr was agent of Daniel Goettel, who once -engineered the greatest bull-movement in the history of oil and was -supposed to have “cornered” the market. Charles Ball and Henry Loomis -earned sixty-thousand dollars brokerage a year and died within a month -of each other. Trade slackened and expired. The boys shifted to Bradford -and Pittsburg and a constable sold the building to satisfy Mrs. W. H. -Spain’s claim for ground-rent! The five-thousand-dollar library and the -costly pictures, dust-covered and neglected, sold for a trifle and went -to South Oil City. A jollier, bigger-hearted crowd of fellows than the -members of the Parker Exchange never played a practical joke or helped a -poor sufferer out of “a deuce of a fix.” - -The Bradford Oil-Exchange started on January first, 1883, with -five-hundred members and a forty-thousand-dollar building. Five-hundred -others, with Hon. David Kirk as president, organized the Producers’ -Petroleum-Exchange and erected a spacious brick-block, occupying it on -January second, 1884. Both exchanges whooped it up briskly, both have -subsided and the buildings are stores and offices. Titusville’s handsome -exchange, on the site of the American Hotel, has gone the same road. -Captain Vandergrift built the Pittsburg Oil-Exchange, the finest of them -all, fitting it up superbly. A bank and offices have succeeded the -festive dealers in crude. From the Mining-Stock Exchange, the -Miscellaneous Security Board and several more of similar types the -New-York Consolidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange developed a huge -concern, with twenty-four-hundred members and a lordly building—erected -in 1887—on Broadway and Exchange Place. The membership was the largest -in the country, with the exception of the Produce Exchange, and the -business in oil at times exceeded the transactions of the Stock -Exchange. Seats sold as high as three-thousand dollars. Charles G. -Wilson has been president since the organization of the Petroleum and -Stock Board, which absorbed the National Petroleum Exchange—L. H. Smith -was its president—and in 1885 adopted the elongated name that has -burdened it eleven years. Oil is not mentioned once a week, because the -stocks have declined to a skeleton and the certificates represent -scarcely a half-million barrels. Philadelphia had an exchange of lesser -degree and a score of oil-region towns sharpened their appetite for -speculation by establishing branch-concerns and bucket-shops. The almost -entire disappearance of the speculative trade is not the least -remarkable feature of the petroleum-development. - -[Illustration: JOSEPH SEEP.] - -Since the elimination of exchanges producers generally sell their oil in -the shape of credit-balances. For their convenience the Standard -Oil-Company has established purchasing-agencies throughout the region. -The quantity of crude to the credit of the seller on the pipe-line books -is ascertained from the National-Transit office, a check is given and -all the trouble the producer has is to draw his money from the bank. It -is handier than a pocket in a shirt, easier than rolling off a log in a -mill-pond, and the happy “victim of monopoly” goes on his way rejoicing -after the manner of Philip’s converted eunuch. If he reside at a -distance, be sojourning at Squedunk or in London, traveling with the -Czar or showing the Prince of Wales a good time, a message to the agency -will deliver his oil to Harry Lewis and the cash to his own order in a -twinkling. The whole chain of purchasing-agencies is managed by Joseph -Seep, whose headquarters are at Oil City. The Standard has the knack of -selecting A-1 men for responsible positions—men who are not misfits, -square pegs in round holes or small potatoes in the hill. Among the -capable thousands who represent the great corporation none is better -adapted to his important place than the head of the purchasing-agencies. -He has the tact, the experience, the knowledge of human-nature and the -strength of character the position demands. For twenty-five years he has -purchased crude for the company, up Oil Creek, at Oil City and down the -Allegheny. You may not belong to his church or his party, you may differ -from him on silver and woman-suffrage, you may even call the Standard an -“octopus”—Col. J. A. Vera first did this at a meeting near St. -Petersburg in 1874—and wish to turn its picture to the wall, but you -like “Joe” Seep for his candor, his manliness, his admirable blending of -suavity and firmness. He hails from the succulent blue-grass of -Kentucky, combines Southern ease and Northern vigor, lives at Titusville -and enjoys his wealth. It would strain Chicago’s convention-hall to hold -his legions of friends. His heart and his purse are alike generous. He -produces oil, buys oil, ships oil and “pays the freight” on -three-fourths of the oil handled in Oildom. He and George Lewis and -Harry Lewis—“match ’em if you can”—have bought enough oil to fill a sea -on which the navies of the world might race and leave room for the Yale -crew that crew too soon. Seep and the Lewises are the gilt-edged stripe -of men who don’t drop banana-skins on the sidewalk to trip up a neighbor -or squirm with envy because somebody else has a streak of good-luck. -When Seep’s last shipment has been made, the account is closed and the -Recording Angel’s ledger shows his big credit-balance, St. Peter will -“throw the gates wide open,” bid him welcome and never think of -springing the old gag: “Not for Joseph, not for Joe!” - -Sudden shifts in the market brought queer experiences in the days of -wild oil-speculation, enriching some dabblers and impoverishing -others. Stories of gains and losses were printed in newspapers, -repeated in Europe and exaggerated at home and abroad. A bull-clique -at Bradford, acting upon “tips from the inside,” dropped -four-hundred-thousand dollars in six months. An Oil-City producer -cleared three-hundred-thousand one spring, loaded for a further rise -and was bankrupted by the frightful collapse Cherry Grove ushered in. -A Warren minister risked three-thousand dollars, the savings of his -lifetime, which vanished in a style that must have taught him not to -lay up treasures on earth. A Pittsburg cashier margined his own and -his grandmother’s hundred-thousand dollars. The money went into the -whirlpool and the old lady went to the poor-house. A young Warrenite -put up five-hundred dollars to margin a block of certificates, kept -doubling as the price advanced and quit fifty-thousand ahead. He -looked about for a chance to invest, but the craze had seized him and -he hazarded his pile in oil. Cherry Grove swept away his fortune in a -day. A Bradford hotel-keeper’s first plunge netted him a hundred -dollars one forenoon. He thought that beat attending bar and haunted -the Producers’ Exchange persistently. He mortgaged his property in -hope of calling the turn, but the sheriff raked in the pot and the -poor landlord was glad to drive a beer-wagon. Such instances could be -multiplied indefinitely. Hundreds of producers lost in the maelstrom -all the earnings of their wells, while the small losers would be like -the crowd John beheld in his vision on Patmos, “a great company whom -no man can number.” Wages of drivers, pumpers, drillers, laborers and -servant-girls were swallowed in the quicksands of the treacherous sea. - -Of course there were many winners and many happy strokes of fortune. In -1876 Peter Swenk, of Ithaca, N. Y., purchased through a Parker broker -ten-thousand barrels at two dollars and left orders to buy five-thousand -more should the market break to one-seventy-five. Returning home, he was -taken violently ill and the market suddenly fell forty cents, five cents -below his margins. The day was stormy and Swenk could obtain no reports -except from Oil City, where the break was eight cents greater than at -Parker. The storm saved Swenk, although he did not know it for months, -by crippling the wires and shutting off communication between Oil City -and Parker the last hour of business. Concluding the margins were -exhausted and the broker had sold the oil to save himself, Swenk went -west to start anew. Weeks after his departure his Ithaca friends -received urgent telegrams from the broker at Parker. They forwarded the -messages, which informed him that, as the market stood, he was worth -nineteen-thousand dollars and would be wise to sell. Swenk wired to -close the whole matter and started for Parker. The market jumped another -peg just before the order to sell arrived and Swenk received -twenty-two-thousand dollars profits. He paid the broker double -commission, returned home and bought a splendid farm. The faithful -broker who managed this singular deal is now virtually a pauper at -Bradford and a slave of rum. Last time we met he staggered up to me, his -eyes bleared and his clothing in tatters, pressed my hand and said: -“Gimme ten cents; I’m dying for a drink!” - -A big spurt in April of 1895 temporarily revived interest in -oil-speculations. Again the exchange at Oil City was thronged. Exciting -scenes of former years were renewed as the price climbed ten cents a -clip. It was refreshing after the long stagnation to see the pool once -more stirred to its depths. From one-ten on April fourth the price -strode to two-eighty on April seventeenth. Certificates were scarce and -credit-balances were snapped up eagerly. A few big winnings resulted, -then the reaction set in, the spasm subsided and matters resumed their -customary quietude. Connected with this phenomenal episode the papers in -May told this breezy tale of “Bailey’s Jag Investment:” - -“C. J. Bailey, of Parkersburg, drew seventy-five-hundred dollars out -of the Commercial Bank of Wheeling as the earnings of a -three-hundred-dollar investment, made involuntarily and unknowingly. -Bailey is a traveling salesman. A little less than a month ago he made -a trip through the West-Virginia oil-fields. At Sistersville he got in -with a crowd of oil-men, with the result that next day he had a big -head, a very poor recollection of what had happened and was -three-hundred dollars short, according to his memorandum-book. He -wisely decided that the less publicity he gave his loss the better it -would be and kept still. On Friday he was coming to Wheeling on the -Ohio River Railroad, when a stranger approached him with: - -“‘You are J. C. Bailey, I believe.’ - -“‘Yes,’ replied Bailey. - -“‘Well, you will find seven-thousand-five-hundred dollars to your credit -in the Commercial Bank at Wheeling,’ replied the stranger. ‘I put it -there day before yesterday and was about to advertise for you.’ - -“Bunco was the first thought of Bailey; but as the stranger did not ask -for any show of money and talked all right, he asked for an explanation. -It turned out that the stranger was one of the men with whom Bailey had -been out in Sistersville. He was also secretary and treasurer of an -oil-company, which had struck a rich well in the back-country pool two -weeks before. Bailey, while irresponsible, had put three-hundred dollars -into the company’s capital-stock, on the advice of his friends. Meantime -the well had been drilled, coming in a gusher of three-thousand barrels -a day, one-tenth of which belonged to Bailey on his three-hundred-dollar -investment. Bailey came to Wheeling, went to the bank and found the -money awaiting him. He drew five-thousand dollars to send to his wife. -Bailey’s good fortune is not over yet, for the well is a good producer -and the company holds large leases, on which several more good wells are -sure to be drilled.” - -What of the brokers and speculators? They are scattered like chaff. A -thousand have “gone and left no sign.” President Foster, of the Oil City -Exchange, an accomplished musician, traveler and orator, is a Chicagoan. -John Mawhinney, John S. Rich—the fire at Rouseville’s burning-well -nearly destroyed his sight—H. L. McCance, George Cornwall, Wesley -Chambers, Dr. Cooper, A. D. Cotton, T. B. Porteous, Isaac Reineman, I. -S. Gibson, Charles J. Fraser, W. K. Vandergrift, B. W. Vandergrift, B. -F. Hulseman, Charles Haines, Michael Geary, Patrick Tiernan, “Shep” -Moorhead, Melville, McCutcheon, Fullerton Parker, George Harley, Marcus -Brownson and a host of other familiar figures will nevermore be seen in -any earthly exchange. “Jimmy” Lowe—he was a telegrapher at first—Arthur -Lewis, M. K. Bettis, George Thumm, I. M. Sowers and a dozen more drifted -to Chicago. “Dick” Conn, “Sam” Blakeley, Wade Hampton, “Rod” Collins, -Major Evans, Col. Preston and Charles W. Owston are residents of New -York. “Tom” McLaughlin buys oil for the Standard at Lima. “Ajax” Kline -is dissecting the Tennessee field for the Forest Oil-Company. “Cal” -Payne is Oil-City manager of the Standard’s gas-interests. “Tom” -Blackwell is in Seep’s purchasing-agency. John J. Fisher is flourishing -at Pittsburg. “Charley” Goodwin holds the fort at Kane. Daniel Goettel -and W. S. McMullan are running a large lumber-plant in Missouri. O. C. -Sherman is a Baptist preacher and Jacob Goettel fills a Methodist -pulpit. Frank Ripley and “Fin” Frisbee are heavy-weights in Duluth -real-estate. C. P. Stevenson, the leading Bradford broker, dwells at his -ease on a plantation in North Carolina. B. F. Blackmarr lives at -Meadville and “Billy” Nicholas is a citizen of Minneapolis. Some are in -California, some in Alaska, some in Florida, some in Europe and two or -three in India. Go whither you may, it will be a cold day if you don’t -stumble across somebody who belonged to an oil-exchange or had a cousin -whose husband’s brother-in-law knew a man who was acquainted with -another man who once saw a man who met an oil-broker. It is sad to think -how the capital fellows who juggled certificates at Oil City, Parker and -Bradford have thinned out and the pall of obliteration has been spread -over the exchanges. - - “So fallen! So lost! the light withdrawn - Which once they wore, - The glory of their past has gone - Forevermore!” - -[Illustration: FIRST STEEL OIL-TANK STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, AT TITUSVILLE, -JUNE 11, 1880.] - -A pretty girl might as well expect to escape admiring glances as -petroleum to escape a fire occasionally. “Uncle Billy” Smith’s lantern -ignited the first tank at the Drake well and a long procession has -followed in its smoky trail. The lantern-fiend has been a prolific cause -of oil-conflagrations, boiling-over refinery-stills have not been slack -in this particular, the cigarette with a fool at one end and a spark at -the other has done something in the same line, but lightning is the -champion tank-destroyer. The result of an electric-bolt and a tank of -inflammable oil engaging in a debate may be imagined. At first tanks -were covered loosely with boards or wooden roofs. The gas formed a vapor -which attracted lightning and kept up a large production of fires each -season. One vicious stroke cremated sixty tanks of oil at the Atlantic -Refinery in 1883. In July and August of 1880, a quarter-million barrels -of McKean crude went up by the lightning-route. On June eleventh, 1880, -a flash collided with the first _steel-tank_ on which lightning had ever -experimented and set the oil blazing. The tank was on a hill-side -three-hundred feet from the west bank of Oil Creek, at Titusville. -Several houses and the Acme Refinery, located between it and the stream, -were consumed. While the burning oil flowed down the hill a sheet of -solid flame covered ten acres. Bursting tanks, exploding stills and -burning oils were an unpleasant premonition of the red-hot hereafter -prepared for the wicked. The fire raged three days with the fury of the -furnace heated sevenfold to give Shadrack, Meshach and Abed-nego a -roast. The Titusville Battery checked it somewhat by cannonading the -tanks with solid shot, which made holes that let the oil run into the -creek. This plan was tried successfully in Butler and McKean. The old -log-house that sheltered the generations of Campbells on the site of -Petrolia met its fate by the firing of Taylor & Satterfield’s -twenty-thousand-barrel tank on the hill above, which fell a prey to -lightning. Three tanks opposite the mouth of Bear Creek, below Parker, -stood together and burned together, the one singed by Jupiter’s shaft -setting off its mates. The scene at night was of the grandest, -multitudes gathering to watch the huge waves of flame and dense clouds -of smoke. As the oil burned down—just as it would consume in a lamp—the -tank-plates would collapse and the blazing crude would overflow. -Thousands of barrels would pour into the Allegheny, covering the water -for a mile with flame and painting a picture beside which a volcanic -eruption resembled the pyrotechnics of a lucifer-match. Many tanks were -burned prior to the use of close iron-roofs, which confine the gas and -do not offer special inducements to “the artillery of heaven” to score a -hit. Of late years such fires have been rarities. All oil in the -pipe-line to which the burned tank belonged was assessed to meet the -amount lost. This was known as General Average, as unwelcome in oil as -General Apathy in politics, General Depression in business, General -Dislike in society or General Weyler in Cuba. - -George B. Harris, a pioneer refiner, died at Franklin in January of -1892, aged sixty years. A member of the firm of Sims & Co., he built the -first or second refinery in Venango county, near the lower end of -Franklin. He prospered for years, but reverses swept away his fortune -and he was poor when death closed the scene. - -A party of young men from New England started a refinery on Oil Creek in -the sixties. Their industry, correct habits and attention to business -attracted favorable notice. Mr. Trefts, of machinery fame, one day -observed to a friend: “You mark my words; some day these young men will -be rich and their names shall be a power in the land. I know it will be -so from their industry and good habits.” This assertion was prophetic. -The young man at the head of that modest firm of young men was H. H. -Rogers, now president of the National-Transit Company. Speaking of his -election as supervisor of streets and highways at Fair Haven, a New-York -paper indulged in this facetious pleasantry regarding Mr. Rogers: - -“The people of Fair Haven have done well. No man in New York or -Massachusetts has had more experience with bad roads than Mr. Rogers, or -has met with more success in subduing them. When he first engaged in the -petroleum-business on Oil Creek the highways there were rarely navigable -for anything on wheels, but were open to navigation by flat-boats most -of the year. There was something in the mud of the oil-country at that -time which was sure death to the capillary glands. Hairless horses and -mules were in the height of fashion. When Mr. Rogers arrived on the -strange scene, poling his way up to the hotel on a sawlog, he was at -once chosen road-supervisor. In a neat speech, which is still extant, -Mr. Rogers thanked the oil-citizens for the confidence reposed in him -and then went to work. In the first place, he refined the mud of the -highways, taking from it all the merchantable petroleum and converting -the residue into stove-polish of an excellent quality. In the next -place, he constructed pipe-lines, through which the oil was conveyed, -thus keeping it out of the middle of the road, and to-day there is a -boulevard along Oil Creek that is hardly surpassed by the Appian Way. -Horses are again covered with hair and happiness sits smiling at every -hearthstone. The people of Fair Haven have a superintendent of streets -to whom they can point with pride.” - -Dr. J. W. James, of Brady’s Bend, who drilled some of the first wells -around Oil City and was largely interested in the Armstrong and Bradford -fields, in 1858 had a plant near Freeport for extracting coal-oil from -shale. At a cost of twelve cents a gallon it produced crude-petroleum, -which the company refined partially and sold at a dollar to -one-twenty-five. The oil obtained from the rocks by drilling and that -distilled from the shale were the same chemically. Dr. James read -medicine with Dr. F. J. Alter, who constructed a telegraph Morse -journeyed from the east to see before perfecting his own device. Dr. -Alter’s line extended only from the house about the small yard and back -to his study. Full of enthusiasm over its first performance, he cried -out to his student, young James: “I believe I could make this thing work -a distance of six miles!” Bell’s first telephone—a cord stretched -between two apple-trees in an orchard at Brantford, Canada—was equally -simple and its results have been scarcely less important. - -John J. Fisher bought the first thousand barrels of oil in the new -exchange at Oil City, on April twenty-third, 1878. Probably the largest -purchase was by George Lewis, who took from a syndicate of brokers a -block of two-hundred-thousand barrels. The first offer was -fifty-thousand, increasing ten-thousand until it quadrupled, with the -object of having Lewis cry: “Hold! Enough!” Lewis wasn’t to be bluffed -and he merely nodded at each addition to the lot until the other fellow -weakened, the crowd watching the pair breathlessly. “Sam” Blakeley, the -most eccentric genius in the aggregation, once bid at Parker for a -million barrels. Nobody had that quantity to sell and he advanced the -bid five cents above the quotations. There was not a response and he -offered a million barrels five cents below the ruling price, toying with -the market an hour as if it were a foot-ball. He played for big stakes, -but none knew who backed him. Coming to Oil City, he reported the market -for the _Derrick_ and cut up lots of shines. One morning he looked glum, -oil had tumbled and “Sam” hired an engine to whirl him to Corry. By -nightfall he landed in Canada and his oil was sold to square his account -in the clearing-house. An hour after his flight William Brough came up -from Franklin to take the oil and carry “Sam” over the drop. In the -afternoon a sudden rise set in, which would have left Blakeley -twenty-thousand dollars profit had he stayed at his post! That was the -time “Sam” didn’t do “the great kibosh,” as he phrased it. For years he -has been hanging around New York. He was one of the boys distinguished -as high-rollers and extinguished before the shuffle ended. - -Telegraph-operators and messenger-boys at the oil-exchanges learned to -note the movements of leading speculators and profit thereby. Some of -them, with more hope of gain than fear of loss, beginning in a small way -by risking a few dollars in margins, coined money and entered the ring -on their own account. “Jimmy” Lowe, one of the biggest brokers at Parker -and Oil City, slung lightning for the Western-Union when the Oil-City -Exchange needed the services of twenty operators and scores of -messenger-boys. Among the latter was “Jim” Keene, the Franklin broker. -He and John Bleakley often received fifty cents or a dollar for -delivering a message to “Johnnie” Steele, who stopped at the Jones House -and flew high during his visits to Oil City. Steele and Seth Slocum -would dash through the mud on their black chargers, dressed in the -loudest style and sporting big diamonds. These halcyon times have passed -away and the oil-exchanges have departed. “The glories of our mortal -state are shadows.” - -In January of 1894 the Producers’ and Refiners’ Oil-Company erected an -iron-tank on the hill south-east of Titusville. Lightning destroyed the -tank and its contents in May. The second tank was built on the spot in -October and on June twelfth, 1895, lightning struck a tree beside it. -The burning tree fired the gas and the tank and oil perished. The site -is still vacant, the company deciding not to give the electric fluid a -chance for a third strike. - -George W. N. Yost, who died in New York last year, was once the largest -oil-buyer and shipper in the region. He lived at Titusville and removed -to Corry, where he built the Climax Mower and Reaper Works, a church, a -handsome residence and blocks of dwellings. Patents of different kinds -recouped losses in manufacturing. With Mr. Densmore, of Meadville, he -brought out the caligraph. Yost sold to his partner and developed the -Yost Typewriter, organized the American Writing-Machine Company and -fitted up the shops at Bridgeport, Connecticut, used to manufacture -Sharp’s rifles during the border-troubles in Kansas. Mr. Yost was a man -of striking personality and unflagging energy. He became a strong -spiritualist and believed a medium, to whom he submitted completely, put -him in communication with his dead relatives and recorded their thoughts -on his typewriter. - -The men of the oil-region have ever been noted for their commercial -honor. It passed into a proverb—“honor of oil.“ The spirit of the -saying, “his word is as good as his bond,” has always been lived up to -more closely in Oildom than in any other section of the country. The -force of business-obligation ran high in the exchanges and among the -early dealers in crude. Transactions involving hundreds-of-thousands of -dollars occurred every day, without a written bond or a scrap of paper -save a pencil-entry in a memorandum-book. Certificates were borrowed and -loaned in this way and the idea of shirking a verbal contract was never -thought of. The celerity with which property thus passed from man to man -was one of the striking features of business in the bustling world of -petroleum. And the record is something to be proud of in these days of -embezzlements, defalcations, breaches of trust and commercial deviltry -generally. - -The average tank-steamer carries about two-million gallons of oil in -bulk across the Atlantic. In addition to this fleet of steamers, scores -of sailing vessels, under charter of the Orient, France, Italy and -foreign countries, load cases and barrels of refined-oil for transport -to European ports. American wooden-ships are chartered sometimes to -convey oil to Japan. Thus Russian competition is met through the -instrumentality of pipe-lines to the coast and transportation by water -to points many thousand miles away from the wells that produced the oil. - -The production of crude-petroleum in the United States in 1895, -according to the statistics compiled for the Geological Survey by Joseph -D. Weeks, was fifty-three-million barrels, valued at fifty-eight-million -dollars. For 1894 the figures were fifty-million barrels and -thirty-five-million dollars respectively. All districts except West -Virginia and New York shared in the increase. The total -production from the striking of the Drake well in 1859 to -the end of 1895 was seven-hundred-and-ten-million barrels. -Five-hundred-and-seventeen-million barrels of this enormous aggregate -represent the yield of the Pennsylvania and New-York oil-fields. Who -says petroleum isn’t a big thing? - -At Pittsburg you can easily gather a little group of men, such as -Charles Lockhart and Captain Vandergrift, who recall the time when the -Tarentum petroleum was termed “a mysterious grease.” They had a hand in -handling it when the oil had no commercial name. They watched Samuel M. -Kier’s efforts to give it a commercial name and a marketable value. They -saw it run to waste at first, they remember paying a dollar a gallon for -it and can tell all about Drake’s visit to Tarentum. They hold their -breath when they think of the gold that changed hands in Venango county -after “Uncle Billy” Smith bored the seventy-foot hole below Titusville, -of the wonderful spread of operations and the dazzling progress of the -commodity once despised. They noted the flow of petroleum toward -Europe—how forty casks were sent to France in 1860 as a curiosity and -thirty-nine-hundred in 1863 as a commercial venture. They have seen this -“mysterious grease,” that used to flow into the Pennsylvania Canal, -light the world from the Pyramids of Egypt to the salons of Paris, from -the shores of Palestine to the Chinese Wall. They have seen the four -salt-and-oil wells at Tarentum and the solitary oil-well at Titusville -multiplied into a hundred-thousand holes drilled for petroleum and a -production almost beyond calculation. Do the gentlemen composing this -little group occupy a position dramatic in the marvelous events they -review? Is petroleum freighted with interest and a touch of romance at -every step of its passage from the well to the lamp? - - MERELY DROPPED IN. - - To big oil-wells a man may be a claimant, - From the sand-rock take in enormous payment, - Yet all he gets on earth is food and raiment. - - The good well is the humble bee - With honey on its wings; - The dry-hole is the bumble-bee - That buzzes loud and stings. - - Oilmen who run in debt, despite their rapid talk, - Not very often come out faster than a walk. - - Uneasy lies the face that wears a frown; - No wonder, at the rate crude-oil goes down. - - “What are your favorite books?” the gushing damsel cried; - “Bank-books and pocket-books,” the oilman quick replied. - - Idle gossip? Oh, no, that isn’t right, - For gossip keeps on working day and night, - Beating a flowing oil-well out of sight. - - The driller mutter’d, as he stagger’d with unsteady gait, - “There is no evil mixture here, I took my whisky straight.” - - Of all uncertain kinds of biz - An oilman’s most uncertain is; - To-day, perhaps, his anguish’d soul - Laments because of a dry-hole; - He tries again, and who can tell - But he may strike a flowing-well? - - Sound money? Yes indeed; no oilman has a doubt - The coin that jingles is the “soundest” money out. - - Who with himself is satisfied - Wants little here below; - He has a small excuse for pride, - For if the third-sand once he tried - He might find a poor show. - - The fabric of the clothing may not wear a little bit, - But the clothier’s fabrications will outlast Berea grit. - - “Pay as you go.” We will, for all the oilmen know - All men _must_ pay the debt of nature as they go. - - The gusher and the duster - May be on one town-plot, - Angels and devils muster - Upon the self-same lot, - And sobs and smiles may cluster - Like flies on one bald spot. - Rare goodness and tough badness - May come from the same shank, - Twin-links of grief and gladness - Be issued by one bank, - For tears of joy and sadness - Still flow from the same tank. - - “A rolling stone gathers no moss,” for trying junctures - May some wildcatters fit; - But then it is the rolling wheel that gathers punctures, - Which makes the old saw nit. - - Be not a spouting well that keeps an endless flow; - It isn’t always wise to tell all that you know, - But all you tell be mighty sure it’s truly so. - - “Young Luckyboy made fifty-thousand plunks - From one small can of crude,” - The oilman said, while silence lay in chunks; - “I pray don’t think me rude”— - A list’ner spoke—“It strikes me you’re a man - Must practice on the lyre.” - The oilman smil’d: “His rich aunt used the can - To hurry up the fire!” - - He put the glycerine to thaw, the water was too hot, - The stuff let go; it was the man, and not the well, was shot. - - “No!” said the oilman’s daughter, when young Dudelet sought her hand, - “You may have lots of money, but you haven’t got the sand.” - - Why are proof-readers needed, those careless printers’ terrors? - Because our first impressions are often full of errors. - -[Illustration: A CLUSTER OF PIONEER EDITORS.] - -COL. LEE M. MORTON. -W. H. LONGWELL. -WARREN C. PLUMER. -COL. J. T. HENRY. - -WALTER R. JOHNS. -MAJOR W. W. BLOSS. -J. H. BOWMAN. - -L. H. METCALFE. -C. E. BISHOP. -HENRY C. BLOSS. -COL. M. N. ALLEN. - - - - - XVI. - THE LITERARY GUILD. - -CLEVER JOURNALISTS WHO HAVE CATERED TO PEOPLE OF THE - OIL-REGIONS—NEWSPAPERS AND THE MEN WHO MADE THEM—CULTURED WRITERS, - POETS AND AUTHORS—NOTABLE CHARACTERS PORTRAYED BRIEFLY—SHORT - EXTRACTS FROM MANY SOURCES—A BRIGHT GALAXY OF TALENTED - THINKERS—WORDS AND PHRASES THAT WILL ENRICH THE LANGUAGE FOR ALL - TIME. - - ---------- - -“And a small drop of ink * * * makes thousands, perhaps millions, - think.”—_Byron._ - -“Literature is the immortality of speech.”—_Wilmott._ - -“News, the manna of a day.”—_Green._ - -“They whom truth and wisdom lead can gather honey from a - word.”—_Cooper._ - -“Thoughts that breathe and words that burn.”—_Gray._ - -“Reading maketh a full man.”—_Bacon._ - -“The pen is mightier than the sword.”—_Lytton._ - -“Every worthy citizen reads a newspaper and owns the paper he - reads.”—_Beecher._ - -“His verse is lusty as a trooper’s oath.”—_Viscount Valrose._ - -“Thus men ascend to the stars.”—_Virgil._ - -“Hath thy toil o’er books consumed the midnight-oil?”—_Gay._ - -“Books are * * * the only men that speak aloud for future times to - hear.”—_Mrs. Browning._ - -“Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand - bayonets.”—_Napoleon._ - -“He was the interpreter of Nature, dipping his pen into Mind.”—_Suidas._ - - ---------- - - -[Illustration: REV. HARRY LEIGH YEWENS.] - -Thirty-seven years have had their entrances and their exits since Col. -Drake’s little operation on Oil Creek played ducks and drakes with -lard-oil lamps and tallow-dips. That seventy-foot hole on the flats -below Titusville gave mankind a queer variety of things besides the best -light on “this grain of sand and tears we call the earth.” With the -illuminating blessing enough wickedness and jollity were mixed up to -knock out Sodom and Gomorrah in one round. The festive boys who painted -the early oil-towns red are getting gray and wrinkled, yet they smile -clear down to their boots as they think of Petroleum Centre, Pithole, -Babylon, or any other of the rapid places which shed a lurid glare along -in the sixties. The smile is not so much on account of flowing wells and -six-dollar crude as because of the rollicking scenes which carmined the -pioneer-period of Petroleum. These were the palmy days of unfathomable -mud, swearing teamsters, big barrels, high prices, abundant cash and -easy morals, when men left their religion and dress-suits “away out in -the United States.” The air was redolent of oil and smoke and -naughtiness, but there was no lack of hearty kindness and the sort of -charity that makes the angels want to flap their wings and give “three -cheers and a tiger.” Even as the city destroyed by fire from heaven -boasted one righteous person in the shape of Lot, whose wife was turned -into a pillar of salt for being too fresh, so the busy Oil-Dorado had a -host of capital fellows, true as steel, bright as a dollar and -“quicker’n greas’d lightnin’!” Braver, better, nobler, squarer men never -doffed a tile to a pretty girl or elevated a heavy boot to the -coat-tails of a scoundrel. About the well, on the streets, in stores and -offices could be found gallant souls attracted from the ends of the -world by glowing pictures—real oil-paintings—of huge fortunes gained in -a twinkling. Ministers, lawyers, doctors, merchants, soldiers, -professors, farmers, mechanics and members of every industry were -neither few nor far between in the exciting scramble for “the root of -all evil.” - -[Illustration: - - WILL S. WHITAKER. ROBERT LACY COCHRAN. - ALBERT PAWLING WHITAKER. -] - -To keep matters straight and slake the thirst for current literature -newspapers were absolutely necessary. Going back to 1859, the eventful -year that brought petroleum to the front, Venango county had three -weeklies. The oldest of these was the _Spectator_, established at -Franklin in 1849, by Albert P. Whitaker. At the goodly age of -seventy-eight he wielded a vigorous pen and died in February, 1897. A -zealous disciple of Izaak Walton and Thomas Jefferson, he could hook a -fish or indite a pungent editorial with equal dexterity. He was an -encyclopedia of political lore and racy stories. His _Spectator_ was no -idle spectator of passing incidents. In 1851 Col. James Bleakley, -subsequently a prosperous producer and banker, secured an interest, -selling it in 1853 to R. L. Cochran, who soon became sole proprietor and -published the paper seven years. Mr. Cochran took an active part in -politics and agriculture and exerted wide influence. A keen, incisive -writer and entertaining talker, with the courage of his convictions and -the good of the public at heart, his sterling qualities inspired -confidence and respect. Probably no man in Northwestern Pennsylvania had -a stronger personal following. The _Spectator_ flourished like a prize -sunflower under his tactful management. It printed the first “oil -report,” giving a list of wells drilling and rigs up or building in the -spring of 1860. Desiring to engage in banking, R. L. Cochran sold the -paper to A. P. Whitaker, its founder, and C. C. Cochran. The latter -retiring in 1861, Whitaker played a lone hand three years, when the two -Cochrans again purchased the establishment. A. P. Whitaker and his son, -John H., a first-class printer, bought it back in 1866 and ran the -concern four years. Then the elder Whitaker once more dropped out, -returning in 1876 and resuming entire control a year later, which closed -the shuttlecock-changes of ownership that had been in vogue for -twenty-five years. Will S. Whitaker, an accomplished typo and twice the -nominee of his party for mayor, had long assisted his father in -conducting the staunch exponent of unadulterated Democracy. Col. -Bleakley passed away in 1884, leaving a fine estate as a monument of his -successful career. He built the Bleakley Block, founded the -International Bank, served as City Councilman and was partner in 1842-4 -of John W. Shugert in the publication of the _Democratic Arch_, noted -for aggressiveness and sarcasm. John H. Whitaker died in Tennessee years -ago. R. L. Cochran was killed in June, 1893, on his farm in Sugarcreek -Township, by the accidental discharge of a gun. The paper began regular -“oil-reports” in 1862, prepared by Charles C. Duffield, now of -Pittsburg, who would go up the Allegheny to Warren and float down in a -skiff, stopping at the wells. P. J. Donahoe is the present editor and -proprietor. - -[Illustration: J. HARRISON SMITH.] - -[Illustration: EDWIN W. SMILEY.] - -[Illustration: J. HOWARD SMILEY.] - -Charles Pitt Ramsdell, a school-teacher from Rockland Township, started -the _American Citizen_ at Franklin in 1855. Sent to the Legislature in -1858, he sold the healthy chick to William Burgwin and Floyd C. -Ramsdell, removed to Delaware and settled in Virginia a few years before -his lamented death from wounds inflicted by an enraged bull. J. H. Smith -acquired Ramsdell’s interest in 1861. The new partners made a strong -team in journalistic harness for three years, selling in 1864 to Nelson -B. Smiley. He changed the title to _Venango Citizen_. Mr. Burgwin -reposes in the Franklin cemetery. Mr. Smith carries on the book-trade, -his congenial pursuit for three decades, and is a regular contributor to -the religious press. Alexander McDowell entered into partnership with -Smiley, buying the entire “lock, stock and barrel” in 1867. His former -associate studied law, practiced with great credit and died at Bradford. -Major McDowell, now a banker at Sharon—the number of Venango editors who -blossomed into financiers ought to stimulate ambitious quill-drivers—was -a daisy in the newspaper-lay. His liberality and geniality won hosts of -warm friends. He tried his hand at politics and was chosen -Congressman-at-Large in 1892, with Galusha A. Grow as running-mate, and -Clerk of the House in 1895. A prime joker, he bears the blame—if it be -blameable to have done so—of introducing Pittsburg stogies to guileless -members of Congress for the fun of seeing the victims cut pigeon-wings -doing a sea-sick act. Col. J. W. H. Reisinger purchased the outfit in -1869, guiding the helm skilfully fifteen months. April first—the day had -no special significance in this case—1870, E. W. Smiley, the present -owner and cousin of Nelson B., succeeded Reisinger. The Colonel located -at Meadville, where he has labored ably in the journalistic field for a -quarter-century. Mr. Smiley steered his craft adroitly, usually “bobbing -up serenely” on the winning side. He is a shrewd Republican worker and -for twenty years has filled a Senate-clerkship efficiently. What he -doesn’t know about the inside movements of state and local politics -could be jumped through the eye of a needle. His right-bower in running -the _Citizen-Press_—the hyphenated name was flung to the breeze in -1884—is his son, J. Howard Smiley, a rising young journalist. The paper -toes the mark handsomely, has loads of advertising and does yeoman -service for its party. The _Daily Citizen_, the first daily in Oildom, -expired on the last day of 1862, after a brief existence of ten issues. -A fit epitaph might be Wordsworth’s couplet: - - “Since it was so quickly done for, - Wonder what it was begun for.” - -Later newspaper ventures at Franklin were refreshingly plentiful. In -January, 1876, Hon. S. P. McCalmont launched _The Independent Press_ -upon the stormy sea of journalism. It was a trenchant, outspoken, -call-a-spade-a-spade advocate of the Prohibition cause, striking -resolutely at whoever and whatever opposed its temperance platform. Mr. -McCalmont wrote the editorials, which bristled with sharp, merciless, -unsparing excoriations of the rum-traffic and its aiders and abettors. -The paper was worthy of its name and its spirited owner. Neither -truckled for favors, cringed for patronage or ever learned to “crook the -pregnant hinges of the knee where thrift may follow fawning.” Beginning -life a poor boy, S. P. McCalmont toiled on a farm, taught school, -devoured books, read law and served in the Legislature. For nearly fifty -years he has enjoyed a fine practice which brought him well-earned -reputation and fortune. Ranking with the foremost lawyers of the state -in legal attainments and professional success, he does his own thinking, -declines to accept his opinions at second-hand and is a first-rate -sample of the industrious, energetic, self-reliant American. By way of -recreation he works a half-dozen farms, a hundred oil-wells, a big -refinery and a coal-mine or two. James R. Patterson, Miss Sue Beatty and -Will. S. Whitaker held positions on the _Press_. Mr. Patterson is -farming near Franklin and Mr. Whitaker managed the _Spectator_. Miss -Beatty, a young lady of rare culture, was admitted to the bar recently. - -[Illustration: S. P. M’CALMONT.] - -The Independent Press-Association bought the _Press_ in 1879. This -influential body comprised twelve stockholders, Hon. William R. -Crawford, Hon. C. W. Gilfillan, Hon. John M. Dickey, Hon. Charles -Miller, Hon. Joseph C. Sibley, Hon. S. P. McCalmont, Hon. Charles W. -Mackey, James W. Osborne, W. D. Rider, E. W. Echols, B. W. Bredin and -Isaac Reineman, whom a facetious neighbor happily termed “the twelve -apostles, limited.” They enlarged the sheet to a nine-column folio, -discarded the bourgeois skirt with long-primer trimmings for a tempting -dress of minion and nonpareil and engaged J. J. McLaurin as editor. H. -May Irwin, the second editor under the new administration, filled the -bill capably until the _Press_ and the _Citizen_ buried the hatchet and -blended into one. Mr. Irwin is not excelled as an architect of graceful, -felicitous paragraphs on all sorts of subjects, “from grave to gay, from -lively to severe.” He possesses in eminent degree the enviable faculty -of saying the right thing in the right way, tersely, pointedly and -attractively. The _Press_ was a model of neatness, newsiness and -thorough editing, with a taste for puns and plays on words that added -zest to its columns. - -[Illustration: H. BEECHER KANTNER.] - -[Illustration: JAMES B. BORLAND.] - -[Illustration: JAMES B. MUSE.] - -James B. Borland’s _Evening News_ appeared in February, 1878, as an -amateur-daily about six by nine inches. The small seed quickly grew to a -lusty plant. James B. Muse became a partner, enlargements were -necessary, and to-day the News is a seven-column folio, covering the -home-field and deservedly popular. Muse retired in 1880, H. May Irwin -buying his share and editing the wide-awake paper in capital style. -_Every Evening_, a creditable venture by Frank Truesdell, E. E. -Barrackman and A. G. McElhenny, bloomed every evening from July, 1878, -to the following March. H. B. Kantner, a versatile specimen, hatched out -the _Morning Star_, Franklin’s only morning daily, in 1880. It shone -several months and then set forever and ever. Kantner drifted to -Colorado. The _Herald_, the _Penny Press_ and _Pencil and Shears_ -wriggled a brief space and “fell by the wayside.” Samuel P. Brigham, an -aspiring young lawyer, edited the one-cent _Press_ and stirred up a -hornet’s nest by fiercely assailing the water-works system and raising -Hail Columbia generally. He is at the head of a newspaper in the Silver -State. - -The third weekly Venango boasted in 1859 was the _Allegheny-Valley -Echo_, published at Emlenton by Peter O. Conver, a most erratic, -picturesque genius. Learning the printing-trade in Franklin, the -anti-slavery agitation attracted him to Kansas in 1852. He established a -paper at Topeka, which intensified the excitement a man of Conver’s -temperament was not calculated to allay, and it soon climbed the golden -stair. Other experiments shared the same fate, going to the dogs in -short metre. Conver roamed around the wild, woolly west several years, -returned to Venango county and perpetrated the _Echo_ in the fall of -1858. At intervals a week passed without any issue, which the next -number would attribute to the sudden departure of the “jour,” the -non-arrival of white paper, or the absence of the irrepressible Peter on -a convivial lark. Sparkling witticisms and “gems of purest ray” -frequently adorned the pages of the sheet, although sometimes -transgressing the rules of propriety. It was the editor’s habit to set -up his articles without a manuscript. He would go to the case and put -his thoughts into type just as they emanated from his fertile brain. -Poetry, humor, satire, invective, comedy, pathos, sentiment and -philosophy bunched their hits in a medley of clean-cut originality not -even “John Phœnix” could emulate. The printer-editor had a fund of -anecdotes and adventures picked up during his wanderings and an off-hand -magnetism that insured his popularity. His generosity was limited only -by his pocket-book. Altogether he was a bundle of strange -contradictions, “whose like we shall not look upon again,” big-hearted, -impatient of denial, heedless of consequences, indifferent to praise or -blame, sincere in his friendships and with not an atom of sham or -hypocrisy in his manly fiber. He enlisted in the Fourth Pennsylvania -Cavalry when the war broke out, serving gallantly to the close of the -struggle at Appomattox. - -[Illustration: JACOB WENK.] - -[Illustration: COL. J. W. H. REISINGER.] - -[Illustration: SAMUEL P. BRIGHAM] - -R. F. Blair, who had taken the _Echo_ in 1861, disposed of it in 1863 to -J. W. Smullin, by whom the materials were removed to Oil City. Walter L. -Porter’s _Rising Sun_, W. R. Johns’ _Messenger_, Needle & Crowley’s -_Register_, P. McDowell’s _News_, Col. Sam. Young’s _Telegraph_, Hulings -& Moriarty’s _Times_ and Gouchler Brothers’ _Critic_ in turn flitted -across the Emlenton horizon. E. H. Cubbison exploited the _Home News_ in -1885 and it is still holding the fort. - -Getting back from the war safe and sound, Conver pitched his tent at -Tionesta in 1866 and generated the _Forest Press_. Its peculiar -motto—“The first and only paper printed in Forest county and about the -only paper of the kind printed anywhere”—indicated the novel stripe of -this unique weekly. The crowning feature was its department of -“Splinters,” which included the weird creations of the owner’s vivid -fancy. The _Press_, after running smoothly a dozen years, did not long -survive its eccentric, gifted proprietor, who answered the final -roll-call in the spring of 1878, meeting death unflinchingly. He wrote a -short will and asked Samuel D. Irwin, his trusted adviser, to prepare -his obituary, “sense first, nonsense afterwards.” The _Bee_, which Col. -Reisinger hived in 1867, sipped honey a season and flew away. J. B. -Muse’s _Vindicator_ and Jacob Wenk’s _Republican_ occupy the field. Mrs. -Conver left Tionesta and died in the west. Hosts of old friends who knew -and understood Peter O. Conver will be glad to see his characteristic -portrait, from a photograph treasured by Judge Proper, and “a nosegay of -culled flowers” from his inimitable _Press_, “rugged as a jog over a -stubble-field:” - -[Illustration: PETER O. CONVER.] - -“That marble slab has arrived at last. Our own beautiful slab, with its -polished surface, was manufactured expressly to our order, on which to -impose the forms of the Forest _Press_, a fit emblem and unmistakable -evidence of the almost unparalleled success of an enterprise started in -the very hell of the season and circumstances on a one-horse load of -old, good-for-nothing, worn-out, rotten and “bottled” material, taken in -payment, etc., and a will to succeed. After we shall have fulfilled our -mission through the _Press_ and have done with the things of earth, that -same slab can be used by the weeping “devils” on which to dance a -good-bye to us and our sins, after which they may inscribe with burning -charcoal on its polished surface, in letters of transient darkness: - - ‘Here - lies - Pete. - The - old - cuss - is - dead.’ - -“Our mother was a Christian, the best friend we had, and the name of her -truant son—your servant—was the last she uttered. We are not a -Christian, but when convinced we should be we will be. Never intend to -marry or die, if we can help it. In brief, we are a white Indian.” - -“A promissory-note is tuning the fiddle before the performance.” - -“A man suffering from dyspepsia sees nothing bright in the noonday-sun. -Another with a rusty liver looks upon a flower-garden as so many weeds. -Another with nerves at angles sees nothing lovely in the most beautiful -woman. Another with a disordered stomach can utter no word not tinged -with acid and fire.” - -“Smiles are among the cheapest and yet richest luxuries of life. We do -not mean the mere retraction of the lips and the exhibition of two rows -of masticators—mastiffs, hyenas and the like amiabilities are proficient -in that. We do not mean the cold, formal smile of politeness, that plays -over the features like moonlight on a glacier—automatons and villains -can do that, but we mean the real, genial smile that breaks right out of -the heart, like a sunbeam out of a cloud, and lights up the whole face -and shines straight into another heart that loves it or needs it.” - -“Ravishingly rich and gorgeous is our surrounding scenery smiling down -upon us in all the dying glory of these autumn days, like the summery -landscape in childhood’s dreams, impressed on the heart but not -described; like the soul-beam of a good old person passing away. View -all the grand and beautiful scenes of earth with the aid of -imagination’s pencil if you please, and them come to Tionesta in October -and behold the masterpiece. It is the finishing touch of beauty from the -Master Hand, imparting joy and faith and hope and resignation to the -heart of man, which no human pen or pencil may copy and combinations of -words have not been discovered to describe; in fact, we have almost come -to the conclusion that he who attempts it is a presuming fool, because -there’s no language in the dictionary or even invented by the poet to -that effect. But if we only live till the sun shines to-morrow, on such -another day as this, we’ll dig our potatoes, from which patch we can -obtain mountain views on every hand alongside of which the Rocky -Mountains would appear overgrown and unnatural and Alpine scenery -worn-out.” - -“The first great damper that threw cold water on the Fourth of July was, -perhaps, the agitation of the temperance question; then the -Sunday-school celebrations gave a mortal blow to its ancient prestige -and glory, until now, alas! it has been entirely eclipsed. Bantlings of -the third generation are soaring aloft in place of the old gray bird, -niggers dancing jubas over the heads of their imperial masters and, -great heavens! the very whiskey that we drink at $3 to $7 a gallon in -mortal jeopardy. But, seriously speaking, we are in favor of every one -following the bent of his or her own inclination in celebrating things. -Next week will be our usual occasion for getting full, unless we should -accompany a very beautiful young lady hunting, in either of which events -the _Press_ may also have a celebration of its own and not appear in -public on any stage.” - -“Lieut. Samuel D. Irwin is a rare, original genius, a companion of our -boyhood, whose life has been lively and stirring as our own in some -respects. He is also a candidate for District Attorney.” - -“Some people don’t care much whether things go endwise or otherwise.” - -“Next to a feast upon a seventeen-year-old pair of sweet lips, under -grapevines, by moon-light, is a foray upon a platter of beans, after -fishing for suckers all day.” - -“One of the greatest bores in the world is he who will persistently -gabble about _himself_ when you want to talk about _yourself_.” - -“Pay your debts and shame the devil for an old scoundrel.” - -“Bright and fair as a Miss in her teens is this beautiful March morning. -All nature laughs with gladness. Forest feels glad, the streams sing a -glad song in their swim to the sea, Tionesta is glad and the big -greyhound Charley Holmes sent Major Hulings wags his sharp tail in token -of the gladness and gratitude he cannot otherwise express. He is a -gentlemanly, well-bred, $500 purp and got to have his meals regularly.” - -“Do unto other men as you would have them do unto you and you wouldn’t -have money enough in two weeks to hire a shirt washed.” - -“Many a preacher complains of empty pews when they are really not -emptier than the pulpit.” - -“The man who can please everybody hasn’t got sense enough to displease -anybody.” - -“To be good and happy kick up your heels and holler Hallelujah!” - -“Rev. Brown will preach everybody to hell on the Tubb’s Run Flats, Lord -willing, next Sunday, between meals.” - -On the twelfth of January, 1862, Walter R. Johns, who struck the -territory four weeks previously, issued the initial number of the -Oil-City _Weekly Register_, the first newspaper devoted especially to -the petroleum-industry, which it upheld tenaciously for five years. The -modest outfit, purchased second-hand at Monongahela City, was shipped to -Pittsburg by boat, to Kittanning by rail and to its destination by -wagons. The editor, publisher, proprietor and compositor—Mr. Johns -outdid Pooh-Bah by combining these offices in his own person—accompanied -the expedition to aid in extricating the wagons from mud-holes in which -they stuck persistently. In 1866 he retired in favor of Henry A. Dow & -Co., who fathered the _Daily Register_ and soon found the cake dough. -Farther on Mr. Johns was identified, editorially or in a proprietary -way, with the semi-weekly _Petrolian_ and the _Evening Register_, the -Parker _Transcript_, the Emlenton _Messenger_, the Lebanon _Republican_, -the Clarion _Republican-Gazette_ and the Foxburg _Gazette_. Writing with -great readiness and heartily in touch with his profession, he took to -literary work as a duck takes to water. He and the late Andrew Cone -prepared all the petroleum-statistics available in 1862, which, with the -gatherings of the years intervening, were published in 1869, under the -expressive title of “Petrolia.” From Clarion, his home for some years, -Mr. Johns returned to Oil City, doing valuable work for the _Derrick_ -and the _Blizzard_. For seven years he has been employed by the -National-Transit Company to compile newspaper-clippings and -magazine-articles and arrange records of different kinds from every -quarter of the oil-regions. The duty is congenial and he fits the place -“like der paper mit der wall.” Mr. Johns is a son of Louisiana and a -hero of two wars. During the Mexican trouble he fought under Zachary -Taylor and Winfield Scott, was at the battles of Monterey and Buena -Vista and participated in the march from Puebla to the City of Mexico. -He served under General Grant in the “late unpleasantness.” The death of -his estimable wife several years ago was a terrible blow to the Nestor -of petroleum journalism, who has gained distinction as printer, editor, -author and soldier. - - “Age sits with decent grace upon his visage - And worthily becomes his silver locks; - He bears the marks of many years well spent, - Of virtue, truth well tried and wise experience.” - -With the plant of the defunct Emlenton _Echo_, which he had bought from -R. F. Blair and boated to Oil City, J. W. Smullin propelled the -_Monitor_ in 1863. O. H. Jackson, a sort of perambulatory -printing-office, and C. P. Ramsdell figured in the ownership at -different times. Jackson let go in the fall of 1864 and Jacob Weyand -bossed the ranch until it was absorbed by the Venango _Republican_, the -first out-and-out political newspaper in the settlement. Smullin farmed -in Cranberry township, dispensed justice as “’Squire” and died in 1894. -Of Jackson’s whereabouts nothing is known. He flaunted the _Sand-Pump_ -at Oil City, the _Bulletin_ at Rouseville, the _Gaslight_ at -Pleasantville and ephemeral sheets at other points. The outfits of the -Register, _Petrolian_, _Republican_ and _Monitor_ were consolidated in -December, 1867, by Andrew Cone and Dr. F. F. Davis, into the weekly -_Times_. The paper was well managed, well edited and well sustained. A -syndicate of politicians bought it in 1870, to boom C. W. Gilfillan, of -Franklin, for Congress, and George B. Delamater, of Meadville, for -State-Senator in the Crawford district. A morning daily was tacked on. -L. H. Metcalfe, who lost a leg at Gettysburg, had editorial charge. -Thomas H. Morrison, of Pleasantville, officiated as manager, W. C. -Plumer presided as foreman and A. E. Fay acted as local news-hustler. -The daily died with the close of the campaign, a fire that destroyed the -establishment hurrying the dissolution. Metcalfe went back to Meadville -and was elected county-treasurer. Whole-souled, earnest and trustworthy, -he made and retained friends, wrote effectively and “served his day and -generation” as a good man should. The grass and the flowers have bloomed -above his head for nineteen years. Morrison entered politics, put in a -term faithfully as county-treasurer, studied law, practiced at Smethport -and was elected judge of the McKean-Potter district. - -[Illustration: - - ANDREW CONE. - MRS. CONE. - MISS THROPP. -] - -Hon. Andrew Cone, to whose bounteous purse and willing pen the Venango -_Republican_ and the Oil-City _Times_ owed their continuance, was of -Puritan descent, nephew of the founder of Oberlin College, born in 1822, -reared on a New-York farm and married to a Maryland lady. His parents -dying, he removed to Michigan, lost his first and second wives by death, -and in 1862 settled at Oil City to superintend the United -Petroleum-Farms Association’s sale of building-lots. He named various -Oil-City streets, helped build the first Baptist church and labored for -temperance and local improvements. In 1868 he married Miss Mary Eloisa -Thropp, of Valley Forge, a cultured linguist and writer. Her brother, -Joseph E. Thropp, owns the iron-works at Everett and is married to the -late Colonel Thomas A. Scott’s eldest daughter. Her two sisters, Mrs. -George Porter and Miss Amelia Thropp, also reside at Oil City and are -gifted writers. Mr. Cone and W. R. Johns collected the data of -“Petrolia,” a perfect treasury of facts concerning oil, which the -Appletons published in 1869. Governor Hartranft appointed Mr. Cone to -represent the oil-regions at the Vienna Exposition in 1873. He served -four years with great fidelity as consul in Brazil and died in New York -on November seventh, 1880, as one to whom “Well done, good and faithful -servant,” is spoken through all the centuries. Mrs. Cone’s “Wild Flowers -of Valley Forge” will give an idea of the exquisite work of the Thropp -sisters, who are esteemed for their poetic talents and unselfishness: - - Blest be the flowers that freely blow - In this neglected spot, - Anemone with leaves of snow - And blue Forget-me-not. - God’s laurels weave their classic wreath, - Their pale pink blossoms wave - O’er lowly mounds, where rest beneath - Our martyrs in their grave. - - In white and gold the daisies shine - All o’er encampment hill; - There wild-rose and the Columbine - Lift glistening banners still. - Here plumy ferns, an emerald fringe, - Adorn our stream’s bright way; - And soft grass whence the violet springs, - With fragrant flowers of May. - - Oh, there’s a spell around these blooms - Owned by no rarer flowers; - They blossomed on our soldiers’ tombs - And they shall bloom on ours. - To us, as to our sires, their tone - Breathes forth the same glad strain, - “We spring to life when winter’s gone, - And ye shall rise again.” - - Uncultured ’round our path they grow, - Smile up before our tread - To cheer, as they did long ago - Our noble-hearted dead. - Arbutus in the sheltering wood - Sighs, “Here he came to pray,” - And Pansies whisper, “Thus we stood - When heroes passed away.” - - Thus every wild-flower’s simple leaf - Breathes in my native vale, - To conscious hearts, some record brief, - Some true and touching tale. - Wealth’s gay parterre in glory stands:— - I own their foreign claims, - Those gorgeous flowers from other lands, - Rare plants with wondrous names. - - Ye blossomed in our martyr’s field - Beneath the warm spring’s sun, - Sprung from the turf where lowly kneeled - Our matchless Washington. - Ye in our childhood’s garden grew, - Our sainted mother’s bowers; - My grateful heart beats high to you, - My own wild valley-flowers! - -The collapse of the syndicate _Times_ terminated experimental dailies in -Oil City. Mr. Gilfillan, F. W. Mitchell, P. R. Gray and other -stockholders sold the good-will and smoking ruins to Sheriff H. H. -Herpst, who revived the weekly with Dr. Davis at the bellows. It was -rather weakly, notwithstanding the doctor’s excellent doses of leaded -pellets. Advertisers seemed a trifle shy and columns of blank space, by -no means nutritious pabulum, were not infrequent. Everybody favored a -newer, grander, bolder stride forward. The borough and suburbs had -attained the dignity of a city, an oil-exchange had been organized, -railroads were coming in and a paper of metropolitan scope was urgently -demanded. Usually men adapted to a particular niche turn up and the -traditional “long-felt want” is not likely to remain unfilled. - -Coleman E. Bishop and W. H. Longwell landed in Oil City one summer -afternoon to “view the landscape o’er,” as good Dr. Watts phrased it. -They had heard the Macedonian cry and decided to size up the situation. -Bishop achieved greatness at Jamestown, N. Y., where he edited the -_Journal_, by attacking Commander Cushing, the naval officer who sank -the Confederate ram Merrimac, and kicking him down stairs when the -indignant marine invaded the sanctum to “horsewhip the editor and pitch -him out of the window.” Longwell, a brave soldier and sharp man of -affairs, had learned the ropes at Pithole and Petroleum Centre. A deal -was soon closed, material ordered and a building on Seneca street -rented, Herpst keeping an interest as silent partner. - -The Oil-City _Derrick_, ordained to become “the organ of oil,” was born -on the thirteenth of September, 1871. The name was an inspiration, -sprung by Bishop as a surprise, instead of the hackneyed _Times_, which -had been agreed upon by the three proprietors. To embody its most -conspicuous emblem in the head of a newspaper designed to represent the -oil-trade suggested itself to the alert editor. He consulted only his -foreman, Charles E. White, long the brilliant editor of the Tidioute -_News_, who had come with him from Jamestown and approved of the drawing -from which the famous design of a derrick spouting newspapers was -engraved. It was a go from the start. People were roused from their -slumber by strong-lunged newsboys shouting, “Derrick, ere’s yer Derrick, -Derrick!” Their first impulse was to wonder if they had left any -derricks out all night, exposed to thieves and marauders, and somebody -was bringing them home. The new sheet was scanned eagerly. It had -departments of “Spray,” “Lying Around Loose” and “Pick-ups,” teeming -with catchy, piquant, invigorating items. Its advocacy of the producers’ -cause boomed the paper tremendously. A bitter fight with the Allegheny -Valley Railroad increased its circulation and prestige. Bishop’s -individuality permeated every page and column. He had the sand to -continue the railroad war, but a threat to remove the shops from Oil -City weakened his partners and they bought him out in 1873. From the -“Hub of Oildom” he went to Buffalo to edit the _Express_. Thence he went -to Bradford, embarked in oil-operations on Kendall Creek and enlivened -the Chautauqua _Herald_, Rev. Theodore Flood’s bonanza, one summer. -Invited to New York in 1880, he managed the _Merchants’ Review_ and -edited _Judge_ until it changed owners in 1885. Leaving the metropolis, -he wandered to Dakota and freshened the Rapid-City _Republican_. -Returning east, he furnished Washington correspondence to various -papers. Locomotor-ataxia disabled him and he died in 1896. Mrs. Bishop -is a popular teacher of the Delsarte system and has published a book on -the subject. Miss Bishop is a talented lecturer. It is not disparaging -the galaxy of oil-region journalists to say that C. E. Bishop, the -gamest, keenest, raciest member of the fraternity, might be termed a -bishop in the congregation of men who have shaped public opinion in the -domain of grease. No matter how difficult or delicate the theme, from -pre-natal influence to monopoly, from heredity to fishing, from biology -to pumpkins, he treated it tersely and charmingly. A thoroughbred from -top to toe, his was a Damascus blade and “none but himself can be his -parallel.” - -Captain Longwell—the title was awarded for gallantry in many a hard -battle—attended to the business-end with decided success. Buying -Herpst’s claim, he conducted the whole concern four years and sold out -at a steep figure in 1877. He raked in wealth producing and speculating, -quitting well-heeled financially. A native of Adams county, he was -educated at Gettysburg and learned printing in the office of the -Chambersburg _Repository and Whig_, then published by Col. Alexander K. -McClure, now the world-famed editor of the Philadelphia _Times_. His -mother was a descendant of James Wilson, a signer of the Declaration of -Independence. Herpst opened a wall-paper store, removed later to -Jamestown and died there in 1884. Square, honest and “straight as a -string,” he merited the regard of his fellows. Charles H. Morse, the -first city-editor, had the snap to corral news at sight and present it -toothsomely. Who that knew him in his beardless youth imagined Charley -would “get religion” and adorn the pulpit? He entered the ministry and -for over twenty years has been pastor of a Baptist church at Mercer. -Were he to serve up to his hearers some of the funny experiences he -encountered as a reporter, he would discount Talmage’s recitals of the -slums and Dr. Parkhurst’s leap-frog exploits in the Tenderloin! Archie -Frazer wrote the market-report, ten or twelve lines at first and a plump -column or more ultimately. In November of 1872 it was my luck to engage -with the _Derrick_ and inaugurate the role of traveling correspondent. -Venango and Warren, with Clarion, Armstrong and Butler budding into -prominence, covered the oil-fields. Bradford loomed up in the autumn of -1875, extending my mission from the northern line of McKean county to -the southern boundary of Butler before the close of the term of five -years. These breezy days were crowded with bustle and excitement, -adventure and incident. Over the signature of “J. J. M.”—possibly -remembered by old-timers—fate appointed me to chronicle a multitude of -events that played an important part in petroleum-annals. The system of -“monthly reports” was arranged methodically, the producing sections were -visited regularly and my acquaintance embraced every oil-farm and nearly -every oil-operator in the rushing, hustling, get-up-and-get world of -petroleum. - -Orion Clemens, a brother of “Mark Twain,” worked on the _Derrick_ a few -weeks in 1873. The exact opposite of “Mark,” his forte was the pathetic. -He could write up the death of an insect or a reptile so feelingly that -sensitive folks would shed gallons of tears in the wood-shed over the -harrowing details. He fairly reveled in the gloomy, somber, tragic -element of life. Daily contributions taxed him too severely, as he -composed slowly, and his resignation caused no surprise. Frank H. -Taylor, a young graduate from the Tidioute _Journal_, succeeded Bishop, -vacating the chair to undertake the field-work. Frank can afford to -“point with pride” to his career as editor and compiler of statistics. -His “Handbook” is an unquestioned authority on petroleum. Once he -resigned to float the _Call_, a sprightly Sunday folio, which glistened -from the spring of 1877 to October of 1878. “Puts and Calls,” the -humorous column, had to answer for bursting off tons of vest-buttons. -Taylor acquired money and fame as a journalist, was president of -select-council, called the turn as a producer and saved a snug -competence. During a term of Congress he was Hon. J. C. Sibley’s -secretary, a position demanding remarkable tact and industry. Now he is -leasing lands, drilling wells and looking after the oil-properties of -Sibley & Co. in Indiana. Oil City is his home and he is as busy as a boy -clubbing chestnuts or a Brooklynite dodging the trolley-cars at thirty -miles an hour. - -[Illustration: - - CHAS. E. WHITE. - HOMER McCLINTOCK. FRANK H. TAYLOR. - P. C. BOYLE. - EDWARD STUCK. WM. H. SIVITER. - W. J. McCULLAGH. -] - -Robert W. Criswell, who has forged to the front by his mirth-provoking -sketches, followed Taylor as editor in 1877. He fertilized the -“Stray-sand,” parodied Shakespeare and developed “Grandfather -Lickshingle,” giving the _Derrick_ national celebrity. He stepped down -when the shuffle occurred in 1877 and went to the Cincinnati _Enquirer_. -W. J. McCullagh and Frank W. Bowen were on deck at about the same time. -McCullagh held the field department up to its elevated standard and -Bowen ground out first-class local and editorial. Col. Edward Stuck, who -came from York in 1879 to supervise the Bradford _Era_, ran the machine -in 1880-2, displaying much ability in the face of manifold hindrances. -William Brough and J. M. Bonham of Franklin, gentlemen of high literary -attainments, wishing to have a paper of their own, induced Mr. Stuck to -leave Bradford, with a view to resurrect the _Sunday Call_. The project -was not carried out and he assumed charge of the _Derrick_, with -gratifying results. His training was acquired on the York _Democratic -Press_, his father’s weekly, which Col. Stuck now conducts in connection -with the _Daily Age_, established by him after his sojourn in Oil City. -He was appointed State Librarian during Governor Pattison’s first term -and elected Register of Wills of York county in 1889, in recognition of -his excellent journalistic services. William H. Siviter, straight from -college, was next in order. His polished, scholarly writings were -relished by educated people. He paragraphed for the Pittsburg -_Chronicle-Telegraph_ and for some years has contributed to the comic -weeklies. He is responsible for the “High-School Girl,” with her -Bostonese flavor and highfalutin speech. McCullagh became an operator in -the Bradford region, drilled extensively in Ohio, laid by considerable -boodle and chose Toledo as his residence. Robert Simpson, who began as -“printer’s devil” in 1872, remained with the _Derrick_ as a writer until -the _Blizzard_ blew into town, excepting brief respites at Emlenton and -Bradford. - -P. C. Boyle, whose dash and skill and tireless energy had advanced him -steadily, leased the establishment in 1885. He had the vigor and -backbone needed to bring the paper back to its pristine strength. By -turns a roustabout at Pithole in 1866, a driller, a scout, a reporter, a -publisher and an editor, his experience in the oil-country was extensive -and invaluable. He published the _Laborer’s Voice_ at Martinsburg in -1877-8, reported for the _Derrick_ and Titusville _Herald_ in 1879, for -the _Petroleum World_ in 1880 and the Olean _Herald_ in 1881, conducted -the Richburg _Echo_ in 1881-2 and scouted all through the developments -at Cherry Grove, Macksburg and Thorn Creek in 1882-5. George Dillingham, -who had “a nose for news,” and J. N. Perrine, gilt-edged and yard-wide -in the counting-room, assisted Mr. Boyle in tuning the paper up to high -G. The outside fields, daily growing in number and importance, were put -in charge of Homer McClintock, the real Homer of oil-reporters. He -fattens on timely paragraphs, scents live items in the air and lets no -juicy happening escape. The force was augmented as occasion arose, -type-setting machines and fast presses were added, the job-office was -supplied with the latest and best materials and the _Derrick_ is to-day -one of the finest, brightest, smartest newspapers that ever edified a -community. It is owned by the Derrick Publishing Company, of which Mr. -Boyle is president and H. McClintock, J. N. Perrine and Alfred L. Snell -are the active members. Mr. Boyle also managed the Toledo _Commercial_ -and the Bradford _Era_. He is “the Dean of the Fourth Estate” by virtue -of eminent services and seniority. Like the lightning, he never needs -strike twice in the same spot, because the job is finished at a single -lick when he goes “loaded for b’ar.” - -John B. Smithman, a wealthy operator, to whom Oil City owes its -street-railways and a bridge spanning the Allegheny, in 1880 equipped -the _Telegraph_, an evening sunflower, with Philip C. Welch at its head. -Isaac N. Pratt, later an advance-agent for Ezra Kendall, had a finger in -the pie. The paper was as fetching as a rural maiden in a brand-new -calico gown, but two dailies were too rich for the blood of the -population and the _Telegraph_ wilted at a tender age. Welch tapped a -vein of rich humor in the Philadelphia _Call_ by originating -“Accidentally Overheard,” a feature that captured the bakery. It bubbled -with actual wit, fragrant as sweet clover and wholesome as morning dew, -not revamped and twisted and warmed over. Charles A. Dana, no mean judge -of literary merit, recognized the value of the Welch rarebits and -secured them for the New York _Sun_ at a fixed rate for each, big or -little, long or short, large or small. Anon Dana offered him a salary -few bank-presidents would refuse and Welch moved to Gotham. The _Sun_ -that “shines for all” fairly glittered and dazzled. Welch’s “Tailor-Made -Girl” hit the popular taste and was published in elegant form by the -Scribners. Disease preyed upon him, compelling an operation similar to -General Grant’s. Half the tongue was cut off, affecting his utterance -seriously. Weeks and months of patient suffering ended at last in -release from earthly pain and sorrow. Mrs. Welch, a noble helpmeet, -lives in Brooklyn and is to be credited with the clever, dainty “From -Her Point of View,” which irradiates the Sunday issues of the New York -_Times_. Upon the grave of Philip C. Welch old friends would lay a -wreath and drop a sympathetic tear. - - “Alas, Poor Yorick! - I knew him, Horatio; - A fellow of infinite jest, - Of most excellent fancy.” - -[Illustration: - - FRANK. W. BOWEN. - PHILIP C. WELCH. ROBERT SIMPSON. -] - -Frank W. Bowen, a diamond of the first water, H. G. McKnight, the -lightning type-slinger, and B. F. Gates, a dandy printer, swarmed from -the _Derrick_ hive and raised the wind to blow an evening _Blizzard_ in -1882. They bought the _Telegraph_ stuff and the Richburg _Echo_ press, -had brains and pluck in abundance and went in to win. The significant -motto—“It blows on whom it pleases and for others’ snuff ne’er -sneezes”—attested the independence of the free-playing zephyr. Gentle as -the summer breezes when dealing with the good, the true and the -beautiful, it swept everything before it when a wrong was to be righted, -a sleek rascal unmasked or a monopoly toppled over. Bowen’s “Little -Blizzards” had a laugh in every line. If they stung transgressors by -their sharp thrusts, the author didn’t lie awake nights trying to load -up with mean things. His humor was spontaneous and easy as rolling off a -log. Now his friends and admirers—their name is Legion—propose to waft -him into the Legislature, a clear case of the office seeking the man. It -goes without saying that the _Blizzard_ was an instant success. It was -no fault of the fond parents that they were built that way and couldn’t -compel people not to want their exhilarating paper. Place its neat -make-up to McKnight’s account. Gates flocked by himself to usher in the -_Venango Democrat_, which the gods loved so well that it passed through -the golden gates in four weeks. Robert Simpson, jocularly styled its -“horse editor,” was a _Blizzard_ trump-card until 1886. He then filled -consecutive engagements as exchange-editor, news-editor, night-editor, -assistant managing-editor and legislative correspondent of the Pittsburg -_Dispatch_. Again he edited the _Derrick_ nine months in 1889. Returning -to Pittsburg as political-reporter of the _Commercial-Gazette_, he was -promoted to legislative-correspondent and lastly to managing-editor, a -position of much responsibility. - -The Reno _Times_, an eight-column folio that ranked with the foremost -weeklies in the State, was started in 1865 and expired in May of 1866. A -department was assigned each kind of news, the matter was classified and -set in minion and nonpareil, oil-operations were noted fully and local -affairs received due attention. Samuel B. Page, the editor, understood -how to glean from exchanges and correspondence. George E. Beardsley, -whose parish lay along Oil Creek, about Pithole and the Allegheny River -from Franklin to Tidioute, a section thirty miles by seventy, managed -the oil-columns admirably. E. W. Mercer kept the books, collected the -bills and had general supervision. W. C. Plumer, J. Diffenbach and -Edward Fairchilds stuck type and the average edition exceeded -ten-thousand copies. - -[Illustration: CHARLES C. WICKER.] - -Pithole, the most kaleidoscopic oil-town that ever stranded human lives -and bank-accounts, gave birth to the _Daily Record_ on the twenty-fifth -of September, 1865. It was a five-column folio, crammed with news -piping-hot and sold at five cents a copy, or thirty cents a week. -Morton, Spare & Co. were the publishers. Col. L. M. Morton—he earned his -shoulder-straps in the civil war—edited the _Record_, winning laurels by -his wise discernment. He was a manly character, incapable of deceit, a -brilliant writer and conversationalist, the soul of honor and courtesy, -“a knight without fear and without reproach.” He served as postmaster at -Milton and spent his closing years as night-editor of the Bradford -_Era_, dying at his post, loved and esteemed by thousands of friends. W. -H. Longwell, another brave defender of the Union, bought out Spare in -May, 1886. Charles C. Wicker and W. C. Plumer were taken into the firm -shortly after. In May of 1868, Pithole having crawled into a hole, -Longwell changed the base of operations to Petroleum Centre, then at the -zenith of its meteoric flight. He sold the paper in 1871 to Wicker, who -held on until formidable rivals in Oil City and Titusville forced the -_Record_ to quit. Generous to a fault and faithful to those who shared -his confidence, Wicker left the decaying town in 1873, was foreman of -the Titusville _Courier_, worked as a compositor at Bradford and died -there years ago. He was never satisfied to accept ill-luck without -emphatic dissent. He always wore a blue-flannel shirt, a fashion he -adopted in the army, and was eccentric in attire. - -Charles C. Leonard was “a bright, particular star” in the days of -the Pithole _Record_, to which, over the signature of “Crocus,” he -contributed side-splitting sketches of ludicrous phases of -oil-region life. These felicitous word-paintings, with additions and -revisions, he published in a volume that had a prodigious sale. He -was an Ohioan, born in 1845, and a soldier at sixteen. Arriving at -Pithole in 1865, he saw that wonderful place grow from a dozen -shanties to a city of fifteen-thousand at a pace distancing Jonah’s -gourd or Jack-the-Giant-Killer’s bean-stalk. In the fall of 1867 he -came to the Titusville _Herald_, remaining five years. After short -terms with the Cleveland _Leader_ and St. Louis _Globe_, he returned -to Titusville to write for the _Evening Press_. He went back to St. -Louis and died at Cleveland on the twelfth of March 1874, wounds -received in battle hastening his demise. He was a natural wit, whose -keen jokes had the aroma of Attic salt. Mrs. Leonard removed to -Detroit, her home at present. One of Charlie’s favorite creations -was “The Sheet-Iron Cat,” written for the Cleveland _Leader_. It -passed the rounds of the newspapers and was printed in the -_Scientific American_. The sell took immensely, lots of persons -sending letters asking the cost of the “cats” and where they could -be procured! The article, which revives many a pleasant memory of -“auld lang-syne,” follows: - -“A young mechanic in this city, whose friends and acquaintances have -heretofore supposed there was “nothing to him,” has at last achieved a -triumph that will place him at once among the noblest benefactors of -mankind. His name will be handed down to posterity with those of the -inventors of the “steam-man,” the patent churn and other contrivances of -a labor-saving or comfort-inducing character. His invention, which -occurred to him when trying to sleep at night in the sky-parlor of his -cheap boarding-house, with the feline demons of mid-night clattering -over the roof outside, is nothing more than a patent sheet-iron cat with -cylindrical attachment, steel-claws and teeth, the whole arrangement -being covered with cat-skins, which give it a natural appearance and -preserve the clock-work and intricate machinery with which the old thing -is made to work. Among the other peculiarities of this ingenious -invention are the tail and voice. The former is hollow and supplied by a -bellows (concealed within the body) with compressed air at momentary -intervals, which causes the appendage to be elevated and distended to -three times its natural size, giving to the metallic cat a most warlike -and belligerent appearance. By the aid of the same bellows and a -tremolo-stop arrangement, the cat is made to emit the most fearful -caterwauls and “spitting” that ever awakened a baby, made the head of -the family swear in his dreams, or caused a shower of boots, washbowls -and other missiles of midnight wrath to cleave the sky. - -“Such is the invention. The method of using and the result is as -follows: Winding up the patent Thomas-cat, the owner adjusts him upon -the house-top or in the back-yard and awaits events. Soon is heard the -tocsin of cat-like war in the shape of every known sound that the tribe -are capable of producing, only in a key much louder than any live cat -could perform in. Every cat within a circle of a half-mile hears the -familiar sounds and accepts the challenge, frequently fifty or one -hundred appearing simultaneously upon the battle-ground, ready to buckle -in. The swelling tail invites combat and they attack old “Ironsides,” -who no sooner feels the weight of a paw upon his hide than a spring is -touched off, his paws revolve in all directions with lightning rapidity -and the adversaries within six feet of him are torn to shreds! Fresh -battalions come to the scratch only to meet a like fate, and in the -morning several bushels of hair, fiddle-strings and toe-nails is all -that are seen, while the owner proceeds to wind the iron cat up and set -him again. - -“But a few pleasant evenings are needed to clean out a common-sized -country town of its sleep-disturbers. We understand the inventor will -make a proposition next week to the common council to depopulate the -city of cats for a moderate sum. We do not intend to endorse any -invention or article unless we know that it will perform all that it is -claimed to do, and therefore we have not been so explicit in our -description as we might have been; but the principle is a good one, and -we hope to see every house in the city surmounted with a sheet-iron cat -as soon as they are offered for sale, which will be about April the -first, the inventor and patentee informs us.” - -J. H. Bowman and Richard Linn sent forth the _Petroleum Monthly_ at Oil -City in October, 1870. Their purpose was to treat the oil-industry from -a scientific stand and present statistics and biographies in -magazine-style. The _Monthly_, which lasted a year, was ably edited and -supplied matter of permanent value. Bowman, a fascinating writer and -agreeable companion, went westward and the snows of twenty winters have -drifted over his grave. Linn aided in compiling a history of petroleum, -spent some years in the east and meandered to Australia. Pleasantville -evolved the _Evening News_ in 1888 and the semi-monthly -_Commercial-Record_. The former has sought “the dark realms of -everlasting shade,” to keep company with J. L. Rohr’s Cooperstown -_News_, Tom Whitaker’s _Gatling Gun_, the Oil-City _Critic_, the -Franklin _Oil-Region_, the Petroleum-Centre _Era_ and a score of unwept -sacrifices on the altar of Venango journalism. James Tyson, a hardware -merchant at Rouseville, in 1872 issued the _Pennsylvanian_, a superior -weekly, which subsided with the waning town. He migrated to California, -living in San Francisco until last year, when he located in -Philadelphia. At the age of seventy-nine his faculties are unimpaired -and he stands erect. He is an earnest member of the Pennsylvania -Historical Society and compiler of a “Life of Washington and the Signers -of the Declaration of Independence.” This timely and interesting work, -published in two handsome volumes in 1895, is dedicated to the public -schools of the nation. It fitly crowns the literary labors of the -revered author, who is “only waiting till the shadows are a little -longer drawn.” - -[Illustration: JOHN PONTON.] - -[Illustration: JAMES TYSON.] - -[Illustration: CHARLES C. LEONARD.] - -Titusville enjoys the honor of harboring the first petroleum-daily that -weathered the storm and stayed in the ring. June, 1865, heralded the -_Morning Herald_ of W. W. and Henry C. Bloss, which possessed the entire -field and prospered accordingly. Col. J. H. Cogswell joined the -partnership in 1866. Major W. W. Bloss, the elder of the two brothers, -was a fluent writer, and made his mark in journalism. Mastering the -details of “the art preservative” at Rochester, N. Y., in 1857 he -started a short-lived journal in Kansas, retraced his footsteps to his -native heath in 1859, was badly wounded at Antietam, beamed upon -Titusville in the spring of 1865 and bought the _Petroleum Reporter_, a -moribund weekly. Quitting the _Herald_, in 1873, he unfurled the banner -of the _Evening Press_, which did not live to cut its eye-teeth. His -next attempt, a tasteful weekly, traveled the road to oblivion. The -Major once more headed for Kansas, served in the Legislature and wended -his way to Chicago, whence he crossed “to the other side” in the prime -of matured manhood. Harry C. Bloss stuck to the _Herald_ “through evil -and through good report,” steadfastly upholding Titusville and dipping -his eagle feather in vitriol when necessary to squelch “a foeman worthy -of his steel.” He died—the ranks are thinning out sadly—four years ago -and his son, upon whom the mantle of his father has descended, is -keeping the paper in the van. Col. Cogswell, who dropped out to accept -the postmastership, enacting the role of “Nasby” a couple of terms, for -years has been in the office of the Tidewater Pipe-Line. Among the -_Herald_ force were C. C. Leonard, John Ponton and A. E. Fay. Ponton -turned his peculiar talent for invention to electrical pursuits and the -giddy telephone. He narrowly missed heading off Prof. Bell in stumbling -upon the “hello” machine. Fay forsook the _Herald_ for the Oil-City -_Times_, did a turn on the Titusville _Courier_ and hied him to Arizona. -He ran a mining-paper, sat in the Legislature, incubated a -chicken-nursery that would have dumbfounded Rutherford B. Hayes, farmed -a bit and harvested a crop of shekels. - -The Titusville _Courier_, sprung in 1870 to oppose the _Herald_, was -edited by Col. J. T. Henry, an accomplished journalist from Olean, N. Y. -In 1871 he bought the _Sunday News_, formerly A. L. Chapman’s -_Long-Roll_, transferring it in 1872 to W. W. Bloss, who changed it to -the _Evening Press_. Col. Henry in 1873 published “Early and Later -History of Petroleum,” a large volume, replete with information, -biographies and portraits. The author speculated profitably in oil, -lived at Olean, wrote as the impulse prompted and died at Jamestown in -May, 1878. A tear is due the memory of a kingly, chivalrous man, who -reflected luster upon his profession and was not fully appreciated until -he had reached the haven of eternal rest. To him Littleton’s tribute -applies: - - “He wrote not a line which dying he would blot.” - -Warren C. Plumer guided the _Courier_ after Col. Henry’s retirement. He -was no tyro in slinging his quill. Born in Maine in 1835, at fourteen he -entered a printing-office, ten years later edited a paper, served three -years in the war, set type on the Reno _Times_ in 1865 and was -editor-journeyman of the Pithole _Record_ in the fall of 1866. His -“Dedbete” contributions were a striking feature of the _Record_, of -which he became joint-owner with Longwell and Wicker in 1867, when -Burgess of Pithole, and editor-in-chief upon its removal to Petroleum -Centre in 1868. Selling out in 1869, Wicker and Plumer lighted a _Weekly -Star_ at Titusville that quickly set to rise no more. Plumer was foreman -of the Oil City _Times_ in 1870-1 and connected with the Tidioute -_Journal_ in 1872, when offered the editorship of the _Courier_. Elected -to the Legislature on the Democratic ticket in 1874, he was defeated for -a second term and for Congress as the Greenbackers’ candidate in 1878. -For a time his political notions were as facile as his Faber and he -trained with whatever party chanced to have a vacancy. From 1879 to 1881 -he controlled the Meadville _Vindicator_, a soft-money weekly, winding -up the latter year on the Richburg _Echo_. In Dakota, his next -stamping-ground, he edited Republican papers at Fargo, Bismarck, -Aberdeen and Casselton. He stumped several states for Blaine with an eye -to an appointment that would have swelled his bank-account to the -dimensions of a plumber’s. “The Plumed Knight” failed to connect and the -plum did not fall into the lap of his eloquent supporter. President -Harrison in 1891 appointed him Receiver of the Minot District -Land-office, North Dakota, which he resigned last year. As an orator -Col. W. C. Plumer—they call him “Colonel” in the Dakotas—trots in the -class with Robert G. Ingersoll, Thomas B. Reed and William McKinley and -is denominated the “Silver Tongue of the North-west.” At the Republican -National Conventions in 1884-8 he was unanimously pronounced the finest -off-hand speaker in the crowd. He is a finished lecturer and unrivaled -story-teller, loves the choicest books, reads the Bible diligently, -sticks to his friends and delights to recount his experiences in the -Pennsylvania oil-regions. - -M. N. Allen, an original stockholder and its last guardian, purchased -the _Courier_ in 1874. Even his acknowledged skill could not put it on a -paying basis and the paper, unsurpassed in quality and appearance, -succumbed to the inevitable. Mr. Allen followed Col. Cogswell as -postmaster, a proper tribute to his rugged Democracy. Hale and hearty, -although “over the summit of life,” time has dealt kindly with him and -his deft pen has lost none of its vigor. He is editing the _Advance -Guard_, the outgrowth of Roger Sherman’s departed _American Citizen_, as -an intellectual pastime. F. A. Tozer, the champion “fat take,” -five-feet-four-inches high and four-feet-five-inches around, graduated -from the _Courier_, wafted the St. Petersburg _Crude-Local_ up the flume -and was chief-cook of the East-Brady _Times_. His reports were newsy and -palatable. He travels for a Pittsburg house and would pay extra fare if -passengers were carried by weight. The East-Brady _Review_ “sees” the -_Times_ and “goes it one better.” - -[Illustration: SAMUEL L. WILLIAMS.] - -Graham & Hoag’s _Sunday News-Letter_ arose from the tomb of the -Evening Press and the _Sunday-News_. J. W. Graham, now of the -_Herald_, piloted the trim vessel skillfully. A stock-company of -producers, thinking a daily in the family would be “a thing of beauty” -and “a joy forever,” bought the _News-Letter_ and the _Courier_ -equipment in 1879, to start the _Petroleum World_. James M. Place, a -pusher from Pusherville, had solicited the bulk of the subscriptions -to the stock and was entrusted with the management. R. W. Criswell -edited the paper splendidly. Captain M. H. Butler, who put heaps of -ginger into his spicy effusions, and John P. Zane, whose hobby was -finance—both have gone the journey that has no return trip—embellished -its columns with thoughtful, digestible brain-food. Oil-news, readable -locals, dispatches, jaunty selections and bang-up neatness were never -lacking. But competition was fierce and the _World_ had a hard row to -hoe. A committee of stockholders soon took charge. Place, sleepless, -indomitable and with the energy of a steam-hammer, opened a big store -at Richburg and drove a rattling trade. Setting out to paddle his own -canoe as a Corry newsboy at ten, he had run a newsroom at Fagundas, a -bookstore and the post-office at St. Petersburg, a branch store at -Edenburg, large stores at Bradford and Bolivar and won laurels as the -greatest newspaper circulator in the petroleum-diggings. At Harrisburg -and Reading he swung papers and the _Globe_ in New York. He is now in -Washington. S. L. Williams, unexcelled as a sprightly writer, and Hon. -George E. Mapes, equally competent in the Legislature and the -editorial chair, kept the _World_ booming until “patience ceased to be -a virtue” and the daily ceased to be a sheet. About half the material -went to the Oil City _Blizzard_ and the rest went to print the _Sunday -World_ Frank W. Truesdell had determined to originate. The late Hon. -A. N. Perrin, ex-Mayor of Titusville, possessing “ample means and -ample generosity,” backed the project. Truesdell finished his trade as -printer in Cleveland and worked at Youngstown and Franklin, settling -at Titusville in 1880 to manage the _World_ jobbing-room. He was a -young man of fine ability and scrupulous integrity. His partnership -with Perrin ended in 1887 by his purchase of the entire business. He -sold a half-interest in the paper in 1893 and death claimed him in -October of 1894. Measured by his thirty-seven years, Frank Willard -Truesdell’s life was short; measured by his good deeds, his worthy -enterprises, his lofty sentiments and kindly acts, it was longer than -that of many who pass the Psalmist’s three-score-and-ten. Mrs. -Truesdell and her little daughter live in Titusville. F. F. Murray, -associated with Walter Izant and W. R. Herbert in the general details, -edits the _Sunday World_, which is as frisky as a spring-colt. Born at -Buffalo in 1860, Murray was reared in Venango county, whither his -father was drawn by the oil-excitement. Correspondence for local -papers naturally bore him into the journalistic swim. He whooped it up -six years for the _Blizzard_. A regular hummer, he is at home whether -flaying monopolists, taking a ruffian’s scalp, praising a pretty girl, -writing a tearful obituary, dissecting a suspicious job or reeling off -a natty poem. “The Old Tramp-Printer,” a recent effort, is a fair -sample of his quality: - - “Here’s a rhyme to the old tramp-printer, who as long as he lives will - roam, - Whose ‘card’ is his principal treasure and where night overtakes him - home; - Whose shoes are run over and twisty, whose garments are shiny and thin, - And who takes a bunk in the basement when the pressman lets him in. - - “It is true there are some of the trampers that only the Angel of Death, - When he touches them with his sickle, can cure of the ‘spirituous - breath’; - That some by their fellow-trampers are shunned as unwholesome scamps, - And that some are just aimless, homeless, restless, typographical - tramps. - - “But the most of them surely are worthy of something akin to praise, - And have drifted down to the present out of wholesomer, happier days; - And when, though his looks be as seedy as ever a mortal wore, - Will you find the old tramper minus his marvelous fund of lore? - - “What paper hasn’t he worked on? Whose manuscript hasn’t he set? - What story worthy remembrance was he ever known to forget? - What topics rise for discussion, in science, letters or art, - That the genuine old tramp-printer cannot grapple and play his part? - - “It is true you will sometimes see him when the hue that adorns his nose - Outrivals the crimson flushes which the peony flaunts at the rose; - It is true that much grime he gathers in the course of each trip he - takes, - Inasmuch as he boards all freight-trains between the Gulf and the Lakes. - - “Yet his knowledge grows more abundant than many much-titled men’s, - Who travel as scholarly tourists and are classed with the upper-tens; - And few are the contributions these scholarly ones have penned - That the seediest, shabbiest tramper couldn’t readily cut and mend. - - “He has little in life to bind him to one place more than the rest, - For his hopes in the past lie buried with the ones that he loved the - best; - He has little to hope from Fortune and has little to fear from Fate, - And little his dreams are troubled over the public’s love or hate. - - “So a rhyme to the old tramp-printer—to the hopes he has cherished and - wept, - To the loves and the old home-voices that still in his heart are kept; - A rhyme to the old tramp-printer, whose garments are shiny and thin, - And who takes a bunk in the basement when the pressman lets him in.” - -Mr. Mapes gravitated to Philadelphia to write for Colonel McClure’s -_Times_. His are the appetizing paragraphs that burnish the editorial -page by their subtile essence. He is a familiar figure at party -conventions, which his intimate knowledge of state-politics enables