USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania : from its first beginnings to the present time, including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume IV > Part 17
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Theoretically the daring scheme captured the admiration of all who were to be benefited by it. At a great banquet at Washington, late in 1823, the pro- ject was launched. Adams, Clay, and Calhoun took the opportunity to ally themselves with it by robustly declaring themselves in favor of widespread internal improvements. Even the godmother smiled upon it for, following Monroe's recommendation, Congress without hesitation voted thirty thousand dollars for the preliminary survey from Washington to Pittsburgh. Quickly the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company and the connecting Maryland Canal Company were formed, and steps were taken to have Ohio promote an Ohio and Lake Erie Company.
High as were the hopes awakened by this movement, just so deep was the dejection into which its advocates were thrown upon receiving the report of the engineers who made the preliminary survey. The estimated cost ran towards a quarter of a billion, four times the capital stock of the company; and there were not lacking those who pointed out that the Erie Canal had cost more than double the original appropriation made for it.
But the worst blow was yet to come. Engineers reported that a canal connecting the Potomac and Chesapeake was not feasible. "The men of Balti- more then gave one of the most striking illustrations of spirit and pluck ever exhibited by the people of any city," says Archer B. Hurlburt in "The Paths of Inland Commerce": "They refused to accept defeat. If engineering science held a means of overcoming the natural disadvantages of their position, they were determined to adopt that means, come what would of hardship, difficulty, and expenditure. If roads and canal would not serve the city on the Chesapeake, what of the railroad on which so many experiments were being made in England?"
The idea of controlling the trade of the West by railroads was not new. As early as February, 1825, certain astute Pennsylvanians had advocated building a railroad to Pittsburgh instead of a canal, and in a memorial to the legislature they had set forth the theory that a railroad could be built in one-third of the time and could be operated with one-third of the number of employees required by a canal, that it would never be frozen, and that its cost of construction would be less. But these arguments did not influence the majority, who felt that to follow the line of least resistance and to do as others had done would involve the least
1895
hazard. But Baltimore, with her back against the wall, did not have the alter- native of a canal. It was a leap into the unknown for her or commercial stag- nation.
The difficulties which faced the Baltimore and Ohio railroad enthusiasts in their task would have daunted men of less heroic mold. Every conceivable trial and test which nature and machinery could seemingly devise was a part of their day's work for twelve years -struggles with grades, locomotives, rails, cars. As Rumsey, Fitch, and Fulton in their experiments with boats had floun- dered despondently with endless chains, oars, paddles, duck's feet, so now Thomas and Brown in their efforts to make the railroad effective wandered in a maze of difficulties testing out such absurd and im- possible ideas as cars propelled by sails and cars operated by horse treadmills. By May, 1830, however, cars on rails, running by "brigades" and drawn by horses, were in AN EARLY RAILROAD TRAIN. operation in America. It was only in this year that in England, locomotives were used with any marked success on the Liverpool and Manchester Raiload; vet in August of this year, Peter Cooper's engine, "Tom Thumb," built in Balti- more, in 1829, traversed the twelve miles between that city and Ellicott's Mills in seventy-two minutes. Steel springs came in 1832, together with car wheels of cylindrical and conical section which made it easier to turn curves. In 1835, the railroad received three millions from the State of Maryland, and the City of Baltimore was permitted to subscribe an equal amount of stock. With this support and a free right of way, the railroad pushed on up the Potomac. Though delayed by the financial disasters of 1837, in 1842 it was at Hancock; in 1851, at Piedmont; in 1852, at Fairmont; and the next year it reached the Ohio River. at Wheeling.
Once again Pennsylvania met its competition head on. The first success- ful attempt to commercially operate a railroad in the Commonwealth was the opening of the Mauch Chunk railroad in 1827. It connected the coal operations of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company with the company's canal along the Lehigh.
In 1828, two Britishi locomotives were imported by the Delaware and Hud- son Canal Company. They were the "America" and "Stourbridge Lion". Assembled in New York, they were then loaded on the Company's boats and taken to Honesdale, the terminus of the canal. Here a gravity railroad had al- ready been constructed, over mountain ridges, to Carbondale where the Company had extensive coal deposits. A portion of the gravity road included long level stretches and upon these it was the intention to use locomotives, to keep the traffic in motion. After numerous experiments it was decided that the locomotives were too heavy for the wooden rails and flimsy road bed then in
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use and they were shortly consigned to the junk pile from which they were subsequently rescued to find a resting place in the Smithsonian Institute.
The Mount Carbon railroad was begun in 1829 and, in 1831, so firmly had the railroad fever taken hold, that the Commonwealth granted charters
CHI
FIRST HOUSE BUILT IN CARBONDALE, 1824, CALLED THE HOG-TAVERN.
to twelve railroad companies. In 1834, a portion of the eastern division of the Pennsylvania canal was paralleled by a railroad and during the same year, the Allegheny Portage railroad was constructed. New York lines struggled for- ward from the lower Hudson to Buffalo, in 1842. The Pennsylvania railroad was incorporated in 1846, purchased the main line artery of the State canal in 1848, and was completed to Pittsburg in 1854.
The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company was responsible for the first railroad to enter the Wyoming Valley, although coal cars were moved by rail as early as 1834, from the Baltimore mine to the Canal.
Under the original provisions of its charter, this company was - obligated to extend its slackwater dams to Stoddardsville to connect with the Easton and Wilkes-Barré turnpike. So rapid, however, had been moves on the checker board of transportation, that the company secured an amendment to its char- ter upon completion of the dam near White Haven in 1835 and agreed to build a rail connection to Wilkes-Barré, in consideration of being released from that require- ment. Its railroad extension was chartered in 1837 under the name PASSENGER STATION. C. R. R. OF N. J. of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad Company and the work of construction was begun in the Spring of the next year, with E. A. Douglas and Lord Butler as supervising engineers. The plans of this venture called for the transportation of cars, hauled by a
1897
locomotive, from the canal terminus at White Haven to Mountain Top, where its tracks were to enter the head of a series of three planes, to Ashley. From the foot of these planes another rail extension was constructed to South street in Wilkes-Barré between what are now South and West River streets, where a station was built on the site of the Conyngham property, given in 1926 for a future art gallery.
The transportation of freight and passengers between the termini of the Wyoming extension of this road was at first considered beneath the dignity of a locomotive. Two horses or mules furnished the motive power of each car moved. The Lehigh and Susquehanna played safe in designing its planes. They were constructed with a double purpose of lifting either canal boats or cars an aggregate distance of one thousand two hundred seventy feet, stationary steam engines being installed at the head of each plane for the purpose.
ASHLEY PLANES.
Full confidence had not yet been inspired in the future of railroading. Moreover the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company was primarily in the business of transportation by water. If its railroad enterprise failed, it could fall back upon an ambitious plan of moving canal boats with their cargoes intact from the network of canals of the Susquehanna to the Company's own system on the Lehigh and Delaware. Severe floods in the Spring of 1841, delayed com- pletion of the railroad in that year as contemplated, and it was not until two years later that the first passenger car reached the road's terminus at Wilkes- Barré. On May 23, 1843, the entire Borough, as well as guests from outlying districts, welcomed a new connecting link with the East. Cannon boomed, toasts were drunk and general rejoicing was manifest in the belief that a new era of
1898
prosperity and improvement had followed the piercing, by mechanical means, of the mountain barrier to populous eastern markets .*
By degrees, the White Haven terminus of this rail connection was moved down the Lehigh to Mauch Chunk and later to Easton, the whole forming a part of the Central Railroad of New Jersey system. In 1866, this corporation constructed an all rail link between Mountain Top and Wilkes-Barré; since which time, by the installation of heavier hoisting engines and the improvement in equipment of its planes, they have been used exclusively as a means of moving heavy freight. Today they continue to haul a larger tonnage, particularly of anthracite, than any other planes in existence.
