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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
MATCH CHUNK AND EAST MAAUCH CHUNK, FROM THE FLAG STAFF.
HISTORY
OF
CARBON COUNTY
PENNSYLVANIA
Also Containing a Separate Account of the Several Boroughs and Townships in the County
With Biographical Sketches
BY FRED BRENCKMAN
VIRTUE
WBER
HARRISBURG, PA. : JAMES J. NUNGESSER, PUBLISHER 1913
TH:
67473 !
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS R
1
TO MY MOTHER C AND TO ALL MY FRIENDS IN 7 CARBON COUNTY I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
Lehigh, I dream that in thy voice I catch a tone of gladness, That yearning love is in thy touch, That thou wouldst soothe my sadness. -AUGUSTA MOORE.
PREFACE.
It is to be regretted that Carbon county, rich in his- torical materials, has no historical society.
Intimate contact with representative citizens in all parts of the county has convinced me that such an in- stitution would not only be welcomed but gladly sup- ported by them.
There does not appear to be any good reason why the organization and establishment of a society of this nature should be further delayed, and it would afford me great pleasure to do everything within my power to assist in the consummation of this object.
Had there been an institution of this description in the county, the time, labor and expense devoted to the preparation of the present work might have been greatly lessened, while the result might have been more satisfactory to me and the public alike.
Every effort, however, has been made to gain all the light possible on the subjects treated in the fol- lowing pages, and no pains have been spared to verify and authenticate all that has been here recorded.
Much of the matter bearing on the early history of this general region has been drawn from among the mass of books, pamphlets and papers contained in the library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. The public libraries of the Lehigh, Wyoming and Lacka- wanna Valleys have also been laid under contribution, as have the files of the newspapers of this and adjoin- ing counties, the court records at Mauch Chunk and at Easton, and the various bureaus and departments of the state government. But equally important with the information derived from these sources is that which I
PREFACE.
gleaned directly from the people in every section of the county.
In view of this fact, I desire hereby publicly to heartily thank all those who in any manner assisted me in this undertaking.
FRED BRENCKMAN.
HUDSONDALE, PA., October 5, 1912.
CONTENTS.
I. THE INDIANS SUPPLANTED BY THE WHITES. .. 1
II. MORAVIANS SETTLE CARBON COUNTY .. 25
III. GNADENHÜTTEN DESTROYED IN INDIAN UPRISING 34
IV. BELATED MEASURES FOR DEFENSE OF FRONTIER 47
V. CAPTIVITY OF THE GILBERT FAMILY 62
VI. EARLY ANNALS OF ANTHRACITE COAL
73
VII. ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY 87
VIII. MILITARY AFFAIRS 95
IX. EDUCATION 109
X. THE MOLLIE MAGUIRES. 127
XI. STRIKES AND LABOR DIFFICULTIES 147
XII. STEAM AND ELECTRIC RAILROADS. 157
XIII. BANKS TOWNSHIP, BEAVER MEADOW BOROUGH, EAST MAUCH CHUNK BOROUGH, AND EAST PENN TOWNSHIP. 167
XIV. EAST SIDE BOROUGH, FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, KIDDER TOWNSHIP, LANSFORD BOROUGH, AND LAUSANNE TOWNSHIP 196
XV. LEHIGH TOWNSHIP, LEHIGHTON BOROUGH, AND LOWER TOWAMENSING TOWNSHIP. 226
XVI. MAHONING TOWNSHIP, AND MAUCH CHUNK BOROUGH 255
XVII. MAUCH CHUNK TOWNSHIP, PACKER TOWNSHIP, PALMERTON BOROUGH, PARRYVILLE BOROUGH, PENN FOREST TOWNSHIP, AND SUMMIT HILL BOROUGH 289
XVIII. TOWAMENSING TOWNSHIP, WEATHERLY BOR-
OUGH, AND WEISSPORT BOROUGH 335
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 363
APPENDIXES 62
ix
CHAPTER I. THE INDIANS SUPPLANTED BY THE WHITES.
Penn-syl-va-ni-a-what a majestic, awe-inspiring sound the name has! and how it taxes the imagination, amid the changed conditions of to-day, to enable us to realize that less than three centuries have elapsed since the white man held any possessions among the dusky denizens of the woods within the present confines of this grand commonwealth.
