The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-19

he went to Tarentum and engaged a driller, but the driller failed to report at Titusville. and In March he drove to Tarentum in a sleigh to search TOT another. Finally William A. Smith ac- | cepted the contract to manufacture the tools and drill the well. and on May zo' Smith, his two sons. and the drilling apparatus arrived at the point selected l for the test. A derrick and pump house were built, and soon tn start was made, but in digging the pit or well l hole Smith encountered so much water | th1t he was compelled to stop work | After several weeks delay Drake solved the problem by driving pipe | thfrty-six feet to the rock. an on | August 14 the drill was started.
 During all the vexatious delays and | trials Drake's funds were gradually l growing less. but R. D. Fletcher anu | Peter wilson. Titusville merchants, en- | dorsed his paper for $1.600 at the crisis of his financial affairs. and the drill continued its downward course. 1 Smith and his sons averaged three | feet per day resting nights and Sun days, and indications of oil were met as the tools pierced the rock.
 As Smith and his sons were about to quit work on Saturday afternoon, August 2S. 1859. the drill dropped half a foot into a crevice But as such creyices were frequently found in salt wells nothing was thought of this, all hands left for Titusville to spend Sunday. The well had reached depth of sixty-nine feet and was passing course sand Sunday afternoon Uncle Billy" Smith strolled to the well to inspect it and see that none of the ap- paratus had been tempered with. Looking into the hole. from which the tools had been drawn. he was aston ished to see a fluid within six feet or the mouth. Quicyly securing a piece of tin. spouting he plugged one end of it and ran it down into the hole and pulled it up. It was filled with petroleum.
 Smith ran the spout down again and again, and each time it came to the surface filled with the precious fluid. A stranger passing the well was dispatched to Titusville with the news, and the Smith boys broke all records sprinting to the scene. When Col. Drake arrived early the next morning Smith and his sons were guarding three barrels of oil. The pumping out fit was soon put in operation and by noon the well was producing oil at the rate of twenty barrels per day.
 "Oceans of On.-
 The news of the oil strike spread
 'th the rapidity of a cyclone and
 1dreds were soon at the well.
 lie Billy" Smith wrote to his former
 CT. at Tarentum, There's oceans
 'ome quick" George H. Bas-
 than Watson, William Barns
 many others leased the land
 directions Soon both sides of
 creek on which the Drake we'll was located were under lease for many miles in both directions. People poured into Titusville from New York, Buff falo. and Pittsburgh, almost everybody intent on securing a lease on a piece of land large enough to hold a drilling outfit. During all the excitement, how ever Drake remained strangely inac- tive. He seemed to think that paying territory would not be found outside of his own lease, and failed to grasp the importance of the discovery he had made. He never realized his mistake until other wells had sent the prices of land so high that it was too late for him to secure anything within the zone of productive territory.
 Edwin L. Drake was born at Green vile, N. Y. March II. 1919. At eigh- teen he was night clerk on boat rum ming between Buffalo and Detroit. Later he worked on a farm in Illinois, clerked two years in a hotel in Mich igan, returned East and entered dry goods store at New Haven as a clerk clerked in New York city. removed to Massachusetts. and was express agent on the Boston and Albany Railroad. and resigned that position in 1S49 to be- come conductor on the New York and New Haven Railroad. In 1857 he mar ried Miss Laura Dow in New York city. Following the completion of the Drake we'll he was, in 1860, elected justice of the peace at Titusville, position paying $2.5oo per year, and later bought oil on commission for New York dealers. He met many ups and downs during the four years fol- lowing the striking of the first oil well, and in the summer of 1863, with about $1.500 in his possession. he left the oil country forever and entered in to a partnership with broker in Wall Street, New York.
 Drake's Reward.
 Speculation in oil stocks soon dis sapated Drake's small savings. and then i'll health overlook him. He went with his wife, to Long Branch in the hope that the sea air would benefit his health. and there they were soon without funds. While Drake was in New York one day in 1869. seeking a position for his twelve-year- son, he met ''Zeb" Martin, who. learning his straitened circumstances, helped him temporarily and promised to raise a fund for his benefit. MT Martin placed the matter before the people of the oil region and at mass meeting at Titusville $4.200 was raised and for warded to Mrs. Drake. The recital of the distressing conditions to which the Drakes had been reduced led the Penn sylvania Legislature. in 1873. to grant nsylvania Legislature. in 1873. to grant an annuity of s1, 500, payable during the life of himself and wife. Among the papers of Thaddeus Stevens, found after his death. was a bill which he had prepared to present to Congress asking for an appropriation of s250,- 900 for Drake. The Drake family moved to Bethlehem. Pa., in 1870, and 1t was at that place, November 9, 1881. that Drake died. He was affable genial and kindly; was of pronounced individ uality, and had few superiors as story teller. He always dressed well. liked a good horse, and was of unblemished character.
 John J. McLaurin. in his Sketches in Crude Oil," issued ten years ago.