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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1959-06-04, Page 7Who Really Droned The Great Well? Sifting the elites in a long- standing fW h o d t nit,.' Fergus Cronin offers convincing evi- dence that the wrong man may have !teen credited with Can- ada'Sfirst mustier:. * o * The all well "came in" on Jan- uary 16, 1862. By the end of the month it was front-page news throughout most of Canada West and even a few American cities. The Chatham Planet of •Qanada West (now Ontario) summed it up: "Last week the most extra- ordinary discovery in the annals of oildoin was made in Enniskil- len (township), It seems for months past a man named Shaw has been sinking a well , , He struck a vein of oil which spurt- ed up some ten feet , ..1" Other newspapers shouted other reports and predictions: The new well, at what is now Oil Springs in Lambton county near Sarnia, Ont„ was throwing up two barrels per minute from a depth of about 158 feet. It was going to be one of North Ame- rica's best producers, equalling the "marvellous wells' in Ponn- sylvania." It was said the flood of oil ran uncontrolled for a week. The "man named Shaw" had refused an offer of 820,000 for his interest in it. And Canada which had brought in North America's first commercial well five years before, only to fall far behind the U,S, in oil produc- tion - was back in the running, As it turned out, the excite- ment was justified. This was the first Canadian "gusher" or major free flowing well (oil being forced to the surface by under- ground pressure). It was also the beginning of Canada's first im- portant field, in an area which has yielded about 35 million bar- rels and is still producing, But because of the excitement of the moment, and also because editors of those days did not de- mand first names or initials in their news items, the stories omitted or differed on an essen- tial fact: the chiller's Christian name, Since two men named Shaw were involved in the oil business in that region at that time, the newspaper editors were unwittingly guilty of creat- ing an industry "whodunnit." After 97 years the mystery re- mains: who was "the man named Shaw"? Today many writers and his- torians believe he was Hugh Nixon Shaw, a prominent Cana- dian oil pioneer from 1857 un- til 1883 when he drowned in one of his own wells. Indeed, last year during centennial celebra tions at Oil Springs, the birth- place of Canada's oil industry, Hugh Shaw was officially recog- nized as .driller of the 1862 gusher. - Yet he may have been an im- postor at the centenary. More likely, the honor should have gone to John Shaw, an obscure photographer -turned -driller from Kingston, Ont., and Port Huron, Mich., a man whose public life was as spectacular — and short- lived — as the first gusher. The driller's identity is • im- portant to Canadian oil history, not only because his well was the first of its kind but because it marked a turning point in a flagging industry. The industry had started auspiciously enough in Enniskillen's strong -smelling "gum beds." The first Canadian wells — like a great many since — were not gushers; they had to be pumped. But the best ones produced up to 60 barrels a day. Petroleum was a cheaper, more satifactory source of •light for Canadian homes than t h e dwindling supply of old-fashion- ed whale oil. Around the beds grew a village which eventually chose the name of Oil Springs and in 1860 experienced a land boom, But in 1859 Pennsylvania's fields were discovered and there, b"y 1861, North America's first flowing wells were each spout- ing several thousand barrels a day. American oil, with the ad- vantage of less sulphur content and therefore less odor as a lamp feul, soon invaded Canada. 'Drillers began to flock from Ontario to the U.S., from whence most had originally come. Can- ada continued to produce Its hard-won few thousand barrels a day but, largely because of Transportation problems, the flanadian oil industry was in a a amp, The oil was stripped in 40 -gal - MERRY MENAGERIE En r14 lettnett? 'Olt, he always has a night' lure when be. takes a CA'I. • nap!" len barrels over an almost im- passable road from the 011 Springs fields to the nearest Great Western Railway station at Wyoming, Ont., 12 miles north. In wet weather, heavily - laden wagons bogged down com- pletely, At the side of the road ran a ditch (later dubbed "the canal") where in spring and fall teams of horses each hauled one barrel of oil on a wooden "A" frame, which was a kind of mud sleigh. Transport was later speeded up by using horse- drawn stone boats, which were platforms on wooden skids, .cap- able of carrying two to four barrels apiece, One enterprising outfit, 'Brad- ley & Co„ floated 600 barrels of oil down Black Creek and the Sydenham River to Lake St, Clair, John Mcleod, another well owner, carted barrels 14 miles south to Dresden an the Sydenham where he loaded them on a ahaliow-draft vessel. The Shaw gusher changed all this, It put all previous Cana- dian wells in the shade, with its flow of about 2,000 barrels a day. Men and capital poured into Oil Springs. A company called the Canada Native Oil Co. Ltd, appeared in London, Eng: land, promoting stock. Within the year drillers struck 32 more flowing wells. Most important, a. plank road was rushed through to Wyoming about five weeks after the Shaw well came in. As many as 160 teams traveled it daily. But while the oil fever snrend, the driller who started it re- mained relatively unknown, He was evidently .a reticent man, Many reporters apparently