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SKETCHES 
 
 THE OLEAN ROCK CITY 
 
 HISTORIC GLIMPSES OF 
 OLEAN, NEW YORK 
 
 THE BRADFORD OIL DISTRICT 
 
 HISTORIC GLIMPSES OF 
 BRADFORD, PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 KATHERINE EATON BRADLEY 
 

 Gift 
 Autiaor 
 

 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. THE OLEAN ROCK CITY. 
 
 n. HISTORIC GLIMPSES OF OLEAW, 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 III. THE BRADFORD OIL DISTRICT. 
 
 IV. HISTORIC GLIMPSES OF BRAD- 
 
 FORD, PENNSYLVANIA.^ 
 
 V. APPENDIX. A COMMUNITY 
 FRUIT AND NUT-GROVE. 
 
THE OLEAN ROCK CITY. 
 
 IT may be that the surveyors who laid out 
 the Kittanning Road during the War of 
 the American Revohition were the first 
 white men to gaze upon the glittering 
 pebbles of the huge conglomerate rocks now 
 called the Olean Rock City. This military 
 highway, cut through the forest one hun- 
 dred and forty years ago, passed near these 
 rocks, and its builders must have asked the 
 question, "How and when were these im- 
 mense boulders scattered upon the hill- 
 tops?" This remarkable group of rocks, 
 situated in the northern portion of the Brad- 
 ford Oil District, is perched upon a ridge of 
 the Great Divide of the Alleghany Mount- 
 ains, one thousand feet above Olean, in 
 southwestern New York. It is six miles 
 south of the city and near the New York- 
 Pennsylvania boundary. The group is an 
 isolated fragment of a layer of rock which 
 has been given a variety of names. It is 
 called the Olean Conglomerate because of 
 this bold outcrop at the Olean Rock City; 
 the Great Conglomerate; Farewell Rock; 
 and Puddingstone. In Ohio, it is known as 
 the Sharon Conglomerate, and in England, 
 as the Millstone Grit. Between 1836 and 
 1840, three geologists connected with the 
 first New York geological survey visited the 
 
rock cities of the state. Mr. Horsford de- 
 scribed the large rock city seven miles south 
 of Ellicottville as the locality most visited, 
 and as being in the highest degree imposing. 
 He also mentioned similar boulders at Chip- 
 munk Riffle, and a group in Alleghany 
 County. Professor James Hall said of the 
 group near Olean, ''To these broken out- 
 liers of conglomerate the fanciful name of 
 'Ruined City/ has been applied ; the broad 
 fissures resemble streets, and the huge rocks 
 on either side dilapidated houses. There 
 are subterranean passages and courts, now 
 the abode of bears and wolves." 
 
 In the corner stones of these houses is no 
 information as to how or when they were 
 built, but on their walls the eye of the geo- 
 logist finds their history plainly written. At 
 Rock City "though inland far we be," we 
 are near the shore of what was once the 
 great Carboniferous Ocean. Its thundering 
 waves wore down the primitive rocks into 
 sand and mud, and on its beaches were 
 rolled the white and gray quartz pebbles of 
 the conglomerate boulders, pebbles ranging 
 in size from a pea to a goose egg. The 
 pebbles and sand, gradually settling upon 
 the ocean's bed, made a layer varying in 
 thickness in this locality from thirty to two 
 hundred feet. Near Lehigh, Pennsylvania, 
 this stratum has a thickness of fifteen hun- 
 dred feet. The bottom of the stratum is 
 always composed of larger pebbles than the 
 —8— 
 
upper portion, showing that the materials 
 were carried in water, the heavier portions 
 sinking first. Mother Nature stirred up a 
 mixture of sand, pasty mud and pebbles, 
 which from its appearance has been termed 
 puddingstone. "Pebbly beaches now form- 
 ing will when consolidated produce con- 
 glomerate." 
 
 In the dim past "when the morning stars 
 sang together," the Great Conglomerate 
 was long ages in being created, and was re- 
 markable as the floor upon which were laid 
 those deposits of incalculable value to man- 
 kind — the Coal Measures of the world. By 
 the geologist's hammer and by borings for 
 coal and petroleum, the conglomerate can be 
 traced as it inclines from the surface of the 
 ground at Rock City to a depth at Pitts- 
 burgh of three hundred feet, and at Wheel- 
 ing, West Virginia, of seven hundred feet, 
 with nine seams of coal resting upon it. It 
 was necessary that there should be an eleva- 
 tion and a subsidence for every seam of 
 coal. This rock is the best guide for the 
 coal and oil prospector and he always keeps 
 a record of its depth and thickness. 
 
 For a clear knowledge of the story of the 
 rock cities we are indebted to the researches 
 of Dr. Charles A. Ashburner, who con- 
 ducted the Pennsylvania Geological Survey 
 in this region in 1877. He has explained the 
 conditions necessary to the making of rock 
 cities. Before his time it was a popular be- 
 —9— 
 
lief that the rocks had been brought from 
 the north and dropped by melting glaciers 
 and had been broken into their curious 
 forms by earthquake shocks. These theories 
 have been disproved by established facts. 
 The ice sheet stopped in the center of the 
 valley in which Olean is built, and did not 
 extend as far south by several miles as Rock 
 City. Regarding earthquake disturbances 
 in this region the rocks tell a story of quiet 
 upheaval. There is probably no region in 
 Pennsylvania which has been affected less 
 by earth crust movement that the north- 
 west portion. Dr. Ashburner cites the Brad- 
 ford oil sand as bearing testimony to this 
 fact. It is found at an approximate depth 
 of eighteen hundred feet, its wide spread 
 sheet being remarkable for its evenness and 
 regularity. 
 
 After the formation of the conglomerate, 
 it quietly sank, probably not more than a 
 foot in a century. It is probable that during 
 the Carboniferous Age it had sunk forty 
 thousand feet, and by the close of this 
 period the rock was comparatively level. 
 Then occurred the stupendous uplift of the 
 Appalachian Mountain system, forcing up 
 with it the Great Conglomerate with its 
 precious load of coal lying on its breast. 
 When it became stationary, its base at the 
 Olean Rock City was 2,310 feet above pres- 
 ent sea level. As to the force which throws 
 up mountain systems. President Holland in 
 —10— 
 
an address to the geologists of the British 
 Association, within the past few months, 
 made the statement that no one can answer 
 the question as to whether they are thrown 
 up from below by volcanic action, or are 
 formed by the earth's crust rumpling up like 
 a base-ball's cover when it loosens. 
 
 The scientists confidently assert that 
 every coal deposit rests upon the Great Con- 
 glomerate, that coal in workable quantity is 
 never found below it in any part of the 
 world. It is called by botli American and 
 English coal miners "farewell rock," be- 
 cause when they have reached it, they take 
 leave of all valuable fuel. Great fortunes 
 have been lost and men have worked a life- 
 time in the vain effort to find coal below 
 this stratum. A conspicuous example of the 
 conglomerate beneath the coal is seen at 
 Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. Sir Francis 
 Lyell examined the conglomerate and the 
 coal in England and in Pennsylvania, find- 
 ing the same kind of fossil plants in the cor- 
 responding strata in both places. 
 
 Pennsylvania has virtually all the hard or 
 anthracite coal in the United States ; a region 
 twenty by twenty-four miles would be large 
 enough to hold it all. Professor Silliman 
 years ago called it "a great national trust." 
 
