ALONG THE ALLEGHENY FROM OIL CREEK—THE FIRST PETROLEUM COMPANY’S BIG STRIKE—RULER OF PRESIDENT—FAGUNDAS, TIDIOUTE AND TRIUMPH HILL—THE ECONOMITES—WARREN AND FOREST—CHERRY GROVE’S BOMBSHELL—SCOUTS AND MYSTERY WELLS—EXCITING EXPERIENCES IN THE MIDDLE FIELD—DRAINING A JUICY SECTION OF OILDOM. ---------- “The ocean is vast and our craft is small.”—_Norman Gunnison._ “Heaven sends us good meat, but the devil sends cooks.”—_Garrick._ “Stay, stay thy crystal tide, Sweet Allegheny! I would by thee abide, Sweet Allegheny.”—_Marjorie Meade._ “Keep account of crises and transactions in this life.”—_Mrs. Browning._ “Five minutes in a crisis is worth years.”—_Freeman Hunt._ “It does upset a man’s calculations most confoundedly.”—_Grant Allen._ “Run if you like, but try to keep your breath.”—_Holmes._ “Then it was these Philistine sinners’ turn to be skeered and they broke for the brush.”—_Dr. Pierson._ “And all may do what has by man been done.”—_Edward Young._ “Spurr’d boldly on and dashed through thick and thin.”—_Dryden._ ---------- [Illustration: DAVID BEATTY.] [Illustration: JESSE A. HEYDRICK.] In transforming the unfruitful, uninteresting Valley of Oil Creek into the rich, attractive Valley of Petroleum the course of developments was southward from the Drake well. Although some persons imagined that a pool or a strip bordering the stream would be the limit of successful operations, others entertained broader ideas and believed the petroleum-sun was not doomed to rise and set on Oil Creek. The Evans well at Franklin confirmed this view. Naturally the Allegheny River was regarded with favor as the base of further experiments. Quite as naturally the town at the junction of the river and the creek was benefited. The Michigan Rock-Oil-Company laid out building-lots and Oil City grew rapidly in wealth, ambition, enterprise and population. From a half-dozen dwellings, two unbridged streams, the remnants of an iron-furnace and a patch of cleared land on the flats it speedily advanced to a hustling settlement of five-thousand souls, “out for the stuff” and all eager for profit. Across the Allegheny, on the Downing and Bastian farms, William L. Lay laid out the village of Laytonia in 1863 and improved the ferriage. Phillips & Vanausdall, who struck a thirty-barrel well on the Downing farm in 1861, established a ferry above Bastian’s and started the suburbs of Albion and Downington. In 1865 these were merged into Imperial City, which in 1866 was united with Laytonia and Leetown to form Venango City. In 1871 the boroughs of Venango City and Oil City were incorporated as the city of Oil City, with William M. Williams as mayor. Three passenger-bridges, one railroad bridge and an electric street-railway connect the north and south sides