USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 40
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Oil Company. In the latter year he engaged in the commission business in the Titusville Oil Exchange.
James H. Caldwell, long a resident of Titusville, came to the oil region in 1865. Soon afterward he engaged in drilling oil wells. He had two wells at Pithole in 1865. After two years work in the business, with vary- ing fortune, he was finally successful in 1867, in company with Lewis Emery, in sinking a paying well on Lot 62, Foster farm, Pioneer, the well starting off at one hundred barrels a day. At Pioncer he became a member of the oil firm of Emery Brothers & Company. The company was quite successful in its ventures. In 1868 the company procured the Walter Scott tract, near Pleasantville, and Ross farin, between Shamburg and Titusville, buying both. In 1869 he settled with his family in Titusville, while still interested in oil production. In 1870 he operated with Emery Brothers on Church Run. In 1871-2 he operated on the Sedgwick and Campbell farms at Ar- gyle. In the fall of 1873 he moved to Butler County and devoted himself to oil producing for the next four years with excellent success, on the Barn- hardt. Cradle, Divener and Easterling farms. In 1877 he returned to Titus- ville, where he has since continued to reside. That year he got a large pro- duction at Bullion. In the early eighties he drilled in the State of Colo- rado three wells, one of which, the last drilled, proved to be a fine producer. From 1878 to 1883 he operated in the Babcock and the Bingham lands in Mckean County, and at Garfield and Stoneham, Warren County. During the last fifteen years he has been closely associated in producing oil with Mr. S. P. Boyer. A special biography of Mr. Caldwell appears elsewhere in these pages.
R. H. Lcc is an old resident of Titusville. His operations in produc- tions have extended in different districts and at different periods. His best success was perhaps achieved in the Bradford field. As an oil man, Mr. Lee is best known to the public in connection with the history of refiners.
James P. Thomas has been a prominent citizen of Titusville for years. He began operating for oil in 1869, on Church Run, and he has been con- tinuously engaged in producing since that time. His work has been in Butler, Venango, Crawford, Warren and Forest counties. He is at present interested in over one hundred wells.
James R. Barber is a landmark in Titusville. He was intimately ac- quainted with Edwin L. Drake during all the latter's residence in the town
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which he made famous by his wonderful discovery. In the fall of 1859, soon after the sinking of the Drake well, Mr. Barber, in company with J. K. Hibbard and J. W. McIntyre, leased a part of the John McClintock farm, adjoining the Buchanan, where now is Rouseville. They at first dug a pit in the bank of the creek about six feet long and four feet wide, down to the bed rock. Then they pumped the water out of the hole. As the water afterward soaked in, it brought with it globules of oil. After the pit filled and the surface of the water was covered with oil. they laid flat upon the oil a woolen blanket, which of course absorbed the oil. Then they wrung the oil out of the blanket into a pail, or small tub. In this way they got about eight gallons a day. Oil then was worth about a dollar a gallon. They sold the first barrel of oil to Captain Hiram Hill, who kept a grocery store near the present Academy of Music, on Spring Street in Titusville. The barrel held about thirty gallons, for which Hill paid $25. They next sold a half interest in the well to Brewer, Watson & Company, and John Kellogg. They got a man named Davis and his son to "tramp" a well down, using a string of tools from Tarentum, which had been used there in boring for salt. When they reached, with the spring pole appliance, a depth of one hundred and twenty-two feet, they struck what was afterward known as the first sand. Here gas appeared, and the hole filled with oil. They thought they had struck a good well. So they tubed the hole and shut off the water by a seedbag. This was at about 5 p. m. Then they pumped for a short time with the spring pole. On returning the next morning they found that the well had flowed during the night about six barrels of oil. The oil lay in the hollow of the ground. The weather was cold and the oil was so heavy that it was thick as cold lard, so that it was collected by shoveling it with a scoop. After pumping for a day, very little more oil was got. So the tubing was pulled out, and drilling continued. At about the depth of two hundred feet a mud vein was struck, which gave trouble to the drillers, until a large gas pipe, brought from Philadelphia, was put into the hole, thus shutting out the mud. This was the first casing ever used in an oil well. Drilling was continued down to two hundred and fifty feet, when more gas and oil were struck and this time the company felt sure they had a good well. So they got a boiler and engine, retubed and again pumped the well-this time by steam. After pumping about two weeks and getting one hundred and fifty barrels, they decided to sink another well two hundred feet higher up on the
