Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1897-06-25
A GAS WE'LL ENTERPRISE.


Project That Looked Promising
Gust to show you how little things
have affected my big undertakings,
said the ex-boomer from Oregon
"let me tell you how the poisoning Of
dog was responsible for the whole
history of a gas well in which ! was
once pretty heavily interested
"About the time we moved onto
the ranch near Drain, Ore, my boy
Charles was very much interested in
chemistry, and was devotng much OF
his spare time to performing a lot OF
experiments in an old book which he
had on the subject. My wife became
rather prejudiced against his expert
ments after he had frightened Ham
Song, our Chinese cook, into hyster-
les by appearing before him one dark
night with phosphorus rubbed on his
face and hands, and l also began to
fear that he might do himself some in
jury after l found a plant for generat-
ing laughing gas at work on my
library table one afternoon. My
feeling against chemistry reached a
head, however, when my pet deer
hound ate up one of Charley's expert
ments and died as a result. After
that refused to buy new chemistry
book or any more chemicals, and ban
ished all future research in that line
to an old shack that stood over the
other side of the cattle corral.
"It was some time after this that we
began to discuss the possibility of
there being deposits of natural gas
under Drain, and half a dozen of us
undertook to make an investigation of
the subject. We found large guam
titles of some kind of gas that dubbed
up from the creek bed when we
poked about with sticks. We could
fill a five gallon coal oil can with it in
two or three minutes at almost every
point we tried, and the gas burned
with bright yellow flame that emit
ted considerable light and heat.
When 1 got home the night after dis
covering these facts l put my pride in
my pocket and CROPPED my way down
to Charley's shack to consult him on
the subject of natural gas.
L guess it is only marsh gas you
have found was his verdict. You
see, for the last 80 years there have
been sawmills on the creek above
where this gas occurs, and the saw
dust from them is probably decaying
all along the creek bottom, and that
produces marsh gas
"When l asked him for authority
for his statement, he got out the old
book that | had refused to replace
with a more modern work and showed
me a paragraph stating that marsh
gas was a product of the decomposi-
ton of wood under water. Then the
next paragraph caught my eye. Il
went on to say that in boring well
in some place l have forgotten,
large body Of gas had been discovered
called natural gas, which was though
to be merely natural reservoir O
marsh gas. To a man in my state O
mind, this statement was conclusive
] took no notice Of the fact that thu
book had been published back in thu
seventies somewhere, but spent thu
most Of that night in drawing up thu
papers of the Drain Natural Gas com
pany.
"Inside of month | had a charte,
and an incorporated company witt
one-half Of its capital stock paid up
and had made a contract with mar
named Corbett to sink a well at 81
much per thousand feet. We ha(
two so-called experts to 90 over thu
ground and published their reports
stating that the formation of tn,
country was superior to that Of Penn
sylvania, and prophesying the discov
cry of oil as well as gas. Of course
good deal of real estate changed
{ hands while preparations to com
mence drilling were in progress. w
located the well across the creek from
Drain, plotting a town site around
which we called South Drain. w
advertised extensively, and were jus
, about ready to commence the sale o
! lots when Corbett began to strik
! difficulties. At the depth of 500 fee
e he ran into alternate layers of quick
sand and slate that checked the drill
!, by tumbling in above them, until "
had to stop and case the well. M
5 associates began to withdraw abou
: this time, but, in spite of the blac
outlook | did not lose faith | be
= my son Charley new chemistr
. book that we would strike gas yet.
E bought out the other interests in tn
d South Drain town site, and bluffe
= COrbett into sinking the well to