Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-07-30
THE COW RUN OIL FIELD.
A History Of Its Discovery Near Mari
eta Years Ago.

TT WAS FOLLOWED BY A MAD
! SCRAMBLE FOR LEASES, AND
WILD SPECULATION - THE
: WELLS WHICH CAUSED A
FURRY THEN, AND THE SUB
SEQUENT DEVELOPMENTS IN
THE VICINITY OF MARIETTA
THE HENDERSON, LINE FIGHT
Special to the Register
MARIETTA, O., July 29.-To the
uninitiated there can be no more inter-
esting sight than the modern oil field,
representing as it does the virginia.
phase of an industry which has grown
TO such, mighty proportions that its
fluctuations exert no small influence
upon almost every line of trade in the
country. In all the great expanse of
oil strata underlying the States of
Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia,
there is probably no more favorable
s
hensive glimpse of the business in all
its environments than the historical
old city of Marietta. The geographic
cal location of the town and its close
proximity to the rich pools which,
thanks to the nerve of the wildcatter,
now surround it on every side, make
it a natural center from which the
business is easily handled by the most
extensive operators, with all the ~ad-
vantages afforded by being lone the
ground Strangely enough, there is
not single well within the city, but
so closely are the derricks encroaching
upon the corporate limits that sooner
or later the continued growth of popu-
lation will bring valuable production
within the confines of municipal au-
thority.
1t was in this county, at Cow Run,
only few ntiles east of Marietta, that
the famous old Cow Run field was OPP
ened thirty-eight years ago, following
upon the heels of the first discovery of
petroleum at Macksburg. The bust
ness was in its infancy then and crude
were the methods, and uncertain the
results, but with the first Cow Run
shallow well the excitement jumped at
bound to fever heat and for several
years, even at that early date, the mad
whirl of speculation went on. For
tunes were made in a day and swallow
ed up in night, and everywhere the
restless, often desperate scramble for
leases that might mean financial indie
tendence, but too frequently brought
only shattered hopes and pecuniary
misfortune. Like flies above a car
cass, the human spectators swarmed
over the scene of the Cow Run strike,
seeking the foul, greasy, dangerous, ILL
smelling fluid that dubbed up from the
bowels of the earth and blasted every
thing it touched but which was never
theless worth anywhere from fifteen
dollars barrel upward. From a
tainted spring which sent forth to con-
taminate the atmosphere a perceptible
" ime of petroleum's twin, natural
SIS, came the discovery of the field.
On February 2, 1861, John Newton,
William Naylor, Motif Dye, George S.
Bosworth and Douglas E. Newton, all
Marietta business men, were attracted
by this ''gas spring" which years prior
had been used by the inhabitants for
heating and lighting purposes. They
procured a ten-year lease on the farm
of Uriah S. Dye and Samuel Dye, ID
and at once began work on their wild
eat venture, destined to cause such a
furry through the succeeding wears
AT depth of only two hundred and
sixty feet the drill unlocked the fast
nesses which had held the fluid pris-
oner for ages. Primitive, indeed. COM
pared with the apparently rough but
scientific methods of the present day
were the appliances with which the
Cow Run wells were drilled. A fifty
foot spring pole took the place of the
gigantic walking beam and two Draw
ny men bent to its work in lieu OF
steam. When the Newton well. as the
first was called, was struck, it prom
ised to prove almost valueless on ac-
count of surface water, which inter-
ferred with the pumping, but the in
genius head of the driller fashioned g
seed-bag which was crowded down the
hole around the tubing and the water
was thus shut off,
From this time the development OF
the field was very rapid, other wells
going down as rapidly as the slow
spring pole process would permit. un-
til the little field, covering = space moi
more than half mile square. bristleG
with derricks as thick as the masts in
a harbor. Sometimes the weary oper.
ators grew sick of the spring pole
treadmill and sold out what afterwart
proved to be veritable gold mines fol
mere pittance. One well. which
changed hands three times and wa!
many months in getting down ION,
hundred and sixty feet to the rock. wa:
finally purchased by lucky man. who
:, found the oil after drilling only a few
feet and became independently wealth,
from the production.
In those days the royalties maid tn,
farmers owning the land were yer,