USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume Three > Part 31
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
The following report on the several districts in the year 1885 gives further interesting details of the business :
The Allegheny district contained an area of thirty-one square miles and had produced up to that time 15,000,000 barrels of oil.
The Bradford district, which included the central and north- ern parts of Mckean county, Pa., and southern Cattaraugus county, N. Y., containing 133 square miles, of which 121 were in the Bradford district proper, had produced 109,000,000 barrels. The sand in this region is gray, black, or dark brown in color.
The Warren district includes an area of thirty-five square miles, taking in the eastern part of Warren county and the north- east part of Forest county. The oil comes from sands of varying geological horizons, having somewhat the appearance of the Brad- ford and the Allegheny sands, the depth of the oil sands below the Olean Conglomerate varying from 1,100 to 1,850 feet. All of the Bradford and Warren district sands are believed to be of the Chemung Devonian age. The Warren district produced up to 1885 12,000,000 barrels of oil.
The Venango district was the scene of nearly all of the early developments and includes forty distinct pools between Oil City on the south and Pleasantville on the north ; it includes an area of
450
Natural Resources
twenty-eight square miles. The oil was obtained from the first, second, and third principal sand beds, contained within an interval of 350 feet. The first one was about 450 feet below the Olean Conglomerate. The Venango sands belong to the Catskill (Devonian) formation; they are white, gray, or yellow pebble rock, not so homogeneous as in the Allegheny and Bradford dis- tricts, and consequently there was always greater probability of drilling non-producing wells. The Venango district produced to 1885, 55,000,000 barrels of oil.
The Butler district includes pools in Butler and Clarion coun- ties and the southeast part of Venango county, with an area of eighty-four square miles, seventy-six of which are in Butler, Clarion, and Armstrong fields and the Butler cross belt. It has the same group of sands as the Venango district and produced up to 1885, 69,000 barrels.
The Beaver district included the two principal pools at Slip- pery Rock and Smith's Ferry, the former and that part of the latter situated east of the Pennsylvania line containing sixteen square miles. In both a heavy oil was obtained from the repre- sentative of the Pottsville Conglomerate, and an amber oil from the Berea Grit in the sub-carboniferous series. The production up to 1885 was about 1,000,000 barrels.
Of the oil districts as defined at the present time it may be stated that the Bradford district produced in 1897 3,904,230 barrels. It is estimated that the total production of this field out- side of Pennsylvania is equal to about 13 per cent. of the entire production of the Bradford field, making 507,549 barrels pro- duced in the outside portion of the field in that year.
The Warren and Forest county district as now defined in- cludes southwestern Mckean county, eastern and southeastern Warren county, northwestern Elk county, and northeastern For- est county ; it has been sub-divided into the Tiona pool, Warren and Clarendon pool, and the Middle pool or district. The pro- duction for 1897 was 1,999, 108 barrels.
45I
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
The Lower district includes the southwestern part of Warren county, all of Venango county, the eastern part of Forest county, and all of Clarion, Armstrong, and Butler counties. The pro- duction for 1897 was 6,825,599 barrels.
The Allegheny district has been made a separate district and the production in 1897 was 2,958,540 barrels. This district shows a larger proportional decrease during the preceding year than any other district.
Washington county is also now considered a separate district and produced in 1897, 2,175,712 barrels. Beaver county is now another separate district and produced in 1897, 317,926 barrels.
Franklin district includes an area lying between the Allegheny river and French creek at Franklin, Venango county, in which is produced a natural lubricating oil, which is extensively used by the railroads of the country. The production in 1897 was 48,880 barrels, and during a number of years past the product has aver- aged about 50,000 barrels.
Green county district shows comparatively small production, although a few excellent wells were drilled in 1897, and several large gas wells were developed in the southern part of the county in the year named.
Outside of these districts oil was found in isolated pools south and southeast of the Beaver and Butler districts; at Mt. Nebo, near Pittsburg; in the vicinity of Pleasant Unity, Westmoreland county ; near the mouth of Dunlap creek, Fayette county, and near Washington in Washington county.
