USA > West Virginia > Lewis County > A history of Lewis County, West Virginia > Part 29
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In 1886 Henry S. White, a representative of J. M. Guffey and Company, of Pittsburgh, secured leases on the farms of Henry Wanstreet, William; Flesher, D. Sweeney, Joseph Droppleman, John S. Tierney, John Keely, John McFadden, N. C. Latta, John Wineberg, Theresa A. Gumm, and others. Most of these farms are situated on Fink creek or its tributaries.
Discovery of the great pool at Mannington in 1890 quickly caused the Standard Oil Company to become in- terested in the development of the oil territory of West Virginia. In preparation for extensive operations, the company sent a corps of engineers into the field to trace the "forty-five degree line" from the Pennsylvania border to the Great Kanawha river. All the farms within eight miles of the line on either side were to be carefully mapped, and the contour of the surface carefully studied for indications. The sixteen-mile belt through Central West Virginia was expected to be the scene of great activity.
Prospectors from the Sistersville pool (opened in 1890) also were led to make investigations in Lewis County through the surface indications of oil and gas. Leasing of lands in several sections of the county was conducted quietly by representatives of large Pennsyl- vania companies as well as by West Virginia operators. The object seemed to be not to develop the field at once,
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but to lease some of the choicest locations in preparation for the opening of the field later.
Tired of waiting for development from outside the county, local people determined to begin drilling. In August 1893, the Lewis County Oil and Gas Company was organized with E. W. Boyd as president. The com- pany had leased 3,500 acres of land along the river below Weston, on which they proposed to make a thorough test to discover whether or not oil was to be found there. Operations did not begin at once owing to the fact that the panic of 1893 caused money to be scarce. It was late in 1897 before the first test well was begun on the farm of Colonel A. W. Woodford on the river below Weston. In 1896, S. E. Barrett, formerly an operator in the Sis- tersville field, proposed to make a test in the vicinity of Weston if financial aid could be secured from local cap- italists. He was successful in forming a company at a later date.
Meanwhile tests had been conducted with varying results in other sections of the county. A Pennsylvania company began drilling a test well on a tract of 2,300 acres of land which they had leased in the vicinity of Alum Bridge There was great excitement in that com- munity, and before the rig was up for the first well, farmers had set a price for their lands at least five dol- lars per acre higher than they had before dared to ask. The result of the test was kept secret by the company in preparation for the further leasing of territory in the community, and the well was reported to the farmers as a dry hole.
Toward the end of 1894, the South Penn Oil Com- pany began a test on the Rastle farm on Fink creek. The well was finished about the first of January, 1895, and was immediately shut in and the drillers sworn to secrecy as in the case of the well near Alum Bridge. The plug failed to hold. Some of the oil leaked out and was wasted; and soon everybody in the community knew that Lewis County was in the oil field. Citizens
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of upper Fink creek caught some of the oil which flowed from the well, and placed a sample bottle of it on exhibi- tion in a Churchville store as visible evidence of the mineral wealth of the county. The Churchville corres- pondent of the Weston Independent, in a guarded state- ment, wrote, "The sample of oil which escaped from the well on Mr. Rastle's farm looks very suspicious of oil in this neighborhood. It is said that upwards of seventy- five gallons run away daily. We understand that the oil company is preparing tanks. It is believed that they'll open up an oil field in the near future." Farmers were not so conservative as the correspondent. Land owners in the vicinity went wild with excitement. Land values rose until they were out of sight. Farmers offered to sell their lands at from $250 to $300 per acre-more than ten times the amount they would have dared to ask before the oil excitement.
Developments in the Fink creek valley continued. Further test wells were drilled in different localities by the South Penn Oil Company. In 1897, it was generally known that there were four producing wells in the Fink field, though the daily production of the wells was of course a matter of conjecture. Further development was indicated by the laying of a pipe line from McElroy, in Doddridge County, thirty miles away, to convey the product of the Fink wells to market. The best produc- tion in the early wells on Fink creek was said to be in the Salt and Big Injun sands.
