History of Butler County, Pennsylvania, Part 36

Author: Brown, Robert C., ed; Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.); Meagher, John, jt. comp; Meginness, John Franklin, 1827-1899, jt. comp
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago : R. C. Brown
Number of Pages: 1658

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The Glade Run field may be said to have been opened in 1886, as a south- western extension of the Thorn Creek field, when the 125-barrel well on the Critchlow farm was completed by Mr. Phillips. Since the acquisition of the field by the Forest Oil Company, in 1890, it has shown its wonderful productive- ness, and has become a veritable oil center. Great wells followed the Critchlow. some of which are said to have produced over 100 barrels per hour. It was the most interesting of the new fields of Butler county, at the close of 1886. When the Lappe well on the Boehm farm, one-seventh of a mile west of the railroad tunnel, was completed, it was known that there existed at least fifty-seven feet of sand. The wells on the Critchlow, Spithaler, Heid, Markel, Widow Croft and other farms followed, some of which produced 350 barrels a day.

The phenomena of the Reibold field in ISS7. occurred on September 14, when the Boehm well Number 6. was in the sand. About the middle of the after- noon the well yielded ten barrels an hour, when the drill was twenty-four feet in the sand, six barrels of which came from the Hundred Foot. At three o'clock,

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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.

a flow of 120 barrels an hour was recorded, and at five minutes past three, four feet of screw had been " let out," when the force of the flow lifted the tools, the temper screw striking the beam. At forty minutes past three, the well . was yielding 110 barrels an hour. This well is 600 feet west of Number 5, which was producing 85 barrels per hour when Number 6 was commenced. Peiffer's Number 2, Coast & Company's Number 2, Root & Johnson's Number 4 and 5, and the Phillips wells were producing then about 9,000 barrels a day, seven- ninths of which represented the yield of the Phillips wells. On the Brown farm, a mile and a half west of the Slator farm, seventy-two feet of sand marked the Leidecker well.

The dry hole on the Riott farm, near Herman, was drilled in 1886 to a depth of 2,641 feet.

The development of October. 1887, on the Henry Lonitz farm, one and one- half miles west of Saxonburg, was one of the immense surprises of the oil-field. The first well on the farm, completed September 1, 1887, for Bolard, Smith & Greenlee, yielded at most, sixty barrels per diem. Golden & Mc Bride's well, com- pleted in October, 1887, which yielded 200 barrels, and then Bolard, Smith & Greenlee's gusher Number 2. with its 2.500 barrels a day, and a depth of 1,767 feet. came to electrify oil men. By November the 18th it resolved itself into a fifty-barrel well.

The Stage development on the Nancy Adams farm, in 1887, was the first extension of the Hundred Foot field up Glade run and the first demonstration of how to handle water wells. The first, known as the great water well, is now being controlled.

The mystery of Albert and Morrison, on HI. D. Thompson's farm in Centre township, won much attention in June, ISS7, when it was learned that. on strik - ing sand, the hole filled up to a depth of about 600 feet with oil. It was a hope well for Centre township.

The principal developments in Butler county in 1892 were confined to Jeffer- son, Cranberry, Lancaster and Penn townships, the Brownsdale field being opened in the last named township, while the Phillips well, hereafter mentioned, created new hopes. The discovery of oil in this field led many leaseholders to examine their leases, and as nearly the whole field was covered by agreements, it followed that claims had to be introduced into the courts for settlement. In January, 1898, the field yielded 758 barrels every twenty-four hours, the wells being the Johnston, Numbers 1, 2 and 3; Susan Anderson, Numbers 1, 2 and 3; Mrs. Blair, Numbers I and 2; Marsh. Number 1; the Critchlow and the Warner : Heckert, S. Thompson, William Thompson, Numbers 1 and 2; Cowan and Mary Cowan ; the Beers & McKee well on the Cowan farm, and other wells, were promising producers.

The Sutton well, on the Hemphill farm at Zelienople, completed in Novem- ber, 1891, was yielding twenty-five barrels a day. It was considered the index to an extension of that pool. The Niece well on the Cunningham farm was a 400-barrel producer.

Henshaw & Co.'s Barclay well, a half mile southwest of the Ripper farm

J. M. Phillips

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THE BUTLER OIL FIELD.

pool, was yielding forty barrels in November, 1891, being then considered the largest well ever struck in the Muddy Creek field.

