MEMOIR  OF JOSIAH WH ITE. SHOWING( HIS CONNECTION WITH' THE INTRODUCTION AND USE OF ATHRACITE COAL AND IRON, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOME OF T'HE CANALS AND RAILROADS OF PENNSYLVANIA, ETC. BY RICHARD RICHARDSON. J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. I873.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year I873, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. LIPPINCOTT'S PRESS, PHILADELPHIA.

                                                                                                       PREFACE.

 In the preparation of the following memoir of Josiah White, it has been the object of the writer to endeavor not only to portray the life of the individual as a man and a Christian, illustrating how energy and industry, with strict integrity of character, by the blessing of Providence, meet with their sure reward; which has been verified in the history of most of our prominent men in all professions of life, who have been the architects of their own fortunes; but also chiefly to depict some of the difficulties he had to encounter, as a pioneer, in the successful development of the vast mineral resources of our State, in which he took a leading and active part. The extensive system of internal improvements by canal and railroad, with their adjuncts of motive-power and telegraphs, and other extensive works connected therewith, now so important and  necessary to the industry and traffic of the country, and so familiar to the public, ought not to allow us to forget the men, who originated and inaugurated what may now be considered the humble beginnings of these things. These beginnings, in reality, required much more originality of thought, courage, and energy to carry through to success than many larger enterprises of the present day, when capital is so abundant, and mechanical appliances are so perfect and so readily obtained. As the name of De Witt Clinton, in New York, stands pre-eminent as the pioneer of the canal system of that State, so must that of Josiah White be conspicuous, in the same direction, in the State of Pennsylvania. They were both remarkable men in their day, and occupied marked positions in the history of the growth and development of the wealth and enterprise of these great Commonwealths. The anthracite coal in this country being almost exclusively confined to Pennsylvania, as far as developed, has become a leading article of its mineral wealth; its mining, transportation, and introduction into the markets of the State and country, formed the basis of Josiah White's operations, and gave him scope and opportunity to fully display the patience, perseverance, and skill which were distinguishing features in his character. The manufacture of iron with anthracite coal, another leading article in our productions, also claimed his attention, and he, in connection with some others, were among the first who succeeded in making and introducing it into use. As regards his religious tenets, he was thoughtfully inclined from his youth, regularly attending the meetings of the Society of Friends, of which he was a member, and was much interested in its prosperity and welfare. In an essay written towards the close'of his life, this language occurs, illustrative of his religious feelings: "I am now beyond the meridian of life, and have been busied with temporal engagements, I hope honestly and for the advantage of my country and fellow-creatures. I now seek and pray for retirement from all these, so as to understand the realities I stand in need of in regard to another world." His daily life, with his frequent seasons of solitary retirement, with the Bible for his companion, which he diligently read and studied, were well known to his family; the earnestness of his resolution to keep his face Zionward, desiring to be at peace with his Maker, through a once crucified, but now risen and glorified Saviour, is attested by the few extracts presented to the reader in this little volume. In some of the copious quotations from his writings presented in this work occasional verbal alterations have been made, but not so as to impair the meaning intended to be conveyed by him. The writer feeling his incompetency for the task he has undertaken, that of giving a faithful portraiture of his esteemed and honored father-in-law, submits it, with all its imperfections, to the lenient criticism of the reader. R. R. PHILADELPHIA, 1873,

                                                                                                         EARLY LIFE.

 The subject of this memoir, Josiah White, was born at Mount Holly, in Burlington County, State of New Jersey, on the 4th of the 3d month, 178I. He was the son of John and Rebecca White, members of the Society of Friends, residing at that place. He was directly descended from Thomas White, of Omnen, Cumberland County, England; whose son, Christopher White, with his wife Elizabeth, with two sons, appear to have eamigrated to America in the year I677. Christopher White had previously to his emigration purchased of John Fenwick, one of the proprietors of the then province of New Jersey, one thousand acres of land, on Alloway's Creek, near Salem, in that State. He erected on his farm one of the first brick dwellings constructed in Salem County, and the largest at that time, the bricks being imported from England. It remained standing until so recently as about the year I855. Christopher White had a son, Josiah White, born in London, England, in I675, whose son, Josiah White, born in I705, was the grandfather of the Josiah White of this memoir. His mother, Rebecca Haines, was of English descent, traced back to William and Sarah Haines of the seventeenth century. John White, the father, pursued the business of fulling cloth, having a mill for that and other purposes at Mount Holly, on Rancocus Creek; he was also to some extent a farmer, owning a landed estate in the vicinity. The business had been established by his father, Josiah White, who removed from Salem County, after losing much of his property in an attempt to dam Alloway's Creek, for the purpose of reclaiming land overflowed by the tide. When the dam was nearly completed it was secretly and maliciously destroyed, by cutting a passage for the water through it, whereby it was speedily washed away, and he lost the remuneration he was to have received upon the completion of the undertaking. John White, for whom his son retained a feeling of veneration, and of whom in after-life he fi-equently spoke in terms of affection and regard, was I taken from him by death, when at an early age; leaving his mother, whom he calls a "widow indeed," with the care of four young sons, of whom he was the third. She continued her husband's business in the same place for a time, bringing up her children in a reputable manner, training them in habits of industry and economy; setting them the example herself. The schools at that period afforded but poor facilities for an extended literary education; the teachers being many of them ignorant foreign adventurers, poorly paid, and having little or no capacity for conveying to others the small amount of knowledge they possessed. Such facilities as the place afforded in this respect he enjoyed whilst he remained at Mount Holly; but his school education was limited and defective, being the occasion of many regrets to him in after-life. He says, in alluding to this: " During my fourteenth year I saw the utility of education, and felt a pleasure the first time in my life in learning; previous to which I thought that play, such as boys had, was that which gave the greatest enjoyment to life, and that education was not of much account; and I dreaded the period when I should arrive at manhood, feeling that something more useful would be required of me. My schoolmasters, instead of impressing on their scholars the advantages of knowledge by reason and argument, used the rod as the stimulant to learning, telling us we must'either get our lessons or it;' thereby frequently causing what ought to have been a pleasure to become a physical pain to us, and discouraging a proper attempt at learning." Had suitable opportunities been afforded in this respect,-judging from the natural force, native talent, and determination of his character, —but little difficulty would have been experienced by him in mastering any literary or scientific subject that might have claimed his attention. A more scientific knowledge of the principles of mechanics would often have saved him a vast amount of trouble and expense in his future pursuits. This was one of the principal causes, I believe, why he generally trusted more to his perceptive than to his reasoning faculties in the construction of the various machinery, etc., which he invented and made. It was seldom that a clear idea was conveyed to his mind merely by a written description of anything of the kind; it must be seen by his eyes to be thoroughly understood, by means of a draft or model; and a model was always preferred if practicable. "Iwant to see f it willg//o," was his usual expression on such occasions. He left Mount Holly at an early age to enter into business, but ever after retained vivid recollections of his juvenile life whilst residing there; and was in the habit of frequently visiting the place of his nativity in his advanced life, going to the points where some remarkable event occurred; the old swimming and skating places on the creek, where he and his brothers enjoyed their boyish sports and dangerous adventures; spots where more serious occurrences took place, the breaking of an arm, the cut from an axe, or the fall into the creek and narrow escape from drowning; here hie made hay, there the spring of water where he reposed and partook of lunchlleon; hre grew the chestnuttree, commemorative of a remarkable dream; all these places, and the room where he was born, the school-house in which he was educated, the meeting-house where he worshiped, and the graveyard where reposed the ashes of his ancestors, he would visit and revisit, with untiring interest and pleasure. About the fifteenth year of his age he was apprenticed to James Hutton, of Philadelphia. Of this he says: " My mother took me to Philadelphia to get me apprenticed to some business there; she urged no trade in particular, but had inculcated into her children a dislike to store-keeping, as too much encouraging pride and idleness, and rather tending to a cunning craftiness, that she was fearful might be disadvantageous to us. I preferred a mechanical trade, a joiner or carpenter, as I was fond of tools." They spent a day, unsuccessfully, looking for a situation. On stating to his uncle, Daniel Drinker, the next day their want of success, he informed thenm that a friend of his in the hardware business needed a boy, and undertook to introduce him. On his way there he says: " I began to reflect that I might be too quick in agreeing to enter a business that might not answer the purpose I had in view, that of making a living, and that if it did not, I had better stay at home. I immediately asked my uncle if it was a business I could make a living by, and money at, after I was of age, and if it was respectable, and his friend a well-disposed man. He replied to all my questions in the affirmative, said that it was the same business he had followed. This satisfied me, (as my uncle had been prosperous and was reputed rich,) that I could gain a living by it in an honest way. I accordingly proceeded with him to hlis friend, James Hutton, on the north side of Market Street, between Front and Second Streets, who kept a small hardware store, who at once engaged me, agreeing to board and pay me twenty dollars a year." At the end of two years he had most of the business to attend to, including the keeping of the books. He says: " By the time I was twenty years of age, I became dissatisfied, and thought I had better learn another trade, as this was too small a business for me; but this project was soon stopped, as my employer asked five hundred dollars for the last year of my time, which I thought I could not afford to pay. It is true I was not bound, or legally required to stay with him, nor had ever agreed to; he told me at first to let him know in two or three weeks if I was satisfied, but neither of us ever adverted to the subject again; but I felt the implication quite strong enough to bind me, as a measure of duty, and remained with him, which conclusion was no doubt of after-use to me, as it tended to keep me settled. About eighteen months before I was twenty-one years of age, I was sent to Maiden Creek, to take an account of the stock of store-goods my employer had in partnership with another person at that place. This was about seventy miles from Philadelphia, and the first time I had been over forty miles from home." Before he was twenty-one years of age he sold his patrimonial estate, and purchased the hardware stock of Joseph Dilworth, No. I I I Market Street, who was then retiring therefrom. He proceeds: "My estate amounted to between five and six thousand dollars. The old stock of goods was about one thousand dollars, and I ordered about five thousand dollars' worth from England, to arrive the spring I was of age, and four thousand dollars more for the fall trade." He entered into the hardware business on his own account on the day after he was of age, on the 5th of the 3d month, 1802, " intending" he says, " not to lose a day until I had made as much as I thought was enough, (which was forty thousand dollars,) provided I had attained that amount before I was thirty years old. If I was successful, to then put twenty thousand dollars at interest to accumulate eight times, as I expected in thirty-six years, and to live on the other twenty thousand dollars in such way as I chose. I proposed buying a farm for eight or ten thousand dollars, and with this and eight to ten thousand dollars at interest to live on, to make me as nearly independent of all necessary business, and calls from all quarters, as in the nature of things and the will of Providence I could be. I gave up promptly all my predilections for mechanics of all kinds, for fear they would grow on me to the prejudice of my business, being fully persuaded that the most agreeable way of getting along with any business was to lay aside all things that interfered with it, and make it a strong point to eldeavor to like aze/,itever bzlsiizess I judged was necessary for me, and then, after making enough, to leave it i/z toto." Diligence in business and economy were ruling traits in his character at all times, but particularly so during his continuance in trade on Market Street. He made his place of business his residence, and led an abstemious and industrious life, marked by integrity and probity.

