HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1933-01-12, Page 3THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1933.
THE SEAFORTH NEWS. PAGE THREE,
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Phone 334 Seaforth, Ont,
titer boots. Every man -jack connect-
ed with the drilling and the shooting
wore the substantial high -laced lea-
ther :boots of the m'ovie heroes. The
majority of the +well workers 'wore
the directors' +breec'hes. There was'.
plenty Of :oil around the well. The in-
side of the shack that eel been erect-
ed around the well -head was plaster-
ed with oil. 'Oil sloshed around under-
foot and drooped in great frozen gobs
from the workmen's •clothing. But
the nearest thing to a gusher was
seen the morning after the •explosive
was fired when a playful pocket of
gas` got under .several ;barrels' of ,oi1,
itt
,surged •up through the casing, car-
rying the
ar-ryiing.the oil with it, and without
warning, ape'wed it out over the in-
side of the shock and over the men.
From the outside, ,looking in •through•
the open door, it was very •funny..'A
jet of oil caught Clare Stover, the
junior ,member of the firm, just 'be-
low the ear. A workman tried to run
and slipped on the thick film of .oil.
on the phallic floor.
Both F. H. 'Stover and Clare, Stov-
er said a'50 abarrel-a-day well in On-
tario would' pay, They said. a 100
barrel :well was a good well, and at.
Prevailing prices of crude would re-
turn a 'handsome • profit to its owners
over a period of constant .production.
According to Mr. Rowe, a 50 barrel
well, bearing goad quality crude
would pay, especially if it contained
sufficient gas to make it self-dperat
ing. It was alt extremely ,simple, ac-
cording to his description. Through a
special piping arrangement that .he
has used with success in a well in
Dover ,Township, the gas pressure
forced the oil to the surface and the
gas was sufficiently accommodating
to come up with 'the oil at the same
time. Beth were 'run into a separator
on the •ground beside the well and the
gas was sent on its way in; a gas line
and the •oil ,in an oil line.
(Then another slant was ,placed on
the oil and gas industry 'by oil men.
They stated that, beyond the known
oil fields :at !Petrolia, Oil :Springs and
OIL 'IN 'ONTARIO.
A man who was credited by the
people of his time with having more
imagination than. horse• .sense, ram
'med a primitive drilling 'tool 'down
eh'rougle the dirt at -a sipo't near the
Present town of 'Petrolia, 'Onterio, in
348517, and dis!eovered :a slippery and
Idh'rty-looking fluid that wasn't a 'tit-
tle Of use 'for the immediate needs of
'ei'ther man or beast.
Through observation, this nameiess.
pioneer Ikne'w that. it was similar in
character to the greasy patches of oil
that had been !hound from time to
time on . the surfjace- of . creeks and
'pools. His was the 'fate of couritless
other pioneers in prim'ary world de-
velopments. He died in obscurity and
unconscious that be had, on a 'back-
woods 'Ontario farm, started an in-
dustry th'a't was des'tin'ed to 'be'come
one of the most important in the
world's •mineral sphere.
'The oil 'and gas development in
;Western Ontario -during the years
that followed wavered up and down
through boom and depression per-
iods and finally settled into a steady
industry that 'became remarkably free
of 'frantic s'p'lurges. ,During the past
30 years, it has advanced steadily with
emphasis 'piece'd on 'the gas end, until
the combined industry is ranked
fourth among 'Ontario's mineral in-
dustries, with a 1931 ,production ,val-
ued at four and a half million. The
gas production nvas valued et $4,437,-
006
4,'437;006 and the oil at $'220;000.
Now, after everyone had the idea
that Ontario was drilled out of oil,
within the last six months, two in
terests have discovered oil where . it
Was never known thatoil existed. 1Sev-
era( months ago, the Union', Gas Co.
:of Chatham, drilling in the already
well-developed Dawn gas 'fie'ld, about
20 miles intorth of the city, in their
No. 61 well, struck both oil and gas
and since . then, have added two oil-
producing wells in the west end ,of
the field. In addition to gas in large
'commercial "quantities, the ,three 'wells,
are producing from 100 'to '125 bar-
rels of high-grade crude per day.