The production of the Harmony and Zelienople fields January 20, 1892, was no less than 5,000 barrels a day, with twenty-one strings of tools running and eight new rigs. The O'Donnell well, five miles southwest of Zelienople ; Beggs' Number 1, on the Knauff farm ; Cunningham's, on the Island; Patterson's Num- ber I, on the Horne farm ; Mckinney Oil Company's Number I, on the Fanker farm, and other less pretentious wells, testified to the fact that Butler county could supply new pools at the will of the operators. In what is specifically known as the Harmony field, Golden & Company's Number 3, on the Schiever farm, finished in November, 1891, was making 400 barrels a day early in January, 1892, while their Number 2 showed a record of 250 barrels. The Evans City Oil Company and Kennedy & Company's wells, on the Eichholz farm, were also fair producers.

In 1893, the Garvin district, south of Evans City, showed that the enter- prise of the driller was not sleeping. In Adams township, on the R. J. Conly farm, a well, which was abandoned in 1890, was cleaned out for Burk & Com- pany in September, 1893. Gibson and Gahagan's well on the Robert Anderson farm, was drilled through the " Hundred-foot " to a lower sand in September, 1893, but without success in either the Third or Fourth sand. A dry hole was found on the Wagner farm in the Brownsdale field, about the same time: while the wells of T. W. Phillips and the MeCalmont wells proved to be fair producers. In Washington township, new wells were drilled on the Alexander Bell, R. O. Shiva, George Meals and Samuel Shira farms. A show of 100 barrels was made by the Bell Brothers' well from ten feet of stray sand. The Forest Oil Company worked an extension of the old Peter-ville " Hundred-foot " field and engaged also in new enterprises at Mars station. The well of 1>92, on the Reiber farm, and the Reiber & Bradner on the Knauff lands, northwest of the Thompson farm, were fair producers.

In October. 1893. the Grocer's Oil Company. Stewart & Company and Mat- thew Bowers had fair prospects on the Sanderson and the Clymer lands, east of Greece City ; while Charles Haslett drilled on the Jacob Schiever farm, a mile south of Whitestown, with a hope of finding the northern outlet of the " Hund- red-foot " field, without success. In the vicinity of Hendersonville, on the E. Goehring farm, P. C. Frederick struck a fair producer. On the Byers farm, east of Millerstown, and on the Pontius farm, new wells were completed.

The Tebay well, near North Washington, two miles in advance of develop- ments and in a line with the old field of Byrom Centre, was completed in December and proved a paying one. Purviance & Company's well on the Shorts farm in Connoquenessing, a half mile from the first well drilled some years ago by the Bald Ridge Company; the new wells on the Eichenlaub and Oertell farms at Herman, drilled by the Phillips Company ; with the ventures in Concord township and on the William Polhemus farm, in Centre township, form strong evidences of the recuperative power of the Butler field and of the spirit of enterprise which rules her oil men.

The Brownsdale field in the Hundred Foot district is one of the best pro- 19

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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.

ducing territories of later years. It takes its name from the hamlet of Browns- dale in Penn township. Many of the leading oil operators in the county are interested in this field, the wells of which continue to maintain a good average production. Its development southeast ward and the successful outcome of Reiber & Bradner's venture in Middlesex township in 1893-94, in what is locally called the Cooperstown field, brought this territory into wide prominence. AAfter a long and continuous effort, under very discouraging conditions, this firm developed a rich field on their lease in that township for which it is said they were offered in September, 1-91, the sum of $250,000, which they refused. This fact illustrates the bonanza that sometimes falls to the lucky operator and is one of the accidents of the producing business. Scores of operators flocked into this territory and by October. 1591. the quiet village of Cooperstown exhibited the boom and activity of oil towns of bygone years. Operations spread into Adams township, where some fine wells were developed and the most sanguine expectations of operators more than realized.

The well completed January 7, 1894, on the Widow Brown farm in the Brownsdale field, reached a depth of 2,750 feet, only to prove a dry hole. At 2,675 feet the Speechley sand of the Venango group, was struck, with a show of oil and gas. A red sand was also explored for the first time in this field.

The deepest producer in the county is the Me Junkin-Brandon well. drilled in January, 1894. on the Campbell heirs farm, in the Brownsdale field, to a depth of 2,005 feet. The drill was in the Fourth sand at that depth and the well was producing about 120 barrels a day. It proved a revelation in the Pennsylvania field.

The Fisher Oil Company's well, Number S, on the Eichenlaub farm, the Steichner northward, on the Leech farm, and the Fisher Oil Company's Number B, on the John Smith farm, all creations of March, 1894, point out possibilities undreamed of even in 1893. This old company has been a long time in the field. but still find- wells worthy of its enterprise.

