157 



oil company was formed, of which Messrs. Bowditch and 

 Drake of New Haven, were the active men. Col. Drake re- 

 moved to Titusville on Oil Creek, in Venango county, Pa., 

 and in the spring of 1859, commenced boring in a locality 

 where there had been an oil spring. The work was slow, 

 and it was not till Aug. 26, 1859, that oil was reached, at 

 the depth of seventy-one feet. The oil rose to within five 

 inches of the surface. A pump was inserted at once, and 

 the weli yielded 400 barrels daily. A larger pump was 

 then employed, and J000 barrels were yielded. This well 

 continued for two years to yield at this rate without any 

 apparent diminution, and now it is only abandoned because 

 the amount furnished is not remunerative compared with 

 other wells. 



This success was at once the signal for hundreds of simi- 

 lar enterprises. The whole valley was alive with specula- 

 tors and explorers. In a few months a number of other re- 

 munerative wells were found, and thousands of others were 

 in process of digging. 



Other localities where oil indications had been observed, 

 were soon the scenes of like excitement, and were rewarded 

 with corresponding success. The village of Franklin on 

 the Alleghany river, Tidioute some miles above, the junction 

 of Oil Creek and Alleghany river, were all within a year 

 explored, and found to furnish abundance of this material. 

 Then it was soon discovered that other places were equally 

 favored with oil. At Mecca in Ohio, wells of the most pro- 

 ductive character were discovered, and so also in the val- 

 ley of the Kanawha in Virginia. Then the excitement ex- 

 tended to Canada. Mr. Williams had established at Ennis- 

 killen, a distillery for extracting Kerosene oil from the beds 

 of bitumen found there. When the oil discoveries took place 

 in Pennsylvania, he conceived that oil might be obtained by 

 sinking wells in the vicinity of these beds. The result 

 justified his anticipations, and his works for distilling oil 



[Trans. iv.\ 22 



