Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1900 — Reported to Have Struck Oil. [ARTICLE]

Reported to Have Struck Oil.

Reports from people a few miles east of town, are that the parties who were boring for oil on Thompson-Lawler ranch east of town, struck a good oil well last Friday, and then closed the well up. Another report is that a sample of the oil has already been analyzed and found to be uncommonly rich in “rubber-making” qualities. We judge so far as we have invesigated the report, the term rubbermaking is a mistake for “rubberAs rubber is not made from oil at all. As to the probable truth of the report of finding oil, it is a very difficult matter to obtain the facts. That some oil was found there is no doubt, as is the case with about every well drilled in that neighborhood. The people on the ranch are only sure that a good well of water was struck, but they evidently do not think the oil strike amounted to very much. The drilling outfit was loaded up last Wednesday morning, and hauled back into the Gillam oil field. It will make one more well there and then come back to this vicinity it is stated.