Transcribed from the Belmont Dispatch, April 8, 1904.
STILLMAN WELL SHOT
Put Thirty Barrels of Oil in Tank at First Pumping
The oil well as the A.G. Stillman farm was treated to 220 quarts of nitroglycerine, Friday afternoon of last week. The [tubing?] was put in and on Monday pumped off 30 barrels of oil. It is about [such?] as the wells in the [H————?] field.
Bert Harder of Wellsville, who did the shooting, had a rather startling experience. He had filled a shell with twenty quarts of glycerin and was placing it in the hole when he noticed a split in the tin and that the fluid was escaping. Knowing, of course, that if he lowered the shell an explosion wouldt occur before it had gone twenty feet, he removed it and, with the dangerous stuff running, he shouldered the shell and carried it to the creek near by and emptied the contents. The [floor?] was then washed and Mr. Harder proceeded with the operation. Few of the many people press present realized the perilous position they were in until it was all over. If any friction had been created by the two edges of tin rubbing together a terrible explosion would have followed and perhaps fifty lives lost. There were other conditions which made the job anything but desirable, but Mr. Harder proved himself to be a man of steady nerve and good judgment, and no serious damage resulted.– – Whitesville News.