FIRST OIL WELL.

Grey River Argus, 11 April 1927, Page 8

FIRST OIL WELL.

There’s nothing startling about his name —it’s plain “Sam” Smith —bui quite the contrary is his distinction. He is the one man still living who had a part in drilling the world’s first on well. Back in 1859, Edwin L. Drake, an office clerk, sought a man to test j his theory that petroleum could be obtained in large quantities by drilling into the earth, and William A. Smith, father of “Sam” of Tarentum. Fa., a driller of salt wells, was selected to try the experiment. “Sam’ was a lad of 16 years at the time. lie assisted his father and other workers in sinking the shaft that revealed the great underground store of liquid wealth, and was on the scene when the first oil bubbled forth. Describing the historic achievement, Smith said tho spot for locating the original well was selected because at that point a pool of surface petroleum haa collected for years. The Indians, he I declared, had scooped oil from the puddle to mix paint for facial and bodily decorations. Later the white man had dipped it to lubricate the machinery in nearby The amount secured was only a few gallons a day. “In sinking the first oil well, the machinery was operated by a steam engine, hauled overland by horses from a distant railway station,” Smith said. “After the drill Lad been going a week, and had reached a depth of 69 feet, father found oil foaming up in the pipe, and immediately stopped the drill. The tools were removed, and a common pitcher pump, such as used on any family well, took the place of the drill. There was no excitement in completing the well. It started pumping at about 14 barrels a day, and the output remained the same for several weeks. At first the product brought one dollar a gallon.” Drake, a visionary man with little conception of the value of money, died in poverty, without ever having realised on his great contribution. A huge memorial, the contribution of the late Henry IL Rogers, of the Standard Oil Company, marks the grave of the discoverer of oil and that of his wife. “Sam” Smith, who is now 83 years old, cultivates his little garden, does a little carpenter work, and in general lives a quiet life.