The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-09-16
Kansas Farmer Supplies Neigh
bors for $50 Per Year.
Owns Six Wells and Forty Miles
of Pipe Line.
MAY ASK FRANCHISE
WelIsville Wants Him to Supply
City With Gas.
Boy Who Was Restless Has
Made Good.

Wellsville, Kan, Sept. 16.@There is
one farmer who is watching with con-
siderable interest the gas fields in
southern Kansas and the supply that
comes through the Kansas Natural
| Gas cOmpany's pipe lines. For this
farmer owns a gas system all his own,
which is supplying 125 farm homes
with gas for fuel and light, and which
| is capable of furnishing gas for Wells
vile, whenever the Kansas natural gas
fields play out, and the big pipe line is
abandoned. The man who owns this
system is Henry Anthony. He lives
seven miles out of WellsvilIe.
In 1905 a home company drilled a
test we'll a quarter of a mile south of
his farm, and found a little gas and
oil. There was not enough gas to pay
for piping it any distance and the
well was abandoned by the company,
which was looking for a paying oil
well, or at least a gas well that would
supply the demands in WeIlsville. But
there was enough gas to encourage
Mr.. Anthony in the idea of drilling to
secure a supply for himself.
In the fall of 1906 he started the
first well in a field near his home.
While drilling this well he happened
to call up a neighbor who began jok-
ing about the prospects, and offered
to sign a contract to take gas for ten
years. at $50 a year, if enough was
found to justify piping it. you've
bought som thing," said Mr.. Anthony,
and two weeks later, when the well
had been completed to a depth of 5S5
feet and good sand had been tapped,
he ordered a carload of pipe and be-
homes. The farmers were so anxious
to get the gas that they donated their
work, aud by the first of the year he
had good list of contracts. The next
year he found that so hnany people
wanted gas that he decided to put
down another well. Today he has four
producing wells on his own land, and
two good wells on land leased from
his neighbors. He has had two dry
holes.
Forty Miles of Pipe and 125 Patrons
He estimates that his investment is
about $4,000. Gas sand is found at
from 585 to 662 feet and each we'll
costs $1,000 by the time it is piped
has two and quarter miles of 4-inch
pipe, six miles of 2-inch pipe and
thirty-fve miles of inch pipe in the
system. He has one hundred patrons
on a fiat rate and twenty-five who use
meters. Those who have a fiat rate
pay $50 a year for the privilege of
using all the gas they want or $40 a
year for limited service. The meter
patrons pay twenty-five cents a thous-
and. He figures that If the field lasts
for ten years he will break even and
have a nice profit besides. So far the
wells have held up nicely and he has
44dQ 11O l4O0D1C lIOIl suffrage OF pres
sure. In the winter time the moisture
in the pipes occasionally causes incon-
venience, but he has worked out a |
system of drips for the wells which he |
believes will keep the moisture from |
the main lines and relieve most of the !
winter trouble Just at present but |
two of the wells are connected with |
the pipe line, four being kept in re- |
serve.
His pipes have been laid to the city /
limits of Wellsville and many of the |