Red rock, 160 of shale and slate, and 40 of Red rock were penetrated before the Chemung formation was reached, at a depth of 651 feet. Through the Chemung the drill penetrated 379 feet of white slate; at a depth of 1,950 feet struck fossiliferous shale, and at 1,957 feet the hard slate and shale, or the Bradford oil sand, down to 2,011 feet. The well was cased dry at 360 feet. In the hill north of Ludlow detatched sandstone and conglomerate exists and in some places red soil. Hamilton township claimed a population of 539 in 1880, including the 215 residents of Ludlow. In November, 1888, there were 111 Republican, 84 Democratic and 14 Prohibition votes cast, or a total of 209, which number multiplied by five gives a fair estimate of the present population, 1,045. The officers elected in 1889 were: Supervisors, Frank Morrison, Otto Lawson; school directors, H. Morlin, A. Logan; town clerk, J. B. Richardson; justice of the peace, J. K. Bates; constable, H. J. Parker; collector, J. K. Bates; auditor, E. B. Fisk; judge of election, First District, A. Logan; inspectors, First District, C. O. Nelson, H. Goff; judge of election. Second District, M. Strong; inspectors, Mat. Morrison, J. H. Crozier. The resident tax-payers of Hamilton township in 1836-37, as certified by George Morrison, assessor, were George Morrison (saw-mill owner), David Sears (saw-mill owner), Caleb Chappel (farmer), William English (who owned two horses), Jonathan and David E. Dunbar, Jonathan Marsh and Thomas Pound (who had not yet improved their little farms), Morrison & Harrison (saw-mill), Samuel Morrison, Isaiah Morrison and Root & Beeman. Ludlow is a thriving village in the extreme western part of the township, situated on the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad. Its industries are chiefly the manufacture of lumber, leather and carbon black. J. G. Curtis, who came to the village in 1869, erected the Ludlow Tannery and began the manufacture of leather, and in 1886 established the firm of Curtis, Maxwell & Co. Mr. Curtis is also largely interested in the manufacture of lumber, as well as in the mercantile business. A post-office and several general stores are also located at this point. The A. R. Blood Carbon Works are very extensive, and are under the supervision of P. F. Riordan. Deputy Supreme President G. W. Brown, of Youngsville, Penn., organized Ludlow Union, E. A. U., June 28, 1889, at Ludlow, with fifty-one applicants for charter, and with the following officers: Chancellor, J. K. Bates; advocate, A. W. Vantassel; president, John Gibbs; vice-president, Mrs. Jennie Richardson; auxiliary, Miss Hanna Nolin; secretary, Mrs. Millie Bates; treasurer, Mrs. J. G. Curtis; accountant, H. H. Curtis; chaplain, Mrs. C. H. Loucks; warden, D. G. Curtis; sentinel, Mrs. A. Cameron; watchman, P. F. Riordan; conductor, H. M. Swick; assistant conductor, Mrs. H. M. Swick; trustee, J. G. Curtis; examining physician, G. T. Pryor, M. D.; representative to Grand Union, J. K. Bates; alternate, P. F. Riordan. Wetmore is a busy little lumber town on the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad. Here Thomas Keelor has his extensive lumber mills and mercantile estab lishment. L. D. Wetmore's lumber industries are also located here, as well as a post-office. HAMLIN TOWNSHIP. Hamlin township, bounded by Wetmore, Sergeant, Lafayette and Keating townships, is divided into three sections, Kinzua creek valley in the north center, and part of the northwest, separated by Big Level, of which Howard Hill is a peak, from Marvin and West Clarion valleys on the east, center and south. The Smethport anticlinal runs southwest between Howard Hill and Marvin creek; the Kinzua-Emporium cross anticlinal-through the southwest corner; the southeast corner is near the Clermont (4) bituminous basin; the western and central sections in the sixth bituminous basin, which also crosses the northwest corner. The greatest elevation (Howard Hill) is 2,268 feet above tide, and the lowest (near the old Hulings well No. 1) 1,625 feet. The high lands average 2,200 feet above tide. The head-waters of West Clarion form the southwest of Howard Hill, while Kinzua creek, which forms in Lafayette and Keating, receives many feeders along the great bend north of the hill. Windfall run rises in the northwest corner, and the south branch of Kinzua in the southwest corner. Marvin creek may be said to rise in the south center, although a small branch comes down from Seven Mile summit in Sergeant township. Head Brook, Wildcat and Stanton runs, with a hundred rivulets, flow southeast from Big Level to swell the stream, and at Kasson post-office Long run flows northwest from Chappel Hill into it. Warner Brook flows from Clermont Hill through the southeast corner into the Marvin, and Glad run flows northwest in the southwest corner to join the south branch of the Kinzua. Early in the "fifties" the McKean & Elk Land Company opened a number of coal mines here. Dalson's principal bed was at the head of Wildcat run, east of Howard Hill, a four-feet deposit of pure, bright bituminous coal, eleven feet of dark and six feet of cannel. Within this township three members of the coal family are grouped, the Dagus, Clermont and Alton middle. The first occupies but small space, the second inhabits the heights of the Howard Hill divide, and the third is found in almost every place throughout the county. The old Owl Well (Hulings No. 1) was drilled in 