Oil and Our Oil Creek Ancestors |
This section, with few modifications, is taken from The Oil Creek Flemings and related families, pages 427-487; volume 1; therefore the generation numbers given in parentheses pertains to all our ancestors, Flemings and also to related families, especially McClintocks.
The birth of the petroleum industry
Probably no single post–colonial day event had a more profound influence on more Fleming–line ancestors than the discovery of petroleum in northwestern Pennsylvania in the nineteenth century. Discovery is not a good description since petroleum had been used for centuries in Europe and Asia; in fact petroleum was part of the mortar that went into the building of Babylon.889 In North America, French and British explorers had already described oil springs in what is now the Oil Creek valley of northwestern Pennsylvania by the early eighteenth century. For many years before this, Senecas had been using oil from these springs for medicinal and ritual purposes; and before the Senecas, the mysterious Moundbuilders of the Oil Creek region probably had even developed a primitive method of excavating for oil. 890
By the middle of the nineteenth century, bottled petroleum, used for medicinal purposes, had a modest market in western Pennsylvania. One of the first Oil Creek settlers to collect oil for commercial purposes was Hamilton McClintock [Sr.] (#15 of “McClintocks”). Hamilton McClintock had an especially large oil spring, which he built a barrier around, in the middle of Oil Creek on his property891 (Map 3). The method of collecting the oil was simply to skim it off the water, usually by spreading flannel cloth on the water's surface to soak up the oil, and then wringing out the cloth into a container. Hamilton sold his oil for one or two dollars a gallon; he probably collected a maximum of about six barrels a year. Nathaniel Carey would collect oil from Oil Creek and make trips to Pittsburgh to sell it. Asbury (1942), page 15, calls Carey the “founder of the Seneca Oil business.”
Credit goes to the Oil Creek valley of Venango County, Pennsylvania, for the first oil–producing wells in North America, starting in 1859. However, according to an historical marker on Route 198, Beaver Township, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, the oldest well that encountered oil was drilled at the site of the marker in 1819. As indicated on the marker, the well was drilled by Samuel Magaw and William Clark to reach brine, but eventually oil was struck. Since oil was an unwanted byproduct, the well was closed. The marker in 1985 is pictured on page 1 of American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Guidebook (1989). Standing beneath the marker were three geologists. The geologist in the center was Walter M. Small, a founding member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. He was the grandson of Samuel H. and Melissa P. Collins Small (Samuel’s second wife was Sarah Elizabeth Jamison, whose first husband was John R. Fleming (see #32). Here is what Samuel T. Pees, friend and associate of Dr. Small, and Chairman of the Guidebook, said about Walter M. Small, page 84: “Walter M. Small, international petroleum geologist and a founding member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Walter related many facts of the history of Oil Creek Valley and NW Pennsylvania. His first job as a boy was gauging oil at Miller Farm on Oil Creek. We had our last conversation on the bridge at Petroleum Centre in 1987. Dr. Small died at age 100 in 1988.” A one room Small Library in the Geology Department Building at Allegheny College, called the Small library, serves as a repository for Walter Small’s donated scientific publications.892
In the summer of 1859, an agent for the newly formed Seneca Oil Company, Colonel Edwin L. Drake (the title was an invention of a stockholder893 ), commenced drilling an oil well at the site of an oil spring on Oil Creek. This was at a place known as the Watson Flats, about 2 miles south of Titusville at that time (see Map 2). William “Uncle Billy” Smith did the actual drilling. The well, never much of a producer (it averaged 15 barrels a day during its short life894), is usually considered to have been brought–in on Saturday, 27 August 1859.895 This heralded the beginning of the petroleum industry and about 10 years of oil activity in the Oil Creek valley and vicinity the likes of which has seldom been matched anywhere in North America.
Within a week, Seneca Oil Company agents, one being a Jonathan Watson (born 16 November 1819, died 14 June 1884,896 and apparently no relation to our Watsons), traveled down the Creek to lease potential properties. The belief at the time was that the best places to drill were in the lowlands, as near to the Creek as possible. Also, because drilling might be a high risk enterprise, the custom was to lease instead of purchasing the land, with the landowner receiving royalties that might vary from less than 10% to 25% of the oil recovered, except in favorably locations where the royalty might be over 50% of the oil recovered.897
Some books on the early oil excitement898 report that Hamilton McClintock (he would be Hamilton [Jr.]) —#72 of “McClintocks,” Hamilton [Sr.], having died 9 May 1857) was the first landowner to lease his property after the Drake Well was brought–in. Asbury (1942), page 63, states that Jonathan Watson rode down the Creek on 29 August 1959 and first leased Hamilton McClintock’s farm, with the lease being filed in the Venango County Courthouse on 1 September 1859. I could not find this deed, but perhaps missed it. Also, since deeds are often recorded months or even years after being instituted, perhaps Hamilton McClintock’s farm was the first leased. However an examination of the Venango County deed books of 1859 and 1860 indicates the first property leased was that of John Rynd899. This John Rynd would be John Rynd, Jr., born circa 1816–1818. He married a first cousin, Nancy McCasland. (The parents of John Rynd, Jr., were also John and Nancy (McCasland) Rynd.)
