00:00 - The following program was financed by a grant from America

00:04 - 250 A.

00:15 - We're joined today by Eric Cook,

00:17 - executive director of the Venango County Historical Society.

00:20 - Where in Pennsylvania is Venango County located?

00:24 - All good.

00:25 - Hancock County is in the northwestern corner of the state of Pennsylvania.

00:28 - We're approximately an hour and a half north of the city of Pittsburgh.

00:32 - Of you with the snake of the Allegheny River.

00:35 - And we're about an hour south of Erie.

00:38 - Can you talk a little bit about the founding of this county,

00:41 - how it came about, and what year it was founded?

00:44 - Yeah, of an Anglo county was, officially founded in 1800,

00:48 - and it was carved out of the portions of Allegheny and Lycoming County at the time.

00:53 - And organized in 1805.

00:56 - Although people have been living here,

00:57 - especially the Native Americans, for much longer.

01:01 - You work for the county's historical society.

01:04 - When did that form?

01:07 - The county, Historical Society took shape in 1957.

01:11 - It was officially recognized in 1959.

01:14 - And between 1959 61 incorporated.

01:17 - So we've been around for about 70 years.

01:19 - And what is the purpose of the historical society?

01:22 - Well, our purpose is to ensure that we preserve our local history.

01:26 - Specifically, we say it's the acquisition and preservation of materials

01:31 - related to the history of the county

01:32 - and ango, and to encourage the study and appreciation of that history

01:37 - and to make its resources accessible to the public.

01:40 - Now, Venango County has a history in oil production.

01:43 - Can you talk a little bit about why, they're recognized for that?

01:47 - Sure.

01:50 - The region here,

01:51 - we like to call ourselves the valley that Changed the world because the,

01:55 - the roots of the modern, oil industry are here in the Danco County, as well

02:00 - as spilling into other regional counties, Crawford and Warren.

02:04 - But, specifically outside of Titusville, the the Niagara County line was where,

02:08 - Edward Drake, successfully created the first American oil.

02:13 - Well, whether or not it was the first oil wells, a little bit debated, but,

02:17 - we like to think that it was.

02:18 - And so that was in August of 1859.

02:20 - And, from that time on, the locus

02:24 - of the global oil industry was here until the early 20th century.

02:27 - But I would point you to other explorations around, around

02:30 - the world to spread the oil industry.

02:32 - And, but it was pretty much the location

02:35 - for which all of our modern understanding of petroleum refining was developed.

02:41 - Production and refinery.

02:43 - Who was Edwin Drake?

02:45 - Evan Drake, was at the time

02:48 - that he came to western Pennsylvania, was, a railway employee.

02:53 - He was looking for different work.

02:54 - He was, a business contact of,

02:58 - George Bissell, Jonathan, Eveleth.

03:02 - And, they basically recruited him,

03:05 - to head up their, early oil exploration in the region.

03:08 - Native Americans had been using, the oil that naturally

03:12 - seeped to the surface near Oil Creek, which, of course, gave it its name.

03:16 - And, they decided that, as well, oil was becoming increasingly expensive,

03:21 - and other people had been developing the use of kerosene, including,

03:24 - from some petroleum experiments, earlier in the 1850s that,

03:29 - Drake would kind of be the front man for their oil exploration project.

03:34 - And, then Anglo County, he was based out of Titusville

03:38 - and bordering Crawford County, and then Drake,

03:42 - looked at, the way that salt wells were produced

03:45 - and, came up with a couple of innovations,

03:48 - including putting the drilling equipment within a pipe, to be able to bypass

03:52 - some of the contaminants that were slowing down the process and was able to

03:57 - drill successfully for oil.

03:58 - Then in 1859.

04:01 - Can you talk a little bit about how this discovery of oil

04:04 - in the area, impacted the region's development?

04:08 - Sure.

04:09 - Before 1859, if an Anglo county was like a lot of counties

04:12 - in western Pennsylvania, primarily focused on agriculture.

04:17 - Small amount of mining, there was a fair number of iron

04:21 - furnaces in the county, and, and lumbering.

04:24 - But it was very rural and, not particularly wealthy.

04:28 - The southern, development of the oil industry here

04:32 - and the resulting boom as people from all over the eastern United States

04:36 - and across the globe flocked here to try to make a fortune in early oil.

04:40 - Significantly transformed, the county, into a place

04:44 - with some of the highest per capita millionaires in the United States.

04:49 - It left behind, rich legacy of arts, culture,

04:53 - public philanthropy,

04:55 - as well as bringing a lot of heavy industry to the region.

04:59 - So, yeah, in 1859, we were a sleepy sort of backwater community, but by 18, seven,

05:04 - 39, we were on the front end of a global burgeoning new industry.

05:09 - Is, oil still

05:10 - found and taken from Venango County?

05:13 - Yes. There is still oil production in the county.

05:15 - It's it's, been greatly reduced since,

05:19 - the sort of the decline in oil production begins as early as 1911.

05:23 - Accelerated the into the 20th century.

