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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 03419 8074
Illustrated Directory of
KANSAS OIL MEN
WITH THEIR
Commercial Interests and Homes
Desetu
In The Kansas Oil Fields With The Modern Midases
A Utopian Village built with Oil Capital for Oil Men, with Civic Ownership thruout.
Introduction and Dedication
I T is with a feeling of humble gratification for the opportunity to help in the develop- ment of our recently-discovered resources, that the Publishers herewith present the first edition of the "Illustrated Directory of Kansas Oil Men." No effort or expense has been spared in giving to the world a work that will, thru reports and photo- graphs, truthfully depict the facts of the Oil Industry of our State.
The articles and cuts herein published were compiled and made especially for this book in order to keep it of uniform excellence thruout. It is strictly a home production and we submit it to you-believing it to be the highest standard of merit in the photog- rapher's, printer's and engraver's art, and with full confidence that its circulation will reflect credit upon and be of permanent assistance to the Oil Men of Kansas.
If it fills the need-long felt among these men-for some satisfactory reply to the numberless requests for information with which they are continually besieged, if its reports are valuable as a directory, and if it does justice to "Our Big Miracle," itself, this publica- tion will have served its purpose and justified the effort expended in its completion.
With a full realization of the part petroleum is to play in winning the World War, and with heartfelt allegiance to the big brave boys who strode across the seas as cham- pions of all that America holds dear, we proudly dedicate this volume to the United States Army and Navy.
PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
Introduction and Dedication
I T is with a feeling of humble gratification for the opportunity to help in the develop- ment of our recently-discovered resources, that the Publishers herewith present the first edition of the "Illustrated Directory of Kansas Oil Men." No effort or expense has been spared in giving to the world a work that will, thru reports and photo- graphs, truthfully depict the facts of the Oil Industry of our State.
The articles and cuts herein published were compiled and made especially for this book in order to keep it of uniform excellence thruout. It is strictly a home production and we submit it to you-believing it to be the highest standard of merit in the photog- rapher's, printer's and engraver's art, and with full confidence that its circulation will reflect credit upon and be of permanent assistance to the Oil Men of Kansas.
If it fills the need-long felt among these men-for some satisfactory reply to the numberless requests for information with which they are continually besieged, if its reports are valuable as a directory, and if it does justice to "Our Big Miracle," itself, this publica- tion will have served its purpose and justified the effort expended in its completion.
With a full realization of the part petroleum is to play in winning the World War, and with heartfelt allegiance to the big brave boys who strode across the seas as cham- pions of all that America holds dear, we proudly dedicate this volume to the United States Army and Navy.
PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
SHUMWAY
ULCC AVO VU
Illustrated Directory of Kansas Oil Men
PRICE ONE DOLLAR
PUBLISHED BY MUNICIPAL PUBLICITY COMPANY Art Publishers for Civic and Industrial Activities
CHICAGO
and Suite 1622 Unity Bldg .. 127 N. Dearborn St.
DETROIT Fourth Floor of Penobscot Building
COPYRIGHT AUGUST 1918
MISS M. E. NESSLY Editor and Manager of this Edition
WHAT OIL MEN WANT TO KNOW
SAY MISTER, DON'T YOU WANT A NICE NEW KING?
KANSAS
KING WHEAT
OIL MEN
KANSAS OIL _PRODUCTION
OHAMMONO-
Courtesy The Wichita Eagle and Mr B. F. Hammond
Brief History of the Butler County Field
By BRUCE ARBOGAST.
It was just about four years ago that The Wichita Natural Gas Company drilled in a twenty-five barrel oil well on the Frank Varner farm in the Augusta district in Section twenty-one, Township twenty-eight and Range four east, Butler County, Kansas. Although the drilling of this twenty-five barrel well attracted little or no attention at the time, it was the real beginning of the development of one of the greatest oil pools, not alone in the mid-continent field but on the North American Continent. The Wichita Natural, how- ever, went along quietly "playing the game" and secured leases on every foot of Butler County possible and the strangest thing about this was that they had secured thousands of choice acres for "a song" as the expression goes, before anyone woke up to the fact that they had the same opportunities and it was some time after the real discovery of oil in Butler County that either "home-folks or outsiders" paid any attention to the rich fields of Butler County.