The second agreement instituted that I am aware of from deeds was with John McClintock 900 (Map 3), son of James McClintock. As an example of these early contractual agreements, this deed is printed below. The next agreement instituted was probably between George Washington McClintock (#80 of “McClintocks”) (a son of Francis McClintock) and Jonathan Watson.901 Apparently the terms of this agreement were never fulfilled.902 Probably the fourth instituted and the first recorded was another agreement with John McClintock.903 The fifth agreement instituted was with Hamilton McClintock to Ebenezer Brewer.904
From Venango County Deed Book Q, pages 546–547, instituted 2 September 1859, recorded 19 January 1860:905Lease between John McClintock of Cornplanter township, Venango County and J. K. Hibbard of [?] and J. W. McIntire of the Borough of Titusville witnessed that as party of the first part agrees to lease unto the party of the second part, his oil spring situated on the bank of Oil Creek and the place on which he now resides and two hundred and fifty feet up the creek and two hundred fifty feet down the creek from said spring and extending back up the hill to the road, and the parties of the second part are to have the privilege of digging and prospecting for oil as they shall deem best, and also to have the privilege of passing and repassing to and from the spring. For and consideration of which the parties of the second part agree to pay unto the party of the first part the sum of five dollars per month for one year from the 2nd day of September A. D. 1859 the rent to be for each month in advance. And it is also agreed that the parties of second part shall have the privilege of giving up the possession to the party of the first part at any time during the first year that they shall see proper, and shall not be bound for the rent for any longer time than they shall continue to occupy the said spring. And it is further agreed that if at the expiration of the first year the parties of the second part shall elect [to re?] tain the possession of the said spring they shall have the privilege of keeping the possession for so long time as they wish, with all the privileges and immunities first above written with the privilege of making such improvements as they shall see fit for and in consideration of wh [ich?] the parties of the second part are to give unto the party of the first part th [e?] one third of the oil taken from the said spring so long as they shall continue [to?] occupy the same. And it is also understood that the parties of the second part shall have the privilege of taking all the tools, fixtures and such other improvements as they may make and any machinery they may have upon the ground, when they give up the possession of the said spring. Witness our hands and seals the second day of September A. D. 1859.
John McClintock
J. H. Hibbard
J. W. McIntire
Attest
F. Bunce
Saml Bullyers
It is agreed that the parties of the second part may now make their election of the length of time they will keep the premises mentioned in the above lease, and they do hereby elect to keep the same for the period of nine hundred and ninety nine years from the second day of September next, on the terms of said lease, and for the true performance of all the convenants and agreements contained in the aforesaid lease, the parties do mutually bind themselves their heirs, executors, administrators and assigns firmly by these presents.
Witnessed the hands and seals of the parties this 19th day of January A. D. 1860
[same signatures and attestors]
There was another deed that modified the above 2 September 1859 agreement; in this second deed John McClintock sells all the oil rights for $12,000.906 There is an 1861 map of the oil tracts on John McClintock’s farm.907 The map, drawn to scale, also shows the location of John McClintock’s house, about 30 yards east of Oil Creek, presumably on high ground.
It is interesting to compare John McClintock’s “$5 a month for one year and then after one year one–third of the oil taken from said spring” with other early agreements. John Rynd’s agreement was for only one–twelfth of all oil collected (nothing else); George Washington McClintock’s agreement stipulated McClintock was to receive one–fourth of all oil collected and salt made and one fourth of other minerals—delivered in barrels furnished by the party of the first part, namely George W. McClintock. John McClintock’s 26 September 1859 agreement called for $150 a month and one–third of the oil and other minerals. Hamilton McClintock [Jr.], in his 27 September 1859 agreement, was to receive one–fourth of the oil—delivered to him in barrels or other vessels the first Monday of every month.