The production of crude petroleum in Pennsylvania, including 7,055,000 barrels in the Allegany county (New York ) field, from the beginning of the industry down to December 31. 1552. was 216.083,000 barrels of forty-two gallons each. Of this the Butler- Armstrong field gave $4,000 barrels down to the close. of 1869 and 39,981,000 barrels down to the close of 1852. The production of this field in 1865 was 1,000 barrels; in 1866, 5,000 : in ING7, 5,000 : in 1868, 25,000; in 1869, 15,000; in 1870, 900,000; in 1871, 1.100.000; in 1872, 1,700,000; in 1878, -1.400,000; in 1874. 5.200.000; in 1875. 1.650,000; in 1876. 4.700.000: in 1877, 5.500,000; in ISTS, 4,500,000: in 1879. 2,800,000; in 1950, 1,700,000; in 1S>1, 1, 100,000 and in 1882. 1,800,000 barrels. The returns of production, given in the Tenth Census, show the total, down to December 31, 1880, at 37,842,975 barrel -. The average production of the county, from the beginning of 1548 to the close of 1991, has been 10,000 barrels a day, or about 3,600,000 bar- rels a year.

The average price of pipe line certificates from 1865 to 1892 is given as fol- low: In 1865, 86.59 : 1566. 88.74: 1867. $2.41 : 1865 $3.62; 1869. 45.09; 1570, $3. 1: 1871, $1.17: 1572, $3.95: 1-78. $1.78: 1574. $1.18: 1875, $1.25: 1876,

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THE BUTLER OIL FIELD.

$2.51 ; 1877. $2.39 ; 1878, $1.16 ; 1879, 88 cents ; 1880, 943 cents : 1881, 85; cents : 1SS2, 7>3 cents : ISS3, $1.061: 1884, 832 cents; 1885, 883 cents; 1886, 714 cents; 1887, 962 cents; ISSS, 87 cents ; 1889, 91 cents ; 1890, 863 cents : 1891, 964 cents, and 1892, 55 cents. The price of oil in 1898 ranged from 58 cents to 80 cents ; while in 1894 it reached a higher point than at any time for four years, with bright prospects for a still further advance.

The Union Pipe Line Company extended their branch from Parker to the Stone House farm in the " Seventies," and thence to Argyle in the fall of ISTI. and subsequently to each of the fields in this county. It was afterward known as the " Empire Line."

The Fairview Pipe Line Company was organized in 1872, with Messrs. Satterfield, Vandergrift, Taylor and Forman, members. A line was built to East Brady and before it merged into the United Pipe Lines Association, built other lines.

The Butler Pipe Line was completed early in January, IS73, from Greece City to the tanks near Parker, and inaugurated by William Parker. The time for the first run of oil from the wells above Boydstown to the receiving tanks was five hours and thirty-five minutes.

The Allen &- Mc Connell Pipe Line, from the Grant farm to Parker, was completed in February, 1873.

The United Pipe Lines Association, first known as the Fairview Pipe Line. was organized by J. J. Vandergrift and George V. Forman and incorporated April 29, 1874. Into it were subsequently merged the Antwerp, Oil City, Clarion. Union or Empire, Conduit, Karns, Grant, Pennsylvania, Relief, the Clarion and MeKean branch of the American Transfer, the Prentiss, the Olean, the Union Oil at Clarendon, the MeCalmont, and others.

The first trunk line was placed in 1875 from Carbon Centre, in Butler county, to Brilliant, near Pittsburg, a four-inch pipe being used. The line from Bear creek, in this county, to the first pumping station at Hilliards-a six-inch pipe, and that from Hilliards to Cleveland-a five-inch pipe-making 110.79 miles, followed the construction of the Carbon Centre line. The Mckean and Phila . delphia, 234.88 miles, with Baltimore branch, 65.80 miles; the Olean and Buf- falo, 56 miles; the Olean and New York, 762.01 miles ; the Rexford and Bay- onne, New Jersey, 253.75 miles ; the Morgantown. West-Virginia, and Phila- delphia, 364.29 miles ; the Mellon from Greggs to Linwood, 267 miles, and the United States Pipe Line from Titusville to Athens, 360 miles, constituted the National Transit Company until the new name was adopted.

In the fall of 1855, the National Transit Company offered ten cents per bar- rel above the market price for Butler county oil. This liberality on the part of the Transit Company was credited to the fact that the Pittsburg Pipe Line Com- pany was taking away the immense product of the Thorn Creek and Bald Ridge fields. From 1873 to ISTS, when the Standard people had stern competitors, producers received good prices ; but so soon as competition was removed, the price fell.

