USA > Ohio > Allen County > A standard history of Allen county, Ohio : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development > Part 44
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In his geological survey of Ohio, published in 1888, Professor Orton says: "The entire history of the discovery and the exploitation of petroleum in this country has been full of surprises, both to the practical man engaged in the work and to the geologists who have studied the facts as they have been brought to light, and oil in the Trenton rock, some of the wells producing 5,000 barrels of oil, or 15,000,000 cubic feet of gas, and the whole thing without precedent. There were surface indi-
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A TANK FIELD NEAR LIMA
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cations of gas, but not of oil at Findlay. In 1836, at a point 31/2 miles south of the Hancock County courthouse, a man named Wade was dig- ging a well on the Aaron Williams farm when water was struck at a depth of ten feet and the man stopped to eat supper. When he returned with a lighted torch there was an explosion, and the fire continued burn- ing for three months. In 1838, Daniel Foster dug a well in Findlay in which gas was so strong that it spoiled the water. Foster was a practical man and utilized the gas by piping it into his house, where he burned it *in his fireplace for many years.
Narrowing down to a study of the Lima oil field, Mr. Campbell pays tribute to one who was connected with local development in many ways, saying of B. C. Faurot that he was always abreast of the times, reciting the fact that the operahouse, electric light, electric street railway, etc., were the result of his efforts, and that he was planning still greater things when overtaken by adversity. He had frequently passed through the Pennsylvania oil fields en route to New York, and he was impressed with the importance of oil or gas discovery to any community. When the work was in progress at Findlay, he was planning the experiment at Lima and did not wait for the co-operation of others in the matter. If Findlay could have a gas well so could Lima. On his own initiative, Mr. Faurot undertook it. The paper mill in which he was interested used fuel and water in quantities, and often the plant had to shut down for lack ot water.
While Mr. Faurot failed to get gas, he obtained something vastly more profitable, and he placed Lima on the map as the first place to draw oil from Trenton rock. The name of Mr. Faurot will always be linked with this important discovery. Joseph Brownyar and W. M. Martin who drilled the well at Findlay for a time were residents of Lima. Their contract with Mr. Faurot was for a water well; the project attracted no attention until the drill penetrated to the depth of 1,000 feet, and if it had been a failure nothing would have been said about it. The con- tractors were to receive $10,000 if the well showed sufficient calibre to supply the paper mill with the requisite fuel. Otherwise, they were to receive nothing, although money was advanced and secured by the equip- ment. W. S. Lowe, who was superintendent of the paper mill at the time, pays tribute to Mr. Faurot.
Thirty years later, Mr. Lowe wrote in a letter to Mr. Campbell that the records had disappeared, but saying there were few men of promi- nence who did not at some time engage in controversy with Mr. Faurot. He was small in physique with large brain and ideas, and absolute loyalty to Lima. While he was indifferent as to individual rights, he was a cap- tain of industry, never declining to enter a fight no matter what were the odds against him. While he had many faults and many enemies, what would Lima be today without him? The city should erect a monu- ment to his memory, that later generations may remember the man who placed Lima on the map of the world. Through his effort the Solar refinery was located, and that engendered confidence in the permanence of the oil industry in Lima.
Writing further of Mr. Faurot, Mr. Lowe said he could forget the insignificant faults of the man when he realized his greatness, his far- sightedness and that other Lima leaders ridiculed him because of his ambition. None of them co-operated with him, and yet all shared the benefits of his enterprise. He had seen the Karg well at Findlay and only hoped for similar success in Lima. If he failed in securing gas he hoped to find sufficient water for operating the paper mill all of the time. He was as anxious for the water as for the gas. He could always buy fuel,
OIL DERRICKS AT LIMA
EN KANADAANY
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but lack of water was a serious difficulty. The day the well came in there was an odor like decayed eggs, sulphur and all the other evil smells. Henry Neff was the mill superintendent, and with his clothes covered with oil he was so excited he could hardly tell about it-that the gas well had turned out to be an oil well. The news spread and immediately the banks of the Ottawa were thronged with spectators.
