USA > Ohio > Allen County > History of Allen County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part One > Part 24
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
Sparrow .- Chelidon erythrogaster (Bodd.) ; Barn Swallow. - Galcoscoptes carolinensis (Linn.) ; Catbird. - Turd !! s mustelinus (Gmcl.) ; Wood Thrush .- Merula migratoria (Linn.) ; American Robin .- Cardinalis car- dinalis ( Linn.) ; Cardinal. - Sialia sialis (Linn.) ; Bluebird .---
Material has been taken from the follow- ing texts : Chapman's "Handbook of Birds" and "The Birds of Ohio," by Dawson and Jones.
GEOLOGY OF ALLEN COUNTY.
Geology is one of the youngest of the sciences. It has not been studied a great num- ber of years, but it is of very great value. In the early times, the clergy began a discussion of the rocks of the earth, and of the theory of the earth's formation. James Hutton, in 1785, sounded the first note of geology, when he said he saw "no traces of a beginning and no prospects of an end." This statement is now the foundation stone of the geological structure. It was based upon a thoughtful study and upon facts gathered from a wide range. Hutton's work was taken up by Smith, and made still more modern and force- ful.
Sir Charles Lyell, who is sometimes called the founder of modern geology, gathered the results of former workers, added them to his own, and gave the world a splendid system, which he entitles "Principles of Geology." This work is still a classic. The wide interest in geological study caused the various govern- ments to take up the subject, and the result in the United States is seen in the magnificent work of the United States Geological Sur- vey, and of the survey of the various States which have followed.
The list of writers on geology now em- braces such distinguished names as Agassiz, Darwin, Geikie, Lyell, Dana, La Conte, Tarr, Winchell, Prof. G. Frederick Wright and Dr. Edward Orton, the late distinguished State geologist of Ohio.
The geology of Allen County is interest- ing and instructive. On the surface, evi- dences are found on every hand that the old
Black Swamp once extended over its Drift 6 2ft. entire surface. The soil of the county is made valuable by Niagara Lunestore. 26010 the deposits from this old swamp, as well as from its nat- ural richness. The geology of the coun- Hudson River Stone. 375ft ty, however, is far more noted from the fact that vast oil and gas deposits are found beneath its surface. These de- Utica Shale. 300 ft. posits have sent the name "Lima Oil" to all parts of the world, and to-day Trenton Rock or Oil Sand. Lima is the center 30ft. Total . 10 27 feet. of the greatest oil- producing Longitudinal Section of an Oil-Well. country in the world. These interests make a somewhat detailed account of the oil industry and the oil formation of the rock a necessity. We have tried to treat both fully and accurately. The accompanying design will show very clearly the structure of the earth as it is discovered by the drill. This design is intended to show in a graphic way the various strata through which the drill must pass, before it reaches the celebrated Trenton rock or oil sand, where the millions of barrels of valuable oil have been stored away by the Creator-all for the use of man.
The average depth of oil-wells in Indiana is 1,027 feet. The Trenton rock is drilled from 20 to 70 feet as the occasion demands, and it is in this porous rock that the gas. petroleum and salt water are found. The Niagara limestone, the first stone throughi which the drill passes on its downward course, is called the "drive." It sometimes reaclies the enormous thickness of 450 feet, in which case it is almost impossible to penetrate it, and often causes great loss to the owner of the well. One oil man at Lima lost $3,000 in at- tempting to drill a well through the drive some
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400 feet thick. In such case, it was found necessary to abandon the work on account of the great thickness of this Niagara lime- stone.
While Allen county produces no coal, nevertheless the oil and gas are coal products, and for that reason a brief statement of Ohio coal interests will be of value here.
"Coal is a hard, black, mineral substance which forms the chief fuel of the civilized nations. It consists mainly of carbon, with a proportion of bitumen, and is the product of decayed vegetable matter that flourished on the earth many years ago. Heat and pressure were the chief agents in the conversion of this dead matter, and according as these prevailed different classes of coal were formed. The two great divisions of coal are the anthra- cite and bituminous. Anthracite contains the most carbon-sometimes as high as 98 per cent., and the least bitumen or volatile matter. Hence it is difficult to ignite and burns with- out any flame, though it emits the greatest heat of any. In England and elsewhere this is called stone coal. The great anthracite coal-field of this country extends through much of Pennsylvania, Ohio and other States. The geological process that made anthracite pro- duced graphite at a further stage.
