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Unable to find a local driller to take on the project, Drake hired William A. “Uncle
Billy” Smith, a salt-well driller and blacksmith from Tarentum, PA (ironically the
site of Kier’s salt wells) to lead the effort. Uncle Billy constructed an engine house
and derrick (Fig. 3.4) on the flat floodplain of Oil Creek in May of 1859 (Brice 2009).
Drake had continuous money problems during the venture. His business partners
were stingy with capital and he was constantly short of funds. In fact, after spending
only about $2500 on the effort, Drake’s financial backers in Connecticut decided to
give up on finding oil and ordered him to quit. However, before the cease and desist
letter arrived, Drake had taken out a $500 bank loan to keep the operation going
(Brice 2009). The loan was co-signed by two local friends, R. D. Fletcher and Peter
Wilson of Titusville, and it is Wilson who appears with Drake in the photograph
Fig. 3.4 Colonel Edwin Drake (at right with beard) poses with financial backer Peter Wilson in
front of the replacement derrick and engine house constructed at Brewer Farm on Oil Creek,
Pennsylvania in 1859. (Source: U.S. Library of Congress public domain photos)
3.1 Saving the Whales