ALLEN COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: Part 3 (published 1898)
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HISTORICAL COLLECTION OF OHIO, By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

        Although a substantial and growing manufacturing city, it was not
until May, 1885, that it was discovered that Lima was in the largest
oil-field known on the globe, not even excepting the famous Russian
oil-fields. Its discovery was a matter of accident, the history of which,
and the position of Lima a year later consequent upon it, has thus been given.
        "It was while boring for gas at his paper-mill that Mr. B.C. Faurot
found oil at a depth of 1,251 feet, and though Eastern speculators
pronounced the product worthless, they soon leased land. In the following
August (1885) a citizens' company was formed and a well was put down, which
yielded about sixty barrels per diem. When the manufactories began to use
the oil for fuel it brought the low price of forty cents a barrel. The work
began in earnest in February, 1886, when the Mandeville company, from
Olean, N.Y., leased land known as the Shade farm, at the suburbs of the
city, and opened wells which made 200 barrels a day. When refined, the oil
proved to be an article of excellent quality. Other wells were soon sunk,
and some of them were found to yield some 600 barrels daily. A refinery was
built; the work moved on rapidly, and in less than one year there was an
increases of at least 1,500 more inhabitants. There are now about 116 oil
wells, with a flow of about 5,000 barrels a day from 125 or more wells. A
firm has for some time been manufacturing rigs. Drilling is going on, and
another refinery is about to be erected with a capacity of 2,500 barrels
per day. An average of thirty-five wells is developed each month. The
Standard Oil Company is now erecting a refinery."
        By May, 1887, there were seventy wells in the city of Lima, and in
the entire Lima field over 300. What is termed the Lima oil-field extends
southwest about twenty-five miles, through Wapakoneta and St. Mary's, in
Auglaize county, into Mercer county, just south of Celina. The entire
profitable oil territory of Northwestern Ohio is much larger. It covers all
of Allen and Hancock counties, the south part of Wood, and parts of Seneca,
Wyandot, Hardin, Putnam, Auglaize, and Mercer counties. The general
position of Lima at this period (May, 1887) was thus defined by President
Baxter, of the Board of Trade:
        "The enterprise and dash of our people is inherited; it came to us
from our fathers who are dead and gone. We are reaping the benefits of
their labors and sacrifices. We have a magnificent agricultural county, as
fine railroad facilities as any city in the country. For thirty years we
have had a substantial, healthy growth, with scarcely a single backset. We
have the general shops of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton, and Lake
Erie and Western railroads; a machine-works, with a specialty that brings
orders from all parts of the globe; a straw-board and egg-case concern,
with facilities that cannot be excelled on earth; a contract car-shops,
that employ more men than the combined industries of our neighboring town
of Findlay; two wagon and carriage material manufacturers, that manage to
disturb the markets of the country by the cheapness of their products. The
town is filled with little concerns of all kinds in the manufacturing line,
and last night a single bank in the city paid 1,800 checks to skilled labor
employed in the various industries. In addition to what we have had
heretofore, the past year has developed here the largest oil-field in area
in the world, and of which Lima is the nucleus. Within ten months probably
$5,000,000 of capital has been brought in, and the future of Lima as the
head-centre of the oil distribution is fixed and assured by the action of
the Standard Oil company in building here the largest and most complete
refinery in their entire system. Two other pipe-lines and a refinery,
operated by gritty young fellows, are also in operation, and more coming.
We have 500 oil-wells in operation, with a daily production of 20,000
barrels, and there is already stored, within a radius of a few miles,
probably 1,000,000 barrels of oil, with the oil business as yet only in its
toddling infancy, the developed territory being capable of sustaining
fifty-fold more wells and operated with much greater economy. The
possibilities of the oil business are simply beyond comprehension to the
ordinary mind, and those actively engaged in the production, handling, and
purchase seem the most muddled of all. These are the things that bring the
solid wealth to our coffers. To spend it we have, to begin with, a daisy
town. We have a system of public-schools that are as near perfection as can
be made, and, by the way, we have scrupulously kept the schools out of
politics and religion. Every denomination of church is represented. We go
to the handsomest little opera-house in the West. For a nickel we can ride
two miles on a splendidly equipped electrical street-railroad. For light we
can use electricity or gas, each the very perfection of their kind; and for
thirst and cleanliness a system of water-works has been provided that,
although it broke our hearts and exhausted our purses to build them, more
than compensate for all they cost. As to natural gas, we already have
enough to set the ordinary village crazy."
        From a circular issued in Lima early in the year 1888 we extract
some interesting details, relating to the oil refineries:

