Old Mill Stream Fairgrounds / Oesterlen Well Site

Side A: The Hancock County Agricultural Society was organized on March 26, 1938. The Society soon purchased an 80 acre farm once owned by Tell Taylor, composer of the song “Down by the Old Mill Stream,” and held its first fair on this site October 13-15, 1938. The county fair has been held here every year since then except for 1942 during World War II. Side B: The site of the natural gas well generally credited with the beginning of the “Gas Boom” in Hancock County is approximately 300 feet west of this marker. German physician, Dr. Charles Oesterlen drilled the well on his land in 1884. In Dec. 5 of that year the well reached a depth of 1092 feet and produced 250,000 cubic feet of gas in a 24-hour period.