Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 29

Author: Babcock, Charles A.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Pennsylvania > Venango County > Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1) > Part 29

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"N. S. Woodford, Noble & Delamater's contractor, had leased the ground between the

Crescent and the Phillips No. 2. His three- thousand-barrel, finished in December, 1861, drew its grist from the Phillips crevice and interfered with the mammoth gusher. When the two became pumpers neither would give out oil unless both were worked. If one stopped the other pumped water. Ultimately the Phillips crowd paid Woodford $500,000 for his well and lease. He retired to his Townville home with $600,000 to show for eighteen months' operations on Oil creek and never bothered any more about oil. The Wood- ford well repaid its enormous cost. Charles Lockhart and William Frew, of Pittsburgh. with whom and John Vanausdall, of Oil City, Phillips was associated, bought out their part- ners and put the Phillips-Woodford interests into a stock company capitalized at $2,000,- 000, profiting enormously by the purchase. The demand for a fragment of the territory boiled over. Densmore Brothers brought in a seven hundred-barreler at the lower end of the farm late in 1861, the Crane swang into line and a zoological freak introduced the ani- mal fad, which named the Elephant, Young Elephant, Tigress, Tiger, Lioness, Scared Cat, Anaconda and Weasel wells. Reckless specu- lation held the fort unchecked. The third sand was sixty feet thick, the territory was durable and three hundred walking-beams exhibited 'the poetry of motion' to the music of three- four-five-six-eight-ten-dollar oil. Mr. Janes built a commodious hotel and a town of two thousand population flourished. Tarr sold his entire interest in 1865, for gold equivalent to $2,000,000 in currency, and removed to Craw- ford county. Another million would hardly cov- er his royalties. His quaint speech coined words and phrases entrenched in the nomenclature of the trade. He died in 1871, near Meadville. and Tarr Farm station, wells and houses have tobogganed into oblivion. Janes operated at Bradford, abode at Erie and rounded out four- score-and-ten twelvemonths of deserved suc- cess. Comrades in business and good-fellow- ship, Phillips and Vanausdall settled in South Oil City and died many years ago.

DOWN TO THE ALLEGHENY RIVER

"South of the Tarr and Story farms, on both sides of Oil creek, were John Blood's four hundred and forty acres, with the Ocean Petroleum Company's twelve flowing wells on the flats in 1861. The Maple Tree Company's burning well spouted two thousand five hun- dred barrels for months, wilted to three hun- dred in a year and was wiped out in October,

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1864, by a fire that consumed twenty wells and a legion of tanks of crude, the loss exceed- ing $1,000,000. Blood well No. 1, flowing one thousand barrels, No. 2, six hundred barrels, and five other gushers never yielded after the conflagration, prior to which the farm was producing more oil than the balance of the region. Brewer & Watson, Ballard & Trax, Edward Filkins, Henry Collins, Reu- ben Painter, James Burrows and J. H. Dun- can were pioneer operators on the tract, a cor- ner of which Oil City and Franklin people are operating profitably. Blood sold in 1863 for $500,000 and removed to New York, splurged two or three years, quit the city for the coun- try and died long since. The Blood farm was notably prolific, but its glory has departed, the rugged hills and sandy banks its principal features.

