Show I j I t H t a R tb t 0 0 r a T i Y t 4 t 7 S I a a x a I 4 t I II t A I ye I d l i Ii c g n Alt w ty ati J I INDIAN I I SENECA OIL SPRING I h DRAKE MONUMENT CUBA NY y PA A j N s t J r 1 J 1 Photograph of Drake monument from of f America University to o oI oj of R I I SeneCA Indian oil Spring and Cuba Colm N. N Y 1 1 mono 1 meat ment ent courtesy Elmer E. E X N. V. V toi i l 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON liE HE other day a crowd of more than five thousand persons gathered gather d at a woodland spring un under er the shadow T of the towering hillside near the little littletown littletown town of Cuba N. N Y for the unveiling unveiling unveil unveil- ing ng of a marker As the American Stars and Stripes and French Tricolor Tricolor Tri Tri- color which had dr draped ped the marker were were d drawn awn aside there was was revealed a a huge bowlder and on It Ua ita a bronze tablet bearing these these words 1027 SENECA 1621 SENECA OIL SI SPRING SPRING n N lD 1027 r It Iu history forms the first ch chapter In n the development development devel devel- of ot the tha petroleum Industry In the United J States a a. a gigantic w world enterprise transforming I 1 modern life ti Vi 1627 1627 Oil on American continent nent first r recorded corded 1 I. I I In this region by the Franciscan n friar Joseph d de dela do la Ira R Roche he dAllion f r c 4 r 1656 Spring 1656 Spring men mentioned by the tho t e Jesuit fatter father PaulLe Paul l e Jeune Jeane t t this spring visited by Jon- Jon Prior 1721 1 1721 Prior to year entre the tho elder r 1767 1767 oU Oil from this spring sent to Sir William fi I Johnson as a cure cure for his wounds I 1797 1797 Spring Spring permanently reserved by Indians i In 1 1 I II I treaty of Big Tree Description 1833 Description of ot spring by Prof Benjamin SHUman Billiman f Yale Tale university I t memorial Erected as a tercentenary on July 23 1927 by the University of the Ir E State ot of New York and the New York State Oil OU Producers association t I. I Thus Thus- was was' perpetuated in bronze and stone stone the beginnings of that gigantic Industry which after f r. r three hu hundred dred years Is s second only to agriculture a ax ill a wealth-producing wealth Industry Today nearly 2500 barrels of petroleum are required ever every everyday d day y to to satisfy the needs c s of the nation and it Is estimated that annually Americans ns use about barrels of petroleum for their motor motorcars motorcars motorcars cars trucks busses artificial gas plants and nd the Innumerable products by-products from petr petroleum leum Approximately Approximately 70 per cent ent of the worlds world's petroleum industry Industry industry indus Indus- try Is 19 In the United States Ten billions of capItal capital capItal cap cap- ital Is Invested In It half it-half half the valuation of the national railroad system It employs nearly one million people and its pipe pipe line line system which crosses crIss-crosses crosses the totals about country five eighty-five thousand miles In the crowd which gathered at atthe r the tercentenary celebration In fn New York were representatives of the Seneca Indians who still hold bold possession of this land of th the Franciscan n monks who have a monastery a few miles away and of the petroleum Industry from from al all parts of 1 the United States and their presence there recalled the whole romantic history of f the disI disI discovery dis dis- I I covery covert of oil on the North American continent 1 It was some unknown member of the great Iroquois confederation who first looked upon this oil spring prIng but how far back that was nobody knows Arthur C. C Parker dir director of the Rochester r N. N Y Municipal museum who Is compiling a book of Iroquois legends which Is s to tol toI tobe l I be published next nest year made public at the time of ot the celebration the legend off oti the oil spring which is to be the opening chapter of his u More ore Stories The tale talc follows A village was stricken b by strange fevers and n many ny of the people died slow lingering deaths In I which they were convulsed by chills and then burned by fever Gone Goose the medicine man could effect no cure nor could ho he determine what caused the disease It was wai then then that a youth unable to sleep crept out upon the roof of the bark house and watched tho the near near near-by by pond To his amazement he saw the of grass rise up pushed by l long ng wisps of vapor Like gray ghosts these queer beings danced upon the surface of the pond and as they opened their mouths a shrill singing sound was heard beard looked and saw swarms of ot mosquitoes coming from the foggy throats of the ghosts These attacked him driving him back to his bed and under th the protection protection pro- pro of a n buffalo