USA > Ohio > Auglaize County > History of western Ohio and Auglaize County, with illustrations and biographical sketches of pioneers and prominent public men > Part 32
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Prof. Orton disposes of Dr. Newberry's theory by saying; "The rocks show no trace of even the lowest degree of heat: necessary to effect distillation."
(b) Dr. Hunt's Theory. "As the chief petroleum bearing strata are composed of the shells and corals and stems and cups and flinty spiculæ of the low and early forms of life, the oil which represents the tissue of the vegetable and animal should be in some sense commensurate with the strata, which represent their skeletons. An analysis of the oil-bearing limestone under- lying Chicago shows that, although the rock does not yield oil in quantities sufficient to pay for working it, each square mile of it contains seven and three-quarter millions of barrels. The same generalization is true of the Ohio shales.
"The essential point in Hunt's theory of the origin of petro- leum is, not that it was produced cotemporaneously with the rock, nor that it is especially a product of limestones, but that it results from the primary decomposition of organic substances. The shales which constitute its chief source were accumulated in a tropical sea. The Devonian limestone which immediately pre- ceded them bears witness to most genial conditions of climate. Its massive corals required at least as high an annual temperature as is found in any part of the Gulf of Mexico to-day.
"The sedimentary deposits that were laid down on the floor of this Devonian sea consisted of clay and sand, with occasional
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gravel bars, the sources of which must be sought in the rising Atlantic border or in the Canadian highlands, as is proved by all the deposits thickening and growing coarser in those direc- tions. To the western limit of this sea, along the shores of the emerging Cincinnati axis, only fine clay was borne, and this fine and homogenous material accumulated very slowly, one foot requiring as much time as ten or twelve feet of the coarser and more varied series to the eastward.
"In these seas, as we know, there was a vast development of marine vegetation. Some plants with rhizocarpean affinities were especially abundant, and their resinous spores and spore cases, which constitute by far the most durable portions of the plants, were set free in enormous quantities. Even now, in some parts of the series, the spores constitute a notable percentage of the shale. In structure and composition, they are but little changed from their original condition. Other portions of this and like vegetation may have been carried to the sea-floor in a macerated condition and have there passed through the coaly transformation, resulting in the structureless, carbonaceous matter that constantly characterizes the black shales. This carbonaceous substance can still be made to yield the members of the bitumen series through the agency of destructive distillation, and, doubtless, so also can the spores that remain unaltered in the shales, both leaving a carbon residue thereafter.
"The shales that were slowly accumulating on the floor of this tropical gulf, thus charged with vegetable remains, must have behaved as similar shales do around the border of the present. The vegetable matter was turned into petroleum as it is in Trinidad and the West Indies now. The petroleum would have been absorbed by the particles of clay in contact with which it was originated, or if liberated in the water it would there have been laid hold of by like floating particles of clay, to be carried with them in due time to the sea-floor, and the work would have gone on until the material was exhausted or the requisite con- ditions were lost.
"Such would appear to be some of the steps in the produc- tion of petroleum, if Hunt's view of its origin by the primary decomposition of organic tissue is adopted. The result would correspond fairly well with those of the spontaneous distillation theory already described. Both would find petroleum distributed
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HISTORY OF WESTERN OHIO
through the substance of the shales, and both would expect its constant escape from outcrops of shale or sandstone. Continu- ous origination is by no means a necessary conclusion from continuous outflow."
In commenting on these theories, Dr. Orton observes that "the discussions assume that the history of oil covers the history of gas also. There are, however, speculations which dissociate them in origin. By some, gas is counted the first and original product, and it is supposed to be converted into petroleum in the sandstone reservoirs by some unknown process of condensation.
"This question, like those that have preceded it, does not admit of a final and definite answer at the present time, but the chemical probabilities do not seem to favor this view. Petroleum is more composite and unstable than gas, and in these respects it seems to stand at less remove from the organic world than the latter. A large percentage of natural gas is light carburetted hydrogen, one of the simplest and most stable products of de- composition. Petroleum readily gives rise to marsh gas when subjected to destructive agencies, but we have no known experi- ence in which the higher compound results from synthesis of the lower. It seems, therefore, safe to consider petroleum first in the order of nature.
