HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY
IMPROVEMENTS IN CARBON COUNTY
Beginning of Permanent Settlement - The
Lehigh Coal and Navigation
Company - The Canal - Railroad Building,
etc.
Pages 593 to 607
Including
sections on:
Internal Improvements - The Descending and
Ascending Navigation of the Lehigh
The Slack-Water or Ascending Navigation of the
Lehigh
The Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad
Including
a short biography of industrialist John Brown
Including
a short biography of industrialist Charles Hartshorne
The Mahanoy Division of the Lehigh Valley
Railroad
Page 593
We have seen, in the preceding chapter of this work, that the white man made his advent in what is now Carbon County as early as 1746. It is of a later influx of immigration, and one of a distinctly marked era, that we now propose to treat, - in brief, that incoming of people which may be regarded as the second settlement of the region, the people who remained permanently, developed the resources of the county, and ultimately, as one of the natural results of their great enterprises, brought about the organization of Carbon County.
But first we remind the reader in a few
words of the earlier history of the region, which has already been given in
detail. That little Moravian mission
and colony, founded on the site of Lehighton, in 1746, and its sister
settlement on the opposite side of the river, where Weissport now is, were not
destined to long remain undisturbed.
They were in reality very minute dots of civilization in the great
mountainous wilderness north of the Blue Ridge, on which was bestowed by the
proprietaries the Indian name "Towamensing," and a savage horde wiped
them out on Nov. 24, 1755, as completely as if they had been characters written
on the sand. When the Indians made
their onslaught with tomahawk and fire, those of the people who were not
massacred fled from the burning village southward toward Bethlehem, and
although some of them who had secreted themselves in the neighborhood returned
after the immediate danger was over, they did so only to gather up such
articles as the savages and the flames had left, and they soon made their way
down the river to the parent colony, which they knew to be a place of
security. Col. Burd, who crossed the
Blue Ridge on his way to Fort Allen, in 1758, says, "When I arrived on the
top of the mountain, I could see a great distance on both sides of it; the
northern part of the county is an entire barren wilderness, not capable of
improvement." The Indian name of
the region, "Towamensing," we will here remark, was an appropriate
one, as its meaning is literally "a wilderness." Four or five years after the destruction of
the Moravian missions some men had returned into this wild country and taken up
lands, but their number was very small.
In 1762 the whole district of "Towamensing," embracing all of
what is now Carbon County and a portion of the present county of Schuylkill,
contained but thirty-three persons who were subject to taxation and whose names
were placed upon the assessment-roll.
The region had been practically deserted.
Soon after the division of Towamensing, by
the setting off of Penn township, in 1768, a few other families settled in what
is now Carbon County, most of them locating on the east side of the river. Among their number were the Salt, Haydt,
Beltz, Arner, and Boyer families, which, in common with others who arrived
later, are made the subjects of brief sketches in the township histories.
In 1775 there came to Penn township, on the
west side of the river, the Gilbert, Dodson, and Peart families. The capture of the Gilbert family by the
Indians, which has already been related at length in the preceding chapter of
this work, led to a general exodus of the settlers from that immediate
locality, and again the region was left as the almost undisputed ranging-ground
of the Indian and of wild beasts. Some of
the settlers farthest removed from the river, along which the Indians most
frequently roamed, still retained possession of their cabins and small
clearings, trusting to their remoteness from the war-path for security. The assessment-list of Penn for 1781 (given
in the history of that township) shows the names of quite a large number of
inhabitants, but it must be borne in mind that Penn then stretched westward far
beyond the present boundary of Carbon County, and that the assessment-list was
made in the early part of the year. The
Dodson appear to have remained until 1796, or the following year, when they
moved to Shamokin.
We have seen, in the preceding chapter of
this work, that the white man made his advent in what is now Carbon County as
early as 1746. It is of a later influx
of immigration, and one of a distinctly marked era, that we now propose to
treat, - in brief, that incoming of people which may be regarded as the second
settlement of the region, the people who remained permanently, developed the
resources of the county, and ultimately, as one of the natural results of their
great enterprises, brought about the organization of Carbon County.
But first we remind the reader in a few
words of the earlier history of the region, which has already been given in
detail. That little Moravian mission
and colony, founded on the site of Lehighton, in 1746, and its sister
settlement on the opposite side of the river, where Weissport now is, were not
reality very minute dots of civilization in the great mountainous wilderness
north of the Blue Ridge, on which was bestowed by the proprietaries the Indian
name "Towamensing," and a savage horde wiped them out on Nov. 24,
1755, as completely as if they had been characters written on the sand. When the Indians made their onslaught with
tomahawk and fire, those of the people who were not massacred fled from the
burning village southward toward Bethlehem, and although some of them who had
secreted themselves in the neighborhood returned after the immediate danger was
over, they did so only to gather up such articles as the savages and the flames
had left, and they soon made their way down the river to the parent colony,
which they knew to be a place of security.
Col. Burd, who crossed the Blue Ridge on his way to Fort Allen, in 1758,
says, "When I arrived on the top of the mountain, I could see a great
distance on both sides of it; the northern part of the county is an entire
barren wilderness, not capable of improvement." The Indian name of the region, "Towamensing," we will
here remark, was an appropriate one, as its meaning is literally "a
wilderness." Four or five years
after the destruction of the Moravian missions some men had returned into this
wild country and taken up lands, but their number was very small. In 1762 the whole district of "Towamensing,"
embracing all of what is now Carbon County and a portion of the present county
of Schuylkill, contained but thirty-three persons who were subject to taxation
and whose names were placed upon the assessment-roll. The region had been practically deserted.
Soon after the division of Towamensing, by
the setting off of Penn township, in 1768, a few other families settled in what
is now Carbon County, most of them locating on the east side of the river. Among their number were the Salt, Haydt,
Beltz, Arner, and Boyer families, which, in common with others who arrived
later, are made the subjects of brief sketches in the township histories.
In 1775 there came to Penn township, on the
west side of the river, the Gilbert, Dodson, and Peart families. The capture of the Gilbert family by the
Indians, which has already been related at length in the preceding chapter of
this work, led to a general exodus of the settlers from that immediate
locality, and again the region was left as the almost undisputed ranging-ground
of the Indian and of wild beasts. Some
of the settlers farthest removed from the river, along which the Indians most
frequently roamed, still retained possession of their cabins and small
clearings, trusting to their remoteness from the war-path for security. The assessment-list of Penn for 1781 (given
in the history of that township) shows the names of quite a large number of
inhabitants, but it must be borne in mind that Penn then stretched westward far
beyond the present boundary of Carbon County, and that the assessment-list was
made in the early part of the year. The
Dodsons appear to have remained until 1796, or the following year, when they
removed to Shamokin.
From that time until 1803 or 1804 there
appear to have been no settlements of importance made in Penn township. Following the discovery of coal at Summit
Hill in 1791 1, the
lands including that important spot were taken up by Hillegas, Miner, and Cist,
and in 1793, 1794, and 1795 other larger tracts of land were taken up by various
persons living in Philadelphia and Easton, on the supposition that they too
contained coal. These tracts were on
both sides of the river, and some of them were south of the Blue Ridge.
About 1804 enterprising
men, who had the hardihood to take up the work of making homes in the forest,
began to come into Penn and Towamensing townships, and then really was
commenced what we…
1 See chapter on the Borough of Mauch Chunk
Page 594
…may call the enduring
settlement of Carbon County. Gradually
the frontier population extended northward, civilization each year encroaching
upon and effacing a little more of the great wild. By 1808 the assessment-lists showed quite a large number of
permanently-settled pioneers.
