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
“You are to go and view a well or spring which is eight miles beyond the
Seneks’ farthest castle, which they told me blazes up in a flame when a
lighted coal or firebrand is put into it. You will do well to taste the
said water and * * * bring with you some of it.”
Sir William Johnson, who visited Niagara in 1767, in his journal says
with reference to the spring at Cuba:
“Arcushan came in with a quantity of curious oyl, taken at the top of
the water of some very small lake near the village he belongs to.”
David Leisberger, the Moravian Missionary, went up the Allegheny River
in 1767, established a mission near the mouth of Tionesta Creek and in
1770 removed to Butler county. His manuscript records:
“I have seen three kinds of oil-springs—such as have an outlet, such as
have none and such as rise from the bottom of the creeks. From the first
water and oil flow out together, the oil impregnating the grass and
soil; in the second it gathers on the surface of the water to the depth
of the thickness of a finger; from the third it rises to the surface and
flows with the current of the creek. The Indians prefer wells without an
outlet. From such they first dip the oil that has accumulated, then stir
the well and, when the water has settled, fill their kettles with fresh
oil, which they purify by boiling. It is used medicinally, as an
ointment for toothache, headache, swellings, rheumatism and sprains.
Sometimes it is taken internally. It is of a brown color and can also be
used in lamps. It burns well.”
Dr. John David Schopf, a surgeon in the British service, visited
Pittsburg in 1783 and in an account of his journey remarked:
“Petroleum was found at several places up the Allegheny, particularly at
a spring and a creek, which were covered with this floating substance.”
General William Irvine, in a letter to John Dickinson, dated “Carlisle,
August 17, 1785,” tells of exploring the western part of Pennsylvania.
He says:
“Oil Creek takes its name from an oily or bituminous matter being found
floating on its surface. Many cures are attributed to this oil. * * * It
rises in the bed of the creek at very low water. In a dry season I am
told it is found without any mixture of water and is pure oil. It rises
when the creek is high from the bottom in small globules.”
George Henry Loskiel, in his “Geschichte der Mission der Evangelischen
Bruder unter der Indianen in Nordamerika,” published in 1789, noted:
“One of the most favorite medicines used by the Indians is Fossil-oil
exuding from the earth, commonly with water * * * This oil is of a brown
color and smells like tar. * * * They use it chiefly in external
complaints. Some take it inwardly and it has not been found to do harm.
It will burn in a lamp. The Indians sometimes sell it to the white
people at four guineas a quart.”
An officer of the United States Army, who descended the Ohio River in
1811, wrote a book of travels in which he remarks:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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