"On John Rynd's three hundred acres, di- vided by Oil creek, the Blood farm north and the Smith east, Cherrytree and Weikal runs watering the western half, the Rynd well in 1861 flowed five hundred barrels and lasted two years, the Crawford staying until June, 1864. Six passable wells tested Rynd Island, a dot at the upper end of the farm, a New York company buying the entire property in 1864. A dozen strokes of the pump every hour caused the Agitator well to flow strongly a few minutes. The Sunday well, its compan- ion, loafed six days in the week while the other worked, flowing on the Sabbath when the Agitator rested from its labors. Hume & Crawford, Porter & Milroy, B. F. Wren, the Ozark, Favorite, Frost, Northern and a score of other companies operated vigorously. The third sand thickened and improved with the elevation of the hills. Five refineries handled one thousand barrels of crude per week. A snug village bloomed on the west side, the broad flat affording an excellent site. The late John Wallace, who fought at Balaklava and survived the terrific 'Charge of the Six Hun- dred,' M. Stambaugh and Theodore Ladd were prominent in the later stage of operations. Companies bored three hundred wells on Cher- rytree run and its tiny branches without jar- ring the trade unduly. Kane City, two miles north, raised Cain in subdued style, the terri- tory 'wearing like leather.' D. W. Kenney's wells wafted in Alemagooselum City, its unique title a capital advertisement. Recent operations extended northward and westward, sections of Cherrytree, Oakland and Plum townships as far as Dempseytown and Sunville yielding gas and oil in satisfactory measure.

"William McClintock, owner of the two hun-

dred acres below Rynd, on the west side of Oil creek, dying in 1859, the widow remained on the farm with her grandson, John W. Steele. The first wells were sunk in 1861, one or two of the rigs projecting into the stream. The Vanslyke flowed one thousand two hundred barrels a day, declined slowly, and in its third year pumped fourteen thousand. The Lloyd, Eastman, Little Giant, Morrison, Hayes & Merrick, Christy, Ocean, Painter, Sterrett, Chase and sixty more each put up fifty to four hundred daily. Directly between the Vanslyke and Christy, a few rods from either, New York parties finished the Hammond well in May, 1864. Flowing three hundred barrels a day, the Hammond killed the Lloyd and Christy and reduced the Vanslyke to a ten- barrel pumper. The New Yorkers bought the royalty and one-third acre for $200,000. The end of June the tubing was drawn from the Excelsior well, on the John McClintock farm, five hundred yards east, flooding the Ham- mond and all the wells in the vicinity. The creek has washed away the ground on which the best wells were located. The late John W. Waitz, of Oil City, a live wire, resurrected the property in 1892, utilizing compressed air and realizing a snug fortune. His brother, C. A. Waitz, lives at Rynd and keeps the wells and farm in apple-pie order. The tract pro- duced hundreds of thousands of barrels and repeatedly changed owners.

"Mrs. McClintock, like thousands of women since, attempted one day in March of 1863 to hurry up the kitchen fire with kerosene. The result was her death in an hour and the first funeral to the account of the treacherous oil can. She worked hard and secreted her wealth about the house. Her will devised everything to the adopted heir, John W. Steele, twenty years old, who had married the daughter of a farmer in Sugar Creek township. He hauled oil in 1861 with hired plugs until he could buy a span of stout horses. Oil creek teamsters, proficient in lurid profanity, coveted his varied stock of pointed expletives. The blonde driver, of average height and slender build. pleasing in appearance and address, by no means the unlicked cub and ignorant boor he has been represented, neither smoked nor drank nor gambled. He was hauling oil when a neighbor ran to tell him of Mrs. McClin- tock's death. A search of the premises dis- closed $200,000 the old lady had hoarded. Wil- liam Blackstone, appointed his guardian, re- stricted the minor to a reasonable allowance and his conduct was irreproachable. Attain- ing his majority, Mr. Blackstone paid him

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$300,000 in a lump and he resolved to 'see some of the world.' He saw it, and the es- capades of 'Coal Oil Johnny' supplied no end of material for gossip. Many tales concern- ing him were exaggerated, and many pure in- ventions. Philadelphia he colored a flaming vermilion. He squandered thousands of dol- lars a day, but generally somebody was helped by his prodigality, which often assumed a sen- sible phase. Twenty-eight hundred dollars, one day's receipts from his wells and royalty, went toward the erection of the soldiers' mon- ument in the Franklin park, the second in the

stroyed both. The Wheeler, Wright & Hall, Alice Lee, Jew, Deming, Haines and Taft wells were choice specimens. William and Robert Orr's Auburn Oil Works and the Pennechuck Refinery chucked six hundred barrels a week into the stills. The McClintocks have migrated from Venango. Some are in heaven, some in Crawford county and some in the West.

