The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1860-04-11
From the Cincinnati Commercial.

From the Cincinnati Commercial.
The Great Oil Discoveries in Pennsyl-
vania.
Western Pennsylvania and portion Of
Ohio are rife with excitement. The
grand discovery of the age is oil springs
The earth is bored and burrowed into in
every direction to pump out the subter
ranean fluid. The price of land has
gone up, and the price of oil has not
(yeD come down. Fortunes are made
in imagination-by multitudes, and
farm work is forgotten in the eager search
for hidden treasures. Men are anxious
10 buy, and 10th TO sell, farms which a
few months ago went begging for pur-
chasers. Nenango county, Peunsyiya-
MIA, boasts OF nearly a hundred Z" wells
of oil already. Land is selling at from
two TO three hundred dollars per acre.
Oil has been discovered at The mouth OF
Big Sandy Creek, and wherever it is
found or guessed TO exist, the soil in
stantly trebles or quadruplcs in value.
Oil Creek" has become at once moro
famous and attractive than the streams Of
Pactolus, or the golden rivers of Califor-
MIA. Pixies Peak has grown stale, and
Frazer River is forgotten Men turn 10
the III Dorados of oil at their very doors,
and turn up their noses at golden ru-
mors Of remote and inexhaustible wealth.
One well yields eighteen barrels of oil
per day, another twenty five, and the
great well at Crosby, which has been
sunk to the depth Of l3l feet, yields 90
barrels Of oil per day. This last, it is
shrewdly supposed, must have struck the
Iugular vein of the oil region, and is
drawing on its richest fountains,
One man, blacksmith. in Franklin.
Pennsylvania, who bored his own well
has been offered SlO0, 900 Tor it. The
Franklin Company have bored one well
3l4 feet deep, and have found oil in sui-
iicient abundance to pay, but are going
deeper. in order 10 hit the great vein
struck by the Crosby well. The boring
machines used are very simple, and are
driven by steam power. One borer on
the Allegheny struck a rock ouly two
feet below the surface, and on the first
entrance the oil rose to the depth of five
or six inches above the rock, and s.
gallons were dipped ont Immediately
There are no less than goo wells now in
progress in Pennsylvania, and in few
weeks il is estimated that there viii be a
thousand.
The excitement is increasing rapidly,
but has not reac he'd its climax. In Frank
lin, there is not merchant or LAWYER
who Is not engaged in the oil business.
All ranks OF men are pervadcd by the oil
fever, and The farmers particularly have
BECOME almost infatuated, in some cases
mortgaging their falms at two per cent.
a month 10 procure money to be invested
IN oil mills. Strangers ere flowing IN,
hotels are crowded, the stages are full to
oyeltlowing. and vehicles OF every sort
are in demand 10 convey the prospect
ers' for OF! about the country.
The faith Of the people in tho internal
richness of every spot of ground IS mar
veilous aud inexhaustible. MulGludos
are driited away entirely beyond the
bounds of reason, ana many disappoint.
mcnts and serious losses cannot Ial 10
occur. Every remarkable discovery Is
and becomes in no long
time. a fruitful source of danger. Men
are lured away from the pursuits Of reg
ular. legitimate occupations, ana rush
madly after speculative fortunes in the
which are seldom realized.
The oil mania will fructify whole crop
Of disappointments and failures, as well
as the morus multicaulis fever, or the
Pixies Peak mania.
The oil which is found is Tie species
known IS naptha, coal oil, pc
troleum. Seneca oil, and rock oil. IL has
long been familiar iaet that this oil ex
uled from the earth in various parts Of
he world, ana becomes. by exposure,
darker and thicker in substance i'm Penn.
syly1nia 1t used TO be found in wells bor
ed for salt in the Allegheny river, where
il was considered nuisance ON account
of its villainous olor, Being lighter than
water. il floats, rising rapidly 10 The sur
face whenever it is struck by The auIer
lntlammable gasses flow out Of il in
which closely resembles the
gas manufactured from coal in the re.or.-
II gas works. The principal market lar
The oil is in New York. where il Is slip
ped, to be distilled aud purified Tie
smell is pungent and disagreeeh'e. noy
has any molhod yet been discovered Ly
" hich ii can be de olorizcl.