USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the Genesee country (western New York) comprising the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates, Volume II > Part 34
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OTHER PIPE LINES.
The first pipe line into the field was the United Pipe Line Company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil. Mr. Harry W. Breck- enridge, of Wellsville, who later became one of the field's most prominent independent operators, was a superintendent for the Standard Company. Later he superintended the laying of the first line to seaboard from Pennsylvania, an independent venture, and was one of the financial backers of the independent Columbia Pipe Line, which gathered oil in the Allegany field for many years.
The Vacuum Oil Company, manufacturers of the Gargoyle Mobiloils, entered the Allegany field in 1923 as purchasers of oil at the wells. Oil is gathered for them by a pipe line of the Forest. Oil Company, which transports it to the Vacuum refinery at Olean.
The pipe lines, supplying the Wellsville Refinery, and their personnel, are mentioned elsewhere.
BOLIVAR, WELLSVILLE, OLEAN.
Bolivar is the heart of the Allegany field and a substantial oil town of about fifteen hundred inhabitants, with a strong bank and a new hotel now in process of building.
Wellsville, a prosperous village of between five and six thous- and people, is located out of the producing district, on the Erie and B. & S. railroads. It is the home of many oil men and the location of the Wellsville oil refinery, the only plant of its kind in the Allegany field.
The city of Olean also lies just out of the real oil country, but_
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
is the home of many oil producers, and finances many oil opera- tions through its banking institutions.
PROMINENT PRODUCERS.
Among the leading producers of New York State petroleum, in addition to the officers and directors of the New York State Oil Producers Association named elsewhere are:
Forest Oil Company, Robert Conklin, William Dusenbury, and E. C. Finnessey, Olean; Harry Bradley, Ebenezer Oil Company, Thornton Company, Albert Oil Company, William R. McEwen, A. W. Schaller, F. L. Rockwell, H. W. Breckenridge, Otto W. Walchli, C. S. Baldwin, Clarence Chrisman, L. H. Richardson, McEnroe Brothers, Davis & Elliott, P. L. O'Connor, Bryson & Murray, D. L. Chrisman, W. O. and Charles Taylor, Claude R. Scott Estate and John Fay, Wellsville; M. B. and Ray B. Moore, D. V. McCarthy, W. J. Hogan, Robert J. Dermitt, R. M. Brown, William Jennings, Mrs. Rice, E. J. Wilson, J. H. Reynolds, Elmer Garthwait, Crowley Brothers, S. W. McKelvey, Bolivar; Herbert and Ralph Lester, Richburg; and Willets-Paul Corporation of Belmont.
A STRICTLY CASH BUSINESS.
Crude oil is sold from the operators' tanks on the leases to the pipe line companies which connect their lines to these tanks at their own expense. In the New York fields the pipe line practice is to mail a check to the producer the day the tank is run. Thus oil producing is a strictly cash business and there are never any troubles with collections.
CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY'S ONE OIL WELL.
In drilling for gas near Sheridan, Chautauqua County, in the fall of 1924, the Republic Light, Heat & Power Company en- countered a flow of oil at a depth of 1,495 feet. The well sur- prised everyone by flowing a head of 100 barrels the first day and at nine months old it is producing about three barrels of oil a day. General Superintendent Fair of the Republic Company says:
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
"This is purely a freak well, and in my opinion there will be few, if any more, found in the break in the flint from where this well is producing."
A COMPLETE WELL LOG.
A representative section of the rocks of the field is afforded by the following accurate record of O. P. Taylor's Triangle Well, No. 1, Lot 4, Scio :
Well mouth above ocean in feet
1825
1. Clay, sand and gravel
100 to
100-1725
2. Dark gray shale
30 to
130-1695
3. White sandstone and shale
40 to
170-1655
4. Red shale and sandstone
15 to
185-1640
5. Chocolate shale
5 to
190-1635
6.
Red sandstone and shale
16 to
206-1619
7.
Chocolate shale and sandstone
4 to
210-1615
8.
Gray sandstone containing water
8 to
218-1707
9. Gray sandstone
12 to
230-1595
10. Red sandstone
6 to
236-1589
11.
Gray slate
30 to
266-1559
12.
Gray shale
14 to
280-1545
13.
White shale and sandstone
3 to
283-1542
14. Gray shale
4 to
287-1538
15. Gray sandstone
4 to
291-1534
16.
Dark gray sandstone
7 to
298-1527
17.
Gray slate
30 to
328-1497
18. Light gray shale
20 to
348-1477
19.
Gray slate containing sand shales
21 to
369-1456
20.
Light gray slate
79 to
448-1377
21.
