Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-06
AN OIL FARM SOLD.
A Transaction That Calls to Mind the
History of PithOle City.
As1OO,OOO DEAL YIELDS BUT$1,2O
Less 20 Years Interest, 50 Profits Are Repre-
sented by Minus Sign.
A VIVID OIL COUNTRY REMINISCENCE
As1OO,OOO DEAL YIELDSBUTs1,2OO
VIVID OIL COUNTRY REMINISCENCE

by the sale of farm few days ago by Mr..
David Robinson, of Robinson Bros, near to
the site of a city that "a years ago stood
forth as a more wonderful creation than
ANYTHING ever originated by Oriental i'm
acination, and the history of the farm since
Mr.. Robinson first secured an interest in it
is favored with the interest that surrounds
the history of Pithole City, whose destruc-
ton in less than decade was more COM
plete than that of Tyre, which was re-
plenished by the merchants of Zidon.
Pi;hole was replenished during the few
months of its feverish existence BY
capital from all parts of the United States
and from many of Europe. To-day the only
reason why it is not possessed by the cor
morant and the bittern, and why the owl
and the ravern do not dwell in it, is because
there is no inducement to attract as a resi-
dence such fowl. 1t is as completely wiped
out as Sodom and Gomorrah, and were it
not that we have the art of printing would,
in a couple Of centuries, present more
trouble IN discovery than did Nineveh or
Pompeii, for the cloudcapped hotels and
other piles which were its glory were so
fimsy that their destruction was complete
within three wears of thar erection.
Murphy's Grand Opera House had
NONE OF THE ENDURING QUALITIES
of the Colosseum. In the opinion of many
people Pithole was fully as wicked as it
were possible for Sodom to have been, but
its sudden and complete destruction was
attributed more to the desire of the inhab-
itants to make money out of the insurance
companies than to the wrath of Omnip-
otence. Railway companies, now paralyzed,
graded roads which to the New Zealand an
tiquarian thousands of years hence may
furnish profound study, but this is all that
is left to mark the past existence of a once
powerful city whose postofice did business
ranking third In the State. The man who
wrote on 'The Permanency of the Useful"
would find the lie given him by the Pithole
water works, of which nothing is left save an
indentation In the earth, the object of which
excavation might even now puzzle an
antiquary, unless he were to hunt up the
files of the Pithole Record.
In the days when the genius of Venango
county was polishing his lamp for the bene-
fit of l in % of petroleum operators, Mr..
Robinson was one of company operating.
They purchased a farm on PithoIe creek,
bored and got 20-barrel well. 1t was a
payer, but after the city had disappeared,
most of it being burned and the rest trans
ported to Oil City, operating became un-
profitable, and the company died, and when
its estate was administered on this farm fell
to Mr.. Robinson.
HE WAS OFFERED 81, 900
for ii, but thought it worth more, and in
those days $4,000 was a contemplate sum
in Venango county, anyhow, when an Oil
City bootblack would bet YOU $50 on the
depth of the mud. The company had been
offered 500, 200 for the farm during the
Plthole excitement, but refused it and,
after ignorant operators had drowned the
oil out of the third sand, or forced it back
by neglecting to plug abandoned holes, the
territory was condemned and no longer at
trscted speculation, all left Mr.. Robinson
was to pay the taxes on his farm. Accord
ingly he rented it to farmer for the taxes
and that man has grubbed sort of living
out of it and saved a small amount of
money.
A few days since Mr.. Robinson. having
read of the renewal of oil developing inter
est around Pithole creek, concluded to visit
his farm. He found the tenant had kept it
in good condition and was very much at
tached to it, but had only s., 200. Mr..
Robinson looked about him for time, and,
though he still has faith there is oil there
in paying quantity, decided to let his ten
ant have the benefit of it and made him a
deed of the farm for his 20 years savings,
$50 year and taxes.
THE DESERTED VILLAGE.
In 1865 Housewife was also ratheraour-
ishing town, and, learning that it was the
nearest station to the farm at which he
could stop, Mr.. Robinson alighted from the
train there. He had left here in the even
ing and supposed he would not get to
Housewife before daylight, but instead was
dumped in the darkness at 3 O'Clock in the
morning. Looking in vain for some time
for some evidence of life, Mr. Robinson
finally .crawed into the hallway of DESERT
ed store building and made himself as COM
Portable as he could until morning, but
could not get much sleep and was almost
frozen. When it became light he took his
bearings and warmed himself by five-mile
walk before breakfast
He is tolerably well satisfied that all that
keeps the bittern and the owl and the corr
morant and the raven out of that country is
that the climate is either uncongenisl or
food is scarce. Notwithstanding its desola-
ton, the country produces good summer
crops and rye, and the soil is kindly, giving
back large results from the application of
fertilizer, but it seems that as the agrlcul-
turist turns the furrow over so many graves
OF hopes and ambitions he stirs up memories
of the enchantments of the fairy land of "a
ov,1