History of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens 20th century, Part 44

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1474

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > Washington > History of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens 20th century > Part 44

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* All this has passed, but many wells are still operating, although few are being drilled. By the year 1889 drill- ing had been extended as far east as Linden and on the west a large pool had been opened at Taylorstown and beyond. The fourth and fifth sands were by this time found below the Gordon sand. At Ewing Station, now Meadowlands, on the Chartiers Valley Railroad line, the South West Penn pipe lines established a pumping sta- tion and pumped oil out of Washington County from their large tanks into Beaver County. Some 30 or 40 iron tanks were erected, mostly on the farm obtained from John H. Ewing, and these had a capacity of almost 30,000 barrels each. The effect on the town was magical and houses large and small went up rapidly.

The oil field known as the McDonald Oil Field was opened up about the year 1890. It was the greatest white sand pool ever discovered. The upper or younger sands are usually white, the older or lower beds are of brown or reddish sandstone and are usually more regular than the upper sands. The McDonald field lay both in Allegheny and Washington Counties and covered almost 12,000 acres. The wells were considered expensive but their production was enormous and depressed the market. Low prices prevailed during the three years of the McDonald climax in operations, and in the older section of the region where nothing but 5 or 10 barrel wells were expected, drilling came almost to a standstill. The oil producers who followed the business looked upon the field as being a losing one because so many town lots were drilled upon that the closeness of the drilling and the depression in the market made a loss to many operators instead of a gain. Heavy bonuses and large royalties were paid to add to the losses. Upwards of 60 wells were drilled upon town lots.

It was in this pool that the famous Matthews well was struck that produced more oil than any well previous to the Texas gushers, and when first drilled during the early part of 1891 was rated as a 50 or 60 barrel well. On July 17, 1891, it was drilled deeper and increased its yield from 60 barrels a day to 40 barrels an hour. In September of the same year the production of this gusher was increased from 20 to 240 and then to 600 barrels an hour. On October 17 the well was still further

240

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

increased to 720 barrels an hour, but in a few days it dropped off to 450 barrels an hour, and its production during five years was close upon 800,000 barrels. The famous James Mevey well followed the Matthews, and at one time had a production of 650 barrels an hour. Such phenomenal producers could not fail to exercise a most depressing influence upon values.

In less than three years the McDonald field had yielded up over 22,000,000 barrels, with the drilling of 1,266 wells, 121 of which were non-producers of oil. The amount and value of the production of the McDonald pool, as shown from the pipe line runs down to the close of 1893, follows :

1891.

6,376,187

$ 3,843,577

1892

9,672,044

5,428,923

1893.

6,046,089

3,941,475

Total

22,094,320

$13,213,975

Since 1893 1,000 more wells have been drilled in and about the MeDonald pool, and 200 of the number were dry, but the production has been constantly on the wane and the output is around 3,200 barrels a day, which is less than a five hours' yield of the Matthews gusher at the height of its career.

On the first day of September, 1891, the McDonald pool production was 13,000 barrels a day. By November Ist it had increased to 77,000 barrels, and on November 5th to 84,300 barrels a day, which was the high-water mark of the pool. The enormous increase in production required quick work on the part of the pipe line to care for the oil. Very little was wasted.

The Murdocksville field in the north corner of the county was opened and made considerable production. In 1901 the Dornan field was opened by a producing well starting off with about 50 barrels, on the farm of Silas Dornan, two miles northwest of Burgettstown. The Cross Creek field followed a few years later and the Cherry Valley field began producing also. These three fields found their oil in the 100-foot sand. Gas was also struck at a number of wells and a large one was struck on the Thomas Coal farm west of Burgettstown several years before the opening of the Murdocksville oil field.

A new field has been opened up in the Burgettstown vicinity and several good wells are being found on the A. H. Kerr farm near the fair grounds. Three wells have been drilled by the Lawrence Oil and Gas Company, which are making about 15 barrels per day. The Harvey farm, adjoining, found a 20-barrel producer, and Joseph E. Donaldson and brothers obtained two pumpers on their farm adjoining the Kerr. The Kerr farm was formerly the property of Andrew Boyd. The farm of J. Murray Clark, Esq., near the Francis coal mine, at the western edge of Burgettstown, found a 10-barrel producer. These new wells are opening the land which

was condemned 20 years ago by the drilling on the Lil- burn Shipley farm and also by some later dry holes. The most recent excitement was occasioned by drillings in East Finley Township and especially on the farm of W. L. MeCleary, of Washington. The farms in that neighborhood being largely in the hands of a few opera- tors, little will be known of this field and the produc- tion will create no great excitement.

