HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY

 

CHAPTER II.

PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENTS AND INTERNAL

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

                                    The Lehigh Valley Railroad

                                                Including a short biography of industrialist Charles Hartshorne

                                    The Beaver Meadow Railroad

                                    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…

 

PAGE 593 FOOTNOTES

 

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

 

Internal Improvements - The Descending and Ascending Navigation of the Lehigh.  The story of the discovery of coal at Summit Hill in 1791, of the several endeavors to mine and place it in the market, and of the successful though difficult operations of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, under White and Hazard, is given, for obvious reasons of convenience and propriety, in the chapter on Mauch Chunk Borough, and it is our purpose to here present an account of the successive enterprises of internal improvement undertaken by the company, and also those in later years carried out by other organizations.  The great carrying traffic of the Lehigh Valley had its inception in the measures resorted to by the Coal and Navigation Company to place the product of their mines in the market, and has advanced from the crude system of river navigation, through the better one of the canal, to the most perfect mode of transportation known, that of the railroad.

 

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.

 

Disaster came with the spring of 1820, the ice severely injuring several of the dams, and carrying away some of the sluice-gates.  From the necessity for additional funds created by this damage, arose the plan of consolidating the coal and navigation companies which, as we have before stated, was consummated in 1820.  As one of the conditions of that union, an additional twenty thousand dollars' worth of stock was subscribed for, nearly three-fifths of which was taken by White & Hazard.  The dams and sluices were repaired with this sum, and in the year 1820 the first anthracite coal was sent to market by the artificial navigation, the whole quantity being three hundred and sixty-five 1 tons, which completely glutted the Philadelphia market, and was with difficulty disposed of during the year.  It was sold for twenty-one dollars per ton.  During 1820 the company again expended all of its capital.  The work was done with the exception of one place at "the slates" (above Allentown), where the channel and wing walls were made over the smooth surface of slate ledges rising within a few inches of the surface of the water.  It was impossible there from the nature of the ground, to make the wing walls remain tight enough to keep the water at the required height, and it became evident that a solid dam must be built by which the water could be raised to a sufficient height to bury the ledges completely and permanently.  Additional subscriptions to the stock were only secured by a sacrifice on the part of White & Hazard, who transferred as a bonus to those who would subscribe an amount of the stock held by them, equal to twenty per cent. on the new subscription.  With the money thus finally secured, the dam and lock at "the slates" were erected, and one thousand and seventy-three tons of coal sent to Philadelphia in 1821.  An uneasiness among the stockholders with regard to their personal liabilities led to the incorporation of the company in February, 1822.  In that year new confidence being given by the chartering of the company, subscriptions were received amounting to nearly eighty-five thousand dollars, and the affairs of the corporation assumed a more promising aspect than they had ever worn.  Two thousand two hundred and forty tons of coal were sent to market during the year.

 

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.

 

The Slack-Water or Ascending Navigation of the Lehigh. - The first plan for the ascending navigation of the Lehigh was one which contemplated the use of steamboats.  The acting managers (White and Hazard) provided for a steamboat navigation with locks one hundred and thirty feet long and thirty feet wide, which would accommodate a steamboat carrying one hundred and fifty tons of coal.  These locks were constructed peculiarly and adapted to river navigation.  The gates operated upon the same principle with the sluice-gates in the dams for making artificial freshets, and were raised or let down by the application or removal of a hydrostatic pressure below them.  The first mile of the river below Mauch Chunk was arranged for this kind of navigation.  The locks proved to be perfectly effective, and could be filled or emptied, notwithstanding their magnitude, in three minutes, or about half the time of the ordinary lock.  Application was then made to the Legislature for an act for the improvement of the river Delaware upon this plan, but the authorities decided upon the construction of a canal along that river, and this, of course, put an end to the project of putting steamboats upon the Lehigh.

 

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

                                   

 

The Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad came into existence through the enterprise of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and as a logical result of that corporation's progressiveness and the increase demand for transportation down the valley.  The immediate cause of its construction, however, was a disaster.  The great flood of the 4th and 5th of June, 1862, resulted in the almost complete destruction of the company's costly improvements on the Upper Lehigh.  A heavy and continuous rain, which commenced on the afternoon of the 3d and fell with more or less intensity until about one o'clock on the morning of the 5th, effected a rapid rise in the Lehigh and its tributary streams above Mauch Chunk.  Many of the mill-dams upon them gave way, and the freshet on that part of the river became so great on the afternoon of the 4th as to cause the booms placed at and near White Haven to give way, thus casting adrift a large quantity of saw-logs and other timber to pursue an almost resistless course down the stream.  Many of the dams and guard-banks of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company's canal, unable to withstand the combined accumulation of water and logs, yielded to their force.  It was thought by many that Dam No. 4, near White Haven, was the first torn away, and that the water and lumber thus let loose, gathering force as they pursued their downward career, partly carried away or seriously injured most of the dams and locks between White Haven and Mauch Chunk.  In some instances locks were entirely swept away, leaving no vestige, and parts of the canal so completely destroyed that a stranger viewing the scene would not suspect that one ever existed there.  The breaking of Dam No. 4 occurred about nightfall, and no doubt the greater number of those broken followed as soon as the great wave suddenly let loose reached them, though some of them did not give way until much later in the night 1.

 

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 Lehigh Valley Railroad. - This important railroad, the first opened through the Valley, had its inception in the efforts of a few enterprising and far-seeing men in Lehigh and Northampton, and was carried to successful completion and prosperous operation chiefly through the labors of an eminent citizen of Carbon Company, Hon. Asa Packer, for many years its efficient president.

