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
C. D. Angell leased blocks of land from Foster to Scrubgrass in 1870-71
and jabbed them with holes that confirmed his “belt theory.” His first
well—a hundred-barreler—on Belle Island, a few rods below the station,
opened the Scrubgrass field. On the Rockland side of the river the
McMillan and 99 wells headed a list of remunerative producers. Back a
quarter-mile the territory was tricky, wells that showed for big strikes
sometimes proving of little account. A town toddled into existence.
Gregory—the genial host joined the heavenly host long ago—had a hotel at
which trains stopped for meals. James Kennerdell ran a general store and
the post-office. The town was busy and had nothing scrubby except the
name. The wells retired from business, the depot burned down, the people
vanished and Kennerdell Station was established a half-mile north.
Wilson Cross continued his store at the old stand until his death in
March, 1896. Within a year paying wells have been drilled near the
station and two miles southward. On the opposite bank Major W. T. Baum,
of Franklin, has a half-dozen along the base of the hill that net him a
princely return. A couple of miles north-west, in Victory township,
Conway Brothers, of Philadelphia, recently drilled a well forty-two
hundred feet. The last sixty feet were sand with a flavor of oil, the
deepest sand and petroleum recorded up to the present time. Careful
records of the strata and temperature were taken. Once a thermometer
slipped from Mr. Conway’s hand and tumbled to the bottom of the well,
the greatest drop of the mercury in any age or clime.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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