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Creek. They therefore engaged two men from Ohio, who had experience with the drill in prospecting for coal, and contracted to pay them $1.50 a foot, the drillers to go down three hundred feet, if necessary. But the drillers had trouble in reaching the rock, as at that point it dipped sharply to the north and, instead of reaching it at six feet below the surface, as in the case of the first well, they had to go down twenty-one feet. To exhaust the water as they dug down, they first put in one pump, then another, and still another, until they had five pumps at work. As they pumped the water into the creek, oil went with it, making a large showing upon the surface of the stream. The progress of this work was so slow and apparently little effect- ual, that Mr. Barber became almost discouraged, and he was in a mood to throw his interest away, or give it to anyone who would take it off his hands, when just at this time, in June, 1860, three men, Orton, Kimball and Prendergast, from the State of New York, came along and, seeing so much oil on the surface of the creek, they stopped and inquired of Mr. Barber as to who was the owner of the well. He replied that he owned one-sixth of it. They asked him at what price he would sell his interest. Not sup- posing that they seriously desired to buy, and, to end the talk, he named as his figure $4,000, when, to his surprise, they promptly accepted the offer. They then went with Mr. Barber to Titusville, where he executed to them a bill of sale. The money which they paid him included $1,000 in gold.
In 1872 and the year following, Mr. Barber operated at Triumph, War- ren County, and afterward in Butler County. He subsequently, in company with Mr. Fred Crocker, leased one thousand acres on the McCuen property, in Mckean County. The character of the sand there was so different from what had been found in other fields that Mr. Barber sold to Crocker his machinery for an interest in another well, which the latter had put down on the Buchanan farm. This well turned out to be a good one, and it was followed by a rush of operators into the Bradford field.
Hugh O'Hare, who has been a resident of Titusville for the last quarter of a century, was born in 1841 in Canada, in the county of Lenox and Addington, Province of Ontario. He came to Petroleum Center in the fall of 1864. He worked on wells at Wild Cat Hollow on the Stack- pole farm, at Boughton Switch, near Titusville, in 1865, on the Hyner farm, Pithole, the same year, at West Hickory in 1866, and at Skinner farm the same year, and above Bull Run he drilled one well for Dr. Egbert, when C.
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N. Payne was superintendent of the farm. In 1867 he got employment of Dr. Shamburg, superintendent of the Pittsburg Cherry Run Petroleum Com- pany. In 1868 he got from the company several leases, and he soon came to own important interests in various wells, which were in process of drilling, becoming associated with William H. Abbott, Joseph Dixon, Thomas Weaver and Charles Lockhart. The first of these wells finished and producing was No. 8, on Sheridan farm, early in May, 1868. Mr. O'Hare sold his inter- est to Mr. Lockhart for $14,000. In the same summer he, together with Abbott, Dixon and Weaver, bought the Murray farm of ninety-six acres, and five hundred acres of the Walnut Bend tract, adjoining the Hyde farm, in Cherrytree Township. They also leased twenty acres on the Purtill farm, in the Octave district, on which they drilled one well, which yielded some oil, but not enough to pay for pumping. In 1869, Mr. O'Hare, with J. D. Mc- Farland, James Seeley and George Weaver, on a lease from the Shamburg Petroleum Company, sunk what was known as the Lady Stewart well. The first oil got from this well was dark in color and small in quantity. He then drilled the well about seventy feet deeper, into another sand, which gave in green oil for some time a yield of over two hundred barrels a day. The others in the vicinity who were getting black oil, sunk their wells deeper, but with varying success. A. H. Bronson was especially successful in the undertaking, while Emery & Patterson were less fortunate. Between July, 1869, and 1871 Mr. O'Hare bought several small wells from Dr. Shamburg and a Mr. Messimer. In the fall of 1871 he sold them to Paul WV. Garfield. In 1872 Mr. O'Hare and Dr. Shamburg bought one-half of the Mclaughlin well at Cash-Up for $24,000. Then, with S. P. Boyer and Dr. Shamburg, he bought the land on which the well was situated for $45,000, the land in- terest drawing three-eighths of the oil as royalty. Then he and Shamburg bought Boyer's one-third interest in trust. The two remaining partners next drilled the well deeper. The first day after the well was deepened, it responded in a yield of one thousand four hundred and sixty barrels, and for forty days thereafter it averaged one thousand barrels a day. Mr. O'Hare subsequently operated in Butler and Clarion counties. He has now a production on the old James Parker farm from several small wells. It will be remembered that the Barnsdall well on this farm was the next well struck after the Drake, late in 1859.
