Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1881-12-19
For the MoNIroE
LETTER FROM THE OIL
COUNTRY.

BRADFORD. Pa, Dec 1st, 1881.
Editor Monitor !: A friend of mine
sends me the MONITOR in lots of from
one to three. by which get the news
from my old home of years ago. and as
very few Vermonters stray in this d.
rcction. presume few scattering notes
from the great oil centre" will not be
unacceptable to you and your readers.
Six years ago preached here, half the
time; then Bradford was a small village,
of about 500 inhabitants, away in the
backwoods, in lumber country, with
limited agricultural facilities on account
of its mountainous surface; the roads
ran almost exclusively along the streams.
At this writing 1 have been here six
months, preaching in the same church,
which now stands amidst population
of sixteen thousand. This is a city that
may well be called "the little wonder"
Fortunes are made and lost, often in a
little while. The most substantial men
here are the producers of oil; those own
ing wells that are either pumped, or flow
of themselves. from the great abundance
and pressure of gas; 4. e., they are the
most substantial if they don't live too
fast. danger to which many are expos
ed who become suddenly rich. There is
sometimes great misunderstanding about
how oil wells are sunk. They are not
driUer, nor dug; but are drilled; they
run from $50 to 2lSO feet deep; those
on the mountains having to reach the
same level of oil-producing sand rock as
those in the valleys. over a thousand
feet being the difference sometimes in
the drilling. But what seems very
strange, even to oil men, is that the
wells on the mountains are usually bet
ter producers than their neighbors in the
valleys below, the latter more frequently
having to be pumped, while the former
more generally flow. In the case of
flowing we'll, the tubing is securely COW
cred with a joint like stove-pipe elbow,
and the oil flows through gas pipe into
tank. The derricks for drilling. ETC.,
are seventy-twO feet high, with working
pulley on top and drilling and pumping
are done by steam. At the present time
oil is very low. Crude petroleum is
selling at about seventy-eight cents per
barrel. in store. New territory is being
found and developed, so that the over
production, more than the world uses
each day. keeps the price down very low.
Bradford is the petroleum center of the
world to-day, where the price is ruled.
There is an soil Exchange" here, the
building used costing about $4,000,
and the excitement of spectators there
in is just like the stock market in New
York, or the grain market in Chicago.
The floating population of the city is
MOI as great as six months ago. since
which time the Richburg. territory has
been opened; but our city is becoming
more compact, better buildings are being
built. and substantially becoming more
apparent. Prices are very high for
most things. Land on Main street is
held at $500 per foot frontage. Rents
are enormous. We are renting two
pleasant but not large furnished rooms,
at 500 per month, not furnishing either
lights or fuel; other people are getting
proportionally the same, according to To-
cation. Clergymen are getting from ST.
800 to $4,000 year, clerks from $50
to S10O per month. But because of
these high figures. let no good steady
Vermonter come, thinking to get rich on
salary, for when he pays Sc month for
little bedroom. 81 per dozen for wash
ing and Sc per week for day board, he
is not going to be millionaire immedi-
ately. The wickedness of the city is
apparent to any one with "half an eye"
although there are very many 'just as
good people here as the world affords"
There are three daily, three weekly and
two Sunday morning papers in the city.
Rev. B. Drumming.