According to their own traditions, the various In- dian tribes inhabiting this portion of the country at the time of the coming of the Europeans lived, many centuries ago, towards the setting sun-somewhere in the west of this continent. The Lenni Lenape, mean- ing the original people, and considering themselves an unmixed and unchanging race, determined to mi- grate towards the rising of the sun. After journeying across wide and trackless plains they arrived at the Namasi Sipa (Mississippi) river. Here they met the Mengwe, or Iroquois, also in quest of a new home to the eastward.
Anticipating opposition from the Alligewi, a people of gigantic form, living on the east side of the Missis- sippi, they here united their forces. Not many days after their union, and before they advanced, many and mighty battles were fought. At last the Alligewi were overpowered, and to escape extermination they abandoned the country of their fathers to the people of "The New Union," fled far to the southward, and never returned.
In dividing the conquered territory, the Iroquois chose the lands in the vicinity of the Great Lakes and
1
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
their tributary streams, while the Lenape, or Dela- wares, as they were named by the Europeans, took possession of more southern parts, where they lived in peace for many years.
The Lenape of the Delaware Valley were divided into three sub-tribes. The Minsi or Minisinks, lived in the mountainous region above the junction with the Lehigh; the Unami dwelt upon the lands reaching southward from the Lehigh, including the present site of Philadelphia, while still farther south resided the Unalachtigo, whose principal seat was near Wilming- ton, Delaware. It was with the two latter tribes that Penn made his celebrated treaties. The first had for its token the wolf, the second the turtle, and the third the turkey.
The Unami, or "People down the river," were ac- corded the pre-eminence, their symbol meaning the great tortoise upon which the world rested.
The Indians were more numerous in the valley of the Delaware than in any other section of Pennsyl- vania; but no trustworthy estimate of their number in any place or section can be given. Throughout the province they were under the domination of the Iro- quois, the Romans of Indian civilization. The Iroquois proudly styled themselves "The men surpassing all others," and their superiority to the surrounding tribes and nations was the result of union. Five na- tions, the Mohawks, Senecas, Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayugas, formed a confederacy, to which a sixth, the Tuscaroras, was later added. This was the most long- lived and powerful union of which there is any record in Indian history. The principal council fire was at Onondaga, by the lake of that name. There assembled the chiefs, whose decisions concerning war and peace were supreme.
3
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
In the center of Pennsylvania, at a remote age dwelt the Juniatas. Before the advent of the white man they were gone, vanquished, it is thought, by the invin- cible Iroquois. Throughout the entire region not a solitary wigwam was seen or war whoop heard. It was a conquered, empty interior, used by the Iroquois as a hunting ground.
It is not probable that this immediate region was ever permanently inhabited by any Indian tribes. The large rivers on the east and west afforded greater facili- ties for rapid movements from place to place, while the ease with which food products could be taken from the Delaware and the Susquehanna were prime considera- tions in the minds of the aborigines, who, as rational beings, sought to gratify their wants along the lines of least resistance. The valleys of these rivers also afforded better facilities for the rude agriculture of the Indians than did the generally wild and rugged country lying between. While it is not likely, therefore, that any considerable number of wild Indians ever had a permanent abiding place within the present limits of Carbon county, hunting and scouting parties fre- quently traversed the region. On their way to and fro between the Delaware and the Susquehanna, the red men usually followed the Warriors' Path, a famous Indian trail along the Lehigh, which was in those days trodden by nations which tread the earth no more. The trail diverged from the river at the mouth of the Nesquehoning creek, crossing the Broad mountain and the Laurytown Valley, touching the eastern border of the present borough of Weatherly. From there it pro- ceeded to the Indian Spring, on the line dividing the counties of Carbon and Luzerne, whence it led to a point near the modern village of Drums, in the latter county. Here the Nescopeck Path branched off to the
4
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
westward, the Warriors' Path continuing in a direct line northward to the village of the Nanticokes, not far from the site of Wilkes-Barre.
The shores of the Delaware were first visited by European mariners in 1609. During the summer of that year, Henry Hudson, the English explorer, having twice previously failed, made a third attempt to find a northwest passage to India and China. His former ventures had been financed by English capitalists; but he was now in the service of the Dutch.
