Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1861-02-27

means, Vet Iully DSllCNlDS ludl IL tLiSl SOuAe
have gone a little deeper, their fortune
would have turned. Indeed, there is nc
limit to a poor iriller's hopes but his pock-
ct, as oil has been found at alldepths, from
20 feet to 500.
| Sometimes, however, courage and perse-
verance would carry man through when
money was very hard to get. As an in
stance, a man by the name of Williams,
having failed in business at Warren, Pa,
leased a well-site among the first after
brakes discovery. He got little money
from friends, and with trife of his own,
purchased the tools and commenced boring.
After going down over 100 feet with nc
success, and having exhausted all his re-
sources, he concluded that he had best take
up his tools and try again in place. With
some difficulty he effected another lease
within some 80 rods of the celebrated
Barnsdale well, which was then producing
I5 barrels per day, and 50 promising and
eligible wSs the situation, that, by pledg-
ING fye-sixths of the oil he might ind. he
secured money enough to sink his shaft
At depth of little over 100 feet he OBJ
tanned a flow of oil which ran over the top
of the tube, and for several days discharg-
ed the pure oil directly into barrels, filling
one every two hours.
This being the first manifestation Of this
kind, Titusville was in blaze of excitement
and the news spreading over the country,
thousands came to see the wonderful Gu
riosity of the fountain well.
We had an interview with Williams at
this tiuue. He sat on a log near the well
whiting, and happier man we have sell
dom met. He said, however, that he was
not vet satisfied, but as soon as he had re-
plenished his purse he should 60 deeper,as
he meant to have thirty barrel well. In
the course of ten or fifteen days he did so,
and, after sinking his drill some four or
five feet deeper, the gas blew out, and the
oil pour,d over the top at the rate of 10
barrels per hour, and continued 50 to run
for some twenty-four hours. When it sub
sided, he rigged up pump as soon aspos-
sible, and for a long time the yield was
from so to 20 barrels per day.
These fountain wells are no longer a
novelty. At Tidioute, on the Allegheny,
as well as on Oil Creek. there have been
several astonishing manifestations. In some
instances the oil would shoot in solid col
umn from twenty-five to thirty feet into the
air, and run over hundreds of barrels be-
fore it could be controlled. But these
wells seldom flow so freel y for more than
one or two days In the last IItwSriLle
Gazette. however, are the following items:
"Dobbs, Knapps & Cos oil wells have
flowed about $4,000 worth of oil in four
weeks" Curtis & Hickock's well has flow
ed nearly or quite $1,000 worth in two
weeks" Oil at the wells now sells readi-
ly at % cents the gallon cash, by which
any one can find the quantity these two
fountain wells yield.
Most of the oil is obtained by pumping.
and steam engine is required for every
pump. Large quantities of salt water are
usually raised with the oil and discharged
into large vat; the water runs out at hole
in the bottom, the oil runs off into small
er vat through another orifce at the top,
and from thence is drawn directly into bar
rels.
Probably not less than 5000 acells hare
been commenced acithin thirty miles about
7ItusUille during the last eighte "a months,
and probably not Orer 200 are as get at
all successful Many have been abandon
ed, but very large number are still in
progress, with more or less encouraging
signs. Notwithstanding a constant and
steady increase in the supply of the oil,
such has been the demand that the price
was never higher than at the present mo-
ment, and every gallon finds as ready sale
at its value as California gold dust.
Several refneries have been erected in
the oil regions at the West. Much of the
oil goes down the Allegheny to Pittsburg,
yet the following statement of the quanti-
ty passing over the Sunbury & Erie Rail
road will give some partial idea of the IA
pidity with which this source of light and
wealth is developing ~