The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-11-09
Ways OF COAL OILJOHNNY
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
yith moral endings, have taken much
comfort out of the supposed death in alb
ject poverty of thar model prodigal, Coal
Oh Johnny, such Il finale being what one
would naturally expect from the pyrotech-
.5;c career OF pernicious activity which
made him famous. But the inevitable
,riisr Of the illness Of things is out OF
5oint again, as usual. Coal Oil Johnny
* mt as is popularity supposed, dead and
buried. but alive, in pretty good condition
physically, and IN quite comfortable Cir
,n1s1ances. And shocking as it may
te 70 those accustomed to holding him up
as a harTid warming to the young, the
fact seems beyond dispute that Coal Oil
Johuns'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
,-esk- II, Franklin county, Pennsylvania.
secompanied by his wife, went TO the
csUuty roorhouse TO pick out boy Tor
sscptsoa. as they had already adopted
from the same institution daughter.
They selected a lad IL or Is years old, to
7vs,r. she name of John Steele had been
attached-foueh how he got it does not
srpes- n the record A little more than
vss- Later the farmer died, leaving all
his small property 10 his widow, and she,
5,a,-ssses by his sudden demise with a
new sense of the insecurity OF life, al
rs,s. Immediately made her Will. Sne
.,ss,,ess sed TO her adopted daughter, who
YVES her favoTite, the sum of $2,oco, the
.osaa sun, she and her husband had, by
s5ferauae If frugality and toll, managed to
10 the boy, John Steele, she left
the farm. which was possibly worth
c,szrse of hundred dollars at that time.
Ss-,-Ss7 few months after the execution
cr -hst instrument. on Aug. %, 1859, Col.
V-zfe struck oil on the first bored we'll,
1h5rh x-ss on the NcClintock farm.
Ceas OIL vas not q new thing, even tneh'
Tia Ss,aca and Cornplanter tribes OF In
ass,,s asaa 10 collect it, by means OF oian7
knss- frazn the surface OF spring Whefe
ss1 SS1~ STANDS Today, and valued 1t nigh
~ remedy for rheumstism and other
-s7-e--s And when Hicks Spraker, IN
1Ss7- scush7. that spring from, the govern
7asr1- TIE ,l. was put up in four and SIX
xsz-x,s bel-leS fer medicinal use by the
FszrsAs.s firm OF Reynolds 4 shea, 10
zs.sn he sold ID That hrm. by the way,
dissolved partnership in row over the
reckless enterprise q the junior partner,
VIA bought seven barrels OF the Oil az
ore eSrne-s.a springs output for year
,us-sssy Sd vast that the senior partner
ss5 ms believe il would ever be all sold.
E-a sales Of Harlem OIL and Mustang
wuS-nen5-~ as petroleum was then called
s-x-sasss from year to year, and as 1t was
discovered st other points. it nasqueraded
xs Seneca OIL ana 'skier's Rock OIL
ssvsvs IS medicine The last named
sz.e came from Samuel NJ. kier's salt
xesss- al TgTentuHn, a few miles above
E,s,sshurx. where il was primarily regard
- As = great nuisance, but eventually
sssr,s his most important product. He
.s he f-.ss person to conceive the posi-
ssSs-v Of Is being available for other uses
sra- medicinal He burned il in an old
fashioned cole aot-iike lamp. and was
satisfied s;aa, although it made much
smoke and gave forth a vile smell IN
s,azrsrg. II would be. il purified and used
n q properly constructed lamp, of value
IS an iiiuminsns. Without waiting for
,s-se Improvements. the people i'll ali that
district were III 1916 and 1917, using the
cr-s,sa petroleum in their common oil
ssr.ns In 1853 Mr. Kier started one
harras still in Pittsburg for the refining
of petroleum for Illuminating purposes
and m short time found it necessary tt
asyt i've barrel still in operation. 9th
ers followed his example, and when be
invented proper lamp for the inoffensive
burning of the refined oil it became pop.
clsr and was largely in demand at the
time Col. Drake made his discovery
which is commonly looked upon now az
the initial point OF the Oil era.
Col. Drake leased one-eighth of an acre
TOM the WIDOW dCSlmtOCh. lO1 Will
she received one-baf Of the YIELD Of tn,
well. That contract was made in adj
vance. when nobody hadran idea of wha
well might yield. and neither party Il
i, had any monopoly Of amazement wheI
hundreds of barrels of petroleum PEI
diem were realized. Very speedily thu
farm was leased out in one-eig hth-of-an
acre patches and dotted all over witt
wells The widow was in receipt o
thousands Of barrels of oil every day. TO
which she found ready sale at from ST.
TO SIS per barrel, and the sums of none.
she handled were greater than she hat
ever before believed existed. As she ha,
no confioence In banks, she sent down t,
SPutsburg for big safe, which sh,
cranmeti full Of money and bonds. Lif,
slaa such an excltl pg whirl aof astonish
u Z E5j5 kieuce q her that slie fDF got 81