Regarding the sources of petroleum and the probability of ex- haustion of the supply, Professor Lesley wrote in 1883: "It is certain that petroleum is not now being produced in the Devonian rocks by distillation or otherwise. What has been stored up can be got out. When the reservoirs are exhausted, there will be an end of it. The discovery of a few more pools of two or three mil- lion barrels each can make little difference in the general result." Other excellent authorities of that time accepted the same view,
452
Natural Resources
and it was not until about that year that the probable diminution and final exhaustion of the oil supply in any given locality, and the revolutionizing consequences of such a result, were fully ap- preciated. But when the maximum production for any one month ( 105, 102 barrels) was reached in July, 1882, and a long and steady decline in quantity began and continued, the most
The Drake Monument
Erected in memory of Colonel E. L. Drake, at Titusville; dedicated, 1901. Negative by John A. Mather
optimistic believers in a supply that would continue indefinitely were convinced of their error. In his work on "The Product and Exhaustion of the Oil Region of Pennsylvania and New York," ( 1885), Charles A. Ashburner wrote: "A defined territory, a product inadequate to meet the demand of the market for the past eighteen months, a growing market and rapidly diminishing stocks; an increasing number of drilling and producing wells, and a rapidly falling daily average product per well, are all sig- nificant signs of a certain decline in a great industry."
+53
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
These statements, startling as they were at that time, have all been verified as far as relates to the producing territory then dis- covered and developed. Where once hundreds of thousands of active men eagerly toiled in one or another branch of the oil in- dustry in western Pennsylvania, and the hills and valleys were covered with forests of derricks in thousands of which the sound of the pumps never ceased ; where busy marts of business, many of which were the creation of a wonderfully brief period, called out the energies of their ambitious residents, all is now stagna- tion, as far as this great industry is concerned.
It was estimated in July, 1883, that there were 17,100 pro- ducing wells in the oil region under consideration. In July, 1884, there were 21,844, and in July, 1885, 22,524. The average price of crude oil in July, 1885, was 921/2 cents per barrel, which was 1314 cents less than the average for the whole of the year 1883. Down to and including the year 1882 the total product was 154,- 000,000 barrels, which quantity was increased at the beginning of 1885 to 261,000,000 barrels. During the succeeding years to the present time the oil producing districts of this country, as well as in other parts of the world, have been increased to a mar- vellous degree, until it would seem that notwithstanding the well- proven fact that the supply in any given locality must inevitably decline, the gross product may never fall below the needs of hu- manity.
The unjustifiable discrimination in freight rates on oil by the railroads, to which allusion has been made, and which began prior to 1870, led to a memorable conflict between the producers and re- finers in the oil regions on the one side and the combination of the great refining interests of Cleveland with the railroads on the other. Through the organization then known as the South Im- provement Company, which became the present great Standard Oil Company, by John D. Rockefeller and his colleagues, they were given freight rates over the railroads that threatened to ruin every producer and refiner who declined to merge his interests
454
Natural Resources
with theirs. In 1870 Cleveland was the most important refining center in the United States, taking one-third of the entire output of crude oil from the oil regions. Competition between the refin- ers of that city and those situated near the source of supply was intensely active; but notwithstanding the apparent advantages of the latter, they found their interests declining and their profits dwindling, while the rival organization was evidently on the high tide of success. The mysterious cause of this condition of affairs was finally discovered and retaliation on the part of the oil men in Pennsylvania was prompt and effective. The railroads had their excuse for giving the Cleveland men a lower freight rate than they would grant the refiners of the oil region, in the fact that the former guaranteed to give the roads a vastly greater