THE FIRST OIL WELL IN KENTUCKY

By WiUavd Rouse JiUson

1952 THE FIRST OIL WELL IN KENTUCKY

By

Willard Rouse Jillson

1952 THE FIRST OIL WELL IN KENTUCKY

Notes on The History, Geology, Production and Present Status of the Beatty Oil Well, Drilled in Wayne, now McCreary County, Kentucky, in the year 1818

By

WILLARD ROUSE JILLSON, Sc. D. OeoIogUt and Engineer

ROBERTS PRINTING CO. FRANKFORT, KY. 1952 First Printing

SEPTEMBER 3, 1952 FOBEWOBD America traditionally accords honor and dis­ tinction to those who are the first to achieve success in any field of important national endeavor. Retro­ spectively one recalls the great acclaim that attended Robert Fulton's demonstration of the practicality of the steamboat, Eli Whitney's tremendous success with the cotton gin, and Wilbur Wright's short but epochal flight o'er the sands of Kitty Hawk. To these the names of a good many others who have won for themselves a kind of immortality might be added—^Lewis and Clark as explorers, McCormick with the reaper, Bell with the telephone, Westing- house with the air brake, Erickson with the mono- tored gunboat and Hoe with the straightline press— to name only a few 1 In the dynamic, industrial field of PETROL­ EUM, the middle years of the nineteenth century witnessed the miracle-like emergence and recognition of Edwin L. Drake as the first practical oil producer,. and of John D. Rockefeller as the first national oil refiner and distributor. Though upwards of a hun­ dred and fifty years have passed since the event took place, it now seems but tardy justice to add to these great names topping the scroll of the petroleum pioneers, a third, that of Marcus Huling of Penn­ sylvania, who in the year 1818 brought in the Martin Beatty No. 1 on the South Pork of the Cumberland River, the first oil well in Kentucky and the iirst flowing well of importance in America! 7?ie^ Frankfort, Kentucky June 10,1952. HRST OIL WELL IN KENTUCKY

SALT WATER

During the first decade of the nineteenth cen­ tury, the rapid growth of population in the middle Ohio Valley created an insatiable demand for those essentials of life which are derived, more or less directly, from the earth. Iron for nails, implements and wagons; coal for forges and grates; and salt for the kitchens, tables and preserving processes of the pioneers, like meat and bread, were in the very fore­ front of domestic requirements. In Kentucky, mar­ velously expanding spear head of Anglo-American civilization in the West, the demand for salt exceeded the supply produced at "the Licks" for upwards of half a century after the building of the first forts and stations. During these early years it became not only an eagerly sought staple of merchandising, but in lieu of hard currency which was generally and provocably scarce, was frequently used in trade and barter as a commodity of monetary exchange. Time and again, when available, coarse, granulated salt was held at a value of $25.00 and $30.00 a barrel, and frequently at town and crossroad stores it was retailed at prices double and treble this amount. In an effort to meet the steady demand for in­ creasing volumes of salt, pits of considerable size and depth, were dug at all of the "improved" salt licks in Kentucky to increase the flow and volume of the natural brines. Outstanding among the "salt works" operated in this manner within or bordering the Bluegrass country were those at Lower Blue Licks, Big Bone Lick, Drennon's Lick, Mann's Lick, Bullitt's Lick, and Flat Lick. When it became ap­ parent that the limit of productivity had been reached by this method at these and a few other salt springs, it was but a natural step to change over from the shallow pit or "dug well" to a drilled well, which at somewhat greater depths might, and as it shortly developed, did penetrate the beds that ac­ tually contained the salt water. As it chanced the ex- peiriment began in a small way in 1806 at one of the salt licks in the Kanawha River in what was then Vir­ ginia, Within two years hard rock drilling had be­ come recognized as a successful brine producing practice and by the time the War of 1812 began to raise the prices of many eatables in the West, par­ ticularly preserved meats, men of enterprise and in­ genuity were "kicking down" salt wells with hand made "spring pole rigs" in southeastern Ohio and southern Kentucky. Though it was but remotely anticipated, if at all, by these pioneer operators at the time of this initial sweep of drilling exploration, in the light of present day geological knowledge, it was a certainty and only a matter of time and location before one or more salt well drillers would strike oil. Accordingly it is not at all surprising to find in the folk lore of southern Kentucky the tale of a salt well drilled two

10 mUes south of MonticeUo in 1815 which "at a depth of 283 feet was abandoned because petroleum was found in such quantities as to ruin ... it as a salt well." In the midsummer of 1865, fifty years later, the bare essentials of this epoch marking discovery of oil in the southern part of this Commonwealth, already vague and legendary, fortunately found per­ manent record in the news columns of the daily Ob­ server and Reporter, of Lexington, Kentucky. It is stated that Micajah Phillips possessed the land during the sixties on which this remarkable well was drilled, but it appears that the name of the driller and the land owner, at the time the strike was made, have been irretrievably lost. Evidently the amount of oil found in this salt well in 1815 was rather small, insufficient to cause more than a local ripple of inter­ est, recollection of which has been all but obliterated in the lengthening flight of the years.

OIL WELL

Late in December, 1817, Martin Beatty, whose surname is frequently written Beaty—purchased of John Francis of Wayne County, Kentucky, 1000 acres of land lying on the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River at a point about two to three miles above or south of Bear Creek. Beatty was originally from Abingdon, southwestern Virginia, but at the time of this transaction was operating an iron fur­ nace near the great spring at Cumberland Gap, Ten­ nessee. He had somewhat previously purchased an appreciable undivided interest in another 1000 acre tract located on the west side of the South Fork at and about the mouth of Bear Creek upon which nat-

11 ural brines had already been produced in a drilled well and where salt was later manufactured in con­ siderable quantity. This establishment seated in Wayne County opposite the mouth of Bear Creek later came to be known as Saltville. It was operated with variable success down to the year 1840, when due to heavy and continued losses sustained in at­ tempting to ship the product out on occasional high tides and thus override the navigatory perils of the "jumps" and the "shoals" of the river, the opera­ tion was closed down and permanently abandoned. In acquiring the upper or second 1000 acre tract, money apparently being not readily at hand, Beatty issued as consideration the notes of the Saltville partnership which besides his own, embraced the interests held by Lilburn L. Henderson and Stephen T. Conn, both of whom were also from Abingdon. Francis had entered and surveyed the tract on De­ cember 24, 1817 as may be noted in Wayne County, Kentucky, Surveyors Book No. 1, page 370, under the Act of the Q-eneral Assembly passed February 2, 1813 to encourage the manufacturing of salt. This statute provided that any individual or group, after "improving" a tract of previously unoccupied land and producing 1000 bushels of salt, could acquire fee simple title to the land by paying to the Treasurer of Kentucky $10 per 100 acres for the land on which the salt was produced. Finally, after considering the matter at some length, Beatty determined to take only 727 acres of the 1000 acre entry and this boun­ dary was then surveyed and patented by him on December 28, 1821. In the meantime, however, Martin Beatty acting for the Saltville co-partnership, leased the 727 acre

12 . tract to one Marcus Huling and his associate, An­ drew Zimmerman, both of whom desiring to drill for salt brines, had come into the country from Lee County, Virginia, but were originally from north­ western Pennsylvania. A well was located in the bottoms of the South Fork just above the mouth of a sizable south flowing tributary of the Cumberland. This stream is today known as Oil Well Branch. Its debouchure and the adjacent drilling site are about one mile below the mouth of Troublesome Creek. Operations with a "spring pole rig" were begun in the Spring of 1818. Some time late in the Fall, probably the latter part of November, at a depth of "about two hundred feet" a heavy black oil was en­ countered, which rose rapidly in the hole, over­ flowed the hollow log conductor and ran in consid­ erable volume over the bank into the Cumberland River and on dowli stream for a good many, perhaps 30 or 40 miles. From such records as are now available it ap­ pears that this drilling—^widely heralded in its time and since as the Beatty Oil Well—^flowed upwards of 100 barrels per day under a gas head for several days immediately after it was "brought in as a producer." Its flow then gradually declined and fimaUy ceased, due probably to the reduction of the gas and rock pressure. The amount of salt water emitted with the oil during the period of original flow, it seems, was negligible, and a small amount of subsequent drilling did not appreciably increase the volume of either the salt water or the oil. It finally became ap­ parent that nothing could be done to make a good salt water well out of the Beatty well and after sev­ eral years it was abandoned. In the meantime, how-

