BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Ii
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Alt 34-72-2.0-2-^2. FILM & REBIND no. Ao? Í DERRICKS AND DITCHES: A CULTURAL - HISTORICAL STUDY OF AN OIL BOOM ERA Marie A. Campbell A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 1971 Approved by Doctoral Committee BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ii ABSTRACT 49�1144 This research was an in-depth study of Wood County, Ohio, during the oil boom era, 1886-1910. It was a case study of area folklore, collected and analyzed, using a cultural-his torical approach based on the theory that the American folk lorist can approach his discipline most effectively from the vantage points of American culture and history. The study focused on folk narratives and attitudes and on folklore func tion and esthetic. Oral transcripts from seventy informants, mostly local retired oil men, provided the field data. Chapters II and III presented field data necessary to an understanding of the cultural milieu out of which the oil boom came. Study of the texts determined two factors responsible for draining the Black Swamp, construction of drainage ditches and deforestation, thus making possible the population influx caused by the oil boom. The texts described the importance of the railroad, street car and improved �oads to the development of the oil industry. Analysis of descriptions of the oil trail from Pennsylvania, the oil towns, the abundance of gas, con temporary and tr·aditional leisure activities, and changing social institutions led to the conclusion that the culture of the area was drastically redirected by the oil boom. Chapter IV dealt with the oil industry processes and stereotypes. Raconteurs were found to have two purposes as they delineated the processes of their work: didacticism and a desire to relate their specialized knowledge and stories of the oil era. Raconteurs conveyed their values, behavior, and attitudes toward their labor. Analysis revealed three quali ties reflecting the oil men's philosophy of life: the oil men's camaraderie, the ironic genial-brutal position of the frontier braggadocio, and the folk esthetic of weakness com pensated with strength. In Chapter V texts of the local oil legends were analyzed and variants compared. Analysis established why changes oc curred: individual taste, novelty, memory, conformity to other texts, and the unification of variants from the same locale. Analysis determined that local legend patterns became estab lished: the inclusion of the narrator's point of view; the addition or deletion of elements, changes of emphasis, and the imposition of order on a chaotic event., A detailed analysis of folk esthetic was undertaken with the legend of the Gypsy Lane Road Explosion, a tragedy about which variants e.ventually have gravitated toward legend and myth, away from fact. The cultural-historical method, based on the unique historical background of this country, provided an innovative and effective procedure for investigating a perspective of American history and folklore, the oil boom era in Wood County. Ill ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to acknowledge the many people who have made this study possible. Sincere thanks is extended to the committee chairman and thesis director, Dr. Ray B. Browne, for his professional assistance and encouragement through out the doctoral program and in the completion of this study. Special appreciation is extended to Professors Alma Payne and J. Robert Bashore for their skillful guidance throughout this study and for their enthusiastic and able direction in many areas of American letters. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Max Shaffer. His years of interest in the history of oil in Wood County brought to fruition my desire to approach oil folklore using a cultural-historical method. For his resourceful suggestions concerning informants, his field collecting, and his patient guidance I am greatly appreciative. This study was made possible by the gracious and capable informants who willingly contributed their narrations to the project,.for which I thank them. I am also indebted to the Marathon Oil Company and the North Baltimore Public Library for their contributions of materials. My deepest gratitude I happily submit to my husband, Harley, for his generous and enthusiastic assistance, par ticularly while he cheerfully shouldered parental duties during my sporadic immurement. To Cameron and Eric I gladly announce, "Yes, now it's all finished!" iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION.......... ............... 1 Statement of the Problem ...................... 2 Methodology of the Study.................... 6 Review of Related Literature .................. .8 II. MUDDING IT: A STUDY IN GEOGRAPHY ....... 13 Ditches and Roads in the Black Swamp.......... 13 The Railroad.................................. 27 The Coldwater Railroad . .................... 32 The Street Car................................ 34 III. THE OIL BOOM: NEW COMMUNITIES AND NEW WEALTH . 38 The Oil Trail.......................... 38 Life in the Oil Towns............ 45 Gas in Wood County ............................. 67 Time for Leisure . ................ 72 Popular Culture ............................ 75 Holidays ..................................... 80 Traditional Entertainments .......... .... 86 Social Institutions ................ ..... 91 Courting and Marriage ..... .......... 91 Wakes, Watches, andF unerals ................. 94 Religious Customs ................ 99 The Country School ..... ................ 103 IV. THE OIL MAN AND HIS WORK......... .. ........... 107 The Oil Man.................. ................ 107 The Oil Man's Camaraderie ........... .. 108 The Frontier Braggart.................... .. 109 Oil Occupation Stereotypes................ .. 116 The Processes of the Oil Field . ............. 128 Locating Oil........ ........................ 130 - Drilling a Well.............. .. 134 Shooting a Well ............................. 147 The Flowing Well............................ 153 Pumping the Wells ......... 156 Pumping Stations . ........................... 159 V. LOCAL OIL LEGENDS............................ 162 Early Wells and Gushers ................. 163 The Potter Well *.......... 169 CHAPTER PAGE Tank Fires................ .................. 178 Glycerin Explosions .......................... 185 The Grant Well Explosion . ............. 188 The Gypsy Lane Road Explosion.............. 200 The Folk Esthetic............................ 213 VI. REFLECTIONS ON THE OIL BOOM .................. 221 Suggestionslfor .-Further Study’; . ‘ . 223 The"Cultural - Historical Method: Conclusions . 225 NOTES .................... 230 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................. 233 APPENDICES .................... 236 Appendix A: Sample Questionnaire ..... .. 236 Appendix B: The Informants........... 239 Appendix C: The 1897 Disaster at Cygnet . 244 Appendix D: Interview: The Folk Esthetic ... 247 I CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION European folklorists conventionally have based their study on oral traditions of the peasantry, giving little note to folklore arising from historical events. In America folklorists traditionally have conducted studies commencing with European models and genres of folklore and seeking ex amples in a region. Because of America’s historical back ground, however, the quality of folklore in the United States is unique. The American folklorist can approach his disci pline more effectively from the vantage points of American culture, beginning with American conditions and proceeding to a folkloristic perspective, rather than seeking European folklore variants in America. Of necessity, such an approach must concentrate on a limited number of perspectives or on one region, perhaps encompassing the study of a particular place at a particular time, in order that a meaningful analysis of the folklore and of the history of the American experience be conducted. Just as the nature of American folklore is exceptional because of the social and cultural history of the United States, so too is that of any particular region which shares in varying degrees common national vantage points and which may also be strongly influenced by individual forces quite outside these vantage points. Life in Wood County, Ohio, 2 is not the same as that in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, or Brown County, Indiana, or Salinas County, California. Colonization in each of these locations was different from that in the others. So were the social history, industri alization and immigration. An analysis of any one of these regions would reflect both the singularity of its cultural- . historical profile and the common experiences which each shares with other regions of America. I. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM This research is an in-depth study of the folk cul ture of a carefully defined area, Wood County, as it was during a particular period, the oil boom era which beganiin 1886.. The-oil boom was probably the single-strongest influence on^Wood County?development. The next twenty-five years carried the county rapidly from the era of colonization and settlement to that of modern developments and technology in an age of paved roads and the electric railroad. This study is concernedtewith? the culture of the region prior to, during, and immediately following the oil era, encompassing the years from 1880 to 1910. The writer has chosen this period in order to provide a study of conditions as they affected the people of a region and of the dramatic changes caused by the oil boom,