(Photo provided from the Parkersburg WV Oil and Gas Museum) Oil boom scene from nearby 1860s WV oil field – similar to Macksburg and Cow Run.

The late David McKain documents in his fascinating book Where It All Began that this area of Ohio and West Virginia had a pioneering role in the oil and gas industry. He claims activity here may have predated the first oil well drilled in Pennsylvania by Edwin Drake in 1859. Some early oil local wells illustrate this.

Reference to oil in America dates to the 1600s. Seneca Indians knew of “oil springs” in New York and Pennsylvania. A French map labeled an oil seep as “fountain de bitume.” Thomas Jefferson witnessed a burning natural gas vent in Wirt County WV. George Washington owned property on the Kanawha River with a “Bituminous Spring…of so inflammable a nature that it burns as freely as spirits….”

Salt was a valuable commodity in early America, used for food preservation and flavoring. Salt deposits were often accompanied by greasy oil and natural gas vents which burned when ignited. Valuable byproducts, right? No. It was then an inconvenient nuisance.

Two men named Thorla and McKee drilled a well in Noble County Ohio in 1814 for salt. They found salt – and oil, too. A second well was drilled in 1816. It survives today in a park near Caldwell OH, still emitting small amounts of oil two centuries later.

The Noble County salt works thrived. The brine (salt water) and oil were separated. The oil was marketed for medicinal purposes as “Seneca Oil.” The brine was boiled in kettles to recover the salt. Natural gas was present, too. Every week or so, Old Faithful-style, the well would “blow off” gas, creating a 40-50 ft high geyser of salt water.

Robert Caldwell was working the salt kettles one night. He used a flaming torch for light – unaware of the risk. Accumulated gas exploded, creating a huge fireball and a thunderous noise felt miles away. Flames reached treetop height. McKee said “Robert Caldwell was not hurt, but a worse scared man was never seen on Duck Creek.”

Ohio’s first well drilled specifically for oil was drilled near Macksburg OH in August of 1860 on land leased by James Dutton and others. It was drilled where youths saw oil seeping into Duck Creek; oil had ruined their swimming hole. The well struck oil which flowed 100 barrels per day. Excitement was pervasive, including Dutton himself. His wife had been sick. Someone asked, “How’s she doing?” He exclaimed, “She’s flowing a hundred barrels a day!”

Drilling also began in early 1861 on Cow Run in Lawrence Township. John Newton, manager at the Harmar Bucket Factory, was curious about oil. Factory worker Uriah Dye told Newton about a gas spring on his property at Cow Run. They investigated the gas spring, then sprang into action, so to speak. They obtained a lease and drilled. The first well was dry. Unfazed, Newton grabbed a shovel and said, “C’mon boys, I’ll show you where to get an oil well!” He found another spring where gas bubbled out of the ground. He dug a pit with a shovel; the next day it was full of oil. They drilled there and struck oil at 137 feet, flowing 50 barrels per day.

These finds set off waves of oil frenzy. Thousands of people and millions of investor dollars flowed into the area; hundreds of wells were drilled. The Marietta Republican reported on January 2, 1861, that “…our citizens are getting wild on the oil subject. The whole valley of Duck Creek …is being perforated.” Prices skyrocketed; the Dutton lease was sold to Standard Oil for $100,000. That’s over $3 million dollars today.

We can be justifiably proud of our area’s pioneering role in the oil and gas industry. It has been a cornerstone of the local economy since the 1860s.