Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1861-03-15
From the Toledo Blade.
OILY.

on the troubled waters" the Valley of the Ohio
would distance all competitors in the work of
pacihcation. The reports we get from various
sections in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia of
the supplies of oil found, are at this time abso-
lutely Incredible The richest California placer
never excited mans covetousness as some of
these wells are calculated to do.
We have letter from Mr.. +. Prentice, Of this
city, who with Mr.. w. s. johnson of Toledo,
has spent some time in the oleaginous regions
referred to, in which he furnishes us with some
items of interest Arriving at Parkersburgh,
Va, they went to Petroleum, on the Baltimore
d Ohio Road, where they struck belt of up
hove rock, about three miles wide, and running
south to the Kanawha river, a distance of Is or
20 miles. They then visited the Wheeling Oil
Co. Wells, of which IL have been bored, and all
but were successful. They were pumping
three wells with three horse power steam en-
gine, which yield 20 to 25 barrels per day
They then returned to the Kanawha river, and
found several wells going down, with fair pros
poets of success.
AT point six miles from Petroleum thirty or
forty wells are going down with flatterng prom
Use of oil. In this vicinity there have been
1000 or 5000 barrels of oil gathered by digging
pits in the sand where the oil would accumulate
on the water and be skinned of From this
point to the Kanawha they found many PARTIES
Just commencing operations for boring survey
river, the preparations increased until every
m-house for three miles was turned into
tavern and filled to overHOwing with guests
From the top of the hill overlooking the valley,
masses of prospectors and operators were seen
busily at work.
The following statistics as ascertained on the
spot,are given ofdiferent wells visited by Messrs.
Prentice and johnson:
lst. The Rathbun well, having stopped flow
ing over the top is now pumping about so bar
rels per day. Its depth is so feet.
2d. Kerns d. Co. s well; pumps about IS bbls.
per day. This is the old salt well which had oil
in it when first bored, many years ago. When
first pumped for oil, it yielded about 10 barrels
but has increased to the above amount.
Sd: The Camden WELL 100 feet deep, is now
| flowing $50 barrels per day, without pumping
| Hand pumps were just introduced, and it was
! believed by their aid the product would be in.
creased to 300 barrels
! 4th: The Wears well, on Burning Spring Run
pumps 230 barrels per day.
5th: The Lewellen well. This flows with
such force that the operators are unable to gel
| barrels TO receive the full supply and are com.
! PEELED to stop the stream from time to time on
that account The oil flows the full size of {
four inch bore and is said TO yield a bdrrcI pc,
| minute or ,44O barrels per day, which, at the
market price in New York, would make the
product of the well SIG per minute or $20,l6C
per dayl These figures sustained by the
| Parkersburgh Nc,OS, whose editor saw the well
and knows all about it, He says the full capac.
| ity of the well has never been tested, and thai
if it was, and watts large enough, and barrels
sufficient could be had sit would certainly yielC
| five or six times as much oil from the full size
of the hole, as it now flows from the one-eightl
of an inch on the outside of the hole making
the possible yield of the well as high as on
| hundred thousand dollars WorH of pure OIL il
twenty-fOur hours. This is not only said to b.
| true, but the possible estimate here made i
much below what the figures will showl"
Mr. Prentice thinks there is bed of countr,
running from Petroleum to the Kanawha river
some 20 miles in length and 3 in width, in whcl
oil can be had at almost any point. As nigh
be expected, the lands there are held at corner
lot prices, half acre lots at either end of the rdg
ranging from $1,000 to $4,000 each, and one
third the oil found. Along the ridge betwepl
the extremes lands can be had for 800 to 500
per acre, and one-fourth the product.
Mr.. p. says that operations in the oil regiol
are attended with great privations and expense
hotels boarding house keepers and cOOpers be
ing more certain of large profits than prospect
ers Mr.. johnson visited the Marietta Wells
on the Ohio side, but they We're yielding com
paratively small quantity Of oil.
i The Wheeling Intellgencer of the 26th ult
furnishes the following additional items:
4 A great many reports have come up from tn
Little KHnawha, which sound so much llk
Munchausenism that we have been afraid to ris
our veracity in the publishing of them; the
will have to be believed some time or othe
however, and our readers may rs well commenc
realizing the truth now. The Camden well, o
the Little kanawha, spouts oil periodically, fOu
or five times every day. In one of these spout
a few days since, a hundred barrels of pure o
were thrown out in thirty minutes. Shorl
after, this well spouted for an hour and hal
: filling the watts in very few minutes. Tn
, workmen, finding it impossible TO barrel the o
as fast as it came out, got a couple of flat boat
about fifty feet long which were placed in III
river, directly opposite the well, and a troug
5 placed at the mouth of the well so as to run ii
oil into the boats, in which way the two boa
We're filed with oil. The exact amount TIN
secured, was not accurately ascertaned, but
y must have been three or four hundred barrel
i Between the flows, the well is pumped with Il
, aid of the sweep used in boring, as fast as Il
men can fill the barrels, when any can be had.
A day or two ago a German named ROsel
T thall, struck n vein at Smith Ferry, on the Obi
@ above this city. Nothing but pure water can
4 up for an hour. After that thirty zone barrels
oil were produced in nine hours. Since tn
: time, the well has produced at the rate of ol
r barrel of pure oil every eighteen minutes. II
d well is 73 feet deep. A Mr., Thompson struck
vein near the same place, at depth of sevent
feet, and in the first sixty minutes obtaint
T. three barrels of oil. 1t has continued to flo
h regularly ever since.