He sailed in a little craft called the Half Moon, a ship of eighty tons burden. On the 28th of August, four months and a half after leaving Holland, he en- tered the Delaware Bay. Soon convinced by the shal- lowness of the water that he had not found the much sought for pathway, he returned, passed the capes, and turned the prow of his vessel northward.
The generation which followed Hudson's discovery of the bay witnessed the formation of various com- panies for the purpose of colonizing the country adja- cent to its shores and trading with the inhabitants thereof.
For a long period little worthy of note was accom- plished, however. Though chartered to trade with the Indians and to colonize the new world, it seems that the real object of the leaders of some of these enter- prises was a colossal system of piracy on the ships of Spain and Portugal. Actively engaged in commerce, these nations were very successful in robbing the na- tives of Mexico and Peru of their silver treasures. Others, just as greedy, adopted a similar plan of en- riching themselves by relieving the original robbers of their ill-gotten plunder.
The first colony on the shores of the Delaware was established by the Dutch in 1623, when they built Fort
5
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Nassau, a few miles below Philadelphia. The colon- ists grew homesick, and within a year abandoned the fort, going to Manhattan. Thus the first attempt at colonization on the Delaware came to a speedy end. Half a dozen years passed before another attempt was made to locate a colony on its shores. A settlement that was planted by Captain David Pietersen De Vries in 1631, was soon thereafter destroyed by the Indians. De Vries had returned to Holland, leaving a subor- dinate in command. Prior to his departure, a pillar, to which was nailed a piece of tin, whereon was traced the Dutch coat or arms, had been erected. A dusky chief, not knowing the wickedness of taking it away, converted it into tobacco pipes. This angered the Dutch; and the Indians, not knowing how else to ap- pease their wrath, killed the offending chief, and re- turned the unusued portion of the tin. The friends of the murdered chief resolved to be revenged. They attacked the Dutch when they were at work in the fields, totally annihilating them.
Before leaving Europe on his second voyage De Vries learned of the destruction of the colony. Reach- ing the Delaware early in the winter, he beheld the bones of his murdered men among the ruins of the settlement. He wisely refrained from seeking re- venge; with smiles and presents he succeeded in re- gaining the friendship of the Indians, with whom peace was maintained for many years.
The government of Sweden, in 1638, established per- manent settlements along the Delaware. Colonel John Printz was appointed governor of New Sweden in 1642. One of Printz's first acts after his arrival on the Delaware was to select a site for a residence. The place chosen was not far from Chester, on the Island of Tinicum. Here he built a spacious mansion, which
6
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
came to be known as Printz's Hall. The Swedish gov- ernor was a man of prodigious girth, weighing over four hundred pounds, it is said. He bore the reputa- tion of a hard drinker, and was a man of aggressive temperament. The fort which he erected was below the Dutch settlement and controlled the river, causing great annoyance to Dutch vessels, because in passing they were ordered to lower their colors.
The Swedes joined with the Dutch in their methods of peace and friendship toward the Indians, and their honesty and kindness were reciprocated by the aborig- ines.
The Swedes on the Delaware were subdued by the Dutch in 1655, and brought under the jurisdiction of Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherlands, who, in his turn, was conquered by the English not long afterwards.
With the falling of the power of the Dutch, English title to the continent was complete from Canada to Florida.
England at this time was in the midst of that seeth- ing religious excitement which characterized the middle decades of the seventeenth century. Among the in- finite varieties of sects which sprang into being during this period were the Friends, derisively called Quakers. Led by the indomitable George Fox, the Friends re- fused to conform to the established church of the realm. They would not pay tithes to support a religion which their consciences could not approve. They steadfastly refused to take off their hats before magis- trate, judge, priest, or king. Neither would they obey any law interfering with the liberty of their worship. Certain peculiarities of speech and dress aided to make the members of this sect odious to the dominant forces in England. Next to George Fox, the most conspicu-
7
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
ous and influential person in shaping the character and future of the Society of Friends was the venerated founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn.
Penn was born in London, England, October 14, 1644, and was a son of Vice Admiral Sir William Penn, of the British Navy. Admiral Penn owned valuable estates in Ireland, and was prominent and influential throughout the United Kingdom. In 1656 he moved his family to his Irish estates, and William pursued his studies at home under a private tutor.
