USA > Pennsylvania > Venango County > History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including > Part 66
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The oil industry of the township receives careful treatment in another chapter of this work. A large part of the history of oil development in the county has been enacted here.
ORGANIZATION.
The decree of court formally erecting Cornplanter was promulgated No- vember 28, 1833, and describes its boundaries as follows:
Beginning at the southwest corner of tract No. 240 of the Holland Land Com- pany's claim warranted in the name of Henry Lahr, thence along the southern bound- ary of the same and the southern boundary of tracts No. 241 and 242 eastwardly to the southeast corner of the last mentioned tract, thence by the eastern boundary thereof northwardly to the northwest corner of a tract surveyed in the name of Thomas Mor- rison, thence along the northern boundary of the same eastwardly to the northeast corner thereof, thence by the western boundary of tract No. 66 of the aforesaid claim northwardly to the northwest corner thereof, thence along the northern boundary of the same and the northern boundary of tracts No. 75, 106, and 123, eastwardly to the northeast corner of the last mentioned tract, thence by the eastern boundary of the same and the eastern boundary of tracts No. 122, 121, and 120 south wardly to the south boundary of said claim, thence along said boundary eastwardly to the line of Tionesta township, thence by said township line southwardly to the Allegheny river, thence down said river to the southeast corner of a tract surveyed in the name of Robert Al- corn, thence along the eastern boundary of the same northwardly to the northeast
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corner thereof, thence by the eastern boundary of tracts No. 263 and 264 of said Hol- land Land Company's claim northwardly to the southern boundary of tract No. 259 of said claim, thence by the same eastwardly to the southeast corner thereof, thence along the eastern boundary of the same northwardly to the southwest corner of tract No. 258, thence by the southern boundary of the same eastwardly to the southeast corner thereof, thence along the eastern boundary of the same and the eastern bound- ary of tract No. 252 northwardly to the northeast corner of the last mentioned tract, thence by the western boundary of tracts No. 248 and 247, the western boundary of a tract warranted in the name of James Brown, and the western boundary of a strip of unwarranted land settled by said Brown northwardly to the place of beginning.
When the county was divided into townships in 1806 provision was made for two subdivisions from this territory, Oil Creek and Windrock, the former west and the latter east of Oil creek. They have, however, existed only in name. At August sessions, 1837, a part of Tionesta east of the Allegheny river was annexed to Cornplanter. This afterward became part of President upon its formation.
The first township election resulted in the choice of the following officers: Constable, James Cary; supervisors, Henry McCalmont, Andrew Howe; overseers of the poor: Abraham Prather, A. G. Sively; auditors: F. G. Crary, Francis McClintock.
The population in 1850 was six hundred and ninety-three; in 1870, nine thousand eight hundred and sixty-three; in 1880, three thousand two hun- dred and thirty-eight.
PLUMER. .
This place is so named in honor of Arnold Plumer, representative in congress from the district including Venango county in 1837-39 and 1841- 43, by Henry McCalmont, one of his ardent political supporters. The first house in the village proper was the Plumer hotel, a plank house of ample dimensions built in 1843 by Henry McCalmont and occupied as a public house until its destruction by fire in the spring of 1889. Plumer postoffice was established about the same time and succeeded Rynd postoffice as the mail distributing point for the region along the old Warren road. The sec- ond house, now occupied by John Sutton, was built by Henry and James Turner, who opened the first store therein in 1851. The third was built by Henry McCalmont and occupied as a residence after he retired from the hotel. The Stonehouse hotel, a prominent landmark and popular hostelry in its day, was built by Thomas Turner as a residence. At the time of the oil excitement the village consisted of the Plumer house, the store opposite, a mill and blacksmith shop, and the residences of John Irwin, Washington Campbell, - Free, Alexander Anderson, T. W. McCalmont, James Barnes, and possibly others. The mill was built in 1856-57 by Washington Camp- bell. John S., George C., and Abram S. Prather were proprietors of the store. The Turners were originally from the state of New York.
