Memory's Storehouse Unlocked, True Stories: Pioneer Days In Wetmore and Northeast Kansas
John Locke · en
In view of the recent strikes in the Strahm field, with a 30-barrel
producer in the Hunton lime at around 2800 feet; and the Mamie Strahm
number 2, rated at 1440 barrels in the Viola lime at approximately 3600
feet; and the Oreon Strahm test, with even greater potential production
in the Hunton and Viola and still another producing sand topping the
granite at around 3900 feet, it looks as though we Wetmore “investors”
might better have kept our speculative eggs all in one basket, so to
speak, contrary to high-powered promotion advice—and completed the
Haigh-Lapham oil test. And I still believe we overlooked our best bet
right here at home.
But then we had no data to enlighten us. The nearest and only drilling
at that time was ten miles south of us. It was not deep enough to prove
or disprove anything. In the heyday of his great financial flight—in the
1880’s—Green Campbell drilled a test to the depth of 1,000 feet on the
east edge of Circleville. I believe the incentive was a reported seepage
of oil in the creek south of the town.
Then, some twenty years after the Wetmore try, a couple of promoters
came out of Kansas City, with a plan to rejuvenate interests in the
Haigh-Lapham test—and “feather their own nests.” Joe Searles’ drugstore
in the east room of what is now the First National Bank building,
was the unofficial headquarters for oil hungry “investors”—local and
transient. With Joe and the two promoters, I went over to the Matthews
lot, now owned by Bert Gilbert. Mr. Hardenburg had left the top 100 feet
of casing in the well to prevent cave-ins against the time when he might
return to finish the well. Measurements to the exhaustion of the string
available showed the well open for fifteen hundred feet—and likely all
the way down to the bottom.
Excitement began to mount again.
Dr. A. P. Lapham presided over a packed gathering in the opera house—and
appointed a committee of five to confer with the promoters. The
committee met in the Thorn-burrow bank. The promoters came up with
a contract whereby they would undertake to raise the funds for the
completion of the well, against numerous and assorted requirements by
“the people” of Wetmore.