   He was married to Catharine Ridgway, of New Jersey, in I8o5, in his twenty-fifth year. This connection was, however, of short continuance. His wife died of pulmonary disease in less than three years. After this event, his mother was induced to live with her son, and take charge of his domestic arrangements. He continues his narrative: "About the twentyeighth year of my age, I sold out my goods to my brother, Joseph White, and Samuel Lippincott; having by this time obtained the amount of property I had desired, as being sufficient for me. My aim had been to lose no time until I had acquired enough; and then, to appropriate the balance of the life a good Providence allowed me in such a way as would give me the most comfort. No morning, I thought, ever opened more clearly than mine now presented, having realized by industry and integrity my best anticipations, escaped the pollutions of trade, having an abiding feeling to do what was right in the sight of my Maker and fellow-man; with a desire to be useful to the latter, and to do what was strictly right in the eyes of the former; with good hopes to rely on for a peaceful, pleasant, and moderate progress through life, so as to step from a calm journey, through this world, into that which never ends. " During the two years I was out of business, I made a tour to Georgia by sea, and returned by land. I was invited by Barrack Gibbons to accompany him to his river plantation, near Savannah. Having just returned home from the North, his slaves received him as kindly as though he was a near friend. I concluded the slaveholders had something to gratify their pride, in contrasting themselves with their slaves; but that their comforts were much fewer than those in the North, with the same wealth; and that northern labor was cheaper than theirs, considering the large proportion of useless and indifferent laborers, and the small amount of work done by the best hands; all having to be supported at a cost, as I estimated it, of forty dollars each per annum. In the large cities, and in some places in the country, they were obliged to have patrols at night, for fear of a rising among the blacks. On the average, one hundred slaves turn out about one-third, or thirty-three per cent., prime hands; the others being either too young, too old, too lazy, or sick." On his return home, he says: " I looked for a good farm, with a small water-power, to aid me; the farm I intended to afford me an independent living; expecting to raise maple-trees, make my own sugar, and all other necessaries of life that were possible; and felt ambitious to pursue a plan of business and life that would serve as a pattern to others in comfort and independence." In the renewal of a youthful affection, he sought and obtained, in marriage, in I8Io, Elizabeth, the daughter of Solomon and Hannah White; her father had been a respectable and successful merchant of Philadelphia, then deceased. Their city residence was in Arch Street, between Seventh and Eighth Streets, and for a summer home they had a country seat of three acres of land, on Ridge Avenue, above Callowhill Street, called "Rnral Hall." In these days, it is amusing to imagine the country so near, and also the shortness of the drive in going from one to the other of their homes. The newly-married pair established themselves with the widowed parent in the city. It is believed the country seat was abandoned as a residence after the death of Solomon White; Josiah White having engaged in business at the Falls of Schuylkill, the family found it more convenient, as well as agreeable, to live a portion of the year in that suburban village, returning to the ancestral home at any time when they desired to enjoy its privileges. It was the birthplace of their five children.