The South Penn well No. 5 in the Fink field was drilled in a "duster" in 1897. The Fink Creek Oil and Gas Company located a well on the Back fork of Alum fork in October, 1897, at the same time as the Boyd Brothers' well was located on the Woodford farm. Both wells came in with a strong flow of gas. The Woodford well was drilled to the Gordon sand in hope of finding oil in paying quantities. A little was found in the Gantz sand, but when drilling stopped at 2,400 feet, on 19 April 1898, the well was pronounced a dry hole.
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In order that the owners of the well should not lose all their investments it was proposed to pipe the gas to Wes- ton. The well was finally sold to a Clarksburg com- pany. Other local companies were formed soon after- wards which leased farms and made preparations for drilling.
In 1899, S. E. Barrett organized the Lewis Oil Com- pany which drilled in a big gas well near Churchville. The promoters, who were mainly local people, were dis- appointed at the outcome of the well as there was then no means of marketing the product. It was recognized, however, that the gas could be piped to Weston where it would satisfy the demands of the people of Weston to secure cheaper fuel than they were being furnished by the Keener company.
The results of the operations of local companies and the continued development caused the South Penn company to act, and, beginning about 1900, they spared no effort to gain complete control of the territory in the vicinity of Weston. Below Weston on the river and on Gee Lick run, they offered one dollar an acre rental per year, and most of the territory in the vicinity was leased at that figure. Most of the farms around Jane Lew were also leased at about the same time by the South Penn Oil Company and by "wildcatters". By the middle of the year 1899 there were few tracts in the vicinity of Weston and Jane Lew, with the exception of church lots, which had not been leased.
The drilling in of the Hushion well on Fink creek, 3 December 1898, with a capacity variously estimated at from 10 to 35 barrels a day, dispelled every doubt that the northwestern part of the county was a rich oil field. In order to delimit the oil field already known, and to discover, if possible, other pools of paying production, tests were made on Hacker's creek, on Canoe run, near Arnold station, near Burnsville and several miles above Weston on the river, but no information was given out by the oil companies as to the results of the tests. In
THE COPELY WELL
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August 1899, the Sparling Oil Company drilled in a test well on the W. K. Wilson farm on the Little Kanawha river, in the southernmost extremity of Lewis County, from which it was reported that oil flowed at the rate of sixty-five barrels a day. In consequence most of the territory in that section was soon leased. The well on the Tom Harrison farm on Stone Coal creek was drilled in with a light production of gas at about the same time. The pertinacity of S. E. Barrett was finally rewarded by the coming in of the "Big Barrett" near Churchville, with a strong flow of oil.
By far the greatest excitement of the year 1899, cen- tered around developments on Polk creek. The Camden well No. 1, at the mouth of Dry fork was started as a test in the middle of the year. In September, so much gas was encountered that operations were suspended for a time. Then on October 5th, it came in a gusher with an estimated production of from 1,000 to 3,000 barrels a day. The oil was thrown nearly to the top of the der- rick and flowed for some distance in the channel of Polk creek. Dams were constructed in the channel to hold it back, and barrels were submerged in the pools to collect as much of the precious fluid as possible. The construc- tion of tanks was rushed with all possible speed. One week after the strike, eight 250-barrel tanks and two 1,200-barrel tanks were standing near the well, at least partly filled with oil. Efforts were being made by the company to confine the output of the well until a pipe line could be laid to the Jarvisville field. A close watch was maintained by the company to prevent other parties from gaining the secret of the amount of production.
It was rumored at the time that the driller of the well had exceeded his instructions by going so deep, and that he was discharged by the company immediately after the great flow of oil was struck. Be that as it may, the strike undoubtedly cost the company thousands of dollars in the high prices which it was compelled to pay to secure leases on the farms adjoining. Almost before
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daybreak the next morning after the discovery, agents of the company went from farm to farm trying to se- cure leases. Where, before the drilling, they could have made the leases easily and at small rental, they were now compelled to offer large bonuses in order to secure any leases at all.
