John Vanausdall, partner of William Phillips in the biggest well on Oil Creek, left his home at Oil City in the morning, took ill at Petrolia and telegraphed for his wife. She reached his bedside just as he drew his last breath.
A man may seem to be a bang-up seraph,
Yet be a proper subject for the sheriff.
John Wallace, an early oil-operator at Rouseville and merchant at Rynd, died in 1880. Born in Great Britain, he served in the English army, participated in the Crimean war and was one of the “Gallant Six Hundred” in the desperate charge at Balaklava immortalized by Tennyson.
The late H. L. McCance, long secretary of the Oil-City Exchange, was the Thomas Nast of Oildom. Two of his cartoons—“When Oil is Seventy Cents” and “When Oil is Three Dollars”—in this volume and those exposing the South-Improvement infamy were especially striking.
B. D. J. McKeown is probably the only millionaire ball-player in the United States. He belongs to the Washington team, which is a member of the Pennsylvania State-League, and has played first base with the nine the entire season. He is a son of the late John McKeown, a keen man of affairs, a clean fielder, heavy batter and swift base-runner.
Many a chap who thinks he’s sure of Heaven,
But in his make-up lacks the kindly leaven,
Will find Old Nick on hand with a replevin.
Col. W. H. Kinter, of Oil City, a man of kindliest impulses, genial and whole-souled, greeting a neighbor one Sunday evening, remarked: “Goodnight, old boy—no, make it good-bye; we may never meet again!” He retired in excellent health and spirits. Next morning, feeling drowsy, he asked his wife—a daughter of Hamilton McClintock—to bring him a cup of tea. She returned in a short time to find her husband asleep in death.