The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-01-22
AN AMERICAN BAALBEC


Aladdin's Lamp In NOrthWester Penn
sylvania..-T The Magic City That Arose
Under the Wand Of an Oily Magician
Wiped from Existence Ia y Year. &
New ork sun. u
"In that seat there by the stove" said
the conductor, pointing to. q man with
patched pantaloons and SLOUGH hat
with lock Of hair sticking through
a hole in the top sitting there with
one arm on that oil-cloth carpet bag
with the black worn of, is one third Of
the population Of the great city Of Pit
hole" sras.7 ~. s:.1
"shall introduce you? Mr.. johnson,
Mr.. Perkins," etc. &c.
"Ehen you are about all there is left
in Pithole?" I remarked. ss I sat down
behind the man. @.e - ~"
mo, thar's twice as many as me thar.
The Fergusons and Hunts, they are
thar yet. Pithole suits them; they are
farmers. They are blowing up the
streets, and raising potatoes and corn
where the post Office and opera house
were. Step off at Oleopolis with me,
and I'll take you over to see the ruins
if you'll furnish the team"
"All right, I'll do it," I said, and in
two hours the horses pulled us from
Olepolis to the modern ruin of Pit
hole. Palmyra and Thebes are Justly
celebrated as very ancient ruins, but
Pithole, Pa, is probably the grandest
young ruin in the world. Here was a
great city which was founded, grew to
opulence, fell, and whose streets aer
now onion and cabbage patches-all
within fifteen years. Why, it took
those slow-coach Egyptians two thous-
end years to make such ruin as this!
Such is American enterprise.
"When did you come here?' asked
Mr.. Johnson, who acted in the capacity
of both founder and guide to the ruins.
''I'm carpenter, you know" he said
II came here in 1856 to help put down
the first we'll for the United States Pc
troleum Company on the Holmden
farm. The country around here was
stony and the fields were full of zine
stumps."
"Did you strike oil?"
81 should say we did. We struck
flower She threw 1000 barrels of oil
into the air q day. AS soon as she
flowed the spectators went off in the
night and bought the farm of Tom
Rolmden at a low figure. Lord! when
he came to see the well the next morn
ing. didn't he feel bad, thought"
what was the effect of the thousand
barrel well?" I asked.
"Why, it seemed to set the whole
neighborhood crazy. The whole oil
region turned out and came up here.
Soldiers, with pockets full of money,
just discharged from the army, came
pouring in with the rest. In fact, Tom
Holmden's farm, in less than forty
eight hours, looked as if it had ten cir
cuses on it. You never saw such
scrambling. And prices! Why, you
never heard of such prices. Twenty
wells were under way in week. Ma
chinery had to be drawn through the
mud from the station, on the Miller
farm, four miles distant. Thousands, of
barrels of oil. worth IS q barrel, had to
be drawn through the mud. Farmers
rushed Id with teams for fifty miles
around. Contractors paid 800 for
drawing an engine four miles through
the mud. Fifteen dollars ton tor
drawing coal. Ten dollars for taking
trunk. Farmers got $40 for carrying
one passenger. Two and three dollars
were paid for meals, and IS for bed.
Dollars were as common as nickels are
now. Why, I could make $25 day
carpentering. got $3.50 for building q
one-story building, and did the work,
with four men, in day and half. I
got $45 for putting up some shelves for
q druggist and did the work in thirty
minutes. Nails were SO cents pound,
and lumber $500 per 1000. Farmers
tore down their fences for miles aronnd
and sold them to the crazy oil operat-
ors. Great guns! how the merchants
} poured in! and what prices they got;
$35 for pair of boots, and 81 for a
drink of whisky. Fortunes were made
! and lost in. q day. Hundreds of wells
went down, were sold at fabulous
prices, afterwards ending in dry holes. "
%"How were the wells usually sold p
!: asked. ;..4s ~ - (. -. -.
"They were divided into 'sixteenths.
Thousands of soldiers, farmers and
) business men were inveigled into buy
ing these ssixteenths.' Some made for
tunes and more lost all. Spectators
paid $500 for the refusal of a sixteenth
next TO q producing well, telegraphed
to New York or Philadelphia, and made
, several thousand dollars in q few hours.
A sixteenth of a well often sold for 500,
1000 cash. Millions of dollars came
floating into Pithole. Hotels went up
like magic. Theaters sprang into be.
ing. Murphy built q shanty, got a
dance woman by the name Of Brignoli,
and oil-men would throw fifty-dollar
bills at her feet. Streets sprang into
line. Within. sixty days thirty pretty
bar.maids were holding forth at free
and-easy, Z First street, all in rude
board room, 80 y Co."