John A. Mather, who was intimately acquainted with Mr. Drake, and
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his devoted friend during the years of the latter's residence in Titusville, operated in the fall of 1865 on the Morey farm at Pithole, in company with George M. Mowbray, J. J. Sutter and John C. Goetchins, but without suc- cess. In 1869 he bought the Morton well and lease, on the Walter Holm- den farm, at Burnside Bridge on West Pithole Creek. He drilled on the lease two more wells. He continued developments several years longer, and had the distinction of operating the last wells at the famous Pithole. Mr. Mather has been a resident of Titusville for nearly forty years, and he is now one of the few surviving landmarks of the place at the time when Drake opened petroleum to the inhabitants of this planet.
Milton Stewart, a resident of Titusville for the last thirty years, began operations in producing in 1862. In the spring of that year, in company with three or four others, he made an effort at development on the Boyd . farm, Oil Creek, for a year and a half, but without successful results. In 1865 he operated a little at Pithole and at Petroleum Center. Also in the spring of the same year he secured the first lease of "Wild Cat," on Pioneer Run, and, with the aid of other parties, completed a well in the following November. He continued to operate in that vicinity in 1866 and 1867. In the winter of 1867-8 he became interested in buying and operating on the Tallman farm at Shamburg, also in development on the Wood and other farms in the Petroleum Center district. In 1869 and 1870 he operated at Red Hot and on Church Run, also a little at Fagundas. In 1871 he helped to organize the Octave Oil Company. The original members of the com- pany were S. P. Boyer, Emery Brothers, M. Stewart, Roger Sherman, I. E. Blake and D. O. Wickham. The operations of the company were mainly carried on in what is known as the Octave district, south of Titusville, but they also extended to some interests at Karns City, Butler County, and at Cash-Up, near Pithole. In the spring of 1875 he commenced operations on the Robinson and Thompson farms south of Titusville. In 1877 he be- came interested with others in the Bradford field at Duke Center and on Indian Creek. Also during the same or the following year, with three other parties, he secured a large lease at or near Clarendon, Warren County, and drilled there a test well, which was reported to be dry. In 1880 to 1882, in company with George P. Kepler, he drilled several wells on the northern and southern, and later on the western, edges of what subsequently devel- oped into the Grand Valley field; also during those years and afterward he
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became interested in operations on different tracts in the Sheffield district, Warren County. In 1883 to 1885 he operated north of Church Run at Windfall and in the Gilson district, and later at several points south of Titusville. From 1890 to 1893 he was connected with the Orion and the Continental Oil companies in their work in the lower southwest fields. In addition to the foregoing, he has drilled numerous "wild cat" wells. Since 1883 he has been interested in, and has given more or less attention to, oil operations in California.
B. D. Benson and R. E. Hopkins, many years prominent citizens of Titusville, who, until the death of Mr. Benson a few years ago, were always, from the first, closely associated together in all the various branches of the oil trade in which they engaged, were large producers. They came in May, 1865. from Onondaga County, New York, to Enterprise, Warren County, Pennsylvania, and to Titusville soon afterward. Their first purchase was a part of what was then known as the Rouse estate, comprising seven hun- dred acres, not far east of Enterprise. This purchase was for some time not productive, until 1868, when success came, and Benson and Hopkins organized what was known as the Colorado Oil Company. Additional pur- chases of adjacent territory gave them for several years a fine production. They were joined at about this time by David McKelvy in a close partner- ship, known as D. McKelvy & Company. In 1869 they operated quite ex- tensively in the Pleasantville black oil district. Subsequently, following the trend of development, they became largely engaged in Butler and Arm- strong counties, also in Warren County in the vicinity of Warren, in the Wardwell district. Subsequently they early took part in the development of the Bradford field. During the years of 1875 and 1876 they managed the Columbia Conduit Company, which at that time was the only pipe com- pany using pipe of larger dimension than three inches diameter. As their in- terest in the stock of this company was nominal, and the parties holding a majority of the stock, this possessing control of the plant, having arranged with the Standard Oil Company to transfer their interest, Benson and Hop- kins did the same with theirs. Immediately following this. they organized what was known as the Baltimore Pipe Line Company, with a view of build- ing a line from Parkers to Baltimore Bay. This scheme involved an outlay of nearly $3,000,000, and the capital of the originators being inadequate, they depended largely on aid from business men of Baltimore. The latter
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were too timid to embark in such an undertaking in opposition to the Stand- ard Oil Company. And, as such aid could not be got, the enterprise was abandoned, after an expenditure of nearly $100,000 for right of way. Since 1880 the firm of D. McKelvy & Company gradually withdrew from the pro- ducing business, and for many years since the company has had no interest in production, excepting some small royalties.
