time.[28] The
building of the new mill in Pittsburgh required not only all the
capital we could gather, but the use of our credit, which I consider,
looking backward, was remarkably good for young men.

[Footnote 28: The wells on the Storey farm paid in one year a million
dollars in cash and dividends, and the farm itself eventually became
worth, on a stock basis, five million dollars.]

Having become interested in this oil venture, I made several
excursions to the district and also, in 1864, to an oil field in Ohio
where a great well had been struck which yielded a peculiar quality of
oil well fitted for lubricating purposes. My journey thither with Mr.
Coleman and Mr. David Ritchie was one of the strangest experiences I
ever had. We left the railway line some hundreds of miles from
Pittsburgh and plunged through a sparsely inhabited district to the
waters of Duck Creek to see the monster well. We bought it before
leaving.

It was upon our return that adventures began. The weather had been
fine and the roads quite passable during our journey thither, but rain
had set in during our stay. We started back in our wagon, but before
going far fell into difficulties. The road had become a mass of soft,
tenacious mud and our wagon labored fearfully. The rain fell in
torrents, and it soon became evident that we were in for a night of
it. Mr. Coleman lay at full length on one side of the wagon, and Mr.
Ritchie on the other, and I, being then very thin, weighing not much
more than a hundred pounds, was nicely sandwiched between the two
portly gentlemen. Every now and then the wagon proceeded a few feet
heaving up and down in the most outrageous manner, and finally
sticking fast. In this fashion we passed the night. There was in front
a seat across the wagon, under which we got our heads, and in spite of
our condition the night was spent in uproarious merriment.

By the next night we succeeded in reaching a country town in the worst
possible plight. We saw the little frame church of the town lighted
and heard the bell ringing. We had just reached our tavern when a
committee appeared stating that they had been waiting for us and that
the congregation was assembled. It appears that a noted exhorter had
been expected who had no doubt been delayed as we had been. I was
taken for the absentee minister and asked how soon I would be ready to
accompany them to the meeting-house. I was almost prepared with my
companions to carry out