Settlements were also soon made on the west side of the river, and the population slowly spread throughout the Lizard Creek and Mahoning Valleys, where agricultural pursuits were commenced and so well carried on that in a few years the people were in comfortable circumstances. North of them were commenced, in 1818, the gigantic operations of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in Mauch Chunk township. Still farther north in the Quakake Valley a few farmer pioneers located themselves, chiefly in what is now Packer township. West of Packer, in what is now Banks township, coal was discovered, which has in later years been mined by numerous companies, who have expended vast sums of money in that region. North of Packer, in what is now Lehigh township, the mountains were covered in valuable timber, and about 1826 that district was temporarily settled by the Coal and Navigation Company's employés, who took out great quantities of timber for the making of boats, on which anthracite coal mined farther south was sent down the river.
EDITOR’S
NOTE (2004)
The above reads as is stated in the 1884 history, while in reality, Banks is north of Packer and Lehigh is East of Packer.
What is now Penn Forest, and Kidder
townships was a vast tract of valuable pine and hemlock timber, which was
called the Pine Swamp, the greater part of its surface being very wet,
notwithstanding its mountainous character.
This was a portion of the extensive uninhabited region which for many
years was commonly called the "Shades of Death." These lands were not permanently settled,
but in 1838 the forest was invaded by timber companies, who purchased large
tracts from the warrantees, built mills and tenant-houses for their armies of
lumbermen, and began the work of cutting timber and sending lumber to the
market. After they had denuded the
country of its splendid growth of forest these companies removed to other
regions, which were still in the pristine condition in which they found this,
and the townships which we have named were almost wholly abandoned by the
people who had found employment there for a long term of years.
Most important among all of the settlements
founded in the county were those which were planted by Josiah White and Erskine
Hazard, the leading spirits of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and as
indomitable characters as ever penetrated any portion of Pennsylvania. They were, to be sure, not in the common
sense pioneers of this region, but in another sense they were the princes among
pioneers, the pioneers of an era of tremendous activity and marvelous
advancement. One writer, dwelling upon
this period in the history of the region, says,..."In the wilds of Upper
Northampton, where the Lehigh, yet an untamed mountain stream, frets in its
rocky bed, brave spirits were fighting the power of nature - as men of old
fought dragons - if, peradventure, they might wrest from her enchantments and
share with their fellow-men the treasures she fain would keep to herself in her
savage solitudes. It needed brave
spirits indeed to pioneer the way for that inexhaustible traffic which now
pours a continuous stream of merchandise through its great artery in the alley
of the Lehigh to the emporiums of the Western world. Such spirits were Cist, Miner, White, Hazard, and Hauto, whose
names are inscribed upon the title-page of the almost fabulous history of
anthracite coal. Exchanging the
amenities of civilized life for the hardships and denials of life in the woods,
these men toiled year after year in a howling wilderness (on the land and in
the water), hewing roads through its sombre forests, clearing its river-channel
of obstructions, hoping against hope, and yet persevering until they had
accomplished what they designed should not be left
undone." 1
The task which Josiah White and Erskine
Hazard undertook, that of making the Lehigh a navigable stream, was one which
had before been several times attempted, and as often abandoned as too
expensive and difficult to be successfully carried out. The Legislature was early aware of the
importance of the navigation of this stream, and in 1771 passed a law for its
improvement. Subsequent laws for the
same object were enacted in 1791, 1794, 1798, 1810, 1814, and 1816, and a
company had been formed under one of them which expended upwards of thirty
thousand dollars in clearing out channels, one of which they attempted to make
through the ledges of slate about seven miles above Allentown, though they soon
relinquished the work.
PAGE 594
FOOTNOTES
1 William C.
Reichel, in his monograph on the "Crown Inn," built near Bethlehem,
in 1745 [Return]
Page 595
No sooner had White, Hazard, and Hauto
obtained a lease of the coal lands in what is now Mauch Chunk township than
they applied to the Legislature for an act authorizing them to improve the
navigation of the river. They stated in
the petition their object of getting coal to market, and that they had a plan
for the cheap improvement of the river navigation, which they hoped would serve
as a model for the improvement of many other streams in the State. Their project was considered chimerical, the
improvement of the Lehigh being deemed impracticable from the failure of the
various companies who had undertaken it under previous laws. The act of March 20, 1818, incorporating the
Lehigh Navigation Company, "gave these gentlemen the opportunity of
ruining themselves, as many members of the Legislature predicted would be the
result of their undertaking." The
various powers applied for and granted in the act embraced the whole scope of
tried and untried methods of effecting the object of getting "a navigation
downward once in three days for boats loaded with one hundred barrels, or ten
tons," with the reservation on the part of the Legislature of the right to
compel the adoption of a complete slack-water navigation from Easton to
Stoddartsville should they not deem the mode of navigation adopted by the
undertakers sufficient for the wants of the country.
After the outlines of the company had been
agreed upon, they published in pamphlet form at Philadelphia "A
compendious View of the Law authorizing the Improvement of the River
Lehigh," in which the following advantages were sanguinely set forth as
the prospective results of the navigation by the improved plan:
"The city of Philadelphia can be
supplied with coal which is ascertained to be twenty per cent. purer than any
of the same species which has come to this market from any other source and at
a reduced price.
"A market will be opened for an immense
body of timber which is now so completely locked up as not to be considered
worth stealing, owing to the expense that would attend getting it to market.
"When the first grand section of the river
is improve (which can be done in a few months) the land carriage to the
Susquehanna at Berwick will be only thirty miles over a turnpike now made,
which will immediately command the trade of that river and turn it to
Philadelphia. When the second grand
section is finished the portage will be reduced to only ten or twelve miles by
a railroad contemplated to be made on excellent ground. By the Susquehanna and Lehigh the western
counties of New York will be nearer in point of expense to Philadelphia than to
Albany, and consequently a large portion of the produce, which now goes down
the North River to New York, may be calculated on for the supply of
Philadelphia.
"The New York Grand Canal, when
completed, will bring the produce from the shores of Lake Erie. This produce
can come from the point where the canal crosses Seneca River to Philadelphia in
nearly half the time and consequently at half the expense that it can go by
canal and North River to New York."
The pamphlet containing these statements was
published chiefly with a view to arousing the interest of those who might
become subscribers to the stock of the company, but it exerted that influence
only in a limited degree.
We will remark here that the Lehigh Coal
Company was incorporated by act of Oct. 21, 1818; that its leading characters were the same as those of the
Navigation, White, Hazard, and Hauto;
that the last named was bought out by his partners in March, 1820, and
that on April 21, 1820, the two companies were consolidated under the title of
the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company.
The history of the mining operations being
given in the chapter on Mauch Chunk, we shall confine this narrative to the
improvement of the river begun by the Lehigh Navigation Company, and continued
and completed by the amalgamated company above alluded to, which is the one
still in existence.
The plan, says Josiah White, who was its
originator, was to "improve the navigation of the river by contracting the
channels funnel fashion, to bring the whole flow of water at each of the falls
to as narrow a compass as the law would allow, by throwing up the round river
stones into low walls not higher than we wanted to raise the water for the
required depth of fifteen or eighteen inches by the natural flow, to make
artificial freshets to supply the deficiency; that is, by making ponds of water
of as many acres as we could get, and letting it off periodically, say once in
three days. I supposed we could gather
water enough to secure the required quantity, and thus secure a regular decending
navigation. The plan for locks and
gates for letting out the freshet in a proper manner was left for the present
to be devised in due time if found necessary."
The artificial freshets alluded to were effected
by constructing dams in the neighborhood of Mauch Chunk, in which were placed
peculiarly-constructed sluice-gates invented by Josiah White, by means of which
the water could be retained in the pool above, until required for use. When the dam became full and the water had
run over it long enough for the river below the dam to acquire the depth of the
ordinary flow of the river, the sluice-gates were let down, and the boats which
were lying in the pools above passed down with the artificial flood 1. About twelve of these dams and sluices were
made in 1819, and with what work had been done in making wing…
PAGE 595
FOOTNOTES
1 This description, with much of the matter which
follows, is derived from the "History of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation
Company," published in 1841, though many facts are added from Richard
Richardson's "Memoir of Josiah White."
