History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 19

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1280

USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc > Part 19

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In the administration of Gov. Packer, petroleum was first discovered in quantities in this country by boring into the bowels of the earth. From the earliest settlement of the country it was known to exist. As early as July 18, 1627. a French missionary, Joseph Delaroche Daillon, of the order of Recol- lets, described it in a letter published in 1632, in Segard's L'Histoire du Canada, and this description is confirmed by the journal of Charlevois, 1721. Fathers Dollier and Galinee, missionaries of the order of St. Sulpice, made a map of this section of country, which they sent to Jean Talon, Intendent of Canada, on the 10th of November, 1670, on which was marked at about the point where is now the town of Cuba, N. Y., "Fontaine de Bitume." The Earl of Belmont, Governor of New York, instructed his chief engineer, Wolfgang W. Romer, on September 3, 1700, in his visit to the Six Nations,

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" To go and view a well or spring which ie eight miles beyond the Seneks' farthest castle, which they have told me blazes up in a flame, when a lighted coale or firebrand is put into it; you will do well to taste the said water, and give me your opinion thereof, and bring with you some of it." Thomas Cha- bert de Joncaire, who died in September, 1740, is mentioned in the journal of Charlevoix of 1721 as authority for the existence of oil at the place mentioned above, and at points further south, probably on Oil Creek. The following account of an event occurring during the occupancy of this part of the State by the French is given as an example of the religious uses made of oil by the Indians, as these fire dances are understood to have been annually celebrated: "While descending the Allegheny, fifteen leagues below the mouth of the Connewango (Warren) and three above Fort Venango (Oil City), we were invited by the chief of the Senecas to attend a religious ceremony of his tribe. We landed and drew up our canoes on a point where a small stream entered the river. The tribe appeared unusually solemn. We marched up the stream about a half a league, where the company, a large band it appeared, had arrived some days before us. Gigantic hills begirt us on every side. The scene was really sublime. The great chief then recited the conquests and heroiems of their ancestors. The surface of the stream was covered with a thick scum, which burst into a complete conflagration. The oil had been gathered and lighted with a torch. At sight of the flames, the Indians gave forth a triumphant shout, and made the hills and valley re-echo again."

In nearly all geographies and notes of travel published during the early period of settlement, this oil is referred to, and on several maps the word petro- leum appears opposite the mouth of Oil Creek. Gen. Washington, in hie will, in speaking of his lands on the Great Kanawha, says: " The tract of which the 125 acres is a moiety, was taken up by Gen. Andrew Lewis and myself, for and on account of a bituminous spring which it contains of so inflammable a nat- ure as to burn as freely as spirits, and is as nearly difficult to extinguish." Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, also gives an account of a burning spring on the lower grounds of the Great Kanawha. This oil not only seems to have been known, but to have been systematically gathered in very early times. Upon the flats a mile or so below the city of Titusville are many acres of cradle holes dug out and lined with split logs, evidently constructed for the purpose of gathering it. The fact that the earliest inhabitants could never discover any stumps from which these logs were cut, and the further fact that trees are growing of giant size in the midst of these cradles, are evidences that they must have been operated long ago. It could not have been the work of any of the nomadic Indian tribes found here at the coming of the white man, for they were never known to undertake any enterprise involving so much labor, and what could they do with the oil when obtained.

The French could hardly have done the work, for we have no account of the oil having been obtained in quantities, or of its being transported to France. May this not have been the work of the Mound-Builders, or of colo. nies from Central America? When the writer first visited these pits, in 1855, he found a spring some distance below Titusville, on Oil Creek, where the water was conducted into a trough, from which, daily, the oil, floating on its surface, was taken off by throwing a woolen blanket upon it, and then wring- ing it into a tub, the clean wool absorbing the oil and rejecting the water, and in this way a considerable quantity was obtained.

In 1859, Mr. E. L. Drake, at first representing a company in New York, commenced drilling near the spot where this tub was located, and when the company would give him no more money, straining his own resources, and his

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credit with his friends almost to the breaking point, and when about to give up in despair, finally struck a powerful current of pure oil. From this time forward, the territory down the valley of Oil Creek and up all its tributaries was rapidly acquired and developed for oil land. In some places, the oil was sent up with immense force, at the rate of thousands of barrels each day, and great trouble was experienced in bringing it under control and storing it. In some cases, the force of the gas was so powerful on being accidentally fired, as to defy all approach for many days, and lighted up the forests at night with billows of light.