 When first elevated this part of the coun- 
 try was as level as the prairie. What were 
 the forces which carved out the valleys, 
 leaving the rock-ribbed hills standing 
 —11— 
 
^'against the blue walls of the sky?" Science 
 answers that rain, water and air were the 
 chemists, and glacial action the sculptor. 
 Only isolated fragments, like the rock cities, 
 now remain of the conglomerate exposed 
 above the ground, and they rest in blocks 
 upon the highest summits. The form in 
 which the rock is seen at Rock City- — huge 
 cubical blocks having vertical faces — is the 
 result of the same agents which carved out 
 all the valleys. The principal agent was 
 flowing water filled with sediment. The 
 agent which accounts for the peculiar form 
 of the rock cities is the expansion due to the 
 freezing of water which has entered fissures 
 or seams in the rocks. As the rock mass 
 contracted, principally in vertical planes, the 
 seams occurred and the freezing water 
 forced the rocks apart into mighty blocks 
 and started a straight and forward move- 
 ment. Evidence of this movement is that, 
 although the fissures which separate the 
 rocks vary in width, each fissure is gener- 
 ally of the same width throughout. 
 
 Up to this point no reference has been 
 made to a most vital part — the foundation 
 of this rock. It is underlaid by a bed of 
 slate. If the slate was soft and crumbling, 
 the conglomerate blocks above it were 
 broken up, pushed off the hilltops, rolled 
 down their sides, scattered about and the 
 finer parts washed away. *'They fell and 
 great was the fall thereof." A dift'erent tale 
 — 12 — 
 
is told of the few fragments — the rock cities 
 — which remain. Their foundation was 
 hard slate forming a level bed upon which 
 the conglomerate blocks could slide under 
 the pushing force of freezing water. These 
 blocks were pushed only a few inches or 
 feet and retained their level. The reason 
 they are standing today is vouched for by 
 both Science and Scripture, "The floods 
 descended and beat upon them, and they fell 
 not, for they were founded upon a [hard] 
 rock." This was the usual occurrence. 
 Other and minor causes of the breaking up 
 of the rocks are sand driven by the wind, 
 and the wedging off of blocks by expanding 
 roots of trees. 
 
 Great trees now grow upon them, they 
 are often thickly covered with lichens, ferns 
 and fern-like moss, and over their sides 
 clamber vines. Among the notable masses 
 scattered lover this ridge are three fine 
 groups; Little Rock City on the opposite 
 side of the plateau from the "Big Rocks"; 
 Flat Iron, which commands a view of ma- 
 jestic hills and beautiful valleys and of 
 Olean spread out in its wide valley far 
 below; and the Moore group, as yet un- 
 known to the tourist, standing in quiet 
 grandeur among towering forest trees. 
 
 There are eleven of the larger groups; 
 
 New York has four all within a few miles 
 
 of the state Hne, Pennsylvania has seven at 
 
 intervals of twenty-five to fifty miles and 
 
 —13— 
 
reaching to the Ohio boundary. They are 
 proof that this stratum once existed still 
 further north, and are silent witnesses to the 
 stupendous destruction of the exposed con- 
 glomerate, of the coal above it, and of the 
 materials resting upon them. Mr. James 
 Macf arlane says : '*It is certainly difficult to 
 imagine what has become of the vast mount- 
 ains of coal and conglomerate which have 
 been removed and cast into the sea." 
 
 It would seem that the Mound Builders, 
 whose densely populated communities were 
 in this locality, and the Indian tribes who 
 came afterward must often have hunted 
 among the rocks, rested in Hunter's Cave, 
 and lighted beacons on Sentinel Rocks. 
 They may also have discovered in sultry 
 midsummer, as do the excursionists of 
 today, snow and ice in the deep gorges of 
 the rocks. 
 
 In traveling from Olean to the rocks one 
 may take the highway, which winds about 
 the wooded hills, steadily rising through the 
 narrow valley, or may go by automobile or 
 electric railway. After leaving the cars of 
 the Western New York and Pennsylvania 
 Traction Company, a short walk on the 
 plateau will find the visitors on the house- 
 tops of the city; they must enter by des- 
 cending the staircases, and unless suffi- 
 ciently slender they may be caught in "Fat 
 Man's Misery." The "Three Sisters" will 
 direct them to an easier route to "Table 
 —14— 
 
THE TOP OF THE ROCKS 
 
 THE THREE SISTERS 
 
Rock" where they may unload their lunch 
 baskets. Soon the fragrance of coffee sim- 
 mering over an open fire will mingle with 
 the sweet breath of the woods and with that 
 atmosphere of joyous freedom which dis- 
 tinguishes city-dwellers when they find 
 themselves in God's great out-of-doors. 
 
 The tourist prefers to come either when 
 this country is all aglow with gorgeous 
 autumn foliage, or when it is "knee-deep 
 in June." In that month the laurel is in 
 bloom, its exquisite pink clusters and glossy 
 evergreen leaves making a striking setting 
 for the white boulders. In sunny places the 
 flowers are rose color ; in the deeper woods 
 they are white. The fluted buds are more 
 beautiful than the blossoms. This shrub and 
 the hazel invariably indicate the presence 
 of the conglomerate rock. In ascending a 
 hill capped by conglomerate, we see laurel 
 and hazel first at the slope formed by the 
 bottom of the conglomerate. Fortunate it 
 is that the laurel grows luxuriantly at Rock 
 City, or long ago it would have been exter- 
 minated. During its season, groups of peo- 
 ple are seen every hour of the day coming 
 from the rocks, their faces almost hidden 
 by their armfuls of laurel boughs. One is 
 reminded of the army carrying boughs, 
 which was seen by the messenger to Mac- 
 beth: "As I did stand my watch upon the 
 hill, I looked toward Birnam and anon me 
 thought the wood began to move. You may 
 —15— 
 
see it coming ! I say — a moving grove/' To 
 quote only a few words from Henry Van 
 Dyke's brilliant tribute to the laurel: *'I 
 have seen the flame azaleas of Georgia, 
 * * the imperial blossoms of the rhododen- 
 drons, * * the tulip beds of Holland, * * the 
 rose gardens at Kew, * * but never have I 
 seen bloom more lovely, more satisfying to 
 the eye, than that of the high laurel." 
 
 After losing the glory of their mighty 
 pines and hemlocks and being deprived 
 of sufficient seedlings to reproduce them, 
 the mountains girded up their loins and 
 patiently labored to produce a new forest 
 of cucumber, oak, chestnut, beech, birch, 
 maple, hickory, butternut, wild apple, pin 
 cherry, and many other trees, and in addi- 
 tion, a great variety of shrubs, vines, berry 
 bushes, and blooming plants, — all so dear 
 to the heart of every lover of nature. 
 
 In the hot months there is often a thick 
 fog in the valleys, on which occasions the 
 break of day on the hill-tops is a wonderful 
 sight. A soft radiance floods the higher 
 elevations in sunshine, while the valleys ap- 
 pear to be a sea of billowy fog. The peaks 
 of the smaller hills are islands, the white 
 breakers roll upon the shores, where one 
 is sure he sees tall tapering light houses. 
 Later he realizes that they are at least doing 
 their bit to make light houses, as they prove 
 to be the derricks of the oil and gas wells. 
 There is a recreation park at Rock City; 
 —16— 
 
and along the trolley line are oil country 
 towns, summer camps, and cottages, and 
 attractive permanent homes. The altitude 
 is higher than that of Lake Placid in the 
 Adirondacks. Two sanitoriums invite the 
 health seeker to sojourn in the dry and 
 invigorating atmosphere — Rocky Crest 
 near Rock City, and Bon Air at Bells Camp 
 near Bradford. A day camp for anaemic 
 children is also near Rock City. Associated 
 with the rocks are two short stories written 
 by the late Fred Lockwood Eaton of Olean, 
 which appeared in "The Youth*s Com- 
 panion." The scenes in "Sentinel Rock" 
 are laid at Rock City, and the "Sleeping 
 Courier," published September 1, 1898, has 
 its setting at Flat Iron Rock. 
 