05:26 - But there is still there are still operating wells in Vinegar County.

05:29 - There's still a belief that perhaps as much as 70% of

05:33 - the county's reserves have never really been exploited.

05:36 - But, production costs,

05:38 - and, and environmental concerns have brought that production

05:41 - down to much lower numbers of what it been in the past.

05:45 - Now, you mentioned Venango County having a boost in population when this oil

05:50 - was found, but they also have a ghost town now called Pit Hole City.

05:54 - Can you talk a little bit about how that came about?

05:58 - Sure.

05:59 - Pit Hole is probably the most spectacular ghost town

06:02 - we have in terms of its rise and fall, but was certainly not the only one.

06:04 - Petroleum center was another city that grew up and then disappeared.

06:08 - But Pitt Hole is sort of famous, I think, because it's.

06:11 - It was notorious in its own lifetime, and it was such a quick flash in the pan.

06:17 - In January of 1865, on a farm in Vigo County, a number of,

06:21 - very high producing wells were sunk and around them very quickly developed.

06:26 - A city was incorporated.

06:28 - By the fall of that year, on November 30th of 1865, and Pitt

06:34 - Hall quickly went from a population of 0 to 20,000 in that time.

06:38 - And it had kind of a Wild West, atmosphere to it.

06:42 - You know, a lot of, shenanigans going on.

06:46 - And then by

06:47 - 1870, the population was down to 237.

06:51 - So within five years, it has the perhaps the third

06:55 - largest population of the community in Pennsylvania to almost nothing.

06:59 - And, because the wells that were in put up quite quickly, they were

07:03 - they were drilling too close together

07:04 - and they were probably all pulling from the same source.

07:07 - And so very quickly they began to run out.

07:11 - Are there any other major

07:12 - industries in the county besides oil?

07:15 - Yes, we still have, as a byproduct of oil over the years.

07:20 - First came oil refining and transportation, but then came

07:23 - a lot of, tool, a dye work to support the oil industry.

07:27 - And even though the oil industry is mostly gone from the region,

07:30 - except for the remaining wells of our operation, there's still a lot of tool.

07:35 - And I work in our region.

07:37 - There's still some light manufacturing.

07:39 - And of course, we have service industry and retail that all communities have.

07:44 - Let's get into the

07:45 - specifics of some of the collections that the historical society has.

07:49 - There's one titled The Business and Industry Collection.

07:52 - Could you talk about what's in that?

07:55 - Sure.

07:56 - We have, a number of journals and ledgers and,

08:00 - of course, photographs and artifacts from street signs from businesses,

08:04 - to a lot of, corporate

08:06 - photographs and documents put together by the different oil companies.

08:10 - And there's the the allied industries that supported them.

08:13 - We also had some heavy, manufacturing like, Chicago,

08:18 - pneumatic tool was in our region and joint venture fracturing,

08:22 - which produced, equipment for coal mining, especially in western Pennsylvania.

08:27 - So a lot of those company records, photographs,

08:32 - advertising memorabilia, those are on our collection, as well as local retail.

08:37 - The historical

08:38 - society also has a collection of around the military.

08:41 - Could you talk about what's in that collection?

08:44 - Sure.

08:44 - We have a collection of military, memorabilia and artifacts,

08:48 - from former servicemen and women who are from our county.

08:52 - Contains everything from Civil War diaries and Bibles that were carried.

08:57 - Some really fascinating notations to photographs.

09:01 - We have collections of letters that were written home from soldiers

09:04 - serving overseas.

09:05 - World War one, World War Two photographs and uniforms of men and women from the,

09:11 - Civil War on and especially, focusing on the,

09:15 - Spanish-American War, World War One and World War two.

09:19 - We have uniforms, medals and sometimes,

09:25 - the sort of souvenirs and the artifacts that people brought back from,

09:28 - the military and wanted to preserve on the home front,

09:32 - as well as photographs of heavy industry,

09:35 - you know, supporting the troops, in our region during World War one.

09:38 - And to walk us through the process on how these collections are created

09:43 - and how they're preserved.

09:46 - Well, we, we accept donations.

09:48 - Of course, people often, especially right now, a lot of family

09:50 - collections are coming to us, as well as business collection.

09:53 - People bring them to us.

09:54 - We put feelers out in the community.

09:57 - When items arrive, we, evaluate them.

10:01 - Of course, what we are looking for, if things that have a deep connection

10:04 - to our county and, the surrounding communities.

10:08 - And then, of course, after that comes western Pennsylvania,

10:11 - the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the United States.

10:14 - We evaluate them.

10:16 - If they're a session, we keep them.

10:18 - We bring them into the collection.

10:21 - Depending on what they are, we have a climate control archive.

10:24 - For documents and photographs.

10:26 - We digitize.

10:27 - We've just started a major digitization process to hopefully,

10:31 - eventually make all of our collection available online as far as we can.

10:35 - And then we maintain

10:36 - a house museum here in Franklin, Pennsylvania, the Vinegar County seat.

