Col. Edward A. L. Roberts died at Titusville on Friday morning, March twenty-fifth, 1881, after a short illness. His demise was quite unexpected, as he continued in ordinary health until Tuesday night. Then he was seized with intermittent fever, which rapidly gained ground until it proved fatal. A moment before dissolution he asked Dr. Freeman, who was with him, for a glass of water. Drinking it and staring intently at the doctor, his eyes filled with tears and he said, “I am gone.” Pressing back upon the pillow, he expired almost instantly. Col. Roberts was born at Moreau, Saratoga county, New York, in 1829. At seventeen he enlisted as a private, served with commendable bravery in the Mexican war and was honorably discharged after a service of two years. Returning to his native place, he entered an academy and passed several years acquiring a higher education. Subsequently he entered the dental office of his brother at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Still later he removed to the city and with his brother, W. B. Roberts, engaged in the manufacture of dental material. For his improvements in dental science and articles he was awarded several gold-medals by the American Institute. He patented various inventions that have been of great service and are now in general use. In the oil-region he was best known as the owner of the torpedo-patent bearing his name. He came to Titusville in January of 1865 and the same month exploded two shells in the Ladies’ well, increasing its yield largely. From that time to the present the use of torpedoes has continued. The litigation over the patent and infringements attracted widespread attention. The last week of his life Col. Roberts said he had expended a quarter-million dollars in torpedo-litigation. He was responsible for more lawsuits than any other man in the United States. A man of many eccentricities and strong feelings, he was always liberal and enterprising. He left a large fortune and one of the most profitable monopolies in the State. In 1869 he married Mrs. Chase, separated from her in 1877 and lived at the Brunswick Hotel. His widow and two children survived him. Col. Roberts did much to build up Titusville and his funeral was the largest the town has ever witnessed. He sleeps in the pretty cemetery and a peculiar monument, emblematic of the torpedo, marks the burial-plot.
HOTEL BRUNSWICK.
C. J. ANDREWS
On the palatial Hotel Brunswick, which he built and nurtured as the apple of his eye, Col. Roberts lavished part of his wealth. He decorated and furnished it gorgeously from cellar to roof. The appointments were luxurious throughout. If the landlords he engaged could not meet expenses, the Colonel paid the deficiency ungrudgingly and sawed wood. Finally the house was conducted in business-style and paid handsomely. For years it has been run by Charles J. Andrews, who was born with a talent for hotel-keeping. “Charlie” is well-known in every nook and corner of Pennsylvania as a “jolly good fellow,” keen politician and all-round thoroughbred. He has the rare faculty of winning friends and of engineering bills through the Legislature. He is head of the Liquor League, a tireless worker, a masterly joker and brimming over with pat-stories that do not strike back. He operates in oil and base-ball as a diversion, is a familiar figure in Philadelphia and Harrisburg and popular everywhere.
Dr. Walter B. Roberts, partner of his brother in the torpedo-company, clerked in an Albany bank, taught district-school, studied medicine and rose to eminence in dentistry. Visiting Nicaragua in 1853, he established a firm to ship deer-skins and cattle-hides to the United States and built up a large trade with Central America. Resuming his practice, he and E. A. L. Roberts opened dental-rooms in New York. His brother enlisted and upon returning from the war assigned the Doctor a half-interest in a torpedo for oil-wells he desired to patent. In 1865 Dr. Roberts organized the Roberts Torpedo-Company, was chosen its secretary in 1866 and its president in 1867. He visited Europe in 1867 and removed to Titusville in 1868, residing there until his death. In 1872 he was elected mayor, but his intense longing for a seat in Congress was never gratified. The oil-producers, whom the vexatious torpedo-suits made hot under the collar, opposed him resolutely. He had succeeded in his profession and his business and his crowning ambition was to go to Washington. The arrow of political disappointment pricked his temper at times, although to the last he supported the Republican party zealously. Dr. Roberts was a man of marked characteristics, tall, stoutly built and vigorous mentally. He did much to advance the interests of his adopted city and was respected for his courage, his earnestness and his benevolence to the poor.
WILLIAM H. ANDREWS.
