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From 1954 C of C write-up:
TIDIOUTE
"Nestled
among the hills on the banks of the Allegheny River, near the site of a
long-forgotten Indian village, is the historic little community of
Tidioute with its Indian name meaning "far outlook or view".
A
booming town of several thousand people during the exciting period
ushered in with the discovery of oil, Tidioute, the site of the first
flowing oil well, has a present population of about one thousand, and
continues to center its activity around the industries upon which it
was founded, namely oil and lumber.
With many forest lands and
the Allegheny National Forest at its very doorstep, and surrounded by the
Allegheny river with its many well-stocked tributaries, Tidioute has
become a hospitable mecca and vacationland each year for thousands of
hunters, fishermen and tourists.
Easily accessible by the
Pennsylvania Railroad and the Greyhound Bus System, and with its
principal highway U.S. Route 62, Tidioute, with its tree-lined streets,
fine churches, good schools, excellent public library, modern theatre,
bank, newspaper and shops, is an attractive little town to visit and a
most pleasant town in which to live."
[Note- Excerpt from Then & Now, Vol. 6, D&S Printing, Titusville, PA]
The Economy Oil Company at Tidioute
by David L. Sonney
Perhaps
one of the least heralded oil companies in the region during the oil
boom belonged to the Harmony Society. The Society's wells proved to be
one of their greatest revenue-producing endeavors that kept this
celibacy-living religious commune to flourish for nearly a half
century after the first well was sunk.
Through the misfortune of
their friend William Davidson, the Society was able to purchase, at
Sheriff's sale in 1856, some 4,000 acres of Davidson's land in
Limestone Township directly across the river from Tidioute. The Society
really didn't want the land, but had hoped to get it back to Davidson
at some future time. Because of the Society's Trustees' shrewd business
acumen they were able to thwart off many attempts by speculators and
evil-doers from procuring any of these lands. An oil spring on their
new property caused much excitement as the oil boom was underway.
A
man tried to dig up an old tax title in 1857 to these lands held by the
Society and after a couple of trials that lasted through the summer of
1861, were able to establish firmly that the land was theirs outright.
In
order to maintain their right to the property, the Society immediately
set up shop and began to drill for oil as the lawsuits were being
played out. In Karl J. R. Arndt's book, George Rapp's Re-established Harmony Society, Letters and Documents of the Baker-Henrici Trusteeship 1848-1868,
he summarizes a letter in German from Michael Merkle to R.L. Baker on
August 11, 1860 about their drilling operations. "On digging down 150
feet they hit oil which gushed up twenty feet high over the land
surface and filled three barrels in one hour. He has heard that their
ownership of this oil-rich land is being challenged and they should do
their utmost to keep it."On August 27, 1860 a preliminary meeting to
establish the Economy Oil Co. was held in Pittsburgh and on September
25, 1869 in the same city, the Economy Oil Co. was permanently
organized. Junior Trustee Jacob Henrici, the real brain of the company,
became Treasurer. With this done, plans were made for the construction
of a refinery at their coal oil works in Darlington, Pa. In early
September 1860 contracts were being made for drilling wells on the
Society property in Limestone Township. The company could only manage
12 barrels of oil in their first 3 months of drilling, but by late
December all this would change. One of the men contracted to drill the
company's wells wrote this letter to Trustees Baker & Henrici:
Tidioute December 21st 1860
Baker &Henrici Trustees
Sirs
as
I know you will be Pleased to Know e have found another Oil well on
your premises I thought I would inform yous of the fact this Evening as
the Men went out after Super to drill they Struck a vein of oil Which
flows most beautfull Sending oil all round the men Canot get in to the
well for it will drownd them out I think this will fully Satesfy you as
to a flowing well.
Yours Respfly
J.L. Murphy
PS this well
in No A. they stopd the Engine and is Saving all the oil that they Can
it is running all over the Place I think They will Sav 50 barrels to
Night it is the Best well yet found in Tidioute or any Place yet we
have heard of I will refrain from Saying any more
J.L. Murphy
Another
summarization from Arndt's book comes from Jacob Henrici who visited
the well and wrote back to Baker on December 30, 1860:
"Their newest
oil well gushed upward so unexpectedly on a late rainy afternoon that
at least 400 barrels were lost down the Alleghany River. With it came
gasses so powerful that they were unable to breathe. They own the
richest oil land in the region."
Long ago resident Louis Schwab said
of the Economites, as they were called in Tidioute, "You could tell an
old Economite oil well because of the way it was dug. They would dig a
hole in the ground 15-18 feet deep, then set their conductor of white
pine at the bottom of the hole and fill around the conductor to the top
of their drilling operations. The Economites would never use rod lines
or gas to run their wells."
Being God-fearing people, Baker
& Henrici ensured the proper work environment for those employed by
them. They provided written rules of conduct concerning manner and
speech while on their property. And while other oil companies were
pumping their wells 24/7, saying it would ruin the well if they didn't,
the Economites, in keeping with their religious practices, stopped
pumping their wells on Sunday with no apparent problem in doing so.
On
November 9, 1864, R.L. Baker received a bullet in the mail. Convinced
that this was a sign to pull out of the oil business because of the
unfavorable elements around them, he wrote to Jacob Henrici to press
his case. Henrici calmly replied to Baker on November 14 and told him
he felt "they were in God's hands, without whose will not even a hair
on our heads can be touched." Providence brought them to the land.
Providence led them to drill and Providence would carry the through no
matter what the end. Even as the millenium was still at the forefront
of their minds in the Society, Henrici had the men working to the point
that the Economy Oil Company became one of the best oil producers in
the region.
The Titusville Morning Herald wrote on August 14, 1867:
"The
finest oil field in this region belongs to our friends, the Economites,
and the country has reason to be glad that it is in the hands on men so
prudent and foreseeing..."
And in the same year Henrici was
blowing the company's own horn, "The Economy wells are by many now
considered a model institution for other oil works in the region.
Fortunes have been sunk all around them by companies and individuals
without obtaining a barrel of oil. A great deal of oil territory about
Tidioute that was once considered better than ours, was in short time
totally ruined by the way it was operated upon, so Tidioute was for a
while almost deserted and might have remained so, notwithstanding the
immense hidden treasures of oil that have lately been developed there,
had not the name, and to some extent its fame, been kept alive by the
never failing little Economite wells, whose product rates highest in
market on account of its quality, purity, and good order in which it is
prepared for sale."
It was reported that in 1868-1869 the
Economy Oil Co. sold up to 175,000 barrels of oil and in 1869 they made
a net profit of nearly $200,000. They laid a pipeline across the
Allegheny River into Tidioute so they could convey their oil to the
railroad to be transported to their refinery in Darlington. 1873 marked
the beginning of the decline of the oil industry with many losing
revenue and the Economy Oil Co. was not immune. By 1885 with the
company not producing any more oil and the Harmony Society dwindling
rapidly, the Trusteeship began selling off the oil company's lands. The
Harmony Society was finally dissolved in 1905. Now the former Economy
Oil Company lands lie within the boundaries of the Allegheny National
Forest.
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