History of Butler County, Pennsylvania, Part 37

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Butler County > History of Butler County, Pennsylvania > Part 37

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T THE knowledge of the existence of natural gas in Butler county antedates by many years its use for heating and lighting purposes. It was encount- ered in the drilling of early oil wells, its force often being such as to render a continuation of the work impossible. After it was once brought into subjection, however, and a practical demonstration of its utility and value for manufacturing and domestic purposes made, its general use quickly followed, and the gas well immediately took rank with the oil well as a source of wealth, and as an import- ant factor in the manufacturing industries in which it is row so extensively used instead of coal. It has, also, proved a no less important factor in domestic econ- omy, supplying a cleanly, convenient and economical fuel, and greatly reducing the labor of the house- wife.

Like the popular ideas of the origin of petroleum, the popular notion of the origin of natural gas is varied. From what is generally accepted as fact, the posi- tion and quantity of gas, depend, in the first place, upon the porosity and the homogeneousness of the sand rock, which is its reservoir ; in the second place, on the compactness of the strata above or below the sand ; in the third place, on the dip of the sand and the position of the synclines and anticlines ; in the fourth place, the proportion of water, oil and gas, and in the fifth place, the pressure of the gas before being tapped.

An old producer, speaking from experience, says, that in nearly every instance where an oil district has been found, there has invariably been a corresponding gas field discovered not far away. Oil and gas were undoubtedly forined and placed in the sand rocks by the same agency. The process that filled the oil rock also filled the gas rock They run parallel, and. therefore, gas will be found as long as oil is found. Many gas wells in Butler, Warren, Venango and Washington counties have been producing gas ever since wells in the same locality have been produc- ing oil. Gas wells were often abandoned because the pressure had so decreased that they could not force their product through the lines as against wells of higher pressure. The gas pump will in the future make it profitable to deliver the gas to consumers. To abandon a gas well when it ceases to be strong enough to force its way through its pipe lines, would be like abandoning an oil well because it had ceased to flow.

The celebrated gas well near Fairview, on the W. C. Campbell farm, was drilled for oil in April, 1872. It proved a gasser, and was a source of supply for

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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.

ten years. The force of the fluid at the mouth of the tubing was such that when it was accidentally lighted. the flames rose to a height of seventy-five feet and roared like a whirlwind. the sound of it being heard in Parker, ten miles away. To extinguish it the contractor spent $500. The plan adopted was to smother the blaze with clay. and to accomplish this a ditch was excavated and the clay thrown inwards so as to form a cone. For days the work was carried on before a mound was raised over the casing of the well and the flames subdued. After being brought under control, the gas from this well was used for the lighting and heating of Fairview. Petrolia, Karn- City and Argyle. It also furnished fuel for forty wells and eight pumping stations, and power for driving many wells. In the fall of 1878. a pipe leading to the towns named was connected with this great gasser.

The celebrated Harvey well, near Lardin's mill in Clinton township, was tapped in November, 1874. and gas struck in heavy quantity at a depth of 1.145 feet. At 120 feet. the drill reached the " Blue Monday" and " Lightning Rock." It required six weeks to pass through the 100 feet of this hard, white limestone. Sandstone and gas showed at 1.11.5 feet. As described by signal service officer, J. Cunningham.of Tarentum. who visited the place in February, 1875, it was certainly a wonder. Located between abrupt hills. in a valley about 300 feet wide, this self-feeding furnace sent up its flames. The gas was conveyed a distance of 150 feet. in a six-inch iron pipe, from which it discharged with the force of steam. Mr. Cunningham arrived near the well after darkness had set in, being drawn hither by the great light which had illumined the sky on many a previous night. When he came within its immediate influence and saw the trees wrapped in light and their trunks and branches silvered to their tops by this great torch,

the scene was incomparable. The hundreds of interested faces, the great mass of fine white flame, with its intense heat and brilliancy, the terrific noise of the escaping fluid. as it leaped into the atmosphere. fifteen feet wide by forty feet high. was a sight not soon to be forgotten. The gas pipe line from this well crossed from summit- before the head of Pine creek was reached, and then down the valley to Sharpsburg, or, in all, about seventeen miles.