                                                                          RESIDENCE AT THE FALLS -OF SCHUYLKILL

Not withstanding all these resolutions and plans of life, he was destined to enter deeper than he had ever yet experienced into the vortex of trade, and the vicissitudes and perplexities of a troublesome water-power and manufacturing business. But we will hear his own account of the beginning of his future activity: "About two years having elapsed since I declined business in Market Street, a waterpower was offered for sale at the'Falls of Schuylkill,' belonging to Robert Kennedy, comprising three and a half or four feet of available fall, with all the water of the river, with the right to construct a lock for navigation, charging fifty cents toll on each boat for passing; also, three or four acres of ground on the east side, and seven or eight acres, and an old tavern house, on the west side of the river, adjoining the bridge.(* "On the 9th April, I807, Mr. Robert Kennedy, an enterprising gentleman then occupying the Falls Hotel, obtained, from the I egislature of Pennsylvania, an act vesting in him the right of the water-power at the Falls, on the condition of building locks for the accommodation of boats then plying on the river."-Early Ilii-. tory of the Falls of Schuylkill, etc., by Charles V. Hagner. He wtMS authorized by this act " to dig, continue, support, and keep in repair a mill-race, on and contiguous to said tract of land, to extend a certain distance into the Schuylkill River as should be necessary for a grist- or saw-mill, or such other machinery as it should by him be found expedient to establish, according to the provisions, limitations, and conditions in the said act of General Assembly mentioned." *) Here was an improvement to be made by darns and locks, to produce a large water-power near to Philadelphia, but it would require money, perseverance, and ingenuity to carry it through. It occurred to me that this might be a providential opening towards carrying out my arranged plan of life; and, if I succeeded, it might lead to similar useful improvements in the interior of the State, which might be of great public good. No public improvement of this kind had as yet succeeded in Pennsylvania. "The Schuylkill had not yet been dammed, neither had any locks in the State ever succeeded, excepting two at York Haven, on the Susquehanna. The Susquehanna, Schuylkill, and Union Canals had failed, and were given up. The city of Philadelphia was supplied with water by steam-power, there being at that time no faith in making any permanent darns in so large a stream. Here, I thought, was a choice offered between applying my means and talents in a way that might be of singular use to my fellow-beings, and would not impair estate, and without involving me in much trouble. On the other hand, I could invest my money, do nothing for others, and pass down the hill of life without good or harm, and also be free from care and trouble. I also thought, I might have been blessed thus early in life with the means and the ability for the execution of this great work, especially as I believed I had discovered a peculiar plan of constructing dams that would insure their permanency. "I finally concluded to purchase the property, which I did in the spring of I8IO." The falls in the Schuylkill River were caused by an irregular barrier of rocks, extending across the stream in a diagonal direction; these rocks were of unequal height and prominence, over and through which the water effected its course, boiling and foaming as it went, forming a waterfall or rapid at ordinary times of about six or seven feet in height, and one hundred to two hundred yards in length, and when the river was swollen, of greater altitude. This place was then a picturesque and rural spot, much frequented for its beauty, and for fishing and other aquatic sports. The navigation at that time was by the natural channel of the river. Charles V. Hagner, in his " History of the Falls," remarks of the boats that navigated the river, that they "were long and narrow, sharp at both ends, and carrying from seventy five to one hundred and fifty barrels of flour. They were generally manned with five men, and were only used in freshets or high water. They required five men, not for bringing them down,for they drifted down rapidly with the current,but to take them back; which was done by the use of poles shod with iron, and was very hard work; of course they could take no return cargoes. It was an exciting and beautiful sight to see these boats descending the falls, which they did with great rapidity. Sometimes they would be almost lost to sight, and the next instant mounted high on the waves; in some instances they were wrecked." The plan Josiah White adopted to make the water-power available, and at the same time to improve the navigation of the river, was by closing the interstices of the rocks, and so connecting their prominences as to render the obstruction more complete and continuous, leaving a sufficient channel open in the centre for the free passage of downward boats; on the western side to make a channel or canal three or four hundred yards, with a side wall, or bank, on the river-side, with entrance and outlet locks, by which the navigation was effected round the falls; from which also the water could be drawn for manufacturing purposes. On the eastern side were guard-walls and a race-way to convey the water to the mills on that side. These improvements involved a large amount of ingenuity and money, as well as hard work, and required more than eleven hundred feet of dams and side walls, and the building of strong and substantial locks and head-gates, etc., etc.; in a large river often subject to violent freshets of great volumes of water, and floating ice; with little experience or information to be gained from other sources to guide him.(* " The winters, it seems to me, were longer and colder; and before the present succession of dams were made in the river the ice came down in immensely large fields, with great momentum, and sometimes as much as from two to three feet thick. It seemed to me that nothing could resist its force."-Hagner's History of the Falls. *) The locks were eighty feet long and seventeen feet wide. His original idea appears to have been, after making the waterpower available, to let it out to others for a consideration, the amount of water to be disposed of in this way being great. He soon found that his purchase was not likely to meet his expectations. He says: " I had supposed the necessary improvements to make the property productive, and the expense, would be within my means; but I soon discovered my error, and instead of being the man of leisure I had expected, I must, to secure myself from ruin, leave all my mechanical amusements, and turn in to the roughest and most exposed parts of the business. In cold weather I labored up to my breast in water to raise stone out of the channel; and had in reality to say to my workmen,' Coroe, boys,' in the place of Go, boys,' as I had expected. " My efforts, from 1810 to 1818 to improve my estate so as to make it productive in the shape of renting water-power, proved futile; there was a prejudice against the property as a mere rental estate, and another difficulty arose from the liability to frequent delays from back-water. Independently of my being a party and holding an interest in the rental, I could induce no business to come there." The plan of renting water-power, which he states there was " prejudice against," has since then become quite common in various parts of the United States, and on this river but two miles above this point, at Manayunk, the Schuylkill Navigation Company derive a large revenue from renting waterpower for manufacturing purposes; so that may we not attribute its failure to a lack of manufacturing spirit in the country at that time, more than to any prejudice against it, as he supposed? In reality, it appears to have been a premature effort, in advance of the times. He built a large mill for the manufacture of wire and a smaller one for making nails, and entered himself into the manufacture of these articles. Here his first business acquaintance with Erskine Hazard commenced, who was afterwards associated with him in the improvement of the Lehigh River. They were in partnership in the manufacture of wire. At that time no well-constructed machinery was in use for either of these purposes, and he was obliged to exert his inventive faculties to produce something for the purpose. He took out a patent in I8Io for rolling iron, nails, etc., and in I8I2 others for the same purpose, and for making wire and heading nails. The state of the mechanic arts at this time was such, that many an ingenious inventor was foiled in expected results, from inability to procure suitable machinery for carrying into use the conceptions of his brain, and the failures were attributed to the defectiveness of the plan, rather than to the real cause, the defects in the machine. From this cause, John Fitch failed successfully to navigate the Delaware River by steam, and Oliver Evans severely felt the want. The difficulties and embarrassments, resulting therefrom, can scarcely be appreciated at this day, when most kinds of machinery are so readily and so completely constructed. As it was, Josialih White had not only to invent, but also to make the machinery, and the very tools used in its fabrication. "Whether," he continues, " my decision to purchase the' Falls' property was a correct or an incorrect course I must leave. I certainly endeavored to feel for the best direction, and do not think I was moved by any caprice or carelessness in the conclusion. It introduced me into a sea of trouble and disappointment, from which I was entirely unable to extricate myself with propriety for seven years. For although we succeeded in making wire and wrought rolled nails, and essentially succeeded in every branch of business which we undertook, so far as to perfect the articles, yet none proved profitable; and in addition our mills were both burned down, and had to be rebuilt or the business be abandoned." He sold the small mill and seven-sixteenths of his interest in the water-power to Joseph Gillingham; and, afterwards, he and Erskine Hazard joined together and procured a charter from the Legislature of Pennsylvania, in I8i6, with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars, by the name of the " Whitestown Manufacturing Co.," for the manufacture of wire, etc., and to enable them to make available the water-power on the western side of the river. The privileges under this charter were, however, never brought into use. " In the year 1817, Joseph Gillingham and myself made the strongest efforts in our power to make an arrangement with the city of Philadelphia, to supply them with water at Fairmount. We examined the shores of the river down to Callowhill Street, and across the river in several places; one, where the dam now stands, and at nearly opposite Pratt's House. We then offered to supply the city, with three millions of gallons of water every twenty-four hours, for twenty years, for twenty-five thousand dollars a year, and then three millions of gallons every twenty-four hours, at three thousand dollars a year forever; to be paid for in certificates of city loan to make the improvement, they to give us all the city property there, and below the bridge, and the engine and fixtures at Fairmount. This would afford us room to use our surplus water below the dam. By this plan we expected to produce an income of from twenty-five to thirty thousand dollars a year, and what we obtained from the city would enable us to make the whole improvement, and erect the mills for renting, or perfect the site so as to be able to rent them; with the proviso, that the Schuylkill Navigation Company would allow us to use any place on the river to make our dam, above Callowhill Street bridge." Thus we see his sagacious mind conceived the plan of supplying the city with water, that has since been successfully adopted; and he and his coadjutor were willing to take the risk of carrying it into effect; so certain were they of being able to accomplish it. The subject was for a long time a matter of discussion between them and a committee of the City Councils appointed for the purpose of investigating the project. At the same time Josiah White wrote a number of essays on the subject, which were published in the papers of the day, setting forth the public advantages of the plan proposed. After several months of negotiation the matter came to an end, the objections urged against it being the uncertainty of the power, in consequence of freshets and backwater, and the impossibility of building a dam in the river that would be permanent; and, also, the unwillingness of the Schuylkill Navigation Company to allow the dam to be made, without what was considered an exorbitant compensation. Fresh negotiations for the sale of their right to the waterpower at the " Falls," were, however, entered into, some time afterwards, which resulted in its being purchased by the city in the year I8I9, on terms advantageous to the proprietors. Although his efforts in a business point of view at this place were unsuccessful, yet the experience gained in building dams and locks, and the management of water, and the play it gave to his inventive genius, were of great subsequent use to him and Erskine Hazard, in the greater and more important work of making the navigation on the Lehigh. They endeavored to induce the public to apply wire to many purposes for which it is now extensively used, such as fencing, bridges, etc. He published several essays on its importance for fencing, showing its durability and cheapness as compared with wood; and they built a wire bridge over the Schuylkill, to test its practicability for that purpose. It was intended for pedestrians only, and mainly for the accommodation of their own workmen, but was considered a great curiosity at the time, and was visited and crossed by hundreds. " This bridge was four hundred feet span, with about thirty-three feet curve, the main wires threeeighths of an inch rolled iron. One ton weight was suspended by one main wire, and it sustained forty persons at one time." They also made and used an iron boat.

                                                                                        EARLY OPERATIONS ON THE LEHIGH.

The introduction of anthracite coal as a fuel in this country, now so immense in its proportions, commenced not much over fifty years ago. It was slow in being appreciated by the community, and it required vigorous exertions to induce persons to attempt its use. Its appearance was against it,so different from ordinary fuel,-and many were entirely incredulous as to its being anything else than a stone, and incapable of being burned by any inherent quality of its own. Josiah White and Erskine Hazard had their attention first directed to its use while operating at the Falls of Schuylkill, and their minds impressed with its importance as a fuel. Having procured a small amount from the Lehigh, brought to market by the early operators on that river, one of the first experiments in burning it for manufacturing purposes was made at their works. Incredible as it may appear at the present day, when millions of tons are annually consumed, great difficulty was found in the ignition of it, mainly from deficient draft and want of patience in the management of it. Erskine Hazard, in a communication published in the proceedings of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, makes this statement. " During the war (I 812), Virginia coal became very scarce, and Messrs. White & Hazard, (who were then manufacturing wire at the Falls of Schuylkill,) having been told by Mr. Joshua Malin that he had succeeded in making use of Lehigh coal in his rolling-mill, procured a cart-load of it, which cost them one dollar per bushel. This quantity was entirely wasted without getting up the requisite heat. Another cart-load was, however, obtained, and a whole night spent in endeavoring to make a fire in the furnace, when the hands shut the furnace-door and left the mill in despair. Fortunately, one of them left his jacket in the mill, and, returning for it in about half an hour, noticed that the door was red-hot, and upon opening it was surprised to find the whole furnace of a glowing white heat. The others were summoned, and four separate parcels of iron were heated and rolled by the same fire before it required renewing. The furnace was then replenished, and, as lettinzg it alone had succeeded so well, it was concluded to try it again, and the experiment was repeated with the same result."(* Hagner, in his " History of the Falls of Schuylkill," after describing the process of making the coal burn by White & Hazard, says: " Here was an importiat discovery, and it was in my opinion the first praczicably successful use of our anthracite coal." *)

                                                                                   OPERATIONS ON THEIF LEHIGH.

