Century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and representative citizens 20th, Part 26

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1526

USA > Pennsylvania > Butler County > Butler > Century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and representative citizens 20th > Part 26

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In 1866 Henry Harley constructed a pipe line from Benninghoff Run to the Shaffer farm. This line met with a fierce opposition from the oil country teamsters, who blamed Harley for impoverishing them and ruining their business. Violence and incendiarism were resorted to. Har- ley's oil tanks were burned, and his pipe line was torn up and disjointed. Harley was a man of determination, however, and not easily scared. Detectives were set to work and in a few weeks twenty men who were the leaders of the riot of teamsters were lodged in jail in Franklin. This put an end to the teamsters' opposition, and the pipe line proved a success.

The first free oil pipe line bill was passed by the legislature in 1868 by con- sent of Thomas A. Scott, who was at that time the "Political Anaconda" of the Pennsylvania Railroad. This bill gave the right of free pipe lines in eight counties of the state, namely : Allegheny, Arm- strong, Butler, Clarion, Venango, Craw- ford, Warren, and Forest, with the proviso that no pipe line should enter the city of Pittsburg or Allegheny. The purpose of this proviso was to keep the pipe line owners from using the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Pittsburg.

Following the passage of the free oil pipe line bill, S. D. Karns built a line from Parker's Landing to the Allegheny Valley Railroad on the opposite side of the Allegheny River. The same year Parker, Thompson & Company built a line west of the river and the following year Fulerton Parker joined Karns under the name of The Karns & Parker Pipe Line. After about a year of competition the two

companies combined under the name of The Union Pipe Line.

With the extension of developments into the Butler County oil fields other pipe lines were organized. The Grant Line, a com- petitor of The Union Pipe Line Company, was organized at Parker by Col. D. B. Allen and Thomas McConnell.

The Fairview Pipe Line Company was organized in 1872 and built a line from Fairview to Karns City in Butler County.

The Relief Pipe Line Company built a line from Karns City and Petrolia to Parker's Landing in 1872, and in 1874 and 1875 the line was extended to Millerstown, now Chicora.

The Butler Pipe Line Company con- structed a line from the Butler county oil field to the loading-racks at Parker's Landing in 1872.

The Cleveland Pipe Line Company was organized by S. D. Karns in 1873, and constructed a line from Karns City and Petrolia to Parker's Landing.

Vandergrift and Foreman constructed a line about the same year into Concord Township and the Greece City field. One of the competitors of this line was The Mutual Pipe Line Company organized in 1871 and doing business in Butler, Arm- strong, Clarion and Venango Counties.

In 1872 the legislature passed a bill re- pealing the Scott proviso in the free oil pipe line bill of 1868, which allowed pipe lines in only eighty counties, and passed a new free pipe line bill. The next two or three years saw a wonderful development in the pipe line business. Short compet- ing lines were constructed all over the oil field and competing companies waged war on each other to the point of cutting rates to a figure where they did business at a loss. This condition of affairs soon worked havoc among the competing pipe lines as well as among the producers. All of the pipe line companies paid for their oil in certificates and the producer was

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often at a loss to know whether the cer- tificates were good or not. To make mat- ters worse the producer was reduced to the choice of taking the certificates or not running his oil. The conditions in the Butler County field were far from satis- factory, and were the causes of many financial disasters among the competing pipe line companies as well as hardships among the producers. This unsatisfac- tory state of affairs led to the consolida- tion of the interests of the Mutual Pipe Line Company and Vandergrift & Fore- man, in one united pipe line system.

The advantages of the consolidation of the smaller lines quickly commended itself and the organization of The United Pipe Line was the first step taken toward estab- lishing for all times the question of trans- portation of oil by pipe line.

The United Pipe Line bought or com- bined The Warren Pipe Line, The Oil City Pipe Line, The Antwerp Line, The Penn- sylvania Transportation Company, the Clarion Division of the American Trans- fer Company, The Prentice Pipe Line, and the following lines in Butler County: The Cleveland (Karns), The Union, The Grant, The Relief, The Mutual Pipe Line Com- pany, Vandergrift & Foreman and the Columbia Conduit Company. The latter company was organized in 1875, and had constructed a line from Pittsburg to the oil fields at Millerstown. This was the line built by Dr. Hostetter. The United Pipe Line Company conducted the business until 1884, when it was taken over by the National Transit Company and became part of the Standard Oil Company.