John J. Carter, who has been a resident of Titusville since 1865, has a very interesting record as an oil producer for the last twenty-one years. He was in the gentlemen's furnishing trade from 1865 to 1877, when he sold his business and engaged in oil production in the Bradford field. He had had, however, a little experience in oil development in 1868 in the Pleasant- ville district. His first well in the Bradford field was on the lower Her- dic tract, on which was afterward Derrick City. He next bought the Alfred Whipple farm, on Kendall Creek, of three hundred acres of land, near where was afterward Sawyer City. This property has been highly productive, and it is still producing oil at a profit. Mr. Carter's books show that the farm has already yielded nearly a million and a half barrels of oil. In 1878 Carter. in company with B. N. Hurd, bought of Marcus Brownson a prop- erty at Bell's Camp, known as Lot 14, and Pettinger. The price of the property was 65,000 barrels of oil, to be delivered within the next two years. The property at the time of this purchase was yielding three hundred bar- rels daily. The investment proved to be a profitable one to the purchasers. Carter and Hurd bought still another producing property of Brownson near Riterville, Mckean County. Carter then bought out Hurd, and in 1886 he purchased of Porter and Gillmor Lot 6, and in 1888 he bought valuable adjoining properties. In 1879 Carter and Ramsey bought the Rew and Hodge farms, near Knox City, Mckean County. They also bought other interests in the same vicinity. In 1881 Carter bought Ramsey's interest in the properties, which continue until the present to yield oil in paying quan- tities. In 1881 Carter and Boden bought on the west branch of Tuna Creek an extensive producing property, composed of the Blair, the Davis and the King farms. In 1884 Carter bought Boden's interest. The property is still producing. Carter, in 1883, bought the C. B. & H. tract, a small produc- ing property, and in 1884 he bought Lot 31, a somewhat larger producing property. The former of the last two properties has been abandoned, but the latter is still producing. Another producing property was bought in
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1885, the Chamberlain tract, owned by Bovaird & Seyfang. In the same year Fertig & Company and Carter acquired in the Cogley Run field the Shippen lands. Rickenbrode and Gibbs farms, in all about six hundred acres. On this property the purchasers drilled eighteen wells, which gave a pro- duction of two hundred and fifty barrels a day. In 1886 Carter bought Fertig & Company's interest. He subsequently sold the property to Water- house & Company. In 1886 he bought of William Ley at Grand Valley his farm of one hundred and seven acres, with three producing wells, and put down himself twenty additional wells. The farm is still producing. In 1886, the Saybrook, a producing property, was purchased of E. O. Emer- son, and sold the next year. In 1887 Carter acquired the Keatley farm, consisting of two hundred and forty acres and three small producing wells. The property, after sinking five additional wells, has failed to satisfy the expectation of the purchaser, and development on it is being closed out. In 1887 the Hickory property was bought of Dr. Shamburg, consisting of the Fogle, the Manross, Stufflebeam and other farms, containing three thousand two hundred acres, with forty producing wells yielding forty barrels a day. Sixty more wells have been drilled, and the area of the property increased to four thousand acres. On this property is established the famous River- side Stock Farm, owned by Mr. Carter. It may safely be predicted that this property will continue to yield oil in paying quantity for the next quarter of a century. and probably longer. In 1888 Lots 9 and 10, Elk County, were bought by Mr. Carter, new oil territory. The venture has proved highly profitable. In 1889 Carter bought of the Enterprise Transit Com- pany four hundred and twenty-seven acres of its land at the head of Harris- burg Run, and upon this property he has operated extensively. Connected with this tract was the Rogerson piece, having fifty acres in fee. This property also was purchased. Adjoining still further was the Williams, Smith and Davis property, which Mr. Carter at the same time bought. These properties are still producing.