 C. G. Childs, "On the Coal and Iron Trade in 1 847," says~ " Durinc the war with Great Britain, bituminous coal rose to high prices. The demand for coal in Philadelphia led Mr. Miner and Mr. Cist to contrive a plan for mining and transporting the Mauch Chunk coal. On the 9th of August, 18I4, they started off their first ark from Mauch Chunk (from where Mauch Chunk afterwards was). In less than eighty rods from the place of starting, the ark struck on a ledge and broke a hole in her bow. The lads stripped themselves nearly naked, to stop the rush of water with their clothes. In six days, however, the ark reached Philadelphia with its twenty-four tons of coal, which had by this time cost fourteen dollars a ton.'But,' says Mr. Miner,'we had the greatest difficulty to overcome in inducing the public to use our coal when brought to our doors.'" It was from this cargo, probably, that White & Hazard procured their coal mentioned above. Coal was known to exist in large quantities near the head waters of the Schuylkill River, and they procured some from there; but the price was enormously highl, forty dollars a ton," brought to their works in wagons. They formed the conclusion to apply to the legislature to grant them the privilege of making the Schuylkill navigable, so as to bring the coal to market, and supply their own wants at a cheaper rate. The application was made in 18I2-13; but the idea of using coal as a fuel was ridiculed there, and the member from Schuylkill County affirmed in the legislature, " that although they had a black stone in their county, it would not burn." They were unsuccessful; but this, however, was the beginning of movements for a law for that purpose, finally granted to other parties. The following, from an article by Erskine Hazard, is here quoted from " Hazard's Register," vol. iii., p. 302: " The application to the legislature, by White & Hazard, as individuals, having failed, they called a meeting of those interested in that navigation, at the tavern, corner of Fifth and Race Streets, Philadelphia, when Mr. White opened the business of the mecting by proposing the application to the legislature for a charter for a company to improve the Schuylkill for slack-water navigation by dams and locks. This was the commencement of the present Schuylkill Navigation Company, which was incorporated in 1815." Having failed to procure coal for the use of their works at the falls from the Schuylkill region, on reasonable terms, either by a law for the improvement of that river, or, afterwards, from the Navigation Company, to whom they applied for tile temporary use of the river, before their work XVA ~ be-iun, they turned their attention to the Lehigh region for that purpose.* From a memoir of Dr. T. C. Jaimes, published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, is copied an account of the first discovery of coal on the Lehigh by Philip Ginter. It described a journey in that region in 1804, and after stating several difficulties encountered, says: " In the course of our pilgrimage we reached the summit of Mauch Chunk Mountain, the present site of the mine, or rather quarry, of anthracite coal; at that time there were only to be seen three or four small pits, which had much the appearance of the commencement of rude wells, into one of which our guide descended with great v "Josialh White about that time started and originated the Schuylkill Navigation Company, which was chartered Marcll 8, ISrI. This was another of the beneficial acts of Josiah White, but m-rk how shahlbily he was treated. He was one of the coinmmissiomners named in the act of incorpo-ration. Hie was the father of the whole concern, and if they had hunllted Pennsylvania through they could not at that time have found a better man for their purpose; yet, notwithstanding all this, at the first election held at Norristown, they refused to elect him one of the managers, on the flimsy ground that he was interested at the Falls of Schuylkill; lhut we shall see the consequence of this dlirectly."-Hagner's IHistory of the Falls of Schuylkill, page 45.

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36 -VME~MOIR OF eOSI/H WIT//1TE. ease, and threw up some pieces of coal for our examination; after which, whilst we lingered on the spot, contemplating the wildness of the scene, honest Philip amused us with the following narrative of the original discovery of this most valuable of minerals, now promising, from its general diffusion, so much of wealth and comfort to a great portion of Pennsylvania. When he first took up his residence in that district of country, he built for himself a rough cabin in the forest, and supported himself by the proceeds of his rifle, being literally a hunter of the backwoods. At the particular time to which he then alluded, he was without a supply of food for his family, and after being out all day with his gun, in quest of it, he was returning towards evening over the Mauch Chunk Mountain, unsuccessful and dispirited, in a drizzling rain, and night approaching. As he trod slowly over the ground, his foot stumbled against something, which, by the stroke, was driven before him; observing it to be black, to distinguish which there was just light enough remaining, he took it up, and as he had often listened to the traditions of the country of the existence of coal in the vicinity, it occurred to him that this perhaps might be a portion of that'stone coal' of which he had heard. He accordingly carefully took it with him to his cabin, and the next day carried it to Colonel Jacob Weiss, residing at what was then

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OPER.4 TIONS ON THE LEHIGH. 37 known by the name of'Fort Allen.'* The colonel, who was alive to the subject, brought the specimen with him to Philadelphia and submitted it to the inspection of John Nicholson and Michael Hillegas, Esq., and Charles Cist, an intelligent painter, who ascertained its nature and qualities, and authorized the colonel to satisfy Ginter for his discovery, upon his pointing out the precise spot where he found the coal. This was done by acceding to Ginter's proposition of getting through the forms of the patent-office the title for a small tract of land, which he supposed had never been taken up, containing a mill seat, on which he afterwards built a mill, etc.; and which he was afterwards unhappily deprived of, by the claim of a prior survey. " Hillegas, Cist, W\eiss, and some others immediately, (about the beginning of the year I792,) formed themselves into what was called the'Lehigh Coal Mine Company,' but without a charter of incorporation, and took up about eight or ten thousand acres of till then unlocated land, including the Mauch Chunk Mountain, but probably never worked the mine. It remained in this neglected state, being only used by blacksmiths and people in the immediate vicinity, until somewhere about I8o6, when inm. Turnbull, Esq., had an ark con4, Now Weisspoit, on the Iehli(h, three miles below v Mauch Chunk. 4*

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38 MEMklOIR OF yOSIAH WHITE. structed at Lausanne,* which brought down two or three hundred bushels. This was sold to the managers of the water-works for the use of the Centre Square engine. It was there tried as an experiment, but ultimately rejected as unmanageable; and its character for the time being blasted, the further attempts at introducing it to public notice in this way seemed suspended." In a communication by Erskine Hazard to the Historical Society, he says: "In I792 a company was formed, called the Lehigh Coal Mine Company, who took up a large body of land, contiguous to that on which the coal had been found. They opened the mine where it is at present worked, made a very rough road from the river to the mine, and attempted to bring the coal in arks to the city, in which they but partially succeeded, in consequence of the difficulties of the navigation. A small quantity of coal, however, reached the city; but the want of knowledge of the proper fixtures for its use, together with the difficulties of the navigation, caused the company to abandon their undertaking. Some of the coal, it is said, was tried under the boiler of the engine at the Centre Square, but only served to pzut the fire out, and the remainder was broken up and spread on the walks instead of gravel." * On the,Lehigh River, about one mile al)ove Mauch Chunk.

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OPERA TIONS ON THE LEHIGH. 39 "The legislature was early aware of the importance of the navigation of the Lehigh, andin I 77I passed a law for its improvement. Subsequent laws, for the same object, were enacted in I79I, 1794, 1798, I810, 1814, and I8I6. A company was 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 which extend across the river, about seven miles above Allentown; but they found the slate too hard to pick, and too shelly to blow; and at length considered it an insuperable obstacle to the completion of the work, and relinquished it. "The Coal Mine Company, in the mean while, anxious to have their property brought into notice, gave leases of their mines to different individuals in succession, for a period of twenty-one, fourteen, and ten years, adding to the last the privilege of taking timber from the lands for the purpose of floating the coal to market. Messrs. Cist, Miner & Robinson, who had the last lease, started several arks, only three of which reached the city, and they abandoned their business at the close of the war, I815." Josiah White says: " I had made inquiry into the ownership and condition of the Lehigh mines and river, and determined to visit them and see if anything could be done there. George F. A. Hauto,

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40 M~EMOIR OF OSIAH WHITE. who was in the practice of occasionally visiting us at the falls to talk about machinery, etc., I told of my intention of visiting the Lehigh on a tour of inspection, and he proposed accompanying me, having had a previous intention of visiting the Schuylkill mines. My stonemason, William Brigs, wanted a ride, and he also concluded to go with us; so we three went on horseback, and got to Bethlehem on Christmas-eve, I817. We stayed at Lausanne and Lehighton, as the places nearest to the mines, where we could board whilst visiting them, which occupied about a week, one being eleven and the other twelve miles distant from the mine. "Upon returning home with favorable impressions of the practicability of the project, (of improving the river and mining coal,) it was concluded that Erskine Hazard, George F. A. Hauto,* and myself should join illn the enterprise. I was to mature the plan;- Hauto was to procure the money from his rich friends; Hazard was to be the scribe, he also being a good machinist and an excellent counselor." The existence of coal on the Lehigh had been * This (eorge F. A. Hauto was a German, and had insinuated himself into their confidence by his pretensions to wealth and influence; and who afterwards, when his true character was discovered(, had to be blought off at a consi(lerab)le pecni.ry sacrifice.