 -17- 
 
HISTORIC GLIMPSES OF OLEAN. 
 
 WHEN the great ice sheet came down 
 out of the north, its towering front 
 advanced no further south at this point than 
 the present location of Olean, New York. 
 It was nearly as high as the hill to the south 
 of the city, Mount Hermance, whose face 
 and that of Homer Hill to the north, were 
 ground off by the moving glacier. The 
 steep scarred faces of these hills are now 
 covered with young woods. The melting 
 glacier left its mud, sand, and boulders 
 lying all across the valley in which Olean 
 is situated. The elevation of Oak Hill Park 
 and the site of the high school building are 
 composed of portions of the debris of this 
 terminal moraine which is piled up from 
 Putnam street to Whitney avenue, to the 
 steep bluff north of Reed street, and to 
 Sullivan Hill and Seventh street. A few 
 miles up the Alleghany River are markings 
 high on the hillside indicating the location 
 of a dam made by blocks of glacial ice.* 
 This dam must have thrown a deluge of 
 water in the rear of Mount Hermance. 
 
 As we leave the glacial epoch and come 
 down to a later period of time, we find that 
 
 •Note: Olean Natural Science Society, Olean 
 Herald, April 14, 1896. 
 
 — 19 — 
 
Cattaraugus county had very extensive re- 
 mains of the earthworks, fortifications, and 
 burial mounds of pre-historic peoples.* 
 There is evidence that ancient man and the 
 elephant lived at the same period at the 
 head waters of the Alleghany River, relics 
 which seem to prove this statement having 
 been discovered in Cattaraugus County in 
 the great valley of the Conewango River. 
 Large molar teeth of the elephant have been 
 found. Near Red House valley was dis- 
 covered one of the most interesting relics 
 of the ancient inhabitants, — a flat piece of 
 copper about four by six inches in size on 
 which was engraved an elephant in harness. 
 It is considered that Olean was once 
 densely populated by the Mound Builders, 
 and that Randolph was also the site of a 
 pre-historic city. The line of the Genesee 
 Valley Canal in East Olean passed through 
 a burial mound containing human bones, 
 which upon exposure to the air, crumbled to 
 ashes. This oval mound was sixty feet 
 long, forty feet wide, and ten feet in height. 
 It is known that the mastodon was con- 
 temporary with the Mound Builders, and 
 naturally a deep interest attaches to the 
 finding of a mastodon's tooth in a swamp in 
 East Olean. This tooth is now in the pos- 
 session of Mr. J. F. Johnson of Hamilton 
 
 *N'ote: History of Cattaraugus County, 
 Adams, 1893. 
 
 —20— 
 
street, on whose land it lay buried. When 
 Europeans first visited this part of the 
 world it was occupied by tribes of Indians. 
 Although the Erie tribe was the most 
 powerful in this locality, it was exter- 
 minated by the Iroquois. The oil spring 
 near Cuba was so highly prized by the 
 Seneca tribe that it was never traded to the 
 white man. In the treaty with Robert Mor- 
 ris, the square mile of land surrounding the 
 spring, "Dripping Oil," was made a reser- 
 vation to which the Indians still retain title. 
 
 THE OLD KITTANNING ROAD. 
 
 One of the few links connecting this lo- 
 cality with the period of the War of the 
 American Revolution is the Kittanning 
 Road. One hundred and forty years ago a 
 swath was cut through the unbroken forest 
 in a southwesterly direction from Olean to 
 Kittanning on the Alleghany River, forty- 
 four miles north of Pittsburgh. The road 
 was constructed for military purposes, prob- 
 ably with the idea of providing a connection 
 by land with Pittsburgh should river com- 
 munication be cut off by the British. Kit- 
 tanning is in Armstrong County, and its 
 military defenses consisted of Fort Arm- 
 strong, built in 1779, and two block houses 
 which furnished a refuge for the settlers 
 when apprehensive of an attack by Indians. 
 At the southern end this historic highway 
 has been known as the Olean Road, while 
 —21— 
 
at the other end it was called the Kittanning 
 Road. Kittanning Avenue in South Olean 
 covers nearly the same route for some dis- 
 tance up the Wildcat Valley. 
 
 From Olean the road climbed a thousand 
 feet in its first few miles, and passing near 
 those picturesque groups of rocks — Flat 
 Iron Rock and the Olean Rock City — it 
 reached the crest of the Great Divide of the 
 Alleghany Mountains. By an air line the 
 distance between the two terminals was 
 more than one hundred miles ; but the road 
 covered a greater distance, as it followed 
 the winding course of the ridges of the con- 
 tinental divide. Near State Line, at Brad- 
 ford and other places, parts of this high- 
 way are to be seen ; and at Kane, Pennsyl- 
 vania, were found cannon, remnants of 
 fortifications, and other relics of military 
 occupation. On the table-land at Rock City 
 are the huge stumps of the pine trees which 
 were felled to make through the forest a 
 pathway for the defenders of their liberties. 
 We may picture our Revolutionary sires 
 working in the pure invigorating air of the 
 mountains as the sound of the axe and the 
 crash of falling monarchs of the forest 
 reverberated among the rocks. 
 
 The military records at Washington cov- 
 ering the history of this road were, it is 
 thought, destroyed by the British during 
 the War of 1812. There is an unconfirmed 
 
 —22— 
 
tradition that the route was laid out by Gen- 
 eral Washington. 
 
 THE FOUNDING OF OLEAN. 
 
 Oil creek, whose source is the Seneca oil 
 spring, is a tributary of a creek which was 
 given the name of Olean by Major Adam 
 Hoops. This stream by its junction with 
 the Alleghany River forms the point of 
 land selected by Hoops for a settlement 
 which he referred to as the "Mouth of 
 Olean,'* and which later was termed Olean 
 Point. Doubtless the name of Olean — from 
 the Latin oleum, meaning oil — was sug- 
 gested to the mind of the founder of Olean 
 by the neighborhood of the oil spring near 
 the village of Cuba. Major Adam Hoops 
 was a Revolutionary soldier whose nephew 
 had been a surveyor in this section and had 
 probably called his uncle's attention to its 
 advantages. Major Hoops thought that the 
 "Mouth of Olean" was destined for pros- 
 perity, that it would be the head of naviga- 
 tion on the river, and a place for the em- 
 barkation of emigrants. He bought twenty 
 thousand acres of land of the Holland Land 
 Company in 1803, came the following year, 
 and established a settlement in the midst of 
 the wilderness. Here was the "forest 
 primeval." The hills and vales of Cat- 
 taraugus county were clothed with a mag- 
 nificent white pine forest. The trees stood 
 in close ranks, the largest of them towering 
 —28— 
 
to a height of two hundred and forty feet, 
 and having a circumference of eleven feet. 
 Mr. Henry Barr, a native of Olean, told the 
 writer that when a lad he had often climbed 
 into the trees in the cemetery, (now Oak 
 Hill Park) and going from tree to tree 
 had not descended to the ground until 
 reaching Union street. At the junction of 
 creek and river where the pre-historic men 
 had their sepulchral mound, where the In- 
 dians set up their wigwams and chipped 
 their stone weapons and implements, was 
 built the first home of the white man, the 
 cabin of Robert Hoops, the brother of the 
 founder of the place. Deer and other game 
 were abundant as were also ferocious 
 beasts, compelling the pioneers to contend 
 with them for the possession of the wilder- 
 ness. At one time a bounty of sixty dollars 
 per head was paid for wolf scalps. The 
 wildcats have bequeathed their name to the 
 valley running south from Mount View 
 Cemetery. The early settlers had thrilling 
 experiences with panthers, bears and other 
 wild animals.* The young settlement was a 
 lumber mart, and grew steadily with the 
 years. In its thirtieth year there were more 
 than 300,000,000 feet of lumber rafted 
 down the river. In 1889 the last raft of 
 logs was sent down from Olean and points 
 north of it. 
 
