To-day Oil Creek is a town of many thousand inhabitants, as is also
Titusville at the other end of the creek. The district which began by
furnishing a few barrels of oil every season, gathered with blankets
from the surface of the creek by the Seneca Indians, has now several
towns and refineries, with millions of dollars of capital. In those
early days all the arrangements were of the crudest character. When
the oil was obtained it was run into flat-bottomed boats which leaked
badly. Water ran into the boats and the oil overflowed into the river.
The creek was dammed at various places, and upon a stipulated day and
hour the dams were opened and upon the flood the oil boats floated to
the Allegheny River, and thence to Pittsburgh.
In this way not only the creek, but the Allegheny River, became
literally covered with oil. The loss involved in transportation to
Pittsburgh was estimated at fully a third of the total quantity, and
before the oil boats started it is safe to say that another third was
lost by leakage. The oil gathered by the Indians in the early days was
bottled in Pittsburgh and sold at high prices as medicine--a dollar
for a small vial. It had general reputation as a sure cure for
rheumatic tendencies. As it became plentiful and cheap its virtues
vanished.
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