Gray shale, containing fragments of fossils
4 to
452-1373
22.
Soft gray slate
31 to
483-1342
23.
Argillaceous sandstone
22 to
505-1320
24.
Gray shale
30 to
535-1290
25.
Gray shale containing fragments of fossils
4 to
539-1286
26.
Red shale
1 to
540-1285
27.
Gray slate
52 to
592-1233
28.
Gray shale containing fossil remains
4 to
596-1229
29.
Gray slate
21 to
617-1208
30.
Gray shale, containing fossil remains
1 to
618-1207
31. Soft gray shale
47 to
665-1160
32.
Gray sandstone
40 to
705-1120
33.
Dark gray shale and slate
80 to
785-1040
34.
Gray slate, containing fragments of fossils
61 to
846- 979
35.
Gray sandy shale, containing fragments of fossils
9 to
855- 970
36. Gray shale
120 to
975- 850
37.
Gray sandstone containing oil and salt water
20 to
995-
830
38.
Gray shale
114 to 1109-
716
39.
Soft gray sandstone, top of oil sand
17 to 1126-
699
40. Harder gray sandstone
17 to 1143- 682
41. Soft gray sandstone, bottom of oil sand
10 to 1153- 672
42. Gray shale and slate
24 to 1177-, 648
Total depth of well
1177 feet
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
4
1
1
1
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
NATURAL GAS IN THE GENESEE COUNTRY.
Natural gas was produced and used for fuel in Fredonia, Chautauqua County, from a well drilled near there in 1821. This was thirty-eight years before the drilling in 1859 of the Drake well at Titusville, Pennsylvania, which was the first well in the world producing oil in paying quantities for commercial use. Western New York gas fields were not developed to any extent till sixty years after the completion of the Fredonia well. An unsuc- cessful early attempt was made to transport gas in wooden pipes from some Ontario County wells south of the city of Rochester.
It is estimated that on January 1, 1925, there were 150,107 consumers of natural gas in western New York using approxi- mately 16,000,000 cubic feet for the year 1924, having a gross sale value, at about fifty cents a cubic foot, or approximately $8,000,000. About 4,500,00 cubic feet of this came from New York State wells, the other mostly from Pennsylvania.
Gas has been used for fuel and lights in Fredonia longer than elsewhere in western New York, but following the early develop- ment of the oil fields in Allegany and Cattaraugus counties, com- munities there began to use gas for lights and fuel about 1881. Wellsville and Olean have been using natural gas for fuel and lights over forty years.
The only western New York counties, west of Canandaigua, which do not produce some natural gas are Orleans, Niagara and Monroe. The counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Steuben, Wyoming, Genesee, Livingston and Ontario all produce natural gas. Petroleum is produced only in Allegany and Cattaraugus, a very small area in western Steuben, and from one freak well at Sheriden in the Chautauqua County gas field.
The Iroquois Natural Gas Company, which supplies the city of Buffalo and numerous communities thereabouts, produces and sells 3,000,000 cubic feet a year from its own gas wells in western New York and purchases from other New York producers about 1,000,000 cubic feet a year. It supplies 96,971 consumers. In addition to the gas which it gets from western New York it pur- chases 7,000,000 cubic feet from the United Natural Gas Com- pany of Pennsylvania, which it distributes to its customers.
The Empire Gas & Fuel Company supplies Wellsville, Hornell,
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
Bolivar and twelve other communities in that region. It has 10,551 consumers and sold about 1,000,000 cubic feet of gas in 1924.
The Potter Gas Company of Potter County, Pennsylvania, sup- plies about 1,000,000 cubic feet per year to about 1,000 New York State consumers. The Keystone Gas Company supplies about one-half million cubic feet to about 5,000 consumers in the city of Olean. It purchases its gas from the Iroquois Gas Company.
The Producers Gas Company of Olean supplies about one- fourth million cubic feet per year to approximately 3,000 con- sumers in East Olean, Portville, Bolivar, Friendship, Belmont, Belfast and Angelica. The United Natural Gas Company of Pennsylvania supplies Salamanca, and the Pennsylvania Gas Company supplies Jamestown. The supplies for both of these cities come from Pennsylvania gas fields.
The Crystal City Gas Company sells approximately 200,000 cubic feet per year to about 3,700 subscribers in the city of Corn- ing, New York. The Pavilion Natural Gas Company sells 155,- 000 cubic feet per year to 4,400 consumers in the villages of LeRoy, Caledonia, Pavilion, Avon, etc. The Northwestern New York Gas Company sells about 200,000 cubic feet per year from Chautauqua County gas wells to 2,400 consumers in Dunkirk and in the villages of Fredonia, Sheridan, etc.