 ♦Note: Early History of Concord, Brig-^s. 
 
 —24— 
 
Emigrants who had heard the call of 
 "Westward Ho!" came overland to Olean 
 Point. This was the starting place for the 
 West for emigrants from the East. There 
 was on the banks of the river every year a 
 great encampment of an emigrant army 
 awaiting the breaking up of the ice in the 
 river. During one springtime two thousand 
 people waited here for the river to reach its 
 flood stage, that they might make their way 
 in flat-bottomed boats or on rafts of lum- 
 ber to Pittsburgh, and from thence to more 
 western points. We can picture the excite- 
 ment caused by this influx of a transient 
 population crowding into the village, being 
 taken into the homes of the residents, camp- 
 ing in tents or rude shanties, or patronizing 
 the tavern kept by Jehiel Boardman. By 
 this route came General Putnam and com- 
 panions from Massachusetts; they were the 
 pioneers of Marietta, the first settlement in 
 Ohio. It then seemed probable that Major 
 Hoops' expectations as to Olean's future 
 were to be realized. A more advantageous 
 route for emigration, however, was fur- 
 nished by the opening of the Erie Canal in 
 1825. Congress ordered a survey made by 
 Major George W. Hughes in 1837, who re- 
 ported that the steamboat Newcastle had 
 ascended without difficulty from Pittsburgh 
 to Olean, and could *'even under present 
 circumstances make regular trips between 
 these places." But the Erie Canal had 
 —25— 
 
changed the direction of trade and emigra- 
 tion, and nothing further was done by gov- 
 ernment or individuals for the navigation of 
 the Alleghany River as far as Olean. To 
 connect this part of the state with the Erie 
 Canal, the Genesee Valley Canal was cut 
 through from Lake Ontario; the work hav- 
 ing been begun in 1836, was completed 
 twenty years later. The canal extended 
 through Olean and seven miles beyond, ter- 
 minating at Millport. In connection with 
 the subject of river navigation, it is en- 
 couraging that in the year 1919 Olean was 
 visited by men from Pittsburgh with a view 
 (to the reestablishment of such an enterprise, 
 by the building of dams to provide slack 
 water. Let us hope that the vision of Adam 
 Hoops in the early years of the past century 
 may yet be realized and that our river 
 banks may be lined with docks and manu- 
 facturing plants made possible by water 
 navigation. 
 
 At this period the stage roads afforded a 
 slow method of travel. One is impressed 
 with the vital relation between a community 
 and its transportation facilities by reading 
 the statement that the most important event 
 in the history of Olean was the completion 
 in 1851 of an iron road — the Erie railroad. 
 Yet, owing to lack of co-operation between 
 the road builders and the land owners, the 
 railroad station was placed a mile and a 
 quarter from the village. Mention must be 
 —26— 
 
made of another railroad which was not on 
 the authorized maps. There was a station 
 at Olean of the "underground railroad" 
 which was in operation previous to the Civil 
 War. At this station, fathered by Lambert 
 Whitney, a "Doctor of the Old School," 
 runaway negro slaves who were fleeing to 
 Canada were cared for as they passed 
 through, and given directions for their next 
 stopping place. Their flight was at night 
 and they followed the North Star. Aunt 
 Sarah Johnson when a young girl was the 
 first escaped slave to locate here per- 
 manently.* 
 
 Adam Hoops donated land for the 
 schools, the park (Lincoln) and the ceme- 
 tery, (Oak Hill Park.) In mapping out the 
 town, he planned a patriotic memorial. He 
 gave the central thoroughfares the names of 
 Union, State, North and South, and to the 
 others the names of Revolutionary patriots : 
 Washington, Hamilton, Laurens, Putnam, 
 Henle}^ Irving, Green, Sullivan, Wayne, 
 Jay, Tompkins, Barry, Clinton and Fulton. 
 Possibly Reed and Coleman were among 
 the original names. 
 
 A CENTURY PASSED. 
 
 In 1904, a boulder of conglomerate 
 brought from the near-by hills was placed 
 in Lincoln Park by the Olean Chapter, 
 
 *Note: Sarah Johnson's story, "North to 
 Freedom," in High School Congress, November, 
 1901. 
 
 —27— 
 
Daughters of the American Revolution. At 
 the centennial anniversary of the city, this 
 monument was dedicated with elaborate and 
 appropriate ceremonies to the memory of 
 Major Hoops and to every Revolutionary 
 soldier in the county. 
 
 "And the rocks shall raise their heads 
 Of the patriots' deeds to tell." 
 
 Olean is in Cattaraugus County, seventy- 
 one miles southeast of Buffalo, and is lo- 
 cated on the Erie, the Pennsylvania, and the 
 Pittsburgh, Shawmut and Northern rail- 
 roads. The Western New York and Penn- 
 sylvania Traction 'Company operates the 
 city trolley systems of Olean, Bradford and 
 Salamanca, and also has lines radiating to 
 the outlying towns. Banking facilities are 
 secured through the First National Bank, 
 the Exchange National Bank and the Olean 
 Trust Company. The lumber, oil, tanning 
 and railroad industries combined with the 
 use of natural gas and excellent transporta- 
 tion facilities have been the chief factors in 
 the development of the city. The two car 
 shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 
 pany employ a large number of men, and 
 are of great importance to the business in- 
 terests of the city. Olean is noted for its 
 oil, leather and chemical plant interests. It 
 is the terminal for several crude oil pipe 
 lines, and has an oil tank farm of over one 
 hundred acres in extent. The capacity of 
 —28— 
 
each tank is thirty-five thousand barrels. 
 From 1884 until the present time, the 
 Standard Oil Company has maintained this 
 storage place for crude petroleum in con- 
 nection with its extensive refineries. The 
 Vacuum Oil Company does an enormous 
 business in oil and its by-products. In ad- 
 dition to the above industrial establish- 
 ments, there are tanneries, planing mills, 
 carriage and wagon works, foundries, ice 
 plants, brickyards, machine shops, tile and 
 cutlery works. There is an electric light 
 and power company, a glass factory, silk 
 mill, hydraulic cider and vinegar plant, bean 
 and canning companies and a box factory. 
 
 The commercial houses are remarkably 
 well equipped for wholesale and retail trade 
 and have an extensive patronage from the 
 surrounding towns, farm and oil producing 
 districts. Affiliated with the Trade and 
 Labor Council are many strong labor 
 unions. 
 
