The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1914-06-28

For many reasons that oiI 10 hns
i'm Oklahoma for the same reasons IL
..,uld he of vital interest to every
citizens of the state as well as to the
Iraducer and the manufacturer. II mas
lugn been repeated that Oklahoma
ranks first in the production OF oil
when it comes to money value and sec
oud in volume, but should the pres
emf rate of increase continue through
ont the year 1914, she will outrank
California in volume and regardless OF
the recent scare in the reduction OF
price, hold first place in valuation. IL
is an unquestionable fact that Oklaho-
ma is now on the verge of an era OF
unparalleled prosperity, and should
all of her other great resources be lett
QUIT and in many she now ranks hrst,
second and third among states), her
career as an oil producing state VIII
forever defend a fast growing com
monwealth in its fight for industrial
supremacy.
To begin at the beginning and re-
peat the history of petroleum would
require months and months oi re-
search. and its pages would fill many
n volume, so 1t Is only permitted TO
give In these columns mere glance
at the things which led to the founda-
ton of one of the worlds greatest in
dustries.
In great many of the reports is
sued by the various states, the reader
may still be under the impression that
petroleum and natural gas were first
discovered in Pennsylvania during the
early fifties, while prospecting for salt
brine. To great extent this is true;
but all of the credit cannot be laid
at the feet of the driller, Colonel Ed
win L. Drake of the famous Drake
well, the synopsis of which nearly ev-
cry school child knows. Although Col.
Drake must be given credit for the
invention of the Jumping Jack" and
later the method of casing off water
from either of which he never realized
one penny; however, the circum'
stances which led up to the discovery
of petroleum, after its commercial
value was realized, are quite interest
ing. The real history of petroleum in
A,,n,;oa nnpnp,npnau whan Fra ppiS
can missionary named D'Allion cross
ed the Niagara River into what is now
the southwestern portion of New York
State and found the Indians using the
liquid from the muddy, dirty pool,
as an ointment for their bodies and
also for medicinal purposes. This was
in the year 1929. The oil was collected
from "spring" or marsh and gather
ed by spreading a blanket over the
lands at the foot of the hillside. From
Investigations later made ii was learn
ed that the aborigines preserved the
fluid by lining pits with timber and
used notched logs for descending to
the bottom Many of the pits were
found to be at depths of fifteen and
twenty feet and their timbers are to-
day as sound as when cut down, hav-
ing been well preserved from the raw
ages of decay which otherwise would
have crumbled into. dust ages ago.
Many of these sepages occurred in
this part of the country, and after
settlement by early pioneers, its me-
dicinal value being realized, such sup
ply as could be obtained, was jealously
husbanded. The demand was so lin
tied that the enterprise to carry on
its exploitation was correspondingly
modest. However, in the town of
Nathaniel Cary, and to him must be
given credit as the first real "Oil
Merchant" in America. II was Cary,
realizing its demand, first bottled the
oil and labeled it Seneca OIL" recon-
mended it in case of accident or sick
ness of most any kind, including rheu-
matism gout, sprains, burns, etc, and
peddled it among the good housewives
of the settlements close at hand. Oc-
casionally he would fill a couple of
jugs with his Seneca Or and riding
on horseback ten miles to Pittsburg,
where he would trade it for groceries
and cloth. His memory should also
be cherished as the first "Oil Shipper" "
Pittsburg at that time was a mere
cluster of log buildings in a cleared
patch of ground surrounding Fort Pitt.
In the early days of the American
settler people who lived back some
distance from tidewater were greatly
inconvenienced by not having a good
supply of salt. This, of course, led to
i a..