13 ever, Marcus Huling, the driller and operator, as the record clearly indicates, produced and sold "a great deal" of the oil from this well in small quantities in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and probably other states, thus making the Beatty No. 1 of 1818, not only the first oil well in Kentucky, but the first commercial oil producer to be drilled so remotely to the southwest in the United States 1

CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT

Shortly after the Beatty weU was completed— probably a week or so and while the oil was stiU flowing into the river—^the news-conscious and phil­ osophical editor of the Argvs of Western America issued at Frankfort, Kentucky, printed the follow­ ing important account of this remarkable well, under the heading of OIL, in his issue of December 4,1818. It is to be regretted that he did not ascertain and give the exact date that the weU came in, as he might then quite easily have done. Now, apparently, it cannot be determined and probably never wiU be certainly known. "Messrs. Huling & Co. have for some time been boring on the South Pork of Cumberland in search of Salt Water. At the depth of about two hundred feet from the surface, they struck a vein of oU, which rose to the surface and con­ tinued to run briskly for several days. It has since abated, and continues the discharge very slowly. About eight inches below the oil they struck a small vein of salt water, but continued to bore in quest of a larger stream.

14 "Our informant has seen the oil—^it has the taste and smell of British oil and is thought by medical men to possess the same qualities. It bums clear in a lamp, and emits a brilliant light and very black smoke. In some experiments with the 'sand pump', salt water with this oil floating on the top has been drawn up. It is said a quantity of this oil has been preserved, and the editor expects in a short time to receive a speci­ men. The well is near the line between Ken­ tucky and Tennessee, about one hundred and twenty miles from Frankfort, and about forty mUes from Columbia in Adair County. "These are the facts as detailed to us . . . That oil, which we have hitherto considered as an unctions inflammable substance . . . should not only be found running out of the bowels of the earth, but absolutely in distinct and im­ mense quantities, at the distance of two him- dred feet below the surface is one of nature's grandest mysteries."

GOOSE FEATHERS

Marcus Huling was no more astounded and disgusted at the sight of the ebbulent oil well he produced on the bank of the wild and rugged South Fork than were the few mountain farmers and tiieir wives whose log cabin dwellings fringed the river, at intervals all the way to the main Cumberland, where "old Burnside" later came to stand. Nothing of the kind had ever been seen or heard of by anyone native to these parts and as the dark fluid with the peculiar smell continued to pour out of the well and run into the rapids of the river below, an air of mys­ tery and diabolical association settled down upon the 15 whole enterprise. As the "slick" of black oil spread from bank to bank, it smeared the gravel bars, streaked sandy beaches, and congealed among the reeds and grasses for many miles down stream. The old women of the vaUey observing then how it had befouled their flocks of geese, raised a hue and cry, and in no little anger daubed it the "Devil's Tar." While the men folks were inclined for the most part to draw a wry smile at the mis-adventure, those who owned many geese and largely subsisted on the money they derived from the sale of feathers, were horrified at their prospective losses and, as it now seems, were justifiably indignant. At any and every point the geese took to the water, the thick black residual oil, its lighter constituents largely volatil­ ized by contact with air, the wind and the sun, closely adhered to the feathers of these birds wherever it touched them and promised at once the ruination of their feather crop for some time to come. "Devil's Tar" it was indeed and Beatty and Huling—as un­ disguised "ferriners"—^had cause and time to reflect upon the aptness of the new title given their oil when the Sheriff served subpoenas on them to appear at once in the Court of Wayne County and give answer to a suit for damages sustained by some of the touchy old women who stood to lose their good goose feathers 1

OLD TALE

A humorous story about the goose feathers and the Beatty weU is told by R. C. Snyder of Somerset who got it some 45 or 50 years ago from a native liv­ ing in southeastern Wayne County in the vicinity of

16 the famous oil weU. This narrative is a variant of the one about the "Devil's Tar" and is presented here as it appears to have much that is of elemental truth in it: "It seems Martin Beatty's driller was about a year getting down to the oil strike. He was ex­ pecting salt water as that was his reason for drilling the well. It came in flowing oil and as Beatty had no means of controlling it, the oil went down the Big South Fork. Settlers down the river sent him word to stop running this oil into the water. Of course this he could not do. Later when the geese belonging to the old women down the valley got in this oil and ruined their feathers, they sent their men with their rifles to make Beatty stop it. All he could do was to tell them: 'There it is gentlemen, stop it if you can.' Luckily for Beatty they had a flood and the water got over the well and drowned out the oil."

DEVIL'S JUMP

A dependable and interesting account of the he­ roic and persistent efforts of Marcus Huling and Andrew Zimmerman to export and sell the oil which they found in the Martin Beatty well has come down to us from some pioneer contemporaries of the Pennsylvania operators through Captain John W. Tuttle of MonticeUo, Kentucky, who during the 1890's penned a brief narrative of this phase of the enterprise. It appears that during the summer of 1819, Mar­ tin Beatty won the suit to quiet the title to the 727 acre tract on the Big South Fork of Cumberland

17 River. This land thereafter was merged into the assets of the firm of Conn, Henderson and Beatty. Nothing daunted, Huling and Zimmerman, with that sublime faith in the wisdom of the Creator, which holds that nothing was made in vain, after being sat­ isfied that the product of the well was either "tar or grease and worth money," perfected plans, with Martin Beatty, for marketing a sample of the product, by the South Fork and main Cumberland River route. A number of stout barrels were manufactured, and two of them filled with the black oil, were lashed to a perve—a sort of "dugout"—and started down the river on a medium high tide in charge of two experienced fishermen, Pierson Watson and John Spradling. While passing through the "narrows" in the "Devil's Jump" the perve dashed to pieces on the rocks—^the barrels burst, and the "crew of the vessel" made a narrow escape with their lives by climbing the huge rocks in midstream from whence they were finally rescued. Undismayed by this dis­ aster Huling and Zimmerman made another attempt to ship the "Devil's Tar" which flowed from the Beatty well. Watson and Spradling were again placed in charge of a perve, newly and specially made for the trip. Two barrels of the oil were lashed to the perve, one on each side, as before. The boat­ men were given instructions to land near the head of the "Devil's Jump" and take one barrel at a time through the Narrows. When in sight of the "Devil's Jump," the vessel became unmanageable in the swift current and dashed to pieces on the rocks, the same as before. Spradling made his way to shore but Watson, being a poor swimmer, narrowly escaped

18 drowning. Shipment of the oU by river was there­ after prudently abandoned. Though blocked in their efforts to make use of water transportation, Marcus Huling and Andrew Zimmerman remained positive in their opinon that the "Devil's Tar" had an intrinsic value, that it was good for something. They wanted to know what that might be. Overcoming for a time, great diffi­ culties in overland transportation due to untravel- able roads, particularly during the wet and cold por­ tion of the year, they had small barrels or kegs of the oil hauled to a number of neighboring towns and vil­ lages where it was sold to local merchants who in turn disposed of it to the manufacturers of British Oil, Seneca Oil, Mustang Liniment and other similar medicinal preparations of the day. The unending hardships and heavy cost of wagoning the oil up and over the high sandstone cliffs that rim the gorge of the South Fork of the Cumberland in the vicinity of the Beatty well made the enterprise financially uncertain, and within a few short years caused it to be permanently discontinued.

