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STATE HISTORICAL MARKERS
~ VENANGO COUNTY ~

PITHOLE - Marker was erected December 1973 (revised the 1954 marker) and located on SR 1006 on the hill.

Created in 1865 by the discovery of oil; became a city of 15,000 within a few months. Center of the city was at the foot of this hill. Reservoir stands just NW of here. The Methodist Church, last building to be torn down, was about 150 feet to the east.

Adventurers were enticed to drill for oil and lands were leased along the tributaries of Oil Creek and the Allegheny River. Pithole Creek settlers who owned farms (1865 Survey Map of Leased Farms by Murdock and Hanning, surveyors) were: Thomas Holmden, Hyner, Morey, Wm. McKinney, J. Dawson, Rooker, Blackmer, Ball, Walter Holmden, Reynolds, Luther Wood & Copeland Farm. These settlers were soon given the opportunity to lease out their farm land to the option buyers such as Isaiah N. Frazier, James Faulkner, Jr., Frederick W. Jones and J. Nelson Tappan who soon banded together to form the United States Petroleum Company on April 25, 1864. On the morning of January 7, 1865, a flow amounting to 250 barrels a day was 'coming in' from the United States Well, also known as the Frazier Well. The United States Co. stock jumped and leases were quickly sold, netting $176,000 for 60 of the sites.

Donated by Penny Haylett Minnick
pictures Penny Haylett Minnick