Six years ago, The Wichita Natural Company entered the Butler County field but it was not until two years after their entrance into the field that the first oil was discov- ered. Additional wells of small size failed to get other large operating companies inter- ested and so it continued until October, 1915, when The Wichita Company drilled in a well at El Dorado, to the north of Augusta fourteen miles-and then the producers awakened to the fact that there might be a pool in Butler County.
Leasing then became brisk in the Augusta pool, and soon afterwards a few large wells were developed. Since that time both the Augusta and El Dorado fields have been furnishing many large wells but it remained for the big Towanda field to bring in the real
PAGE FIVE
gusher type of wells during the summer of 1916. The first sensation in this field was on the famous Williams and Walker lease by The Eureka and Trapshooters Companies and soon after that ten and fifteen thousand barrel wells became common in this field. Many large producers have since been brought in in this field of the Mother Pool and Section eleven in the Towanda district has been heralded almost around the world for its fabu- lously rich producers ranging even as high as twenty-five thousand barrels a day initial production. The most important leases in the gusher class in this field are the Shumway, the Cardey, the Ralston, the Enyart and Potter, the Peder Paulson and many others.
The discovery of oil in the El Dorado field occurred in the month of November, 1915, when The Wichita Natural Company, now the Empire Gas & Fuel Company, brought in the Stapleton Number One well at a depth of five hundred forty-two feet. Two years prior to this discovery, the city of El Dorado had voted twenty thousand dollars in bonds for the purpose of prospecting for oil and gas in the immediate vicinity of El Do- rado. Two tests were made, one on the A. J. Holderman farm, one mile west of the city limits, and one in East Park, just across the Walnut river, south of East Central Avenue. The depths of these wells were fifteen hundred and sixteen hundred feet respectively. Both were reported dry and were plugged. It was claimed by many at the time, that gas was found in the well in East Park. Immediately following the bringing in of the Staple- ton Number One well, development of this field has, like the Augusta field, spread in all directions but was confined for the most part to the northwest and west as well as to the southwest of the city of El Dorado until the bringing in of the wild-cat by The Haverhill Petroleum Company six miles straight south of El Dorado in the Smock district. Since that time development southeast of El Dorado has given us the Sluss pool and just now it begins to look as if a northeast extension to this pool would be opened up successfully and rapidly. The latest wells to the north and east of the original discovery well in the
PAGE SIX
Sluss district have given rise to a theory that a new pool has been opened in this terri- tory. It now remains for only that part of Butler County lying to the northeast of EI Do- rado proper, to yield producers which are now drilling in this district and the oil city of El Dorado will be entirely surrounded by producing wells.
Both the Augusta and El Dorado fields have given us quite a lot of good gas wells ranging in volume from five hundred thousand cubic feet to as high as twenty million cubic feet per day.
Wildcatting is continually extending the field and widening the productive territory, although at present more attention is being given to the development of the proven fields and the caring for its enormous production which, by the way, is no small item even at this date, four years after the discovery of oil in this county. Men of experience and old oper- ators in the oil game, confidently assert that the Butler County fields are one of the rich- est in the entire mid-continent field, if not in the world, and they do not hesitate to venture their ripened judgment that development has but just begun.
While oil in this section has only been determined above the Mississippi lime, yet this field is now known as the world's greatest producer of high grade crude, having pro- duced in the first six months of the year 1916, early in its history, approximately fifty mil- lion barrels of crude oil out of a national production of one hundred forty million barrels.
PAGE SEVEN
OIL TERMS ILLUSTRATED
LAST CHANCE SALOON
A DRY HOLE"
A WELL DEFINED DOME "
SALE
FOR RENT
A GASSER"
HIDDEN DOME"
SPUDDIN
OUT CROPPINGS
OIL INDICATIONS
FINCH
"A GUSHER"
Drawn by Finch for The Denver Post
The Advantages of an Oil Producing Country
BY CHAS. PAYNE.
Oil, the liquid wealh of the world, wherever found, brings prosperity to a greater degree than any other product of nature. It comes in such quantities and is distributed so widely that it does great good to mankind and far surpasses the production of the world's gold. The difference is so great that the gold production seems insignificant in comparison. Oil seems to be more inexhaustible than gold because oil is found in such a wide, extended territory.