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OPERATIONS ON TIHE LEHIGH. 4T known for about a quarter of a century previous to this visit; and a company had been formed in the year 1793, called " the Lehigh Coal Mine Company" (before mentioned), who purchased the land upon which the coal was first mined, at Summit Hill, and took up by patent from the State of Pennsylvania other tracts to the extent of ten thousand acres, including nearly all the coal lands now belonging to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, in the first coal-field. The Lehigh Coal Mine Company made some almost fruitless endeavors to mine and bring the coal to market by their own efforts in the first place, and also by leasing the mine to others; and attempted to make a wagon-road to bring the coal fi-omn the mine down to the river, expending the sum of ten pounds, Pennsylvania currency, for the purpose, but soon abandoned the attempt. In ISI3 they leased for ten years their lands to Miner, Cist & Robinson, the consideration being the annual production and transportation to market of ten thousand bushels of coal for the benefit of the lessees. Out of five ark-loads of coal shipped by these parties, two only arrived at Philadelphia, the others having been wrecked on the passage. The most of this coal was bought by White & Hazard for their works at "the Falls" for twentyone dollars per ton; but even this price was insufficient to remunerate the owners, and conse

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42 M11EMIOIR OF 70SI.A/I WHITE. quently the mining and transportation of coal atgain ceased. Josiah White continues: " We three at once set about getting a lease of the Lehigh Coal Mine Company's lands, ten thousand acres for twenty years, for ooze car of corn a year, if demanded; and from and after three years to send to Philadelphia at least forty thousand bushels of coal per annum on our own account, so as to be sure of introducing it into the market, by which means we hoped to make valuable what had heretofore proved to be valueless to the Coal Mine Company; our intention being to procure the property of the mine and river, which by our plan (of navigation) was to support itself. We soon obtained the grant of a lease, as mentioned, which required two or three weeks to perfect, and during this time Erskine Hazard wrote out the law on the principles mentioned, and then we all posted to Harrisburg to procure its passage through the legislature, in which we succeeded on the 2oth of March, I8I8 (entitled'An act to improve the navigation of the river Lehigh.')" He says: " The Lellehigh Coal Mine Company had tried to the best of their means to open and work the mine and get the river improved; had a lottery, on which it is said they raised ten thousand dollars, to aid in improving the river. There had been five laws obtained, but all their efforts failed, and the river was abandoned. And it was not

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OPERA TIOiVS ON THE LEHIGZH. 43 until the Lehigh Coal Mine Company-two distinct individual contracts and leases-had failed in working the mines, and also the said five failures in improving the river and denouncing it as impracticable, that we came forward to improve it. "'The plan of improvement I concluded on, (when on my visit,) was the one we subsequently adopted, which was to smooth the old road of nine miles, which the old company had raised ten pounds to make, to get some coal down, to make a noise in Philadelphia, and upon succeeding in raising money, afterwards to make a road of a grade that would ultimately do to lay a railroad upon, with an uninterrupted declivity from the mine to the river. Inmprove 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, and if we had not sufficient 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 enough water to secure the required quantity, and thus secure a regular desceZding~ navigation. The plan for locks and gates for letting

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44 ~l~MEMOIR OF OS/IA 1 WVHITE. out the freshet in a proper manner was left for the present to be devised in due time, if found necessary." They issued a pamphlet entitled " Observations on the Lehigh Navigation Bill" for the information of the members of the legislature, which shows what they proposed to do, from which the following is extracted: " The improvements in the river Schuylkill, at the falls, by Josiah White & Co., are, we presume, sufficient proof of capability for the undertaking. The dam across that river, the canal and locks, were made and completed by them at their own expense in a few months. The subscribers propose to effect a complete downward navigation for all kinds of boats, arks, crafts, and rafts, and a sufficient upward one, for all and every necessary purpose, by means of dams, canals, locks, wing dams, open sluices, and slopes, clearing and deepening the bed, contracting and straightening the same, and other usual known means, according as circumstances and the nature of the impediment may suggest. Besides, they intend to avail themselves in the driest season (about a month in the year) of artificial freshets." " In the 4th month, i8 I 8, Erskine Hazard and myself having sat up all night to settle our business at the falls, and giving a power of attorney to another person to attend to the whole of it during

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OP'lERA TIONS ONA 7TIE LEHIGHI. 45 our absence, went down to the stage-office to proceed to Stoddartsville (head of the Lehigh), for the purpose of commencing the leveling of the river; but the stage having gone before our arrival proved an advantage, as we were detained a week, the weather becoming milder in the mean time, making it safer and pleasanter to lodge out in the woods. WAe leveled the river from Stoddartsville to Easton, the ice not having all disappeared; there being no house between the former place and Lausanne obliging us to lie out in the woods for six nights. We borrowed the leveling instruments from Benjamin R. Morgan, who had retained them as the relics of the Union Canal Company: we knew of no others in Philadelphia." The descent from Stoddartsville to Mauch Chunk is nine hundred and twenty-five feet, and from Mauch Chunk to Easton, three hundred and sixty-four feet; distance firom Stoddartsville to Easton, eighty-four and a quarter miles. Above the Gap, in the Blue Mountain, there were but thirteen houses, including the towns of Lausanne and Lehighton, within sight from the river, and for thirty-five miles above Lausanne there was no sign of a human habitation; everything was in a state of nature. " Having obtained," he continues, "the lease of the mines, our charter for the improvement of the river, and made the survey of the same, we also 5

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46 IMEMOIR OF 7OSIAH WHITE. bought the tract of land on Mauch Chunk Creek, to enable us to make, as we supposed, an unbroken plane for a road, from the large coal bed to the river, (for bringing down the coal,) of two feet in descent in the one hundred feet; but, in laying it out, we discovered that the' fall in the creek was too great for two and a half miles of the lower end. We were, therefore, obliged to make a variation in the plan, from one foot to about four and a half feet in the hundred." The location and survey of this road was made by White and Hazard personally, and is said to have been the first " laid out by an instrument, on the principle of dividing the whole descent into the whole distance, as regularly as the ground would admit of, and have no undulation."

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CHAPTER IV. LATER OPERATIONS ON THE LEHIGH. THE first, or great southern field of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania, extends from near the Lehigh River, at Mauch Chunk, on the east, to Pottsville, and towards the river Susquehanna, in the neighborhood of Harrisburg, on the west, a distance of about sixty miles; in breadth it is pretty uniform, the maximum width not exceeding six or seven miles. The operations of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in this region are confined to the eastern end of the basin, from Mauch Chunk westward to the Little Schuylkill River, at Tamaqua, a distance of about eleven miles, and most of the coal mined by the company is transported to the Lehigh River for shipment on the canal and railroads. Their land, according to the surveys and estimates of R. P. Rothwell, mining engineer, in I869, comprises six thousand acres of coal land; the thickness of coal in the combined veins, fortytwo feet, equal to four hundred and seventy-two millions of tons, or seventy-one thousand five hundred tons to the acre. The same authority says further: " That the Lehigh Coal and Navigation (47)

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48 MJEfMAOIR OF JOSIAH WHITE. Company possess one of the most magnificent coal properties in the world cannot be questioned, and that the quantity of coal is such as to allay all apprehensions for an abundant supply far into the future is indisputable." It was in the centre of this region, about eight or nine miles from Mauch Chunk, at Summit Hill, at the point where Ginter discovered the coal, in the year I79I, and the previous companies had operated, where the first anthracite coal was ever mined for the market in this country, that White and Hazard commenced their operations. The coal cropped out near the surface, and the mining differed at first but little from ordinary stone quarrying; the earth and other covering of the coal was removed, and the operations carried on in the open air. G. F. I-Hauto describes the operation in a letter to a member of the legislature, Dec. I9, I 8 i9, as follows: "' This mine, on our arrival, had quite an inconsiderable opening, like a moderate-sized stonequarry; since which we have uncovered about two acres of coal land, removing all the earth, dirt, slate, etc. (about twelve feet deep), so as to leave a surface for the whole of that area of nothing but the purest coal, containing millions of bushels. We cut a passage through the rocks, so that now the teams drive right into the mine to load. The mine being situated near the summit of the moun

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~~~~~~~~CA INE T SMMI HLL. Page 48.=~_ C~=_~_~

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OPERA4 TIONS ON THE LEHIGH. 49 tain, we are not troubled with water, and the coal quarries very easy. We have worked the stratum about thirty feet deep, and how much deeper it is we do not know." The mine is thus described in an address published by the company in I821: "The coal mine at present worked by the company lies on the top of a mountain, and appears to extend over some hundred acres of land, covered by about twelve feet of loose black dirt, resembling moist gunpowder, which can be removed by cattle with scrapers and thrown into the valley below, so as never to impede the work. The thickness of the coal is not known, but a shaft has been sunk in it thirty-five feet without penetrating through. More than an acre of mine has been uncovered by the company, and presents a huge rock of coal, which is easily quarried without blowing." Nine year! later, Professor Silliman, in his "Journal," thus describes the mines: " The coal is fairly laid open to view, and lies in stupendous masses, which are worked in open air exactly as in a stone-quarry. The excavation being in an angular area, and entered at different points by roads cut through the coal, in some places quite down to the lowest level, it has much the appearance of a vast fort, of which the central area is the parade-ground, and the upper escarpment is the platform for the cannon." 5*

