The Irish standard., 1895-11-09
An Interesting History Of. the
Way Petroleum Came
Into Use.
A Had, Wild Career Was That
Of the Young Man Sud- !.
denly Possessed of Riches.
That 1t Is Better to Be Born Lucky
Than Rich Is Proved in
This Instance.

Good folks fond Of instructive stories
with moral endings, have taken much
comfort out of the supposed death in alb
ject poverty of that model prodigal, Goal
Oil Johnny" such finale being what one
would naturally expect from the pyrotech-
mic career of pernicious activity which
made him famous. But the inevitable
order Of the fitness Of things is out OF
Joint again, as usual Coal Oil Johnny
is not, as is popularity supposed, dead and
buried. but alive, in pretty good condition
physically, and in quite comfortable cir
cunstances. And shocking as it may
be to those accustomed to holding him up
as a horrid warning to the young, the
fact seems beyond dispute that Coal Oil
Johnny's good financial plight today is
the direct result of his having been a
reckless. irresponsible, drunken spend
thrift when young, says the Times Her
aid.
= In December, 1857, William McClintock,
owner of an almost worthless farm on Oil
creek, in Franklin county, Pennsyl lvania,
accompanied by his wife, went to the
county poorhouse to pick out boy for
adoption. as they had already adopted
from the same institution a daughter
They selected lad IL or Is years old, to
whom the name of John Steele had been
attached-though how he got it does not
appes, in the record A. little more than
a year later the farmer died, leaving all
his small property to his widow, and she,
Impressed by his sudden demise with
new sense of the insecurity OF life, al
most Immediately made her will. She
beoreathed to her adopted daughter, who
was her favorite, the sum OF $2,o0o, tne
total sum she and her husband had, by
lifetime of frugality and toll, managed to
save. Tc the boy, John Steele, she ie1t
the farm. which was possibly worth
cnuple of hundred dollars at that time.
Within few months after the execution
of that instrument, Oh Aug. %, 1859, Col.
Drake struck oil on the first bored well,
which was on the McClintock farm.
Coal oil was not new thing, even then.
The Seneca and Cornplanter tribes OF IN
dams used to collect it, by means OF blan7
tzets from the surface of a spring Whefe
ci, CITY stands today, and valued it high
,y as a remedy for rheumatism and other
ailments. And when Hicks Spraker, In
1927 bought that spring from the govern
nlsnt, the oi! was put up In four ana SIX
ounce bottles for medicinal use by the
pit,sburs firm of Reynolds & Shea, to
whom he sold it. That firm. by the way,
dissolved partnership in row over the
reckless enterprise Of the junior partner
who bought seven barrels OF the OIL az
one time-the springs output for year
3 Quantity SO vast that the senior partner
oi6 not believe it would ever be all sold.
TIE sales of Harlem oil' and Mustang
lfniment.'' as petroleum was then called,
Increased from year to year, and, as 1t was
discovered at other points, it masqueraded
as Seneca oil'' and ''Kier's Rock oil
ALWAYS as medicine. The last named
stuff came from Samuel NJ. Kier's salt
wells. at Tarentum, few miles ABOVE
y,;;tsburg. where it was primarily regard
a
became his most important product. He
Mas the first person to conceive the possi-
t;Iitv of It's being available for other uses
Tran n,edicina! He burned it in an old
fashioned cote pot-like lamp, and was
satisfied tha,, although it made much
smoke, and gave forth vile smell in
burning, ii would be, if purified and used
IN properly constructed lamp, of value
as an illuminant. Without waiting for
rh.se improvements. the people in ali that
district were. in 1916 and 1S47, using the
crude petroleum in their common oil
lsrnps In 1853 Mr. kier started one
harrei still in Pittsburg for the refining
of petroleum for illuminating purposes,
.,,st i've barrel still in operation. 9th
ers followed his example, and when he
invented proper lamp for the inofenslve
burning of the refined oil it became pop
,is- and was largely in demand at the
s;,ae Col. Drake made his discovery
which is commonly looked upon now as
The initial point OF the Oil era.
Col. Drake leased one-eighth of an acre
from. the Widow McClintock. for which
she received one-haf of the yeild of the
well. That contract was made in adj
vance. when nobody hadoan idea of wha'
q weil might Weld. and neither party to
!; has. any monopoly OF amazement when
hundreds of barrels Of petroleum pei
ti,sla were realized. Very speedily the
farm was leased out in one-eig ghth-of an.
acre matches and dotted all over with
wells The widow was III receipt OF
thousands of barrels of oil every day. fol
which she found ready sale at from 81.
to SIS per barrel, and the sums OF money
she handled were greater than she had
ever before believed existed. As she had
nc confidence in banks, she sent down te
PItssburg for big safe, which she
srammed full of money and bonds. Life
was such an exciting whirlsOf astOnish-
fug experience to her that she forgot u
d about the viii and forgot tnat death n,as
me . sndd denIF q = = q