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 2
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Upon presentation of the bill, Senator William H. Hines, then representing Luzerne, asked leave to strike out the word "first," because as the Senator claimed, "Mr. Ginter was not the original discoverer of anthracite."
"Senator Rapsher, in reply, said: 'Mr. President, the historians, like men, sometimes differ on that particular point, as to whether Philip Ginter was the first discoverer or not, but I think all the historians agree that Philip Ginter was the first authentic discoverer of anthracite coal in what was then Northampton County, a hundred years ago the first of next September, and it was the inception of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, and was the beginning of the anthracite coal traffic in Pennsylvania, and because the anthracite coal interest was of so much importance to the State credit in our section, this could be granted without any great strain on our consciences.'
"Senator Green, of Berks where they have no coal, said: 'Mr. President, I think we ought to have a discoverer of coal, and we might as well have him now as at any other time; so whether it is Mr. Ginter or somebody else, makes very little difference to me. I am willing to concede to that gentleman that claim. I am willing to go further: I am willing to take the word of the Senator from Carbon for it. If he thinks he is the discoverer of coal, I think so.'"
While the above rather amusing discussion failed to secure the monument for Mr. Ginter, it likewise failed to disclose anything of importance to the early history of anthracite. The legislature was satisfied that Mr. Ginter, in accident- ally overturning a piece of "stone coal" at the outcrop of a vein on Mauch Chunk mountain in 1781, was not entitled to recognition as the original discoverer of that commodity. No attempt was made then, or later, to determine who was. The whole subject was officially dropped.
From records available to the present writer, it can be set down, without fear of controversy, that anthracite was known to exist at Wyoming before it was known to exist anywhere else in America. But neither the earliest white settler of the valley nor surveyors who preceded him in arrival ever claimed to be the first discoverers of the commodity.
Rather, it was inferred by those who mentioned the subject in earliest sequence, that the existence of exposed coal measures was accepted as a matter of common knowledge on the part of Indians and whites alike.
Practically all local historians, have concurred in naming the year 1766, as the year of "discovery" of anthracite at Wyoming. This date was fixed by two incidents which occurred in that year. A number of Mohicans and Nan- ticoke Indians having arranged a conference at Philadelphia, with representatives of John Penn, in the spring of that year, the matter of encroachment of the
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whites became a chief topic of discussion at the ensuing powwow! Minutes of the conference disclose that the following complaint was registered by the Nan- ticokes, who liad doubtless been former residents of the valley, as to their "mines:"'
"As we came down from Chenango, we stopped at Wyoming, where we had a mine in two places, and we discovered that some white people had been at work in the mine, and had filled canoes with the ore, and we saw their tools with which they dug it out of the ground, where they made a hole at least forty feet long and five or six feet deep. It happened that forinerly some white people did take, now and then, only a small bit and carry it away, but these people have been working at the mine and filled their canoes. We inform you that there is one John Anderson, a trader, now living at Wyoming, and we suspect he, or somebody by him, has robbed our mine. This man has a store of goods, and it may happen that when the Indians see their mine robbed, they will come and take away his goods."
While arranging voluminous correspondence in possession of the Pennsyl- vania Historical Society, which later became known as the "Penn Papers," William J. Buck, Esq., came upon a reference to Wyoming coal which confirmed many other historians in the belief that the year 1766 should be granted the honor of its discovery. In a paper later prepared by him on the subject, published in Potter's American Monthly, 1875, Vol. 4: 180, Mr. Buck is authority for the state- ment that on August 4, 1766, James Tilghman. of Philadelphia, addressed a letter to the Proprietaries, Thomas and Richard Penn, at Spring Garden, London, setting forth that "my brother-in-law, Colonel Francis, * *
* went up the N. E. Branch (of the Susquehanna) as far as Wyoming, where he says there is a considerable body of good lands and a very great fund of coal in the hills. This coal is thought to be very fine. With his compliments he sends you a piece of the coal. This bed of coal, situate as it is on the side of the river, may some time or other, be a thing of great value."
A reply came from Thomas Penn, dated the 7th of November following, as follows:
"I desire you will return my thanks to Colonel Francis
for the piece of coal which we shall have examined by some person skilled in that article and send their observations on it."
No "observations" or other reference to the subject seem ever to have followed. The subject, insofar as the Penns were concerned, appears to have been finally dropped.
Those who were content with fixing the year 1766, as the time of dis- covery were doubtless unfamiliar with records of the Susquehanna Company.
