Husband John Washington "Coal Oil Johnny" Steele 1
Born: 1843 1
Christened:
Died: 31 Dec 1920 1
Buried: - Ridge Cemetery, Fremont, Dodge Co, NE
Father: Culbertson McClintock (1809-1855) 2 3
Mother: Sarah "Sally" McKnight (1813-1864) 1
Marriage: 1862 1
• Residence: : near Oil City, Venango Co, PA.
Wife Elanor Jane "Ellen" Moffitt 4
Born: 1844 or 1845 4
Christened:
Died: 6 Aug 1926 - Lincoln, Lancaster Co, NE 4
Buried: - Ridge Cemetery, Fremont, Dodge Co, NE
Father: Robert Moffitt (1819-1883) 5
Mother: Ann Jane Gregg (Abt 1821-1899) 5
Children
1 M Oscar Steele 6
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
General Notes: Husband - John Washington "Coal Oil Johnny" Steele
Eventually he left Pennsylvania and moved to Denison, Crawford County, Iowa. They returned to Venango County in the 1890s for a while, but left in the early 1900s for the Fremont and Fort Crook areas of Nebraska.
"William McClintock, owner of the two hundred acres below Rynd, on the west side of Oil creek, dying in 1859, the widow remained on the farm with her grandson, John W. Steele. The first wells were sunk in 1861, one or two of the rigs projecting into the stream. The Vanslyke flowed one thousand two hundred barrels a day, declined slowly, and in its third year pumped fourteen thousand. The Lloyd, Eastman, Little Giant, Morrison, Hayes & Merrick, Christy, Ocean, Painter, Sterrett, Chase and sixty more each put up fifty to four hundred daily. Directly between the Vanslyke and Christy, a few rods from either, New York parties finished the Hammond well in May, 1864. Flowing three hundred barrels a day, the Hammond killed the Lloyd and Christy and reduced the Vanslyke to a ten-barrel pumper. The New Yorkers bought the royalty and one-third acre for $200,000. The end of June the tubing was drawn from the Excelsior well, on the John McClintock farm, five hundred yards east, flooding the Hammond and all the wells in the vicinity. The creek has washed away the ground on which the best wells were located. The late John W. Waitz, of Oil City, a live wire, resurrected the property in 1892, utilizing compressed air and realizing a snug fortune. His brother, C. A. Waitz, lives at Rynd and keeps the wells and farm in apple-pie order. The tract produced hundreds of thousands of barrels and repeatedly changed owners.
"Mrs. McClintock, like thousands of women since, attempted one day in March of 1863 to hurry up the kitchen fire with kerosene. The result was her death in an hour and the first funeral to the account of the treacherous oil can. She worked hard and secreted her wealth about the house. Her will devised everything to the adopted heir, John W. Steele, twenty years old, who had married the daughter of a farmer in Sugar Creek Township. He hauled oil in 1861 with hired plugs until he could buy a span of stout horses. Oil creek teamsters, proficient in lurid profanity, coveted his varied stock of pointed expletives. The blonde driver, of average height and slender build, pleasing in appearance and address, by no means the unlicked cub and ignorant boor he has been represented, neither smoked nor drank nor gambled. He was hauling oil when a neighbor ran to tell him of Mrs. McClintock's death. A search of the premises disclosed $200,000 the old lady had hoarded. William Blackstone, appointed his guardian, restricted the minor to a reasonable allowance and his conduct was irreproachable. Attaining his majority, Mr. Blackstone paid him $300,000 in a lump and he resolved to 'see some of the world.' He saw it, and the escapades of 'Coal Oil Johnny' supplied no end of material for gossip. Many tales concerning him were exaggerated, and many pure inventions. Philadelphia he colored a flaming vermilion. He squandered thousands of dollars a day, but generally somebody was helped by his prodigality, which often assumed a sensible phase. Twenty-eight hundred dollars, one day's receipts from his wells and royalty, went toward the erection of the soldiers' monument in the Franklin park, the second in the Union to the fallen heroes of the Civil war. Steele reached the end of his string and the farm was sold in 1866. He returned 'dead broke,' was the obliging baggagemaster at Rouseville, ran a meat market at Franklin, took charge of a railway station in Nebraska and was a model citizen, still on deck and contented." [HVC 1919, 135]