History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I, Part 43

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362

USA > California > Fresno County > History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I > Part 43

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California total crude oil shipments for 1917 furnished an unprecedented record: Total, 108,764,487 barrels; daily average. 207,986. Shipments for 1916, 104.312,905 barrels; 1915, 92,007,715; 1914, 94,470,989; the increase for the year 1917 being 4,451,967 over the year before.

The state mining bureau's compilation of oil and gas produced during 1917 is based on sworn statements from all producers and shows a total petro- leum of 94,433,547 barrels. This is an increase of 7,370,352 over 1916. The official figures are less than the total published by private concerns. The latter

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

make, however, no allowance for water and other impurities in the oil when first produced and gauged.

There were no important additions to the proven oil land in 1917 as deter- mined by the state bureau for the 1918 assessment. The new Montebello field production was one feature of the year. The production increase as above given was brought about by marked drilling activity throughout the state. There was an increased output in every petroleum producing county, Los An- geles showing the highest percent. increase, fifty-two over last year's produc- tion. There were 984 wells reported to the bureau for drilling in 1917. The rate of assessment levied to support the work of supervision of drilling opera- tions and to protect the fields from damage by water is based on the quantities of oil and gas produced and of proven oil land. The total collected for 1917 was about $130,000. The state's reported figures on production are :

Land

Oil

Gas

Wells

(Acres) 12.993

(Barrels)

(10 M.)

Number

Fresno

16,146,797

59,189

1,131

Kern

56,947

52,688,711

1,927,506

4,716

Los Angeles

2.401

4,357,162

24,175

748

Orange

3,418

14,568,980

655,027

467

Ventura

1,726

989,726

355

Santa Barbara

9,023

5,589,223

60,157

385

San Luis Obispo

772

74,143

Santa Clara.

18,855

Total

87,360

94,433,547

2,726,054

7,834

Final statistics on the California petroleum industry for the year 1917 made public by the Independent Oil Producers' Agency show stocks at the close of the year of 32,656,996 barrels as against 43.640,294 on the first of the year, indicating a reduction of 10,938,298, and daily average of 30.091. This record compares with the total withdrawal during 1916 of 12,336.886 barrels or a daily average of 32,800 indicative of a total decrease of 1,353,588 or daily decrease of 3,709.

This same authority gives California's oil production in 1917, 97,781,574 barrels, a daily average of 267,895, compared to a yield in 1916 of 91,976,019, a daily average of 251,989, indicative in turn of a production increase in 1917 of 5,805,555, a daily average of 15,906. California's 1917 production is the third highest in its history, exceeded by the years 1913 and 1914. The shipments of 1917 broke all records and totalled 108,764,872 barrels, a daily average of 297,986 and comparing this total with the movement in 1916 of 104,312,905 and a daily average of 285,789, the year 1917 shows an increase of 4,451,967, with a daily average of 12,197. Three hundred eighty-two new wells were being actively drilled and there were 7,742 active producers-in Coalinga field five and 1,045 respectively with production of 15,898,912.

In the light of the above generalized figures and facts to give a bird's eye view of the subject, it is no exaggeration that the topic is one that can only be done justice to in the employment of superlatives. The use of crude oil solved one of the difficult problems in the keeping up of public highways and city unpaved streets. It has become a universal fuel as substitute for coal in industrial and manufacturing enterprises. The railroads converted their locomotives from coal to oil burners and the navy and merchant marine steamships likewise adopted it.

Conceive for a moment the wealth that Frank Jennings was the agency in producing for others. He was the pioneer drilling superintendent in the Coalinga fields when he resigned in 1918 to take well earned rest after ten years of continuous service under two companies. He came to the old Cali- fornia Oilfields Limited a decade ago and was connected with that com- pany as its drilling superintendent for seven years. After the company sold to the Shell Oil Company, he remained with the latter for three years.

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

During his ten years of service he has sunk 245 wells with the assistance of crews and deepened and redrilled many others.

When he came to the Limited in 1908, the field was not what it is now. On Section 27 there were then thirty-three wells, now ninety-one; on Sec- tion 26 one, now twenty-six; on Section 14 two, now thirty-six; on Section 34 nine, now thirty-six; on Section 10 one, now ten; on Section 2, twenty- four, now thirty-seven; on Section 36 one, now three; on Section 29 two, now six.

