In spite of the fact that the Dutch West Indian Company in 1629 granted special privileges to all persons who should plant any colony in New Netherland, up until 1631 no white man had made a settlement on the west bank of the Delaware.
On December 30, 1630, David Pieterzoon De Vries, with thirty-two people and a large stock of cattle, sailed from the Texel, in the ship “Walrus,” and arrived at the southern cape, Cornelius, now Henlopen, and made a settlement near the present town of Lewes, and called it Swanendael, or the Valley of the Swans. De Vries is the finest figure among the early pioneer history of the settlement of this part of our country. He was intelligent, energetic and humane.
World Struggle for Oil Began at Titusville,
August 28, 1859
The gigantic struggle for oil began in Titusville, Pennsylvania, August 28, 1859, when Colonel Edwin L. Drake struck oil in the world’s first well.
This small hole drilled through the rock so peacefully opened the way to wealth hitherto unknown. It yielded about forty barrels per day, but the precious fuel was now produced in commercial quantities. It opened also the most important natural production of Pennsylvania, after iron and coal.
This first well was in Cherry Tree Township, on the Watson Flats, on the bank of Oil Creek, about two miles below the thrifty borough of Titusville.
Venango County seems to have been the native home for petroleum for although it has been found in large quantities in neighboring counties, it was first gathered there and its presence was known from the advent of man in that vast region.
The Indians gathered oil from a stream called Oil Creek, in this vicinity, which they used for medicinal purposes. It became well known all over the country as “Seneca Oil,” “British Oil” and other names. It was collected by digging out the place where it oozed out of the ground, and when oil and water had accumulated, blankets were thrown in, taking up the oil, when it was wrung out, and the process repeated.