The great strike on the Camden farm created the greatest excitement in the county since the coming of the Confederate raiders in the 'sixties. All classes rushed to the scene impelled by curiosity actually to see the marvel with their own eyes. There was a constant stream of sight-seers. Many came from Harrison, from Upshur, and from Gilmer counties. Merchants in Wes- ton left their business in order, if possible, to ascertain just how great the capacity of the well was, and how favorable the prospects for securing leases in the vicinity. The fever of speculation seized all classes. Royalties were bought at unheard-of prices, and farmers were offered fabulous prices for their lands. "Men rushed madly in all directions from the well," says a writer in the Weston Independent, "determined if possible to se- cure leases at any cost."
Many of the farms in the vicinity of the Camden well were held under ten-cent leases which had been in operation for several years. Owing to the indefiniteness of the tract leased, E. G. Davisson and J. W. Ross came to the conclusion that these leases were not valid, and they therefore leased some land held under ten-cent lease in the vicinity. The South Penn Oil Company de- termined to secure their title to the oil under the J. W. Taylor farm by right of possession. One Monday morn- ing a small army of rig builders came to the farm and be- gan the construction of a rig for them. It was completed Wednesday evening. That night Davisson and Ross started their teams from Weston with a boiler and a string of tools, arriving the next morning at the South Penn rig on the Taylor farm where they immediately be- gan drilling. The South Penn equipment had been
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started from Wolf Summit, but it never reached the rig. Davisson and Ross employed one of the officers of the Spanish-American war volunteers from Lewis County to round up the men who had lately been discharged and keep the South Penn employes off the farm. A few days later Davisson and Ross were summoned before the fed- eral court at Parkersburg, with the result that a com- promise was agreed upon. The ten-cent leases were proved invalid; and farmers in the vicinity received new leases for much larger amounts and thousands of dol- lars in royalties as a result.
On 25 January 1900 the Taylor well No. 1 was pro- ducing forty barrels a day when it had been drilled only a few feet into the sand. Other wells had already been located in close proximity to the big Camden well, and by the end of January eleven wells were being drilled near the gusher.
Unfortunately nearly all the later wells proved to be either dry holes or light pumpers. Even the Camden No. 1, which was a limestone well, soon blew out the oil which it held in a crevice. The interest of the oil spec- ulators in the field waned, and by midsummer, 1900, most of the oil excitement among the people of the county had died out. Oil companies continued to drill test wells in other fields as they had done before, most of the ac- tivity being confined to the Fink creek and Sand fork valleys which, like most of the other lands along the "forty-five degree line", were leased almost solidly. The first tests made on Kincheloe creek had been successful, and it was evident that an important field was being opened there.
The chief new development in the Fink field early in 1900, came from drilling on Straight run, a tributary of Fink. On April 25th, the A. T. Gooden well was drilled in with a production of about 300 barrels daily. The lo- cation of other wells followed in the same vicinity at once. The Lowther No. 1 was completed late in August with a production of about 100 barrels a day, and at about
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the same time Davisson and Ross drilled in their first well on the J. C. Waggoner farm, which showed a pro- duction of about 400 barrels a day, and was then regarded as being the best well in the county. The A. T. Gooden Nos. 2 and 3 came in good producing wells. By Septem- ber 1st, ten new locations had been made on Straight run.
Just when the citizens of the county had come to the conclusion that all the oil fields had been discovered and that no startling new developments would take place there occurred the most remarkable event in the history of the oil boom in Lewis County and perhaps of West Virginia up to that time. On 22 September 1900 the Copely well No. 1, on Sand Fork, on the old Camden- Bailey-Camden tract, was drilled in with a production estimated at from two hundred to three hundred barrels an hour, which rapidly rose to seven thousand barrels a day. According to a Pittsburgh newspaper it was the largest well that had been drilled in the Appalachian re- gion in seven years. The oil spurted far over the top of the derrick and fell in a shower which soaked the ground for several hundred feet around the well. Labor- ers clad in oilskins worked constantly, making frantic efforts to shut in the oil or at least to reduce the flow. Ten tanks, with a capacity of 250 barrels each, were hastily improvised, but they were filled within a few hours. The oil formed a rivulet flowing into Sand fork, which rose rapidly in the bed of the stream. Fortunately for the owners of the oil, it was a season of comparative drought, and there was little or no water in the stream. Dams were hastily thrown up in the channel of the stream, one below the other, for a distance of eight miles below the well. Laborers who had worked day and night at fabulous wages, fell exhausted, unable to continue longer without sleep. The oil flowed on over the last dam that had been constructed and continued down the channel of the stream, some of it eventually reaching
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the Little Kanawha river. Thousands of barrels were wasted, though every possible effort was made to save it.
