Farmer Turns Down Fortune: McCray rides oil lease boom; misreads prices and hoards crude
Edwin Drake's groundbreaking oil discovery in Pennsylvania skyrocketed farmland values, drawing a flood of investors eager to lease land. Farmer James McCray took advantage of this surge by selling leases at remarkable profits. However, despite tempting offers, he turned down $1 million for his farm in 1871, betting on an…
The Times of India ·