USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > Bethlehem > A history of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741-1892, with some account of its founders and their early activity in America > Part 77
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CHAPTER XVIII.
THREE DECADES OF PROGRESS CONTINUED.
1846-1876.
The town of about fifteen hundred people that had grown up, at the period last referred to in the preceding chapter, on the farms across the river; the smoke of furnaces, the rumble of mills, the shriek of locomotive whistles and the rushing of railway trains up and down the valley had for some years attracted attention, as the most conspicuous product of the new era that opened after the incor- poration of the Borough of Bethlehem.
The bulk of the land sold by Administrator Goepp, in 1847, con- sisted of the four farms on the south side commonly spoken of as "The Fuehrer Farm," embracing the nearer portion of what is now called Fountain Hill and its north-eastern descent to and including the premises of the old Crown Inn; "The Luckenbach Farm," adjoin- ing it to the east and extending down the river ; "The Jacobi Farm," which lay south of this one along the sloping upland to the base of the mountain, from about the present Five Points eastward far down into the heart of the town; and "The Hoffert Farm," stretching off to the south-west, over the farther part of Fountain Hill, down to the Emmaus Road and up to the present premises of the hospital and Bishopthorpe School and beyond to the Fountain Hill Cemetery.1 The original Hoffert farm-house stood far up the hill-side, a short distance north of east from Bishopthorpe. The Fuehrer farm-house was the Crown Inn. The Luckenbach farm-house near by, a little east, was replaced in 1849 by a brick house, which was eventually made to do duty as a railroad office building. The little stone house of the Jacobi farm is yet standing, with modern alterations, at the corner of Brodhead Avenue and Fourth Street. Excepting the buildings pertaining to those farms and several of the old log cabins,
I Those who desire a more complete and exact delineation of the metes and bounds of those old farms, from the view-point of modern topography, will find it worked out with care in appendix 5 and map of The Crown Inn, by Wm. C. Reichel, 1872. Their par- tition and the conveyances of portions to different parties during the first years after their sale are also there set forth in detail.
718
F.S/92
1852
THE SOUTH SIDE
1872
1
719
1846-1876.
the only improvements within their bounds when the great sale was . made in 1847, were those under way for the famous Hydropathic Institute-or in the sterling English of plain folk, the Water-Cure- projected in 1843, by Franz Heinrich Oppelt, who had come from Europe ; a man of former Moravian connection, which he resumed at Bethlehem. In June, 1843, he wrote to the Supervising Board of the village: "The excellent water of the Lehigh Mountain and the prox- imity of Bethlehem, where patients could purchase or have made all necessaries, and those less seriously ailing could also secure board and lodging, has awakened in me the desire to establish a hydro- pathic institute if I could buy the springs and the necessary ground." He secured the use, rent free, that year, of a little over two acres on the mountain side which he began to improve and then purchased in April, 1846. Soon after that, he opened the Water-Cure, which acquired celebrity, not only as a sanitarium for invalids, but also as a delightful summer-resort, with its magnificent view to the east and north. It was visited, at times, by people of note. The locality got the name Oppeltsville, and beginning, September 22, 1850, when Bishop Van Vleck officiated there the first time, stated services were held there by the Moravian clergy of Bethlehem for a few years, during the months when numerous guests were sojourning at the place.
