The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-19
RICHBURG'S
YEAR OF GLORY.

BOLIVAR, N. Y. April ia mile I'D
the valley from Bolivar, in a hollow of
the hills of Allegany county, is the
nearest approach to a deserted city to
be found in the Empire State There
are large business blocks with windows
boarded UP, long rows Of vacant build
lngs that are tumbhng down from
shaky foundations, great brick
church slowly crumbling, a brick bank
building that cost several thousand dol
lars now used as a dwelling house,
streets that are as silent as a church
yard, and over the whole hangs an air
of desolation and decay. Once 5000
people thronged the streets, and it was
as lively and wicked as any mining
camp that ever f1ourished in the Rock
les. All there is to show of its former
greatness are 800 people and the village
charter. Three years ago it was pro-
posed to throw up the charter and a
special election was held. There were
not many votes cast, but the majority
was on the right side, and the incorpo-
ration papers were not surrendered. 1t
is the one badge of honor that poor old
deserted Richburg retains.
Petroleum was responsible for it's rise
and decay. On April 1, 1881, Richburg
was a country hamlet, that did not
even boast of telegraph office There
were, perhaps, twenty-five houses clus-
tered along the shady road that led
over the hills to Friendship, on the Erie
railroad, eleven miles away The event
of each weekday was the arrival Of the
stage that carried the mail and an oc-
casional passenger. On Sunday the vii.
layers went to church and after that
discussed the prospect Of an advance
in cheese. If it was summer, or the
price of hay and pine logs on the skids
If it was winter. All unmindful Of the
fact that billions of feet Of natural gas
was imprisoned beneath their farms
they hauled beech and birch logs 10
their dooryards and sawed them into
stove wood every fall, and occasionally
one Of them grew tired of trying to get
a living from sidehill farm and went
West, although the under side of the
farm was lined with rich oil-bear1ng
sand.
The Pennsylvania oil operators who
had followed the line of developments
from Oil creek to Bradford, began to
cast their eyes across the state line
toward Allegany county, which was
on the 'forty-tive" degree line. In due
time several test wells were drilled in
the county, but none of them gave
much promise of wealth, though sew
eral of them produced oil in small
quantities. On the morning of April
II, 1881, we'll was completed on the
hill above Richburg that started off at
400 barrels day. 1t was known as
the Boyle well, and was the key to
rich field.
Oil scouts who had been watching
developments closely rode with all
haste to the railroad towns over the
hills and the wires carried the news
of the big strike to the newspaper Off
ces. The next day people in all parts of
the country knew that a new oil field
had been opened Then began a wild
scramble for leases, and oil operators
from the Pennsylvania regions 1ocked
across the state line in 'droves, anxious
to secure a slice OF the new Eldorado.
Four stage lines were established in
less than q week between Eldred, on
the line of the Western New York &
Pennsylvania, midway between Rich
burg and Bradford and the scene of
the excitement The big, old-fashioned
stage coaches drawn by four horses
were loaded with pasSen gers at SO
apiece. A few days after the strike a
building boom struck RichbuIg g. Houses,
stores, saloons and dance halls were
built in a night There was a wild
rush for hotel accommodations. Men
willingly paid 81 a night for the privi-
lege of sleeping on a billiard table, and
the regular charge for sleeping in a
barroom chair was so cents. So great
was the rush that the hastily built
hotels simply could not accommodate
the great crowds that fiocked in. 1t
was nothing strange to see twenty
men crawling out Of hay NOV in the
morning, and many nights during the
summer months as many as 200 men
slept under the big maple trees in the
little park that surrounded the school
house. A building lot Of twenty feet
front rented for $50 month, and choice
locations were scarce at that price.
The men and women who rushed to the new
field to make their fortunes came from all
points Of the compass. Pittsburg, Bradford,
Oil City, Buffalo, Rochester and many other
cities helped to swell the crowd The new
town was paradise for crooks of high and
low degree. Gambling houses were run wide
OPEN and games Of every description -four
ished. The town boosted Of more than
hundred saloons. and no attention was paid
to securing license. The people were too
busy getting rich to bother about small
a matter. And it was the same way with
the gambling houses One saloonkeeper's
stock arrived before his building was com
pleted. He had no time to lose, he put
two whisky barrels end, utilized a plank
for bar and began business at the side Of
the street. The first day his receipts were
$72 Money flowed like water.
Richburg that time had two solid banks
a water works system, electric fire alarm
system, two hose companies, a fine high
school building, a brick church that cost
$4,000, a prospective street railroad, machine
shops, oil we'll supply factories, a nitro
glycerine factory and two daily newspapers.
The Oil Echo, edited by P. C. Boyle, now
owner of the Oil City Derrick and Bradford
Era, was printed on three-revolution Hoe
press, possessed a news franchise and was
as lively the town. About the time the
boom burst the Echo Office was destroyed by
fire, and Boyle informed the writer that he
walked out Of town because he did not have
money to buy ticket. But he is rich now.
AS soon as the oil boom was fairly under
way, narrow gauge railroad built to
Richburg from Friendship and was then con-
tinued down the valley to Olean. The first
month freight car served a station, and
the records show that the freight receipts
amounted to more than $4,000. In a short
time a railroad was built over the hills from
Bradford to Bolivar and thence across new
extension Of the oil field to Wellsyille on the
Erie railroad. A spur was built from Bolivar
to Richburg and a train run every half hour.
It wac called the dinky line. The engine was
a cross between cook stove and a tanning
mill, but 1t had whistle that could wake all
the dormant echoes within ten miles. Some
days this dinky train carried as many as
seven hundred passengers.