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OIL INDUSTRY, Civil War Era Early Letter, 1863

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Historic Americana

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Civil War Era Early Oil Industry Letter

(OIL INDUSTRY).
January 15, 1863, Autograph Letter Signed, "Sam H. McGinnet," 4 pages, 8" x 5," with original, multicolored, Patriotic Civil War Envelope, letter Choice Very Fine, envelope Very Good. This unusual Civil War era letter was written to Benjamin Mars, probably a soldier, at Kerr Hill in Crawford County, PA, by Sam McGinnet, who may have been a Quaker, whose location is not mentioned, but who was engaged in "mining" for oil. The two men had apparently never met, and McGinnet was just helping a soldier pass the time. This letter reads, in part (punctuation and spelling corrected):
".... The friends here are generally middling well. That disease that some call the small pox, is still in the neighborhood. There are no very bad cases of it now, that I know of .... We have not been drawing any oil for about two months. We drew about two hundred barrels of oil to Brice's refinery and our team did well ... We had a letter from William today .... he had been sick but he [is] pretty near well. I suppose that you know how soldiering life goes, and I guess that it goes pretty hard .... I would like to see you all, but though I should never meet you to talk face to face, I hope to meet you [when] man will no more oppress his fellow man ..."
This great letter refers to the oil industry at a time when oil was collected from wood lined pits which were dug like wells, and the oil was drawn out with buckets and barrels. This letter is in good shape, with some light foxing. The envelope's left end was torn off when it was opened and is now ragged. Overall the envelope has some small tears and moderate foxing. A great piece of Civil War era American Oil related Industrial History.



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