 The churches number twenty-two; there 
 are Young Men's Christian Association and 
 Knights of Columbus buildings, the Olean 
 Public Library, Higgins Memorial Hospital 
 and Nurses' Home, the Clinic, a state 
 armory, high school and nine grade school 
 buildings, St. Mary's parochial school and 
 convent, the parochial school of the Trans- 
 figuration, and Westbrooks Commercial 
 College. St. Bonaventure's College and St. 
 Elizabeth's Convent are at Alleghany, two 
 —29— 
 
miles west of the city. The parks include 
 Oak Hill, Lincoln, several small breathing 
 places, and an important addition to its 
 park lands made by the city in 1918-1919. 
 The Chamber of Commerce inaugurated 
 and pushed to completion a flood abatement 
 project at an expenditure of $350,000, the 
 expense being shared equally by the state 
 and the municipality. Without a loss of 
 waterways, fifty acres of park lands and 
 several miles of boulevards have been added 
 to the city. The Chamber of Commerce has 
 been instrumental in bringing many manu- 
 facturing plants to the city. The Business 
 Men's Association is another strong factor 
 in promoting business interests. Conspicu- 
 ous organizations are the City and the Ham- 
 ilton Country clubs, the Elks, the Moose, and 
 several strong Masonic orders. The Even- 
 ing Herald and The Evening Times are 
 fine newspapers, both having daily tele- 
 graphic news service. There are attractive 
 theatres and motion picture houses. In ad- 
 dition to many organizations, religious and 
 fraternal, which are doing welfare work, 
 may be mentioned the Red Cross, Anti-Tu- 
 berculosis, Visiting Nurse, Infant Welfare, 
 Womans Christian Temperance Union, 
 Woman's Civic Club, Daughters of the 
 American Revolution, City Relief, Chil- 
 dren's Aid, and Single Tax League. Vacant 
 Lot Garden cultivation was in operation in 
 1911-1913, and in 1917-1919, the Chamber 
 
 —30— 
 
of Commerce conducted War Gardens on a 
 large scale. In 1918 the Land Army of 
 America was organized. 
 
 Further interesting facts regarding Olean 
 are as follows: a city charter was granted 
 in 1893; its fire department is motorized; 
 the gravity system of water works is owned 
 and operated by the city; a filtration plant 
 has been installed in North Olean; the cen- 
 sus of 1915 showed a population of 17,925 ; 
 the slogan of the Chamber of Commerce is, 
 Olean Offers Opportunities This last at- 
 tractive statement suggests a reminiscence 
 of forty years ago, when Bradford and 
 Olean were friendly rivals in bidding for 
 the influx of population brought by the 
 near-by oil developments. Each city in- 
 sisted that it had a greater number of nat- 
 ural advantages. Regarding the extra- 
 ordinary natural resources dwelt upon 
 in the introduction to the sketch of Brad- 
 ford given in this booklet, the story may 
 be read as equally applicable to the history 
 of Olean. These two progressive young 
 cities, so well endowed with natural advan- 
 tages, may well emulate one another, as at 
 present, in showing which may offer the 
 more acquired advantages.* 
 
 •Note: Sec Appendix. 
 
 —31— 
 
HISTORIC GLIMPSES OF BRAD- 
 FORD. PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 IT is indeed amazing to consider the fabu- 
 lous wealth represented in the natural re- 
 sources which were placed at the disposal 
 of man in the land at the head waters of the 
 Alleghany river. The most lavish gifts 
 have there been found in the great store- 
 house of Mother Earth. In 1839, one of 
 the first geologists to visit this part of the 
 country reported as follows : "The valleys 
 of the Alleghany and its tributaries are dis- 
 tinguished for their magnificent forests of 
 white pine. Probably no region in any of 
 the states was originally covered with an 
 equal amount of valuable timber." As the 
 years have passed it has been realized that 
 the world has never seen the like of these 
 stately white pine forests, which furnished 
 timber superior even to that of Washington 
 or of "the woods where rolls the Oregon." 
 For years mighty rafts of lumber were 
 taken down the river and used in 
 building operations in all the states border- 
 ing the Alleghany, the Ohio, and Mississippi 
 rivers. Rafting continued for more than 
 two generations and yet untold wealth in 
 timber lands remains. The forests yielded 
 and continued to yield of their treasures for 
 manufacturing purposes, for the tanning of 
 —83— . 
 
leather, and for the production of wood al- 
 cohol, acids, and alkalies. 
 
 In the forests were countless numbers of 
 wild creatures in furs and in feathers. The 
 hunting and trapping of fur-bearing animals 
 has been for more than a century a bus- 
 iness of great importance. Regarding the 
 birds, one instance must suffice. Year after 
 year the flocks of wild pigeons came to their 
 breeding places on the river in such vast 
 numbers that for days the sky was darkened 
 as with heavy clouds. By brutal and indis- 
 criminate slaughter the species has been 
 nearly exterminated.* The streams were 
 filled with an abundant supply of the choic- 
 est fish. The hills gave of their rocky 
 treasures and of materials for brick, mortar, 
 and glass. The earth's crust was pierced, 
 and there was found a subterranean ocean 
 of petroleum, 800,000,000 barrels of which 
 have already been brought to the surface, 
 founding an industry which has produced a 
 new era in the world's history. With its 
 marvelous by-products, petroleum comprises 
 wealth almost beyond our comprehension. 
 Later came the utiHzation of gasoline, of 
 natural gas, and from it more gasoline. In 
 this richly endowed portion of the globe 
 there was also not lacking the fertile soil 
 necessary to the production of food, cloth- 
 ing, and the raising of livestock. 
 
 •See Birds of New York by Elon Howard 
 Eaton. 
 
 —34— 
 
To the frontier physician, Dr. Bennett, 
 belongs the distinction of making in 1828, 
 the first home in the future city of Brad- 
 ford. He practiced his profession in the 
 himber camps and valley settlements. In 
 1837 the United States Land Company 
 owned a quarter of a million of acres of 
 timber lands in this vicinity. Representing 
 the company, Colonel L. C. Little estab- 
 lished a hamlet named Littleton on the 
 Tunungwant or Crooked Creek, and lum- 
 bering became the great business for many 
 years. In 1858 Littleton adopted the name 
 of Bradford, the reason therefor not being 
 clear; possibly the place was named in 
 honor of William Bradford, attorney gen- 
 eral for Pennsylvania, and also a member 
 of Washington's cabinet. In August, 1871, 
 the Barnsdall, the Independent and the 
 Salem oil companies were organized in 
 Bradford for the purpose of drilling for oil 
 in the vicinity of the village. The first oil 
 well was completed in 1874, and within two 
 years there were four thousand producing 
 wells on Tunungwant Creek, which became 
 famous as the center of the Bradford Oil 
 District, one of the greatest oil producing 
 regions of the world.* Manufacturers fol- 
 lowed the oil producer, Bradford grew rap- 
 idly in size and commercial importance, and 
 was granted a city charter in 1879. 
 
 *Note: "Bradford Oil District," in this volume. 
 —35— 
 
Bradford is in McKean County, Penn- 
 sylvania, seventy-eight miles southeast of 
 Buffalo, on the Erie, the Pennsylvania, and 
 the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh rail- 
 roads. It also has service from the West- 
 em, New York and Pennsylvania Traction 
 Company. Kinzua Bridge, fourteen miles 
 distant, is three hundred feet high, twenty- 
 one hundred feet long, and spams a wooded 
 valley. 
 