The oil has been found in paying quantities in Mckean, Warren, Forest, Crawford, Venango, Clarion, Butler and Armstrong Counties, chiefly along the upper waters of the Allegheny River and its tributary, the Oil Creek. It was first transported in barrels, and teams were kept busy from the first dawn until far into the night. As soon as practicable, lines of railway were con- structed from nearly all the trunk lines. Finally barrels gave place to im- mense iron tanks riveted upon cars, provided for the escape of the gases, and later great pipe lines were extended from the wells to the seaboard, and to the Great Lakes, through which the fluid is forced by steam to its distant destina- tions Its principal uses are for illumination and lubricating, though many of its products are employed in the mechanic arts, notably for dyeing, mixing of paints, and in the practice of medicine. Its production has grown to be enormous, and seems as yet to show no sign of diminution. We give an ex- hibit of the annual production since its discovery, compiled for this work by William H. Siviter, editor of the Oil City Derrick, which is the acknowledged authority on oil matters:

Production of the Pennsylvania Oil Fields, compiled from the Derrick's Hand-book, December, 1883:

Barrels.

1859

82,000

1873

9,849,508

1860

500,000

1874

11,102,114

1861

2,113,000

1875

8,948,749

1862

3,056,606

1876

9,142,940

1863

2,611,399

1877

13,052,713

I864

2,116,182

1878

15,011,425

1865

3.497,712

1879

.20,085,716

1866

3,597,512

1880

.24,788,950

1867

3,347,306

1881

.29,674,458

1868

3,715,741

1882

.31,789,190

1869

4,186,475

1870

5,308,046

1871

5,278,076

1872

6,505,774

1883

24,385,966

A grand total of

243,749,558

In the fall of 1860, Andrew G. Curtin was elected Governor of Pennsyl- vania, and Abraham Lincoln President of the United States. An organized rebellion, under the specious name of secession, was thereupon undertaken, embracing parts of fifteen States, commonly designated the Slave States, and a government established under the name of the Confederate States of America, with an Executive and Congress, which commenced the raising of troops for defense.

On the 12th of April, an attack was made upon a small garrison of United States troops shut up in Fort Sumter. This was rightly interpreted as the first act in a great drama. On the 15th, the President summoned 75,000 vol- unteers to vindicate the national authority, calling for sixteen regiments from Pennsylvania, and urging that two be sent forward immediately, as the capital was without defenders.

The people of the State, having no idea that war could be possible, had no

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preparation for the event, There chanced at the time to be five companies in a tolerable state of organization. These were the Ringold Light Artillery, Capt. McKnight, of Reading; the Logan Guards, Capt. Selheimer, of Lewis- town; the Washington Artillery, Capt. Wren, and the National Light Infan- try, Capt. McDonald, of Pottsville; and the Allen Rifles, Capt. Yeager, of Allentown.

On the 18th, in conjunction with a company of fifty regulars, on their way from the West to Fort McHenry, under command of Capt. Pemberton, after- ward Lieut. Gen. Pemberton, of the rebel army, these troops moved by rail for Washington. At Baltimore, they were obliged to march two miles through a jeering and insulting crowd. At the center of the city, the regulars filed off toward Fort McHenry, leaving the volunteers to pursue their way alone, when the crowd of maddened people were excited to redoubled insults. In the whole battalion there was not a charge of powder; but a member of the Logan Guards, who chanced to have a box of percussion caps in his pocket, had dis- tributed them to his comrades, who carried their pieces capped and half cocked, creating the impression that they were loaded and ready for service. This ruse undoubtedly saved the battalion from the murderous assault made upon the Massachusetts Sixth on the following day. Before leaving, they were pelted with stones and billets of wood while boarding the cars; but, fortu- nately, none were seriously injured, and the train finally moved away and reached Washington in safety, the first troops to come to the unguarded and imperiled capital.

