The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-04-05

FNon the Pittsburgh Dispatch
A interesting book could be ~,yritto, 4,
SAID an old.time oil man. about the farmers
who grew fabulously rich In n few years fror,
the product Of their farms lying on on Crrek.
II anybody would take tho trouble TO collect III,
nbout what became OF them. IA
ID n curious fact that In the sixties most of tia
money In the oil business was made by men vino
began with nothing. and the farmers came d,
for n very large share Of II. I myself coulI
tell many stories Of mon, owning nothing hus
the land, out OF which they made a very ro,r
living, who In q very few years after Col. Drek,
drilled The first oil we'll in tho United S,ntc,
were worth hundreds OF thousands OF dollar.
Most OF them afterwnrd died poor, and ,hri,
farms are now owned by persons not OF thri,
kith and kin.
"The only exception l recall to the rule Of
the farms having passed entir ely out OF the po,-
session of the families who owned them al tho
time the oil excitement began is that Of tho
farm Of James MacCray, a little distance hacx
from OIL Creek, who made his living and tin.
Of his family from 1t. adding q little TO his in-
come from the farm by getting out occasional
RATS of lumber and floating them down tho
creek to the Allegheny River. Mr.. MacCrav
lived In q log house. and the other buildings on
his place were far from the finest. He and HID
family probably saw very little ready money,
but with in five years from the time his farm
was leased to oil producers he was worth al
least $500 900, and was living in Q very nno
mansion in Franklin. He and HE wife have
both been dead a number OF years. and lefe
,onsic err.ble wealth 10 their cons, one Of whom,
I believe, still owns the old place.
"MacCray's farm was one OF the first le ased.
and soon aft er the McElhaney farm near 10
was leased by q man named Funk, who made
an ir9mense fortune out of it. Funk probably
wor tn at least 81 900, 600. He died a few
years after he had amassed this immense for.
t tIeej ia traVi Also = became s@ ms iS rery rich ihe ss oW IN tbo @,
days the royalty paid to the owner Of the land
was often one-half in addition TO a bonus OF
lone OF the most celebrated farms in the OIL
Creek region was that of George Washington
gion, Mr.. McClintock had q good farm with
a few poor buildings on It. and was glad to
logs to the river. His farm was leased by
Brewer and Watson. He only got one-fourth
r wSs Worth at Sei IsSss bS en' a m mil 7 new He Es4 movs ei
to MEANWHILE, where. 1 think, some of his family
least 900, persons made larger or smaller
fortunes out of the oil produced from this farm,
The Central Petroleum Company was formed
erty. Although in a few years following Drake's
S Shsnsss: the snd price piss0e 81 M n tns ass Of from OIL f 90
cents to $l4 a barrel. still nearly everybody
tho f g Ft History On = 81 sps I'll. way farm m" aou %fdGn fSr n %nS
some yern noticeable instances Of IT. one
soomewhat amusing one is of an acre in which
On the chance of the wells on it being busters.
for an old horse: The owner Of the horse was
worth more than $50, but a few months after
the transaction a. we'll came in on Killen's
/ never heard what Killen did with his money,
but the mex next day the man who purchased sold
6 69T s pG r sne got aos siS Of & tSf for a"{ ks l sSidi tns sec
Another instance. somewhat of this char
acter, though the scene o.. it was another farm.
which came under my observation, was fur
nished by a young minister. He. borrowed
$4,000 to purchase q one, sixteenth interest in
tho product Of the well Itself. Il came sTs"ii in . = :
ei e g,Snrnsa ,o Tfi Out a foa s iiSty d sSd td 1atea t sas
to EqqTope; think the trip vas for his health.
p pR%als sf 11t saf for S0E}s be ca %%sf hack asEs and Sst soS sta,HaIlas
to preach the Gospel TIL the day of his death.
he had made out OF oil in doing good.
John Stevenson was another OH Creek
farmer. no richer than. the others have men:
Creek began. but who became richer than most
OF. the Others. l think he must have been
Ohio a few years after the first well was PUT
down on his place. Inever learned how ne em-
The William Story farm was one out of
which perhaps as many fortunes were made as
any Other. I'll There We're 400 o acres Of it n;a and the h;
Pittsburgh parties. was formed to operate 1t.
The owner. like the owners Of other farms
which a few years before the oil period would
not much more than sustain the people living
on them. of course became immensely rich.
oil excitement found living, In a log cabin and
in a few years made worth hundreds OF, thou.
those whose names recur to me because, of tho
attention their suddenly acquired riches at
tr !" %drt to h them IN mann ! Wi Gasss m + Wa9Il 9 he eo ankin of
to do even that. because their wealth proved
anything but a blessing to them, and they
ii they had been allowed to lead the laborious
and simple lot to which they were born.
region bears "a striking resemblance to that Of
their former owners. The owners were, poor
they died. The farms were of little value he.
fore oil was foq md on v them, ana are ,.0 of lit IIs
known as the Wash .McC,intock farm. could
have been bought, have understood, previous
years ago for $4,000. In twenty-five years
that elapsed between ire two periods, from
tanned from II, and many persons were made
wealthy. u few to be permanently prosperous
as much oil was obtained from the Story
farm. and about two years ngo IT was sold for
s sSsN s! Its va aiSs as T En- Sil a %Peod p u was st anpns
few little old wells In operation on 1t. but they
are hardly worth mentioning"
Former big spectators do not like TO speak
of their experiences on the exchanges. for tho
reason that most OF them are now poor. Tho
number of men Is not BY any means small who
have won, or lost from 100000 to $500, 900 in
a single day. and finally quit the business be-
cause they were dead broke" The most no-
ticeable exceptions to this are Capt. j. J Van.
dergritt of this city and George Il. Foreman of
Buffalo, n. Y. Both are estimated to be sew
eral times millionaires. Another exception
often mentioned is Daniel Goethe, now OF on
City. who is said to have made or lost sums
above the hundred-thousand dollar line In n sim
day on the exchange nj least fifty times. no
quit specializing when at the top OF one Of his
waves of success, became n banker, and has
ever since.
II is said that Capt, Vandergrift, though 10
was long a terror 10 tho SPECTATORS on the eX-
change, did not make his money in speCuln-
ton. lie was among the early producers, and
was later interested in a number Of pipe lines
and oil country railroads. At the time OF tho
Pit Hole excitement he Is understood to
have lost considerable money, and TO have re-
in later developments. ON Pit Hoo
Creak a few l.OO0-barrel wells caused n town
OF 1000 people TO grow up in a few months.
II went down almost rs rapidly, and nov there
are only u few old houses whore II once stood.
Capt. Naudcrgrift did not lose so heavily there
AS some others, hut lie had other reyerses, and
NJ one time, II is sa!d, contemplated resuminR
the occupation OF Captain OF n river steamboat,