THEY NOTICED IT.
Writing of several Jesuits who, about 1642, penetrated the territory of the Eries,probablyprobablynear what is now Cuba, N. Y., Charlevoix says:
“They found a thick, oily, stagnant matter which would burn like brandy.”
The map of the Missionaries Dollier and Galinèe, printed in 1670, has a hint of the presence of petroleum in the north-western part of New York. Near the spot which was to become the site of Cuba these words are marked:
“Fonteaine de Bitume.”
In 1700 the Earl of Bellmont, Governor of New York, thus instructed Engineer Wolfgang W. Romer to visit the Five Nations:
“You are to go and view a well or spring which is eight miles beyond the Seneks’ farthest castle, which they told me blazes up in a flame when a lighted coal or firebrand is put into it. You will do well to taste the said water and * * * bring with you some of it.”
Sir William Johnson, who visited Niagara in 1767, in his journal says with reference to the spring at Cuba:
“Arcushan came in with a quantity of curious oyl, taken at the top of the water of some very small lake near the village he belongs to.”
David Leisberger, the Moravian Missionary, went up the Allegheny River in 1767, established a mission near the mouth of Tionesta Creek and in 1770 removed to Butler county. His manuscript records:
“I have seen three kinds of oil-springs—such as have an outlet, such as have none and such as rise from the bottom of the creeks. From the first water and oil flow out together, the oil impregnating the grass and soil; in the second it gathers on the surface of the water to the depth of the thickness of a finger; from the third it rises to the surface and flows with the current of the creek. The Indians prefer wells without an outlet. From such they first dip the oil that has accumulated, then stir the well and, when the water has settled, fill their kettles with fresh oil, which they purify by boiling. It is used medicinally, as an ointment for toothache, headache, swellings, rheumatism and sprains. Sometimes it is taken internally. It is of a brown color and can also be used in lamps. It burns well.”
Dr. John David Schopf, a surgeon in the British service, visited Pittsburg in 1783 and in an account of his journey remarked:
“Petroleum was found at several places up the Allegheny, particularly at a spring and a creek, which were covered with this floating substance.”
General William Irvine, in a letter to John Dickinson, dated “Carlisle, August 17, 1785,” tells of exploring the western part of Pennsylvania. He says:
“Oil Creek takes its name from an oily or bituminous matter being found floating on its surface. Many cures are attributed to this oil. * * * It rises in the bed of the creek at very low water. In a dry season I am told it is found without any mixture of water and is pure oil. It rises when the creek is high from the bottom in small globules.”
George Henry Loskiel, in his“Geschichte der Mission der Evangelischen Bruder unter der Indianen in Nordamerika,”published in 1789, noted:
“One of the most favorite medicines used by the Indians is Fossil-oil exuding from the earth, commonly with water * * * This oil is of a brown color and smells like tar. * * * They use it chiefly in external complaints. Some take it inwardly and it has not been found to do harm. It will burn in a lamp. The Indians sometimes sell it to the white people at four guineas a quart.”
An officer of the United States Army, who descended the Ohio River in 1811, wrote a book of travels in which he remarks:
“Not far from the mouth of the Little Beaver a spring has been found, said to rise from the bottom of the river, from which issues an oil which is highly inflammable and is called Seneca oil. It resembles Barbadoes tar and is used as a remedy for rheumatic pains.”
NOTABLE WELLS ON OIL CREEK IN 1861-2-3.
NOTABLE WELLS ON OIL CREEK IN 1861-2-3.
NOTABLE WELLS ON OIL CREEK IN 1861-2-3.