        In the development of the oil industry, the new concerns that have
grown up within the past two years are too numerous to mention. Among the
heaviest producers of crude oil may be mentioned the Ohio Oil Company, with
a capital of one million dollars. They are producing over 4,000 barrels
daily and when a fair price is obtained for "Lima Crude", have the
territory and facilities for increasing their production fourfold.
Schofield, Shermer & Teagle, oil refiners of Cleveland, have about fifty
producing wells, with fifteen miles of pipe line, and a tankage capacity of
150,000 barrels. They have employed in this field somewhere near $200,000.
The Buckeye Pipe Line Company have some 250 miles of pipe line, about 170
large iron tanks of 36,000 barrels capacity each, and employ in the
neighborhood of $3,000,000 in taking care of the product of the field. The
Excelsior Pipe Line has something over thirty miles of pipe, with a tankage
capacity of about 100,000 barrels, and employ $100,000 in taking care of
the crude product. The Eagle Consolidated Refinery has a capacity of 1,000
barrels of refined oil daily. They own sixty tank cars, have fourteen acres
of land upon which their works are located, and a capital of $100,000 is
invested. The Solar Refinery has 121 acres of land upon which their works
are located and employ a capital of half a million dollars. Their capacity
is 5,000 barrels daily. The Solar is probably the largest refinery in the
country, and additions are being made constantly to the works. During the
past year and a half more than a million dollars has been used in the
erection of new business buildings, manufacturing establishments and
dwelling-houses, and the present year promises still greater investments in
building enterprises. Real estate in Lima and throughout the county has
always been held at very moderate values. The county is one of the finest
agricultural districts in the State, wheat, corn and oats being the staple
products, and there is hardly an acre in the county that is not capable of
cultivation.

        The great enterprise of piping oil from the Lima fields to Chicago
manufacturing establishments is now, in this the year 1888, being
undertaken by the Standard Oil Company, who practically control all the oil
territory around Lima. The total length of pipe will be about 210 miles,
and the entire investment aggregate over $2,000,000.
        The view of the derricks was taken from a bridge, the successor of
the covered bridge, over the Ottawa shown in the old view of Lima, and
looking easterly. The oil-wells, with their derricks, are a marked feature
of this entire region. Nowhere are they so plentiful as around the town.
Experience soon showed they were often too close for profit, sometimes not
over an acre apart, when the flow proved too weak one well in ten acres was
found near enough. The life of a well on the Bradford, Pennsylvania,
oil-field is usually about ten years; how long in that of Lima remains to
be tested. A single steam-engine in places answers for the pumping of
several wells, the power being transmitted from well to well by cables and
shafting. The wells are named form the original proprietors of the land. To
illustrate, one is named "Shade well, No.11," it being the eleventh well on
the land of Mr. Nelson Shade. The cost of drilling for wells varies from
sixty-five cents to $1.50 a foot. The oil is struck at from 1,250 to 1,500
feet.
        Another marked feature of the oil region is the tanks for the
storage of the oil, which vary in capacity from 250 to 3,500 barrels. They
resemble huge tubs, are covered on top with boards, and housed or shedded
over. The tanks are sometimes struck by lightening; in a single storm in
October, 1885, several were thus destroyed. Very little else was destroyed
but the tanks. No flames of consequence were seen, but immense volumes of
smoke poured forth, which seemed as a protection, acting as an impenetrable
curtain to outside objects.
        The Black Swamp tract, in which this county partially lies, has
been the scene of much unwritten history in the early settlement of the
country. Father Finley - a sketch of whom is elsewhere given in this work -
has preserved a pleasant anecdote connected with the war of 1812 in his
sketch of the life of an eminent Methodist minister, Rev. William H. Raper.
At the time he was a lad of nineteen, and volunteered in the company of
Capt. Stephen Smith, of Clermont county, which marched to the frontier.
From his brightness, notwithstanding his youth he was chosen sergeant.


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