"Bituminous coal is found in almost every State, and is the cheaper and ordinary fuel of the people. Coal is mined from the beds or strata in which it lies deep in the earth. The mining is an important industry, employ- ing many thousands of men, and very hazard- ous to those employed in it. Their chief dan- ger is from the gas, called "fire damp," which gathers into corners of the mines, and, when ignited accidentally, causes terrible explosions. To guard against this danger, miners work with a safety lamp, one in which the light is covered with a gauze wire, so that nothing comes in contact with it. Besides its use for fuel, coal yields numerous products of value. When it is burned in air-tight retorts, at a high heat, its volatile matter is drawn off in vapor, leaving coke behind. This coke has no impurities and is used for smelting metals and several industries. The vapor when
cooled and purified, is our illuminating gas, the process of so cleansing it leav- ing a deposit of ammonia, water and tar. By distilling this tar, according to different methods, valuable oils are produced for lub- rication and other purposes. Some of these oils are called benzoles, and are the source of aniline, from which many beautiful dyes of all shades of color are now produced, the blues and reds being the best known substitutes for indigo and cochineal. (Some 30 products of value are made from crude oil, at the Solar Oil Refinery in Lima.)
"Perfumes, soaps, inks, papers and many other articles of commerce are now colored ' by aniline, but its tints are not durable enough for fabrics of cost. Ammonia and its various compounds, so familiar for toilet use, are all derived from the ammonia water deposited with coal tar. Shale is the clay contiguous to coal beds, which has been subjected to the same pressure and absorbed some of their bit- umen. When this is distilled at low tempera- ture, paraffine oils are produced, used for mak- ing fine candles and as lamp oils. Jet is a hard, lustrous substance resembling coal, but capable of being carved and wrought upon like marble or ivory. It is found along the sea-shore in certain countries and is supposed to be the fossilized gum of the geological per- iod. It is made into buttons and jewelers' ornaments of various kinds."
Economic Geology .- "A great number of geological products have economic value, and our industrial development of the present time is dependent upon these products. The investigation of these from the standpoint of their occurrence, origin and uses belongs to the economic geologist. Of the topics of eco- nomic geology, undoubtedly the most im- portant is the soil. Its origin, distribution, variations in texture and chemical composi- tion, and the means of bettering it and of properly utilizing it, are questions of high im- portance. Building products-the building- stones, cement materials, and clays-form a second important group; mineral fuels, includ- ing coal, natural gas and petroleum, a third group; and metallic products, including both
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
the precious and baser metals, form a fourth group. Besides these, there are many lesser products-the precious stones, abrasive mate- rials, salt, gypsum, fertilizers, etc. The num- ber of industries dependent upon this varied list of geological products, and the vital rela- tion of several of them to modern civilization, show the value of a thorough and scientific knowledge of the nature and cause of their oc- currence. It is the importance of this economic aspect of geology that has led governments, both State and national, to support expensive geological surveys. For a scientific study of economic geology, other aspects of geology must also be considered; consequently the whole field of geology has profited from the need of study of the economic aspect."
THE GLACIAL DRIFT.
In Allen County, when the drill passes on its downward journey, usually the first 60 feet of earth through which it passes is known as the "drift." This varies in depth; in some places it is only three or four feet, while others it reaches more than 100. We are very much interested in this form of the geology of Allen County, for the drift is of very great value. It is found in both America and Europe, ex- tending over northern latitudes. It consists of sand, gravel, stones and masses of rock hun- dreds of tons in weight. These have all been removed from their original resting places, some only a few miles, others hundreds of miles, by glacial action. This transported finer material is called drift, and the stones or rocks bowlders. The region over which the transportation took place in North America embraced the whole surface from Labrador or New Foundland to the eastern part of Ne- braska. It extended southward to the paral- lel of 40 degrees north latitude, and beyond this in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Ohio. In the latter State the southern limit of the drift reaches the Ohio River at Cincinnati, and through the center of the southeastern quarter of the State. Thus it will be seen that Allen County was in the very center of the glacial drift of Ohio. The direction of the glacial drift was generally to the southeastward,
southward or southwestward. It covers moun- tains and hills in the drift regions, and makes also a large part of the formation in the valley. When deposited over the hills it is called un- stratified drift. In the river valleys, where within the reach of the waters, it is stratified drift, because there the sands and gravel were deposited in flowing water, which spread it out in beds. In drift-covered regions, the ex- cavation for cellars and houses are often made in stratified drift, and the sands usually show a succession of beds, which is evidence of the action of water.
