The Richburg Discovery Well & Last Survivor

(August 28, 1941; The Bolivar Breeze; Special 50-Year Anniversary Edition 1891-1941)

"Omar L. McQueen, 82, of the Vandermark road, Scio township, is the last surviving member of the crew of men who drilled the now famous Richburg well in 1881. The well located on the Reading farm, Richburg hill, was drilled in April 27, 1881. After nearly half a century of production, the well was pulled several years ago. Mr. McQueen was born in Friendship October 2, 1853. He has lived on Vandermark road since 1914. One of the old driller's fondest dreams came true in 1939 when a six-ton monument was erected by a group of oil men at the site of the first Richburg well. The late John Moran of Bolivar was the drilling contractor.

(Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, May 8, 1938 - Researched & Submitted by Richard F. Palmer)

Bolivar - Omer McQueen, who lives a rather uneventful life working his Scio farm, shut down his tractor, snapped off a "chaw," and recalled a more exciting day in 1881 when he helped bring in the first Richburg gusher well which opened the Allegany County oil field.

Almost 80 years old, McQueen is the only member of the history-making drilling gang alive today. He explained that although the Richburg well was not the first to be drilled, the few others that preceded it failed to yield the crude in paying quantities and nobody paid much attention to them. A backer of one of these earlier ventures, Orville Taylor, was identified with the Richburg project, which blew in 57 years ago and catapaulted the Southern Tier into two years into the wildest boom days it has seen.

"It was just this kind of clear spring day, " McQueen reminisced, "and we had quite a time keeping the curious crowd away from the rig while the 'shooter' mixed his nitro charge. We all stood tense waiting for the moment when the torpedo would be sent down the quarter-mile bore, and we would find out whether we had an oil well or a dry hole."

He told of nearly two months' work on the "wildcat." Numerous delays, he recalled, were caused by almost unendurable winter weather part of the time. "I remember it was on President Garfield's inauguration day, March 4, 1881, that we finished 'rigging-up," he said. "We had quite a job moving equipment to our location on top of Richburg Hill. There were no tractors in those days, and our horses had to make their own pathway through the ice and snow. To make matters worse, a severe blizzard kept us shivering in the rig most of the time.

"All in all, we wee getting more discouraged every day as the end of our work seemed farther away with each delay. One of the promoters of the well offered to sell his share for $100. I told him he would live to see the day that the lad would bring more than that an acre!" This particular property, now operated by the Birtell estate, is still producing oil in good quantities, and oil men estimate that the petroleum it has yielded runs into several hundred thousand dollars."

Almost immediately the discovery well roared in, news of the strike reverberated into the remotest corners of the land. Richburg, until then a hamlet of a few hundred souls, overnight found itself a roaring boom town of nearly 10,000. It was a matter of only a few days before the landscape was transformed into a mammoth pincushion of oil derricks, crowded as closely together as it was possible to erect them.

McQueen recalled that while the Richburg excitement was at its height, Bolivar, a scant mile away, was taking it all calmly. Its residents were engaged in more staple vocation, lived in better houses and enjoyed the conveniences of an established community. Soon the oil fever hit Bolivar as drilling operations moved toward the south, but not until months later, after the first high pitch had subsided.

The Richburg excitement was shortlived, he recollected. In May, 1882, news of gushers brought in at Cherry Grove, Pa., was the signal for a mad exodus of Richburg's floaters. Here was a bigger and better chance to get rich, and the fickle oil people flocked to the new Eldorado. In a few years Richburg had reverted to the sleepy ways of former days, and Bolivar, which was flourishing under the guidance of more conservative operators, began to look to their neighboring village as a ghost city.

McQueen related that shortly after the Cherry Hill excitement he quit the oil business. Weary, he acceded to his wife's wishes for a more peaceful life and the couple moved to a 30-acre farm near Scio. On the threshold of his 80th year, McQueen still is energetic enough to do all his own farm work.

He refuses to take much stock in the predictions of geologists that give the Allegany field only 10 or 15 more years of existence. "They may be experts to some people, but they're just plain pessimists to me," was his comment.

" The great oil boom at Richburg resulted primarily from the growing conviction in the mind of Crandall Lester, the owner of a shoe shop in that village, that if there was oil at Petrolia and Allentown, it was quite possible that there was oil in the Richburg area. Inspired by a visit to Taylor's Triangle No. 1 Well at Petrolia and the Campbell, Taylor & Allen well at Allentown, Lester returned to Richburg determined to persuade two of his Grand Army comrades, Edwin G. Bliss and Albert B. Cottrell, to join him in an oil venture. His glowing descriptions of what an oil strike could mean to them personally, and how it could transform and revitalize their sleepy little village, was argument enough, and the partnership was formed. They agreed that to drill two or three wells was a risky proposition, but they were convinced that the stakes were high enough to warrant the action.

