162 Frank Carney 



OIL 



Early history. Along the Little Muskingum River, in Washing- 

 ton County, oil was found early last century, in connection with 

 drilling for salt water. This matter was referred to in a letter 

 written by Dr. S. P. Hildreth in 1818:'- 



They have sunk two wells which are now more than 400 feet in depth. 

 One of them affords a very strong and pure water, but not in great 

 quantity. The other discharges such vast quantities of petroleum, or 

 as it is vulgarly called, "Seneka oil," and besides is subject to such tre- 

 mendous explosions of gas for several days that they made but little or 

 no salt. Nevertheless, the petroleum affords considerable profit, and is 

 beginning to be in demand for lamps, in workshops and manufactories. 

 It affords a clean, brisk light when burnt this way, and will be a valuable 

 article for lighting the street lamps in the future cities of Ohio. 



In other parts of Ohio, early salt wells were not infrequently 

 abandoned because they gave either gas or oil. It w^as seldom that 

 either of these fuels were considered valuable. 



The first dealers in crude oil in Ohio appear to have been "Bos- 

 worth, Wells, and Company" of Marietta. "The firm shipped 

 oil to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, St. Louis, 

 Peoria, Chicago, and Cincinnati. From 1848 to 1857 the firm 

 received 33 cents per gallon for the oil, and from 1857 to 1860 

 40 cents per gallon. "^'^ At that time there were no refineries 

 nearer than St. Louis. The oil was used for various purposes, 

 but had always had some market as a medicine. 



The famous Drake Well put down at Titusville, Pennsylvania, 

 1859, inspired testing in adjacent states. Within a year, many 

 holes w^ere sunk in West Virginia and Ohio. As in the case of gas, 

 early prospectors w^ere attracted by surface indications of oil, and 

 usually did their first drilling in these localities. I will refer par- 

 ticularly to a few of these early efforts to secure oil. 



Washington County. Near Macksburg, in 1860, a well was 

 drilled 59 feet into the sandstone, and a very heavy oil was found. 

 This oil was too heavy to burn in lamps, but had a ready market 

 as a lubricant, commanding a price of $28.00 per barrel. Other 

 wells in the immediate region were drilled at once. Great excite- 



'2 Geological Survey of Ohio. Bulletin 1. (1903), p. 148. 

 ^^ Ibid., p. 149. 