"John L. Mitchell leased the two Buchanan farms, at the junction of Oil creek and Cherry run, formed a partnership with Henry R. Rouse and Samuel Q. Brown and 'kicked down' a well to the first sand, which pumped

Old Home of Coal Oil Johnny, Year Off cily, Pa.

Union to the fallen heroes of the Civil war. Steele reached the end of his string and the farm was sold in 1866. He returned 'dead broke,' was the obliging baggagemaster at Rouseville, ran a meat market at Franklin, took charge of a railway station in Nebraska and was a model citizen, still on deck and con- tented.

"A hundred fruitful wells graced John Mc- Clintock's two hundred acres east of Steele, which Chase & Alden leased in 1861. The Anderson, drilled in 1861 in the corner on Cherry run, flowed three years, waning grad- ually from two hundred barrels to twenty, earning $100,000 and then selling for $60,000. The Excelsior produced fifty thousand barrels before the interference with the Hammond de-

six or eight barrels, was sold to A. Potter, drilled to the third sand and scheduled a three hundred-barreler, pumping for fifteen years, its crop netting $290,000. This was the third or fourth producing well in the region. The Curtis, usually considered 'the first flowing well,' in July of 1860 spouted freely at two hundred feet. It was not tubed and surface water soon mastered the flow of oil. The Brawley-sixty thousand barrels in eight months, the Gable & Flower, the Shaft, the Sherman and the Nausbaum were moguls of 1861-62. Beech & Gillett, Alfred Willoughby, Taylor & Rockwell, Shreve & Glass, Allen Wright, Wesley Chambers and a host of com- panies operated in 1861-62-63. The territory was singularly profitable. Mitchell & Brown

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erected a refinery, divided the tracts into hun- dreds of acre-plots for leases, and laid out the town of Buchanan Farm. Allen Wright, president of a local oil company, in Febru- ary of 1861 printed his letter-heads 'Rouse- ville' and the name was adopted unanimously. "Rouseville grew swiftly and for a time was headquarters of the industry. Church and schools arose, good people feeling that man lives not by oil alone any more than by bread. Dwellings extended up Cherry run and Mount Pisgah. Wells and tanks covered the flats and there were few drones in the busy hive. James White fitted up an opera house and C. L. Sto- well opened a bank. Henry Patchen conducted the first hotel. N. W. Read enacted the role of 'Petroleum V. Nasby,' the postoffice re- ceipts in 1869 footing up $25,000, the popu- lation grazing nine thousand in 1871 and the community rating high for intelligence, pro- gressiveness and crooked streets. Two huge refineries have renewed its youth and the bor- ough has taken a new lease. up-to-the-minute in every essential to comfort and convenience. "Henry R. Rouse lost his life on April 17, 1861, victim of an appalling tragedy. Near the upper line of the farm, on the east side of Oil creek, at the foot of the hill, Merrick & Co. drilled a well eight rods from the Wads- worth. At three hundred feet gas, water and oil rushed up, lifting the tools out of the hole. The evening was damp and the atmosphere surcharged with gas. People ran with shovels to dig trenches and throw up a bank to hold the oil, no tanks having been provided. Mr. Rouse and George H. Dimick, his clerk and cashier, now in the Kentucky swirl, with six others, had eaten supper and were sitting in Anthony's Hotel discussing the fall of Fort Sumter. A laborer at the Merrick well bound- ed into the room to say that a vein of oil had been struck and barrels were wanted. All ran to the well but Dimick, who went to send barrels. Finishing this errand, he hastened towards the well. A frightful explosion hurled him to the earth. Smouldering coals under the Wadsworth boiler had ignited the gas. In almost an instant the two wells, tanks and an acre of ground saturated with oil were in flames, enveloping one hundred persons. Men digging the ditch or dipping the oil dropped like leaves in a gale. Some perished scarcely a step from safety. Rouse stood near the derrick at the fatal moment, struggled to his feet, groped a dozen paces and fell again. Two men dragged him forth, his flesh baked and his clothing shreds. He was carried to a shanty and gasped through five hours of ex-