sUn skin Then he fell to dream dream- In ing He Ile saw sow In a vision a strange spring whose guardian spirit was a hunch-backed hunch dwarf with a peaked red cap Near Near-by he saw an enormously I fat she she bear bear sporting about A A dream lre m guide told to find the spring and talk to tho the dwarf for forin in that manner his tribe would be freed from sickness and given a great treasure The next nf day tho the boy sought out the spring At first talked he was afraid of the fat bear b but t when she to him he lost fear and asked her about the dwarf She laughed and told him to watch her nr Poising upon a a. fallen tree she dove e Into the pool and splashed about becoming very thin Her fat dissolved and floated upon the water When she came out the tho dwarf d popped up and sprang to the bank banI He lIe greeted and asked him what he wanted I want to master the tho gray witches that dance I f In the haze hazo of the ooze came the answer answer I dreamed that you would tell me how Then take tike the tho oil and pour It upon your pond eald eaid the dwarf Run nun with It as os fast as s you ca can can- when you get tired rub It Iton on your Joints and It will make you run faster It Is good medicine and you must give lt It to the world I dy tools took a pot pot of th the ol oil ell a back to toS to'S I I J S 'S 1 I L L I. I Ir r T J i P W JS 0 m n t. t w t tg rd g ix thI l i 4 t l t. t t 4 1 4 A. Cw t UNVEILING THE M MONUMENT at t CUBAN N 4 Y his village BIage and poured some on the waters of the pond at nt which the tho gray witches shrieked and yank sank Into the tho ooze becoming hummocks of sedge Then he rubbed It upon th the the bodies s of the sick people and made them well To his uncle Rumbling Wings told the story of his discovery The dwarf dwart says It It will make people run faster concluded the tho boy Aye answered Rumbling Wings Verily I Ido Ido do believe that you rou have found the great medicine that will make the whole world run faster Although the Seneca oil spring was known to the people of the Long House Iroquois for many years the first white hite man to look upon it was Joseph de la Ia Roche Hoche dAllion a Franciscan monk who was making hl his way vay through the wilderness wilderness wil wil- of western New York In the summer of ot 1027 An Indian friend told him of a sacred spot In the neighborhood which he should see and andon andon on July 18 the Indian led him to the place where the monk saw oil bubbling up through th the crust crust of the earth This experience he describes In a aletter aletter aletter letter from to a friend in Anglers France In which he gives gives' a careful description of the land its people and Its products Among the latter he mentions a a mineral oil oU which he lie saw in an oil spring In that region Without a doubt this this this' was the famous Seneca oil all spring near Cuba and so to Father dAllion goes the honor of being the discoverer of oil oU In In America From that time on this spring Is repeatedly mentioned by the early chroniclers In the Jesuit uit Relations for 1050 there I Is a reference to a spring asping where one finds heavy and thick water which ignites like brand brandy and boils bolls up in bubbles of flame when fire i applied to it It is moreover moreover more more- ov over r so oily that all nIl all our savages use it to anoint and grease their head and bodies In map published In 1070 on one of the first maps of the Great lakes lakei region there Is marked a Fontaine Fontaine Fon Ton taine tame de which Is the Seneca oil spring and It Is by this name that It was known by most of the early historians Pierre Francois XavIer de oIx Charlevoix a Jesuit one of the most talented and scholarly of the French missionary pioneers and also one of ot the most prolific writers Is among those who wrote about the Fontaine de and in 1721 he was directed to the spring by a French explorer and from Fort Niagara he wrote of the Uthe water I that looked like lile oil and tasted like iron The Seneca Sen-eca Indians who from historic times have owned the land around the spring placed such a high valuation upon Its medical worth that they refused to relinquish title to It When the treaty of of Big Tree was signed In 1797 1707 gIving most of western New York to the white man the Insisted that the tIe spring should be reserved In a tract of ot land of 01 one square mile Later a land company took possession of the surrounding pr property perty and sold It It In 1850 Phi Philenus Phil Phil- enus Pattison bought the tract clemed and fenced eighty acres and commenced to farm the tile land So the Indians went into court to regain their favorite spring and offered in testimony an anold anold old map showing the Indian re reservation outlined In red with the oil spring within It It was this map which 