The Western and Atlantic Pipe Line Company began business in 1887 and in 1888 built loading-racks at Mars on the old Pittsburg and Western Railroad, now the Baltimore and Ohio in this county. This line was known as the Western and Atlantic and the Craig, Elkins and Kimble Company. It was sold to the National

Transit Company in 1889 and the loading- racks and tanks at Mars have since been abandoned.

From the combination of the Mutual Pipe Line Company and the Vandergrift and Foreman interests in 1875, there grew in fifteen years the great giant of all com- binations, The Standard Oil Company. Whatever may be said about the business methods of the "Octopus" and the man- ner in which it dealt with competing com- panies and the independent producer and refiner, the effect of the combination was to place the oil-producing business on a substantial cash basis. The pipe line com- panies paid cash for the oil, and the producer knew that if he had a thousand barrels of oil in the line or in the tank that it represented so much money at the current price of oil. The new system did away with the old pipe line certificate of uncertain value and substituted a cash value regulated by the market.

The pipe line combination fixed the price of oil and this led to dissatisfaction among the independent producers and refiners and the consequent organization of inde- pendent companies. The most prominent and aggressive of the independent com- cerns in the field today is the Pure Oil Company, which was organized in 1895 under the laws of New Jersey with a capi- tal stock of $1,000,000. The incorporators were David Kirk, Jerome B. Aiken, M. L. Lockwood, of Zelienople, C. H. Duncan, W. A. Dennison, Thomas Westgate, James W. Lee, Adolphus A. Hoch of Chicora, Ferdinand Reiber of Butler, Lewis Walz, Rufus Scott, Lewis Emery Jr., M. Mur- phy, W. L. Curtis, Thomas W. Phillips, and Clarence Walker of Butler.

The officials of the company were, David Kirk, president; Clarence Walker, secre- tary, and C. H. Duncan, treasurer.

The Butler Pipe Line was constructed in January, 1873, from Greece City in Con- cord Township to the loading racks at

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Parker's Landing. The promoter and head of the company was William Parker. The time for the first run of oil from the wells above Boydstown to the receiving tanks at Parker was five hours and thirty- five minutes.

The Allen and McConnell line was com- pleted from the Grant farm to Parker in 1873.

The first trunk line was placed in 1875, from Carbon Center in Butler County to Brilliant Station near Pittsburg, a four- inch pipe being used. Following the con- struction of the Carbon Center line, a line was constructed from Bear Creek in But- ler County to the first pumping station at Hilliard, in Washington Township. This line was extended from Hilliards to Cleve- land, a distance of 110 miles. Following. the construction of these two lines other trunk lines were built from the Pennsyl- vania field and other oil fields to Philadel- phia, Baltimore, and Tidewater. These were the Mckean and Philadelphia line, with Baltimore branch, the Olean and Buf- falo, the Olean and New York, the Rexford and Bayonne, N. J., the Morgantown, West Virginia and Philadelphia, the Mellon line from Greggs to Linwood, and the United States Pipe Line from Titusville to Athens.

The United States Pipe Line Company, or Producers Line, was organized in 1892, and began the transportation of oil early in 1893. This company was the first to prove the fallacy of the idea that refined oil lost its color when sent through pipes in hot weather, and during the first year of its existence transported many millions of gallons through its lines to the seaboard with satisfactory results.

The cost of carrying a barrel of oil from Pithole to New York in 1865 was $5.55. From the Butler County fields by way of Pittsburg was $4.59 per barrel. Today the price is $.50 or less from any part of the region to the seaboard. The price by rail and pipe line has been the same since 1879.

PRODUCERS AND REFINERS.

The Producers and Refiners' Pipe Line Company, which is the principal competi- tor of the Standard Oil Company in the Butler County field, are operating a line from Trail Run, Ohio, to Sistersville, West Virginia, thence to Pine- Grove Station, thence to Taylorstown Station, Pennsyl- vania, thence to Washington Junction, Pennsylvania, thence to Primrose, and from Primrose by way of McDonald, Noblestown, Oakdale, to Adams Station in Butler County; from Adams Station to Butler, from Butler to Karns City, and from Karns City by way of Dotter's Sta- tion to Oil City, and thence to Titusville, where it intersects with the United States Pipe Line.

NATURAL GAS AS A FUEL.