Much of the talk of the oil men was bewildering to the novice. The "forty-five degree line" and the "twenty-two degree line" sounded mysterious. The geo- logical books published by the Government, mainly since the oil development, aimed to show the result of the drilling. It proves what the drillers said, "the drill alone will tell."

The geologists have recently traveled all over the county and mapped it into what they call quadrangles, which are made without regard to county and state lines. In Washington County the oil is found prin- cipally in what is known as the Burgettstown, Claysville and Amity quadrangles. These are so named because the towns mentioned lie almost in the center of the quad- rangle, each of which contains 227 square miles and is a little longer north and south than it is east and west. They are based on north and south lines and the western boundary of the Burgettstown quadrangle cuts through Hanover Township, half way between the farm of James P. McCalmont and Paris, and passes about a mile east of Eldersville. The east line cuts half way between Primrose and McDonald. The north line extends one and one-half miles into Beaver County, and the south line runs one mile south of West Middletown.

The Claysville quadrangle starts at this south line, one-half mile south of Old Concord, and extends well into Greene County. The Amity quadrangle lies imme- diately east of the Claysville. Anticlinals are indications of rock formation which have been traced on the surface at various points in the county, upon lines which run usually 45 degrees east of north and sometimes 22 degrees east of north. Their general course follows the line of the Allegheny Mountains, and the rise at the anti- clines with the drops at the synclines or troughs appear as if the mountains had been caused by an explosion, causing them to rise up and the wavelike motion reced- ing from them caused these anticlinal rises and the syn- cline drops, which seem to gradually decrease until they are apparently lost in the more level country in western Ohio. This idea of an explosion is not presented as the origin but merely as an illustration to indicate the wave- like formations which extend northeast and southwest through Washington County, and which are more distinct in some places than in others.

The oil bearing strata does not underlie the entire county. The lines of the different beds are fairly well

TRINITY HALL, WASHINGTON

NORTH MAIN STREET, WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON TRUST BUILDING, WASHINGTON

CHILDREN'S HOME, WASHINGTON

243

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

known by the records of the drillers. Very much impor- tant data was lost by neglect in keeping records of wells. It often happens that gas is produced in a number of sands in one locality, and sometimes in the same well. In some localities two or more sands produce oil, but as a usual thing this is not the case.

The most important feature of the Burgettstown quad- rangle is the Burgettstown syncline. It extends from West Middletown through Five Points near the northern boundary, where there is a peculiar formation of a shal- low syncline east and west. The next basin to the south is at the bottom of the most pronounced east-west break of the Burgettstown syncline. The next basin to the south is named from Cross Creek village, although its center is more than a mile east of that place. Near the south end of the quadrangle is the Claysville basin, which extends into the Claysville quadrangle, its center is a little east of Middletown.

In the Burgettstown field few wells are drilled below the 100-foot sand. In the McDonald field most of the oil and gas comes from the Gordon and the fifth sands, by a comparison of a large number of records it is found that the Big Dunkard sand is from 35 to 100 feet thick and is known to drillers as the gas sand. The average distance of the Big Dunkard sand from the Pittsburg coal is 600 feet. In Amity quadrangle this sand is frequently found on top of the upper Freeport coal and is, on an average, 500 feet below the Pittsburg coal. About 840 feet below the Pittsburg coal is the salt sand, often a gas producer. About 1,050 feet below the Pittsburg coal is the Big Injun, which was so named by a driller in Washington County, on account of the thickness and hardness of the sand. A break in this sand causes it to be found sometimes a little lower and has given it the name of Squaw sand. This sand has shown signs of oil at different places in the Burgetts- town quadrangle but no productive wells have been re- ported. This is the same sand from which the freak Manifold well, east of Washington, produced 700 barrels daily.

In measurement of wells sea level is taken as a com- mon basis, or the Pittsburg coal, which is one of the most regular and easily ascertained geological forma- tions. Variations in sands and inaccuracies in many measurements premit only approximate statements of depths.

