The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-02
OIL FIELD CHARACTERS
PRODUCTS OF TIMES WHEN MILLION
AIRES WE'RE MADE IN A DAY.
Lavish Expenditures of Coal Oil
Cray-Ned CIapp Richest of All.
New York Letter in St. Louis GIobe-Dem-

New York Letter in st. Louis Globe-Dem-
ocrat.
When a group of veteran oil men come
together in these latter times some rare
and splendid story telling is sure to fol-
low. The other night little coterie of this
sort was clustered in one of the coy cor
! ners of an uptown hotel. The market fur
nished scant subject for discussion, and
the talk soon drifted upon the past. Col
Jim Guffey, who was in at the birth of Pit
hole and has had a hand in the develop
ment of every oil field since that day, start
ed the ball rolling with mention of the
name of John V. Steele, better known to
fame and the world as Coal Oil Johnny
| II knew Steele WELL" said the colonel,
land he has been as badly lied about as
any man who ever lived. All the stories
1 have read about him recently are untrue
| In character he was totally different from
what he has always been pictured; he was
| anything but bad man or a wild youth.
When the Widow McClintock was burned
| to death, in the winter of '62, it was found
that she had left 100000 and a large num-
Der of very profitable oil leases to Steele,
then a young man of twenty whom she
and her husband had taken from the poor
house and legally adopted four or hVe
years before. Steele who had never been
| farther in the world than the nearest
town, was an ignorant country boy, good
natured and good looking, but without the
slightest idea of the value of a dollar.
About this time he fell in with his evil
| genius, a man named Slocum, who had
been a sailor on the lakes and . brakeman
on the railroad, and who filled Steele
| head full of stories of the outside world
| Slocum's tastes were low but Steele cared
little for the dog and prize fights which
he was induced to attend through his in
| huence SlOcum collected crowd OF MS
! friends around him, which Steele PAID for,
| but the latter cared lille for the drunken
carousals and the wild orgies in which he
| is said to have INDUCED. Slocun, who OBJ
tanned such an influence over him, died
more than twenty years ago in a jail, where
| he was imprisoned for debt. Steele him
self, when his fortune was gone, went back
| to hard work with a smile on his face, and
is now living contentedly on a farm in Ne
braska. l doubt If he has ever worried
| over the money which he squandered IN
his palmy days. 1t IS a curloUs Ia g. CIide
| the McClintock farm, from when oteele
| money came, after being abandoned as
| worthless, has been revived, and in the last
| ten years has made another man rlch.
| That man is John w. Waits, of Oil city.
| Waits grew up in Housewife, and thor
! Oughly understands the oil business some
!
| abandoned wells along on creek, ana came
to the conclusion that, with the improved
appliances for pumping now IN use they
| could be made to yield oil IN paying guam
| titles. He bought the McCItntock farm Tor
a few hundred dollars, and had number
| of the old wells cleaned out, torpedoed ana
rugged up for pumping. They al produced
| OIL as Waits thought they would, put ne
! has obtained the best results from the new
| wells he has drilled on the farm. Nearly
! all Of his new wells have proved good pro-
ducers as Oil creek wells go now. From
an abandoned farm, thought to be next to
worthless, Waits has developed very
| handsome property"
OLD. JIM MORAY.
You are right colonel, about Steele"
| broke in Capt. j. J. Vandergrift. HE GER
tainly has been sadly misunderstood You
! will remember that he was not quite TWEEN
| ty-one when old Mrs McClintock died and
l was one Of the guardians appointed by
| the court pending his majority. His daily
| income at that time was just a trifie under
| 5000, a handsome revenue, but not half so
large as that enjoyed by old Jim McCray
a few years later. When the oil excitement
began McCray owned hill farm three or
four miles from Oil City, which, after it
| had been demonstrated that oil could be
found on hilltops as well as in valleys, was
one of the first upland properties to be de-
veloped. This in $780, and McCray
| leased his land at 81 COO an acre bonus and
one-half the oil. Every we'll drilled on the
farm proved a good one. and for long
| time McCFay's income was something over
| 81, 900 a day. Although he soon had more
money than he knew what to do with, he
| longed for more, and finally conceived the
| idea of storing his oil and holding 1T for an
| advance. He built tanks at large expense,
and stored upward OF 100000 barrels. In
stead of advancing in price, oil began 10
go down, but still McCray held on. Some
of his tanks 5Gtst others were struck by
| lightning, and stu others We're tapped by
| oil thieves, who carried off thousands of
barrels at night. In one way and another
he lost the bulk of his holdings. The rem
nant he sold for 81 barrel In this at
| tempt to increase his wealth McCray if l
am not mistaken lost nearly 81 000,000.
About this time McCray ana Jim F'iske
| became fast friends. FisHes partner, Har-
| ley was then very active in the oil trade,
and Fiske himself was largely interested
in the transportation end of it. on one oc-
casion Ffske invited McCray. who was an
uncouth old cOdger, TO visit New York, and
| to that end provided a special car on the
Erie, and induced several friends to join
| the excursion. 1t was a great trip, the bill
| for champagne and cigars alone being in
| the neighborhood of ESQ. Here in New
| York Fiske gave a dinner in honor of Nc
| Cray, and large number of brokers and
! business men were present. When the ban
| quet was ready McCray could not be found,
| and they were obliged to proceed without
! him. During the meal word came that Nc
! Cray was in a billiard saloon in a basement
! near by. Sure enough, there he was found,
! his coat of, but his white Kid gloves still
| on his hands playing billiards with a col
| ored man. In response to an urgent appeal
| TO come at once to dinner, he said he had
! already dined at a restaurant across the
! street, and was not hungry. I have been
| told that McCray's association with F'iske
! cost him q goOdly slice of his money.
| Sharpers and blackmalers got more of it,
! and, large as his fortune was, it was fast
| going, in one way and another, when his
| Wife at last prevailed on him to set apart
| something for her in the event of disaster
| lie bought her a fine residence in Franklin
! Pa, and settled ample means upon her 1t
| was Wen that he did it. for it enabled the
| two old people to round out their DAYS in
comfort. Both died about a dozen years
| ago Few people are aware that on the
| Story farm, which adjoined the McCray
Andrew Carnegie laid the foundation of his
present fortune. Carnegie and some Of his
friends bought the Story in 1861, and from
1t they sold, all told, more than $40, 600, 000
worth of Oil Before selling the farm to
Carnegie Story had offered it for 81 600
1t was one Of the richest oil farms in the
world"
4 remember McCray we'll" said another
member of the group. He was a queer
one, but not half so odd a number as old
Ned Clapp. of President, seven miles above
! Oil City. Clapp, who is now about seventy
years of age, owns eight thousand acres Of
land right on the border of rich deyefoned
oil territory. Wells drilled on one edge Of
his tract have proved absolutely that soma
or his property is valuable petroleum land
and II is probable that the great bulk Of
ms eight thousand acres is equally good
II TINS be the case, Clapp is the richest man
IN the oil regions. but he will not sell or
lease an acre OF his land, nor will he on