In the drilling of these wells he had many experiences. He made the acquaintance of "jonah wells" and saw others blow off the top of the derrick. He noted many things as to formation in the well logs invaluable to geolo- gists in their work on other wells and in the ten years that he spent in the field he became familiar with the strata to a degree that made him one of the best informed men. He came to Coalinga from the Pennsylvania field and his first experience there was to bring in the old Mathews well in Allegheny County, which flowed more than 25,000 barrels in a day. The well was owned by J. M. Guffey, well known eastern oil magnate.

The great production of the oil fields suggested another great field of operation in a more rapid and economical means of transporting that product to market and shipboard. The pipe line was the result. Many mil- lions are invested in the California pipe lines. It was with the oil business as with the lumber industry. The latter suggested the use of the water of mountain streams to flume lumber to mill and market. The splendid pro- duction, the high price of oil and the great increase in development through- out the fields aroused discussion among operators as to the output facilities for transporting the product of the fields in the years to come. The pipe lines carrying petroleum from the fields to market have done and are doing a most useful part in the important work in developing the giant industry.

The Standard Oil Company has a branch of the Bakersfield-Richmond pipe line from Coalinga to Mendota, twenty-nine miles. Its lines from Bakers- field to Richmond and from Midway to Bakersfield are the largest convey- ors, the capacity of each being 65,000 barrels a day. The others range from 28,000 to 1,400 a day.

The Producers' Transportation Company has six lines, one of the three largest being the eight-inch from the Coalinga field south to Junction Sta- tion in Kern County, forty miles.

Two pipe lines are operated by the Associated Oil Company and one of these is a six-inch from Coalinga to Monterey, a distance of 105 miles. It has a capacity of 15,500 barrels a day.

Conveying oil for the Associated Oil Company and the Kern Trading and Oil Company, the Associated Pipe Line Company operates two lines. One of eight-inch runs from Vulcan, three miles east of Bakersfield, to Port Costa on San Pablo Bay. It is 281 miles long. The other eight-inch extends from the Midway-Sunset field 278 miles to Port Costa also. The capacity of the first is 13,000; of the other 26,000 barrels a day. The oil carried on these lines for the Kern Trading and Oil Company comes from the leases operated by that company and is delivered to and used by the Southern Pacific Com- pany and all transported to the account of the Associated is either produced on its leases or purchased for it in the fields and sold by the Associated on the market.

The total capacity of the four lines is 98,000 barrels a day, 50,000 in excess of daily production. Producers and Associated pipe lines were com- pleted in 1910 at an approximate cost of $2,570,000.

Investments in California petroleum production mount into the millions, when represented by such great concerns as the Standard, the Union, the Shell, the Associated, the Oil Fields Limited and all the others that might be named. The figures of their operations are staggering. To quote only the returns of operations of the Associated Oil Company for the first half

295

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

of the year 1918 and made public at the close of July. They make the greatest showing ever of the company with its subsidiaries and reflect the boom condition that has prevailed in the California industry since the opening of the year. They show earnings for the six months at the rate of eight and twenty-four hundredths percent. on the $40,000,000 authorized stock practically all outstanding. This would be at the rate of more than sixteen percent. for the year as compared with a little less than ten percent. for 1917.

Gross earnings for the half year after deducting all costs were $5,692,- 235.72 as against $7,598,220.90 for the twelve months of 1917. Surplus trans- ferred to profit and loss was $3,296,110.28 after all charges and allowances for depreciation and amortization as against $3,895,713 for the entire year 1917: During the six months there was expended in drilling operations and improvements $1,808,828; current assets exceeded current liabilities by $6,604,565, dividends paid amounted to $993,915.08 and the balance reported was $2,302,195.08 on a net income of $4,671,914.20.

The Oil City (Pa.) Derrick recently quoted Milton McWhorter, whose name will be recalled by early Coalinga operators and who is described as an "old time scout and pioneer developer of oil in California." He is now connected with the petroleum industry in the Pecos Valley in New Mexico. Which also recalls that the late Gen. W. R. Shafter of the Spanish War and so long colonel of the First United States Infantry owned a large body of land in the valley and his nickname in his old regiment was "Pecos Bill." suggestive of the comradery between the American soldier and his superior officers. Pershing is "Black Jack" to his men.

