The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-02-19
The New Staple.

Our fossils are making the nation rich
1t is surprising how suddenly new dis
covery is made to take rank as an import.
ant staple. No other country in the world
has been 80 ripe for such extraordinary
transitions. The Romans knew that Eng
land abounded in tin, but centuries elapsed
before it arose to the dignity of a CONNER
cial staple, and it was exactly SO with her
iron. North America seems to be in all
respects an exceptional region. Coal and
iron rose here within single lifetime into
national Importance. The gold of Califor-
MIA became a gigantic staple within a
twelve-month. The last of these extraOr-
binary eccentricities is petroleum. Four
years have been sufficient to elevate it
from the worthless position of a floating
pellicle on the surface of an obscure creek
to the rank of prime staple of which the
world cannot get enough. There is nothing
in the history of industrial development to
equal the progress it has made. When the
country first heard that an adventurer in
Western Pennsylvania had dug a well
from which gushed out thousand gallons
of oil daily, the multitudes refused to be-
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sure the flow would quickly fall oft was
impossible such luck should last. 1t not
only did last, but has been matched by a
hundred others.
In this country development is in pro-
portion to the crowd that can be collected.
As in the gold mines, so in the oil region
The latter was already within days ride
Of the dense population, who, amazel at
the discovery almost at their own door,
bore wells. Outsiders, thousand miles
away, became similarly affected. Pres
emily, Oil City was founded, and popula-
ton flowed in as rapidly as the oil flowed
out. Thousands took to boring; it was,
in fact, community of bOrers The rush
was, in small way, equal to California
itself Within single year, petroleum
became an important staple. Its hiding
place in the caverns beneath US has been
penetrated only to prove that the supply
is nexhaustible. 1t has already founded
new cities, and given new vitality to old
ones-even quickeniDg the trade of such
as this, and built railroad twenty seven
miles in length, over which, in the fourteen
months ending with 1868, there were car
ried 43O, 1884 barrels of oil, %, 727 tons of
freight, and within thirteen 60, 900 passen
gers. The receipts were 1884, 705, and
the dividend 25 per cent. All these won
ders have been wrought within four years.
in wild region, into which strangers
never penetrated, where the land was of
little agricultural value, and where popu-
lation had never gathered.
Up to 1868, the progress of the petro-
leum trade astonished everybody, but that
of the past year has exceeded all expecta-
ton, 1t is evident the wells have 10 bot
tom. What the product for the year has
been we cannot say. It may be that. in
the excitement of a highly prosperous
business no accurate account has been
kept; but the custom house figures give
some indication. Petroleum is exported
to every country in the world. In 1861
we shipped $1,1l2,476 gallons; in 1869
it rose 10, $751;, 7Ol gallons; and in 1868 it
reached the extraordinary quantity of
2s,oOO,oOO. Of this total, 1854, eO4
gallons were shipped from this port. In