OLD LETTER

Thwarted in his efforts to produce brine suit­ able for the commercial production of salt on Mar­ tin Beatty's land in the South Fork valley, Marcus Huling moved westwardly and undertook new drill­ ing operations in Adair and Casey Counties, during the period 1820 to 1824. On April 8, 1820 he wrote at "Adair Salt Well" a letter to his brother, David W. Huling of Lewistown, Pennsylvania. This letter was mailed at Columbia, Kentucky, three days later

19 on April 11,1820 under a sealed "Stampless Cover." During the past Spring, after the passage of more than a century and a quarter, the writer pursuing various leads, turned up this original Huling A. L. S. of 1820 in the Edward C. Thurman Collection of Stampless Covers in the Filson Club in Louisville. From this quaint and marvellously preserved epistle, the following lines, peimed by the salt well operator, Marcus Huling, tell something of the hardships and contractural embarrassments that beset his path as Kentucky's first oil producer who in the year 1818 had been unfortunate enough to drill a shallow, flow­ ing well in Wayne County, Kentucky: "I have not got to making salt at the South Fork as yet but will in the course of this sum­ mer. There appears to be plenty of water in that well and it is now nearly in a state of readiness to put in my pumps—the oil stiU flows as usual. I have sent about 2000 gallons to Europe, no returns as yet from it. I have also made sale of a great deal in small quantities in the different parts of this and Tennessee State and many pack horses have come from North Carolina and Georgia and taken some hundreds of gallons. The dispute about the land where the oil well is, is not settled. There has been a compromise by the opposite company proposed to me & company. I have had three decisions in my favor—but from the various ways of pro­ ceeding in law in this State by injunction and otherwise I don't expect it will be settled this 10 years unless it is by a compromise in a short time."

20 LOCATION Relatively few persons have visited the Beatty OU WeU, not because of a lack of interest but rather on account of its extreme inaccessibility. A drivable road, mostly confined to upland levels and the sandy ridge that separates Roaring Paunch Creek from the South Fork approaches it within about 2.5 miles at a point due east of the mouth of Bear Creek, and was formerly a good deal in use. Latter day deteri­ oration of this road, however, coupled with 650 feet of local relief, sheer cliffs of Pottsville conglomeratic sandstone ranging from 100'to 200 feet high and a fearsome rushing river to cross in the gorge below, now deter all except those of the most adventuresome spirit from this wild and little trodden route. A glance at the Beconnoissance Map of Mc­ Creary County issued by the Kentucky Geological Survey, Series VI, in 1928, coupled with, if desired, the Barthell Topographic Quadrangle of 1934 indi­ cates that Martin Beatty's historic weU is only 7.5 miles S 40° W of Stearns, Kentucky; and 1.9 miles due north of the Tennessee State line. As it is lo­ cated in the bottoms just above the mouth of Oil Well Branch on the west (here specifically, the north) side of the Cumberland River, it is most readily reached in an automobile (preferably a jeep or power wagon) by crossing the South Pork on the Yamacraw bridge and thence proceeding in a south­ erly direction (see Frontispiece map) via Rock Creek, Devil's Creek and Troublesome Creek. This route combines parts of several county and "access" roads, crosses Devil's Knob (1340 feet A. T.) and

21 stepping Rock Knob (1445 feet A. T.) and affords a wealth of wild, eye-arresting, mountain scenery. If an aneroid barometer is carried along it will record in startling succession such widely varying elevations as: Stearns, from 1350 to 1400 feet A. T.; low water in the South Fork below the Yamacraw bridge, 710 feet A. T.; Bald Knob, 1445 feet A. T.; and the "Big Rock" in the Cumberland River at the mouth of Troublesome Creek, 790 feet A. T. A short piece down the South Fork vaUey, over a good but little used upper bottom road the traveller comes suddenly upon Martin Beatty's well, C.H.E. 805 feet A. T., close to the river bank—16 measured road miles from the town of Stearns. Close about a falien- in cabin, an abandoned parcel of garden and com land, endless high, timbered hills and a flashing river —the scene in the year 1952 is stiU appealingly primi­ tive and pastorally sublime; not greatly changed since that eventful day in the Pall of 1818 when Marcus Huling, somewhat bewildered, watched this remarkable well first pour its wealth of dark, smelly oU into the restless, shimmering stream below.

ROUTE AND RESEARCH The Beatty Oil Well and the land on which it is located is today the property of the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company. Amply aware of the remote situation of this historic oil producer and gravely doubting the advisability of using, as was formerly done, the "eastern route" leading to the mouth of Bear Creek and the old South Pork Ford, the writer on Sunday, April 20, 1952, drove to Stearns and sought the advice of officers of the Corporation.

22 Mr. Robert L. Stearns, Jr., President, immediately entered wholeheartedly into the spirit of the pro­ posed investigation, referred the matter of the route to the well to Mr. R. W. Henderson, General Super­ intendent of the Company, and then produced a ful­ some file from the correspondence of the late William A. Kinne, former Land Superintendent of the Stearns Company touching upon the Beatty Well. Thus there came to light two very important let­ ters of the late Edward C. Thurman of Sonora, Ken­ tucky, datied April 30 and June 2, 1949, in which he made reference to several A.L.S. then in his posses­ sion, written early in the 1820's by Marcus Huling of Pennsylvania, who drilled the Beatty weU in 1818. A complete tmnscript of this startling correspon­ dence was presented to the writer by Mr. Stearns with the result that somewhat later, Huling's con­ temporary comment on the Beatty well and its oil production, which has already appeared in this bro­ chure, un hon mot of historical research, which had not even been thought of previously as a possibility, became a reality. With a view of facilitating the proposed field examination of the Beatty well and vicinity, the stated principal objective of the conference, Mr. R. W. Henderson, then suggested that the "old time" eastern approach—^the one which, with slight modifi­ cation, had obviously been used by Marcus Huling himself, as a short tributary leading down to the South Fork a few hundred feet below the Beatty well is still called Huti/ng Branch, be abandoned as impractical. In its place he proposed a more re­ cently developed road, the Yamacraw Bridge-Bald Knob-Troublesome Creek route which has already

2S been outlined to the reader in an early part of this paper. His advice, although apparently involving somewhat greater mileage, seemed to be otherwise entirely satisfactory and was accepted. Thereupon he graciously offered to provide competent guides and transportation facilities for the trip and a date was set for the going.

FIELD WORE Agreeable to the arrangements thus made with Mr. Henderson, the writer at 7 o'clock on Wednesday morning, April 23, 1952, returned to Stearns and accompanied by Messrs. N. B. Perkins and T. A. Adams, whose knowledge of the intricacies of cotmty and lumbering roads west of the South Fork of the Cumberland in McCreary County is really remark­ able, set out in a four-wheel-drive truck via the Yamacraw Bridge for the Beatty OU Well. The leaving time at Steams was 7:30 A. M., the sky clear and the temperature 65° P. Making the last half mile down the Cumberland valley bottoms afoot due to an impassable washout of an old, log bridge over a mountain stream, the party arrived at its pro­ jected destination at 9:10 A. M. The Beatty Well, all but covered with a thick grovrth of briars, bushes, vines and saplings, was found to be cased with 634 inch pipe and closed with a screw cap. When opened, the mirror of a Brunton compass revealed that oil stood in the well about 10 or 12 feet below the surface of the ground. With improvised bailing equipment an adequate sample of the oil was obtained and in the mid-morning when much of the surrounding brush had been removed,

24 and light conditions became favorable, several pho­ tographs were taken of the Beatty WeU. Subse­ quently the writer executed a rapid reconnoissance of the stratigraphic and structural geology of this part of the South Fork valley, checking at the same time by barometer and frequent reference to the Bar- theU (1934) Quadrangle, a number of points of local topographical interest. Field notes made at the time indicate the party left the vicinity of the Beatty WeU at 11:40 A. M,, lunched briefly at the roadside on the lower waters of Troublesome Creek at 12:35 P. M. after complet­ ing a tour afoot of this area ending at the "Big Rock" in the South Fork river. The return trip was begun at 1:15 P. M. after examining and meas­ uring a new facing of 47 inches solid of the Sub- conglomerate coal (Alt. 920 A. T.) just above the lower crossing of Watson Branch. Although several time consuming stops were made enroute for geologi­ cal examinations, the party arrived at Stearns at 3:45 P. M. Throughout the day the weather re­ mained ideal with very slightly fluctuating tempera­ tures that did not exceed 72° at the Meridian.

