The story that
is told of Spiry # 1 (parts of which should be verifiable) is that this well
was drilled by the original developer to the point that they considered it to
be a non-producer. They abandoned the
venture and it was subsequently bought as a “dry hole” by John and Jim
Roy. In 1909, the Roy brothers drilled
just a few feet farther and struck this gusher. Upon being capped and placed in production, it made 710 barrels
of oil per day. The well is located
only a couple of hundred yards from where the narrow-gauge railroad ran between
Woodsfield and Lewisville. The oil
strike brought visitors from miles around to witness the event.
Photo provided by Dennis and Ruth Weber