There is an addendum to the Rynd agreement (for only 1/12 share of all oil collected) with Jonathan Watson:
From the Venango Spectator (Franklin), 21 December 1859 as cited in Dolson, 1959, page 37:IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT OIL LAND
Whereas on the 1st of September 1859, certain parties by misrepresentation procured from the subscriber a lease for his land on Oil Creek, in the county of Venango. Therefore he hereby notifies all whom it may concern that as said interest of lease was procured as above stated, he is determined that the said lessees or their under lessees shall never take possession of one foot of said land or operate for oil or salt under said contract. Upon this all may depend.
John Rynd
December 21, 1859
According to Dolson (1959), page 37, three weeks after the
above protest, Watson gave in and the lease was changed “to 1/4 share
of all royalties on oil, and salt wasn't mentioned.” In 1865 John and
Nancy Rynd of Cornplanter Township sold 183 acres of land along Oil
Creek (land that John [Jr.] had inherited from his father, John), to
and oil consortium for $150,000.908 The Rynd farm was
extensively developed in the 1860s and 1870s. McLaurin (1902), page
145, got in the last word when he punned: “[the Rynd Farm] once plump
and juicy, now lean and desiccated, resembles an orange which a boy has
sucked and thrown away the rind.”909
(John J. McLaurin lived in Franklin, Pennsylvania, see end note #909)
Oil Creek and its settlers
Oil CreekOil Creek has its headwaters in Canadota Lake (the old name was Oil Creek Lake) in Bloomfield Township, Crawford County. The major eastern tributary, Pine Run, with headwaters in Warren County, flows southwest, joining Oil Creek near Titusville, close to the Crawford County–Venango County line. Oil Creek then flows south through Venango County, emptying into the Allegheny River at Oil City, Venango County. The distance from Titusville to Oil City along Oil Creek is about 15 miles (see Map 2 and Map 3). The flat area around Titusville accounts for a fairly slow–moving stream, but when the stream descends into upper Venango County there is more gradient and high bluffs and deep gorges along its course. The average width during normal summer flow in its upper reaches in Venango County would be perhaps between 15 and 25 yards. At least that is the way I remember the stream in the 1950s and 1960s. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection maintains a permanent sampling station near Rouseville. In 1996, greatest flow, 1000 cubic feet/second, occurred in April; low flow, 96 c.f.s., was in September. Water temperature varies from about freezing in February to about 80F in July. The stream supports clean–water organisms, living on a substrate, at the Rouseville station, of about 35% cobble, 25% sand, 20% gravel, 10% boulders and 10% silt–sand.910 Information on present-day water quality and biotic conditions for Oil Creek is from a 2 December 1998 letter from Raymond L. Hasse, Water Pollution Biologist, Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection, 230 Chestnut Street, Meadville, PA 16335-3481.
Geologists tell us that Oil Creek valley is within the Allegheny Plateau physiographic province; the region is near the eastern limits of Illinoian and suspected pre–Illinoian glaciation, with Mapledale Till prevailing from Oil City to Miller Farm and Titusville Till from Miller Farm to Titusville.911 Most of the early wells in Oil Creek valley were shallow wells, with the oil found in the Upper Devonian’s Venango Sandstones at depths of 100 to 1000 feet.912 Wells are sometimes described as first or second or third sands wells. The “sands,” the sandstone strata, are the major oil–bearing units. The early shallow wells were usually first or second sands wells;913 however on the former George W. McClintock farm in what was to become the Petroleum Centre area, a third sands well was completed in June 1860.914 In the Petroleum Centre area, the first sands are reached at depths of about 525 feet, the second sands at about 675 feet, and the third sands at about 800 feet.915
Today, Oil Creek, part being in Oil Creek State Park, which in turn is part of the larger Oil Heritage Region Park, furnishes excellent recreation for boating, trout and bass fishing. The stream is designated for cold water fishes from its source to Cherry Tree Run and for warm water fishes from Cherry Tree Run to where it empties into the Allegheny River. Oil Creek in Venango County now has good water quality conditions, supports a diverse fauna of pollution–sensitive organisms, and there are no fish consumption advisories for Oil Creek. But one can imagine the conditions in the Creek and its tributaries at the height of the oil excitement in the 1860s and 1870s. Thanks to John A. Mather, an early Titusville photographer, we have graphic evidence of what the area looked like during the oil excitement.
