OIL HISTORY
& McKEAN COUNTY
"EUREKA !...............................................................................EUREKA !
Oil Comes To Northwest Pennsylvania
There is a tradition in Venango County, Pennsylvania, that the Oil Springs on Oil
Creek formed a part of the religious ceremony of the Seneca Indians, who formerly lived on
these wild hills. (Venango County is in the extreme Northwest corner of the state just
south and east of Erie, Pennsylvania.) The Indians dipped oil from excavated wells and
mixed it with their war paint , which is said to have given them a hideous appearance ,
varnishing their faces to keep their skin impervious to water.
The uses of this oil for their religious worship is spoken by the French Commander
of Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh), in a letter to his commanding officer, General Montcalm.
"I would desire to assure you that this is a most delightful
land. Some of the most astonishing natural wonders have
been discovered by our people. While descending the
Allegheny, fifteen leagues below the mouth of the Conewango
and three above the Venango, we were invited by the chief of
the Senecas to attend a religious ceremony of his tribe. We
landed, and drew up our canoes on a point where a small
stream entered the river. The tribe appeared unusually
solemn. We marched up the stream about half a league,
where the company, a large band, it appeared, had arrived
some days before us. Gigantic hills begirt us on every side.
The scene was really sublime. The great chief then recited the
conquests and heroism of his ancestors. The surface of the
stream was covered with a thick scum, which burst into
complete conflagration. The oil had been gathered, and lighted
with a torch. At the sight of the flames, the Indians gave forth
a triumphant shout and made the hills and valleys re-echo
again. Here, then is revived the ancient fire worship of the
East; here, then are the children of the sun."
It is clear that along the valley of Oil Creek, traces of ancient operations to excavate
oil have been found. Over sections embracing hundreds of acres in extent, the surface of
the land has, at some remote period of time, been excavated in the form of oblong pits,
from four by six to six by eight feet in size. These pits are often from four to six feet in
depth, notwithstanding the erosion for so many years. The all appear to have a similar
design and are found only in this the oil region and no where else. The deeper and larger
pits have been shorn up with rough hewn timber.
Beyond doubt, the Seneca's were well acquainted with the existence of and the
many properties of petroleum. That they valued it is beyond question. They used it for
medical as well as for religious purposes. Later every good housewife was suppose to
have a small store of "Seneca Oil," for it's medicinal purposes. Laid on over cuts, bruises
and burns, "Seneca Oil" was nature's own medicine. It was carried in small bottles to
distant neighborhoods as a gift of high value.
Eventually it was purchased by druggists, put up in small vials and sold as "British
Oil," "American Oil" or "Rock Oil." Oil was first exported out of the Oil Creek Valley by
Mr. Cary, one of the first settlers and a little more enterprising than his neighbors. Cary
would collect or purchase a cargo of oil, which he would place in two five gallon kegs, one
on each side of his horse. Transporting the cargo to Pittsburgh he would barter it for
commodities needed by his family. Pittsburgh was 70-80 miles by horse. It was a small
beginning, but "from small acorns large oaks grow."
In 1803, General Hays expanded on Cary's enterprise. General Hays purchased
the entire product of the region, amounting to sixteen barrels, which he sold in Pittsburgh
for about one dollar a gallon ( approximately $800). At the same time a water well was
bored at Horse Creek five miles above Oil City on the Allegheny. At the depth of 70-80 feet,
a strong vein of oil was struck. Disgusted, the miners abandoned the well. Oil was also
discovered in Franklin, in a well sunk for household purposes, at a depth of thirty feet.
Evidence is clear that long before the first producing wells, oil was know to exist in the Oil
Creek Valley.
The "Grand Idea" of seeking oil at it's source, down in the rocks, was emerging and
it could not be retarded. If oil, now so greatly desired, bubbled up through the clefts in the
rocks, why might it not be found in large quantities by boring deep into the very rock that
was conjectured to be it's home. If it was to be found in wells where surface manifestations
were not found, would it not be more likely to be found in great quantities in the rock
below the localities where surface indications had always been found?