Although remote from the territory at first developed, Plumer received
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considerable accessions to its population during the first months of the oil excitement. It was already a village of considerable local importance and the healthfulness and attractiveness of the surrounding country added to its prestige. Lots were sold in fee simple by Alexander McCalmont and per- sons of means seem to have regarded it as a desirable place of residence. Many substantial buildings were erected, among them the Bay State, Plumer, National, and Spencer hotels. It would be difficult to indicate the suc- cessive steps in the growth of the place. Stores, hotels, residences, places of amusement, and the nameless accompaniments of every town of such a nature multiplied in rapid succession. It is estimated that there was a population of eight thousand in the town proper and the adjoining suburb of Humboldt before the disintegrating exodus began.
General business interests received a considerable impetus and the promise of ultimate stability for a time from the construction of the Hum- boldt oil works. The originators of this great enterprise were Ludovici & Bruns, two Germans of some means, one or both of whom had some knowl- edge of chemistry and were probably governed by this consideration in en- gaging in the refining industry, then in its infancy and largely a matter of experiment. Wealth was expended in prodigal profusion upon the construc- tion and equipment of the works. Cut stone seems to have been utilized wherever possible, even in places where it was entirely unseen. The me- chanical apparatus was transported at great expense from eastern manufac- tories, but with the promptness characteristic of oil country enterprises in general, the works were placed in operation in an incredibly short period. The management displayed rare originality and foresight in conducting its. early affairs. Among the new departures of this period was the construction of a pipe line from the Tarr farm to the works, and although a two-inch wrought iron pipe was used, the experiment was a success, demonstrating the feasibility of this method of transportation and affecting in large meas- ure the future of the oil industry. It was in 1862 that this was done; the years immediately following were marked by apparent prosperity, and in common with many other ventures the establishment was merged into a joint stock company. It was capitalized at three million dollars, the original projectors retaining a one-third interest, and the management passed into the hands of representatives appointed by the eastern investors. Their ad- ministration was characterized by lavish expenditure and improvident man- agement scarcely equaled even in oil country financiering. Lines of rail- way had meanwhile been constructed to the oil country, placing the Hum- boldt works at a disadvantage, and a variety of unfavorable circumstances conspired to necessitate their abandonment. Some of the machinery was removed to other points; the dressed stone that had entered so largely into their construction was allowed to remain undisturbed until 1889, when part of it was removed to Oil City and forms the foundation walls of the building erected by the National Transit Company.
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HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.
Even before the collapse of the Humboldt works there had been a change in the fortunes of the town. Other cities had begun to absorb the tide of population that was attracted to the oil regions during the later years of the civil war; capital was being invested elsewhere, and from its situation at a distance from the great thoroughfares of travel the place rapidly declined. The National Bank, in which the Prather brothers and Thomas Duncan were principally interested, was removed to Sharon, Mer- cer county, in 1868. The more substantial houses were torn down and the materials transported to other points. The decadence of the town was as remarkable as its rapid growth; and at the present day its proportions do not exceed those of the ordinary inland village.
Three other refineries were in operation at one time: The Warren, north- west of the Plumer hotel, an extensive plant bearing the name of its owner; the Osceola, adjoining the Warren, and about equal to it in capacity; and another not so large, in which local capital was principally invested.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the village in the matter of local historic associations is the old burial ground. Among the pioneers buried here are John McCalmont, born in County Armagh, Ireland, January 11, 1750, who died August 3, 1832, in his eighty-third year.
William Shaw, who died November 7, 1851, aged sixty-seven years, eleven months, and nineteen days.
Henry McCalmont, who was born in Mifflin county, March 16, 1776, and died February 5, 1855.
Robert McFate, who died July 28, 1829, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.
Moses Davidson, who died February 4, 1858, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.
Walter S. Russell, who died March 31, 1861, aged sixty-nine.
Joel Sage, a native of Connecticut, who died February 14, 1861, in his eighty-sixth year.
James Cary, who died November 29, 1862, aged sixty-seven years, ten months, and twenty-one days.
Francis Culbertson, who died August 9, 1853, in the eighty-sixth year. of his age.
James Ricketts, who died March 6, 1856, aged eighty-nine years, nine months, and eighteen days.
William McCray, who died June 28, 1861, in his sixty-third year.
James B. Skinner, who died August 27, 1860, aged sixty-seven years, eight months, and two days.