Lester agreed to contact land owners and secure a block of leases. He found his neighbors eager to have a test well drilled at Richburg but willing to lease only a portion of their lands. One man would lease only forty-six of his 300 acres. Twenty-two leases were secured, the smallest encompassed five acres and the largest 46 acres, with a total of 458 acres--all at one-eighth royalty and with a proviso that a well must be started on one of the leases within 45 days. Cottrell interviewed Asher W. Miner, Col. Abijah J. Wellman, and Herman and Ward Rice, of Friendship, O. P. Taylor of Wellsville, and Riley Allen of Allentown, to interest them in the wildcat well, and they all agreed to "go along".

The site selected for the first test well was on the Jeremiah K. Reading farm, in the southeast corner of Lot 33, Wirt Township, 125 feet north of the Richburg Hill road, and 150 feet north of the Bolivar town line. Professor William H. Pitt of Friendship, a geologist and scientist, is credited with suggesting the farm location. One day in February, a group of stockholders met on the Reading farm hillside to select a site for the derrick. Crandall Lester picked up a stone the size of his fist, handed it to Herman Rice, and told him to toss it over his left shoulder. The location stake was driven where the stone fell. The lease, dated January 1, 1881, called for the drilling of a well to a depth of 1500 feet unless oil in paying quantities was found at a lesser depth.

The contract for drilling the well was written in long hand and was dated February 7, 1881. The contractor, John Moran, an experienced driller, was to furnish boiler and engine, drilling tools, and fuel and casing. He was to receive fifty cents a foot for drilling, $100 for use of the boiler and engine, and sixty cents a foot for the string of 5-5/8 inch casing if it was left in the hole. If oil was found, the contractor agreed to tube the well without cost. (Story of John Moran from eyes of his wife)

Edwin S. Bliss and Albert B. Cottrell, who signed the drilling contract for the lease owners, agreed to furnish the drilling rig, "board the hands," pay for the teaming, and pay $200 on account when the well was 500 feet deep and the balance when it was completed. The crew "rigged up" on March 4, the day President Garfield was inaugurated.

The well was drilled with a twelve-horsepower Farrar & Treft steam engine and boiler. The water ran by gravity to the boiler and derrick floor from a spring on the Reading farm. After casing was set, drilling proceeded steadily until the gas sand was tapped and gas began to blow. The driller lighted the gas and it blazed up to the walking beam with a loud roar and threatened to destroy the derrick. A visitor rode his horse rapidly down the hill and awakened Martin Moran, the head driller, who was to go on tower at midnight. Moran found a horse saddled and bridled at a hitching post, and without asking who owned it, mounted and galloped to the well, rn the bailer in the hole, put out the fire, and saved the rig.

On the night of Thursday, June 21, at 1204 feet, the drill tapped a chocolate sand that showed a lively green oil. The well was shut down, the owners were notified of the strike and the crew was sent home. The well was to be completed 200 barrels a day, and Mrs. McCaffery remarked, "Mind you, I don't say I believe in dreams, but that one came true anyway."

*(Source: "Empire Oil" by John P. Herrick, published by Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1949.)

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Below article researched and submitted by Richard F. Palmer

Olean Evening Times, April 20, 1931

First Well In Allegany Field Fifty Years Ago

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Richburg Hill Well Was Basis for Rush To Area Rich In Oil.

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    What was destined to become one of the richest oil fields in this section of the country came into existence just fifty years ago Saturday, when the Richburg Hill oil well came in.

     The same day saw the beginning of what was to prove a thriving little city for a number of years - Richburg, still prominent, but in a lesser way, in the oil industry. The Richburg Hill well was not the first oil well in this vicinity, but it proved to be the biggest paying project opened to that time and was the first well in what is now known as the Allegany field.

     Al most overnight Richburg sprang from a little hamlet of a dozen houses to a city of nearly 10,000 persons. This drive was the result of the effort of John Moran, who came up from Edinburgh, Pa. Mr. Moran was an experienced driller. He associated with the Richburg Oil Company and the Friendship Oil Company in the project. Today not one of the original stockholders is alive, although the well is still producing. Mr. Moran died in 1904. The other stockholders were Ira Allen, O.P. Taylor, W.w. Rice, Herman Rice, Judge S.M. Norton, C. Lester, A.B. Cotrell and E.S. Bliss.

    Among those who remember the boom rush is Mfrs. Mary J. Moran, wife of the pioneer driller, who recalls many amusing and exciting incidents of the early days of the Allegany field. She is now living in Bolivar. Others who remember the boom are considering erected a monument at the site of the first well, about a mile east of town, to commemorate the pioneers of the industry in that section.

     Mr. Moran is also survived by one son, T.L. Moran, Tulsa , Okla., and the following daughters: Mfrs. Aileen Haely, Olean; Mrs. W.J. Hogan, Mfrs. D.V. McCarthy, Miss Evelyn Moran and Miss Olive Moran, Bolivar.