A company in Eaton NY, only 5 miles away from Lebanon NY, had a factory site adjacent to a railroad line, the firm was named Wood, Taber & Morse, which had a foundry, machine shop, and assembly operation with about 50 employees.
They made steam engines, either stationary to provide power to factories, or moving to be attached to tractors, graders, and similar applications.
Then oil was discovered in the western part of the adjacent state, Pennsylvania, in 1859.
To drill for oil in large oil fields, there needs to be some kind of engine better than manpower or horsepower or waterpower, and gasoline engines had not yet been developed.
Family lore says that Asa joined three other locals in the early 1860s, bought a steam engine from the local firm, and took it with them to drill for oil. The author’s Uncle Rolfe Hartshorn, one of Asa’s grandsons, traveled to the area to examine old records. He uncovered, near the town of Franklin, the Vernango County Seat, PA, a document about the Brandon Farm which was divided up into many oil leases along the Allegheny River. Lot lease #26 was listed to the Lebanon Oil Company but Courthouse records were sketchy and did not name the partners. That is not surprising for a boom town.
That is the end of it. Since there are no gas stations nowadays with “Hartshorn Oil”, and since the author does not have a private jet, only a few drilling firms exist today, like Standard Oil. The oil boom was mostly over by 1899, due to declining production, and oil was discovered in western states. Oil was needed for lubricants on wheels and equipment, kerosene lanterns, and more, before internal combustion engines.
Gold and Farming were great investments for Asa. Iowa farmland and oil drilling were not. But he must have been cautious and smart in the scope and management of his investments, to avoid any overextension of resources that might lead to a bankruptcy.