About 1,500 feet below the Pittsburg coal the Bitter Rock sand is found, heavily charged with salt water. Between 1,600 and 1,700 feet below this same vein of coal is the Berea sand of Ohio, sometimes called the 30-foot shells. One hundred feet further brings one to the Red Rock and 100 feet more to the Hundred-foot sand, which is the most prolific sand in the Burgettstown quadrangle. The Hundred-foot sand and those above it,

up to and including the Big Injun sand, belong to the so- called Pocona formation, which geologists say was formed at a different period from the lower formation.

About 100 feet below the Hundred-foot is the 30-foot, which has produced oil in a portion of the Burgettstown field and yielded gas at other places. About 210 feet below the Hundred-foot sand is the Gordon sand, which is the principal producing sand toward McDonald and Westland. Sixty feet below the Gordon in the Fourth, and 120 feet below the Gordon is the Fifth sand. The Gantz is not reported around Burgettstown, but it is about 100 feet above the Gordon sand in other places. The distance from the Gantz to the Pittsburg coal seems to vary more than that of any other persistent sand. It runs from 1,790 feet in the Ross well in Chartiers to 1,985 feet in the J. L. Thompson well in Zollarsville. It is like the upper sands, having a gradual increase in the separating distance from northwest to southeast.

The gas fields occur generally in anticlines, the oil fields, part way down the slope if water is present, and in the bottom of synclines if water is absent. To this there are some few exceptions, but the general belief is that the most favorable location for oil seems to be on the flanks of the anticlines. Gas is found either on the broad anticlinal arches or the synclinal slopes-always, however, higher up the slope than where oil is found. If the sand is dry or free from water the oil may be found at the bottom of the trough or syncline. If the sand contains salt water the oil if found would be above it and toward the top of the wave or anticline. The dip from the crest of the anticline to the bottom of the syncline is often at the rate of 200 feet to the mile. Wells were sometimes spoiled by drilling through the oil into salt water.

The line between the Claysville and Amity quadrangles cuts through Washington. The Gordon sand in the great Washington-Taylorstown pool is from 1,000 to 1,200 feet below sea level. It is impossible to learn how much oil was taken from this field. Almost all the oil of Wash- ington County was bought by the subsidiary concerns of the Standard Oil Company. The oil is of a high grade petroleum, with a paraffin base and quite pure. It is generally black, but in a few cases amber or even trans- parent.

GAS.

Twelve important gas companies are producing natural gas in Washington County. In order that they might find gas below, they have frequently cased off the oil in higher sands, which might have made paying wells. Fields of moderate wells may yet be found in localities drilled over for gas. One of these may yet be opened in the Hundred-foot north of Gretna.

The Buffalo gas field includes all the gas territory on

244

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

the high dome north of the Washington-Taylorstown oil pool. From it has been produced an enormous quantity of gas, which comes in varying amounts from all the principal sands below and including the Gas sand. Most of it, however, is obtained from the Salt, Gantz, Gordon, Fourth and Fifth sands. Southwest of Buffalo and in one or two wells to the north the Salt sand is a heavy producer. Northeast of Buffalo most of the gas comes from the Gordon sand, though some is from the Fourth and Fifth sands. Farther east the Gordon seems to be the most productive, so far as is shown by the records. Many of the wells in this sand are still producing.

On the small dome north of Claysville are located a number of wells which obtain gas from the Gordon sand. The majority of the other wells in this vicinity are obtaining their gas from the Fifty-foot and Big Injun sands.

About three miles west of Prosperity gas is obtained from the lower portion of the Hurry Up, or the Big Dunkard sand, and also from the Fifty-foot sand. On the eastern slope of the Washington anticline, near the south end of the dome south of Washington, are a num- ber of gas wells.

Since oil and gas were discovered in the Amity quad- rangle twenty years ago, drilling has been conducted on a large scale and very profitably. There are no large towns in this quadrangle and it has not been closely drilled or had much excitement in producing.

The Washington field extends in a northeasterly direc- tion from a point near Claysville, in the western part of the county, through the town of Washington and across South and North Strabane Townships to the vicinity of Linden. This field includes the Morgan, Willetts, Davis, Taylor, Barre, Smith, Manifold, Munce, Cameron, Thome, Wright, Linn, Rooney, Martin, Wade, Kuntz, LeMoyne and other farms, which were widely known at the time of the oil excitement for their many producing wells. This field contains many gas wells also.

The principal and only large gas field in the Amity quadrangle is the Zollarsville field, which contains about 70 wells, located mostly in West Bethlehem Township and the borough of Deemston. It has a length of five miles and a breadth of about two miles. In the Waynes- burg quadrangle south of Zollarsville there are a few wells in this same belt. The yield is principally from the Elizabeth and Bayard sands.

