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
The well stood idle until 1892, when J. Hovey, an ex-broker from New
York and relative of a late Governor of Indiana, drilled a short
distance down the creek. The result was a strike which produced
twenty-four hundred barrels of dark, heavy, lubricating oil in fifty
days. It was shut down for want of tankage and means to transport the
product to market. The Carter again yielded nicely, as did three more
wells in this neighborhood. In 1895 the Standard Oil-Company was given a
refusal of the Hovey and surrounding interests, in order to test the
territory fully and lay a pipe-line to Glasgow or Louisville, should the
production warrant the expenditure. Wells have been sunk east of the
Carter nearly to Monticello, eighteen miles off, finding gas and
indications of oil. Every true Clintonite is positive an ocean of
petroleum underlies his particular neck of woods, impatient to be
relieved and burden landholders and operators alike with excessive
wealth!
A hard-headed youth, out walking with his best girl in the dog-days,
told her a fairy-story of the dire effects of ice-cream upon the
feminine constitution. “I knew a girl,” he declared, “who ate six plates
of the dreadful stuff and died next day!” The shrewd damsel exclaimed
rapturously: “Oh, wouldn’t it be sweet to die that way? Let us begin on
six plates now!” And wouldn’t it be nice to be loaded with riches, not
gained by freezing out some other fellow, by looting a bank, by wedding
an unloved bride, by grinding the poor, by manipulating stocks, by
cornering grain or by practices that make the angels weep, but by
bringing oil honestly from the bowels of the earth?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account