"While, therefore, we can confidently assert that petroleum is derived from organic matter, we are obliged to confess that we do not know the exact steps of the transformation.
"The discussion of this class of theories can be concluded with the following summary :
I. Most geologists hold that petroleum is derived from organic substances that were incorporated with the strata when the latter were formed. There is substantial harmony among the entire class of geologists as to this point.
2. The majority incline to the opinion that vegetable sub- stances have supplied the chief sources, but some count animal remains as also an important source. There are a few authorities upon the subject, chiefly foreign, who consider animal remains the chief, or, perhaps, the sole, source of petroleum.
3. Many hold that it is the result of destructive distillation of the organic matter of the rocks. They rely upon such facts as have been already adduced, that. certain shales, for example, contain a considerable percentage of hydro-carbonaceous material
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that is easily transformed by heat into the several products of the bituminous theory.
4. In accounting for the origin of oil and gas by destructive distillation of the shale, the advocates of the theory seem bound to furnish an adequate source of heat required, and also to show what has become of the carbon residue that is inseparably con- nected with the process of destructive distillation. Real diffi- culties beset this theory in these regards. The view that destructive distillation is accomplished at ordinary temperatures would relieve the first difficulty, if such process could be sub- stantiated, but at present it only stands as an entirely unsupported suggestion.
5. According to one phase of this theory, petroleum is constantly forming in the rocks; though, of course, as the world is old, the great stocks were formed thousands and millions of years ago. According to a second phase of the theory, the oil of the Allegheny field was formed at the time when the Appa- lachian Mountains were elevated.
6. A small number of geologists hold to the view that petroleum results from the primary decomposition of organic matter ; that the production is not a lost art of nature, but is in actual, though perhaps feeble, operation at the present time, its chief seats being in tropical or sub-tropical regions. According to this view, the disseminated petroleum that the rocks contain was formed when the rocks themselves were formed. Organic matter which is notoriously unstable reaches in the bituminous series its stage of rest, and we may, therefore, truly speak of Silurean oil, Devonian oil, Tertiary oil, and the like, the several stocks really having the age of the beds that hold them. The process of oil formation, according to this theory, ceased long ago in the older rocks.
7. The facts upon which the last theory must rest are not well enough substantiated to allow us to build upon them with full confidence, but we are justified in looking upon it with great interest, as it furnishes on the whole the best explanation of the facts for which we are to account.
NATURAL STORAGE OF GAS AND PETROLEUM.
Rocks of all stratified series may be divided into two classes, viz., permeable and porous strata. The permeable strata are
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close grained and resist the passage of water or gas through them, hence the name permeable.
Strata composed of coarser grained material, such as sand- stone and conglomerates, are of the second class or porous rock. Wherever the Trenton limestone is of this porous character, and is not over four hundred feet below sea-level, it is never found empty. It is either filled with gas, oil, or water from the old Silurean sea. If the porous rocks be found within four or five hundred feet of the surface, the water is usually fresh. If found at a greater depth it is brackish.
The porous oil and gas bearing rock of Ohio is overlaid by several hundred feet of impermeable shale. The underlying porous strata may be composed of undulations and troughs, or in geological language, of anticlines and synclines ; the gas occu- pying the summits of the arches, and the oil filling troughs. An arch of the kind described extends through the southern part of St. Mary's township, with valuable oil troughs or pools on either side of it. The gas pressure above and around these pools varies in new fields, from fifty to three hundred and fifty pounds to the square inch. When the drill touches the oil pool the pressure of the gas forces the oil to the surface, producing a flowing well. It is seldom the case that a flow of oil continues for any considerable length of time. Usually it is intermittent. Ordi- narily each flow of oil is followed by an escape of the gas that lifts the column of oil from the well. After the force of the gas is spent, the oil is again forced forward by another volume of gas of high tension, when a second flow occurs. Each flow of oil diminishes the gas tension, until in time the well ceases to flow, when it must be pumped.