The two great sources of natural gas on this continent are along the western slope of the Apalachian Mountains and the great Cincinnati Arch. The Apalachian gas de- posits occur in the small folds of the anti- clinals, which exist in the strata as they rise toward the Allegheny Mountains from the synclinals that lies to the westward. The gas deposits of Butler County are found in the first, second, third and fifth oil sands, the Speechley, the Warren, the Bradford, Tiona sands. The Butler gas sand and the Hundred-foot belong to the Butler Venango group and are known as the most productive gas sands in the United States, because of their vast ex- tent. The first, second, and third sands exist in Butler, Armstrong, Clarion, Ve- mango, Crawford, and Forrest Counties, and in Armstrong, Westmoreland, Alle- gheny and Washington Counties; the up- per layers are known as the Murraysville, or salt sand, and the Hundred-foot. The Hundred-foot is divided into the Thirty- foot, and Fifty-foot and the lower layer into the Gordon, the Gordon stray, fourth

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and fifth sands, the Baird and Elizabeth sands.

The thick layer of sandstone north of Pittsburg lies two or three hundred feet above the first sand, and outcrops in the hilltops of Butler and Venango Counties. This is known as the Mountain sand, and south of Pittsburg becomes the "Big In- jun." It is productive of oil in some localities.

Natural gas as a fuel was used at Fre- donia, New York, as early as 1824. In tearing down an old mill the workmen dis- covered inflamable bubbles on the waters of Canodonay Creek. They took the hint from this discovery and drilled a one and a half-inch hole into the limestone rock in the bottom of the creek, and the gas fol- lowed the hole. The supply of gas ob- tained from this source was utilized in the town and furnished fuel for about one hundred houses and for the new mill for many years.

The light-house at Erie was lighted by natural gas in 1831 from a burning spring that existed in the vicinity. A cone-shaped tower was built over the spring which col- lected the gas, and it was carried to the light-house by means of wooden pipes.

In the early days of the oil developments at Oil Creek, natural gas was used for fuel at the drilling and pumping wells as early as 1862, but it was ten years later before it was generally used for domestic and manufacturing purposes, and piped any distance from the wells to the place of con- sumption.

"Sketches In Crude Oil" by John J. Mc- Lauren gives John Criswell of New Castle the credit of producing the first natural gas and utilizing it for manufacturing purposes in Butler County. Criswell drilled a salt well near Slippery Rock in 1840 and at a depth of 700 feet struck a flow of natural gas which he used to heat the pans at his salt factory.

In 1872 a well was drilled on the W. C. Campbell farm near Fairview to a depth

of 1,335 feet for oil and was abandoned on account of a flow of gas and salt water. After the well had been abandoned for some two months the pressure became so strong that it blew the water entirely out of the hole and in the autumn of the same year a company was formed to utilize the gas. This was done by laying a line of 31/2-inch casing from the well to Fairview, a distance of two miles, and thence to Petrolia, two miles from Fairview. Pres- sure of the well on a steam-gauge was eighty-one pounds and it had an escape through a six-inch pipe. The noise of the escaping gas could be heard a distance of two miles from the well.

The correspondent of the "Titusville Herald," under date of September 3, 1873, gave a graphic account of this remarkable well :

" The roar of the escaping fluid was equal to the sound of Niagara, and the iron tools that penetrated the rock were raised and tossed in the hole with as much ease as a skiff is rocked on the surface of an angry ocean. So strong was the gas giant that one man might have held the tools out of the hole without the aid of an engine. It would toss a hundred pound rock to the height of forty or fifty feet, and an ordinary club when launched in the upward stream would be tossed seventy or eighty feet. For a few weeks this well shrieked and howled and whistled, making night hideous and day tedious with its ceaseless yells until the arms of science opened to receive the wasting fuel. When finally controlled, this well supplied the towns of Argyle, Fairview, Karns City, and Petrolia, besides furnishing fuel for forty pumping and drilling wells, eight pump stations, two hundred gas burners, and forty cooking stoves, all of which were supplied from seven miles of pipe line."

This well was drilled by the Lambing Brothers in April, 1872, and soon after the gas began to flow the well was accidentally lighted. The flames rose to a height of seventy-five feet and could be seen a dis- tance of ten miles. To extinguish it the contractor spent $500, which was finally accomplished after several days' hard work, by smothering the blaze with clay.

So far as is known, the Campbell well was the first gasser to be utilized for do- mestic purposes, and the gas piped to any distance from the well. It is claimed that

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the Newton well at Titusville was drilled in 1872, and in August of that year the gas was piped to Titusville, where it was util- ized in the dwelling houses and in the mills. It is probable that the Butler County well was under control and in use a couple of months before the Titusville well was struck.

