The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-03
INTEREST IN PETROLEUM.
NEW HAVEN MEN PROHTNENT IN ITS DEVELOPMENT.

est Industries of the Land-Anson
 Sheldon and Professor sIIIiman Were
 Early Interested-E. E. Bovdttch and . F. L. Drake Were Influential Pro mo-
 ters.
 To the Editor of the Journal and Cour-
 fer:
 5 New Haven has had ar honorable and Important place in the beginnings of the great petroleum industry of the United States, which has added countless mill lions to the wealth of the country. The hrst company organized in the United States to prospect for and produce pe- troleum was organized In December, 1854. and known as the Pennsylvania Rock Oil company. One of the direc- tors and trustees of this company was Anson Sheldon, of New Haven. Previ- ous to this Professor Benjamin Silli- man, ST., of Yale college, had, in 1888, made an examination of an oil spring at Cuba, New York, and his report con- cerning it was widely circulated. La ter. after the organization of the first company in 1854, Professor B. Silliman, Jr., made analysis of the Pennsylvania oil. which was made public with an ela- borate report in April, 1855. The Penn sylvania Rock Oil company was suc- ceeded by new company organized in September, 1855, at New Haven. with Professor B. Silliman, Jr., as president. The owners Of the property on which the first oil well was afterwards drilled, Transferred this property to Asahel Pierpont and William A. Ives, of New Haven, who leased it for ninety-nine years to the New Haven company. This company then made contract with E. B. Bowditch and E. L. Drake, of New Haven, to obtain oil on the property, these gentlemen paying a roy alty of twelve cents per gallon for the time of the lease, forty-fve years. More prominent in some respects than any of the gentlemen named above was another gentleman, one of New Haven's most distinguished citizens, the late Hon. James M. Townsend, the father of United States Judge, Hon. William K. Townsend. MT. Townsend was back of all the early work of the formation of these various companies and furnished the funds which were needed in inves- tigating, in organizing the companies, and in aiding Colonel Drake. It is not too much to say that it is due to him more than to any other one man that the great oil fields of America did not remain undiscovered, perhaps, another half century.
 2 Still another company was formed known as the Seneca Oil company, of which MT. Drake became surerinten- dent, and to which this lease was trans ferred. In 1858 MT. Drake visited Ti- tusville, Pa, and made preparations to drill the first oil we'll which was the be- ginning of one of Americas greatest in- dustries. In August he shipped the first two barrels of petroleum to New Haven which were collected from the elitches and trenches on the land. MT. Drake was not able to complete his ar- engagements until the summer of the fol- lowing year, when the first drill was set up in June and oil was discovered at depth of sixty-nine and one-half feet, August B, 1859, and began flowing at the rate of forty barrels day, the first of hundreds of millions of barrels which have been produced in America since that time How it ever came about that New Haven people, who seemed to be so thoroughly fin it" at the beginning Of this great industry let the business pass, so completely away from them, al- most from the first day of the discove- .ry, passes the knowledge of man. Possibly if they had been 8 little less conservative and as energetic after dis covery as previously New Haven would have been famous as the home of the great oil millionaires, and as noted for this and with as many additional mill lions Of dollars added to the wealth of its citizens, as Hartford is fer the in surance business. However, strange as it may appear, few if any New Haven people seem to have been visible after the first beginnings in the great oil in dustry of the United States. Since this first well was drilled in 1859 and up to 1898, one hundred thousand wells have been drilled in the Pennsylvania oil re-
 
 thousand dollars each, and of these some fourteen thousand wells were, at a cost of about twenty-seven million
 dollars, unproductive. The production the first year. 1859. was about two thou sand barrels. The total production during these years in the Pennsylvania and northern New York fields has been over six hundred and forty million bar rels, and in other parts of the country, not including the late Texas fuel oil strike, the production has been about three hundred million barrels addition al. Next to Pennsylvania, and in fact rivalling it, is the great Ohio oil field of northwestern Ohio. The average yearly production of this is about twenty mill lion barrels. Oil was discovered here in 1885 while drilling for gas. The number of wells which have since been put down in this section is not far from twenty-five thousand, and the total number of barrels of petroleum pro- 4duced has been about two hundred and fifty million.
 The writer was privileged to spend few days recently in the heart of this great Ohio petroleum field and inter- csting days they were, too Arriving at Toledo he was met by his friend and host, Hon. Benjamin r. James, a leading attoriey of Toledo and Bowling Green, O., graduate Of Yale Law school of 'ST, and at the head of one of the great pe- troleum companies Of that state A