In general, producing gas wells are much more scat- tering than oil wells and are spread widely over the area. To a few wells in the central part of Amwell Township, between Hackney and Lone Pine, the name "Amity" field is often applied. Along this same line to the north- east a small group is encountered west of Odell, in West Bethlehem Township; and in Somerset Township there

are a number of good wells, referred to as the "Somer- set"' field.

Many gas wells as producing along the Monongahela River. These are in what geologists call the Connels- ville quadrangle and are very valuable. Other facts relating to coal, oil and gas will be found among the history of the townships.

The principal company doing business in Washington County is the Manufacturers Light and Heat Company, which during the past few years has merged most of the smaller companies which operate in this field. (See his- tory of Washington Borough.) During the past few years hundreds of miles of additional pipe line have been constructed from the natural gas fields and indications are that the pressure and volume will be maintained for many years to come.

As a source of heat it is unrivaled in the household, as it is also in the workshop for the generation of steam and in various metallurgical operations, and as a source of light even in its crude state it will in many cases give good illumination, which is much improved by the use of an Argand burner and chimney. However, it re- mained for the Wellsbach mantle, now in universal use throughout the area supplied by natural gas, to produce from natural gas the most perfect and economical of lights.

As a source of power it stands at the head of the list for economy, both as to expense of installation and expense of operation. The natural gas engine is used most extensively in the petroleum fields, for pumping the petroleum to the surface in the thousands of small pro- ducing wells. In very many instances the flow of natural gas from the upper strata above the petroleum-producing rock in the well is sufficient to supply a gas engine to pump a cluster of from six to thirty wells.

It has been supplying the power for a large number of factories and operations in the gas field and lately it is extensively applied in creating the power by which the natural gas is compressed from a low to a high pressure when the original pressure has failed and the pipes are insufficient to deliver the necessary quantity of gas at the well pressure. A number of these com- pressors work up very closely to a thousand horsepower. The saving by using the natural gas engine over the steam engine is from 40 to 50 per cent.

At Finney Station was built one of the first electric power pumping plants ever used. It was erected by the South Penn Oil Company in 1901 or 1902. This method is very much cheaper than by steam boilers and engines and less liable to accident. Over 100 wells can be pumped at one time and the cost per well per hour has been estimated at less than 10 cents.

The heat produced by natural gas with its forced pres-

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

245

sure is much more intense than is produced from gene- rated gas. The original pressure of gas in Washington County district was about 500 pounds to the square inch, minute pressure, and the annual rental of a well $500. Since its discovery every gas field in the State has shown a constantly declining pressure.

The value of the natural gas supplied in 1901 was greater than that of any preceding year, though the quan- tity was greatly exceeded when it was first introduced extensively, from about 1883 to the close of 1889. Dur- ing this period of six years it was used in the most extravagant and reckless manner, with many crude appli- ances, and it was paid for at a rate that in many in- stances was less than one-half the price of the equivalent of coal. Large quantities were allowed to escape and go to waste from the mouths of hundreds of standing pipes from Saturday evening to Monday morning. It is highly probable that in these six years of reckless con- sumption four times the present production was consumed annually.

As the visible supply grows less the value becomes more apparent and the appliances for consuming the gas were greatly improved after the introduction of the meter. The pipe line companies greatly improved their methods in securing better joints, in shutting off wells that were not needed to keep up the pressure in the mains and in manipulating the wells themselves.

OIL AND GAS SANDS.

Drillers' Names .- In Washington County all the oil and gas yet discovered have been produced from beds of sandstone, or "sands," as they are called. The various sands penetrated by the drill have been given common or fanciful names by the drillers, and these names have come into common usage as descriptive of the various beds. Their relations are shown in the following table, which is from the measurements of the Amity quadrangle, or southeast of Washington:

Geological Formation.

Drillers' name for sand rock.

Geologists' name for rock.

Average

interval

to top of bed

from Pittsburg coal, feet.

Washington

.. Bluff sand

Waynesburg or Pinhook coal ... Waynesburg coal

330

Monogahela . . Mapletown coal

Sewickley coal

+ 110

Pittsburg coal

. Pittsburg coal

Murphy

Morgantown sandstone

100

200

Conemaugh Little Dunkard sand.

Saltsburg sandstone

370

Allegheny

Connellsville coal

. Upper Freeport coal.

600

Pottsville

Gas sand

. Kittanning or Clarion sandstone.

800

Mauch Chunk. Salt sand

Pottsville sandstone + Connoquenessing)

180

900

Red rock

. Mauch Chunk red shale.

100

-1,050

Pocono

Big lime

Greenbrier limestone

1,150

Big Injun or Manifold sand.

. Burgoon sandstone

300

-1,200

Squaw sand

130

1,530

Thirty-foot sand

170

-1,750

Gantz sand

-1,900

Fifty-foot sand

100

-1,950

Nineveh Thirty-foot sand

2,050

Gordon Stray sand ..

-2,100

Chemung

Gordon sand

-2,130

Fourth sand

2,200

Fifth sand

2,300

McDonald sand.

Bayard or Sixth sand

2,400

Elizabeth sand

2,500

2,700

Warren First sand. Warren Second sand.

+ indicates above Pittsburg coal; - indicates below Pittsburg coal.

Following is a table of sands as they may approxi- mately be found below the Pittsburg coal in Jefferson Township, well to the northwest of the county :

Pittsburg coal, 0.

Real Freeport coal, 360 feet.

Freeport coal or Hurry Up sand, 600 to 640 feet. Salt sand, 810 to 840 feet.

Big Injun, 1,000 feet, 200 feet thick.

Squaw sand, 1,300 to 1,330 feet.

Berea or Thirty-foot shells, 1,600 to ,1650 feet. Hundred-foot sand, 1,780 to 1,850 feet.

Thirty-foot sand, 1,880 to 1,950 feet.

Gordon stray sand, 1,951 to 2,020 feet.

Gordon sand, 1,973 to 2,043 feet.

Fourth sand, 2,035 to 2,215 feet. Fifth sand, 2,128 to 2,298 feet.

The well records of Smith Township show the top of the Salt sand to be between 850 and 940 feet below the Pittsburg coal, the Big Injun about 1,050 feet below the coal and is from 230 to 290 feet thick. Below the Big Injun is a fairly regular stretch of 540 feet to the

Correlation with sands in neighboring fields.

. Waynesburg sandstone

60 } +

390 1

Big Dunkard sand.

Mahoning sandstone

100

500

Hurry-up sand.

(Homewood

Mountain sand.

Berea or Butler County gas sand First sand-Hundred foot sand

Second sand. Gray or bowlder sand. Third sand.

2,750

Approximate maxi- mum thickness in this area, ft.

246

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

Hundred-foot. This interval contains the Squaw, the Thirty-foot shells and the Red Rock. The top of the Red Rock is less than 100 feet above the Hundred-foot sand. There is some doubt whether or not the Thirty-foot shells represent the Berea sand in this township. The driller in Smith Township might be deceived by what is known as the Bavington vein of coal, five feet thick on the

McBride farm along the creek east of Bavington, and 26 inches thick at the iron bridge above Bavington, where it is 115 feet below the base of the Pittsburg coal. Two other veins of coal in a well one-half mile northwest of Burgettstown, at 385 and 550 feet below the surface of the ground, were found. The mouth of the well was less than 100 feet below the Pittsburg coal.

CHAPTER XXII.

COAL.

First Coal Bank in Washington County-Early Coal Operations- Early Mines-The Coal Industry Stimulated in 1841-44 by the Building of Locks-Value of Coal Lands near the Monongahela River-Coal Operators- Opening of new Mines due to Railroads-Recent Coal Development-Coal Companies and their Operations -Vesta Coal Company-Ellsworth Collieries Company-Pittsburg and Westland Coal Company-Develop- ment in Western Part of County-The Coke Industry and the Companies Engaged in this Business-Pro- duction for 1907-Tables of Statistics-Some General Facts of Interest in Regard to the Quantity of Coal in Different Parts of the County and its Quality with Table by Mr. J. W. Bealeau.

The earliest coal bank in Washington County of which we have any knowledge was the one marked on the orig- inal plot of Bassett Town (now Washington) made in 1781, at the edge of the present college athletic grounds. The next one mentioned is the one at Canonsburg, which, when John Canon laid out the town in 1788, was given for the use of the inhabitants. Dr. Absalom Baird had a coal bank in Washington, in the Kalorama addition, prior to 1800. James Allison opened a bank near Me- Govern in 1802.

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History of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens 20th century, Part 44

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1474

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1474