According to Giddens (1948), page 41, which is a pictorial history of the area during the oil excitement using Mather’s photographs, John Mather was born in 1827 in England. He set up shop in Titusville, but since he was using a then revolutionary wet plate method, the negatives had to be immediately developed; therefore Mather had to take his shop with him on his Oil Creek trips. He used a flat–bottomed boat for this purpose on Oil Creek. He would charge for taking pictures, but he apparently also took many for his own use.916 In 1862 Mather reportedly declined an offer of a one–eighth interest in the famous Sherman Well on the Foster Farm for $68. This share eventually sold for $175,000.917 The Drake Well Museum, Titusville, is now the home of John Mather’s negatives. In 1948, Giddens said in his Preface that of the 3274 negatives, 2229 had been partially or wholly identified.918
During the heights of the oil excitement, the valley looked like a war zone. In the bottom lands, trees were felled to make way for derricks; in higher areas the trees were used to fuel the engines. Of course there was no such thing as an ecological impact assessment in those days. Without vegetation, soil erosion was everywhere. Roads barely passable for a team of horses in the best of times became seas of mud during heavy rains. And the mud ended up in Oil Creek. Small, fly–by–night type refineries must have unloaded huge amounts of pollutants into the stream—this in addition to the immense amount of oil that ended up in the Creek. Oil Creek even caught fire—locally probably several times—with the worst being the great flood of 5 June 1892, extending from Titusville to Oil City,919 with even more disastrous fires at both ends. There are many stories about the activities of the farmers and oilmen of that time, but I have yet to read an account of any one taking his recreation by fishing in Oil Creek of Venango County in the 1860s.
Over a hundred years later the stream and its watershed seem remarkably recovered. Occasionally, though, a natural event reminds us of what the area might have looked like. The 31 May 1985 tornadoes created havoc in the area, destroying homes and other building, bringing down the trees again, and, to add insult to injury, destroying some of the graveyard stones of pioneers living in those early exciting times.
The Oil Creek settlers
When Drake brought in his well in 1859, there were about 43 farms in
the valley.920 Most farms were owned by settlers who had
arrived at about the turn of the century. The Flemings came permanently
in circa 1798, and Hamilton and his brother Francis McClintock perhaps
a year or two earlier.
The settlers' livelihood was mainly farming, and most if not all the Oil Creek settlers were poor in material things. The hilly topography, unproductive soil, and relatively short growing season meant a bare existence for most. The farm’s crops and livestock went mainly to feed the family; what little surplus there might be would be used for barter. Few families probably made more than $100 year in currency.
Here is what McLaurin (1902), page 117, had to say about the Oil Creek settlers:For sixty years the occupants of these tracts had forced a bare existence from the reluctant soil. “Content to live, to propagate and die,” their requirements and their resources alike were scanty. They knew nothing of the artificial necessities and extravagances of fashionable life. To most of them the great busy, plodding world was a sealed book which they had neither the means nor the inclination to unclasp … A trip on a raft to Pittsburg [sic], with the privilege of walking back, was the limit of their journeyings from the hills and rocks of Venango. Hunting, fishing and hauling saw–logs in winter aided in replenishing the domestic larder. None imagined the unproductive valley would become the cradle of an industry before which cotton and coal and iron must “hide their diminished heads.”
What little hard money income there might be came mainly from cutting, hauling, and rafting logs down Oil Creek to the Allegheny River. The Oil Creek settlers sometimes used a unique method called freshet ponds to float the logs downstream. During dry periods, the Creek was often not much more than a small brook, with not enough water to keep the logs afloat let alone moving downstream. Most farms, especially those located in the upstream area of Venango County, had mill ponds where tributary water could be held. Andrew Fleming (#2 of “Flemings”) was said to have had one of the first mills on Oil Creek.921 At an agreed time, the mill pond water was let go, and this usually raised the Creek’s water level high enough and created enough current to float the logs downstream. The method was subsequently borrowed by early oilmen to move oil–laden barges down Oil Creek, and is described in most of the early books on the oil excitement in the Oil Creek valley.922
But even with supplemental income, life was not easy. There are accounts of the Oil Creek settlers’ frugal existence before the oil boom, and little reason to believe our ancestors were faring any better than other families along the Creek. In Venango County Panorama (1983), page 151, there is an 1881 picture of Hamilton McClintock's log cabin, which he built about 1798. The McClintocks had later added a larger two–story structure, but the single–room cabin is still prominent in the photograph.