The latest oil discovery was made
on Earl'F?look's 'farm, six miles south
of `Ohatham,' in Kent 'County, where
F. H. Stover and 'San, 'Chatham drill-
ers, operating for the 'Producers' 'Gas
'Corp., of 'Toronto, tapped. a -pool of
high . grade oil below 1,000feet: Gas
was uncovered at a shallower depth
and still more •gas was released by the
time the drill had smashed down to
the, ail'bearing rock. The '11611 -quart
nitro - glycerine explosive .charge
smashed down a great quantity of
loose rock into: the 'bottom .of the
hole: Until the well ,is . cleaned out
and its !performance is recorded, no
accurate indication of its value as an
oil 'producer can be given.
E. P. Rowe, Toronto; geologist who
spotted ,this well and who is credited
with ferreting -out •as'many, if not
more wells in the province than any
other man. of his time, stated he was
most enthusiastic over the : Flook
we'll's early promises. an the ':first
place, the oil graded high. 13v labora-
tory tests, it showed a 'specific' grav-
ity of 48, which meant in the lay-
man's terms, that ithad a:+gasoline
content equal to eke :highest. grade
Peunselvania oils. an the second
place, it gave promise of producing
large commercial quantities o
"sweet ,gas," a gas 'that was 'free of
sulphur impurities . and that could be
used for domestic purposes straight.
from the well. Finally, it gave indica-
tion of producttvg oil in commercial
quantities, To the uninitiated in Wes-
tern Ontario oil, tcarn•mercia1 quan-
tity production is a disappointing
thing. The iwritet went •do+w,ss to Cha-
tham , to see the F3ook well "shot,"
and took .with him;visions of gushers,
pouring out their thousands of bar-
rels of oil iHe saw oil wells in the
light of the great 'Texas wells which
are considered duds if at least a
thousand barrels and hundreds of
thousands of cubic feet of gas are
not ,brought tip daily. After the stuot
was fired, he was prepared to see a
rawer of oil' :roaring up to the sky and
sp eadieg over the snow-covered
stubble field. He 'would have regard-
ed 'a great 'fountain of 'burnin'g gas
lighted the farms for miles around as
a natural thing.
Unfortunately, for these visions,
about the only similarity between the
"shooting" of the 1F1oak 'well :and the
movie versions was in high -laced lea -
are still using the gas from - wells
that have petered out for commerw
cial purposes, the !farmers are buy-
ing it.
t'Ihe (first oil discoveries in Kent
were made at (Bothwell, nt the No. 2
'Highway, east of 'Chatham, a year,
after the American' • • Civil War. In
Ill&.66, Jas. (Jake, of Ohio, according
to tradition, started drilling along
the ,banks of the ,Thames, east ,of 'Cha
th'e'm. The early oil discoveries were
made along the creeks and it was
believed for a• long time, that oil
could only be obtained along 'water
courses. +Lake. went broke two or
three times but managed to get out of
his ;financial difficulties and +finally
moved his rig shack from the river to
a spot south-east of Bothwell thatis
still, known as Lake's Ravine. He, was
dawn to his last cent 'when he struck'
oil and according to .stories, he receiv-
ed a:barrellfel of gold for his well. The
barrel was evidenitly not a large one,
if the 'story is true, as another ver-
cion states . that he received $100,000.
(Lake started the Bothwell boom of
111966 and true to tradition in such ex
ploi!ts, was buried in the potters' field
at Bothwell. The oil furore lasted at
:Bothwell for a year. The 'p'opul'ation
grew to',6,000. The Fenian R'a'ids came
along. The price ,of oil dropped and
the majority of the people, ,Mostly
Americans, left the town. F. J. Car-
man opened the •present field in 18916.
age .was a b'in'd man "but he seemed to
"to be able to see through rocks." He
opened •the M'osa Field,in Middlesex
County 20 years later.
'Chath'am was supplied 'first in 19187
and later, mains were extended into
Wallaceburg, "'Sarnia, R'idge'towtnn• and
other places. In 119112 the companies
were merged into the present Union
Gas. About a year Rater, the South
'Ontario 'Gas Co„ which had previous-
ly supplied a number of communities
east of the Haldimand and Norfolk
fields, secured some leases at.]Glen-
wood, on the fringe of the original
'Tilbury field, and piped gas . from
these wells to the eastern markets.
tPetrelia. 'Several hundred can be seen
-near Bothwell from 'No. 2 Highway,
and underneath every derrick where
there is a well that still produces oil,
a pumpejeck moves ceaselessly up and
down, as if driven by unseen hands.
A close examination reveals that all
of these moving jacks are conn•eclted
with a rod .that runs in a line from
one well to another. The rod slips
backwards and :forwards in support
ing frames and as, it •moves, every jack
connected with it moves in unison.
Somewhere, at the' end ,of that rod,
'there is an engine that is moving it
to and fro like a piston. As many as
3150 pumps' have been operated by' the
one engine in the central power plant.
The oil is pumped into pipes, each in-
dividual pipe is drained . into a larger
main and the main, in turn, carries
the oil to the refinery,
'It took George Rawlings of Cha-
tham, a Stover associate,' to describe
what' a field looked like without
sinearing' his description with tech-
nicalities and the proper names of
geographical formations. "A field is
like a hip -roof," said Mr. .Rawlings.
"The roof is represented by a layer
of hard rock and underneath this
layer, is oil and •gas -bearing rock like
a great sponge. Now, over the roof
and down as far as the edges is a
great mass of water and 'ro'ok that is
pressing down •hard. If you drill and
puncture the top of the roof, this
pressure will 'shoot up the gas. If
'there is gas present in the field, it
will corne first because it is the light-
est. Now, if you drill down the flank
of the roof,' near where the oil lies,
the oil :will come up first under the
pressure and a lot of gas w11 come
off too. If you drill right down at the
bottom of the roof, you will get
water." S'awlin'gs is a driller like his
father before him. 'The reek of raw
oil and gas, seems to get these men
just as the sight of gold sends the
metel'prospectors out at the merest
suggestion of pay dirt. They like the
life—it 'has its ups and downs, or
rather its down and ups. Down' goes
the drill .and up comes 'vhhati-some-
times nothing. "Tell the amateurs to
keep out of this, it not for them."
Gas and oil at our door, but they form
a complex business.
CALVIN 'COOLID,GE DIES .:SUD-
DENLY OF_HEART ATTACK
Calvin 'Coolidge, 30th 'president of
the IU!S., who ctied suddenly on fan
15th, died much as 'he had lived—alone perhaps was without precedent, re -
At 'The 1Beeches," •the home in •which velations ,of scandal in high places
he sought seclusion, that tree -framed rocked the nation. ]There first were
dwelling to which he repaired when disclosures as to the conduct of the
the cares of a nation ,fell from his Veterans' 'Bureau under the adminis-
shoulders, the 'former •president suc- 'ration of 'Charles R. Forbes, followed
cumbed toa fatal heart attack , He quickly by a series of sensations in
Thad :whipped alder -fringed Vermont the investigations .of the naval oil
streams—alone, and quickened to the leases and the .administration of the
•plunge of a speckled trout. He had 'Departm'ent of 'Justice under Harry
heard, alone, the whirr of the part- M. Daugherty. !Refusing to be stam-
ridge as it deft its tangled covert, tpeded even by his own ;political ad -
when frosted autumn leaves called visers, Mr. :Coolidge met each situa-
him to the hunting grounds of this tion with a cool deliberation, taking
ancestors. So Calvin ++Coolidge was such action as in his mind would
found 'dead, .alone in this dressing 'best conserve the public interest. He
room, by his wife. No one saw the quietly ordered prosecutions in the
spirit depart, 'Thursday, alter he had oil scandal, and although: eventually
returned from bis 'law ,office, His sec- he sent Attorney General Daugherty
into involuntary retirement, he pass-
ed ne 'judgment on the Senate dis-
closures regarding the 'Department of
Bothwell, when men drilled, they at •will 'be recalled that shortly alter
drilled with the objective of getting the United ',States went dry, 'a 'fuss
gas and if they struck oil at the same was raised by a report that liquor or
time, "it was ail right ,with 'them." beer was being piped across the De -
'The Flook web and the latest three troit ,River itt an old gas line. The gas
oil-bearing wells of the TJnion Gas line in question ran from a part of
Company in the Dawn Field, were the old Kingsville Leamington 'field,
drilled for gas. The gas company. did to the west of the Tilbury area.