Page 596
…dams absorbed the capital of the company
before the whole of the dams were completely protected from ice-freshets. They were, however, so far completed as to
prove in the fall of 1819 that they were capable of producing the required
depth of water from Mauch Chunk to Easton.
Two years after it came in use the
descending navigation was inspected, and on Jan. 17, 1823, license was obtained
from the Governor to take toll upon it.
None was charged, however, until four years later. The boats used in this system of navigation,
commonly called "arks," were simply great square-cornered boxes from
sixteen to eighteen feet wide and from twenty to twenty-five feet long. At first two of these were joined together
by hinges to allow them to bend up and down in passing the dams and sluices;
and as the men became accustomed to the work, and the channels were
straightened and improved as experience dictated, the number of sections in
each boat was increased till at last their whole length reached one hundred and
eight feet. They were linked together
almost exactly as are railroad cars in a train. The steering was done with long oars or sweeps, as upon a
raft. We are told that "machinery
was devised for jointing and putting together the planks of which these boats
were made, and the hands became so expert that five men would put one of the
sections together and launch it in forty-five minutes." Boats of this description were used on the
Lehigh till the end of the year 1831, when the Delaware division of the Pennsylvania
Canal was partially finished. In the
last year forty thousand nine hundred and sixty-six tons of coal were sent
down, which required the building of so many boats that had they all been put
together, end to end, they would have extended more than thirteen miles. None of the boats made more than one trip,
for arriving in Philadelphia they were broken up and the planks were sold for
lumber, while the spikes, hinges, and other iron work were returned to Mauch
Chunk. The hands employed in running
the boats walked back for a period of two or three years, when rough wagons
were placed on the road by some of the tavern-keepers, on which they were
carried for a small compensation.
This descending navigation by artificial
freshets on the Lehigh was the first of which there is any record used as a
permanent thing. It is stated, however,
that in the expedition in 1779 under Gen. Sullivan, Gen. James Clinton
successfully made use of the expedient to extricate his division of the army
from some difficulty on the east branch of the Susquehanna and erected a
temporary dam across the outlet of Otsego Lake, which accumulated water enough
to float them when let off, and carry them down the river.
It soon became evident, so great was the
consumption of lumber for boats, that the coal business could not be carried
on, even on a small scale, without a communication by water with the pine
forests about sixteen miles above Mauch Chunk, on the upper section of the
Lehigh. But to effect this was very
difficult, as the river in that distance had a fall of about three hundred feet
over a very rough, rocky bed, with shores so forbidding that in only two places
above Lausanne had horses been got down to the river. To improve the navigation it became necessary to begin operations
at the upper end, and to cart all the tools and provisions by a circuitous and
rough road through the wilderness, and then to build a boat for each load to be
sent down to the place where the hands were…
PAGE 595
FOOTNOTES
1 In the
chapter upon Mauch Chunk township the total shipments for each succeeding year
down to 1884 are given [Return]
Page 597
… at work by the
channels which they had previously prepared.
Before these channels were effected an attempt was made to send down
planks, singly, from the pine region, but they became bruised and broken upon
the rocks before they reached Mauch Chunk.
The plan of sending down single logs was then resorted to, and men were
sent along the river to clear them from the rocks when they became lodged, but
it frequently happened that when they got near Mauch Chunk a sudden freshet
would sweep them over the dam, and they would be lost. These difficulties were overcome in 1823 by
the construction of the channels to which allusion has just been made. The work gave rise to an increase of the
capital stock of ninety-six thousand and thirty dollars, making the total
amount subscribed five hundred thousand dollars.
By the conclusion of the year 1825, when the
company sent down the river twenty-eight thousand three hundred and
ninety-three tons of anthracite, it became evident that the business could not
be extended fast enough to keep apace with the demand of the market as long as
the company was compelled to build a new boat for each load of coal they
shipped. The pine forest, too, was
being whittled away at the rate of more than four hundred acres per year, which
indicated that it would soon entirely disappear, as the demand upon it must
increase.
These considerations, in conjunction with the fact that the Schuylkill region had an uninterrupted slack-water navigation, which allowed the upward as well as the downward passage of boats, - admitting, of course, of any desired extension of the coal traffic, - led the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to embark upon a scheme for securing a permanent ascending navigation.
Early in the year of 1827 it was finally
decided to go on with a canal and slack-water navigation from Mauch Chunk to
Easton. For that purpose the company
employed Canvass White as the principal engineer. He was a gentleman of fine character and much experience, who had
occupied a prominent position on the corps which had surveyed for the
constructed the Erie of New York. He recommended the construction of a canal of
the then ordinary size capable of accommodating boats of twenty-five tons burden. Messrs. Josiah White and Erskine Hazard,
however, argued that the same number of hands could manage a much larger boat,
and the only items of increase in expense would be for the original
construction and perhaps an additional horse for towing. Every ton of coal transported could be
carried cheaper by this arrangement than by the one which contemplated smaller
boats. Finally, Canvass White made two
estimates, one for a canal forty feet wide, and the other for one sixty feet
wide. The difference in the estimates
being only about thirty thousand dollars, the company decided upon the
construction of the larger one. The
dimensions of the navigation were fixed at sixty feet wide on the surface and
five feet deep, and the locks one hundred feet long and twenty-two feet wide,
adapted to boats of one hundred and twenty tons.
The work was at once laid out and let to
contractors, who commenced their operations about midsummer. The engineer corps, under Canvass White, was
composed as follows: On the upper division,
commencing one mile below Mauch Chunk, Isaac A. Chapman, of Wilkesbarre, and W.
Milner Roberts and Solomon W. Roberts, of Philadelphia; on the middle division were Anthony B.
Warford, of New York, Benjamin Aycrigg, of New Jersey, and Ashbel Welch; on the lower division were John Hopkins and
George E. Hoffman, both of New York, and William K. Huffnagle, of
Philadelphia. Edward Miller, of
Philadelphia, soon afterward joined the corps.
Instructions were given the chief engineer by the company to make canals
in lieu of river improvements only when they would be cheaper and more
effective. His report stated that
"the length of the canal would be thirty-four and three-fourths miles, and
ten miles of pools with tow-paths the whole distance, and the estimate of the
expense seven hundred and eighty-one thousand three hundred and three
dollars."
"The improved navigation," says
the author of the memoir of Josiah White, "was commenced in 1827, and
vigorously prosecuted and completed in two years." Commissioners were appointed by the Governor
in June, 1829, who reported on the 3d of the following month that
the work was completed, according to law, as far as Mauch Chunk. "We are, indeed, surprised," they
said, "to find a new canal forty-five feet wide at the bottom,
sixty feet wide at the …
Page 598
… top, calculated for five feet
depth of water, stand as well as this has done. Whenever there is any danger to be apprehended to the bank, from
the rise of water in the river, the bank of the canal is protected by good
slope-walls. The locks are composed of
good stone laid in hydraulic cement.
Notwithstanding the size of the locks, everything being new, and the
gate-keepers inexperienced, the average time of passing the locks was about
five minutes. There are forty-five
lift-locks, in number of six, seven, eight and nine feet fall, all of
twenty-two feet by one hundred feet, except the four upper ones, near Mauch
Chunk, which are thirty feet by one hundred and thirty feet, overcoming a fall
of three hundred and sixty and eighty-seven one-hundredths feet in a distance
of forty-six and three-fourths miles, and there are also six guard-locks. The dams are eight in number; they are built
of timber and stone in a very substantial manner, with stone abutments, and of
the following height: five, thirteen, eight, sixteen, twelve, six, seven and
one-half, and ten feet from surface to surface. On the whole the work appears to have been constructed with a
view to service and durability, and the corporation, in our opinion, is
entitled to much commendation for the promptness and energy displayed in the
prosecution and completion of this great public improvement."
