Historical note:

            The Cascade Petroleum Land Association was formed in 1865 by a group of Rhode Island investors interested in profiting from the Pennsylvania oil boom. The Association purchased two hundred thousand dollars of land in West Hickory, in Tionesta township, about 35 miles southeast of Erie, Pennsylvania. There is no indication in the papers that any significant quantity of oil was ever found on this land. According to a letter written in 1907 from one share-holder to another, "It is hardly worth more than so much waste paper. Your grandfather...was humbugged by the alluring prospect of getting rich quick in (supposed) oil lands... Hardly had the victims of the fraud been separated from their money before the scales fell from their eyes." The land was leased for farming and timber through at least 1926.

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Scope and content:

            This collection includes the original minute books of the Association, copies of the original deed, and an 1889 letter from West Hickory resident offering to manage the land as a farm rental. There are also several letters addressed to George H. Eddy Jr. of Fall River, Massachusetts, relating to the ongoing management of the land. The remainder relates to Mabel Turner of Providence, who had inherited a share in the Association from her grandfather. She employed a lawyer, Charles R. Easton of Providence, to establish clear title to the land and dispose of it. Included are five years of his correspondence on the matter, as well as deeds, agreements and tax receipts.

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Provenance:

            These papers were apparently the property of Charles R. Easton, and can be assumed to have been part of the gift of Charles R. Easton Papers that were donated by the now-defunct Barrington College in 1963, via philosophy professor Carlton Gregory.

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Processing note:

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Inventory:

Folder 1.       Share-holders' minutes, 1865-1884

                        Board of Managers minutes, 1865-1889

Folder 2.        Correspondence, 1889-1920:

                        1889 from Orion Siggins of West Hickory to D.L. Turner of Warren

                        1907 from George H. Eddy to Mabel Turner (typed copy)

                        1913-1920, various letters to George H. Eddy

Folder 3.        Correspondence, 1922-1924, to Charles R. Easton

Folder 4.        Correspondence, 1925-1926, to Charles R. Easton

Folder 5.        Copies of 1865 deed and stock certificate

Folder 6.        Deeds, bonds, etc., 1924-1926

Folder 7.        Tax receipts, 1924-1926

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Subjects:

Easton, Charles R.

Oil fields - Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania - Commerce

Turner, Mabel

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RIHS1822