Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 52

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 916

USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II > Part 52

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Oil Flowing into the Creek .- The valley of the West Fork of Duck creek bristled with derricks from below Macksburg to where the town of Caldwell stands. The drilling was done generally with the spring pole, and with varied success. Oil was generally ob- tained within 300 feet of the surface, and if not reached at that depth was abandoned. A noted well was struck near the Slocum village at a depth of eighty-nine feet, which flowed such large quantities of oil as to fill everything at hand, and flowed out over the

bottoms and into the creek. Thousands of barrels of oil are said to have been wasted.

Oil Abandoned for War .- Meantime oil had been steadily declining in price, and as the only way to get it to market was to haul it by wagons over the wretched roads, often axle-deep in mud, to the Muskingum river, the net proceeds became very small to the producer. The consequent rapid exhaustion of the shallow wells reduced the production materially, and it was brought summarily to an end by the outbreak of the Rebellion. Dril-

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lers abandoned their derricks to rot down and enlisted in the army. At this time steam- engines for drilling wells and rope tools had been introduced, but were in a primitive state compared with those of the present time.

Speculations in Od .- When the Rebellion collapsed the oil business was resumed, not for the purpose of production, but for spec- ulation, stimulated by the condition of the currency. The country was invaded by the men of New England, New York and Penn- sylvania, who obtained control of old ex- hausted wells and undeveloped territory, either by purchase or lease, and proceeded to incorporate companies with capital stock ranging from $100,000 to $1,000,000, and placed the stock with Eastern people with more money than brains. Stock was readily disposed of and offers of fabulous sums were made for lands on which to hase new oil com- panies ; offers were made and refused of $1,000 per acre for valley lands.

Fortunes Made in a Day .- Those owning farms along the creek had within their grasp fortunes such as had never entered their minds in their wildest dreams ; but the prices offered were generally refused, with, perhaps, a dozen exceptions. The advance was so rapid from $40 to $1,000 per acre, that land owners were afraid to let go for fear some one would make a profit beyond the price obtained by them, and they lost an opportu- nity to become rich which will never return again.

As an illustration :

"Two sisters who owned less than eighty acres of land, gave an option to buy at $30,- 000, for a limited time ; when the parties holding the option were ready to pay the money, they refused to carry out their con- tract and barricaded themselves in the house, and stood a siege of several days' duration in order that the option might expire. They were finally induced to execute the deeds be- fore the bubble burst and got their money."

The land was not worth $25 per acre for agricultural purposes, and there never has been a barrel of oil obtained from the land since.

George Rice and the Deckers .- After the bubble collapsed nothing was done in devel- oping the oil interests of the Duck creek valley, except in the vicinity of Macksburg, in Washington county, a portion of which village is in Noble. The operations there were conducted principally by George Rice, and the Deckers, father and son, and they only drilled for the shallow oil in what is termed there the 500-foot sand, which in that locality was quite productive. In the year 1869 or 1870 Mr. Rice concluded that per- haps similar geological conditions existed in that field that did in Pennsylvania, and de- termined to test the matter with the drill, and was successful in finding a light well in the third sand, at the depth of 1,450 feet. The result Mr. Rice kept as a profound se- cret. In the winter of 1882-83 the "wild- eatters" from the oil fields of Pennsylvania put in an appearance and began opcrations

on Long Run, about three miles southeast of Macksburg, in Jefferson township, Noble county.

The "Greenies ?"-They were successful in finding oil in the third sand, but plugged the well, removed the derrick, and reported, when questioned by the anxious farmers in the vicinity, that it was a failure, allowed their leases to expire, and to complete the hoax, hired a farmer under a pledge of se- crecy to haul some oil over the hill from Macksburg, and pour it on the ground around the well, telling him that other oil men from Pennsylvania would come, and heing deceived by the appearance of the oil at the well would buy his and his neighbors' lands at a good price for the purpose of drilling for oil. They then departed, and in a short time the supposed "greenies," strangers ignorant of the facts as the farmers supposed, arrived and were enabled to lease lands for a small royalty and a light bonus, and made pur- chases outright of lands at about what they were worth for agricultural purposes. After most of the land over a wide extent of coun- try had been secured, drilling began in ear- nest, and there was a general rush to the new field from all quarters, and the field was rap- idly developed and its limits defined.