By this time a total change had taken place
in the views of the community respecting the undertaking of the Lehigh
Company. The improvement of the river
had been demonstrated to be perfectly practicable, and the extensive coal field
owned by the company was no longer to be regarded as of problematical
value. The Legislature of 1818 was now
censured for having granted such valuable privileges, and all of the
"craziness" of the original enterprise was lost sight of. Hence applications to the Legislature for a
change in their charter (for the purpose of increasing the capital, as was deemed
necessary to carry on the work) were thwarted by the influence of adverse
interests. It was evident that such a
change as the company desired could not be secured without a sacrifice of some
of the valuable privileges secured by the charter. Therefore resort was had to loans, to enable the company to
complete the work required by law, and these were readily procured, in
consequence of the good faith always evinced in the business of the company,
and their evidently prosperous circumstances.
The Delaware division was not regularly
opened for navigation until three years after the Lehigh improvement was made,
and delay caused the loss of eight dividends to the Lehigh Company, they being
compelled to use temporary boats which were very expensively moved upon the
Lehigh Canal. This not only prevented
the increase of the company's coal business on the Lehigh, but also turned the
attention of persons desirous of entering into the coal business to the
Schuylkill coal region, which caused Pottsville to spring up with great
rapidity and furnish numerous dealers to spread the Schuylkill coal through the
market, while the company was the only dealer in Lehigh coal. In this manner the Schuylkill coal trade got
in advance of that of the Lehigh.
In the mean time the company had built the
gravity railroad from the Summit Mines to the river, which is fully described
in the chapter on Mauch Chunk, and in 1831 they constructed a similar railroad
from Nesquehoning to the landing.
As the time at which the original act of the
Legislature required the navigation improvement to be completed to
Stoddartsville was now approaching, and the attention of the public was
attracted to the Second or Beaver Meadow coal region, it became necessary to
look to the commencement of that work.
It was evident that the descending navigation by artificial freshets
would not be satisfactory to the Legislature, who had reserved the right of
compelling the construction of a complete slack-water navigation. The extraordinary fall in the upper section
of the Lehigh rendered its improvement by locks of the ordinary lift
impracticable, as the locks would have been so close together, and would have
caused so much detention in their use, as to render the navigation too
expensive to be available to the public.
The plan of high lifts was proposed by the managers as one that would
overcome this difficulty, and in 1835, Edwin A. Douglass was appointed as
engineer to carry it into execution.
The work as high as the mouth of the Quakake was put under contract in
June, 1835, and from thence to White Haven in October of the same year. The descending navigation above Wright's
Creek was also put under contract in the same year.
On the 13th of March, 1837, the Legislature
passed an act authorizing the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to construct a
railroad to connect the North Branch Division of the Pennsylvania Canal with
the slack-water navigation of the Lehigh, and increasing their capital to one
million six hundred thousand dollars, at the same time repealing so much of the
former act as required or provided for the completion of a slack-water
navigation between Wright's Creek (near White Haven) and Stoddartsville. This act was accepted by the stockholders of
the company on May 10, 1837.
The whole work of the navigation required by
the acts of the Legislature was completed, and the Governor's commission given
to the inspectors to examine the last of it on March 19, 1838. The commissioners appointed, Samuel Breck, N.
Beach, and Owen Rice, made their report, showing a highly satisfactory
condition, on the 12th of June following.
The descending navigation from Stoddartsville with "beartrap" 1 locks to connect with the ascending
navigation at White Haven made a continuous line of communicat- …
PAGE 598
FOOTNOTES
1 For the
definition of this term, or rather the account of its original application, see
chapter on Mauch Chunk borough
Page 599
…
ion and traffic from the head-waters of the Lehigh to Easton on the Delaware,
and from thence by the Delaware Canal to tide-water at Bristol, a distance of
one hundred and forty-four miles.
The original plan in the minds of the
originators of the works was to connect their navigation at White Haven, on the
Lehigh, by canal with the Susquehanna River at Berwick, along the valley of
Nescopeck Creek, and by railroad with Wilkesbarre on the same river. The early law authorizing the canal was
revived in 1834, and the route was surveyed and estimates made by E. A.
Douglass in 1836. But as the fall to be
overcome both ways was so great (one thousand and thirty-eight feet), and water
scarce on the mountain, the idea was abandoned.
In 1837 it was determined by the company to proceed
with the construction of the railroad, and it was put under contract the same
year, after a very thorough examination of the country by Mr. Douglass, in
order to ascertain the best location for it through the very rough and
mountainous country over which it was to pass between the two rivers. To build this road required some very bold
engineering, including a tunnel one thousand seven hundred and forty-three feet
long, and three inclined planes from the top of the mountain down through
"Solomon's Gap" into the valley of the Susquehanna. These three planes were very substantially
built. The loaded coal-cars were drawn
upon their tracks out of the valley by powerful stationary engines, and then
taken over the railroad to the Lehigh, where their contents were transferred to
boats. The height the coal was raised
was about one thousand feet, and the planes were respectively four thousand
eight hundred and seventy-five, and four thousand three hundred and sixty-one
feet in length, - on the first the grade being about five feet to the hundred,
on the second, eight and six-tenths feet, and on the third, nine feet. This road and its tunnel (nearly one-third
of a mile in length), the planes and heavy machinery were finally completed and
put in use, after some delay in consequence of the damage to the canal by the
freshet of 1841, and answered all of the purposes intended. It was a work unprecedented at the time in
the United States.
Following is a tabular statement of the
tonnage of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, by the Lehigh Canal, since
the commencement of the coal trade in 1820:
Year
Tonnage
1820.......................................................................................................... 365
1821.......................................................................................................... 1,073
1822.......................................................................................................... 2,240
1823.......................................................................................................... 5,823
1824.......................................................................................................... 9,541
1825.......................................................................................................... 28,393
1826.......................................................................................................... 31,280
1827.......................................................................................................... 32,074
1828.......................................................................................................... 30,232
1829.......................................................................................................... 23,110
1830.......................................................................................................... 41,750
1831..........................................................................................................
40,960
1832.......................................................................................................... 70,000
1833.......................................................................................................... 123,000
1834.......................................................................................................... 106,244
1835.......................................................................................................... 131,250
1836.......................................................................................................... 148,211
1837.......................................................................................................... 223,902
1838.......................................................................................................... 213,615
1839.......................................................................................................... 221,025
1840.......................................................................................................... 225,318
1841.......................................................................................................... 243,037
1842.......................................................................................................... 272,546
1843.......................................................................................................... 267,793
1844.......................................................................................................... 377,002
1845.......................................................................................................... 429,453
1846.......................................................................................................... 517,116
1847.......................................................................................................... 633,507
1848.......................................................................................................... 670,321
1849.......................................................................................................... 781,656
1850.......................................................................................................... 690,456
1851.......................................................................................................... 964,224
1852.......................................................................................................... 1,072,136
1853.......................................................................................................... 1,054,309
1854.......................................................................................................... 1,207,186
1855.......................................................................................................... 1,275,050
1856.......................................................................................................... 1,186.230
1857.......................................................................................................... 900,314
1858.......................................................................................................... 908,800
1859.......................................................................................................... 1,050,659
On the upper part of the company’s works the
damage from this flood was so great that it would…
PAGE 599
FOOTNOTES
1 From "Incidents of the Freshet on the Lehigh River,
Sixth month, 4th and 5th,
1862," a pamphlet published in 1863
Page 600
… probably have required two-thirds of the
original cost of the improvements to have replaced them.