About 1873 Hart and Conkle drilled a well on the McCandless farm about a half a mile northwest of the borough of Butler, and struck a tremendous flow of gas. This well was accidentally lighted and burned for years, the fuel being allowed to go to waste. The owners of the well offered to sell it to Col. John M. Thompson and Hon. Charles McCandless, of Butler, for the price of the casing, but the offer was re- fused. The possibilities of natural gas for fuel and lighting purposes was not appre- ciated at that time, and inability to con- trol the well induced the Butler parties to turn down the proposition that contained a fortune. Twelve years later a company was organized to supply the town with natural gas, but in the meantime the Hart and Conkle well had been drowned out with water. In the latter part of the eigh- ties the Standard Plate Glass Company of Butler drilled a well for gas within three hundred feet of the old Hart & Con- kle well, which was a complete failure. The water had evidently destroyed the gas pool in that locality.

About the same year that the Hart and Conkle well was drilled Butler parties drilled a well on Wolf Creek at the Woolen Mill, which was one of the largest gas wells struck in the county that year. This well blew and whistled for months, finally catching fire and destroying the rig. The flaming torch burned fully one hundred feet in the air and lighted the surrounding country until water finally drowned out the flow of gas. The pressure of gas in this well was so strong that it permeated the ground for many rods around it, and when a crowbar was driven into the soil

a blue flame would shoot up for several feet.

In November, 1874, the famous Harvey well was struck, at Lardin's Mill, in Clin- ton Township. Gas was obtained in heavy quantities at 1,145 feet. At 420 feet the "Blue Monday" and "Lightning Rock" was reached and it required six weeks of drilling to pass through the one hundred feet of this hard, white limestone. Sand- stone and gas showed at a depth of 1,115 feet, and a heavy flow was struck at 1,145. The gas from this well was conveyed a distance of 150 feet in a six-inch iron pipe from which it discharged with the force of steam. The well was located between abrupt hills in a valley about three hun- dred feet wide, and in the night time when the gas was burning the surrounding val- ley looked like a self-feeding furnace. As described by J. Cunningham, of Taren- tum, the United States Signal Service officer who visited the place in February, 1875, at night, the scene was incomparable. When he came within its immediate influ- ence he saw the trees wrapped in light and their trunks and branches silvered to their tops by the great torch-a burning flame fifteen feet wide and forty feet high- throwing into brilliant illumination the hundreds of interested faces. This, with the intense heat and brilliancy, and the ter- rific noise of the escaping fluid, made a sight not soon to be forgotten by any who witnessed it. When this well was finally brought under control a gas pipeline was laid from the well to the Spang and Chal- fant Mill at Etna, a distance of about sev- enteen miles. This was the first pipe line laid to convey gas for manufacturing pur- poses in the United States.

In 1875 John Burns drilled a gas well at St. Joe to a depth of 1,600 feet. This well was on the Duffy farm and is known by some as the Duffy well, by others as the Burns well. Its mouth was 1,298 feet above ocean level and when the well was enclosed with 55/8-inch casing, with a cap,

THE McCOLLOUGH BARNARD & CO. NO. 1 WELL AND THE HARRY N. HOFFMAN WELL.

SHOOTING OF COWDEN BROS. NO. 2 WELL, FENELTON, PA.

FIRST STEEL JACKET KILN (Erected at West Winfield, Pa., 1893)

McBRIDE WELL

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the pressure was strong enough to lift the casing. To avoid damage the gas was al- lowed to escape. The gas in this well was piped to Freeport and the pressure at that place on the line was 125 pounds. The out- put of this well averaged 12,000,000 feet of gas per day and was considered the larg- est well of that period.

The Delamater well, one half mile from the Burns well, was an oil producer in the third sand. When the owners drilled be- low the third sand they lost a ten-barrel oil well and struck what appeared to be an inexhaustible reservoir of gas.

The Denny wells in the northeastern corner of Winfield Township were drilled for oil about 1872, but became great gas producers and were the forerunners of some of the largest gas wells in Western Pennsylvania which were afterwards drilled in that township. These wells were drilled by the Denny brothers, who owned the Denny Mills, and William Stewart, who at that time owned the furnace tract. The gas from these wells was used at the mill and the dwelling houses for over a quarter of a century.