 

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:

 

Receipts

                                                                                                                                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

Expenses

                                                                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.

 

During the next few years a number of connections were made which added largely to the effectiveness of the road.  These included the connection with the North Pennsylvania at Bethlehem in 1857, that with the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad 1 in the same year; the union with the Quakake Railroad (now the Mahanoy Division) in 1858, and with the East Pennsylvania Railroad in 1859.  Of some of these, and of several not here mentioned, we shall treat more specifically hereafter.

 

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.

 

The Beaver Meadow Railroad, now known simply as the Beaver Meadow Division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, was the first railroad within the limits of Carbon County on which steam was employed as power, although it was built a number of years after the gravity road from the Summit Mines to Mauch Chunk.  The Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company was incorporated by act of the Assembly April 13, 1830, with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and was empowered to build a railroad from the Beaver Meadow Coal Mines (in what is now Banks township) to the Lehigh River, at or near Mauch Chunk, a distance, by the windings of the Beaver, Hazel, and Quakake Creeks, and the Lehigh River, of about twenty miles, and, if deemed expedient, to make a railroad from the mines to the Little Schuylkill at such place as might be deemed necessary to make connection with any other road built in that valley.  Both of these routes were examined, and that to and along the Lehigh was found to be preferable by reason of the greater facility of passing through a country graded by streams of water, thereby avoiding the necessity of constructing planes and employing stationary engines;  also on account of the advantage of markets for coal on the Delaware, to which this route led most directly.  The original act authorized the company to extend their road on the Lehigh only to Mauch Chunk, at the head of the canal. A failure to make satisfactory arrangements with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in regard to tolls over their canal prevented the commencement of active operations during the summer of 1830, and at the following session of the General Assembly a supplement to the act of incorporation was passed authorizing an increase of capital to eight hundred thousand dollars, and an extension of the road from Mauch Chunk, a distance by the river of  forty-six miles.  The books for the subscription to the additional stock were opened at a time when the failure of coal operations had caused a general discouragement in all enterprises of that kind, and before the advantages of railroad transportation had been ascertained by experience.  A sufficient sum had been subscribed to have authorized the undertaking, but the board had been too much influenced by the general depression to make the effort.  The subscriptions were, therefore, canceled and the principal part of the money repaid to the subscribers.  Since that time experience has more accurately determined the expense of transporting coal by railroads, as well as that of constructing them.  A new subscription was commenced in November, 1832, and a sufficient amount of stock was taken to assure the board that there was no longer any reason for apprehending failure.  But it was found that the period limited by law in which the work must be completed had so far elapsed that it was deemed inexpedient to progress with the work until an extension of time was procured.  Application being made to the Legislature, an act was passed Jan. 29, 1833, granting the privilege of four years more in which to finish the work 1.

 

Under the provision of the act work was commenced on the road.  Canvass White was chief engineer and A. Pardee assistant.  After the road was surveyed, and while it was being graded, a difficulty arose between the company and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company about its location, the managers of the latter insisting that its grade was too low.  This trouble culminated in the exercise of a little violence at what is called the Oxbow, where stones were hurled down the bank at the Beaver Meadow Company's laborers.  The difficulty was finally settled, and the grade was changed, the road-bed being made higher that was at first intended.  The road was finished and opened for transportation in the fall of 1836.  The two locomotives put upon the track were called the "S. D. Ingham" and "Elias Ely."  In April, 1837, another - the "Quakake" - was added, and in August the "Beaver."

 

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]

 

 

 

 

                                                           

Page 606

      … 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.

 

The Mahanoy Division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. - The first operation made in the Quakake Valley for a railroad was by the Morris Canal and Banking Company, who by a supplement to their charter were authorized to build a railroad from Black Creek to Quakake Junction, to connect with the Beaver Meadow Railroad.  A line was graded about 1837, rails were shipped by canal and slack-water navigation to Parryville, and duly laid.  Cars had only been run for a short time, when the company failed.  The rails were then taken up and shipped to Pottsville, and about 1840 were used in the construction of a branch road along the Norwegian Creek (now a part of the Philadelphia and Reading line).  About 1854 the old road-bed  came into the possession or control of the Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad Company, and was then known as the Quakake branch.  On April 25, 1857, an act was passed incorporating the Quakake Valley Railroad Company, and authorizing the construction of a railroad "from a point on the Beaver Meadow Railroad to the junction of Quakake and Black Creeks, in Carbon County, and thence in a westwardly direction up the Quakake Valley;  thence to connect with the Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad, at some point between the Summit Tunnels on the said road, in Rush township, Schuylkill Co."   The company was also authorized to buy or lease the "already graded way" of the Quakake Branch of the Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad Company, which was done.  The rails were relaid, and the road completed Aug. 25, 1858.  An act passed in March of the following year authorized the company to extend their road from Rush township, in Schuylkill County, westerly towards the head-waters of Mahanoy Creek.  Two or three years later the company became hedged about with financial difficulties, and the road was sold under mortgage to Judge Asa Packer.  Under the authority of an act passed April 8, 1861, the name of the Quakake Valley Railroad was changed to the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad.  The Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad Company also had some claims on this road, and continued for some time to run trains over it.  The Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad Company extended the road into the Schuylkill, Columbia, and Northumberland region, and continued to operate it until it was merged with the Lehigh Valley Railroad in 1866.  It is now operated as this road prior to the merger was as follows:  1863 ,9036;  1864, 125,159;  1865, 200,437;  1866, 322,229.

 

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…

 

 

 

 

 

Page 607

 

        … 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.

 

 

 

 

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 April 2004

by

Shirley Kuntz

 

 

Proofing &

web page by

Jack Sterling

April 2004