Oil Wells.

It was a fortunate thing for Corning and vicinity that petroleum was discovered when it was. In Au- gust, 1891, the Toledo and Ohio Central Railroad was suffering from a scarcity of water. A deep well was being drilled at the round house. At a depth of 630 feet salt water was struck. This could not be used. They accordingly cased off this water and bored the well to a depth of 1507 feet. They yet found no water, and work ceased for a few days, when they were surprised to find that oil had been thrown on the top of the derrick. This discovery caused the oil men to flock to the territory and it was not long until derricks could be seen on every hill. In June, 1892, the first well was 123

shot in section 14, Madison township with eighty quarts of glycerine which had been brought by wagon from Sistersville, W. Va. The oil development began about the time of the panic of 1893. Corning hardly knew what "Hard times" were. It is estimated that there has been over 1,200 producing wells in the entire field. The flow of oil is not so great as formerly. A pipe line carries the oil to Marietta, a distance of thirty-four miles. This line began operation in 1893. The oil had previously been transported in tanks on cars. When the pipe line first began to work the daily output from the field was 500 barrels. In 1896 it had increased to 1,300 barrels daily. It is now considerably less. According to official reports, the Buckeye Pipe Line in the seven years, from 1893 to 1900, had trans- ported 2,227,303 barrels. The amount produced since then would be a considerable augmentation to the above figures. 124

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