wrote about his well without ever meeting him. The presence of at least two • men named Shaw around Oil Springs did nothing to clarify the situation, Eighteen years later, for ex- ample, a special Lambton coun- ty edition of the Illustrated At- las of Canada paid tribut to "Hugh Shaw , ... who came here in, the early days of oil discov- er', invested all he had in the purchase and development of oil territory and was one of four who Laid out the village in 1860." The Atlas went on to attribute the gusher to him. • Since then several contempo- rary historians, as well as the or- ganizers of the 011 Springs Cen- tenary, have credited the well to that same Hugh Nixon Shaw, a one-time merchant from Cooks- ville and,the man who died clown his own well. Yet although most newspapers at the time of discovery omitted Shaw's first name, none identi- fied him as a merchant from Cooksville or referred to him as Hugh. (All those that called him Hugh were written years later,) The Hamilton Times in January, 1862, referred to the driller as a Mr. Shaw "lately of Port Huron, Michigan, a daguarrean artist FAVORITE SUBJECT - Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, right, is a favourite photographers' subject at the Geneva con- ference. At left, Gromyko's deputy, Valerian Zorin. (photographer) and formerly of Kingston, Canada West," A letter to the Sarnia and Lambton Observer • said' the well's 'owner was "a resident of Port Huron" So did a letter from a Sarnian published in the Toronto Globe. Still another let- ter, in the Hamilton Times, credited the well to "Mr. John Shaw from. Kingston." Even more significant is an item in the journal closest to the scene: Vola 1, No. 1 of the Oil Springs Chronicle which began publication on April 23, 1862. "Our flowing wells still main- tain their popularity and con- tinue to pour forth their oil treasure in unmeasured quanti- ties," said the Chronicle. "We append the names of our 'lucky stars' whose wells have already been reported in full through the Press' before our advent: John Shaw, Bradley Co., Murdoch & McColl...." Another reference is the 1946 book, The Wildcatters, by the late Samuel W. Tait Jr., an Ame- rican long associated with oil history. "In 1856," wrote Tait, "peo- ple in southwestern Ontario call- ed John Shaw an insane Yankee because he wanted to drill a well for oil through the rock which underlay the beds of tarry bitu- men in.Enniskillen township." Although the specific sources of his information, are unknown, much of the book's material was gathered from the "experiences and memories of oil men whom I have known in four decades from the Alleghenies to the Gulf Cost to the Pacific." Thus the 'evidence, when cor- related, strongly suggests that Jahn Shaw Was the driller, These and other fragments of fact even enable us to recon- struct a picture of the man. John Shaw's career had a storybook quality. It lacked only the happy ending. We see first the Shaw of pre - gusher days a big muscular good- natured man with little educa- tion. Photography was not a luc- rative business so he tried oil , drilling. After at least one fail- ure elsewhere he began the Oil Springs well in June, 1881. As the old Toronto Globe said later, "John Shaw centred all his hopes and expectations in that well...." Specifically, he .stayed at it seven months, stubbornly driv- ing the chisel -shaped bit into the earth with the simple' cable -tool rig that drillers used in those days. By early January,. 1862, he ,was down 150 feet — and broke. "His boots," related the Globe, "had utterly given out. To en- able him to paddle about in the wet and cold, a new pair was ab- solutely necessary. In fear and trmbling, we may suppose, John Shaw proceeded to the neigh- bouring store and, having no money, asked for a pair of boots on credit..." The boots were refused. That was Wednesday, January 15. An issue of the Sarnia British Cana- dlan of that month picks up the narratvle; "In &pito of all this he bores en, On Thursday his persever- ance is rewarded. When he reaches 196 feet, such a stream of genuine oil has never been witnessed bursts from the earth, . His well, is filled in about one hour and a half, and a stream of the best oil that has yet been discovered flows from the top, , Neighbors who had jeered or shunned him were now only too eager to help scoop up the run- away oil, A day before the drill- er was known as "Old Shaw." Now he was greeted everywhere as "Mr, Shaw" and "consequently has any amount of credit," A few weeks later a London Free Press reporter interviewed him and re- ported somewhat inoreduousily, "I found Mr, Shaw to be Intel- ligent, courteous and frank, easy of access and really a gentleman in his deportment .. " Then Shaw dropped Out of the news, What happened? Again, we can piece together a picture of a man whose subbornness (so useful in drilling the well) and lack of business sense soon lost him a fortune, A letter written in 1920 by W, M. Spencer, a former secretary of Imperial Oil, said, "When he (Shaw) struck the big well and the oil was running. away, Mr. Spencer (William Spencer, his father) and Mr. Williams were on the spot and offered to pay him 500 per barrel for all they could save from the ditches, but Shaw said it could run to — be- fore he would reduce price. No wonder he died poor." As early as April, 1862, the Oil Springs Chronicle listed the prinicpal oil shippers of the dis- trict as Messrs. John F. and Hor- ace F. Bush of Rochester, and Sanborn & Co. of Pennsylvania. There was no mention of Shaw. Since Sanborn had an original one-third