TOPOGRAPHY

The Beatty OU Well is located within the western reaches of the Cumberland Plateau, a broad physi­ ographic unit of mature dissection. In this area val­ leys are deep, V-shaped and meandering; ridges usually very narrow and winding. Upland levels near the old oil weU range commonly from 1250 to 1350 feet A. T. but occasional upland knolls such as Cottonpatch Knob, 1400 feet A. T.; Stepping

25 Rock Knob, 1445 feet A. T.; Bald Knob, 1445 feet A. T.; and Cemetery Knob, 1440 feet A. T., rise from 50 to 100 feet higher. The present day drainage of the South Fork of the Cumberland River and its tributaries in this part of McCreary County is ordinarily entrenched into the Cumberland plateau to a maximum depth of about 650 feet but exceptional instances of 700 and 725 feet of physiographic relief—as from Bald Knob to the mouth of Rock Creek—can be specifically cited. Low water in the South Fork River a little above the "Big Rock" at the mouth of Troublesome Creek is 791 feet A. T., and at the "Old Ford" below the mouth of Bear Creek, three mUes down stream, it is 780 feet A. T. The rock cut bed of the Cmnber- land River between Troublesome and Bear Creeks at points of low water rarely exceeds 200 or 250 feet in width and three to five feet in depth—sometimes it is much less. A picturesque stream, the Cumber­ land in this part of its course is marked by long semi- quiescent, clear pools separated occasionally by short, low shoals or riffles across which the river flows with resonance and rapidity. The width of the South Fork vaUey floor from hiU to hUl at flood plain level (800 feet A. T.) near the Beatty weU is about 400 feet, but numerous points both below and above Oil Well Branch can be found where it is somewhat less, perhaps not more than about 350 feet. Two essentiaUy north-south profiles projected across the river on either side of OU WeU Branch at an altitude of 1200 feet A. T. (about 400 feet above the casing head of the Beatty WeU) indicate that the old South Fork Valley in this area at such upland levels has a width of only

26 1800 or 2000 feet. Ridge top elevations of about 1300 to 1350 feet on either side of the Cumberland, the oldest landmarks in this vicinity, are rarely more than 1 or 1.25 mUes apart.

STRATIGRAPHY

EXPOSED ROCKS. The bed of the South Pork of the Cumberland River is cut about 25 feet into the Glen Dean (Upper Chester-Mississippian) lime­ stone at and in the vicinity of the Beatty Oil Well. A heavy calcareous ledge of this formation coming to outcrop in the channel of the river a little above the mouth of Oil Well Branch gives rise to the riffle which may be noted some 100 or 150 feet below the well. The several large sandstone blocks lodged on these shoals, like the "Big Rock" previously cited a mUe upstream at the mouth of Troublesome Creek, have broken loose from the high conglomeratic cliffs rimming the upper and older valley (1050 to 1200 feet A. T.) and slid and roUed down the steep ero­ sional slopes to their present stream bed location. As no vertical scar in the densely timbered hiUsides marks their path of descent, it may safely be assumed that these spectacular events took place in ancient times, possibly two or three hundred years or longer ago. The casing head of the Beatty WeU (805 feet A, T.) though set in the soft fluvial deposits of the lower bottom of the river is actuaUy about 10 feet below the top of the Glen Dean which wUl be found in this area at about 815 feet A. T. and usually cov­ ered by thick talus. Above the Glen Dean the sec­ tion at the mouth of OU WeU Branch exhibits about

27 100 feet of the Pennington formation with some 40 or 50 feet of dark red rubbly shale at the bottom, grading upwardly into green shale and green sand­ stone, gray, rubbly, fossUiferous limestone and fine white clifted sandstone, the top of which is the upper limit of the Chester group in this part of southern Kentucky. Above the Pennington and separated from it by a great unconformity, which unfortunately is not observable here due to talus, but may be seen else­ where, particularly on the Yamacraw Hill, some 90 to 100 feet of soft, upper Carboniferous shales set in and extend upwardly to the base of the first thick layers of conglomeratic sandstone. One and some­ times two subconglomerate coals—^the No. 1 and the No. iy2 of the local miners—occur in the shaley divi­ sion which with aU of the superimposed beds, some 400 to 450 feet of shale, sandstone, sandstone con­ glomerate and coal to the top of the ridge at Bald Knob (1445 feet A. T.) are grouped in the Middle Pottsville of the Lower Pennsylvanian. The reddish friable sandstones seen at the road side on Bald Knob and elsewhere on the Stepping Rock Ridge mark the top of the exposed stratigraphic section in the vicin­ ity of the Beatty Well, and indicaite a total thickness of about 650 feet. UNEXPOSED ROCKS. The Glen Dean, a blue gray, thin bedded limestone (upper Chester) has already been indicated as partly at outcrop at the Beatty Well. Beneath the rock-cut channel of the Cumber­ land River in this southwestern part of McCreary County there is probably an additional 100 feet of this formation, giving it a total thickness here of about 125 feet. Below the Glen Dean the driUing

28 section wiU reveal about 115 feet of the Gasper for­ mation which, as seen at nearest outcrop in Sloans VaUey, is mainly a gray, alternately oolitic and crys- taUine, sometimes compact limestone. Subjacent to the Gasper the section wUl show about 115 feet of the Ste. Genevieve which overlies at least 100 feet of the compact to bouldery and frequently cherty St. Louis limestone, which forms such conspicuous riffles and cliffs some 15 to 20 airline mUes farther down the South Fork in northwestern McCreary and southern Pulaski County. Below the St. Louis there occurs about 50 feet of limestone, sandstone and shale that is definitely of Warsaw age. Underneath this easily recognized for­ mation and resting on the black Chattanooga (upper Devonian) shale there wUl be found in deeper weUs about 300 to 325 feet of dark gray, sandy shale with some thin bedded cherty limestone (Keokuk) over­ lying a good deal of soft green shale and some lime­ stone (New Providence). This thick lower group of sediments, the interformational limitations of which are indeterminate in well records in this part of Kentucky, completes the lower Mississippian section in the vicinity of the Beatty OU Well. Considered as a unit and delimited by the Chat­ tanooga black shale below, the subsurface upper, middle and lower Mississippian section in this part of the Big South Fork Valley, as detaUed above, should have a thickness of about 775 or 800 feet. The entire stratigraphic section—surface and sub­ surface—as here presented totals about 1400-1450 feet. In other words it is probable that if a group of wells were to be drUled in the vicinity of the high­ est part of the Stepping Stone Ridge (Pennsylvan-

29 ian) to the top of the Chattanooga (Devonian) black shale they would have a total depth such as is here indicated.

STRUCTURE

Since in 1818, at the time Marcus Huling began the driUing of his remarkable weU on Martin Beatty's 727 acre Wayne County tract on the South Fork of the Cumberland River, the geologic prin­ ciples involving the accumulation of salt water, oil and gas were whoUy unknown, it must be assumed that the location was made after the manner of most wild cat drillings—^by chance or intuition. As it turned out it was not a good location for the salt making purposes he had in mind, for it produced very little brine, but as a drilling site for oU it was of the best, since it produced a fiowing well that has taken its place in the dependable, recorded history of petroleum as not only the first in Kentucky, but the first in all the country southwest of the Ohio River. Whosoever may glance at the Structural am>d Areal Map of McCreary County done in the field under the direction of the writer, then State Geol­ ogist of Kentucky, by R. E. Murphy and R. Miller, and issued by the Sixth Kentucky Geological Survey in 1928, wiU note that Huling made his location near­ ly on the top of a dome of considerable size. Its major axis, nearly north and south, is about 6 miles long and extends from the headwaters of Grassy Creek southwardly across Oil WeU Branch and Cot­ tonpatch Creek somewhat into Tennessee. This symmetrical structure was originaUy mapped on the

30 No. 1 (Hudson) coal (see Frontispiece sketch). It was checked by the writer using this unmistakable horizon—^now faced to show 47 inches of clear coal with dark gray shale roof and bottom near the road­ side on Watson's Branch—on AprU 23, 1952. A unit upfold of important appearance, this dome cresting at the junction of OU WeU Branch and the South Pork of the Cumberland exhibits a closure of about 60 feet and embraces an area of about 6000 acres of as rough and interesting terrain as may be found in McCreary County, Kentucky.