The Burns gas well on the Duffy farm, near St. Joe, was drilled to a depth of about 1,600 feet, in 1875, by John Burns. It- mouth was 1,295 feet above ocean level. It was cased with five and five-eighth-inch pipe and fitted with a cap into which were screwed five two-inch pipes. When the small pipes were closed, the pressure rose to 300 pounds, and. to prevent the lifting of the casing, the gas was allowed to escape. The fluid for heating was twenty-five per cent bet- ter than bituminous coal. The gas was piped to Freeport through a two-inch pipe, the pressure at that place being 125 pounds per square inch. The output of the well averaged 12,000.000 cubic feet of gas per day.

The Delamater well was an oil producer so long as the owners did not go below the Third sand. When they did they lost a ten-barrel well and struck what appeared to be an inexhaustible reservoir of gas, the pressure being such that tools weighing 1,600 pounds could be drawn by hand, although the volume of gas was not so large as that of the Burns well half a mile distant.

The Denny wells, in the northeastern corner of Winfield township, were

Very truly yours. at Hol Collough 1

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THE BUTLER GAS FIELD.

drilled for oil, but became great gas producers, William Stewart was interested in these wells with the Denny brothers.

The Saxon station gas well, drilled early in 1874. to a depth of 1,857 feet, struck a strong flow of gas at 1.150 feet.

The J. B. Mahan well, one and a half miles from Glade Mills, in Middlesex township, was drilled below the 1,930 feet level, in 1875. From 1,420 to 1.180 feet a thick bed of white sandstone showed a product of five barrels of amber oil. and from 1,732 to 1,745 feet it proved a ten-barrel well with a heavy flow of gas. At the 1,880 feet level blood-red slate was found, and this strange confor- mation, the first of its kind discovered below the oil sand, extended to 1,930 feet. when drilling ceased. The first oil sand, fifty feet deep, was struck at the 1,850 feet level.

Two miles south of the Jefferson township line, in Clinton township, Chant- ler Number 1 was drilled to gas at 1,810 feet. This gas was piped to the Etna furnace. near Pittsburg, as well as from a gasser just south, on the Westermann farm, where gas was found at 1.340 feet in the First sand, and oil and gas at a level of 1,495 feet, in the Second sand.

The well on the Criswell farm was drilled by Klingensmith for the Standard Plate Glass Company to a depth of 3,500 feet.

The gas well on the Robert Thompson farm, two miles south of St. Joe, at old Carbon Centre, in Clearfield township, was drilled in 1875, to a depth of 1,558 feet, its mouth being 1,162 feet above ocean level. Soft limestone, fifteen feet thick, was found at 215 feet : sand and sandstone below 300 feet : salt water at 530 feet ; salt water and gas at $40 feet ; corn meal sand at 1,446 feet; third . sand oil at 1,456 feet, and gas at 1,555 feet. For four months it yielded eight barrels of oil a day : but after it was drilled to the Fourth sand, the oil flow made way for the gas. This liquid caught fire and burned the rig ; but when the flame was controlled the gas was turned to account as fuel for the boilers in that sec- tion of the Donegal field.

The Jack well, 2,600 feet south of North Washington, struck gas in the Fourth sand at a depth of about 1,500 feet, or 1,300 feet below the top of the limestone bed. Within a year the volume of gas decreased fifty per cent, though this hole was considered to be the sole vent of the reservoir.

A gas well drilled on MeMurry's run, in Marion township, presented the same phenomena as that on the Jack farm, both wells dating to 1877. This well was drilled near the mill by Emerson & Bronson with the hope of finding oil. Their enterprise 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 Me Junkin farm. in September, 1852, at a depth of 1.000 feet, and within one and a half miles of Butler borough, promised to the citizens a cheap and clean fuel. It may be looked upon as the pioneer gas producer of the borough, the introduction to the newer wells on Cemetery Hill.

In February, 1886, the Mahoning Gas Company's well on the Shield's farm. near Harrisville, was drilled to a depth of 925 feet, when a great gas reservoir was opened. It was the fifth successful drilling within a radius of two miles.

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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.