There has never yet been a universally accepted theory put forth as to what petro- leum is or how created. The writer's theory is, that petroleum is the oil from decayed vegetable matter. At a time in the world's history when the seas covered the now land, the rank vegetation in the tropical waters was so great, that when the seas reeeded fron the now land, the vegetable matter was washed up in great reefs, where it now lays and is called oil pools. During many volcanic actions this was covered up at different times, either by water, sediment, or volcanic ashes, forming many stratas over the vegetable for- mation. This has laid where it now is, possibly for billions of years, until it was opened up by mankind for his benefit.
Most of the natural gas comes through the porous condition or crevices in the earth from the oil stratas.
Electricity and the explosive engine called for material to use in these human inven- tions, so the earth, the God-given storehouse, was called on, and oil eame forth like water when Moses smote the rock, all for the benefit of a God-created people. The explosive
PAGE NINE
3 1833 03419 8074
engine, by the use of gasoline, has revolutionized the manner of cultivating the soil and the construction of power for commercial and pleasure purposes. Even in the air and under the sea, the production of oil, together with the God-given skill of mankind, has made these things possible and overcome many obstacles and will yet work greater wonders.
In Pennsylvania many years ago oil was discovered, men became wealthy from the production of oil and speculation in oil land. Since that time, oil prospecting has spread far and wide. A few years ago Kansas people discovered oil and the area has spread in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas ever since. About three years ago oil was found in Butler County, adjoining Wichita on the east. The increase has been so rapid that a conserva- tive estimate of production in Butler County for 1917 is $130,000,000 and with the ever- increasing production it is estimated that in 1918, Butler County alone, will receive $200,- 000,000 for oil and gas. The land owners will receive out of this amount more than $25,000,000 as their share, which to them is all profit. This rate of increase, no doubt, will keep up for years and many new fields in Kansas and the other territory mentioned will be opened up and then produce for many years. Estimates have been made on a basis of other oil fields in North America that the production will last from twenty-five to fifty, or one hundred years. Surely the oil producing country is the most attractive from a finan- cial standpoint. The people of Wichita are very fortunate in having a large city and railroad center and the best city in Kansas or Oklahoma already builded up, before oil was discovered, located in the best agricultural section of North America, all ready to take care of this oil business.
Wichita is a solidly built city and has passed the experimental stage many, many years ago. Many large companies are locating here, because this city is the greatest fi- nancial center in the Southwest, even the great Standard Oil Company has recently bought 400 acres of land for its refinery.
PAGE TEN
Our Congressman, W. A. Ayres, understanding the necessity for water for agricul- tural purposes and knowing that the whole semi-arid country lying to the west and south has an abundance of water underlying the surface, has introduced a bill in Congress to have the government loan its credit for at least fifty years and build power stations every 200 miles to make electricity to sell at about cost to the farmers and manufacturers for cheap power to pump water on land or use in any other means to aid agricultural pro- duction. The section of country to be developed is from the center of Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska, west to the Rocky Mountain Foot Hills and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
This, when carried on to its fullest extent, will help populate this territory of splen- did soil and of large area, and the people dwelling therein should be happy and contented. Most of this land is level and it is reasonable to expect that many sections of the territory described may produce oil and gas, which will naturally make everyone in the territory described, in good circumstances. Surely Kansas and Wichita are being blessed and this country is destined to be as thickly populated as the fertile lands on the Nile in Egypt. An abundance of water, oil and agriculture is the great foundation for good government and under a democratic republic, where excesses are eliminated, there is no good reason why the coming population should not be healthy, contented and happy.
PAGE ELEVEN
OVER THE GARDEN WALL
HELLO GIRLS
-
WICHITA
>
(EL DORADO
1
1
1
1
NEW INTER- URBAN
1
1
11
2
V.
