Early Gas and Oil Development in Montgomery County

Until the late 1880s, no one in Montgomery County suspected the presence of substantial natural gas reserves. Early settlers noted some oil indications, leading to initial explorations and discoveries of gas and oil in various wells. By 1890, Cherryvale had significant gas production, followed by Coffeyville and Independence. The Independence Gas Company emerged, connecting many homes to gas supplies. While oil exploration began, fluctuating yields delayed market development. Legal disputes over leases arose as interest grew, and gas supplies proved abundant, fostering local population growth and industrial investment despite concerns about resource depletion.

By H. W. Young

Until the later eighties no one suspected the existence of natural gas in Montgomery County in sufficient quantities to be of any use. Indeed, during the early history of the county, and up to 1885, or later, the existence of vast reservoirs of natural gas beneath us was unsuspected and undreamed of. People would have listened to predictions of gold mines to be opened here on the prairies much more readily than to suggestions that the time would come when our fuel would flow out of the earth in iron pipes all ready to burn, and transport itself to our doors. It was different, though, about petroleum. The pioneer settlers in plowing up the sod in some of the ravines near the Verdigris had noticed an oily scum standing in the furrows if they were left undisturbed for a time. And as long ago as April 28th, 1881, we find the following item in the local columns of the Coffeyville Star:

“Last Friday morning we found a group of men in eager consultation in front of Isham’s store. A couple of old tin cans filled with water and covered with a brownish coat, looking a little like varnish, were the centre of attraction. Tested by the nose, there was no doubt that the greasy scum on the water and the coating of the cans was crude petroleum, of the heavy or lubricating grade. They had been filled from the contents of a well that Mr. D. Davis was sinking at his residence on Ninth street; and the incontestable evidence they afforded that there was a reservoir of kerosene beneath us naturally caused considerable interest. It seems that Mr. Davis had struck a vein of fair water previously, but the quantity being deemed insufficient had gone down to the depth of twenty-five feet, where, much to his disgust, he ‘struck oil.’ Whether this development indicates the existence of oil in paying quantities in our section, we do not presume to say, though the matter is certainly worthy of further investigation. We learn that oil has heretofore been observed on the surface of the water flowing from springs in this vicinity, and it is possible that we may yet be shipping petroleum, little as such a product would be expected from a country with the physical characteristics of ours.”

It was almost twenty-two years later before petroleum began to be shipped in any considerable quantities from the county, but the forecast was correct. Six years later, in the early spring of 1887, we began to hear about the curious phenomena to be observed in an abandoned shaft over at Liberty. It was on the farm of Benjamin Grubb, adjoining that place on the north. Finding indications of coal he had sunk a shaft six or eight feet square. After getting down some distance a vein of gas was struck which came out of a crevice in the rock in such quantity that the men at work in the shaft lighted it to furnish illumination for their work. On quitting they unwisely fanned it out with their jackets. One day they went down and struck a match with the most surprising results. The gas exploded, throwing off the covering at the surface and blazing up as high as the tallest trees in the neighborhood — fifty to one hundred feet. The diggers, who were below the crevice, escaped with their lives, though terribly burned. The vein of coal was found to be only 8 inches thick, but in connection with it was 32 inches of slate so thoroughly saturated with oil that it would blaze up on being thrown into the stove. So here were found together coal, gas and oil.

Prior to that time, Thomas G. Ayres, in digging a well at Coffeyville, had found a pocket of oil containing several gallons. C. M. Ralstin, at his farm three miles southwest of Independence, reported that in a well in his cellar (55 feet deep) the gas kept bubbling up in such volume that it could be heard all through the house at night. And in drilling for coal, where the mineral bath is now, here in Independence, it was reported that there had been an explosion of some kind which threw mud over the top of the derrick, and that the drill passed through 150 feet of gas-bearing strata. By this time everyone was satisfied that there was some natural gas here, but whether in paying quantities was a problem that remained to be solved.

Gas was first found, in quantity to be worth utilizing, at Cherryvale, November 20th, 1890, in a well drilled by J. McSweeney, at a depth of 600 feet. It threw the water about fifty feet high, and was pronounced at once “the strongest flow in the state.” Within a week this well was piped and tested and gave a blaze 25 feet high. By the next year the people of Cherryvale, or a portion of them, were enjoying natural gas fires, though the quantity available was small at first.

Coffeyville came next, and her resources began to be developed in 1891 and 1892. Her first wells were sunk, like those of Cherryvale, right in town. By the winter of 1892-3 she not only had gas to burn but in such quantity that with the full pressure of the wells, there was talk of there being danger that the stoves would melt down. About the same time William Mills, who had been the first to bring in an oil well at Neodesha, found both gas and oil in the neighborhood of Elk City, but neither of them were utilized.