McWhorter being reminiscent referred to the many claimants to the discovery of oil in the Kern and Coalinga fields, stating that while the credit for locating the first Kern River well is generally given to the late Thomas Means he (McWhorter) drilled the well that first produced oil and which started the later development that brought the Coalinga field to notice and resulted in the development of one of the greatest fields in the world. His explorations were in the years from 1886 to 1888. Impressed with the out- look, he secured money to drill and arranged with Charles A. Canfield to finance him. Canfield died one of the richest oil operators in the state. He agreed to drill a well at one dollar and forty cents a foot and McWhorter returned to Coalinga to await his coming. After delay, the outfit arrived at Coalinga, and so did also Canfield but without money enough to pay for the hauling from the railroad station to the well location. Mcwhorter per- suaded a relative to lend him $150, the equipment was forwarded and spud- ding in began.

"Our tools were out of date," narrated McWhorter, "I fitted them up myself and we started a sixteen-inch hole when the drilling cable pulled out of the socket and we were up against a fishing job with no tools of any kind. There was a man named Fish working on the job, a very slim man and some one suggested he might crawl down the hole and with a small chain loop it around the collar of the stem and the tools could be pulled out. It was one of the funniest experiences I ever had. We tied a rope around one of his legs and lowered Fish down into the well. He called back all the time until his voice sounded like as coming from a phonograph : 'Careful hoys! Go it gently!' He made the connection and we raised the tools. This well was either 400 or 600 deep and was the first one in the field."

Fame. and fortune rewarded Canfield in later years, and McWVhorter recalled : "I can never forget his early struggles. He was never despondent, always hopeful and resourceful. He won through sheer grit and never for- got his friends or those who had helped him. His contributions to insti- tutions and for charity and in helping unfortunates must have amounted to thousands."

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

CHAPTER LI

EVANS-SONTAG TERROR REIGN OF 1893. THE MOST LURID CHAPTER IN THE CRIMINOLOGY OF THE COUNTY. MANY THE ARMED CON- FLICTS WITH PURSUING OFFICERS OF THE LAW AND ESCAPES OF THE BANDITS. A DELECTABLE POPULACE IN THE FOOTHILLS COMFORTED THEM AND BLOCKED THE AUTHORITIES. MURDER AND BLOOD TRACED THE CAREER OF THE TRAIN HOLDING UP TRIO. ITS LEADER ENDED HIS DAYS IN A COUNTY POOR FARM, A WRECKED OLD HULK OF A DAY WHEN HE WAS A RESPECTED FARMER.

Much could be written on the subject of the crimes of earlier years in the county. It is not a pleasant nor an inspiring subject. The old timer would expunge it from the record, could he do so. It must be sorrowfully admitted that Fresno's reputation for lawlessness was a bad one.

The remarkable development of the county in the 80's gave it wide publicity and the latter attracted bad men who made it a most profitable and fertile field. The better element in the city organized vigilance committees and well recalled are the sessions at the old J Street armory, when in the efforts at a civic and social purification drastic measures were taken against the canaille that fattened and idled on the earnings of fallen women and fastened that evil reputation on the growing town.

It has taken years to outgrow and live down that reputation. The wonder is today not so much that the conditions existed and were so rotten, but that a marvelous transformation has taken place and that recollecting the past Fresno is one of the best governed, law abiding, and as the war experience has demonstrated one of the most enthusiastically patriotic com- munities in city and county in the state. No chapter, however, in the crim- inology of the county is more lurid than the one dealing with the Evans-Sontag band of outlaws and its reign of terror in 1893. It is comparable only to the bandit reigns of Murieta and Vasquez.

Chris Evans died February 9, 1918, at the age of seventy in a Portland, Ore., hospital to which he had been removed from the Multonomah County poor farm at the instance of a son living in Clark County, Wash., who saw that he should not want in his closing days. John Sontag died July 3, 1893, in the Fresno County jail from wounds received. George Sontag and Edward Morrell served their penitentiary terms and are now social reformers.

Evans had lived in Portland since 1911 when Governor Johnson of Cali- fornia paroled him with later pardon and he was released from Folsom penitentiary on the pleas of wife and daughter and the showing that his physical infirmities, his left eye and right arm being gone and suffering con- stant pain from old wounds, were such that his days were numbered, and on condition that he leave the state. He went to live with his aged wife in a wretched cottage and eked out a precarious existence, as it must have been obvious that he could not earn a living. Evans' sufferings became so acute in 1917 that he came to California to be operated on the head for the removal of a bullet. He received temporary relief, the pain returned later and dis- couraged he applied for relief as a public charge. His sojourn at the county farm was of only a few days. His days were numbered. There are four sons to survive but of late years they had known little of their father.

Evans was one of this state's most notorious outlaws and yet a popular one also with a certain class that would make of him a martyr and an adorable villain. Seventeen years in the penitentiary probably reformed him

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

but also left him physically a wreck of an old man. After he was sent to prison in February, 1914, wife and daughter, Eva, appeared through the state in a penny-a-line lurid melodrama, "Sontag and Evans," depicting the murderous bandits as persecuted heroes and martyrs. In places the authorities interdicted its presentation and anyhow the enterprise bank- rupted. In later years and after his parole the bandits were filmed but this also proved a failure, and the film if not destroyed is being held as chattel mortgage security for money loaned to finance the project.

The Sontags were Minnesotans named Contant. Their father died and the mother remarrying they took the name of their stepfather. George was sent to the Nebraska state prison for embezzlement, served one year. escaped, but committed burglary in convict garb with a companion and voluntarily returned and served his term until 1887. John came to Los Angeles in 1878, became a brakeman with the Southern Pacific, was injured and nursed a grievance against the railroad for some fancied ill treatment while convalescing. He secured employment with Evans at Visalia, Cal., a typical farmer, reputedly honest and hard working and family respected. It was a time when the railroad, whether deservedly so or not, was exceed- ingly unpopular and therefore his activities against it. especially in the money losses as the result of train hold ups gave him popularity of a kind.

Evans and John Sontag entered into a conspiracy against the railroad to satisfy their revenge. Their first exploit was January 21, 1889, to board a train at Goshen, Tulare County, putting on masks, climbing over the ten- der, ordering the engineer at pistol's mouth to halt. rifled the express car of $600 and escaping on horses returned to Visalia the next day. Washing- ton's Birthday a train was held up in like fashion at Pixley, Cal., and with the $5.000 booty they opened a livery stable at Modesto, but it was destroyed in an incendiary fire. In May, 1891. John visited his brother, George, and confided to him the train robberies. In June John returned to California but not without telling George that he and Evans had planned to hold up a train at Ceres in Stanislaus County.

The attempt was in fact made with dynamiting of the express car, but Southern Pacific Detective Len .Harris was aboard. He fired at Evans, the latter returned with buck shot. No one was seriously hurt, the bandits fled to Modesto, John returned to Minnesota, related what had taken place and asked whether there were any trains in that neighborhood that could be held up. They did secure $9,800 in the hold up of a train at Western Union Junction November 5. 1891, and joined their relatives whom they had sent on to Racine, Wis. Then it was agreed that George go to Visalia, meet Evans and John to follow. He found Evans at Visalia with his patriarchal beard as "one of the twelve good men and true" sitting on a jury. George met Evans at home at the noon hour, prospective enterprises were discussed, Evans was loaned $200, George became ill and returned east. John in Cali- fornia wrote to him as to eastern opportunities and Evans going on he and George attempted a hold up of the Omaha train at Kasota Junction, July 1, 1892. but profited nothing. John tarried in California and George announced he would come on to Fresno and Evans would follow.

The trio assembled here August 1. 1892, and agreement was made to hold up the San Francisco-Los Angeles passenger train at Collis (Kerman) on the night of the third, Evans walking out on the road and the Sontags overtaking and carrying him to the scene. John Sontag did not board the train but awaited his companions with the team at an agreed upon place. Needless to follow up all the details, suffice it that the express car door was dynamited, three sacks of money were seized, fireman and expressman made to carry them, the engine disabled by Evans with dynamite, the treasure bearers accompanied a short distance, ordered to give up the money and return to the train. George Sontag was driven to the suburbs of Fresno, bought a ticket to Visalia and traveled home on the delayed train that had

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

been held up and was an interested auditor of the stories of the hold up. Evans and John drove on to Visalia and examining the contents of the sacks in the barn were disappointed to find that they had for their risk only $500 American money, all else being Mexican or Peruvian coin.