The well on the Cuspar Fruhling farm, in Winfield township, drilled in 1859, was considered the greatest gas producer then existing in the county, though. when compared with the MeCollough wells in the adjoining county of Arm- strong, it was insignificant. In ISSs. A. W. MeCollough, of Butler secured a block of leases in the Winfield, Clinton and Buffalo fields, on what is known as the Brady's Bend anticlinal. There the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company drilled a dozen or more wells in their search for natural gas, and on the Fruhling and Cruikshank farms, completed in Is89, the greatest gas wells ever struck in this county-the flow being 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 fieldl to the plate glass works below Kittanning, at Ford City, while two more lines were laid to Butler borough by the Home Natural Gas Company and The Standard Plate Glass Company. This was the greatest gas reservoir ever opened in But- ler county. Statistics relating to it are given at the close of this chapter. where comparisons are made with the old gas wells on the Duffy farm in Donegal township.

The deepest test for gas ever made in this county was that on the Robert Smith farm, in Winfield township. This extraordinary exploration was made by the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company under the direction of A. W. MeCollough, in 1-91. The well mouth is found at the top of the lower member of the Mahoning sandstone. 1,351 feet above ocean level. The ferriferous limestone is reached at a depth of 175 feet ; the mountain sand, or .. Big Injun," at 852 feet ; the bottom of mountain sand at 1,032 feet ; the top of Butler gas sand at 1.372 feet, and the top of the .. Hundred-foot," or Venango first sand, at 1,514 feet. A good flow of gas was struck in the lower member of the " Hundred-foot." and through it an eight-inch hole was drilled, which was cased with six and a quarter-inch casing, connected so as to carry off the gas into the Ford City pipe line, thirteen miles distant.

Meantime a six-inch hole was drilled through the lower strata of the Venango sands, which were marked by broken sand shells. The drill passed on through the interval of the " Warren " group, the " Speechley," the " Bradford," the " Kane " and the " Wilcox," deep into the Chemung, without encountering gas or oil or finding a matrix for either. The last 1,500 feet were drilled through easily, only a shell being struck at intervals, until a depth of 4,000 feet was re- corded, when the exploration was suspended. The bottom of this well is 2,619 feet below ocean level, being almost 500 feet deeper than any well ever drilled within the boundaries of Butler county.

The Guckert & Steele gas well on the Beighley farm, a mile and one-half northeast of the Harmony pool, was struck on January 23, 1893, at the top of the sand, showing a pressure of 150 pounds the first minute. Several wells in that neighborhood and in the Breakneck. Glade run, Thorn creek and other districts evidence the fact that the searcher for oil often finds gas in great volume.

The Phillips well on the Campbell heirs' farm, showed a pressure of 300 pounds to the square inch. The Citizens' Gas Company's well, on the Baldauf farm, near Herman, proved a good Fourth sand gasser. in November, 1893 ; while

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the Brown & Brewster wells, on the Alexander Brewster farm, in Centre town- ship, showed the value of that new gas field. The second well on that farm, completed in October, 1893, bad a rock pressure, it is stated, of 1,600 pounds. With other later developments, it proves that Butler county is one of the great- est gas fields in the United States, and still has plenty of new territory to increase the supply.

CHAPTER XXI.

BUTLER BOROUGH.

ROBERT MORRIS AND THE CUNNINGHAMS-ORIGINAL OWNERS OF THE SITE-THE TOWN LAID OUT-FIRST SALE OF LOTS AND NAMES OF PURCHASERS-EARLY SETTLERS AND FIRST BIRTHS-THE TOWN INCORPORATED-FIRST BOROUGH OFFICERS, ELECTIONS AND TRANSACTIONS OF COUNCILS-LOT OWNERS OF 1821-FIRST QUARTER CENTURY --- TAXABLES OF 1828-INTERESTING PETITIONS AND ORDINANCES -BURGESSES AND COUNCILMEN-JUSTICES AND POSTMASTERS PIONEER MERCHANTS-OLD TIME INN- KEEPERS-LAFAYETTE'S VISIT TO BUTLER-TAVERNS AND HOTELS OF THE PAST AND PRESENT-SUBURBAN GROWTH.

N the beginning of the Nineteenth century the site now occupied by the thrifty.

progressive and beautiful borough of Butler, was a wild and uninviting spot covered with hazel bushes and tangled vines. At that time no one enter- tained the idea of founding a town on these rolling hills, or even imagined for a moment that one ever would be built here. But the whirligig of time often suddenly brings to the surface unexpected conditions, and what is termed " specu- lation " frequently develops results wholly unlooked for.