not expect to get toil and the . Flook ' lin all, it is estimated that this four
men expected to get gas and 'hoped and a half million dollar industry has
they might ,find oil, approximately 4,000 miles of pipe
Down in the lower part of Kent lines. Only the companies' records
County there are nearly as many shat- could reveal how many 'wells have
low gas wells as there are farms and been drilled and .capped, in antici•pa-
many of them have .been producing tion of the time when diminishing
gas for the past 30 years. )Among the supplies inother wells and an imcreas-
first ones brought in were wells ed demand will make it necessary to
drilled by the 'farmers in search of turn their output into the neamest pipe
water. They struck gas 40 and 50 :feet line. The sight of rusted pipes, shag -
below 'the surface, 'The casings were gling along ditches and under toad-
capped and they 'have had their own ways to the farmers' roadside met -
little gas welds ever since. ers, is a 'strange one .to 'anyone ac-
]Later, when 'the companies came in customed to the city's orderly system
in search ,of gas, they took up leases, of distri'buting gas in covered con -
which, among other things, provided duits. The trunk gas lines are usual-
free gas to farmers, from the produc- ly .buried a short distance beneath the
ing wells, By virtue of a conservation surface. But sections of pipe crop up
act, passed by the provincial legisia- in unexpected places all over the gas
.ture in 1918, this form of lease was field districts.
banned on the •groun3•s that the free The ugliest +feature of the business
gas users were wasting it. Now, with is to be found in the oil districts retary waited below, until he should
the exception of the 'farmers who are where rough three -poled derricks are be dismissed for lunch. 'Grace, ,his
bill.worlen g their shallow wells, the scattered abort without the slightest wife, who had taughe the 'blind the
ier inthe clay, Harry Ross, the sec-
retary, }had 'been called upon by the.
former' 'president to consider a :jig-!
saw puzzle, a New Year's gift. 'Mrs.(
Coolidge 'had been away to ,town
shopping when the former president
died. He had asked her if she cared
to use !the ear, relic of .the days they
spent in 'Washington. °It is too nice
a day. ;I'd rather walk," she told him.
And so, +hona,e to • that rugged 'land of
his ancestors, all that was ,mortal of
'Galvin Coolidge, threaded the hills
and tval'leys What separate Messach-
usetts to (Plymouth, 'mouth, Vermont in a
motor ,eodteg'e ,Saturday; there to lie
with :his. {lather, (john, who swore him
in 'by the light ,of an oil lamps as
president many years ago, and his
son, Calvin Jr., cut oft' in young man-
hood. ,Back ibo :the thin surface soil
from which his ancestors 'fought a
livelihood after simple services in 'Ed-
wards Congregationalchurch at Nor-
thampton.
The :wi'despread desire of people in
official life to 'honor the former` presi-
dent made the funeral a most im-
pressive ceremony despite the ,desire
to keep the services simple and 'brief.
The 'presidential special, carrying
President 1Hioaver from. Washington,
arrived 'Saturday ,morning and an-
other special train, carrying ,congres-
sional representatives and other 'high
oefuc'ials.'Heartfelt tributes carne from
throughout .the world.
The home'folk, tbaok in Coo:lidge's
Vermont hills, were shocked by the
suddenness olf his 'death, There was
no comment or visible :sign's of sor-
row in Plymouth, Vit. Men and wo-
men went ab'oult 'their chores hiding
their feelings, like the man they
mourned.
'Called to the Presidency by the
death of 'Warren G. Harding, .Calvin
Coolidge was elected to that office a
little more than a year later 'by an
even greater plurality 'than that given
his predecessor in the .'Ropubiican
lan'dsl'ide of 11920 which came in the.
'back wash of the (Great War. First
inducted into ,office in the early
morning hours of August 2, '1923, by
the dim light of an oil lamp do ,his
'father's 'home la the 'Vermont vil-
lage of Plymouth; Mr. Coolidge
found -himself facing within a few
'brief months a situation in govern-
ment which aright have tried the soul
of a man lacking :his fundamental
calm and 'belief in the unerring judg-
ment of the 'American people.
Under a drive by Ithe !Senate that
was not competent to pass upon 'whale
documents in his depa'renent 'should
be submitted to the Senate investi-
gators, 'The President's enemies in-
sisted that his 'hand was forced in,
every action the took in connection
with the (Senate revel'a'tions and that
thought of his own political future
dominated. On the other hand, his
friendswereequally_ as (positive in,
their declarations that he :had met
these situations: with the same cour-
age 'that he had the police strike itt
Boston which first brough't hisn into
nranal ominence.