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50 MEMOIR OF _OSIL4H WHITE. From this point, the coal was in the commencement of the work hauled on the turnpike made by them for the purpose, which road is described by Hauto in the before-mentioned letter: " You know the ground between this, (Mauch Chunk,) and our principal coal mine, and that it would be hardly possible to find a more unfavorable one for the construction of a good road. The perpendicular elevation, from the river to this mine, is one thousand feet, the distance from the river upwards of eight miles. We constructed it in about three months, and most part of it in the winter season, a road having a regular declination of two and a half feet in every hundred. On it one horse can draw four tons with ease. On this road we have now a sufficient number of teams to haul several thousand bushels per day." This turnpike road was superseded by the descending gravity railroad in I827, and the coal carried by it to the river. Mining coal from the open cut, exclusively, was continued up to about 1844, when the uncovering became so heavy, in consequence of the pitch of the veins, the company commenced mining in the Panther Creek Valley, and the old mining gradually diminished, until it has entirely ceased, it being now under ground in the usual manner. This quarry was a point of much interest to the public in early days, affording an opportunity to

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OPERA] 7IONS ON THE LEHIGH. 51 view the coal in place, as nature had arranged it, such as could be seen nowhere else in the land; and where, also, the plan of mining could be appreciated. The outlines of the first plan for a Lehigh Navigation and Coal Company were concluded in I8I8. "The substance of which was a capital of two hundred thousand dollars divided into two hundred shares of stock; White, Hauto, and Hazard each retaining fifty shares, leaving fifty shares, or fifty thousand dollars, to be subscribed by others, who were to have all that was made up to eighteen per cent. on their capital, and we the residue. White, Hauto, and Hazard to assign to the company to be formed all their interest in the law,-obtained 20th March, i8i8,-for the improvement of the navigation of the river, and the lease of twenty years of the Lehigh Coal Mine's lands; they to have the sole management, and conduct all the business, and be paid for their services." There being two objects to be obtained, one, the improvement of the navigation of the river, the other, the mining and transporting of coal, there arose a diversity of opinion about the relative profits of the two interests, some having more confidence in the one and some in the other. This induced a division of their interests, and two companies were formed, one " The Lehigh Navigation Company," on the ioth of the 8th mo., I8i8, for

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52 MEMOIR OF 7OSIAH WHITE. the improvement of the river; and on the 21St of the ioth mo. following, "The Lehigh Coal Company," for mining coal, and making a road from the mine to the river, and bringing it down the new navigation. After these outlines of the company were agreed upon, they published a pamphlet, entitled "A Compendious View of the Law authorizing the Improvement of the River Lehigh," etc.; in which the following sanguine statements are made, as among the advantages to be obtained by the navigation of the river on the improved plan: " The city of Philadelphia can be supplied with coal which is ascertained to be twenty per cent. purlr than any of the same species which has come to this market from any other source, and at a less przic. " 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 improved, (z"wvic/z caln be done in a few months,) the land carriage to the Susquehanna at Berwick will be only thirty miles, over a turnpike now mnade, which will immediately cozmmnand the trade of that river, and tulrn it to Pziladelp/zia. When the second grand section is finished, the portage will be re

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OFERA TIOAS ONA THE LEHIGH. 53 duced to only ten ovr twelve;/ziles, 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 hzalf t/fe time, and consequently at ha/rft/e elxpense, that it can go by canal and North River to New York." The tolls established by the act of the 2oth of March, I8i8, were "three cents per mile in the second grand section, and one cent per mile in the first, for every thousand feet of timber or lumber, or ton weight of other material passing down the river, zUithoult any limit as to the percentage to which they may amount." Personal application and solicitation were made to a number of the leading capitalists of the day for subscription to the stock. Stephen Girard said "he formed no partnerships," and declined. Joseph Bonaparte respectfully declined joining in the enterprise, in a reply by letter through his secretary. One confessed, after being polite enough

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5 4 M1EMOIR OF yOS/A/I WHITE. to listen to them, that he was "unable to appreciate their remarks"; another agreed to give them a hearing on the subject for " five minutes by the watch"; another appointed an evening for a hearing, and when called upon had gone to a party. One wrote "that his Wilkesbarre friends believed we could not be in earnest in our navigation." We replied, " if they would come and see us up to our waists in water, they would think it more earnest than fun." Notwithstanding considerable difficulty, they finally succeeded in obtaining subscriptions for the fifty thousand dollars stock, which was considered sufficient for the purpose. They immediately proceeded to commence the work on the river. He says, 8 mo., I 818: "Bought a horse for one hundred dollars, a small dearborn wagon for sixty-five dollars, and rode up to Lausanne; but the wagon, being rather light, broke down twice before we arrived; this was, however, the only light carriage the company had until the summer of I822, when it was so far worn out in the service that we sold it for five dollars. Began our work in the river with thirteen hands, at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek, being the dividing point between the two grand sections. We rigged two scows about thirty-five feet long by fourteen feet wide for lodging- and eating-rooms for the men, about seventy in number. Also one scow for the managers' counting-house, storehouse and

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OPERA TIOAsS ON THIE LEHIGH. 55 dwelling, and one for kitchen and bakehouse. These four boats were raised one story, of about six feet, and covered wvith board roofs. In these boats we placed all our stores, tools, and equipage. We had from two to four horses in the service, to bring wood, etc., for the kitchen, oven, etc. As it was our design to make the river navigable with small wing dams and channel walls, a single rift would not keep one hundred hands more than from one to six days to complete, so as we finished the work at one place we moved down with our floating town to the vicinity of the next. We continued living in our floating town until we were frozen up in the ice. The improvement being in a wilderness country, the workmen came from many nations and were strangers to us; we kept but little cash about us, paying the men in checks, according to agreement, which were not to be paid by the banks unless signed by two of us. Thus we offered no inducements for them to commit any violence on us in the wilderness country, for we were known to have no money on our persons. We were each clad in a complete suit of buckskin clothes, and were sometimes ourselves looked upon as suspicious persons in the country around." He more fully describes their operations in a letter to a friend: " We improved the Lehigh River with wing dams in the first instance, as we could

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56 MEMOIR OF 70OSAH WHITE. not raise the means, then, to make a slack-water navigation, and we did not know that the market would take from us enough anthracite coal, to justify the expense of a more perfect navigation. The distance we made with wing dams, etc., was forty-six miles, the fall about three hundred and sixty feet. Nearly all the rapids were covered with paving stones, so it cost us about twelve hundred dollars a mile exclusive of dams. Our design was to get eighteen inches depth of water by twenty-five feet width; so that by contracting the channel at the rifts to this width with the paving stones, and raising the wings and channel walls no more than to hold the eighteen or twenty inches of water, they stood well enough. The channel walls, or walls parallel to the channel, were about six times the width of their height; the walls across the stream, eight or ten times their height. The channels as straight as possible, they kept themselves clean." In their first report to the stockholders, dated Dec. 3I, I818, they say: "The managers commenced their operations on the Lehigh, on the Ig9th of August, and concluded them on the Ig9th of November. During that time, they estimate that they have made, in the river, dams amounting in length to about thirteen thousand feet, and supposed to contain upwards of sixteen thousand perches of stone. By these dams the parts of the lower section

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OPERA TIOANS ON TIZE LEHIGH. 57 that were considered the worst have been made navigable at all seasons of comvzonz low water, and a Ij's/z dam of four hundred and fifty feet long is nearly finished, which they trust will accommodate the public with a navigation to Easton the ensuing season." But the following year they early discovered that they had not sufficient water for their purposes. Josiah WVhite writes: " We found the natural flow of the water in the Lehigh was insufficient to give us eighteen inches depth and twenty feet width, as required by law; the water subsiding much below the mark we had made, on the best information we were able to procure firom those on the river, who professed to know all about it; and were obliged to make a great experiment to obtain the water, by artificial freshets; and if we failed in this, our whole work would be exploded and have to be abandoned. "I devoted myself for several weeks to form a plan of sluice that would answer, and be cheaply made, and safe at all stages of the water. I suicceeded in producing the lock and sluice called the'Bear-trap,' a name the workmen gave it, while we were experimenting with it on Mauch Chunk Creek, to elude the curiosity of persons who teased them with inquiries as to what we were making. We put up about twelve of these locks and dams in I819, and proved them, so as to de6

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58 MIEMiOIR OF yOSIAH IWHITE. termine that they would answer our purpose, and I took out a patent for them in the I2th mo., I819.* "As our work was generally in the water seven or eight months in the year, and my portion of it being to lay out the walls and channels in the river, pile stone as marks, etc., I dressed in clothes suitable: a red flannel shirt, roundabout coat, cap, strong shoes with a hole cut in their toe to let out the water; our clothing being made of coarse cloth, and buckskin tanned in oil, to turn the water. In the summer, during the day, I was as much in the water as out of it, for three seasons; allowing the clothing to dry on my back; when wet, I kept up the circulation by walking about my business, and seldom caught cold; sleeping at night in one of our boats, in a bunk, with blankets, the first two years, without a bed, in the same manner as the workmen. "Our improvements on the river were this year (I819) extended to the Lehigh Water Gap, at the Blue Mountain, ten miles below Mauch Chunk. We fully proved by the artificial navigation our ability to send such a regular supply of coal to market as would supply all the demand. The present arrangement we considered sufficient to test the question, whether the use of coal by the * See Appendix No. I for a plan and description of this lock.