The Gowanda Natural Gas Company sells about 150,000 cubic feet per year to about 1,000 consumers in the vicinity. The Addi- son Power & Gas Company sells 25,000 cubic feet per year to about 500 consumers in Addison. The Newfield Gas & Oil Com- pany sells a small amount of gas at Dansville. The Republic Light, Heat & Power Company produces 1,272,000 cubic feet of gas in Chautauqua County, and supplies 17,131 consumers at Fre- donia, Dunkirk, etc.
The first gas used for commercial purposes in the Allegany oil field was from oil wells drilled near Allentown. It supplied fuel for boilers for drilling wells, and the partnership which conducted this business finally became the Empire Gas & Fuel Company, or- ganized by the pioneer oil and gas men, J. B. and E. C. Bradley of Bolivar and Wellsville respectively. They began in the early eighties and extended their lines to other parts of the Allegany field as they needed gas. Lines were laid by the Empire Gas &
FLOWING WELL
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
Fuel Company into Wellsville Village in 1883. The gathering lines of this company were extended later over the Allegany, New York, oil fields from the southern part of Bolivar and Alma town- ships, where they gathered gas from wells which produced gas only. Later the mains were extended into Oswayo and Sharon townships, Potter County, Pennsylvania, and to Ceres, Mckean County, Pennsylvania. These wells produced dry gas as there was no oil production in Potter Count, Pennsylvania, except from a few wells at Eleven Mile.
An early gas company in the Allegany, New York, field was the Allegany Gas Company, which supplied gas to Friendship from the Clarksville territory of the Allegany field. This was later absorbed by the Producers Gas Company mentioned above, which gets its gas from Clarksville, Wirt and Genesee.
In addition to the gas which the Empire Gas & Fuel Com- pany pipes from the towns of Bolivar, Wirt, Alma and Genesee townships, Allegany County, it produces dry gas in the towns of Willing, Independence, Alfred and Ward. The wells are small, producing from 5,000 to 10,000 cubic feet a day, with a new well occasionally coming in at 50,000 cubic feet.
In the early days of the field it was not uncommon for wells near Allentown, and later in Bolivar and Wirt, to produce up- wards of 1,000,000 cubic feet of gas a day.
The approximate price of gas to the consumers in 1925 is fifty cents per thousand cubic feet. Some gas is produced from casing- head gasoline plants of the compression type. The Ebenezer Oil Company has one near Allentown. E. J. Wilson and others have some small plants in Bolivar. There are some plants near Knapp's Creek along the state line in the southern part of Cattaraugus County. Gasoline from these plants is sold to marketing com- panies, and the dry gas, after the removal of the gasoline, is sold to the gas companies. The Empire Gas & Fuel Company has a large absorption plant at Andover, whereby it removes consider- able gasoline from the natural gas which it markets east of that point.“
An outstanding, independent operator in the gas business of southwestern New York was E. C. Bradley of Wellsville, men- tioned above as the founder, with his brother, J. B., of Bolivar, of the Empire Gas & Fuel Company. Mr. Harry Bradley of Wells-
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
ville and Mr. George Bradley of Bolivar have carried on the busi- ness successfully since the death of the pioneers. Gas is produced commercially in each of the following nine southern townships of Allegany County, which also produce oil in paying quantities : Genesee, Bolivar, Alma, Willing, Independence, Clarksville, Wirt, Scio, and Andover. Though Wellsville produces a small amount of oil, it does not produce enough gas to be sold off the leases. The townships of Alfred and Ward also produce some dry gas in pay- ing quantities where no oil is found.
Throughout the Allegany County oil field some wells produce both oil and commercial gas, but the most dependable gas wells, because they are drilled farther apart, are those which, along the edges of oil pools, produce gas only ; or located away from the oil pools find only gas and no oil.
Gas sands in western New York are commonly similar to the oil sands which are described elsewhere in this story, and are found at about the same depth.
But in Chautauqua County it is an entirely different forma- tion which produces gas; the Medina sandstone, and wells produc- ing daily upwards of a million feet each have been drilled there. A typical well drilled for gas by the Republic Light, Heat & Power Company three miles north of Sheridan, New York, found the Medina sandstone at 2,007 feet, and was drilled deeper in search of the Trenton limestone which produces oil and gas in Ohio. It was abandoned at 4,035 feet without having reached the Trenton rock. Still deeper drilling may some day discover both oil and gas in the Trenton somewhere in western New York.