It was commonly believed that the giving way
of the large dams had been the chief cause of the large damage done all along
the valley, and there arose a strong popular feeling against their being
rebuilt. This opposition culminated in
the passage of an act by the Legislature, March 4, 1863, prohibiting the
rebuilding of dams on the Upper Lehigh for canal purposes, because of the peril
to which they subjected people and property.
In lieu of this right the Assemble granted the company a charter for a
railroad from Mauch Chunk to White Haven, to connect with the railroad built
from that place to Wilkesbarre in the period from 1837 to 1842. On March 16, 1864, a supplementary act was
passed authorizing the company to extend the road to Easton. Thus a line of railroad communication was
secured which entirely supplanted the canal and slack-water navigation above
Mauch Chunk, and largely relieved the over-burdened canal below that
point. The road was soon built, and the
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company continued to operate it until 1871, when it
was leased to the company owning the Central Railroad of New Jersey, by which
it was managed until the recent lease was made to the Philadelphia and Reading
Railroad Company.
Prior to the building of the Lehigh and
Susquehanna Railroad, authority had been procured to construct the Nesquehoning
Valley Railroad. The act passed the
State Senate April 12, 1861, and the House April 16th, and, reaching the
Governor, was disapproved and returned.
The Senate passed it over the objection May 8th, and the House May
14th. The incorporators were John Leisenring,
Thomas L. Foster, J. B. Moorhead, Jacob P. Jones, Samuel E. Stokes, R. H.
Powell, Andrew Manderson, James S. Cox, and Samuel Hepburn. The capital stock was to consist of ten
thousand shares at fifty dollars each.
Quite a variety of privileges were extended by the charter, the company
being empowered to construct a railroad from the Lehigh Canal, near
Nesquehoning Creek to the head-waters of the same, and also to construct branch
roads, not exceeding two miles in length each, with the privilege of connecting
with the canal, the Beaver Meadow Railroad, the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the
coal-mine road of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in Nesquehoning and
Panther Creek Valleys, "and such other railroads as are now or may be
hereafter constructed contiguous to the said Nesquehoning Valley Railroad or
its branches." The road was duly
built, received the coal traffic formerly belonging to the Gravity and
"Switchback" Railroads, was merged with the Lehigh and Susquehanna
Railroad, and passed by lease successively to the company managing the Central
Railroad of New Jersey, and the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. From the time it was opened until it was
merged with the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, its tonnage was as
follows: 1863, 9086.01;
1864, 125,159.16; 1865,
200,437.09; 1866, 322,229.17.
The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company
built, in 1861-62, a railroad from Hauto to Tamaqua called the Tamaqua Branch,
which, after passing through several changes in proprietorship, is now operated
by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. Another road was built by the company which extended from the
Summit Station of the Catawissa, Williamsport, and Erie Railroad to Audenried.
Following are statistics from the last report of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company:
Miles of lines owned,
leased, and
controlled........................................................... 2,968
Locomotives................................................................................................................…... 882
Passenger-cars............................................................................................................….. 919
Coal-,
freight-, and other
cars...................................................................................… 55,190
Passengers
carried.....................................................................................................…. 20,500,000
Coal,
tons (2240 pounds).....................................................................................…..... 13,800,000
Merchandise,
tons (2000
pounds)...............................................................…........... 9,500,000
Gross
earnings, all lines................................................................................................ $34,500,000
Net
earnings, all
lines..........................................................................................…...... 15,000,000
Capital
stock......................................................................................................…........... 34,724,375
Funded
debt........................................................................................................….......... 82,039,485
Deferred
income
bonds...............................................................................…............... 7,648,807
Floating
debt.................................................................................................……............ 6,042,386
Acres
of coal lands owned and
controlled.............................................................. 201,000
We have spoken of the Lehigh and Susquehanna
Railroad and the smaller railroad improvements of the Coal and Navigation
Company to conclude the account of the great operations of that corporation
which commence the work of providing transportation facilities in the valley in
1818. Prior to the building of the company's
railroad, however, came the construction of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the
Beaver Meadow Railroad. The
latter-mentioned road, although first built, we shall reserve for after
consideration, as it is now simply a branch of the more important Lehigh Valley
Railroad.
John
Brown, for many years identified with the operations of
the Coal and Navigation Company, the son of Francis and Anna Brown, was born in
Newburgh, N.Y., where his parents resided, on the 9th of June, 1808. Here he was engaged in labor on the farm
until about fourteen years of age, when, on leaving the paternal roof, he
sought employment with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. After a service of a few years he, in April,
1831, came to the Lehigh at Mauch Chunk, and was there for a short period
employed as a common laborer. As his
services became valuable he received promotion, and remained, either directly
or indirectly, as one of the trusted employés of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation
Company for a term of nearly forty years, much of this time being either at
White Haven or Easton. His last
position was in connection with the management of all their canals and
railroads. He retired from their
service in 1877, since which time his energies have been devoted to his own
private interests, in coal, iron, lumber, and slate. Mr. Brown was, on the 7th of December, 1840, married to Miss
Maria Stoddart, of Stoddartsville, and has four children, three daughters and
one son. In religion he was educated a
Presbyterian, and is still a supporter of that church. In…
Page 601
… politics he is a Republican, but does
not confine his vote to that party, always indorsing the best men for office,
irrespective of party affiliations. Mr.
Brown has enjoyed an extended reputation as a successful manager of the
interests of large corporations, and as a man of integrity and sound judgment
in all business matters. On retiring
from his official position Easton became his permanent residence.
The first definite movement toward the
undertaking of the enterprise of establishing rail communications in the Lehigh
Valley, of which we have any knowledge, was made in a public meeting at Allentown,
of which Hon. Jacob Dillinger was president;
Dr. Jesse Samuels and Maj. William Fry, vice-presidents; and Samuel Marx, secretary. Hon. Henry King made a strong speech
calculated to arouse the popular feeling in favor of securing a railroad, and a
committee of thirteen was appointed to draw up resolutions expressive of the
sense of the meeting. At an adjourned
meeting they reported the following:
"Resolved, That the people of
Lehigh and of the valley of the Lehigh generally ought to make every effort in
their power to obtain the necessary charter, and promote the construction of a
railroad from the Delaware up the river Lehigh to the Lehigh and Schuylkill
region."
It was resolved, also, that a petition for a
charter be printed and circulated for signatures, and five persons in
Allentown, and three in each township in the county, were appointed to solicit
signatures. A bill was duly prepared
and submitted to the Assembly, and although there was strong opposition
manifested, it was passed April 21, 1846.
It was carried through the Legislature mainly by the exertions of Dr.
Jesse Samuels, representative from Lehigh County. This act incorporated the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and
Susquehanna Railroad Company. On May 6,
1846, the commissioners named in the act - Peter Mickley, Caspar Kleckner,
Benjamin Ludwig, Christian Pretz, Peter Huber, William Edeleman, Henry King,
and George Brobst (of Lehigh County), and Asa Packer, Stephen Balliet, John D.
Bowman, and Thomas Craig (of Carbon County) - met at George Haberacker's hotel
in Allentown, to effect an organization and to open books for stock
subscriptions. There seemed to be but
little faith in the project on the part of capitalists; for, although the
commissioners were active in their endeavors to advance the project, it was not
until Aug. 2, 1847, that a sufficient amount of stock was secured for a
commencement. On that day five thousand
and two shares had been taken, on each of which an installment of five dollars
had been paid.
After considerable trouble the letters
patent were issued, and on Oct. 21, 1847, the first election for officers was
held, resulting as follows: President,
James M. Porter; Managers, Dudley S.