The drilling stopped for consultation when it was decided to drill deeper and "put in a shot." No one in Lima knew anything about oil wells, and the "shot" which was made up of dynamite and. glycerine was an unknown quantity. It was mixed together in a wooden box, and the well was "shot" at the depth of 1,272 feet, and tanks were the next necessity. Since there was not sufficient gas pressure to raise the oil, a pump was installed and several carloads of oil were soon on the way to the Toledo refinery. Because no one knew how to eliminate the sulphur, Lima oil was used for fuel and the Toledo refinery objected to it because of the odor from it. The paper mill well only produced about thirty bar- rels a day and soon the quantity diminished, but other wells were soon in prospect and companies were organized to take care of developments. There was soon a string of leases from Findlay to Lima, and how the first wells missed some of the rich pools developed later will always remain a mystery.
Syndicates were busy leasing territory and projecting oil wells, when Mr. Faurot on July 20, 1885, received the first analysis of the oil. It was 40 per cent water with 35 per cent lubricating oil, 10 per cent naphtha and only 5 per cent waste. Until then all had been uncertain about it. Mr. Faurot was so well pleased with the analysis that he at once ordered the well shot again, and announced that it would be worked for all there was in it. However, his plans changed and in pulling the well 300 feet of tubing broke off in it. As a producer the paper mill well was never profitable, although it was the cause of the Lima oil industry. It seems to have penetrated the edge of the pool, and the enterprising citizens were more fortunate in later efforts.
THE SHOOTING OF AN OIL WELL
When the material arrived from Toledo to be used in shooting the paper mill oil well, the men to do it were not on hand and the operatives at the mill would take no chances on explosives being left there. The consignment was taken back to the depot and remained there over night. It was reddish looking stuff comprising sixteen ingredients, and the unso- phisticated would take no chances with it. When ready to shoot the well, it was placed in two tin cans about three feet long, each weighing about 200 pounds ; the men were careful, handling it like it were eggs. Part of it was burned outside making a beautiful light. Those in charge of the explosive objected to any one coming near who had a cigar in his mouth. Two hours before the time announced an immense crowd had gathered to witness the shooting of the oil well, the railroad embank- ment being lined with people interested in the success or failure of the undertaking. All available standing room was filled with men, women and children who patiently awaited developments.
The workmen lowered one can of the explosive to the bottom with a cable wire, its weight being sufficient to sink it through the accumulated oil. The second can was lowered and a workman carefully produced a small package which proved to be small oil cans filled with gylcerine. When the glycerine was lowered the plunger followed, the drill was let down and the explosion was the result, although no jar was felt and the
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first intimation was the appearance of oil at the surface. The con- cussion caused the oil to shoot seventy-five feet in the air, but after about one minute it subsided and there was a flow of natural gas. The oil was stronger than the gas and soon only oil was in evidence, and while the workmen were reticent the result was thought to be satisfactory. The Ottawa River was covered with oil, and those familiar with the oil indus- try said it was a good quality.
The residents of Allen County are familiar with the situation today, and realize that because of the extensive investments Lima will always be an operating station in the oil industry. The Solar refinery is elsewhere mentioned among the Lima industries, and its relation to the different oil syndicates is simply as a refinery-not producing at all. Speculators were attracted to Lima and some of them became citizens of the com- munity. Men who developed the field were: Mr. Faurot, I. G. Hall, J. B. Townsend, F. E. Mead, G. P. Waldorf and J. M. Haller. Leases were secured on 5,000 acres of land holding good for thirty years. The landowner incurred no expense and received one-eighth royalties. It is said none of the local promotors made any money, although the advent and activity of eastern capital finally aroused local citizens, and among other syndicates formed was a citizens' company. The oil in the atmos- phere discolored the paint on the houses, and the water was impregnated with it. Meanwhile Allen County has benefited from the oil develop- ment, although there is little local production today.
