, 1880-07-23
The Coquette Well

| aAi +"@ NsA@N NriN utNttollt.l IN the carly
days Of the petroleum excitelnenton OH
Crees was the Hyde & Egbrrs farm
DIR. Egbcrt, Of Franklin, aud his rartner
bad between them 81 900, ~Kich tbev
paid for The farRl, This waS cOnsidercS
an Immense price for it, as it had nc,
yielded enough under cultivation to nav
taxes. In 1864 they struck oil on II
They hal seyeral good wells, bur none
that compared with the great gushers
that had spoutcd their 1000 and 5000
barrels day further down the creek.
Hyde & Egbert's superintendent had
a brother who lived Ia an Eastern town.
lie was in love with young lady of the
place, who vas noted in the neighbor.
hood as great coquette. One night in
the early Fall of 1864, troupe Of In.
dians gave an exhibition in the village
The young man and the young lady in
question attended It together Asser he
had escorted her home he seiyed an op-
portuuity that offered and asked her to
become his wife. She refused him, He
went to bed disappointedand despondent.
he had long entertained the idea Of
seeking his fortune in the oil regions,
and before he retired that night he had
determined on carrying out the" idea
without further delay. Before morning
he hadla dream He thought that he
stood in wild, mountainous place, alone
and friendless Suddenly an Indian,
ihideous in war paint, sysprang from a
thicket andlrushed toward him with his
Itcmahawk raised. The dreamer was un.
armed He tried to save b himself by
flight, but he could not move He, had!
resigned himself to his fate, when another
person appeared on the, scene, 1T was
the coqpette who had rejected his suit.
She had rife. She quickly placed the
weapon in her Tilted lovers hands and
disappeared. The lover covered the,In-
dian with, tue rife and fred ,Whelsthe
smoke cleared away the Indian was gone.
Where he had stood there gushed from
the ground q stream Of oil of great vol
une. 1t flowed down over the land in
a miniature river tio.f ,a3 ip iuob
The young man awoke from his dream.
1t made great Impression upon him.
He Interpreted it as a good omen for
him, not onlyiin business matters, Obut
in his love affair lie departed for Oil
Greek next day and went first 70 the
farm where his brother was working.
One. day the superintendent was show
ing his visiting brother over the Hyde &
Egbert farmg Suddenly the latter
stopped and looked about him with an
exclamation Of surprise tsi
"This is the very spot" said he, ''that
/ saw in my dream"
81 He then related his dream to his
brother The spotwas not considered
a favorable one for striking oil, but sthe
dream of the young man so impressed
the superintendent that he determined
to sink a we'll there. The result was
awaited with intense intesest by the two
brothers. The drill, at the depth of 500
feet, struck literal rivsr Of oil, The
rich deposit spouted out of the earth at
the rate Of 1000 barrels a day The
well became famous at once IBiwas
given the name of the "Coquette,Y1be.
cause Of the coquettishness of the young
lady that resulted in its being, drilled.
Thousands Of persons focked to tue farm
to see it, and a fee Of ten cents q head
was charged for sight at it, pourihgits
wealth into Dr., Egberts tanks.,l 1t
flowed for fifteen months. Dr., Egbert
made an immense fortune from it, and
then sold a one-twelfth interest in in it for
$2T5,0o0" He gave 100000 TO the
young man whose dream led to the''dis-
eovery Of the Coquette we'll With this
sum to stsrt, with, the fortunate dreamer
in a few months made handsome for
tune. He returned to his native village
Still loving the young lady who had re
fused his hand, and learning that since
his departure she. had ceased entirelyato
80 into society, he,proposed to her again.
This time he was accepted, and he inar
ried the former coquette. Shortly after.
ward the we'll ceased to yield oil voluu-
tarily, fell to small "pumper," /" and then
became entir>ly exhausted @, A few rot,
ting timbers Of the derrick that, ,st9od
above the once famous well is now all
that marks the spot where the river of
oil burst forth. .2Hs 70 7io7 I"i"al I'm
sdl bgP T7T7?7J-- y r7TTTi iI oyGi
The Scotchman and the mineralogFst;
"Yon man gave me his bag to carry by
a short cut across the hills TO his inn,