Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1882-01-11
A NOVEL STRIKE.
An Oil Well Strikes a Rich Vein of
Beer

On CRY, December pa rather
novel strike was made by some drillers
for oil in this city the other day. The
Derrick says: Amy one familiar
with the heavy oil developments knows
that goodly part of the drilling is
done on the hill known as the Point.
1t rises from the bank of French creek
in a very abrupt manner. Philip
Grossman,s brewery is situated at the
foot of South Park street, on the west
side of the creek. His beer vault is on
the other side. 1t is an immense
vault, blasted out of the solid rock,
and penetrates into the hillside nearly
one hundred feet In this is stored
large quantities of lager beer. The
casks that hold the beer contain on an
average about ten barrels each. One
cask in the rear end of the vault Is used
as supply cask. All the Others are
connected with this one by pipes, and
the supply pipe being sunken, is al
ways kept full of beer. The hill at this
place is so steep that it cannot be
assembled
above this vault on the hill top
Rial & Son own lease. They drilled
a number of wells on their lease, and
they were all profitable. Some time
ago they located No. 8 directly over
the beer vault The rig was built and
things ran along in the usual manner
for about week When they had
reached depth of 400 feet, 200 feet
less than where they usually find the
sand. the drill struck crevice and
dropped away several feet The tools
were Withdrawn from the hole and the
bailer run. 1t came up seemingly full
of OIL Bail as they would they could
not exhaust the supply. They decided
to tube the well and were ordered to
do 80 by Mr.. Rial. The next day the
we'll was tubed without being shot.
They commenced to pump it and it
threw the fluid out at q good rate.
Noticing something queer about the
oil, one of the men tasted it. He
found it so good that he put his lips to
the pipe and took long gulps of the
delicious stuff First one and another
drank. They became what is known
as drunk. The owners visited the
well, drank and were overcome. OPP
orators came to see it, drank and were
overcome The people of the town
who heard of it went up the hill, drank
and were overcome.
Little by little they came to realize
what they had been drinking. One
man was found in the crowd who had
tasted beer before. He affirmed that it
was beer, but they laughed at him.
How would this Rip Nan Winkle
elixir get into the bowels of the earth
AZ length they determined to call in
undoubted authority on the beer ques-
tipn, and sent for Philip Grossman.
Gfossman came. He tasted it once,
twice, and then be tore his hair. is
it beer p they asked. Beer? Yes; ;
it's mine own make Mine Gott in
Himmel, you are pumping mine beer
vault dry Such was the fact, and the
way that we'll was shut down was q
caution. They visited the vault and
found it to be so. Three of the large
casks were empty. The supply cask
had been penetrated by the drill, and
that was why it continued to pump.
The whole thing would probably have
remained q secret among the sold IL it
had not been for Grossman. We were
informed to-day that he had instituted
proceedings against Rial & Son, and
following up the case this is what we
discovered