Robert Morris, the patriot, as well as one of the most remarkable men of Revolutionary times, had become the owner of more than three-quarters of a million of acres of land in this section of Western Pennsylvania, over seventy thousand acres of which laid in what afterwards became Butler county, and also held the warrant for the land on which the borough of Butler is built. James Dunlap, the well-known surveyor, in a memorandum recently found among his papers, says : " Stephen Gapen was the deputy surveyor for Allegheny county after the passage of the famous act of the legislature of April 3. 1792. Hle received of Robert Morris and located 311 warrants in Cunningham's old district of . Depreciation lands,' on which the borough of Butler is located." This seems conclusive that Morris once owned the land.

Whatever praise, glory or honor-and there is a great deal-may belong to Morris for what he accomplished as a financier during the dark and perilous days of the struggle for liberty, he became, after the restoration of peace, imbued with

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an irresistible desire to accumulate wild lands and be recognized as the owner of magnificent estates. He was not content to own a few thousand acres in West- ern and Northern Pennsylvania, and South-western New York, but he aspired to be the owner of millions. This strange desire became the consuming ambition of the closing years of his life, and made him what may not inappropriately be termed the colossal land fiend of the last days of Eighteenth century. His inor- dinate land-grasping propensity, as a logical result, led to his financial ruin, and he closed his brilliant career in sadness, sorrow and gloom.

Through his agent, James Cunningham-who was also the surveyor of what is known as " Cunningham's District of Depreciation Lands "-Morris had war- rants laid on lands which finally became part of Butler county. The war- rant embracing the land which finally became a part of the site of Butler had originally been taken out in the name of John Tressler and Andrew Reichert, but in time passed into the hands of John and Samuel J. Cunningham, but they did not receive the patent for the Tressler tract until the 13th of May, 1805. It sets forth that it was granted on consideration of moneys paid by John Tressler into the receiver-general's office, at the granting of the warrant, and of the sum of $155 paid by Samuel J. Cunningham, and also, in said Samuel J. Cunning- ham having made it appear that he made, or caused to be made, an actual settle- ment. and continued residence agreeable to Section 9. of the law of 1792, on a tract of land called " Butler," for the purpose of promoting the settlement of the country.

Many of the warrants for the lands afterwards owned by Morris were made out in the names of residents of Lancaster county. The Cunninghams hailed from that county, having been born and raised on the Conestoga, probably near what is now the city of Lancaster. They evidently were active men of the period and keenly alive to the importance of the carly acquisition of land -. But not- withstanding the fact that their names were associated with the origin of Butler, no descendant remains to represent them. One brother, David C. Cunningham, was a member of the bar in the infancy of the town, but what became of him is unknown.

The brothers evidently were aware, or at least expected, that a new county would soon be erected. This, probably, was the reason why they were so anxious to acquire lands in this vicinity and then make a determined fight for the location of the seat of justice. In the meantime another man, Robert Graham made his appearance, and settling upon a tract. in 1797, adjoining the Cunningham land on the north, became in time its owner, and therefore interested in the county seat project.

As an evidence of the knowledge possessed by the Cunninghams of what was going on with regard to the formation of the new county, it may be men- tioned that when the act was passed authorizing its creation ( March 12, 1800), it was provided that the place for holding the courts should be fixed at some point not more than four miles distant from the center of the county. From this fact it appears very clear that they had some knowledge of the proposed boundary lines of the new county, and they shrewdly acquired lands upon which the county seat could be eligibly located.

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BUTLER BOROUGH.

As soon as the act was signed by the Governor the struggle for the seat of justice commenced. Other locations were proposed and strenuous efforts made in their behalf, but it was evident that the Cunninghams had the advantage in more ways than one. When the commissioners appointed to examine the sites and make a selection came upon the ground, they met the claimants and heard their pleas. One of these commissioners, under date of June 7, 1802, writes of the lands proposed by the Cunninghams for a county seat in these words :

The situation is beautiful, being on an eminence which descends in all directions: the land scarce of timber, but sufficiently dry, and large bodies of meadow land near the seat. This site will have the advantage of the creek, with sundry good springs of water and coal banks near, limestone and freestone quarries partly adjoining the site. The ridges all pointing into the little valley, will be convenient for roads from every direction.

From the foregoing it is evident that at least one commissioner was favor- ably impressed with the location, and this good impression was further strength- ened by an evening's conversation. He says in his diary :

We parted that evening, Messrs. Weaver, Hamilton and Lane lodging at the mill house, Mr. Morton and myself returning with Mr. Robert Cunningham to the Salt Lick place, where that young man keeps bachelor's hall in a nice cabin building.

