Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-14
EARLY DAYS IN OIL.
Thomas Mellon Cites the Part the
Cornplanter Indians Took in
THE DEVELOPMENT OP PETROLEUM
A Coal Miner and His Fog Saw BY Its Use
as Early as 1926.
VISIT 10 A PIONEER SALT WORKS
WRITTEN TOR THE DISPATCH. J

WRITTEN FOR THE pIsPArcH.l
have some knowledge of the origin, de-
velopment and uses of petroleum in West
ern Pennsylvania which possibly may be
worth adding to those very interesting arti-
cles from the late Mr. Stofel in The DIS
PATCH of July 81 and August 7.
am unable to give exact dates, but it
was at and shortly before the beginning of
the present century, and covering period
of some Is years. that excursions of Corn
planter Indians were in the habit OF visit
ing Pittsburg once year from their
homes up the Allegheny. They came down
the river dozen or so canoes at time, and
after disposing of their furs and other spe-
cialties, among which was always some pc
troleum, and going on drunk for day or
two, they would disappear again. Their
petroleum packages were various in shape
and quantity. Some of the oil was in
gourds or calabashes. some in pieces of hol-
low logs fashioned into kegs. And after q
time it was often brought in small kegs of
regular make, which had been taken home
by them on former visits containing whisky
or molasses. 1t was called Seneca Oil.
Certain of the merchants took it in exchange
for goods and kept il on sale in quantities to
suit purchasers, as it was in much demand,
kind of universal panacea, especially as a
salve for burns and scalds and wounds or
sores of any sort. 1t was also taken in
wardly for many ailments.
Carried Over the Mountains.
The Surplus Of the oil not disposed of at
retail was transported over the mountains
by the usual methods of the time, pack
horse or wagon. The wagon only super
seeded the pack-horse as the clay roads were
improved. 1t was before the time of turn
pixies or macadamized roads. And I may
mention here that the demand for oil at the
East was not so great as to Justify trans
portation on its own account. But there
were few products OF any kind to send east
ward, and the pack horses often went East
without load, as they had to go anyway,
because all the salt and some other neoessa-
ries of life used west of the mountains in
this region had to be brought from the East
at that time.
The above information was derived chiefly
from my mother-in-law, Mrs. Anna B. Neg
ley, who died several years ago at an ad-
vanced age, and was girl Of some 10 years
at the time of these Indian visits, residing
with her parents on Water street, and have
no reason to doubt the accuracy of her state
ments, as heard them often from her own
lips with minute particulars and have heard
them corroborated by many old people
whose memory went back to the time re-
ferred to.
She used to relate also many interesting
incidents of the Cornplanter Indians and
their methods of dealing and habits and Gus
toms, and the disturbances they sometimes
created during their annual visits to the
town, although they were always regarded
as friendly and not dreaded as hostile saw
ages. But such incidents are not relevant
to the purpose in hand. She described the
Seneca Oil thus obta1ned as common house,
hold article at the time, and recognized it
by its odor as an old acquaintance when its
use was revived many years afterward by
Mr.. Kier.
How the Indians Got 1t.
The Indians had often described how they
got it by skimming it off the surface of little
pools which they constructed at certain wells
where it appeared, and often by forming
pools in the sand bars of the small streams,
in Oil creek especially. Mrs. Negley's
daughter, Catherine, an old lady of the East
End, yet living, has also a clear recollection
of particular instances of the application of
Seneca Oil by her father to cure wounds and
bruises and other ailments of both men and
animals previous to 1926, TIE time Of his
death.
Another circumstance may be mentioned:
The information from the teamsters who
transported it over the mountains was to
the effect that it was shipped from Phila-
delphia or Baltimore to England. Balti-
more was the most convenient point of
then and Pittsburg had more
intercourse with that city than
with Philadelphia at the time. In England
it was said to be purified or refined in some
way and other ingredients added to it, be-
cause good deal Of it was returned from
England to this country in small bottle
The time is within nv own memory when
British Oil was sold here in the drug stores
What follows Is of my own personal
and goes back to the period of
of 1895 or 1926 It was shortly before the
,lackwater improvement of the Kiskimin-
stas by the State for the Pennsylvania
Canal, and several years after the COM
of salt manufacturing at or near
Salisbury on the same river. The town
;ook its name from that fact. Salt was first |
produced there on this side of the mount |
Iins, and its production gradually found its
way down the stream to its intersection |
with the Allegheny and thence down the |
to Tarentum.
A Visit to the Salt Works.
As one well after another was bored |
arther down and operated for few years,
,ther wells tarthest up the river from |
t failed gradually in the quality
" degree of strength of the
vater, until finally by the time the
alt industry was fairly established at Ia
entum It had disappeared on the Kiski-
ninetas altogether. 1t fingered last on the
The Seneca, or rock oil, as it was often
amed at the time, was pumped up in small
Quantities with the salt water in many Of
he Kiskiminetas wells. From my neigh
orhood in Westmoreland county, about ten
niles south of the Kiskiminetas, the farm
RS were in the habit OF visiting the nearest
alt works once year to procure their salt,
nd on one of these occasions I accom-
anied my father to the salt works of Mr.
'oggs, several miles below Salisbury. 1t
'as either in 1925 or 1926, when
-as about IL years of age 1 had never be-
're seen salt works. Mr.. Boggs was ex-
eedingly courteous, showing us all over
he works and explaining everything very
iAhusciy. AHc piunt, hS SUCH HHdlIS are
ow called, with the operations going on in
nd about it, were so strange aud wonder
IL to me that an impression of everything
as made on my memory which remains
ear to this day-the great salt pans or
oilers with the boiling water surging in
lem over the intense furnace fires aud the
orkings OF the pump eleyating the salt
ater from the bottom OF the well, 1900
et below, to the wooden tank along