AO ANNUAL REPORT 
extent, and companies were quickly formed to test the underlying rocks 
with the hope of finding the fuel that produced such remarkable events. 
The results were in most cases disappointing, but the courses taken by the 
municipalities form an interesting chapter in our state’s history. An out- 
line only of this can be given here. A deep well was drilled at Toledo in 
7885, and a number of others were put down shortly afterwards in dif- 
ferent parts of the county. The most that can be said for these is that they 
made a showing of gas, but in 1887 the new fuel was piped to the city 
from Wood county by two companies; the Northwestern Ohio Natural 
Gas Company and the Toledo Natural Gas Company. ‘The city council 
fixed the maximum rates that the companies could charge, and it was ex- 
pected that competition would work to the city’s interest, but the two com- 
panies did not engage in a contest similar to that which took place at 
Findlay. In fact, after a short time, they pooled their interests.1 While 
the rates charged were not unreasonable no special inducements, such as 
free gas, were made to factories. In other words, these companies looked 
after their own interests rather than those of local real estate men. The 
result was that Toledo did not experience the boom that the smaller cities 
to the south enjoyed, and in 1888 a petition was presented to the legislature 
praying for the power on the part of Toledo to construct and operate a 
natural gas plant of its own. The bill did not pass at this session, how- 
ever, but a year later received a large majority in each house. The act 
was ratified by a vote of the citizens in April, 1889, and the city 
council speedily authorized the sale of $75,000 worth of bonds. The gas 
trustees at once began leasing territory in Wood and Hancock counties, 
paying a large annual rental thereon. On this wells were drilled. In 
addition the trustees contracted with the Stuartsville Land Association to 
furnish them with 50,000,000 cubic feet of gas per day, the trustees to 
purchase the wells producing this gas at $1,000 for every million cubic feet 
of gas which they produced when purchased. Each well was to have 
on the average ten acres of land to draw on. Contracts of a similar 
nature were made with other parties. 
? When the bonds referred to above were advertised for sale, the 
Northwestern Ohio Natural Gas Company, a branch of the Standard Oil 
Company, entered the United States court, asking for an injunction 
against the sale of bonds, but the municipality won an easy victory. Late 
in the same year (1889) the company again brought suit, but the gas 
trustees were again victorious. The money derived from the first sale of 
bonds was speedily exhausted, and the trustees then offered for sale the 
remainder provided for by the special act of the legislature, amounting 
to $675,000. One hundred thousand dollars’ worth were taken by citizens 
of Toledo, but the remaining ones found no buyers. This was regarded 
as a result of the attack made by the Standard Oil Company, which seems 
1Geol. Sur. of Ohio, First Ann. Rept., 1890, p. 146-151. 