 Noteworthy features of the city are its 
 twenty-six churches, high school, and five 
 ward school buildings. St. Bernard's 
 parochial school. Young Men's Christian 
 Association, Knights of Columbus, Young 
 Women's Christian League, the Northwest- 
 ern Anti-Tuberculosis League, the Carnegie 
 Public Library, the ^Historical, the Red 
 Cross, and the Humane societies. A visit- 
 ing nurse is supported by the Visiting Nurse 
 Association. The city has reason for espe- 
 cial pride in its progressive public market, 
 in its completely motorized fire department, 
 in its hospital having one hundred and 
 eighteen beds, and the English cottage plan, 
 and in the new Hamsher home for nurses. 
 Other notable organizations are the Brad- 
 ford and the Country clubs, the Elks and 
 the Moose, the Masonic orders, the 
 Woman's Literary Club, the Business Men's 
 Association, and the Board of Commerce. 
 Play grounds and juvenile garden work 
 with paid supervision were inaugurated by 
 —36— 
 
the Board of Commerce and taken over and 
 carried on by the Board of Education. The 
 labor unions have large and strong organ- 
 izations. The banks are the Bradford Na- 
 tional Bank, the First National Bank, and a 
 third the name of which is not available at 
 this writing. The newspapers are: The 
 Bra, The Star-Record, and The Sunday 
 Herald. A beautiful theatre and three mov- 
 ing picture houses supply the histrionic 
 needs. 
 
 The progressive spirit of the people was 
 indicated by the adoption of the commission 
 form of government by act approved in 
 1913. The reservoir and water works are 
 owned by the city, the gravity system hav- 
 ing been established largely through the ef- 
 forts of Rufus B, Stone. Exceedingly for- 
 tunate was the city in having forward look- 
 ing citizens in the preceding generation, by 
 whose foresight and wisdom the community 
 was induced to purchase twelve thousand 
 acres of water-shed. Peter T. Kennedy 
 was one of the principal agitators for the 
 acquisition of the watershed. The city now 
 has excellent water at a very low rate and 
 a large balance to the credit of the water 
 department which can be used for municipal 
 improvements. 
 
 Bradford has a large trade in oil, wood 
 acid, alkalies and gasoline, extensive manu- 
 factures of oil-well tools, building and pav- 
 ing brick, tile, silks, boilers, gas engines, air 
 —37— 
 
compressors, brushes, carbon brushes, and 
 cutlery. Nearly every one in the commun- 
 ity is interested financially in oil. The city 
 contains many handsome residences and is 
 very compactly built. Natural gas is largely 
 used for fuel and lighting, and there is an 
 electric light and power plant. With the 
 operation of the new water drive method 
 for increasing the output of oil, which, it 
 is estimated will make the oil field product- 
 ive for probably fifty years longer, certainly 
 the commercial future of Bradford looks 
 bright. The census of 1916 estimated the 
 population as 15,800. 
 
 -38- 
 
THE BRADFORD OIL DISTRICT. 
 
 AS an approach to the consideration of 
 one of the oil regions of the world, it 
 may be of interest to refer to a few in- 
 stances of the use of petroleum in some of 
 its forms by men from the earliest times.* 
 The *'slime," mentioned in the construction 
 of the Tower of Babel over four thousand 
 years ago, was doubtless partially evapor- 
 ated petroleum. It is believed that the pitch 
 with which Noah covered the Ark two hun- 
 dred and fifty years earlier, was a similar 
 product. Bitumen was used in the walls of 
 Nineveh and Babylon, and the same sub- 
 stance taken from the Dead Sea was sold 
 to the Eg}^ptians for embalming purposes. 
 In China natural gas was transported from 
 place to place in bamboo pipes, and in 
 Genoa, Italy, gas was used for illumination. 
 Pliny records that rock oil was burned in 
 the lamps of the Temple of Jupiter in the 
 year 1 A. D. For twenty-five centuries the 
 oil and gas springs about the Caspian Sea 
 were used as holy fires. There is httle 
 doubt that petroleum was known by the 
 aborigines on this continent centuries be- 
 fore the advent of the white man. 
 
 At Pithole, and on Oil Creek as it enters 
 the Alleghany River one hundred miles 
 
 ♦Note: Acknowledgment is due the Derrick's 
 Handbook of Petroleum. 
 
 —39— 
 
north of Pittsburgh, ancient pits built of 
 logs have been found, which were evidently 
 made for the storage of oil. They cover 
 hundreds of acres of land, and are seen in 
 places where oil is found near the surface 
 and not in any other places. The Indians 
 were ignorant of their origin. 
 
 The earliest mention of petroleum in the 
 United States dates back to 1627 when the 
 oil spring at Cuba, N. Y., was described by 
 a French missionary. In 1670, in a map 
 made by missionaries, this same "fountain 
 of oil" was located. In 1721 a traveler 
 tells of a journey up the Genesee River and 
 thence by land to the Alleghany River, then 
 called the Ohio. Of the spring at Cuba, he 
 said : "The savages use the oil to appease all 
 manner of pains." In 1833, Professor Silli- 
 man of Yale College, visited the place and 
 wrote an account of it, saying in part, "The 
 oil is skimmed like cream from a milk pan, 
 a flat board being used. It is cleaned by 
 heating and straining through woolen cloth. 
 However, most of the so-called Seneca 
 Oil is from Oil Creek, Pennsylvania." 
 There was also a notable oil spring at 
 Freedom in Cattaraugus County, N. Y. In 
 1767 and 1789 Moravian Missionaries in 
 Pennsylvania thus described the methods of 
 collecting oil. "The Indians skim off the 
 thick oil and throw it away, then stir the 
 water, fill their kettles and purify the oil by 
 boiling away the water. Sometimes they 
 —40— 
 
make a little dam, and dip in a woolen 
 blanket, quickly removing and wringing 
 it. It absorbs the oil and spurns the water." 
 This oil was sold to the white man for four 
 guineas a quart. 
 
 From 1808 to 1815, in the drilling of shal- 
 low wells for salt and brine, petroleum was 
 often struck, which was looked upon as a 
 misfortune as it ruined the salt wells. About 
 1850 Samuel M. Kier of Pittsburgh, had 
 been selling the oil from his salt wells for 
 fifty cents a half pint bottle. He was quite 
 modern in his clever advertising. A circu- 
 lar in the shape of a bank note explained 
 that "Kier's Petroleum'* was a "Natural 
 Remedy procured from a well 400 feet be- 
 low the Earth's surface." This circular 
 coming to the notice of two young men sug- 
 gested to them the idea of drilling for oil. 
 In 1859 E. L. Drake, a New England 
 Yankee, drilled near Titusville, the first 
 wild cat well in the Pennsylvania oil re- 
 gions. He was handicapped by lack of men 
 who understood drilling and by the ineffi- 
 ciency of the tools then in use. Hearing of 
 William A. Smith, he engaged him to do the 
 work. "Fate tried to conceal him by nam- 
 ing him Smith," but his inventive genius 
 joined with the ingenuity and superb faith 
 of Drake made this historic well possible. 
 Samuel B. Smith of Titusville, Pennsyl- 
 vania, is the only man now living who 
 helped to drill the well, and the following 
 —41 — 
 
is in brief his story. My father, William 
 A. Smith of Tarentum, was a blacksmith. 
 When the drillers of the salt wells lost 
 their tools in the hole, my father had suc- 
 cess in devising and making apparatus that 
 would bring up the lost tools. These were 
 the first "fishing" tools made. In working 
 about the salt wells he acquired a good idea 
 of the principles used in drilling, so that 
 when Colonel Drake was ready to drill his 
 oil well, he came after my father to do it. 
 Father made the temper screw used on that 
 well, not very different from the ones used 
 nowadays. Oil was struck at sixty-nine 
 feet and flowed three hundred and fifty 
 barrels a day. William A. Smith has des- 
 cendants living in Bradford and in Chip- 
 monk. Drake had the faith to drill through 
 the rocks in the face of ridicule and scorn. 
 When he struck oil in the submerged De- 
 vonian strata, the industrial world entered 
 upon a new era furnished with fuel, light, 
 and tremendous power which had been 
 stored in by-gone ages. 
 
