Waterbury Democrat., 1902-10-21
WILKES BOOTHS OIL WELL
Coincidence Between It's Destruction

and Lincoln's Assassination.
 "About the close of the year 1864, said an old-time Venango county, Pa, oil operator, ''When the Prather boys were securing about the oil country trying to raise money to buy the Holmden property at Pithole, before oil had been found at that afterWard famous and rich but short-lived pc troleum center, John Wilkes Booth was at Meadyille one day, waiting for train eastward on the Atlantic and Great Western railroad, now the Erie. He was in the office of the McHenry house. One of the Prather boys was there talking up the prospects of oil at Pithole
 Booth became interested. He be- gan to talk with Prather. He stood by window, and as he talked scratch ed his full name (John Wilkes Booth), on one of the panes of the window with the diamond in a ring he wore. The signature was written on the glass in heroic characters. The upshot of Booths talk with Prather was that he invested $15.000 in Pitho1e property.
 ''In the following April the drill struck the oil vein on this property,
  spouting 500 barrels of oil a day Pit hole had in the meantime turned out to be even richer in oil than the. Prathers had prophesied, and a teem- ing city had sprung up in the wilder ness like magic. The Prather boys had bought the Holmden well for S1OO- GOO and sold it for more than $2,O0O, GOO. The Holmstead well, in which Booth had his $15,000 investment. was only one of a dozen equally large spouting wells grouped at PithoIe. Oil was then $6 barrel, and the smallest fraction of ownership in Pithole well was fortune.
 ''The night that President Lincoln was shot a thunderstorm, something unusual at that time of year, gathered over Pithole. There was but one flash This was not regarded with any signi- ficance at Pithole at the time, but subsequent revelations clothed it with significance that awed tie supersti- tious and startled those who were not.
 'The tidings that the war was over had reached the oil regions. and the American flag was flying from the top of every derrick. The one thunderbolt of that storm at Pithole struck the rig of the Homestead well and set it on fire. When, next day, the news of the assassination of Lincoln by Booth came to Pithole that city was overhung by a dense pall of black smoke from the burning Homestead we'll As far away as Oil City the ominous black pillar was seen hanging against the sky over Pithole
 ssThe fact that the assassin Booth owned part of tho H0npStnad well af once occurred to all at Pithole and when it was learned that the bolt had decended upon it at the hour and min ute that Booth had fired the cowardly shot that martyred the president the coincidence seemed so significant that every effort that had been making to extinguish the fire at the well and stop the great waste of wealth every lap of the flames was adding to ceased on the moment. and the spot was summed by all but the others interested in the well, who at least succeeded in getting control over the flames.
 The moment the news of the assas- sination reached Meadyille indignant gHests at the McHenry house, Mead vile, would have scattered to frag- ments the window where on Booth had inscribed the name 9 few moments be- fore, but the proprietor of the hotel succeeding in saving it, as he had a thrif+v eve to it's future value. He re- moved the offensive pane from the window, and subsequently, sold it for good price to Philadelphian. who. believe presented it to the Pensyl- vania Historical society. From the (Ehicaey0 Tri1117an