San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-04-18
A ROMANCE OF RICHES.
The Town of Housewife, Where AN Acre
Was Worth 81. 900. 600.

Was Worth $4,000, 900.
This is the Oldest town in the PENNSYLVANIA
oil regions, having been the first town to
spring into life under the wonderful stimulus
of the oil excitement 1t is located on Oil
creek two and half miles above Oil City,
and it was here that the third well was drilled
for oil and on the McElhanny farm, short
distance above Housewife the first real
'spouter" was struck. This was the famous
Fountain well, which flowed a stream of
oil over the top of the derrick, high above the
tallest trees in the neighborhood, and started
the great rush of people into this wonderful
region. This was once great oil metropolis,
with banking offices, scores of hotels and all
the commercial facilities of "a city. Being 50
near to Oil City and Petroleum Center, its
population never got above 10000, if il
reached that figure, but it was one Of the
most active cities in the belt of oil. 1t was
surrounded bv some of the wonderful flow
ing well, OF early oil days The Widow Nc
ClintJcl IaIIH, which fell into the possession
of Johnny Steele, afterwards known 10 the
world as "Coal Oil Johnny" is within sight
of this town Like all other oil towns, Rouse
vile has l., 81 Hept by fire number of times
and there is but little of the old town left
What is -"t Of il is a curious Old relic, in
which t..crc - bat little to suggest the hustle
and excitement and the fortunes lost and
won in former days. Coal OIL johnny is
by no means the only man who found an easy
fortune within sight Of this queer old town
The first gr"at oil fire was here when the
Rouse we'll WAS burned. and Henry Rouse,
after WHOM H. toril WAS nam@i was harmed
tu,'np,N. ;.lnu. Wi'i sixteen other mru The
sto"y Of tins tragedy IVA, been told m these
columns and need not be- repeated 1t Was
the most appalling tragrN in In" history of
oil fires, and, being the first, II created Won
derful sensation There has been talk of
erecting a monument on the site of the fire
to honor the memory of the sixteen men who
were the first to perish in the development of
the oil region Col. Drake, who drilled the
first oil well, has no monument yet, and the
citizens of housewife do not believe that
either monument Will ever be erected.
if oil were found in a literal lake, instead
of in porous rock, housewife, like Petro-
leum Center, would have been situated over
a lake OF OIL y number of big wells were
struck within the limits of the town, and
great "gushers" surrounded the town on
every side. Not only were the on creek
fats here Woul .rfulIy prolific, but Cherry
run, which "mlri,> into oil creek at this
point. produced some wells only second in
rlcilnc>, t, tn, :nil creek wrIl, Some Of the
largest Of these were near housewife, and it
can be said that the wells in the vicinity
have produced enough oil to have sub
merged the town. The money value of the
oil taken from the ground near housewife i
above so $50. The Story farm alone has
produced about $lOmO.OOO worth of pctrO-
Ieum, and still has Il small produCtimI-per
haDS 1910 barrels PER month. The first we'll
drilled at housewife, the third on the creek,
as stated. was put down by the primitive
method Of Il 'Spriug pole engine This was
no engine at all, hut a stout Saplny, or
spring uOl" to Wh!'h the tools were attached.
Three, or four men would pun the spring pole
down and its spring would lift the tools for
the next stroke This was called ''tramping
a well down, and As many of them We're
tramppd down to the depth of $50 and GOC
feet the operation was very slow and tedious.
No less than 80 wells were put down on Oil
creek in this crude way before steam was APP
piled to the work Where three months were
often required to drill a well then, one is
drilled now in ten days and even less.
The history of some of the big wells near
Housewife is the history of many, and will
serve to illustrate the amazing richness of the
oil belt in this section. The Reed well, on
Cherry run. was struck July l., 1864. 1t
was located on an acre of leased ground. The
land interest was to receive One-quarter of
the oil and the owners of the we'll the balance
One well was put down, and in ninety days
from starting the drill S1S5 900 had been real
lied from it by the working interest alone
The Mngo Oil company, of Philadelphia,
bought out One-quarter of the land interest III
the well for $2S0,000, after the owner had al.
ready sold $780, 900 worth of oil from it. Mr..
Reed, after selling 1000 worth of oil from
his account. sold to Bishop, Bissell & Co..
half of his interest for S2O0,0W. A man named
Frazier had an interest i'll the well that Melted
him 100000 in oil, and he afterwards sold his
interest for $1,000 cash. Most of these sales
were cash in hand The Mingo Oil company
paid $3.50 900 for their interest in one pay.
ment. Three other wells were drilled on this
one acre Of ground and from the four WE'LL.
S., OOO, 900 were realized. This is perhaps the
richest acre of ground ever developed in the
oil country The original owners were men
of small means, and all became wealthy from
this single transaction. Even the PhiladeI-
phia and New York companies who bought
them ont mt such eytravagant figures real