Sam Sherman's Party

[ddurbin]

SAM SHERMAN'S PARTY

Sam Sherman gave a party Tuesday evening on his leasehold on the Armstrong land at the northwest of town.  The guests were most of the population of Moline and surrounding country with a few out of town guests.

The chief feature of entertainment was the "shooting" of an oil well Mr. Sherman had just drilled in on this leasehold.  The chief entertainer was Harry Shreeves of Sedan who furnished 60 quarts and held 20 more in reserve.  This was not moonshine although the moon was shining when the party started.  The crowd gazed and were somewhat dazed to see all their hoped for refreshments dropped into a hole in the ground.  Ignoring the disappointment of his onlookers, Mr. Shreeves rigged up an electric battery and made the proper connections attaching in the circuit a timing clock, set to go off about nine o'clock.  At 9:05 there was a rumble in the earth and a heaving of the casing in the hole in the ground and nothing more.

It had been rumored among the guests that Mr. Shreeves was a sort of magician and that the sixty quarts of brew he had lowered into the hole would come out greatly increased in volume and of a great commercial value, so after waiting for a half hour the crowd began to fade away murmuring "fake," but those of more faith bided the time until 9:55 and the moon itself had retired when with a great roar a black fluid belched upward int the sky and fell on the surrounding territory.  Two times this occurred and it was a beautiful sight to see the geysering of the black oil into the empyroan.

Sam Sherman's party was a success to those who believed in the magician.
Taken from THE MOLINE ADVANCE  August 23, 1928
(Sam was my wife's grandfather)

[Diane Amberg]

what fun! Thanks for posting that.