The life of an oil well in the Auglaize territory varies from a few months to fifteen years, depending upon the amount and extent of oil in the pool, the number of wells tapping it, and the gas pressure. There are wells in the Allen county and Cri- dersville field that were drilled in 1886, that are still (1901) yielding paying quantities of oil.
AUGLAIZE COUNTY GAS AND OIL WELLS.
In 1885 a stock company was organized at Wapakoneta, and a test well was drilled for gas in the southern part of the village. Great delays were experienced in driving casing through a con-
1
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tinuous bed of gravel. Two attempts were made that failed. In the first well the pipe was driven one hundred and fifty feet, when a boulder was encountered, preventing further progress. The derrick was then moved a few feet to the west, where a second attempt was made. At a depth of one hundred and eighty feet at this location the casing collapsed, and the attempt in this locality was abandoned. Since that time it has been discovered that a great gorge in the rock passes through the southern part of the village, filled with a drift deposit to the depth of nearly four hundred feet.
A third location was selected half a mile north of the first ones. Here the drift was found to be ninety-six feet deep. The upper limestones were one hundred and ninety-two feet thick. The red Medina shale was fifteen feet thick and possessed all the characteristics peculiar to that formation. Trenton rock was reached after passing through six hundred and thirty-two feet of Hudson shale and three hundred feet of Utica shale. The total depth of the well to Trenton limestone, therefore, was 1,235 feet, or three hundred and forty-eight feet below tide. The drilling was continued to a depth of 1,600 feet without finding either gas or oil. Salt water was found at that depth, which ended the search. A fourth location was selected two miles north of number three, where a well was drilled, which repeated the history of the first three. The stockholders of the company became so much discouraged that nothing further was done in the way of drilling until 1888.
The next well drilled in the county was located at St. Mary's. Early in the year 1886 a company was organized, consisting of a hundred stockholders. The shares were twenty dollars, each member holding a single share. A well was drilled and completed July 24th. The well-head was 883 feet above tide, and the surface of the Trenton, 313 feet below.
The following is the drillers' record :
Drift
121 feet:
Upper limestones
194 feet.
Shales
880 feec.
Trenton struck at.
1,195 feet.
The well was cased at. 310 feet.
"The Trenton was found hard and dry when struck. Under
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a cap of one and a half feet, a flow of gas was reached, which was presently followed by oil. The gas was in force sufficient to lift the oil. A production of several barrels per day was delivered from the well, with some salt water. On August 5th the gas escaping from the separator was measured, and the volume was found to be 58,080 cubic feet per day. The well was torpedoed in October with forty quarts of nitro-glycerine, when the flow of gas was increased two hundred per cent. The oil had a gravity of 35° B. The fact that there was a sufficient amount of gas pressure to lift the oil from the well had its natural effect on the oil speculators of the new field, and land was largely leased, in consequence, for drilling purposes."
Two other wells were drilled the same fall; one, known as the Hopkins well, was brought in on October 9th, and the other, known as the Hopkins and Gordon's well, was brought in November 24th.
A state of great activity prevailed in St. Mary's township- during the following winter and summer.
On the 23d of March, 1887, a great gas well was drilled in section thirty. The elevation of the well-head was 900 feet above tide. The Trenton limestone was reached at a depth of 1,138 feet below the surface, or 238 feet below tide. The volume of the well was measured, April 14th, showing a production of 2,042,864 cubic feet per day.
The Kellermeyer well, located in section 22, was drilled in soon after the well in section thirty. In August of the same year, the Hauss well, located a half mile east of St. Mary's, was drilled in, and is still (1905) a paying well.
In the fall of 1887, a natural gas company was organized at St. Mary's. Soon afterward a gas main was laid along the principal street, and extended to the Hauss well east of the village. A year later the plant was placed under the control of the village council, when bonds were issued to the amount of $100,000. In the summer and fall of 1888, gas mains were laid in all parts of the village. In October of the same year eight hundred stoves and the mills were using the new fuel. The con- sumption of gas soon became general, necessitating the drilling of additional wells.
The gas territory secured by the village corporation con- sisted of 1,100 acres lying to the south and east of the village
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in an almost unbroken tract. The annual rentals of the land did not exceed a dollar per acre.
The drilling of oil wells in close proximity to the arch on which the gas wells were located diminished the gas pressure to such an extent that at the end of four years it became neces- sary to drill an additional number of gas wells. Two years later (1894) the plant was sold to the "Indiana Gas and Fuel Com- pany" for $50,000. Since that time the village has been supplied from the Indiana gas fields.
THE WAPAKONETA NATURAL GAS COMPANY.
This company was organized in the fall of 1887. The capital stock was $100,000, on which an assessment of sixty per cent. was made preparatory to the establishment of the plant. Two hundred and eight acres of land in sections 14, 15 and 22 in St. Mary's township were leased, and three wells were drilled the same fall. The following spring and summer, a pipe line was laid consisting of eleven miles of six-inch pipe, expanding into eight-inch pipe within the village limits, July 19th, 1888. A stand-pipe was erected, and preparations made for lighting the gas the same evening. A thousand or more of the citizens assem- bled at eight o'clock in the evening to witness the illumination. At the time appointed the valve was thrown open, which was followed by a deafening roar of high-pressure gas. Amid the roar and confusion that ensued a sky-rocket was shot through the escaping gas, which was followed by a terrific explosion, and an illumination of all that portion of the village. The first thought that occurred to the spectators was that a great accident had taken place. The crowd became panic-stricken and fled in every direction. Mr. Weber, the blacksmith, in his alarm, fell over a baby-wagon, and the frightened mother fled, leaving the baby to take care of itself. A tall school teacher and her com- panion are said to have broken the record on a rapid retreat. When they recovered from their panic they found that they were on the margin of the river.
The merriment that followed the incidents of the evening will long be remembered by the participants.
The gas plant at Wapakoneta was completed in the fall of 1888. Eight hundred stoves and two flouring mills were fur- 23 H A C
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nished with fuel the following winter. The business of the com- pany was well managed during the six years that the plant was operated. At the expiration of that time the entire property of the company was sold to the Indiana Gas and Fuel Company for $40,000. During the twelve years that have elapsed since the installment of the plant, Wapakoneta has never had reason to complain of the gas supply. The income to the two companies has been remunerative, in the main, averaging about $16,000 per year.
THE NEW BREMEN NATURAL GAS COMPANY.
This company was organized in the fall of 1888. Gas terri- tory was secured in the southern part of St. Mary's township, from which gas was piped into the village in the summer of 1889. The plant, up to the present time, has proved to be the most remunerative one in the county.
In 1899 the company sold their interests to the Kerline Brothers, of Toledo, who have been furnishing the village with fuel since that time. The gas supply at the present time is obtained from the gas and oil territory of Mercer county.
THE LIMA NATURAL GAS COMPANY.
This company leased gas lands in the eastern part of St. Mary's township in the summer of 1888. A pipe line was laid the same summer, connecting the city of Lima with the gas field. This gas field furnished the city with fuel for a number of years. In 1894 a second line was laid, connecting the city with the Indiana gas field. The gas service in Lima has never been so satisfactory as in the smaller towns along the line.
OIL WELLS OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY.
The public interest, aroused by the discovery of gas at Findlay, induced some drillers engaged in drilling for water at the Lima paper-mill in 1885, to continue their work until they should reach Trenton rock. They were rewarded by a flow of oil and a small amount of gas.
The news that Lima had "struck oil" attracted speculators and oil operators from all the oil producing centers of the country.
Soon after the Farout well was drilled, an organization was
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effected at Lima under the name of the Citizens' Gas Company, the specific object of which was to ascertain the actual facts as to the existence of gas and oil in Trenton rock. A well was sunk near the Ottawa river in the city of Lima, which served the purpose for which it was drilled. It was the second pioneer well in the territory, and began its course as a forty-five barrel pump- ing well. Other wells were drilled in rapid succession. In December, 1886, the daily oil production was 9,500 barrels. In 1886 the great oil pools in the vicinity of Cridersville were tapped on the Delong and Sellers farms. The Duchouquet township pools are a continuation of the Allen county field. The oil bear- ing rock of Auglaize county underlies portions of Duchouquet, Logan, Salem, Noble, St. Mary's, Washington, Moulton, German and Jackson townships.
