Chandlers Valley - A Village ten miles northwest of Warren in Sugar Grove township. Named for John Chandler, a Revolutionary War veteran who settled here shortly after arriving from Connecticut about 1815. From 1848 through 1852, a considerable number of Swedish families emigrated to this area and for a few years the place was also known as Swedesburg. When the Swedes talked of the area, they generally referred to it as the Vallan or valley. Chandlers Valley is considered the oldest Swedish settlement of a permanent nature in the eastern United States. Chapman Dam - (Chapman Dam State Park) - Located on the West Branch of Tionesta Creek, five miles west of Clarendon and U.S. Route 6. Named for Dr. Leroy E. Chapman, a long time physician in Warren, who, as a member of the Pennsylvania Senate, introduced the bill that made this park possible. Completed in 1951, the place provides swimming, boating, camping, picnicking, hiking, and hunting and fishing in season. Cherry Grove - A township. Named because of the great profusion of cherry trees in the vicinity. Erected from Sheffield township by an order of the court confirmed December 7, 1847. During 1882-1883, in this township took place one of the greatest oil booms ever witnessed in Pennsylvania. William T. Falconer and Frederick Morck of Warren owned leases in the township and they sub-leased their lands to George Dimick and Captain Peter Grace who operated as the Jamestown Oil Company. Early in January 1882, this firm started to drill a "wildcat" well on map tract 646, miles from other productive territory. In March, watching oil scouts found the new well tightly boarded up and armed guards protecting it. On March 29 the well made a large flow of oil but as sufficient tankage was not available, the well was plugged; finally, on May 17 the plug was removed and the drill went a bit deeper. The well commenced flowing wildly and by June 13 a conservative estimate placed its daily production at over two thousand barrels. The Buffalo (N.Y.) Express proclaimed it as "The Largest Well on Earth". The discovery of this new field sent prices on the oil exchanges reeling downwards as oil men rushed to the region through Sheffield and North Clarendon. Over six hundred wells were drilled in the Cherry Grove area and five different pipeline companies rushed into the field to handle the output. By September 1, 40,000 barrels of crude oil were moving from the field daily and this was its largest production. The chief pipeline struggle was between the Tidewater Pipe Line Company and the United Pipe Lines, but the latter, being a subsidiary of the potent Standard Oil Company, eventually won the leadership and did the greatest business. At Vandergrift, it installed huge boilers and pumps and created the largest crude oil pumping station in the world. A narrow gauge railroad, The Warren & Farnsworth Valley, was built from North Clarendon to Cherry Grove to haul freight and passengers, and the thirteen-mile road was constructed in just over ninety days. The ephemeral villages in the Cherry Grove region included Farnsworth, Garfield, and Vandergrift. But by October, the great gusher wells were yielding only moderate amounts daily, and water from many abandoned wells was seeping through the field wrecking other wells. Real Estate values collapsed, equipment was taken down and moved into Forest county where the Cooper Tract was the new oil excitement, and gradually the area decreased in activity and production; by the end of 1883, the great 646 well was giving only five-eighths of a barrel daily! An oil magazine of that day, "The Petroleum Age" reported, "The field surpasses any ever previously discovered in the capacity of the wells to produce." There is nothing at Cherry Grove today to indicate the turmoil of 1882-1883. Time and nature have done a remarkable job of camouflage. To be continued............ Dennis R. Davis R8459@aol.com