Drake Well Museum has undergone many changes since 1980. One exhibit has proven to be extremely popular with everyone – a working 1920s petroleum producing operation. The Sand Hill Oil company Central Power Exhbiit turns 100 years old this year. The celebration will take place on Saturday, September 17th.

Tidioute, located 24 miles from Warren, underwent a renewal of oil drilling activity prior to World War I. Old wells were cleaned out, new ones were drilled, and plants were built to remove natural gas from the oil wells and condense it into gasoline. “Casing Head” gasoline was then used for powering a new invention – the automobile. The Natural Gasoline Company, Tidioute, was believed to be the “first of its kind” a company making and selling casing head gasoline. Andrew Verne Clinger was part of that company.

A group of Tidioute area oil producers and business men pooled their resources and purchased the former Grandin property at Sand Hill, Triumph Township, southwest of Tidioute. This tract was a central part of the 1860s oil boom. Four experienced oilmen – George and Andrew Verne (“A.V.”) Clinger, along with Harry and Fred Jennings – were part of the group that had nine oil wells drilled and a central pumping power installed in the fall of 1916. Three local drilling contractors put down wells into the Third Stray sand – the main Tidioute field oil formation.

Other investors in this venture were Guy B. Grandin, James K. Bell (former salesman for the Union Razor Company, Tidioute, and Olean, N.Y.; plant manager of the Baldwin Cutlery Company, Tidioute), Louis Schwab (longtime Tidioute Ford dealer) and J. Howard Pew (Sun Oil Company, Philadelphia, whose wife was a niece of Harry and Fred Jennings).

Central powers had been used for pumping wells since the end of the first oil boom in the 1870s. These units could pump from 2 to 50 wells at once (in theory) using one engine to power an eccentric connected by iron rods to jacks at each well. This system enabled one man to pump several marginal “stripper” wells using an internal combustion engine (gas engine).

Equipment installed at Sand Hill was similar to what the Clinger Brothers were already using to pump oil and extract gasoline on three (later four) other Tidioute area properties. A 20-horsepower Olin gas engine, built by the Titusville Iron Works Company, Titusville; operated a set of Grettenberger vacuum pumps, manufactured in Tidioute by the Grettenberger & Sons Machine Shop; and a Simplex eccentric power, made by the Oil Well Supply Company, Oil City, that pulled and pushed the iron rods connected to wooden jacks at each producing well. A wooden band wheel, constructed by the Bartsch Wagon Shop, Tidioute, was installed on the vacuum pumps. Lumber for building the power house-gasoline plant came from the Hunter Lumber Company, another Tidioute business.

The Grettenberger vacuum pumps increased oil production through removal of natural gas from the wells and forcing it through sets of pipe coils laid in a pond of cold water. This process was used to condense gas into natural (casing head) gasoline, which fueled many early 20th Century automobiles. A. Vern Clinger and the Tompsett brothers pioneered this process in the Tidioute area.

Vacuum secondary recovery worked with successful results on Tidioute Third Stray sand wells for many years. “Dry” residue from gasoline plants on some leases near the Sand Hill property was injected into the Red Valley sand formation for stimulating oil production after the 1920s. Sand Hill Oil Company’s lease, and the Norton & Jackson property near West Hickory, Forest County (abandoned, 1930s), were the first gasoline plants equipped with Grettenberger vacuum pumps.

A second gasoline plant-central power (equipped with a 20 hp Olin gas engine, a set of Grettenberger vacuum pumps with a third compressor cylinder, and a Titusville Iron Works Acme eccentric power) was installed at Sand Hill after more wells were drilled, 1919. This lease produced 500 gallons of gasoline per day during the early 1930s. Vacuum pumps in the two power houses were converted into compressors (again, with new cylinders made by the Grettenberger Machine Shop) for extracting gasoline and injecting dry gas into four pressure wells for increasing oil production, c. 1938.

Tionesta building contractor Harry Jaun (who erected power houses and dwellings on other Clinger family properties) constructed a lease house on the Sand Hill property, occupied by superintendent Ralph Twombly, 1923. This structure still stands today.

A pipeline system operated by the Atlantic Refining Company, later sold to the Tidioute Refining Company, gathered gasoline from the Sand Hill Lease and neighboring properties, c. 1916 – 1926. Sand Hill’s natural (casing head) gasoline output was originally shipped by tank car to Atlantic’s Eclipse Works refinery, Franklin, PA, for blending with raw refined product. Tank trucks later carried the gasoline to service stations in the Warren and Fryburg areas. Oil from Sand Hill was refined by the American Oil Works (Titusville), Tidioute Refining Company (in which A.V. Clinger and Thomas C. Hawkey were shareholders and officials) and the Wolf’s Head Oil Refining Company (Tidioute and Reno). The latter firm purchased Tidioute Refining Company (and its pipe line), 1928 and continued operating it until 1933. Karl “Tow” Johnson (1905 – 1978), became an employee of the Jennings Brothers (Jennings & Pew) oil lease opposite Tidioute then became the pumper on the Sand Hill Oil Company in 1944. Members of the Sand Hill Oil Company partnership gradually sold out their interests after 1944. Karl and his wife, Doris bought the lease from Winifred Clinger (George Clinger’s daughter, a staff editor for the Reader’s Digest magazine), July 2, 1952. The Johnsons, who resided on the property, were constantly oiling the engines, repairing machinery and maintaining the 20 oil wells.

“Tow” Johnson abandoned and removed the 1919 power house-gasoline plant, 1960s. All 20 wells were then connected to the original 1916 power house. Constant problems with log trucks accidentally pulling down the overhead highway rodline crossings forced the installation of an American Railway Appliance (“ARACO”) direct connected gas engine and power. This 6 H.P. unit, manufactured in Oil City, PA, pumped five wells on the opposite side of the Tidioute – Enterprise road, c. 1970.

The Johnsons gave tours of their oil lease to visitors during the 1960s and 1970s. This came about because of questions about oil production asked by hunters and vacationers.

Karl “Tow” Johnson died, March, 1978. Doris was left with a declining oil lease. She disposed of it wisely by offering the engine, compressor and eccentric from the 1916 power to Drake Well Museum and Park. The Museum had already received a $20,000 American Petroleum Institute (API) grant for construction of a Central Power Exhibit simultaneous with the United States Bicentennial celebration, 1976. Michael Davidson and Steven Slocum, then employed by the Museum, did much of the work planning and designing the “oil lease,” 1975 – 1976. Vance Packard, who succeeded Alan Perkins as Site Administrator, made major contributions to this project, 1979 – 1980.

Quaker State Oil Refining Corporation (Titusville Production Office) helped move machinery from Sand Hill and donated equipment and building materials from three other oil leases in Crawford, Venango and Warren counties. Replicas of a central power – compressor house and tractor shed were constructed, 1979. The following year six pumping jacks, separator tanks, rodlines, corner swings, overhead / underground crossings and a “pressure well manifold” were installed. The outdoor exhibit was dedicated August 27, 1980 – the 121st anniversary of the Drake Well’s completion. Clanking of the rodlines and banging and gasping of the Olin engine (equipped with a “barker”) now welcome visitors.

Drake Well Museum and Park’s Oil Lease Exhibit has been a source of inspiration for new programs and activities over the years and gives riders of the Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad a good idea of what parts of Oil Creek Valley looked like during the 1920s and 1930s.

The Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Central Power Exhibit at Drake Well Museum will take place at the Annual Fall Gas-Up Saturday September 17, 2016, 9am 3pm. for more information, call Drake Well Museum at (814) 827-2797.

For information, contact Melissa Mann at mmann@pa.gov or (814) 827-2797.