The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-12-27
Letter from Canada West.

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Letter from Canada West.
hdaroad opening and banquet-Mdgic growth o.
the ptdce-Continued depression of the oil bus
fness-Big fo,cing a0eH-A great reuerse-Suc
cess in using oil for Jtsel-TAe weather- Main,
Ia y PETRoLIA, c. W., Dec. 10, 1856 /
To THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS:
An event of no small importance to this 10.
cality and particularly to the oil interest, has
Just occurred,-the opening of the Petrolis
| Branch OF the Great Western Railway from
this point to connection with the London
and Sarnia road, six miles distant. The deci.
SION to build this piece of road was not made
| TILL late in June, and it was a month later be.
fore the first blow was struck, and yet on Mon.
day last, the 18th inst, the cars commenced
running where at the date last referred to was
an almost unbroken forest. Yesterday the
people OF this village, chiefly Americans, gave
asumptuous dinner to the superintendent and
other officials of the road, at the u. s. Hotel
which is well kept by gentleman from the
kennebec, and the occasion was a proud one
for the place. Mr.. Swinyard, the gentlemanly
| superintendent and other official gentlemen.
came up from Hamilton and London in a spec,
1al train arriving at about noon. Suspended
| above the station house were the Union Jack
and the Stars and Stripes, floating in the breeze
IN beautiful harmony, symbolic it is to be hoped
OF that good feeling that may ever bind to-
gether the people Of the States and those Of this
| Province.
A company of about one hundred and fifty-
perhaps half Englishmen and Canadians-sat
down 20 the wei appointed tables, and after
doing full justice to that part of the entertain
ment, the glasses were filed (there is NO Maine
Law here) and the feast of reason and the
flow OF soul" commenced. Col. Thompson Of
Mlchlgan,-a pioneer in the place,-presided,
mr. nfHv
nial spirit were due largely the exceedingly
pleasant features OF the occasion. Toasts were
offered to the Queen, the Prince and Princess
OF Wales, the President of the United States.
the Governor General of the Province, the
Legislative Assembly, the Army and Nayy. the
neighboring municipalities, ,-Sarnia London,
lngersol and Oil Springs,-the managers OF
the e. w. Railway, the Press ETC. To several
OF these appropriate responses were made and
aitnough all the speakers, with two exceptions
were British subjects, it has never been my
good fortune 20 listen for couple of hours to
short speeches OF more point, pith and yivaci-
ty. John Bull in his festive moments, is yery
much like Brother Jonathan; enjoys Joke as
wei, laughs as heartily, cheers as loudly, and
proves himself to be quite as much of boy"
as his American Cousin with similar surround
ings. The most friendly, even cordial feeling
was manifested towards the people of the
States, whose energy, enterprise and green
backs" were invoked as the surest way to de-
the speakers were men of official positions, two
of them members of the Legislative Council.
one gallant colonel in the British army. sew
eral OF them mayors or ex-mayors, and ofic-
ers of the railroad corporation. The only Am
ericans who spoke were Col. Thompson the
presiding officer, and your Canada correspond
ent, who was called upon to respond for the
Press.
In his remarks Col. Thompson stated that
fourteen months ago there were less than four
DrOdnclnO wells in the nlaao xyitb 5ai1x,
ducto less than fifty barrels; that there was
no Motel, no houses except few of rough logs
and that the driver of the vehicle in which he
rode from the nearest railroad station was un-
able to tell him where or how far distant Pc
trolia was, never having heard of the place, al
though regularly driving within fourth of a
mile OF 1t on his route to Oil Springs Now
there ale nearly dozen hotels, an Exchange,
banking house, two newspaper offices, large
stores and warehouses, long street with doub-
lie sidewalks, several hundred wells, a daily
production OF a thousand barrels or more of oil,
and with direct mail, railroad and telegraphic
communication with the rest of the world.
A statement was made by Mayor Davis of
Sarnia, which strikingly illustrates the sudden
growth of the place. A few years ago, he said,
gentleman of his town was solicited to pur-
chase hundred acres of land in Enniskfllen
for one hundred dollars, and at last concluded
bargain for the purchase. He subsequently
sold the lot for two hundred and Thought he
did nice thing The party to whom he sold,
one year ago sold for taoenty thousand dollars,
and the purchaser is reported to have made from
forty to sixty thousand by the operation, the
prlnclpai portion OF the village and some of the
best wells being situated on that very tract
MI. Davis himself was the man who sold for
two hundred. :.
At little past three the company separated,
having first united in Aud Lang Syne' in
true Scotch style, all feeling that good work
had been done, and that favorable impression
had been made upon the minds of allstrangers
present.
The oil business continues to maintain an
unnatural and anomalous position. The pro-
ductiOn is large, but the price is ruinously low
1t is the general belief, however, that the bot
tom has been touched and that better future
is to open. Large strikes continue to be made
The King WelF-about mile and q half
from the village, ON upland and what was re-
garded as outside territory, has now been flow
ing for several weeks at a large rate. How
much it would flow if undisturbed is not
known, but no doubt from five to eight hum
dred barrels daily. The impossibility of taking
care Of so large q product has prompted the
manager to apply a stop-cock, and shut off just
as much of the flow as it is deemed safe to do
without bursting the seed bag. With this ar
rangement the flow is two hundred barrels per
day, and Of the best kind of oil produced in the
whole district.
In letter published few months since re.
fercd to the Hillsdale Co. as an illustration of
wonderful prosperity. take less satisfaction
now in giving the other side of the sheet
That Company own twenty-six acres of first
class Oil land with one well rated at thirty
barrels and four or five others of less produc-
ton-rated at from five to fifteen barrels
They also have leased lots for two or more
wells on quarter or third ro, atty. They have
five underground tanks of 1900 barrels capaci-
ty, costing $4,000, and a wood lot of one hun
dred acres in the neighborhood. One-fourth
this property changed hands last summer aft
the rate OF $4,000, and another one-fourth is
reportee to have been sold at later day at the
rate OF $1,000 and yet though not a cent of
dividend has been declared the entire proper
ty is now offered for $25,000! Many othep
companies heretofore thought to be doing we'll
probably could not wind up any more satisfac-
torily.
The invention for burning crude oil in steam
furnaces, spoken of in my last letter, is likely
to prove entirely successful. At the banquet
yesterday, Mr.. Swinyard stated that the Engi-
neering superintendent of his road had be-
come satisfied by actual experiments that the
thing would yet be applied to all locomotives
and tor steam navigation purposes, at once
revolutionizing the motive power of COM
merce, and creating an almost unlimited de-
mand for the crude article.
The weather-an ever fruitful topic every
where's singularly mild for ACanadian
Winter" the snow perfectly level and suffici
ent for comfortable purposes, but though mild it
Is anything but pleasant. Scarcely two consec-
utive uninterrupted fair days have been vouch-
sated to us for the last month, the falling"
weather being as abundant as it is within the
tropics during the rainy season.
The leading Maine people doing business
here, think must have gone home to spend
Thanksgiving, and not yet returned. miss
| their familiar countenances ON the street,
though the "Pine Tree" State yet continues to
support fair representation here-perhaps be-
cause the fool-killer has not yet been around.
know OF no prominent man from your State
here at the present moment except Hon. j. M.
Manson, Senator from York, and he will prob
ably be at home before this letter receives pub
LEGATION. SpURwNK.
TRUE MERIT APPREcIArEp.-"Brown's Bron-