Allen County is underlaid with stratified drift, and the real deposits of water-lime found all over the county have proved of great value in building stone and road material.
The economic value of the drift to the farmer is almost beyond calculation. The vast gravel beds are used all over Ohio for road- ways, and for ballasting railroad tracks. Many of the best springs in the State, and the water of wells, comes from the deposit of sand, gravel and loam of the drift. Much of the best farming land in Allen, as well as in other counties, is largely composed of drift material. In some parts of the State, the farmers have gathered the bowlders from the fields, and with them have made a very enduring fence, or stone wall, thus accomplishing a double purpose-clearing the field and forming the fence. The whole question of glaciers is one of great moment in the study of geology. In the ice age, huge masses of ice moved south- ward, carrying with them the material from which the present drift is formed, until they reached the limit of the ice sheet, where the temperature was sufficient to melt the ice, and deposit the debris thus carried, far from its original resting place.
These moraines are seen very clearly marked in various parts of the counties, espe- cially in the gravel beds of Allen and Putnam. The same process is going on at the present time, in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Caucasus and in various other parts of the world.
THE FIRST OIL WELL IN ALLEN COUNTY.
The drill first began its work in Allen County in the spring of 1885, upon the
PUMPING AN OIL-WELL (One of the first wells drilled in Allen County)
AN OIL FIRE
SOLAR OIL REFINERY, LIMA
L
CALIFORNIA BINE GO.
VIEW OF THE EAST SIDE OF THE PUBLIC SQUARE, LIMA (In the distance 23 oil-derricks are to be seen)
SHOOTING AN OIL-WELL NEAR LIMA ( Showing flow after the well was shot)
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grounds of the Lima Straw Board Works, under the energetic direction of Benjamin C. Faurot, of Lima. The contractors were Brownyear and Martin. The well was put down for a double purpose. First, they needed a better quality of water and more of it for manufacturing purposes, and they hoped they might possibly get a supply of natural gas. Natural gas had been obtained a short time before this at Bowling Green and at Findlay, hence the operators were not without hope of obtaining the same supply of gas in Lima.
The well was located within the grounds of the paper mills, on the bank of the Ottawa River, the casing having an elevation of about 850 feet above tide-water. As the drill de- scended into the earth, it was apparent that the same materials were obtained, and the same kind of rock must be penetrated, as had al- ready been discovered in the Findlay wells. The lower limestone was reached at a depth of 1,250 feet or about 400 feet below tide-water. They found a small amount of gas as they passed through the shale, but when the drill struck the famous Trenton limestone without releasing any more gas, the disappointment was plainly marked on the faces of all con- cerned. But instead of discovering gas in a quantity, there was a richer and far more val- uable discovery, viz. : oil, at a point where the gas was looked for. The well having proved a failure as a source of gas, nothing was to be done but to utilize it as an oil-well. There- fore, a quantity of "rack-rock" was provided and the well was "shot." The results of the shooting were apparently satisfactory, and the well was immediately tubed, packed and pumped. During the first six days it yielded more than 200 barrels of oil, with some salt water. It was estimated as an 18-barrel well by the contractor, W. M. Martin. The oil was dark in color, low in gravity and very offen- sive in odor. To a Pennsylvania oil man, these characteristics seemed to condemn the new supply. This was the beginning. News of the discovery took wings and, like the discov- ery of gold in California in 1848, was soon heard of in every corner of the United States. Men came from all directions to obtain op-
tions, and to profit by the possibilities of the future. All the conditions were unusual; the surface of the country was flat, and what seemed stranger than all, the producing rock was limestone.
I. E. Dean was among the first of the strangers to visit Lima and examine this new- ly found oil field. He had had experience in Canada, and knew much of the history of oil- wells and the value of oil. He organized the Trenton Rock Oil Company, which had a prominent place in the early development of the great Lima field.
THE SECOND OIL-WELL.
