George Krumme

Interviewer: George Krumme

Interviewee:

Other Persons:

Date of Interview:

Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma

Transcriber: Abby Thompson

Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc.

Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-0013 Side B at 00:00 to 14:38

Abstract:

Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.'s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.

The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account.

To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible.

GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. In the 1920's, local boosters called Bristow the 'Woodland Queen', where oil flows and cotton grows. Nowadays, you would have to leave the county to find the cotton field, and flowing oil wells are mostly a thing of the past. The first big well drilled near Bristow was drilled by a continental petroleum company, composed mostly of Bristow investors led by A.A Rollstone and Claud Freeland. In October, 1921, continental completed its number one well on the Dunlap farm two miles east of town for sixteen hundred barrels a day in the Dutcher sand. Within a few months, continental sold out for five million dollars. The pool steadily expanded until it reached the very edge of 00:01:00Bristow. A virtual forest of derricks covered the eastern skyline of Bristow by the mid 20's. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment of about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow.

GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. Before old age assistance and cover social services were made available by the state of Oklahoma, counties were authorized to establish central residences for poor and aging citizens who had no family to take care of them. They were called Poor Farms because they were located on enough land to allow the residents to raise livestock and plant a garden. Our county Poor Farm was located on a hundred and eighty-acre track about two miles southwest of Bristow. In 1920, Homer Wilcox discovered oil just east of the Poor 00:02:00Farm and wells were subsequently drilled on the farm by Wilcox Oil and Gas. He best well was completed at twenty-eight hundred barrels per day; the pool was formerly named 'The Poor Farm Pool', and the creek county Poor Farm was declared to be the richest poor farm in the world. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil days in Bristow.

GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. About two miles west of Bristow on Highway 66, there is an inexplicable kink in the pavement about a half mile west of Kelly Lake and just before you get to the country poor Farm cemetery. Nowadays, there seems to be no reason for this bend in the road, and it turns back westward in the next hundred yards or so. But in 1926, when Highway 66 was built and for 00:03:00several decades thereafter, the reason for the double bend was obvious; a couple of years before the road was constructed, Wilcox Oil and Gas Company had drilled their number two Harjo Well. If the road had not been deviated slightly, it would've run almost into the standard rig, which was pumping the well. So the road zigged just enough to zag around the well, which has long since been plugged. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow.

GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. Most people, including the writers of some Oklahoma histories presume that a new town platted in 1920 was named Slick because Tom Slick had discovered oil near the town side. Actually, Tom Slick had 00:04:00no part in the discovery of the pool. Here's how the town was named: Slick had made a lot of money after it had discovered oil at the Cushing pool, he was married to the daughter of J.A. Freitas (ph), who was a professional real estate developer. Freitas convinced his son-in-law to put up much of the money to construct a railroad from Bristow to New [Indecipherable], with the intention of eventually extending the line to Okmulgee. Part of the promotion was to found a town side on the railroad ten miles east of Bristow and that town was named from the man who furnished the money, so the town was named Slick and the oil pool, which had already been discovered, took its name from the town side instead of the other way around. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in the city of Bristow.

GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. In 1912, Frank Barns promoted a well on the 00:05:00earnest Alex, east three miles southwest of Bristow. The well was dry at 28,084ft and the oil lease expired. Eight years later, A.A. Rollstone took the new lease on the Alex farm. Rollstone had just formed a new company with Claud Freeland, which they called 'The Roland Oil Company'. The Roland Hotel, Rolland Creek, and the Roland addition are also named after Rollstone and Freeland. Roland stated [Indecipherable] well Alex, near the old dry hole and struck prolific production in Dutcher sand about two hundred feet deeper than the Frank Barns duster had been drilled. Their number one Alex was the second biggest well ever completed in Creek County, so I guess the lesson to be learned is never give your well up as a dry hole until you drill is 200ft deeper. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in the city of Bristow.

GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. In 1924, Homer Wilcox staked a Wildcat on a 00:06:00block of acreage around the Sac and Fox Indian Reservation South of Stroud. Wilcox got a dry hole in the deep sands, completed three wells, and a shallower sand. Nice little poo sand wells, but nothing to get excited about. So Wilcox allowed all the other leases he had taken in the area to expire and drill. It was ten years before Wilcox noticed they the three wells had refused to decline like wells normally do, which indicated that the poo reservoir was much better than he had believed. Wilcox quietly bean began leasing again [Indecipherable] drop ten years before. After assembling a size of a block, Wilcox began drilling poo sand wells. He eventually completed more than 100 producers with almost no dry holes. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in the city of Bristow.

GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day 00:07:00of the oil industry in Bristow. Almost all of the early wells around Bristow were drilled with cable tools and at one time, there were hundreds of wooden Derrek's standing in our vicinity. I know of only one standard wooden Derrek erected anywhere after 1940 and it wasn't Bill Ryan Oil company, this was by Chester Cushing, a Bristow man who was running what was left of the Tim Cushing tools and supply. In 1944, he decided to drill a wildcat well just south of Bristow, across from South Ridge on the west side of highway 48. Chester pieced together nan authentic standard rig, bull wheels, walking beams, steam engines bordering all of the trimmings. Chester didn't have much money, so he drilled the well himself. His wife Ann was his tool [Indecipherable]. They struggled about four years off and on and finally gave up. But as they say, easy come easy go. However, they should've received some personal satisfaction in knowing that they had possible drilled the last well to ever drill with a standard rig. This 00:08:00is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow.

GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. If you bought a barrel of crude oil, would you get 55-gallons? Most people think so because they remember the 55-gallon drum in which the motor oil is sold. In reality, a barrel of crude oil means 42-gallons. In the early days of the industry, crude oil was actually shipped in wooden barrels, a standard barrel was supposed to contain 40-gallons, but exact measurement was difficult and a 5% variation in the contents of a barrel was allowed. 5% of 40-gallons is 2-gallons, so if a barrel contained between 38 and 42 gallons, it was acceptable. As pipelines and tank cars replaced barrels for the transportation of crude, the need for a 5% variation disappeared but the 00:09:00custom of the purchaser getting 42-gallons in each barrel did not. So a barrel of crude oil was officially declared to mean 42-gallons and it still does. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow.

GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. The abbreviation for barrel should include only one 'B', yet the standard abbreviation for barrel in the oil industry is BBL, and there's a historical reason for this oddity. In the early days in the industry in Pennsylvania, all the crude oil was shipped in wooden barrels. Naturally, the capacity of any individual barrel varied according to the scale of the [Indecipherable] who made it. It was soon noticed that the barrels furnished by the firm run by a certain John D. Rockefeller were consistently good barrels. In order to easily identify his barrel, Rockefeller had them all 00:10:00painted blue. The blue barrel became the standard used in the field and reference was common and made to so many blue barrels in the measurement of crude. The abbreviation of Blue Barrel became 'BBL" and this abbreviation is still used industrywide to this day. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow.

GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. In 1920, Charlie Tibbons drilled three shallow gas wells on the [Indecipherable] allotment 5 miles south of Bristow. There were good gas wells, but he found the real bonanza when he drilled in the deeper Dutcher sand. The number four [Indecipherable] made 90 barrels an hour. [Indecipherable] was a full blood [Indecipherable] engine and still owned the land on which the discovery was made. Her granddaughter and only living heir is [Indecipherable] Tiger Fry, who lives on a ranch about 10 miles east of Bristow. 00:11:00Eventually, more than 40 wells were drilled on the 160-acre allotment. More than one gathering company laid pipelines with the [Indecipherable] tank battery. Years ago, punk Corey told me that Tibbons daily production was so important, that every morning Tibbons would have representatives of the pipeline companies appear in his office to bid against one another, with the highest bidder being allowed to buy all that days production. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow.

GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. When Rolland Oil Company staked its number one Alex in January of 1922, as a long step out from the new Poor Farm pool, they naturally hoped for a good detral oil well. They'd get a lot more than what they bargained for. When the oil sand was struck, the gas blew the string of cable 00:12:00tools up the hole, and somehow the tools became lodged near the top of the casing. The drillers ran in a string of fishing tools which they promptly lost in the hole. Soon, the well began flowing oil. At 1:30 in the morning, they turned the well into the only tank on the location. The well filled the five-hundred-barrel tank in the first hour with both string of tools still in the hole. With great difficulty, the drillers shut the well in and Rolland began erecting more tankage and building earth and dams with horse draws slips and scrapers. The daily Oklahoma reported that the well was making 12 thousand barrels a day through a small crack in the six inch of valve with two strings of tools still in the hole. The Bristow record declared that the Alex was the best well in the state, and that 23-year-old Eugene Clifford Alex, the [Indecipherable], had just bought himself a Packard twin six with his royalties. But Rolland wanted the tools out before they caused trouble that might lead to 00:13:00chunking the hole. They decided that the flow was so strong that it might blow the fishing tools out of the hole if the well were allowed to flow wide open. So one morning, a week or so later, they opened the control head and allowed the stream to flow unchecked straight up through the wooden Derrek. Sure enough, shortly afterwards, they heard a bloops at the control head and saw a thousand pounds of steal fly up the Derrek and fall back to the rig flower. Much pleased, they quickly rotated the control head to divert the flow back into the tanks. What they didn't anticipate was that the heavy flow had also dislodge the drilling string, which they had lost in the hole, and that it was following the fishing tools. The half-ton of drilling tools hit the control head with such momentum that it broke the head into pieces. The well was then flowing wild, completely out of control, spraying oil over a mile straight to the north, and speckling houses all the way into Bristow three miles away. Working in slickers 00:14:00and praying that the oil would not catch fire, within six to eight hours, the crew succeeded in screwing on a new control head and the well was under control again. The Bristow record reported that the wild well had furnished more excitement per square inch than anything else ever known in Bristow or anywhere else. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow.