622 M. L. FULLER APPALACHIAN OIL FIELD 



Amidst this maniTfacturing enthusiasm the production of natural petro- 

 leum was overlooked by all but a few. By 1859, however, serious efforts 

 to obtain natural oil were being made. A shaft was sunk to a depth of 

 220 feet, at a cost of $20,000, near Tarentum, Pennsylvania, obtaining 

 considerable oil, and a good trade in oil and lamps, the latter sold with 

 the oil, was worked up in New York. 



OPENING OF THE FIRST AMERICAN OIL POOL 



On August 28, 1859, Col. E. L. Drake, Superintendent of the Seneca 

 Oil Company, organized by George H. Bissel, struck a ^'crevice" at Titus- 

 ville,i Pennsylvania, at a depth of 69 feet. The following day the well 

 was found full of oil and was pumped at an initial rate of 25 barrels a 

 day. 



It was not a large well, its yield being but a small fraction of that of 

 the *^^ American Well" of Kentucky, and smaller than many of the Ka- 

 nawha brine wells, but the public had by this time become educated to 

 the use, or at least to a knowledge of the value, of the oils distilled from 

 coals and shales, and the country was ready and the time ripe for the de- 

 velopment of natural petroleum. Other wells followed the Drake well in 

 rapid succession, and the great oil boom was on. 



Pool after pool was opened. A flowing well, the first in Pennsylvania, 

 was struck near Eouseville during the following summer, while 1861 saw 

 many gushers, several of them yielding from 3,000 to 4,000 barrels a day. 

 Oil ran like water, covering the ground, collecting in pools, or flowing 

 over the surface as streams. Ignited, the pools and streams became lakes 

 and rivers of flre. From $20 a barrel in the summer of 1859, the price 

 of oil dropped to 10 cents at the end of 1861. From that time on, how- 

 ever, the price mounted steadily for several years, culminating at $10 in 

 January, 1865. 



LATER DEVELOPMENTS IN PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK 



The year 1860 saw the opening of the Petroleum Center, Eynd Farm, 

 Eouseville, Oil City, and Tidioute pools in Venango County. In 1861, 

 the Tarr Farm pool, with its big gushers, and the Franklin pool, both in 

 Yenango County, were opened. Pithole, in the same county, was opened 

 in 1865. The development of the "lower country,'^ including Butler, 

 Armstrong, and Clarion counties, began in 1868. 



Gradually the developments were extended in all directions, first to the 

 north and later to the south. The Bradford pool was opened in 1875, and 

 the Warren in 1876. The extension of operations into New York came 

 about 1880. Active drilling began in southeastern Ohio about the same 



