Sistersville, West Virginia

This information is from the Sistersville history web page

The bringing in of the Pole Cat well, which pumped water for a year before it pumped oil, brought in a sudden influx of oil men, drillers, leasers, speculators, followers, floaters, wild-catters, and hangers-on which quickly boomed Sistersville from a rural village of 300 people to a rip-roaring, snorting, metropolis of 15,000 people almost overnight.

Imagine, if you will the entire countryside covered with oil derricks, 2,500 of them by one count. Trees were cut down for wood and houses were torn down to make room for these old style drilling derricks, one of which, the Little Sisters Well, you can see down by the ferry landing. At the same time shacks and tents were thrown up to help house the people. Up where the post office is today there once was an orchard. Well, in those days the orchard was full of people living under the trees with the barest of coverings against the elements.