Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1905-08-11
PETROLEUM FEVER"
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE SEARCH
WORLD FOR A "STRIKE."
Men Who Follow the Derricks Wher.
ever They Are Erected-Some
Of the Noted Oil Well
Operators.

"0 oAi AoA 10 lHe real boQOuln or
the world. He is greater traveller
than the Arab of the desert ever was.
10 to Pennsylvania, to Texas. to Cali
fornia, to Japan or 10 any other place
where there are oil wells and you will
ind the same faces, you will hear the
same talk Of working barrels" pull
Ing rods" and all that sort Of thing,
says the Kansas City Star.
A man who would drop down in Ran
coon to-morrow-and Rangoon is con
the road to Mandalay, where the fly
ing fishes play" or go to Kurosaki or
into Tamaulipas might expect to find
old man John H. Galley, John Mark
ham, ]. c. Mcdowell, Hugh P. Brawley,
'The" Barnsdall.
1t gets into a mans blood. He fol-
lows the derricks and the screech of
the shackle ends naturally. He can't
help it. Take the case of John H.
Galley. There is man who is a multi
millionaire. He needs no more of this
worlds goods. He has an Independent
fortune. Yet If an oil field should be
discovered tomorrow in Kamchatka,
off in the snow and ice, John H. Galley
would be one of the first men on hand,
and he would have the second or third
derrick erected in the field.
John Markham Is another of the SOL
diers of fortune. He toiled and sweat
ed In the swamps of Louisiana and
Texas, drilled improbable holes, spent
his money and came to Kansas Then
he went to the territory. Before that
he had been all over the world. And he
knows things. He knows what the
East Indians drink in Rangoon to
quench their thirst. He knows how
they live In the temperature of 120 de-
grees in the shade, and he knows other
things which have helped him to sue
cess in this country.
John McCready, a.canny Scot, has
drilled wells for the Japanese govern
ment and has drilled wells for the
Standard Oil in Japan. He has been
all over the world, this driller. He
knows the size of pipe. the size of the
casing and the cost of the well in
every oil field in the world.
Then there is "Bill" Myers. He Is
sometimes called Windy Bill" He
has manufactured powder for the Unit
ed States fleet in the Mediterranean to
salute President LOubet Of France, and
he has done other things of note. He
has certificates of honor from the khe-
dive of Egypt-he drilled some oil
wells for the Standard Oil company in
that country and got into trouble there
by-and he Is also an officer Of lodge
of honor of the sultan of Morocco.
BILL" Allen is another of the globe
trotters. He has been in Mexico and in
India. He can give you the informa-
ton of the wells in upper Burma or
the wells in Chelsea, Oklahoma terri
tory, with equal facility. And it is all
one to him where he is so long as he is
putting down the holes.
Dick" Fowler is another. He has
been all through the Pennsylvania
fields and the West Virginia fields and
the Ohio and Indiana fields, and he can
spin yarns by the hour. He knows how
the 0lycerin man at Bradford was
blown up and how the other g!ycerin
man escaped, how the springs of one
of the glycerin wagons were located
under the can and how the other fell
low had his springs three inches to the
right and thus saved his life.
Hugh Brawley has been with the oil
companies in Pennsylvania, Texas and
Kansas for more than ten years. Now
he is In the gas business, but he has
been around the world in the oil BUSH
ness.
John T. Gaffey is another one of the
globe trotters in the oil business. He
has been in the kyack fields in Alaska,
in the Beaumont fields, in the LOuisi-
ana fields, in the Mexican fields, and
now he has made fortune in Califor-
MIA and retired-temporarily No man
who has ever got the fever in his bones
retires from the Oil business perma-
nently.
There Is also M. L. Lockwood-his
real name is Marquis Lafayette
has done all the oil fields and is now in
Kansas. He is an old man as years go,
gray-headed and with son old enough
to vote two or three times, and yet he
Is still following the flag Of adventure.