BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HON. JOHN LEISENRING
Hon. John Leisenring, Mauch Chunk’s highly esteemed
citizen and widely-known business man, was born in 1819, at Philadelphia, Pa.,
his paternal ancestors being of Saxon descent, and his maternal ancestors Scotch. His great-grandfather came to America in
1765, and settled in Whitehall township, Lehigh Co., on the Lehigh River, in A.
D. 1765, on a farm bought from the original proprietors, while the native
Indians still occupied that portion of the state. This farm still remains in possession of his descendants. The judge’s father was a morocco-dresser in
Philadelphia, which business he left to 
engage
in the war of 1812. In 1828 he removed
with his family to Mauch Chunk, where the family has since resided. His education was directed with special
reference to the profession of civil engineering, which he adopted at an early
age, under the direction of E. A. Douglass, principal engineer of the Lehigh
Coal and Navigation Company, then controlled by Josiah White and Erskine
Hazard, who ere engaged in constructing a slack-water navigation of the Lehigh
River, from Mauch Chunk to White Haven, and also in building a railroad from
White Haven to Wilkesbarre. John
Leisenring, at the age of Seventeen years, had full charge of a division of the
canal and railroad, while George Law and Asa Packer were contractors on the
same division, and he remained in charge until its completion. After completing this work the Morris Canal
Company, who were then enlarging their canal from Easton to Jersey City,
through their chief engineer, secured his services as assistant, and he was
placed in charge of the division between Dover, N. J., and Jersey City. He was also engaged in locating and surveying
the railroad now known as the Belvidere Delaware Railroad, in which work he was
associated with E. A. Douglass and Gen. H. M. Negley, who now resides in
California.
About this time he engaged in the coal business, then in its infancy, which he saw was to be the controlling business of the region. He also built Sharp Mountain planes on the property of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, for conveying the coal which he and others mined. This interesting engineering feature, which, christened the Switchback Railroad, after being used for many years, was abandoned at the completion of the Nesquehoning Valley Railroad tunnel into the Panther Creek Valley.
In 1854 he removed from
Ashton, now Lansford, Carbon Co., where he had lived for nine years, to Eckly,
Luzerne Co., where he opened the Council Ridge mines, which are now operated by
him, as well as many other mines in the same locality, he being specially
identified with the production of coal from the Buck Mountain vein, producing
in 1881, in all, about one million tons.
He organized, and is still president of, the Upper Lehigh Coal Company,
known as one of the most successful mining companies in the country. On the death of E. Z. Douglass, in 1859, he
was chosen as his successor in charge of the works of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation
Company, during which the navigation from White Haven down was almost totally
destroyed by the great freshet of June, in 1862. The works form Mauch Chunk to Easton were repaired with wonderful
rapidity, and the judge’s energy and efficiency in their construction was on
all hands commended.
The navigation from White
Haven to Mauch Chunk was not restored, because, in the judgment of the subject
of this article, the destruction to life and property was so great as to be
sufficient ground for declining to incur the risk of repetition, and in order
to retain the business he suggested and recommended the building of a railroad
between the same points.
After completing this
work, which gave the company a line of railroad from Wilkesbarre to Mauch
Chunk, Mr. Leisenring saw that to secure the full benefit of this road it would
be necessary to have a railroad from Mauch Chunk to Easton, to connect with
roads in New Jersey, so that the operations of the company need mot be
suspended during the winter months, but that business could go on
continuously. In carrying out this
plan, which promptly adopted by the company, the road was laid out and
completed with steel rails, which were the first importation of any
consequence, and the whole fifty miles are still in use and doing good service,
showing the forethought and sound judgment of its promoter.
The iron bridges crossing
the two rivers, Lehigh and Delaware, at Easton have been considered a masterly
piece of engineering, both in their location and construction. In view of the large business which he
expected from the Wyoming region, he designed and built three inclined planes,
which were used to raise the coal from the Wyoming Valley, a perpendicular
height of about one thousand feet, divided in planes of about a mile in length
each. These planes are constructed with
a capacity to raise two thousand cars, or ten thousand to twelve thousand tons,
daily, at a cost of but little more than the minimum cost per mile of transportation
on a railroad of ordinary grade, thus saving to the company over four-fifths of
the cost of hauling the same coal in cars by locomotives, as it would have
required over thirteen miles of railroad to overcome the same elevation. These are thought to be the most effective
planes in the world.
Having brought to a
successful issue all these plans for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company’s
canals and railroad, the increasing cares of his various enterprises made it
necessary for him to resign the active charge of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation
Company’s extended business; and the company being loath to lose his services,
urged upon his acceptance the position of consulting engineer and member of the
board of managers, which later position he still holds.