volume of business. Many refiners were warily led to believe that if they did not join the great organization they would be financially crushed-an argument that was effective in many in- stances. To still further strengthen the lever with which the combination was attempting to rule or overthrow the business of the independent operators, it was announced early in 1872 that a heavy advance in freight rates would be made on oil from the oil region, from which their opponents were to be exempt. When this statement was read in the newspapers the Pennsylvania oil centers were thrown into an angry panic, and within twenty-four hours a great mass meeting was held in Titusville and a little later was followed by another in Oil City. These excited gatherings resulted in the organization of the Petroleum Producers' Union, which at once resolved that no new wells should be started by its members within sixty days and that no oil whatever should be sold to their opponents. They denounced the whole business as a conspiracy : ordered its history printed and sent in many thou- sands to United States and State officials, and to many railroad and business men in all parts of the country. A monster petition was sent to the State legislature asking for a free pipe line bill, and during a number of weeks ordinary business was to a large extent
455
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
abandoned. The efforts of these determined men of the oil re- gion to break down the combination of railroads and Cleveland refiners were finally effective, and in March, 1872, the railroad com- panies annulled their contracts with the South Improvement Com- pany. It was soon discovered, however, that the Standard Oil Company was only another name for the South Improvement Company, and that its power and influence with the railroads was almost compulsory. By observing the utmost secrecy, rebates were again secured and the old difficulties sprang into life again to hamper operations and diminish profits of the oil interest in this State. Mr. Rockefeller and some of his business associates visited the oil regions and there used their persuasive powers to the utmost in efforts to bring the whole refining interest under control of their company. They met with some measure of suc- cess and gradually since that time the great Standard Oil Com- pany has reached out its tentacles into all the oil producing sec- tions of the country and substantially gained an ascendency which no opposition has yet been able to overcome. Its recent history is too well known to need repetition here. Whether its operations have inured to the good or the ill of the country at large, it stands as one of the most gigantic business monopolies the world has ever seen.
NATURAL GAS
In this connection, and because of its close association with the oil interests of this State, brief reference to the production of what is generally known as natural gas will possess a measure of value and interest. The existence of what were called gas springs was known to settlers in some localities many years ago, the first probably near Fredonia, N. Y. But it was not until after 1821 that any attempt was made to utilize the product; burners were then put in use, and the gas was confined and directed through them for illuminating purposes. In 1858 a well was put down which supplied gas for 200 burners; another followed in 1871.
456
Natural Resources
In a geological sense the oil and the gas regions are one and the same. The strata drilled through in sinking the great gas wells near Pittsburg are in general the same as the strata in differ- ent parts of the' Devonian and Carboniferous series which have been so extensively pierced for the production of petroleum. The rocks which supply gas are found in a vertical range of about 3,000 feet of Carboniferous and Devonian strata extending from the Mahoning sandstone at the base of the Lower Barren meas- ures, which is an average of 500 feet below the Pittsburg coal bed, down to the Smethport oil sand in Mckean county, which is 350 feet below the great Bradford oil sand of that region. The prin- cipal gas horizons are (I) the probable representative of the Venango first oil sand at Pittsburg, 1,800 to 1,850 feet below the Pittsburg coal bed; (2) the Sheffield gas sand, which appears to be the lowest oil and gas sand in Warren county (the horizon of which is about 800 feet above the bottom of the interval of 3,000 feet ) ; (3) the Bradford oil sand, 1,775 feet below the base of the Pottsville Conglomerate. It should be understood, however, that gas has been found outside of these three horizons.
Carburetted hydrogen is the chief component of gas from the earth, which is generally traced to bituminous matter, from which it may also be distilled, as is practiced in producing it from coal. The oil wells in very many instances and places produced this gas -some of them nothing else and in enormous quantities. But as far as relates to the oil region under consideration in this chapter, the gas was long considered a useless and dangerous product. About the year 1870 it began to be utilized in various localities and from that time forward many wells were drilled exclusively for it. On the upper Cumberland river, in Kentucky, gas accu- mulated in such quantities beneath the sheets of Lower Silurian limestone, and the pressure was so great, that hundreds of tons of material were sometimes blown up out of the earth by its volume, giving such places the local name of "gas volcanoes." Along the Ohio river gas frequently escaped in large volume from
457
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
oil wells, and wells bored there in 1866 at the same geological horizon that produced oil at Oil creek, struck fissures at 600 feet depth from which gas shot up with enormous pressure, blowing the drilling tools far into the air, accompanied by a jet of water that rose 100 feet from the earth. The water in such wells was excluded by the insertion of a tube and the gas was thus separated and confined within itself. Its value as a heat producer finally attracted the attention of large manufacturers, pipe lines were laid in many localities and it became a very important factor in large industries and for domestic heating purposes. It so continues to the present time, though its diminution and gradual extinction in given localities corresponds in that respect with oil. In the case of flowing oil wells it is the theory that the oil is forced up- ward by the great gas pressure; when the latter diminishes the flow decreases in corresponding ratio. A remarkable gas well was drilled at East Sandy in 1869, in which the flow caught fire and burned during more than a year, the roar of the flame being heard for miles. After its partial exhaustion the well was piped and the gas was used for producing steam power for drilling, pumping, etc. A large number of gas wells were drilled in the early years of the industry at Gas City, Cranberry township, Venango county, and the area from which it was profitably drawn gradually spread to many other localities. In June, 1872, a well was drilled for oil two miles from Fairview, Butler county, Pa., to a depth of 1,335 feet, when it was abandoned on account of the flow of water and gas. A few months later the pressure of the gas became so strong that it forced all the water from the well and in the fall of that year a company was formed to utilize the product. A pipe 334 inches in diameter was laid to Fairview, and later was continued three miles farther to Petrolia. and under a pressure of eighty pounds to the square inch the gas was ex- tensively used for both light and heat.
In the Newton well, about five miles northeast of Titusville, gas was struck at a depth of 786 feet, which escaped with such
458
Natural Resources
tremendous force as to blow out a sand pump and tools, with great volumes of water, to a height of 100 feet in the air. The rour of the escaping gas was heard ten miles distant. The total pressure was about 350 pounds to the inch and 500,000 cubic feet of gas escaped per day. Capitalists made plans for utilizing the product at Titusville, and the well was purchased by Henry Hinckley, of that place. On the Ist of August, 1872, it was con- veyed to the city in a two-inch pipe, which was later superseded by a 31/2-inch main, and was long extensively used in the place
and by surrounding farmers and manufacturers. In later years the total gas supply was enormously increased, both in Pennsyl- vania and elsewhere, and it was conveyed to Pittsburg, Buffalo, and many other large and small business centers, where it was almost universally used in manufacturing operations of every de- scription, and in public buildings and dwellings for heat and light. In 1873 there were twenty-five wells in operation in this State, the greater part of which were drilled especially for gas, which was reached at depths varying from 500 to 700 feet. Unlike oil, natural gas cannot be commercially transported to points far dis- tant from the supply, excepting in pipes ; hence, when the supply diminishes and finally ceases in any given district, that district must seek its light and heat from other sources. This has been the result in many localities where brilliant anticipations were once entertained that the supply would continue indefinitely.
CEMENT
Among the valuable natural products of Pennsylvania that have aided in giving the State prominence in industrial operations are the rocks that supply the requisite materials for the manufac- ture of what is commonly known in this country and in Europe as Portland cement. These materials, although they are widely distributed in various parts of the world, are not, in very numer- ous localities, found in such juxtaposition or even proximity as to
459
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
justify attempts to make profitable use of them in producing com- mercial cement.
There is a widely existing misapprehension as to the antiquity of true cement. Much has been said and written of the old Roman cement which has bound together great blocks of ma- sonry, withstanding the wear of time and the disintegrating ef- fects of weather. It is now known by those who are well versed on the subject that this binding material used by those ancient builders was nothing more than a judicious mixture of slacked lime and a peculiar powder or sand made by crushing the volcanic deposits of Italy, producing a mortar that would after consider- able time set firmly under water. By reason of the silicious char- acter of this sand, the mortar possessed this "setting" property and also became in time a substance of great strength and dura- bility. But it was, after all, only a form of our old lime and sand mortar, and it did not always endure. Pliny, in writing of his experiences in old Rome, mentions buildings which had fallen, and frequently through the weakness of the binding materials used in the masonry.
