Chapter IX:

OIL-TIMBER-FARM PRODUCTS-STOCK

After Martin Beaty's discovery of oil in 1818, no practical development of the industry was attempted in the county until 1865. The Drake well in Pennsylvania revived interest in Beaty's well, and the Wayne County Beaty Oil Company was formed. Three other companies were boring on Otter Creek by this time and all through that year excitement about petroleum was very high. Captain John W. Tuttle went up Elk Creek trying to locate oil leases without much success. He finally secured a lease on the G. Ryan farm and later others in nearby territory; but interest lagged until 1888 when William Strube bored a well at the mouth of Bear Creek, striking oil. Captain Geary then acquired an interest in Strube's enterprise and there was much excitement when a good flowing well was brought in at Cooper. Colonel A. H. Hovey, a picturesque figure, about this time appeared upon the scene. He had been a hotel clerk in Chicago and being a fine figure of a man, handsome, even distinguished in appearance, had engaged the affection of a wealthy widow who married him. She died and left him some estate with which he began oil operations in Wayne which lasted for several years. Mr. Alfred Murray was operating here at the same time as well as McTeer from Pennsylvania. Mr. Williams also became interested. The Brad- ford Oil Company, Bradford, Pennsylvania, operated extensively during this period.

In 1900 Captain Geary brought in a gusher in the Sunnybrook field. Excitement reached a high peak. Other wells came in rapidly and the Wayne County field seemed to bid fair to become boom territory. A pipe line was laid to Somerset and a refinery built in Oil Valley. There have been sporadic strikes since, but Wayne, while producing steadily, does not show the quantity for a big oil business.

Probably the first producing well in Wayne County was on the Morgan Farm in the Slickford field. The oil was hauled to the Cumberland River and shipped by boat to Nashville.

A pipe line was laid from the Sunnybrook field somewhat later by the Standard Oil Company and the oil was piped to a refinery at Parkersburg, West Virginia. A refinery was built at Oil Valley about 1909 and a macadam road built from Monticello.

The Cooper district held some of the early producing wells on Beaver Creek. In the Parmleysville district are the Mt. Pisgah, Griffin, Sinking, Barrier, and Rocky Branch fields.

At Steubenville and Mill Springs strikes have been made. The New Dominion and Vulcan Oil Companies have the controlling interest now in the production of oil.

"No county in the state is so favored by equal distribution of farming and mineral land," says Collins.

Coal is abundant and easily mined in the hills while the valleys are productive. Corn and wheat are the chief crops. There is some tobacco grown. Timber is still abundant though much of it has been cut over. Earliest lumbering consisted in cutting the most valuable and easily floated timber in the valleys of the rivers. This was chiefly poplar and oak. The walnut has long since been nearly wiped out.

In 1867 there was great interest over the proposed extension of the Kentucky Central Railroad from Nicholasville through Danville and Somerset to Knoxville. Wayne voters that year pledged themselves to subscribe $50,000 in stock. Joshua Berry, L. J. Stevenson, and others were prime movers in this enterprise.

It is easily comprehensible that there should be the greatest interest in a railroad that would come as near to them as Somerset. The nearest railway point of contact was Stanford and there were no macadamized roads between the two points. When at last a railroad did pass as near as Burnside and a toll road was built to meet this road, transportation became much easier. That year witnessed a tremendous excitement about oil production in Kentucky. Oil companies were incorporated in almost every county.

Early in the year the Monticello Oil Company was incorporated by act of the Legislature with M. E. Ingram, W. S. Sheppard, L. M. Flournoy, W. McKee Fox, and F. F. Sheppard as incorporators.

In the same year the Beaty Oil well was incorporated by William Lanphier, William Senior, John G. Wells, Robert J. Miles, L. Barney, and E. L. Van Winkle, the object being to develop "petroleum, rock and carbon oils, iron, coal, copper, zinc, other minerals, lumber and vegetable resources on the Big South Fork."

The people of Wayne felt so keenly the need for railway transportation for the continued development of the resources of the county that by 1880 definite steps were taken to this end. The Legislature had passed an act entitled:

"An act to aid in developing the agricultural and mineral resources of Kentucky, and to that end to provide for an exhibit thereof at the Southern Exposition at Louisville, Kentucky, and at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition at New Orleans, Louisiana."