The Nanticoke and Wanamie branch of the Lehigh and Susquehanna railroad connected with this road at the foot of the planes and extended north- eastward a mile above Wilkes-Barré, to the Baltimore coal mines, and southwest- ward to Nanticoke. It was built in 1861, by the Nanticoke Railway Company, which was composed of owners of coal lands along the route of the road. In 1867, the Lehigh & Susquehanna Company, which had purchased this road, built a branch from near Nanticoke to Wanamie, and an extension from the Baltimore mines to Green Ridge. Subsequently a connection was made between this extension and the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company's road. Another branch of the Delaware & Hudson Company connected the Lehigh & Susquehanna at South Wilkes-Barré with the Bloomsburg branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad by bridging the Susquehanna, thereby establishing contact with the collieries on the west side of the river.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was chartered in 1846, as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad Company. In 1850, the route was surveyed from Easton to the mouth of Nahoning creek. In 1851, Asa Packer became a principal stockholder and to this circumstance largely is due the great railroad system now known as the Lehigh. In 1852, he secured Robert H. Sayre (after whom the borough of Sayre in Bradford County was named), as Chief Engineer. That same year, Mr. Packer commenced the building of a road from Mauch Chunk to Easton to connect with the New York and Philadelphia outlet. The name of the corporation was changed in 1853, to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. The first train from Easton to Mauch Chunk passed over the road in 1855. In 1865, steps were taken to extend the road to White Haven and thence to Wilkes-Barré. This extension was built in 1867. Mr. Packer, in the meantime, had purchased the North Branch canal from Wilkes-Barre to the north state line and obtained a charter for the Pennsylvania & New York Canal & Railroad Company, authorizing the building of a railroad the entire length of the canal and along the towpath. The road was completed from Wilkes-Barre to Waverly, in 1869.
A marked characteristic of the policy of the Lehigh, as developed in the Packard regime, was the purchase of control of stocks in branch lines, or the construction of such lines, particularly to points in the anthracite field where ton- nage was available. In 1868, the control of the Hazleton Railroad Company and of
*"One Summer day, after a circus performance on the lower river common, I walked with another boy to South street and entered an old frame building located midway between South river and West river streets on the present site of the Conyngham conservatory. Through the old building was an open arch, and standing on a railroad track in the arch was a small car painted a bright red and about the size of an ordinary street car. 1 learned that this car made a daily trip to and from White Haven, being drawn by a pair of horses or mules to the foot of the planes at Coalville, now Ashley, and was thence taken up the planes to the top of the mountain and then by a small locomotive to White llaven, where it connected with the slack water navigation of the Lehigh river.
"The old depot and the railroad tracks between South street and a point below Academy were removed many years ago, but the tracks still remaining below Academy street are in use as part of the railroad system of the Central Rail- road of New Jersey." From "Some Early Recollections " by George R. Bedford, Esq., published in 1918.
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the Lehigh and Luzerne Railroad, passed to the larger corporation through an exercise of this policy.
Mr. Packard's foresight was further emphasized by directing the purchase of large tracts of coal lands whose titles were held by and whose operations were conducted through the medium of a separate corporation the capital of which was owned by the parent company. Half a century later, after lengthy litigation in which the government appeared as plaintiff, the Lehigh, together with other systems known as anthracite carriers, was ordered by the Supreme Court in 1923 to unscramble its coal securities from any connection with its railroad properties.
While outside capital was developing larger systems of communication which tapped the Wyoming Valley, its own capital built many links of railroad, all of which were later to form bases for merger, but which, in their time of independent control, did much to de- velop the resources of the valley. The earliest of these was the Lacka- wanna and Bloomsburg railroad, 110w a division of the Delaware, Lacka- wanna and Western.
At a meeting held in Kingston, in January, 1852, it was decided to apply for a charter for this enterprise, its main purpose being to afford a direct connection for both cast and westbound commerce with the Dela- ware, Lackawanna and Western rail- road, which was then in process of construction. The charter was granted in April of that year and, by a supplemental act in 1853, an ex- tension of the line was authorized to Northumberland, where further rail connections were in prospect.
7.7.
THE ORIGINAL "PHOEBE SNOW."
At its organization meeting, held at Kingston, April 16, 1853, William Swetland was chosen President, Thomas F. Atherton, Secretary and Charles D. Shoemaker, Treasurer. Capital was readily forthcoming for the enterprise and work on its eighty mile course, which paralleled the canal from West Nanticoke to Northumberland, was rushed to partial completion a year later.