Instead of sixteen, twenty-five regiments were organized for the three months' service from Pennsylvania. Judging from the threatening attitude assumed by the rebels across the Potomac that the southern frontier would be con- stantly menaced, Gov. Curtin sought permission to organize a select corps, to consist of thirteen regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, and one of artillery, and to be known as the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, which the Legislature, in special session, granted. This corps of 15,000 men was speedily raised, and the intention of the State authorities was to keep this body permamently within the limits of the Commonwealth for defense. But at the time of the First Bull Run disaster in July, 1861, the National Government found itself with- out troops to even defend the capital, the time of the three months' men being now about to expire, and at its urgent call this fine body was sent forward and never again returned for the execution of the duty for which it was formed, having borne the brunt of the fighting on many a hard-fought field during the three years of its service.

In addition to the volunteer troops furnished in response to the several calls of the President, upon the occasion of the rebel invasion of Maryland in September, 1862, Gov. Curtin called 50,000 men for the emergency, and though the time was very brief, 25,000 came, were organized under command of Gen. John F. Reynolds, and were marched to the border. But the battle of Antietam, fought on the 17th of September, caused the enemy to beat a hasty retreat, and the border was relieved when the emergency troops were dis- banded and returned to their homes. On the 19th of October, Gen. J. E. B. Stewart, of the rebel army, with 1,800 horsemen under command of Hampton, Lee and Jones, crossed the 'Potomac and made directly for Chambersburg, arriving after dark. Not waiting for morning to attack, he sent in a flag of truce demanding the surrender of the town. There were 275 Union soldiers in hospital, whom he paroled. During the night, the troopers were busy picking up horses-swapping horses perhaps it should be called-and the morning saw them early on the move. The rear guard gave notice before leaving to re-

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move all families from the neighborhood of the public buildings, as they in- tended to fire them. There was a large amount of fixed ammunition in them, which had been captured from Longstreet's train, besides Government stores of shoes, clothing and muskets. At 11 o'clock the station house, round house, railroad machine shops and warehouses were fired and consigned to destruction. The fire department was promptly out; but it was dangerous to approach the burning buildings on account of the ammunition, and all perished.

The year 1862 was one of intense excitement and activity. From about the 1st of May, 1861, to the end of 1862, there were recruited in the State of Penn- sylvania, one hundred and eleven regiments, including eleven of cavalry and three of artillery, for three years' service; twenty- five regiments for three months; seventeen for nine months; fifteen of drafted militia; and twenty-five called out for the emergency, an aggregate of one hundred and ninety-three regiments-a grand total of over 200,000 men-a great army in itself.

In June, 1863, Gen. Robert E. Lee, with his entire army of Northern Vir- ginia, invaded Pennsylvania. The Army of the Potomac, under Gen. Joseph Hooker, followed. The latter was superseded on the 28th of Juneby Gen. George G. Meade. The vanguards of the army met a mile or so out of Gettysburg on the Chambersburg pike on the morning of the 1st of July. Hill's corps of the rebel army was held in check by the sturdy fighting of a small division of cavalry under Gen. Buford until 10 o'clock, when Gen. Reynolds came to his relief with the First Corps. While bringing his forces into action, Reynolds was killed, and the command devolved on Gen. Abner Doubleday, and the fighting became terrible, the Union forces being greatly outnumbered. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the Eleventh Corps, Gen. O. O. Howard, came to the support of the First. But now the corps of Ewell had joined hands with Hill, and a full two-thirds of the entire rebel army was on the field, opposed by only the two weak Union corps, in an inferior position. A sturdy fight was however maintained until 5 o'clock, when the Union forces withdrew through the town, and took position upon rising ground covering the Baltimore pike. During the night the entire Union army came up, with the exception of the Sixth Corps, and took position, and at 2 o'clock in the morning Gen. Meade and staff came on the field. During the morning hours, and until 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the two armies were getting into position for the desperate struggle. The Third Corps, Gen. Sickles, occupied the extreme left, his corps abutting on the Little Round Top at the Devil's Den, and reaching, en echelon, through the rugged ground to the Peach Orchard, and thence along the Em- mettsburg pike, where it joined the Second Corps, Gen. Hancock, reaching over Cemetery Hill, the Eleventh Corps, Gen. Howard, the First, Gen. Double- day, and the Twelfth, Gen. Slocum, reaching across Culp's Hill-the whole crescent shape. To this formation the rebel army conformed, Longstreet op- posite the Union left, Hill opposite the center, and Ewell opposite the Union right. At 4 P. M. the battle was opened by Longstreet, on the extreme left of Sickles, and the fighting became terrific, the rebels making strenuous efforts to gain Little Round Top. But at the opportune moment a part of the Fifth Corps, Gen. Sykes, was brought upon that key position, and it was saved to the Union side. The slaughter in front of Round Top at the wheat-field and the Peach Orchard was fearful. The Third Corps was driven back from its advanced position, and its commander, Gen. Sickles, was wounded, losing a leg. In a more contracted position, the Union line was made secure, where it rested for the night. Just at dusk, the Louisiana Tigers, some 1,800 men, made a desperate charge on Cemetery Hill, emerging suddenly from a hillock