In 1845, Daniel Desh had purchased somewhat more than an acre, just across the river, on the west side of the road near the bridge, where the old ferry house stood, and in 1846, another piece west of that, up the hill where the large railroad office buildings now stand. With the exception of these several parcels previously secured by Oppelt and Desh, the entire body of land included in the four farms conveyed to Philip H. Goepp in 1847, was, soon after that, sold by him, to Charles Augustus Luckenbach, to whom the deeds were made on April 1, 1848. The latter did not long retain possession of the whole. In the spring of 1848, he sold the entire Fuehrer farm to Daniel Desh, whose previous purchases lay in that tract, and a little more than 103 acres embraced in the Jacobi farm to Joseph Hess .. The entire Hoffert farm was also disposed of in parcels to Charles and Oliver Tombler and F. H. Oppelt. In 1850 and 1851, the Tombler purchases were conveyed, in part, to Daniel C. Freitag, but the larger portion to Augustus Fiot, of Philadelphia, who added a tract of wood-land-another purchase-and established an attractive country-seat, which he named Fontainebleau. This, after passing through other ownerships, became eventually, with the Freitag pur-
720
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
chase, the property of Tinsley Jeter, who thus, by successive pur- chases, acquired the entire Hoffert farm, apart from what was owned by Oppelt. In 1854, Daniel Desh disposed of his holdings-the Fuehrer farm-to Rudolph Kent, of Philadelphia, who sold ten acres, embracing the site of the old Crown Inn, to the North Pennsylvania Railroad Company and laid out the rest in town lots, covering the whole of east and north Fountain Hill. In 1852, C. A. Luckenbach, having, for the time being, retained the Luckenbach Farm, east of the former inn along the river, planned a town-plot which he named Augusta. He disposed of sundry parcels to different purchasers, the largest, upwards of 97 acres, to Charles W. and Ambrose H. Rauch, in 1854. In the summer of that year, Charles Brodhead purchased the Jacobi Farm, 103 acres, of Joseph Hess, and the portion of the Luckenbach Farm held by the Rauchs, enlarged the town plot and gave it the name Wetherill, in honor of John Price Wetherill, of Philadelphia. In 1855, however, Mr. Brodhead reconveyed to the Messrs. Rauch the tract purchased of them.
Meanwhile, operations had commenced on a portion of the former Luckenbach Farm that were indicative of what that vicinity on the south bank of the river was to become. A strange mineral in the Saucon Valley that had attracted attention for more than twenty years, was examined in 1845, by William Theodore Roepper, of Beth- lehem, and by him first ascertained to be calamine-the hydro-silicate of zinc. An association, formed to mine and work the deposit, secured a site on the Luckenbach tract for the necessary buildings, the first of which were erected in 1853, and, on October 13 of that year, produced there the first white oxide of zinc. The buildings were burned out in the following December but were soon restored, and operations progressed. May 2, 1855, the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company was incorporated. Samuel Wetherill and Charles T. Gilbert had charge of the works from the beginning to September, 1857. In 1854, and the year following, Mr. Wetherill experimented in another building, near by, until he succeeded in producing the first spelter or metallic zinc, but the problem of cheap- ening the process to the extent of making it practicable remained to be solved. In 1859, Joseph Wharton, who managed the works from September, 1857, to September, 1860, contracted with Belgian experts for the construction of works to manufacture spelter, and for their operation. This was successfully inaugurated in July, 1859. It may yet be added, to complete this reference to the famous zinc works, that the third department of manufacture was introduced in 1865,
JOHN LERCH
SAMUEL BRUNNER
JAMES ALEXANDER RICE
DANIEL DESH
JACOB LUCKENBACH
1846-1876. 721
when, in April, the first sheet zinc rolled in America was produced. The corporate title of the company was changed in 1860, to The Lehigh Zinc Company. During the superintendency of Benjamin C. Webster, the largest steam-engine and pump in the country were put into operation, January 19, 1872, at the mines of the company at Friedensville. This great engine, named the President, has lately, after long standing idle, been dismantled, the ore being latterly all produced in the mines at Franklin, New Jersey. In 1881, the works were purchased by a new company called the Lehigh Zinc and Iron Company, the manufacture of spiegeleisen from some elements of the ore being added to the operations.
Other activities of more extensive connection, and locally more revolutionizing, were in progress along the south bank of the Lehigh. In the very year with which this chapter opens, April 21, 1846, was chartered, by act of Legislature, "The Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company," modified in title by supple- mental act, January 7, 1853, to "The Lehigh Valley Railroad Com- pany." With this enterprise-the natural outcome of the pioneer activities in the anthracite coal regions half a century before, treated of in the preceding chapter-one name stands connected, pre-eminent in the modern development of the Lehigh Valley; the name of Asa Packer. In 1852, the main line of this railroad was located, from Easton to Mauch Chunk, and work was commenced in November of that year, under Robert H. Sayre, Chief Engineer. The greatest change it wrought near Bethlehem was along the river bank west of the bridge. The picturesque resort around "the big spring," at the foot of the bluff across from the eastern end of the island, was ruined. The spring, yet remembered by many, was kept open and curbed with stones for a number of years, reminding people of the old-time beauties of the place. But now, for many years, it has been choked and buried under successive dumps of cinder and broken stone.2 The last week in April, 1855, the rails were laid along the river east of the bridge. On June 4, the first locomotive passed Bethlehem, between six and seven o'clock in the evening, and many people assembled to witness the novel sight; but not so many as gathered on June 9, when the first passenger car was drawn over the track by the construction train. When the first passenger train passed from Easton to Allentown on June II, it was given an ovation