In 1853, George H. Bissell, Esq. a gentleman of great intelligence and worth and a
graduate of Dartmouth College of New Hampshire, was shown a small vial of crude
"Rock Oil" from Oil Creek, gathered on the lands of Dr. Brewer of Titusville. Mr Bissell
became greatly interested in learning all he could about the product and it's collection.
Bissell sent a young man up Oil Creek to make an investigation and upon the favorable
report, he determined this was a matter for great investigation. About that time, Mr.
Bissell was joined by Mr. Eveleth in the enterprise and they both proceeded up Oil Creek.
This was in 1854 and while there they purchased from Brewer, Watson and Co. for the
sum of $5,000 dollars, the lands where the principle springs were found and also procured
from the same company a lease of all their remaining lands in Venango county for
ninety-nine years without royalty.
Operations were commenced by digging pits and ditches and then pumping the oil
and water into vats. This was done by water, powered by a saw mill. Soon after this a few
barrels were shipped to Professor Stillman of Yale University with directions to make a
thorough investigation and analysis of the commercial uses and value. By 1855,
Professor Stillman's report was published and together with Bissell and Eveleth they
formed the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company. The plan of ditching and pumping
continued until 1857 when various plans were submitted for further development and the
question of boring an artesian well was advocated.
After discussions, some of the board members proposed that they would sink the
well at their own expense, provided they could have a lease of 45 years (1902). The lessees
agreed to pay the parent company 12 cents per gallon for all oil produced. Once agreed
upon, Col. E. L. Drake, who purchased a small share of their interest, was appointed their
superintendent and agent. After securing the necessary funds, Col. Drake headed for
Titusville, two miles below where the springs were located. Operations were slow.
Experience was non-existent and each operation was begun for the first time. "There was
great hope, but it was hope that took great faith to keep alive."
Work went forward until August 28th, 1859, when at the depth of about seventy
feet, the drill suddenly sank into a cavity in the rock and immediately there was evidence of
the presence of oil in large quantities. The shout of the weary drillers was one that would
re-verberate for the next twenty years across Northwest Pennsylvania and Western New
York.
"EUREKA!........................................................................EUREKA !"
The above excerpt was taken from the book "History Of Venango County, PA", written by Joseph A. Caldwell, published in 1879 and was submitted by Christine Irvine of Albany, NY. She has generously donated of her time and talents to help improve this McKean County GenWeb site. Christine is a descendent of Arthur T. Irvine, brother to O.P. Irvine. This genealogy can be read on the
Family Historys page. The following text is taken from the book "History of the Counties of McKean, Elk, Cameron, and Potter, Pennsylvania by J. H. Beers Publishing, 1890.
"In March, 1857, the following letter appeared in the Rochester (NY) Democrat: "I have just seen specimens of benzole, camphene oil and tallow from coal up in the vicinity of Smethport, McKean county, superior to anything ever known. One ton of coal makes eighty gallons of benzole, forty gallons of fluid, twenty gallons of lubricating oil and fifteen pounds of tallow or sperm. The actual cost of benzole, etc., will not exceed fifteen cents per gallon. * * * There is a machine (for manufacturing purposes) now on the way to Bradford. Depend upon it, this is no humbug." Nor was it, for buildings were erected opposite the present Riddell House, and coal oil manufactured there. In November 1859, a New York and Boston company erected a coal-oil mill at the Hermit opening between Marsh's Corners and Kinzua, where they hoped to mine sufficient coal for obtaining this oil. Gilbert, one of the projectors, did not then dream that oil existed here in oceans, although the Drake well, at Titusville, was completed August 28, 1859, and even before this, in 1858, J. M. Williams' well in Canada, and other wells in Enniskillen township, in the county of Lambton, same country, were in operation. The coal oil manufacturers had before them the efforts of S. Kier and Nevin, McKeown & Co., of March 1857; the latter company's well at Greensburg, Penn., in 1858; the offer of $1000.00 for a lamp that would burn petroleum made by S. Kier in 1857, and also the shipments made to New York in November, 1857, by A. C. Ferris, and the introduction of a lamp in which the odorous oil would burn. Col. Drake's well soon shadowed the coal-oil extract works out of existence, and nothing was heard throughout Pennsylvania but stories of wells and drills and oils.
In April, 1861, oil was found on the Beckwith farm, a mile west of Smethport; at Port Allegany the citizens drilled a well, while near McCoy's mill pond (in the vicinity of Smethport) oil was discovered, and down the Tuna exploration was carried on. About this time some irreverent drillers placed a sign on their new derrick, "Oil, Hell or China." Their resolution amounted to little as they did not strike oil, ------- or China. In 1862 the old Barnsdall or Bradford well near west city line was drilled, a spring pole being part of the machinery used. With this rude driller and ruder ideas of the reservoir, it is no wonder that the tired and disappointed owners abandoned the work at the depth of 200 feet, or within 825 feet of the productive sand. In 1865-66, the citizens of the little village of Bradford formed a bee to explore farther, and drilled to the depth of 875 feet, when they surrendered the works within 150 feet of the point where perseverance would bring victory. Basing their ideas on the Oil City fields, where the top of the productive third sand is 528 feet above ocean level, they, with little labor, essayed to elevate the level of the Bradford third sand which is 114 feet below that of Oil City, a physical impossibility indeed. In 1864-65 the Dean Brothers drilled 900 feet on the Shepherd farm, near Custer City. Here another disappointment waited on ignorance of geological structure, for while the old Bradford sand could be found 1,100 feet below the surface there, it was at least 200 feet deeper down on the Shepherd farm. Men were wild in those days. Impatience as well as ignorance of altitudes and structures ruined many individuals, whose ideas were otherwise practicable. The Dean Brothers did poorer work on the Clark farm (Tarport), where they halted within 400 feet of the top of the producing sand, after wasting time and labor on a 605 feet hole. Kinzua Village oil-field dates back to 1865, when the Kinzua Oil Company and the Kinzua Oil Association were organized, and six wells drilled to a depth of 600 feet, but oil answered the drill in only small quantities. In 1875 Hunter & Cummings drilled on the Cobbett farm without success, and in 1878 E. A. VanScoy & Co.'s venture on Wolf Run was equally unsuccessful, although residents and others were much enthused by the appearances and disappearances of oil. In the winter of 1884-85 James Parker & Co. drilled on the Fuller farm, and on March 27, 1885, the "Kinzua Gusher" was expected to drown out all other wells, but yielded only twenty-five barrels. Later, however, staying wells were developed and worked successfully.
In 1868 the several oil enterprises of Job Moses, in the neighborhood of Limestone, gave an idea of what the true development of this region would yield. The Salem Oil Company's well was drilled in August, 1871, on Shepherd's Run, near DeGolier and the Elk Lick spring. The W. H. Taylor Oil Company organized in September, 1871, with J. K. Haffey, president; J. W. Hillon, vice-president; T. J. Campbell, treasurer, and T. J. Melvin, secretary, to drill wells on Kendall Creek, on the Moore farm. Mark Hardie, of Mt. Alton, and others were members of this company. In August, 1871, a meeting held at the new Bradford House, at Bradford, to consider means to develop the oil field, organized the Barnsdall Oil Company, with J. W. Hilton, president; J. R. Pomeroy, vice-president; C. C. Melvin, treasurer; T. J. Melvin, secretary; James Broder and Enos Parsons, directors.
In 1871 old-time methods changed for the better. The Foster Oil Company was organized with C.H. Foster, Job Moses and James E. Butts, members. They drilled at a point two miles northeast of Bradford, and in November struck a ten-barrel-per-day sand 1,110 feet below the well's mouth. Even with this example of perseverance nothing more of importance was accomplished until December 6, 1874, when Butts & Foster opened Butt's well No. 1 on the Buchanan farm, a half mile northeast of their first well, and struck a seventy-barrel-per-day stream. The product for the month was seventy-five barrels. Before April 1, 1880, there were 4,000 producing wells in the Bradford oil district, yielding 50,000 barrels a day."
Many more wells were drilled from this point on, the extensive history can be read in the book the above information was taken from. You will also find a list of wells drilled, production levels, and much more relating to this industry. The book is a wealth of information.
Contributed by Connie S. Frederick
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