Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1897-08-19
MADE RICH By HIS NOSE.
STORY or JOHN MOOShAN. A WEST
VIRGINIA "SMEllER."

An Extraordinarily Developed Power of +
smell Which Enabled Him to Ioea;e y
Oh Wells With Unerring Certainty (
ue wa. Deaf and Dumb and Initsrate. | .
One of the best-known and thor 2
ouchly unique personages II the West
Virginia oil fields was killed hy rali- :
road train near this city yesterday {
evening. saws a story from Parkers-
burg. w, Va, in the Pl,tsburg Dis
patch.
He was John Moosman, s,xty-three
years old, and native Of Switzerland
,ls1a ;S;ss assa = ;taa, = - = ssss i
nor prominence When he died he
was known personally to every oil man
in the State and was worth $500, 600.
He was what was known as 'snel-
ler" He possessed the rare gift, be
lieved by oil men TO be supernatural,
of locating oil by merely passing over
the surface Of the ground, without any
of the witchery of hazel switches.
peach tree forks. or other devices. |
supposed years ago 10 accompany such /
efforts to locate water wells. That he |
possessed this faculty no one doubts, |
| u
proofs of his work.
When the oil excitement first struck
the vicinity of Belmont, this State,
about ten years ago, Moosman tried
to induce some of the prospectors TO
paw him fee TO select locations for
wells. His proposition that he could
find oil, if it existed. was laughed at
by some, but when wells We're drilled
: where he said there was no OIL, and
none was found, more credence was
, placed in his word.
t Later he secured Wilson Hurley for
: client, and located five producing
wells for him in space of ten acres.
/ This feat made Moosman's reputation.
l From that time on his services were
almost in constant demand, and hun
| dreds of gushers have been drilled on
/ spots which he selected, while as many
projects have been abandoned because
| he declared there was no oil under the
K spots selected by the projectors OF OH
: enterprises.
Among the most noted of his loca-
I tions was the famous Lubbock Oil Com
k panv gusher, near Cairo, which has
0 made all the members of the original
Q company wealthy, and which led to
% the development of one of the largest
. and richest fields in West Virginia
For the last few years he was able
d to command fabulous sums for locat
t. ing wells, and Us he grew more wealth.
K he cared more for his ease than tn
7e offers of clients. Lately he had oper
I'd ated in oil himself, and, with his won
nomenal Wealthy oil concerns, amonI
v, them the local corporations of til
w Standard, kept detectives constants
he employed to watch Moosmap wheneve
Id he went from home, with instruction
ne to buy or lease land at any price
in the vicinity of places where he locate
" wells for himself BY this plan man
he persons have shared in his prosperi',
ld He leaves family, and one Of n
,e- sons was supposed to possess h
fathers faculty, but experiments maa
by Moosman himself proved the ia
lacy of this belief The old man wonl
-. take the boy with him on his exped
tions. but in no instance did Il
7 Younger Moosman show any ability
NO detect what appeared to be an ope
tD bOOk TO MS lhluti
II, How the old man read the geograpi
not of the oil pools, located frequent
,,I from two to three thousand feet belp
.re the surface; Is a mystery which
IL, never volunteered 10 clear up, al
"A which offers Of cash would not indu'
ria him to explain He was stone dea
~ and had not spoken word for mo
than twenty years
,oo His COMMUNICATIONS were all by II
,gr ger signs, he being poorly educate
15,.. and not capable Of making himself !
telIicibie bv written characters II
the the deaf and dumb alphabet was Of !
80 tie use to him, and he conducted near
,an all his business through the ln'erp'
-. ta,ion of members Of his family, all
,ha whom could understand his eve
, of motion
an Persons Of scientific turn bave
roa. tempted to get from him some sta
~ a ment whether lie read the presence
a.aa o,! by means of nervous lDrrestlo'
81, whether the sensations produced "
~. akin 10 electrical phenoInena.o or net!
ri. tn. kuowledge came 20 hln a. re-
rav latlon from some supernatural foT
"a, bu. these efforts all proved fnfi
thoucb his children. who ars .sduca
Chi and interested III 'Ae 10 go
tba case made every e.fort - aId-
ago As sla."A -
deaf. and tia: ~as ~aAi led 70
death H,s children had often var
.sa him osthe danger O. waking ca :
r,1s- roads. bu. he paid 10 attention
- them AID on several previous os
sions had narrow escapes fEozl be
. -. rua dowa by trains H. Death
-, instantaneous AMI painless. there
-. ,n- fsu. snail scar o. his for"hsa.
xh,w where tie lccor1o;4s. st-y-r1 :
these
a.ghs Many