In these, a mention of "stone coal" appears as early as 1762. John Jenkins, Sr., being sent forward in that year to survey a portion of Wyoming in prepara- tion for its later settlement by shareholders of the Company, reported finding coal outcropping at two points, which he indicated in his survey. He, how- ever, made no claim to its "discovery," but seemed to infer, as did others, that its existence was almost as well known as the valley's fertile acres.
Acting on these reports at a subsequent meeting of the Company, held at Windham, Connecticut, April 17, 1763, it was voted "to reserve for the use of the Company, all beds and mines of iron ore and coal that may be within the towns ordered for settlement."
This reservation, for some reason not apparent, does not seem to have followed in the granting of various rights and deeds subsequently made to share- holders.
That later surveyors at Wyoming found coal measures exposed, without thought of claiming any "discovery" of their existence, is shown by the original draft of the Manor of Sunbury, on the west side of the Susquehanna (a repro-
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duction of which may be found on page 454 of this History) whereon, the words "Stone Coal" appear on what is now known as Ross Hill, in Plymouth. This survey was made and the map plotted by Charles Stewart, in 1768. No notation at Wyoming is found on William Scull's map of the Province of Pennsylvania, published in 1770, but a notation is made thereon of coal existing in three places near Pottsville, which, by way of reference, seems to be the first authentic record of discoveries in that basin.
While no one, other than adherents of the lost cause of Philip Ginter, may now be named as a claimant to the initial discovery of anthracite, the case is vastly different when it comes to conferring honors upon those who adapted this commodity to practical uses. Upon Obediah Gore, Jr., and his brother Daniel, all historians, both local and national, confer the distinction of having first used it, at Wyoming or anywhere else, in their smith forge. The Gore brothers, as will be found from a sketch of their lives, on page 831 of this History, came to Wyoming in 1762, scarcely more than boys in years. They came again in the Spring of 1769, as settlers, having learned the trade of blacksmith in the interim. Being the first arrivals skilled at the trade, they immediately set up a forge at Wilkes-Barré and began experiments in the use of anthracite as a substitute for charcoal, then generally employed. By fall of that year, their experiments were regarded as successful, and other blacksmiths in various parts of the neigh- borhood were learning that stone coal, when properly ignited and as properly fanned by a bellows, was superior to any other fuel for generating an intense heat. Indeed, to the experiments of the Gores, as later reference in the present Chapter will disclose, may be attributed a main argument for the trade in coal which was later to spring up.
A temporary, albeit short lived, new use for Wyoming's stone coal, came near the close of the Revolution. Pearce, as well as others who have used him as their authority, states that two boat loads of anthracite were shipped from the Mill Creek opening at Wilkes-Barré, to the government arsenal at Carlisle. in 1776, and there used in the manufacture of army ordnance.
The attention of Dr. W. H. Eggle, while State Librarian, having been called to this and other statements bearing on the subject, that authority published the following, relative to the matter:
"The authorities referred to in your question (Pearce and others) are somewhat out of the way. On the 25th of November, 1780, the Congress Resolved, That all the artificers in the de- partment of military stores in Pennsylvania be removed to Carlisle, and that in future only an issuing store and an elaboratory for fixing ammunition be kept in Philadelphia. Immediately thereafter, Col. Blaine was directed to prepare stores, etc., for the troops, and during the month of December, 1780, nearly all the artificers were sent to Carlisle. The barracks erected by the Hessian prisoners confined at Carlisle, now the site of the present Indian training school, were occupied by these men, and over whom Captain Worsley Emes, a skilled artificer, was placed in command. The location is named in private letters of the period as Washington Borough and Washingtonville. There is no doubt that coal from Wyoming was there used in the casting of cannon, as it could have been more readily brought down the river Susquehanna in batteaux, than the hauling of sea coal from Philadelphia for that purpose. It is well known that provisions were taken up the Susquehanna, and as coal was then known and probably mined, the batteaux in returning evidently conveyed the same to Kelso's ferry, opposite Harrisburg."
In all probability, Pearce was incorrect as to date, but correct in asserting that some twenty tons of Wyoming product went into the manufacture of guns then, and later, used.
Whatever encouragement may have resulted from these experiments in adapting anthracite to the limited uses of scattered settlements convenient to the source of supply, the fact remains that for nearly a quarter century there- after but slight attention was devoted to its exploitation in a commercial way.
