139 
ing it might be useful in case of accident, or illness; and it was to 
obtain a supply of oil like this sample bottle for medicial purposes 
that induced Bissell, E,veleth, Townsend and Drake, to undertake 
the drilling of the first well on Oil Creek, near Titusville, Penn- 
sylvania. They started out under the name of ‘The Pennsylvania 
Rock Oil Company,” which was later merged into “ The Seneca 
Oil Company.” Colonel Edward L. Drake put the well down 
under great difficulties and discouragements. There was then 
no railroad in that part of the country. Colonel Drake went 
twice to Pittsburg to engage men who worked on salt wells to 
come to Titusville and drill an oil well for him, and each time the 
drillers backed out and failed to come, as they thought Drake 
was crazy to drill for oil. At last he secured William A. Smith, 
commonly called “ Uncle Billy” Smith, and his two sons, James 
and William, of Freeport, Pennsylvania, to drill the well. All 
the machinery had to come in wagons from Erie, a distance of 
forty miles, and he had to send there for everything; once for a 
couple of common shovels, the store at Titusville being unable 
to furnish them. Colonel Drake soon spent the money advanced 
him by the company, and they refused to furnish more. He had 
also exhausted his credit, and could not get trusted for the value 
of a hemlock plank. Here it was that Drake showed the quali- 
ties of a true oil man, which are indomitable energy, and untir- 
ing perseverence. He was thought to be insane, and people called 
him “crazy Drake.” His workman were unpaid and discon- 
tented, and his enterprise must have failed when on the verge of 
success, had not two gentlemen of Titusville, R. D. Fletcher, and 
Peter Wilson, come to the rescue. They had faith in the man and 
his work, and endorsed his paper and loaned him money. 
Saturday, August 28th, 1859, the Smith boys measured up 
just before shutting down for the night, and found that they were 
down 69% feet. Then they washed up, put on their coats, took 
their dinner pails and went to their boarding house as usual. ‘The 
next day was Sunday, and “ Uncle Billy ” went over to the well 
in the afternoon for a stroll. He found there was fluid in the 
hole, nearly to the derrick floor. He got a piece of tin spouting, 
closed up one end, and lowered it into the hole. Drawing it up 
