History of a Boomtown: Oil in Chatham Township

 

By Miranda Fein

The First Oil Well in the United States

On August 27, 1859, the United States’ first commercial well specifically drilled for oil discovery finally struck black gold near Titusville, Pennsylvania. Edwin L. Drake drilled approximately 69 feet with a method of his own design, using an iron pipe to reach the rock belowground for drilling.

 

“The first oil well”. c1890. Library of Congress.

Medina County’s Early History of Oil

While the first successful commercial oil well was not operating in the United States until 1859, Medina County’s history with oil dates to as early as 1812, when a manual dig in search for salt brine resulted in the discovery of oil in Litchfield Township (Hambley, 2018, 1800s-p. 3). Despite this early oil discovery, Medina County would not drill its first oil well until the 1890s.  

 

Medina County’s first oil well was drilled in 1894 on the F. R. Shaw farm in Chatham Township (Hambley, 2018, 1800s-p. 22). It was drilled using a water well drilling machine. Once drilled, the well was pumped using horse power and mowing machine gear. Approximately 32 oil wells were drilled on or near the Shaw farm over the next three years. Shaw took these over and built a pipeline from his farm to Lodi, where it could be transported by railroad to oil refineries in Cleveland, Ohio. This began Chatham’s longstanding reputation of being an oil town. 

Medina County Gazette, 21 August 19, Section 2 Page 2

Chatham’s First Oil Boom

By 1918, Chatham experienced its first Oil Rush, with nearly every lot in the township having an oil well with a pump. It was during this year that an oil well on Tom McVickar’s farm experienced a gusher, meaning the well had a strong enough natural flow that it did not need pumped or could have been expelled from the well in a geyser-like fashion. While gushers can be a sign of a blowout in a well, they were also common in the early days of the oil industry and “many times were the only indication that a large reservoir of oil and gas had been struck” (International Association of Drilling Contractors, 2022). This marked the year of the big Chatham oil boom, which was the first of three oil booms experienced by the town between 1918 and 1937.

 

Chatham’s Second and Third Oil Booms

During these years, Chatham became known as a boomtown, though there was little documentation about the second oil boom. The third oil boom occurred circa 1937, as the result of a new technique of secondary recovery called water flooding, in which water is used to increase oil production. While water flooding was successful in increasing oil production, it also polluted water wells and streams. The Chatham Sesquicentennial of 1818-1968 notes that “It will be many years before Chatham again has fresh, clean water, but this was a price paid by a 
community for prosperity” (p. 19). 

 

Medina County Gazette, 30 September 1941, Page 1

Chatham Oil: 1960 to Present

While oil recovery continued in the surrounding townships, from the 1960s on, oil production slowed in Chatham. Many once producing wells in Chatham Township are no longer active, with some even abandoned and left unplugged. To view a map of all recorded oil and gas wells in Medina County and their current status, visit the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas website at https://tinyurl.com/43wekhsp. 

References

Chatham Sesquicentennial 1818-1968. 1968. Sesquicentennial Committees. 

Hambley, S. D. (2018). Timeline of medina county history. Stephen D Hambley, PhD. 

International Association of Drilling Contractors. (n.d.). Definition of gusher. DrillingMatters.org. Retrieved 2022, from https://drillingmatters.org/glossary/gusher/ 

Ohio Department of Natural Resources. (n.d.). Ohio Oil & Gas Wells. ODNR Map Viewer. Retrieved 2022, from https://gis.ohiodnr.gov/MapViewer/?config=oilgaswells 

Osbun, W. (1959, August 21). Medina County and Its People. Medina County Gazette. Section 2,

Page 2. mcdl.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?k=oil&i=f&d=01011830-

12311978&e=frshaw&m=between&ord=e1,k1&fn=medina_county_gazette_usa_ohio_medina_19590821_english_10&df=1&dt=3&cid=2992 

Speaking of Shortages—Chatham Really Has One. (1941, September 30). Medina County

Gazette. Page 1 & 3. mcdl.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?k=chatham&i=f&d=01011830-12311978&e=oil boom&m=between&ord=e1,k1&fn=medina_county_gazette_usa_ohio_medina_19410930_english_1&df=1&dt=10&cid=2992 

The first oil well. (c.1890). [1 photographic print]. Library of Congress.  

https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3a14109/ 

Gazetteers for Local & Family History Research: Five Frequently Asked Questions

By Lauren Kuntzman

Gazetteers can be powerful resources for local and family history research, but are often misunderstood and overlooked. Here are the answers to five Frequently Asked Questions to improve your knowledge of gazetteers. 

1. What is a gazetteer?

A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary. Much like a language dictionary, a gazetteer is an alphabetical list of terms, followed by explanatory details. Specific to gazetteers, the lists are of place names, with information about each locale.  

2. What type of information might be in a gazetteer?

While all gazetteers are similar in their geographical focus, their content can vary widely. Gazetteers may list and describe…  

• cities, towns, and townships 

• geological features (creeks, lakes, etc.)

• man made structures (churches, forts, schools, etc.)

Accordingly, the “definition” of each place varies with the focus of the book, but most tend to describe a place’s history, location, resources, and society. 

