148 ANNUAL REPORT 
1899 a well was drilled on the McCauley farm, about 2 miles northwest of 
the well just mentioned. The Berea was found at a depth of 1,175 feet, 
and was divided as follows: 
Feet 
foiz Wa K6 KH Hep av ek qe Ran esaetie hes MpanbUnaEG aS Minin eat iE AyarE Wuhan ti Ale Tenaga MEAT Tb, 12 
THANG eCOlOTE AM SALES Pla seas sacueerncnce a etait 35 
Sandstonermand a shalewuGastiaiyues) mcrae ees 10 
Below this a brown shale (the Bedford) was found. The well pro- 
duced neither oil nor gas. A well drilled in June, 1900, on Cedar run 
struck the Berea at 1,073 feet, but neither oil nor gas was found. Other 
wells have recently been drilled in this part of the county, but all have 
been failures. It is reported that formerly 5 wells were drilled in this 
territory and all produced much oil. This report is in part responsible for 
the wells that have recently been drilled. 
OIL AND GAS IN WASHINGTON COUNTY. 
This county is one of the oldest producers of oil and gas in the 
United States. Forty years before the drilling of the Drake well near 
Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859, the county was yielding crude oil. The 
discovery resulted from boring for salt-water. One of the earliest of these 
wells was located on the Little Muskingum river, and was thus described 
by Dr. S. P. Hildreth, one of the pioneer geologists of the state, in a letter 
written in 1819 to Mr. Caleb Atwater, of Circleville, and by him published 
in the American Journal of Science in 1826: 
“They have sunk two wells which are now more than 400 feet in 
depth. One of them affords a very strong and pure water, but not in 
great quantity. The other discharges such vast quantities of petroleum, 
or as it is vulgarly called ‘Seneka oil,’ and besides is subject to such tre- 
mendous explosions of gas for several days that they make but little or 
no salt. Nevertheless, the petroleum affords considerable profit, and is 
beginning to be in demand for lamps, in workshops and manufactories. 
It affords a clean, brisk light when burnt this way, and will be a valuable 
article for lighting the street lamps in the future cities of Ohio.”? 
That these early drillers for salt had some experience with natural 
gas is shown by the following extract from the same letter: 
“There is a continual discharge of carbonated hydrogen gas from 
the well; and also from the bed of the creek on which the well is situated, 
at various places for the distance of half a mile. This gas is highly in-— 
flammable, and where there is a free discharge of it, will take fire on the © 
surface of the water, on the application of a lighted stick, or the flash of 
a gun, and continue burning for days, unless put out by a heavy shower 
or a high wind. It was this discharge of gas that induced the present 
1Amer, Jour. Sci. and Arts, Vol. X, p. 5, S. P. Hildreth. 