cruciating torture, no word nor act betraying his fearful suffering. Although obliged to sip water from a spoon at every breath, he dictat- ed a concise will, devising the bulk of his mil- lion-dollar estate in trust to improve the roads and benefit the poor of Warren county. This dire calamity blotted out nineteen lives and dis- figured thirteen men and boys permanently. The blazing oil was smothered with dirt the third day and tubing put in the well, which flowed ten thousand barrels in a week and ceased. The Merrick, Wadsworth, Halde- man, Clark & Banks, Trundy, Comet and Im- perial wells, the tanks and the dwellings, have been obliterated.

A FRUITFUL VALLEY BY THE WAYSIDE

"Cherry run evolved the celebrated Reed well in July, 1864, which with others on five acres of rocks and stumps harvested $2,000,- 000 for William Reed, Robert Criswell, I. N. Frazier and their successors in ownership. Reed, who came to Franklin in 1859 and drilled by contract, sold to Bishop & Bissell for $200,000, after pocketing $75,000 from sales of crude, and returned East with his pile. An idea haunted him that Captain Kidd's treasure was buried at a certain point on the Atlantic coast. He lodged on the shore and hunted land and sea for the hidden deposit, digging in the sand, sailing some distance and peering into the water. One day he rowed off in his skiff, a storm arose, and that was the last ever seen of the man who planted Cherry run on the petroleum map. Criswell bagged $310,- 000, operated in the Butler field, lived opposite Monterey, removed to Ohio and died near Cincinnati. One son, David S., resided at Oil City and made money in the Petrolia district, settling at Butler. Robert W. Criswell, a born journalist, edited the Derrick, the Titusville Petroleum World, the Cincinnati Inquirer and New York papers, killed in his prime by a subway train. Frazier left with $100,000 and next loomed up as 'the discoverer of Pithole.' Three hundred paying wells lined the flats and slopes half way to Plumer, putting the valley at the head of the column. The Union, Bre- voort, Curtin and St. Nicholas Oil Compa- nies filled their coffers, Cornen & Beers drew a luscious prize on the Smith farm, Murray & Fawcett and John J. Zane raked in shekels on Moody run and scores of operators pros- pered.

"Seventy-five wells were drilled on Hamil- ton Mcclintock's four hundred acres in 1860- 61. Here was Cary's 'oil spring' and expecta-

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tions soared high. The best yielded from one hundred to three hundred barrels a day. Low prices and the war led to the abandonment of the smaller brood. A company bought the farm in 1864. McClintockville, a promising village on the flat, boasted two refineries, stores, a hotel and the customary accessories, of which the bridge over Oil creek is the chief reminder. Near the upper boundary of the farm the Reno railroad crossed the valley on a center trestle and timber abutments, not a splinter of which remains. Two miles east- ward the Shaw farm fattened the bank ac- counts of Forster W. Mitchell, Davis & Hu- kill, E. M. Hathaway and Capt. J. T. Jones. The Clapp farm had a long list of good strikes and dusters, much of the oil from the second sand. George H. Bissell and Arnold Plumer, of Franklin, bought the lower half, in the clos- ing days of 1859, from Ralph Clapp, and the Cornplanter Oil Company the upper half. The Hemlock, Cuba, Cornwall and Cornplanter, on the latter section, were productive. The Williams, Stanton, McKee, Elizabeth and Star did their bit on the Bissell-Plumer division. Four refineries flourished and the tract coined money for its owners. Graff & Hasson's one thousand acres, part of the land granted Corn- planter in 1796, had a multitude of medium wells that produced year after year. In 1818 the Indian chief, who loved firewater dearly, sold his reservation to William Connely, of Franklin, and William Kinnear, of Center county, for $2,121. Matthias Stockberger bought Connely's half in 1824 and, with Kin- near and Reuben Noyes, erected the Oil Creek furnace, a foundry, mill, warehouses and steamboat landing at the east side of the mouth of the stream. James Hasson located on the property with his family and farmed five years. James Halyday settled on the east side in 1803. The Bannon family came in the forties. Thomas Moran built the 'Moran House' in 1845 and died in 1857. Dr. John Nevins ar- rived in 1850 and in the fall of 1852 John P. Hopewell started a general store. Hiram Gor- don opened the 'Red Lion Inn,' Samuel Thomas shod horses, and three or four families occupied small habitations. This was the place, when 1860 dawned, that was to become the petroleum metropolis and be known wher- ever men have heard a word of 'English as she is spoke.' Cornplanter was the handle of the humble settlement, towards which a stam- pede began with the first glimmer of spring. One evening a jovial party met in a store. J. B. Reynolds suggested that the name of Corn- planter be changed to one he had worked out,

