Gibsonburg, Ohio
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HYDROCARBONS AND ENVIRONMENTALISM IN THE GREAT BLACK SWAMP: GIBSONBURG, OHIO Kirsten E. Stricker A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2019 Committee: Michael Brooks, Advisor Andrew Hershberger © 2019 Kirsten Stricker All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Michael Brooks, Advisor Oil was discovered in northwest Ohio in 1885. Men came from Pennsylvania and the oil boom was born. Towns appeared and disappeared overnight, and they were often known for a proliferation of saloons, houses of ill repute, and gambling. Derricks littered these towns and posed safety hazards. However, some oil towns were different. In 1890 Gibsonburg, in Sandusky County, Ohio, passed laws prohibiting the drilling of oil wells within 300 feet of a residence. Their efforts revealed environmentalist tendencies decades before it became a national concern. The reforming spirit found in Gibsonburg’s residents continued and those early efforts set a precedent for further activism. In 1983 a local lime plant closed its doors and was slated for sale to the Gibsonburg Lime Company who would incinerate polychlorinated biphenyls, a known human carcinogen, as fuel. Many Gibsonburg residents quickly formed a group to oppose the plan. Their timely action resulted in the cancellation of the sale. In both instances, residents resisted the allure of money and jobs to keep themselves and their environment safe. This underscores the lengthy history of environmental activism in Gibsonburg, particularly related to petroleum and the petrochemical industries. iv James Ritchey, Dave Henline, and Herb Storm on wagon, early 1900s. (In Carole Damschroder, ed., Gibsonburg, Ohio: Area History, 126.) v Dedicated to David and Sally Metzler and all of the families who made Sandusky County their home during the oil boom. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………...... 1 CHAPTER ONE: THE EARLY HISTORY OF PETROLEUM ……… ………………….. 13 Petroleum and Its Uses before 1859………………………………………………… 22 Oil in the Americas ........................………………………………………………… 33 CHAPTER TWO: GIBSONBURG’S GAS WAR ...........................………………………. 37 The Beginnings of the Petroleum Industry in Ohio .……………………………….. 40 Gibsonburg…… .......................…………………………………………………….. 45 The Gas War…… ............………………………………………………………….. 54 Gibsonburg After 1890……………………………………………… .……………. 65 Volunteer Fire Department…………………………………………………. 65 Agriculture .......................………………………………………………….. 66 Churches .......................……………………………………………………. 68 Parks and Recreation ........………………………………………………….. 71 CHAPTER THREE: SPIN AND NOPE; SANDUSKY COUNTY RESIDENTS GO HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH HAZARDOUS INDUSTRIAL WASTE ………………………. 75 Polychlorinated Biphenyls… ........…………………………………………………. 76 Pfizer Plant………………… ...............…………………………………………….. 79 Vickery Injection Wells ....…………………………………………………………. 109 CONCLUSION………… ..........................………………………………………………… 122 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………… ..............................…………………… 123 APPENDIX A: ABBREVIATIONS……………… ..……………………………………… 139 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page I.1 Albert Bierstadt, Among the Sierra Nevada, California, 1868 .................................. 4 I.2 Thomas Cole, The Oxbow, View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm, 1836 ....................................................................................... 5 I.3 A Typical Photograph. Captures an Atypical Tourist ............................................... 7 I.4 Lucas Oil Well Gusher at Spindletop, Beaumont, Texas, 1901 ................................ 9 1.1 U.S. Field Production of Crude Oil ........................................................................... 16 1.2 An Undated Night View Stereoview of the Karg Well.............................................. 20 1.3 Photograph of Downtown Findlay, Ohio during the Gas Jubilee of 1888 ................. 21 2.1 Joseph Garn, Well No. 9 ............................................................................................ 41 2.2 Major Migrations of Oil Men .................................................................................... 43 2.3 Outline Map of Ohio: Oil and Gas Fields .................................................................. 46 2.4 Oil Producing Regions of Sandusky County ............................................................. 47 2.5 Gibsonburg Employment in 1900 for Workers .......................................................... 51 2.6 Birthplace of U.S.-Born Workers in Gibsonburg, 1900. ........................................... 52 2.7 Birthplace of Foreign-Born Workers in Gibsonburg, 1900 ....................................... 