him -to gauge accurately. He abhors trickery and chicanery, deals his hardest -blows in exposing corrupt methods, believes taxpayers and voters have -rights contractors and bosses are bound to respect and is a stickler for -honest government. Williams also strayed to the Quaker City as -paragrapher for the _Press_, making a phenomenal hit. James G. Blaine -complimented Charles Emory Smith upon these tart, peppery nuggets, -saying: “I invariably read the _Press_ paragraphs before looking at any -other paper.” This pleasant tribute added ten dollars a week to Sam’s -salary, yet he tired of Philadelphia years ago and glided back to his -old home in “the Messer Diocese.” He is now connected with the New York -_Mail and Express_, whose readers can hardly find words to express their -satisfaction with the spice he injects into Elliot Shepherd’s trusty -expositor of Republicanism. - - His pointed squibs and his cranium bare - Are as much alike as steps in a stair— - One grows no moss and the other no hair. - -R. W. Criswell holds an honorable place among the men who have made -oil-region newspapers known abroad and influential at home. He was born -in Clarion county and educated in Cincinnati. His sketches, signed -“Chris,” introduced him to the public through the medium of the Oil-City -_Derrick_, the East Brady _Independent_ and the Fairview _Independent_, -Colonel Samuel Young’s twin offspring. Retiring from Young’s employ at -Fairview, he was next heard of as traveling correspondent of the -Cincinnati _Enquirer_. His editorship of the _Derrick_ in 1877 clinched -his fame as a Simon-pure humorist, thirty-six inches to the yard and -one-hundred cents to the dollar. The Shakespearian parodies and -Lickshingle stories, lustrous as the Kohinoor, waltzed the merry round -of the American press and were published in two taking books—“The New -Shakespeare” and “Grandfather Lickshingle.” After his departure from the -_Petroleum World_ Criswell renewed his relations with the _Enquirer_ as -managing-editor. He was John R. McLean’s trusty lieutenant and held the -great western daily on the topmost rung of the ladder. The New-York -_Graphic_, the pathfinder of illustrated dailies, needed him and he -accepted its flattering offer. The Cincinnati _Sun_ was about to shine -on the just and the unjust and he returned to Porkopolis. Colonel John -Cockrell coaxed him back to Manhattanville to reconstruct the -funny-streak of the overflowing New-York _World_. - -[Illustration: - - F. F. MURRAY. JAMES M. PLACE. - R. W. CRISWELL. - FRANK W. TRUESDELL. GEORGE E. MAPES. -] - -[Illustration: “LEND ME YOUR EARS.”] - -When the Colonel and Joseph Pulitzer disagreed—they “never spoke as they -passed by”—he went with Cockrell to the _Commercial Advertiser_, for -which he has done some of the brightest work in the newspaper-kingdom. -He now edits _Truth_. “Mark Anthony’s Oration Over Cæsar,” from “The -Comic Shakespeare,” will dispel the gloom and indicate the rare brand of -Criswell’s vintage: - - “Friends, Romans, countrymen! lend me your ears; - I will return them next Saturday. I come - To bury Cæsar because the times are hard - And his folks can’t afford to hire an undertaker. - The evil that men do lives after them, - In the shape of progeny, who reap - The benefit of their life insurance. - So let it be with the deceased. - Brutus hath told you that Cæsar was ambitious, - What does Brutus know about it? - It is none of his funeral. - But that it isn’t is no fault of the undersigned. - Here under leave of you I come to - Make a speech at Cæsar’s funeral. - He was my friend, faithful and just to me; - He loaned me five dollars once when I was in a pinch, - And signed my petition for a post-office. - And Brutus says he was ambitious. - Brutus should chase himself around the block. - Cæsar hath brought many captives home to Rome - Who broke rock on the streets until their ransoms - Did the general coffers fill. - When that the poor hath cried, Cæsar hath wept, - Because it didn’t cost anything - And made him solid with the masses. [_Cheers._ - Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. - Yet Brutus says he was ambitious. - Brutus is a liar, and I can prove it. - You all did see that on the Lupercal - I thrice presented him a kingly crown, - Which he did thrice refuse, because it did not fit him quite. - Was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious. - Brutus is not only the biggest liar in this country - But is a politician of the deepest dye. [_Applause._ - If you have tears prepare to shed them now. - You all do know this ulster. [_Laughter._ - I remember the first time ever Cæsar put it on; - It was on a summer’s evening in his tent, - With the thermometer registering ninety degrees in the shade; - But it was an ulster to be proud of, - And it cost him $3 at Marcalus Swartzheimer’s, - Corner of Broad and Ferry streets, sign of the red flag. - Old Swartz wanted $40 for it, - But finally came down to $3, because it was Cæsar! - Look! in this place ran Casca’s dagger through; - Through this the son of a gun of a Brutus stabbed, - And when he plucked his cursed steel away, - Good gracious, how the blood of Cæsar followed it! - - [_Cheers, and cries of “Give us something on the Wilson bill!” “Hit him - again;” etc._] - - I came not, friends, to steal away your hearts; - I am no thief as Brutus is. - Brutus has a monopoly in all that business, - And if he had his deserts, he would be - In the State prison and don’t you forget it. - Kind friends, sweet friends, I do not wish to stir you up - To such a sudden flood of mutiny, - And, as it looks like rain, - The pallbearers will please place the body in the wheelbarrow - And we will proceed to bury Cæsar, - Not to praise him.” - -Edwin C. Bell, a son of the Pine-Tree state, landed at Petroleum Centre -in 1866, spent 1869 in the west, returned to Oil Creek in 1870 and for -three years punched down oil-wells. In 1874 he started a job-printery at -Pioneer, using a press he built from iron-scraps and an oak-rail and -learning the trade without an instructor. That fall he transplanted his -kit to Titusville and continued in the jobbing-line fourteen years. -Early in 1878 he published the _Leader_, a weekly that petered out in -two months. Mr. Bell in 1882 flew the flag of the _Republic_, a -campaign-oracle of the Greenbackers and supporter of Thomas A. Armstrong -for governor. The _Republic_, like the _Argus_, the _Observer_ and -others of that ilk, didn’t attain old age. Bell’s first grists—stories -and sketches—went into the _Courier_ hopper in 1872, supplemented from -1878 to 1882 by bundles of live matter in the Meadville _Vindicator_ and -the Richburg _Echo_. He edited the _Republican_ at Casselton, N. D., in -1882-3, and during the nine years following his return to Titusville -sent a news-letter almost daily to the Oil-City _Blizzard_. He has long -contributed to the _Sunday World_ and in 1888-9 was its -assistant-editor. In 1892 he began a history of the Pennsylvania -oil-regions, instalments of which the _Derrick_ printed, and he hopes to -finish the task on a comprehensive scale befitting the subject. - -[Illustration: GEORGE A. NEEDLE.] - -[Illustration: STEPHEN W. HARLEY.] - -[Illustration: EDWIN C. BELL.] - -Warren has been blessed with two weeklies, the _Ledger_ and the _Mail_, -for two generations. Ephraim Cowan founded the _Mail_ in 1848 and owned -it until his death in 1894. Three dailies vigilantly watch each other -and guard the pretty town. At Tidioute the _Journal_, inaugurated by J. -B. Close in 1867, jogged along seven years. George A. Needle and Frank -H. Taylor were the owners. Needle, whose sharp lance could prick the -fiends of the opposition like a needle, followed the tide to Parker and -boosted the _Daily_, which shortly plunged into perpetual night. Its -chief contributor was Stephen W. Harley, who furnished rich budgets of -Petrolia odds and ends over the name of “Keno.” “Steve” was kindly, -obliging, congenial and well-liked. Six summers have come and gone since -he was laid beneath the sod. Clark Wilson removed the _Oilman’s Journal_ -to Smethport and the _Phœnix_ is in undisputed possession of the -Parker territory, with the youngest editor—son of G. A. Needle—in the -State guiding it capably. In October of 1874 the Warren-County _News_ -was moved from Youngsville to Tidioute. C. E. White, who took charge in -December, bought the plant in 1875 and he has been in the harness -continuously since. Mr. White is among the best all-round newspaper-men -in the country. He was born at Newburg in 1842, boyhooded at -Binghampton, learned his trade at Elmira, served the Jamestown _Journal_ -six years, spent a year with the Oil-City _Derrick_ and went to Tidioute -in 1872 to manage the _Journal’s_ job-department. His record as a -citizen, soldier, printer and editor is solid nonpareil. - -Clarion county did not escape the frantic rush to stick a paper in every -mushroom-town. F. H. Barclay inflicted the _Record_ on the -long-suffering St. Petersburgers, mooring his bark in California when -the paper turned up its toes. Tozer’s _Crude-Local_, which never sported -a crude-local or editorial, the Fern-City _Illuminator_, brighter in -name than in real substance, the Clarion _Banner_, a species of rag on -the bush, the Edenburg _National Record_ and several more slid off the -perch with a dull thud, fatal as Humpty Dumpty’s irretrievable tumble. - -[Illustration: P. A. RATTIGAN.] - -[Illustration: JOHN H. NEGLEY.] - -Frank A. Herr’s _Record_ has long kept up a good record at Petrolia. -Colonel Young and the three papers he propagated in Butler county, with -a half-dozen elsewhere, have mouldered into dust. He was intensely -earnest and industrious, able to maintain his end of a discussion and -seldom unwilling to dare opponents knock the chip off his stout -shoulder. Rev. W. A. Thorne attempted to reform the race with his -Greece-City _Review_, hauling the traps to Millerstown upon the -depletion of the frontier-town. His path was strewn with thorns, mankind -resenting his review of everybody and everything. Ex-Postmaster Rattigan -braces up the unterrified with his sturdy Chicora _Herald_, which he has -conducted successfully for twenty years. St. Joe’s bantam, never -distinguished for its strength, crowed mildly and dropped from the -roost. The county-seat is fully stocked with political organs, the -_Citizen_, the _Eagle_ and the _Herald_ coaching their respective -parties. J. H. Negley & Son are not negligent in their conduct of the -_Citizen_. The _Eagle_ is the proud bird of Thomas H. Robertson, a -trained writer and journalist, now Superintendent of Public-Printing in -Harrisburg. The _Herald_ was for many years the pet of Jacob Zeigler, to -whom all Butlerites took off their hats. “Uncle Jake” was the soul of -the social circle, a treasury of wit and wisdom, an exhaustless -reservoir of pat stories, a mine of practical knowledge and a welcome -guest in every corner of Pennsylvania. His soubriquet of “Uncle” -fastened upon him in a curious way. At the funeral of a youthful -acquaintance the distracted mother, as her boy was consigned to the -grave, in a frenzy of grief laid her head upon young Zeigler’s breast -and exclaimed: “Oh, were you ever a stricken mother?” “No, madam,” was -the cool reply, “but I expect to be an uncle before sundown to-morrow.” -Bystanders noted the strange incident and thenceforth the “Uncle” stuck -like a fly-blister. His parents are buried in the Harrisburg cemetery, -near Joseph Jefferson’s father, and whenever he visited the capital he -strewed their resting-place with flowers. Who can doubt that the filial -son, in whom mingled the strength of a man and the tenderness of a -woman, found his loved ones not far away when he entered the pearly -gates? Truly “this was the noblest Roman of them all.” - -Another honored resident of Butler was Samuel P. Irvin, author of “The -Oil-Bubble,” a pamphlet abounding with delicious satire and bits of -personal experience. It was printed in 1868 and produced a sensation. -Enjoying very few advantages in his boyhood, Mr. Irvin was emphatically -a self-made man. Born in a backwoods-township seventy years ago, his -schooling was limited and he toiled “down on the farm.” Like Lincoln, -Garfield, Simon Cameron and many other country-boys, he rose to -distinction by his own exertions. He read assiduously, studied law and -stood well at the bar. His literary bent found expression in -newspaper-articles of very high grade. He lived some years at Franklin -in the earlier stages of petroleum-developments, drilling wells and -handling oil-properties on commission. He met death with fortitude, -“like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to -pleasant dreams.” - -[Illustration: - - SAMUEL P. IRVIN. - JACOB ZEIGLER. - SAMUEL YOUNG. -] - -The Bradford semi-weekly _New Era_, harbinger of the new era dawning -upon McKean county, saw daylight in the spring of 1875. The main object -of its founder, Colonel J. H. Haffey, was to invite attention to the -possibilities of the locality as a prospective oil-field. Colonel Haffey -was a man of varied talents—public speaker, writer, soldier, surveyor, -promoter of oil-enterprises, rail-roader and expounder of the gospel. -Irish by birth, he came to America at fourteen, lived three years in -Canada, was licensed to preach and in 1851, at the age of twenty-one, -accepted a call to the Baptist church at Bradford, then Littleton. -Marrying Diantha, youngest daughter of Nathan De Golier, in December of -1852, a year later he quit the pulpit, sensibly concluding that the Lord -had not called him to starve his family. As surveyor and geologist, he -was employed to prospect for coal and iron in McKean and adjacent -counties. In 1858-9 he had charge of a gang of men grading the Erie -railroad to Buttsville. The first man in Bradford township to enlist in -1861, he raised a force for Colonel Kane’s famous “Bucktails,” shared in -the fighting around Richmond and was honorably discharged with the rank -of major. Governor Hartranft appointed him a member of his staff and the -title of colonel resulted. He sold his Bradford home in 1877 and removed -to Beverly, N.J., where his active, helpful career ended in November, -1881. - -Ferrin & Weber, of Salamanca, publishers of the Cattaraugas -_Republican_, in 1876 bought the _New Era_ from Col. Haffey and placed -it in charge of Charles F. Persons. He had been in their establishment -at Little Valley two years. For nine or ten months he washed rollers, -fed presses, carried wood and did the varied chores allotted to the -“printer’s devil.” His aptitude impressed his employers, who sent him -first to Salamanca and then to Bradford, an important post for a youth -of twenty-two. Hoping to be an editor some day, he had corresponded for -neighboring papers from boyhood on his father’s farm, a practice he -maintained during his apprenticeship. A few months after reaching -Bradford he and the Salamanca firm established the _Daily Era_, with the -names of Ferrin, Weber & Persons at the mast-head. Very soon Persons -bought out his partners and conducted the paper alone. His ability and -energy had full play. The _Era_ met the demands of the eager, restless -crowds that thronged the streets of Bradford and scoured the hills in -quest of territory. Its news was concise and fresh, its oil-reports were -not doctored for speculative ends, it had opinions and presented them -tersely. Persons sold to W. H. Longwell and W. F. Jordan early in 1879 -and in the fall bought the Olean _Democrat_. The nobby New-York town was -feeling the stimulus of oil-operations and he started the _Daily -Herald_, enhancing his wallet and well-won reputation. The American -Press-Association, which furnishes plate-matter to thousands of -newspapers, secured him in 1888 as Local Manager of its New-York office. -Two years ago he was promoted to General Eastern-Manager and in 1894 was -elected Secretary, Assistant General-Manager and one of the five -directors. Mr. Persons occupies a snug home in Brooklyn, with his wife -and two little daughters. He is a live representative of the go-ahead, -enterprising, sagacious, executive American. - -[Illustration: - - COL. J. H. HAFFEY. - D. A. DENNISON. CHAS. F. PERSONS. - THOMAS A. KERN. -] - -Longwell & Jordan also bought the _Breeze_—it first breathed the -oil-laden air of Bradford in 1878 and was edited by David Armstrong, -“organizer” of the producers in one of their movements to “get -together”—and consolidated it with the _Era_. Col. Edward Stuck, of -York, worked the combination successfully some months. Colonel Leander -M. Morton was night-editor until his lamented death. Thomas A. Kern -attended to the field, preparing the “monthly reports” and posting -readers on oil-developments in his bailiwick. Years have flown since -poor “Tom,” young and enthusiastic, and J. K. Graham, exact and upright, -responded to the message that brooks no excuse or postponement. “Musing -on companions gone, we doubly feel ourselves alone.” Bradshaw, McMullen -and others scattered. Jordan, whose first work for papers was done at -Petrolia in 1873, died in Harrisburg in 1897. P. C. Boyle secured the -_Era_ and infused into it much of his own prompt, courageous spirit. -David A. Dennison has for years been its efficient editor. His parents -removed from Connecticut to a farm south of Titusville when he was a -baby. At thirteen David wrote a batch of items, which it tickled him to -see in print, without a thought of one day blossoming into a -full-fledged “literary feller.” Not caring to be a tiller of the soil, -he juggled the hammer and lathe in machine-shops to the music of “the -Anvil Chorus.” A short season on the boards convinced him that he was -not commissioned to elevate the stage and wrest the scepter from Edwin -Booth, Lawrence Barrett, John McCullough or Alexander Salvini. He -whisked to a Bradford shop to strike the iron while it was hot, writing -smart descriptions of oil-region scenes for outside papers as a -side-issue for several years. A series of his articles on gas-monopoly, -in the Elmira _Telegram_, brought reduced rates to consumers and -pleasant notoriety to the ironworker, who had proved himself a -blacksmith with the sledge and no “blacksmith” with the quill. His name -was neither Dennis nor Mud, and the _Daily Oil News_, McMullen & -Bradshaw’s game-fowl, wanted him forthwith. The salary was not alluring -and in the Indian-summer days of 1886 he cast in his lot with the _Era_. -Promotion chased him persistently. From reporter he was boosted to -city-editor and in 1894 to the editorial management, a flawless -selection. He has tussled with all sorts of topics, constructed tales of -woe in jingling verse and even tempted fate by firing off a drama, which -has not yet run the gamut of publicity. Dennison has been offered good -sits in metropolitan offices, but he likes Bradford and clings to the -_Era_. He married Miss Katharine Grady in 1883 and three boys gladden -the home of the exultant D. A. D. “May his shadow never grow less.” - -E. W. Butler started the Bradford _Sunday News_ on April first, 1879, -with Joseph Moorhead as editor. Mr. Moorhead grew up on a farm near -Newcastle, served in the army as captain in Matthew Stanley Quay’s -regiment, landed at Petroleum Centre in 1869, worked about oil-wells -five years, taught school at St. Petersburg in 1874-5, published a -short-lived fraternal paper at Newcastle in 1870, aided in editing the -Millerstown _Review_ and in 1878 filled a position on the Bradford -_Era_. He edited the Sunday News one year, helped launch a similar sheet -at Minneapolis, returned to Bradford in 1880, resumed his position a few -months and resigned to edit the _Sunday-Mail_. Early in 1885 he settled -in Kansas, farming there five years and coming back to Pennsylvania in -1890. Since that time he has lived in Pittsburg and been connected with -various dailies of the sooty city. His vigor and experience are -manifested in his writings, which always go direct to the spot. At -sixty-two the veteran unites the activity of buoyant youth with the -wisdom of robust age. Butler reeled off the Buffalo _Sunday-News_ in -1880, the sharpest, quickest, breeziest afternoon-paper in the Bison -City, and in 1885 sold his Bradford bantling to Philip H. Lindeman, -_Era_ book-keeper and manager. Lindeman navigated against wind and tide -until the _News_ ran ashore in 1894, the “Commodore” himself ending -life’s voyage in June of 1897. - -[Illustration: JOSEPH MOORHEAD.] - -[Illustration: H.F. BARBER.] - -[Illustration: EDWARD C. JONES.] - -A number of producers agreeing to stand sponsors for the bills, McMullen -& Bradshaw floated the _Daily News_ in 1886. Its backers grew tired of -emptying their pockets and the bright venture gave up the ghost. Eben -Brewer’s _Evening Star_ tinted the sky under its founder’s artistic -touch. He sold to Andrew Carr, who found the load unbearable and shoved -it upon Rufus B. Stone, brother of Congressman Charles W. Stone. Mr. -Stone, an able lawyer, was Chancellor of Mississippi in the -reconstruction-days. The reconstructed legislature lopped off his salary -and he located at Bradford to practice law. He owned the _Star_ several -years, writing most of the political editorials that carried weight and -gave the paper high standing. H. F. Barber, a man of fine intellect and -noble purpose, dropped the Smethport _Miner_, relieved Stone and honed -the _Star_ a few years, assisted at times by George Allen’s clever -stroke. Protracted sickness, during which he showed “how sublime it is -to suffer and be strong,” at last “withered the garlands on his brow.” -He is dead, but “his speaking dust has more of life than half its -breathing moulds.” Allen slid to Buffalo to polish up a -railroad-periodical. “Judge” Johnson—in 1875 he landed at Bradford, -served a term in the Legislature and another as postmaster, operated in -oil and died three years ago—controlled the _Star_ after Barber, whose -widow still retains an interest in the paper. Ex-Senator Emery fitted -out the _Daily Record_, which seeks to trail the standard of the -Standard in the dust and ticket independent producers, refiners and -pipe-liners to a petroleum-Utopia. “Ed.” Jones, the adept who toed the -chalk-mark on the Harrisburg _Call_, whirled the emery-wheel so expertly -that the _Record_ has never approached Davy Jones’s locker. It is snappy -and full of fight as a shillaleh at Donnybrook Fair. Carr’s -_Sunday-Mail_, freighted with a car of delicate morsels, barked up the -wrong tree and went to the bow-wows. Carr rolled down to Pittsburg to -sell buggies, bagging a cargo of ducats. “Tom” L. Wilson—he’s as -humorous as they make ’em—got out three numbers of _Sunday Morning_, a -four-page blanket in size and a ten-course banquet in contents. Col. Ege -shut it down for publishing a rank extract from Walt Whitman’s “Blades -o’ Grass” and boomed the _Evening-Times_, which expired in infancy. Ege -was a banker who hankered to be State-Treasurer, banked upon -newspaper-support, went into bankruptcy, received an appointment in the -Philadelphia Mint and traveled westward when Cleveland shuffled the pack -for a new deal. Wilson wrote for the oil-region press, handled the -Reading branch of a Harrisburg paper, edited the Washington -_Review_—Sistersville has a sisterly _Review_ now—and rounded up in -Buffalo. The _Post_, Bradford’s latest Sunday experiment, owes its good -looks and good matter to Edward F. McIntyre and George O. Sloan. - -[Illustration: - - J.C. McMULLEN. - A.L. SNELL. W.C. ARMOR. -] - -One evening in 1877 a young stranger walked into the St. Petersburg -post-office, bought a package of stationery at the book-counter and told -J. M. Place he was looking for a situation. Place hired him as a clerk. -He had come from the homestead farm in Orange county, N. Y., to Cornell -University, worked his way and graduated in civil-engineering. Marshall -Swartzwelder lectured at St. Petersburg on temperance and Place’s clerk -sat up all night to report the masterpiece for the _Derrick_. It was his -first production in print, a voluntary act on his part, and the article -attracted most favorable notice. Its author was at once offered a -position on the _Derrick_. He came in contact with oil-statistics and -his real genius asserted itself. His painstaking, conscientious reports -were accepted as strictly reliable. He would trudge over the hills, wade -through miles of mud and ford swollen streams to ascertain the precise -status of an important well, rather than approximate it from hearsay. -This care and thoroughness gave the highest value to the statistical -work of Justus C. McMullen. In 1879 he went to Bradford and worked on -the _Breeze_, the _Era_ and the _Star_, always with the same devotion -that was a ruling maxim of his life. In 1883 he scouted in Warren and -Forest counties and became part owner of the _Petroleum Age_. Alfred L. -Snell and Major W. C. Armor were associated with him in this admirable -monthly, of which he became sole proprietor on the first of December, -1887. A. C. Crum, now on the editorial staff of the Pittsburg -_Dispatch_, contributed many a newsy crumb to the _Age_. A newsboy at -Pickwick hailed me in front of his stand one cool morning and asked—not -in a Pickwickian sense—if it would be worth while to get somebody to -send locals to the _Derrick_. “Why not do it yourself?” was my answer. -He tried and he succeeded. His work expanded and improved and he adopted -journalism permanently. He catered for Oil City and Bradford papers, -spun yarns for Pittsburg dailies and was a legislative correspondent -several sessions. Snell, a statistical hummer and hard-to-beat purveyor -of news, hangs his manuscript on the _Derrick_ hook. Armor sponsored a -historic book and laid off his armor to second Dr. Egle in the State -Library. He has a book-store in Harrisburg and a museum that distances -the “Old Curiosity Shop.” McMullen established and edited the _Daily -Oil-News_ in 1886. He died of pleurisy, contracted from exposure in -collecting oil-data, on January thirty-first, 1888, cut off at -thirty-seven. The _Petroleum Age_ did not stay long behind its -unswerving projector. Justus C. McMullen is enshrined in the affections -of the people. An unrelenting foe of oppression, he had a warm heart for -the poor and pursued his own path of right through thorns or flowers. He -married Miss Cora, daughter of Col. L. M. Morton, who lives in Bradford -and has one little girl. A brave, grand, exalted spirit passed from -earth when J. C. McMullen’s light was quenched. - - “On the sands of life - Sorrow treads heavily and leaves a print - Time cannot wash away.” - -Parker has been called “the graveyard of newspapers,” yet G. A. Needle -has run his popular _Phœnix_ twenty-three years, accumulating -sufficient wealth to own a book-store and oil-wells and let the paper -canter along under charge of his son, the youngest editor in -Pennsylvania. - -[Illustration: FULTON PHILLIPS.] - -The Washington _Reporter_, established in 1892 as a daily and -semi-weekly, owes its abundant success largely to the wide-awake editor, -William Christman. His practical knowledge and ready pen keeps the -_Reporter_ right in the swim. Fulton Phillips in 1888 launched the -_Outlook_ at McDonald, then merely a flag-station on the Panhandle -Railway, with no great outlook in prospect. His editorials are -essentially independent and vigorous, the man dominating the paper. It -is Fulton Phillips, rather than the paper, who is read and quoted by the -thousands of _Outlook_ readers. He was born within a mile of McDonald -and the boom following oil-operations did not catch the tall editor—he -is considerably above six feet—napping. The _Outlook_ was the first to -put a reporter in the field and write up the wells in picturesque style. -Phillips served through the war, taught school at Pittsburg, ran a paper -at Canonsburg, drifted westward, did editorial work in Missouri and -California and returned to start the only failure in his pilgrimage, a -temperance-organ at Washington. It went the way of former -temperance-sheets in the local-option town where they take theirs in -jugs. In other portions of the oil-world journalism holds up its end -creditably, newspapers and developments marching neck and neck on their -grand errand of enlightenment. The Sistersville _Review_ and Parkersburg -_Sentinel_ do the West-Virginia field proud, the Toledo _Journal_ is -always primed with Ohio oil-news, nor is there a spot in which oil plays -trump that literature does not hold a royal flush. Intelligence and -petroleum are a good pair to tie to, to bet on and to rake in the -jack-pot. - -[Illustration: REV. S. J. M. EATON, D.D.] - -The Rev. S. J. M. Eaton—his name is ever spoken with -reverence—thirty-three years pastor of the Presbyterian church at -Franklin, filled a large place in the literary guild. He loved -especially to delve into old books and papers and letters pertaining to -the pioneers of Northwestern Pennsylvania. His faithful labors in this -neglected nook unearthed a troop of traditions and facts which “the -world will not willingly let die.” For the “History of Venango County” -he furnished a number of leading chapters. His published works include -“Petroleum,” an epitome of oil-affairs down to 1866, “Lakeside,” a tale -based upon his father’s ministerial experiences in the wilds of Erie -county, biographies of eminent divines, sketches of the Erie Presbytery, -pamphlets and sermons. “The Holy City” and “Palestine,” embodying his -observations in the orient, were issued as text-books by the Chautauqua -Circle. Dr. Eaton was my near neighbor for years and hours in his -well-stocked library, enriched by his “affluence of discursive talk,” -are recalled with deep satisfaction. On the sixteenth of July, 1889, -while walking along the street, he raised his hands suddenly and fell to -the pavement, struck down by heart-failure. “He was not, for God took -him” to wear the victor’s crown. Farewell, “until the day dawn and the -shadows flee away.” - -In the Franklin office of the Galena Oil-Works are three successful -weavers of rich textures in the literary loom—Dr. Frank H. Johnston, E. -H. Sibley and Samuel H. Gray. Dr. Johnston was born in Canal township, -reared on a farm, severely wounded in battling for the Union, studied -medicine, practiced at Cochranton and in 1872 located at Petrolia. There -“he first essayed to write” for the Oil-City _Derrick_. From the very -outset his articles were up to concert-pitch. Abandoning medicine for -letters, he acquired a thorough knowledge of stenography, read the -choicest books and wrote in his best vein for the press. He represented -the _Derrick_ as its Franklin correspondent with credit to himself and -the paper. For sixteen years he has been connected with the Galena -Oil-Works as secretary of Hon. Charles Miller, a place demanding the -superior qualifications with which the doctor is unstintingly endowed. - -Edwin Henry Sibley, born at Bath, N. Y., in 1857, is a brother of Hon. -Joseph C. Sibley and has resided in Franklin twenty-three years. He was -graduated from Cornell University in 1880. For several years he has been -treasurer of the Galena Oil-Works and manager of Miller & Sibley’s -famous Prospect-Hill Stock-Farm, positions of responsibility to which -his personal address, his training and his business-methods adapt him -pre-eminently. Three years in succession he has been unanimously elected -President of the Pennsylvania Jersey-Cattle Club. He has been active and -efficient in promoting the laudable work of the University Extension -Society. Under guise of “Polybius Crusoe Smith, Sage of Cranberry -Cross-Roads”—the Smiths are big folks since the by-play of Pocahontas—he -contributes to _Puck_ and other well-known publications humorous -articles and short, quaint, pithy sayings. These display a keen insight -into human nature and rare gift of happy, accurate expression. One of -his recent effusions—an address welcoming the delegates to an -agricultural convention—is a bit of burlesque that deserves to rank with -Artemus Ward’s brightest efforts or the richest paragraphs in the Biglow -Papers. A few buds plucked at random from the flowery mead will serve to -illustrate the high-class stamp of Mr. Sibley’s work in the field his -genius adorns. They are literary nosegays from his terse observations as -a philosophic “looker-on in Vienna:” - -“The wife that manages her husband is a genius, the one that bosses him -is a tartar, the one that fights him is a fool, while the one that does -none of them is now as much out of fashion as her grandmother’s -wedding-gown.” - -“The pygmies of Africa are such by nature, but elsewhere they are -produced artificially by a diet of petty and envious thoughts.” - -“‘Truth is mighty and will prevail,’ but Error generally has the better -of it till the seventy-seventh round.” - -“One of the greatest evils that humanity has to contend with is that so -many icebergs have floated down from the North Pole and persist in -passing themselves off for men.” - -“Former lovers in making out their title-deeds of the heart to their -successors always reserve at least a narrow pathway across a corner.” - -“Wise men and fools have foolish thoughts; fools tell them, wise men -keep them to themselves.” - -“Parents that haven’t time to correct their children when they are small -have time to weep over them when they are grown.” - -“Affectation (alias of Deceitfulness) has three picked cronies from whom -she is seldom separated. Their names are False Pride, Weakmindedness and -Bad Temper.” - -“If one has too much vitality in his brains he can get rid of it by -taking them out and boiling them. If he finds this too much bother, he -can accomplish the same result by swallowing a few doses of a decoction -of faith-cure, spook-lore and hypnotism.” - -“For peace of mind and length of days, put this inscription above the -doorway of workshop and home: _Troubles that will not be worth worrying -over seven years hence are not worth worrying over now._” - -“The ancient Israelites once worshiped a golden calf, but the modern -Americans would worship a golden polecat if they couldn’t get the gold -in any other form to worship.” - -“The young man who starts out in life with character and brains and -energy as his outfit will distance the one whose sole capital is the -money his father left him.” - -[Illustration: - - E. H. SIBLEY. - S. H. GRAY. - F. H. JOHNSTON. -] - -Samuel H. Gray carries under his hat plenty of the gray-matter that -makes bright writers and bright wooers of the Muses. He has been court -stenographer of Venango county and holds a confidential position with -the firm of Miller & Sibley, applying his spare moments to -newspaper-writing. His pictures of petroleum-traits and incidents are -finished word-paintings, with “light and shade and color properly -disposed.” Like Silas Wegg, he “drops into poetry” in a friendly way. -Such papers as the New-York _Truth_ strive for his emanations, which -savor of Bret Harte and “hold the mirror up to nature” in oleaginous -circles. Judge of this “By the Order of the Lord,” founded on an actual -occurrence in Scrubgrass township: - - “It was back, if I remember, in the year of sixty-five, - When we formed a part and parcel of that rushin’, busy hive - That extended from Oil City up the crooked crick until - It reached its other endin’ in the town of Titusville; - When every rock an’ hillside was included in a lease, - An’ everyone was huntin’ fer the fortune-makin’ grease; - When a poor man pushed and elbowed ’gainst the oily millionaire, - An’ ‘the devil take the hindmost’ seemed the all-pervadin’ prayer. - - “An’ we hed formed a pardnership, jest Tom an’ Jim an’ me, - That was properly recorded as the ‘Tough and Hungry Three,’ - An’ hed gone an’ leased a portion of some hard an’ rocky soil - That we thought looked like the cover of a fountain filled with oil. - An’ we set the drill a’goin’ on its long an’ greasy quest, - That meant so much or little to the capital possessed. - Our money was all in the well, in Providence our trust, - An’ we waited for a fortune, or to liquidate an’ bu’st. - - “An’ while the drill was chuggin’ at its hard an’ rocky way - We three would hold a meetin’ at a certain time each day, - The ‘resolves’ an’ the ‘whereases’ that the secretary took - Were properly recorded ’twixt the covers of a book. - An’ we passed a resolution by a vote unanimous - Thet if Providence would condescend to sorter favor us, - An’ assist the operations on the ‘Tough and Hungry’ lease, - We would give to Him a quarter of the total flow of grease. - - “Next day the drill broke through into a very oily sand - An’ Providence remembered us with strong, unsparin’ hand; - The oil came out with steady flow an’ loaded up the tanks, - An’ the Lord was due rewarded by a solid vote of thanks. - A resolution then came up thet caused the vote to split, - A sort of an amendment, readin’ somethin’ like, to wit— - ‘Whereas, a tenth is all the Lord was ever known to crave, - Resolved we give it to Him; but resolved the rest we save.’ - - “I fit that resolution, an’ I fit it tooth an’ nail, - Spoke of dangers such proceedin’s was most likely to entail; - But two votes were in its favor, an’ two votes it only took - Fer to have it due recorded in the resolution-book. - Next day the oil stopped flowin’ an’ it never flowed no more, - An’ the ‘Tough and Hungry’ combine was a’ feelin’ blue an’ sore. - But they nailed upon the derrick this notice, on a board, - ‘This well has stopped proceedin’s, by the order of the Lord.’” - -The late Rev. Harry L. Yewens, rector of St. John’s church, was an -accomplished writer and contributed many timely articles to the press. -Rev. Dr. Fradenburg, formerly of Oil City and Franklin, has published -seven scholarly volumes on religious subjects of vital interest. - -The Bolivar _Breeze_, seven years old, under the able management of J. -P. Herrick is one of the most readable sheets published in any section -of the country. Editor Herrick is a philosopher and wit, who looks on -the bright side of life and, better still, helps others to do likewise. - -P. A. Rattigan, the very-much-alive perpetrator of the Millerstown -_Herald_, once received an article entitled “Why Do I Live?” It was -written on both sides of the sheet of foolscap, whereupon P. Anthony in -next issue printed this conclusive answer: “You live because you sent -your dog-goned rot by mail instead of bringing it in person.” - -[Illustration: MELVILLE J. KERR.] - -Melville J. Kerr, a Franklin boy, son of the senior proprietor of the -marble-works, is a popular writer of facetiæ and society small-talk. -Possibly “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” but his -cognomen of “Joe Ker” is known to thousands of smiling readers who never -heard of Melville. The aspiring youth, believing in the advantages of a -big city, journeyed to New York to look for an opportunity that might -want a party about his size and style. Unlike Jacob for Rachel, Penelope -for Ulysses, the zealots who prayed for Ingersoll’s conversion or the -Governor of South Carolina for the Governor of North Carolina to “fill -’em up again,” he didn’t wait long. A soap-mogul liked the ambitious, -sprightly young man, introduced him to the swell set and booked him as -editor of _The Club_. Kerr’s refined humor popped and effervesced with -more “bead” than ever. He hobnobbed with millionaires, delighted Ward -McAlister and married a lovely girl. Blood will tell as surely as a -gossip or a tale-bearer. He is now editing _The Yellow Kid_, a -semi-monthly crowded with good things, and raking in wealth at a -Klondyke-gait from his newest book, “The World Over,” a graphic and -geographic burlesque that is fated to be read the world over. And this -is how the “Joe Ker” is the winning card in one oil-region instance. - -Last year a compact “Life of Napoleon Bonaparte,” in harmony with the -age of steam and electricity that won’t winnow a bushel of chaff for a -grain of wheat, which had run through the winter and spring of 1894-5 in -_McClure’s Magazine_, was published in book-form. Napoleonic ground had -been so plowed and harrowed and raked and scraped and sifted by Hugo, -Scott, Abbott, Hazlitt, Bourrienne, Madame Junot and a host of smaller -fry that it seemed idle to expect anything new concerning the arbiter of -Europe. Yet the beauty and freshness and acumen of this “Life” surprised -and captivated its myriad readers, whose pleasure it increased to learn -that the book was the production of a young woman. The authoress is Miss -Ida M., daughter of Franklin S. Tarbell, a wealthy oil-operator. Her -childhood was spent at Rouseville, where her parents lived prior to -occupying their present home at Titusville. The romantic surroundings -were calculated to awaken glowing fancies in the acute mind of the -little girl. After graduating from Allegheny College, Meadville, she -taught in the seminary at Poland, O., assisted to edit _The Chautauquan_ -at Meadville and spent three years in Europe gathering materials for -articles on the dark days of Robespierre, Danton, Marat and Marie -Antoinette. She wrote for _Scribners’_, _McClure’s_ and the _New-England -Magazine_, adding to her fame by an exhaustive study of Abraham -Lincoln’s youth. _Scribners’_ will soon publish her biography of Madame -Roland, the heroine of the French Revolution. Her success thus early in -her career gives fruitful promise of a resplendent future for the -vivacious, winsome biographer of the “Little Corporal.” - -While many names and terms and phrases peculiar to oil-operations are -unintelligible to the tenderfoot as “the confusion of tongues” at Babel, -others will be valuable additions to the language. “He has the sand” -aptly describes a gritty, invincible character. The fortunate adventurer -“strikes oil,” the pompous strutter is “a big gasser,” foolish anger is -“pumping roily” and fruitless enterprise is “boring in dry territory.” -Misdirected effort is “off the belt,” failure “stops the drill,” a lucky -investment “hits the jugular,” a hindrance “sticks the tools” and an -abandoned effort “plugs the well.” A man or well that keeps at it is “a -stayer,” one that doesn’t pan out is “a duster,” one that cuts loose is -“a gusher” or “a spouter.” Fair promise means “a good show,” the owner -of pipe-line certificates “has a bundle,” fleeced speculators are “shorn -lambs”—not limited to Oildom by a large majority—and the ruined operator -“shuts ’er down.” In a moment of inspiration John P. Zane created “the -noble producer,” Lewis F. Emery invented “the downtrodden refiner” and -Samuel P. Irvin exploited “the Great Invisible Oil-Company.” Some of -these epigrammatic phrases deserve to go thundering down the ages with -Grant’s “let us have peace,” Cleveland’s “pernicious activity,” and “a -sucker is born every minute.” - -Nor is the jargon of places and various appliances devoid of interest to -the student of letters. Oil City, Petroleum Centre, Oleopolis, Petrolia, -Greece City—first spelled G-r-e-a-s-e—Gas City, Derrick City and Oil -Springs were named with direct reference to the slippery commodity. From -prominent operators came Funkville, Shamburg, Tarr Farm, Rouseville, -McClintockville, Fagundas, Prentice, Cochran, Karns City, Angelica, -Criswell City, Gillmor, Duke Centre and Dean City. Noted men or early -settlers were remembered in Titusville, Shaffer, Plumer, Trunkeyville, -Warren, Irvineton, McKean, De Golier, Custer City, Garfield, Franklin, -Reno, Foster, Cooperstown, Kennerdell, Milton, Foxburg, Pickwick, -Parker, Troutman, Butler, Washington, Mannington and Morgantown. -Emlenton commemorates Mrs. Emlon Fox. St. Joe recalls Joseph Oberly, a -pioneer-operator in that portion of Butler county. Standoff City kept -green a contractor who wished to “stand-off” his men’s wages until he -finished a well. A deep hole or pit on the bank of the creek, from which -air rushed, suggested Pithole. Tip-Top, near Pleasantville, signified -its elevated site. Cornplanter, the township in which Oil City is -situated, bears the name of the stalwart chief—six feet high and one -hundred years old—to whom the land was ceded for friendly services to -the government and the white settlers. This grand old warrior died in -1836 and the Legislature erected a monument over his grave, on the -Indian reservation near Kinzua. Venango, Tionesta, Conewago, Allegheny, -Modoc and Kanawha smack of the copper-hued savage once monarch of the -whole plantation. Red-Hot, Hardscrabble, Bullion, Babylon, St. -Petersburg, Fairview, Antwerp, Dogtown, Turkey City and Triangle are -sufficiently obvious. Sistersville, the centre of activity in West -Virginia, is blamed upon twin-islets in the river. Alemagooselum is a -medley as uncertain in its origin as the ingredients of boarding-house -hash. Diagrams are needed to convey a reasonable notion of “clamps,” -“seed-bags,” “jars,” “reamers,” “sockets,” “centre-bits,” “mud-veins,” -“tea-heads,” “conductors,” “Samson-posts,” “bull-wheels,” “band-wheels,” -“walking-beams,” “grasshoppers,” “sucker-rods,” “temper-screws,” -“pole-tools,” “casing,” “tubing,” “working-barrels,” “standing-valves,” -“check-valves,” “force-pumps,” “loading-racks,” “well-shooters,” -“royalty,” “puts,” “calls,” “margins,” “carrying-rates,” “spot,” -“regular,” “pipage,” “storage,” and the thousand-and-one things that -make up the past and present of the lingo of petroleum. - -The Literary Guild is not the smallest frog in the petroleum-pool. - - THE WOMAN’S EDITION. - -To raise twenty-five-hundred dollars for an annex to the hospital, the -ladies of Oil City, on February twelfth, 1896, issued the “Woman’s -Edition” of the _Derrick_. It was a splendid literary and financial -success, realizing nearly five-thousand dollars. This apt poem graced -the editorial page: - - Oh! sad was her brow and wild was her mien, - Her expression the blankest that ever was seen; - She was pained, she was hurt at the plain requisition: - “We expect you to write for the Woman’s Edition.” - - Her babies wept sadly, her husband looked blue, - Her house was disordered, each room in a stew; - Do you ask me to tell why this sad exhibition? - She was trying to write for the Woman’s Edition. - - Oh, what should she write? she had nothing to say; - She pondered and thought all the long weary day; - The question of woman, her life and her mission, - Must all be touched up in the Woman’s Edition. - - But what could she do—oh, how could she write? - She could bake, she could brew from morning to night; - She had even been known to get up a petition: - But now she must write for “The Woman’s Edition.” - - She felt that she must; her sisters all did it, - Would she fall behind? The saints all forbid it! - If the rest of her life should be spent in contrition, - She felt she must write for the Woman’s Edition. - - She did it, she wrote it, now read it and ponder; - She treated a subject a little beyond her, - But that was much better than total omission - Of her name from the list on the Woman’s Edition. - - Now her home is restored, her husband has smiled, - But, alas! that pleased look on his face was beguiled - By her cheerful assent to his simple condition: - That she’ll not write again for a Woman’s Edition. - - THE GIRL AND THE EDITOR. - -D. A. Denison, the lively editor of the Bradford _Era_, is rarely -vanquished in any sort of encounter. A “sweet-girl graduate” wrote a -story and wanted him to print it. Thinking to let her down gently, he -remarked: “Your romance suits me splendidly, but it has trivial faults. -For instance, you describe the heroine’s canary as drinking water by -‘lapping it up eagerly with her tongue.’ Isn’t that a peculiar way for a -canary to drink water?” “Your criticism surprises me,” said the blushing -girl in a pained voice. “Still, if you think your readers would prefer -it, perhaps it would be better to let the canary drink water with a -teaspoon.” Dennison wilted like an ice-cream in July, promised to -publish the story and the girl walked away mistress of the situation. - -[Illustration: - - WELL FLOWING OIL AFTER TORPEDOING. - E. A. L. ROBERTS - W. B. ROBERTS -] - - - - - XVII. - NITRO-GLYCERINE IN THIS. - -EXPLOSIVES AS AIDS TO THE PRODUCTION OF OIL—THE ROBERTS TORPEDO MONOPOLY - AND ITS LEADERS—UNPRECEDENTED LITIGATION—MOONLIGHTERS AT - WORK—FATALITIES FROM THE DEADLY COMPOUND—PORTRAITS AND SKETCHES OF - VICTIMS—MEN BLOWN TO FRAGMENTS—STRANGE ESCAPES—THE LOADED - PORKER—STORIES TO ACCEPT OR REJECT AS IMPULSE PROMPTS. - - ---------- - -“There is no distinguished Genius altogether exempt from some infusion - of Madness.”—_Aristotle._ - -“Genius must be born and never can be taught.”—_Dryden._ - -“Labor with what zeal we will, something still remains - undone.”—_Longfellow._ - -“Come, bright improvement, on the car of Time.”—_Campbell._ - -“Revenge, at first though sweet, bitter ere long, back on itself - recoils.”—_Milton._ - - “Only these fragments and nothing more! - Can naught to our arms the lost restore?”—_Anonymous._ - -“Death itself is less painful when it comes upon us unawares.”—_Pascal._ - - “Dead? did you say he was dead? or is it only my brain? - He went away an hour ago; will he never come again?”—_Tamar - Kermode._ - - “There is no armor against fate.”—_Shirley._ - -“Dreadful is their doom * * * like yonder blasted bough by thunder - riven.”—_Beattie._ - - “By forms unseen their dirge is sung.”—_Collins._ - -“Death, a necessary evil, will come when it will come.”