The United States Pipe Line Company, or Producers' Line, organized in 1892, began the transportation of petroleum through pipes carly in 1893. This

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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.

company was the first to prove the fallacy of the idea that refined off lost its color when sent through iron pipes in hot weather. Since July, 1-93, the company has transported millions of gallons through their iron lines to the seaboard with satisfactory results.

The Producers' and Refiners' Pipe Line Company, organized in 1892, fol- lowing the organization of the Producers' Oil Company, constructed new lines into the Butler fields in 1892 and 1893, and entered into actual competition with the National Transit Company.

Ike McBride and Sheriff Hoffman, with another operator, built a rig many years ago on Rough run, near the White & Company wells of 1893. At the wrong moment the third party objected to further expenditures, and the venture ended there. Shortly after McBride started a well in the Bald Ridge field, lost the tools, incurred an expense of about $6,000, and found a six-barrel well ; while in sight of the derrick, the great Phillips gusher was subsequently drilled. The White well, on the James Campbell farm, was struck in the Third sand May 9, 1893. when the oil flowed with great force. The territory was previously known as the Hundred-Foot. this being the first Third sand encountered. Many other instances might be adduced of the uncertainties of the oil field and examples given of how a few experts in the business have devoted half a life-time to the exploration of a string of dry holes, others to a chase after new developments. and others-the oil dreamers, to visions of oily oceans waiting to be tapped.

The pumper is by no means the sleepy fellow one would picture him. Ile is an inventive genius, and possesses some rude sense of music. To make his life endurable, the pumper has made steam his advance guard or picket line ; for, with steam, he has arranged a signal for each well in his charge, a signal as true as that given by nature to the infant to notify the mother of its wants. These signals are of several tones and are as familiar to the pumper as are the notes of the caged canaries to their owner. One says " toothache," " toothache," day in and day out, so long as steam is supplied. The strength or feebleness of the song announces to the pumper what is being done in some distant part of the field. Another signal for another well is pitched in some higher or lower key, to sound another word, and thus, as the calls of the cuckoo tell of the meadows in the sum- mer and fall, so do these tell-tale words of steam speak of producing oil fields and watchful pumpers. Prior to the adoption of this system, pumpers had to be as lively as lamp-lighters. Their travels, too, were attended with danger; for it is related that an experienced pumper visited a well near Fairview one night, and, stretching forward his lantern to make observations, fired the escaping gas and this, in turn, fired the tanks, resulting in the destruction of thousands of barrels of oil.

The part taken by the torpedo in oil well operations should not be over- looked. In 1862. Col. E. A. L. Roberts conceived the idea and in November, Is61. appled for a patent. On January 2, 1865, Roberts attempted to test the torpedo at Titusville, but not until the 21st did Captain Mills permit him to make a trial. The result confirmed his own opinion of the invention, for the "Ladies' Well." answered by an immense flow of oil and paratine. Later trials were even more satisfactory and the inventor's fortune was assured. When the

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THE BUTLER OIL FIELD.

United States Supreme Court was subsequently asked to confirm his claims, his petition was granted, and in the decision the following particulars relating to the torpedo were contained :

The patent consists in sinking to the bottom of the well, or to that portion of it which passes through the oil-bearing rock, a water-tight flask containing gunpowder or other powerful explosive material, the flask being a little less in diameter than the dia- meter of the bore. to enable it to slide down easily. This torpedo or flask is so con- structed that its contents may be ignited either by caps with a weight falling on them or by fulminating powder placed so that it can be exploded by a movable wire or by elec- tricity, or by any of the known means used for exploding shells, torpedoes or cartridges under water. When the flask has been sunk to the desired position, the well is filled with water, if not already filled, thus making a water tamping and confining the effects of the explosion to the rock in the immediate vicinity of the flask, and leaving other parts of the rock surrounding the well not materially affected. The contents of the flask are then exploded by the means above mentioned, and, as the evidence showed, with the result in most cases of increasing the flow of oil very largely. The theory of the inventor is that petroleum, or oil taken from the well is, before it is removed, contained in seams or crevices, usually in the second or third stratum of sandstone or other rock abounding in the oil regions. These seams or crevices being of different dimensions and irregularly located, a well sunk through the oil-bearing rock may not touch any of them, and thus may obtain no oil, though it may pass very near the crevices; or it may in its passage downward touch only small seams or make small apertures into the neigh- boring crevices containing oil: in either of which cases the seams or apertures are liable to become clogged by substances in the well or oil. The torpedo breaks through these obstructions and permits the oil to reach the well.

