By Danny Crownover
In 1868, Gadsden was excited over the effort to drill an oil well in Owl Valley just on the northern edge of the city, and the results were so favorable that it was decided 50 years later to organize a company and make another test.
It was in June 1918 that the Gadsden Oil and Gas Company was organized with an authorized capital stock of $300,000 to make the second attempt at almost exactly the same spot, and there was good reason to believe that this time there would be some sort of success, probably a big one.
Otto Agricola was president of the company. A.S. McGregor, vice president, and James L. Herring, secretary and treasurer.
The directors were Otto Agricola, A.S. McGregor, J.L. Herring, O.R. Hood, J.S. Morange, Adolph P. Reich, F.P. Jackson, W.C. Hale.
In 1868 a Mr. Rogers, of Pennsylvania, came here and leased a large acreage of land entitling him to bore for oil on a royalty basis. Col. R.B. Kyle was impressed with the man’s earnestness and his recommendations and aided him in securing the lease on several thousand acres, most of the land being located in Owl Valley.
Mr. Rogers employed Calvin Brown, an expert oil well man, to do the boring and the latter started a well in a very short time.
He put up his derrick and work progressed satisfactorily. The shavings coming up from a depth of 200 feet were saturated with oil, so much so that Col. Kyle set fire to them and they burned freely. These indications encouraged the promoter and he continued to sink the well.
When it reached a depth of 484 feet gas began to flow and reached such a pressure as to blow out the drill and wreck the derrick, seriously injuring Mr. Brown.
Col. Kyle was notified of the accident and he went to the scene with Dr. Joseph Bevans. They found Mr. Brown unconscious but he soon revived. Mr. Rogers was not in Gadsden at the time but he returned in a few days only to express great disappointment and ordered the well sealed and abandoned.
He was hunting oil, not gas. Col. Kyle believed for 50 years at least that had the work been continued Gadsden would have had enough natural gas to develop into a great city.
The well of 1918 was started near Willoughby Springs. In that section small ponds of water emitted gas that would burn. Many people tried this with lighted tapers and always the gas blazed up. Then, too, there was the experience of Calvin Brown and his employer, Mr. Rogers, with the first well, all of which caused the new promoters to believe that they would strike oil or gas or both.
They were encouraged also by the written opinion of R.H. Elliott, noted geologist of Birmingham. He said that there was good reason to believe that great pressure on the rocks in this area had probably sealed in whatever oil and gas existed here and that the field should certainly be explored, even at a large cost.
The well was finally abandoned. It is interesting to recall that a number of geologists who were meeting in Birmingham decided to visit other industrial centers of Alabama and came here for a dinner and a session while the local oil well was being started. They all expressed the opinion that the promoters “might as well be boring straight up,” for all gas and oil out of this section.