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just back of the town. The struggle was desperate, but the Tigers being weakened by the fire of the artillery, and by the infantry crouching behind the stone wall, the onset was checked, and Carroll's brigade, of the Second Corps, coming to the rescue, they were finally beaten back, terribly decimated. At about the same time, a portion of Ewell's corps made an advance on the ex- treme Union right, at a point where the troops had been withdrawn to send to the support of Sickles, and unopposed, gained the extremity of Culp's Hill, pushing through nearly to the Baltimore pike, in dangerous proximity to the reserve artillery and trains, and even the headquarters of the Union com- mander. But in their attempt to roll up the Union right they were met by Green's brigade of the Twelfth Corps, and by desperate fighting their further progress was stayed. Thus ended the battle of the second day. The Union left and right had been sorely jammed and pushed back.

At 4 o'clock on the morning of the 3d of July, Gen. Geary, who had been ordered away to the support of Sickles, having returned during the night and taken position on the right of Green, opened the battle for the recovery of his lost breastworks on the right of Culp's Hill. Until 10 o'clock, the battle raged with unabated fury. The heat was intolerable, and the sulphurous vapor hung like a pall over the combatants, shutting out the light of day. The fighting was in the midst of the forest, and the echoes resounded with fearful distinctness. The Twelfth Corps was supported by portions of the Sixth, which had now come up. At length the enemy, weakened and finding them- selves overborne on all sides, gave way, and the Union breastworks were re- occupied and the Union right made entirely secure. Comparative quiet now reigned on either side until 2 o'clock in the afternoon, in the meantime both sides bringing up fresh troops and repairing damages. The rebel leader hav- ing brought his best available artillery in upon his right center, suddenly opened with 150 pieces a concentric fire upon the devoted Union left center, where stood the troops of Hancock and Doubleday and Sickles. The shock was terrible. Rarely has such a cannonade been known on any field. For nearly two hours it was continued. Thinking that the Union line had been broken and demoralized by this fire, Longstreet brought out a fresh corps of some 18,000 men, under Pickett, and charged full upon the point which had been the mark for the cannonade. As soon as this charging column came into view, the Union artillery opened upon it from right and left and center, and rent it with fearful effect. When come within musket range, the Union troops, who had been crouching behind slight pits and a low stone wall, poured in a most murderous fire. Still the rebels pushed forward with a bold face, and actually crossed the Union lines and had their hands on the Union guns. But the slaughter was too terrible to withstand. The killed and wounded lay scattered over all the plain. Many were gathered in as prisoners. Finally, the remnant staggered back, and the battle of Gettysburg was at an end.

Gathering all in upon his fortified line, the rebel chieftain fell to strength- ening it, which he held with a firm hand. At night-fall, he put his trains with the wounded upon the retreat. During the 4th, great activity in build- ing works was manifest, and a heavy skirmish line was kept well out, which resolutely met any advance of Union forces. The entire fighting force of the rebel army remained in position behind their breastworks on Oak Ridge, until nightfall of the 4th, when, under cover of darkness, it was withdrawn, and before morning was well on its way to Williamsport. The losses on the Union side were 2,834 killed, 13, 709 wounded, and 6,643 missing, an aggregate of 23,186. Of the losses of the enemy, no adequate returns were made. Meade

