Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1927-04-21

by the president, why Ohio has fur
nished SO many great men. The peo-
pie who promoted this expedition
and who carried it out were surely
great men and were of the right
character and type of people to pio-
neer their way to greatness.
Discovery of Natural Gas
1t may be well enough to follow
the salt industry little farther. AT
about the time that this industry
reached it's. zenith and before great
deposits of salt were discovered in
different parts of the world the salt
industry in the Muskingum valley
was attracting international atten-
tion and substantial enterprise for
that day were engaged in extending
the operations for the production Of
salt. While this industry was near
ing its zenith enterprising people,
pursuing operations for more salt
water were seeking numerous wells
with more or less satisfactory re-
suits and at point about fifty
eight miles by river north of the
mouth of the Muskingum and a
short distance west of the place
where the beautiful little city OF
Malta now stands some gentlemen
undertook to sink a well for salt
water. About the time they were
expecting to have satisfactory evi-
dence of the existence of salt water
flame of fire was brought forth as
a result of the striking of a match
or something of that kind which i'm
mediately consumed and destroyed
all the rigging and other things
about the works. The four or five
men engaged in the work of drilling
this well were stunned, shocked and
excited and put in great fear, and
Immediately left the works and fled
towards the settlement on the east
banks of the Muskingum river,
point that afterwards became the
beautiful city of McConnelsville. At
this time the settlement consisted of
only three or four houses. These
workmen were very much troubled
and excited and scared. They fed
to the river and in their canoes
crossed as quickly as possible and
fed in wild excitement to the set
tlement and as soon as they had suf-
ficiently recovered from their fright
to speak they announced that they
had drilled into that place where
nobody wished to go, and as the re-
suit of the operations of these peo-
pie this same section had ever since
that time been furnishing suffi-
cient supply of natural gas to sup
ply the needs of all the people liv-
ing in that section and this was fol-
lowed by the production OF petro-
leum, which was originally used as
a medicine.
In Conclusion
In conclusion might go on down
the line to general industries and
satisfy you that the great men of
Ohio were not confined to statesmen,
but the men whose capacity brought
about the development of the natur-
al resources of that great common
wealth are entitled to as much con-
sideration as the most eminent
statesmen who ever came to the
front from that grand state.
To those who are not familiar
with the geological location of the
Ohio Company's purchase, You need
but remember a short time ago the
giant dirigible Shenandoah went
down near the town of Belle Val
ley. At the point where this dirigible
went to earth was on the north
ern boundary of the Ohio Company's
domain. A portion of this giant air.
ship drifted to the southwest for
about eight miles and was caught
and secured near Sharon, and close