Romance of American Petroleum and Gas

By A.R. Crum and A.S. Dungan

Contents

I-A Stupendous Development

II-The Lower Region

III-The Bradford Field

IV-The White Sand Pools

V-The Trenton Rock Fields

VI-Science Takes a Hand

VII-Westward Ho! in Oil

VIII-Pithole City

IX-Early Oil Region Towns

X-A Problem in Transportation

XI-Cherry Grove and Others

XII-Speculation in Oil

XIII-War and Wells

XIV-Evolution of Machinery

XV-Oil in Canada

XVI-An Agent of Death

XVII-An Inflammable Subject

XVIII-Early Mention of American Petroleum

XIX-Getting Oil and Gas Lands

XX-Men, Good and Bad

XXI-Random Incidents of Interest

XXII-Memorials and Projects

XXIII-A Few Facts and Figures

Preface

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Industry is a mining business. Its development has been attended by all the excitement incident to mining camps and the usual camp followers. In every branch, production, transportation and manufacture, it has presented the great hazards that test brave hearts and mould strong characters. It has created a race of men capable of meeting any emergency and ready for any achievement. Inevitably the story of such an industry is romance. The term here does not denote fiction for the truth of petroleum and natural gas is more exciting than imaginary scenes. The aim in these pages has been to preserve the truth and tot tell the tale without the intrusion of the dry detail of a statistical or technical work. There has been no attempt to pain the lily or to gild refined gold. There is so much rich material in the origin and growth of the petroleum industry that it is wholly unnecessary to draw on the imagination for color. This is not a history, because it omits minutiae inseparable from a continuous record. It is just the romance of petroleum and natural gas, and some account of the human factors who have made the history of the business. It trails no other book, nor does it bar the way of any that may follow. It takes its own path into a fascinating field of romance in human endeavor, namely, the supplying of light to a waiting world: the preparation of the way for aerial navigation and the conquests of distance by private carriages. The ordinary walks of this mining with the drill lead into wonderland. In the ages there has been nothing like it. Aladdin's lamp was no more marvellous than the kerosene torch, nor did it bring to its owner more of wealth and luxury. Human progress and popular education have been thrust forward by the discovery of this resource of nature and the world owes a debt of gratitude to the men who have made its development possible. No other industry in the history of the world grew up so fast, and now...

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