BEATTY WELL OIL Of course, there is no detailed log for the Mar­ tin Beatty No. 1. Records of driUed wells were not kept in 1818 nor for a good many years thereafter. But dependable information is at hand as to the depth at which the oU was encountered in the well, and with this the producing horizon can be named and placed. In the best source avaUable today, the contemporary news account which appeared on the front page of the Argus of Western America in Prankfort, Kentucky, on December 4,1818, it states: "At a depth of about 200 feet from the surface, they struck a vein of oU, which rose to the surface and continued to run briskly for several days." This statement, coming within a few days or a couple of weeks at the most after the discovery of the oil was made, has the ring of authenticity and is here ac­ cepted as a fact. Professor J. M. Safford, State Geologist of Ten­ nessee, writing in the American Journal of Science nearly fifty years later (1886), after giving sufficient

31 description of the area to indicate that he had at some time previously examined the geology at and surrounding the Beatty WeU, states: "The well is sunk near the river and is . . . 200 feet deep . . . It was bored... for salt water. At its greatest depth, a reservoir of oU was struck, from which so much petroleum flowed as to lead to the abandonment of the boring as a salt weU.'' During the period 1820 to 1826 Marcus Huling, who drilled the Beatty Well, wrote six letters prin- cipaUy of a personal nature, to his brother, David Hiding, of Lewistown, Pennsylvania. The writer has read each of these original A.L.S. In one of them, answering his brother's inquiry, he is explicit in recommending the Argus of Western America as one of the two best newspapers in the southwestern county. His interest in and apparent famUiarity with this Frankfort news sheet, suggests that he, in aU likelihood, was the "informant who has seen the oU" as the editor of the Argus wrote on December 4,1818. Furthermore, much internal evidence in the story, the terminology used—"sand pump"—is dis­ tinctly that of the driUer, and the offer of a sample of the oil undoubtedly was made by the operator in person. In any event, assuming that oil was found by Marcus Huling in the Beatty Well "at a depth of about 200 feet from the surface," other much later writings to the contrary notwithstanding, this pro­ ducing horizon is definitely determinable and is spe­ cifically described stratigraphically as the thick bed­ ded light gra/y oolite which may be seen at outcrop in Wayne County in the lower part of the Gasper limestone.

32 LATER DRILLING

Various sources indicate that four or five wells have been drilled for oil in the vicinity of the old Beatty well. Two of these, cased and capped, have been seen by the writer. John J. McLaurin, formerly of Franklin, Pennsylvania, who visited this area on the Big South Fork with Dr. W. G. Hunter of BurkesvUle, Kentucky, in 1877, states in his Sketches in Crude Oil, that J. O. Marshall of Pennsylvania "cleaned out the Beatty well and drilled another half a mile north to a depth of nine hundred feet" about 1885. This second well was dry. The geolog­ ical Map of McCreary County, Kentucky issued by the sixth Kentucky Geological Survey in 1928, indi­ cates three oil wells and one dry hole within .6 of a mile radius of the old Beatty well. The dry hole may be the one drilled by J. 0. Marshall. In any event, Timothy Cockrill and J. H. Keeney of Lexington, Kentucky, at one time owners of a large boimdary of land, now the property of the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company, adjoining the Martin Beatty tract of 727 acres on the north, are stated by Roy C. Snyder of Somerset, formerly an active oU operator at MonticeUo, Kentucky, to have "drUled several shallow wells near the old Beatty well about 1912 or 1914. John Wallister, now de­ ceased, was their drilling contractor." Mr. George Humble, mining engineer of the Stearns Coal and Lmnber Company since 1905, confirms this statement saying that "Cockrill and Keeney were drilling in the immediate area of the old Beatty well and fin­ ished about 1914."

33 It is widely known that the late Mr. W. A. Kinne, former Land Agent of the Steams Coal and Lum­ ber Company, aided by elderly natives of this area, accurately located the old Beatty oil well some ten years ago. Appreciating its importance in the his­ tory of Petroleum in America, he subsequently undertook to mark it. Roy C. Snyder, clearly recall­ ing the incident, credits Mr. Kinnie with the removal of the original, partly rotted wooden casing. In its place he set the modern pipe,now seen—a short joint of casing with screw cap. Mr. John Hill, formerly a resident of this part of the Big South Fork valley has written that "Mr. W. A. Kinne had Willie Boy- att in 1943 haul two big water mill rocks up to within a few feet of the Beatty well." These old millstones, erroneously ascribed by some not-to-careful writers to an imaginary grist mill of early times in this area, were very apparently intended by Mr. Kinne to be a part of a monument marking the old Beatty oil well. They may be seen today, partly covered with under­ brush, near the edge of the upper bottoms of the Cumberland river, a few feet above the old Beatty well.

FACT AND FANCY

The Beatty OU Well, like many another mysteri­ ous and awesome physical phenomenon, has appar­ ently inspired colorful legend as the passing years have crowded the principal events connected with its momentous discovery of oU, into obscurity. In some instances reason, experience or knowledge readily indicates a statement or a story is fictitious, in others

34 there is the feeling that the narrative is largely pure invention, but it cannot be proven so to be. There is the story of the great conflagration, told by a native to John J. McLaurin when he visited the Beatty WeU with Dr. W. G. Hunter of BurkesvUle, Kentucky, in 1877. McLaurin, accepting it as gos­ pel, put it in his book Sketches in Crude Oil issued in 1896 and now it is frequently met with in the "twice told tales" of recent writers none of whom seem ever to have wondered that neither Martin Beatty nor Marcus Huling left any record of it. In the factual narrative of F. H. Bagby of MonticeUo, on Wayne County in the South Central Petroleum District a chapter in the AnnuM Report of the In­ spector of Mines of Kentucky for the year 1895, there is not the slightest reference to it. Much evidence is avaUable pointing to the prob- abUity that "the great conflagration" did not occur at aU. What happened, in aU likelihood, is that a relatively smaU fire may have been "set" a little be­ low the oil well by residents of the area who wished to drive Huling and Zimmerman out of the vaUey. Frequent reteUing with embellishment finally pro­ duced the now often heard story of the conflagration. In this connection it must be remembered that the oil in the Beatty weU was not of the light gravity type that occasionaUy produces "a burning river." A sample taken from the cased and closed Beatty well by the writer on April 23, 1952 showed, when tested at the University of Kentucky, a gravity of only 17°, which is somewhat lower than the heavy Ragland oU widely known to be about 22° in the Beaume scale. Such a heavy base oil would not be likely to burn on water except in quiescent pools. It would not have

35 the flashing power to carry a flame up stream over the many swiftly flowing rapids, riffles and "jumps" that mark the course of the South Fork in this area. During the cold and wet period of the late FaU and Winter when the Beatty weU was in the early and copious stages of flow, it is altogether unlikely that, even with encouragement, its oU would have burned in trash and leafless brush at the shore line of the Cumberland river sufficiently to have produced what might be properly termed "a great conflagration." It is passing strange also that Professor J. M. Safford who had an eye for the unusual, and of a certainty visited the Beatty WeU some time before 1866, made no reference to "the fire" in his article on the geology of the area surrounding the well, which was printed by the American Journal of Sci­ ence during that year. SimUarly Captain Tuttle in his article entitled: The Beatty Salt Well, which was first printed in the late 1890's, states: "At a depth of 536 feet, a veritable "gusher" of petroleum "burst into view" described by an eye witness as foUows: "A stream of oU and carburetted hydrogen gas was entered which ascended the orifice, pervaded the atmosphere, ran down the bank and spread over the river—^but subsequently caught fire and was only checked by the throwing sand in the well and plug­ ging the hole." With oU flowing copiously or other­ wise out of the weU it is mortaUy certain that Mar­ cus Huling, who was always in need of money, did not deepen the hole for salt water to anything like 536 feet, if at aU. And as to the fire and the plug­ ging we may take his A.L.S. to his brother, David Huling, of AprU 8, 1820 in which he says, speaking of the Beatty WeU on the South Fork: "There ap-

36 pears to be plenty of water in that well and . . . the oU stUl fiows as usual."