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE POSTAL SYSTEM-ALLEN COUNTY POSTOFFICES
In the Bible narrative Job exclaims: "My days are swifter than a post," and the postal service is known to have been used in some coun- tries as early as the thirteenth century: It was provided for in the United States when the Constitution was written in 1789, although at that time it was considered as an adjunct to the treasury system. While the depart- ment is not expected to deliver all the letters of the alphabet, since the advent of the parcels post almost everything goes through it.
Railway mail service was first established in 1864, several years after train service had been given to Allen County; rural free delivery- R. F. D. mail service, was first adopted in the United States in 1895, and in 1900, it was a reality in Allen County. There was a military post- office at Fort Amanda, while it was occupied as a garrison, but perhaps only government communications were received there. In 1828, the pioneers were asking for mail service, and in 1829, there was an office established at Fort Amanda. Samuel Marshall and his son, Charles C. Marshall, were mail carriers from Piqua to Fort Defiance for three years from that time, making regular stops at Fort Amanda. The distance was ninety-five miles, and it was a twice-a-week service-going and coming, and there was a young girl at Fort Amanda who proved an irresistible attraction for the younger Marshall. The marriage of C. C. Marshall and Susannah Russell-the daughter of Allen County-was the natural sequence.
Samuel Marshall is sometimes referred to as Judge Marshall, and it was while John Quincy Adams was president that he was a Fort Amanda mail carrier. The distance from Piqua to Fort Defiance was covered on horseback-weekly trips-but it would seem that the same stops would be made on the return journey. Thornton T. Mitchell was another car- rier between Piqua and Fort Defiance. He was in the service five years, and Chief Quilna of the Shawnees used to show him many special favors. He also traveled on horseback, serving the different communities long enough before rural mail service was a dream in the fertile mind of Perry Heath.
Now that every farmhouse in Allen County is in touch with the out- side world through a government mailbox in front of its door, or at some point within half a mile from it-those rural carriers in the beginning of history seem to have been very much in advance of present-day condi- tions ; today the "postoffice on wheels" arrives in many localities with such exact regularity that many families regulate their dinner hour accord- ingly ; they would not want to be without the rural mail service. The Allen County rural mail service is distributed thus : Beaver Dam has two rural carriers ; Bluffton four ; Delphos six; Elida three; Harrod three; Hume one; Lafayette one; Lima nine; Spencerville five, and West Cairo one. While some Allen County carriers serve patrons outside the county, several other postoffice areas also penetrate Allen County. The route makers who are sent out from the postoffice department are not governed by geographical boundaries; they take into consideration the distance traveled in serving the different communities from different points ; some families do not receive mail from the towns where they do their busi- ness, and it seems demoralizing to them.
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The department in Ada, Columbus Grove, Vendocia and Wapakoneta serves Allen County patrons, while Bluffton, Delphos and Spencerville all serve patrons in other counties. Bluffton was once called Shannon, but because of postal conflict its name was changed; Delphos was Section Ten, and Spencerville was Acadia; another Acadia rendered the change of name a necessity. Sometimes the name of the postoffice is different from the name of the town-a confusing state of affairs, but there is no confusion about the name of Lima-strangers always asking the relation between the town and beans. It seems that there are Boston beans and Lima beans. Again the story-the man credited with naming Lima was a stickler for the Spanish pronunciation-Leemah.
There was a postoffice established at Section Ten in 1847, and since the name was changed to Delphos early in the history of the community, it is likely the name of the office was changed simultaneously. Mrs. Mary Risley was postmistress in Delphos for twenty-five years. She, perhaps, holds the record in Allen County. "To the victors belong the spoils," and the postmaster today usually changes with the national administration, although civil service prevails in the subordinate positions. While Con- gressmen have distributed patronage in the past, the local political organ- izations now control the patronage question. Congressman John L. Cable does not have the same opportunity of awarding his political henchmen as was accorded to Congressman B. F. Welty. Candidates for postmas- ter now visit the county republican committee, and thus United States Congressmen are relieved of criticism because of their failure to dis- tribute "political plums" to suit their constituency.
The city mail service was established in Delphos May 1, 1908, with four carriers ; the rural mail service began there September 2, 1900, with three carriers ; the service has since been increased to six carriers. It is a tri-county mail service from Delphos-carriers serving patrons in Allen, Putnam and Van Wert counties. The three rural carriers who started in 1900 are: Noah A. Brown, John H. Judkins and Charles O. Enslin; while none of them remained in the service long enough to receive a pen- sion, Eugene Metcalf, who served as a rural carrier for seventeen years and five months, is now a pensioner. Alexander J. Shenk, the 1920 Del- phos postmaster, reported the rural carrier system as highly appreciated; the people would not be without it; when there are legal holidays they miss the rural mail service; rural carriers receive many courtesies from their patrons.
The Lima mail delivery service was established in 1888, while R. W. Meily was postmaster; it began with four carriers and has been increased to twenty-six foot carriers, and two mounted on parcel post delivery trucks; the first Lima carriers were: Charles Thoring, Daniel Gorman, John McKerron and Charles Hover. From census to census-1910 to 1920-the Lima postoffice has more than doubled its volume of business, advancing from $84,872 to $171,936, and the October receipts in 1920 were without precedent in the office history. Additional clerks were expected from the recent civil service examination.
People used to regard letters as present-day citizens think of tele- grams, although their friends were often dead and buried long enough before the letters reached them; now that practically every family in Allen County receives daily mail, some of the stories of the long-ago are "stranger than fiction" to the generation now on the stage of action in Allen County. No news was always good news, and a letter sometimes disturbed the peaceful tranquility of the whole community. While most families have postage stamps in the home today, time was when they paid
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the postage on letters received by them; today a letter is returned to the sender if it lacks postage.
The story is told of a man who pawned his hat to "lift a letter." It has been a long time since tidings from the homefolk had reached him, and he would have the letter at any sacrifice; the system of collecting postage at the time of delivery worked hardships on many settlers; the law did not remain long on the statutes of the country. While the set- tlers were always anxious for tidings, the contents of some letters meant nothing to them, and now those who write letters pay the postage on them ; there was a time when the letter was so folded that the superscrip- tion became the face of the letter; there were no envelopes for many years ; those letters were sent by carrier whenever a traveler was passing from one place to another. Necessity has always been the mother of invention ; in time the envelope saved the necessity of so carefully folding the letter, with one blank side for the superscription.
There was no such thing as a postage stamp, and "collect 12 cents" was written where the stamp is now placed on one corner of the letter; wafers and sealing wax were used before postage stamps were on the market. It seems like a far cry from the day when the mail was carried on horseback and by stage, or by personal messenger-and once a week was as often as any one heard from the outside world. Now that the whole community reads the daily newspapers-expects them as a matter of course-the news from the four corners of the world, who pays any attention to the minor details connected with the United States mail serv- ice? Who knows anything about the rural carriers and their difficulties? Fortunately the United States Mail Department is so organized that it not only looks after itself, but serves the community most acceptably.
The Star Route United States mail system was introduced in 1882, and like all other advance measures it was later installed in Allen County ; it served the community until the coming of rural free delivery. Delphos and Lima are first-class postoffices-serving a population of more than 50,000, and the postmaster usually holds his position as a reward for his political activities. The time came when the postoffice at Fort Amanda was no longer in Allen County; the Lima postoffice was established Feb- ruary 1, 1832, and Lewis Srouf was the first postmaster. In the order of their names, the following have served as postmaster in Lima: Lewis Srouf, John Ward, Henry Lippencott, Charles Baker, William Cunning- ham, John W. Thomas, John B. Wamsley, Samuel A. Baxter, Sr., B. A. Satterthwaite, John Keller, Samuel Sanford, Orrin Curtiss, John R. Beatty, Cornelius Parmenter, Dr. William H. Harper, Cornelius Par- menter, George W. Waldorf, R. W. Meily, Dr. George Hall, W. R. Mehaffey, Dr. George Hall, William A. Campbell, Albert E. Gale and James E. Sullivan.