So bold and audacious had the trio become in its operations that clues were left on this last enterprise. George Sontag's actions in Fresno planning the last had aroused suspicion. The team that had been driven was recog- nized in ownership. Officers called on George at Evans' home to learn whether he was not a passenger on the held up train. Sontag was detained and a return visit was made to the Evans' house, and as it was approached John was seen to enter. Evans' daughter acting on instructions informed the callers that John was not in. Evans made like reply but a portiere being pushed aside there was John, shot gun in hand. Officers drew their revolvers, Evans laid hands on a shot gun. The officers of the law were at a disadvantage, realized the fact, turned and made off. Evans pursued Deputy Sheriff Al Whitty and seriously wounded him, and the latter falling had pistol at his head but Evans did not fire as the prostrate man pleaded not to shoot as he was dying. Sontag fired at Detective George Smith but missed the mark.

The two bandits returned to the house and after taking a supply of ammunition escaped in the buggy of the officers. They returned to the Evans' house that night and again on the next afternoon because a posse surrounding the house saw them take horse and buggy out of the stable. Oscar Beaver commanded them to halt. Each side opened fire. Beaver was riddled with buck shot and killed. Sheriff Tom Cunningham of San Joaquin, one of the bravest men in the state and one of the most celebrated sheriffs, heard the fusillade and came with a posse but too late. There was a respite then in the pursuit until September 13.

Another posse with two imported Arizona Indian trailers drove up to . a cabin of a man named Young, ignorant that the fugitives were concealed there, though having reason to suspect that they were in the neighborhood. As they approached the gate, posse was fired upon. Vic Wilson of El Paso, Tex., and Y. McGinnis of Modesto fell dead; George Whitty brother of the man wounded in the first encounter was shot in the neck, Constable Warren Hill's horse was killed and again the desperadoes escaped. Meanwhile George Sontag who had been detained from the first was placed on trial in Fresno for the Collis train robbery and October 29, 1892, after a hearing of four days found guilty after the jury's deliberations for ninety minutes and November 3 was sentenced to life imprisonment at Folsom.

Months elapsed before there were new developments. The bandits were in concealment in the foothills of Fresno, above Dunlap, where they were pro- vided with provisions and kept informed as to the movements of the posses sent after them from time to time. They occupied a cabin which commanded such a wide view that they could overlook the plain before them and note . the movements of pursuers hours before the latter could reach the pursued, even if they had knowledge of the place of their concealment. It was on a bend of the road on the side of the hill known as Lookout Point, and after- ward and to this day as Sontag Point. And the delectable citizenry of the neighborhood was liberal in furnishing the officers with misinformation. Safe and protected as the bandits were, they might have continued there indefinitely or until the next summer but that decision was made to escape to Mexico, that other delectable land of bandits, and they would probably have been successful but that Evans insisted on a farewell visit to his family. This was not such a feat because the distance between Dunlap and Visalia is not so great, the first named being close to the Tulare County line, the roads not frequented until the plains are reached and even then travel compara- tively safe by night. At any rate as afterward learned frequent visits were made to the Visalia home of Evans.

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

So it was that June 11, 1893, a posse of United States Marshal Gard, Deputy Sheriff Hi Rapelji of Fresno and others were in a vacant house and observed Evans and Sontag come down a hill and pass to the rear of Evans' house, which was under surveillance. Evans perceived Rapelji and opened fire. One Fred Jackson fired and wounded the bandits. The latter retreated behind a straw stack and escaped, Sontag badly wounded. On the following day E. H. Perkins from nineteen miles from the county seat came to the jail at Visalia to report that Sontag was wounded and helpless in a straw- stack, near the Perkins house. There was a race to capture him and he fell an easy victim. The day after, Sheriff William Hall and Deputies Al Whitty and Joseph Carroll arrested Evans at the Perkins house. The bandit surrendered as he was exhausted and weak from loss of blood and raving in delirium. An eye had been shot out and the right arm so shattered that it had afterward to be amputated. This affair is known as the Stone Corral battle with the bandits. Sheriff Jay Scott headed the Fresno posse. Sontag was so badly wounded that he died in jail and none came to claim his remains.

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History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I, Part 43

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858- Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1362

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362