The commissioners readily saw the advantage this site possessed over the others. That night they were the guests of the Cunninghams-three of them lodged at the " mill house," which was the home of John and Samuel J. Cun- ningham, and the other two, as stated, stopped with their brother Robert in his "cabin." The mill. which became an important landmark, had been built about two years before the visit, or in the very beginning of the century.

That night became memorable in the history of Butler. If marked a new epoch, as it were. The Cunningham brothers, in conjunction with Robert Gra- ham, proposed to lay out in town lots 300 acres of land, five acres of which should be set apart for the use of the county of Butler, providing their location should be made the seat of justice. This offer, which was better than any other received, settled the business of the commission, and they retired from the field and pre- pared their report to the secretary of the Commonwealth. That it was favor- able to the site offered by the Cunninghams is shown by the following section of a bill passed by the legislature on the 8th of March, 1803 :

SECTION 1. Be it enacted, etc., That John McBride, Esq., William Elliott. Esq., and John David, be and hereby are appointed trustees for the county of Butler, and the said trustees, or a majority of them, are hereby authorized and required to survey, or cause to be surveyed, three hundred acres of land situate on the north side of Conno- quenessing creek, near Samuel J. Cunningham's mill, agreeably to a description given of the situation and boundary thereof expressed in the grant and obligation of Samuel J. Cunningham, John Cunningham and Robert Graham, made by them to the Governor for the use of the county of Butler, and the said trustees are hereby authorized and required to lay out a convenient lot or lots of land within the said three hundred acres not exceed- ing five acres, whereon the public buildings shall be erected for the use of the county of Butler, and the surplus or residue of said three hundred acres of land, which shall remain after the sites for the public buildings are set apart and determined, shall be laid out for a town, with suitable town lots, at the discretion of the trustees, with necessary

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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.

reservations for a quarry , streets, lanes, alleys and roads or highways; provided, how- ever, that no ontlots shall exceed five acres, and the town hereby directed to be laid out shall be called Butler.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, de., That it shall be the duty of the said trustees, or a majority of them. to sell by public auction the said town lots and outlots at such times as they may judge most advantageons to the county, which sale shall be held at the said Cunningham mill. in the said county, previous to which the said trustees shall advertise the same three times at least in one or more newspapers published in Pitts- burg, Greensburg and Washington one month before the day appointed for such sale; provided, that before the said commissioners proceed to the discharge of the duties herein enjoined and required, they shall demand and receive from the aforesaid Samuel J. Cunningham, John Cunningham and Robert Graham sufficient deeds in fee simple of the above described 300 acres of land in trust for the use of the said county of Butler, agreeably to the grant thereof heretofore made to the governor for the use of the county of Butler by the said Samuel J. Cunningham, John Cunningham and Robert Graham, and shall procure the same to be recorded in the office for recording of deeds in Allegheny county, and when the said trustees shall have so done they shall have authority, and it shall be their duty, to make out and grant sufficient deeds in fee simple for the town and outlots by them sold in pursuance of this act.

Immediately after the passage of the act preparations were made to lay out the town, and in August, 1803, it was consummated. The plat contained seventy- six acres and seventy-nine perches. The deed for the ground, as required by the act, was executed to the trustees for the county, and preparation for the sale of lots was begun. The town was named Butler, in honor of Gen. Richard Butler, the distinguished patriot and soldier, a very full sketch of whom appears in a pre- ceding chapter. As the town was to be the seat of justice of the new county, peo- ple were naturally filled with great expectations of future prosperity and wealth, and there was at once a rush to the new town to buy lots either for speculative or business purposes.

In the meantime John Cunningham became involved through his business operations, and judgment- were entered against him. But in order to remove all uncertainty as to the validity of title in the conveyance of lots, his creditors residing in Philadelphia executed a deed of release under the belief that this pro- cedure would facilitate the sale of town lots and, therefore, enhance the value of his land outside of the town, which was covered by their judgments. This curious deed may be found in Book 1, Page 1, of the Butler county records. These creditors were Simon and Heyman Gratz, William Wistar, John Price, John Wistar, Joseph Karrick, Joshua Percival, and Thomas Ryerson, all of Phila- delphia. The closing clause of the deed reads :

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History of Butler County, Pennsylvania, Part 37

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