Leaders in this movement were L. J. Stephenson, J. Berry, and John W. Tuttle. The Executive Committee chosen was composed of L. J. Stephenson, J. F. Young, J. J. Shearer, James Tuggle, and Lewis Coffey. A copy of the Monticello Signal of June 13, 1889, gives a recapitulation of what had been done: "

As the time is drawing near for an earnest and businesslike consideration of matters connected with our railroad enterprise, we publish this week the documents upon which its organization is founded as a matter of convenience to those who may have frequent occasion to refer to them.

"As many will remember, the movement originated in a call for a meeting of the citizens of the counties lying on the west side of the Cumberland Mountains, to be held at Tullahoma, Tenn., on the 28th day of Aug. '86. Seeing an announcement of that meeting, some of our citizens issued a call for a meeting of the citizens of Wayne County, and, on assembling, sent John W. Tuttle as their representative to Tullahoma. At the meeting at Tullahoma an organization was effected and county organization recommended. Pursuant thereto railroad committees were organized in all of the counties lying immediately west of the Cumberland Mountains, and their continuation, from Pulaski County, Kentucky, to Madison County, Alabama, and a general route proposed and discussed. After a number of other meetings at Tullahoma to further organization, delegates were sent to Cincinnati and other places to endeavor by means of statistics and representations to enlist capital in the enterprise. The enterprise was then in too vague and indefinite a shape for any definite arrangement with capitalists to be made, but the way was paved for future success. "

Then followed the organization of three railroad companies on a connected line in the states of Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky under separate charters from each of those states. The Kentucky division was organized under the chartered name of the 'Cumberland River and Tennessee Railroad Company.'

"Then followed one or more surveys by each company and an estimate of the cost of the entire line. "

After several meetings for the purpose, and the settlement of a great number of details, requiring amendments to the various charters and a complete organization thereunder, the three companies were finally consolidated into one company bearing the name 'Kentucky Division' and acquired by amendment to its charter. In the meantime, the counties of the state of Tennessee voted subscriptions to the capital stock of the company, proposing to build a railroad along the proposed line, and the citizens of Alabama raised a satisfactory amount by private subscription, and an Act was passed by the Kentucky Legislature authorizing the counties of Wayne, Clinton, and Pulaski to take stock in the proposed railroad under certain conditions, to issue bonds there for and provide payment of same by taxation.

"The charter, amended charter, articles of consolidation and enabling act are here published for the information of the people. As now contemplated application will be made to the Wayne County Court at its July term 1889 to submit a proposition of subscription to the people of Wayne County, to be voted on sometime in September as may be fixed by the court. Preparations are made for Clinton and Pulaski counties to take similar action about the same time.

"Respectfully, "

L. J. Stephenson, Chairman."

The following article by Prof. L. G. Kennamer is a comprehensive report on the resources and development of Wayne



RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT OF WAYNE COUNTY

"Perhaps no county in the state has a more romantic history and geography than does Wayne County, the 21st of our series of Kentucky counties on parade and the 43rd county, chronologically, in point of creation. The state legislature in 1800 created only one new county and named it after General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, a distinguished Revolutionary soldier and Indian fighter. This great Pennsylvanian ranked in success and prominence as a military leader and commander next to Generals George Washington and Nathaniel Greene. His military campaigns on behalf of the thirteen colonies extended all along the Atlantic Seaboard from the stormy heights of Quebec to the Piney Woods of Georgia, and his Indian battles were climaxed in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, where he defeated the British and Indians in a very decisive victory in the then Northwest Territory. This genius of Stony Point, Germantown, and Yorktown succeeded General Washington and General St. Clair in command of the Colonial armies and died in 1796, four years before Wayne County in Kentucky was created.

"This great pentagonally shaped Commonwealth waits the rise of a historian and archeologist to interpret its prehistoric past and write its historic lore. Here lived and hunted the great tribes of Indians who supplied their needs from the game of forest and stream. Here early hunters, trappers, pioneers, and settlers lived and partook of the wealth of its landscape and resources. Their records are yet to be written. What a thrilling story would it be to have related the experiences of the great caravans of the pioneers who crossed the confines of Wayne County on their way to Middle Tennessee. The great groups of people who touched the banks of the Cumberland in Wayne County as they floated to the unknown and undeveloped southwest. The stories of courage and daring events that are untold about Mill Springs, Steubenviile, and Windy would make a thrilling chapter in Kentucky history. Think of the historic association connected with the name of the county seat, Monticello. This county capital was named after Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, which in point of construction and the modern convenience it possessed, was far ahead of its time and age. This county seat bears the honored name of one of America's great shrines, revered in the hearts of all Americans for the great statesman and philosopher who resided in its environ. Every boy and girl in Wayne County is thus surrounded by an atmosphere of courageous statesman- ship and patriotism. "