52 2.8 Living Accommodations of Gibsonburg’s Workers, 1900 ........................................ 53 2.9 Living Accommodations of Gibsonburg’s Oil Workers, 1900 .................................. 53 2.10 Oil Workers, Marital Status and Living Arrangements, Gibsonburg, 1900 .............. 53 2.11 Will Swartz and His Shooting Wagon ....................................................................... 55 2.12 The Kirkbride Gusher ................................................................................................ 56 2.13 Helena, Ohio Taken About 1890 ............................................................................... 58 2.14 Oil Derricks Once Covered This Field in North Baltimore, Ohio ............................. 63 viii 3.1 Gibsonburg Lime Products Co., 1937 ........................................................................ 80 3.2 By-gone Days! Pfizer Inc. Is No Longer in Use, 1994 ............................................... 82 3.3 Location of Class 1 Injection Wells in Ohio .............................................................. 115 3.4 Class II Brine Injection Wells of Ohio ....................................................................... 116 1 INTRODUCTION The narrative of petroleum during the industrial era has often been romanticized and idealized. It is often presented to the general reader as a quintessential element of the American success story. A man drilled for oil or leased his land to a large oil company, and he became rich beyond his dreams either through his careful decisions about where to purchase land and where to drill or through his aptitude in haggling with oil companies.1 Petroleum should be regarded with some level of wonder; it has made many components of modern and contemporary life possible. However, today, it is most often associated by the general public with cars and pollution. This is not an inaccurate assessment as the United States consumes roughly 19 thousand barrels per day (TBPD) and 13 TBPD of those are used for transportation.2 Petroleum’s story is frequently simplified by many of the authors addressing its history. Men became rich, but many authors primarily focus on those who became fabulously wealthy such as John. D. Rockefeller, Henry M. Flagler, Edward L. Doheny—the inspiration of J. Arnold Ross in the 1927 novel Oil! by Upton Sinclair—and other successful outliers. Oral histories of the industry that chronicle the lives of drillers, shooters, and others, did not appear until the 1970s.3 According to the common narrative, the oil magnates took advantage of whoever and whatever they could, thus making their money fruit from a poison tree; no amount of philanthropy on their part can erase the black marks left on their names. Over 200 books have been written about the 1 Mody C. Boatright, Folklore of the Oil Industry (Dallas: Southern Methodist, 1963), 4– 6. 2 Brian Black, Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History, Kindle edition (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2012), loc. 106 3 See Mody C. Boatright and William A. Owens. Tales from the Derrick Floor: A People’s History of the Oil Industry (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1970) for the first of these published oral histories. Their project is a by-product of the Oral History of Texas Oil Pioneers that began recording histories in 1952. 2 Rockefellers, beginning with Ida Tarbell’s scathing exposé in 1904 on the Standard Oil Company, and Suzanne Loebl’s 2010 book is the first to look solely at the Rockefeller’s artistic contributions.4 John D. Rockefeller is remembered for being an unscrupulous “robber baron” and the cause of anti-trust lawsuits in 1909, but the family is generally not acknowledged for their artistic pursuits and charitable donations, which include those of of his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr, his daughter-in-law, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller—a founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art—and Nelson Rockefeller, his grandson and a towering figure in the histories of both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).5 Often overlooked in the standard narrative is the fact that the second industrial revolution required petroleum and other natural resources. That revolution resulted in many of the comforts that we associate with modernity. In the twenty-first century, however, petroleum and other hydrocarbons like natural gas and polychlorinated biphenyls are criticized for their effects on the environment, either directly through carbon monoxide emissions or through the actual extraction of petroleum from the ground or less directly through pipelines that crisscross the country.6 4 Suzanne Loebl, America’s Medicis: The Rockefellers and Their Astonishing Legacy (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), xi. 5 Ibid.,