10:40 - And so then items are put on display here.

10:43 - And we've just entered into a new partnership

10:45 - with, the borough of Millington, which has a museum there will be helping them.

10:49 - And we partner with other local museums, such as the,

10:51 - Oil City, museum, or they've been Anglo.

10:55 - Excuse me?

10:56 - The in Oil City, the Bendigo Museum of

10:59 - Art, Science and Industry, as well as, locally.

11:03 - We have the Ben's antique music world.

11:04 - And there are other institutions and we. Drake's wealth.

11:07 - Of course, the state institution that preserves

11:10 - the location of of Edward drinks, first oil.

11:14 - Well, so we work together to put together exhibits here at our house museum

11:19 - in Franklin, but also to share them with other community assets in the region.

11:23 - Can you talk a bit about that house museum?

11:25 - Who significantly owned the home?

11:29 - Well, the home, was built,

11:31 - begun in 1859 by a man named Solomon, woman who was the first,

11:35 - Jewish rabbi and one of the first Jewish,

11:37 - people to sell a little bit of candy.

11:41 - He did not actually live here, though.

11:42 - His businesses and marriages,

11:46 - his marriage broke up.

11:47 - The house eventually became the property of

11:52 - of, George Egbert and,

11:57 - Doctor Egbert was one of the most important

11:59 - early oil producers in the region.

12:01 - He had a, a well in petroleum center, and, he was a doctor from

12:07 - originally from Mercer County, came to the Indigo County and,

12:11 - after the Civil War broke out, he volunteered as a surgeon.

12:15 - But the sort of the battlefield horrors he saw made him

12:19 - step back and retire from, medicine actively.

12:22 - He instead invested himself in the community as a fellow

12:27 - for and also as a businessman.

12:29 - And so the experts lived here from 1868 until, 1898.

12:34 - The house then came to the Pitt to the ownership of William J.

12:38 - Mullins, who was one of the first graduates of MIT,

12:41 - who was a Pittsburgh, or who came here to work in the oil

12:43 - refineries, was able to retire very early,

12:47 - from business and also spent the rest of his life

12:50 - working in philanthropy and, and also the fine arts.

12:53 - He was an excellent photographer.

12:55 - And so his family on this house from 1898 passed

13:00 - through his daughter and granddaughter till 2009 and became our museum.

13:06 - Can you talk about what the community

13:08 - is like currently in Venango County?

13:11 - Yeah, but Angle County is,

13:13 - predominantly a rural community.

13:15 - We have two, cities.

13:18 - We have Oil City and Franklin.

13:21 - The county is spectacular in terms of its beauty.

13:26 - The Allegheny River Valley and the Pearl Creek, the French Creek,

13:30 - River or valleys, come through here, and it's just a spectacular place.

13:33 - So people are friendly.

13:35 - We have a lot of arts, especially through Oil City.

13:38 - There's a lot of fine arts and craft art and visual art.

13:42 - We have very active chambers of commerce.

13:45 - We still have, very healthy main Street in Franklin, Pennsylvania.

13:50 - It's.

13:51 - We're nicknamed America's Victorian city.

13:54 - And so between our two largest communities and a small rural communities

13:59 - that surround us, it's a it's an amazingly active and vibrant place.

14:04 - What are some things about Venango County that make it unique

14:06 - compared to other counties in Pennsylvania?

14:10 - Well, of course, our history with the oil industry is probably the number one,

14:13 - as we've we've touched on on that, and it certainly sets us apart.

14:18 - We have as a result of that, a lot of

14:23 - institutions that have remained healthy where, you know,

14:25 - other communities have struggled because many of the people who were involved

14:29 - in that early phase of the oil industry left behind

14:33 - financial legacies that have supported, all kinds of community life.

14:38 - Some of the 100, 150 years later.

14:40 - So that's been a great blessing to us as a community.

14:43 - And we also have, attracted

14:46 - a lot of people who've been moving back to the area and moving into the area

14:50 - because of the beautiful architecture, especially, is another one of our assets.

14:54 - I would say, besides our regional, natural beauty of the landscape and,

15:00 - and the flora and fauna, which is shared with much of western Pennsylvania.

15:04 - But the wealth of the oil industry meant that we, have an abundance of amazing

15:08 - architecture from the period 1860 to about 1920 or 1930.

15:14 - Lastly, how can people learn more about your county?

15:17 - They can visit the county website to begin with.

15:20 - The Niagara County Gov.

15:22 - Be here venango.org is one of our chamber.

15:26 - We have two chambers Franklin the bean and give chamber.

15:28 - Both do excellent work.

15:29 - They've been echo chamber also has its own website.

15:33 - Explore venango.com is another great resource.

15:37 - Lots of wonderful places where you can find

15:40 - all of the events and activities that are going on in our region.

15:44 - We've been speaking with Eric Cook, executive

15:46 - director of the Venango County Historical Society.

15:49 - Thank you for your time.

15:51 - Thank you so much for having this great. Hey.