USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 39
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Almost immediately after it became known that the Drake well was pumping from twenty to thirty barrels of oil a day, many parties hastened to obtain leases of property on which to drill wells. Jonathan Watson leased the ground containing an oil spring near Rouseville. Mr. Bissell leased a large amount of territory.
The second well sunk, following the Drake, was owned by William Barnsdall and William H. Abbott, of Titusville, and Henry R. Rouse and Boone Mead, of Warren. It was upon the James Parker farm, within the borough limits of Titusville, not far from where is now the Burgess Steel Works. The well was "kicked down." It was begun in September, 1859, and finished February 18, 1860, at a depth of one hundred and twelve feet. It had a production of fifty barrels of oil a day.
The third well was owned by William H. Abbott, William Barnsdall, P. T. Witherop and David Crossley. It was situated near the present Boughton station of the W. N. Y. & P. Railroad, perhaps half a mile from Drake's well. This well was also "kicked down." It was finished March 14, 1860. This well had a depth of one hundred and sixty feet, and it started pumping at sixty barrels of oil a day. Another well was sunk in 1860 on the John Watson farm by Watson and Tanner. It produced one hundred barrels of oil a day.
The "kicking down" process employed in the early days of drilling oil wells may here be described. The mode was practical where light tools were used and the depth of the well only a few hundred feet, as was the case in territory worked in the first period of oil development, where the oil-bearing
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sand was rarely reached by the drill lower than six hundred feet below the surface of the ground. Operators in those days located wells in valleys, ravines, by water courses, or sometimes on the plains, and not on the sum- mits of high land, as is done now, in some cases for the sole purpose of obviating the necessity of driving soil pipe. When engines and boilers first came into use for drilling purposes the tools were still light. and the wells still shallow, as compared with the tools in general use and the wells sunk in the last twenty years. The use of casing, begun over thirty years ago, required an increase of the caliber of the artesian well. Deep wells and speed in drilling required a large increase in the weight of tools. The sets of drilling tools employed in the early sixties, as compared withi those now used in the Alleghany Mountains, are like pygmies in the presence of giants.
The "kicking down" appliance consisted of a spring pole of considerable size and sufficient strength for the purpose, and an attachment at the small end of the pole, which held the tools suspended vertically. The large end of the pole was fastened firmly to perhaps a tree, while the high stump of another tree was used as a fulcrum, upon which the pole midway rested. The tools were hung to the small end of the pole by a chain or rope, so as to have in the suspension free play, in order to get a strictly vertical line for the tools in their descent. Attached to the upper end of the rope or chain was a flat piece of solid wood, which passed upward through a correspond- ing flat mortise in the pole. This piece of wood was bored with holes, per- haps an inch apart, or more. A strong movable pin, passing through one of these holes, supported on the top of the pole the entire string of tools. As the drill descended into the hole, it was gradually lowered by drawing out the pin and slipping it into another hole, higher upon the stick. When the last hole in the perforated slat had been used, a short joint of sucker rods was inserted between it and the chain or rope below. When the last hole of the slat was reached the second time. a longer joint of sucker rods was substituted for the shorter ones. Then, as was the practice at first. a string of sucker rods, piece by piece introduced, connected the tools and the attachment at the pole, until the drilling was finished. But ex- periment led to the use of a strong rope, instead of a string of sucker rods. for letting the tools down into the well. Afterward the temper screw came into universal use in drilling, and this appliance is likely to continue.
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Near the small end of the pole a chain or rope was attached, and to this saddle stirrups for the feet of the workmen, two or three in number. The drillers placed each a foot in the stirrup and by a sudden simultaneous kick downward the pole was bent, letting the tools with the steel edge drop into the hole and cut the rock, the elasticity of the pole lifting the tools back into their place. In this way, round holes, a few inches in diameter, were cut vertically into the rock, to the depth of about one-eighth of a mile. Instead of a stirrup, a platform, fastened on one side by a hinge, was also used. To the opposite side was attached a chain or rope, connecting with the small end of the spring pole. The workmen, standing upon the platform near the hinge, suddenly stepping together and throwing their combined weight upon the opposite side, bent the pole and let the tools drop, when the pole would spring upward and lift the tools for a succeeding drop.