and forthwith the robust infant was tagged OIL CITY.

"These events, detailed somewhat minutely because of their influence in shaping the in- dustry, indicate partially the extent and qual- ity of the grandest stretch of scenic ravine in William Penn's grand heritage.

"George H. Bissell, honorably identified with the petroleum development from its inception, was born in New Hampshire. Thrown upon his own resources at twelve by the death of his father, he gained education and fortune unaided. At school and college he supported himself by teaching and writing for magazines. Graduating from Dartmouth College in 1845, he was professor of Greek and Latin in Nor- wich University a short time, went to Wash- ington and Cuba, did editorial work on the New Orleans Delta and was chosen super- intendent of the public schools. Impaired health forced him to return North in 1853, when his connection with petroleum began. From 1859 to 1863 he resided at Franklin, to be near his oil interests and barrel factory. He operated largely on Oil creek, on the Alle- gheny river and at Franklin. He removed to New York in 1863, established the Bissell Bank at Petroleum Center in 1866, developed oil lands in Peru, and was prominent in finan- cial circles. His wife died in 1867 and he fol- lowed her to the tomb on Nov. 19, 1884. Mr. Bissell was a brilliant, scholarly man, positive in his convictions and sure to make his influ- ence felt in any community. His son and daughter reside in New York.

"The new town at the mouth of Oil creek advanced by leaps and bounds, all oil com- ing down Oil creek or the Allegheny river hav- ing to pass through Oil City. An endless cav- alcade of wagons hauled crude to the ware- houses and wharves on the west bank, for shipment to Pittsburgh. People huddled in shanties and lived on barges moored to the shore. Derricks peered up behind the houses, thronged the marshy flats, congregated on the slopes, climbed the precipitous bluffs and clung to the rocky ledges. Houses, shops, hotels and saloons hung against the sides of the west- ern 'hogback' or sat loosely on heaps of earth by the two streams. A borough was organ- ized, W. R. Johns launched the Weekly Regis- ter in 1862, and the Derrick made its debut in 1871. To-day Oil City has miles of paved streets and fine residences, acres of brick blocks and factories, trunk railroads and trol- leys. every modern improvement, and twenty thousand of the cleverest people under the blue canopy.

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"On the south side of the river William Phillips, who freighted on the Ohio and Alle- gheny, keeling his last trip from Warren to Pittsburgh in September of 1859, noticed a scum of oil in front of Thomas Downing's farm, leased the land, erected a pole derrick and started a well at the water's edge. Diffi- culties retarded the work nine months, but June, 1860, saw the Albion well completed and pump- ing forty barrels a day, causing a stir. The ferry worked overtime to catch up with the traffic, wells were hurried down, lots found eager buyers, Franklin bankers bought adja- cent farms, William L. Lay laid out Laytonia, Downington and Venango City budded, and at last the varied fractions merged into South Oil City, the delightful residence division of The Hub of Oildom.' The territory was reason- ably fertile and abiding. Three wells near the carbarns, drilled in 1866, with hoary comrades on both banks of the river and up Halyday run, are still yielding their mite. On Sage run, in 1872, Mrs. Sands hit a one hundred- barreler, none in the vicinity or at Pinoak, Salem or Salina equaling it until Finley Gates duplicated the spouter last year.

