The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-01-05
MADE HIS PILE QUICKLY.
A Story Of the Pennsylvania
Oil Fields.
A Transaction by Which One Man
Became Wealthy in a Minute.

Liz Hlan VINO grew rlch IN an hOur
is not for an instant to be compared
with the Western chap who accumu-
lated ahandsome fortune in the short
and neeting period Of sixty seconds,
says Il Bradford Penn. correspondent
who continues: Two hours after he
struck the oil country he was hurry
ing out of it as fast as the numbering
stage would take him, and he never
came back again either. He was not
at all piggish. He simply knew when
he had enough.
1t was in the early days, when the
great petroleum industry was still in
long dresses. that the incident in qucs-
ton happened. The year was 1865,
andthe theatre Of operations the then
red hot city of Pithole. With the simple
aid of a twig of witch hazel. Thomas
Ii. Brown, whose ancestors were
among the early settlers of New
1ork city, located the we'll which usll-
cred into its brief but exciting career
OF o~leaginous existence the phenome-
Nal Pithole oil district. MI. Browns
rod of witch hazel made Thomas
Ilolmden, the owner Of a bleak and
sterile farm, n Of the richest men in
the State. The Frazier well, which
was the Pithole pioneer, was finished
on Jan. s, 1865. The $50 barrels of
Oil it poured into tanks during the
first and subsequent days of its exis-
tence was worth 50 a barrel at the
well, but in those days it cost the con-
sumner only $3.50 Il barrel to place the
stuff in the New York market.
Every commercial traveller who has
ever visited Erie, Pa, knows the
sneeze and the patriarchal white beard
n bald head and suave of
Col. F. II. Ellsworth, for many years
proprietor of the Ellis worth House and
later of the Reed House. The Colonel
was not always a hotel man. He was
n of the earliest operators in the re-
gion, and at several periods in his ca
reer was worth a great deal Of money.
It happened that the Colonel, who
was one Of the early birds, came into
possession Of asnug slice of the fam
III Holmlen farm. Several wells had
been drilled on the track, aud all came
in as money makers. The Coloner's
patch was not considered as choice us
the rest. a well was started, and
the drill began its search for oil. at
this time hundreds of strangers, with
fat pocketbooks or big bank accounts,
roamed over the field in quest ofdesir-
able locations. Thus the land, once
~valueless. became immensely valuable.
Landowners exacted a fearful big bo-
nus, and, besides, got one-eighth Of all
the oil the wells produced. The aver
age bonus on leases was $4,000 an
acre. although the price in several in
stances ran up to $1,000. Among the
adventures who flooded the country
was a tall, lean, lank. and hungry look
ing chap from Illinois. He had heard
that fortunes could he made in a day,
but the thought never for a moment
entered his noddle that he was des-
tined to grow rich in a minute. While
looking around he ran cross Col.
Ellsworth, who was watching the
drillers at his well, which was about
400 feet deep. The stranger entered
into an animated conversation with
him. When he went away be carried
a slip of book paper upon which the
Colonel had written in pencil this:
I hereby agree to sell three.fourth of we'll No
- Holmden Farm. for sls,OOO, payable within
! three days.
f. H. Ellsworth.
The tall Westerner was not yet out
Of the Coloners hearing when he Was
accosted by Il well-dressed stranger,
upon whose spotless piece of linen
flashed IL diamond IS big as a horse
chestnut.
"Do you know where 1 can buy a
good piece of oil property?" eagerly
inquired the man of the diamond.
I'm your huckleberry, stranger"
said the Wes+erner, adjusting his
SLOUGH hat rakishly on the side of his
head. 1--WE got an immense bargain
here for the right kind Of a nan You
see that well over there? Well, I own
a three-fourth interest in it and also
in the land surrounding 1t. The we'll