Soon after it had been demonstrated that there was oil in the Trenton limestone, a num- ber of public-spirited gentlemen formed an or- ganization under the name of The Citizens' Gas Company. The object of this company was first to investigate the whole question and determine the actual facts as to the existence and production of oil, in and about Lima. The valuable work which this company did stands second only to that of the pioneer well. They put down immediately a second well, which is to be credited with yielding the first regular and persistent supply of petroleum from the Trenton limestone in Ohio, the pioneer well meeting with a series of misfortunes that left it useless.
These two wells were completed in the fall of 1885, and the second began its course as a 40 or 45-barrel pumping well. It showed, from the first, steadiness and reliability. In December, 1885, it yielded 1,450 barrels of oil, and in the first three months of 1886 it pro- duced an average of 26 barrels per day. It was the oil of this well that was first sent to the refineries of the country to be tested on a large scale, and the results obtained from such examinations were believed to establish the fact that Lima oil could be thoroughly de- odorized and made to yield a good percentage of illuminating oil of the finest character.
THE TRENTON SERIES.
This is an important stratigraphic division comprising the Trenton, Utica and Hudson
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
stages of the Ordovician system. The type localities of the rocks are in Central and East- ern New York, where the lowest stage, the Trenton, consists of a thinly bedded, dark gray to black limestone, while the Utica and Hudson stages are represented by carbonace- ous shales. The same series of strata appears also on the northern shores of Lake Ontario in Canada, out-cropping as far west as Geor- gian Bay. In Ohio the Hudson stage is known as the Cincinnati shales and is of great thick- ness. The strata occur also in the Upper Mis- sissippi Valley and in several of the Rocky Mountain States. The Trenton rock is the source of the great petroleum industry in the Lima field of Ohio-Indiana, and in addition yield valuable supplies of natural gas. The Salina limestone which is the equivalent of the Upper Trenton stage and outcrops in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, contains important de- posits of lead and zinc ores.
THE TRENTON LIMESTONE AS A SOURCE OF OIL AND GAS IN OHIO. By Dr. Edward Orton.
The entire history of the discovery and ex- ploitation of petroleum in this country has been full of surprises, both to the practical men en- gaged in the work and to the geologists who have studied the facts as they have been brought to light, but no previous chapter of the history has proved as strange and well- nigh incredible as the discovery and develop- ment which are now to be described.
No fact in this line could be more unex- pected than that any notable supplies of petro- leum or gas should be furnished by the Tren- ton limestone, which is widely known as a massive, compact and fossiliferous limestone of Lower Silurian age and of wide extent, con- stituting in fact one of the great foundations of the continent. But when required to be- lieve that certain phases of this Trenton lime- stone make one of the great oil-rocks of our geological scale, one which produces from sin- gle wells 5,000 barrels of oil, or 15,000,000 cubic feet of inflammable gas in a day, it is hard to prevent our surprise from passing into incredulity.
In New York it is divided into two divis- ions, viz., the Trenton limestone proper and the Black River limestone. The lower portion of the latter is sometimes separated from the stratum under the name of the Birdseye lime- stone. The designation is derived from the occurrence of small crystalline points in the limestone. Both of these divisions belong to the true limestones as distinguished from mag- nesian limestone.
In Illinois and Wisconsin, there is, also, a two-fold division of the formation, but on a different basis from that adopted in the East. The divisions here recognized are called the Galena and the Trenton limestone. They are respectively, 250 and 100 feet thick in maxi- mum measurements. The upper, or Galena, division is, in its best state, a light-colored blue or drab, coarse-grained, porous and al- most pure dolomite. The underlying Trenton is, also, generally magnesian in composition, but it does not quite reach dolomitic propor- tions. It is also less pure in the main than the best phases of the Galena. (Geol. of Wis., Vol. I.)
In Central Kentucky, again, a two-fold di- vision of the Trenton is recognized, the two members being known as the Trenton and Birdseye divisions. The former is reported to be 175 feet in thickness, and the latter 130 feet. (Rocks of Central Kentucky, W. M. Kinney, Ky. Geol. Survey, 1882.) In compo- sition, the Trenton of Kentucky is impure, and contains but a small percentage (five or ten) of carbonate of magnesia, so far as can be judged from the few analysis available.
In Ohio the Trenton limestone appears to agree in its divisions with those of Wisconsin on one side, and with those of Kentucky on the other. In other words it has a three-fold di- vision when all the deposits of this age in the State with which we have become acquainted are taken into account.