Gas production has been steadily waning for years. No large new fields are being discovered, and although from present pros- pects one may expect new gas wells of considerable caliber in Chautauqua County, and probably some new pools of gas and scattered gas wells throughout western New York, the old fields of Allegany and Cattaraugus counties are rapidly declining. For manufacturing and house-furnace use natural gas is no longer dependable in the winter, but affords a convenient residence fuel for spring and fall, and a supply for cook stoves which house- holders sincerely hope will hold out for many years.
CHAPTER XLIV
THE COUNTY OF GENESEE
The subjects of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, the Morris Reserve and the Holland Land Company have been exhaustively treated in earlier chapters of this work. In July, 1797, the Hol- land Company entered into an agreement with Joseph Ellicott to survey its lands and manage the sale of them to settlers. This could not be done, however, until the Indian claim to the lands was extinguished, which was accomplished by the Big Tree Treaty of 1797. Ellicott began his survey in the spring of 1798 by running what is known as the "Transit Line," marking the eastern boundary of the purchase. West of that line the land was divided into townships, each six miles square, and the town- ships were subdivided into lots of varying size.
In the winter of 1797-98, the legislature appointed Charles Williamson a commissioner to lay out and open a state road from the Genesee River to Buffalo Creek, and from there to Lewiston. Before Williamson began his work, Mr. Ellicott, with the aid of a party of Seneca Indians, opened the first wagon road from the transit line to Buffalo Creek, improving it to an extent that made it passable for wagons. The old Indian trail, which formed the greater part of this road, crossed the Genesee River where the village of Avon now is situated, passed through Batavia, thence down the north bank of the Tonawanda River, and entered the present County of Erie at the Tonawanda Indian village. The route was accepted by Williamson, who made fur- ther improvements, bridging the streams or constructing fords where the latter were deemed sufficient.
For about a year after the road was first opened by Ellicott no house had been built on it west of the transit line. On June 1, 1799, Paul Busti, general agent of the Holland Company, wrote to Mr. Ellicott, instructing him to induce six persons to locate along the road about 10 or 12 miles apart and open taverns
1111
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
for the accommodation of land seekers. Each of the six was to be given an opportunity to purchase from 50 to 100 acres of land at a low price and on easy terms. Three persons imme- diately accepted the offer. Frederick Walthers located on the site of Stafford, where James Brisbane brought a load of sup- plies and merchandise to the surveyors in 1798, and opened what he called the Transit storehouse. Asa Ransom built his tavern at Pine Grove, in Erie County. In September, Garrett Davis located near the eastern border of the present Tonawanda Indian reservation. Each of these three men bought 150 acres at the favorable prices offered. As soon as Ransom's tavern was ready for occupancy, Ellicott made it his headquarters. On October 1, 1800, he was appointed local agent for the company and estab- lished his office in one room of the tavern. The survey of the Holland Purchase into townships was concluded in the fall of 1800, and several of the townships had been divided into lots. The company fixed a price of $2.75 per acre, ten per cent of which was required to be paid in cash. In portions of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, in the Western Reserve in Ohio, and across the border into Canada, lands could be bought at lower prices and on more favorable terms, hence settlement was slow for the first year or two.
Despite the pessimistic opinions of Busti and Ellicott, who believed that few purchasers would come forward and pay cash for land in a new country, some settlements had been made upon the holdings of the Holland Company. As early as 1793, nearly five years before the Seneca title had been extinguished, Charles Wilbur built a small log cabin and began farming where the village of Le Roy is now situated. He was no doubt the first white man to take up a residence in what is now Genesee County, and it has been asserted that he was the first to build a cabin at any point in the Holland Purchase, although this is doubtful. In 1797, he sold out to Captain John Ganson, who came with his two sons, John, Jr., and James.
The first tax roll for this territory (then incuded in the large town of Northampton) bears date of October 6, 1800. It con- tained 140 names, with a total assessment of $4,785,368. Of this amount, $3,300,000 was assessed against the Holland Com- pany, and eight large landholders were assessed $1,287,110,
BYSTEAS
View of Ceremonies at Dedication of The Holland Purchase Land Office in October, 1894-Troops shown are U. S. soldiers acting as escort to the Cabinet of President Cleveland, which attended these ceremonies.
---
View of the Holland Purchase Land Office, built in 1813, on spot where former office had stood from 1804. This was dedicated to Robert Morris.
1115
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
leaving $198,258 to be distributed among 132 taxpayers, most of whom were actual settlers.
In December, 1801, the first land office building was com- pleted at Batavia. It was a two-story log structure, which Saf- ford E. North says "was situated on the north side of West Main Street, nearly opposite the site of the old land office now (1899) standing." The office was occupied early in 1802. The build- ing mentioned by Judge North as still standing in 1899 was dedicated as a historical museum October 13, 1894. The first suggestion for such a museum came from Upton Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at a special meeting Friday, July 28, 1893. At a meeting of citizens on the evening of August 1, 1893, Daniel W. Tomlinson, John H. Ward, John Kennedy and Carlos A. Hull were appointed a committee to devise means to secure the building. This committee secured an option on the property for $1,850, a campaign for subscriptions was opened and on Novem- ber 13, 1893, the deed was filed in the county clerk's office, con- veying the property to Daniel W. Tomlinson. At that time only $850 of the purchase price was paid. Subscriptions con- tinued to come in, each contributor becoming a charter member of the Holland Purchase Historical Society, which was incor- porated February 6, 1894, with the following officers: Mrs. Mary E. Richmond, president; William C. Watson, vice presi- dent; Herbert P. Woodward, recording secretary; Arthur E. Clark, corresponding secretary and librarian; Levant C. McIn- tyre, treasurer.
The parade on the morning of October 13, 1894, is said to have been the largest and most imposing ever seen in Genesee County up to that time. At the land office prayer was offered by Rt. Rev. Stephen V. Ryan, bishop of the Catholic diocese of Buffalo; the tablet erected to the memory of Robert Morris was unveiled by Hon. Walter Q. Gresham, secretary of state; and the address of dedication was delivered by Hon. John G. Carlisle, secretary of the treasury. Among the guests at luncheon at the Hotel Richmond were: Robert and S. Fisher Morris, great- grandsons of Robert Morris, and the following members of the President's cabinet : Hon. Walter Q. Gresham, secretary of state; Hon. John G. Carlisle, secretary of the treasury; Hon. Daniel S. Lamont, secretary of war; Hon. Wilson S. Bissell, post-
1116
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
master-general; Hon. Hilary A. Herbert, secretary of the navy; Hon. Hoke Smith, secretary of the interior.
The following quotation is taken from Mr. Carlisle's address: "In 1804 the building which you are here to dedicate today to the memory of Robert Morris was erected, and for more than a third of a century the titles to the homes of the people who now in- habit the counties of Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Niag- ara, except the Indian reservations, and nearly all the counties of Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming and Allegany were prepared and executed within its walls. Thus it is that nearly every home in the western part of the beautiful valley which suggested the name of the river which flows through it, is connected with the name of Robert Morris."
At the beginning of the year 1802 there were probably twen- ty-five families living within the limits of the present Genesee County. Among them were Aaron Arnold, Asher Bates, James Brisbane, Gardner Carver, Hinds Chamberlain, Worthy L. Churchill, Jotham Curtis, Daniel and James Davis, Jabez Fox, Gilbert Hall, Philemon Nettleton, Ezra Platt, William Rumsey, James W. Stevens, Richard M. Stoddard, Richard Waite, Aaron White and Erastus Wolcott. With the family of Philemon Net- tleton came Miss Naomi Le Barron, who became the wife of Daniel Davis soon after her arrival. At the same time and place, in the Ganson settlement (Le Roy) Gardner Carver and Lydia Davis were married. The ceremony at this double wedding, the first marriages in the county, was performed by Charles Wilbur, the first justice of the peace. Naomi, daughter of Daniel and Naomi Davis, was the first white child born there.
The brighter prospects at the opening of 1802 encouraged Joseph Ellicott to advocate the formation of a new county, to include the Holland Purchase. Early in the year he established his land office where the city of Batavia now stands, of which city he may be considered the founder. This location he had selected mainly because it was on the road opened by him and William- son in 1798, over which the tide of immigration was moving westward, and because it was on the line of the Indian trail between Canada and Pennsylvania. Although at that time there was an Indian council ground only a few rods from his land office, he decided upon this place as the county seat of the new
1117
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
county. The territory then constituted a part of Ontario County, with the county seat at Canandaigua, more than fifty miles from the land office by the nearest traveled route. Furthermore, the Phelps and Gorham and the Holland purchases had few inter- ests in common, being competitors for the sale of their lands.
Ellicott foresaw the advantages that would result from a county organization; that it would bring the administration of justice nearer to the settlements in the Holland Purchase, thus encouraging the influx of immigration and increasing the sale of lands. He interested Paul Busti in the project and, accompanied by D. A. Ogden, made a trip to Albany to lay the matter before the legislature. He and Mr. Ogden succeeded in convincing that body of the wisdom of their proposition. On March 30, 1802, the act was passed creating the county of Genesee, to embrace "all that part of the state lying west of the Genesee River and a line extending due south from the point of junction of the said river and the Canaseraga Creek to the south line of the state."
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