In Newton (1879), page 369, there is a biographic sketch of Francis McClintock (#17, brother of Hamilton [Sr.]. This sketch gives some idea of how our early ancestors lived:
… He [referring to Francis McClintock] settled where Petroleum Centre now is, in 1797. His first improvement was the clearing of three acres of land and the building of a log cabin, in which he lived and kept bachelor's hall during the summer of 1797 and 1798. In the spring of 1799, he started from Lancaster county with a yoke of oxen; traveled an indian path until he reached Pittsburgh, where he procured a bag of salt, tied it onto the oxen and started for his new home in Venango, reaching it in safety. He went to Harrisville a short time after his return, and was married to Rachel Hardy. He returned with his wife and went to housekeeping in the log cabin. He continued in the summer season to clear away the forest, and followed shoemaking in the winter for fifteen years. He then erected a sawmill, and engaged in the lumber business for 21 years. Again he returned to his trade, and worked at shoemaking until within two years of his death. He use to go to mill at Meadville, a distance of about 50 or 60 miles by water, in a dug–out canoe, The route was down Oil creek, then up French creek to Meadville. This trip was made in the spring and the fall. During the summer months they would pound the wheat and corn and boil it, which they would live on until they could go to mill. Their principle drinks were chocolate, coffee, rye whiskey and water. The clothing was mostly of their own manufacture, consisting of flaxen goods for summer, and for winter, buckskin pants and moccasins for the men, and linsey dresses for the women. The subject of this sketch died in 1847, and his wife followed July 31st, 1848.
Oil activity in Oil Creek Valley and vicinity
The Drake Well ushered in the 1860–1870 oil boom years in Oil Creek valley. Not all the Oil Creek settlers struck it rich. A few did become wealthy, most enjoyed a much improved standard of living, and all in one way or another had their lives considerably changed. In the valley itself, the big strikes (the flowing wells, or gushers) were mainly below the Miller Farm, see Maps 2 and 3. But there were many dry holes even in the lower Oil Creek valley.
By November 1860, about 70 producing wells were in the valley, almost all below the Miller Farm.923 At times in 1861 and 1862, there was so much oil and so little demand for it that the price might be as low as five cents a barrel. In fact, throughout most of the 1860s, before the establishment of reputable oil exchanges, the price fluctuated so widely, for example 10 cents to $20 a barrel,924 that wells making a farmer wealthy in, for example, July might not even cover operating costs for the developer in, for example, November. The average price of crude oil in 1862 was $1.25 a barrel; whereas in 1864, the average price was $8.13.925 These fluctuating oil prices can not be overemphasized in understanding why most Oil Creek farmers (and the oil speculators developing their properties) did not reap huge profits from these early, productive wells.
By 1865, over 2000 wells had been put–down in the valley. But most were dry holes. The ratio of paying to non–paying wells was 1 to 20 during the 1860s.926 A feature of most flowing wells in Oil Creek valley was a large initial production, to about 3000 barrels a day, and then a fairly rapid decline in production.
The oil activity had spread a short distance from the Oil Creek valley by the mid 1860s, namely into areas of the Creek's tributaries, Cherry Tree Run to the west and Cherry Run to the east (Map 2). Much of the later 1860s activity was in an area that became known as the Shamburg region (Map 2). Contrary to what one might believe, Shamburg was not named by a wit with a sense of humor about the transitory existence of these boom–towns. In 1865, Dr. G. Shamburg (principal owner of the Cherry Run Petroleum Company) started drilling on the Oliver Stowell Farm on the headwaters of Cherry Run—about 2 miles east of the Miller Farm.927 On this property, the Shamburg was brought—in in 1867; shortly after this the Jack Brown and the Fee Wells came in on the adjoining Atkinson Farm, formerly the John S. Fleming Farm (Map 2), and then the Lady Stewart Well in the same general area.
Much oil activity was centered in this area for a short time, and of course the proverbial boom–town soon sprung up, in this case called Shamburg (although the town site was commonly known as Shamburg, the post office was called Champion). In 1868, Shamburg had a population of 2000; three years later, the town site was deserted.
The 1860–1870 decade was the heyday for oil activity in the Oil Creek region. All the early wells of the 1860s had declined to 40–90% of original production by 1870. The big oil strikes were essentially over for the Oil Creek region, although new wells were brought–in and existing wells continued to produce into the twentieth century. In fact, the well billed as “the oldest producing oil well” is located on the old Hamilton McClintock Farm and is a Pennsylvania historical marker. This is the McClintock Oil Well No. 1; it was drilled in 1881 and is still producing—at least it was in the mid 1970s. The well is located near Rouseville, Cornplanter Township, on Route 8, south of the bridge.928
In the late 1860s and 1870s, the big strikes were some distance from Oil Creek: the Triumph Hill wells at Tidioute (Warren County), the Garland region (Warren County), the Butler County fields, and the Bradford (McKean County) region. And it was not long before the major oil activity was out of Pennsylvania entirely and sweeping westward into Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma–Kansas, and California, and in the process taking with it many of our ancestors.