PITHOLE CITY.
Pithole creek is said to derive its name from a remarkable chasm on the hill at its mouth. The earliest mention of this occurs in the "Western
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Pioneer " of which Alfred Brunson, an itinerant Methodist preacher, was the author. In the year 1819 he was preaching on a circuit that included Dawson's in Allegheny township and started from that place for Oil creek (Titusville). Missing his way, he states that he "wandered to the left onto the brow of the hills or little mountains that overlook the Allegheny river, and was in the vicinity of a most singular natural well. This was said to be about six feet open at the top and on the highest ridge, but no bottom had then if ever since been found. A constant current of air came out of it and of such a nature as to putrefy fresh meat in a few minutes. This fact was discovered by a hunter suspending some game in it by a rope while he extended his hunt a short time. The cause of this bad air was not known."
The valley of the creek is not distinguished by exceptional fertility at any part of its course; for several miles inland it is scarcely susceptible of cultivation, and while the region of its headwaters is fairly well adapted to farming as much could scarcely be said with truth of the country between the Warren road and the creek near their intersection. It was here, how- ever, that some of the first settlements in the township were made. The Allenders have been mentioned; they were followed within a few years by Walter Holmden and his family. They located on the west bank of the creek, toward which the slope is somewhat abrupt at this point while the surface is tolerably level after the ascent has been made. Holmden was of English origin and came here from Connecticut. He was ordained to the ministry in the Baptist church and was a man of fervent piety. His life here was a continual struggle with the direst poverty, and beyond the bare necessities of subsistence, its only material results were a house and barn of small dimensions and poor construction and some fifty acres of cleared land. He died May 15, 1840, in his sixty-first year, and is buried in the old cemetery at Pleasantville. Such were the antecedents of a city whose marvelous growth astonished the civilized world.
Oil developments at this point were begun in the autumn of 1864, and from the first the results were surprisingly successful. The Frazier well on the Holmden farm began to flow on the 7th of January, 1865, at the rate of six hundred and fifty barrels per day and continued to flow until the 10th of the following November. The Twin wells were struck on the 17th and 19th of January, and flowed eight hundred barrels per day. No. 77 was struck by E. Deshler August 1st; the Grant well, No. 19, August 2nd, which began at four hundred and fifty barrels and ultimately reached one thousand two hundred; No. 37, by Robinson & Company, August 4th; No. 54, by Pool, Perry & Company, August 28th, a well which began at eight hundred barrels; No. 47, by Pool, Perry & Company, September 15th, four hundred barrels, and others of lesser capacity, were among the results of six months operations on the Holmden farm. The production on the 24th of July amounted to three thousand five hundred barrels per day, and a
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HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.
hundred wells were in process of drilling at that date. Twelve miles from Titusville, four from Plumer, and seven from Shaffer farm, remote from previously developed territory and accessible only by rough country roads, Pithole nevertheless became at once the center of attraction and the Mecca of the host of adventurers pressing toward the oil regions.
The Holmden farm was leased by the United States Oil Company for a period of twenty years and purchased in fee simple by Duncan & Prather. It was with the latter that the idea of laying out a town originated. There were only two buildings at the end of May, although the United States well had steadily increased its production; and the striking of the Grant well in the be- ginning of the following month at once inaugurated a rush of capital and population to this locality unprecedented in the previous history of the Penn- sylvania oil field. Each new strike intensified the excitement. Building lots were leased by the proprietors of the town at the rate of several hundred dollars per year, and fifty dollars in advance, but the holders of options at the latter rate had no difficulty in transferring their leases at advances of hundreds and thousands of dollars. In one instance, that of the lot subsequently occupied by the Danforth house, fourteen thousand five hundred dollars were paid for a lease of this nature. The income of Duncan & Prather from the city plat was estimated at sixty thousand dollars annually in the month of July, 1865.
