Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-20

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From this there was a decrease In price to
81 rs in October the year ensuing, with S11
at wells. Price of oil lands, or rather the
oil itself rose that wear to $50, 600 an acre.
|. The event of 1865 was the discovery of
oil in Pithole creek. Thomas H. Brown,
with the aid Of a witchhazel twig, located
the Frazier we'll, which flowed $50 barrels a
day. Other big wells followed. The war
had just ended, and DISCHARGED soldiers
focked to the place, and Pithole City
grew like Jonah's gourd. In three months
farm where in the spring stood but single
farmhouse and barn. The following spring
the place was again bowling wilderness,
the oil giving out and palatial hotels, banks,
water works, stores, and gambling houses
had nearly all disappeared. The railway,
which had done big business, was in few
months dismantled and the rails torn up. 1t
was supposed the town was burned mainly
to secure insurance. Oil fell to 81 621z, at
wells, in August
GREAT GAMBLING.
The imitation of 1864, spawned the great
est amount of gambling ventures ever
know in oildom. = man would buy an in
| terest in a well, go East, or elsewhere, and
stock a company. He would give an option
on tract of land at cheap price, probably
| five or ten miles away from the well, and
| this land would figure as an asset. He
didn't know whether there was oil on it or
not, and didn't care very much. Among
the company's assets, however, would figure
the well in which be had purchased small
interest, probably only 6 thirty-second or
si1ty-fourth, and could represent so much
land with one we'll producing at a rate that
would pay interest on a large sum of money.
Sometimes the buyers of the stock would
make good thing oft, but oftener they did
not, and the transaction was pure gamble,
making the oil country the grave of many
millions of capital. The famous Holmden
farm at Pithole was thus stocked.
DR.. NJ. c. Egbert, who now does business
at No. 96 Fourth avenue, helped innocently
to give the impetus to this colossal gambling
by selling one-twelfth of the Coquette well
for 5000, 900. the largest price ever paid for
an oil interest, placing value of s., 400, 600
on a single well. In 1859, DR.. Egbert was a
student in his brothers Office. They were
watching brakes work at Titusville, and
when it succeeded they purchased for 81, 900
what was subsequently known as the Egbert
and Hyde farm of 3S acres. People thought
they had paid twice its value. 1t was op-
posite Petroleum Center. The Coquette was
not large well, only 600 barrel one, but
oil was very high in price. DIR. Egbert sold
her first 10, 600 barrels production for $780,
600 to a man named Yost, who was the
Standard Oil Company at that time. 1t was
sold under price on account OF the first
product having a muddy color. On the 3S
acres over 60 wells, one of them the famous
Maple Shade, were bored. Oil boring was
purely guess work then, and there was no
theory as to sands or belts as now.
In 1866 complaints began that there was
too much oil produced for the market, and
price at wells fell to 81 12% in December.
A mob in April burned the tanks OF Har-
lev & Co., Bennehotf and tine Shafer pipe
line, and in May Congress gave some relief
by repeating the tax on crude.
PRODUCERS MADE GLOOMY.
The surplus gained in production 1000
barrels a day, and producers wele gloomy
and they were not comtorted by the use of
the torpedo, which began to add to the pro-
duction of old wells. At the beginning of
the year the cost of getting oil from Pithole
to New York was:
Government ..................,S1 90
Teaming from Pithoie to Titusviie... Is
Freight from TituSyille to New York. IS
Cooperage and platform expense. %
Leakage. ..................... Is
Total. $40 40
The year 1867 opened with gloomy lore
bodings on account of the continued growth
of the surplus. j. K. Barbour's circular
for September showed surplus of 750 600 |
barrels, and had it not been that close drill |
ing and neglect to plug oilless holes let the |
water down and flooded others, there is no |
telling how much more the surplus might |
have been increased. The highest price |
this year was So IS and the lowest 81 IS at |
wells.
Toward the latter end of 1868 there was a |
substantial decrease in production and price |
went up from 81 55 to 81 72]5, closing the |
year at 81 05. The prices named are ayerag
for the month.
The year 1869 is notable as the be-
ginning of the shut-in movement. The
decrease of the previous year was attributed
to flooding and the exhaustion of the gas in
the sand rock, and in 1869 it was found nee
essary to drill twice as many wells to get |
the same production as previously. The ter
ritory had enormously increased and people
began to predict that the end was not far off
when production would cease This idea pre-
vailed until the exploding of Wrigley's the
ory by the discovery of oil in abundance be-
low depth of 2, 600 feet. Pithole got its Sec
ond wind in 1869, but it didn't hold long.
From 1868 to 1875 the prices of crude were
given at Oil City, and they, with occasional
advances, continued to recede-S6 60 highest.
So 20 lowest, in 1869, to 50 80 highest and
711zc lowest in 1874.
FIXED THE PRICES.
Since 1874 speculation and MANIPULATION
rather than supply and demand have fixed
prices, and, though there grew a surplus of
nearly 40, ,OOO, 600 barrels, price was never
allowed to go very high, nor was it allowed
TO go much below the lowest notch in 1869.
The highest price on the Exchange since
1874 was on December r. 1876, 81 2SL. and
the lowest July 6, 1882, 491Lc. The lowest
daily average production ior month since
1867 was in April, 1868, S,537 barrels. and
the highest August, 1882, 10000 barrels.
This was the year the Cherry Grove pool
was tapped. ;
Thirty years of the business have shown
changes. Refined has declined
from 80 cents a gallon to s cents and the
irst reduced price knocked the spots off the I
allow dip and the Dutch lard-burning (
amp. The cost of putting down a we'll
!, 900 feet is no greater than that of drilling
,ne 800 feet 80 years ago, and our great
yushers are pigmies compared with those off
hat date. The prices paid for those old
yushers and for oil territory in the early
Cos sound fabulous to-day. The Noble &
Oelamater well on the 18th of Febrnarv {
1854, had produced 1884 barrels which t
old at The we'll for S1,O62, ,155. II was on s
he Farrell farm. The owners bouobt the s
Caldwell, which ;nterfered with it for S175- :
100, and had it plugged. :
SOLD FOR LARGE SUMS.
In June, 1864. the land interest (one-balf s
he oiD in five acres in the Blood farm sold