Ohio inventions and firsts · First · 1814
Thorla-McKee Well, an early oil well
In 1814, Silas Thorla and Robert McKee dug for salt brine near a deer lick in Noble County and found oil. They soaked it up with blankets and sold it as "Seneca Oil," a cure-all. The well standing today dates to a second well from 1816, cased with a hollow sycamore. A marker near Caldwell was dedicated in 1992.
At a glance
- Year
- 1814
- Place
- near Caldwell, Noble County ZIP 43724 · Noble County
Why it matters
The Ohio Historical Society's marker calls it the first oil-producing well in North America, a claim other sources dispute.
Who gets the credit is disputed
The Ohio claim. The Ohio Historical Society calls the Thorla-McKee Well the first oil-producing well in North America, struck in 1814.
The other claims. The Drake Well in Pennsylvania (1859) is generally recognized as the first well drilled specifically for oil, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists notes the Ruffner brothers found oil and gas in a salt-brine well in West Virginia's Kanawha valley in 1806, eight years earlier.
Sources
Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.