The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-01

a friend OF his from Pittsburg, named Hyde,
the tract. and the firm of Hyde & Egbert
became the most famous in the oil country.
Iney put down their hrst Well with great
they found that they were not only not be-
yond the oil sand limit, but on the very
richest part of the oil deposit. The Wen
was then very low and of small demand,
they Immediately put other wells on the
tract, until they had th1rty-tWo good pro-
and which. in 1854, were returning 10 Hyde
q Egbert $500 a day. Among their wells
was the famous Coquette, which had a
strange history.
A LOVERS DREAM.
1.-THE superintendent of the Hyde & Egg
bert property had a brother who lived in the
eastern part of the State. This brother was
in love with a young woman of his village
who was known there as a great coquette.
One night he escorted the girl to a travel
ing Indian show in the village, and, as the
story goes. on the way home after the show
made a proposal of marriage and was re-
jected. The Tilted youth had long been
thinking of trying his fortunes in the oil
country, and now he determined to go there
and forget the coquettish maid. That night.
however, he went to sleep with his head so
full of Indians, coquettes and oil wells that
he had a dream in which they were all COM
bined. In this dream he fancied that he
was being pursued by a bloodthirsty Indian,
whose evident intention was to take his life.
dreamer was unarmed, and he had
abandoned all hope of escaping the toma-
hawk and Scalping knife of his foe, when
the girl who had Tilted him appeared on the
scene.
She approached from a distance, but so
rapidly that she was at the spot almost
instantly, and more to the point, she bore a
rifle. This she landed over to the young
man. He took it, aimed it at the Indian and
fired. When the smoke cleared away the
Indian was gone. and the girl disappeared
slowly, smiling sweetly on the youth as she
went. From the spot on which the Indian
had stood-it was in a barren, wild. forbid
ding country-a fountain of oil began flow
ing, and ran. over the land in a large
stream.
when the dreamer awoke he interpreted
his dream as of good omen to him in both
love and business. He started for the on
creek country the next day. Arriving there
he sought out his brother at the Hyde q
Egbert farm. The brother naturally took
him over the farm to see its wonders. Dur
ing this trip over the farm the visitor sud
denly stopped. and, pointing to a particular
spot. exclaimed, much to the surprise of his
brother:
Z" It's the very spot. the very spot!
'Then, recovering himself, and noting his
brothers establishment, he related to his
brother the dream he had had, which also
required him to make known the dlscourag-
ing termination of his love affair. The
of the oil we'll drillers and spectators of
that day-and Of this day, too, for that
matter-set men at work at once drilling a
well or the spot indicated by his visitor.
The drill struck the sand rich, and the re-
suit was q Spouter of two thousand barrels
a day. The we'll was named the Coquette,
and it was such q wonder for the time that
it was entirely inclOsed and an admittance
fee charged to see it Spouting. BY this lit
tie manifestation of the showmans TRAIT
alone the owners of the well made several
thousand dollars. The Coquette well yielded
so well that after Hyde IL Egbert had d.
vided nearly 81. 900, 900 from its returns, they
sold a twelfth interest in it for $3.50, 900. Hyde
& Egbert continued to coin money in the
Oil creek country for years. l don't know
what ever became of Hyde, but Egbert re-
lation, and the last time I heard of him he
was living at Franklin a poor man..
"Of course, the young man whose vivid
dream had led to the drilling of the famous
and rich Coquette well was handsomely re-
warded. With the capital thus obtained he
made lucky investments IN OIL, and in 1860
He returned home and found. to his sur
prise and delight that the girl who had
Tilted him had so regretted it that she had
never married. He asked her a second time
to marry him, and she did. I don't know,
but L suppose they lived happily ever after.
MICK FARRELS LUCK.
another man who was among the re-
markably lucky ones of the early oil days
was Micky Farrell. While Jim Sherman
was struggling to put down his well on
the Foster farm in 1862 Micky had a bril-
liant idea, Sherman had offered him a six
tenth interest in his well for 5000, but
Farrell reasoned to himself that it would
be a better speculation for him TO secure
an interest in the farm 4tself. He argued
that il the Sherman well proved dry he
would lose his $500, and that if it came in
a producer he would only have a sixteenth
interest in the result. If he invested his $500
in getting control of some of the farm he
would lose only as much as he would if the
Sherman well proved dry, but If the well
was a producer his holdings on the farm
would be worth a good deal more than
one-siXteenth of the Sherman well. So
Mickey declined Sherman'S offer and for his
$500, which he had saved from his wages
as a teamster, he obtained a one-third in
terest in the Foster farm. Soon afterwards
of 2,CG0 barrels a day. Then the Foster farm
became worth millions. From his royalties
from the wells that were soon put down on
his one-third of the farm Micky Farrell,
the long-headed teamster, had an average
income for more than two years of 2,C00
q Jay: He was not as long-headed in the
disposition of his hundreds of thousands Of
dollars as he had been with his modest
savings of $500, and he died without a dollar.
Some of the famous wells of the Oil
creek country were struck on the Foster
farm. There 1t was where Orange Noble.
who came to the oil regions from Erie to
work at his trade of cooper with Delamater,
" &IdWlOIu COuuly. mdQe his vast fortune
from a small investment, and through it be-
came treasurer of the State. Demarest
made his millions on the same farm. The
Noble family has its fortune yet, although
it's founder is long since dead. The meIan-
choly story of the Delamaters is well
k~nown-the unfortunate candidacy of the
son for Governor of Pennsylvania, his over
whelming defeat, the subsequent revelations
of irregular business methods and transac-
tionS that brought ruin to scores of their
townsmen and neighbors and involved even
the State in loss-these are details too re-
cent to need repeating to show how the
great Delamater fortune, made in lucky
strikes in oil in the pioneer days of oil
creek, melted away in speculation.
In 1862 the first oil ompany ever organ
lied regularly to do business in the oil coun-
try was formed. This was the Columbia
Oil Company, and | believe it is still in ex-
istence to-day. The money that company
made was simply fabulous. Its originators
were all Pittsburg SPECTATORS. 1t has nc
parallel, perhaps. in the history of Ameri-
can speculative enterprises, the compare
lively brief period of it's profitable career
capital of $500, COO, the par value of the
shares being $40. In 1883 a party of Pitts
burg men had purchased what was known
as the Story farm, on Oil creek, for $1,000.
The farm was purchased of them in 1862 for
$l30,0OO. Wells were sunk upon it and when
oil was at it's loves the company was pro-
ducing LOO barrels more a day than it
could dispose of.
The stock fell to 81 a share. In the sum
mer of 1862 oil began to find a market
abroad, and the price advanced rapidly, and
it was not long before stock in the Column
bia Oil m was worth five times its
par value, or 500 a share. From Septem-
Der, 1867, until April, 1864, the company made
good all its losses, which were a good many
thousands of dollars. and divided $500, OOC
among the stockholders, who were few.
During the months of April, May and June,
1864, there were divided among the stock
holders S275,O0o The next five months re-
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