The First Successful Oil Well - 150 Years Ago

In a small town of about 200 full time residents, there was plenty of excitement and skepticism 150 years ago. The talk in this mainly logging town, besides the chatter of the growing agitation between the states, was a strange effort by a stranger to the region deep in the northwestern Pennsylvania woods.

The stranger was Edwin Drake, a retired train conductor. Although, he went by the name "Colonel" Drake, it wasn't long before everyone knew it was just a title given to him by his employer. Drake, who was working as a clerk in New Haven, Connecticut, had no engineering or drilling experience, was hired by an investor, James Townsend, of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company.

The "Colonel" and a small group of others were working feverishly on a never before seen drilling rig, laughingly called Drake's Folly", by many locals. The drilling rig pounded the earth relentlessly attempting to get easier quantities of "rock oil" from the earth.

The black substance was a common sight in the area along creeks and in natural crevices. The Senecas and Iroquois who lived in the region long before the loggers knew the substance; it was used for medicine. The loggers, and some of the homesteaders who eked out an agricultural existence at scattered hillside locations, thought the substance came from the depths of hell.

The townsfolk swore they could hear the moans and screams of those damned to hell coming from the crevices in the earth. Others like the Native People, also used it for medicine; and some even for a then new invention, kerosene lamps. But the kerosene fuel was hard to find and expensive to buy. Hard to find "Rock Oil" was in demand in more urban areas for factories and their new machines. Rock oil worked as good or better than whale oil for greasing.

It was a late August Sunday, the Colonel went to church, while one of the crew members, Billy Smith went into the woods to check the drilling rig. Local, national and world history changed that day, the drilling was successful. Oil oozed from the ground. Now, for the first time, oil could easily be brought to the surface in what was then, huge quantities, never before known. August 27, 1859 ushered in a new world.

The rush was full speed ahead. New towns were built overnight in what was now called the "Oil Region". Investors, bankers, and workers poured into the region, road were built, new railroad companies were formed. Machinist were in demand as were the barrel makers and the teamsters. There were opera houses and brothels, newspapers and churches, elegant hotels and casinos.

One new town was Pithole City, dubbed America's first Oil Boom Town. The town sprang to life within days with a colorful cast of people, millions of dollars were won and lost everyday in the oil gamble. The Holmden Farm on Pithole Creek, now a city, was producing hundreds of barrel of oil everyday. The population of the hillside community swelled to over 20,000 within it's first year.

Pithole did not last too long; it's heyday was hardly a brief three years and within a decade was rapidly becoming a ghost town. More abundant oil was found in other Oil Region areas and throughout the country. Today, Pithole is a grassy knoll guarded by a small museum which celebrates it's brief life.

Drakes woodland drilling site is a much larger museum and a National Historic Landmark, open year round, which documents and relives the oil era. It is the center of this years 150^th anniversary of the the first commercial oil well operation.

The oil era created numerous and colorful stories. The "Colonel"died penniless, "Coal Oil Johnny" amassed a fortune, and the Pinkerton's became a household word.

Oil also ushered in some troubling worldwide problems, political, economic and environmental. Oil has been a curse and a blessing.

Education has been one of the overlooked blessings. Oil brought cheap kerosene and lamps to read books, newspapers and magazine after the sun went down. School work could now be done at night, news articles about the Civil War and political agenda could be read and the issues of women's suffrage became more widespread. Reading became entertainment, literary works and novels became more widespread. Everyone could afford kerosene.

Primitive stuff by today's standards, but the light produced from "rock oil" from a crevice in the woods had a silent yet powerful impact, information just wasn't for daylight hours.