BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCH OF ASA PACKER.
Page 704
Asa Packer was born in
Mystic, Conn., on the 29th of December, 1805. His early education was very limited, being only
such as was taught in the primitive district schools of those early days. On 
attaining
the age of seventeen, he packed all his worldly possessions, consisting of a
few simple articles of clothing, shouldered his small bundle, and started on
foot to seek his fortune in the great world. Trudging along the rugged roads of that early time, the plucky boy
walked the entire distance in the land of “blue laws and wooden nutmegs” to
Brooklyn, Susquehanna Co., Pa. That
achievement was a fair index of Mr. Packer’s future. The boy was father to the man.
Once determined upon a course of action, no obstacles deterred him, no
discouragements shook his purpose, no work was too great to be undertaken. After weeks of weary searching, climbing
rocky hills and toiling through dusty valleys, through sunshine and rain,
hungry, tired, footsore, the lad arrived at the house of his cousin, Mr. Edward
Packer, in Brooklyn. He was a house
carpenter, and under his tutelage young Asa determined to learn that
trade. He began work with a will, and
with his characteristic thoroughness he became a first-class workman. No man in the country round about could
shove a plane truer, or hit a nail on the head with more precision, than young
Asa Packer. When the years of his
apprenticeship had expired he went to New York and worked a year at his
trade. But the life of the city was
distasteful to him, and returning to Susquehanna County, he settled in
Springville township. There he pursued
his trade, and was married on the 23rd of January, 1828, to Miss
Sarah M. Blakslee, to whom were born children, - Lucy Evelyn, Mary H., Robert
Asa, and Harry Eldred. The couple soon
after settled on a farm, where the young wife proved herself a helpmate indeed. While the husband plowed his field, gathered
his crops, or plied his trade at such desultory work as the neighbors needed,
the wife administered her household affairs with cheerfulness, energy,
neatness, and economy, and made their home a model of comfort and happiness. But nature yielded her crops scantily,
markets were distant, and the returns small.
At the end of four years they found themselves nearly as poor as when
they began. Hearing that men were
wanted to run coal-boats on the Lehigh Canal, which had just been opened, in
the winter of 1833, Mr. Packer hitched his horse to a primitive sled and drove
to Mauch Chunk, with a view to making arrangements to engage in that work. After effecting a satisfactory engagement he
drove home, and remained, closing up his affairs until the opening of
navigation. He then returned, walking
to Tunkhannock, on the Susquehanna River.
There he boarded a raft, rode to Berwick, walked the remaining distance
to Mauch Chunk, and became the commander of a canal-boat. Not long after he contracted for an additional
boat, and placed it in charge of his brother-in-law. The boating business paid, so much so, that at the end of two
years he was able to retire with some capital from the active participation
therein, though retaining an interest.
He purchased a store, situated on the banks of the Lehigh, and made his
brother-in-law its manager, while he himself established a boatyard for the
construction of canal-boats, his early training as a carpenter standing him in
good stead. Prosperity still attended
him. In a few years he placed in his
stores a stock of goods which cost him twenty-five thousand dollars. He also took extensive contracts for
building on the Upper Lehigh, which he finished in 1836, coming out with handsome
profits. Mr. Packer was then a rich man
for those days. The following year,
with his brother, Robert, he took large contracts to build boats at Pottsville,
Schuylkill Co., for the direct shipping of coal to New York. He continued in business at this point for
three years, at the end of which time the partnership was dissolved, Asa
returning to Mauch Chunk, and Robert remaining in Reading. He next engaged in the mining and shipping
of coal from the Nesquehoning and other mines.
Thenceforward Mr. Packer’s career was marked by an unbroken chain of
prosperity, the result of his own endeavors.
In 1852, unaided and alone, he began the gigantic undertaking of
building the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
With rare foresight he foresaw the grand results that would accrue
therefrom, and with unflinching courage he undertook the great work. He completed the road in 1855, meanwhile
jeopardizing his entire fortune, but eventually overcoming all
embarrassments. While Mr. Packer
accumulated vast wealth, he administered it with a liberal and enlightened judgment. While benefiting his own family, he…
PAGE 705
… has benefited his race, and been a power in the development of his
State and the advancement of civilization.
Mr. Packer, while promoting the material interests of society, found it
his pleasure to erect during his lifetime a monument which ceaselessly
dispenses in the present and will through the long future the various kinds of
learning which tend to make men most useful to their fellow-men and centres of
respect and affection in their families and in society. He anticipated the provisions of his will in
founding the Lehigh University, and so liberally endowed it on his death as to
make it permanent and self-sustaining.
St. Luke’s Hospital, Muhlenberg College, St. Mark’s Church, and other
institutions were also the recipients of his judicious munificence. Mr. Packer was in politics an ardent
Democrat, and received at various times conspicuous honors from his party. He was elected for the sessions of 1841-42
and 1842-43 to the State Legislature, was associate judge of Carbon County in
1843 and 1844, and from 1853 to 1857 representative in Congress from his
district. He was a candidate for
gubernatorial honors in 1869, and the year previous prominently mentioned in
connection with the Presidency. His
death occurred May 17, 1879.
END
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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
Transcribed from the original in May 2003
by
Susan Gilkeson Sterling
Web page by
May 2003