LITERATURE Aside from critical comment of a somewhat neg­ ative character which might be considerably ex­ tended at wiU, it seems proper to evaluate in this piece of writing the literature, as it is now known, touching upon the Beatty Well. In all probabUity time wUl adjudge the brief news account entitled OIL, which appeared in the Argus of Western America, on December 4, 1818; and the letter of Marcus Huling to his brother, David Huling of Lewiston, Pennsylvania, dated AprU 8th and post­ marked Columbia, Kentucky, April 11, 1820, as the two primary and most dependable sources. Of those who early visited the Beatty Well and wrote about it later, Professor J. M. Safford's care­ fully and accurately prepared Note on the Geological Position of Petroleum Reservoirs in Southern Ken­ tucky and Tennessee: 1866, wiU always rank high. Coming into this part of Wayne County during the mid-century years—^probably before the beginning of the CivU War—he had the opportunity, and as was his custom, it appears, talked with some of the "old timers," who were living in the neighborhood when Marcus Huling brought the well into oil production. A competent and trained observer, Safford examined the exposed stratigraphic section, learned the depth at which the oU was found, and then promptly and properly ascribed the source bed to the Mountain Limestone, a term in the early nomenclature of the

37 Ohio VaUey which includes the Gasper Limestone as recognized today. Among those who wrote of the Beatty well sev­ eral decades later in the mid nineties—F. H. Bagby's factual account of 1895 appearing in The South Cen­ tral Petroleum District in 1896; Captain John W. Tuttle's detailed article: The Beatty Salt Well of 1818, and John J. McLaurin's colorful narrative appearing in his Sketches in Crude Oil during 1896 are each undoubtedly original and worthy of serious consideration. McLaurin visited the well, as he states, in 1877, scraped away the mould of the for­ est, and discovered "blackened fragments of the timbered waUs" of the old, original salt pit "nine feet square and ten feet deep!" At the bottom he reports, "th^ weU, barely three inches in diameter!" Much appearing in the various articles cited and annotated in the foUowing Bibliography rivals this brief, factual description, of Martin Beatty's old well of 1818, but certainly nothing could possibly exceU it!

38 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1818

ANONYMOUS OU. In the "Argus of Western America." Vol. XL, No. 49. P. 1, col. 2. Frankfort, Kentucky. December 4,1818. Provides contemporary description of the "salt well" drilling on the South Fork of the Cumberland River in Kentucky in the year 1818 which "at a depth of about 200 feet" made the dis­ covery of flowing oil. Although drilled by Marcus Huling, it has been widely but erroneously publicized as "the strike of Martin Beatty," and is the first commercial oil well of record in this State.

1820

HuuNG, MARCUS [Letter to David W. Hiding, Lewistown, Penn­ sylvania. Dated, AprU 8,1820.'] This four page AX.S. with "stampless cover" is post dated "Co­ lumbia, Kentucky, April 11, 1820." It was sent to the writer's brother, an attorney. Coupled with much of a personal nature there appears toward the end of this somewhat lengthy epistle, upwards of about a paragraph relative to the oil well which he, Marcus Huling, drilled in 1818 and 1819 on the Martin Beatty tract on the South Fork of Cumberland River in what was then Wayne but is now McCreary Cotmty, Kentucky. The original 1820, A.L.S. may be seen in the "Thurman Collection of Stamp­ less Covers" in the archives of the Filson Club in Louisville, Kentucky. A photostat is lodged in the Kentucky Historical Society records.

39 1821

LouGHERY, NEWTON [Wayne County, Kentucky, Tax List: 1821.'] Orig­ inal MS. In Kentucky Historical Society archives in 1952. Frankfort, Kentucky. Shows Martin Beatty possessed of 2527 acres in 10 tracts one of which is the 727 acre property cited as obtained from John Francis on which the oil well was drilled three years previously —^in 1818. Beatty's land holdings were assessed at $1.00 per acre or $2527.00. 1861

LESLEY, JOSEPH, JR. (PROF.) Wa/yne County. Pp. 448-492 in the Fourth Re­ port of the Geological Survey in Kentucky. Frankfort, Kentucky. 1861. The first geological report on this part of southeastern Ken­ tucky, it is confined to stratigraphy and the coals of the area. Unfortunately, though it carefully outlines the coals of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River, it makes no mention of either oil or gas, more especially the remarkable Beatty well of 1818.

1865 ANONYMOUS Prospectus of the McCastland Well. The Observer and Reporter, Lexington, Kentucky. August 16, 1865. Outline of the proposal by Hall, Post, Fitch and Co., to drill a well to a depth of 800 feet "on the farm of Micajah Phillips 2 miles south of MonticeUo, Wayne County, Kentucky," where "a well was sunk in exactly the same spot fifty years ago for salt, and at the depth of 283 feet abandoned because petroleum was found in such quantities as to ruin ... it as a salt well . . . The facts as above stated are verified by the affidavits of old residents, which may be seen at any time in the office of the firm adjoining Fitche's Drug Store on Main Street, ..." Lexing­ ton, Kentucky. Acceptance of this statement would indicate that oil in some considerable unstated amount was found in a drilled well in Wayne County, Kentucky, as early as 1815, three years before the Beatty well was drilled. Apparently no attempt was ever made to commercialize the oil in ttiis well.

40 Pittsburgh Petroleum Market: December 5,1865. P. 4, Col. 1, Vol. 77, No. 138. DaUy Gazette. Cin­ cinnati, Ohio. December 8,1865. States: "CRUDE.—^The crude market was untisuaUy active, the reported transactions in the aggregate being larger than toe some days past. . . . The latest advices we have from Oil City (Pennsylvania) report crude at $9.25 per barrel at that point." With oil bringing such high prices as this quotation indicates, there is little wonder that the Old Beatty Oil Well and adjacent properties were of much economic interest in tiie late 1860's.

SMITH, RICHARD (EDITOR) The Proposed Southern RaUroad. P. 2, Col. 1, Vol. 77, No. 138. Daily Gazette. Cincinnati, Ohio. December 8,1865. EditoriaL "The great vaUey of the Big South Fork, in which are located the famous Beatty Oil and Salt Wells is thus opened Up to development of its immense petroleum wealth. ... It is believed by geologists who have been the entire Summer prospecting in this region that this section is richer in oil than even the great oil regions in Western Pennsylvania."