In Southern Ohio, the Kentucky series ap- pears in the well sections, consisting of the Trenton proper and the underlying Birdseye. In Northwestern Ohio, we find in the new oil and gas rock a stratum which is, so far as com- position goes, the equivalent of the Galena do-
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lomite, underneath which rocks having the composition of the Trenton and Birdseye of the South appear.
The position of the Galena limestone in the geological scale, it must be added, is not en- tirely settled. A question has, at least, been raised in regard to it. C. D. Walcott, of the United States Geological Survey, has urged the view that instead of belonging to the Tren- ton epoch, it is really the equivalent and repre- sentative of the Utica shale, no trace of which in its characteristic form is found in the Wis- consin section. The absence of the shale proper is, in fact, one of the strongest argu- ments brought forward for the new reference. If the oil-rock of Ohio represents the Galena dolomite, then the argument above-named loses its force, because over this formation there is found the full section of the Utica shale, normal in every particular. If it does not represent the Galena division, it still ex- hibits as marked a departure from the ordi- nary character of the Trenton limestone as the latter does and thus weakens the argument for separating the Galena.
A number of analyses of the several mem- bers of the Trenton group will be given, illus- trative of the differences in composition that have been already referred to. The uppermost, or dolomite division, will be represented first :
Carbonate of lime. 88.64
Carbonate of magnesia. 6.77
Insoluble residue. 2.15
The Lima oil-rock, like the Trenton throughout the Northwest generally, is a magnesian limestone, containing from 24 to 39 per cent. of carbonate of magnesia. The composition is
shown in the following analysis :
Carbonate of lime. 52.66
Carbonate of magnesia 37-53 Insoluble residue. 4.15
There was no minute account kept of the strata traversed in the pioneer well at Lima, but, among the early wells of the town, the progress of one put down by the gas company, near the city gas-works, was fol- 10
lowed with care and intelligence. This record has been kindly furnished to the survey by A .. C. Reichelderfer, secretary of the company. It is as follows :
feet.
Drift. 18.
Limestone beginning at 18
Sulphur water, large vein, at. I28:
White limestone, "marble" at. 268
Blue limestone at. 328:
Limestone with slate streaks to .: 385.
Shale, with no more water, begins at. 395
Brown shale at. 880
Black shale, thin, begins at. 1,228
Oil-rock, hard shell, struck at 1,243
Oil-producing rock, best. . 1,255
Salt-rock, softer (?), slushy. 1,260.
In the light of the facts already stated, the. interpretation of the series here displayed is. obvious. It can be generalized as follows:
feet
Drift. 18
Waterlime
Niagara limestone
Upper Silurian limestones Niagara shale 400
Clinton limestone
Clinton shale.
Medina and Hudson River shales
. 450
Utica shale.
.350
THE OIL INDUSTRY.
The story of the oil industry in Lima and vicinity reads like the tale of Aladdin's lamp. The immensity of the business involved, and the unmeasured degree to which it has added to the wealth of two States, Ohio and Indiana, is a marvelous chapter.
When the first well was completed, May 9, 1885, by that once heroic figure in the finan- cial world, Benjamin C. Faurot, people little dreamed that that was the beginning of "wealth beyond the dreams of avarice." In another part of this chapter will be found a very full history of the first oil-well, and an account of the famous Trenton rock, in which the precious oil is found. This oil is inferior in quality and richness to that which comes from the white sand territory of Pennsylva- nia, but what it lacks in richness it more than makes up in quantity.
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
The people of Lima and surrounding country have become so accustomed to the added wealth from oil sources that they scarcely stop to calculate its real blessings. The benefits derived from this source are so many and varied, and the wealth so great that one naturally thinks of the treasures of Monte Cristo, bringing to the entire northwestern 'corner of our grand commonwealth all the comforts of prosperity and affluence; enrich- ing present and future generations with supe- rior advantages of educational and social de- velopment, and transforming the oil fields into the most prosperous and enlightened sections of the State; giving it one of the most vital .commercial interests within her borders. Within almost a single decade this industry has developed until it has spread over a wide .scope of Ohio, embracing parts of Lucas, San- dusky, Wood, Wyandot, Seneca, Hancock, Allen, Auglaize, Mercer and Van Wert coun- ties in Ohio, and over an equal number of In- ·diana counties.
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