(Whtioateverprthe merits of this con-
troversy, he 'emerged from the •welt-
er of investigations strong ,entrench-
ed to the regard of the ,people. A fevr
short months after the echo Of scan-
dal had died away, Mr. 'Coolidge •was,.
swept back into .the White ,House ,by,
the .greatest plurality of record—more
than 7,000,000. "Guilt is personal" had
become the (Republican tslegan in that
campaign and with the Veterans' Bu-
reau and the oil cases already in the
hands of the courts, the Senate dis-
closures could not be made a domin-
ant issue in the campaign. 'The colt-
viction'became general that'Mr. Cool-
idge was a man of high integrity, in-
sisting steadfastly •on. honesty in gov-
ernment, and that what 'had tramspir-
ed could reflect no discredit upon his
administration since all these events
had 'occurred 'before .his elevation to
the lPresid'eacy. 'While Mr. Coolidge,
prior to his election in his own right,
underto'o'k to carry forward the poli-
cies of .the Harding administration, he
centred a great part of his oven ef-
fort on the question .of •economy in
'government and it was on that record
that he went tothe country.
All mothers can put away anxiety
regarding their suffering'- •children;,
when they have Mother Graves''
'Worm Exterminator to give relief,.
II'ts effects are sure and lasting.
whoh '1 t )sews with regard for appearances
one's have 'bong ern a )Acres upon printed -word, found ,ham, as she re- Justice, requesting Mr. iDaugherty's
the free gas clause and the ones who acres of them are to be found at turned home from marketing. Earl- resignation on the ground that he
oUn
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SEAFORTH, ONTARIO,
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Get
News
Here and There
There are 77 mills in Canada in
the Cotton textile industry from
which the annual value of produc-
tion, according to latest available,
figures, is $58,687,366.
An outstandingly popular sport
at Banff is the bathing in the hot
sulphur pools operated by the
Banff Springs Hotel and the
Canadian Government. Last year,
89,000 people used the poois.e
Jul 24 to August 5, 1933 is the
new date set for the World's Grain
Exhibition and Conference to be
held at Regina, Saskatchewan.
Railway executives from all over
the continent vill be among those:
attending the Exhibition.
Regimental colors, approved by
His Majesty the King, and donated
by the Hon. Robert Harris, late
Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, to
the Annapolis Regiment, First
Battalion Annapolis Royal, N.S.,
reached their destination recently,
having been carried on S.S. Mont -
TON. _
A sixteen thousand mile tele-
phone call was put through from'
Schreiber, Dist., to Sydney, Aus-
tralia, recently after telephone
companies and the Canadian Paci-
fic Railway department of Com-
munications had pooled their re-
sources over a 2000 -mile front in
Canada.
1 The startling discoveries of
.radlum and silver at Great Beat
'Lake, as well as many other im-
portant topics, are to be discussed
tla the technical sessions of the
annual meeting of the Canadian
Institute of Mining and Metal-
lurgy in Montreal on April 5, 6 and
7. A part of the proceedings is to
be broadcast.
Seventy Atlantic crossings in the
ships of one company is the record
of C. 13. Williams of Toronto who'
this month reached the three score'
and ten mark in the Canadian
Pacific Duchess of Athol He is;
hot yet 45 and has been crossing;
regularly in Canadian Pacific liners
since 1912.
The Governor General, Patron
of the Canadian Institute of
Mining 8'c Metallurgy, will attend
the annual meeting in Montreal
on April 5, 6 and 7. It has been
arranged that his address to the
assembled mining men will be
broadcastto all quarters of the
Dominion for the benefit of those
who cannot attend the meeting..
Choice of 14 tastefully worded,
Easter greetings, either in English,
or in the language of the country
of destination, are at the disposal
of the public, destination,.
Canadian Pacific -
telegraph offices, at a standard
rate of one dollar, on and after
March 19. The form conveying •.
the message will be decorated with, ,
traditional Easter Lilies and mes-
sage can be, sent over a wide range '
of countries throughout Europe.
a
Canada's increasing importance
in gold production is represented
by a number of important papers
on gold at the annual:meeting ,of'
the Canadian Institute of Mining,
and Metallurgy is Montreal oat
April 6, 6 and 7. The develop-
ments in the Qualm gold belt are,••
particularly prorainant in thea
papers. t
Ending with a clear-cut victory, ,
in the play-offs, of 4-0, making it.
6-1 on the round, Canadian Pacific --
Railway hockey team in the Mont- ••
, real Railway -Telephone League,,,
took for the second year in succes-
lion the E. W. Beatty Trophy an.;'
the Railway -Telephone Cup. The
teamstarted off the season with
three defeats, staging at' great,
mine -basic to pend in first. position,..
prior to the play-offs. (gi(O,.t