BEBB, WILLIAM Cincinnati a/nd KnoxvUle Radroad. P. 1, Col. 2. Vol. 77, No. 139. Daily Gazette, Cincinnati, Ohio. December 9,1865. Brief description by a former Governor of Ohio (1846-48) of a proposed course for the Cincinnati and Knoxville Railroad in the area south of the Cumberland river. This is identical with the route used by Marcus Huling in wagoning out the oil pro­ duced in the Beatty well for sale m the United States and export to Europe. (Sovemor Bebb states: "Crossing the Cvunberland river just above the mouth of the South Fork, at Point Biu:nside, [one] gradually rises by a cut up the east side of the South Fork, with no stream to cross, twelve miles to the summit of the Table Lands near William Highton's; thence keeping the dividing ridge between the rivulets falling into the South Fork and the small streams flowing into the upper Cumberland in almost a direct line . . . twaity-one mUes to Pine Knot, [and] six miles to the Tennessee line ..." This upland route finally became the right-of-way of the Southern Railroad and at Silerville is only seven miles east of the old Beatty oil welL

41 Cincinnati and Knoxville Railroad: Resources Along the Line. P. 1, Col. 1, Vol. 77, No. 141, DaUy Gazette, Cincinnati, Ohio. December 12,1865. Continuing his description (from December 9th) of the proposed course of the railroad south of the Cumberland river Governor Bebb states: "In the valley of the South Fork in early times, were worked Beaty's Salt WeUs. Boring one a little deeper, oil was struck which overfloweid at such a rate as to ruin the little salt works. The value of the oU being then imknown, the well was stopped to prevent the 'nuisance' and was not opened until a few months ago. Other unmistakable indications prove that the South Fork flows through the oil region, and a large com­ pany has been chartered and organized to open the river and bore for the oU."

1866 SAPFOED, J. M. (PROF.) Note on the Geological Position of Petroleum Res­ ervoirs in Southern Kentucky and Tennessee. Pp. 104-107 in The Am. Journal of Science and Arts. Series II, Vol. XLII, No. 104. New Haven, Con­ necticut. 1866. A good description of the Beatty well and its geology as under­ stood in 1866. The date of the discovery of oil in this well is here given as "about 1825" which is 7 years in error. The Beatty well was drilled into oil in November or early Decem­ ber, 1818. Pages 105-106.

1867

HITCHCOCK, C. H. (PROF.) Petroleum in North America. Pp. 34-37, Geologi­ cal Magazine. London, England. 1867. (U.K.Lib.) Notes the occurrence of wells in the Lower Carboniferous of Kentucky and may refer to the Beatty and other early wells of Wayne County though the author does not cite them by name.

42 1884

PECKHAM, S. P. (PROF.) Production, Technology, and Uses of Petroleum and Its Products. 319 pp. lUust. Vol. X. Tenth U. S. Census, Dept. of the Interior, Washington, D. C. 1884. states: "Salt-wells were bored along the Big Sandy river and its tributaries across Kentucky and into Tennessee, and in many of them petroleum appeared in sufficient quantity to be trouble­ some. In 1818 or 1819 a well was bored on the South Fork of the Cumberland River, in Wayne County, Kentucky, that pro­ duced petroleum in such quantities that it was abandoned for brine and was almost forgotten for more than thirty years. This well has acquired some notoriety under the name of the Beatty well, and is still yielding small quantities of oil." Page 8.

1896 BAGBY, F. H. The South Central Petroleum District. In the "Annual Report of Inspector of Mines of the State of Kentucky for the Year 1895." Louis- vUle, Kentucky. 1896. Tells the story of the oil strike on the lands of Martin Beatty on the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River in Wayne County, Kentucky, in 1819. Pages 294-95. The oil was found in 1818, but the date of completion, a year later, is frequently given.

BLANCHARD, E. Map of the Kentucky and Tennessee Oil Field. White line print. Scale: 1 inch = 4 mUes. AUardt, Tennessee. AprU, 1896. Locates and names the "Old Beatty Salt Well" on the west bank of the "Big South Fork of the Cumberland River" about 2 miles above the mouth of Bear Creek.

43 MCLAURIN, JOHN J. Sketches in Crude OU. 406 pp. Ulust. J. Hor­ ace McFarland Company. Harrisburg, Pennsyl­ vania. 1896. Interesting and extended account of the strike of "David" [Mar­ tin] Beatty on the Big South Fork of the Ciunberland River in 1818 coupled with a personal visit to the "First Real Oil-Spouter in America" in 1877. Pages 30-35.

1919 ANONYMOUS Development of OU Fields Has Been Delayed 100 Years by Lack of Transportation. OU Section, P. 1, Cols. 1 & 2, The Herald, Lexington, Kentucky. Sunday, August 10,1919. "The first flowing oil well in America was located in Kentucky. In the southwestern section of Wayne County, now McCreary County, near the northeastern part of a 6000 acre tract on the Big South Fork of Cvimberland River, Martin Beatty bored a well in 1818, 170 feet deep, for salt. The well was on a strip of flat ground, a few yards from water, at the foot of a rocky bluif, which was streaked with coal and limestone. A hole nine feet square was dug 10 feet in the rock and timbered, preceding the drilling of a three inch hole or well by manual labor ... A black, sticky liquid persisted in coming up with the salt water, which at last burst forth with great force, filling the pit and running into the [river] ..."

JiLLSON, WILLARD ROUSE Sketch of the Development of the OU and Gas In­ dustry in Kentucky During the Past Century (1819-1919). Pp. 1-28 in "The Mineral and For­ est Resources of Kentucky." Vol. 1, No. 1. Frank­ fort, Kentucky. AprU, 1919; also pp. 1-26 in "Contributions to Kentucky Geology," Depart-

44 ment of Geology and Forestry of Kentucky, Series V, BuU. IV, Frankfort, Kentucky. 1920. Notes the discovery of oil by Martin Beatty on the west side of the South Fork of the Cumberland River in Wayne County, Kentucky, in 1819. This date is in error; it should have been 1818.

The OU a/nd Gas Resou/rces of Kentucky. 630 pp. Ulust. Maps. Department of Geology and For^ estry of Kentucky. Bull. 1. Frankfort, Ken­ tucky. 1st Ed., 1919. 2nd and 3rd Eds., 1920. Notes the strike of Martin Beatty on the South Fork of Cumber­ land River in 1819 as "the first oil well in Kentucky." Pages 3-5.

MILLER, ARTHUR MCQUISTON The Geology of Kentucky. 392 pp. Ulust. De­ partment of Geology and Forestry. BuU. II. Prankfort, Kentucky. 1919. Describes the discovery of Martin Beatty on the South Fork of the Cvunberland River in Kentucky in 1819 as "the first oil strike in the State." Cites the depth at which the oil was found as "several hundred feet." Pages 287-88.

JILLSON, WILLARD ROUSE The Re-Bom Oil Fields of Kentucky. Sunday Magazine Sect., The Courier-Journal. LouisviUe, Kentucky. October 19,1919; also in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 18, No. 52. Prankfort, Kentucky. 1920. An illxistrated article crediting the discovery of the first oil well in Kentucky to Martin Beatty in 1818. It was drilled on the South Fork of the Cumberland River.

45 1920 GLENN, L. C. OU Fields of Kentucky and Tennessee. Pp. 1-12. No. 157, Sect. 5. Mining and Metallurgy. New York. January, 1920. Notes the accidental discovery of oil in 1819 "while drilling for salt near the South Fork of the Cumberland River in what was Wayne but is now McCreary (bounty, Kentucky. An error ap­ pears in the date of discovery of oil in the Beatty well as given in this article. It should have been 1818 rather than "1819."

1921 PERRY, EUGENE L. Crude Oil Used as Physic in Early Days. The Times. LouisviUe, Kentucky. May 28, 1921. "... of these earlier encounters with petroleum over 100 years ago, a well drilled by Martin Beatty, a Virginia iron furnace operator^ is of most interest. Beatty . . . decided to drill a well for the "benefit of sault" and located the well one-half mile above the mouth of Bear Creek. At a depth of several hundred feet the drillers were greatly surprised when a dark, greasy substance began to flow from the hole into the river and spread itself out over the surface of the water. . . . For over sixty-five years the Beatty well either emitted oil or the oil stood within ten feet of the top. The natives collected it in buckets and bar­ rels and used it for a lubricant, for artificial light, for oiling their hogs and cattle, and for croup among their children*"

1922

JILLSON, WILLARD ROUSE An Historical Sketch of the Kentucky Geological Survey (1838-1922). Pp. 1031-34 in History of Kentucky, Charles Kerr, Ed., Vol. II. Chicago- New York. 1922. "Petroleum was found in commercial quantity on the South Fork of the Cimiberland River, in what was Wayne County, in 1919." Page 1031. An error appears in the date; it was 1818.

