Sketches in Crude-oil: Some accidents and incidents of the petroleum development in all parts of the globeMcLaurin, John J. (John James)
History
Sketches in Crude-oil: Some accidents and incidents of the petroleum development in all parts of the globe
McLaurin, John J. (John James)
Petroleum -- History; Petroleum industry and trade -- North America -- History
Something of this kind would apply to Mr. Miller and the Dewoody
proposition. He had embarked in the business that was to bring him
wealth and honor, but just at that time “didn’t hev” the fifteen-hundred
to spare from his working-capital for the fun of owning a hill presumed
to be worthless except for scenery. Colonel Bleakley and Dr. A. G.
Egbert bought it later at a low figure. Operators scaled the slopes and
hills and the first well on the “Point” was of the kind to whet the
appetite for more. Bleakley & Egbert pocketed a keg of cold-cash from
their wells and the royalty paid by lessees. Daniel Grimm’s production
put him in the van of Franklin oilmen. He came to the town in 1861, had
a dry-goods store in partnership with the late William A. Horton and in
1869 drilled his first well. W. J. Mattem and Edward Rial & Son had a
rich slice. The foundation of a dozen fortunes was laid on the “Point,”
which yields a few barrels daily, although only a shadow of its former
self. From the western end of the hill thousands of tons of a peculiar
shale have been manufactured into paving-brick, the hardest and toughest
in America. A million dollars would not pay for the oil taken from the
hill that found no takers at fifteen-hundred!
Dewoody, over whose grave the storms of a dozen winters have blown, was
a singular character. He cared not a continental for style and was
independent in speech and behavior. Bagging a term in the Legislature as
a Democratic-Greenbacker, his rugged honesty was proof against the
allurements of the lobbyists, jobbers and heelers who disgrace common
decency. His most remarkable act was a violent assault on the
Tramp-Bill, a measure cruel as the laws of Draco, which Rhoads of
Carlisle contrived to pass. He paced the central aisle, spoke in the
loudest key and gesticulated fiercely. Tossing his long auburn hair like
a lion’s mane, he wound up his torrent of denunciation with terrible
emphasis: “If Jesus Christ were on earth this monstrous bill would jerk
him as a vagrant and dump him into the lock-up!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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