interest in the gusher, it is possible that the driller had already sold him title to the bal- ance. One undocumented story says that Shaw quickly became an easy mark for sharpers, who swindled him out of his money. Anothersource says "he scatter- ed his funds with a lavish care- less hand." At any rate, according to sev- eral sources, -Jonh Shaw left Oil Springs, drifted for a while, re- sumed his photographic business ,and died in 1872 in Petrolia, penniless. One story says that he worked from a box -car studio. Shaw's well faded even faster. In August 1863, the Oil Springs Chronicle reported, "The Shaw well is being pumped by steam but the expectations of all in re- ' gard to its yield have been dis- appointed. Nevertheless, the erratic well and driller made history and, at one stage, John Shaw was recog- nized by historians. In 1938 the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada put a bronze plaque on the Oil Springs town hall. It says, in part: "John Shaw, by drilling into the rock opened the first flowing well, , , FrOnt these beginnings developed on of Canada's most important itte dustries, Then the Hugh Nixon ShaW story gained favor, Who wail this second Shaw? On this point the records are quite clear. Het was the former Cooksville mere chant, The London Free Presp noted in 1861, "Mr. H. Shaw is manufacturing a lubrieating oil from earth oil. It never gums, and apparently works itself all up On rapidly moving machin- ery." In the same year the Toronto Globe reported lyrically, 'When the sun shines upon the oil, green, blue, red and brown col- ors sparkle upon its surface. These colors, Mr, Hugh Shaw says, he can extract at a cheap rate from the refuse oil after re- fining. They will form superior unfading dyes and paints. Mr, Shaw ,,te, about patenting the dis- covery, and also a process of re- fining tie oil," He was associated with James Miller Williams, who dug the continent's first commercially successful oil well, and with an. other 011 Springs pioneer, J. H. Fairbank, who wrote in his diary on February 11, 1863: "Poor Mr. H, N, Shaw drowned in his well. today. In him I have lost one of my best friends in Enniskillen, A good man and most obliging neighbor, Sad, sad, sad calamity" It is difficult to reconcile this talented well-known figure with the obscure driller whom report- ers belatedly found to be "a gen- tleman" and "easy of access," In fact, no description written of the driller in 1862 coincides with what we know of H. N. Shaw. The supporters of Hugh Nixon Shaw deserve credit for rescuing him from obscurity and reveal- ing him as one of this country's outstanding pioneer oil men. But it seems that the man who drill- ed the gusher was John Shaw, whose name is raised in bronze upon an Oil Springs tablet — behind a shrub which, like the Hugh Nixon legend, each year puts it a little more in the shade, —By Fergus Cronin in Imperial Oil Review. Welter Souses They walk like drunks, talk like drunks, and act like drunks, but they don't drink anything except water. This, London doe* tors said recently, is the "hydro- lic," the compulsive water drinker. Reporting on the cases of seven female and two mala hydrolics at St. Thomas's Hos- pital, the physicians said that when a water addict downs suf- ficient quantities of the stuff (30 to 35 pints a day) his blood becomes so diluted that alco- holic -like symptoms set in, right down to the morning'- after hangover. And it's usually much harder to kick the water habit "After all," said one doctor, "we can lock up the whisky, but what can we- do about ties water? We can't actually muz• zle the faucets to keep hydrolic, sober all the time." MEN, MACHINE'S AND ATOMS—BULWARK IN GERMANY— U,S. FORCES IN GERMANY . .................. lid' TROOPS 200,000 men: Two battle groups of 3,200 men in Ber- lin; two armored and three infantry divisions elsewhere in Germany. tic TANKS 888 medium; 211 light Matador guided missiles move along German country road during tactical maneuvers. They can carry atomic bombs. JETS 20 combat wings (25.75 planes each) are stationed in Europe: SAC bombers, fighter- bombers, tactical fighters, plus troop car- rier wings. MISSILES Numerous antiaircraft missiles; 30 -mile - range Corporal and Honest John ballistic missiles; several wings of 600 -mile Mata- dor guided missiles, ATOMIC CANNON Three to five battalions of six cannon each, range 20 miles. W Main U.S. forces' in West Germany are listed above, Never .assembled in more than battalion strnegth to avoid becoming a tempting target for atomic attack, they are on constant move. "You cannot play around in this lousiness unless you have 43 lot of blue chips. This is unlimited polka' Se spoke Gen, Maxwell D. ,Taylor, Army Chief of Staff, about the Berlin situation. Map, pho- tograph and sketch give a picture ofthe, cards held by the U.S. in West Germany. The 200,000 troops, armed with conventional wee" - ens,. constitute the first Zine of the free world's defense in event of xolq 4novoou:r emerge uog4 sairsalw paddy# -woad )o ,,"cads„ 146nosg4•rroarq sof snow 04 Awaua sac"of suodo9w4 leuojiuenuoo fo „pia14S„ Overall battle plan of U.S. 7th Army in West Germany in even) of .aggression from east is shown in sketch above, attack from the Communists, They are backed up by tactical and strategic aircraft and nuclear weapons of all types --from short- range atomic and cannon missiles each as Honest John and Corporal to the longer -range Redstone and Matador. An improved version of Matador, called Mace, is being sent. to Germany in large numbers. These are our "blue chips."