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OPERA:TIONS ON 7TIF LEHIGH. 59 public would so increase, as to justify a better, or whether we should by limited sales be confined to the present descending navigation. If a large demand should arise, it would justify a change." They had, however, expended the whole of the capital of the company this year, and the works were not so well secured against the winter freshets and ice as would have been desirable. He says: "It was the first instance in Pennsylvania of employing so large a number of workmen in the wilderness; it was impossible to tell how we should succeed in getting them until we made the trial, and not putting up enough of our work to prove its feasibility would have been fatal to our getting any more capital to finish it. To do this, we had to spread the work over a sufficient line for experiment, and risk and trust to being able, in the early part of the winter, to perfectly inclose or cover the work against the freshets. Notwithstanding we had spent all our capital, we kept as many men employed through the winter of I819-20 as we could well get along with, and I supplied the necessary funds until we got another subscription, and the public knew nothing of our pecuniary difficulties; as it would have been ruinous to have broken up and disbanded our men, and would have confirmed the public in what they had predicted, another failure." It being found that the interests of the Naviga

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6o iMIEMIOIR OF 703SIz11/ Illt TE. tion Company and the Coal Company were not identical, and Save rise to some clashing, it was concluded to amalgamate them in the spring of I820, "on the express condition that twenty thousand dollars of the stock should be taken, and the new stock called'the Lehigh Navigation and Coal Company."' This small addition of capital was with difficulty obtained, and not until twelve thousand dollars of it were taken by White & Hazard; more than six thousand of which Josiah White had advanced, to carry the concern through the winter. "In the year 1820, the dams and locks being repaired, the first anthracite coal was sent to market by our ar-tzficial navigaioz,; the whole quantity sent was three hundred and sixty-five tons; this proved more than enough for family supplies in Philadelphia, and the company was indebted to the rolling-mills, etc., for taking off this stock, although they never asked more than eight dollars and forty cents a ton; whereas, the company previous to ours asked as much as they could get, and obtained twenty-one dollars a ton for it. This seemed to confirm the doubtful, who in the beginning admitted we had plenty of coal, but that the prejudice of the community would be against its use in the family." The difficulty experienced in burning it as a domestic fuel, and for cooking purposes, —which for want of experience and proper appliances was

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OPERA TIOAWS ONV THJE LIFJ/IJL. 6 a very great drawback to its introduction and use,he endeavored to'obviate, and made many experiments for that purpose, with different kinds of grates and fixtures; and in his office, at his house in Philadelphia, had a fire in operation for the inspection of the public, which showed its complete practicability for these purposes. They again expended all their capital this year, and the following spring endeavored to obtain more funds by subscription. His account continues: " The difficulties of selling more stock seemed to increase; our capital had been increased to one hundred and twentyfive thousand dollars, and the citizens of Philadelphia did not incline to introduce coal into their families, and many of the stockholders said their money had all been thrown away, for, if we finally made the river navigable and the works safe, which they much doubted, the community would not have our coal, and it was not believed that the other articles of trade on the navigation would be enough to make it pay. A new difficulty also presented at a place called'The Slates,' where a ridge ran across the river, where it was four hundred feet or more in breadth, with generally a level top, except being full of small breaks, through the ledges over which we had carried the channel; but it was found the wing walls being so long throuTgh the slate ridges, they would not hold 6*

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62 MEMOIR OF 7OSIAHl WHITE. water in the channels, so that the cheapest improvement to obviate this, in the opinion of the managers, would be a large dam, xwhich they estimated could not be completed for less than twenty thousand dollars. The difficulties in obtaining a further subscription were so great, that they could not be overcome before the spring of I82I, and then fifty thousand dollars were subscribed under the following extraordinary circumstances: all the old subscribers agreed that the subscriptions to the fifty thousand dollars, called new stock, slhould in future draw all the income until they obtained three per cent. semi-annual dividends, and then the balance of the profit went to the old subscribers, until they also had received the same; and the stock was to continue in this way until there was profit enough to pay all three per cent. semi-annual dividends, and then the stock to be equal, etc. And, in addition, that White & Hazard give a bonus of their reversionary stock of ten thoulsand dollars to new subscribers. Upon obtaining the subscription the'slate darn' was immediately commenced, and with some difficulties completed in this year." The earliest records of thle company havinl been accidentally destroyed, the first election of officers on record occurred on thel 23d of the 5th month, 182I, when the following persons were selected: President, John Cox; Treasurcr, Jona

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OPERATIONS ON THE LEHIGH. 63 than Fell; Secretary, Jacob Shoemaker; Acting 1Managers, Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, who appear to have constituted the whole board of management.* "It was believed at the close of the year I 82I, that it would be best to endeavor to procure an act of incorporation; for, although we shipped and sent to Philadelphia one thousand and seventy-three tons of coal, still, the consumption by families in Philadelphia was insufficient to take this small quantity, the balance being sold to factories. The work, also, was still considered an experiment, as to making and rendering the navigation permanent. Therefore the managers were of the unanimous opinion that more money could not be raised, as all our property was pledged at the last subscription, and that we had no security to offer, unless we obtained a charter of incorporation, so as to risk nothing more than the stock any individual might subscribe." The charter was obtained on the I3th of February, I822, entitled " An act to incorporate the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company." The capital stock was to consist of one million of dollars, to be divided into shares of fifty dollars each, * The only survivor of the early managers of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company is our venerable townsman, John McAllister, electel in I83I, and ten years in office; still greel in old age, an(l enjoying the resplect and esteem of those wilo have the privilege of his acqluaintance.

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4 ~MEMiOIR OF _OSIA H WHITE. of which the old stock was to constitute a part. No part of this act was to impair or repeal any'of the provisions of the former act, entitled " An act to improve the navigation of the river Lehigh," passed the 20th of March, I8i8, except so much as was altered or supplied by this. In the years 1822 and I823 the descending navigation was perfected, and the company contributed four or five thousand dollars to improve the channels in the Delaware River. The works were inspected by commissioners and reported finished, and the governor issued his license, on the " I7th of January, 1823, authorizing them to take toll;" it having been in use for a year or two previously, but no toll taken then nor afterwards until I827. "Inasmuch as by the descending navigation we obtained but one trip from our boats, (as they were taken to pieces and the lumber sold in Philadelphia,) it was found impossible to continue the coal business, even in its then small way, without clearing out and contracting the channels for about sixteen miles above Mauch Chunk, to the pine forests, to procure a sufficient supply of lumber for that purpose. This, however, was no small matter; in this distance there was a fall in the river exceeding three hundred feet, and the transportation over rapids; the bottom was rocky and particularly hard and difficult, and so forbidding

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OPERA TIOLS ON THE LEHZIGH. 65 were the shores that, except along the channel of the river, it was impossible to transport any supplies for the use of the workmen; so the provisions, etc., had to be conveyed to the upper end, to the mouth of Laurel Run, (eighteen miles,) and floated down the river. No raft had, as far as known, before these channels were made, ever passed from above down to Nesquehoning Creek, and from thence down the river was only navigable for rafts in times of high freshets. " Before these channels were made, we attempted to procure planks from above by floating them down the rapids, but this was a failure, as they were worn out or broken against the rocks before their arrival; and in floating logs, many of them were carried off in the freshets, and were lost or stolen. "About this time we contrived the present plan of weighing coal with a scale, with the dish resting on four knife-edged fulcrums and compound levers; we weighed the wagons with it. This plan of scale has now obtained general use, from those of small size up to those large enough to weigh loaded boats. In the year 1823 five thousand eight hundred tons of coal were sent down the Lehigh, and about one thousand tons of it was left on hand unsold in the following spring. There still continued a disinclination to use it much in families, and persons passing our coal wharf constantly told

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66 MEMOIR OF _OSIi4 Ai W/HITE. us we had overstocked the market. The next year, (I824,) however, with many misgivings, there was sent down the enComzozts quazitity,, as it was thought, of nine thousand five hundred and fortyone tons, and predictions were made that not the half of it would be sold. But this did not prove to be the case, for the public, seeing that the supply was likely to be permanently adequate, and it suitable for family use, and the price steady at eight dollars and forty cents per ton, began more generally to inquire after and use it. Manufacturers of stoves and grates, in the winter of I824-25, first began to notify the public of desirable and preferable patterns for burning it. Several patriotic ladies exhibited their sample fires; among them the widow Guest, in Sansoni Street, stood the most conspicuous; and of grate-makers, Jacob F. Walter took quite a leading part. This winter may be considered quite the tuirming-point in the use of anthracite coal." In the year 1825 the company sent to market twenty-eight thousand three hundred and ninetythree tons of coal. This year the Schuylkill Navigation Company began the coal business on the canal by sending forward seven thousand one hundred and forty-three tons. "In the year I826 the desirable event of equalizing the stock took place, and the company sent to market thirty-one thousand two hundred and eighty tons of coal."