At Independence, the first well drilled for gas was put down in the summer of 1892 by J. D. Nickerson, with the assistance of the people of the city. It was located down near Rock Creek, at Barnes’ Garden, southwest of the city. A little gas was found — about enough to supply one stove. In the fall of the same year Mr. Nickerson drilled another well on the farm of Capt. L. C. Mason, just east of Independence. Although no gas was found here, there was such a body of gas sand that this indefatigable prospector was convinced that he was on the right track. The next drilling he did was on the J. H. Brewster place five miles southeast of the city, in the early spring of 1893. April 6th, at the depth of a thousand feet a very strong flow was struck, and from this and other wells in this vicinity gas was piped into Independence late that year. By the time cold weather came in earnest, a year later, in the winter 1894, however, the supply from this field was found entirely inadequate, and it was not until wells were developed on the Barr and Greer places, a couple of miles west of the city, that confidence in gas as a fuel was restored in the mind of the Independence citizen.

Before gas was piped into the city, Mr. Nickerson had associated with himself A. P. McBride and C. L. Bloom, experienced prospectors and drillers from Miami County, and from this partnership was evolved the Independence Gas Company, which has ever since supplied the city with gas and which holds leases on most of the lands tributary to the city. As drawn at first, these leases provided that if drilling was not begun within a limited period, the farmer should be paid a royalty of 25 cents per acre until development work was begun. Then he was to have a tenth of the oil, and a rental of $50 a year for a gas well, with gas for household purposes in addition. Since then the company has deemed it more economical to furnish gas to all its lessors, in lieu of paying a cash royalty, in order to hold the lands on which it was not prepared to drill. To do this, it has laid pipe to some two hundred farm houses, at an expense of tens of thousands of dollars. The same plan has been adopted by the Coffeyville Gas Company, and it is probable that nearly five hundred farm houses in the county are now supplied with this ideal fuel.

Although petroleum was found in considerable quantity in the first wells drilled on the Brewster place in 1893, there was no market for oil and no attempt was made to develop that branch of the mining industry in the county until nearly ten years later. It was in 1893, however, that Wm. H. Mills drilled a couple of wells at Neodesha, just over the line in Wilson County, and found oil in such quantity as to convince him that southern Kansas was going to become an oil field. The rumors that circulated in regard to his wells, and the stories about oil from them shooting out over the top of the derrick and saturating the soil so that it was necessary to cover it with fresh earth to conceal the strike, were listened to as fairy tales, and no credence given them. And yet Mr. Mills succeeded in making such a showing as to induce James H. Guffey and John H. Galey, two wealthy and experienced oil operators in the Pennsylvania and Ohio fields, to come out here and begin leasing land in this county, as well as Wilson and others adjoining. During the summer of 1893 these gentlemen drilled 15 wells in the immediate vicinity of Neodesha, all of which were oil producers with the exception of two gas wells. In 1894 they were pumping large quantities of oil and drilling new wells. In July of that year they had forty wells and not less than 3,000 barrels of oil were stored in the tanks in the field, and a 35,000 barrel storage tank had just been completed by them. A year later it became evident that the Standard Oil Company would be able to freeze out any other operators in this field, and Guffey & Galey made the best possible terms with that monopoly, receiving, according to reports, all they had expended in the field and a bonus of $100,000 in addition. At this time there were sixty-eight wells in the field controlled by them, and the “Standard” continued to drill more when it took charge, in the name of its western branch, the Forest Oil Company. A number of these new wells were in Montgomery County, in Sycamore Township; some being as far south as the neighborhood of Table Mound. These proved to be gas wells rather than oil wells and J. D. Nickerson purchased the gas rights in the Kingle and Brownfield wells for the Independence Gas Company, in 1898, for $6,000. A week or two later the “Standard” began to realize the value of such gas wells, and regretted their bargain. Since then that company has gone into the gas business, and is now furnishing gas piped from Wilson County to the city of Parsons.

In June, 1898, the “Standard” people erected an extensive refinery for oil at Neodesha, with a capacity of 500 barrels per day, but still they bought no oil and there was no inducement for any independent operator to drill for oil while there was no market.

Meantime the Independence Gas Company continued to drill more or less wells each year for the city’s supply; the Coffeyville company did the same, and there was a second or Peoples’ company organized there. At Cherryvale, the Edgar Smelter was located, with its own gas field and gas wells. Vitrified brick plants were located at Coffeyville, Independence, Cherryvale and Sycamore, and finally at Caney. At the latter place a company organized by E. B. Skinner, then county treasurer, had found gas in such quantity in the spring of 1901 that, in July of that year, the town was piped and the new fuel came into use. It was not until the fall of 1902 that Elk City was supplied, but now Jefferson, Bolton and Sycamore are also supplied, and of all the cities and villages in the county, Liberty, Havana and Tyro, only, remain without gas.

During the summer of 1902, the Independence Gas Company drilled six wells within a mile and a half of the village of Bolton, all but one of them to the south and east of that place. Of these six, five were gas wells, with daily capacities ranging from ten to fifteen million cubic feet per day. The sixth was an oil well. The aggregate output of this field is estimated at 70 million cubic feet of gas per day, and during the fall of that year this supply was made available for the needs of Independence by a pipe line. With such a supply to draw from, the inducement to factories in search of cheap fuel became so manifest that representatives of various industries in the Indiana field, where the gas was nearly exhausted, began to visit this section in considerable numbers, seeking locations.