Weeks passed before sufficient tankage could be brought to the field, or a pipe line could be constructed to provide for the production of the well. The tremend -. ous flow continued. At the end of five weeks the Copely No. 1 was holding up to a production of one hundred barrels an hour.
If there was great excitement following the strik- ing of the Camden No. 1, there was a perfect bedlam fol- lowing the completion of the Copely well. There is no comparison except by multiplication by a large number. Visitors came from far and near, some out of curiosity, some to secure leaseholds if possible. The roads were crowded with people riding or driving to and from the great well, and there was more bustle and stir in the hitherto secluded hollows of Court House district than there had ever been before, or will probably ever be again.
The rush to the field would have been far greater if the strike had been made in territory less fully leased. Around the Copely well when it was drilled in the lease- holds of the South Penn Oil Company and Guffey and Galey covered the country like a blanket. Those of a speculative frame of mind had to content themselves with leasing in other fields or in buying the royalties of the Irish owners of the land, many of whom became rich overnight.
The extent of the pool tapped by the Copely No. 1 was unknown. It might extend from the borders of the Polk creek field and the Fink field south and west for a long distance. With the exception of a light producer, the J. W. Cox well No. 1 west of the Copely farm, there was no other well in the vicinity. In order to delimit the field, and to bring it to its full development, a gen- eral rush to get material into the field began. Two hun- dred teams were employed in hauling engines, boilers, pipe and casings from Weston. Boarding-houses, feed
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stores and barns sprang up like mushrooms near the Copely well. Within five weeks after the completion of the Copely No. 1, the Reynolds well No. 1 had been drilled into the fifth sand and was making one hundred barrels a day. The J. W. Cox No. 2 was completed and was producing forty barrels a day. Locations had been made on the Peters and Heath farms on Butcher's fork and on the Bennington farm on Oldfield fork. Rigs were being constructed on the Judge John Brannon farm and the Devanney farms on Sand Fork, as well as at new lo- cations on the Copely farm, and efforts were hastened everywhere to drill to the Gordon sand from which had been turned the fluid, stored for centuries, into the sin- gle outlet of the Copely well.
On November 8, the Turner well No. 1, a little more than a half-mile above Copely No. 1, was drilled into the Gordon sand by Guffey and Galey. It was declared at the time to be fully equal to the great Copely well. Strange to say, upon the completion of the Turner No. 1, the production of the Copely No. 1 sank appreciably. It was evident that the same pool was tapped by both and that the area of the pool could hardly be extensive, or one well would not have been so greatly affected by the drilling in of the other. Nevertheless drilling contin- ued. Several new wells were sunk all around the great gushers, and within a very short time the limits of the pool had been determined within a few rods. On the Donlan farm, which adjoined the Copely farm on the west, it is said that not a single drop of oil was ever ob- tained. On farms only a short distance away in other directions dry holes were frequently found. In some lo- cations in the vicinity also, good producing wells were drilled in, though there were none which could possibly be compared with the two great gushers. In most of the wells completed in the Sand Fork field, much natural gas was found, but there was as yet no market for it, and little interest was taken in its production.
The Copely well "disturbed the social equilibrum
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for miles around" The four maiden sisters, descendants of the pioneer Copely, who had taught numerous terms of school, were enabled to retire from the profession in ease and comfort for the remainder of their lives. Their neighbors, most of whom had experienced some diffi- culty in securing a comfortable living from their rough farms, became wealthy overnight. Men whose sole mil- itary experience consisted of watching Grand Army pa- rades on the Fourth of July were soon answering to the title of Colonel. Such prosperity as the first Irish settlers had never dreamed of, came suddenly to the rough hol- lows of Sand fork. Their descendants were able to sell their land for large sums and take up their abode in leisure elsewhere.