What is known as the Saxon City gas well was drilled at Cabot Station in 1874 to a depth of 1,857 feet. The gas from this well was piped to Etna and Sharpsburg and it proved to be one of the most con- sistent producers in the Butler County field.

Middlesex Township was the scene of operations for oil and gas in 1875, when a well was drilled on the J. B. Mahan farm, one and one-half miles east of Glade Mills. At a depth of 1,420 feet an amber oil was found in a thick bed of white sand stone. The well showed a production of five bar- rels but was drilled to 732 feet, where the flow of oil was increased to ten barrels. A heavy flow of gas was also found from 1,732 to 1,745 feet. Blood red slate was found at 1,880 feet, and this formation continued to .1,930 feet, when drilling ceased.

The Chantler No. 1 was drilled in Clin- ton Township two miles south of the Jef- ferson Township line, where gas was struck at 1,340 feet. Another well was drilled on the Westerman farm just south of the Chantler, where gas was found at 1,340 feet, and oil and gas at 1,495 feet in the second sand. The product of these two wells was piped to the mills at Etna. About 1886 a well on the Criswell farm in the same township was drilled by Klingen- smith for the Standard Plate Glass Com- pany of Butler to a depth of 3,500 feet.

In 1875 a gas well was drilled on the Robert Thompson farm two miles south of St. Joe at Carbon Center in Clearfield Township. This well was drilled to a depth of 1,558 feet and for four months produced eight barrels of oil per day from the third sand. It was afterwards drilled to the fourth sand, when the oil gave way to a heavy flow of gas. The well caught fire and burned the rig down and after it was controlled it was turned to account as fuel for the boilers in that section of the Clearfield and Donegal oil fields.

The Jack well at North Washington struck gas in the fourth sand at a depth of 1,500 feet, and was the first gas well in that section. Its volume decreased fifty per cent. the first year, although it was the only well in that locality.

In 1877 a gas well drilled on McMur- ray's Run in Marion Township which pre- sented the same phenomena as the Jack well. This well was drilled for oil, by Emerson and Bronson, but their enter- prise was rewarded by a flow of gas and water. The latter produced in a column reaching about thirty-five feet above the derrick.

The discovery of gas in the Phillips Brothers' well on the McJunkin farm, about one mile and one-half east of the borough of Butler, promised the citizens of that town a cheap and clean fuel. This well was drilled in 1882, and gas was struck at a depth of 1,000 feet. It was the

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introduction to later wells that were drilled on the McCrea farm on the hill south of the town in 1886 and 1887.

In 1887 the Fisher Brothers drilled a well to the gas sand on the McCrea farm just outside of the borough limits. The well filled up with water and appeared to be a failure. It afterwards came into the possession of David Kirk, who bailed the water out and was rewarded by the larg- est flow of gas struck near the town since the Hart and Conkle well. Kirk after- wards promoted the Mutual Gas Company of Butler, which supplied the town with light and fuel. The well on the McCrea farm was sold to the Shenango Gas Com- pany and the gas was piped to New Castle in the fall of 1887.

The Mahoning Gas Company drilled a well on the Shields farm in Mercer Town- ship in 1886 and other wells in Slippery Rock Township which supplied the towns in the northwestern part of the county and in Mercer County with fuel for more than twenty years.

The greatest gas producer ever drilled in Butler County was on the Casper Fruh- ling farm in Winfield Township in 1889. This well was drilled by A. W. McCollough of Butler, who in the previous year had taken up a large block of leases in Win- field, Clinton, and Buffalo Townships for the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company. The company drilled a dozen or more wells and in 1889 completed the Fruhling farm well and the well on the John Cruikshank farm. The former produced 15,000,000 feet of gas daily and the latter 12,000,000 feet. The gas in these two wells was found in the lower member of the hundred foot or the Venango first sand, or the second sand and fifty foot of the Parker field. Two large pipe lines were laid from this field to the Plate Glass Works at Ford City on the Allegheny River, while two more lines were laid to Butler borough by the Home Natural Gas Company and the Standard Plate Glass Company. This was the great-

est gas reservoir ever opened in Butler County. Many pools have been opened since which have proved good producers, but nothing has ever equalled the Fruh- ling and Cruikshank wells. A few miles east in Armstrong County the Phillips Oil Company struck the famous Kerr farm well in the Speechley sand. This well pro- duced 30,000,000 feet daily, and was the largest well in the Butler and Armstrong district.

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Century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and representative citizens 20th, Part 26

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1526

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1526