The system of " pooling off" was observed throughout the various fields in the fall of 1872, the object being to keep crude oil up to a stated price, which would leave a profit to the producers. The well owners designated tanks in which the oil could be stored, and the council kept their agent posted on the quantity ready for shipment. The first lot of oil tanked was shipped on the first order, the payment therefor was lodged to the credit of the owner in a designated bank, and there he could present his certificate and draw the money. At that time oil was selling at $4.50 per barrel. The sbut-down of October, 1872, left 4,000 wells idle, and removed from competition with the producer no less than 800,000 barrels of oil in stock and 500,000 barrels of non-production. This move- ment checked the designs of refiners for the time ; but they reorganized and, pur- chasing a charter from the Pennsylvania Legislature, made a second attempt to control the market. The action of S. D. Karns, James M. Lambing and other members of the Producers' Council of the second district, checkmated the refiners again ; for, in December. 1872, the Union agreed not to start new wells until March 1, 1878, and to urge the unions in the first and third districts to follow their example.

In the earlier days, before invention, skill and experience had brought the work to its present perfection, the drilling of an oil well was a costly undertak- ing, sometimes involving an expenditure of upwards of $10.000. Carll, the well known geologist, gives figures showing the cost to be nearly ten dollars a foot in 1865, and about $5.75 a foot in 1872. These estimates are regarded as excessive, and much above the average cost of wells in the Butler field. The records of 1859 make the following showing : For rigs, about $300 per well : labor drilling

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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.

about $500; boiler and engine, about $500: pulleys, ropes, etc .. about seventy-five dollars: casing and tubing about $400, a total of about $1,775. While many wells in the Butler field have been. kept down to the total given, a greater num- ber cost in the neighborhood of $2,500, and several exceed the $4,000 mark.

In January, 1878, when the price of oil fell to $2.35, or $2.10 below the current price on November 15. 1872, one of the drillers wrote eight ver-es on the condition of the market, one of which is as follows :

I've niver known the likes, bedad, Since ile was struck before, That you and all the children had Sthamps plenty by the >chor. But now the very divil's to pay, Wid workin' men and all, For ile's increasin' every day An shure the price must fall.

There have been only two or three mysteries, in this county, each of them unimportant, so far as the off market was concerned ; but interesting, locally, as novelties in the field. The surprises of the field have, however, compensated for the want of many interesting mysteries, and, better still, taught the geologist and the driller to be careful in expressing opinions The history of the wells is really a history of accidents ; for, in thousands of cases dry holes have been found within a few rods of famous producers, and famous producers have been found here in fields which were not considered worth exploring, until the operators grew tired of other fields. Prophets of decay have been in the fieldl since its beginning, yet oil wells multiply and every day sees some new venture rewarded by production. Butler is not now the field it was in 1877; but it is questionable, if the same prices reigned now as then, her celebrated oil men would not raise the produc- tion to the figures of that year. Old operators have faith in the field, and one of them gives, very concisely, the following opinion of the prophets who have expressed their ideas since 1865 :

They have been predicting the failure of the supply periodically for twenty- five years. At one time there was a line drawn north of Tidioute, where the oil rock ran to the surface, and a line in Butler county near the south line of the county, where the rock dipped so much that it would be below sea level and would only produce salt water. An estimate was made of the oil that had been taken out and of the amount still remaining in the rock that could be taken out. The production since that time has far exceeded the estimate. Subsequently the great Bradford field, many miles to the north, and Allegheny county, Washington county, in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to the south were opened up. This prediction was as far from the facts as many of the predictions that have been made in recent years in regard to the production of natural gas.

Indeed, it may be said that no man knows the origin of this fluid, no one knows the source of supply or fountain head, and no one can tell but greater oil springs than the " Phillips," or the " Armstrong," may yet respond to the drill- er's industry in this county, and fields, as bounteous as Petrotia, Karns City and Bald Ridge were, come forward to create new riches and turn the wheels of progress faster.

CHAPTER XX.

THE BUTLER GAS FIELD.

INTRODUCTION-DISCOVERY AND USES-EARLY GAS WELLS-THE CAMPBELL, HARVEY AND BURNS WELLS-A. W. MCCOLLOUGHI'S ENTERPRISES-A DEEP TEST WELL- OTHER NATURAL GAS PRODUCERS.

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History of Butler County, Pennsylvania, Part 36

Author: Brown, Robert C., ed; Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.); Meagher, John, jt. comp; Meginness, John Franklin, 1827-1899, jt. comp Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Chicago : R. C. Brown Number of Pages: 1658

Author: Brown, Robert C., ed; Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.); Meagher, John, jt. comp; Meginness, John Franklin, 1827-1899, jt. comp
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago : R. C. Brown
Number of Pages: 1658