Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1883 — Curious Incidents in the Oil Regions. [ARTICLE]

Curious Incidents in the Oil Regions.

“Talk about tumbles in the price of oil,” said a veteran operator on the Bradford Petroleum exchange, “nothing like the one of the winter of 1860 has been known in the modern days of the trade. That was the winter that Jesse Heydrick put down the old Farmers’ and Mechanics’ well, or rather the company that he formed put it down, • and that was the first company ever formed to develope the oil territory. The well came in good for about 3,000 barrels a day, and half of it couldn’t be taken care of, but ran’ down the creek in a regular flood. Oil was oil then, and was worth sl3 a barrel. Pittsburgh was the only market, and we had only one way to get oil there, and that was nv running it in barges down the Allegheny river from Oil City. Of course it was necessary to have freshets to transport it in this way. The winter that Heydrick struck his well the river was frozen over., but he was bound to get some oil to Pittsburgh. He succeeded in cutting a way through, and ran ten flat-boats down. He sold all his oil for sl3 a barrel. The next day a thaw set in, and in two days the river broke up. Then the boats began to run, and in a short time the market was overstocked, and in less than a week oil was selling at 90 cents a barrel. “The early days of oil production were attended by many curious incidents. One of the queerest was a streak of luck a well owner struck on the creek in 1863. He had drilled a well down to the third sand, but found nothing but water, and three days’ continuous pumping failed to bring anything else to the surface, so he abandoned the well in disgust. The next •day a neighbor of his, who was operating on an adjoining lease, came over to see the disgusted well-owner, and informed him, with much excitement, that since the pumping of water had ceased at his well g.-eat trouble had resulted at the other well, which had yielded thirty barrels of oil a day as long as the water was being pumped, and upon the stopping of the water pumping had filled up with water and produced no more oil. “The result was that the man who owned the producing well hired the less fortunate operator to keep his pump going, for which he paid him S4O a week. The producing well was thus restored to its former condition, and things worked satisfactorily for six months, when suddenly one day the well that had been yielding nothing but water began pumping od and the one that had yielded oil in turn became a water well. The changed situation resulted in a lawsuit, which was won by the owner of the well that had at first yielded nothing but water.*— Bradford {Pa.) Cor. New York Sum.

Geemaxy has 500 mills for the manufacture of wood pulp, and such a degree of perfection has been reached in its manufacture that even for the better qualities of paper it is a complete substitute for rags. Wood, pulp constitutes 75 per cent, of tlyfe paper stock used in that country.