On all the properties bought from 1877 to 1890 there were at the time of purchase collectively two hundred wells, yielding an aggregate produc- tion of one thousand nine hundred and eighty-seven barrels a day. Between 1877 and 1890 there were drilled on these properties, since their respective purchases, three hundred and eighty-five wells, making five hundred and eighty-five wells, all told. There were sold at various times and abandoned
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eighty-five wells, leaving five hundred producing wells at the present time. These five hundred wells are located on six thousand four hundred and forty- eight acres of land, in fee for the most part. These properties have produced in the last twenty-two years, three million six hundred and thirteen thousand, forty-three barrels of oil. To gather and operate these properties the fol- lowing expenditures have been made, to-wit :
To amounts paid for original purchase ..... .$ 771,500 To amounts paid for drilling and supplies .. ... 775,000
To amounts for maintaining and raising oil. . 903,260
Total outlay. $2,449,760
The average cost therefore of producing these three million six hundred and thirteen thousand, forty three barrels of oil has been about sixty-eight cents a barrel. It should be understood that the greater part of the above expenditure, together with the greater part of the oil produced, was prior to 1891. Since that time there has been a decrease of yield, until now, when it is about half of what it then was. Between 1890 and 1892 Mr. Carter added no territory to his holdings. He has never operated in Butler, or Washington, or Allegheny, or Greene County.
In the winter of 1892-3 he began an extensive purchase of options of oil territory in the Sistersville, West Virginia, field. On the first of May following, he formed the Carter Oil Company, under the laws of West Vir- ginia, subscribing for the whole capital stock of one million dollars, having previously sold to the Standard Oil Company sixty per cent of his purchases in the Sistersville field. In April, 1895, he sold the remainder of his inter- est in the Carter Oil Company to the Standard Oil Company. Since then 'he has continued President and General Manager of the company. Since its organization the company has largely increased its holdings and develop- ment. It has now nearly one thousand producing wells located on more than ten thousand acres of land.
William H. Wood, long a well known citizen of Titusville, has had an interesting experience as an oil producer. He came to the oil country in the spring of 1863, from Waterloo, New York. He came by way of Union City, where he visited an uncle, Mr. Wood, of the firm Wood & Johnson, manufacturers of barrels at that place, who subsequently had barrel works in Titusville, on the flats, where the radiator works now are. His first work
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in oil was to build a refinery on the Patterson farm, on Bull Run. His un- dertaking resulted favorably, and he sold his works in the summer of 1864 with a very fine profit as a whole. He then turned his attention to land speculation, and was fortunate in his investments, and prosperity seemed to mark all his work for several years afterward. He operated extensively in company with the late H. L. Taylor. In September, 1867, he bought the George E. Zuver farm, two miles east of Pleasantville, and operated it for the next eight years. He drilled seventeen wells on the farm, and sold it in 1875. During the period of Mr. Wood's work as a producer he has drilled wells on the Farel, the John Stevenson, the John Benninghoff, the James Tarr, and the Hess farms, on Oil Creek; at Shamburg, Gas City, and in Butler, Armstrong, Warren, Mckean and Forest counties. He has pro- duced and sold oil at forty-five cents, and at ten dollars, per barrel, and at all prices between these extreme figures.
Jesse Smith, a prominent citizen of Titusville, began work in 1865 by sinking a well, a dry hole, on Hammond Run. He next, in company with the McCray Brothers, put down four wells on Church Run. Next, in com- pany with the same parties, he leased and operated the William Henderson farm, in the Church Run field, drilling five wells on the property, which were fairly good producers. During this time he and Jonathan Watson sunk several wells, nearly all of which turned out to be dry. He was interested in a well called the "King of the Hills," on the Stevenson farm, near Petrol- eum Center. Mr. Smith had charge of the well. It yielded three hundred barrels of oil a day for some time. He had at Tidioute interests in wells, which he sold to the McCray Brothers. He then, in company with Jona- than Watson, bought a producing property at Foxburg, on the Allegheny River, for $20,000. This was in 1875. The investment proved to be a good one. The firm name of the property was "Watson, Smith & Son." Then Watson's interest was bought by the others and the firm name changed to "Smith & Son," who afterward sold the property, and purchased another of J. H. Caldwell at Stoneham, near Warren, which they are still operating.
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