The excitement did not stop at the valley of Oil Creek. It extended down the Alleghany to Franklin, and up the valley of French Creek, which enters the Alleghany seven miles below the mouth of Oil Creek. Wells were sunk at all these points, and many of them yielded from three to forty barrels per day. In the course of the summer succeeding the first successful experiment on Oil Creek, there were not less than two hundred wells in different stages of progress in the town of Franklin alone. Wells were being bored in gardens, in dooryards, and even in some cases in the bottoms of wells from which water had been procured for household purposes. So numerous were the tall 'derricks,' that a profane riverman made the remark that the people of Franklin must be remarkably pious, as almost every man seemed to be building a meeting house with a tall steeple near his dwelling. At one time there were in Franklin fifteen productive wells, yielding a daily aggregate of one hundred and forty barrels. Among these were what was known as 'the celebrated Evans well.' This was, in some respects, the most remarkable well in all the region. It was sunk by its proprietor in the bottom of the well that had long been used for household purposes. An humble house and lot constituted his entire worldly possessions. The work in the well was performed entirely by his own family. Being a blacksmith, he constructed his own boring implements, and was dependent on no outside assistance. Patiently and assiduously did the blacksmith and his two sons toil on, as they had seldom toiled before, the former guiding the drill, and the latter applying the power by hand to the simple machinery. At the depth of only forty feet in the rock they struck a crevice that promised to pour them out rivers of oil. In attempting to enlarge this, the drill broke, the fragment remaining in the cavity, and defying every effort used for its removal. The well was then tubed, and a hand pump inserted, when it was found to yield at the rate of ten or fifteen barrels per day. Speculation soon began to run wild, and the fortunate owner of this well, among other propositions, received an offer of fifty thousand dollars for his well. To all these tempting offers he persistently returned the same reply--that he had bored that well for his own use, and that if others wished a well, they could do as he had done.