The Wilkes-Barre & Williamsport Railroad was chartered November 26, 1889. W. P. Ryman was elected President and its board of directors consisted of: W. P. Ryman, George R. Bedford, Ira A. Hartrode, F. C. Sturgis, H. A. Fuller, George F. Nesbitt, F. W. Wheaton, E. Troxell, A. S. Orr, Gustave E. Kissel and Joseph W. Ogden. This road was proposed as a direct line from Wilkes-Barré to Williamsport. Direct connections were proposed with the Wilkes- Barré and Eastern to New York. The Wilkes-Barre & Eastern Railroad was chartered March 8, 1892. Its officers and directors originally consisted of: W. P. Ryman, President; DeWitt H. Lyons, Vice-President ; Roswell Eldridge, Secretary and Treasurer; H. A. Fuller, Assistant Secretary; J. W. Hollenback,
1900
George R. Bedford, Ira E. Hartwell, George H. Butler, E. Troxell, F. C. Strugis, Henry A. Fuller, Tuthull R. Hillard, Albert S. Orr, DeWitt H. Lyons and Charles B. Copp.
Owing to disappointments in interesting sufficient capital in the under- taking, the proposed Wilkes-Barré and Williamsport venture was abandoned after surveys were completed. The Wilkes-Barré and Eastern was pushed for- ward to completion and was operated by independent capital from a terminus in what is now Riverside park, to New York. Later it passed into control of the Erie system, its terminus fixed at Plains and the road practically abandoned insofar as passenger train service was concerned.
By constructing the "Cut-off" from Pittston to Mountain Top in the years 1886-1887, the Lehigh ascended the troublesome mountain barrier to the eastward of the Wyoming Valley by a low grade extension which served the double purpose of diverting its through freight from its main line at Wilkes-Barré and escaping the heavier grade to the south still used for its passenger traffic.
This same corporation completed its Harvey's Lake and Towanda branch from Wilkes-Barré in 1892, to reach extensive lumber operations and semi- anthracite deposits in what had theretofore been in part a barren wilderness.
In the natural sequence of events, the steamboat might have been mentioned as a connecting link between the stage coach and the canal, or at least have claim- ed space for discussion, of an early period of the development of transportation facilities that were to revolutionize the commercial relationships between far flung districts of a great empire. Mention of the subject has been reserved as a final topic of this Chapter on transportation, because of the relative unimportance of the steamboat to the Susquehanna in general, and to Wilkes-Barré in particular.
It was not, however, due to lack of effort or want of actual experiment that this condition obtained. The accomplishment of Fulton who decided, after many experiments, that the paddle wheel driven by steam would conquer current and tide, fired the imagination of those who dwelt along the banks of inland rivers, in no less degree than it inspired visions of trans-oceanic voyages as a possibility to those who went down to the sea in ships.
The first voyage to Albany of the Clermont in 1807 occupied thirty-two hours; the return trip was made in thirty. H. Freeland, one of the spectators who stood on the banks of the Hudson when the boat made its maiden voyage, gives the following description of the event:
"Some imagined it to be a sea-monster whilst others did not hesitate to express their belief that it was a sign of the approaching judgment. What seemed strange in the vessel was the sub- stitution of lofty and straight smoke-pipes, rising from the deck, instead of the gracefully tapered masts-and, in place of the spars and rigging, the curious play of the walking-beam and pistons, and the slow turning and splashing of the huge and naked paddle-wheels, met the astonished gaze. The dense clouds of smoke, as they rose, wave upon wave, added still more to the wonder- ment of the rustics .- On her return trip the curiosity she excited was scarcely less intense-fisher- men became terrified, and rowed homewards, and they saw nothing but destruction devastating their fishing grounds, whilst the wreaths of black vapor and rushing noise of the paddle-wheels, foaming with the stirred-up water, produced great excitement."
In 1815, these dreams resulted in the establishment of a line of steam packets between New York and Providence, and in 1818, a similar line was oper- ated on a variable schedule between New York and New Orleans.
In the latter year, an ocean bound vessel and a Mississippi river steamboat were almost in sight of each other at the latter port, the distance from Pittsburgh on the Ohio, to the southern terminus, having been negotiated for the first time in that year.