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OPERA TIONS ON THE LEHIGH. 67 In the year I827 the railroad firom Mauch Chunk to the mines was made. This was placed mainly on the route of the old wagon road from the mines to the river, originally laid out, in I8I8, by Josiah White and Erskine Hazard personally, the grades then being 4}~ miles, 2 feet descent; 3/ mile, i.6 foot; 34 mile, I foot; 22 miles, 22 feet descent in Ioo feet. The elevation of the old coal mine above the Lehigh River at Mauch Chunk, at the point where the coal was delivered into boats, is nine hundred and thirty-six feet; the distance to the river from the mines is about nine miles, the road constantly descending by an irregular declivity. At the bank of the river an inclined plane is constructed about seven hundred yards long, with a declivity of two hundred and fifty feet at the bottom, down a chute, into the boats on the water. The whole was completed, so as to pass coal over it regularly, in about four months, and is the first railroad in this country ever constructed for the transportation of coal, and, with one or two trifling exceptions, for any other purpose. The sleepers were laid four feet apart, upon a foundation of stone; the rail itself was of rolled iron bars, about three-eighths of an inch thick and one and a half inches in width, upon a wooden foundation. The loaded wagons each carried one and a half tons of coal, and descended in gangs of six, eight, or ten connected together, each gang attended by

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68 J rMEMOIR OF 70SIAH WHITE. two men to regulate the velocity of the descent. The wagons weighed about one thousand two hundred pounds each. The empty wagons were returned to the mines by horses or mules, each animal taking three or four of them back in three hours. They descended to the river with the coal in cars constructed for their use. The time occupied in the descent was about thirty minutes. The cost of this road was thirty-eight thousand seven hundred and twenty-six dollars, or three thousand and fifty dollars per mile; the length, including lateral and branch roads, to and into the mines, was about twelve and a half miles. The managers say in their report: " One hundred and forty-six railroad wagons have been made, and the utility of the road proved by transporting twenty-seven thousand seven hundred and seventy tons of coal, at a saving over the turnpike of sixtyfour and three-quarters cents per ton; and has produced a saving this year of over fifteen thousand dollars, and, in mining the coal and boating department, of sixteen cents per ton, thus reducing the cost of the coal more than eighty cents per ton: the whole amount this year sent to market being thirty-two thousand and seventy-four tons. There were also constructed nearly fifteen miles of boats for its transportation, taking from the stump seven million four hundred and twelve thousand one hundred and eighty-three feet of lumber."

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OPERA TIONS 0N THE LEHIGH. 69 Before taking leave of the old descending navigation of the river Lehigh, it may be well to describe it more fully in Josiah White's own words: "As the artificial navigation is now abandoned, and a canal and slack-water introduced, it is due to give its character. The river had twelve small dams and'bear-trap' locks of from three to six feet in height, from Mauch Chunk to Lehigh Water Gap, (eleven miles,) and nine miles below, at'The Slates,' a large dam and'bear-trap' lock, one hundred and thirty feet long and thirty feet wide, made for a lift-lock; and, seventeen miles below'The Slates,' another dam six or seven feet high, with an ascending lock like that at'The Slates.' A man was stationed on the front coal ark and rode down to the second lock, when he got off and let down the gates, (taking from thirty seconds to a minute for the purpose,) and then resumed his station on the ark again, by which time there would be sufficient water passing through the lock, and the water above beginning to fall; they then passed through to the next lock with the current of water, when the same lock tender repeated the operation as before, through the twelve locks, to the Gap, leaving the aperture open until the dam emptied itself, and then walked back in the afternoon, putting up all the lock-gates, so as to hold the water for the freshet of next day; the accumulated water in the first pond being suf7

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70 ME-MOIR OF yOSIAH WHITE. ficient to fill the channel to the head of the next dam, and so on to the Gap; and the accumulation of water in the twelve dams, then, (at the Gap,) carried the fleet of arks of from six to nine boats, or nest of arks, down nine miles to'The Slates'; the pond being here one mile long, which, together with the water from above, carried the arks down the river to the thirty-seven mile dam, seventeen miles below'The Slates,' and thence down to the Delaware, and gave four inches of a freshet in that river. We have sent as many sections at once as would make from one hundred and ninety to two hundred feet in length; the average size of boats being one hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty feet in length, sixteen feet wide, and drawing fourteen to sixteen inches of water; the sections being sixteen to twenty-five feet long, the whole being in charge of a front and hind oarsman and three hands; carrying seventy to one hundred and twenty tons. During the three last years that we used these boats, we made an average of ten or twelve consecutive miles of them yearly, entirely from the tree; one set of workmen making a single section in three-quarters of an hour, and seven or eight boats of from five to seven sections in a day; the plank being planed and jointed by water-power at Laurel Run, and by crank- and man-power at Mauch Chunk. The caulking was done with halfinch, square white pine strips, put corner-ways to

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OPERA TIONlS ON THE LEHIGH. 7 I fit into grooves made for the purpose in the plank, and finished with rushes brought from below Philadelphia, and rough tow. For the three years above mentioned, we carried forty thousand tons of coal a year; and the boats were knocked to pieces in Philadelphia and the iron sent back to Mlauch Chunk; the boatmen mostly walking back at first, but in the later years they hired teams to take them."

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CHAPTER V. THE ASCENDING NAVIGATION ON THE LEHIGH. THE value of coal as a fuel was at length beginning to be fully appreciated by the public. From a report to the Legislature of Pennsylvania by the Committee on Internal Improvements, in the spring of I 829, the following is extracted: "It may truly be observed that each successive year develops new views in relation to the rich treasure Pennsylvania has in coal. A recent memorial from the Lyceum of Natural History in New York states the amount paid within one year for fuel, for domestic purposes and steamboats, in the city of New York, at two million four hundred thousand dollars. Governor Clinton, in his last official message, remarks, that New York is compelled to resort to the coal of Pennsylvania; and he says, the quantity which will be wanted for that State is estimated at two millions of tons. It has now become obvious that coal will constitute the chief article of fuel, not only in the city and State of New York, but in many parts of all the States on the seaboard. Coal has become an object of vast (72)

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AA VIGA TION ON THE LEHIGH. 73 national importance, and it will soon be a part of the public policy of many States of the Union to facilitate the means of procuring it from the State of Pennsylvania. Our State may proudly say, that the bounty of nature has made her mountains the grand repository of this precious mineral, and also of iron; and every ton which is extracted from the mines will be tributary to her wealth and greatness." In conclusion, the Committee say: "The genius of William Penn recognized the policy of navigable communications in Pennsylvania more than half a century before a canal was constructed in his native cofintry; and our predecessors, the inhabitants of the land he planted, were the first among the members of the American family who ran a level or measured waters with a view to canal navigation." The managers of the company being assured of the certain success of their undertaking, both as regarded the improvement of the river and the introduction of coal into general use, immediately saw the necessity of changing the plan of their navigation, and also the manner of constructing boats. Previously to this the company had purchased nearly all the stock of the old coal mine company, thereby becoming the owners of the coal lands. Josiah White says: " In the spring of I827 it was finally concluded to begin and prosecute the ascending navigation; for that undertaking the 7*

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74 MIEOIR OF 7OSIAH WVITE. company employed Canvass White as the principal engineer, he having established a practical character for that profession equal to any in the country. The next difficult point to decide was the size of the navigation; whether it should be for boats carrying a burden of twenty-five tons, or for a greater burden. Most of the engineers who had written on the subject in England and America recommended the twenty-five ton navigation. The acting managers (White & Hazard) contended for a navigation sufficient for boats of one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty tons burden; they argued that as the Lehigh and Delaware afforded plenty of water for the largest class of boats, it would be suicidal policy to permanently deprive the company and the public of the very best application of all the means nature had afforded, particularly so as our company had coal enough to supply the United States,-and, in our case, as coal would be by far the greatest article carried on the canal,-so that no boat need ever descend to Philadelphia with less than a full load; and that a large boat would require but the same crew as a small one, consequently every ton transported could be carried cheaper by this arrangement. After considerable debate, it was finally decided to make the locks conform to the size of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal: twenty-two feet wide, one hundred feet long, and

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NA VJGA TION ON THE LEZHIG. 75 five feet depth of water, and the width of the canal at the bottom forty-five feet." This important decision was a great advantage at the time, and has since then saved the company from the necessity of enlarging their locks, to meet the demands of the trade and competition with railroads, which most of the other canals have been obliged to do. The engineer corps, under Can