2 There exists a sketch of the place as it formerly was, painted by Rufus A. Grider.
47
722
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
-nearly the entire population of the town turning out en masse. On September 12, the road was open for service to Mauch Chunk and, September 15, the first train of coal cars came down the valley. The first station and office were opened in the brick house of 1849, on the Luckenbach Farm, mentioned before, which was later (1864-1870) enlarged for additional office room.
Two years after the consummation of that undertaking Bethlehem became the terminus of another railroad, built from Philadelphia by a corporation chartered, April 2, 1852, under the title "The Phila- delphia, Easton and Water Gap Railroad Company," which was changed the next year to "The North Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany." Its construction was commenced that year. Originally it was built to Freemansburg. The construction-train first ran through to that terminus, December 24, 1856, followed by the first passenger car, December 26. The first passenger train came through from Philadelphia, January 1, 1857. In June the track was laid from Iron Hill to the new terminus on the south side at Bethlehem, and the first train ran through to this station, July I, 1857. A week later, the passenger trains stopped running over the Freemansburg section and all ran to Bethlehem. Then a station was constructed, in 1859, at the junction with the Lehigh Valley line, where the old ferry-house stood. The historic Crown Inn was doomed when the tracks of the North Pennsylvania line were located at the terminus, for it stood right in the way. The building was sold to David I. Yerkes for $30. He used most of its timber in building what was later called the Continental Hotel, on Second Street near New Street.3 The site of the old hostelry is marked by a memorial stone placed as near the spot as possible, at the south-east corner of the platform of the union passenger station, erected for the joint use of the two roads in 1867, and opened on November 18 of that year. When the North Pennsylvania railroad was finished the era of the mail-stage from Bethlehem to Philadelphia and intermediate points closed. John David Whitesell, long proprietor of the old stage line in its latter days-the successor of his father, Andrew Whitesell-died at Beth- lehem, in 1854, while the railroads were being built, and was not permitted to see the new mode of conveyance inaugurated.
3 A writer later suggested that the name of the old inn which furnished timber for the new one, should have been retained, but perhaps Mr. Yerkes thought farther than the newspaper man, for did not the Continental Army and the Continental Congress supersede the Crown in the American colonies ?
723
1846-1876.
While these great enterprises were being planned, schemes for working iron at Bethlehem in a larger way than at the old Beckel foundry were afloat, prior to the establishment of a second foundry and machine shop by Abbott and Cortright on the south side in 1857. In April, 1849, the Supervising Board of the Moravian Congregation had under consideration an application for the purchase or lease of ground along the canal for an "anthracite furnace." The site in view was "between the Anchor Hotel and the east basin on the south side of the new road" (present Lehigh Avenue). Terms were dis- cussed, and in July it was resolved to sell the land "from the tavern to the aqueduct between the canal and the Monocacy, including the marsh meadow, on both sides of the new street, to Mr. Noble," for $2700, "reserving for Dosters and the Water Company" their rights along the bank of the Monocacy. The decision being subject to the concurrence of the Elders' Conference, failed to meet their approval, on account of the proximity of the proposed site to the Young Ladies' Seminary. Administrator Goepp, who favored the sale and believed that in course of time an unsuitable environment would inevitably crowd upon the school premises, broached the idea of ultimately transferring the institution to a new site on Nisky Hill, and then this and the cemetery project seem to have become for a while competitive schemes in official circles. There were among the people decided opinions for and against the sale of land for an iron furnace at that point and nothing came of it.
In August, 1849, similar propositions by "the Messrs. Jones, of Philadelphia," and Samuel Lewis, of the new Allentown furnace, were considered, having sites farther up the canal in view, but did not result in an agreement. Mr. Lewis entertained the thought of purchasing "twenty acres along the canal from the upper basin north- ward."
