Sunday morning Uncle Billy strolled out to the drill, and to his astonishment found the well filled within a few feet of the surface with a dark fluid. It was oil. The news soon spread to the village, and when Colonel-Drake appeared he found Uncle Billy guarding three barrels of petroleum. The pumping apparatus was adjusted, and by noon the well was producing at the rate of twenty barrels per day. The problem of the ages had been solved. The world’s first oil well was in production.
Then began what has been called the “oil fever.” People from all parts of the country flocked to western Pennsylvania. Oil companies were everywhere organized, whose stock was sold on the market. Land which for generations had been regarded as almost barren sold for fabulous prices.
“Coal Oil Johnnie,” an ignorant young man whose paternal acres had long brought only poverty and were now found to be located with wealth, appeared in Philadelphia, scattering ten dollar bills in all directions, and buying teams of horses on one day, only to give them to his coachman on the next. He built an opera house in Cincinnati and ended his career as its doorkeeper.
In 1860, near Rouseville, the oil flowed out of a well without the use of a pump, and other flowing wells in adjacent localities were soon found.
Oil was first transported in wagons and boats. The railroads were laid out to Oil City in 1865. In 1864 Samuel Van Syckel had constructed a pipe line four miles in length, and the result was a change in the entire method of transportation. A refinery was built at Corry in 1862.
The Pennsylvania grade of crude oil is the best lubricant that man has ever found. And since refineries can add nothing to an oil that was not present in its crude state, Pennsylvania grade of crude oil is still supreme.
In recent years the Standard Oil Company has controlled to a great extent the oil production of the country.
The largest individual fortune the world has ever seen is the outcome of the development of the business of securing and distributing coal oil.