Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1914-02-26

mad ABOUT made up his mind that there
was no Oil there, he struck the oil
sane. He knew that a few feet more
OF drilling would reach oil. and lie
stopped the work, told his workmen
that it was undoubtedly a dry hole"
and paid them off and let them go.
The next day Page went alone to the
oerrlck, set the machinery goins, and
drllied down through a few feet Of Oil
sand, when, suddenly the rich oil cams
cushing out. He pulled out his drill.
plugged the well SO the oil would
not flow. n apparently abandoned 1t.
The next few weeks he spent in get
ting Oil leases on the land surrounding
his well in all directions n when he
had secured these he went back to his
well. %unplugged it, and invited every
one to come n see it.
1t was a wonderful well. 1t flowed
1000 barrels Of oil a day and every
barrel OF it worth So cents in cash at
the we'll, an income of $T00 a day for
Page, minus one-eighth Of the product
which went to the owned of the land as
his share.
He drilled other wells on the land
he had leased and they were good pro.
~financiers of New York, led by Com
modore Benedict, James King Duffy
and Clifford B.. Harmon offered nm
$1,000, 900 in cash for his leases. Page
asked $500. 600 more and the sale was
finally made for $1,250.000 in cash,
which was paid to Page.
Keeping His Promise.
Pages mother was dead years before
this wealth came; but in ali the time
that he had been wandering over the
west, working at first one thing and
then another. he had never forgotten
the promise he had made her that some
day. when he grew big and rich, he
would tighten the burdens of poor
widows who had to wash to put bread
in the mouths Of their hungry children,
and that he would take care of the
orphans, too. Now he was rich. N
that plan began to take definite shape
in his mind,
The Arkansas river flows over Its
sandy bed Just south of Tulsa and It's
north bank is a low. level flat spread
ing pack to a line of sandhills. Page
believed there was oil beneath that flat.
1t was a jungle Of brushwood and big
trees. owned by Indians who did not
live on it. Page got an oil lease on a
tract of it and gut down a well. The
drill pierced a layer of Goa four feet
thick and hen dropped into an m
mense pocket Of natural gas
Again Page plugged his we'll and
quietly went and bought outright 1000
acres of that land, extending from near
the city limits of Tulsa seven miles
out along the river. He built an cleo
trio railway out from Tulsa through
his 1000 acres to a point seven miles
away and there he decided to build a
summit of a hill his orphans home.
Before the home was begun Page
came across a family Of eight orphaned
children In Tulsa. who were destitute
and homeless. He bought a tent. pitched
it on the summit Of the hill. furnished
T. I,s-~1 -1~ -y@ 0I{lIy.nr
and could cook. and placed her with the
eight Davis children in the tent under
the big hickory trees. Then he built the
orphans home and other children be-
gan coming.
His cAty of Sand Springs.
At the same time he began building
his city at the end of his railway. Sand
Springs he called it, and he paid
bonuses for factories to come. n
graded streets and put in a waterworks
plant and sewers.
This cost a great deal of money and
Page had to borrow. Now the oil u
try is full of financial sharks who lie
in wait for independent operators who
become pinched and close in on them,
and a year ago they thought they hao
Page squeezed so tightly that lie could
not escape failure, and they b egan to
close their hands.
1t is an axiom Of the oil fields that
where there is gas there is oil not far
away. South Of the Arkansas river,
directly opposite Pages land, a rock
bluff arose sheer from the river bank.
1t was known as Lost City, from the
peculiar formation of the limestone
rocks. that were gashed with ravines.
like the streets of a city. 1t was a
hopeless looking place for oil, and for
that reason no oil Spectator had ever
leased it or sunk a well there. For
that same reason, too, Page was able
to get oil leases upon nearly all of it
for very small sums.