46 1924 ANONYMOUS Kentucky OU Pioneers. The Courier-Journal. LouisviUe, Kentucky. January 2,1924. An editorial. "It was in Wayne . . . County that the first oil well in America was drilled ... In 1818, a Virginia iron furnace operator named Martin Beatty, sunk a hole half a mile above the mouth of Bear Creek, on the Big South Fork of the Cumber­ land. He was not seeking oil, however, but salt water . . . The hole filled up with a dark, greasy substance which spread out over the water of the Creek. Beatty, disgusted, quit his work. The unknown black grease was called "Devil's Tar" by angry housewives along the river for miles, who were aroused because they lost much income from the sale of goose feathers when their flocks became covered with it."

1925

JILLSON, WILLARD ROUSE The Kentucky Land Grants. 1844 pp. Ulust. (Sfr. p. 269) Louisville, Kentucky. 1925. Cites Martin Beatty's land grant to the oil well tract of 727 acres as recorded in Book 25, page 306 of Grants South of Green River. It was surveyed December 24, 1817 and is noted as lo­ cated on the "Big South Fork" in Wayne Coimty. Page 269.

1928 ANONYMOUS Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1927. 1740 pp. Joint Comm. on Printing. Washington, D. C. 1928. Brief life sketch of Martin Beatty. Page 684.

MURPHY, R. E. and MILLER, R. Reconnaissance Map of the Structural and Areal Geology of McCreary County, Kentucky. Scale:

47 1 inch = 1 mUe. Colors. Kentucky Geological Survey, Series VI. Frankfort, Kentucky. 1928. This map, prepared under the field direction of the author, exhibits the geology in the vicinity of the old Beatty oil well on the South Fork of the Cumberland River.

WILSON, SAMUEL MCKAY History of Kentucky: 1803-1928. 730 pp. Ulust. Chicago-LouisvUle. 1928. A brief description, somewhat in error, of the 1818 Martin Beatty oil well on the South Fork of the Cumberland River in McCreary County, Kentucky. Page 77.

1929 ANONYMOUS The First OU Well. The Courier-Journal. Louis- vUle, Kentucky. March 13, 1929. An editorial. "The first oil well ever drilled in Kentucky as far as records go, was that by Martin Beatty, a Virginia iron furnace operator, in 1818 half a mile above the mouth of Bear Creek on the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River in what is now McCreary County. He was boring for salt water and when oil appeared, he quit in disgust."

BECKNER, LUOIEN Claims First OU Wells Were in Kentucky. In Civic Opinion. LouisviUe, Kentucky. November 23,1929. (Lou.P.Lib.) "The first oil well on record . . . was drilled by Martin Beatty of Abingdon, Va., while hunting for salt water on Bear Creek, a branch of the South Fork of the Ciunberland River in what is now McCreary County, Kentucky." An error of location and driller appears here; it was at the mouth of Oil Well Bremch on the South Fork, that the Beatty well was drilled by Marcus Huling, not Martin Beatty who was the land owner or lessor.

48 1930

JILLSON, WILLABD ROUSE OU and Gas in Kentucky. Pp. 11-12, Vol. 3, No. 4, Kentucky Progress Magazine. Frankfort, Ken­ tucky. December, 1930. "The first oil foimd by a drilled well. .. was ... in what is now McCreary, but then, in 1818, was in Wayne County. A man by the name of Martin Beatty, of Abingdon, Virginia, struck it while drilling for salt brine. Funny—they didn't know what it was when they got it, and they didn't know what to use it for."

1934 SEITZ, R. C. Barthell Quadrangle. Scale: 1 to 62,500. Con­ tour interval 20 feet. Forest in green, streams blue, contours brown. Surveyed by U. S. and Kentucky Geological Surveys, 1928. Washing­ ton, D. C. 1934. Exhibits the detailed topography surrounding the Beatty Oil Well at the juncture of Oil Well Branch and ttie South Fork of Cumberland River. Huling Branch flowing northwardly into the river just below the Beatty well is also shown. This impor­ tant map indicates the location and surflcial character of Cotton- patch Knob, Stepping Rock Ridge, Bald Knob, Devil's Knob, Devil's Jump, Yamacraw and other points of interest including the drainage pattern of the South Fork in the vicinity of the Beatty well.

1939 JOHNSON, AUGUSTA PHILLIPS A Century of Wayne County, Kentucky. 281 pp. Ulust. Standard Printing Co., LouisvUle, Ken­ tucky. 1939. Cites the purchase by Martin Beatty of land on the South Fork of Cumberland River in 1817 and subsequent salt well drilling and associated activities which resulted m the discovery of ou on this property in 1818. Page 68.

49 TUTTLE, JOHN W. The Beatty Salt Well. Pp. 65-69 in "A Century of Wayne County, Kentucky, 1800-1900" by Au­ gusta PhUlips Johnson. LouisviUe, Kentucky. 1939. A readable narrative reprinted from the Signal, a MonticeUo, Kentucky, newspaper of date now unknown, but thought to be in the 1890's. Pages 67-69.

1943 MCFARLAN, ARTHUR C. Geology of Kentucky. 531 pp. Ulust. Univer­ sity of Kentucky. Lexington, Kentucky. 1943. Gives the oft repeated story of the oil discovery made by Martin Beatty on the South Fork of the Cumberland River in 1819. The correct date of this important oil strike was 1818 rather than 1819, the date given in this book. Page 283.

1944 PRYE, ARCHIE S. New OU Boom Brings Prosperity to Clinton Coun­ ty. The Courier-Journal, Sect. 3, P. 6. 7 Cols. LouisvUle, Kentucky. June 4,1944. "... the first oil weU in America was driUed on the South Fork of the Cumberland River in what is now McCreary County, but at that time was in Wayne. Martin Beatty of Abingdon, Va., was drilling for salt, but found oil at 600 feet in 1819 after flve years of toil with a hand-powered rig." There are three errors in this otherwise well written article. These are: 1. The Beatty No. 1 was NOT "the first oil well in America." This honor probably belongs to one of the "salt wells" drilled about 1808-1814 by the Ruflfner Brothers in what is now West Virginia, but was then Virginia. 2. The Beatty well struck oil at about 200 feet—not 600 feet which at that early time with primitive drilling equipment would have been an impossible depth. 3. The well was driUed into oil as a con­ temporary newspaper source states in 1818, not in 1819.

60 1946 JILLSON, WILLARD ROUSE The OU and Gas Pools of Clinton County, Ken­ tucky. 36 p. pamph. Roberts Printing Co., Frank­ fort, Ky. 1946. Cites the discovery of "dark, heavy gravity oil" in the Beatty weU on the South Fork of the Cumberland River in 1819. The rather common error of the "finding" date appears in this refer­ ence; it should have been 1818.

1949 HERRIOK, JOHN P. Empire OU: The Story of Oil In New York State. 474 pp. Ulust. Dodd, Meade and Co., New York. 1949. Devotes a paragraph to the Beatty Oil WeU of 1818 in Ken­ tucky. Page 12.

1951 CREASON, JOE This Old Medicine Would Get You OUed. Sunday Magazine, the Courier-Journal, LouisviUe, Ken­ tucky. October 28,1951. "However, over in neighboring Wayne County, the folks say . . . the first oil weU in America actuaUy was drilled in 1818 and early 1819 on a 1,000 acre tract on the South Fork River at the mouth of Bear Creek. The driller . . . was Martin Beatty; and he struck oil at 536 feet. The story also has oil flowing from the hole into the creek and there catching fire . . . the residents . . . called the liquid "devil's tar." Wayne County's claim to having the first oil well never has been pushed; that is no deter­ mined effort has been made to have it fiuly recognized. So what may have been the first oil well in the world remains only a local legend." Finis

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