ORIGINAL!RARE! CIVIL WAR UNION - STORY FARM OIL FIELD 1864 - STEREOVIEW PHOTO
CIVIL WAR UNION - STORY FARM OIL FIELD 1864 - STEREOVIEW PHOTO
[Oil from the Story Farm in Pennsylvania was part of the rapidly developing oil region that supplied the Union during the Civil War. Andrew Carnegie, who was heavily involved in supporting the Union war effort (including supporting railroad lines and manufacturing iron for gunboats), invested $40,000 in the Story Farm in 1864. While oil from this region was primarily used for industrial and commercial purposes (lubricating machinery, lighting, and refining), it was a critical resource for the Union economy and war effort. The Pennsylvania railroads were vital for transporting Union troops and supplies, also transported this oil to the East Coast. Although Confederate forces destroyed oil facilities in West Virginia in 1863, the wells in Pennsylvania—including those on the Story Farm—continued to fuel the Union's industrial expansion during the war.In the early days of the Pennsylvania oil boom, most oil was barreled, then rafted and barged down river to market. This was a highly inefficient mode of transportation. Rivers could be too high or too low, freeze in winter, and spill their overloaded cargo into the rivers. As the Civil War approached its bloody conclusion, John Wilkes Booth in January 1864 made the first of several trips to Franklin, Pennsylvania (near the Story Farm), where he purchased an oil lease on the Fuller farm. John Wilkes Booth and his actor friends drilled for Pennsylvania oil in 1864 and found it there. Soon after, John Wilkes Booth’s hopes for Pennsylvania oil wealth abruptly and permanently collapsed. He had lost over $6,000 in his well. Booth left the oil region in July 1864.A few weeks later, Booth checked into Baltimore’s Barnum Hotel. In this hotel, the Lincoln conspiracy first began to take shape with Booth’s boyhood friends and former Confederate soldiers, Michael O’Laughlen and Samuel B. Arnold.The William Story Farm (often referred to as the Story Farm) was a prolific oil field located in Venango County, Pennsylvania, primarily situated along Oil Creek, a short distance north of Oil City and about 5 to 7 miles north of Franklin, Pennsylvania.]
ID'd IN THE LOWER LEFT NEGATIVE:
2800. SHIPPING OIL - STORY FARM
DIMENSIONS: 3 1/2" x 6 7/8"
SEPIA.
SHARP FOCUS AND VERY GOOD CONTRAST.
CONDITION IS EXTREMELY FINE WITH A CORNER CHIP TO THE FRONT UPPER LEFT MOUNT AND SOME LIGHT HANDLING AND USE FROM ITS 161+ YEARS.
PUBLISHER SERIES NAMED ON THE FRONT MOUNT:
AMERICAN SCENERY.
(please see pictures).
THIS IS NOT A COPY OR A REPRODUCTION.
PLEASE SEE MY 100% POSITIVE response AND BUY WITH CONFIDENCE.