In driving soil pipe for a well, where there was no steam engine, a horse was employed in raising the battering ram. Horses were also used for motive power in drilling, walking in a circle, or upon a treadmill, as in the old style of threshing machines.
The engines and boilers first used in drilling and pumping oil wells were stationary. The boiler at the Drake well had two flues. But portable engines and boilers afterward came into general use in the business. The engine was placed upon the top of the boiler, but it could be detached and placed upon another bed, when by reason of too close exposure to the fire it became necessary to move the boiler to a place of greater safety, or from any other cause. Sometimes gas has risen unexpectedly out of the well, and. igniting from the fire in the furnace under the boiler too close at hand, the whole rig has been burned. At the present time the boiler is put into a safe place before the rise of gas can occur.
The wooden tanks first used in holding oil were not the truncated cone-shaped ones, bound by iron hoops, which afterward were generally adopted, but rectangular boxes held together and made liquid tight by clamps fastened by keys.
The object of the foregoing minute descriptions is to put on record" an accurate account, as is believed, of the methods employed in the early days of petroleum production.
In the summer of 1860, when the price of oil was falling, a settlement was made in which the Seneca Oil Company surrendered its lease. receiving
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therefor a small part of the Willard farm. George H. Bissell was the purchaser, and the price named was $50,000. But, when it is remembered that Eveleth & Bissell had bought the Willard farm from Brewer, Watson & Company for $5,000, while the price named in the deed was $25,000, it might be suspected that fiction in this transaction was resorted to. Mr. Bissell became a heavy operator in oil property, and doubtless he operated with highly lucrative results. But, that he originated the method of boring into the rock, which was executed by Drake, the only successful mode for obtaining petroleum in quantity, is highly improbable, since such a claim is wholly wanting in support from the records of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, and those of the Seneca Oil Company, from first to last. The credit of discovering Drake's method of producing oil is due to Drake him- self.
Of the dozen wells which Mr. Bissell put down on the Willard farm only one-half were paying producers. Even at $5 a barrel it would have taken a long time for them to earn $50,000. It is probable that the total sales of oil produced on the property have not aggregated $25,000.
The developments for the first few years, after the striking of the Drake well, on Oil Creek, between the Willard farm and the Foster farm below. as a whole were light. On Watson Flats the yield of oil has been considerable. The wells there, though small, have been numerous. The quality of the oil produced there is excellent for refining purposes. During the first five years following Drake's discovery, the amount of oil discovered within the vicinity of Titusville was important.
In giving some account of the oil operations of Titusville citizens, it will be impossible to name all, and difficult to mention definitely what each has accomplished. The aim will be to refer to the work of representative operators who have made Titusville their home, and are prominently identi- fied with the history of the town.
The name of John Fertig is first introduced, because Mr. Fertig repre- sents all periods of the oil producing business, beginning a few months after "Drake's discovery, and continuing actively engaged in the industry every year until the present time. A special biography of Mr. Fertig appears in this work, but a reference to his oil history is pertinent here, because of his work at the very beginning of the industry. His subsequent operations have been constant in Crawford, Venango, Butler, Clarion, McKean, War-
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ren and Allegheny counties, this State, and the Allegany district in the State of New York. To say nothing of producing companies, in which he has been interested, John Fertig has been an oil producer for thirty-nine years and, outside of producing companies with which he has been connected, he has been engaged as an individual in the drilling of more than two thousand wells. Captain A. B. Funk, who afterward became a resident of Titusville, in the fall of 1859 came into possession of the upper and lower McIlheney farms, on Oil Creek, seven or eight miles below Titusville. In December, 1859, Funk executed a lease of several acres on the upper farm for oil pur- poses, to John Fertig, David Beatty and Michael Gorman, of Warren County, and Dr. John Wilson, of Pleasantville. The next spring the four lessees, using a hemlock tree for a spring pole and the "pole tools"-that is, the sucker rod connection between the tools and the spring pole-sunk a well on their lease on the upper farm, to the depth of two hundred feet, but, finding no oil at that depth, they abandoned the well for the time. Captain Funk, in the same summer, sunk a well with a spring pole on the lower farm, also two hundred feet, without finding oil. He decided in the following fall to procure an engine and boiler with which to drill the well deeper. At that time it took months for purchasing and placing well machinery, which now would be done in as many weeks, or perhaps in as many days. In the spring following Funk, having obtained the engine and boiler, increased the depth of the well two hundred and forty feet, making the total depth four hun- dred and forty feet, when he opened a flowing well, the first flowing well ever struck. This was in May, 1861. The well flowed one thousand bar- rels of oil every twenty-four hours.