The negotiations in progress about this time for the purchase of Duncan & Prather's entire interests afford a striking instance of the extent to which values had suddenly appreciated. Three gentlemen of Titusville, Henry E. Picket, George J. Sherman, and Brian Philpot secured an option for the pur- chase of the Holmden farm in July, 1865, for the sum of one million three hun- dred thousand dollars, a first payment of three hundred thousand dollars to be made within thirty days of the time the contract was entered into, the 24th of July. Mr. Sherman went to New York with the intention of inter- esting capitalists there. At that time there was a daily production of nearly four thousand barrels from the farm of two hundred acres and extensive drilling operations were in progress at a one-half royalty, while the town lots of Pithole City were yielding an income equal to six per cent. on an invest- ment of a million dollars. The prospect was certainly alluring, and within a few days Mr. Sherman had arranged to dispose of his options for the sum of one million six hundred thousand dollars. Preliminary to the final trans- fer a purchasing committee was to have visited Pithole and examined the property; but on the day set for their departure the Ketchum forgeries were discovered, affecting some of the prospective investors in the Pithole prop- erty and Mr. Sherman's project collapsed, so far as the prospect of effect- ing a sale in New York was concerned. He at once telegrahed H. H. Honoré of Chicago, who met him at Titusville several days later with a party of Chicago capitalists. It was proposed to substitute Chicago real estate to the value of four hundred thousand dollars for the first cash payment and
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Messrs. Duncan & Prather visited that city to examine the properties offered, which included a block adjoining the Tremont house, which it was proposed to value at one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. The offer of real estate was declined and a payment in cash as originally stipulated in- sisted upon as the only basis of a transfer. To this Mr. Honoré and his associates at length agreed. Joshua A. Ellis, president of the Second Na- tional Bank of Chicago, J. G. LeMoyne, Messrs. Sherman and Honoré left Chicago on a Tuesday in the beginning of September, 1865; at Titusville they divided the money among them and set out on horseback for Pithole City. A tender of the money was made at Duncan & Prather's banking office late in the afternoon of the day upon which the option expired. It was refused, upon the ground that the contract was binding only until sun- set of that day. Legal complications ensued. The matter was referred to the United States court and was several years in litigation.
In the language of Doctor Eaton:
The value of oil lands was reckoned by millions; small interests in single wells brought hundreds of thousands of dollars. New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and numberless other lesser centers measured purses in the insane strife for territory. Money circulated like waste paper and for weeks the scene recalled the wildest fictions of the South Sea bubble or Law's Mississippi scheme. * * * * The close of the war had left the country flooded with an inflated currency, besides throwing many thousands of energetic men upon their own resources and hundreds of these flocked to the latest Eldorado, which presented manifold inducements alike to the venture- some spirit, the active speculator, the unscrupulous stock jobber, the needy laborer, the reckless adventurer, and the dishonest trickster.
Stores and hotels materialized with phenomenal rapidity. An enter- prising individual hauled a wagon load of groceries from Titusville; a counter was quickly improvised by nailing several boards to contiguous trees and seven hundred dollars represented the profits of a single day's transactions. The first hotel was a rough frame building at which meal tickets were sold for one dollar. While the supply of provisions was exceedingly insufficient there seemed to be no limit to the number of tickets that were for sale. The "dining-room " was entered through doorways and windows by a promis- cuous crowd and the individual who could obtain a seat at a table was for- tunate. This state of affairs is thus described in the Record of September, 1865: " A rapid influx of strangers crowded at nightfall every tenement; beds, sofas, and even chairs were luxuries for the few; the many were obliged to seek the shaving pile or hay cock and sometimes even content themselves with the most susceptible side of a pine board. These days have passed away. It is quite a month since most if not all could provide themselves with the luxury of a bed. It is true that Jew and Gentile were and in many cases still are mingled promiscuously in 'field-beds' made up in rows along the floors of attic rooms and upper chambers. It is still true that most of the hotel tables are so crowded that it is a privilege to get com-
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fortable seats at the 'first table. '" The same issue contains the advertise- ments of a number of hotels, among them the United States, the Buckley house, the Sherman house, the Tremont, Northeast, St. James, American, Eckert, Seneca, Lincoln, and Pomeroy.