This little Commonwealth is located in the southeastern part of the state and borders the two counties of Fentress and Scott on the Tennessee line. It was carved out of Pulaski and Cumberland counties. In 1912 it yielded a large part of its area to form the baby county of Kentucky, McCreary. At present this little empire has an area of 478 square miles which is about one-third the size of the state of Rhode Island and about seven times the size of the District of Columbia. This region supports an almost pure Anglo-Saxon population of 17,000 or about 36 people per square mile. More than three-fourths of the county's area has been taken into farms, and one-fourth thus remains unimproved. For every three acres of croplands there are three acres of pasture and six acres of woodland.

"The topography may be divided like all Gaul, into three parts, for it is at this county that the three regions of the Kentucky Mountains, the Knobs and the Pennyroyal meet. The southeastern triangle of the county with its highest elevation of 1,550 feet atop Sulphur Springs Mountain is a part of the Kentucky Mountains, a region possibly more familiarly known as the Cumberland Plateau or the Eastern Coal Fields. This area belongs in its natural and cultural landscape to Eastern Kentucky. The second region is a wide belt that runs through the central portion of the county in a northeast-southwest direction. This central area is an upland of knob lands and rolling limestone plains. Its surface is marked by many typical Karst formations, such as swallows, sinkholes, ponds, sinking streams, caves, and springs. Here are found some of the loveliest farms in the whole state as the rolling landscapes are dotted with fine homes, large barns, and the fields and pastures yield large increases of grains and livestock.

"The third region is that of the Pennyroyal or Mississippi Plateau, a triangle of cavernous limestone lands that are located in the northwestern corner of the county. This area is deeply incised by stream courses of the Cumberland River and its tributaries. Thus the whole area here is varied and picturesque because of the beautiful palisades and the lovely meandering courses of the streams. Along this beautiful Cumberland River, thousands of early pioneers poured into Tennessee and for many years regular steamship service from Burnside, Kentucky, to Nashville and Paducah served Wayne County as a commercial outlet. There is genuine beauty to be enjoyed each season by anyone who will take a trip down the Cumberland River or a drive over her state and county highways. "

Each of the three regions of the county abounds in thick growth of virgin timber, and much of it is underlaid by rich deposits of coal. The principal mineral resources, however, are limestone and petroleum. The limestone occurs in large quantities, is widely distributed, and sufficient for any reasonable demand for road building, urban or rural needs. The oil pools are widely scattered over the areas which bear thousands of barrels of oil each year and provide large quantities of natural gas sufficient to supply all local needs. The mining of coal is a domestic enterprise and only serves a very small region, inasmuch as the county possesses no railroad facilities, and all coal must be marketed by truck. The building of excellent state highways has connected Monticello, the county seat, and the other towns with the leading arterial routes of the state and nation.

"Previous to the World War, the Cumberland River provided some transportation for the county, but the use of the river had declined to a very negligible degree. Wayne is one of the many progressive counties of the state that has built a fine municipal airport, and thus it is making up for its railroad deficiency by the liberal use of roadways and airways. One important arterial highway is the "Lookout Mountain" airline, a short route connecting the North and South. "

Although the surface of the county is much broken with knobs and hills, the valley lands are very fertile and productive, and the soil is very generally based upon limestone. The value of the farm crops approximates a million dollars a year, and the production of livestock equals that of the farm crops. The principal farm crops are corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, while the orchards produce sufficient quantities of apples and peaches. The value of the livestock produced each year and exported to the surrounding counties include cattle, horses, sheep, swine, dairy products, and poultry. Thus the people of Wayne County have been blessed with an abundance of oil, hardwood timber, and coal resources, and by a wise use of their farm lands by which they are able to produce an abundant yield of farm crops and heavy exports of livestock. All this richness of resources is reflected in the good homes, fine schools, and in the excellent cultural advantages of education and religion. Thus there is translated through these institutions good citizenship on the part of its youth. Wayne County is progressive in the utilization of its resources and in the overcoming of its handicaps."

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