—_Shakespeare._ - -“Where is the reed on which I leant?”—_Tennyson._ - - “To-morrow is with God alone. - And man hath but to-day.”—_Whittier._ - -“Who so shall telle a tale after a man moste reherse everich - word.”—_Chaucer._ - - ---------- - - -[Illustration: NITRO-GLYCERINE LETS GO.] - -When in 1846 a patient European chemist hit upon a new compound by -mixing fuming nitric-acid, sulphuric-acid and glycerine in certain -proportions, he didn’t know it was loaded. Glycerine is a harmless -substance and its very name signifies sweetness. Combining it with the -two acids changed the three ingredients materially. The action of the -acids caused the glycerine to lose hydrogen and take up nitrogen and -oxygen. The product, which the discoverer baptized Nitro-Glycerine, -appeared meek and innocent as Mary’s little lamb and was readily -mistaken for lard-oil. It burned in lamps, consuming quietly and -emitting a gentle light. But concussion proved the oily-looking liquid -to be a terrible explosive, more powerful than gun-cotton, gunpowder or -dynamite. For twenty years it was not applied to any useful purpose in -the arts. Strangely enough, it was first put up as a homœopathic -remedy for headache, because a few drops rubbed on any portion of the -body pained the head acutely. James G. Blaine was given doses of it on -his death-bed. An energetic poison, fatalities resulted from imbibing it -for whisky, which it resembles in taste. After a time attention was -directed unexpectedly to its explosive qualities. A small consignment, -sent to this country as a specimen, accidentally exploded in a New-York -street. This set the newspapers and the public talking about it and -wondering what caused the stuff to go off. Investigation solved the -mystery and revealed the latent power of the compound, which had -previously figured only as a rare chemical in a half-score foreign -laboratories. Miners and contractors gradually learned its value for -blasting masses of rock. Five pounds, placed in a stone-jar and -suspended against the iron-side of the steamer Scotland, sunk off Sandy -Hook, cut a fissure twelve feet long in the vessel. A steamship at -Aspinwall was torn to atoms and people stood in mortal terror of the -destructive agent. Girls threw away the glycerine prescribed for chapped -lips, lest it should burst up and distribute them piecemeal over the -next county. Their cotton-padding or charcoal-dentifrice was as -dangerous as the glycerine alone, which is an excellent application for -the skin. A flame or a spark would not explode Nitro-Glycerine readily, -but the chap who struck it a hard rap might as well avoid trouble among -his heirs by having had his will written and a cigar-box ordered to hold -such fragments as his weeping relatives could pick from the surrounding -district. Such was the introduction to mankind of a compound that was to -fill a niche in connection with the production of petroleum. - -Paraffine is the unrelenting foe of oil-wells. It clogged and choked -some of the largest wells on Oil Creek and diminished the yield of -others in every quarter of the field. It incrusts the veins of the rock -and the pipes, just as lime in the water coats the tubes of a -steam-boiler or the inside of a tea-kettle. How to overcome its ill -effects was a question as serious as the extermination of the potato-bug -or the army-worm. Operators steamed their wells, often with good -results, the hot vapor melting the paraffine, and drenched them with -benzine to accomplish the same object. A genius patented a liquid that -would boil and fizz and discourage all the paraffine it touched, -cleaning the tubing and the seams in the sand much as caustic-soda -scours the waste-pipe of a sink or closet. These methods were very -limited in their scope, the steam condensing, the benzine mixing with -the oil and the burning fluid cooling off before penetrating the -crevices in the strata any considerable distance. Exploding powder in -holes drilled at the bottom of water-wells had increased the quantity of -fluid or opened new veins and the idea of trying the experiment in -oil-wells suggested itself to various operators. In 1860 Henry H. -Dennis, who drilled and stuck the tools in the first well at Tidioute, -procured three feet of two-inch copper-pipe, plugged one end, filled it -with rifle-powder, inserted a fuse-cord and exploded the charge in -presence of six men. The hole was full of water, oil and bits of rock -were blown into the air and “the smell of oil was so much stronger that -people coming up the hollow noticed it.” The same year John F. Harper -endeavored to explode five pounds of powder in A. W. Raymond’s well, at -Franklin. The tin-case holding the powder collapsed under the pressure -of the water and the fuse had gone out. William Reed assisted Raymond -and W. Ayers Brashear, who had expected James Barry—he put up the first -telegraph-line between Pittsburg and Franklin—to fire the charge by -electricity. Reed developed the idea and invented the “Reed Torpedo,” -which he used in a number of wells. A large crowd in 1866 witnessed the -torpedoing of John C. Ford’s well, on the Widow Fleming farm, four miles -south of Titusville. Five pounds of powder in an earthen bottle, -attached to a string of gas-pipe, were exploded at two-hundred-and-fifty -feet by dropping a red-hot iron through the pipe. The shock threw the -water out of the hole, threw out the pipe with such force as to knock -down the walking-beam and samson-post, agitated the water in Oil Creek -and “sent out oil.” Tubing was put in, the old horse worked the pump -until tired out and the result encouraged Ford to buy machinery to keep -the well going constantly. This was _the first successful torpedoing of -an oil-well_! The Watson well, near by, was similarly treated by Harper, -who had brought four bottles of the powder from Franklin and was -devoting his time to “blasting wells.” For his services at the Ford well -he received twenty dollars. Harper, William Skinner and a man named -Potter formed a partnership for this purpose. They torpedoed the Adams -well, on the Stackpole farm, below the Fleming, putting the powder in a -glass-bottle. The territory was dry and no oil followed the explosion. -In the fall of 1860 they shot Gideon B. Walker’s well at Tidioute. Five -torpedoes were exploded in 1860 at Franklin, Tidioute and on Oil Creek. -Business was disturbed over the grave political outlook, oil was -becoming too plentiful, the price was merely nominal and the -torpedo-industry languished. - -William F. Kingsbury advertised in 1860 that he would “put blasts in -oil-wells to increase their production.” He torpedoed a well in 1861 on -the island at Tidioute, using a can of powder and a fuse, which ignited -perfectly. Mark Wilson and L. G. Merrill lectured on electricity in -1860-61, traveling over the country and exhibiting the principle of -“Colt’s Submarine Battery,” by which “the rock at any distance beneath -the surface of the earth may be rent asunder, thereby enabling the oil -to flow to the well.” Frederick Crocker in 1864 arranged a torpedo to be -dropped into a well and fired by a pistol-cartridge inserted in the -bottom of the tin-shell. About thirty torpedoes were exploded from 1860 -to 1865, all of them in wells filled with water, which served as -tamping. Erastus Jones, James K. Jones and David Card exploded them in -wells at Liverpool, Ohio. Joseph Chandler handled two or three at -Pioneer and George Koch fired one of his own construction in May of -1864. Mr. Beardslee—he struck a vein of water by drilling a hole five -feet and exploding a case of powder at the bottom of a well in 1844, -near Rochester, N. Y.—came to the oil-region and put in a score of shots -in 1865. As long ago as 1808 the yield of water in a well at Fort Regent -was doubled by drilling a small hole and firing a quantity of powder. A -flowing-well on the lease beside the Crocker stopped when the latter was -torpedoed and was rigged for pumping. It pumped “black powder-water,” -showing that the torpedo had opened an underground connection between -the two wells, the effects of the explosion reaching from the Crocker to -its neighbor. William Reed made a can strong enough to resist the -pressure of the water, let it down the Criswell well on Cherry Run in -1863, failed to discharge it by electricity and exploded it by sliding a -hollow weight down a string to strike a percussion-cap. - -Notwithstanding these facts, which demonstrated that the yield of oil -and water had been increased by exploding powder hundreds of feet under -water, in November of 1864 Col. E. A. L. Roberts applied for a patent -for “a process of increasing the productiveness of oil-wells by causing -an explosion of gunpowder or its equivalent at or near the oil-bearing -point, in connection with superincumbent fluid-tamping.” He claimed that -the action of a shell at Fredericksburg in 1862, which exploded in a -mill-race, suggested to him the idea of bombarding oil-wells. However -this may be—it has been said he was not at Fredericksburg at the date -specified in his papers—the Colonel furnished no drawings and presented -no application for Letters Patent for over two years. He constructed six -of his torpedoes and arrived with them at Titusville in January of 1865. -Captain Mills permitted him to test his process in the Ladies’ well, -near Titusville, on January twenty-first. Two torpedoes were exploded -and the well flowed oil and paraffine. Reed, Harper and three or four -others filed applications for patents and commenced proceedings for -interference. The suits dragged two years, were decided in favor of -Roberts and he secured the patent that was to become a grievous -monopoly. - -A company was organized in New York to construct torpedoes and carry on -the business extensively. Operators were rather sceptical as to the -advantages of the Roberts method, fearing the missiles would shatter the -rock and destroy the wells. The Woodin well, a dry-hole on the Blood -farm, received two injections and pumped eighty barrels a day in -December of 1866. During 1867 the demand increased largely and many -suits for infringements were entered. Roberts seemed to have the courts -on his side and he obtained injunctions against the Reed Torpedo-Company -and James Dickey for alleged infringements. Justices Strong and McKennan -decided against Dickey in 1871. Producers subscribed fifty-thousand -dollars to break down the Roberts patent and confidently expected a -favorable issue. Judge Grier, of Philadelphia, mulcted the Reed Company -in heavy damages. Nickerson and Hamar, ingenious, clever fellows, fared -similarly. Roberts substituted Nitro-Glycerine for gunpowder and -established a manufactory of the explosive near Titusville. The -torpedo-war became general, determined and uncompromising. The monopoly -charged exorbitant prices—two-hundred dollars for a medium shot—and an -army of “moonlighters”—nervy men who put in torpedoes at night—sprang -into existence. The “moonlighters” effected great improvements and first -used the “go-devil drop-weight” in the Butler field in 1876. The Roberts -crowd hired a legion of spies to report operators who patronized the -nocturnal well-shooters. The country swarmed with these emissaries. You -couldn’t spit in the street or near a well after dark without danger of -hitting one of the crew. Unexampled litigation followed. About -_two-thousand_ prosecutions were threatened and most of them begun -against producers accused of violating the law by engaging -“moonlighters.” The array of counsel was most imposing. It included -Bakewell & Christy, of Pittsburg, and George Harding, of Philadelphia, -for the torpedo-company. Kellar & Blake, of New York, and General -Benjamin F. Butler were retained by a number of defendants. Most of the -individual suits were settled, the annoyance of trying them in -Pittsburg, fees of lawyers and enormous costs inducing the operators to -make such terms as they could. By this means the coffers of the company -were filled to overflowing and the Roberts Brothers rolled up millions -of dollars. - -The late H. Bucher Swope, the brilliant district-attorney of Pittsburg, -was especially active in behalf of Roberts. The bitter feeling -engendered by convictions deemed unjust, awards of excessive damages and -numerous imprisonments found expression in pointed newspaper paragraphs. -Col. Roberts preserved in scrap-books every item regarding his -business-methods, himself and his associates. One poetical squib, -written by me and printed in the Oil-City _Times_, incensed him to the -highest pitch and was quoted by Mr. Swope in an argument before Judge -McKennan. The old Judge bristled with fury. Evidently he regretted that -it was beyond his power to sentence somebody to the penitentiary for -daring hint that law was not always justice. He had not traveled quite -so far on the tyrannical road as some later wearers of the ermine, who, -“dressed in a little brief authority, play such fantastic tricks before -high heaven as make the angels weep” and consign workingmen to limbo for -presuming to present the demands of organized labor to employers! It is -not Eugene V. Debs or the mouthing anarchist, but the overbearing -corporation-tool on the bench, who is guilty of “contempt of court.” - -The Roberts patent re-issued in June of 1873, perpetuating the -burdensome load upon oil-producers. In November of 1876 suit was brought -in the Circuit Court against Peter Schreiber, of Oil City, charged with -infringing the Roberts process. Schreiber’s torpedo duplicated the -unpatented Crocker cartridge and Roberts wanted his scalp. The case was -contested keenly four years, coming up for final argument in May of -1879. Henry Baldwin and James C. Boyce, of Oil City, and Hon. J. H. -Osmer, of Franklin, were the defendant’s attorneys. Mr. Boyce collected -a mass of testimony that seemed overwhelming. He spent years working up -a masterly defense. By unimpeachable witnesses he proved that explosives -had been used in water-wells and oil-wells, substantially in the manner -patented by Roberts, years before the holder of the patent had been -heard of as a torpedoist. But his masterly efforts were wasted upon -Justices Strong and McKennan. They had sustained the monopoly in the -previous suits and apparently would not reverse themselves, no matter -how convincing the reasons. Mr. Schreiber, wearied by the law’s -interminable delays and thirty-thousand dollars of expenditure, decided -not to suffer the further annoyance of appealing to the United-States -Supreme Court. The great body of producers, disgusted with the courts -and despairing of fair-play, did not care to provide the funds to carry -the case to the highest tribunal and lock it up for years awaiting a -hearing. The flood of light thrown upon it by Boyce’s researches had the -effect of preventing an extension of the patent and reducing the price -of torpedoes, thus benefiting the oil-region greatly. Mr. Boyce is now -practicing his profession in Pittsburg. He resided at Oil City for years -and was noted for his bright wit, his incisive logic, his profound -interest in education and his social accomplishments. - -Col. Edward A. L. Roberts died at Titusville on Friday morning, March -twenty-fifth, 1881, after a short illness. His demise was quite -unexpected, as he continued in ordinary health until Tuesday night. Then -he was seized with intermittent fever, which rapidly gained ground until -it proved fatal. A moment before dissolution he asked Dr. Freeman, who -was with him, for a glass of water. Drinking it and staring intently at -the doctor, his eyes filled with tears and he said, “I am gone.” -Pressing back upon the pillow, he expired almost instantly. Col. Roberts -was born at Moreau, Saratoga county, New York, in 1829. At seventeen he -enlisted as a private, served with commendable bravery in the Mexican -war and was honorably discharged after a service of two years. Returning -to his native place, he entered an academy and passed several years -acquiring a higher education. Subsequently he entered the dental office -of his brother at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Still later he removed to the city -and with his brother, W. B. Roberts, engaged in the manufacture of -dental material. For his improvements in dental science and articles he -was awarded several gold-medals by the American Institute. He patented -various inventions that have been of great service and are now in -general use. In the oil-region he was best known as the owner of the -torpedo-patent bearing his name. He came to Titusville in January of -1865 and the same month exploded two shells in the Ladies’ well, -increasing its yield largely. From that time to the present the use of -torpedoes has continued. The litigation over the patent and -infringements attracted widespread attention. The last week of his life -Col. Roberts said he had expended a quarter-million dollars in -torpedo-litigation. He was responsible for more lawsuits than any other -man in the United States. A man of many eccentricities and strong -feelings, he was always liberal and enterprising. He left a large -fortune and one of the most profitable monopolies in the State. In 1869 -he married Mrs. Chase, separated from her in 1877 and lived at the -Brunswick Hotel. His widow and two children survived him. Col. Roberts -did much to build up Titusville and his funeral was the largest the town -has ever witnessed. He sleeps in the pretty cemetery and a peculiar -monument, emblematic of the torpedo, marks the burial-plot. - -[Illustration: - - HOTEL BRUNSWICK. - C. J. ANDREWS -] - -On the palatial Hotel Brunswick, which he built and nurtured as the -apple of his eye, Col. Roberts lavished part of his wealth. He decorated -and furnished it gorgeously from cellar to roof. The appointments were -luxurious throughout. If the landlords he engaged could not meet -expenses, the Colonel paid the deficiency ungrudgingly and sawed wood. -Finally the house was conducted in business-style and paid handsomely. -For years it has been run by Charles J. Andrews, who was born with a -talent for hotel-keeping. “Charlie” is well-known in every nook and -corner of Pennsylvania as a “jolly good fellow,” keen politician and -all-round thoroughbred. He has the rare faculty of winning friends and -of engineering bills through the Legislature. He is head of the Liquor -League, a tireless worker, a masterly joker and brimming over with -pat-stories that do not strike back. He operates in oil and base-ball as -a diversion, is a familiar figure in Philadelphia and Harrisburg and -popular everywhere. - -Dr. Walter B. Roberts, partner of his brother in the torpedo-company, -clerked in an Albany bank, taught district-school, studied medicine and -rose to eminence in dentistry. Visiting Nicaragua in 1853, he -established a firm to ship deer-skins and cattle-hides to the United -States and built up a large trade with Central America. Resuming his -practice, he and E. A. L. Roberts opened dental-rooms in New York. His -brother enlisted and upon returning from the war assigned the Doctor a -half-interest in a torpedo for oil-wells he desired to patent. In 1865 -Dr. Roberts organized the Roberts Torpedo-Company, was chosen its -secretary in 1866 and its president in 1867. He visited Europe in 1867 -and removed to Titusville in 1868, residing there until his death. In -1872 he was elected mayor, but his intense longing for a seat in -Congress was never gratified. The oil-producers, whom the vexatious -torpedo-suits made hot under the collar, opposed him resolutely. He had -succeeded in his profession and his business and his crowning ambition -was to go to Washington. The arrow of political disappointment pricked -his temper at times, although to the last he supported the Republican -party zealously. Dr. Roberts was a man of marked characteristics, tall, -stoutly built and vigorous mentally. He did much to advance the -interests of his adopted city and was respected for his courage, his -earnestness and his benevolence to the poor. - -[Illustration: WILLIAM H. ANDREWS.] - -Hon. William H. Andrews managed the campaign of Dr. Roberts, who fancied -the adroitness, pluck and push of the coming leader and used his -influence to elect him chairman of the Crawford-County Republican -Committee. He performed the duties so capably that he served four terms, -was secretary of the State Committee in 1887-8 and its chairman in -1890-1. Mr. Andrews was born in Warren county and at an early age -entered upon a mercantile career. He established large dry-goods stores -at Titusville, Franklin and Meadville, introduced modern ideas and did a -tremendous business. He advertised by the page, ran excursion-trains at -suitable periods and sold his wares at prices to attract multitudes of -customers. Nobody ever heard of dull trade or hard times at any of the -Andrews stores. Removing to Cincinnati, he opened the biggest store in -the city and forced local merchants to crawl out of the old rut and -hustle. But the aroma of petroleum, the motion of the walking-beam, the -dash and spirit of oil-region life were lacking in Porkopolis and -Andrews returned to Titusville. He engaged in politics with the ardor he -had displayed in trade. His skill as an organizer saved the -Congressional district from the Greenbackers and won him the -chairmanship of the Republican State-Committee. He served two terms in -the Legislature and was elected to the Senate in 1894. He is chairman of -the senatorial committee appointed last session to “Lexow” Philadelphia -and Pittsburg. His brother, W. R. Andrews, edited the Meadville -_Tribune_ and was secretary of the State Committee. Another, Charles J. -Andrews, was proprietor of the Hotel Brunswick and an active politician. -Senator Andrews rarely wastes his breath on long-winded speeches, wisely -preferring to do effective work in committee. No member of the House or -Senate is more influential, more ready to oblige his friends, more -sought for favors and surer of carrying through a bill. He enjoys the -confidence of Senator Quay and his next promotion may be to the -United-States Senate as successor of Matthew S. himself. Mr. Andrews -lives at Allegheny, has oil-wells on Church Run and a big farm in the -suburbs of Titusville, is prominent in local industries and a -representative citizen. - -Gradually the quantity of explosive in a torpedo was increased, in order -to shatter a wider area of oil-bearing rock. A hundred quarts of -Nitro-Glycerine have been used for a single shot. In such instances it -is lowered into the well in cans, one resting upon another at the bottom -of the hole until the desired amount is in place. A cap is adjusted to -the top of the last can, the cord that lowered the Nitro-Glycerine is -pulled up, a weight is dropped upon the cap and an explosion equal to -the force of a ton of gunpowder ensues. In a few seconds a shower of -water, oil, mud and pebbles ascends, saturating the derrick and pelting -broken stones in every direction. Frank H. Taylor graphically describes -a scene at Thorn Creek: - -“On October twenty-seventh, 1884, those who stood at the brick -school-house and telegraph-offices in the Thorn Creek district and saw -the Semple, Boyd & Armstrong No. 2 torpedoed, gazed upon the grandest -scene ever witnessed in Oildom. When the shot took effect and the barren -rock, as if smitten by the rod of Moses, poured forth its torrent of -oil, it was such a magnificent and awful spectacle that no painter’s -brush or poet’s pen could do it justice. Men familiar with the wonderful -sights of the oil-country were struck dumb with astonishment, as they -beheld the mighty display of Nature’s forces. There was no sudden -reaction after the torpedo was exploded. A column of water rose eight or -ten feet and fell back again, some time elapsed before the force of the -explosion emptied the hole and the burnt glycerine, mud and sand rushed -up in the derrick in a black stream. The blackness gradually changed to -yellow; then, with a mighty roar, the gas burst forth with a deafening -noise, like the thunderbolt set free. For a moment the cloud of gas hid -the derrick from sight and then, as this cleared away, a solid golden -column half-a-foot in diameter shot from the derrick-floor eighty feet -through the air, till it broke in fragments on the crown-pulley and fell -in a shower of yellow rain for rods around. For over an hour that grand -column of oil, rushing swifter than any torrent and straight as a -mountain pine, united derrick-floor and top. In a few moments the ground -around the derrick was covered inches deep with petroleum. The branches -of the oak-trees were like huge yellow plumes and a stream as large as a -man’s body ran down the hill to the road. It filled the space beneath -the small bridge and, continuing down the hill through the woods beyond, -spread out upon the flats where the Johnson well is. In two hours these -flats were covered with a flood of oil. The hill-side was as if a yellow -freshet had passed over it. Heavy clouds of gas, almost obscuring the -derrick, hung low in the woods, and still that mighty rush continued. -Some of those who witnessed it estimated the well to be flowing -five-hundred barrels per hour. Dams were built across the stream, that -its production might be estimated; the dams overflowed and were swept -away before they could be completed. People living along Thorn Creek -packed up their household-goods and fled to the hill-sides. The -pump-station, a mile-and-a-half down the creek, had to extinguish its -fires that night on account of gas. All fires around the district were -put out. It was literally a flood of oil. It was estimated that the -production was ten-thousand barrels the first twenty-four hours. The -foreman, endeavoring to get the tools into the well, was overcome by the -gas and fell under the bull-wheels. He was rescued immediately and -medical aid summoned. He remained unconscious two hours, but -subsequently recovered fully. Several men volunteered to undertake the -job of shutting in the largest well ever struck in the oil-region. The -packer for the oil-saver was tied on the bull-wheel shaft, the tools -were placed over the hole and run in. But the pressure of the solid -stream of oil against it prevented its going lower, even with the -suspended weight of the two-thousand-pound tools. One-thousand pounds -additional weight were added before the cap was fitted and the well -closed. A casing-connection and tubing-lines connected the well with a -tank.” - -Had the owners not torpedoed this well, which they believed to be dry, -its value would never have been known. Its conceded failure would have -chilled ambitious operators who held adjoining leases and changed the -entire history of Thorn Creek. - -[Illustration: WILLIAM MUNSON.] - -Torpedoing wells is a hazardous business. A professional well-shooter -must have nerves of iron, be temperate in his habits and keenly alive to -the fact that a careless movement or a misstep may send him flying into -space. James Sanders, a veteran employé of the Roberts Company, fired -six-thousand torpedoes without the slightest accident and lived for -years after his well-earned retirement. Nitro-Glycerine literally tears -its victims into shreds. It is quick as lightning and can’t be dodged. -The first fatality from its use in the oil-regions befell William -Munson, in the summer of 1867, at Reno. He operated on Cherry Run, -owning wells near the famous Reed and Wade. He was one of the earliest -producers to use torpedoes and manufactured them under the Reed patent. -A small building at the bend of the Allegheny below Reno served as his -workshop and storehouse. For months the new industry went along quietly, -its projector prospering as the result of his enterprise. Entering the -building one morning in August, he was seen no more. How it occurred -none could tell, but a frightful explosion shivered the building, tore a -hole in the ground and annihilated Munson. Houses trembled to their -foundations, dishes were thrown from the shelves, windows were shattered -and about Oil City the horrible shock drove people frantically into the -streets. Not a trace of Munson’s premises remained, while fragments of -flesh and bone strewn over acres of ground too plainly revealed the -dreadful fate of the proprietor. The mangled bits were carefully -gathered up, put in a small box and sent to his former home in New York -for interment. The tragedy aroused profound sympathy. Mentally, morally -and physically William Munson was a fine specimen of manhood, thoroughly -upright and trustworthy. He lived at Franklin and belonged to the -Methodist church. His widow and two daughters survived the fond husband -and father. Mrs. Munson first moved to California, then returned -eastward and she is now practicing medicine at Toledo, the home of her -daughters, the younger of whom married Frank Gleason. - -The sensation produced by the first fatality had not entirely subsided -when the second victim was added to a list that has since lengthened -appallingly. To ensure comparative safety the deadly stuff was kept in -magazines located in isolated places. In 1867 the Roberts Company built -one of these receptacles two miles from Titusville, in the side of a -hill excavated for the purpose. Thither Patrick Brophy, who had charge, -went as usual one fine morning in July of 1868. An hour later a terrific -explosion burst upon the surrounding country with indescribable -violence. Horses and people on the streets of Titusville were thrown -down, chimneys tumbled, windows dropped into atoms and for a time the -panic was fearful. Then the thought suggested itself that the -glycerine-magazine had blown up. At once thousands started for the spot. -The site had been converted into a huge chasm, with tons of dirt -scattered far and wide. Branches of trees were lopped off as though cut -by a knife and hardly a particle could be found of what had so recently -been a sentient being, instinct with life and feeling and fondly -anticipating a happy career. The unfortunate youth bore an excellent -character for sobriety and carefulness. He was a young Irishman, had -been a brakeman on the Farmers’ Railroad and visited the magazine -frequently to make experiments. - -On Church Run, two miles back of Titusville, Colonel Davison established -a torpedo-manufactory in 1868. A few months passed safely and then the -tragedy came. With three workmen—Henry Todd, A. D. Griffin and William -Bills—Colonel Davison went to the factory, as was his practice, one -morning in September. A torpedo must have burst in course of filling, -causing sad destruction. The building was knocked into splinters, -burying the occupants beneath the ruins. All around the customary -evidences of havoc were presented, although the sheltered position of -the factory prevented much damage to Titusville. The mangled bodies of -his companions were extricated from the wreck. while Colonel Davison -still breathed. He did not regain consciousness and death closed the -chapter during the afternoon. This dismal event produced a deep -impression, the extinction of four lives investing it with peculiar -interest to the people of Oildom, many of whom knew the victims and -sincerely lamented their mournful exit. - -Dr. Fowler, the seventh victim, met his doom at Franklin in 1869. He had -erected a magazine on the hill above the Allegheny Valley depot, in -which large quantities of explosives were stored. With his brother -Charles the Doctor started for the storehouse one forenoon. At the -river-bridge a friend detained Charles for a few moments in -conversation, the Doctor proceeding alone. What happened prior to the -shock will not be revealed until all secrets are laid bare, but before -Charles reached the magazine a tremendous explosion launched his brother -into eternity. A spectator first noticed the boards of the building -flying through space, followed in a moment by a report that made the -earth quiver. The nearest properties were wrecked and the jar was felt -miles away. Careful search for the remains of the poor Doctor resulted -in a small lot of broken bones and pieces of flesh, which were buried in -the Franklin cemetery. It was supposed that the catastrophe originated -from the Doctor’s boots coming in contact with some glycerine that may -have leaked upon the floor. This is as plausible a reason as can be -assigned for a tragedy that brought grief to many loving hearts. The -Doctor was a genial, kindly gentleman and his cruel fate was universally -deplored. - -[Illustration: WILLIAM A. THOMPSON.] - -William A. Thompson, of Franklin, left home on Tuesday morning, August -thirteenth, 1870, carrying in his buggy a torpedo to be exploded in a -well on the Foster farm. John Quinn rode with him. At the farm he -received two old torpedoes, which had been there five or six weeks, -having failed to explode, to return to the factory. Quinn came up the -river by rail. Thompson stopped at Samuel Graham’s, Bully Hill, got an -apple and lighted a cigar. On leaving he said: “Good-bye, Sam, perhaps -you’ll never see me again!” Five minutes later an explosion was heard on -the Bully-Hill road, a mile from where Dr. Fowler had met his doom. -Graham and others hurried to the spot. The body of Thompson, horribly -mutilated, was lying fifty feet from the road, the left arm severed -above the elbow and missing. The horse and the fore-wheels of the buggy -were found a hundred yards off, the wounded animal struggling that -distance before he fell. The body and hind-wheels of the vehicle were in -splinters. One tire hung on a tree and a boot on another. The main -charge of the torpedo had entered the victim’s left side above the hip -and the face was scarcely disfigured. Mr. Thompson was widely known and -esteemed for his social qualities and high character. He was born in -Clearfield county, came to Franklin in 1853, married in 1855 and met his -shocking fate at the age of thirty-nine. His widow and a daughter live -at Franklin. - -Thus far the losses of human life were occasioned by the explosion of -great quantities of the messengers of death. The next instance -demonstrated the amazing strength of Nitro-Glycerine in small parcels, a -few drops ending the existence of a vigorous man at Scrubgrass, Venango -county, in the summer of 1870. R. W. Redfield, agent of a -torpedo-company, hid a can of glycerine in the bushes, expecting to -return and use it the following day. While picking berries Mrs. George -Fetterman saw the can and handed it to her husband. Thinking it was -lard-oil, which Nitro-Glycerine in its fluid state resembles closely, -Fetterman poured some into a vessel and sent it to his wells. It was -used as a lubricant for several days. Noticing a heated journal one -morning, Fetterman put a little of the supposed oil on the axle, with -the engine in rapid motion. A furious explosion ensued, tearing the -engine-house into splinters and partially stunning three men at work in -the derrick. Poor Fetterman was found shockingly mangled, with one arm -torn off and his head crushed into jelly. The mystery was not solved for -hours, when it occurred to a neighbor to test the contents of the -oil-can. Putting _one drop_ on an anvil, he struck it a heavy blow and -was hurled to the earth by the force of the concussion. The can was a -common oiler, holding a half-pint, and probably not a dozen drops had -touched the journal before the explosion took place. Fetterman was a man -of remarkable physical power, weighing two-hundred-and-thirty pounds and -looking the picture of health and vigor. Yet a quarter-spoonful of -nitro-glycerine sufficed to usher him into the hereafter under -circumstances particularly distressing. - -In the fall a young man lost his life almost as singularly as Fetterman. -He attended a well at Shamburg, seven miles south of Titusville. The -well was torpedoed on a cold day. To thaw the glycerine a tub was filled -with hot water, into which the cans were put. When sufficiently thawed -they were taken out, the glycerine was poured into the shell and the -torpedoing was done satisfactorily. The tubing was replaced in the well -and the young pumper went to turn on the steam to start the engine, -carrying a pair of tongs with him. He threw the tongs into the tub of -water. In an instant the engine-house was demolished by a fierce -explosion. The luckless youth was killed and his body mangled. A small -amount of glycerine must have leaked from the cans while they were -thawing, as the result of which a soul was hurried into the presence of -its Maker with alarming suddenness. - -In August of 1871 Charles Clarke started towards Enterprise, a small -village in Warren county, ten miles east of Titusville, with a lot of -glycerine in a vehicle drawn by one horse. The trip was destined never -to be accomplished. By the side of a high hill a piece of very rough -road had to be traveled. There the charge exploded. Likely some of the -liquid had leaked over the buggy and springs and been too much jolted. -The concussion was awful. Pieces of the woodwork and tires were carried -hundreds of yards. Half of one wheel lodged near the top of a large tree -and for many rods the forest was stripped of its foliage and branches. -Part of the face, with the mustache and four teeth adhering, was the -largest portion of the driver recovered from the debris. The horse was -disemboweled and to numerous trees lots of flesh and clothing were -sticking. From the ghastly spectacle the beholders turned away -shuddering. The handful of remains was buried reverently at Titusville, -crowds of people uniting in the last tribute of respect to “Charlie,” -whose youth and intelligence had made him a general favorite. - -A case similar to Thompson’s followed a few weeks after, near -Rouseville. Descending a steep hill on his way from torpedoing a well on -the Shaw farm, William Pine was sent out of the world unwarned. He had a -torpedo-shell and some cans of glycerine in a light wagon drawn by two -horses. No doubt, the extreme roughness of the road exploded the -dangerous freight. The body of the driver was distributed in minute -fragments over two acres and the buggy was destroyed, but the horses -escaped with slight injury, probably because the force of the shock -passed above them as they were going down the hill. Pine had a -premonition of impending disaster. When leaving home he kissed his wife -affectionately and told her he intended, should he return safely, to -quit the torpedo-business forever next day. He was an industrious, -competent young man, deserving of a better fate. - -In October of the same year Charles Palmer was blown to pieces at the -Roberts magazine, near Titusville, where Brophy died two years before. -With Captain West, agent of the company, he was removing cans of -glycerine from a wagon to the magazine. He handled the cans so -recklessly that West warned him to be more careful. He made thirteen -trips from the wagon and entered the magazine for the fourteenth time. -Next instant the magazine disappeared in a cloud of dust and smoke, -leaving hardly a trace of man or material. West happened to be beside -the wagon and escaped unhurt. The horses galloped furiously through -Titusville, the cans not taken out bounding around in the wagon. Why -they did not explode is a mystery. Had they done so the city would have -been leveled and thousands of lives lost. Palmer paid dearly for his -carelessness, which was characteristic of the rollicking, light-hearted -fellow whose existence terminated so shockingly. - -This thrilling adventure decided Captain West, who lived at Oil City, to -engage in pursuits more congenial to himself and agreeable to his -devoted family. He was finely educated, past the meridian and streaks of -gray tinged his dark hair and beard. In November he torpedoed a well for -me on Cherry Run. The shell stuck, together we drew it up, the Captain -adjusted the cap and it was then lowered and exploded successfully. At -parting he shook my hand warmly and remarked: “This is the last torpedo -I shall put in for you. My engagement with the company will end next -week. Good-bye. Come and see me in Oil City.” Three days later he went -to shoot a well at Reno, saying to his wife at starting: “This will wind -up my work for the company.” Such proved to be the fact, although in a -manner very different from what the speaker imagined. The shell was -lowered into the well, but failed to explode and the Captain concluded -to draw it up and examine the priming. Near the surface it exploded, -instantly killing West, who was guiding the line attached to the -torpedo. He was hurled into the air, striking the walking-beam and -falling upon the derrick-floor a bruised and bleeding corpse. He had, -indeed, put in his last torpedo. The main force of the explosion was -spent in the well, otherwise the body and the derrick would have been -blown to atoms. A tear from an old friend, as he recounts the tragic -close of an honorable career, is due the memory of a man whose sterling -qualities were universally admired. - -Early in 1873 two young lives paid the penalty at Scrubgrass. On a -bright February morning “Doc” Wright, the torpedo-agent, stopped at the -station to send a despatch. The message sent, he invited the -telegraph-operator, George Wolfe, to ride with him to the magazine, a -mile up the river. The two set out in high spirits, two dogs following -the sleigh. Hardly ten minutes elapsed when a dreadful report terrified -the settlement. From the magazine on the river-bank a light smoke -ascended. Two rods away stood the trembling horse, one eye torn from its -socket and his side lacerated. Beside him one dog lay lifeless. -Fragments of the cutter and the harness were strewn around -promiscuously. Through the bushes a clean lane was cut and a large -chestnut-tree uprooted. A deep gap alone remained of the magazine and -scarcely a particle of the two men could be found. Dozens of splintered -trees across the Allegheny indicated alike the force and general -direction of the concussion. A boot containing part of a human foot was -picked up fifty rods from the spot. Wright’s gold-watch, flattened and -twisted, was fished out of the Allegheny, two-hundred yards down the -stream, in May. The remains, which two cigar-boxes would have held, were -interred close by. A marble shaft marks the grave, which Col. William -Phillips, then president of the Allegheny-Valley Railroad, enclosed with -a neat iron-railing. It is very near the railway-track and the bank of -the river, a short distance above Kennerdell Station. The disaster was -supposed to have resulted from Wright’s using a hatchet to loosen a can -of glycerine from the ice that held it fast. A pet spaniel, which had a -habit of rubbing against his legs and trying to jump into his arms, -accompanied him from his boarding-house. The animal may have diverted -his attention momentarily, causing him to miss the ice and strike the -can. The horse lived for years, not much the worse except for the loss -of one eye. Wright and Wolfe were lively and jocular and their sad fate -was deeply regretted. Many a telegram George Wolfe sent for me when -Scrubgrass was at full tide. - -One morning in April of 1873 Dennis Run, a half-mile from Tidioute, -experienced a fierce explosion, which vibrated buildings, upset dishes -and broke windows long distances off. It occurred at a frame structure -on the side of a hill, occupied by Andrew Dalrymple as a dwelling and -engine-house. He was a “moonlighter,” putting in torpedoes at night to -avoid detection by the Roberts spotters, and was probably filling a -shell at the moment of the explosion. It knocked the tenement into -toothpicks and killed Dalrymple, jamming his head and the upper portion -of the trunk against an adjacent engine-house, the roof of which was -smeared with blood and particles of flesh. One arm lay in the small -creek four-hundred feet away, but not a vestige of the lower half of the -body could be discovered. A feeble cry from the ruins of the building -surprised the first persons to reach the place. Two feet beneath the -rubbish a child twenty months old was found unhurt. Farther search -revealed Mrs. Dalrymple, badly mangled and unconscious. She lingered two -hours. The little orphan, too young to understand the calamity that -deprived her of both parents, was adopted by a wealthy resident of -Tidioute and grew to be a beautiful girl. Thousands viewed the sad -spectacle and followed the double funeral to the cemetery. It has been -my fortune to witness many sights of this description, but none -comprised more distressing elements than the sudden summons of the -doomed husband and wife. Mrs. Dalrymple was the only woman in the -oil-region whom Nitro-Glycerine slaughtered. - -Is there a sixth sense, an indefinable impression that prompts an action -without an apparent reason? At Petrolia one forenoon something impelled -me to go to Tidioute, a hundred miles north, and spend the night. Rising -from breakfast at the Empire House next morning, a loud report, as -though a battery of boilers had burst, hurried me to the street. Ten -minutes later found me gazing upon the Dalrymple horror. Was the cause -of the impulse that started me from Petrolia explained? An hour sufficed -to help rescue the child from the debris, inspect the wreck, glean full -particulars and board the train for Irvineton. Writing the account for -the Oil-City _Derrick_ at my leisure, Postmaster Evans was on hand with -a report of the inquest when the evening-train reached Tidioute. The -Tidioute _Journal_ didn’t like the _Derrick_ a little bit and the sight -of a young man running from its office towards the train, with copies of -the paper—not dry from the press—attracted my attention. Mr. Evans said -two Titusville reporters had come over during the day. A newspaper-man -clearly relishes a “scoop” and it struck me at once that the _Journal_ -was rushing the first sheets of its edition to the Titusville delegates. -Squeezing through the jam, A. E. Fay, of the _Courier_, and “Charlie” -Morse, of the _Herald_, were pocketing the copies handed them by the -_Journal_ youth. Fay laughed out loud and said: “Well, boys, I guess the -_Derrick’s_ left this time!” A pat on the shoulder and my hint to “guess -again” fairly paralyzed the trio. The conductor shouted “all aboard” and -the train moved off. Dropping into the seat in front of Fay, his -annoyance could not be concealed. It relieved him to hear me tell of -coming through from the north and ask why such a crowd had gathered at -Tidioute. He told a fairy-story of a ball-game and his own and Morse’s -visit to meet a friend! A wish for a glance at the Tidioute paper he -parried by answering: “It’s yesterday’s issue!” Fay was a good fellow -and his clumsy falsifying would have shamed Ananias. Keeping him on the -rack was rare sport. Clearly he believed me ignorant of the -torpedo-accident. The moment to undeceive him arrived. A big roll of -manuscript held before his eyes, with a “scare-head” and minute details -of the tragedy, prefaced the query: “Do you still think the _Derrick_ is -badly left?” Many friends have asked me: “In your travels through the -oil-region what was the funniest thing you ever saw?” Here is the -answer: The dazed look of Fay as he beheld that manuscript, turned red -and white, clenched his fists, gritted his teeth and hissed, “Damn you!” - -John Osborne, a youth well-known and well-liked, in July of 1874 drove a -buckboard loaded with glycerine down Bear-Creek Valley, two miles below -Parker. The cargo let go at a rough piece of road in a woody ravine, -scattering Osborne, the horse and the vehicle over acres of tree-tops. -The concussion was felt three miles. Venango, Crawford, Warren and -Armstrong counties had furnished nearly a score of sacrifices and Butler -was to supply the next. Alonzo Taylor, young and unmarried, went in the -summer of 1875 to torpedo a well at Troutman. The drop-weight failed to -explode the percussion-cap and Taylor drew up the shell, a process that -had cost Captain West his life and was always risky. He got it out -safely and bore the torpedo to a hill to examine the priming. An instant -later a frightful explosion stunned the neighborhood. Taylor was not -mangled beyond recognition, as the charge was giant-powder instead of -Nitro-Glycerine. Nor was the damage to surrounding objects very great, -owing to the tendency of the powder to expend its strength downward. -This was the only torpedo-fatality of the year, the number of casualties -having induced greater caution in handling explosives. - -One of the first persons to reach the spot and gather the remains of -William Pine was his friend James Barnum, who died in the same manner at -St. Petersburg eighteen months later. Barnum was the Roberts agent in -Clarion county. On February twenty-third, 1876, he drove to Edenburg for -three-hundred pounds of glycerine, to store in the magazine a mile from -St. Petersburg. A fearful concussion, which the writer can never forget, -broke hundreds of windows and rocked houses to their foundations at six -o’clock that evening. To the magazine, on a slope sheltered by trees, -people hastened. A huge iron-safe, imbedded in a cave dug into the hill, -was the repository of the explosives. Barnum had tied his team to a -small tree and must have been taking the cans from the wagon to the -safe. A yawning cavity indicated