Immediately thereafter Fertig and his associates placed an engine and boiler at their well, which they had left as a dry hole, on the upper farm, pushing operations until the fourth of July following, when the same depth as that of the Funk well, that is, four hundred and forty feet, was reached. Mr. Fertig himself had hold of the temper screw, when he felt the drill drop into a crevice. The fire under the boiler was immediately extinguished, but not a minute too soon, for with a roar the oil shot upward far above the derrick. The well started at five hundred barrels a day, and it flowed for the next nineteen months. When the well began its production oil was selling at $1.50 a barrel, but before the close it sold as low as twenty-five cents a barrel. This was the second flowing well. The first was called
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"Fountain Well No. I." and the second, "Fountain Well No. 2." The latter was about six hundred feet south of the Sherman well. struck in May, 1862, on the Foster farm. To the northeast was the Noble well, on the Farel farm, about six hundred feet. This latter well was opened in 1863. These three wells-Fountain No. 2, the Sherman and the Noble-formed almost an equilateral triangle, the wells situated respectively at the three angles. Both the Noble and the Sherman wells were wonderful producers, and their products, especially the oil of the former, sold for a very large amount of money. The Sherman well had a long life, and it gave to J. W. Sherman, from whom it was named, a resident of Titusville, a fortune. Mr. S. S. Fertig. another resident of Titusville, drilled the Noble well. and he owned an interest in it. Mr. William H. Abbott, another resident of Titusville, had a large interest in it. Excepting perhaps some of the wells struck in late years in the McDonald district, the oil from the Noble well sold for more money than that of any other American well.
In drilling the Noble well, Mr. S. S. Fertig used an engine and a boiler built by Tifft & Sons, at Buffalo, New York. These engines for many years afterward were widely used for well purposes. Mr. Fertig had pre- viously drilled the Caldwell well, a dozen rods lower down Oil Creek, fin- ishing it in March, 1863. He finished the Noble well on May 23d following. Both the Noble and the Caldwell were on the east side of Oil Creek, while the two Fountain wells and the Sherman were on the west side. The Cald- well was yielding several hundred barrels a day, when the Noble well was struck. But the Noble got its oil, and its production immediately fell to an insignificant quantity. Within five minutes after the pumping began in the Noble well. the oil rushed out of the tubing with terrific force. The fire under the boiler was put out in the shortest possible time. An eight hun- dred barrel tank, the only tank at the well, was quickly filled. Connection was made to an empty tank, a vat eighty feet long, sixteen feet wide and eight feet deep. belonging to the Caldwell well, and this large receptacle was filled in less than twenty-four hours. Before the well was finished. Mr. Fertig had purchased of the Farel heirs, James, John. Nelson and Sarah Farel-since married to Mr. W. B. Sterrett-one-half of the royalty, which was one-fourth of the oil, for $600. This one-eighth free interest in the production of the Noble well Mr. Fertig re-sold, before the well was struck, to Woods & Wright for $1.000, and Woods & Wright may have realized
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on this purchase $250,000. The Farel heirs, the owners of the land, after- ward became permanent and well known citizens of Titusville. Nearly all oil from the Noble wells sold for very high prices. From this time John Fertig has been a leading member of the oil fraternity.