1901
In 1819, the first steamship crossed the Atlantic from the new continent to England. With these examples in the minds of residents along branches of the Susquehanna, it is small wonder that men began the study of currents and levels of that stream with a purpose in mind of adapting a type of steamboat to commercial uses on its shallow waters. Canals along the river were then only a remote possibility. It is a matter worth mentioning that all the futile experi- ments in steam navigation of the Susquehanna had the prosperous county seat of Luzerne in mind as a center of activities or, at least, as a port from which could be drawn such cargoes as would justify the expenses of construction and operation.
Isaac A. Chapman was one of the pioneers in attempting to construct a boat that would operate by mechanical means.
It consisted, in Mr. Chapman's own description, "of two hulls thirty-two feet long and three feet wide, four feet apart, worked by setting poles only and machinery turned by four men-being the first successful team boat on the Susquehanna." On Saturday, June 26, 1824, he records in his journals:
"Made the first trial heat with my team boat. Started from the doek where she was built, about fifty rods above the bridge at Nescopec Falls and passed up against the current two miles and a half, having nine persons on board."
"Saturday, July 3, 1824. Set out in iny teain boat for Wilkes-Barre. Was detained much by having to change some of the rigging. Stayed all night at Shiekshinny Eddy.
"Sunday, 4. Passed up the river, having on board some twenty persons. Sprung one of the gudgeons ascending Nanticoke Falls. Lay by and repaired.
"Monday, 5th .- Arrived at Wilkes-Barre at half-past 10 o'clock. Was received by the citizens in handsome style, under discharge of cannon, volle ys from an independent company of infantry and a salute from a band of music."
The first real steamboat, however, was to reach Wilkes-Barre two years later. The earliest mention of the "Codorus," seems to have appeared in the York Gazette, of November 8, 1825, which stated:
"The steamboat constructing of sheet iron, at this place, will be ready to launch this week. The boat has sixty feet keel, nine feet beam, and is three feet high. It is composed entirely of sheet iron, rivetted with iron rivets, and the ribs which are one foot apart are strips of sheet iron, which by their peculiar form are supposed to possess thrice the strength of the same weight of iron in the square platform. The whole weight of iron in the boat, when she shall be finished, will be fourteen hundred pounds. That of the wood work, deck, cabin, etc., will be two thousand six hundred pounds, being together two tons. The steam engine, the boiler included will weigh two tons, making the whole weight of the boat and engine but four tons. She will draw, when launched, but five inches, and every additional ton which may be put on board her, will sink hier one inch in the water.
"The engine is upon the high pressure principle, calculated to bear six hundred pounds to the inch, and the engine will be worked with not more than one hundred pounds to the inch. It will have an eight-horse power, and the boiler is formed so that anthracite coal will be exclusively used to produce steam. The ingenuity with which the boiler is constructed, and its entire com- petency for burning the Susquehanna coal are entitled to particular notice, and the inventors, if they succeed in this experiment, will be entitled to the thanks of every Pennsylvanian.
"The boiler is so constructed, as that every part of the receptacle for the fire is surrounded by the water intended to be converted into steain; and thus the iron is preserved from injury by the excessive heat produced by the combustions of the coal. Its form is cylindrical; its length about six feet, and it will be placed upright in the boat, occupying with the whole engine, not more than ten feet by six feet.
"The engine is nearly completed, Messrs. Webb, Davis and Gardner being its constructors, The boat, which is the work of Mr. Elgar, is in great forwardness. The whole cost of the boat and engine will be three thousand dollars."
On November 15th, the boat was finished, and was the occasion of not a little enthusiasm on the part of the citizens of York as again the Gazette of that date mentions:
"The steamboat, which was built at this place, was drawn through our streets yesterday morning, on her way to the Susquehanna. She is placed on eight wheels, and such was the interest felt on the occasion, that notwithstanding being in weight more than six thousand pounds, the weather rainy and disagreeable, the citizens attached a long rope to her, and about sixty or seventy
1902
taking hold, drew her from the west side of the bridge to the upper end of Main street, amidst the shouts and huzzas of a multitude, such as used to dangle at the heels of Lafayette.
"She has been named after the beautiful stream on whose banks she was brought into existence-Codorus-a name, that should her destiny be prosperous, will not in future be pronounced without associating the most pleasing recollections in the minds of the citizens of this place."
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