History	date of establishment and years of existence founders (or architects, builders, or owners) previous names, variant spellings, and/or how a name was chosen milestones
Location	address and/or coordinates in latitude and longitude township and/or county proximity to other towns, railroads, and water sources boundaries
Resources	businesses, churches, meeting houses, and schools  newspapers and post offices railroads and water sources
Society	architecture and culture economy governance population

3. How can gazetteers help with local and family history research?

Local and family history research may benefit from using gazetteers in many ways.

Gazetteers can...

Directly answer questions about historic homes. 

This entry for the H. G. Blake House from the gazetteer Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places answers…

• Who designed and/or built the home
• Who was the first owner?

• When was the home built?

• What architectural style was it originally designed in?

Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places

Provide insights into the development of an institution or a town. 

Virginia Wheeler Martin (the FHLC’s benefactor) attended Miami University. Reading entries for Miami University in a series of gazetteers, published contemporaneously to its founding, describe how it evolved – and its shaky start. 

In 1816, the university was described as such:

The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary, 1816

But by the end of the next decade, the outlook for the university was much improved! 

The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary, 1829

Improve your understanding of a location and, in turn, help distinguish your ancestor from other individuals with the same name. 

Medina Gazette, 2 Sept. 1927, p. 7.

For example, a newspaper clipping describes C. H. Rodgers visiting his brother Harvey at “Clarks Corners.”  You know you had ancestors living near Wadsworth, but you’ve never heard of Clarks Corners… and Harvey Rodgers is a fairly common name. 

Checking Ohio Towns and Townships to 1900: A Location Guide, we find that...

Entry for "Clark's Corners" in Ohio Towns and Townships to 1900: A Location Guide.

Learning that Clark's Corners is near Wadsworth, helps confirm that you have found information on your relative! 

Act as stepping stone resource: by learning more about an ancestor’s location in a gazetteer, it may lead you to additional documents about your relative. 

Since almost all genealogical records are initially created within a geographical jurisdiction, understanding an area is crucial to finding available records. 

For example, if researching an individual living in Norton, Summit County, Ohio, it is useful to learn from a gazetteer that Norton Township was, at one time, part of Medina County. To thoroughly research an individual living in that area, one would need to search for records in both Medina County and Summit County. 

The Ohio Gazetteer and Travelers Guide, 1837

Understand an ancestor’s community and their life experiences. 

For example, Medina Library founder Franklin Sylvester moved to Granger Township as a young child in the mid-1830s. A gazetteer describes what he and his family would have encountered around the time of their arrival: 

The Ohio Gazetteer and Travelers Guide, 1841

4. How can I get the most from a gazetteer?

Gazetteers are at their best when used together with maps and land deeds. Returning to our example with Franklin Sylvester…

From the gazetteer, we learned that Granger Township had approximately 700 inhabitants when he moved there as a child. We also learned that it had a post office, that it was almost 7 miles from the county seat and 120 miles from the state capital. 

From land deeds, we find that Franklin Sylvester, at age 16, co-purchased a piece of property with his father. They bought 25 acres on section 33 in Granger Township. 

Knowing he lived on Section 33, we can then turn to maps. In this 1857 map of Granger Township, we can see the community buildings in his area. To make the buildings easier to locate the map, numbers have been added in orange. #1 marks school houses; #2 - graveyards; #3 - a shoemaker; #4 - church; #5 - store and post office; #6 - hotel; and, #7 - academy.

5. Where can gazetteers be found?

• In your local library. As mentioned earlier, the FHLC has several Ohio gazetteers in its collection, as well as gazetteers for other states. The Ohio gazetteers include: 

• The 1833 Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary (1883, reprinted 1981) by “A Citizen of Columbus” (Note: view online here.)

• Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places, 2 vols. (1999), by Lorrie K. Owen, editor

• Ohio Place Names (1996) by Larry L. Miller

• Ohio Towns and Townships to 1900: A Location Guide (2011) by Julie Minot Overton

• In digital libraries, like…

• The Internet Archive (https://archive.org)

• HathiTrust (https://hathitrust.org)

• Tip: Conduct a keyword search for the place of your interest, plus the word “gazetteer.”  Repeat your search using "dictionary," "directory," or "traveler's guide" instead of the word "gazetteer."

• On standalone websites.  Examples include:

• Maplandia.com (http://www.maplandia.com) (Developed from place names in Google Maps.)

• Meyers Gazetteer (https://www.meyersgaz.org) (An important resource for individuals of German ancestry.) 

• World Historical Gazetteer (https://whgazetteer.org) (Includes historical/defunct places.)

Hopefully, the next time you need to research a place, you'll turn to a gazetteer for help! If you have difficulties finding gazetteers for your research -- or you want to view one of the ones discussed above -- come visit the Family History & Learning Center. We're also available to help by email at me-team.genealogy@mcdl.info.

Want to view the gazetteers and map mentioned in the article? Access digital copies at the following links:

• The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary - 1816
• The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary - 1817
• The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary - 1821
• The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary - 1829
• The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary - 1833
• The Ohio Gazetteer, and Traveler's Guide - 1837
• The Ohio Gazetteer, and Traveler's Guide - 1841
• Map of Medina County, Ohio - 1857