Mr. J. A. Cadwallader, a resident of Titusville for a generation, has had a remarkable experience as an oil producer. He began in the Church Run field about the year 1865, having purchased in the fall of 1864 from Dr. John Shugert a tract of that section of one hundred and twenty-four acres. His was the second producing well in the Church Run territory, the Atlantic & Great Western Petroleum Company having opened the first. His well produced for a long time forty barrels a day, giving assurance of a good paying pool of petroleum in that district. After following the producing business at Church Run, and in the Pithole and Pleasantville districts, Mr. Cadwallader turned his attention to the refining industry with Bennett & Warner, erecting large works on the Mackey farm south of Titusville, on the line of what is now known as the W. N. Y. & P. R. R. He resisted year after year the aggressions of the Standard Oil Company, and, as stated else- where, the Bennett & Warner refinery in 1875 passed into the possession of the Standard Oil Company.
In 1876 he entered into the producing business in the Bradford field. The Anchor Petroleum Company, consisting of J. A. Cadwallader, John D. Archbold, Samuel Comfort, H. Y. Pickering and T. P. Chambers, was organ- ized, with Mr. Cadwallader as manager. After several years of successful work he was instrumental, in connection with the Vandergrift interest and W. H. Johnson, of Buffalo, in organizing the Anchor Oil Company. About this time Cherry Grove came to the front, and through the untiring efforts of Mr. Cad- wallader, its manager, the Anchor Oil Company secured three of the best lots in that phenomenal field. Mr. Cadwallader had the gauge of the first fourteen wells drilled in that field, and was able to certify that their aggregate produc- tion was 16,000 barrels a day. Up to that time not one dry well had been drilled. As manager of the Anchor Oil Company Mr. Cadwallader bought in the initial well on the Cooper tract. Closely following the latter field he helped to open the Glade Run district near Warren, with several gushers. And then, advancing up the Allegheny River, an eight hundred well of his on the Morrison farm, just above Kinzua village, broke the market. Taking a respite from so much active work, he spent several months with his wife in
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Europe. On his return he heard that a well had been found on the Normal School grounds at Clarion. Thither he went on the first train. After varied results for several months, while good wells and dry holes alternated, all the little band of operators left the field except Mr. Cadwallader, whose close study and minute observations convinced his judgment that the most pro- lific part of that territory had not been touched. Accordingly he set the drill to work again, and. when five feet of the sand had been penetrated, seven hun- dred barrels a day was the output. This was followed by several other large producers. With this extraordinary success in territory which, until this time, had been considered at best as doubtful, the inhabitants of Clarion borough came to regard Mr. Cadwallader as possessing almost superhuman sagacity in judging of undeveloped oil territory, and so strong is their con- fidence in his judgment in this respect that, should he build a derrick in almost any part of Clarion County, people there would expect a producing well at the spot selected. Of late the McDonald district, Groveton and other fields, some of ordinary importance, have claimed Mr. Cadwallader's attention.
Mr. S. P. Boyer has lived in Titusville many years. He came to Oil City in 1865, and at first engaged in the lumber trade there. In the fall of the same year he drilled near Reno a well which proved to be dry. In 1866 he went to Pioneer, and drilled a well on the Benninghoff farm, and succeeded in getting a good producer. He continued operations in that locality until the fall of 1868, when he went to Shamburg and sunk a well, which turned out to be a paying one, on the Tallman farm. The next year he drilled several more wells on the same farm and on the Chicago tract, and several wells near Pleasantville. In December the same year he moved his residence from Oil City to Titusville. In 1870 he drilled a few wells on the Atkinson farm, and on the McGuire and Kerr farms on Church Run. In the same year he became a shareholder in the Octave Oil Company, a producing and refining association. In 1871, he drilled wells on Bully Hill, Venango County, and operated on the Grant and Robinson farms, near Parker's Landing. The next year he drilled wells on the McClymonds farm, near Karns City and Modoc. In the same year, and the next following, 1872 and 1873, he drilled wells near Millerstown and St. Joe, continuing operations there until 1874. In 1875 he went to Bradford for the first time. Development there was then in its infancy, only one well showing oil. Be- ginning soon afterward, he was extensively engaged in producing in the
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Bradford field until 1882. During this time he was a shareholder and was Secretary and Treasurer of the Equitable Pipe Line. To escape discrimina- tion in freight rates by rail to the seaboard, the Equitable shipped its oil by rail to Buffalo, New York, and thence the rest of the way by canal. In 1882, in company with several others, he put down six wells in the Cherry Grove district. In 1886 he became largely interested in the Kane field and in several locations in Elk County. In a part of his operations in that region he was associated with David Emery, E. O. Emerson and James H. Cald- well, and in another part with H. B. Porter and M. W. Quick. In 1890 he was one of the incorporators of the Ohio Oil Company, and operated in Allegheny and Washington counties. In 1892 he operated in the Lima field, and in 1894 he sold his property there. Since 1893 he has been en- gaged in production at Sistersville and other fields in West Virginia and Ohio until the present time.
The Tack Brothers, an old and well known firm, consisted of Theodore E., August H. and Frank Tack, natives of Philadelphia. Theodore was once a resident of Titusville, and Frank has lived in Titusville nearly all the time for a quarter of a century. Augustus died in 1893. The business of the firm was founded by Theodore, who opened an oil brokerage business in Philadelphia in 1863. He was soon afterward joined by Augustus. They purchased for exporters refined oil from Pittsburg manufacturers, and, to facilitate their business, they opened a branch office in Pittsburg. At that time Pittsburg manufactured the largest part of refined oil then produced. Proximity to the producing fields, cheap coal and superior facilities for mak- ing barrels gave to Pittsburg refiners a decided advantage over those at other points. But after a time discrimination in railroad freights against Pitts- burg refiners seriously injured their business. Soon after the establishing of the brokerage business, Augustus, representing the firm, engaged in the pro- ducing business in West Virginia. He purchased the famous large well on Horseneck, taking up territory there and on the Ohio side of the river. From 1869 to 1874 the firm engaged upon a large scale in the refining busi- ness at Pittsburg, but still keeping their office in Philadelphia. The refining association was known as the Citizens' Refining Company. Their works had a crude capacity of one thousand barrels per day. The Pittsburg re- finers still suffered from discrimination against them in railroad freights, and the Citizens' Company went out of the business. Theodore and Frank
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opened a brokerage business _at Parker soon afterward, and about the same time Augustus engaged again in producing. He subsequently, in connec- tion with David Kirk, Albert Dilworth, John Shirley and Isaac E. Dean, purchased the property at Bullion, known as the McCalmont farm. This was a very fortunate investment, the farm yielding a heavy production of oil. Then followed the formation of the McCalmont Oil Company, and the merging of the properties belonging to Kirk & Dilworth with those of Tack Brothers. Since then Tack Brothers continued actively engaged in produc- tion, in connection with the McCalmont Oil Company. Theodore, who is Secretary and Treasurer of the McCalmont Oil Company, resides in New York, while Frank, until quite recently, was still living at Titusville. A short time ago, however, he moved to Chicago.
Charles L. Gibbs, for years a resident of Titusville, has been engaged in producing during the last twenty years. In 1877 he had four wells at Wentling's Corners, near Edinburg, Clarion County, one on Jefferson Fur- nace tract, and on the Jerusalem tract. In 1880 he had at Bakers' Trestle four wells; in 1881, four at Bell's Camp; in 1882 twelve at Meek's Creek, all in the Bradford field. In the Bolivar, New York, field he had eight wells at Henry's Switch and one near Allentown, in 1884. In the same year he opened a salt well at Naples, New York, while drilling for oil or gas. In 1886, at Cogley Run, Clarion County, he had an interest in twelve wells, and in 1887 he had at Kinzua five wells. In 1888 he had at Salina, near Oil City, three wells. In 1896 he had in Ohio, opposite Sistersville, West Virginia, five wells. From 1889 to the present time he has had fifteen wells at Grand Valley, Pennsylvania. He has at this writing sunk one well in the English Settlement district, and is engaged in putting down another.
Miles W. Quick is an old resident of Titusville. Soon after the close of the late Civil War, in which he had served four years in the signal corps of the Union army, he engaged first in the oil refining business at Cleveland, Ohio. He came to Titusville in 1868, and in 1870 engaged in producing in the Church Run district, and from that time until the present he has been actively engaged in production in many of the fields from Allegany, New York, to Mannington, West Virginia. From 1872 to 1873 he was with D. McKelvey & Company, in the producing business, with B. D. Benson & Company, with the Enterprise Oil and Lumber Company, and the Colorado
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