One of the most unfortunate immediate results of the big oil strike was a smallpox scare which caused a panic in all parts of the county. Disseminated probably by the congregation of hundreds of persons of all walks of life, from all points of the compass, the disease soon broke out simultaneously on Leading creek, on Sand fork, at Weston and at other places in the county The county officials maintained a pest-house on Buck Knob for the treatment of those afflicted with the disease and caused a rigid quarantine to be placed on all suspects. The measures taken by the medical authorities proved effective, and the spread of the disease was stopped within a few weeks.
During 1901 development in the Lewis County fields was very active. More wells were then being drilled here than in any other county in the state. Tests were rapidly being completed all over the county. The Right fork of Freeman's creek was proved to be a field of considerable promise through the drilling of the T. Joyce well, which produced about sixty barrels daily. New locations were made in the Fink field, in the Copely field, on Polk creek, on Kincheloe creek and in the east- ern part of Freeman's creek district.
New developments in the vicinity of Beall's Mills,
.
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A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
east of the Copely field, made known the presence of a good fifth sand pool. The wells, though not great gush- ers like the Copely well and the Turner well, nor even large producers like the A. T. Gooden No. 1, were uni- form in size and never failed to respond to a shot. The discovery of this pool retrieved the reputation of the re- gion which had been badly damaged by the failures at Sand Fork following the Copely strike. The new pool has proved to be of considerable extent, and many of the producing wells of the county at the present time have been drilled into it. The oil development since 1901 has generally consisted in the completion of wells in the well-recognized fields of Freeman's Creek and Court House districts, and few exciting strikes have been made.
By 1902, Lewis County oil production approached its highest point. More oil was flowing from the wells here than from those of any other county of the state, and the output was of a superior quality. The Sand fork and Fink fields were recognized as being the most pro- lific fields in a state which then led all the other states in production. There were no great gushers, but the steady flow of several hundred ordinary wells made up an enormous total. Wells continued to be drilled- but the new additions do not compensate for the decline in production of the older wells. The Copely No. 1 is still producing, though the once great gusher is now only a light pumper. Perhaps the most remarkable phe- nomenon connected' with oil development in the county is the staying qualities of most of the wells in the Fink field. Wells that were drilled there twenty-five years ago still continue to produce their five, ten or twenty bar- rels a day as they did in the beginning. A few wells have agreeably surprised their owners by actually in- creasing their production. As this field was the first to be developed it still holds promise of being the last to be abandoned.
The oil prospectors opened five distinct fields in
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Lewis County. On Fink creek the Gantz sand yielded the production for a great number of small oil wells. None of the wells was very large; neither were there many dry holes; and when oil was not struck there was nearly always a compensating strong flow of gas. The Salt sand in the Polk creek field yielded a considerable amount of oil over a rather limited territory. It was the oil from this sand which had escaped into the limestone pocket and caused the first great excitement at the Cam- den No. 1. The relatively limited Gordon sand pool on Sand Fork afforded the production of the great Copely and Turner gushers. The Fifth sand pool on Kincheloe creek has been fairly stable and has yielded thousands of barrels of oil, though there have been no spectacular finds. The extensive Fifth sand pool on Sand fork, known as the Beall's Mills pool, which extends all the way from Butcher's fork to Oldfield fork and from west of the Copely well to the headwaters of Sand fork, has been the largest pool in area, and one of the surest. In nearly all wells drilled there a small amount of oil has been secured.
The early makeshift means of marketing oil by pipes to the Harrison and Doddridge county fields was greatly improved in 1900, following the great Copely strike, by the laying of two six-inch main lines by the Eureka Pipe Line Company from the mouth of Sand Fork to the great oil pumping station at Downs, just be- low Mannington. They connected with a gravity line from the Copely well to the mouth of Sand fork.
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