"Pay Sand."-Inside these limits there was scarcely a chance of failure to find oil in the third sand in paying quantities. Pumping stations were established to force water to the tops of the highest hills for the use of the drillers, and soon the ground was a net- work of pipes conveying water and oil to their different destinations. The wells range in depth from 1,425 in the valleys to 1,900 feet on the hilltops. The field has an area of about 4,000 acres, and is oval in shape, with its longest axis extending from the northwest to the southeast. The sand varies in thickness from three to twenty feet, and besides containing oil has enough gas in the same rock to force the oil to the surface with great energy, through a tube usually two inches in diameter, enclosed in a gum packer, located fifty or sixty feet above the oil-pro- ducing sand, which prevents the water from descending to the sand, and causes the oil and gas to flow through the tube and dis- charge into the receiving tank located near the well.

Storage Tanks-Then it is drawn off into the Standard Oil Company's tanks, erected for storage purposes. These tanks are erected in the valley above Elba, Washington county, and are connected with all the wells in the field except those belonging to George Rice. The receiving tanks number thirty-five or forty, and have a capacity of 600,000 bar- rels, and are connected with the refineries located at Parkersburg, W. Va., by a 3-inch pipe line. The Macksburg field at its best produced about 3,500 barrels of oil daily. The production has fallen to about 1,800 daily, at the present writing, November 1, 1886. This production is from about 500 wells.

George Rice, an independent producer and

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refiner, erected receiving tanks at Macksburg and laid a 2-inch pipe line over the hills to Lowell, on the Muskingum river, through which he forces oil into boats at that place, and floats it to his refinery, located at Mari- etta. The Macksburg field could never boast of such wonderful " gushers" as were found in the Thorn creek and the Washington fields of Pennsylvania. The best well in the Macksburg field probably did not produce more than 300 barrels the first twenty-four hours after it was shot and tubed ; the sand is more compact than any of the fields in Pennsylvania, and consequently yields its precious contents more slowly, and the well is not so soon exhausted.

Gas Wells .- Northeast of Macksburg, near the edge of the field, several large gas wells have been struck in the search for oil, which would have caused great excitement in any other locality, but which here were only re- ferred to as a failure to find oil. One of these wells visited by the writer three months after the gas was tapped, threw a column of salt water ninety feet high, at intervals of five minutes ; between these intervals the column stood about fifty feet high as steadily as a fountain in full play. In time the great salt rock here, 180 feet thick, became nearly exhausted of its water, and the intervals be- came longer, but the gas has not decreased perceptibly, although more than two years has elapsed since the well was drilled.

In the winter of 1885-86 a small pool was struck two and a half miles northwest of Macksburg, in Aurelius township, Washing- ton county, in the 300-foot sand, which, in defiance of old experience, was free from water and had gas enough to force it to the surface. The well started with a yield of fifty barrels per day. The pool was soon drilled out and did not contain more than 100 acres, but was very profitable, owing to the low cost of the wells.

The "Wild-Catter."-There have been a number of "wild-cat" wells drilled in various parts of the county, at a considerable distance from the Macksburg field, without finding oil ; but if oil should advance to a good price the "wild-catter," ever hopeful and sanguine of success, would renew with his old energy the search for oil, obtaining which, his dreams of the wealth and renown he seeks would be speedily realized. There is no doubt other fields and pools exist in southeastern Ohio, besides those already discovered. Nature is not likely to limit her gifts to two such small affairs as the Macksburg and Wickens pools. It remains to be demonstrated whether nature has been niggardly in her gifts to this sec- tion, and the "wild-catter" carries the key in the drill for its ultimate solution, and with him we leave it, confident that he will not fail iu the future, as he has not in the past.

JAMES M. DALZELL was born in Allegheny City, Pa., September 3, 1838. When he was nine years of age his father removed to Ohio. Under great diffi- culties he succeeded in obtaining an education, and was a junior at Washington College, Pa., at the outbreak of the war.

He served two years as a private in the One Hundred and Sixteenth O. V. I. After the close of the war he studied law, fillled a clerkship at Washington, and in 1868 settled permanently in Caldwell. During his life Mr. Dalzell has been a prolific and able writer for the press; his championship of the cause of the pri- vate soldier of the Rebellion has been spirited, fearless and influential. Over the signature of Private Dalzell his writings have appeared in almost every newspa- per in the land. In 1875, and again in 1877, he was elected to the Ohio Legis- lature, but withdrew from political life in 1882. He is a very able stump speaker, an ardent Republican, and associate and friend of such men as Sumner Garfield, Hayes, Sherman, and their contemporaries.

Mr. Dalzell was the originator and author of the popular Soldiers' Union, now held an- nually in all parts of the country. Mr. Dal- zell takes great pride in his work in behalf of John Gray. the last soldier of the Revo- lution. In 1888 Robert Clarke & Co., of Cincinnati, published a volume entitled " Pri- vate Dalzell." It contains "My Autobiog- raphy," "My War Sketches," etc., and "John Gray." It is an interesting and val- uable publication. We quote a restrospect of his political life. "In an evil hour, in the summer of 1885, I foolishly accepted a nomination to the Legislature, was elected, and there ended my prosperity. After the

election, in October, my name was in all the papers, congratulations poured in on me from every quarter, and I was invited to take the stump in Pennsylvania, which I did, at a great waste of time and money. I thought nothing of it then. It was only when, years after, I looked into an empty flour barrel and hungry children's faces and felt in my empty pockets, that I fully apprehended my folly. Four years I now spent in the maelstrom of politics, whirled and tossed about at the ca- price of fortune, without any power to con- trol it. I look back on it with pain. . It is a grand game, and none but grand men need try to play it. Let men of moderate

NOBLE COUNTY.

abiltities, like myself, keep out of it if they

PRIVATE DALZELL.

would escape the chagrin and mortification of failure, accentuated with the pangs of poverty.'

WILLIAM H. ENOCHS was born near Middle- burg, March 29, 1842, and is the only native of Noble county who attained the rank of General in the late war. He enlisted as a private in April, 1861 ; saw much hard ser- viee and distinguished himself for bravery and gallantry. At twenty-two he commanded a brigade, and at twenty-three he was com- missioned Brigadier-General. Ex-President Hayes says of him : "His courage, prompt- ness and energy was extraordinary. His diligence was great and his ability and skill in managing and taking care of his regiment were rarely equalled." Gen. Enochs is now a prominent lawyer of Ironton, Ohio.

FREEMAN C. THOMPSON was born in Wash- ington county, Pa., February 25, 1846. His

family removed to Noble county, Ohio, in 1854. At sixteen years of age he enlisted in the 116th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and in the assault on Fort Gregg. April 2, 1865, he performed the gallant action for which he received a medal of honor by vote of Con- gress. The County History says :

" In this engagement (which General Grant in his Memoirs says 'was the most desperate that was seen in the East '), through a perfect tornado of grape and canister, he and his comrade reached the last ditch. How to seale the parapet was a question requiring only a moment for solution. Using each other as ladders they commeneed the ascent. Almost at the top one was shot and fell baek into the diteh. Thompson was struck twice with a musket and fell into the ditch with several ribs broken, but in short.time was again on the top of the parapet fighting with muskets loaded and handed him by his eom- rades below. Soon the advantage was taken possession of, the whole army swept in and the fort was ours." In 1865 Mr. Thompson was elected sheriff of Noble county and re- elected at the expiration of his term.

JAMES MADISON TUTTLE was born near Summerfield, Noble county, September 24, . 1823. His father removed to Indiana when James was ten years old. James enlisted in the Union army at the outbreak of the war and at the battle of Fort Donelson he gallantly led his regiment into the enemy's works, it being the first to enter. The tender of this post of honor was first made to several other regiments and declined and Gen. Smith then said to him : " Colonel, will you take those works ? " "Support me promptly," was the response, "and in twenty minutes I will go in." The Second Iowa " went in " with Col. Tuttle at its head and planted the first Union flag inside Donelson. Col. Tuttle was slightly wounded in this assault, but was able to stay with his command. In June, 1862, he was commissioned Brigadier-General for gallant service in the field.

After the war Gen. Tuttle settled in Des Moines, Iowa, and has been engaged in min- ing and manufacturing interests. He has been commander of the G. A. R. for the department of Iowa and twice a member of the Iowa Legislature.

JOHN GRAY, THE LAST SOLDIER OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

John Gray, the last surviving soldier of the American Revolution, was born at Mount Vernon, Virginia, January 6, 1764, and died at Hiramsburg, Ohio, March 29, 1868, aged 104 years.

His father fell at White Plains, and he, then only about sixteen years of age, promptly volunteered, took up the musket that had fallen from his father's hands and carried it until the war was over. He was in a skirmish at Williamsburg and was one of the one hundred and fifty men on that dangerous but successful expedition of Mayor Ramsey. He was also at Yorktown at the final surrender, which event occurred in his eighteenth year. He was mustered out at Richmond, Virginia, at the close of the war and returned to field labor near Mount Vernon, his first day's work after his muster out being performed for General Washington at Mount Vernon.

NOBLE COUNTY.

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Mr. Gray married twice in Virginia and once in Ohio. He survived his three wives and all his children, except one daughter, who has since died over eighty years of age, and with whom he resided in Noble county, Ohio, at the time of his death.

In 1795 Mr. Gray left Mount Vernon and crossing the mountains settled at Grave creek. Here he remained until Ohio was admitted to the Union, when he removed to what is now Noble county. Mr. Gray was not illiterate ; he learned to read and write before entering the Revolutionary army. In dis- position he was quiet, kindly and generous ; a good Christian, having joined the Metho- dist church at twenty-five years of age, and was for seventy-eight years a regular attend- aut.

His means of support was earned by farm labor. When in his old age, poor and infirm, Congress granted him a pension of $500 per annum. The bill providing this was intro- duced in the House in 1866, by Hon. John A. Bingham. This tardy act of justice to the old hero was the result of efforts in his behalf by Hon. J. M. Dalzell, whose kindly interest and generous efforts to make com- fortable and peaceful the last years of Mr. Gray are highly honorable to him.

Mr. Dalzell has published a full and com- plete account of John Gray's career and it is to this work that we are chiefly indebted for the sketch here given.

On the occasion of Mr. Dalzell's last inter- view with John Gray, he asked if he were not growing fatter than when he last saw him. "Oh, no," laughingly replied Mr. Gray, "we old men don't fatten much on hog and hominy and the poor tobacco we get now-a- days.

Mr. Gray had used tobacco about a hun- dred years and knew something of its virtues as a solace, for later in the interview, speaking of deprivations in the past, he said : "I sometimes have had nothing else but a dog," and musing a moment he added, "a plug of

tobacco, of course ; for without a dog or tobacco I should feel lost."

This simple, inoffensive, kind-hearted old hero died of old age, in his one-story, hewed- log house, near Hiramsburg, where he had resided the last forty years or more of his life. His funeral services were held in a grove near his home, with an audience of more than a thousand people present and presided over by several clergymen, the principal speaker being Capt. Hoagland, of the 9th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, a minister of the Prot- estant Methodist church.

He lies buried some two hundred and fifty yards north of the house in which he lived and died, in a family graveyard containing about thirty of his relatives and family con- nections. Near his remains lie those of two of his relatives, Samuel Halley and Gillespie David; the first fought under General Harrison at Fort Meigs during the war of 1812, the other died in the war of the Re- bellion. Thus the heroes of three wars and of the same family lie side by side.

John Gray's grave is marked by a plain stone some three feet high, on which is in- scribed :

JOHN GRAY,

DIED

March 29, 1868,

AGED

104 years, 2 months, 23 days.

The last of Washington's companions. The hoary head is a crown of glory.

SOLDIERS' REUNION.

In 1873 J. M. Dalzell determined to call a soldiers' reunion, to be held at Caldwell, Ohio, September 16 and 17, 1874. The papers of the whole North threw open their columns to his ready pen and he spent the most of that year in writing up his beloved project. An interesting account of it is given in Mr. Dalzell's Autobiography, from which we extract the following :

" The first year I held my rennion in the woods near the little village where I live. Over twenty States were represented, and while the crowd was largely made up of privates, General Sherman and some of the leading men of the nation were present and spoke. It was an immense success. The number present was estimated at 25,000. The Associated Press spread its proceedings before the whole world every morning. It at once became National and known and read of all men."

In 1875 and again in 1876 similar reunions were held at Caldwell. In 1879 it was located at Cambridge. . . "I have been at scores of

reunions since these, which sprang out of this rural beginning, and no one rejoices more than I at the growth of the idea which

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I had the honor to originate and plant in American soil, even if it did eost me years of hard labor and all my little fortune. And it would be ungenerous of me to forget that Congress passed bills to help me carry out my programme ; and the War Department, under General Grant, freely gave me guns, ammunition and other materials, without which I should have failed. The Legislature of Ohio did the same thing. The two men who were so soon to be President-Hayes and Garfield-honored it with their presence and were my guests. Not a man of any note, in

war or peace, then living, but what sent me a generous God-speed. My object was at- tained. The rank and file, the poor, name- less private soldiers had commanded public attention and asserted their individuality. The nation had applauded the effort to com- pel the public to respect the rights of the rank and file and at the same time recognize the fact that sectional hatred no longer existed between the men who did the fighting North and South. My idea had won its way to popular favor and there I dropped it."

BATESVILLE, once called Williamsburg, is about sixteen miles northeast of Caldwell and five south of Spencer station of Guernsey county. It has 1 bank- First National, W. H. Atkinson, president, W. W. Elliott, cashier ; 1 Catholic, 1 Lutheran and 1 Methodist church, and in 1880, 369 inhabitants. The Catholics are strong in this region. As early as 1825 they erected a log church, which in 1853 was succeeded by a brick edifice at a cost of $8,000. In 1828 the Methodists erected their first edifice, and of logs also.

Anecdote-Batesville, it is said, was named from an old Methodist preacher, Rev. Timothy Bates, who was noted throughout the county for his terse discourses and lack of physical beauty. It is related as an illustration of his homeliness that Ebenezer Zanes, founder of Zanesville, made salt kettles. He jocosely set one aside to be given to the ugliest looking man who would come to the town and claim it. One Bartlett, hearing this story, drove to Zanesville to secure this kettle, and having loaded it upon his wagon started home with it when he met Bates on the way. He was so startled by his ugliness that he told Bates about the kettle, and added, " I thought the kettle belonged to me, but now I have seen you I see I was mistaken ; it don't, it belongs to you ; here, take it," and suiting his action to his words passed the kettle over to Bates.

SUMMERFIELD, on the B. Z. & C. Railroad, near the Monroe county line, has 1 Episcopal, 2 Methodist churches, and in 1880, 435 inhabitants.

This place by the wagon-road is fourteen miles from Caldwell, but by railroad seventeen miles ; this greater travelling distance arising from the topography of the country, which fact I learned while stopping off the cars from Mr. S. S. Philpot, merchant at Summerfield. He also stated, in illustration of the cost of making roads through this hill country, that in 1870 a MeAdam road was made from here to Quaker City, fifteen miles, which cost $120,000. It is a toll road. This partly shows why the river hill counties are slow in their agricultural development-the cost of transportation. In speaking of large trees, he said that near Ringer's mill, on Beaver creek, not far from Batesville, was a huge sycamore tree which he entered about 1840 horizontally, and holding a fence rail, say ten and a half feet long, he was enabled to turn it around. The tree fell about 1864.

SARAHSVILLE is on the B. Z. & C. Railroad, six miles north of Caldwell. It was the original county-seat and so remained until 1858. In 1884 the town was mostly destroyed by fire. It has been rebuilt and has 3 Methodist churches, several tobacco packing-houses and, in 1880, 249 inhabitants.

DEXTER CITY is on the C. & M. R. R., nine miles south of Caldwell and twenty-seven north of Marietta. It has 1 Methodist church and about 350 inhabitants. It is on the county line and centre of the Maxsburg oil district.

The other small villages in this county, with twenty to fifty dwellings each, are Sharon, Hoskinsville, Renrock, Hiramsburg, Rochester, Bell Valley, Ava, Mount Ephraim, Kennonsburg, Freedom, Carlisle, East Union, South Olive, Middle- burg, Harrietsville and Fulda.

OTTAWA.

OTTAWA COUNTY was formed March 6, 1840, from Sandusky, Erie and Lucas counties. Ottawa, says Bancroft, is an Indian word, signifying "trader." It was applied to a tribe whose last home in Ohio was on the banks of the Maumee. The surface is level, and most of the county is within the Black Swamp, and contains much prairie and marshy land. A very small portion of the eastern part is within the "fire-lands." There were but a few settlers previous to 1830. The emigration from Germany after 1849 was large, and its population is greatly of that origin. Their farms are generally small but highly productive, the drain- ing of the Black Swamp bringing into use the richest of land. On the penin- sula which puts out into Lake Erie are extensive plaster beds, from which large quantities of plaster are taken. Upon it are large limestone quarries, extensively worked. Area about 300 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 60,922 : in pasture, 16,311 ; woodland, 19,601 ; lying waste, 6,989 ; produced in wheat, 228,461 bushels ; rye, 46,961; buckwheat, 101; oats, 223,003 ; barley, 22,134; corn, 505,787 ; meadow hay, 12,166 tons; clover hay, 5,226 ; potatoes, 41,237 bushels; butter, 265,064 lbs. ; sorghum, 317 gallons ; maple sugar, 460 lbs .; honey, 8,786 ; eggs, 184,174 dozen ; grapes, 6,993,216 lbs. (largest in the State) ; wine, 320,534 gallons (largest in the State); apples, 43,783 bushels ; peaches, 86,424 ; pears, 1,867 ; wool, 49,823 lbs. ; milch cows owned, 3,523 .- State Re- port, 1888. Limestone, 167,054 tons burned for lime, 261,085 tons burned for fluxing, 56,000 cubic feet of dimension stone, 16,333 cubic yards of building stone, 40,272 cubic yards for piers and protection purposes, and 3,534 cubic yards of ballast or macadam .- Ohio Mining Statistics, 1888.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 52

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 916

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 916