Gregory, John S. Dorsey, John P. Jackson, Daniel McIntyre, Edward R. Biddle,
and John N. Hutchinson; Secretary, John
N. Hutchinson. These officers were
re-elected for the years 1848, 1849, and 1850.
In the fall of 1850 the first survey of the road was made from the mouth
of the Mahoning Creek to Easton by Roswell B. Mason, civil engineer. Early in 1851 the canal commissioners of the
State appointed Jacob Dillinger and Jesse Samuels as a committee to ascertain
whether the proposed railroad would injure the canal of the Lehigh Coal and
Navigation Company or obstruct its works.
They reported that it would not, and the court immediately authorized
Mr. Hutchinson to commence the construction of the road, the time limited by
the charter for its beginning having almost expired. Mr. Dillinger was appointed superintendent, and Dr. Samuels
engineer.
On April 4, 1851, seventeen days before the
charter would have expired by its own limitation, Asa Packer became one of the
board of managers. On that day the
court sanctioned the grading of one mile of railroad near Allentown, thus
avoiding the default by limitation. On
the 31st of October following, Mr. Packer became the purchaser of nearly all
the stock which had been subscribed, and commenced to obtain additional
subscriptions with a view to the prompt construction of the road. Mr. Robert H. Sayre, who held a responsible
position with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, was appointed chief
engineer of the railroad company in the spring of 1852, and on May 11th
commenced the survey and location of the line, completing it in the latter part
of June. About the 1st of October he
again engaged a corps of assistants, and started upon the work of permanently
locating the road, finishing it during the winter.
Judge Packer on the 27th of November, 1852,
submitted a proposition for constructing the railroad from opposite Mauch
Chunk, where it would touch the Beaver Meadow Railroad, to Easton, where it
would connect with the Central Railroad of New Jersey and Belvidere Delaware
Railroad, agreeing to receive in payment for the work the company's stock and
bonds. This proposition was accepted,
and work was commenced immediately at each end of the line.
The name of the corporation was changed to
the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company by act of the Legislature, passed Jan. 7,
1853. On the 10th of January, James M.
Porter was re-elected president; John N. Hutchinson, treasurer and secretary;
William Hackett, David Barnet, William H. Gatzmer, Henry King, John T.
Johnston, and John O. Stearns, managers.
The work was prosecuted by Judge Packer with unceasing vigor. Very formidable obstructions had, however,
to be overcome at many points in…
Page 602
… making the roadway. In some
places rocky bluffs, rising to a great height directly from the water's edge,
had to be excavated by slow and laborious processes. During the summer of 1853 the advance in the prices of labor,
materials, and provisions, and the ravages of cholera throughout the valley,
materially retarded the work. A
contract for connection with the Belvidere Delaware Railroad at Phillipsburg,
N. J., made subsequent to the survey and grading of the line, involved an
entire change of plan, much additional work, and an increased expense. The difficulty to be surmounted was to
connect with two roads on the east bank of the Delaware, running at right
angles to each other, and varying about twenty-two feet in elevation. This required a style of bridge as yet
wholly unknown. Much of the difficulty
attending continuance of freshets in
the river. To avoid this the greater
part of the structure was raised upon wire cables stretched from pier to pier,
a novel undertaking, which was successfully accomplished.
The community at large had not at this early
period much confidence in the success of the new enterprise, and its securities
were insufficient to realize all that was needed in the department of
finance. Valued aid was rendered in
this juncture by several gentlemen connected with the Lehigh stock and bonds, and
by the Camden and Amboy Railroad Company, which loaned its securities to the
contractor.
The opening of the Lehigh Valley Railroad
from South Easton to Allentown occurred June 11, 1855, and two trains were run
daily to the latter place until September 12th, when the road was finished to
Mauch Chunk, though it was not formally accepted from the contractor until the
24th of that month. Up to the 1st of
October one train a day was run to Mauch Chunk. From that time until the 19th of November two passenger-trains
were run daily between Easton and Mauch Chunk, connecting at the former place
with the Philadelphia trains on the Belvidere Delaware Railroad. At this date one of the passenger-trains was
withdrawn, a freight train, with passenger-car attached, being
substituted. Up to this time the road
had been operated by Judge Packer with rolling stock hired from the Central
Railroad Company, but towards the close of 1855, a passenger locomotive and
four cars being purchased, a new train was put on the road to connect with the
early and late trains between Philadelphia and New York, and at the same time a
daily freight train was put on, which left Easton in the morning and returned
in the evening. The Central Railroad
Company at the same period ran midday trains over the road.
During the first three months that the road
was in operation the receipts from passengers were larger that had been
anticipated. Those from coal and
miscellaneous freight were limited by want of cars. The coal, iron, and ore were transported in cars furnished by the
Central Railroad Company, the Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company, and
Packer, Carter & Co. In the early
part of October, 1855, an arrangement was made with Howard & Co., of
Philadelphia, to do the freighting business of the road (except coal, iron and
iron ore), they furnished cars, train-hands, etc., and paying a fixed rate per
mile for toll and transportation. An
arrangement was also effected with the Hope Express Company of New York for
carrying the express matter at a given sum per month. The receipts and expenditures for the three months were as
follows:
Coal Passengers Freight Total
October..................................................... $912.47 $6,812.93 $94.34 $7,819.74
Novermer.................................................. 2,648.42 6,223.44 599.03 9,461.89
December.................................................. 1,792.43 5,675.44 1,768.45 9,236.32
$26,517.95
October............................................................................................................ $4,501.15
November........................................................................................................ 5,350.60
December......................................................................................................... 13,884.58
$23,736.33
Net
profit........................................................................... $2,781.62
In the beginning of the year 1856, the
persons owning the largest amount of stock came to the determination that it
was best to romove the main offices of the company to Philadelphia. Judge Porter on this account declined a
re-election to the presidency, being succeeded on February 5th by Mr. William
W. Longstreth, who resigned on the 13th of May following, when Mr. J.
Gillingham Fell was elected to the office.
In the year 1860 the large shops at Easton
for the manufacture and repair of engines and cars were built. In January, 1862, steel fire-boxes were
introduced, and in the following year steel tires were first used on the wheels
of the company's rolling-stock. In
June, 1862, occurred a great freshet, which carried away bridges, embankments,
and track to the value of at least one hundred thousand dollars, and seriously
impaired the business of the road. In
this same year Mr. fell resigned the presidency of the company, and Judge Asa
Packer was elected in his stead.
In 1863 forty-seven acres of land were
bought at Burlington (now Packerton), to afford space for the more convenient
making up of coal trains, and to answer as a site for car- and machine-shops,
which were at once put under construction.
In 1864,
Judge Packer resigned the presidency, and William W. Longstreth was
elected in his place.
_
PAGE 602
FOOTNOTES
1 See chapter on Internal Improvements in
history of Lehigh County [Return]
Page 603
On the 8th of July, 1864, by the unanimous
approval of the stockholders of the respective companies, this company
incorporated with itself the Beaver Meadow Railroad and the Penn Haven and
White Haven Railroad. The former road,
with double track, extended from East Mauch Chunk to Penn Haven, and thence to
Beaver Meadow, and by its various branches to the adjoining mines in Carbon and
Schuylkill Counties. By this union the
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company became owners also of a considerable body of
coal-land near the village of Beaver Meadow.
The second of the two roads thus merged extended from Penn Haven
Junction to White Haven, a distance of seventeen miles. By the acquisition of these roads with their
various important connections the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company added at once
very largely to its business of every description, and was put in a position of
still greater prosperity for the future.
At the same time, by its subscription to the stock of the Lehigh and
Mahanoy Railroad Company, it was aiding materially an early extension of its
business in other directions.
During the year 1865 the second track
between Easton and Mauch Chunk was laid.