While such projects for new iron industries were further slum- bering, the actual beginning of the long-mooted railroad to run along the south bank of the Lehigh naturally suggested to men's minds that further such developments would arise on that side of the river. While various schemes were being talked of by the men already mentioned who had acquired the real estate on the south side, and by others, like Augustus Wolle, one of the enterprising and far- sighted men of the time, who also made considerable purchases while parcels on the Luckenbach Farm were first changing hands, a flutter was caused in the summer of 1854, by the circulation of a rumor that -as one record states it-"the United States foundry, was to be
724
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
established south of the Lehigh at Bethlehem." A private chronicle of the time notes, in substantiation of the rumor, that "Mr. Charles Brodhead, a nephew of the Senator (Richard Brodhead), had bought two farms" on the south side. The facts, as derived from first sources, are the following: During the years 1854 and 1855, Mr. Brodhead, having made the purchases of land on the south side already referred to, endeavored, through his uncle, Richard Brod- head, United States Senator, to secure the location of a government foundry on the site of the former Luckenbach Farm. Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War in the Cabinet of President Pierce, favored the project and recommended it to the attention of Congress. The committee of the Senate reported in favor of it, but the plan failed to secure Congressional action on account of conflicting inter- ests in the matter of a location. Then the original mover was induced by Augustus Wolle to join with him in laying the foundation of another enterprise, which he and others had in view, and which eventually took the place of that one on the proposed site. Mr. Wolle had acquired possession of the deposit of iron ore known as the Gangewere mine and was proceeding to develop the property. He formed an organization to erect a blast furnace on the Saucon Creek, at the mine, and secured incorporation, April 8, 1857, under the name of "The Saucona Iron Company." He had, meanwhile, pur- chased the large portion of the Luckenbach Farm which Mr. Brod -. head had conveyed back to Charles W. and Ambrose H. Rauch. Mr. Wolle was persuaded by Mr. Brodhead of the advisability of erecting the works south of the Lehigh at Bethlehem, rather than at the mine, and of having the Company authorized "to make and manufacture iron into any shape, form and condition, instead of limiting its output to that of simply a blast furnace." With Mr. Wolle's consent and approval, Mr. Brodhead drafted a supplement to the charter of the Company, embodying this expansion and changing its name to that of "The Bethlehem Rolling Mills and Iron Com- pany." This supplement became a law on March 31, 1857. Sub- scriptions were then started, the first subscriber being Augustus Wolle with the largest amount. The second was Charles Brodhead, and the next were Charles W. Rauch, Ambrose H. Rauch and Charles B. Daniel. All were Bethlehem men.
These subscriptions, together with one by the Moravian Congre- gation, were all that were gotten for several years, in consequence of the financial crisis of the time. In 1859, efforts were renewed and in June, 1860, the services of John Fritz, the noted iron-master,
1846-1876. 725
of Johnstown, were secured to superintend the construction and then the operation of the works. The confidence inspired by this move resulted in the rapid raising of the required capital. On June 14, 1860, the Company elected the first Board of Directors who, on July 7, organized with Alfred Hunt, President; Augustus Wolle, Asa Packer, John Taylor Johnston, John Knecht, Edward Roberts, Charles B. Daniel and Charles W. Rauch, Directors; Charles B. Daniel, Secretary and Treasurer. The corporate title was again changed by Act of Legislature, May 1, 1861, to "The Bethlehem Iron Company." Ground was broken for the first furnace, July 16, 1861, but then, in consequence of the outbreak of the Civil War, operations lagged and were not resumed with energy until the latter part of 1862. Fire to start the first blast furnace was lighted, January 4, 1863, and the next day the blast was put on. The rolling mill, com- menced in the spring of 1861, was finished in the summer of 1863. The first iron was puddled, July 27, and the first rails-for the Lehigh Valley Railroad-were rolled, September 26, of that year. The second furnace, commenced in May, 1864, was completed in March, 1867, and the first iron was drawn on the 30th of that month. The original machine shop was built and equipped in 1865, and the foundry in 1868. A furnace in process of construction by the Northampton Iron Company a little distance to the south-east of the new works and called The Northampton Furnace, was put into blast in Decem- ber, 1868, after this company had been merged with the Bethlehem Iron Company the previous September, and was afterwards known as furnace No. 3, in the succession of six eventually built or pur- chased. The erection of the large steel mill was commenced in September, 1868. The first heat of Bessemer steel was there blown, October 4, 1873, and the first steel rail was rolled, October 18. At this stage the plant stood at the period to which this chapter extends. Thus originated the enormous works which, after the lapse of thirty years, covered an area a mile and a quarter long and a quarter of a mile wide, having twenty-five acres of the space under roof, includ- ing the added works for producing government ordnance and armor- plate as well as the heaviest forgings and castings of every kind required on land and water. Erected and equipped at a cost of more than $5,000,000, containing among other notable features, manufac- tured at the spot, the largest hammer ever constructed, these works have fulfilled on a vast scale the thoughts of 1854, and have become famous beyond the bounds of the United States. The whole, from the first blast furnace to these latest magnificent achievements, was