When he became fifteen years of age, he went to Oxford, and entered upon a course of study at Christ Church College. It was at this period that he first came under the influence of the preachers of the so- ciety with which his name was later so prominently identified. He was deeply impressed with the sim- plicity and purity of the Friends' form of worship, and he soon came to feel that the established church was too subservient to dogma and the lifeless cere- monies of creed.
Taking part in the religious services of the Friends, and withdrawing from the established church, he in- curred the disapproval and censure of the faculty, ul- timately being expelled from college on this account.
His father, an ambitious, worldly man, was much in- censed at William's "misconduct," and remonstrated in strong terms; but, finding that his son was firmly intrenched in his religious "fanaticism," he expelled him from home. Later, the father, who warmly loved his son, relented and sent William to France, in com- pany with some friends of rank and prominence, hop- ing thereby to divert the boy's mind into other chan- nels of thought. But his sojourn in France, while giving him the politeness and polish of French society, did not wholly eradicate the serious demeanor which
8
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
had so greatly displeased his father. In 1666, William was furnished with a letter of introduction to Sir George Lane, then secretary of the lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Here he was received with marked attention and became a welcome guest at a court of almost regal splendor.
During his residence in Ireland, a mutiny arose among the soldiers of the garrison of Carrickfergus, and William evinced so much coolheaded bravery and good judgment in assisting to quell the mutineers that the duke tendered him a position as captain of in- fantry. It appears that at first Penn was highly flat- tered by this proposal, and seemed disposed to accept ; but after mature consideration, he rejected the offer.
Being in the city of Cork soon thereafter, he attended a meeting of Friends, which was conducted by his old pastor, Thomas Loe, formerly of Oxford. Penn was greatly stirred by the discourse, and firmly resolved from that hour to renounce worldly glories and honors, and to devote himself to the service of God and his fel- low-men. But he was soon called to share in the physical sufferings of his friends, being arrested and east into prison at Cork. While languishing in jail he wrote his first public utterance on the subject of liberty of conscience. Being liberated from prison after a time, he returned to England on the request of his father, and was again subjected to the indignity of being expelled from beneath the paternal roof. From this decision the elder Penn relented only on his death-bed.
In 1668 Penn felt himself called to the gospel min- istry, in which he became distinguished, both as a preacher and a writer of religious works. Some of his utterances gave great offense to the clergy of the Church of England, particularly to the Bishop of
9
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
London. This functionary succeeded in securing Penn's imprisonment in the Tower. During his in- carceration, which continued nearly nine months, he wrote, "No Cross, No Crown," one of the imperish- able works of prison literature, together with other productions which have been read in many languages.
Penn was thrice arrested and twice imprisoned after his liberation from the Tower, but remained steadfast to the principles of universal toleration, writing and speaking in defense of the cause which he advocated with an earnestness and zeal which had be- become characteristic of the man.
Penn's affections were now stirred by a young lady named Gulielma Springett. She was herself a Friend, and smiled graciously on her lover. They were mar- ried in the spring of 1672, when Penn was twenty-eight years of age.
"Those who knew him only at second hand," says one of his biographers, "imagined that the prisoner of Newgate and the Tower would now subside into the country gentleman, more interested in cultivating his paternal acres than in the progress of an unpopular doctrine. Those who reasoned so knew little of Wil- liam Penn, and still less of the lady who had become his wife."
After devoting a few months to his new life, Penn resumed his work of writing and preaching. As the persecutions of the Friends did not cease, he was always busy interceding for them and trying to secure for them larger liberties. At best, however, their con- dition was miserable.
On the death of his father, Penn came into posses- sion of an ample estate. Among his other inheritances was a claim of sixteen thousand pounds against the king, his father having loaned this sum to the impe-
10
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
cunious monarch. Gradually the idea of accepting a province in America in settlement of this debt formed itself in Penn's mind. There he might found an asylum for the oppressed of his own sect and of all nations. For a long time he had waited and nothing had been paid. As he pondered over the idea, it grew into clearer and larger form. The experiment, if suc- cessful, would be an enduring witness to the breadth and persistence of the Quaker faith. Some politicians, wiser than their generation, regarded the enterprise as dangerous to the crown and the state. In less than a hundred years, this utterance of mingled fear and prophecy was fulfilled. As the exchequer was nearly empty, Penn's request was finally granted; and the terms of the charter were settled and signed by Charles II on the 4th of March, 1681.
