The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-03-08
A IN OIL.
The Death of j. s. McCray Recalls o Ro
nance of Long Ago.

The Death of j. S. McCray Recalls o Ro-
nance of Long Ago.
Franklin tPa) Special to st. Louis Globe-Democrat
The death in this city of Mr.. James S.
McCray recalls q remarkable incident In
the petroleum romance. Franklin is the
which flows Oil creek, along whose banks
occurred the great oil excitement. James
5. McCray was q Venango county farmer,
whose farm, 100 acres, was situated on the
top of a hill near Petroleum Center. He
had been q ~woodchOpper and a mi!lhand,
and after a time bought a team of horses.
With his team he made some money. haul
Ing IN the lumber woods, and then bought
the farm referred to. He was to pay $1,000
for 1T, but it was several years before he
had it free of membranes. During the
first oil excitement on the creek no one
thought of going on the hills to find oil.
and the McCray farm was passed by I'M
noticed. In 1870 the seekers after oil be-
gan to double on their track, and Keefer a.
Watson struck a well on the Dalzell lands,
adjoining McCray's, that flowed 400 barrels
a day. Oil was worth nearly 50 a barrel,
and later the price advanced to S. a barrel.
Big wells were soon opened up on the
McCray farm. and for the acreage it proved
to be the most prolific oil farm ever devel-
oped. For the privilege of yelling on his
and half the oil.
Wells were put down in rapid succession,
until the output of the farm was 2,700 bar.
rels a day. Oil was then S. q barrel, and
as half the production of the farm belonged
to McCray it made his INCOME, nearly S. a
minute night and day. For the farm, for
which he paid $4,000, he was offered $780,
600, but would not take it. Operators and
sight-seers flocked to the farm by hundreds,
and McCray's children. with a keen cOm-
mercial instinct, set UP an apple stand on
the road leading up the hillside to the farm.
to turn an honest penny in the traffic of
fruit, gathered from the orchard. At the
time of this wonderful development, Nc
Cray's hilltop farm yielded the largest
revenue ever received by a single firm from
the production Of petroleum. From a
bonanza kings of the oil regions. He did
not sell his oil as fast as produced, but
erected immense iron tanks in which to
hold it for a still higher price. He built
and filled tanks until he had 1901 600 barrels
stored. For this oil he was offered $4,000
cash, but would not accept it. He was
holding 1t, he said, for an even IS o barrel.
There came q panic in the market, and oil
dropped to SO O barrel, then to So, His
tanks got to leaking, and a large amount
of the oil ran into the creek. Lightning
with their contents. He held what was
left of his oil for years, and finally closed
out the mere remnant that was left of his
rich holdings at 81 q barrel, realizing a few
thousand dollars instead of $50O,0O0.
McCray was the victim of many sharpers.
gorgeous car. as the guest of the late Jim
Fisk, of the Erie road, and is reputed to
lave dropped a big roll before he got home.
In one way and another his bonanza fort
une was reduced to only q moderate
amount. While he still had plenty he
bought a fine home in Franklin, in which
he lived several years, abandoning the old
farm on the creek,