Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1890-04-25


TWitnessl O. FEEwELL III.
! (Fees, % cents fees, ID cents.)
The account continues as follows:
Your explorers find the roads of Butler
county fully as bad as those in Washington
county. They are far worse in the OIL
region. but trife better in the remote
agricultural and forest sections.
For five miles on either side ofZelienople
and Harmony there have evidently been
attempts to make mud roads scientifically
That section of the county is largely farm
ed bv the Germans, Harmony having been
settled originally by the Economics, who
then under the leadership of Rapp, were
STYLED the Harnonites. The highways in
this locality are well graded, i. E., they
slope toward either side where there are
cutters to drain off the water.
But while good enough now, these same
roads are said to cause more or less trouble
during the winter and early spring. Ma
cadamizing would make them perfect, but
the Germans do not care to macadamHe
unless they have good stone. They be-
Teve no stone is so well suited to this pur-
nose as limestone, and that is only plentl-
ful in the northern part of the county,
along slippery Rock creek. To distribute
it to the southern and other parts of Butler
! county would cost a great deal OF money
for railroad transportation an1 teaming,
they say
Those to whom | talked were anxious TO
know if the State Government would stand
the expense of transporting limestone all
over Pennsylvania if the State Commission
and Legislature should decide to adopt 1t
as the standard for general macadamlz-
ing.
No words of mine are adequate to de-
scribe the condition of the Butler county
roads in the famous 'Hundred-foot
region. They are awful. Within the last
few months the activity in this territory
has been great The hauling is heavy-all
engines. boilers, casing, lumber and pipes
having to be brought overland from the
railroads many miles We left Harmony
one morning at o'clock and reached Am
berson Bridge a couple of hours later. This
is city of oil derricks built upon one OF
the Connoquenessing creek bottoms. There
the trouble with roads began.
A BADLY sUYKEN TRACK.
Although the sun and wind of the past
week have pretty well dried up the mud
elsewhere, it is still as deep, slushy and
soggy as ever at Anderson Bridge, and for
four miles northeast of that. Beyond the
bridge the road scales a hill and so cut up
is the road that the loaded wagons coming
down grade have actually dug out track
to the right fully two feet below the track
to the left, which unloaded teams going up
the grade use 1t is worth mans life to
ride up this hill, as we found ont.
On the summit an oil town has been
hnilt in the woods. Some endeavor has
been made to keep the road there from
sinking out of sight by throwing logs and
blanks across it. Beyond and out of the
woods teamsters have for weeks abandoned
the main road and taken to the adjacent
fields. The road yet proved so treacherous
that we had to do the same. In front OF
us were three loaded coal wagons,
with a team of,draft horses to each.
Presently the caravan reached the other
end of the wheat field where the fence
rails had been removed to allow wagons to
climb up and out upon the road again. The
first coal wagon tried the ascent. The
horses accomplished that easy enough, but
the moment they touched foot to the road
outside down went the vehicle to its bed.
The team couldn't bulge it. The horses
were whipped and beaten, but to no effect.
The assembled drivers started to take off
rails from the fence to pry out the wheels,
but the farmer, appearing on the scene,
objected. lie said he didn't propose to be
robbed OF all his fence rails, no matter how
badly petroleum wildcatters got stuck.
Then the assembled teamsters surveyed
off another route, farther up through the
next field to a point where they could get
the wagons out upon the road above the
bad spot.
No sooner had they began to tear down
the fence than the farmer ran up, this time
with help, and said ''he'd be blanked if one
gap in his fence wasn't enough and they
shouldn't 60 an inch farther through his
fields" As The Dispatch wagon was in
the fields with the others we were COM
PEELED from motives of self-preservation to
take part in the melee. But Mr.. Farmer
was staunch He whistled up his dogs.
They were vicious looking, and so that
fence was rebuilt very promptly. Back to
the engulfed coal wagon the teamsters
went They were mad now, and where you
run across an angry teamster in the oil
regi IN you are slre to hear profanity. They
unhitched the horses of all three coal
wagon. to add their combined power to
each of the wagons as they sank one after
another in the mud trap. The men swore
without eeasing, and half Il dozen whips
We're laid on as many horses without mercy
for the next half hour. | pitied the poor
brutes.
And this road am telling you about is
one of the principal highways in Butler
county-the main road from Harmony to
the town Of Butler. The farmers disclaim
all responsibility for its shameful condi
tion. They declare that the oil interests
are 70 blalne-that the oil corporations, the
Standard oil Company and the spectators
in the oil exchanges of the land reap the
financial benefit of the country road :. de-
stroy them and pay no tax toward keeping
them up. of course many a farmer Is en-
riched by the lease of his land to the oil
corporations and oil capitalists, but he says
in reply to that that his share of the profits
are not shadow to what the capitalists,
corporations and spectators gain. Farm
| ers in the oil fields of Butler loudly de
mand that the new State Commission take
this inequality of road tax into considera-
| ton. They believe it unjust that they