About this time there
came a struggle among transporting companies to secure control of coal lands,
in which, owing to his well-known familiarity with the geological formations in
the coal regions, Mr. Leisenring was invited to join the Central Railroad
Company of New Jersey, of which he was elect4ed a director, and whose terminal
facilities were such as to enable them to compete successfully for a large
business. A lease was secured by the
Central Railroad Company of New Jersey of the canal and roads of the Lehigh
Coal and Navigation Company, securing thereby the tonnage of the mines owned by
that company and others, including those of the Wilkesbarre Coal and Iron Company. The mines were merged into the property of
the company, now known as the Lehigh and Wilkesbarre Coal and Iron Company. IN gathering these properties the advice and
counsel of Mr. Leisenring was sought, and he selected the lands, which are now
conceded to be as valuable as any, and to be the finest body of connect4ed coal
land owned by any corporations in the same neighborhood, and having all the
best veins of coal in perfection.
Mr. Leisenring was also a
director of this latter company and was appointed its consulting engineer. He originated the Lehigh and Luzerne Coal
Company, which purchased three thousand acres of excellent coal land in Newport
township, Luzerne Co., and was made its president, which office he continued
until the property passed into ;the possession of the Lehigh Coal and
Navigation Company by an advantageous sale.
This property afterward was merged into the Lehigh and Wilkesbarre Coal
and Iron Company. The near approach of
the time when the anthracite coal fields would be unable to supply the
increasing demands made upon them, and the necessity of providing new avenues
for business operations, led him to the consideration of coke as a fuel for the
manufacture of iron, steel, and other
manufactures. With this end in view and
examination was made of several tracts, from which he and his associates
selected the property which now belongs to the Connellsville Coke and iron
Company.
The Connellsville
coking-coal basin is about thirty miles long, by average of two and one half
miles wide.
The company’s property
occupies about six miles in length of the heart of this basin, covering eight
thousand five hundred acres of land, every foot of which contains the
celebrated seam of coking-coal. These
facts, together with other advantages, demonstrate the great value of this
company’s estate. Judge Leisenring is
president of the board of directors.
After the dissolution of
the Carbon Iron Company, at Parryville, in 1876, Judge Leisenring, together
with others, bought the property and organized the Carbon ;Iron and Pipe
Company, which has since been doing a prosperous business.
Among the more recent extensive
enterprises he has engaged in is the organization of the Virginia Coal and Iron
Company, in 1881, under the laws of the Sate of Virginia, he being the elected
president of the same.
The property bought by this
company embraces one hundred thousand acres of land located in Virginia, near
the Tennessee and Kentucky border line, covering a fine agricultural county,
and containing large quantities of hematite and fossil iron ore, together with
six veins of different varieties of coal, among others a rich vein of cannel
coal which until late years was imported and sold at exorbitant price. There is enough coal above the water-level
on this land alone to supply the market with one million tons a year for one
thousand years. It also contains large
quantities of valuable black-walnut and white-oak. In the following year the Holsten Steel and Iron Company was
organized, with Judge Leisenring as president, its object being to utilize the
products of the above company in preparing them for market. They are now building a narrow gauge
railroad from Bristol, Tenn., sixty five miles long, which when completed will
give them an outlet for their products.
He is also owner of a tract of land that contains large beds of Tennessee
marble, and one of the originators and heaviest stockholders of the Shenandoah
National Bank, which has just been incorporated.
In the year 1861, Mr.
Leisenring returned to Mauch Chunk, taking up his abode in his present
beautiful residence, which, together with its desirable location and handsomely
laid-out and well-cared for grounds, places it among the most elegant homes in
the State.
Being a man of generous
heart, his acts of kindness and benevolence have been many. His sympathies and assistance have always
been with the citizens of Mauch Chunk in their hour of need, or when any public
improvement was desired. In him we have
a man who is universally esteemed, honored and respected by all who know him. He has no desire for political advancement,
preferring the more congenial walks of private life, though he accepted the
office of associate, judge, to which he was elected in 1871, for a five-year
term, by a very handsome majority. The
Republican State Convention, which met at Harrisburg, Pa., May 16, 1884, showed
its appreciation of a trusted member of the party and citizen of the
commonwealth by placing his name at the head of the list of presidential
electors.
He married, on May 12,
1844, Caroline, eldest daughter of Daniel and Katherine Bertsch, five children
being the issue of their union, three daughters and two sons.
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RETURN
TO THE MATHEWS & HUNGERFORD INDEX
PAGE
From
The History of the Counties of Lehigh & Carbon, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
By
Alfred Mathews & Austin N. Hungerford
Published in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1884
Page 706 to 708
Transcribed from the original in March, 2003
by
Jack Sterling
Web page by
March 2003