 THE DRAKE MEMORIAL 
 ASSOCIATION. 
 
 A Drake Memorial Association, which 
 meets annually, has been formed with E. C. 
 Bell of Titusville, as secretary. He is also 
 the collector and curator of a complete mus- 
 eum of documents, tools, and other histor- 
 ical relics of the early days of the oil de- 
 — 42— 
 
velopment. Fifty years were spent in mak- 
 ing the collection. 
 
 In 1871 Job Moses was successful in find- 
 ing oil at Limestone, New York, in the same 
 year drilling began on Tunungwant Creek 
 near Bradford, in 1874 the first well was 
 completed, and the famous Bradford Oil 
 District was an established fact. The de- 
 velopments in Alleghany County, New 
 York are included in the Bradford District, 
 which is classed with the Appalachian 
 Field. The latter extends from New York 
 to Tennessee and has a width of one hun- 
 dred and fifty miles. The wells in this field 
 range in depth from a few hundred, to four 
 thousand feet. In the Bradford District 
 the oil bearing sand is found at a depth of 
 from thirteen hundred to eighteen hundred 
 feet, and is so regular and constant that if 
 wells were drilled at random, the number 
 of dry hole? which would be obtained would 
 hardly exceed two in every one hundred. 
 This estimate was made in 1916, and since 
 then the high price paid for oil has greatly 
 stimulated drilling in previously developed 
 territory. The Bradford sand is thirty-five 
 feet in thickness and remarkably long-lived. 
 There has been no sand like it in the length 
 of time it has continued to produce, wells 
 drilled forty years ago are still producing 
 oil in paying quantities. Oil sands are con- 
 sidered to be reservoirs or sponges which 
 serve to hold oil. A fair average is given 
 —43— 
 
in 1918 of the production for the entire 
 Bradford District as a quarter of a barrel 
 per well per day. Economy in pumping the 
 smaller wells is secured through using an 
 ingenius system of compressors and jerk 
 lines. The compressor, a central power sta- 
 tion, is connected with a large number of 
 wells by the jerk line, which consists of a 
 series of connecting rods, supported on tri- 
 pods. The rods are jerked backward and 
 forward by the compressor, thus pumping 
 the wells. The general effect is that of rail 
 fences extending across hills amd valleys. 
 The flowing wells are those in which the 
 pressure of the natural gas forces up the 
 petroleum; in the pumping wells the gas is 
 weak or exhausted. 
 
 It was estimated by the government in 
 1918 that 85 per cent of the recoverable oil 
 in the Bradford District had been exhaust- 
 ed. The opinion of the operators in the 
 district is quite different. They consider 
 that 50 per cent of it is still in the ground 
 and they are going after it. One of the 
 new methods employed to increase produc- 
 tion is the flooding or water drive method. 
 This flood production has rejuvenated the 
 field ; it is claimed that it will make it good 
 for at least fifty years longer. The meth- 
 od is to clean out an existing oil well and 
 flood it with water. The great water pres- 
 sure gradually drives the oil before it in a 
 constantly enlarging circumference. The 
 —44— 
 
radial travel is about seven feet per an- 
 num. The water backs the oil up in front 
 of it, and the idea is to drill into this bank 
 of accumulated oil. It follows that this 
 method of production compells the pro- 
 ducer to drill frequently and closely and in 
 an ever increasing circle. By this method 
 the producer claims to be able to get prac- 
 tically all of the oil in the ground. 
 
 The oils of the Appalachian Field are in 
 the main of a high grade paraffine base, free 
 from asphalt and objectionable sulphur, and 
 when refined, yield superior gasoline and 
 illuminating oil. 
 
 The following figures are all approxi- 
 mate. They were compiled in 1918 and I 
 have condensed them from many pages of 
 government reports. 
 
 The total yield of petroleum in the Brad- 
 ford District in the sixty years of its exist- 
 ence has been 788,500,000 barrels. In 1891 
 the peak of production was reached, 
 amounting to 33,000,000 barrels. 
 
 Of the world's total yield of 6,500,000,000 
 barrels, two-thirds has been produced by 
 the United States. Of the United States' 
 yield of 4,000,000,000 barrels, nearly one- 
 third has been produced by the Appalachian 
 Field. Of the Appalachian's Field's yield 
 of 1,317,000,000 barrels, more than one- 
 half has been produced by the Bradford 
 District. The approximate value of the to- 
 tal production of the Appalachian Field, 
 —45— 
 
estimated as sold at the wells is $1,682,000,- 
 000. The value of the natural gas produced 
 in the eighteen years ending in 1916 was 
 $352,133,000, and the value of gasoline pro- 
 duced from natural gas was $1,726,000. 
 
 With regard to the importance of the 
 petroleum industry, J. D. Northrup writes 
 as follows: "PecuHar interest attaches to 
 the production of petroleum in Pennsylva- 
 nia as a consequence of the fact that the 
 petroleum industry of the United States had 
 its inception in this state, and of the further 
 fact that its first oil pools are still contrib- 
 uting to the oil supply of the country. Since 
 the discovery of these pools, the United 
 States has maintained supremacy in the pe- 
 troleum industry of the entire world. The 
 United States produces, refines, and mar- 
 kets two-thirds of the world's current sup- 
 ply of petroleum. Such a condition is of 
 vast importance in time of peace, but takes 
 on an interest that becomes world-wide and 
 vital when the relation of petroleum to the 
 conduct of modem warfare is fully appre- 
 ciated." 
 
 Tracing the development of the petrole- 
 um industry from the time Colonel Drake's 
 well came in down to the present day, we 
 learn of the origpin of the refining processes 
 through the researches of James Young in 
 England in 1850, of the invention of the 
 kerosene lamp by Samuel Kier in Pitts- 
 burgh in 1852, and the consequent revolu- 
 
 — 46— 
 
tion brought about in the illumination of 
 homes, work shops, and streets, of the de- 
 velopment of the gasoline motor, and the 
 culmination of the services of petroleum in 
 making possible the winning of the war by 
 the Allies. 
 
 We may well inquire as to what science 
 has learned of the process of the manufac- 
 ture of such valuable materials in the labor- 
 atory of the earth. A recent number of Cur- 
 rent Events says: Geologists disagree as to 
 the origin of petroleum. The majority of 
 those who have written on the subject ap- 
 pear to believe that the oil is of animal and 
 vegetable origin. It is conjectured to be 
 mainly the fat of fishes, reptiles and ani- 
 mals that lived and died ages ago. Oil- 
 bearing plants or seeds may have contribut- 
 ed to the total supply. The whole subject 
 is wrapped in mystery. 
 
 The theory of those who believe that pe- 
 troleum is largely from vegetable remains 
 is here given. In the storehouse of nature 
 it took inconceivably long ages of time to 
 manufacture the coal, petroleum, natural 
 gas and other carbonaceous products. They 
 are largely vegetable remains, having been 
 subjected to pressure of materials above 
 them, which pressure caused heat sufficient 
 for distillation. The petroleum is believed 
 to have been formed from marine plants 
 as coal was derived from land plants. The 
 basin for the reception and preservation of 
 —47— 
 
coal is underneath it — the hard conglomer- 
 ate rock; the basin for the pool of oil is 
 above it — an impervious rock or bed of clay 
 over it is a necessary condition, as the oil 
 rises on water and from gas pressure. When 
 the drill pierces the hard cap of rock over- 
 laying the pool, the oil is often forced up 
 by the tremendous pressure of natural gas. 
 
 NATURAL GAS AND GASOLINE. 
 
 New York has the distinction of being 
 the first state to recognize the utility of 
 inatural gas and to make use of it for fuel 
 and illumination. In 1821 gas was first 
 obtained from a well one and a half inches 
 in diameter and twenty-seven feet in depth, 
 put down in Fredonia, Chautauqua county, 
 and was used for heat and light at that time. 
 The hotel was illuminated by it when Gen- 
 eral Lafayette visited Fredonia. However, 
 the development of the natural gas industry 
 has taken place for the most part in the 
 past eighteen years. The value of the an- 
 nual production of natural gas in New York 
 state is in excess of $2,000,000. It is pro- 
 duced in sixteen counties, the number of 
 wells in 1916 being 2,068. The average 
 house uses 25,000 cubic feet of gas per 
 month. 
 
 The gas fields of Pennsylvania are es- 
 sentially coincident with its oil fields. They 
 are distributed over twenty-three counties. 
 The principal gas sands number more than 
 —48— 
 
a score. The value of gas produced in the 
 eighteen years from 1898 to 1916 was, in 
 Pennsylvania $329,039,369, in New York 
 $23,094,169, a total of $352,133,538. 
 
 The market value of natural gas commer- 
 cially utilized in the entire United States in 
 the year 1916 was $120,227,468. 
 
 There is a steady decline in both produc- 
 tion and pressure. At the end of 1916 there 
 were 13,917 gas wells in service in Penn- 
 sylvania, exclusive of a great number of 
 other wells which produce both gas and oil. 
 Gas obtained from oil wells is called casing- 
 head gas, or wet gas. This gas also con- 
 tains gasoline vapor. It was formerly al- 
 lowed to waste in large quantities. For 
 many years throughout the oil country, the 
 enormous flames of gas burned night and 
 day. The removal of the gasoline from the 
 gas leaves a drier gas, with little loss of fuel 
 value. Beginning with 1919 gas well pres- 
 sure records are to be kept. 
 
 The gasoline produced from natural gas 
 in Pennsylvania in 1916 was valued at the 
 195 plants at $1,726,000. In New York 
 there were in 1916 two plants in Alleghany 
 county, and three in Cattaraugus county. 
 This industry represents true conservation 
 in that it has brought about the saving of 
 oil-well gas that was formerly wasted be- 
 cause the volume obtainable from individual 
 wells was not sufficient to warrant the ex- 
 pense of collecting and piping it to market. 
 —49— 
 
There has been also a gain in the quality 
 and heating power of the gas from which 
 the gasoline has been taken, and the gasoline 
 is made available for the ever increasing 
 demand for motor fuel. 
 
 —50— 
 

 
 6^ 
 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A SUGGESTION FOR A MUNICIPAL GROVE 
 OF FRUIT AND NUT-BEARING TREES. 
 
 One of the ancient villages of Europe 
 has had a community forest in successful 
 operation for five hundred years, the rev- 
 enue from it paying the expenses of gov- 
 ernment, thus relieving the villagers of all 
 taxes. Our foresters point out that France 
 could not have resisted the German inva- 
 sion without her carefully tended forests. 
 In horticulture this country can learn much 
 from the older communities. As we look 
 upon the hills about Bradford and Olean, we 
 know that students of forestry advocate 
 their reafforestation, which, aside from the 
 added commercial value, would be health- 
 giving to the community and also furnish 
 an asset of picturesque beauty. 
 
 The plan herein outlined in a tentative 
 way is, however, for a community fruit and 
 nut grove. As to its feasibility, I ques- 
 tioned a Rochester nurseryman of national 
 reputation and a well-known civic worker 
 of Bradford. The former, replying to var- 
 ious questions, said that with proper co- 
 operation and management such a grove 
 would be self-supporting in a few years; 
 fruit and nut trees would thrive on level 
 and slightly sloping ground ; steeper hillside 
 —51—- 
 
could be utilized for berry bushes, grape 
 vines, and the keeping of beesA^ Some of 
 the expenses of spraying and caring for the 
 trees while coming into bearing could be 
 met from the sale of honey; the bees also 
 giving service in the fertilization of the tree 
 blossoms. The civic worker gave the follow- 
 ing opinion: *'With competent municipal 
 supervision, a community fruit and nut 
 grove should be feasible, more successful 
 perhaps than such an enterprise in or near 
 a city under private ownership, because bet- 
 ter guarded. I have long looked forward 
 to the time when the Great Level should 
 become an immense grove of nut-bearing 
 trees, and I think public attention cannot be 
 too strongly directed that way." 
 
 As our municipalities might hesitate at 
 the present time to incur the expense of 
 buying land, planting and fencing a grove, 
 its establishment would probably depend 
 on civic organizations, or on the gift of 
 public-spirited citizens. Such a grove 
 could be a memorial, its name and those of 
 its donors being registered with the Amer- 
 ican Forestry Association. 
 
 Let the mind picture the beauty of an 
 orchard of ''trees pleasant to the sight and 
 good for food," friendly trees clapping their 
 hands with joy, scattering abroad the de- 
 licious fragrance of their blossoms, and at 
 the harvest time laden with richly colored 
 fruit. Dwell for a mom.ent upon the great 
 
 
 
variety of fruit trees, especially of that royal 
 fruit, the apple; and as to nut trees, there 
 are the chestnuts, walnuts, hickory and 
 beechnuts, butternuts and hazel-nuts. There 
 could be berry bushes, and there should be 
 long hedges of the elderberry, and trellises 
 of grape vines. The people of the country 
 districts are able to supply themselves with 
 elderberries for winter use, but city 
 dwellers cannot get an abundance of this 
 valuable fruit, which requires little sugar 
 to combine it with apples, grapes and with 
 many fruit juices. 
 
 Some cities now employ a forester to 
 look after their ornamental trees. Perhaps 
 such an official, understanding orchard and 
 bee culture, could have charge of the grove, 
 and live on the place. In the winter time, 
 he might render much needed leadership 
 in organizing volunteers to go into the 
 woods during heavy snowfalls to feed our 
 feathered friends. The forester might be 
 assisted in his orchard work by volunteer 
 groups of citizens or of supervised school 
 children. An educational campaign is now 
 starting at Cambridge, Massachusetts, to 
 teach children how to raise bees and make 
 a profit. The student's hives are kept in 
 city back yards. Each swarm of Italian 
 bees will produce an average of one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five pounds of honey, 
 which now sells at forty-five cents a pound. 
 —53— 
 
The Italian bees produce the most honey 
 with the least sting. 
 
 As to the profit in fruit raising, we read 
 that the largest apple orchard in the world, 
 owned by A. R. Clay of White Hall, Illi- 
 nois, covers 1,300 acres, and that the 
 acreage is being increased. One can for- 
 see that at times the ground would be car- 
 peted with fruit and nuts, and that under 
 necessary regulations groups of children 
 could be admitted. After the choicest 
 produce had been sold to provide for self- 
 support, there would remain an abundance 
 of the less desirable which citizens could 
 gather for their own use. Persons could 
 work in the grove, ' receiving credit for 
 hours worked ,and use their credits for 
 buying produce. 
 
 When the orchard shows a profit, var- 
 ious ways will suggest themselves to the 
 mind as to a fair distribution to the com- 
 munity. The profit might be used to pay 
 the salary of a recreational secretary, or 
 for other welfare work; the tax budget 
 might be reduced; or it could be applied, 
 as is now done with the surplus in the 
 water department of the city of Bradford, 
 in making municipal improvements. 
 
 ■54— 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS