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CYRUS / Oil at Gradyville!

Cyrus unearths story of Gradyville's first oil well, hit in the '60s
A report in which Cyrus reveals the latest oil news and gives a brief but terrifying "deja view" of the inner workings of his mind. Proceed with caution. Nerve pills strongly recommended.

So here I sat early this morning, trying to read the local news while clutching my first cup of coffee for dear life, lest my grip slacken for an iota of an instant and I tumble back into the abyss of slumber. Finally, my rheumy old eyes pierced the curtain of darkness enough to make out this headline:


OIL AT GRADYVILLE


Well now, thought I, in my befuddled state, I've heard something about this, so on I read:

"During the past week a very fine quality of oil was brought out on the Moss farm near Gradyville. This is a well that was sunk during the sixties, and is now being reopened on account of conditions that justify its operation again . . ."

The words slowly seeped into my still sleep-encrusted brain, and a sense of deja nu slowly took hold. Moss? Gradyville? Sixties? This wasn't news -- I'd already read it somewhere!

Then the penny dropped. (Ever so slowly, rather like an elephant doing a backflip, but it dropped--heads up, as I recall.)

In my first-cup stupor, I'd turned on the microfilm reader instead of the computer, and was reading "news" from the News--from April 17, 1918, to be exact.

An article accompanying the one above--aided and abetted by several more cups of coffee strong enough to do Ed Waggener proud if not in--finally cut through to my fog-ensconced mind:


OIL EXCITEMENT

"In 1865 oil was found, but the field was not developed, on a farm now owned by Judge N.H. Moss, near Gradyville, Adair county.

A shallow hole was put down and plugged. Last Thursday while a plowman was at work on the farm he plowed over the plug and the oil commenced to flow.

Mr. G.R. Reed, of this place, was present, talking to Judge Moss, when the oil commenced running.

He says it was of a bright amber color, and that the general opinion was that there is oil at that place in great abundance.

People became excited and prospectors are expected."

CYRUS
Central Ohio Bureau Chief

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This story was posted on 2006-02-20 11:33:51
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The Albert Hill Home, Gradyville Oilfield, Adair CO, KY



2006-02-20 - On Butler Fork Branch off Jones Chapel Road, Gradyville Oilfield, Adair CO, KY - Photo Ed Waggener. This was the home of Albert Hill, whose name is associated with the modern day discovery well in the Gradyville Oil Field. The well was drilled in July 1969,oilman Jimmy Reliford says, by Clint Moss and Chester Ballard, who was a partner, later, of Mr. Reliford's.. The "Discovery Well" might be the "Re-Discovery Well," becaue it came about 100 years after oil had been found on the N.R. Moss property in the 19th Century. The house is on Butler Fork Branch. The storage tank batteries for the well are nearby on the same side of the little creek. The gracefully aging homestead is on property now owned by Terry Partin.
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