Hon. William H. Andrews managed the campaign of Dr. Roberts, who fancied the adroitness, pluck and push of the coming leader and used his influence to elect him chairman of the Crawford-County Republican Committee. He performed the duties so capably that he served four terms, was secretary of the State Committee in 1887-8 and its chairman in 1890-1. Mr. Andrews was born in Warren county and at an early age entered upon a mercantile career. He established large dry-goods stores at Titusville, Franklin and Meadville, introduced modern ideas and did a tremendous business. He advertised by the page, ran excursion-trains at suitable periods and sold his wares at prices to attract multitudes of customers. Nobody ever heard of dull trade or hard times at any of the Andrews stores. Removing to Cincinnati, he opened the biggest store in the city and forced local merchants to crawl out of the old rut and hustle. But the aroma of petroleum, the motion of the walking-beam, the dash and spirit of oil-region life were lacking in Porkopolis and Andrews returned to Titusville. He engaged in politics with the ardor he had displayed in trade. His skill as an organizer saved the Congressional district from the Greenbackers and won him the chairmanship of the Republican State-Committee. He served two terms in the Legislature and was elected to the Senate in 1894. He is chairman of the senatorial committee appointed last session to “Lexow” Philadelphia and Pittsburg. His brother, W. R. Andrews, edited the Meadville Tribune and was secretary of the State Committee. Another, Charles J. Andrews, was proprietor of the Hotel Brunswick and an active politician. Senator Andrews rarely wastes his breath on long-winded speeches, wisely preferring to do effective work in committee. No member of the House or Senate is more influential, more ready to oblige his friends, more sought for favors and surer of carrying through a bill. He enjoys the confidence of Senator Quay and his next promotion may be to the United-States Senate as successor of Matthew S. himself. Mr. Andrews lives at Allegheny, has oil-wells on Church Run and a big farm in the suburbs of Titusville, is prominent in local industries and a representative citizen.
Gradually the quantity of explosive in a torpedo was increased, in order to shatter a wider area of oil-bearing rock. A hundred quarts of Nitro-Glycerine have been used for a single shot. In such instances it is lowered into the well in cans, one resting upon another at the bottom of the hole until the desired amount is in place. A cap is adjusted to the top of the last can, the cord that lowered the Nitro-Glycerine is pulled up, a weight is dropped upon the cap and an explosion equal to the force of a ton of gunpowder ensues. In a few seconds a shower of water, oil, mud and pebbles ascends, saturating the derrick and pelting broken stones in every direction. Frank H. Taylor graphically describes a scene at Thorn Creek:
“On October twenty-seventh, 1884, those who stood at the brick school-house and telegraph-offices in the Thorn Creek district and saw the Semple, Boyd & Armstrong No. 2 torpedoed, gazed upon the grandest scene ever witnessed in Oildom. When the shot took effect and the barren rock, as if smitten by the rod of Moses, poured forth its torrent of oil, it was such a magnificent and awful spectacle that no painter’s brush or poet’s pen could do it justice. Men familiar with the wonderful sights of the oil-country were struck dumb with astonishment, as they beheld the mighty display of Nature’s forces. There was no sudden reaction after the torpedo was exploded. A column of water rose eight or ten feet and fell back again, some time elapsed before the force of the explosion emptied the hole and the burnt glycerine, mud and sand rushed up in the derrick in a black stream. The blackness gradually changed to yellow; then, with a mighty roar, the gas burst forth with a deafening noise, like the thunderbolt set free. For a moment the cloud of gas hid the derrick from sight and then, as this cleared away, a solid golden column half-a-foot in diameter shot from the derrick-floor eighty feet through the air, till it broke in fragments on the crown-pulley and fell in a shower of yellow rain for rods around. For over an hour that grand column of oil, rushing swifter than any torrent and straight as a mountain pine, united derrick-floor and top. In a few moments the ground around the derrick was covered inches deep with petroleum. The branches of the oak-trees were like huge yellow plumes and a stream as large as a man’s body ran down the hill to the road. It filled the space beneath the small bridge and, continuing down the hill through the woods beyond, spread out upon the flats where the Johnson well is. In two hours these flats were covered with a flood of oil. The hill-side was as if a yellow freshet had passed over it. Heavy clouds of gas, almost obscuring the derrick, hung low in the woods, and still that mighty rush continued. Some of those who witnessed it estimated the well to be flowing five-hundred barrels per hour. Dams were built across the stream, that its production might be estimated; the dams overflowed and were swept away before they could be completed. People living along Thorn Creek packed up their household-goods and fled to the hill-sides. The pump-station, a mile-and-a-half down the creek, had to extinguish its fires that night on account of gas. All fires around the district were put out. It was literally a flood of oil. It was estimated that the production was ten-thousand barrels the first twenty-four hours. The foreman, endeavoring to get the tools into the well, was overcome by the gas and fell under the bull-wheels. He was rescued immediately and medical aid summoned[summoned]. He remained unconscious[unconscious] two hours, but subsequently recovered fully. Several men volunteered to undertake the job of shutting in the largest well ever struck in the oil-region. The packer for the oil-saver was tied on the bull-wheel shaft, the tools were placed over the hole and run in. But the pressure of the solid stream of oil against it prevented its going lower, even with the suspended weight of the two-thousand-pound tools. One-thousand pounds additional weight were added before the cap was fitted and the well closed. A casing-connection and tubing-lines connected the well with a tank.”