Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1897-08-25
MADE RICH BY HIS NOSE.
STORY OF JOHN MooSMAN, A WEST
( VIRGINIA "SMELLER."

( VIRGINIA "SMELLER."
An Extraordinarily Developed Power oil
Smell Which Enabled Him to Locate
Oil Wells With Unerrlng Certainty
He Was Deaf and Dumb and Illiterate.
One of the best-known and thor
oughly unique personages in the West
Virginia oil fields was killed by rail
road train near this city yesterday
evening, says a story from Parkers-
burg, W. Va, !" the Pittsburg Dis
patch.
He was John Moosman, sixty-three
years old, and native of Switzerland.
Till 1889 he lived on small farm back
of St. Mary's, and had neither. wealth
nor prominence. When he died he
was known personally to every oil man
in the State, and was worth $500, OOo.
He was what was known rs "smel-
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 to accompany such
efforts to locate water wells. That he
possessed this faculty no one doubts,
for there are hundreds of material
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
pay 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 were drilled
where he said there was no oil, and
none was found, more credence was
placed in his word.
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.
From that time on his services were
almost in constant demand, aad hun
dreds of gushers have been drilledon
spots which he selected, while as many
projects have been abandoned because
he declared there was no oil under the
spots selected by the projectors Of OF!
enterprises.
Among the most noted of his loca-
tons was the famous Lubbock Oil Com,
pany gusher, near Cairo, which has
made all the members of the original
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
| TO command fabulous sums for locat'
ing wells, and as he grew more wealthy
he cared more for his ease than the
offers of clients. Lately he had oper-
ated in oil himself, aad, with his Won
derful faculty, his success was phe-
nomenal. Wealthy oil concerns, among
them the local corporations of the
Standard, kept detectives constantly
employed to watch Moosman whenever
he went from home, with instructions
to buy or lease land at any price In
the vicinity of places where he located
wells for himself. By this plan many
persons have shared iu his prosperity
He leaves q family, and one of his
sons was supposed to possess his
fathers faculty, but experiments made
by Moosman himself proved the fal'
lacy of this belief. The old man would
take the boy with him on his expedi'
tons, but in no instance did the
younger Moosman show any ability tc
detect what appeared to be an oper
book to his father.
How the old man read the geography
of the oil pools. located frequently
from two to three thousand feet below
the surface, is q mystery which he
never volunteered to clear up, and
which offers of cash would not induce
him to explain. BE was stone deaf,
and had not spoken o word for more
than twenty years.
His communications were all by fin
ger signs, he being poorly educated,
and not capable of making himself in.
telligible by written characters. Even
the deaf and dumb alphabet was of lit
tie use to him, and he conducted nearly
ali his business through the interpre-
tation of members of his family, all OF
whom could understand his every
motion.
Persons of scientific turn have at
tempted TO get from him some state
ment whether he read the presence OF
oil by means of nervous impressions,
whether the sensations produced were
akin to electrical phenomena, or whether
the knowledge came to him as reve-
lation from some supernatural force,
but these efforts all proved futile,
though his children, who are educated
and interested in the scientific side OF
the case, made every effort to aid.
AS stated above, Moosman was stone
deaf, and that was what led to his
death. His children had often warned
him of the danger of walking on rail
roads, but he paid 10 attention to
them, and on several previous occa.
sions had narrow escapes from being
run down by trains. His death was
instantaneous and painless, there be.
ing but small scar on his forehead to
show where the locomotive struck him.