The Republican journal., 1902-10-09
JOHN WILKES BOOTHS OIL WELL.

about the close of the year 1s64,''
said an old-time Eenango county, Pa,
oil operator. 'when the Prather boys
were securing about the oil country
trying to raise money to buy the Holm
den property at Pithole. before oil had
been. found at that afterWard famous
and rich, but short Lived petroleum cen
Ire, John Wilkes Booth was at Mead
vile one day waiting for train east
ward on the Atlantic and Great West
ern 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
a window, and as he talked he 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 S15,0 900 in PIthole property
In the following April the drill
struck the Oil vein OH this property, and
the famous Homestead well began
spouting 800 barrels of oil day. Pit
| hole had in the meantime turned to be
even richer in oil than the Prathers
| had prophesled, and teemlng city had
sprung up in the wilderness like magic
The Prather boys had bought the
llolmden well for 100000 and sold it
| for more than $4,000, 900. The Home
stead well, i'll which Booth had his s15,-
! 600 Invested, was only one of dozen
equally large spouting wells grouped at
| PIthole. OIL was then So a barrel and
| the smallest fraction OF ownership in a
| 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
OF lightning and one clap of thunder.
| This was not regarded with any signi-
/ hcance at Pithole at the time, but sub
sequent revelations clothed it with a
significance that aWed the supersti-
tlous, and startled those who were not
The tldlngS 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 over
hung by dense pail OF black smoke
from the burning Homestead we'll As
| tar away as Oil City the ominous black
pillar was seen hanging against the sky
over Pithole
THE fact that the Assassin Booth
owned part of the Homestead well at
once occurred to all at Pithole. and
when it was learned that the bolt had
| descended upon it at the very hour and
minute that Booth had fired that COW
ardiy shot that martyred the President
the coincidence seemed so significant
i that every effort that had been making
| to eXtlngulSh 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 very spot was
| summed by all but the others interest
ed IN the well, who at last succeeded in
| getting control over the flames.
THE moment the news of the asSas-
sination reached Meadville, indignant
guests at the McIIenry House, Mead
vile, would have shattered to frag-
ments the window wherein Booth had
inscribed his name few months be
tore, but the proprietor Of the hotel
succeeded in saving it, as he had a
thrifty eye to its future value. He re-
/ moved the offensive pane from the
window, and subsequently sold it for IA
good price to a Philadelphian, who,
believe. presented it to the Pennsylva-
MIA Historical Society"