In August 1902, the Standard Oil Company, for some reason, changed its policy and announced an open market for oil in this territory. More than that, it proceeded to secure the right-of-way for a pipe line through the county from Bartlesville in the Indian Territory, by way of Caney and Bolton, to its refinery at Neodesha. This has not yet been constructed, but the indications are that it soon will be. The development of a considerable oil field in Neosho County, to the northeast of us, and the market now made for oil led to new activity in this county. A large number of wells have been drilled in the vicinity of Cherryvale, and a little to the north and west of that city, from which oil is being shipped in quantity at this time. Two of these wells are pumping twenty barrels a day each. Meantime new operators by the score have come into the field, the leasing industry has been prosecuted with great vigor, thirty rigs are now engaged in drilling in the county, the National Supply Company has established a branch house at Independence, the formation of new oil companies goes on apace, and it only needs the discovery of some pool of oil to set fire to the train that is already laid. As yet, however, no well has been drilled in the county that gives more than a moderate yield of oil, and it is probable that from forty to fifty barrels a day is the maximum. This is about the amount claimed for wells at Sycamore and Caney that have not yet been regularly pumped. With thirty or more companies doing business in the county, and all of them holding leases that require immediate development, the number of wells going down is greater than ever before and it is expected that the record of wells drilled in the county during the year 1903 will not fall much short of two hundred, and that the amount of money spent in development work will aggregate nearly a million dollars. Prior to 1903 about two hundred wells had been drilled in the county of which two-thirds were dry holes and the remaining sixty or seventy, gas and oil producers.

With the advent of new oil and gas companies, the inevitable litigation over leases and oil rights has begun, and the Independence Gas Company is in court defending its claim to the Brewster place, on which its first well was drilled. The place has been re-leased to the New York Oil and Gas Company, which has been granted a second franchise by the city of Independence. When the New York people tried to go upon the place with a rig in March, the Independence Company met them with a show of force, and would have kept them out but for the employment of a little strategy, a feint and a flank movement. Both companies are in possession now, and under orders of the court each can go ahead and do all the drilling it pleases and sell all the oil produced, provided a strict account is kept.

The new wells drilled this year to the north and west of Bolton have not made such phenomenal showings as those opened there last year, and just now the question whether Montgomery County is first-rate oil territory is as unsettled as it was when the first well on the Brewster place made such a good showing of heavy black oil. The gas resources of the county, however, have been developed to such an extent as to render it certain that the supply is sufficient for a generation to come, and that manufacturing enterprises will continue to be attracted to our towns by the fuel that nature has provided so lavishly in the bowels of the earth.

The oldest prospectors will tell you that in this field there are no certain indications of the existence of either oil or gas beneath the surface, and that every well must be drilled at a venture. The depth of the wells varies from 600 to 1,500 feet, but in most cases the gas or oil sand is struck between 800 and 1,200 feet below the surface. No considerable quantity of gas has been found outside the Cherokee shales which overlies the bed rock of Mississippi limestone. No attempt has been made in this county to go very much deeper with a view to find whether anything worth while underlies that limestone; but at Neodesha the Standard Oil Company went down twenty-two hundred feet without finding anything that it deemed worth developing, or that encouraged it to make a second attempt to explore the nether regions.

At present there is but little of the county that is not under lease for oil, gas and other mineral substances that may be found; but the more recent leases only run for a short time and require development work to be begun in a few months to keep them alive. And the validity of the old leases, which were drawn to run indefinitely so long as an annual rental was paid or gas was furnished the lessor for household purposes, is beginning to be gravely questioned. In most cases the leases provide that the party to whom the lease is made may drop it at any time, while the land owner is held indefinitely if the rental is paid. Lawyers are coming more and more to hold that the decisions in other and older gas and oil states that such leases are void or voidable for lack of mutuality, will be held to be good law here and that the attempt made to monopolize large areas by leases under which no development work is begun, will fail.

So far no gas has been piped out of the county, and people generally are solicitous that it shall not be. Indeed, three-fourths of the farmers who gave the Standard Oil Company rights of way for its pipe line insisted that a clause be inserted forbidding the piping of gas and restricting the use of the pipes to the transportation of oil. And many of the leases for gas all over the county contain a provision forbidding it to be piped outside the boundaries of the county. There seems to be a general disposition, in fact, to keep the gas at home and economize it. The idea that it will not be permanent, but can be very readily exhausted, is very generally held, and the fate of the Indiana fields is constantly referred to as a warning against recklessness in handling this wonderful fuel.

The growth of Montgomery County in population during the last ten years, and her rise from the twelfth to the seventh in relative rank in the state are unquestionably attributable to the gas and oil resources that have been developed here, and the prediction that the same influences which have increased our population ten thousand within the last ten years will continue to operate until we shall have fifty or sixty thousand people in place of the 33,448 our last census showed, does not seem unwarranted.