The eastern boundary of Penn's province was the Delaware river, beginning twelve miles north of New- castle and extending northward to the forty-third degree of latitude. It extended westward five degrees. The southern boundary was a circle beginning twelve miles north of Newcastle, and continuing at that dis- tance from Newcastle to the beginning of the fortieth degree of north latitude, and thence by a straight line westward to the limits of longitude already mentioned.
By a provision of the royal charter, Penn was to pay to the king, his "heirs and successors, two beaver skins, to be delivered to our castle of Windsor on the 1st day of January in every year." And this tribute was paid by the Penns until 1780. It was also stipulated that a fifth part of all the gold and silver ore found in the province should belong to the crown.
Penn first proposed to call the province New Wales, and afterward Sylvania, because so much of the land was covered with forest. Charles prefixed the word
11
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Penn as a compliment to Penn's father. Fearful that the name might be regarded as a piece of vanity, Penn appealed to the king, and offered twenty guineas to the secretary to change it. But Charles insisted and the patent was issued in the form which he prescribed. Four weeks after the king had signed the patent, Penn sent his cousin, Colonel William Markham, to take posses- sion of the country, to call a council of nine to assist him in administering the government, to inform the people of his purchase, to settle the boundary between his province and Maryland, to establish courts and to preserve peace.
Besides the king's declaration, announcing the grant to Penn and requiring all persons settled in the prov- ince to yield obedience to him as proprietor and gov- ernor, Markham carried a letter from Penn himself, addressed to the people, assuring them of his sincere desire to deal fairly and honestly by them. "I hope you will not be troubled at your change, and the king's choice," said he; "for you are now fixed at the mercy of no governor who comes to make his fortune great. You shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free, and if you will, a sober and industrious people."
In the autumn three vessels with colonists and three commissioners sailed from England. One of the ves- sels was driven by storms to the West Indies, and did not reach the Delaware until the following spring. Penn's instructions to his commissioners related chiefly to selecting a place for a "great town," surveying the land, and regulating intercourse with the Indians. He was particularly concerned that it should be a "green country town, which will never be burnt and always wholesome."
12
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Meanwhile Penn was deep in work on his frame of government, which was completed and published early in the spring of 1682. This constitution, as it may be termed, was modeled along broad and liberal lines, and was far in advance of any similar document that the world had yet seen.
As soon as it was known that Penn had become the owner and governor of an American province, persons in nearly every large town in Great Britain and in many cities of the Rhine and of Holland, desired to purchase land.
A German company was organized at Frankfort, and Pastorius purchased fifteen thousand acres in a single tract, and three thousand more within the Lib- erties of the future city.
Many purchasers came from Liverpool and still more from London. Having forwarded his frame of government to Markham, Penn prepared to follow the first constitutional seedling planted on the banks of the Delaware.
August came before the Welcome, a stately bark of three hundred tons, was fitted out to transport him and a hundred fellow passengers to America. The voyage was begun on the first of September. Soon after starting, that dread disease small-pox appeared. At first, the disease was mild, but before the vessel reached mid-ocean nearly every person on board was sick, while many died. Late in October, the voyagers rejoiced to see the low, woody banks of the Delaware, and nine weeks after quitting the shores of England, the Welcome anchored at the port of New Castle. As the ship proceeded up the river, the perfume of the air was like an orchard in full bloom. It was Indian summer, and the trees and shrubs were clothed in gor- geous colors, while many of the birds were arrayed in
13
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
bright plumage. All nature appeared to be wearing its richest dress on the coming of the new evangel of peace and liberty.
From Newcastle, Penn proceeded to Upland, where Chester now is. Ere long he reached the mouth of Schuylkill, and four miles above this point the prow of the Welcome was turned up Dock creek, which was deep enough to enter, besides having a low, sandy beach, where a landing could easily be effected. Here Penn went ashore. He was on the site selected by his commissioners for the provincial capital. He was everywhere received with demonstrations of joy. Penn met the people as though they were his children, his mild and shining face reflecting the serenity of his spirit and goodness of his heart.
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