West Virginia daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1894-1902, 1902-02-13
THE KENTUCKY OIL FIELD.
abe ssBOb's Barr Well and the Deve
opments I'm Its Vicinity.

Here Is the foot of Kentucky oil,
Pickett, Fentress and Overton
counties, Tennessee. Here was the
promised land before Kentucky was
talked of as an oil territory. This
Is In the vicinity of the famous
Bob's Bar we'll, In Fentress county,
Tenn.
The Beb's Bar we'll aroused more
interest for one little we'll and for
such bit of hole than any well
that was ever found In Tennessee.
In addition to making more inter
est 1t has made more oil than any
we'll In this section. 1t Is only 277
feet deep and made 400 barrels a
day for a long time after 1t was
drilled In, and 1t aowed constantly.
1t was not necessary to pump 1t at
the beginning. On the fourth
day 1t made $40 barrels, actual
measurement. At the end of the
LIS days 1t was making 800 barrels.
At the end of a month 1t was max.
ling 100 barrels. Soon after that 1t
dropped to IS barrels. In another
month 1t had dropped to 22 barrels,
and here comes the astonishing
feature. It has never made less
than IL barrels from that day to
this, and the we'll Is now seven
years old. 1t has produced 10000
barrels of oil and Is still giving 1t
up at Its fixed rate. Now comes
Ianother surprise. Sixty wells have
lbeen drilled In Fentress and Pickett
lcounties and all around Bob's Bar,
land there has never been anything
like another Bob's Bar and no more
oil at the Bob's Bar level. It Is
curious again to observe that Bob's
Bar was the first we'll drilled In
Fentress county, and 1t was drilled
upon the only spot In Fentfess
lcounty where an inexhaustab1e
RESERVOIR of oil shows Its surface at
I277 feet. It was the first well
thrilled III Fentress county and the
second we'll In this section of Ten
nessee. All of the Kentucky de.
velopments are directly connected
with these early operations. Fen
tress and Pickett counties, Tennes-
Isee, belong to Kentucky oil terrific,
Try. Tennessee has nothing yet
that 1t can really call Its own except
away over In Dickson county, and
even that may later be claimed as
an extension of a vaster field north
ward In Kentucky.
Bob's Bar followed another we'll
that was drilled on the edge of
Pickett county II years ago by
Jane w. Stone, Brooklyn woman,
who made fortune In Ohio opera
tons. The we'll was located by
Captain A. J Frye, and Wiser
brothers, now largely interested In
Kentucky, were the drillers. 1t Is
vouched for by one of the Standard
men that this first we'll In Pickett
county, not far from the Kentucky
border, was good for 500 barrels
day. He says he saw the we'll iow.
ing himself, and that 1t simply In
undated the entire country, no
tsnkage having been provided for
1t. 1t was plugged as soon as pos
sible and the Standard OH com.
pany made overtures to have the
we'll opened ~. Miss Stoner re-
fused to open 1t until the Standard
Ion Company built pipe line. The
company offered to build tanks.
and after 10000 barrels of oil were
In the tanks to build a pipe line,
and this offer was refused by Miss
Stoner. She said the oil was safer
In the ground than 1t was In the
tanks, and that the company knew
the oil was there. The aim of the
Standard was to test the endurance
of the well before It took the chance
and before 1t began operating the
territory which 1t acquired on all
sides. After a while the Standard
built two storage tanks of the ca
pacity of 20, 900 barrels. and still
Miss Stoner refused to have the
well pumped until the pipe line,
cane In. This well was 900 feet
deep and got oil at S34 feet, Gao
feet and 700 feet, and the forma.
ton was limestone throughout.
Eventually the well was sold to
other parties, and the best 1t did
after being opened up was barrels
day. It had become flooded with
fresh water, which Is impossible to
exhaust. Meanwhile Miss Stoner
and other parties drilled the ia