The oil bearing rock attains a maximum thickness of twelve feet, and an average thickness of eight to ten feet. It is gener- ally covered by a hard, non-productive cap, previously described in the first well drilled at St. Mary's. Salt water is found at a depth of from fifteen to seventeen feet in the Trenton rock. If the quantity of salt water is not excessive, it does not detract much from the value of the well. There have been numerous instances in which the salt water has been temporarily exhausted, and followed by copious flows of oil. Ultimately, however, as a rule, it gains upon the oil in the wells in which it originally appeared, and finally overcomes it.
The maximum output of a well occurs, as a rule, soon after it is drilled in. If the yield of oil is great nothing further is done with it except to convey the product through pipes into receiving tanks. If the product of oil should be small, the well is shot, to open up fissures in the oil or gas bearing rock, and thereby increase the flow. "For this purpose nitro-glycerine is used in quantity, varying from thirty to eighty quarts. . The amount used is governed largely by the capacity of the shells ; that is, the torpedo case is as long as the good oil-sand is thick, and usually as large as can be safely inserted.
"The torpedo consists usully of one or more tin shells filled with nitro-glycerine, and provided with suitable firing-head. For a large shot several shells are used, one resting on top of another. The top shell has in its upper part a small perforated tin tube containing three or four little anvils, one above the other, each
.
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HISTORY OF WESTERN OHIO
carrying a water-proof percussion cap. The nitro-glycerine, when the shell is full, flows in around these caps through per- forations in the small tube. On the upper cap rests an iron rod, fastened to a flat plate above the shell. After the shells are in place, an iron casting called the "go-devil" is dropped into the well. This missile strikes upon the iron plate, the shock sets off the percussion caps, exploding the nitro-glycerine.
"The explosion takes place at such great depth that at the surface of the ground only a slight jarring is felt, accompanied by a report about as loud as a pistol shot.
"A good flow does not always follow a shot. Sometimes the shattered fragments, instead of being thrown out, become wedged and jammed together, completely choking up the hole and form- ing a 'bridge.' In this case the drilling tools must be put in and the bridge cut out. This is a disagreeable undertaking, since the well is full of foul oil and poisonous burnt products of nitro- glycerine, which are occasionally thrown out, covering men and machinery.
"The handling of the cans containing the nitro-glycerine is attended with great danger. Many fatal accidents have occurred from empty cans having been left hidden in the underbrush near a well in which nitro-glycerine has been used, and being care- lessly handled by boys or ignorant and reckless persons who have found them. In some cases it is found necessary to shoot a well several times to reopen the fissures leading to it.
"As soon as a new well has been shot, preparations are begun to put in the tubing. A few of the largest wells will flow for a time through the casing; usually, however, there is not suffi- cient gas and oil to do this, excepting just after a shot. The tubing is then inserted, extending from the top to the bottom of the well, to diminish the area which the gas and oil must fill. The customary size of tubing, both for flowing and pumping wells, is two inches internal diameter.
"To prevent the oil from flowing up around the tubing, a device called a packer is used for filling the space around the tubing at a point above the oil-sand to confine the oil and gas so that it can escape only through the tubing. The packer con- sists of a hollow cylinder of rubber, smooth or ribbed on the outside and as large as can be put into the well between two flanges connected by a slip-joint. When the tubing rests upon
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the bottom of the well, the weight of its upper part forces the top flange upon, or if conical, 'into, the rubber, distending it horizontally against the sides of the well, making a gas and water-proof joint.
"On account of the sudden expansion of high-pressure gas at the bottom of the tubing, an intense degree of cold is produced, which diminishes the solvent power of crude oil, causing a pre- cipitation of paraffine on the inside of the tubing, gradually filling it up and preventing the flow.
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