Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6
Oil City is now described as a city of fine warm homes, as contrasted with the same district when Oil City was a shanty town, with no coal, no railroad, no bridge but one little chain ferry far up the stream. Of the resident tax figure in 1836-7 in Ceres township, were Riverius and Rodolphus Loop, Henry’s sons. Rodolphus is officially listed as deceased in 1890.
The year 1878 saw the earliest oil well having commercial value opened at Ceres. In 1879, a petition prayed for the substitution of the name of Eldred for the earlier Alleghany Bridge. The older name was dropped in 1880.
"In March 1881" says Leeson’s History of McKean County "the Morse well on Windfall gave a new industry to Eldred." Better producers came into being at Indian Creek. Turtle Point showed a new well known as Alford and Loops in1886 at Rixford Farms. The Leison story records definitely, "the first settlements were made in 1808 by the Loops and Hookers". The resident taxpayers of 1843-44 were again the Loop brothers, this time John and Norry Loop. In as much as Henry’s eldest son was not born until 1802, the Loop brothers who made the settlement must have been Henry and one or more of his brothers. One suspects an early John for this place.
The Loop names published as identified with oil ventures small and large are listed under the Kansas Branch and Indian Creek. The Loop names are in part connected with Downing and Company, Tolle Brothers, Evans and Thompson, Erie City Oil Company, and other firms and over forty wells are involved. H. Loop, L. Loop, Henry Loop, William Loop and Arthur Loop are named. Lewis and M. (Miles) Loop were keenest about oil, one deduces; L. Loop being interested in 16 wells, and M. Loop in 15. We note that in all these oil records the name is spelled Loup. The wells pointed out that in these districts today look so negligible that it is hard to believe they represent such moneyed interests. It is reported that 8, 845 wells were producers in December 1880, in the Bradford field. This record is said to be the only one in existence, as made but two years after the opening of the first important well, it points to a boom of lively proportions and activities with Loops as a background and a sustension.
Twenty years after John Loop, oldest son of Vermont Henry, came into Eldred with his family (1840) after his Chautauqua fling, his son Lewis brought him a new grandson, named Francis, who was born in Eldred July 10, 1866. In 1890 he was listed as an Elred farmer son of Lewis and Nancy (nee Cook) Loop. It was Nancy’s father John Jimmerson Cook, who settled in Eldred near 1850, who gave the name Indian Creek to the stream which crosses the township on its way to reach the Alleghany.
Francis married a Canadian girl (Harriet Bradt) in August 1880. Their home in Eldred is commodious, presided over by a hospitable, dignified, and devout mistress. Their son Arch being located next door, it goes without saying that the home of Francis echoes daily the footfalls and laughter of the children and grandchildren who surely must rise up and call them blessed as long as memory lasts.
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6