The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-07-15

NLAN 81 - " 70 49,"
willingly have adopted il, except for an
early prejudice against clothes. They
did what seemed 10 them more advisable,
inflated H.. One young mar was so de-
lighted with the Sunday suit Of a sailor,
that be- Immediately had himself painted
blue from the neck TO the waist, and
white from the waist TO the ankles, to
represent Jacks blue Jacket and duck
trowsers. Another OF moro martial in
clination, was clptivatcd by an officers
uniform. II was comparatively easy TO
paint the coat aud pantalo0ns, but when
10 camc 20 the double row Of military
buttons, that was labor indeed. Fortu-
naicly, the artist was the young mans
mother, aud she, patient and proud where
hcr mothcrliness was concerned, as all
women are, toiled on with treless persc-
verance, GIL the toilet was completed, and
the happy dandy struttsd of, nude as
nature aud gay as a cooock.
The native air OF tho Six Nations forced
them to wear something thicker than q
coat of paint SO they were obliged 20
limit their adarnines TO their arms; face,
and legs, which they striped, barred,
dotted, or daubed, according TO taste,
Petroleum is frightlul to smell, bat one
must suffer 20 he handsome. even in the
wilderness, so they painted awaT and
didn't mind tbo odor. After the Atlantic
coast from Massachusetts 10 Georgia was
bordcred by a broken line of settlements,
aud after toe French had stretched their
chain OF sixty forts across the country,
from Montreal 20 New Orleans, c~olonists,
both Frcnch and English, began TO APP
pear in the Wilderness, and the Indians
seld the Petroleum 10 the new settlers rs
a specific for rheumatism and various
other affections. The white people call
ed il Senecaoil, after the tribe who chief
ly used 10 as an article of barter, and
considered il a.rale and very ealcacious
remedy. From this period we have moro
accurate knowledge of the mode of Sc
curing aud using the oil. An olden re-
cord tells as, that the popular method of
collecting it, was TO throw a log across
one of the o~il-producing streams, TO stop
the flow Of the floating mass upon the
surface; when IL had accumulated sufi-
cicntly they sopped their blankets in IT,
wrung them out, and sopped them again,
all the oil was exhausted. More than a
hundred years ago, at the TINA of the
French and Indian war, The commandant
of Fort Du Qpesne (Which stood precise
" where Pittsburg now stards,D wrote a
letter 70 Llontcalm, the general Of the
French troops in Canada, giving a very
interesting account Of q great Indian as.
sembly on the banks Of Oil Creek
AT night, after their hara1gues and wild
~war-dances, when the darkness wa
thicksst, they set fire to the sheet of oil
upon the surface Of the creek, and yelled
and danced upon ito edges. The hills
were black around, the sky sombre and
stariess; the blaze went up in vast sheets
and tongues of fire, mingled with swar-
thy volumes Of smoke, and the whole
scene was like n startling glimpse into
n world Of flames and torment, poopled
by bowling demons.
The early settlers soon learned the To-
]calities Of the rock oil from the Indians,
and collected il themselves in small guam
titles; the principal spring on oil Creek,
has furnished a yearly supply for medical
purposes, never exceeding twenty barrels.
II seems TO have occurred TO the good
people who gathered il, that the quantity
might be increased by digging deeper
pits, or the quality improved by distilla-
ton. For years they, and others, lowered
Qp the very verge Of the great discovery,
fairly stumbling over it, but never seeing
1t. . In Ohio, as early as 1873, in boring
for salt water, a vein of oil was struck
which rushed up so violently, Accompani-
ed with jets Of gas, that the salt-making
had TO be stopped. A gentleman of Ohio,
recOunting the fact some years later, in
the journal Of Science, said that the oil was
already much used for the lamps Of work.
shops, and prophesied q brilliant future
for II. Still, no one seems 10 have taken
the idea. Later yet, in 1916, in boring
for salt water upon the Allegheny, about
forty miles above pittsburg, the rock oil
was struck again; but il was only looked
upon as a medicine, and sold in ounce
bottles at a high price.
II is a strange fact that attention was
first directed 70 the commercial value OF
Petroleum by the progress Of science in
another direction. The distillation OF
bituminous coal and shales had been
growing more and more extensive, and
successful FOR years, and the apparent
identity Of the oil produced from them,
with tho rock oil prompted experiments
TO determine whether the natural oil
would not furnish as many and rs useful
products as The artificial.
One ofthe springs on oil Creek was pur.
chased on speculation ia 1854, and Che oil
was tested and reported on, but nothing
farther seems 90 have been done til 1855
when two New Haven gentlemen resolved
10 continue the search, one Of them, Col
Z I-.Ln v.a.v.a d. NNeN.aNgIIa 81 H..
his arrangements for boring into the roci
below the bed Of the creek, The process
was new and slow, and il was not til
Aug. 26, 1853, that the first oil well STRUCK
the Petroleum at the depth Of seventy
feet. Asmall pump was introduced, which
pumped4 hundred GALLONS a day; this wa.
exchange for a large one, which furnished
one thousand gallons daily; then a steam.
engine was applied, and the supply still
continued uninterrupted for weeks
business Immediately turned over anew
leaf, in Veuango County aud thercabouts
land rose like n feather, and prices wen.
up ont of sight. Every man was goinl
to be rich tho day after Tomorrow, Of
as soon as he could get his shaft down
The narrow strips Of meadow land OF
+ other side Of the stream were perforated
with wells, and the derricks for workin.
the drills, stood up in the yards ant
/ gardens Of the villages, as thick as mast
4 in q harbor. French Greek, and a par
OF Allegheny river, were found nearll
as productig as Oil Creek, and in a litt.
more than a year, two thousand well
had been sunk. Many delays were me
with AZ first, from the caving in Of thr
, sandy, clayey soil, aud from meotin.
with quicksands. To avoid these din
= ties, and the trouble Of ~timberiug IN
! ALL. - lnn.n..u. 49, 49, in...uA.I