Appreciation to Richard F. Palmer, gifted writer and newspaper man, for volunteer work for this website research.  Thanks for the hours you spend gleaning the old newspapers for these tidbits of time which would otherwise be lost! /rt

 

Researched by Dick Palmer/Transcribed by Ron Taylor

 

Wellsville Daily Reporter

April 28, 1881

RICHBURG WELL

 

The Work of the Torpedo Yesterday

 

It is Certain to be a Good Well.

 

        The Richburg well was torpedoed on time yesterday in the presence of a large number of people.  The strike had awakened a keen interest among a class of citizens and land owners who, up to within a few weeks, little suspected they were liable to become millionaires and get completely covered with grease and glory.

        About twenty minutes after the shot the well reported for business, and put three or four inches into the tank in short order.  One flow was lost while bailing.

        At six o’clock, or seven hours after the shot, the well had done fully forty barrels, and it would not be surprising if it should score well up to a hundred barrels the first twenty-four hours.

        The judgment of cool-headed observers unite in placing the well at a safe ten barreler, and very likely to prove even better than that.

        The work of torpedoing was performed by O. P. Taylor, one of the owners.  Efforts were made to delay his operations, evidently to improve the opportunity to secure lands or leases.  Such efforts were not, however, successful.

        Bang!! Went the torpedo “on time” and then the farmers had some proof of the value of their lands!  It is lucky for them that the irrepressible O. P. was “pushing things.”

        The reader can only faintly imagine the excitement which followed and which still attends this new development.  It opens up a new field, or rather extends the first one almost indefinitely.  It destroys all beit theories, and proves the Wellsville field a broad, irregular and reasonably productive one, which will not only invite active operation, but will tempt wildcat ventures from Burns and Andover on the north and east to Olean and Eldred on the west and south.

        But best of all the immediate benefits is that derived to the towns of Wirt and Bolivar, and not less, perhaps, to Wellsville.  The villages of Richburg and Bolivar will rise under a new and active inspiration, and the trains of the now-assured Wellsville, Bolivar & Eldred Railroad will wake the echoes of those towns long before the snows of another winter whiten the earth.

        Congratulations, warm and sincere, art therefore in order.

 

LATER

 

        The news from the Richburg well up to 11 o’clock today places it fairly at the head of all our local producers.

        At the close of the first 24 hours it had put into the tank twenty-seven inches of oil, or between seventy and eighty barrels, besides one flow of 10 or 12 barrels lost entirely.

        The last flow which the well made was its largest.  It rested from 2 this morning until 11, and then put in a little over six inches—or not less than 16-18 barrels.

        This warrants the well the best one in the field.  It shows good territory.  Excitement increases, and prices of land tend upward.

        Good judges now believe the Richburg well good for not less than twenty to twenty-five barrels when it settles down to business, and perhaps even better than that.

 

 

Researched by Dick Palmer/Transcribed by Ron Taylor

 

Wellsville Daily Reporter

April 29, 1881

 

The Richburg Strike

 

        While the fate of the Richburg well as a producer is wrapped in more or less of doubt, owing to a failure to keep an accurate record of the formations in the neighborhood of the sand-rock, enough has been determined to prove definitely that the territory in that vicinity is rich in its productive capacity, and for a time, at least, must overshadow all other sections of the new field.

        The tubing of the well was completed yesterday, and a most gratifying response was the result.  If the packer has been correctly placed, and it is only guess-work, so that the saltwater is successfully shut out, the well will hardly fail to rival  the very best to be found in the Bradford fields.  But whatever befalls this well, that the immediate territory surrounding is good for thirty to fifty barrel wells, does not admit of rational question in the minds of experts.

        The importance of having another well put down there at once, so that a complete record of formations may be obtained, will be seen at a glance.

        It is safe to predict that rapid operation is at once to follow.  Bona-fide purchases will compel by prompt operating those having leases to protect themselves by going ahead with development.  If an hundred wells are not completed in the Richburg well neighborhood within three months, good judges will be mistaken, and if the Wellsville field does not from this hour loom up as a startling and convincing factor in the oil producing problem of the period, calculation may as well be abandoned.

        The most intense excitement prevails.  Keen observers and solid capitalists are busy with purchases, and hot times are promised for the season of 1881.

        It is clear that our railroad movement was not begun a moment too soon, and it is equally clear that it must be pushed to the earliest possible completion.  From this hour forward it is a plain matter of busy business in the oil fields of Grand Old Allegany.

 

 

Researched by Richard F. Palmer

Transcribed by Ron Taylor

 

Wellsville Daily Reporter-May 2, 1881

 

Another Gusher !

The McBride Well Torpedoed !

THE BIGGEST WELL YET.

It’s Promise More Than Fulfilled !

 

          The well known McBride well, situated on lot 18 Alma, about onehalf mile southwest from the Triangle No 3, was torpedoed about noon today.

        The effect was more than had been expected.  This well has been spraying through the casing for months, and was known to possess the elements of the best well so far drilled in the Wellsville field.

        An effort to run the bailer yesterday resulted in a saucy flow, throwing out the bailer and emptying the well.

        The consequence was that the shot today was of necessity a dry shot, which is never as effective or desirable as when the shell is deeply covered with fluid.

        A grand result followed.  The well was cleared, and no sooner was connection made with the tank than a heavy, hearty continuous response resulted.

        The flow for the first half hour was simply immense, and it is believed the well will do not less than two hundred barrels the first twenty-four hours.

        The McBride well is evidently to prove a heavier producer than the already famous Richburg spouter.

        It proves a richness of productive territory that was little dreamed of a year ago, and will divide, even if it does not monopolize, the attention recently directed towards Richburg…..

        The most intense excitement prevails.  The work of tubing cannot take place for several days so powerful is the flow of oil and gas.

        The record of the first twenty-four hours will be watched with the deepest interest.

 

Friendship Weekly Register, Oct. 8, 1885

Lucky Strike !

 

     In 1881, at the breaking out of the Allegany oil field, one Jim Parker struck Richburg with barely a penny about his clothes. A week later found him worth $10,000. He had bought a good lease and disposed of it, doing the business with $5.00, which sum he borrowed.

 

    He went through with the $10,000 in a comparatively brief time, however, and has buffeted "from pillar to post," as the old saying goes. Last week, however, he made another "raise. " He struck Kinzua a few weeks ago and by some means procured a lease.

 

     He then let the drilling of a well by contract. It is said that he slept in the derrick and ate his meals from the driller's pails, till last week the well was finished and proved a gusher and he sold out, realizing $18,000 clear money. Who will say Jim Parker was not born under a lucky star? He is well known in Allegany county, having resided at Belmont at one time.