There was little improvement in the character of mortar used before the middle of the fifteenth century. Stone and brick con- structions still had to be repointed with new mortar every few years, and chimneys not infrequently rebuilt. Even at the time mentioned the new discovery claimed to have been made by a Frenchman was not of great value. His petition to the king was based upon his alleged discovery that the way to make the perfect mortar was to take the lime hot from the kiln and at once incor- porate it with sand and water, instead of letting the lime and sand slake together for months, as was the old practice. Nothing practical came of this discovery, and so it was not until about the beginning of the last century that the first real progress was made. Then the great Smeaton, builder of the famous Eddystone light- house, facing the problem of erecting his massive foundations deep under water, made the discovery of hydraulic cement, or
460
Z
Henry Martyn Hoyt
Teacher; soldier in Civil War and mustered out with rank of brigadier-general; additional law judge courts of Luzerne County, 1867; governor, 1879-1883
Natural Resources
hydraulic limestone mortar. During his numerous experiments he learned that the theory of the ancients that the harder the lime- stone burned, the harder the cement, was incorrect. He found that the softer stones, those that contained a fair amount of argil- laceous substances, or clay, gave better results, and he established the principle that a limestone containing one-fifth to one-fourth residue when dissolved in hydrochloric acid, would set under water. To such stones he gave the title of hydraulic limestones, and from the principle laid down by him come the two great defi- nitions of what are now known as the "natural," and the artificial (Portland) cements of commerce. Smeaton was not a financial gainer through his discovery, and in 1796 James Parker of Christ Church, Surrey county, England, invented and patented a cement to which he gave the title "Roman," claiming it was identical with the one used by the ancients. He marketed his product to a considerable extent. At the same time experiments were pro- gressing along similar lines, but it was not until 1812 that a num- ber of men of that country, after long research, probed the secret of making hydraulic mortar, and actually made in an artificial way a cement similar to the well-known Portland cement.
In 1813 Joseph Aspdin, a bricklayer of Leeds, England, took out a patent for a cement, the details of which closely follow the later processes of manufacture, and gave his product the name Portland cement, on account of its resemblance when set to the Portland stone, a well known building material of England. This cement he placed on the market in opposition to the Roman ce- ment of Parker and competition was active many years. Other successful cement works were established in England in later years. The question of the relative value of the Portland and the artificial cements was finally settled some time after 1850, by John Grant, the engineer in charge of the London drainage system. He conclusively showed that Portland cement, with three parts sand, was as strong as Roman cement with one part sand. This declaration gave a great impetus to the manufacture of the cement.
463
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
In this country the cement industry was called into being largely by the building of the early artificial waterways. When the necessity for its use arose, limestones were discovered which, according to the theories of Smeaton and others, developed the qualities necessary for making a good hydraulic cement. So, here as well as in England, the natural cement industry preceded the manufacture of the Portland cement. Between the years 1830 and 1860 cement works were established on the line of the Richmond and Allegheny canal at Balcony Falls: on the Ohio river canal at Louisville; on the Chesapeake and Ohio canal at Cumberland and Hancock, Md .; on the Erie canal at Howe's Cave; on the line of the Lehigh canal at Siegfried's Bridge, Pa., etc.
The Portland cement was imported from England in a small way in 1870, and its excellence in every essential characteristic soon brought it into extensive use. The natural result of this business was an attempt to produce the same article in this coun- try. About 1870 and a little later David O. Saylor, of Allen- town, Pa., was operating a small natural cement works on the line of the Lehigh canal, at Coplay, Lehigh county, Pa. Experi- ments made by him proved that by burning to incipient vitrifica- tion the natural rocks in his quarry, he could make a cement that would, for a short period, stand a tensile strain equal to the im- ported Portland article. But he learned, also, that if it was left for a time in briquettes or in constructed work, it would crumble away, and that this defect was caused by the variation in the raw rocks used. By his native ability and perseverance he then studied and successfully applied to the Lehigh rocks the principle that had governed the production of the imported Portland ce- ment, though he was dealing with a material never before used for this purpose. Some later figures of the present production of this indispensable article in the United States and its immense value to the builders of the country will convey an idea of the vast importance of Mr. Saylor's work. He found that it was neces-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.