Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-09-17
TWO DECADES OF AGONY.
A Long-Forgotten Horror Recalled
TO Mind
BY THE DEATH OF A VICTIM
Wallace Riley, Burned Terribly on the Night
He Was to be Wed, Lingers
For Over a Score
of Years.
DETAILS OF THE DISASTER.

TIDIoUTE, Pa, September l6.-The an
nouncement of the death Of Wallace Riley
at Saylorsville, o., recalls the first terrible
casualty in the history of petroleum devel-
opment in this country Of which disaster
he was the last surviving victim. 1t left
him blind and helpless cripple and subject
at times to fits of insanity, during which he
seemed to suffer all the agonizing exper-
fences through which he passed on the day
of the great disaster twenty-three years ago.
In April, 1861, there was cluster Of wells
on Oil creek yielding from one hundred to
three hundred barrels Of oil day. Harley
/ l. Merrick sank well to the depth of two
hundred feet, but, as the yield was small,
they took out the pumps and started the
drill to make the well deeper, About j
o'clock in the afternoon Of the 18th Of
April, the drill had gone to the depth Of
three hundred feet, when it struck vein Of
oil and gas, and instantly the oil rushed up
the FIVE and onehalfin inch tubing,
Hurling the Tools High in the Air,
and gushing up in fountain fifty feet in
height. The well was spouting at the rate
otDne hundred barrels an hour. Ina very
few minutes petroleum vas running in
streams in every direction. Dams were
built and trenches dug to collect the fluid
that was running to waste, and in short
time lake of oil surrounded the derricks.
Wallace Riley, then young man Of
twenty-four arrived at the scene of excite.
ment at 6 o'clock from Meadville He was
to be married that evening at 8 o'clock to
he daughter of a farmer who lived on Oil |
creek, near the Harley d Merrick well. |
Riley went with his prospective father-in.
law and Joined the crowd at the flowing |
we'll The nature of petroleum gas was then |
unknown, and, while the crowd stood about |
with no thought of danger, the gas from the |
squirting well was sloSly spreading in every |
direction and filling the air with its pres
ence. There was no fire nearer than a
quarter of mile to the we'll That was in
the boiler house Of we'll then digging, |
By I o'clock in the evening the gas from |
the flowing we'll had reached the boiler, and,
taking fire, in second the whole oil was in |
fame With crash and roar like the |
discharge of field OF artillery the fountain |
Of the oil became
A Stream of Solid Fire,
falling back,to the rEound, over AN area Of |
one hundred feet, in blazing globes of boil |
ing OIL A scene Of indsScribable horror |
ensucd Scores of people we're thrown to |
the ground by the explosion, and surrounded |
By the burning oil. The most OF these man.
aged TO reach the outer circle Of the fire |
with their lives, but all were horribly burn
ed. At the time OF the explosion every
thing in the neighborhood for distance Of
a quarter of a mile around took fire, and
shanties, derricks engine-houses, and dwell
ings were at once wrapped in flames. The
boiler at Dobbs' vel, eighty rods from the
original fire, blew up with tremendous re-
port, instantly killing the engineer, Wes-
ley Skinner Among those who were pros
trated BY the first explosion Of the gas was
Wallace Riley. He succeeded in gaining
bis feet, and, making bis way through the
burning oil, fell, all abEaze, on the edge Of
the fiery circle lie was seized by Others,
who
Plunged Him In Hosshead Of Water
and carried him to neigbboring shanty.
Within the circle Of fame, not ten feet from
the edge, at the spot where Riley escaped,
four bodies could be. seen boiling in the
seethiug oil II. r. Rouse, OF Warren coun-
ty. one of the most prominent Of the early |
oil produces. from whom Housewife was
subsequently named and whose income
from oil wells at the time Of the great disas-
aster amounted to 81 800 day, was stand
ing near the trench this man was digging
when the explosion occBrred. He was lit
ed in the SIR ard throws more than twenty
feet away alighting in a pool Of blazing
oil. He rose TO his feet and ran, all ablGLe.
for short distance, a3d fell. He Wa
seized by several men. his burning clothes
extirguished, and he WIS carried to q
sham. Not vestige Of clothing was left
upon him except his StOGsings aud boots.
His hair WAS burned of as we'll as his ears
his eyelids ard his fingers His eyebalk
were entirely burned out His body was
biisiered from the breast down. He never
lost consciousness but lived nine hours
during which time ne deliberately dictated
his will to his lawyer In sais will he lef
100000 to
The Poor OF warren County,
but he died before he could acknowledge
and sign the document.
Besides Mr.. Rouse twelve dead bodies
we're taken from the flames before they
were entirely destroyed. OF these only six
1 L. all |
two leading oil men Of CLARION county;
Wesley Skinner Of Wsttsburg; John Ste
vens. Judd Mason. and Albert Gardiner.
Twelve men who were known 10 have visit
ed the spot, strangers, sight seeing in the
oil regions, we're believed 10 have been
among the victims Of the disaster, as they
could not be fousd and were never heard OF
afterHaris Thirty-fodr men were rescued
ss Wafiece Riley was, but their injuries
were so great that twenty-five of them died.
The scene at the height Of the FIRE is de-
seribed as having been the most frightful
and ct the same time grAndest spectacle
ever witnessed The fow Of oil continued
unsbaied for months, and. as no human
power could extinguish the flames, contia
ued burning furiously. The wen finally
gradually exhausted itsef, and the FIVE was
a. last conquered Hundreds oi thousands
of barrels Of oil were consumed, and the
we'll which would have been an enormous
fortune 10 the owners ruined them.
Wallace Riley was burned in almost ex-
actly the same manner as the unfortunate
Mr.. Rouse had been. For weeks his suffer
ings were intense and he constantly
Begged to be Killed.
The young woman 10 whom he was TO have
seen married on that terrible evening was
his constant attendant durinz 81 his suffer L