(9 AMMONE
Courtesy Wichita Eagle and Mr. B. F. Hammond
wyfe
Wichita-Walnut Valley Interurban Railroad
The Wichita-Walnut Valley Interurban Railroad is to be built in the very near future. The line will run cast to some point not far west of Augusta, then north to To- wanda and El Dorado. The first unit will reach Augusta also and then run south to Douglass and later to Winfield and connect up with the Arkansas City line. Most of this line runs through very fine farming country on the Walnut River bottoms and through most of the oil fields in Butler County. The oil fields near Towanda and El Dorado are the greatest producing oil fields in North America, and financiers predict that this road will pay large dividends as soon as it is in operation.
The line from El Dorado through Towanda will terminate in Wichita; the line from Douglass to Winfield and Augusta will terminate in Wichita, giving Wichita practi- cally two terminal lines and part of which will be run over the same track, just west of Augusta. The public who wish to use this line between Douglass, Augusta, Towanda and El Dorado, have nearly a straight line except they may have to change cars at the forks of the Y which will be just west of Augusta.
There no doubt will be immense traffic on account of the increased oil production in Butler County. War conditions have delayed construction, but the company has a permit from the State Utilities Board and will soon have a permit from the Capital Is- sucs Committee of Washington, D. C. The contract for constructing and equipping the road is already let to Mr. John R. Scott of St. Louis, Mo. This is one of the big enter- prises for the benefit of the oil men and all the towns reached by this interurban railway.
PAGE THIRTEEN
Oil Makes El Dorado, Kansas City of Activity
By Roy Moore
Vast Wealth of Petroleum Deposits Make Town Center of Business Almost Over Night.
El Dorado,-the city of gold.
That's a free translation from the Spanish of El Dorado, Kan., where more oil is produced at the present time than any other place of similar area in the United States. But until two years ago, prior to the discovery of the ill-smelling liquid that has brought more wealth to Butler county than a discovery of real gold would have done, the in- habitants of the city were little impressed by the derivation of the name.
A few, perhaps, had heard of the visit of Coronado to Kansas, back in the six- teenth century, in his quest for the mysterious kingdom of Quivera, where it was said the streets were laid with gold. They had heard, too, that the gallant knight of Spain had lost his life in his search for treasure. It isn't folk lore that he crossed Butler county, little dreaming that the gold was hidden deep under ground.
No one can tell you why El Dorado was named thus, unless perchance some wag called to mind the vain search of Coronado, and, being in a facetious mood, had given the town its title.
But it's no idle dream now.
Standing on an eminence at the western side of the city, the spectator can look for miles at an endless field of derricks set out in rows with all the regularity of a new apple orchard. Up hill and down hill, the rows run until they are lost in the distance. As a
PAGE FOURTEEN
matter of fact, there are more than a thousand derricks in sight, each one pumping from mother earth the liquid that is destined to play the biggest part in reclaiming the world for democracy.
These rows upon rows of derricks mark spots where more than a quarter of a million dollars are brought to the surface daily. Off to the south and north, as far as the eye can see, are more derricks, some of them pumping oil and others merely drilling rigs, but each one almost sure of production.
You cannot persuade an El Doradoan that it's only a question of a few months until a million dollars every day of the year will be pumped from the ground. Un- doubtedly there is considerable truth in the assertion. Large companies estimate that it will take several years to drill out all the proven territory under lease. To the east of El Dorado new pools recently have been struck, and to the far side of the county is the Greenwood county pool, which many oil men claim is connected to the El Dorado field.
Butler county used to get considerable notoriety from its annual kaffir carnival. The crop occupied about all the available land under cultivation, more because it could withstand the droughts that generally swept over southern Kansas. Butler county's jealous neighbors, however, used to say they planted kaffir because the soil was most too poor to raise anything else.
In any case, El Dorado held a carnival annually to celebrate nature's beneficence. All the available bands were imported from neighboring towns, famous speakers from over the state were in attendance and everything was literally bedecked with kaffir corn. That was two years ago. At that time it was the proud boast of Butler county that she produced $2,000,000 worth of kaffir and other farm products annually.
PAGE FIFTEEN
Think of it, $2,000,000 every year! Now it takes Butler county about a weck to duplicate the feat. They say that when children grow up they put away childish things. Butler County is now grown up. She does not hold the Kaffir Carnival in the Autumn. She has put on a dignified bearing that is supposed to attend great wealth.
Of course, El Dorado kicked up her heels considerably when oil was first discov- ered by the pioneer prospectors for oil. Thousands of drillers and tankies from all over the country hurried to the new field, and, as a result, there was considerable activity nightly as far as the police were concerned. But that stage has passed. The town has now adjusted itself to wealth that sprung up over night. It looks upon millions with the cool, calculating eye of a Wall Street finan cier.
Along its paved streets glide the motor cars, whose owners can write checks up to six figures. New buildings are going up-not sky scrapers, but dignified buildings that you would expect in any hustling, wide awake town. El Dorado is not going to waste its money as many towns did in the boom days in the eighties.
She also has got over the habit of raising the price of food commodities beyond reason. Immediately after the discovery of oil, an unlimited bank roll was a prime es- sential to a visitor who planned to spend a few days in the city. But the big oil compa- nies promptly taught the city a lesson, as far as food prices were concerned. They started towns of their own on their leases where employes could get all the essentials that could be purchased in El Dorado and not nearly so high. Consequently, the city now charges no more than the average town.
But El Dorado has not grown fast enough for its permanent population and vacant houses are hard to find at any price, with the attendant result that rent is beyond rea- son. To meet the housing problem, every building that is available is turned into a home
PAGE SIXTEEN
of some description. At present, much of the residence section strongly resembles a col- lection of summer houses along some resort, with no more attention to architecture.
Although El Dorado has the dignified airs of a large city, she has many Puritani- cal ways that are hardly to be expected-even in Kansas. There is not a pool room in the whole city. It decided that indulging in pool was harmful to the morals of the young. The ban was accordingly placed on the sport.
The stores also are open at night, at least many of them are. The drillers, of course, can't get away from work in the middle of the day to shop, and night is the only alternative.
There are many cities in the country with oil wells in the city limits. But El Do- rado claims this distinction : She claims to be the only city in the country that owns a municipal well. Up in the northwest part of the town, the town owned a dump where trash and garbage was hauled. It was on the edge of the producing field. Someone suggested that the acreage might as well be put to pumping oil, as well as its other duties. A company agreed to sink the well for three-fourths of the oil, leaving the city one- fourth. The other day a 150-barrel well was brought in. The net income of the city will be around $50 a day-not a bad sum from land that was considered nothing but waste.
Of course, El Dorado has a few millionaires. Most of them are most too modest to admit it. One oil company has paid as high as $100,000 for one month's royalty to a single lease owner. Right now, Uncle Sam is taking a generous share of the oil wealth of Butler county through the excess profit tax-40 per cent, to be cxact. But you hear no complaint. Butler county is proud of the fact that she is doing a little bit more than any other part of Kansas to help win the war .- From Petroleum for May, 1918.
PAGE SEVENTEEN
THE BIG FOUR OIL AND GAS COMPANY 501 Schweiter Building
One of the big reasons for the continued activity in the Kansas Oil Fields may be placed at the door of such successes as that of The Big Four Oil Company, established and incorporated in February, 1917, for the purpose of developing oil in Butler County. This company is a $50,000.00 closed corporation with valuable holdings, Northeast of the North- west in 3-26-5, consisting of twenty acres; and 640 acres in the shallow territory of East Greenwood County.
+ AND WAT'N'L CITY OIL COF
PHOTO.AY KiDerddo
The fact that these operators brought in their first well on April 2, 1917, and began paying large dividends as early as July 1st of that year may be explained by the fact that it is manned by these officers: Mr. O. E. Foulke, Pres., Mr. J. M. Reynolds, Vice-Pres., and A. M. Griffith, Sec. and Treas. Already stockholders have received their original invest- ments back by way of dividends, and as the company already has six wells on the pump with the seventh one ready to come in any day, the outlook is very, very bright.
PAGE EIGHTEEN
The National City Oil Company 501 Schweiter Bldg.
In "spudding in" for an article on the activities of The National City Oil Company, the reporter hopes that he will not encounter as many difficulties as that organization met with during the early stages of their development. If, however, as their experience proved, "The darkest hour is just before the dawn," he is probably willing to take his chances, for few Butler County operators now enjoy such a satisfactory present or are justified in expecting a more roseate future.
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