Show BL A C K OLD D S A X A r 1 J fete r r nm i w T 3 f 0 I 1 s II 11 0 r V 1 II 11 I 1 hl li I 1 I 1 V V I 1 f 7 1 ja A AV w SENECA DRAKE MONUMENT BA NY MY E PA r Pho of drake men monument antena from poxes liean Pi ean x A of america tale irate university press prec of indian oil oprina and ad cuba N Y T soon doaa soto mt coultes our cOuT tecy tes lumer IL Cour conrath Co orath atho C uba cuba N X Y 4 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON HE other day a crowd of more than five thousand persons gathered at a woodland spring under the shadow of the towering hillside near the little town of cuba N X Y tor for the unveiling of a marker As ap the american stars end and stripes and and french tricolor which had draped the marker were drawn aside there was revealed a huge bowlder boulder and on it a bronze tablet bearing bese words OIL SPRING 1027 its it history forms forma the trot first chapter in the devel 40 mont ot the petroleum urd industry in the united atte mates a gigantic world enterprise transforming modem life 1637 on american continent first recorded to in this region by the ft franciscan friar joseph do de U roche dallmon dAl llon PrIng mentioned by the jesuit father paul le do jovas jeune 1711 1721 prior to this thin year spring voted by jon alre dalre the elder from this spying sent to sir william johnson is M a our cure for hip clr unda 1717 spring permanent served reserved by indiana indian in treaty of big biff tree 1113 1833 Description of spicing by prot prof benjamin hitman man of yale tale university I 1 erected as ft a tercentenary memorial on july 23 1927 bathe university of the state of now new york torr and the new york state oil producers association thus alius was perpetuated in bronze and stone the beginnings of that gigantic industry which after three hundred years Is second only to agriculture as a wealth producing industry today nearly barrels of petroleum are required every day to satisfy the needs of the nation ond and it Is estimated that annually americans use about ODO barrels of petroleum for their motor cam ears trucks busses artificial gas plants and the innumerable products byproducts by from petroleum approximately lina tely TO per cent of the worlds petroleum industry Is in in the united states ten billions of capital la Is invested in hi it halt half the valuation of the national Vall railroad vallbona rona system it employs nearly one million people and its 16 pipeline pipe line system em which camcro briw crosses s ses the c country 6 totals about eighty five thousand wies in the crowd which gathered at the tercentenary celebration in new york were representatives of the seneca indians who still hold possession of this land of tho the franciscan monks who have a monastery a few miles away and of the petroleum industry from all parts of the united states and their presence there recalled the whole romantic hattory til hit lory tory of the discovery of oil on the north american continent it was some unknown member of the great iroquois confederation who first looked upon this oil spring but how far bad back that was nobody knows arthur CL park parker er director of the rochester N Y municipal museum who is compiling a book of iroquois legends which to is to be published next year made public at the time of cf the celebration the legend of the oil spring which to to be the opening chapter of his more anny aundy St stories the tale follows A village was stricken by strange fevers and many ot of the people died slow lingering deaths in which they were convulsed by chills and then burned by lover fever gone don goose the medicine man could effect na no cure nor could he determine what used the th dis disease easa it was then that aundy a youth y 0 uth unable to loop crept out upon the root roof 0 of f the bark house and watched the nearby near by pond to his t he saw aw the hummocks hum mucks of grass ernes rise up pushed ashod by wag long wisp of vapor lilke gray ghosts toes those queer being beings danced upon the surface of the pond find and as they opened their mouths a shrill singing sound was heard beard skinny aundy looked and saw warms swarms of mosquitoes coming from the foggy throat threats of the th ghosts these attacked him driving him back to his him bed and under the pro lection of a buffalo skin okin then he fell ell to dreaming he saw in ft a vision a strange spring whose Su fuard ardian tan spirit was wag it a hunchbacked hunch bunch backed dwarf with a peaked red cap can nearby near by he be saw an enormously it fat abe he bear sporting about A dream guide told brunny aundy to find the spring arid and talk to the abe awara dwarf for in that manner tits his tribe would bo be treed freed from sickness and riven given a treat great treasure the next day tho the out the spring at 3 first he b wai was afraid of the fat bear but when she i talks talked d to him he josti lost fear and asked her about the dwarf she laughed and told him to watch A IT bor ya poising upon upon ft a fallen tree she dove into the lh pool i and splashed about becoming very thin her fat 1 dissolved Als solved sand floated upon the water when she asmo aroe out the dwarf popped up and sprang to the M 4 mak IT greeted wuady and asked him 14 AV j abate wh athe vr wanted apted 9 1 Z alst to master the tray gray witches that dance to the hate of the ooze came the answer 1 I tre Aire ninea amedi baj that you would tell me bow athen take the oil all and pour it upon your pond baid the dwarf r nu with it as last fast as you can abon 70 ftc tired it on your joints and it i t run it Is food medicine abia you wust Must givel elve to took the world brunny wuady windy t pot of the oil ell back to i v 4 ja S r 01 al 1 P N lk 1 I 4 ox T 0 az THE MONUMENT at CUBA NY his hi village and poured some on the waters of the pond at which the gray fray witches shrieked chrle ked and sank bank into the ooze becoming hummocks of sedge ede then he rubbed it upon the bodies of the tick ala people and made them well to his hi uncle rumbling wings wurdy told the story of his discovery the dwarf says ay it will make maka people run fatter faster concluded the boy aye answered rumbling wings verily I 1 do believe that you have found the great medicine that will make the whole world run faster although the seneca oil ell spring was known to the people of the long house iroquois for or many years the first white man to look upon it was joseph do da la roche dallion dAl llon a franciscan monk who was making his bis way through the wilderness of western new york la in the summer of 1627 1027 an indian friend told him ot of it a sacred spot in the neighborhood which he be should see and on july 18 the indian led him to the place where the monk saw on oil bubbling up through the crust of the earth this experience he describes in a letter from huronia to a friend in anglers france in which he be gives a careful description of the land its people and its products among the latter he mentions mention a tour onton a mineral OIL oil which he be saw la in an oil spring in that region without a doubt this was the famous seneca oil spring near cuba and so to father dallion dAl llon goes the honor bonor of being the discoverer of oil in america from that time on this spring Is repeatedly mentioned by the early chroniclers in the jesuit relations for 1650 1056 there to la a reference to a spring where one finds heavy and thick water which ignites like brandy and bolls up in bubbles of flame feame when fire Is applied to it it Is moreover so olly oily that all our savages use nse it to anoint and grease their bead and bodies in Gall nees map published in 1670 one of the first maps of the great lakes region there Is marked a fon balne de which Is the seneca oil spring and it Is by this name that it was known by most of the early curly historians pierre francois xavier de charlevoix a jesuit one of the most talented and scholarly of the french pioneers rund and also one of the most prolific writers ts is among those who wrote about the fontaine Font alne de Bi beturne turne ara in 1721 he was directed to the spring by Jonca tre lre a french explorer rind from fort niagara he wrote of the water that looked like oil ell and tasted like iron the seneca indians who from historic times have owned ill the land around the spring g placed such a high valuation atlon upon its medical worth that they refused to relinquish title to it when the treaty of big tree was signed in 1707 1797 giving most of western new nert york to the white roan man the insisted that the spring should be reserved in a tract of land lana of one square wile later a land company took possession of the surrounding property and sold it in 1850 philenus pattison bought the tract traca cleared and fenced acres ane an commenced to farm larm the land so the indians went into court t to 0 regain their favorite spring and offered in testa testimony ony an old map showing the indian reservation outlined in red with the oil spring within it it was this map which enabled them to retain title although the present seneca reservation where amrit of the ibe tribe lives Is some distance away one indian family I 1 Is at all times located at the oil ell spring to preserve pres erye the tribes title to 10 it however the Se recognizing the importance of the te to ce centenary it tin ao celebration held there granted the committee in charge a right of way for a road to the abe sprigg and ilso also the land for 75 fe test feet et around it it this road connects the spring with a state highway alg hear bear by so that this historic histo tie place Is r n i now more easily accessible than it ever has been beell before the unveiling of this monument la Is not the first however to be erected to black gold for years ago a monument was erected near Titus titusville ville Ps pa on the spot where the first oil well was drilled this well was known as the drake well and it came into being because in 1859 1650 capitalists in new york and new haven organized a company to procure manufacture and tell sell petroleum for illuminating purposes they sent col edwin L U drake a conductor on the new haven railroad to western pennsylvania to discover oil drake was instructed to drill for oil as it for or artesian water and for this purpose he eri engaged the services vices of william smith a salt well digger and his sons william smith jr and james smith in this connection it la Is interesting to note that there to la stul still living in Titus titusville ville a man who aai as a boy of sixteen bad a part in drilling the first oil well tie be is sam smith son of the william smith mentioned above in describing the his hl t achievement sam smith tells that the spot tor for locating the oriz original inal well was selected because at that point a pool of surface petroleum had collected for years the indians had been accustomed to scoop oil from the puddles to mix the paint with which they adorned themselves ard and later the white men had dipped it to lubricate the machinery in saw wills mills nearby however the amount obtained thus was only a few gallons a day aft after er weeks of hard work and many ments at last on august 27 at a depth of COA feet drake struck oil ell which rose to walien v liln a few feet of we the surface eur face A pump and tank were installed and every day except sunday from SO 20 to 30 barrels barcela of crude petroleum were pumped from tho well from the beginning drake had beet been looked upon as something of a tool fool but his success made mide him blut a hero immediately there was avas a rush to the region around Titus titusville ville and oil creek valley which until this time had been a remote lumbering lumler ing region with only a few scat farms beca became me the goal of an excited multitude which expected to make its fortune from froin the black gold which drake had brought to the surface the story etory of this boom camp Is 13 the story of many others cities sprank sprang up between days pithole PI thole a few miles from Titus titusville ville being the tha most famous I 1 when the first flowing well came in there was vas suh such a rush started that within three months th the a t town own had people then and it Is said at one time a permanent population of include ing transients it Is even asserted that the num her ber reached the first pipe line was from pithole pothole to io the railroad four miles away three railroad railroad lines were later graded into pithole and trains ran on one of thel them big hotels were built an oil ell exchange established and the post office business was exceeded only IR in philadelphia and ritts pittsburg burg attig among ng the pennsylvania cities petr petroleum 0 vold nold ti p 1616 io 16 a barrel bariel and even higher but at other times it was as low as 10 cents a barrel ohp first excitement soon died down to the humdrum activity of everyday every day industry and oil resources of that region ran dry the mushroom towns that bad sprung up soon passed out of existence drake himself had bad made a fortune t une bat but lie be soon lost it and he and his family weye were ito poverty they were facing starvation when the state of pennsylvania panted granted hjul him bif an annuity of 1500 a year this p pension and t the be erected to his memory near were all that hat edwin drake recel received ted fm his bis gift of gold to them the wold wo orld ld Y A h 0 |