the site of the magazine. Both horses -lay dead and disemboweled. The biggest piece of the luckless agent would -not weigh two pounds. One of his ears was found next morning a half-mile -away. The few remnants were collected in a box and buried at Franklin. A -wife and several children mourned poor “Jim,” who was a lively, active -young man and had often been warned not to be so careless with the -deadly stuff. Mrs. Barnum heard the explosion, uttered a piercing shriek -and ran wildly from her house towards the magazine, sure her husband had -been killed. - -W. H. Harper, who received a patent for improvements in torpedoes, went -to his doom at Keating’s Furnace, two miles from St. Petersburg, in July -of 1876. Drawing an unexploded shell from a well, precisely as West and -Taylor had done, he stooped down to examine the priming. The contents -exploded and drove pieces of the tin-shell deep into his flesh and -through his body. How he survived nine days was a wonder to all who saw -the dreadful wounds of the unlucky inventor. - -McKean county supplied the next instance. Repeated attempts were made to -rob a large magazine on the Curtis farm, two miles south of Bradford. -Incredible as it may seem, the key-hole of the ponderous iron-safe in -the hillside was several times stuffed with Nitro-Glycerine and a long -fuse and a slow match applied to burst the door. None of these foolhardy -attempts succeeding, on the night of September fifteenth, 1877, A. V. -Pulser, J. B. Burkholder, Andrew P. Higgins and Charles S. Page, two of -them “moonlighters,” it is supposed tried pounding the lock with a -hammer. At any rate, they exploded the magazine and were blown to -fragments, with all the gruesome accompaniments incident to such -catastrophes. That men would imperil their lives to loot a safe of -Nitro-Glycerine in the dark beats the old story of the thief who essayed -to steal a red-hot stove. In this case retribution was swift and -terrible, but a magazine at St. Petersburg was broken open and plundered -successfully. - -Seventeen days later J. T. Smith, of Titusville, who had charge of a -magazine on Bolivar Run, four miles from Bradford, lost his life -experimenting with glycerine. Col. E. A. L. Roberts and his nephew, Owen -Roberts, stood fifty yards from the magazine as Smith was thrown into -the air and frightfully mangled. They escaped with slight bruises, a -lively shaking up and a hair-raising fright. - -The summer of 1878 was a busy season in the northern field. Foster-Brook -Valley was at the hey-day of activity, with hundreds of wells drilling -and well-shooters very much in evidence. Among the most expert men in -the employ of the Roberts Company was J. Bartlett, of Bradford. He went -to Red Rock, an ephemeral oil-town six miles north-east of Bradford, to -torpedo a well in rear of the McClure House, the principal hostelry. -Although Bartlett’s recklessness was the source of uneasiness, he had -never met with an accident and was considered extremely fortunate. It -was a rule to explode the cans that had held the glycerine before -pouring it into the shell. Bartlett torpedoed the well, piled wood -around the empty cans and set it on fire. He and a party of friends -waited at the hotel for the cans to explode. The fire had burned low and -Bartlett proceeded to investigate. He lifted a can and turned it over, -to see if it contained any glycerine. The act was followed by an -explosion that shook every house in the town and shattered numberless -windows. Bartlett’s companions were knocked senseless and the shooter -was blown one-hundred feet. When picked up by several men, who hurried -to the scene, he presented a horrible sight. His clothing was torn to -ribbons and his body riddled by pieces of tin. The right arm was off -close to the shoulder and the right leg was a pulp. He was removed to a -boarding-house and died in great agony three hours after. - -Stories of hapless “moonlighters” scattered to the four winds of heaven -were recounted frequently. Their business, done largely under cover of -darkness, was exceptionally dangerous. The “moonlighter” did not haul -his load in a wagon openly by daylight. He would place two ten-quart -cans of glycerine in a meal-sack, sling the bag over his shoulder and -walk to the scene of his intended operations, generally at night. One -evening in the spring of 1879 a “moonlighter” named Reed appeared at Red -Rock, somewhat intoxicated and bearing two cans of glycerine in a bag. -He handled the bag in a style that struck terror to the hearts of all -onlookers, many of whom remembered poor Bartlett. It was unsafe to wrest -it from him by force and the Red-Rockers heaved a sigh of relief when he -started to climb the hill leading to Summit City. Scores watched him, -expecting an accident. At a rough spot Reed stumbled and the cans fell -to the ground. A terrific explosion shook the surrounding country. A -deep hole, ten feet in diameter, was blown in the earth and houses in -the vicinity were badly shaken. The explosion occurred directly under a -tree. When an attempt was made to gather up Reed’s remains the greater -portion of the body was in the tree, scraps of flesh of various sizes -hanging from its branches. The concussion passed above Red Rock, hence -the damage to property was small. Reed was dispersed over an acre of -brush, a fearful illustration of the incompatibility of whisky and -Nitro-Glycerine. - -W. O. Gotham, John Fowler and Harry French went to their usual work at -Gotham’s Nitro-Glycerine factory, near Petrolia, on the morning of -October twenty-seventh, 1878. An explosion during the forenoon tore -Fowler to shreds, mutilated French shockingly and landed Gotham’s dead -body in the stream with hardly a sign of injury. Petrolia never -witnessed a sadder funeral-procession than the long one that followed -the unfortunate three to the tomb. Gotham had a family and was widely -known; the others were strangers, far from home and loved ones. - -On February twentieth, 1880, James Feeney and Leonard Tackett started in -a sleigh with six cans under the seat to torpedo a well at Tram Hollow, -eight miles east by north of Bradford. The sleigh slipped into a rut on -a rough side-hill and capsized. The glycerine exploded, throwing Tackett -high in the air and mangling him considerably. Feeney lay flat in the -rut, the violence of the shock passing over him and covering him with -snow and fence-rails. His face was scorched and his hearing destroyed, -but he managed to crawl out, the first man who ever emerged alive from -the jaws of a Nitro-Glycerine eruption. He is still a resident of -Bradford. A dwelling close to the scene was wrecked, the falling timbers -seriously injuring two of the inmates. - -At two o’clock on the morning of December twenty-third, 1880, a powerful -concussion startled the people of Bradford from their slumbers, caused -by a glycerine-explosion just below the city-limits. Alvin Magee was -standing over the deadly compound, which had been put in a tub of hot -water to thaw. Usually the subtle stuff is stored in a cold place, to -congeal or freeze until needed. Magee and the derrick were blown into -space, only a few bits of flesh and bone and splintered wood remaining. -His two companions were in the engine-house and got off with severe -bruises and permanent deafness. Two men named Cushing and Leasure were -killed the same way in January, at a well near Limestone. Cushing came -to see the torpedo put into the well and was standing near the -engine-house, into which Leasure had just gone, when the accident -occurred. The glycerine was in hot water to thaw and a jet of steam -turned on, with the effect of sending it off prematurely. Cushing’s body -did not show a mark, his death probably resulting from concussion, while -Leasure was torn to fragments. - -E. M. Pearsall, of Oil City, died on July fourteenth, 1880, from the -effect of burns a few hours before. In company with two other men he -went to torpedo one of his wells on the Clapp farm. The tubing had been -drawn out and a large amount of benzine poured into the hole. The -torpedo was exploded, when the gas and benzine took fire and enveloped -the men and rig in flames. The clothes of Pearsall, who was nearest to -the derrick, caught fire and burned from his body. His limbs, face and -breast were a fearful sight. His intense suffering he bore like a hero, -made a will and calmly awaited death, which came to his relief at nine -o’clock in the evening. Pearsall was dark-haired, dark-eyed, slender, -wiry and fearless. - -[Illustration: PLUMER MITCHELL.] - -J. Plumer Mitchell—we called him “Plum”—worked for me on the -_Independent Press_ at Franklin in 1879-80. Everybody liked the bright, -genial, capable young man who set type, read proof, wrote locals, -solicited advertisements and won golden opinions. He married and was the -proud father of two winsome children. Meeting me on the street one day -shortly after quitting the _Press_, we chatted briefly. - -“I am through with sticking type,” he said. - -“What are you driving at now?” - -“Torpedoing wells. I started on Monday.” - -“Well, be sure you get good pay, for it’s risky business, and don’t -furnish a thrilling paragraph for the obituary-column.” - -“I shall do my best to steer clear of that. Good-bye.” - -That was our last meeting. He met the fate that overtook West, Taylor -and Harper, shooting a well at Galloway. The shattered frame rests in -the cemetery and the widow and fatherless daughters of the lamented dead -reside at Franklin. Poor “Plum!” - -T. A. McClain, an employé of the Roberts Company, was hauling -two-hundred quarts of glycerine in a sleigh from Davis Switch to Kinzua -Junction, on February fourteenth, 1881. The horses frightened and ran -off. The sleigh is supposed to have struck a stump and the cargo -exploded. Hardly a trace of McClain could be found and a bit of the -steel-shoeing was the only part of the sleigh recovered. Obliteration -more complete it would be difficult to imagine. - -The most destructive sacrifice of life followed on September seventh. -Charles Rust, a Bradford shooter, drove to Sawyer City to torpedo a well -on the Jane Schoonover farm. It is alleged that Rust had domestic -trouble, wearied of life and told his wife when leaving that morning he -would never return. A small crowd assembled to witness the operation. -William Bunton, owner of several adjacent wells, Charles Crouse, known -as “Big Charlie the Moonlighter,” James Thrasher, tool-dresser, and Rust -were on the derrick-floor. Rust filled the first shell, fixed the -firing-head and struck the cap two sharp blows with his left hand. There -was a blinding flash, then a deafening report. Dust, smoke and missiles -filled the air. The derrick was demolished and pieces of board flew -hundreds of yards with the force of cannon-balls. One hit Crouse in the -center of the forehead and passed through the skull. His face was -terribly lacerated and the clothing stripped off his body. Bunton and -Thrasher were not mangled beyond recognition, while Rust was thrown a -hundred yards. His legs were missing, the face was battered out of the -semblance of humanity and not a vestige of clothing was left on the -mutilated trunk. Frederick Slatterly, a lad on his way to school, was -hit by a piece of the derrick, which ripped his abdomen and caused death -in three hours. Three boys walking behind young Slatterly were thrown -down and hurt slightly. Mr. Bunton gasped when picked up and lived five -minutes. He was an estimable citizen, an elder in the Presbyterian -church, intelligent and broad-minded. Thrasher and Crouse were -industrious workmen. Edward Wilson, a gauger, standing ten rods away, -was perforated by slivers and pieces of tin, his injuries confining him -to bed several months. Thomas Buton and John Sisley were at the side of -the derrick, within six feet of Rust, yet escaped with trifling -injuries. The tragedy produced a sensation, all the more fearful from -the belief of some who witnessed it that Rust intended to commit suicide -and in compassing his own death killed four innocent victims. - -The Roberts magazine on the Hatfield farm, two miles south of Bradford, -blew up on the night of October thirteenth, 1881. Nobody doubted it was -the work of “moonlighters” attempting to steal the glycerine. Traces of -blood and minute portions of flesh on the stones and ties indicated that -two persons at least were engaged in the job. Who they were none ever -learned. - -John McCleary, a Roberts shooter, had a remarkable escape on December -twenty-seventh, 1881. While filling the shell at a well near Haymaker, -in the lower oil-field, the well flowed and McCleary left the derrick. -The column of oil threw down the shell and the glycerine exploded -promptly, wrecking the derrick and tossing the fleeing man violently to -the ground. He rose to his feet as four cans on the derrick-floor cut -loose. McCleary was borne fifty feet through the air, jagged splinters -of tin and wood pierced his back and sides and he fell stunned and -bleeding. He was not injured fatally. Like Feeney, Buton and Sisley, he -survives to tell of his close call. Less fortunate was Henry W. McHenry, -who had torpedoed hundreds of wells and was blown to atoms near Simpson -Station, in the southern end of the Bradford region, on February fifth, -1883. His fate resembled West’s, Taylor’s, Harper’s and Mitchell’s. - -In the summer of 1884 Lark Easton went to torpedo a well at Coleville, -seven miles southeast of Bradford. He tied his team in the woods, -carried some cans of glycerine to the well and left four in the wagon. A -storm blew down a tree, which fell on the wagon and exploded the -glycerine, demolishing the vehicle and killing one horse. It was a lucky -escape, if not much of a lark, for Easton. - -A peculiar case was that of “Doc” Haggerty, a teamster employed to haul -Nitro-Glycerine to the magazine near Pleasantville. In December of 1888 -he took fourteen-hundred pounds on his wagon and was seen at the -magazine twenty minutes before a furious explosion occurred. Pieces of -the horses and wagon were found, but not an atom of Haggerty. He had -disappeared as completely as Elijah in the chariot of fire. An -insurance-company, in which he held a five-thousand-dollar policy, -resisted payment on the ground that, as no remains of the alleged dead -man could be produced, he might be alive! Some pretexts for declining to -pay a policy are pretty mean, but this certainly capped the climax. -Experts believed the heat generated by the explosion was sufficient to -cremate the body instantaneously, bones, clothes, boots and all. - -James Woods and William Medeller, two experienced shooters, were ushered -into eternity on December tenth, 1889, by the explosion of the Humes -Torpedo-Company’s magazine at Bean Hollow, two miles south of Butler. -They had gone for glycerine and that was the end of their mortal -pilgrimage. Six years later, on December fourth, 1895, at the same place -and in the same way, George Bester and Lewis Black lost their lives. -Bester was blown to atoms and only a few threads of his clothing could -be picked up. The lower part of Black’s face, the trunk and right arm -remained together, while other portions of the body were strewn around. -The left arm was in a tree three-hundred yards distant. Huge holes -marked the site of the two Humes magazines, a hundred feet apart. The -mangled horse lay between them, every bone in his carcass broken and the -harness cut off clean. The buggy was in fragments, with one tire wrapped -five times about a small tree. Not a board stayed on the boiler-house -and the boiler was moved twenty feet and dismantled. The factory, -two-hundred feet from the magazines, was utterly wrecked. The young men -left Butler early in the morning, Black going for company. The -supposition is that Bester was removing some of the cans from the shelf, -intending to take them out, and that he dropped one of them. About -seven-hundred pounds of glycerine were stored in one of the magazines -and a less amount in the other. George Bester was twenty-eight and had a -wife and two small children. He was industrious, steady and one of the -best shooters in the business. Black was twenty and lived with his -parents. The concussion jarred every house in Butler, broke windows and -loosened plaster in the McKean school-building, causing a panic among -the children. - -W. N. Downing’s death, on January second, 1891, at the Victor -Oil-Company’s well, in the Archer’s Forks oil-field, near Wheeling, West -Virginia, was very singular. The glycerine used to torpedo the well the -previous day had been thawed in a barrel of warm water. Next day two of -the owners drove out to see the well and talk with Downing, who was -foreman of the company. On their way back to Wheeling they heard an -explosion, conjectured the boiler had burst and returned to the lease. -Mr. Downing’s body lay near where the barrel of water had stood. The -barrel had vanished and a large hole occupied its place. The victim’s -head was cut off on a line with the eyes. The only explanation of the -accident was that the glycerine had leaked into the barrel and a sudden -jar had caused the stuff to explode. Beside the well, in the -fence-corner, were twelve cans of glycerine not exploded. Downing lived -at Siverlyville, above Oil City, whither his remains were brought for -interment. - -Letting a torpedo down a well at Bradford in September of 1877, a flow -of oil jerked it out, hurled the shell against the tools, which were -hanging in the derrick, and set off the nitro on the double quick. The -shooter jumped and ran at the first symptoms of trouble, the derrick was -sliced in the middle and set on fire. The rig burned and strenuous -exertions alone saved neighboring wells. The fire was a novelty in the -career of the explosive. - -Occasionally Nitro-Glycerine goes off by spontaneous combustion without -apparent provocation. On December fifth, 1881, two of the employés -noticed a thin smoke rising from the top row of cans in the Roberts -magazine at Kinzua Junction. They retreated, came back and removed -eighty cans, observed the smoke increasing in density and volume and -decided to watch further proceedings from a safe distance. -Twelve-hundred quarts exploded with such vigor that the earth jarred for -miles and a big hole was ploughed in the rock. In November of 1885 the -Rock Glycerine-Company’s factory on Minard Run, four miles south of -Bradford, was wrecked for the fourth time. O. Wood and A. Brown were -running the mixture into “the drowning tank,” to divest it of the acid. -The process generates much heat and acid escaping from a leak in the -tank fired the wood-work. Wood and Brown and a carpenter in the -building, knowing their deliverance depended upon their speed, took -French leave. Samuel Barber, a teamster, was unloading a drum of acid in -front of the building and joined the fugitives in their flight. The -glycerine obligingly waited until the four men reached a safe spot and -then reduced the factory to kindling-wood. Barber’s horses and wagon -were not hurt mortally, the animals bleeding a little from the nose. -Next evening Tucker’s factory at Corwin Centre, six miles north-east of -Bradford, followed suit. Griffin Rathburn, who was making a run of the -fluids, fled for his life as the mass emitted a flame. He saved himself, -but the factory and a thousand pounds of the explosive went on an aërial -excursion. - -In November, 1896, at Pine Fork, West Virginia, William Conn drove a -two-horse wagon to the magazine for glycerine to shoot a well. While -Conn was inside two men drove up with two horses. That moment the -magazine exploded with a report heard ten miles off. Only a piece of a -man’s foot was ever found. Thus three human beings, two wagons and four -horses were extinguished utterly. - -On December twenty-third, 1896, a half-ton of glycerine blew up near -Montpelier, Indiana. Two men and two teams were the victims. The forest -was mowed down for hundreds of feet. Oak-trees three feet in diameter -were cut off like mullein-stalks. A steel-tire from one wagon was coiled -tightly around a small tree. One of the shooters was John Hickok, a -giant in stature. He was unusually cheerful that morning. He kissed his -wife and daughter good-bye and said, in answer to the query if he would -be home to dinner, “You know, Jennie, we are never sure of coming back.” - -By the explosion of a magazine at Shannopin, eighteen miles from -Pittsburg, in January, 1897, two men and two girls were killed, one man -was injured, buildings were shattered and part of the public-school was -demolished. The concussion broke windows at Economy and Coraopolis and -was felt thirty miles distant. - -On February twenty-fifth, 1897, a similar accident at the magazine three -miles west of Steubenville, Ohio, blew Louis Crary and Eugene Ralston -into bits too small to be gathered up. Both were in the frame building -containing the iron-safe that held the explosive when the whole thing -went into the air. At Celina, on April second, Cornelius O’Donnell and -John Baird perished, one finger alone remaining to prove they had ever -existed. - -Near Wellsville, New York, on March third, three tons of the stuff let -go, probably from spontaneous combustion, leaving a yawning chasm where -the magazine of the Rock Glycerine-Company had been erected. Nobody was -near enough to be hurt. Next day John Pike and Lewis Washabaugh met -their fate at Orchard Park. Washabaugh went to the magazine to examine -its contents and the explosion occurred as he opened the door, tearing -him to pieces. Pike, who stood a hundred yards away, was killed -instantly. On March twenty-second, at the Farren farm, two miles from -Wellsville, six-hundred quarts of the compound sent Henry H. Youngs to -his death. His young wife heard the warning note and ran bareheaded -through the deep mud to the scene. Doctor Clark and Thomas Myers were -driving posts five hundred feet from the magazine when Youngs drove past -for his load. Myers wanted to leave the spot, fearing an accident, but -Clark laughed at him and they continued working. At nine o’clock Myers -stood upon a saw-horse mauling away at a post. Suddenly he was thrown -over and over, performing several somersaults. He soon realized that the -terrible explosion he feared had taken place. With bloody face, bruised -body and a limping gait he arose. Smoke ascended over the site of the -magazine. Man and horses and wagon were gone. Clark was slowly rolling -himself over the ground and groaning from an injury in the region of the -stomach. Both men gasped for breath. Scraps of clothing and shreds of -flesh were all that could be picked up. - -C. N. Brown, manager of a torpedo-company, lost his life on April first -while shooting a well near Evans City, in Butler county. He had placed -part of the charge in the hole and was filling another shell on the -derrick-floor. Face and limbs were blown to the four winds, a portion of -skull dropping in the field. Brown was an expert shooter and a can -probably slipped from his hands to the floor so forcibly as to explode. -He expected to quit the business that week. - -Within sight of Marietta, Ohio, on August third, a wagon loaded with -nitro-glycerine dropped into a chuck hole in the road, setting off the -cargo. The driver, John McCleary, and the horses were scattered far and -wide. Half of a hoof was the largest fragment left of man or beast. -Thomas Martin, working on the road a hundred yards away, was hit by a -piece of the wagon and died instantly. John Williams, riding a horse -three-hundred yards beyond Martin, was pitched from his saddle and -painfully bruised. - -Samuel Barber torpedoed George Grant’s well, in the middle of the town -of Cygnet, on September seventh. A heavy flow of gas and a stream of oil -followed. The gas caught fire from the boiler, a hundred yards back, -filling the air with a sheet of solid flame. Men, women and children -were burned badly in trying to escape. Barber, clad in oily clothing -that burned furiously, ran until he fell and was burned fatally. A store -and office were consumed and the multitude supposed all danger had -passed. Forty quarts of the explosive had not been taken from the -derrick. The terrific explosion killed five men outright, three others -expired in a few hours, nine houses were wrecked and every pane of glass -in town was broken. Eight months previously two men were killed at -Cygnet by the explosion of a magazine. - -Warren VanBuren, of Bolivar, a noted shooter, has exploded -three-thousand torpedoes in oil-wells and is still in the business. -Three years ago two of his brothers worked with him. One of them tripped -on a gas-pipe and fell, while carrying a can of nitro-glycerine to his -wagon, with the usual result. All that could be found of his body was -placed in a cigar-box. The other brother retired from the business next -day, bought a fruit-farm, returned to the oil-country lately and he is -again pursuing his old vocation. - -John Jeffersey, an Indian pilot, died at Tionesta in 1894. One dark -night he plunged into the Allegheny, near Brady’s Bend, to grasp a skiff -loaded with cans of glycerine that brushed past his raft. Jacob Barry -and Richard Spooner jumped from the skiff as it touched the raft, -believing an explosion inevitable, and sank beneath the waters. As -“Indian John” caught the boat he yelled: “Me got it him! Me run it him -and tie!” He guided the craft through the pitchy darkness and anchored -it safely. Had it drifted down the river a sad accident might have been -the sequel. Happily Americanite, quite as powerful and much safer, is -displacing nitro-glycerine. - -Andrew Dalrymple, who perished at Tidioute, was at his brother’s well -ten minutes before the fatal explosion and said to the pumper: “I have -five-hundred dollars in my trousers and next week I’m going west to -settle on a farm.” Man and wife and money were blotted out ruthlessly -and the trip west was a trip into eternity instead. - -Frequently loads of explosives are hauled through the streets of towns -in the oil-regions, despite stringent ordinances and lynx-eyed -policemen. Once a well-known handler of glycerine was arrested and taken -before the mayor of Oil City. He denied violating the law by carrying -the stuff in his buggy. An officer bore a can at arm’s length and laid -it tenderly on the floor. “Now, you won’t deny it?” interrogated the -mayor. “No,” replied the prisoner, “there seems to be a lot of it.” Then -he hit the can a vicious kick, sending it against the wall with a thud. -The spectators fled and the mayor tried to climb through the -back-window. The can didn’t explode, the agent put it to his lips, took -a hearty quaff and remarked: “Mr. Mayor, try a nip; you’ll find this -whisky goes right to the ticklish spot!” - -Men in Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana have added to the dismal roll of -those who, leaving home happy and buoyant in the morning, ere the sun -set were dispersed over acres of territory. Yet all experiences with the -dread compound have not been serious, for at intervals a comic incident -brightens the page. Robert L. Wilson, a blacksmith on Cherry Run in -1869-70, was a first-class tool-manufacturer. Joining the Butler tide, -he opened a shop at Modoc. A fellow of giant-build entered one day, -bragged of his muscle as well as his stuttering tongue would permit and -wanted work. Something about the fellow displeased Wilson, who was of -medium size and thin as Job’s turkey, and he decided to have a little -fun at the stranger’s expense. He asked the burly visitor whether he -could strike the anvil a heavier blow than any other man in the shop. -The chap responded yes and Wilson agreed to hire him if he proved his -claim good. Wilson poured two or three drops of what looked like -lard-oil on the anvil and the big ’un braced himself to bring down the -sledge-hammer with the force of a pile-driver. He struck the exact spot. -The sledge soared through the roof and the giant was pitched against the -side of the building hard enough to knock off a half-dozen boards. When -he extracted himself from the mess and regained breath he blurted out: -“I t-t-told you I co-cou-could hi-hi-hit a he-he-hell of a b-bl-blow!” -“Right,” said Wilson, “you can beat any of us; be on hand to-morrow -morning to begin work.” The man worked faithfully and did not discover -for months that the stuff on the anvil was Nitro-Glycerine. - -The farm-house of Albert Jones, three miles from Auburn, Illinois, was -demolished on a Sunday afternoon in November of 1885. Jones had procured -some Nitro-Glycerine to remove stumps and set the can on the floor of -the dining-room. After dinner the family visited a neighbor, locking up -the house. About three o’clock a thundering detonation alarmed the -Auburnites, who couldn’t understand the cause of the rumpus. A messenger -from the country enlightened them. The Jones domicile had been wrecked -mysteriously and the family must have perished. Excited people soon -arrived and the Joneses put in an appearance. The house and furniture -were scattered in tiny tidbits over an area of five-hundred yards. Half -the original height of the four walls was standing, with a saw-tooth and -splintered fringe all around the irregular top of the oblong. Two beds -were found several hundred yards apart, in the road in front of the -house. A sewing-machine was buried head-first in the flower-garden. -Wearing-apparel and household-articles were strewn about the place. -While Mr. Jones and a circle of friends were viewing the wreck and -wondering how the Nitro-Glycerine exploded a faint cry was heard. A -search resulted in finding the family-cat in the branches of a tree -fifty feet from the dwelling. It was surmised the cat caused the -disaster by pushing from the table some article sufficiently heavy to -explode the glycerine on the floor. The New York _Sun’s_ famous -grimalkin should have retired to a back-fence and begun his final -caterwauling over the superior performance of the Illinois feline. Jones -and his friends unanimously endorsed the verdict: “It was the cat.” - -The first statement coupling a hog and Nitro-Glycerine in one package -was written by me in December of 1869, at Rouseville, and printed in the -Oil-City _Times_. The item went the rounds of the press in America and -Europe, many papers giving due credit and many localizing the narrative -to palm it off as original. One of the latter was “Brick” Pomeroy’s La -Crosse _Democrat_, which laid the scene in that neck of woods. The tale -has often been resurrected and it was reported in a New-Orleans paper -last month. The original version of “The Loaded Porker” read thus: - -“Rouseville furnishes the latest unpatented novelty in connection with -Nitro-Glycerine. A torpedo-man had taken a small parcel of the dangerous -compound from the magazine and on his return dropped into an -engine-house a few minutes, leaving the vessel beside the door. A -rampant hog, in search of a rare Christmas dinner, discovered the -tempting package and unceremoniously devoured the entire contents, just -finishing the last atom as the torpedoist emerged from the building! Now -everybody gives the greedy animal the widest latitude. It has full -possession of the whole sidewalk whenever disposed to promenade. All the -dogs in town have been placed in solitary confinement, for fear they -might chase the loaded porker against a post. No one is sufficiently -reckless to kick the critter, lest it should unexpectedly explode and -send the town and its total belongings to everlasting smash! The matter -is really becoming serious and how to dispose safely of a gormandizing -swine that has imbibed two quarts of infernal glycerine is the grand -conundrum of the hour. When he is killed and ground up into sausage and -head-cheese a new terror will be added to the long list that -boarding-houses possess already.” - -Charles Foster, of the High-Explosive Company, had an adventure in March -of 1896 that he would not repeat for a hatful of diamonds. He loaded -five-hundred quarts of glycerine at the magazine near Kane City. On Rynd -Hill the horses slipped and one fell. The driver jumped from his seat to -hold the animal’s head that it might not struggle. He cut the other -horse free from the harness, as the road skirted a precipice and the -frightened beast’s rearing and plunging would almost certainly dump the -wagon and outfit over the steep bank. Nobody was in sight, the driver -had no chance to block the wheels and the wagon started down the hill -backward. The vehicle, with its load of condensed destruction, kept the -road a few yards and pitched over the hill, turning somersaults in its -descent. It brought up standing on the tongue in a heap of stones. The -covers were torn off the wagon and the cans of the explosive were widely -scattered. Seven in one bunch were picked up ten yards below the road. A -three-cornered hole had been jammed in the bottom of one of the -eight-quart cans and the contents were escaping. Darkness came on before -the glycerine could be removed to a place of safety. Foster secured a -rig and drove home, after arranging to have the stuff taken to the -factory next morning. How the explosive, although congealed, stood the -shock of going over the hill and scattering about without soaring -skyward is one of the unfathomed mysteries of the Nitro-Glycerine -business. - -A Polish resident of South Oil City carried home what he took to be an -empty tomato-can. His wife chanced to upset it from a shelf in the -kitchen. A few drops of glycerine must have adhered to the tin. The can -burst with fearful violence, blowing out one side of the kitchen, -destroying the woman’s eyes and nearly blinding her little daughter. A -woman at Rouseville poured glycerine, mistaking it for lard-oil, into a -frying-pan on the stove, just as her husband came into the kitchen. He -snatched up the pan and landed it in a snow-bank so quickly the stuff -didn’t burst the combination. The wife started to scold him, but fainted -when he explained the situation. - -The wonderful explosion at Hell-Gate in 1876, when General Newton fired -two-hundred tons of dynamite and cleared a channel into New-York harbor -for the largest steamships, brought to the front the men who always tell -of something that beats the record. A group sat discussing Newton’s -achievement at the Collins House, Oil City, as a Southerner with a -military title entered. Catching the drift of the argument he said: - -“Talk about sending rocks and water up in the air! I knew a case that -knocked the socks clear off this little ripple at New York!” - -“Tell us all about it, Colonel,” the party chorused. - -“You see I used to live down in Tennessee. One day I met a farmer -driving a mule that looked as innocent as a cherub. The farmer had a -whip with a brad in the end of it. Just as I came up he gave the mule a -prod. Next moment he was gone. It almost took my breath away to see a -chap snuffed out so quick. The mule merely ducked his head and struck -out behind. A crash, a cloud of splinters and the mule and I were alone, -with not a trace of farmer or wagon in sight. Next day the papers had -accounts of a shower of flesh over in Kentucky and I was the only person -who could explain the phenomenon. No, gentlemen, the dynamite and -Nitro-Glycerine at Hell-Gate couldn’t hold a candle to that Tennessee -mule!” - -The silence that followed this tale was as dense as a London fog and -might have been cut with a cheese-knife. It was finally broken by a -_Derrick_ writer, who was a newspaper man and not easily taken down, -extending an invitation to the crowd to drink to the health of Eli -Perkins’s and Joe Mulhatten’s greatest rival. - -William A. Meyers, whom every man and woman at Bradford knew and -admired, handled tons of explosives and shot hundreds of wells. He had -escapes that would stand a porcupine’s quills on end. To head off a lot -of fellows who asked him for the thousandth time concerning one notable -adventure, he concocted a new version of the affair. “It was a close -call,” he said, “and no mistake. In the magazine I got some glycerine on -my boots. Soon after coming out I stamped my heel on a stone and the -first thing I knew I was sailing heavenward. When I alighted I struck -squarely on my other heel and began a second ascension. Somehow I came -down without much injury, except a bruised feeling that wore off in a -week or two. You see the glycerine stuck to my boot-heels and when it -hit a hard substance it went off quicker than Old Nick could singe a -kiln-dried sinner. What’ll you take, boys?” - -So the darkest chapter in petroleum history, a flood of litigation, a -mass of deception, a black wave of treachery and a red streak of human -blood, must be charged to the account of Nitro-Glycerine. - - GRAINS OF THIRD SAND. - -Many expressions coined in or about the oil-regions condense a page into -a line. Not a few have the force of a catapult and the directness of a -rifle-ball. Some may be quoted: - -“A fat bank-account won’t fatten a lean soul.”—_Charles Miller._ - -“The poorest man I know of is the man who has nothing but money.”—_John -D. Rockefeller._ - -“Don’t size up a man by the size of his wad.”—_Peter O. Conver._ - -“Never be the mere echo of any man on God’s green earth.”—_David Kirk._ - -“Take nobody’s dust in oil or politics.”—_James M. Guffey._ - -“What’s oil to a man when his wife’s a widow.”—_Edwin E. Clapp._ - -“Dad’s struck ile.”—_Miss Anna Evans._ - -“The Standard is the octopus of the century.”—_Col. J. A. Vera._ - -“It’s monopoly when you won’t divide with the other fellow.”—_John D. -Archbold._ - -“The Standard would swallow us without chewing.”—_Samuel P. Boyer._ - -“Give us public officials who dare own their own souls.”—_Lewis Emery._ - -“The man who won’t demand his rights should crawl off the earth.”—_M. H. -Butler._ - -“He’s only a corporation-convenience.”—_James W. Lee._ - -“A railroad-pass is the price of some legislators.”—_W. S. McMullan._ - -“I believe in a man who can say no at the right time.”—_James H. Osmer._ - -“A sneer can kill more tender plants than a hard freeze.”—_Edwin H. -Sibley._ - -“Grease, grace and greenbacks are the boss combination.”—_John P. Zane._ - -“Where are we now?”—_Philip M. Shannon._ - -“Piety that won’t march all week isn’t worth parading on Sunday.”—_Rev. -Fred. Evans._ - -“A jimson-weed has more fragrance than some folks’ religion.”—_Rev. John -McCoy._ - -“The scythe of Time gathers no rust.”—_Rev. N. S. McFetridge._ - -“Faith may see the fruit, but works knock the persimmons.”—_Rev. J. -Hawkins._ - -“Train your boy as carefully as your fifty-dollar pup.”—_Frank W. -Bowen._ - -“Who is the father of that child?”—_Oil-City Derrick._ - -“Other curses are trifles compared with the curses that follow falling -prices.”—_J. C. Sibley._ - -“Hit the calamity-howler in the solar plexus.”—_Patrick C. Boyle._ - -“Good character? A man doesn’t need a character to sell whisky.”—_S. P. -McCalmont._ - -“He thinks himself a little tin-godelmitey on wheels.”—_Coleman E. -Bishop._ - -“Just to be contrary he’d have a chill in Hades.”—_David A. Dennison._ - -“That fellow’s so cold-blooded he sweats ice-water.”—_John H. Galey._ - -“Think out your plan, then go and do it.”—_Charles V. Culver._ - -“I pay for what I get.”—_John McKeown._ - -“This Court will not be made a thumbscrew to squeeze any debtor.”—_Judge -Trunkey._ - -“A good many injunctions ought to be enjoined.”—_Judge Taylor._ - -“We may safely assume that the Almighty knows all about it.”—_James S. -Myers._ - -“A flea may upset a mastiff.”—_Stephen D. Karns._ - -“The city-water is as dirty as the dirty pool of politics.”—_Samuel P. -Brigham._ - -“Haven’t the producers played the fool long enough?”—_George H. Nesbit._ - -“Tracts and missionaries are poor feed for the heathen.”—_Alexander -Cochran._ - -“Money is good only as it enables men to do good.”—_J. J. Vandergrift._ - -“It takes dry-holes to test an operator’s moral fiber.”—_Joseph T. -Jones._ - -“I have tapped the mine.”—_Edwin L. Drake._ - -“Give us dollar-oil and Klondyke can go to the devil.”—_Chorus of -Operators._ - -“That duffer is the ugliest bristle on the monopoly-hog.”—_Peter Grace._ - -“I think more of my ‘belt-theory’ than of a thousand-barrel -well.”—_Cyrus D. Angell._ - -“First stop the drill, then you may pray for higher prices.”—_T. T. -Thompson._ - -“A cat in hell without claws is less helpless than the -producers.”—_Clarion Oilmen._ - -“Seventy-cent oil is a mustard-plaster that draws out all our -vitality.”— _Michael Murphy._ - -“The world is all right; it’s your liver that’s wrong.”—_Roger Sherman._ - -“He washed his face and the disguise was perfect.”—_Samuel L. Williams._ - -“I feel sorry for the poor fellow fifty-dollars; how sorry are -you?”—_Wesley Chambers._ - -“Hell is running over with souls lost for lack of sympathy on -earth.”—_Rev. J. Hart._ - -“Cigarettes and corsets kill off a good many fools.”—_Albert P. -Whitaker._ - -“Giving is a luxury no man can afford to miss.”—_Dr. Albert G. Egbert._ - -“Lord, preserve our pastor, which is sailin’ on the ragin’ sea.”—_Elder -at Franklin._ - -“The best preparation for a good death is a good life.”—_Rev. Thomas -Carroll._ - -“Let me pipe the oil and I don’t care who drills the wells.”—_Henry -Harley._ - -“One well in the sand beats a hundred geological guesses.”—_Wesley S. -Guffey._ - -“Oil is the sap that keeps the tree of commerce in bloom.”—_Marcus -Hulings._ - -“Producers and oil-wells should have plenty of sand.”—_Frederic -Prentice._ - -“He hasn’t half the backbone of a printer’s towel.”—_M. N. Allen._ - -“His ideas have the vigor of a mule’s hind legs.”—_Robert L. Cochran._ - -“Damn a man who won’t stand up for a square deal.”—_Robert B. Allen._ - -“He’s too big a mullet-head to say damn.”—_John A. Steele._ - -“God has no use for the man a dry-hole knocks out.”—_Daniel Cady._ - -“His good deeds are so far apart they die of loneliness.”—_Charles -Collins._ - -“He’s more kinds of a blamed fool than a whole lunatic asylum.”—_David -Armstrong._ - -“Too often the mean man is the man of means.”—_Stephen W. Harley._ - -“If all Christians were like some Christians the church would be a -rubbish-heap.”—_Rev. Edwin T. Brown._ - -[Illustration: STANDARD BUILDING, 26 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.] - - - - - XVIII. - THE STANDARD OIL-COMPANY. - -GROWTH OF A GREAT CORPORATION—MISUNDERSTOOD AND - MISREPRESENTED—IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING AND TRANSPORTING - PETROLEUM—WHY MANY REFINERIES COLLAPSED—REAL MEANING OF THE - TRUST—WHAT A COMBINATION OF BRAINS AND CAPITAL HAS ACCOMPLISHED—MEN - WHO BUILT UP A VAST ENTERPRISE THAT HAS NO EQUAL IN THE WORLD. - - ---------- - - “Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, - Nor set down aught in malice.”—_Shakespeare._ - -“Not to know me argues yourself unknown.”—_Milton._ - -“The keen spirit seizes the prompt occasion.”—_Hannah Moore._ - -“Genius is the faculty of growth.”—_Coleridge._ - -“Success affords the means of securing additional - success.”—_Stanislaus._ - -“Fortune, success, position, are never gained but by determinedly, - bravely striking, growing, living to a thing.”—_Townsend._ - -“The goal of yesterday will be the starting-point of - to-morrow.”—_Voltaire._ - -“Where the judgment is weak the prejudice is strong.”—_Kate O’Hara._ - - “Amongst the sons of men how few are known - Who dare to be just to merit not their own.”—_Churchill._ - -“Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.”—_Dean - Swift._ - -“As though a rose should shut and be a bud again.”