Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-01-22
TIE SC|O OIL BOON.
The Little Town Scarcely Recognizable
at Present.
NEW BUILDINGS GOING UP ON ALL
SIDES, AND MANY MODERN
IDEAS BEING INTRODUCED-A
GENERAL REVIEW OF THE SIT
UATION IN THE NEW FIELD.

Special to the Register.
-Scio, Ohio, January 21.-On all sides
are to be seen evidences that Scio is
reveling in the midst of an oil boom.
New store rooms are springing up.
anddwellings are being converted into
stEcroms for small merchants. 4 big
restaurant and boarding house build
ing is being erected by Steubenville
people. 4 news stand has been open
cd. The town is thronged with people,
new faces appearing each day. The
stores are tlronged with buyers and
merchants are happy except when wor-
rying over non-arrival of goods. Farm
ers and hucksters are selling produce
at good prices and the demand for this
produce is lively. Hotels and restaur-
ants are crowded during meal hours.
The pool room does a big business.
Laundry agents are strictly in the
swim. Buildings are bringing good
rents. Belknap, the tailor, has rented
his store for $3.50 year. Back yards
used as storage places for tools, etc.,
bring hundred dollars rent for thirty
days. Oil men are not stingy and they
let go of money for every turn they
make. The streets are muddy and gum
boots are needed to get about. Over
one hundred teams are at work in the
field. The agents and assistants at the
Panhandle and w. & l.. E. depots are
pushed hard and doing extra duty.
Both roads have extended their siding
facilities and still they are inadequate.
The Pan Handle siding will be extend
ed to hold over 200 cars. More good,
hard money is being let loose here than
the people of North township ever
dreamed would come this way. The
timber in this section is fast disap-
pearing, due to the demand of the rig
builders. Boomers of all kinds are
here to get in their work. A few dry
holes will change the tune of the land
owners who want enormous compensa-
ton from oil men for the privilege of
drilling and taking all chances. The
asy-going ways of the good old town
are seen no more. Instead, speculation
is written on the faces of all, and one
meets quick movements. everywhere.
The Scio Herald is to be enlarged in
the near future. McCombs & Barrick,
early on the scene, are issuing the Scio
Weekly Oil Bulletin. Three miles
south of Scio, James A. Gibson has re-
ceived a bonus of $500 and S25 month
rental besides the usual one-eighth. A
man named Thornley, was struck by
heavy timber and instantly killed while
working on a derrick one day this
week
The average depth of the Berea Grit
at this place is 1900 feet The total
cost to start and complete a we'll is
given at $4,000. There are now 33 pro-
ducing wells, and the average produc-
ton is near 1900 barrels daily. The
Scio Oil Company, which sold its hold
ings for 100000, was made up of 40
shareholders with capital stock of
$4,000, and the shares, which cost $25
apiece sold for little over SITS. One
OF the proudest men in Scio is H. A.
Snyder, who induced the people to test
this section for oil, which he felt con-
fident would be found. The first well
was drilled by a machine for drilling
water wells. Among the latest wells
drilled in which are producers are the
W. f. Smith No 2, Conaway- Stephen
son, Covaga stephenson, A. B. Cavaga
No. l, George Hecker No. /, Scott
farm No 1, Kennedy poultry farm, Mrs
Laughridge, Fowler College avenue
property.
Messrs. Mexican and Scott, of Bow
erston, have leased 600 acres in Mon
roe township, and A. J. Yoke & Co., of
Sistersville, will develop it.
The Carrollton Oil Company now
control 5000 acres in that county, and
will drill from test wells in an area
of six miles square.
The Augusta Oil & Gas Company has