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reporte 13,621 prisoners taken, and the losses by killed and wounded must have been greater than on the Union side. On the rebel side, Maj. Gens. Hood, Pender, Trimble and Heth were wounded, Pender mortally. Brig. Gens. Barksdale and Garnett were killed, and Semms mortally wounded. Brig. Gens. Kemper, Armistead, Scales, G. T. Anderson, Hampton, J. M. Jones and Jenkins were wounded; Archer was taken prisoner and Pettigrew was wounded and subsequently killed at Falling Waters. In the Union army, Maj. Gen. Reynolds and Brig. Gens. Vincent, Weed, Willard and Zook were killed. Maj. Gens. Sickles, Hancock, Doubleday, Gibbon, Barlow, Warren and Butterfield, and Brig. Gens. Graham, Paul, Stone, Barnes and Brooke were wounded. A National Cemetery was secured on the center of the field, where, as soon as the weather would permit, the dead were gathered and care- fully interred. Of the entire number interred, 3,512, Maine had 104; New Hampshire, 49; Vermont, 61; Massachusette, 159; Rhode Island, 12; Con- necticut, 22; New York, 867; New Jersey, 78; Pennsylvania, 534; Delaware, 15; Maryland, 22; West Virginia, 11; Ohio, 131; Indiana, 80; Illinois, 6; Michigan, 171; Wisconsin, 73; Minnesota, 52; United States Regulars, 138; unknown, 979. In the center of the field, a noble monument has been erect- ed, and on the 19th of November, 1864, the ground was formally dedicated, when the eminent orator, Edward Everett, delivered an oration, and President Lincoln delivered the following dedicatory address:

" Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this conti- nent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long en- dure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We are met to dedi- cate a portion of it as the final resting place of those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot conse- crate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedi- cated here to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth."

So soon as indications pointed to a possible invasion of the North by the rebel army under Gen. Lee, the State of Pennsylvania was organized in two military departments, that of the Susquehanna, to the command of which Darins N. Couch was assigned, with headquarters at Harrisburg, and that of the Monongahela, under W. T. H. Brooks, with headquarters at Pittsburgh. Urgent calle for the militia were made, and large numbers in regiments, in companies, in squadrons came promptly at the call to the number of over 36,- 000 men, who were organized for a period of ninety days. Fortifications were thrown up to cover Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, and the troops were moved to threatened points. But before they could be brought into action, the great decisive conflict had been fought, and the enemy driven from northern soil. Four regiments under Gen. Brooks were moved into Ohio to aid in arresting a raid undertaken by John Morgan, who, with 2,000 horse and four guns, had crossed the Ohio River for a diversion in favor of Lee. 8

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In the beginning of July, 1864, Gen. Early invaded Maryland, and made his way to the threshold of Washington. Fearing another invasion of the State, Gov. Curtin called for volunteers to serve for 100 days. Gen. Couch was still at the head of the department of the Susquehanna, and six regiments and six companies were organized, but as fast as organized they were called to the front, the last regiment leaving the State on the 29th of July. On the evening of this day, Gens. McCausland, Bradley Johnson and Harry Gilmore, with 3,000 mounted men and six guns, crossed the Potomac, and made thei, way to Chambersburg. Another column of 3,000, under Vaughn and Jackson advanced to Hagerstown, and a third to Leitersburg. Averell, with a small force, was at Hagerstown, but finding himself over-matched withdrew through Greencastle to Mount Hope. Lieut. McLean, with fifty men in front of Mc- Causland, gallantly kept his face to the foe, and checked the advance at every favorable point. On being apprised of their coming, the public stores at Cham- bersburg were moved northward. At six A. M., McCausland opened his bat- teries upon the town, but, finding it unprotected, took possession. Ringing the court house bell to call the people together, Capt. Fitzhugh read an order to the assembly, signed by Gen. Jubal Early, directing the command to proceed to Chambersburg and demand $100,000 in gold, or $500,000 in greenbacks, and, if not paid, to burn the town. While this parley was in progress, hats, caps, boots, watches, clothing and valuables were unceremoniously appropriated, and purses demanded at the point of the bayonet. As money was not in hand to meet so unexpected a draft, the torch was lighted. In less than a quarter of an hour from the time the first match was applied, the whole business part of the town was in flames. No notice was given for removing the women and children and sick. Burning parties were sent into each quarter of the town, which made thorough work. With the exception of a few houses upon the outskirts, the whole was laid in ruins. Retiring rapidly, the entire rebel command recrossed the Potomac before any adequate force could be gathered to check its progress.

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History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 19

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1280

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1280