Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1898 — FORTUNES MADE IN A DAY. [ARTICLE]

FORTUNES MADE IN A DAY.

Millions Came and Want ta Petrol* um’a Marly Day*. ", “There never was a time la the earn. Marcial history of the world when so many men were making so much money as wen the men who owned toe big oil weOa to OP Creek in the gear 1964,” says a pioneer operator In the petroleum fleld. “Incomes wen •Uculated by the minute, and $1 a Minute was a small income. There •we men who were making from $3 to $lO a minute, day and night In those days—and they seem like a Steam now or some Arabian night’s tale—it was the well owners who made me money. They just sat around and tot their wells spout and gathered 1» tae returns as they came. “There had been astounding fluctuations In the oil market ever since the bssfneoti began in 1859. In that year petroleum brought S2O a barrel. There Was ne market for It yet, though, and hot much was sold. The next year, in Kot the fact that there was very demand for a product as yet al■Met unknown to the outside world, tae wells then producing put on the market 200,000 barrels of oil Yet the average price for the product that year eras $lO a barrel, although it fell to I&B0 In January, 1861, and tumbled to 10 cents a band by April. "In 1861 oil tumbled to 10 cents a barrel, apd an empty barrel was worth 10 times as much as the oil it could held. In lees than a year 1,500,000 barrels of oil came from the ground along Oil Creek, and more than half ts it ran to waste. Oil was so low in 1882 that very few operators shipped any. There was a good deal of money made in 1868, as the price was about sh at the wells, and about 8,000,000 xurels were produced, but 1864 was Me star year for well owners. The jrtee had gone to $5 a barrel In FebMary, 1864, and before May was over ir- Some heavy wells were struck Shout that time, bat by June 1 oil was idling at $7.50. By the end of the month it had jumped to $11.50 a barret In those thirty days more men were making fortunes every day than I believe ever before in the commercial history of the world. "The most notable year of all for flMtaations In the price of oil was 18G&. the average was something like $6 a barrel, while the price frequently went up as high as $lO and fell as low as $4 This year saw the end of the gushing lays in Oil Creek. AH of the big spout- & wells were things of the past Th test price oil. ever go* again was to 1869, when it went to Iff a band, ■ver since then the price baa steadily grown smaller, and since 1878 has rated *>etewsX"