Although the Record was thus wont to expatiate upon the increasing in- dications of civilization, its constituency was occasionally reminded that there were still vital deficiencies. "Pithole has still its evils," remarks the editor in an early number, "and among these are the changing weather of our mountain climate and the mud-not ordinary mud which consoli- dates into hard clay during a few hours sunshine, but mud-thick, consist- ent, deep, and widespread; mud which flies easy and sticks hard; a cold, clammy mixture which adheres to everything it touches with the tenacity of mortar; slippery as hypocritical smoothness itself; it lubricates the clay beneath and lays pitfalls at every step, and woe betide the unwary pedes- trian who falls in its midst."
All shipments of oil were made by wagon to Titusville or Miller Farm for railroad trans-shipment or to the mouth of the creek for transportation by boat until the autumn of 1865, when a pipe line was constructed to Miller Farm and another to Oleopolis. The former was projected by a Mr. Van Syckle of Titusville, the latter by T. C. Bates and the Pennsylvania Tubing and Transportation Company. The first shipment through the line of the latter was made on the 12th of December, 1865.
The earliest improvement in general traveling facilities was the con- struction of plank roads to Titusville and Miller Farm in the summer of 1865. The Oil City and Pithole railroad was opened as far as the Sumner and Pratt purchase February 7, 1866, and at that date grading was in prog- ress through the Holmden farm to the Satterlee well on the Morey farm. The first through train from Pithole City to Oil City over this road was run on Friday, March 10, 1866. The Reno, Oil Creek, and Pithole railroad was constructed within a mile of the city in the spring of the following year.
Pithole City was incorporated as a borough November 30, 1865. The first election occurred on the 11th of December in that year and resulted as follows: Burgess: Alexander J. Keenan; council: Leonard H. Church, Lee M. Morton, J. T. Chalfant, F. P. Confer, and D. Gardner. There was ample need for local municipal organization and it is but justice to those charged with its responsibilities to state that the town, although composed of heterogeneous and discordant elements, was comparatively free from the numerous acts of violence which usually distinguish such a community.
Other accompaniments of organized society were also present during the first year of the history of the city. The Daily Record, the pioneer of successful dailies in the county, was published for the first time on Mon- day, the 25th of September, 1865, by Morton, Spare & Company. The editor
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was Lee M. Morton. This was a five-column quarto and was furnished to subscribers at the price of thirty cents per week. Two banking houses aided in facilitating business transactions, those of Prather, Wadsworth & Company, and H. R. Kemp. The postoffice was opened July 27, 1865, with S. S. Hill as postmaster, and transacted an amount of business that seems incredible. It is said that the first mail dispatched contained a thousand letters and the fourth more than four thousand. Before the end of the first month the amount of mail matter handled daily exceeded ten thousand letters, and when the place was at the height of its prosperity the office ranked third in the state in the extent of its business. A system of water works was designed in September, 1865, and constructed at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars. A fire department was organized at the Scott house on the 20th of September, 1865, with H. W. Andrews, superintend- ent; Arthur Samuels and Thomas Van Wyner, assistants; R. J. Nugent, secretary, and Robert Miller, treasurer. It does not appear to have been very effective, unfortunately for the place.
The religious interests of the community were not neglected. The first sound of a church bell was heard on Saturday evening, March 24, 1866, from the belfry of the Methodist Episcopal church. That building, erected mainly through the efforts of Reverend D. S. Steadman, was dedicated May 27, 1866, by Bishop Simpson. The Catholic church was dedicated Sunday, January 21, 1866, by Bishop Young. There was also a Presby- terian church, of which no information is available, and possibly others.
The place was visited by a number of destructive fires. The record be- gins with Thursday, February 8, 1866, when the Tremont house and adjoin- ing property to the value of sixteen thousand five hundred dollars were de- stroyed. On the 17th of the same month twenty thousand dollars worth of property was consumed in Balltown, a suburb. Twenty-one buildings were burned on Tuesday, May 1, 1866, involving a loss of thirty thousand dol- lars. Balltown was again visited on the 24th of May, when twenty-eight buildings were burned and the loss was estimated at twenty-five thousand dollars. On the 13th of June sixteen buildings were burned on First and Second streets. Well No. 43, of the United States Petroleum Company, took fire on the 2nd of August; the flames were communicated rapidly, and before their further progress could be checked twenty-seven wells and rigs and thirteen thousand barrels of oil, aggregating one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars in value, had been consumed.
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