THE PASSENGER PIGtEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 137 



"Bingham also owned three miUion acres along 

 the cost of Maine. This included Mount Desert, and 

 this was apparently so valueless that for years the 

 heirs could not sell it at any price." 



Oil operators on the Bingham estate, it is said, have 

 found it impossible to buy any of the Bingham lands, 

 and the Bingham estate never operated on any of the 

 Bingham lands, contenting tliemselves with the 

 royalties thereon which have been sufficient to 

 pay the estate millions of dollars, all of which, it is said, 

 has found its way to England. The agent of -the es- 

 tate, with whom local operators do business is Frank 

 A. Deans, attorney-in-fact, located in Wellsboro. Just 

 who the Binghams were has always been a mystery to 

 m.ost people here, although the Bingham estate is as 

 well known as any oil property in the whole Bradford 

 field. 



Mr. Girard's story of William Bingham and his 

 heirs will be news to most readers who never took the 

 trouble to look up the history of the fatnily that has 

 profited so largely by their good fortune in being the 

 possessor of rich oil land which most of the heirs have 

 never seen. The land cost William Bingham 13 cents 

 an acre. 



(The tract of 249,000 acres, about a third of Potter 

 county, was the Ceres Company's principal tract. John 

 Keating was managing trustee. Francis King was his 

 agent.) 



