The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1883-01-27

We're put in and driven down. l would
rather have given five thousand dollars
! than have her flow; but in about an
hour and Il half she began to spout.
The oil saturated the ground and ran
down the hillside into the brook. l am
| not accustomed to manual labor, but
pulled of my coat and went TO work
damming the brook, so that the oil
would not float down on the water aud
tell the story.
| AN UNENPEI'rED DANGER.
"I sent note to my partners, whicl,
l believe one of them has had framed.
I don't remember just what it was,
but it was something about her being a
teaser.' Another messenger was sent
to Sheffield for more plugs. While he
was away the we'll flowed again, and
we put down the last plugs we had on
hand and then shovelled sand into the
hole and drove it down, but still she
| flowed. The messenger got back from
Sheffield the next morning, bringing
plugs in a bundle Of hay across the sad
die. This precaution was necessary,
for news concerning new well spreads
like wildfire, and it takes only little
while for the scouts to be on hand.
! My partners arrived at the we'll at
about 10 o'clock that morning. They
thought my message was joke, but
had procured some plugs and come on.
More plugs were then driven down,
and the flow was stopped. The last
plug, however, had stopped about 500
feet from the bottom, and could not be
driven further. The tools rested on it.
"You had better pull out the TOOLS
l said to the uriller; Il guess she'll stay
! plugged now.'
"Yhe driller started to haul up the
tools, but noticed that the rope was
coming out Of tho we'll slack, and call
ed the driller's attention.
"She's flowing the tools out of the
we'll
"I began to say something about
that being too old Il gag, when he yell
ed:
"They'rc coming-ruu, for Gods
sake !"
"Beforc tho words were out of his
mouth there WAS a noise as Of tre-
mendous explosion, and the tools,
weighing about three or four thousand
of the shanty at least sixty feet aud
CotAS NO"A u VIC lOOl3
splintering the fl oor and sticking into
the ground some eight or ten feet.
That's the first and last time / ever
saw set of drilling tools thrown out
of the we'll by the flow. Wcput down
eight more plugs, but she continued to
leak at the rate of at least fifty barrels
Il day.
GUARDED BY EITLEMEN.
"Thc question then was how we
could keep the well 4 mystery. The
driller, his two men, and seven hunt
ers were armed with Springfield rifles.
a path marking Il heXagon around the
we'll was cleared in the underbruSh,
and man was stationed at each Of the
six corners, with orders TO let no one
cross the path. The path was lighted
up with lanterns at night, so that no
scout could creep across in the dark
ness. Provisions were sent to the
men, who had their regular hours on
guard, under command of Capt.
Haight-as the men called him-who
was the contractor for drilling the well.
The well was thus kept under guard
till Sept. Is, when she was opened to
anybody who wanted to see what she
WIS NOlES. 4hctu W iii'S SIG "'lo tupGu
and supplied with tankase for storing
| 5000 barrels of oil. Mcssrs. Bayne and
Fuller were admitted to partnership,
and the firms business was conducted
under its present name of Melvin,
| Walker, Shannon & Co. OF course we
secured leases of lands lying near. We
took to ourselves the credit of being
the first in the Oil region to successful
ly guard a mystery"
The opening of the Shannon well oc-
cured when the production of the
Cherry Grove field was rapidly falling
| off, and rumOr had it that this fact,
combined with the accurate gauging Of
the Wells production by the scouts, re-
suited in q considerable loss to the
owners of the well in operations on the
market. An old scout said "They
never knew how the we'll was pipcd of
till after it was done. They had it
guarded so closely that we couldn't get
near il; so we had to time its flows by
watching with field glasses the escape
of gas from the tank while she was
blowing. But we got it down pretty
close"
| Mr.. Shannon, when asked about
this, replied not rcgrctful!y:
"Well, we didn't lose any very large
amount OF money
Dr.. Dresser, who has written work
| on Iapan saw served on the table Il