1878 (opposite the mouth of Town Line run on the south bank of the Kinzua, 1,625 feet above ocean level) to a depth of 1,613 feet, and yielded thirty barrels per day for the year ending in July, 1879. Hulings No. 3 well was completed in March, 1879, to 1,730 feet, near the southwest corner of Warrant 3076, and the wells of Wilcox & Schultz, Knox Bros., and the Westmoreland Oil Company on Warrant 3073, found some oil in the top of the sand, but deeper drilling produced salt water in such quantity that they were abandoned and the southeast limit of the field supposed to have been reached. A subsequent well drilled by Wilson in 1881 north of the middle of Warrant 2690, and promptly abandoned, confirmed this supposition, but wells drilled by the Union Oil Company, southeast of the Hulings No. 5, have recently demonstrated an extension in that direction. On the western edge of the field a number of wells drilled by the P. C. L. & P. Company were similarly drowned out by salt water and operations in that quarter were abandoned also. These wells all stopped at the Bradford sand, the deeper Kane sand not having been discovered until 1885, at Kane. The Kinzua well, at the confluence of Glad run and the Kinzua, was opened early in 1877 by L. C. Blakeslee for the Producers' Consolidated Land & Petroleum Company of Bradford. Salt water was found in the sand at 1,745 to 1,768 feet, or fifty feet below ocean level. In 1856 Dalson discovered limestone, but the location is not given nor has the modern explorer found an outcrop, but as the valley of Marvin creek is celebrated for its deposits of this slaty-bluish rock, a dip may bring it under the sub-Olean conglomerate. The valley of North Kinzua in this township, as well as those of Windfall, Mead, South Kinzua and Glad run, with the intervening territory (nearly onehalf of the township) are still clothed with an unbroken forest in which hemlock predominates. This is the property of the Union Oil Company and the Gen. Kane estate. The Kane estate still owns in Wetmore and Hamlin townships, extending into Elk county, about 25,000 acres. The resident tax-payers of Hamlin township in 1847-48 were Adin and Aranah Aldrich, William Fields, Freeman Garlick, J. P. King, C. McFall, H. Burlingame (now a resident), Sam. Stanton, Abel Stanton, Jerry Warner, Hiram White, David Woodruff, William Woodruff and Joseph Wilks & Co. The total value of occupied lands and personal property was $2,940, as certified by Assessor McFall. Hamlin township, in 1880, had 330 inhabitants. In 1888 there were 165 Republican, 57 Democratic and 15 Prohibitionist votes cast, or 237. The total multiplied by five gives the population at the time 1,185. The officers chosen in February, 1890, are: Supervisors, D. F. Pattison, Bent Lunberg; school directors, W. H. Neil, M. J. Gallup; auditor, L. J. Swanson; constable, G. H. Sparks; collector, G. H. Sparks; judge of election, J. E. B. White; inspectors, S. W. Pattison, Charles Paulson; town clerk, Charles Paulson. The post-office at Kasson is in charge of G. O. Garlick. MOUNT JEWETT. N. D. Battison's basket factory was established in August, 1883, when he leased free from Elisha Kane a three-acre lot for such factory. Mr. Kane gave him $175 and also a large lot for his dwelling-the only consideration being the establishment of this industry. Earlier that year the town plat was surveyed, and with this industry, employing twenty five persons, the nucleus of the present village was formed. That year the R. & P. R. R. was completed, but some of the people opposed the location of the factory earnestly. A fire destroyed the buildings soon after, but the owner rebuilt and continued in business some time. The building passed into various hands, and is now occupied by Hitchcock & Davis. In 1887 F. W. Andrews began a series of seven test wells on the Kane lands, which led to the development of the field by the Anchor Oil Company. The first of the wells, one and one-half miles northeast, showed gas in small quantity at a depth of 900 feet. This with others reverted to Mr. Kane, and he conceived the idea of supplying Mount Jewett with gas. With some difficulty thirteen consumers were secured, but the gas proving itself worthy of its claims, the list was increased to over 100. At the beginning Mr. Kane could not obtain one subscriber to a proposed stock company. The system now extends from McAmbley's mill to the village. O. B. Mosser & Co.'s tannery at Mount Jewett was established in 1887, when most of the present buildings were erected. The capacity is 600 hides. per week, and the number of men employed in July and August, 1889, fifty. This tannery uses from 4,000 to 5,000 cords of bark annually, the price paid being $4.50 per cord. The hemlock bark is found in the woods adjoining, oak bark being imported. The McAmbley saw-mill, three miles northeast of Mount Jewett, is an important industry.... Hitchcock & Davis' saw-mill is devoted to the manufacture of hardwood.... Mellander's mill is northeast of the village.... Camp-' bell's saw-mill, a mile south of the village, was a large concern, but in July, 1889, the machinery was moved to Kane to make way for Huff's hardwood factory. Southeast of the village are the Roos saw-mills.... Kinzua mill, six miles from Kane, was burned in July, 1887.... The McClelland & Kane model mill was erected at Mount Jewett in the fall of 1889. M. H. Manning was superintendent of building and machinery. |