In this same year the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company announced its
determination to build from Penn Haven to White Haven. This made it necessary, in order to secure a
portion of the Wilkesbarre trade, to put the extension of the Lehigh Valley
Railroad under contract, which was promptly done. About this time, also, the Morris and Essex Railroad was opened,
connecting with the Lehigh Valley at Phillipsburg, and reaching to Hoboken,
thus giving increased facilities to trade in that direction.
In June, 1866, by the unanimous action of
both companies, the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad was merged with the Lehigh
Valley Railroad, thus adding two million one hundred and forty-five thousand
eight hundred and fifty dollars to the capital of this latter company, and
greatly increasing its capacity and facilities. The length of the main line thus added, from Black Creek to Mount
Carmel, is forty miles.
Judge Packer in the early part of this same
year purchased, on behalf of the company, a controlling interest in the North
Branch Canal, extending from Wilkesbarre to the New York State line, a distance
of over one hundred miles, with a charter from the commonwealth, authorizing
the company to change its corporate title to the Pennsylvania and New York
Canal and Railroad Company, and to build a railroad the whole length. The canal, over three-fourths of which was
embraced in the purchase, was valued in this arrangement at one million and
fifty thousand dollars. Subscriptions
were received the same year for twenty-four thousand four hundred and sixty-two
additional shares of stock, amounting to one million three hundred and
twenty-three thousand dollars, for the purpose of extending the line from White
Haven to the Wyoming Valley.
This extension was opened for business May
29, 1867, greatly to the satisfaction of the people of the valley, who
celebrated the event at several localities.
Then the construction of the road to Waverly was rapidly pushed forward.
By a merger of the stock of the Hazelton
Railroad Company, effected June 1, 1868, and soon after by a similar
arrangement with the Lehigh and Luzerne Railroad, the Lehigh Valley Company
came into possession of those roads, with all of their rights, franchises, and
property. By these mergers, and by
purchase from the lessees, the company obtained sixty-five miles of track, about
eighteen hundred acres of coal-land, a large number of town lots and other real
estate, cars, machinery, etc. The
railroad of the Spring Mountain Coal Company, from Leviston to Jeanesville, was
purchased in August, 1868, and soon after grading was commenced for a short
extension towards Yorktown and towards the mines of the German Pennsylvania
Coal Company. On November 2d the road
of the Pennsylvania and New York Canal and Railroad Company was opened for
business from the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Junction to Tunkhannock. During the same year ground was bought and
coal pockets erected at Waverly of sufficient capacity for the transfer of one
hundred thousand tons of coal per year.
Judge Packer was again elected president in
1868.
The road of the Pennsylvania and New York
Canal and Railroad Company was opened to Waverly, its northern terminus, on
Sept. 20, 1869. This event was hailed
with evident satisfaction by the people of Northern Pennsylvania and Southern
and Western New York. To guard its
interests at Buffalo, and to provide facilities for transferring coal and other
freight to lake vessels, the company subscribed for thirty-four-fortieths of
the stock of the Buffalo Creek Railroad Company, and commenced the work of
construction, which was completed in 1870.
Arrangements were made in 1877 for running trains over portions of the
Erie and the Southern Central Railroads of New York.
In 1871, the company's coal trade having
suffered for a number of years from the want of an independent outlet to
tide-water, a perpetual lease was made of the property of the Morris Canal and
Banking Company, by which arrangement the Lehigh Railroad Company came into
possession of a line of canal one hundred and two miles long, extending from
the terminus of the road at Phillipsburg to Jersey City.
From this time on the affairs of the Lehigh
Valley Railroad progressed smoothly and prosperously. There have been comparatively few changes in the policy of its
management, but several benefits have been gained as the results of that
policy, which, combined, have given the road a prominent place among the
railroads of the East, and place it in a position which entitles it to
consideration as one of the trunk lines between tide-water and the lakes.
Page 604
Several changes have taken place among the officials
of the company in the past dozen or more years. In the latter part of 1870, John P. Cox, the superintendent of
the Pennsylvania and New York Canal and Railroad Company (now known simply as a
portion of the Lehigh Valley Railroad), died suddenly, and R. A. Packer was
elected to fill the vacancy.
Judge Asa Packer remained president of the
Lehigh Valley Railroad until his death, in May, 1879. Charles Hartshorne, who had for a long period been
vice-president, then acted as president until January, 1880, when he was
elected to the office. He was
re-elected in 1881, and Harry E. Packer was chosen vice-president. In January, 1883, Mr. Packer was elected
president, and Mr. Hartshorne vice-president.
Mr. Packer held the office until his death, early in 1884.
In 1870, Charles C. Longstreth, who had long
been treasurer of the company, died, and Lloyd Chamberlain, formerly secretary,
was then elected to the office. John R.
Fanshawe was at the same time chosen secretary. In July, 1883, William C. Alderson was elected treasurer, Mr.
Lloyd Chamberlain having died on the 7th of that month.
Following is a list of the officers and
directors of the company as they stood at the time the last annual report was
made, Jan. 15, 1884: President, Harry
E. Packer; Vice-President, Charles
Hartshorne; General Manager, Elisha P.
Wilbur; Treasurer, William C.
Alderson; Secretary, John R. Fanshawe; General Superintendent, H. Stanley
Goodwin; Directors, Charles Hartshorne,
William L. Conyngham, Ario Pardee, William A. Ingham, George B. Markle, Robert
H. Sayre, James I. Blakslee, Elisha P. Wilbur, Joseph Patterson, Garrett B.
Linderman, John R. Fell, Robert A. Lamberton.
Following is a tabular statement of the tonnage of the Lehigh Valley Railroad from its opening in 1855:
Year Tonnage
1855
(3
months)............................................................................................. 8,482
1856................................................................................................................. 165,740
1857................................................................................................................. 418,235
1858................................................................................................................. 471,029
1859................................................................................................................. 577,651
1860................................................................................................................. 730,641
1861................................................................................................................. 743,671
1862................................................................................................................. 882,573
1863................................................................................................................. 1,195,154
1864................................................................................................................. 1,466,794
1865................................................................................................................. 1,687,462
1866................................................................................................................. 2,037,714
1867................................................................................................................. 2,080,156
1868................................................................................................................. 2,603,102
1869................................................................................................................. 2,310,170
1870................................................................................................................. 3,608,586
1871................................................................................................................. 2,889,074
1872................................................................................................................. 3,850,118
1873................................................................................................................. 4,144,339
1874................................................................................................................. 4,150,659
1875................................................................................................................. 3,277,571
1876................................................................................................................. 3,951,513
1877................................................................................................................. 4,862,124
1878................................................................................................................. 3,446,615
1879................................................................................................................. 4,361,785
1880................................................................................................................. 4,606,415
1881................................................................................................................. 5,791,376
1882................................................................................................................. 6,257,159
1883................................................................................................................. 6,527,912
Following are statistics concerning this
road from the company's last report:
Miles of trackage, main
line......................................................................... 741.5
Miles
of trackage, Pennsylvania and New Jersey Canal
and
Railroad
Comapny.......................................................................... 265.5
Locomotives,
both lines.............................................................................… 356
Passenger-cars.............................................................................................… 85
Coal-
and other cars....................................................................................… 35,756
Pasengers
carried.......................................................................................…. 2,027,190
Tons
of coal carried...................................................................................…. 7,784,766
Tons
of other freight
carried....................................................................… 4,765,702
Gross
earnings.............................................................................................. $12,463,613
Net
earnings................................................................................................… 6,877,078
Capital
stock.................................................................................................. 27,603,195
Bonded
debt.................................................................................................. 25,013,000
Income
from investments............................................................................ 1,079,243
Acres
coal-lands owned and
controlled................................................... 30,000
Biographical sketches of Hon. Asa Packer and others prominently identified with the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company will be found in the chapter on Mauch Chunk. That of Mr. Hartshorne is here appended.
Charles Hartshorne,
the vice-president of the Lehigh Valley
Railroad Company, was born at Philadelphia, Sept. 2, 1829. He is a son of the late Dr. Joseph and Anna
Hartshorne, and a descendant in the seventh generation from Richard Hartshorne,
who settled in New Jersey in 1665, nearly twenty years prior to Penn's
settlement on the Delaware. His
grandfather, William Hartshorne, of Alexandria, Va., was treasurer of the first
Internal Improvement Company in this country, of which Gen. Washington was
president.
Mr. Hartshorne was educated at Haverford
College and at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating from the latter in
the class of '47.
Mr. Hartshorne's early tendencies were in the line of railroad enterprises, which began to take a strong hold upon the attention of capitalists and of the public about the time of his emergence from college life into the more practical experiences of business and public affairs. Having embarked in railroad interests, Mr. Hartshorne has continued therein to the present time as an active and influential participant in various important transportation movements. In 1857 he became president of the Quakake Railroad Company; in 1862 he was chosen president of the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad Company; in 1868 he was elected vice-president of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, and in 1880 was elevated to the presidency, but in January, 1883, resumed the position of vice-president to make room for a son of the late Judge Packer, whose estate holds a controlling interest in the company. In addition to his important railroad interests, Mr. Hartshorne is connected with a number of commercial organizations, notably the Provident Life and Trust Company and the Western National Bank, in each of which he is a director.
He is also officially connected with a
number of public enterprises of an educational and charitable character. Among such may be mentioned Haverford
College, Bryn Mawr College, and the Pennsylvania Hospital, of each of which he
is a member of the board of managers.
Although engaged in a number of enterprises
of great magnitude, and burdened with a
multiplicity of responsible duties, Mr. Hartshorne was found time to indulge in
a considerable amount of domestic and…
Page 605
…foreign travel, having visited Europe in
the years 1852, 1868, and 1882.
On the 8th of June, 1859, Mr. Hartshorne was married to Miss Caroline Cope Yarnall, a daughter of Edward Yarnall and a granddaughter of Thomas P. Cope. As a result of this alliance there have been five children, - two sons and three daughters.
In the mean time, under authority of an act
passed Dec. 22, 1836, extending the time of the company for building the road
as far as Easton to seven years, that work had been undertaken and the track
actually laid to a point opposite Parryville by the close of 1836.
The freshet of 1841 carried away all of the
bridges from Weatherly to Parryville, and that part of the road below Mauch
Chunk was abandoned, arrangements being made to transfer coal from the Beaver
Meadow Railroad to the boats on the canal at that point. Shipment of coal was resumed in August,
1841. In 1849, under the presidency of
W. W. Longstreth, the road was relaid with heavy T-rail, the track having
previously consisted of timbers with flat or strap-rails. In September, 1860, another heavy flood
occurred, which carried away the bridges on Black and Quakake Creeks, and
destroyed the car-shops at Weatherly and Penn Haven. The repairs necessary could not be made in time to allow the
resumption of business in 1850, but the road was again in readiness for
operation on the opening of navigation, in 1851. On the 15th of March, 1853, the company was authorized by the
Legislature to take such steps as were necessary to avoid the use of inclined
planes. Accordingly a piece of road one
and three-quarter miles long, extending from Weatherly in the direction of
Hazelton, was purchased from the Hazelton Coal Company. This was graded in 1854-55, and track…
1 The foregoing facts are taken from a report
of the president and managers of the company, signed by S. D. Ingham, and
published in Hazard's Register for April, 1833 [Return]
… being laid in the latter year, the inclined planes were abandoned on
the 14th of August. The grade from
Weatherly along Hazel Creek for one and three-quarter miles is one hundred and
forty-five feet to the mile. At about the
same time this change was made a second track was laid along the Lehigh from
Penn Haven to Mauch Chunk.
The Quakake Valley Railroad was completed in
Aug. 25, 1858, connecting the Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad with
the Beaver Meadow Railroad.
The Beaver Meadow became a carrying road for
all of the coal-fields in its region, and gained rapidly in business. In 1866 it was merged with the Lehigh Valley
Railroad, of which it now formed the Beaver Meadow Division. The presidents of the road from the first to
the time of the merger were S. D. Ingham, _____ Budd, Joseph Pearsoll, J. H.
Dulless, _____ Rowland, and W. W. Longstreth, the latter holding the office
until 1866. Capt. George Jenkins was
superintendent of transportation; Col.
William Lilly, shipping clerk; Morris
Hall, treasurer; and James D. Gallop,
roadmaster. A. G. Brodhead was
appointed superintendent in May, 1850, and held the office until the merger,
when he was appointed by the managers of the Lehigh Valley Railroad superintendent
of the division thus added to their line, which office he still holds.
The following is a statement of tonnage on the Beaver Meadow Railroad from its commencement, in 1837, to July, 1859, from which time to its merger with the Lehigh Valley, in 1866, its figures cannot be well ascertained:
Year Tonnage
1837..................................................................................................... 33,617
1838..................................................................................................... 54,647
1839..................................................................................................... 79,971
1840..................................................................................................... 123,225
1841
(flood)........................................................................................ 64,641
1842..................................................................................................... 108,171
1843..................................................................................................... 125,456
1844..................................................................................................... 143,363
1845..................................................................................................... 149,000
1846..................................................................................................... 194,380
1847..................................................................................................... 247,500
1848..................................................................................................... 266,188
1849..................................................................................................... 324,048
1850
(flood)........................................................................................ 155,403
1851..................................................................................................... 383,748
1852..................................................................................................... 243,112
1853..................................................................................................... 278,939
1854..................................................................................................... 367,093
1855..................................................................................................... 438,092
1856..................................................................................................... 552,111
1857..................................................................................................... 618,793
1858..................................................................................................... 628,227
1859..................................................................................................... 746,313
The Spring Mountain Coal Company prior to 1858 commenced building a road from their mines to Jeanesville to connect with the Beaver Meadow Railroad at their mines at Lewiston. In August of the year mentioned, this road was purchased by the Lehigh Valley Railroad management, who extended it to Yorktown and the German Pennsylvania coal mines, as has heretofore related. The Tresckow branch was built later. It extends a distance of a little more than seven miles, from Silver Creek to Audenreid.
There have been two other railroad
enterprises in Carbon County, of which it is worth while to make a mere
mention, through neither of them were successful.
The Schuylkill Haven and Lehigh River
Railroad Company was incorporated by act of April 19, 1856. Authority was granted for the construction
of a road from the borough of Schuylkill Haven, by way of Orwigsburg and
Ringgold, to connect with the Lehigh Valley Railroad at or near the mouth of
Lizard…
… Creek. Work was begun on this
line and grading was carried on for two or three miles from Lizard Creek, when
the rights of the company were purchased by the Philadelphia and Reading
Railroad Company, who abandoned it.
The Mahoning Railroad Company was
incorporated April 11, 1859, and given power to construct a railroad from
Tamaqua to the railroad of the Little Schuylkill Navigation Railroad and Coal
Company, and thence by any practicable route through Mahoning Valley to any
point on the Lehigh Valley Railroad above the Lehigh Water Gap. Grading was commenced at the Lehigh River,
near Lizard creek, and completed for a distance of two or three miles, but the
more vigorous action of the Nesquehoning Railroad Company gave that line the
advantage of priority of construction,
and the Mahoning Railroad project was abandoned. The scheme of building a road along the line chosen in 1859 has
been talked of in recent years, and may some time be realized.
********************************************************************************
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 April 2004
by
Shirley
Kuntz
Proofing
&
web
page by
April
2004