"Down the Allegheny three miles, on a gen- tle slope facing bold hills across the river, Reno arose, named in honor of the gallant general who, classmate at West Point of George B. McClellan and 'Stonewall' Jackson, attained higher military rank than any other of the he- roes Venango county 'contributed to the death- roll of patriotism.' The Reno Oil Company, organized in 1861 by Charles Vernon Culver, to whose faculty for developing large enter- prises the oil regions presented an alluring field, purchased one thousand two hundred acres and drilled rows of pumping wells along the river, the coarse, pebbly sand yielding oil of approved gravity at five hundred to six hun- dred feet. A chain of banks established at Franklin, Oil City, Titusville and outside cit- ies was managed by the New York office of Culver, Penn & Co., which directed the invest- ment and employment of $15,000,000 in the spring of 1865. People begged Culver to han- dle their funds, elected him to Congress and took stock in whatever project he indorsed. For several years everything worked smoothly, the town growing swiftly, its 'Folger House' packed with tireless guests, a daily paper in the race and a thousand buoyant citizens tuned to concert pitch. The Reno Company decided to build a railroad to Rouseville and Pithole to divert from Oil City the trade of Oil creek and Cherry run. Oil City refused the road the right-of-way, compelling the choice of a cir-

cuitous route, with Alpine peaks to climb and deep ravines to span. A consolidation of com- peting interests was arranged and Mr. Culver was in Washington concluding the agreement when rumors affecting his banks were whis- pered. Floods, the close of the war, the col- lapse of Pithole and the amazing check to speculation impaired confidence in oil values, forcing the Culver interests to the wall on March 27, 1866. The fabric reared with in- finite pains toppled, assets were sacrificed, and the Reno, Oil Creek & Pithole railroad, within a week of completion, crumbled into ruin. The architect of the great plans thenceforth devot- ed his life to the payment of claims against the firm and died in 1909. The Reno Com- pany, reorganized in behalf of its creditors, reaped liberal profits and operated in Forest county, under the presidency of Galusha A. Grow, Speaker of Congress, afterward, whom J. H. Osmer, of Franklin, succeeded. A well in May, 1870, pumped two hundred barrels and threescore others, garnered in 1870-71, were close seconds. The wells and iron tanks have given place to a big refinery and other industries. The natty suburb boasts two rail- roads, a fine school, a church, trolley line to Franklin and Oil City, wide streets, a coun- try club and golfing ground, dainty homes, abundant scenery and all the elements of vital- ity and movement.

LUBRICATING OIL. MANIFESTS ITSELF

"James Evans, a blacksmith, had lived for two decades on the south bank of French creek, at Franklin, near a 'spring' from which Mar- cus Hulings, who ferried folks across the un- bridged stream in a bark canoe and plied a keelboat to Pittsburgh, skimmed a quart or two of 'earth oil' each summer for liniment and medicine, by hemming in a rod of the creek that drowned him in 1813. A well Evans dug seventeen feet for water smelt and tasted of petroleum in dry weather. An early visit to the Drake strike determined him to sink his water well. He fashioned rough drilling tools, rigged a spring-pole and met a crevice at sev- enty-two feet. The tools dropped, breaking off a chunk of iron which refused to be fished out. Father and sons tubed the hole and pumped by hand. Anon a dark-green fluid gushed out at the rate of twenty-five barrels a day, about 31° gravity, free from grit and smooth as silk, the greatest lubricator in the universe, 'Franklin Heavy Oil.' Somebody shouted the glad tidings and everybody speed- ed to the well. November court adjourned in

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Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 29

Author: Babcock, Charles A. Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Babcock, Charles A.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: