The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1859-10-13

axle. DISldeS, We nae SLOW team only
two horses) and .driver aud niue passen-
gers, all Of Them grove persons, but a boy
about 10 years old. W,eAad accomplish
ed about half our Journey when our We
hicle gave way to the exigepcies of its
load, apd we all walked about three miles.
before we got things straighteaed up
again.
But at the end of our journey of the
day and night we were at Home--thst
blessed Mecca for all wandering souls to
lind rest in ;aad none could have found a
more Hearty welcome than we did thea
and there. There is no Alabama (here
We rest) for the weary traveller like Home,
and no welcome he ever gets that more
refreshes and rejoices his heart than the
one be gets from loving and beloved pa
rents, brothers and sisters Such is our
experience, at least, and we record it with
grateful pride. ..a..aa
After brief rest, We visited tho IA
n4ous Seneca Oil Spring which has recent
ly created so great an excitement and
wonder in the outside world The sensa-
tion of seeing and smelling the oil was
nothing new to us--we were born and
bred there. The oil has been gathered
from surface springs and used in that sec
ton Of country ever since its settlement,
the Indians and the French having opeG-
ed and worked large number of springs
near the present site of Titusville many
years before any English settlers found
their way there. The oil never had an
outside market until now, though the
pennsylvania ROCK Oil Co." have, we
believe marketed q quantity of the Sur
face-Spring product in New Haven, where
the Office of the company is. In 1858, as
stated in the JOURNAL two weeks since,
the company leased the spring (for which
they paid brewer, Williams 4 Co. So
000,) to L. l.. Drake, who was to gather
the oil at his own expense and pay them
u! cents gallon for it. His lease was
for 10 years, with full privilege of work
ing at his option. ....
In May last Mr.. Drake commenced
boring for salt, and after sinking a shaft
7 | feet, the lst of last month"; he struck
fssure through WHICH he was boring,
and the discovery of this subterranean
spring of oil was the result. The yield
OF oil with the pump first used was 400
gallons per day, but when we were there
a pump of three times the capacity of that
was in operation and yield of / 600 gal
Ions per "A hours, of pure oil, had been
attained.
Other parties along the stream have
also bored for oil, and have found it at
various depths, the least of which was 6
feet, on the farm of Mr.. John Watson, IN
Titusville borough, Of mile from the
village. After one foot of soil had been
removed, strata of 81 feet of potter's
clay was bored through-that also being
a new discovery. Another spring was
tapped about 2S feet from the surface, on
the farm of j. Parker, about of mile
from the village centre, and opening
through one of the old springs worked by
the French and Indians, of which there
are q large number at that particular
point, 9f L..f
As result consequent upon this dis,
covery, real estate and leases with privi-
lege of boring till oil was found, were each
held at great prices. We heard of one
INSTANCE in which $4,000 was offered
and retnsed for a half interest in lease
of Is years on 100 aores !; and we know
of several fourth interests in leases at
distance of two or three miles from the
working spring, being sold for 81 500 and
So, 900 The tract of land on which tho
large spring has been opened by Mr.
Drake, was once purchased by the father
of the writer of this article for COW, and
previous to that had been sold at treas
urer's sale for taxes. Now we believe
100000 would not buy one acre of it.
Men until now barely able to get poor
living off poor land are made rich beyond
their widest dreaming. . aI soc.
The properties of this oil Ca bottle of