—_John Keats._ - - ---------- - - -[Illustration: JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER.] - -Compared with a petroleum-sketch which did not touch upon the Standard -Oil-Company, in different respects the greatest corporation the world -has ever known, Hamlet with “the melancholy Dane” left out would be a -masterpiece of completeness. Perhaps no business-organization in this or -any other country has been more misrepresented and misunderstood. To -many well-meaning persons, who would not willfully harbor an unjust -thought, it has suggested all that is vicious, grasping and oppressive -in commercial affairs. They picture it as a cruel monster, wearing horns -and cloven-hoofs and a forked-tail, grown rich and fat devouring the -weak and the innocent. Its motives have been impugned, its methods -condemned and its actions traduced. If a man in Oildom drilled a -dry-hole, backed the wrong horse, lost at poker, dropped money -speculating, stubbed his toe, ran an unprofitable refinery, missed a -train or couldn’t maintain champagne-style on a lager-beer income, it -was the fashion for him to pose as the victim of a gang of conspirators -and curse the Standard as vigorously and vociferously as the fish-wife -hurled invectives at Daniel O’Connell. - - Some folks display most wonderful agility - In their attempts to shift responsibility. - -The reasons for this are as numerous as the sands of the sea. It is no -new thing to shove upon other shoulders the burden that belongs properly -to our own. In their fiery zeal to convict somebody people have been -known to bark up the wrong tree, to charge the innocent with all sorts -of offences and to get off their base entirely. Such people and such -methods did not die out with the passing of the Salem witch-burners. The -Standard was made the scape-goat of the evil deeds alleged to have been -contemplated by the unsavory South-Improvement Company. That odious -combine, which included a number of railroad-officials, oil-operators -and refiners, disbanded without producing, refining, buying, selling or -transporting a gallon of petroleum. “Politics makes strange bedfellows” -and so does business. Among subscribers for South-Improvement stock were -certain holders of Standard stock and also their bitterest opponents; -among those most active in giving the job its death-blow were prominent -members of the Standard Oil-Company. The projected spoliation died -“unwept, unhonored and unsung,” but it was not a Standard scheme. - -Envy is frequently the penalty of success. Whoever fails in any pursuit -likes to blame somebody else for his misfortune. This trick is as old as -the race. Adam started it in Eden, Eve tried to ring in the serpent and -their posterity take good care not to let the game get rusty from -disuse! Its aggregation of capital renders the Standard, in the opinion -of those who have “fallen outside the breastworks,” directly responsible -for their inability to keep up with the procession. Sympathizers with -them deem this “confirmation strong as proof of Holy Writ” that the -Standard is an unconscionable monopoly, fostered by crushing out -competition. Such reasoning forgets that enterprise, energy, experience -and capital are usually trump-cards. It forgets that “the race is to the -swift,” the battle is to the mighty and that “Heaven is on the side with -the heaviest artillery.” Carried to its logical conclusion, it means -that improved methods, labor-saving appliances and new processes count -for nothing. It means that the snail can travel with the antelope, that -the locomotive must wait for the stage-coach, that the fittest shall not -survive. In short, it is the double-distilled essence of absurdity. - -Any advance in methods of business necessarily injures the poorest -competitor. Is this a reason why advances should be held back? If so, -the public could derive no benefit from competition. The fact that a man -with meagre resources labors under a serious disadvantage is not an -excuse for preventing stronger parties from entering the field. The -grand mistake is in confounding combination with monopoly. By -combination small capital can compete successfully with large capital. -Every partnership or corporation is a combination, without which -undertakings beyond individual reach would never be accomplished. Trunk -railroads would not be built, unity of action would be destroyed, -mankind would segregate as savages and the trade of the world would -stagnate. Combinations should be regulated, not abolished. Rightful -competition is not a fierce strife between persons to undersell each -other, that the one enduring the longest may afterwards sell higher, but -that which furnishes the public with the best products at the least -cost. This is not done by selling below cost, but by diminishing in -every way possible the cost of producing, manufacturing and -transporting. The competition which does this, be it by an individual, a -firm, a corporation, a trust or a combination, is a public benefactor. -This kind of competition uses the best tools, discards the sickle for -the cradle and the cradle for the reaper, abandons the flail for the -threshing-machine and adopts the newest ideas wherever and whenever -expenses can be lessened. To this end unrestricted combination and -unrestricted competition must go hand-in-hand. A small profit on a large -volume of business is better for the consumer than a large profit on a -small business. The man who sells a million dollars’ worth of goods a -year, at a profit of five per cent., will become rich, while he who -sells only ten-thousand dollars’ worth can get a bare living. If the -builder of a business of one-hundred-thousand dollars deserve praise, -why should the builder of a business of millions be censured? Business -that grows greater than people’s limited notions should not for that -cause be fettered or suppressed. When business ceases to be local and -has the world for its market, capital must be supplied to meet the -increasing demand and combination is as essential as fresh air. Thus -large establishments take the place of small ones and men acting in -concert achieve what they would never attempt separately. The more -perfect the power of association the greater the power of production and -the larger the proportion of the product which falls to the laborer’s -share. The magnitude of combinations must correspond with the magnitude -of the business to be done, in order to secure the highest skill, to -employ the latest devices, to pay the best wages, to invent new -appliances, to improve facilities and to give the public a cheaper and -finer product. This is as natural and legitimate as for water to run -down hill or the fleet greyhound to distance the slow tortoise. - -How has the Standard affected the consumer of petroleum-products? What -has it done for the people who use illuminating oils? Has it advanced -the price and impaired the quality? The early distillations of petroleum -were unsatisfactory and often dangerous. The first refineries were -exceedingly primitive and their processes simple. Much of the crude was -wasted in refining, a business not financially successful as a rule -until 1872, notwithstanding the high prices obtained. Methods of -manufacture and transportation were expensive and inadequate. The -product was of poor quality, emitting smoke and unpleasant odor and -liable to explode on the slightest provocation. In 1870 a few persons, -who had previously been partners in a refinery at Cleveland, organized -the Standard Oil-Company of Ohio, with a capital of one-million dollars, -increased subsequently to three-and-a-half millions. For years the -history of refining had been mainly one of disaster and bankruptcy. A -Standard Oil-Company had been organized at Pittsburg by other persons -and was doing a large trade. The Cleveland Standard Refinery, the -Pittsburg Standard Refinery, the Atlantic Refining Company of -Philadelphia and Charles Pratt & Co. of New York were extensive -concerns. Because of the hazardous nature and peculiar conditions of the -refining industry, the need of improved methods and the manifold -advantages of combination, they entered into an alliance for their -mutual benefit. Refineries in the oil-regions had combined before, hence -the association of these interests was not a novelty. The cost of -transportation and packages had been important factors in crippling the -industry. Crude was barreled at the wells and hauled in wagons to the -railroads prior to the system of transporting it by pipes laid under -ground. Railroad-rates were excessive and irregular. Refiners who -combined and could throw a large volume of business to any particular -road secured favorable rates. The rebate-system was universal, not -confined to oil alone, and possibly this fact had much to do with the -combination of refiners afterwards known as the Standard Oil-Company. - -Very naturally the Standard endeavored to secure the lowest -transportation-rates. Quite as naturally railroad-managers, in their -eagerness to secure the traffic, vied with each other in offering -inducements to large shippers of petroleum. The Standard furnished, -loaded and unloaded its own tank-cars, thereby eliminating barrels and -materially cheapening the freight-service. This reduction of expense -reduced the price of refined in the east to a figure which greatly -increased the demand and gave oil-operations a healthy stimulus. Still -more important was the introduction of improvements in refining, which -yielded a larger percentage of illuminating-oil and converted the -residue into merchantable products. Chemical and mechanical experts, -employed by the combined companies to conduct experiments in this -direction, aided in devising processes which revolutionized refining. -The highest quality of burning-oil was obtained and nearly every -particle of crude was utilized. Substances of commercial value took the -place of the waste that formerly emptied into the streams, polluting the -waters and the atmosphere. In this way the cost was so lessened that -kerosene became the light of the nations. Consumers, whose dime now will -buy as much as a dollar would before the “octopus” was heard of, are -correspondingly happy. - -Since consumers have fared so well, how about refiners outside the -Standard? That smaller concerns were unable to compete with the Standard -under such circumstances was no reason why the public should be deprived -of the advantages resulting from concentration of capital and effort. -Many of these, realizing that small capital is restricted to poor -methods and dear production, either sold to the Standard or entered the -combination. In not a few cases wide-awake refiners took stock for part -of the price of their properties and engaged with the company, adding -their talents and experience to the common fund for the benefit of all -concerned. Others, not strong enough to have their cars and provide all -the latest improvements, made such changes as they could afford to meet -the requirements of the local trade, letting the larger ones attend to -distant markets. Some continued right along and they are still on deck -as independent refiners, always a respectable factor in the trade and -never more active than to-day. Those who would neither improve, nor -sell, nor combine, sitting down placidly and believing they would be -bought out later on their own terms, were soon left far behind, as they -deserved to be. Let it be said positively that the Standard, in -negotiating for the purchase or combination of refineries, treated the -owners liberally and sought to keep the best men in the business. A -number who put up works to sell at exorbitant prices, failing in their -design, howled about “monopoly” and “freezing out” and tried to pass as -martyrs. It is true hundreds of inferior refineries have been -dismantled, not because they were frozen out by a crushing monopoly, but -because they lacked requisite facilities. The refineries in vogue when -the Standard was organized could not stay in business a week, if -resurrected and revived. A team of pack-mules might as well try to -compete with the New York Central Railroad as these early refineries to -meet the requirements of the petroleum-trade at its present stage of -perfection. They were “frozen out” just as stage-coaches were “frozen -out” by the iron-horse or the sailing-vessel of our grandfathers’ time -by the ocean-liner that crosses the Atlantic in six days. Every -labor-saving invention and improvement in machinery throws worthy -persons out of employment, but inventions and improvements do not stop -for any such cause. Business is a question of profit and convenience, -not a matter of sentiment. The manufacturer who, by an improved process, -can save a fraction of a cent on the yard or pound or gallon of his -output has an enormous advantage. Must he be deprived of it because -other manufacturers cannot produce their wares as cheaply? Refining -petroleum is no exception to the ordinary rule and a transformation in -its methods and results was as inevitable as human progress and the -changes of the seasons. - -Over-production is justly chargeable with the low price of crude that -wafted many producers into bankruptcy. Regardless of the inexorable laws -of supply and demand, operators drilled in Bradford and Butler until -forty-million barrels were above ground and the price fell to forty -cents. Time and again the wisest producers sought to stem the tide by -stopping the drill, which started with renewed energy after each brief -respite. With the stocks bearing the market the dropping of crude to a -price that meant ruin to owners of small wells was as certain as death -and taxes. Gold-dollars would be as cheap as pebbles if they were as -plentiful. Forty-million barrels of diamonds stored in South Africa -would bring the glistening gems to the level of glass-beads. The -Standard, through the National-Transit Company, erected thousands of -tanks to husband the enormous surplus, which the world could not consume -and would not have on any terms. Hosts of operators were kept out of the -sheriff’s grasp by this provision for their relief, using their -certificates as collateral during the period of extreme depression. The -richest districts were drained at length, consumption increased and -production declined, stocks were reduced and prices advanced. Then a -number of oil-operators, foremost among whom were some of the men whom -the Standard had carried over the grave crisis, thought the -National-Transit was making too much money storing crude and tried to -secure legislation that was hardly a shade removed from confiscation. -The legislature refused to pass the bills, the company voluntarily -reduced its charges and the agitation subsided. Thousands of producers -sold or entered large companies, into whose hands a good share of the -development has fallen, mainly because of the great expense of operating -in deep territory and the wisdom of dividing the risk attendant upon -seeking new fields. Operators who had to retire were “frozen out” by -excessive drilling, nothing more and nothing less! - -The highest efficiency in all fields of economical endeavor is obtained -by the greatest degree of organization and specialization of effort. To -attack large concerns as monopolies, simply because they represent -millions of dollars under a single management, is as stupid and unjust -as the narrow antagonism of ill-balanced capitalists to organized labor. -If organized capital means better methods, greater facilities and -improved processes, organized labor means better wages, greater -recognition and improved industrial conditions. Hence both deserve to be -encouraged and both should work in harmony. The Standard Oil-Company -established agencies in different states for the sale of its products. -As the business grew it organized corporations under the laws of these -states, to carry on the industry under corporate agencies. Manufactories -were located at the seaboard for the export-trade. It was easier and -cheaper to pipe crude to the coast than to refine it at the sources of -supply and ship the varied products. Thus the refining of export-oil was -done at the seaboard, just as iron is manufactured at Pittsburg instead -of at the ore-beds on Lake Superior. The company aimed to open markets -for petroleum by reducing the cost of its transportation and manufacture -and bettering its quality. It manufactured its own barrels, cans, -paints, acids, glue and other materials, effecting a vast saving. On -January second, 1882, the forty persons then associated in the Standard -owned the entire capital of fifteen corporations and a part of the stock -of a number of others. Nine of these forty controlled a majority of the -stocks so held, and it was agreed on that date that all the stocks of -the corporations should be placed in the hands of these nine as -trustees. The trustees issued certificates showing the extent of each -block of stock so surrendered, and agreed to conduct the business of the -several corporations for the best interests of all concerned. This was -the inception of the Standard Oil-Trust, the most abused and least -understood business-organization in the history of the race. - -The Standard Trust, which demagogues lay awake nights coining language -to denounce, did not unite competing corporations. The corporations were -contributory agencies to the same business, the stock owned by the -individuals who had built up and carried on the business and held the -voting power. These individuals had combined not to repress business, -but to extend it legitimately, by allying various branches and various -corporations. The organization of the Trust was designed to facilitate -the business of these corporations by uniting them under the management -of one Board of Trustees. This object was business-like and laudable. It -had no taint of a scheme to “corner” a necessity of life and elevate the -price at the expense of the masses. On the contrary, it was calculated -to enlarge the demand and supply it at the minimum of profit. For ten -years the Standard Trust continued in existence, dissolving finally in -1892. During this term its stockholders increased from forty to two -thousand. Many of the most skillful refiners and experienced producers -joined the combination and were retained to manage their properties. -Each corporation was managed as though independent of every other in the -Trust, except that the rivalry to show the best record stimulated them -to constant improvement. Whatever economy one devised was adopted by -all. The business was most systematic and admirably managed in every -detail, running as harmoniously as the different parts of a watch. -Clerks, agents and employés who could save a few hundred dollars -purchased Trust Certificates and thus became interested in the business -and gains. If it is desirable to multiply the number who enjoy the -profits of production, how can it be done better than through ownership -of stock in industrial associations? The problem of co-operation and -profit-sharing can be solved in this way. The Standard Trust was a real -object-lesson in economics, which illustrated in the fullest measure the -benefits of an association in business that affected consumers and -producers of a great staple alike favorably. - -Misrepresentation is as hard to eradicate as the Canada thistle or the -English sparrow. Once fairly set going, it travels rapidly. “A lie will -travel seven leagues while Truth is pulling on its boots.” The Standard -is the target at which invidious terms and bitter invective have been -hurled remorselessly, often through downright ignorance. Although -reputable editors might be misled, in the hurry and strain of daily -journalism, to give currency to deliberate falsehoods against -corporations or capitalists, reasonable fairness might be expected from -the author of a pretentious book. Henry D. Lloyd, of Chicago, last year -published “Wealth Against Commonwealth,” an elaborate work, which is -devoted mainly to an assault upon the Standard Oil-Company. The book, -notable for its distortion of facts and suppression of all points in -favor of the corporation it assails, caters to the worst elements of -socialism. The author views everything through anti-combination glasses -and, like the child with the bogie-man, sees the monopoly-spook in every -successful aggregation of capital. He confounds the South-Improvement -Company with the Standard and charges to the latter all the offenses -supposed to lie at the door of the organization that died at its birth. -One thrilling story is cited to show that the Standard robbed a poor -widow. The narrative is well calculated to arouse public resentment and -encourage a lynching-bee. It has been repeated times without number. -Within the past month two Harrisburg ministers have referred to it as a -startling evidence of the unscrupulous tyranny of the Standard -millionaires. To make the case imposing Mr. Lloyd informs mankind that -the husband of this widow had been “a prominent member of the -Presbyterian church, president of a Young Men’s Christian Association -and active in all religious and benevolent enterprises.” After his death -she continued the business until she was finally coerced into selling it -to the Trust at a ruinously low price—a mere fraction of its actual -value. Mr. Lloyd states her hopeless despair as follows: - -“Indignant with these thoughts and the massacred troop of hopes and -ambitions that her brave heart had given birth to, she threw the -letter—a letter she had received from the Standard regarding the sale of -her property—into the fire, where it curled up into flames like those -from which a Dives once begged for a drop of water. She never reappeared -in the world of business, where she had found no chivalry to help a -woman save her home, her husband’s life-work and her children.” - -Is this harrowing statement true? The widow continued the business four -years after her husband’s death. Competition increased, prices tumbled, -the margin of profit was constantly narrowing, new appliances simplified -refining-processes and the widow’s plant was no longer adapted to the -business. She sold for sixty-thousand dollars, the Standard paying twice -the sum for which a refinery better suited to the purpose could be -constructed. Foolish friends afterwards told her she had sold too low -and the widow wrote a severe letter to the president of the Standard. -The company had bought the property to oblige her and at once offered it -back. She declined to take it, or sixty-thousand dollars in Standard -stock, evidently realizing that the refinery had lost its profit-earning -capacity and that even the new management might not be able to make it -pay. This will serve to illustrate the unfairness of “Wealth Against -Commonwealth,” which has been widely quoted because of its presumed -reliability and the high standing of the publishers. Yet this story of -imaginary wrong has been worked into speeches, sermons and editorials of -the fiercest type! In its treatment of the widow the Standard was truly -magnanimous. Few business-men would consent to undo a transaction and -have their labor for naught, simply because the other party had become -dissatisfied. Possibly Mr. Lloyd would not be as generous if there was -any profit in the transaction. If the Standard cut prices to ruin the -widow and other competitors, would not oil have gone up again when they -were disposed of? No such upward movement occurred. The widow -disappeared. Many small refineries disappeared. Monopoly -railroad-contracts, if such ever existed, have disappeared, but the -price of refined-oil has been falling steadily for twenty years, -declining from an average of nineteen cents a gallon in 1876 to five -cents in 1895. The potent fact in this connection is that the Standard -has continued to make profits with the declining price of oil. This -conclusively demonstrates that the decline was due to economic -improvements in the productive methods and not to a malicious cut to -ruin a widow or anybody else, as Mr. Lloyd assumes. Otherwise a profit -accompanying the fall in price would have been impossible and the -Standard would have been sold out by the sheriff long years ago. - -All the dealers in slander from Lloyd down to the chronic kicker who has -attempted to make money by annoying the Standard have played the Rice -case as a trump-card. According to their version, Mr. Rice was an -angelic Vermonter, whose success inspired the Standard with devilish -enmity and it determined to compass his ruin. Rice had operated at -Pithole and at Macksburg and owned a small refinery at Marietta. It was -alleged that the Cleveland & Marietta Railroad discriminated against -him, doubling his freight-charge and giving the Standard a drawback on -all the oil that went over the road. This was an iniquitous arrangement, -entered into by the receiver of the road and cancelled by the Standard -whenever a report of what was done reached New York. Mr. Rice had paid -two-hundred-and-fifty dollars wrongfully, the money was at once refunded -and Mr. Rice did not harass the company into buying his twenty-thousand -dollar refinery for half a million. This will serve as an example of the -dishonest misstatements that had wrought lots of good people up to white -heat. The sins of the trusts may be very scarlet and very numerous, but -economic literature should not pollute the sources of information and -the foundations of public opinion. - -An oft-repeated story is that the Standard owes its success to -railway-discriminations. In proof of this the testimony of A. J. -Cassatt is quoted. The testimony, published in a congressional -investigation-report, shows that granting rebates was then the custom -of railway-companies. Largely the same rebates were granted to all who -shipped over the railways. Special to the Standard was payment of a -joint freight-rate over pipe-line and railroad. A large rebate was -given for one summer to all shippers by rail to equalize low rates by -canal, of which many shippers took advantage. The only discriminatory -rebate received by the Standard was ten per cent. for equalizing its -large shipments over three trunk-lines, shipping exclusively by rail, -even when water-rates were cheaper, furnishing terminal facilities and -exempting the roads from loss by fire or accident. Courts in England -and this country have very properly held that railways have the right -to carry for less rates under such circumstances. Many wise men are of -the same opinion. Subsequently it was developed that, while the -short-lived agreement existed, the Standard’s strongest competitors -were getting lower rates of freight than it was paying! Why do the -Lloyd brand of critics ignore this pointed fact? - -Another favorite story is that some officers of the Standard were -convicted of burning a rival refinery. As all know who ever took the -trouble to investigate, they were indicted for conspiracy to injure a -rival. The counts in the indictment embraced the enticing away of an -employé, the bringing of suits to prevent infringement of patents and -the serious charge of inciting an employé to burn the works. When all -the evidence on the part of the State was in, the court directed the -discharge of every person connected with the Standard. There was not a -scintilla of evidence against them. Two of the indicted persons were -convicted of conspiracy, but they were not connected with the Standard, -and never owned a share of Standard stock. The majority of the jurymen -made affidavits that they found the convicted persons guilty only of -enticing away an employé. The employé thus enticed had first been -enticed from the works of the convicted parties and induced to reveal -the secret processes by which a valuable lubricating-oil was -manufactured. The best citizens of Rochester certified that the men -convicted were men of unimpeachable honor, while the men who testified -against them were quite the reverse. The whole affair was a wicked plot -to blacken the character of men who stood and who still stand as high as -any in Rochester. The court, satisfied of their innocence of any grave -offence, inflicted merely a nominal fine. - -Many of the attacks in a well-known work by a leading socialist against -the Standard are made up of court-cases. The accusations are copied, the -moving speeches of plaintiffs’ attorneys are printed; but all else is -omitted, except that the case was decided in favor of the Standard. The -inference is left to be drawn, or the charge is made openly, that the -court was corrupt. Had the evidence of both sides been given, there -would be no more room for such an inference than for a pretty maiden’s -small brother in the parlor when her best young man is about to pop the -momentous question. The rustic divine, weak in his spelling and strong -in his opposition to the feminine style of coiling the hair in a huge -knot, had better grounds for declaring the Scripture endorsed his view -of the fashion. Reading the familiar passage, “let him that is on the -housetop not come down to take anything out of his house,” he based his -terrific sermon on this dismembered clause of the verse: “Top not, come -down.” - -One instance may be noted briefly. A Pennsylvania office-holder, whose -unworthy motives an investigation exposed, charged that the Standard had -defrauded the State of millions of taxes. The case was ably tried before -an upright judge and the allegation found to be utterly baseless. Then -the judge was charged with corruption. The case was taken to the highest -court of the State, which affirmed the decision of the court below. At -once the Supreme Court and the Attorney-General, who conducted the case -for the State with signal ability, were accused of rank corruption. -Perhaps the greatest surprise is that they were not charged with an -attempt to get even with Moses by breaking all the commandments at one -lick. An investigation committee, appointed by the Legislature, went -fully into all the facts and allegations and reported that the case had -been ably and fairly tried and correctly decided. It only remained to -charge the legislative committee with corruption, which was done with -great promptitude and emphasis. Yet every lawyer knows that the case of -Pennsylvania against the Standard Oil-Company is a leading case on the -subject of taxation of foreign corporations, establishing correct -principles which, since its decision, the Supreme Court of the United -States has affirmed. - -In another case a respectable old man conceived the idea that he had -solved the problem of continuous distillation of oil, an invention which -would very much cheapen the product and be worth millions to refiners. -The Standard aided him in his experiments until convinced they were -unsuccessful. He became crazed on the subject and brought suit, alleging -he had been prevented from demonstrating his discovery. The case was -tried and the baseless suit dismissed, with as little injury to the poor -man’s feelings as possible. This incident figures in histories written -to fire the popular heart in the war against wealth, accompanied by -pictures of a soulless corporation and an insane old man, calculated to -draw hot tears and inflame public indignation to a dangerous pitch. Of -course the readers are supposed to infer that the court was corrupted -and justice grossly outraged. And so the changes are rung along the -whole line; but the Standard, regardless of malevolent assaults and -villainous distortions of facts, goes right on with its business of -furnishing the world with the best light in the universe. - -Russian competition, the extent and danger of which most people do not -begin to appreciate, was met and overcome by sheer tenacity and superior -generalship. The advantages of capable, courageous, intelligent -concentration of the varied branches of a great industry were never -manifested more strongly. Deprived of the invincible bulwark the -Standard offered, the oil-producers of Pennsylvania, New York, West -Virginia, Ohio and Indiana would have been utterly helpless. The -Muscovite bear would have gobbled the trade of Europe and Asia, driving -American oil from the foreign markets. Local consumption would not have -exhausted two-thirds of the production, stocks of crude would have piled -up and the price would have fallen proportionately. Instead of ranking -with the busiest, happiest and most prosperous quarters of the universe, -as they are to-day, the oil-regions of five states would have been -irretrievably ruined, dragging down thousands of the brightest, -manliest, cleverest fellows on God’s footstool! Instead of bringing a -vast amount of gold from England, France and Germany for petroleum -produced on American soil, refined by American workmen paid American -wages and exported by an American company in American vessels, the trade -would have been killed, the cash would have stayed across the waters and -the country at large would have suffered incalculably! These are things -to think of when some cheap agitator, with a private axe to grind, a -mean spite to gratify or a selfish object to attain, raises a howl about -monopoly and insists that the entire creation should “damn the -Standard!” - -When the history of this wonderful century is written it will tell how -an American boy, born in New York sixty years ago, clerked in a -country-store, kept a set of books, started a small oil-refinery at -Cleveland and at forty was the head of the greatest business in the -world. This is, in outline, the story of John D. Rockefeller’s -successful career. Yesterday, as it were, a youth with nothing but -integrity, industry and ambition for capital—a pretty good outfit, -too—to-day he is one of the half-dozen richest men in Europe or America. -Better than all else, integrity that is part and parcel of his moral -nature, industry that finds life too fruitful to waste it idly and -ambition to excel in good deeds as well as in business are his rich -possession still. Gathering the largest fortune ever accumulated in -twenty-five years has not blunted his fine sensibilities, dwarfed his -intellectual growth, stifled his religious convictions or absorbed his -whole being. Increasing wealth brought with it a deep sense of -increasing responsibility and he is honored not so much for his millions -as for the use he makes of them. Even in an age unrivalled for -money-getting and money-giving, Mr. Rockefeller’s keen foresight, -executive ability and wise liberality have been notably conspicuous. His -faith in the future of petroleum and his desire to benefit humanity he -has shown by his works. Believing in the power of united effort to -develop an infant-industry, his genius devised the system of practical -co-operation that developed into the Standard Oil-Trust, against which -prejudice and ignorance have directed their fiercest fire. Believing in -education, his magnificent endowment of Chicago University—eight to -ten-million dollars—ranks him with the foremost contributors to the -foundation of a seat of learning since schools and colleges began. -Believing in fresh air for the masses, he donated Cleveland a public -park and a million to equip it superbly. Believing in spiritual -progress, he builds churches, helps weak congregations and aids in -spreading the gospel everywhere. Believing in the claims of the poor, -his charities amount to hundreds-of-thousands of dollars yearly, not to -encourage pauperism and dependence, but to relieve genuine distress, -diminish human suffering and put struggling men and women in the way to -improve their condition. He has differed from nearly all other eminent -public benefactors by giving freely, quietly and modestly during his -active life, without seeking the popular applause his munificence could -easily obtain. - -Mr. Rockefeller is a strict Baptist, a regular attendant at church and -prayer-meeting, a teacher in the Sunday-school and a staunch advocate of -aggressive Christianity. His advancement to commanding wealth has not -changed his ideas of duty and personal obligation. He realizes that the -man who lives for himself alone is always little, no matter how big his -bank-account. He and his family walk to service or ride in a street-car, -with none of the trappings befitting the worship of Mammon rather than -the glory of God. Earnest, positive and vigorous in his religion as in -his business, he takes no stock in the dealer who has not stamina or the -profession of faith that is too destitute of backbone to have a -denominational preference. The president of the Standard Oil-Company -impresses all who meet him with the idea of a forceful, decisive -character. He looks people in the face, his eyes sparkle in conversation -and he relishes a bright story or a clever narration. You feel that he -can read you at a glance and that deception and evasion in his presence -would be utterly futile. The flatterer and sycophant would make as -little headway with him as the bunco-steerer or the green-goods vendor. -His estimate of men is rarely at fault and to this quality some measure -of the Standard’s success must be attributed. As if by instinct, its -chief officer picked out men adapted to special lines of work—men who -would not be misfits—and secured them for his company. The capacity and -fidelity of the Standard corps are proverbial. Whenever Mr. Rockefeller -wishes to enjoy a breathing-spell at his country-seat up the Hudson or -on his Ohio farm, he leaves the business with perfect confidence, -because his lieutenants are competent and trustworthy and the machine -will run along smoothly under their watchful care. He has not -accumulated his money by wrecking property, but by building up, by -persistent improvement and by rigidly adhering to the policy of -furnishing the best articles at the lowest price. Fair-minded people are -beginning to understand something of the service rendered the public by -the man who stands at the head of the petroleum-industry and more than -any other is the founder of its commerce. He has invested in factories, -railroads and mines, giving thousands employment, developing the -resources of the country and adding to the wealth of the nation. He is -human, therefore he sometimes errs; he is fallible, therefore he makes -mistakes, but the world is learning that John D. Rockefeller has no -superior in business and that the Standard Oil-Company is not an -organized conspiracy to plunder producers or consumers of petroleum. It -is time to dismiss the idea that ability to build up and maintain a -large business is discreditable, that marvellous success is blameworthy -and that business-achievements imply dishonesty. - -William Rockefeller, who resembles his brother in business skill, is a -leader in Standard affairs and has his office in the Broadway building. -He was a member of the first Board of Trustees and bore a prominent part -in organizing and developing the Oil-Trust. He is largely interested in -railroads, belongs to the best clubs, likes good horses and contributes -liberally to worthy objects. The Standard folks don’t lock up their -money, loan it on mortgages at extravagant rates, spend it in Europe or -try to get a gold squeeze on the government. They employ it in -manufactures, in railways, in commerce and in enterprises that promote -the general welfare. - -From the days of the little refinery in Cleveland, the germ of the -Standard, Henry M. Flagler and John D. Rockefeller have been closely -associated in oil. Samuel Andrews, a practical refiner and for some time -their partner, retired from the firm with a million dollars as his share -of the business. The organization of the Standard Oil-Company of -Cleveland was the first step towards the greater Standard Oil-Company of -which all the world knows something. Its growth surprised even the -projectors of the combination, who “builded better than they knew.” Mr. -Flagler devotes his time largely to beneficent uses of his great wealth. -He recognizes the duty of the possessor of property to keep it from -waste, to render it productive and to increase it by proper methods. A -vast tract of Florida swamp, yielding only malaria and shakes, he has -converted into a region suited to human-beings, producing cotton, sugar -and tropical fruits and affording comfortable subsistence to thousands -of provident settlers. He has transformed St. Augustine from a faded -antiquity into a modern town, with the magnificent Ponce de Leon Hotel, -paved streets, elegant churches, public halls, and all conveniences, -provided by this generous benefactor at a cost of many millions. He has -constructed new railroads, improved lines built previously, opened -interior counties to thrifty emigrants and performed a work of -incalculable advantage to the New South. He and his family attend the -West Presbyterian Church, of which the Rev. John R. Paxton, formerly of -Harrisburg, was pastor until 1894. Mr. Flagler is of average height, -slight build and erect figure. His hair is white, but time has not dealt -harshly with the liberal citizen whose career presents so much to praise -and emulate. - -[Illustration: JOHN D. ARCHBOLD.] - -John D. Archbold, vice-president of the Standard Oil-Company and its -youngest trustee during the entire existence of the Oil-Trust, has been -actively connected with petroleum from his youth. No man is better known -and better liked personally in the oil-regions. From his father, a -zealous Methodist minister, and his good mother, one of the noble women -to whom this country owes an infinite debt of gratitude, he inherited -the qualities of head and heart that achieved success and gained -multitudes of friends. A mere lad when the reports of golden -opportunities attracted him from Ohio to the land of petroleum, he first -engaged as a shipping-clerk for a Titusville refinery. His promptness, -accuracy, and pleasant address won him favor and promotion. He soon -learned the whole art of refining and his active mind discovered -remedies for a number of defects. Adnah Neyhart induced him to take -charge of his warehouse in New York City for the sale of refined-oil. -His energy and rare tact increased the trade of the establishment -steadily. Mr. Rockefeller met the bright young man and offered him a -responsible position with the Standard. He was made president of the -Acme Refining Company, then among the largest in the United States. He -improved the quality of its products and was entrusted with the -negotiations that brought many refiners into the combination. He had -resided at Titusville, where he married the daughter of Major Mills, and -was the principal representative of the Standard in the producing -section. When the Trust was organized he removed to New York and -supervised especially the refining-interest of the united corporations. -His splendid executive talent, keen perception, tireless energy and -honorable manliness were simply invaluable. Mr. Archbold is popular in -society, has an ideal home, represents the Standard in the directory of -different companies and merits the high esteem ungrudingly bestowed by -his associates in business and his acquaintances everywhere. - -[Illustration: CHARLES PRATT.] - -The personal traits and business-successes of Charles Pratt, an original -member of the Standard Trust, were typical of American civilization. The -son of poor parents in Massachusetts, where he was born in 1830, -necessity compelled him to leave home at the early age of ten and seek -work on a farm. He toiled three years for his board and a short term at -school each winter. For his board and clothes he next worked in a Boston -grocery. His first dollar in money, of which he always spoke with pride -as having been made at the work-bench, he earned while learning the -machinist-trade at Newton, in his native state. With the savings of his -first year in the machine-shop he entered an academy, studying -diligently twelve months and subsisting on a dollar a week. Then he -entered a Boston paints-and-oil store, devoting his leisure hours to -study and self-improvement. Coming to New York in 1851, he clerked in -Appleton’s publishing-house and later in a paint-store. In 1854 he -joined C. T. Reynolds and F. W. Devoe in a paints-and-oil establishment. -Petroleum refining became important and the partners separated in 1867, -Reynolds controlling the paints-department and Charles Pratt & Co. -conducting the oil-branch of the business. The success of the latter -firm as oil-refiners was extraordinary. Astral-oil was in demand -everywhere. The works at Brooklyn, continuous and surprising as was -their expansion, found it difficult to keep pace with the consumption. -The firm entered into the association with the Cleveland, Pittsburg and -Philadelphia companies that culminated in the Standard Oil-Trust, Mr. -Pratt holding the relation of president of the Charles-Pratt -Manufacturing Company. He lived in Brooklyn and died suddenly at -sixty-three, an attack of heart-disease that prostrated him in his -New-York office proving fatal in three hours. For thirty years he -devoted much of his time to the philanthropies with which his name will -be perpetually identified. He built and equipped Pratt Institute, a -school of manual arts, at a cost of two-million dollars. He spent a -half-million to erect the Astral Apartment Buildings, the revenue of -which is secured to the Institute as part of its endowment. He devoted a -half-million to the Adelphia Academy and a quarter-million towards the -new edifice of Emanuel Baptist Church, of which he was a devout, -generous member. His home-life was marked by gentleness and affection -and he left his family an estate of fifteen to twenty-millions. Charles -Pratt was a man of few words, alert, positive and unassuming, sometimes -blunt in business, but always courteous, trustworthy and deservedly -esteemed for liberality and energy. - -Jabez A. Bostwick, a member of the Standard Trust from its inception, -was born in New York State, spent his babyhood in Ohio, whither the -family moved when he was ten years old, and died at sixty-two. His -business-education began as clerk in a bank at Covington, Ky. There he -first came into public notice as a cotton-broker, removing to New York -in 1864 to conduct the same business on a larger scale. He secured -interests in territory and oil-wells at Franklin in 1860, organized the -firm of J. A. Bostwick & Co. and engaged extensively in refining. The -firm prospered, bought immense quantities of crude and increased its -refining capacity extensively. Mr. Bostwick was active in forming the -Standard Oil-Trust and was its first treasurer. He severed his -connection with his oil-partner, W. H. Tilford, who also entered the -Standard Oil-Company. Seven years before his death he retired from the -oil-business to accept the presidency of the New York & New England -Railroad. He held the position six years and was succeeded by Austin -Corbin. Injuries during a fire at his country-seat in Mamaroneck caused -his death. The fire started in Frederick A. Constable’s stables, in rear -of Mr. Bostwick’s. Unknown to his coachman, who was pushing behind it, -Mr. Bostwick seized the whiffletrees of a carriage. Suddenly the vehicle -swerved and the owner was violently jammed against the side of the -stable. The coachman saw his peril and pulled the carriage back. Mr. -Bostwick reeled forward, his face white with pain and sank moaning upon -a buckboard. “Don’t leave me, Mr. Williams,” he whispered to his son’s -tutor, “I fear I am badly hurt.” The sufferer was carried to the house, -became unconscious and died in ten minutes, surrounded by members of his -household and his neighbors. In 1866 Mr. Bostwick married a daughter of -Ford Smith, a retired Cincinnati merchant, who removed to New York -during the war. They had a son and two daughters. The daughters married -and were in Europe when their father met his tragic fate. The widow and -children inherited an estate of twelve millions. Mr. Bostwick was -liberal with his wealth, giving largely without ostentation. Forrest -College, in North Carolina, and the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church of New -York were special recipients of his bounty, while his private -benefactions amounted to many thousands yearly. He was strict almost to -sternness in his dealings, preferring justice to sentiment in business. - -These were the six trustees of the Standard Oil-Trust as first -constituted of whom the world has heard and read most. Many of the -two-thousand stock-holders of the Standard Oil-Company are widely known. -Benjamin Brewster, president of the National-Transit Company, retired -with an ample fortune. His successor, H. H. Rogers, the present head of -the pipe-line system, is noted alike for business-sagacity and sensible -benefactions. The great structure at No. 26 Broadway, the largest -office-building in New York occupied by one concern, is the Standard -headquarters. Each floor has one or more departments, managed by -competent men and all under supervision of the company’s chief -officials. From the basement, with its massive vaults and steam-heating -plant, to the roof every inch is utilized by hundreds of book-keepers, -accountants, stenographers, telegraphers, clerks and heads of divisions. -Everything moves with the utmost precision and smoothness. President -Rockefeller has his private offices on the eighth floor, next the -spacious room in which the Executive Committee meets every day at noon -for consultation. Mr. Flagler, Mr. Archbold and Mr. Rogers are located -conveniently. The substantial character of the building and the -business-like aspect of the departments impress visitors most favorably. -There is an utter absence of gingerbread and cheap ornamentation, of -confusion and perplexing hurry. The very air, the clicking of the -telegraph-instruments, the noiseless motion of the elevators and the -prompt dispatch of business indicate solidity, intelligence and perfect -system. From that building the movements of a force of employés, -numbering twice the United States army and scattered over both -hemispheres, are directed. The sails of the Standard fleet whiten every -sea, its products are marketed wherever men have learned the value of -artificial light and its name is a universal synonym for the highest -development of commercial enterprise in any age or country. - -Business-men recall with a shudder the frightful stringency in 1893. All -over the land industries drooped and withered and died. Raw material, -even wool itself, had no market. Commerce languished, wages dwindled, -railroads collapsed, factories suspended, and myriads of workmen lost -their jobs. Merchants cut down expenses to the lowest notch, loans were -called in at a terrible sacrifice, debts were compromised at ten to -fifty cents on the dollar, the present was dark and the future gloomy. -The balance of trade was heavily against the United States. Government -securities tumbled and a steady drain of gold to Europe set in. The -efforts of Congress, the Treasury Department and syndicates of bankers -to stem the tide of disaster were on a par with Mrs. Partington’s -attempt to sweep back the ocean with a sixpenny-broom. Amid the general -demoralization, when the nation seemed hastening to positive ruin, one -splendid enterprise alone extended its business, multiplied its -resources and was largely instrumental in restoring public confidence. - -The Standard Oil-Company, unrivalled in its equipment of brains and -skill and capital, not merely breasted the storm successfully, but did -more than all other agencies combined to avert widespread bankruptcy. -Through the sagacity and foresight of this great corporation crude oil -advanced fifty per cent., thereby doubling and trebling the prosperity -of the producing sections, without a corresponding rise in refined. By -this wise policy, which only men of nerve and genius could have carried -out, home consumers were not taxed to benefit the oil-regions and the -exports of petroleum-products swelled enormously. As the result, while -the American demand increased constantly, millions upon millions of -dollars flowed in from abroad, materially diminishing the European -drainage of the yellow metal from this side of the Atlantic. The -salutary, far-reaching effects of such management, by reviving faith and -stimulating the flagging energies of the country, exerted an influence -upon the common welfare words and figures cannot estimate. Petroleum -preserved the thread of golden traffic with foreign nations. - -[Illustration: SAMUEL C.T. DODD.] - -Hon. Samuel C.T. Dodd, one of the ablest lawyers Pennsylvania has -produced, is general solicitor of the Standard and resides in New York. -His father, the venerable Levi Dodd, established the first Sunday-school -and was president of the second company that bored for oil at Franklin, -the birthplace of his son in 1836. Young Samuel learned printing, -graduated from Jefferson College in 1857, studied law with James K. Kerr -and was admitted to the Venango Bar in August of 1859. His brilliant -talents, conscientious application and legal acquirements quickly won -him a leading place among the successful jurists of the state. During a -practice of nearly twenty-two years in the courts of the district and -commonwealth he stood in the front rank of his profession. He served -with credit in the Constitutional Convention of 1873, framing some of -its most important provisions. He traveled abroad and wrote descriptions -of foreign lands so charming they might have come from Washington Irving -and N. P. Willis. His selection by the Standard Oil-Trust in 1881 as its -general solicitor was a marked recognition of his superior abilities. -The position, one of the most prominent and responsible to which a -lawyer can attain, demanded exceptional qualifications. How capably it -has been filled the records of all legal matters concerning the Standard -abundantly demonstrate. Mr. Dodd’s profound knowledge of -corporation-law, eminent sense of justice, forensic skill, rare tact and -clear brain have steered the great company safely and honorably through -many suits involving grave questions of right and millions of money. The -papers he prepared organizing the Standard Trust have been the models -for all such documents since they left his desk. Terse logic, sound -reasoning, pointed analysis and apposite expression distinguish his -legal opinions and arguments, combining the vigor of a Damascus blade -with the beauty of an epic. He is a delightful conversationalist, -sincere friend and prudent counsellor, kindly, affable and thoroughly -upright. His home, brightened by a loving wife and devoted family, is -singularly happy. Amid the cares and anxieties incident to professional -life he has cultivated his fine literary-taste, writing -magazine-articles and wooing the muses at intervals of leisure only too -far apart. He has the honor of writing the first poem on petroleum that -ever appeared in print. It was a rich parody on Byron’s “Isles of -Greece” and was published in the spring of 1860, as follows: - - The land of Grease! the land of Grease! - Where burning Oil is loved and sung; - Where flourish arts of sale and lease, - Where Rouseville rose and Tarville sprung; - Eternal summer gilds them not, - But oil-wells render dear each spot. - - The ceaseless tap, tap of the tools, - The engine’s puff, the pump’s dull squeak, - The horsemen splashing through the pools - Of greasy mud along the Creek, - Are sounds which cannot be suppress’d - In these dear Ile-lands of the Bless’d. - - Deep in the vale of Cherry Run - The Humboldt Works I went to see, - And sitting there an oil-cask on - I found that Grease was not yet free; - For busily a dirty carl - Was branding “bonded” on each barrel. - - I sat upon the rocky brow - Which o’erlooks Franklin—far-famed town; - A hundred derricks stood below - And many a well of great renown; - I counted them at break of day, - And when the sun set where were they? - - They were still there. But where art thou, - My dry-hole? On the river-shore - The engine stands all idle now, - The heavy auger beats no more; - And must a well of so great cost - Be given up and wholly lost? - - ’Tis awful when you bore a well - Down in the earth six-hundred feet, - To find that not a single smell - Comes up your anxious nose to greet; - For what is left the bored one here? - For Grease a wish; for Grease a tear! - - Must I but wish for wells more bless’d? - Must I but weep? No, I must toil! - Earth, render back from out thy breast - A remnant of thy odorous oil! - If not three-hundred, grant but three - Precious barrels a day to me. - - What! silent still? and silent all? - Ah no! the rushing of the gas - Sounds like a distant torrent’s fall - And answers, bore ahead, you ass, - A few feet more; you miss the stuff - Because you don’t go deep enough! - - In vain! in vain! Pull up the tools! - Fill high the cup with lager-beer! - Leave oil-wells to the crazy fools - Who from the East are flocking here. - See at the first sight of the can - How hurries each red-shirted man! - - Fill high the cup with lager-beer! - The maidens in their promenade - Towards my lease their footsteps steer - To see if yet my fortune’s made; - But sneers their pretty faces spoil - To find I have not yet struck oil. - - Place me in Oil Creek’s rocky dell, - Though mud be deep and prices high; - There let me bore another well - And find petroleum or die. - No more I’ll work this dry-hole here; - Dash down that cup of lager-beer. - -One of those few and rare occasions upon which John D. Rockefeller is -prevailed upon to address an audience was last March in New York, at a -social gathering of the Young Men’s Bible Class of the Fifth-Avenue -Baptist-Church. Much that he said was extremely interesting. In laying -down many excellent precepts he brought forth several lessons from the -experiences of his early life. By references to his first ledger, as he -called it, which was nothing more than a small paper-covered -memorandum-book, he explained how he managed to save money even on a -small salary. The little book contained the first items of his receipts -and expenditures when he first began to earn money. To judge from the -care with which he handled this reminder of his early struggles, Mr. -Rockefeller was in earnest when he intimated that it would require a -fortune to purchase it. His address, purely informal and conversational, -was warmly applauded by his hearers and commended by the press. Its -practical wisdom and the light it throws upon the early life of a most -successful man entitle it to careful preservation. Mr. Rockefeller said, -as reported by the New-York _Tribune_: - -Let me say that it gives me a great deal of pleasure to be here -to-night. Although I cannot make you a speech, I have brought with me to -show you young men a little book—a book, I think, which may interest -you. It is the first ledger I kept. I was trained in business affairs -and how to keep a ledger. The practice of keeping a little personal -ledger by young men just starting in business and earning money and -requiring to learn its value is, I think, a good one. In the first -struggle to get a footing—and if you feel as I did I am sorry for you, -although I would not be without the memory of that struggle—I kept my -accounts in this book, also some memoranda of little incidents that -seemed to me important. In after-years I found that book and brought it -to New York. It is more than forty-two years since I wrote what it -contains. I call it Ledger A, and now I place the greatest value upon -it. I have thought that it would be a little help to some of you young -men to read one or two extracts from this ledger. [Mr. Rockefeller then -produced from his pocket, carefully enveloped in paper-wrapping, the -ledger to which he referred, and continued his remarks]: - -When I found this book recently I thought it had no cover, because it -had writing upon its back. I had utilized the cover to write upon. In -those days I was economical, even with paper. When I read it through it -brought to my mind remembrances of the care with which I used to record -my little items of receipts and disbursements, matters which many of you -young men are rather careless over. I believe it is a religious duty to -get all the money you can fairly and honestly; to keep all you can and -to give away all you can. I think that is a problem that you are all -familiar with. I have told you before what pleasure this little book -gives me. I dare not let you read it through, because my children, who -have read it, say that I did not spell tooth-brush correctly. -[Laughter.] But you know we have made great progress in our spelling and -I suppose some changes have taken place since those days. [Renewed -laughter.] I have not seen this book for twenty-five years. It does not -look like a modern ledger, does it? But you could not get that book from -me for all the modern ledgers in New York, nor for all that they would -bring. It almost brings tears to my eyes when I read over this little -book, and it fills me with a sense of gratitude that I cannot express. -It shows largely what I received and what I paid out during my first -years of business. It shows that from September twenty-sixth, 1855, -until January first, 1856, I received $50. Out of that I paid my -washerwoman and the lady I boarded with, and saved a little money to put -away. I am not ashamed to read it over to you. - -Among other things I find that I gave a cent to the Sunday-school every -Sunday. That is not a very large sum, is it? But that was all the money -I had to give for that particular object. I was also giving to several -other religious objects. What I could afford to give I gave regularly, -as I was taught to do, and it has been a pleasure to me all my life to -do so. - -I had a large increase in my revenue the next year. It went up to $25 a -month. I began to be a capitalist and, had I regarded myself then as we -regard capitalists now, I ought to have felt like a criminal because I -had so much money. But we had no trusts or monopolies then. [Laughter.] -I paid my own bills and always had a little something to give away, and -the happiness of saving some. In fact, I am not so independent now as I -was then. It is true I could not secure the most fashionable cut of -clothing. I remember I bought mine then of a Jew. [Laughter.] He sold me -clothing cheap, clothing such as I could pay for, and it was a great -deal better than buying clothing that I could not pay for. I did not -make any obligations I could not meet. I lived within my means, and my -advice to you young men is to do just the same. - -Dr. Faunce has just told you that all young men who come to this church -are welcome and are never asked to whom they belong or where they came -from. But there is just one question I would like to ask. I would like -to know how many of you come from the city and how many come from the -country. (Mr. Rockerfeller asked, as a personal favor, if all those -present in the room who came from the country would raise their right -hand. Fully three-quarters of the number did so.) Now, what a story that -tells! - -To my mind there is something unfortunate in being born in a city. You -have not had the struggles in the city that we have had who were reared -in the country. Don’t you notice how the men from the country keep -crowding you out here—you who have wealthy fathers? These young men from -the country are turning things around and are taking your city. We men -from the country are willing to do more work. We were prepared by our -experience to do hard work. I remember a little time ago I was in the -country and saw a carpenter placing mineral-wool under the roof of a -city servant’s bedroom, so that the man should not feel the heat of the -summer or hear the patter of the rain-drops on the roof. I could not at -the time help recalling the experience of my boyhood, when I slept under -a roof. While I could not see the shingles, I remember I could peep -through the cracks in them. It was pretty hot in the summer up there, -too, I can tell you. But I think I was better for all that sort of -experience, for having been reared in the country in that sturdy, -practical way, and my heart is sometimes full of sadness as I -contemplate the condition of the number of young fellows in this city -whom I happen to know well. - -They are in the embarrassing position that their fathers have great sums -of money, and those boys have not a ghost of a chance to compete with -you who come from the country and who want to do something in the world. -You are in training now to shortly take the places of those young men. I -suppose you cannot realize how many eyes are upon you and how great is -the increasing interest that is taken in you. You may not think that, -when you are lonely and find it difficult to get a footing. But it is -true that, in a place like this, true interest is taken in you. When I -left the school-house I came into a place similar to this, where I -associated with people whom it was good to know. Nothing better could -have happened to me. - -I spoke just now of the struggle for success. What is success? Is it -money? Some of you have all the money you need to provide for your -wants. Who is the poorest man in the world? I tell you, the poorest man -I know of is the man who has nothing but money—nothing else in the world -upon which to devote his ambition and thought. That is the sort of man I -consider to be the poorest in the world. Money is good if you know how -to use it. - -Now, let me leave this little word of counsel for you. Keep a little -ledger, as I did. Write down in it what you receive, and do not be -ashamed to write down what you pay away. See that you pay it away in -such a manner that your father or mother may look over your book and see -just what you did with your money. It will help you to save money, and -that you ought to do. When I spoke of a poor man with money I spoke -against the poverty of that man who has no affection for anything else, -or thought for anything else but money. That kind of a man does not help -his own character, nor does he build up the character of another. - -Before I leave you I will read a few items from my ledger. I find in -looking over it that I was saving money all this time, and in the course -of a few years I had saved $1,000. Now, as to some of my expenses. I see -that from November twenty-fourth, 1855, to April, 1856, I paid for -clothing $9.09. I see also, here, another item which I am inclined to -think is extravagant, because I remember I used to wear mittens. The -item is a pair of fur-gloves, for which I paid $2.50. In the same -period, I find I gave away $5.58. In one month I gave to -foreign-missions ten cents; to the mite-society thirty cents, and there -is also a contribution to the Five-Points Mission. I was not living then -in New York, but I suppose I felt that it was in need of help, so I sent -up twelve cents to the mission. Then to the venerable teacher of my -class I gave thirty-five cents to make him a present. To the poor people -of the church I gave ten cents at this time. In January and February -following I gave ten cents more and a further ten cents to the -foreign-missions. Those contributions, small as they were, brought me -into direct contact with philanthropic work, and with the beneficial -work and aims of religious institutions, and I have been helped thereby -greatly all my life. It is a mistake for a man who wishes for happiness -and to help others to wait until he has a fortune before giving to -deserving objects. [Great applause.] - -And this exemplary citizen, who in his youth and poverty formed the -habit of systematic benevolence, who befriends the poor, who dispenses -charity with a bountiful hand, who helps young men better their -condition, who gives millions for education and religion, who believes -in the justice of God and the rights of man, who has woven the raveled -skeins of a weakened industry into the world’s grandest -business-enterprise, assassins of character picture as a cold-blooded -oppressor, a base conspirator, a “devourer of widows’ houses,” an -abettor of larceny and instigator of arson! “Oh, Shame! where is thy -blush?” - -Although the Standard pays the highest wages in the world and has never -had a serious strike in its grand army of forty-thousand men, not one -cent of a reduction was ordered during the panic. No works stopped and -no employés were turned adrift to beg or starve. On the contrary, -improvements and additions were made continually, the force of workmen -was augmented, cash was paid for everything bought, no claims remained -unsettled and nobody had to wait an hour for money justly due. These are -points for the toiling masses, whom prejudice against big corporations -sometimes misleads, to understand and consider before accepting the -creed that wealth and dishonor are synonymous, that each is the creature -of the other and both are twin-links of the same sausage. - - A WELL-SHOOTER. - -The Oil-City _Blizzard_, itself as lively as a glycerine-explosion, in a -spasm of dynamite-enthusiasm loaded up and fired off this eccentricity: - - Pat Magnew was a shooter bold, - Who handled glycerine; - And though he had no printing-shop - He ran a magazine. - - And while he had a level head, - And business plenty found, - ’Most ev’ry job he undertook - He ran into the ground. - - He never claimed expert to be, - But what he did was right, - And when he shot a well, you see, - He did it “out of sight.” - - He seemed to like his daily toil, - Its dangers did not fear; - He’d help his patrons to find oil, - And then he’d disappear. - - Sometimes he shot wells with a squib, - When at the proper level; - Sometimes when he had been to church, - He shot with a go-devil. - - He always had a great tin-shell - Beside him on the seat, - Had horses good and drove like—well, - No moss grew on their feet. - - And when he drove along the road, - And that was every day, - Wise people all, who knew his load, - Gave him the right of way. - - His wife once said: “I greatly fear - That you will yet be blown - To atoms, if you don’t, my dear, - Let well enough alone.” - - “Some day there’ll be a thunder-sound; - And scattered far and near, - O’er hill and dale and all around, - Will be my husband dear.” - - Replied Magnew: “I call to mind— - His words are nowise sickly— - That Billy Shakespeare once remarked: - ‘’Twere well it were done quickly.’ - - “And I’ll be blown,” continued Pat, - “If I didn’t want it known, - That I’d rather be by dynamite - Than by a woman blown.” - - THE OLD YEAR DONE IN OIL. - - Old Year! transported by fast freight, - With neither drawback nor rebate, - How odd it seems to quote thee “late!” - - Old Year! since thou wert struck, alas! - What surface shows have men let pass— - They promised oil and yielded gas! - - Old Year! test-wells of crude that smelt, - But had no sand like snows would melt. - Few always drill straight on the belt! - - Old Year! thy option has expired, - Certificates have been retired - And royalty in full required. - - Old Year! thy territory’s played, - Pipage and storage-charges paid, - Tanks emptied and delivery made. - - Old Year! a twelvemonth pump’d thee dry, - Now tools and cable are laid by, - Engine and derrick idle lie. - - Old Year! developments are o’er, - The paraffine has clogg’d each pore - And thou shalt operate no more. - - Old Year! lease out and rig in dust, - Time on thy boiler, left to rust, - Writes the producer’s motto: “Bu’st!” - - And when it comes our turn to be - Immediate shipment o’er life’s sea, - Old Year! we’ll put a call for thee! - - THE CANINE’S DOOM. - -When the Oil-City _Derrick_ had its circus with the Allegheny-Valley -Railroad it fell to my lot to write up most of the incidents of the -conflict. Occasionally a bit of doggerel like this hit the popular -fancy: - - Moses had a great big dog, - His hair was black as jet, - And everywhere that Moses went - That pup was sure to get. - - One day, upon the Valley Road - When Moses went to ride, - The faithful canine follow’d close - And sat down by his side. - - But when the train to Scrubgrass got - The daily wreck occurr’d, - The cars cavorted down the bank - Without one warning word. - - Sad was that hapless puppy’s fate— - So mangled, burn’d and drown’d, - Not a bologna could be made - From all the fragments found! - -[Illustration: - - HOW THE PRICE OF OIL AFFECTS THE PRODUCER. - WHEN OIL IS 70 CENTS. - WHEN OIL IS $3. - WHEN OIL IS $5. -] - - - - - XIX. - JUST ODDS AND ENDS. - -HOW NATURAL-GAS PLAYED ITS PART—FIRE AND WATER MUCH IN EVIDENCE—CHANGES - IN METHODS AND APPLIANCES—DESERTED TOWNS—PECULIAR COINCIDENCES AND - FATALITIES—RAILROAD EPISODES—REMINISCENCES OF BYGONE - SCENES—PRACTICAL JOKERS—SAD TRAGEDIES—LIGHTS AND SHADOWS INTERMINGLE - AND THE CURTAIN FALLS FOREVER. - - ---------- - -“Variety’s the very spice of life.”—_Cowper._ - -“Fuss and feather, wind and weather, varied items strung together.”—_Oil - City Derrick._ - -“Laugh when we must, be candid when we can.”—_Pope._ - - “‘A picker-up of unconsidered trifles’ - From many sources facts and fancies rifles.”—_Anonymous._ - -“Every house should have a rag-bag and a general storeroom.”—_Miss - Parloa._ - -“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest - men.”—_Holmes._ - - “Let days pass on, nor count how many swell - The episode of life’s hack chronicle.”—_Lytton._ - -“Fond memory brings the light of other days around me.”—_Anonymous._ - -“Close up his eyes and draw the curtain close.”—_Shakespeare._ - -“Fare thee well! and if forever, still forever fare thee well.”—_Byron._ - - Hard coal and dry wood as good fuel may pass, - But can’t hold a candle to natural gas.—_Original._ - -“Half light, half shadow, let my spirit sleep.”—_Tennyson._ - -“Side by side may we stand at the same little door when all’s - done.”—_Owen Meredith._ - - ---------- - - - - -Natural-gas, the cleanest, slickest, handiest fuel that ever warmed a -heart or a tenement, is the right bower of crude-petroleum. It is the -one and only fuel that mines, transports and feeds itself, without -digging every spoonful, screening lumps, carting, freighting and -shoveling into the stove or furnace. Getting it does not imperil the -limbs and lives of poor miners—the most overworked and underpaid class -in Pennsylvania—in the damp and darkness of death-traps hundreds of feet -beneath the surface of the ground. You drill a hole to the vital spot, -lay a pipe from the well to the home or factory, turn a stop-cock to let -out the vapor, touch off a match and there it is—the brightest, -cleanest, steadiest, hottest fire on earth. Not a speck of dust, not an -atom of smoke, not a particle of cinder, not a taint of sulphur, not a -bit of ashes vexes your soul or tries your temper. There is no carrying -of coal, no dumping of choked grates, no waiting for kindling to catch -or green wood to burn, no scolding about sulky fires, no postponement of -heat because the wind blows in the wrong direction. Blue Monday is -robbed of all its terrors, the labor of housekeeping is lightened and -husbands no longer object to starting the fire on cold mornings. A nice -blaze may be let burn all night in winter and kept on tap in summer only -when needed. It is lighted or extinguished as readily as the gas-jet in -the parlor. It melts iron, fuses glass, illumines mills and streets, -broils steaks to perfection and does away with many a fruitful source of -family-broils. It saves wear and tear of muscle and disposition, lessens -the production of domestic quarrels, adds to the pleasure and -satisfaction of living and carries the spring-time of existence into the -autumn of old age. Set in a dainty metal frame, with background of -asbestos and mantel above, its glow is cheerful as the hickory-fire in -the hearth. It gives us the ingle-nook modernized and improved, the -chimney-corner brought down to date. It glides through eighty-thousand -miles of pipes in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana and New -York and employs a hundred-million dollars to supply it to people within -reach of the bounteous reservoirs the kindly earth has treasured all -through the centuries. If it be not a blessing to humanity, the fault -lies with the folks and not with the stuff. The man who spouts gas is a -nuisance, but the well that spouts gas is something to prize, to utilize -and be thankful for. Visitors to the oil-region or towns near enough to -enjoy the luxury, beholding the beauty and adaptability of natural-gas, -may be pardoned for breaking the tenth commandment and coveting the fuel -that is Nature’s legal-tender for the comfort and convenience of -mankind. - -The pretty town of Fredonia, in New York state, three miles from Lake -Erie and forty-five south-west of Buffalo, enjoys the distinction of -first using natural-gas for illuminating purposes. It is a beautiful -place, famous for fine roads, fine scenery and fine vineyards. Canodonay -Creek, a small but rapid stream, passes through it to the lake. Opinions -vary as to the exact date when the gas was utilized, some authorities -making it 1821, others 1824 and a few 1829. The best information fixes -it at 1824, when workmen, in tearing down an old mill, observed bubbles -on the water that proved to be inflammable. The hint was not lost. A -company bored a hole _one-inch-and-a-half_ in diameter into the -limestone-rock. The gas left its regular channel, climbed the hole, -lighted a new mill and was piped to a hundred houses in the village at a -cost of one-fifty a year for each. The flame was large and strong and -for years Fredonia was the only town in America lighted by “nature-gas.” -A gasometer was constructed, which collected _eighty-eight_ cubic feet -in twelve hours. The inhabitants didn’t keep late hours. A mile nearer -Lake Erie many gas-bubbles gamboled on the stream. Efforts to convey the -gas to the light-house at Dunkirk failed, as it was only half the weight -of air and would not descend the difference in elevation. - -A light-house at Erie was lighted by natural-gas in 1831, “the Burning -Spring,” a sheet of water through which the vapor bubbled, furnishing -the supply. A tower erected over the spring held the gas that -accumulated during the day and wooden-pipes conveyed it at night to the -light-house. - -Dr. Charles Oesterlin, a young German physician, sixty years ago -unpacked his pill-boxes and hung out his little sign at Findlay, in -Northwestern Ohio. He was an expert geologist and mineralogist, but the -flat Black Swamp afforded poor opportunities to study the rocks -underlying the limestone. The young physician detected the odor of -sulphuretted hydrogen in the town and along the banks of the Blanchard -River. It puzzled him to guess the source of the odor. He spoke to the -farmers, who smelled the stuff, knew nothing and cared less about its -origin or properties. The Doctor searched for a sulphur-spring. In -October of 1836 the solution came. A farmer was digging a well three -miles from town. A spring was tapped and the water “boiled,” as the -diggers expressed it. Debating what to do, they were called to supper, -returned after dark and lighted a torch to examine the well. Holding the -torch over the well an explosion startled them and a flame ascended that -lasted for days. Nobody was seriously hurt, but all thought the devil -had a finger in the pie. Dr. Oesterlin connected the incident with the -odor and it confirmed his theory of a gas that would burn and might -serve as fuel. At a stone-quarry he made a cone of mud over a fissure, -covered it with a bucket and applied a light. When the Doctor picked -himself up in an adjoining corn-field the bucket was still sailing north -towards Toledo. Daniel Foster, another Findlay farmer, dug a well in -1838. Gas issued from the hole before water was seen. Foster had a -practical mind. He inverted a copper-kettle over the hole, rigged a -wooden pump-stock beneath the kettle, plastered around it with clay, -joined more pump-stocks together, stuck an old gun-barrel in the end of -the last one, lighted the gas in his kitchen and by means of the flame -boiled water, roasted coffee and illumined the apartment. Then Dr. -Oesterlin declared Findlay was right over a vast caldron of gas. People -laughed at him, adhered to tallow-dips and positively refused to swallow -such a dose. Petroleum-developments in Pennsylvania fortified his faith -and he sought to interest the public in a company to “bore a hole twenty -inches across.” Sinners in Noah’s day were less impervious. Business-men -scoffed and declined to subscribe for stock. He tried again in 1864 and -1867 with the same result. A company was organized to manufacture -coal-gas. He talked of the absurdity of _making_ gas at Findlay as equal -to setting up a manufactory of air or water. It was no use. At last the -triumph of natural-gas in Pennsylvania was manifested too strongly for -the obtuse Findlayites to ignore it. In 1884 the Doctor managed to -enlist four-thousand dollars of capital and start a well in a grove a -mile east of town, where the odor was pungent and gas flowing through a -tile-pipe he planted in the ground burned for weeks. He watched the -progress of the work with feverish anxiety. The hopes of fifty long -years were to be grandly realized or dashed forever. Sleepless nights -succeeded restless days as the veteran’s heart-beats kept time with the -rhythmic churning of the drill. At five, six and seven-hundred feet -morsels of gas quickened the expectations of success. At eleven-hundred -feet, in the Trenton limestone, on November tenth, 1884, gas burst forth -with terrific force. The well was drilled sixteen-hundred feet and -encountered salt-water. It was plugged below the gas-vein, the gas was -lighted, an immense flame shot up and for months a quarter-million feet -a day burned in the open air. Findlay grew from five-thousand to -fifteen-thousand population and manufacturing flourished. Dr. Oesterlin, -slight of frame, infirm with age, his thin locks and beard white as -snow, had waited fifty years for his vindication. It came when he had -reached four-score, full, complete and overwhelming. He bore his honors -meekly, lived to round out eighty-two and nowhere is it recorded that he -even once yielded to the temptation of remarking: “I told you so!” - -[Illustration: DR. CHAS. OESTERLIN SAMUEL SPEECHLY] - -Gas was used as fuel at pumping-wells on Oil Creek in 1862. It was first -collected in “gas-barrels,” one pipe leading from the well to the -receptacle and another from the barrel to the boiler. Many fires -originated from the flame, when the pressure of gas was small, running -back to the barrel and exploding it. A pumper at Rouseville, seated on a -gas-barrel at such a moment, went skyward and may be ascending yet, as -he never returned for his week’s wages. D. G. Stillwell, better known as -“Buffalo Joe,” drilled a gasser in 1867 at Oil City, on the site of the -Greenfield Lumber-Company’s office. He piped the gas to several houses, -but the danger from constant changes of pressure led to its abandonment. -This is the first authentic record of the use of “the essence of Sheol” -for cooking food and heating dwellings. In 1883 the Oil-City Fuel-Supply -Company laid a six-inch gas-line to wells at McPherson’s Corners, -Pinegrove township, eight miles distant. The gas was produced from the -second and third sands, at a depth of nine to ten-hundred feet and a -pressure not exceeding two-hundred pounds to the square inch. In 1885 -the late Samuel Speechly started a well on his farm near McPherson’s, -intending to drill three-thousand feet in search of the Bradford sand. -Oil-bearing strata dip twenty feet to the mile southward and Speechly -believed the northern rocks existed far beneath the ordinary third-sand -in Venango county. On April thirteenth, at nineteen-hundred feet, the -drill penetrated what has since been called the “Speechly sand,” the -most extraordinary and valuable fuel-sand as yet discovered. In this -sand at three feet pressure of gas became entirely too great to keep -jerking the tools. The gas company leased the well and turned it into -the line without being able to gauge it on account of the high volume. -Speechly commenced a second well and the company, having previously laid -a new ten-inch line to Oil City, constructed branches to Franklin and -Titusville. The second well proved to be the largest to the present -time, excepting the Big Moses in West Virginia. For a time it could not -be controlled. The roar of the escaping gas could be heard for miles. -Eventually it was tubed and the pressure was six-hundred pounds. Many -wells in other fields have had greater pressure, but the large volume of -the Speechly well made it a wonder. One day all the other wells -connected with the main-line were discontinued from the line temporarily -and the Jumbo turned in. The flow was sufficient to supply Oil City, -Titusville and Franklin with all the gas required. Hundreds of wells -have been drilled to the Speechly sand and the field now reaches from -the southern part of Rockland township, Venango county, to Tionesta -township, Forest county. It is about thirty miles long, with an average -width of three miles, while the sand ranges in thickness from fifty to -one-hundred feet. The pressure gradually diminishes. It requires -constant drilling to keep up the supply, the Oil-City Company alone -having about four-hundred wells. - -Samuel Speechly died on Sunday night, January ninth, 1893, aged -sixty-one, at his home in the gas-district bearing his name. His life -was notably eventful, adventurous and fortunate. Born in England in -1832, at fourteen he began to learn locomotive-building and -marine-engineering at Newcastle-on-Tyne. At twenty Robert Stephenson & -Co. sent him to China to join a steamer engaged in the opium-trade. In -1855 he entered the service of the Chinese government to suppress piracy -on the coast, and in 1857 started at Hong Kong the first -engineering-business in the vast empire ruled by the pig-tailed Brother -of the Sun. He visited America in 1872 and lived in Philadelphia. -Wanting plenty of room, he went to Northwestern Pennsylvania, resided a -year in Cranberry township, concluded to stay and settled on what -subsequently became the famous Speechly farm. The well he drilled in -1885 had neither oil nor gas in the usual formations. Veteran operators -advised him to abandon it, but Speechly entertained a notion of his own -and the world knows the sequel. He was married in China in 1864 to Miss -Margaret Galbraith, who survives him, with two daughters, Emily, born in -China, and Adelaide, born in America. His widow and children occupy the -old home on the farm. - -Bishop Potter, stopping at Narrowsburg in 1854, noticed jets of gas -exuding from the bank of the Delaware river at Dingman’s Ferry, forty -miles above Easton, and published an article on the subject. A company -in 1860 bored three wells, but the result was not encouraging, as -politicians are the most gaseous bodies Northampton county has produced -for thirty years. A gas-well at Erie attracted considerable attention in -1860 and was followed by a number more, which from a shallow depth -yielded fuel to run several factories. East Liverpool, Ohio, put the -product to practical use early in the seventies as a substitute for -coal. The first well, drilled in 1860, caught fire and destroyed the -rig. Geologists say natural-gas is the disembodied spirits of plants -that grew in the sunshine of ages long before the foundations of the -buried coal-measures were laid, so long ago shut up and forsaken by the -light-hearted sun that it is a wonder they hadn’t forgotten their former -affinity. But they hadn’t. They rushed out to the devouring kiss of -their old flame at the first tap of the drill on their prison-house, -like a foolish girl at the return of a fickle lover. They found Old Sol -flirting with their younger sister, playing sweet to a lot of new -vegetation. Before they had time to form a sewing-circle and resolve -that all the male sex are horrid, they took fire with indignation at his -fickleness and the tool-dresser’s forge and burst with a tremendous -explosion. The fire was quenched and gas poured out of the pioneer-well -fifteen years. Street-lamps were left burning all day, which was cheaper -than to bother putting them out, and East Liverpool prospered as a hive -of the pottery-industry. The celebrated well at East Sandy, Venango -county, which gave birth to Gas City in 1869, burned a year with a roar -audible three miles. Becoming partially exhausted, the fire was put out -and the product was used for fuel at numerous wells. The famous Newton -well, on the A. H. Nelson farm, was struck in May of 1872 and piped in -August to Titusville, five miles south west. Its half-million cubic-feet -per day supplied three-hundred firms and families with light and fuel. -Henry Hinckley and A. R. Williams organized the company, one of the very -first in Pennsylvania to utilize natural-gas on an extensive scale. The -same year gas from the Lambing well was piped to Fairview and Petrolia. -The Waugh well at Millerstown and the Berlin at Thompson’s Corners, -Butler county, were the next big gassers. The great Delamater No. 2, -near St. Joe, finished in 1874, for months was the biggest gas-well in -the world. Its output was conveyed to the rolling-mills at Sharpsburg. -The first gas-well in Butler county is credited to John Criswell, of -Newcastle, who drilled for salt-water in 1840 near Centreville, struck a -vein of the vapor at seven-hundred feet and fired it to heat his -evaporating-pans. - -At Leechburg and Apollo natural-gas has been used in puddling-furnaces -since 1872. It will supply the huge mills at Vandergrift, the model town -that is to be the county-seat of Vandergrift county, which the next -Legislature will set off from Armstrong, Westmoreland and contiguous -districts. It was the fuel of the cutlery-works at Beaver Falls from -1876 until the wells ceased producing in 1884. In 1875 Spang & Chalfant -piped it from Butler to their mills in the suburbs of Pittsburg. Though -Pittsburgers knew of its value in the oil-region for twenty years, they -regarded it as a freak and not calculated to affect their interests -favorably. Iron manufactured by its means was of superior quality, owing -to the absence of sulphur and the intensity of the heat. In 1877 the -Haymaker well opened the Murraysville gas-field, but that immense -storehouse of potential energy lay dormant until Pew & Emerson piped the -product to Pittsburg. In June of 1884 George Westinghouse, inventor of -the air-brake and of various electric-appliances, struck a gas-well near -his residence in Pittsburg. From that date the development was enormous. -Wells producing from two to twenty-million cubic-feet a day were in -order. The Philadelphia Company—Westinghouse was its president—alone -tied up forty-thousand acres of gas-territory, drilled hundreds of wells -and laid thousands of miles of pipes. Hon. James M. Guffey headed big -corporations that supplied Wheeling, a portion of Pittsburg and dozens -of smaller towns. The coal displacement in Pittsburg equaled -thirty-thousand tons daily. Twenty and twenty-four-inch mains -intersected the city. Iron, brass, steel and metal-working -establishments consumed it. Glass-factories turned out by its aid -plate-glass such as mankind had never seen before. The flaming breath of -the new demon transformed the appearance and revolutionized the -iron-manufacture of the Birmingham of America. The Smoky City was a -misnomer. Soot and dirt and smoke and cinders disappeared. People washed -their faces, men wore “biled shirts” and girls dressed in white. The -touch of a fairy-wand could not have made a more resplendent change. -Think of green grass, emerald hues, clear sunlight and clean walls in -Pittsburg! At first timid folks feared to introduce it, because the -pressure could not be regulated. All this has been remedied. The -roaring, hissing monster that almost bursts the gauge at the well is -tamed and subjugated to the meekness of a dove by valves and gasometers, -which can reduce the pressure to a single ounce. Queer, isn’t it, that -Pittsburg should be metamorphosed by natural-gas—the fires of hell as it -were—into a city of delightful homes, an industrial paradise? - -Gas-wells of high pressure were found in Ohio by thousands, as though -striving to vie with the oil-wells which, beginning at Mecca in 1860 and -ending at Lima, stocked up twenty-million barrels of crude. Over -three-hundred companies were chartered in a year to supply every town -from Cincinnati to Ashtabula. Natural-gas raged and blistered and for a -term was the genuine “Ohio idea.” For thirty years wells at New -Cumberland, West Virginia, have furnished fuel to burn brick. The same -state has the biggest gassers in existence and lines to important cities -are projected. If “the mountain won’t come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go -to the mountain.” Indiana has gas and oil in four counties, with Gas -City as headquarters and lots of fuel for houses and factories in -Indianapolis and the chief cities. The Hoosiers have carried out the -principle of Edward Eggleston’s Mrs. Means: “When you’re a-gittin’ git -plenty, I say.” Illinois had a morsel of oil and gas in wells at -Litchfield. Kentucky and Tennessee are blessed with “a genteel -competence” and Kansas has not escaped. Michigan has gas-wells at Port -Huron and St. Paul once boasted a company capitalized at a half-million. -Buffalo inhaled its first whiff of natural-gas, piped from wells in -McKean county, on December first, 1886. Youngstown was initiated next -day, from wells in Venango. A Mormon company bored wells at Salt Lake, -but polygamy was not supplanted by any odor more unsavory. In Canada gas -is abundant and Robert Ferguson, now a well-to-do farmer near Port -Sarnia, first turned it into an engine-cylinder as a joke on the -engineer at the pump-station in Enniskillen township. Steam was low, the -engineer was absent, Ferguson cut the pipe leading from the boiler, -connected it with one from a gas-well near-by, opened the throttle and, -to his astonishment, found the pressure greater than steam. Natural-gas, -a gift worthy of the immortal gods, worthy of the admiration of Vulcan, -worthy of the praise of poets and historians, the agent of progress and -saver of labor, is not a trifle to be brushed off like a fly or -dismissed with a contemptuous sneer. - -Pittsburg iron-works and rolling-mills received natural-gas at about -two-thirds the cost of coal. The coal needed to produce a ton of metal -cost three dollars, the gas that did the same service cost one-ninety. -Besides this important saving, the expense of handling the fuel, hauling -away cinders and waiting for furnaces to heat or cool was avoided. -Gas-heat was uniform, stronger, more satisfactory, could be regulated to -any temperature, turned on at full head or shut off instantly. Thus -Pittsburg possessed advantages that boomed its manufactories immensely -and obliged many competitors less favored to retire. In this way the -anomaly of freezing out men by the use of greater, cheaper heat was -presented. - -On March seventeenth, 1886, at Pittsburg, Milton Fisher, of Columbus, -was the first person to be incinerated in a natural-gas crematory. In -fifty minutes the body was reduced to a handful of white powder. The -friends of the deceased pronounced the operation a success, but Fisher -was not in shape to express his opinion. - -A singular accident occurred near Hickory, Washington county, on the -night of December fourth, 1886. Alfred Crocker, an employé of the -Chartiers Gas-Company, had been at the tanks on the McKnight farm and -was going toward the well. The connecting-pipe between the well and tank -burst with terrible force, striking Crocker on the left leg, blowing the -foot and ankle completely off and injuring him about the body. The -explosion hurled the large gas-tank a hundred feet. The young man died -next morning. - -The steam tow-boat Iron City once grounded near the head of Herr’s -Island, above Pittsburg. The stern swung around and caught on a pipe -conveying natural-gas across the Allegheny river. In trying to back the -vessel off the pipe broke, the escaping gas filled the hold and caught -fire from the furnace. An explosion split the boat from stem to stern, -blew off the deck and blew the crew into the river. The boat burned to -the water’s edge. - -Near Halsey, in the Kane field, James Bowser was standing on a gas-tank, -while a workman was endeavoring to dislodge an obstruction in the pipe -leading from the well. The removal of the obstruction caused the pent-up -gas to rush into the tank with such force that the receptacle exploded, -hurling Bowser high in the air. He alighted directly in front of the -heavy volume of gas escaping through the broken pipe. Before he could be -rescued he was denuded of all clothing, except one boot. His clothing -was torn off by the force of the gas and his injuries were serious. - -Workmen laying pipe to connect with the main at Grapeville were badly -flustered one frosty morning. By mistake the gas was turned on, rushing -from the open end with great force. It ploughed up the earth and pebbles -and ignited, the flinty stones producing a spark that set the whole -thing in a blaze. Gas-wells yield liberally at Grapeville, supplying the -glass-works at Jeannette and houses at Johnstown, the farthest point -east to which the vapor-fuel has been piped. - -J. S. Booker, an Ohio man, claimed to spot gas. His particular virtue -lay in the muscles at the back of the neck, which rise up and irritate -him in the presence of natural-gas. This is ahead of rheumatism as a -rain-indicator. Booker’s own story is that an attack of asthma left him -in a sensitive state, so that when he passes over a vein of gas the -electricity runs through his legs, up his spine and knots the muscles of -the neck. The story deserves credit for its rare simplicity. With the -whole realm of fiction at his command, Booker chose only a few simple -details and was content to pass current as a sort of human witch-hazel. - -At Economy, where a hundred stand-pipes for natural-gas illuminate the -streets, bugs and fruit-vermin were slaughtered wholesale. In the -mornings there would be a fine carpet of bugs around every post. -Chickens and turkeys would have a feast and a foot-race from the roosts -to see which would get to the already-cooked breakfast first. The trees -came out in bloom earlier and healthier than formerly, because the -vermin were destroyed and the frosts kept from settling by the -gas-lights, which burn constantly. As a promoter of vegetation -natural-gas beats General Pleasanton’s blue-glass out of sight. - -Samuel Randall, the Democratic statesman, visited the gas-wells at -Murraysville with Hon. J. M. Guffey. From a safe distance the visitor -threw a Roman candle at a huge column of vapor, which blazed quicker -than a church-scandal, to Mr. Randall’s great delight. President and -Mrs. Cleveland were afforded a similar treat by Mr. Guffey. The -chivalrous host chartered a train and had a big well fired for the -distinguished visitors. The lady of the White House was in ecstacies and -the President evidently thought the novel exhibition knocked -duck-shooting silly. Could a mind-reader have X-rayed his -thinking-department it would likely have assumed this form: “Mr. Guffey, -_you_ have a tremendous body of gas here, but _I_ have Congress on my -hands!” - -Eli Perkins lectured at St. Petersburg one night and next day rode with -me through part of the district. He wanted points regarding natural-gas -and smilingly jotted down a lot of Munchausenisms current in the -oil-region. A week later he sent me a marked copy of the New-York _Sun_, -with columns of delicious romance concerning gas-wells. Eli was no -slouch at drawing the long-bow, but he fairly surpassed himself, Jules -Verne and Rider Haggard on this occasion. His vivid stories of tools -hurled by gas a thousand feet, of derricks lifted up bodily, of men -tossed to the clouds and picturesque adventures generally were marvels -of smooth, easy, fascinating exaggeration. Perhaps “if you see it in the -_Sun_ it’s so,” but not when Eli Perkins is the chronicler and -natural-gas the subject. - -“The Fredonia Gas-Light and Water-Works Company,” which obtained a -special charter in 1856, was undoubtedly the first natural-gas company -in the world. Its object was, “by boring down through the slate-rock and -sinking wells to a sufficient depth to penetrate the manufactories of -nature, and thus collect from her laboratories the natural-gas and -purify it, to furnish the citizens with good cheap light.” The tiny -stream of gas first utilized at the mill yielded its mite forty years. -When Lafayette remained a night at Fredonia in 1824, on his triumphal -visit to the United States, “the village-inn was lighted with gas that -came from the ground.” The illustrious Frenchman saw nothing in his -travels that interested and delighted him more than this novel -illumination. - -Col. J. A. Barrett, for many years a citizen of Illinois and law-partner -of Abraham Lincoln, in 1886 removed to a tract of five-thousand acres on -Tug Fork, near the quiet hamlet of Warfield. Gas issued from the soil -and tradition says George Washington fired the subtle vapor at Burning -Spring while surveying in West Virginia before the Revolution. Captain -A. Allen, who pioneered the oil-business on Little Kanawha, leased the -tract from Col. Barrett and struck a vast reservoir of gas at -two-thousand feet. - -John G. Saxe once lectured at Pithole and was so pleased with the people -and place that he donated twenty-five dollars to the charity-fund and -wrote columns of descriptive matter to a Boston newspaper. “If I were -not Alexander I would be Diogenes,” said the Macedonian conqueror. -Similarly Henry Ward Beecher remarked, when he visited Oil City to -lecture, “If I were not pastor of Plymouth church I would be pastor of -an Oil-City church.” The train conveying Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, -through the oil-regions stopped at Foxburg to afford the imperial guest -an opportunity to see an oil-well torpedoed. He watched the filling of -the shell with manifest interest, dropped the weight after the torpedo -had been lowered and clapped his hands when a column of oil rose in the -air. An irreverent spectator whispered: “This beats playing pedro.” - -Daniel Fisher, ex-mayor of Oil City and chief of the fire-department, -donned a new suit one day when oil-tanks abounded in the Third Ward. -Hearing a cry of distress, he mounted a tank and saw a man lying on the -bottom, in a foot of thick oil. He dropped through the hatchway, pulled -up the victim of gas and with great difficulty dragged him up the small -ladder into the fresh air. Of course, the new clothes were spoiled -beyond hope of redemption. The man revived, said his name was Green, -that he earned a living by cleaning out tank-bottoms and was thus -employed when overcome by gas. Next day Fisher met Green, who thanked -him again for saving his life, borrowed ten dollars and never repaid the -loan or offered to set up a new suit of clothes. - -“Brudders an’ sistern,” ejaculated a colored preacher, “ef we knowed how -much de good Lawd knows about us it wud skeer us mos’ to deff.” A -Franklin preacher once seemed to forget that the Lord was posted -concerning earthly affairs, as he prayed thirty-six minutes at the -exercises on Memorial Day. The sun beat down upon the bare heads of the -assembled multitude, but the divine prayed right along from Plymouth -Rock to the close of the war. Col. J. S. Myers, the veteran lawyer, -presided. Great drops of perspiration rolled down his face, but he was -like the henpecked husband who couldn’t get away and had to grin and -bear it. He summed up the situation in a sentence: “I think ministers -ought to take it for granted that the Almighty knows enough American -history to get along nicely without having it prayed at Him by the -hour!” - -[Illustration: SCENE AT OIL CITY AFTER THE DISASTER ON JUNE 5, 1892.] - -Fire and water have scourged the oil-regions sorely. A flood in March of -1865 submerged Oil City, floated off hundreds of oil-tanks and small -buildings and did damage estimated at four-millions of dollars. Fire in -May of 1866 wiped out half the town, the loss footing up a million -dollars. The most appalling disaster occurred on Sunday, June fifth, -1892. Heavy rains raised Oil Creek to such a height that mill-dams at -Spartansburg and Riceville gave way, precipitating a vast mass of water -upon Titusville during Saturday night. With a roar like thunder it -struck the town. Sleepers were awakened by the resistless tide and -drowned. Refineries and tanks of oil caught fire and covered acres of -the watery waste with flames. Helpless men, women and children tottered -and tumbled and disappeared, the death-roll exceeding fifty. The two -elements seemed to strive which could work the greater destruction. -Above Oil City a huge tank of benzine was undermined and upset on Friday -morning. The combustible stuff floated on the creek, which had risen -four feet over the floors of houses on the flats. The boiler-fire at a -well near the Lake-Shore tunnel ignited the cloud of benzine. An -explosion followed such as mortal eyes and ears have seldom seen and -heard. The report shook the city to its foundations. A solid sheet of -flame rose hundreds of feet and enveloped the flats in its fatal -embrace. Houses charred and blazed at its deadly touch and fifty persons -perished horribly. The sickening scene reminded me of the Johnstown -carnage in 1889, with its miles of flooded ruins and dreadful blaze at -the railroad-bridge. Whole families were blotted out. Edwin Mills, his -wife and their five children died together. Heroic rescues and marvelous -escapes were frequent. John Halladay Gordon saved forty people in his -boat, rowing it amid the angry flames and swirling waters at imminent -risk. The recital of brave deeds and thrilling experiences would fill a -volume. That memorable Sunday was the saddest day Oil City and -Titusville ever witnessed. The awful grandeur of the spectacle at both -places has had no parallel. - -Sweeping into the yards of a refinery at the upper end of Titusville, -the water tore open a tank containing five-thousand gallons of gasoline. -Farther down an oil-tank and a gasoline-tank were rent in twain. Water -covered the streets and shut people in their houses. The gas-works and -the electric-plant were submerged and the city was in darkness. At -midnight a curious mist lay thick and dense and white for a few feet -above the water. It was the gasoline vapor, a cartridge a half-mile -long, a quarter-mile wide and two yards thick, with a coating of oil -beneath, waiting to be fired. One arm of the mist reached into the open -furnaces of the Crescent Works and touched the live coals on the grate. -There was a flash as if the heavens had been split asunder. Then the -explosion came and death and havoc reigned. And the horror was repeated -at Oil City, until people wondered if the Day of Judgment could be more -terrifying. The infinite pity and sadness of it all! - -The burning of the Acme Refinery at Titusville, on June eleventh, 1886, -entailed a loss of six-hundred-thousand dollars. It caught from a tank -lightning had struck. By great efforts the railroad-bridge and the -Octave Refinery were saved. The fire raged three days and nights, and -the departments from Warren, Corry and Oil City were called to render -assistance. Hardly a town in the oil-regions has been unharmed by fire -or flood, while many have been ravaged by both. - -[Illustration: RUINS OF THE ACME REFINERY, TITUSVILLE, AFTER THE FIRE ON -JUNE 1, 1880.] - -The fire that desolated St. Petersburg started in Fred Hepp’s -beer-saloon. Hepp had a sign representing a man attempting to lift a -schooner of lager as big as himself and remarking, “Oxcuse me ov you -bleese.” The fire “oxcused” him from further exertion. Two destructive -conflagrations almost eliminated Parker from the face of the earth. -Karns City experienced three fiery visitations. In 1874 sixty-four -buildings in the heart of town went up in smoke. Sixteen followed in -September, 1876, the post-office and two largest stores figuring in the -list. On March fifth, 1877, Mrs. F. E. Bateman, three children and a -guest perished in the Bateman House. Bateman, one son and one guest were -caught in the flames and burned fatally, dying in a few hours. Burning -coals adhering to a chunk of a bursting boiler, on Cherry Run, near the -Reed well, plunged into a tank of oil and started a frightful blaze. -Acres of the valley, covered with derricks and tanks, flamed with the -fury of a veritable hell. Men fled to the hills and no life was lost. A -train of blazing tank-cars on the Allegheny-Valley Railroad, below -Foster station, interrupted travel for many hours. The passenger-train -from Pittsburg stopped and the passengers walked up the track to see the -huge blaze. Thomas Bennett, the engineer, went a short distance ahead, -when an iron-tank exploded with fearful violence, one piece striking -Bennett in the breast and killing him instantly. David Ker was conductor -of the train poor Bennett did not live to guide to its destination. - -[Illustration: THOMAS MARTINDALE.] - -Thomas Martindale, who leads the retail-grocery trade, brought with him -to Philadelphia twenty years ago the vim and energy that gained him fame -and fortune in the oil-region. He clerked for years in a Boston -dry-goods store, quit Massachusetts for Pennsylvania and landed at Oil -City in 1869. He took the first job that offered—grubbing out a road to -his wells for John S. Rich—used eyes and brain and soon knew how to “run -engine.” Buying an interest in a grocery, his “Checkered Store” became -noted for excellent wares and low prices. The “Blue Store,” larger and -better, followed and was in turn succeeded by the “Mammoth.” Martindale -sold to Steffee & Co., moved to Philadelphia and opened the first -California store. It was a revelation to the citizens to get fruits and -wines straight from the Pacific coast and they patronized him liberally. -Partners were taken in, whom the head of the firm imbued with something -of his own energy and magnetism. Active in politics and trade, -wide-awake and public-spirited, many Philadelphians contend that the -next mayor of the Quaker City shall spell his name Thomas Martindale. He -is a trenchant writer and has published “Sport Royal,” an admirable work -descriptive of hunting adventures in which he participated. The live -merchant who caught the inspiration of five-dollar oil is sixteen ounces -to the pound every time and every place. - -“Never quarrel with a preacher or an editor,” said Henry Clay, “for the -one can slap you from the pulpit and the other hit you in his paper -without your getting a chance to strike back.” Col. William Phillips, -president of the Allegheny-Valley Railroad, violated the Kentucky -statesman’s wise maxim by making war on the Oil-City _Derrick_. He was -building the Low-Grade division, from Red Bank to Emporium, and the -main-line suffered. The track was neglected, decayed ties and broken -rails were common and accidents occurred too frequently for comfort. The -winter and spring of 1873 were fruitful of disaster. At Rockland an -oil-train ran over the steep bank into the river, upsetting the -passenger-coach at the rear. The oil caught fire, several passengers -were burned to death and others were terribly injured. The railroad -officials, acting under orders from headquarters, refused to give -information to the crowd of frantic people who besieged the office at -Oil City to learn the fate of friends on the train. To the last moment -they denied that anything serious had happened, although passengers able -to walk to Rockland Station telegraphed brief particulars. At last a -train bearing some of the injured reached Oil City. Next morning the -_Derrick_ gave full details and criticised the management of the road -severely for the bad condition of the track and the stupid attempt to -withhold information. The heading of the article—“Hell Afloat”—enraged -Col. Phillips. He and Superintendent J. J. Lawrence prepared a circular -to the conductors, instructing them “to take up pass of C. E. Bishop or -J. J. McLaurin whenever presented, collect full fare, prohibit newsboys -from selling the Oil-City _Derrick_ on the trains, not allow the paper -to be carried except in the mails or as express-matter, and to report to -the General Superintendent.” Conductor Wench, a pleasant, genial fellow, -on my next trip from Parker looked perplexed as he greeted me. He -hesitated, walked past, returned in a few moments and asked to see my -pass. The document was produced, he drew a letter from his pocket and -showed it to me. It was the order signed by Phillips and Lawrence. -“That’s clear enough, here’s your fare,” was my rejoinder. It was agreed -at the office to say nothing for a day or two. Doubtless Phillips and -Lawrence thought the paper had been scared and would send a flag of -truce. A big wreck afforded the opportunity to open hostilities. For -months the war raged. The paper had a regular heading—“Another Accident -on the Valley of the Shadow Road”—which was printed every morning. -Accidents multiplied and travel sought other lines. Phillips threatened -to remove the shops from South Oil City, his partners wished Bishop to -let up, he refused and they bought his interest. Peace was proclaimed, -the road was put into decent order and the Pennsylvania Railroad -eventually secured it. The fight had no end of comical features. It -worried Col. Phillips exceedingly and spread the reputation of the -_Derrick_ over the continent. The cruel war is over and Col. Phillips -and Col. Lawrence journeyed to the tomb long years ago. - -“Jim” Collins—he ought to be manager—is about the only one of the early -conductors on the Allegheny-Valley Railroad still in the traces. His -record of twenty-seven years shows capable, faithful attention to duty -and care for the comfort and safety of passengers that has gained him -the highest popularity. Superintendent “Tom” King, now vice-president of -the Baltimore & Ohio, is among the foremost railroad-officials of the -United States. His brother was crushed to death by the cars. Wench, the -Taylors, Reynolds and Bonar have been off the road many years. Long -trains of crude are also missing, some towns along the route have -disappeared and the crowds of operators who formerly thronged the line -between Parker and Oil City have vanished from the scene. David Kerr, -whom Collins succeeded, went to Arkansas. John McGinnes, one of the -bravest engineers who ever pulled a throttle, headed the -railroad-strikers in 1877 and died six years ago. “Jim” Bonnar is in -Chicago, Grant Thomas is train-dispatcher and “Dick” Reynolds -superintends a Baltimore road. The Allegheny-Valley, extended to -Oil-City in the winter of 1867-8, is different from what it was when the -superintendent walked over the entire track every day and the president -applied formally to the directors for authority to purchase a new lock -for his desk. - -The first railroad to enter Oil City was the Atlantic & Great Western, -now of the Erie system, in 1866. Its first train crossed the mouth of -Oil Creek on a track laid upon the ice. “Billy” Stevens and John Babcock -were early conductors. Stevens went to Maine and Babcock died several -years ago at Meadville, soon after completing a term as mayor of the -city. The Farmers’ Railroad was finished in 1867, the Allegheny Valley -in 1868 and the Lake-Shore in 1870. A short railroad up Sage Run -conveyed coal from the Cranberry mines. On August fourth, 1882, the -engineer—Frank Wright—lost control of a train on the down grade, one of -the steepest in the state. He reversed the engine to the last notch and -jumped, sustaining injuries that caused his death in four days. For two -miles the track was torn up and coal-cars were smashed to splinters by -running into a train of freight-cars at McAlevy’s Mills. Six men were -killed outright and five died from their injuries next day. - -The popular auditor of the New York Central, W. F. McCullough, was an -Oil-City boy. His brother, James McCullough, is traveling-auditor of the -New York, New Haven & Hartford; another brother, E. M. McCullough, is -traveling bill-agent for the U. S. Steamship-Railway Company. They are -sons of the late Dr. T. C. McCullough, who died at Oil City in 1896. - -[Illustration: WILLIAM H. STEVENS.] - -[Illustration: FRANK THOMSON.] - -[Illustration: JOHN BABCOCK.] - -Hon. Thomas Struthers, of Warren, who died in 1892 at the age of -eighty-nine, donated the town a public-library building that cost -ninety-thousand dollars. He aided in constructing the Pennsylvania -Railroad, built sections of the Philadelphia & Erie and Oil-Creek -Railroads and the first railroad in California. He was the first manager -of the Oil-Creek road. Frank Thomson, the capable president of the -Pennsylvania Railroad, was also superintendent of the Oil-Creek. C. J. -Hepburn, now residing in Harrisburg and permanently disabled as the -result of an accident, held the same position for years. He was a -thorough railroader, esteemed alike by the employés and the public for -his efficient performance of duty. The old-time Oil-Creek conductors -were lock-switch, steel-track and rock-ballast clear through. Gleason, -postmaster at Corry a term or two, runs the Mansion House at Titusville. -“Bill” Miller is on the Pacific coast. Mack Dobbins died at St. Louis -and “By” Taylor has made his last trip. Barber lives at Buffalo. “Mike” -Silk, who yanked oil-trains from Cherry Run, is a wealthy citizen of -Warren. Selden Stone and “Pap” Richards are still on deck, the last of a -coterie of as white railroad-men as ever punched pasteboard “in the -presence of the passenjare.” - - “We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; - In feelings, not in figures on a dial.” - -[Illustration: A. G. POST] - -[Illustration: J. J. YOUNGSON.] - -[Illustration: A. B. YOUNGSON.] - -Few railroaders are so widely and favorably known as A. B. Youngson. For -twenty-three years he was locomotive-engineer on the Atlantic road. -Every man, woman and child on the Franklin branch, between Meadville and -Oil City, knew and liked the clever, competent man who sat in the cab -and never neglected his duty. Seven years ago Mr. Youngson was appointed -Assistant Grand Chief of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, a -position his experience and geniality adapt him admirably to fill. His -brother, J. J. Youngson, has been connected with the Atlantic road—now -called the New York, Philadelphia & Ohio—for thirty years as -superintendent of the water-works department of the system. A. G. Post, -a veteran ever to be found at his post, is deservedly popular as a -conductor. Peter Bowen, the trusty roadmaster, who used to keep the -track in apple-pie order, years ago traveled the track “across the -divide.” From President Thomas down to the humblest laborer the “Nypano” -officials and employés are not excelled in efficiency, courtesy and -manliness. - -[Illustration: ANDREW CARNEGIE.] - -[Illustration: DAVID MCCARGO.] - -Andrew Carnegie, the colossus of the iron-trade, was a stockholder of -the Columbia Oil-Company, which operated the Storey farm, on Oil -Creek. The money he obtained from this source enabled him to gain -control of the Braddock Steel-Works. Starting in life as a telegraph -messenger-boy, he soon learned to manipulate the key expertly and was -placed in charge of the railroad-office at Atlantic, Ohio. Thomas A. -Scott, then superintendent of the Pittsburg Division of the -Pennsylvania Railroad, engaged him as his clerk and operator. Scott -established his headquarters at Altoona and promoted young Carnegie to -the chief-clerkship. His shrewdness and fidelity won favor and -advancement. He was appointed superintendent of the Pittsburg -Division, and in 1864 selected David McCargo as his assistant. -McCargo, who had been operator in the Commercial Telegraph office, -superintended the Pennsylvania-Railroad telegraph-service. Robert -Pitcairn, first an operator at Hollidaysburg, was transferred to -Altoona, went thence to Fort Wayne with J. N. DuBarry, afterwards -vice-president of the “Pennsy,” and returned about 1870 to succeed -Carnegie on the Pittsburg Division. He is now one of the highest -officials of the Pennsylvania and lives in Pittsburg. Mr. McCargo -became General Superintendent of the Pacific & Atlantic Lines in 1868. -In 1875 he was appointed General Superintendent of the Allegheny -Valley Railroad. This responsible position he has held twenty-two -years, greatly to the advantage of the road and the satisfaction of -the public. Carnegie invested in oil and sleeping-car stock and -enjoyed Col. Scott’s confidence. The railroad-king died and his clever -clerk eventually controlled the steel plant ten miles east of -Pittsburg. Now Andrew Carnegie bosses the steel-industry, owns the -largest steel-plants in the world, manufactures massive armor-plate -for war-ships—blow-holes blew holes in its reputation “once upon a -time”—and has acquired forty or fifty-millions by the sweat of his -workmen’s brows. He has parks and castles in Scotland, spends much of -his time and cash abroad, coaches with princes and nobles and lets H. -C. Frick fricasee the toilers at Braddock and Homestead. The Homestead -riots, precipitated by a ruffianly horde of Pinkerton thugs, aroused a -storm of indignation which defeated Benjamin Harrison for the -presidency and elected Grover Cleveland on the issue of tariff-reform. -Mr. Carnegie writes soul-stirring magazine articles on the duties of -capital to labor and has established numerous public-libraries. He is -stoutly built and exceedingly healthy. His enormous fortune may yet -endow some magnificent charity. - - “Oh! it is excellent to have a giant’s strength, - But it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.” - -You may meet them at Oshkosh or Kalamazoo, in New York or Washington, -around Chicago or San Francisco, about New Orleans or Mexico, but not a -few men conspicuously successful in finance, manufactures, literature or -politics have been mixed up with oil some time in their career. -Commodore Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, James Fisk, Thomas A. Scott, John A. -Garrett and A. J. Cassatt profited largely from their oil-interests. Mr. -Cassatt, superintending the Warren & Franklin Railroad, acquired the -knowledge of oil-affairs he turned to account in shaping the -transportation-policy of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Besides the colossal -gains of the Standard Oil-Company, petroleum won for such men as Captain -J. J. Vandergrift, J. T. Jones, J. M. Guffey, John McKeown, John Galey, -J. J. Carter, Charles Miller, Frederic Prentice, S. P. McCalmont, -William Hasson, George V. Forman, Thomas W. Phillips, John Satterfield, -H. L. Taylor, John Pitcairn, Theodore Barnsdall, E. O. Emerson, Dr. -Roberts, George K. Anderson, Jonathan Watson, Hunter & Cummings, -Greenlee & Forst, the Grandins, the Mitchells, the Fishers, the -McKinneys, the Plumers, the Lambertons and a host of others from one to -ten-millions apiece. Certainly coal, cotton or iron, or all three -combined, can show no such list. Oil augmented the fortunes of Stephen -Weld, Oliver Ames and F. Gordon Dexter, the largest in New England. It -put big money into the pockets of Andrew Carnegie, William H. Kemble and -Dr. Hostetter. To it the great tube-works, employing thousands of men, -and multitudes of manufacturing-plants owe their existence and -prosperity. Some of the brightest newspaper-writers in New York, -Philadelphia and Chicago learned force and directness amid the exciting -scenes of Oildom. Several are authors of repute and contributors to -magazines. Grover Cleveland, while mayor of Buffalo, imbibed -business-wisdom and notions of sturdy independence from his acquaintance -with Bradford oil-operators. Governor Curtin was a large stockholder in -oil-companies on Cherry Run and Governor Beaver may claim kin with the -fraternity as the owner of oil-wells in Forest county. No member of -Congress for a generation made a better record than J. H. Osmer, Dr. -Egbert, J. C. Sibley, C. W. Stone and Thomas W. Phillips. Galusha A. -Grow was president of the Reno Oil-Company. Mr. Sibley was tendered the -second place on the Democratic ticket at Chicago and could have been -nominated for president, instead of William J. Bryan, but for the stupid -hostility of a Pennsylvania boss. More capable, influential members than -W. S. McMullan, Lewis Emery, J. W. Lee, W. R. Crawford, William H. -Andrews, Captain Hasson, Willis J. Hulings, Henry F. James and John L. -Mattox never sat in the State Senate or the Legislature. And so it goes -in every part of the country, in every profession, in every branch of -industry and in every business requiring vigor and enterprise. - -Michael Geary, whose death last year was a severe blow to Oil City, -forcibly illustrated what energy and industry may accomplish. He was a -first-class boiler-maker and machinist, self-reliant, stout-hearted and -strong mentally and physically. In 1876 he started the Oil-City -Boiler-Works in a small building, Daniel O’Day and B. W. Vandergrift -furnishing the money and taking an interest in the business. O’Day and -Geary became sole owners in 1882. The plant was enlarged, the tube-mills -were added, acres of buildings dotted the flats and a thousand men were -employed. Engines, tanks, stills, tubing, casing and boilers of every -description were manufactured. The machinery comprised the latest and -fullest equipment. The business grew amazingly. Joseph Seep was admitted -to partnership and branch-offices were established in New York, Chicago, -Pittsburg and at various points in the oil-producing states. The firm -led the world as tank-builders, actually constructing one-third the -total iron-tankage in the United States. Mr. Geary bought and remodeled -the Arlington Hotel, fostered local enterprises and was a most -progressive citizen. He died in the vigor of manhood. The splendid -industries he reared and the high place he held in public esteem are his -enduring monument. - - “He had kept - The whiteness of his soul, and thus men o’er him wept.” - -Since Christmas day of 1873, when they struck their first well at -Millerstown, Showalter Brothers have been leading operators in the -Butler field. Hon. Joseph B. Showalter, who has managed the firm’s -affairs wisely, was born in Fayette County, taught school at sixteen, -relinquished teaching for medicine, and was graduated in 1884 from the -Baltimore College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1886 he was elected to -the legislature and to the state-senate two years later, making an -excellent record in both bodies. Butler county nominated him for -Congress, but Lawrence and Mercer combined in favor of J. J. Davidson. -Dr. Showalter is a substantial citizen, in close touch with the people -and worthy of the confidence reposed in him. Hon. M. L. Lockwood, for -seven years a resident of Butler, represented Clarion county twice in -the legislature and introduced the Free-Pipe Bill. Robert Lockwood, the -founder of the family in America, came from England with Winthrop in -1630. Mr. Lockwood began oil-operations on Cherry Run in 1865, opposed -the South-Improvement rascality zealously and was a member of the -Producers’ Committee that secured the passage by Congress of the -Interstate-Commerce Bill. He is largely interested in oil and manages a -hundred wells for Tait & Patterson. - -[Illustration: JOSEPH B. SHOWALTER.] - -In the days of oil-shipments by boat and teaming, before the advent of -pipe-lines, Watson, Densmore & Co. handled large quantities of crude in -barrels, hauling it from the wells to the nearest railroad-station. -Daniel T. Watson, senior member of the firm, was born in Maine in 1806, -learned harness-making, conducted a profitable store in New Hampshire -and came to Oil Creek with James Densmore early in the sixties. He -bought the oil and managed the shipping-business of the firm, which -employed scores of teams to haul crude from wells at Shamburg and boat -it from wells on the banks of Oil-Creek to the loading-tanks at Miller -Farm. When the railroad reached Boyd Farm the firm opened a branch -office at Pioneer and shipped east most of the oil produced on Bull, -Pioneer and Benninghoff Runs, in the “blue cars” Watson, Densmore & Co. -were the first to introduce. Clinton Rouderbush, afterwards well known -in the exchanges, represented the firm in New York. Pipe lines ending -primitive modes of transportation, Mr. Watson operated largely in the -Pleasantville field, in connection with Benson & McKelvy, Lewis Emery -and Samuel Q. Brown. He lived two years on the Morrison farm, removed to -Minnesota in 1873 and died at Lakeland on July first, 1894. Mr. Watson -was prominent in his day and did much to put oil-shipping on a solid -basis. - -[Illustration: - - DANIEL T. WATSON. - JOEL DENSMORE. - WILLIAM DENSMORE. -] - -[Illustration: JAMES DENSMORE.] - -[Illustration: EMMETT DENSMORE.] - -The Densmores lived on Woodcock Creek, twenty miles from Titusville, -when the Drake well startled the quiet community. The father and his son -Amos visited the well and soon contrived a metal-shoe to fix to a -wooden-pipe to cheapen drilling. Emmett Densmore traversed the -oil-region to sell the shoes, often walking forty miles a day. Jonathan -Watson leased him land on the flats below Titusville, Amos had good -credit and the pair put down a dry-hole with a spring-pole. They leased -a piece of ground from James Tarr and drilled the Elephant well, so -named from the “monster tank”—twenty-five hundred barrels—Amos -constructed from pine-planks to hold the great flow of oil. The Elephant -yielded hundreds of barrels daily and the other brothers—James, William -and Joel—were invited to come into the partnership. Amos was given to -invention and he made bulk-boats, the first tanks for storing crude and -the first wooden-tanks—forty to fifty barrels each—for platform-cars. -With Daniel T. Watson they shipped extensively until pipe-lines retired -barrels, pond-freshets and bulk-boats permanently. The brothers sank -many wells and acquired wealth. Amos, James and Joel have passed over to -the better land. Amos and George W. N. Yost, once the largest -oil-shipper, perfected the famous Densmore Type-Writer. James bought out -the Remington Type-Writer. London is Emmett’s home and he has attained -prominence as a physician. His wife, Dr. Helen Densmore, assists in his -practice and has written a book in behalf of Mrs. Maybrick, whose -imprisonment has aroused so much sympathy. William Densmore owns a big -flour-mill and the Central Market at Erie. The Densmores possessed -energy, genius and manliness that merited the success which rewarded -their efforts in various lines of human activity. - -[Illustration: ISAAC REINEMAN.] - -[Illustration: JOHN B. SMITHMAN.] - -[Illustration: T. PRESTON MILLER.] - -These early shipping-times developed many men of exceptional ability and -character. T. Preston Miller was long a familiar figure on Oil Creek and -at Franklin, as buyer for the Burkes and later for Fisher Brothers. -“Pres” was generous, popular and most accommodating in his dealings. The -snows of a dozen winters have blown over his grave in the Franklin -cemetery. The late Isaac Reineman was another of Oil City’s trustworthy -pioneers. He bought oil, operated in the lower districts with William M. -Leckey, served three terms as prothonotary and died in January, 1893, -from the effects of slipping on the icy porch the night before -Christmas. He had charge of Captain Vandergrift’s oil properties in -Washington county and, with Charles Ford, held blocks of land in West -Virginia. Ford was found dead in bed last year. John B. Smithman, who -came to the Creek to buy oil for John Munhall & Co., has been enriched -by his operations in Venango county and the northern fields. He built a -beautiful home in Oil City and overcame stacks of obstacles to give the -town a street railway. He has provided a delightful park four miles down -the Allegheny, built a steel bridge across the river and positively -refused to be ruled off the track by any opposing element. “People do -not kick a corpse.” - -[Illustration: JOHN EATON.] - -Progression is the unchanging watchword of the petroleum-industry. The -three-pole derrick of yore has given place to the plank-giant that soars -eighty or ninety feet. The spring-pole is a shadowy memory. The first -drilling-tools weighed ninety-eight pounds; a modern set weighs two -tons. Instead of spending weeks to “kick down” a well a hundred feet, a -thousand feet can be bored between Monday morning and Saturday night. -Ten-horse portable engines and boilers are well-nigh forgotten. The -first iron-pipe for tubing wells, butt-weld ready to burst on the -slightest provocation, was manufactured in Massachusetts and sold for -one dollar per foot. Now lap-weld tubing of the best material brings a -dime a foot. So it is in methods of transportation and refining. -Bulk-boats, leaky barrels and long hauls through fathomless mud are -superseded by pipe-lines, which pump oil from the wells to New York, -Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland and Chicago. The rickety stills and -dangerous devices of former times have yielded to the splendid -refineries that utilize every vestige of crude and furnish two-hundred -merchantable commodities. For much of this important advance in tools, -appliances and machinery the great Oil-Well Supply-Company is directly -responsible. From small beginnings it has grown to dazzling proportions. -It is the only concern on earth with the facilities and capacity to -manufacture everything needed to drill and operate oil-wells and -artesian-wells and equip refineries. Its nine enormous plants at -convenient points employ thousands of skilled workmen and acres of the -latest machinery. They turn out every conceivable requisite in steel, -iron, brass or wood, from engines and complete rigs to the smallest -fittings. John Eaton, the founder and president of the company, may -fairly claim to be the father of the well-supply trade. His connection -with it dates back to 1861 and has continued ever since. He started -business for himself in 1867 and the next year took up his abode in the -oil-region. In 1869 he and E. H. Cole formed the partnership of Eaton & -Cole, which the Eaton, Cole & Burnham Company of New York succeeded. -Several rival firms organized the Oil-Well Supply Company, Limited, in -1878, with Mr. Eaton at its head. The present corporation succeeded the -Limited Company in 1891. Mr. Eaton’s enterprise and experience are -invaluable to the company. All new inventions adapted to wells or -refineries are examined carefully and the most valuable purchased. -Branch-offices and factories have kept pace with the spread of -oil-developments. The Company’s wares find a market in every civilized -land. Vice-President Kenton Chickering, first-class clear through, -manages the large establishment at Oil City. Pittsburg is now Mr. -Eaton’s home. He is genial and courteous always, prompt and sagacious in -business, broad in his ideas and true to his convictions, and his -Oil-Well Supply-Company is something to be proud of. - -[Illustration: GEORGE KOCH.] - -George Koch, a native of Venango county and relative of the celebrated -Dr. Koch of Germany, is a well-known inventor and writer. He began -oil-operations in 1865, in 1873 formed a partnership with his brother -and Dr. Knight, in 1880 organized the firm of Koch Brothers—William A., -J. H. and George Koch—and was nominated three times for the legislature. -He took an active part in the Producers’ Council, edited the Fern-City -_Illuminator_ and published a book of “Stray Thoughts.” He invented a -torpedo for oil-wells, improved drilling-tools and well-appliances, -patented a system of “Sectional Iron Tanks,” a “Rubber-Packing,” -“Movable Store-Shelving” and other useful devices. Mr. Koch has just -rounded the half-century mark, he lives in East Sandy and no man has -done more to simplify the methods of sinking and operating wells. - -Col. L. H. Fassett is one of the honored veterans of the late war and a -veteran operator in heavy oil. For nearly thirty years he has been a -leader in the Franklin district, operating successfully and enjoying the -esteem of all classes. He has a delightful home, is active in furthering -good objects and doesn’t worry a particle when oil happens to drop a -peg. - -[Illustration: COL. L. H. FASSETT.] - -Twelve miles south-east of Pittsburg, on the Bedell farm, near West -Elizabeth, the Forest Oil-Company is drilling the deepest well on the -continent. It is down fifty-five-hundred feet, considerably more than a -mile, and will be put to six-thousand at least. Geologists and -scientists are much interested in the strata and the temperatures at -different depths. This is the deepest well ever attempted to be sunk -with a cable, the one near Reibuck, Eastern Silesia, having been bored -about seven-thousand feet with rotating diamond core-drills. T. S. -Kinsey and his two sons, of Wellsburg, drilled a dry-hole -forty-five-hundred feet in 1891, on Boggs’ Run, West Virginia, near -Wheeling, for a local company. Think how progress has been marching on -since Drake’s seventy-foot gopher-hole to render the Forest’s -achievement possible! Surely petroleum-life is as full of promise as a -bill-collector’s. - -Hon. Thomas W. Phillips, the wealthy oil-producer, who declined to serve -a third term in Congress, labored zealously to secure legislation that -would settle differences between employers and employés by arbitration. -He offered to pay a quarter-million dollars to meet the expense of a -thorough Congressional inquiry into the condition of labor, with a view -to the presentation of an authoritative report and the adoption of -measures calculated to prevent strikes and promote friendly relations. -When the suspension of drilling in the oil-region deprived thousands of -work for some months, Mr. Phillips was especially active in effecting -arrangements by which they received the profits upon two-million barrels -of crude set apart for their benefit. The Standard Oil-Company, always -considerate to labor, heartily furthered the plan, which the rise in oil -rendered a signal success. This was the first time in the history of any -business that liberal provision was made for workmen thrown out of -employment by the stoppage of operations. What a contrast to the -grinding and squeezing and shooting of miners and coke-workers by -“coal-barons” and “iron-kings!” When you come to size them up the -oil-men don’t have to shrink into a hole to avoid close scrutiny. They -pay their bills, are just to honest toil, generous to the poor and manly -from top to toe. They may not relish rheumatism, but this doesn’t compel -them to hate the poor fellow it afflicts. As Tiny Tim observed: “God -bless us every one!” - -“Ivry gintleman will soon go horseback on his own taykittle” was the -inspired exclamation of an Irish baronet upon beholding the initial trip -of the first locomotive. Vast improvements in the application of power -have been effected since Stephenson’s grand triumph, nowhere more -satisfactorily than in the oil-regions. Producers who remember the -primitive methods in vogue along Oil Creek can best appreciate the -wonderful progress made during three decades. The tedious process of -drilling wet-holes with light tools has gone where the woodbine twineth. -Casing has retired the seed-bag permanently, and from the polish-rod to -the working-barrel not the smallest detail remains unimproved. Having a -portable engine and boiler at each well has given place to the cheaper -plan of coupling a host of wells together, two men thus doing the work -that once required twenty or thirty. Pipe-lines have superseded greasy -barrels and swearing teamsters, and even tank-cars are following the -flat-boats of pioneer times to oblivion. In short, labor-saving systems -have revolutionized the business so completely that the fathers of the -early styles would utterly fail to recognize their offspring in the -petroleum-development as conducted now-a-days. - -[Illustration: ROUSTABOUTS PREPARING TO CLEAN OUT A RUSSIAN OIL-WELL.] - -C. L. Wheeler, one of the earliest buyers of crude on Oil Creek in 1860 -and first President of the Bradford Oil-Exchange, recently went to his -eternal reward. Orion Clemens, brother of Mark Twain and once a writer -for the Oil-City _Derrick_, died lately. Truly, the boys are “crossing -the divide” at a rate it grieves the survivors to note. - -The fine illustrations of oil-scenes in Russia are from the collection -of photographs gathered by John Eaton, President of the Oil-Well Supply -Company, during his visits to the dominions of the Czar. “Long may he -wave!” - - Crude sixty-five, - Well, sakes alive! - You seek rich spoil? - Don’t bore for oil. - ’Mid Klondyke snow - You have more show - To score a hit - And save a bit. - -Six-thousand wells drilled and ninety-six-thousand barrels of production -per day represent oil-operations in Pennsylvania in 1897. To this -enormous output Ohio and Indiana added fifty-three-thousand barrels a -day and thirty-six-hundred wells. - -To the indefatigable zeal and liberality of Rev. Thomas Carroll, for -twenty-five years in charge of the parish, Oil City owes the erection of -the finest church in Northwestern Pennsylvania. The beautiful edifice -fitly crowns the summit of Cottage Hill. Its two lofty spires point -heavenward and its altar is a marvel of exquisite taste and finish. An -elegant parsonage stands on the adjacent lot, with the parochial school -across the street. It is proposed to rebuild the schools, to supply a -large hall and a convent and to provide every convenience for the -various societies connected with the grand congregation. This idea is -rendered possible by the splendid offer of Father Carroll to pay -one-half the entire cost himself. The good work he has done for -temperance, education, morality and religion cannot be estimated. He is -distinguished by his catholic spirit, his broad charity, his unwearied -philanthropy and his unswerving devotion to the right. No man has made a -deeper, nobler impress upon any community in the oil-regions than the -beloved pastor of St. Joseph’s. “Late may he return to Heaven!” - - “Each man makes his own stature, builds himself; - Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids; - Her monuments shall last when Egypt’s fall.” - -A host of changes, some pleasing and more unutterably sad, have the -swift seasons brought. The scene of active operations has shifted often. -The great Bradford region and the rich fields around Pittsburg and -Butler have had their innings. Parker, Petrolia, St. Petersburg, -Millerstown and Greece City have followed Plumer, Shaffer, Pioneer, -Red-Hot and Oleopolis to the limbo of forsaken things. Petroleum Centre -is a memory only. Rouseville is reduced to a skeleton. Not a trace of -Antwerp, or Pickwick, or Triangle is left. Enterprise resembles -Goldsmith’s “Deserted Village,” or Ossian’s “Balaclutha.” Tip-Top, -Modoc, Troutman, Turkey City, St. Joe, Shamburg, Edenburg and Buena -Vista have had their rise and fall. Fagundas has vanished. Pleasantville -fails to draw an army of adventurous seekers for oleaginous wealth. -Tidioute is an echo of the past and scores of minor towns have -disappeared completely. For forms and faces once familiar one looks in -vain. Where are the plucky operators who for a half-score years made Oil -Creek the briskest, gayest, liveliest spot in America? Thousands are -browsing in pastures elsewhere, while other thousands have crossed the -bridgeless river which flows into the ocean of eternity. - -Alas for sentiment! Nero proves to have been a humanitarian, a good man -who was merely a bad fiddler. Henry the Eighth turns out to be a model -husband, rather unfortunate in the loss of wives, but sweetly indulgent -and only a trifle given to fall in love with pretty girls. William Tell -had no son and shot no arrow at an apple on young Tell’s head. Now -Charlotte Temple is a myth, the creation of an English novelist, with -her name cut on a flat tombstone in Trinity Churchyard over a grave -which originally bore a metal-plate supposed to commemorate a man! At -this rate some historic sharp in the future may demonstrate that the -oil-men were a race of green-tinted people governed by King Petroleum. -Colonel Drake may be pronounced a figure of the imagination, the -Standard a fiction, the South-Improvement Company a nightmare and the -Producers’ Association a dream. Then some inquisitive antiquarian may -come across a copy of “Sketches in Crude-Oil” stored in a forgotten -corner of the Congressional library, and set them all right and keep the -world running in the correct groove with regard to the grand industry of -the nineteenth century. - - “I stood upon Achilles’ tomb - And heard Troy doubted: time will doubt of Rome.” - -A dry-joke tickles and a dry-hole scrunches. It’s a poor mule won’t work -both ways, a poor spouter that can’t keep its owner from going up the -spout, a poor boil in the pot that isn’t better than a boil on the neck, -a poor chestnut on the tree that doesn’t beat a chestnut at a minstrel -show and a poor seed that produces no root or herb or grain or fruit or -flower. “Who made you?” the Sunday-school teacher asked a ragged urchin. -“Made me? Well, God made me a foot long and I growed the rest!” And so -the early operators on Oil Creek made the oil-development “a foot long” -and it “growed the rest.” The tiny seed is a vigorous plant, the puling -babe a lusty giant. Amid lights and shadows, clouds and sunshine, -successes and failures, struggles and triumphs, starless nights and -radiant days, petroleum has moved ahead steadily. Growth, “creation by -law,” is ever going on in the healthy plant, the tree, the animal, the -mind, the universe. We must go forward if the acorn is to become an oak, -the infant a mature man, the feeble industry a sturdy development. -Progress implies more of _in_volution than of _e_volution, just as the -oak contains much that was not in the acorn, and the oil-business in -1898 possesses elements unknown in 1859. Not to advance is to go -backward in religion, in nature and in trade. “An absentee God, sitting -idle ever since the first Sabbath, on the outside of the universe, and -_seeing_ it go,” is not a correct idea of the All-Wise Being, working -actively in every point of space and moment of time. Stagnation means -decay in the natural world and death in oil-affairs. The man who sits in -the pasture waiting for the cow to come and be milked will never skim -off the cream. The man who wants to figure as an oil-operator must -bounce the drill and tap the sand and give the stuff a chance to get -into the tanks. Still a youngster in years, the petroleum-colt has -distanced the old nags. The sucker-rod is the pole that knocks the -persimmons. The oil-well is the fountain of universal illumination. The -walking-beam is the real balance of trade and of power. The derrick is -the badge of enlightenment. Petroleum is the bright star that shines for -all mankind and doesn’t propose to be snuffed out or shoved off the -grass. Its past is known, its present may be estimated, but what Canute -dare fence in its future and say: “Thus far shalt thou come and no -farther?” - - If there be friendly readers, as they reckon up the score, - Who find these random “Sketches” not a burden and a bore - Too heavy for digestion and too light for solemn lore— - Who find a grain of pleasure has been added to their store - By some glad reminiscence of the palmy days of yore, - Or tender recollection of the old friends gone before— - Who find some things to cherish and but little to deplore— - Good-bye, our voyage ended, we must anchor on the shore. - The last line has been written, all the labor now is o’er, - The task has had sweet relish from the surface to the core; - The sand-rock is exhausted, for the oil has drain’d each pore, - The derrick stands neglected and we cease to tread its floor; - My feet are on the threshold and my hands are on the door— - The pen falls from my fingers, to be taken up no more. - -[Illustration: The End] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - Transcriber’s Note - -The hyphenation of compound words can be variable. Where the hyphen -occurs on a line or page break, it is retained or removed based on the -most commonly used form. - -Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and -are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original. -The following issues should be noted, along with the resolutions. - - 21.14 27 years, 1 mo[n]th & 14 days. Added. - - 28.24 a considerable flow[.] Added. - - 28.29 Kanawha boatmen[t] and others. Removed. - - 29.21 healing qualitie[s]. Restored. - - 31.30 When they regained con[s]ciousness Added. - - 35.44 at a Na[u/n]cy-Hanks quickstep Inverted. - - 40.11 State-Committe[e] Added. - - 41.2 proba[b]ly near what is now Cuba, N. Y. Added. - - 47.45 Lovely woman and Banquo’s ghost will not Replaced. - “down![’/”] - - 52.4 in thrilling narratives[.] Added. - - 53.45 over to the court-house.[’/”] Replaced. - - 53.47 and the vill[i]age emptied itself Removed. - - 54.2 No wonder Satan’s imps wailed sadly:[”] Removed. - - 58.35 “Law, Jim Sickles![”] I tho’t Removed. - - 65.2 the Highlanders at Lucknow[.] Restored. - - 78.3 West and south-west the Octave Oil[-]Company Replaced. - has operated - - 79.18 sold the building to C. V. Culver for Restored - bank-purposes[.] - - 81.34 per foot to fifty cents[.] Added. - - 84.26 Will[l]iam Raymond Removed. - - 91.6 Captain Willia[n/m] Hasson Replaced. - - 95.25 the h[f/i]gher type of passenger-locomotives Replaced. - - 97.52 born at Friendship, N.Y[,,/.,] in 1850. Replaced. - - 102.7 one-hundred-and forty[ /-]acres Replaced. - - 103.14 were in the thic[h/k]est of the fray Replaced. - - 119.39 [“]Wholly unclassable, Added. - - 121.3 the days of “the middle passage[’/”] Replaced. - - 129.16 [“]Vare vos dose oil-wells now? Added. - - 137.16 five-thir[f/t]y-five a barrel[l] Replaced/Removed. - - 147.25 touring the country and entertain[in]ing Removed. - crowds - - 160.5 who coolly remarked[;/:] Replaced. - - 160.13 where his ancest[e/o]rs Replaced. - - 161.26 Possib[l]y Br’er Elliott Added. - - 168.33 the William Porter farm[,/.] Replaced. - - 169.3 at eight-hundred-and-fifty[-/ ]feet, the Replaced. - Harmonial Well No. 1 - - 180.2 marks the Chase House[,/.] Replaced. - - 191.15 It does upset a man’s cal[c]ulations Added. - - 194.29 missed opening the Sister[s]ville field Added. - - 205.41 velvet-cushions and pneumatic tires[./,] Replaced. - - 213.39 Years of wa[i]ting sharpened the appetite Added. - - 218.18 Two narrow-g[ua/au]ge railroads Transposed - - 218.20 Other narrow-g[ua/au]ges diverged to Warren Transposed - - 222.50 will say that his success is undeserved[.] Added. - - 225.4 rides ever taken on a narrow-g[ua/au]ge road Transposed. - resulted. - - 241.34 at the pit’s mouth free of all charges.[”] Added. - - 248.6 The cross-roads collection of five[-/ ]houses Replaced. - - 249.49 as he sur[y/v]eyed the latitude and longitude Replaced. - - 252.46 Narrow-g[ua/au]ge railroads were built Transposed - - 257.25 rushed into the store with a p[er/re]scription Transposed. - - 264.44 slender build and nervous temperam[o/e]nt, Replaced. - - 267.33 he visited the o[li/il]-region Transposed. - - 271.19 Operat[e/o]rs were feeling Replaced. - - 275.41 are we now?[’/”] Replaced. - - 280.42 and next morning stopped al[r/t]ogether Replaced. - - 288.34 scion of the mult[it]udinous Smith-family. Added. - - 309.43 “Sam” also ina[u]gurated the custom Added. - - 318.42 from the Noble & Del[e/a]mater well Replaced. - - 337.36 “‘You are J. C. Bailey, I believe.’[”] Removed. - - 337.40 advertise for you.’[”] Removed - - 338.49 an unpleasant pr[o/e]monition of the red-hot Replaced. - hereafter - - 349.1 discarded the b[o]urgeois skirt Added. - - 358.32 that ever edified a community[,/.] Replaced. - - 362.8 “Life of Washington and the Signers of the Added. - Declaration of Independence.[”] - - 365.4 dissecting a su[s]picious job Added. - - 366.8 The Shake[s]pearian parodies Added. - - 377.51 and hy[p]notism.” Added. - - 378.15 An[’] we hed formed a pardnership Added. - - 380.38 Sister[s]ville, the centre of activity in West Added. - Virginia, - - 390.36a and medical aid summon[e]d. Added. - - 390.36b He remained uncon[s]cious two hours Added. - - 391.27 To ensure co[n/m]parative safety Replaced. - - 393.5 which Nit[r]o-Glycerine in its fluid state Added. - resembles closely, - - 414.11 under the manag[e]ment of one Board of Added. - Trustees - - 411.38 The cost of transpor[t]ation Added. - - 412.31 to sell at ex[h]orbitant prices Removed. - - 416.32 connected with the Standard[.] Added. - - 416.34 not connected with the Standard[./,] and never Replaced. - owned - - 419.47 yielding only malaria and [shakes] _sic_: - snakes? - - 424.6 kindly, affable and thoroug[h]ly upright. Added. - - 432.22 In this sand at three feet[ ]pressure of gas _sic_: the? - - 439.11 Corry and [C/O]il City were called Replaced. - - 445.30 who has managed the firm[’]s affairs wisely Added. - - 446.22 on a solid basis[.] Added. - - 449.17 scientists are much interested [l/i]n the Replaced. - strata - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Sketches in Crude-oil, by John J. McLaurin - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES IN CRUDE-OIL *** - -***** This file should be named 53672-0.txt or 53672-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/6/7/53672/ - -Produced by KD Weeks, Chris Curnow and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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