Henry R. Rouse, a former teacher and Warren County legislator, became a successful oil lease owner. He was one of 19 people killed when the Little & Merrick oil well at Rouseville exploded and burned on April 17, 1861. As he lay dying, Rouse dictated a will that provided liberally for roads and the poor. Buchanan Farms had been renamed Rouseville that February, and three-year-old Ida Tarbell, later famous as an oil industry critic, was a resident.