1 enabled them theta to retain title Although the present Seneca reservation where most of the tribe lives Is some distance away one Indian family I Is j at all times located at the oil on sprIng to preserve the tribes tribe's title 10 to It However the recognizing the Importance of the tercentenary tercentenary tercentenary ter ter- centenary celebration held there recently granted the committee In charge a right of wa way for a road to the spring and al also the land for 75 5 feet around It It This road connects the spring with a n state state v highway highway near by so that thi this historic place Is s I i 11 kW l J 1 now more easily access accessible ule than It ever h has S been I before The unveiling un of this monument Is not the first however to be erected to Black Gold for 01 years year ago a monument monument was erected near TItu TItusvIlle Pa on the spot where the first oil well wi was s drilled This well was known as the Drake well weil and It came Into being because In 1859 1850 capitalists In New v NewYork NewYork York and New Haven organized a company to procure manufacture and sell petroleum for illuminating purposes They sent Col Edwin L L. L Drake a conductor on the New Haven railroad railroad rail rail- road to western Pennsylvania to discover oil Drake Drake was instructed to drill for oil oU as if for for artesian water and for this purpose he he engaged the services of ot William Smith a salt well digger and his sons William Smith Jr and James JamesSmith Smith In this connection It Is Interesting to note that there Is still living in Titusville a man who as a boy of sixteen had bad a part In drilling the first oil well He Is Sam Smith son of the William I Smith mentioned above In de describing the historic historic his his- tonic achievement Sam Smith tells that the spot for locating the tIle original well was selected because at that point a pool of surface petroleum ha had d collected for years The Indians had been accustomed accustomed tomed to scoop scoop oil from the puddles to mix mK the paint with which they adorned Ul themselves themselves- and later the white men had dipped d it to lubricate the machinery In saw mills nearby However the amount obtained thus was only a n. few gallons a day After weeks of ot hard work and many ninny disappoIntments disappointments disappointments disappoint disappoInt- ments at nt last on August 27 21 1530 at a depth of GOth 6 feet Drake struck oil which rose lose to within I a few fe feet t of ot the surface A pump and tank were Installed and every day except Sunday from 20 to 30 barrels 1 of crude petroleum were pumped from the well From the beginning Drake hind had been looked upon as something of a fool but his hla I success made him a hero Immediately there was wasa a n. rush to the region n. n around Titusville e and Oil Oll I Creek valley which until this time hind had been a rem remote te lumber lumbering ng region with only a n few few scat farms became the goal of an nn excited multitude multi multi- tude which expected to mal make e Its fortune from the black gold which Drake had brought to th the surface Th The story of this boom camp Is the story of or many others Cities ClUes sprang up between da days days' s 's le a few miles from flom Titusville being the most famous When the first flowing well w came In there was such a n rush started that within three months the town had people then and It Is said at al one time a permanent population of ing transients It is even asserted that the num D num b ber r reached 6 The first pipe line Une PI P hole to the railroad four miles mile s away was Three f from from om n railroad lines were later graded Into PIthole and trains ran raD on n one De of f them Dig Big hotels an nn oil bil M U exchange established were built bunt 1 and the post office ce business was ms exceeded ont only ml Ph Philadelphia I and anS I Pittsburgh Pittsburg among the Penns Pennsylvania h cities clUes Petro I leum sold up to 10 a barrel at other times s It was Vas as low as ns and anti 10 to even higher but buts but's cents cents' cents a barrel barre I The first e excitement soon died humdrum activity of day day industry down to J the J and after the tile oil iSlon resources of or that fuat S regIon r ran n dy dry the mushroom towns town's that had d sprung g uS j out of existence Dral Drake e himself had up soon passed nn fU ma made n a f for tune but he soon lost host it and he and M t Ills f t m were reduced to poverty family I starvation when hen the They were facing g state o of or P Penn s J him i an annuity of Si gl antel a year car an and d t the h Q monument er elected erected to oJ MO his L Ills lesion I 01 Titusville were memory near ar were all nil that Edwin Drake his revelled c d flit gift of block black blo gold to the e I I I 0 I 1 |