The Lima postoffice has had a migratory history ; on July 4, 1894, the cornerstone of a new federal building was laid at the corner of High and Elizabeth streets; the ceremony was under the direction of Allen Andrews, Grand Master Free and Accepted Masons of Ohio; the build- ing was completed September 30, 1895, and the postoffice was installed there the first of October ; the building was erected at a cost of $40,000; such rapid growth for Lima was not anticipated when the appropriation was made for the federal building; it was soon found that it was too small for the needs of the community. In 1909 the building was remod- eled at a cost of $60,000, thereby gaining much needed space; while it was being remodeled the office was removed to the Piper Building on South Main Street; the remodeling and extensions to the building were completed, and the postoffice was returned to it in the first part of A. E.
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Gale's incumbency ; this $60,000 expenditure afforded but little temporary relief, as the rapid growth of the postal business, together with the clos- ing of the South Lima station (established August 1, 1903, and discon- tinued December 31, 1911) which necessitated the removal of two clerks and five city carriers to the main office, and this utilized practically all the space gained from remodeling the building.
When rural free delivery of mail from Lima was an experiment, Robert G. Stockton served the Shawnee Township area beginning April 1, 1900, and by June 1, four other routes were started and today the nine carriers from Lima cover a total of 241 miles, serving 1,467 families numbering in all 5,638 patrons. In 1918, the interior of the local post- office was remodeled again; a chute for sending parcel post mail to the basement was installed at an expense of $1,200; the growing parcel post and collect on delivery service as now established throughout the coun- try, is the biggest proposition postal officials have to handle because of the lack of proper facilities; there is so much bulk to this class of mail. Since 1916, every effort has been made by Postmaster J. E. Sullivan and Congressman B. F. Welty to secure an appropriation for a much-needed new federal building and site ; in the Sixty-sixth Congress an omnibus bill was recommended for passage; in this omnibus bill an appropriation was included for a new site and federal building in Lima; however, the bill failed of passage.
Lima postoffice was made a central accounting office for the County of Allen, effective July 1. 1917, and it included all postoffices in the county except the office at Delphos; the offices reporting were: Beaver Dam, Bluffton, Conant, Elida, Gomer, Harrod, Hume, Kempton, Lafay- ette, Spencerville, West Cairo and Westminster ; on March 15, 1920, Cin- cinnati was named central accounting office for the third and fourth-class offices in this part of Ohio; all business for the above named offices except Conant which was discontinued December 15, 1919, was transferred from Lima to Cincinnati.
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE BENCH AND THE BAR IN ALLEN COUNTY
The story of the bench and the bar in Allen County is contemporary with the history of the county itself. Indeed, there were jurists in the little group of over-night guests in the Daniels cabin when the name Lima was last in the hat the night of the christening, Patrick G. Goode being a lawyer along with his other accomplishments. It was "circuit" court in the beginning, since none of the lawyers lived in Allen County. One handicap of the law practice in the days of Count Coffinberry and his contemporaries was the frequent high waters-they had to "swim the streams lengthwise," in reaching the scattered courts. The courts as well as the churches were served by circuit riders. An old account says : "Our jail was a small log hut with only two rooms, one above the other, but they scarcely ever had inmates; our court hardly ever lasted more than two days; the first that went from this county to the penitentiary was Alexander Hofman for horse-stealing," and in the chapter, "The Official Roster," is detailed the story of the one execution in Allen County.
The law literature of Ohio is abundant, it having been accumulating since the time Judge Timothy Walker of Cincinnati wrote "The American Law." The Allen County bar has pride in its law library maintained in the courthouse and accessible to all. Membership at the bar entitles an attorney to the use of it, and it is a solution of the financial difficulty for any young lawyer who is limited in his book purchasing ability. All the Ohio reports and those of nearby states are found there, and through the use of it the individual attorney does not require such an extensive and expensive working library of his own, and while books may be removed the borrower must always leave his card covering his obliga- tion for them. The story is related that an attorney from West Virginia thought he knew more law than the Ohio attorneys, and he would some- times cross the river and practice in Ohio; when he found that he would have to pursue a course of study to practice in Ohio courts, he said: "I never did pretend to be much of a Blackstun lawyer, but I'm thar on the Virginny statoots."
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