726
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
designed, erected and put into successful operation by the Company's first Chief Engineer and General Superintendent, Mr. John Fritz, whom the men of his craft in Europe and America have united in according a foremost place among the great engineers of the world.+
About the time when the first furnace of the Iron Company was being built, a period of much activity in the purchase of town-lots and the erection of buildings on the south side opened. In 1858, the Messrs. Charles Brodhead and Augustus Wolle, when making deeds for lots, began to designate the property as in "the southern addition to the Borough of Bethlehem." Both of the previous names, Augusta and Wetherill, were discarded and there seemed to be an anticipation of a time when a group of sundry Bethlehems would arise, prepar- atory to a yet more remote time when a natural and sensible develop- ment would consolidate them as one greater Bethlehem. Then the new town got its third name, Bethlehem South-this particular form distinguishing it from that section on the north side which was then yet commonly known as South Bethlehem. In 1865, the long-felt necessity of a borough organization led to action, and by decree of Court in August, such incorporation was authorized. The name South Bethlehem was chosen. The first borough election was held, September 19, 1865, at the Continental Hotel, with David I. Yerkes as Judge of Election. The first Burgess elected was James McMahon. The first Councilmen were Lewis F. Beckel, James McCoy, James Purcell, E. P. Wilbur and David I. Yerkes. In June of the next year, a separate post-office was established with John Seem as the first postmaster. Already in 1864, in anticipation of a rapidly growing town, a few of the men who were prominently connected with the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Bethlehem Iron Company and other important enterprises, and had established their residence in the new place, had, along with other foundation-laying movements, procured a charter of incorporation for a company to supply light and water
4 It is not the purpose of these pages to follow out the history of any of the great indus- tries nor of the churches, schools and other institutions of the Bethlehems that have come into existence in modern times, but rather to merely sketch their beginnings. More than this would not only require treatment of things outside the province of the writer, but would be impossible on account of the magnitude of the matter involved. Much of this, moreover, is recent and comprises facts well-known by all or easily obtainable from numer- ous sources, or is not yet settled into fixed shape in historical retrospect. These things may properly be left for writers of future years to compile, after they have receded farther into the back-ground like those which now stand anterior to the personal recollection and par- ticipation of present actors on the scenes.
MERIT ABBOTT
IRA CORTRIGHT
SAMUEL WETHERILL
JAMES THEODORE BORHEK
BENJAMIN WILHELM
727
1846-1876.
to the town. It was named The Bethlehem South Gas and Water Company. The incorporators were E. P. Wilbur, Robert H. Sayre, William H. Sayre, John Smylie, James McMahon and H. Stanley Goodwin.5 They organized in 1867, with Mr. Wilbur as President, and Mr. Goodwin as Secretary and Treasurer and Bernard E. Lehman was elected Superintendent. Under his direction the original gas works were at once erected and the first gas was made before the end of that year. In the matter of a water supply, it is to be noted that, prior to this, Tinsley Jeter had con- structed a small reservoir to utilize the spring water above Fontaine- bleau, and laid pipes to supply some of the Fountain Hill residences, even down to the railway station, and that five years after the organ- ization of the above company, another called The Cold Spring Water Company was formed by the late Dr. G. B. Linderman, but its service did not extend beyond private requirements. The surviving company began to supply South Bethlehem with water by pumping from the river in 1875. Since that time its resources have been very much enlarged and another projected company, The Mountain Water Com- pany, secured a charter in 1894. The Fire Department of the south side had its beginning in the formation of the company called "Cen- tennial Hose, No. 1," July 31, 1875. This was followed by "The Liberty Fire Company," May 3, 1876. "The Lehigh Hook and Ladder Company" was organized later-November 25, 1884. Others are still more recent.
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