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Wood was plentiful, while charcoal was readily obtainable from selected varieties of nearby growtlı. Morever, the labor involved in converting timber from clearings to woodpiles was reckoned at little or nothing.
As an estimate of the value in which coal was held, in the year 1805, the Luzerne Federalist, of June 29th, published the following:
"NOTICE.
"Whereas in times past it has been made a practice for Blacksmiths and others, to take what stone coal they inade use of, from the River bank just below the subscribers dwelling house in Pittston, and in other places belonging to him he thinks it proper to inform them that for every bushel in future, he will expect six cents. Any person neglecting to apply to lines, and make a return of the quantity, will be prosecuted without respect to persons.
"Pittston, June 26, 1805.
"THOMAS WRIGHT."
But men of vision were to become pioneers in the anthracite industry just as they have arisen to become captains of other great enterprises in America. In 1792, a year following the Ginter find near Maueli Chunk, an unincorporated company, with Colonel Jacob Weiss, as chief stockholder, was formed for the purpose of developing the discovery. This was called the Lehigh Coal Mining Company, the first of its kind in the United States. In 1803, this company succeeded in getting two of a fleet of five arks, which they had loaded at the mine, down the Lehigh and Delaware rivers to Philadelphia. The shipment on the two arks aggregated about thirty tons, the other arks having been sunk by striking treacherous rocks. Finding no purchasers of the "black rocks," pro- moters of the enterprise finally decided to donate the cargos for use under the boilers of the pumping station of the city water works. The first charge merely served to put out the fire, and those who had shown their faith in the under- taking were pronounced imposters and the coal, eventually, was broken up and used for sidewalks.
It was not until the year 1807, that Wyoming contributed its efforts to the shipment of anthracite for commercial purposes.
In the year 1806, Abijah Smith, of Derby, Connecticut, purchased a tract of seventy-five acres of coal land on the east side of Ransom's Creek, in Plymouth Township, at a price of $500. In the Spring of 1807, he commenced mining in the crude fashion of the time. With pick and wedge he drove a V shaped opening in the outcrop vein, which inclines at that point nearly sixty degrees.
His predecessors in first relieving Wyoming of its immeasurable natural treasures, had done so as an adjunct to their main business in life. He came prepared to make the mining and exploitation of anthracite his sole occupation. As a means to this end, he purchased an ark, as the crude river craft which was to be broken up at the end of its down-river voyage, was then termed, in con- tradistinction to the Durham boat, which was much more expensively con- structed along lines that permitted it to be poled against the current. This ark had brought down a cargo of plaster from York State, for John P. Arndt and, the mission being ended, it was disposed of for the sum of twenty-four dollars. The craft was floated from the Arndt landing to Plymouth and loaded with some fifty tons of coal from the Smith mine. On an October freshet, Mr. Smith and a carefully selected crew of neighbors began a momentous voyage which ended safely at Columbia, Lancaster County.
But disappointment was to attend the enterprise of Mr. Smith, just as it had dampened the ardor of others who had attempted to sell an innovation in fuel on the Philadelphia market. He induced some of the blacksmiths at
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Columbia to try it, but they preferred relying on charcoal as was their custom. Leaving the coal on the river bank and selling the ark for what it would bring, the Plymouth men returned home, late in the fall, with the first year's commercial operations a total failure.
A trick of fate was to revive the hopes of Abijah Smith and re-establish his faith in the ultimate success of an industry whose handicaps then appeared insurmountable. In February, 1808, came the announcement from Wilkes- Barré that Judge Jesse Fell* had suc- cessfully burned anthracite in an open grate, without the use of an air blast!
Of this incident more, perhaps, has been written by way of local ac- count than of any other in Wyoming's history having to do with peace time events. Without considering at this time the relative claims as to whether this was the first time anthracite was thus consumed, it is the province of a historian to seek, from among many narratives of the event, the under- lying story of its circumstances.
HOME OF WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 69 South Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barré, Founded 1858
It may have been that the place of the experiment had much to do with its fame. The following word picture of the "Old Fell Tavern" was drawn by the late Hon. Stanley Woodward, of Wilkes-Barré, on November 20, 1893, when the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society took possession of its present home on South Franklin Street :
"Just before the close of the last century there was built at what is now the corner of North- ampton and Washington Streets in this city, the first inn or tavern of which we have any tradition. It was erected by Jesse Fell, and was known as the Fell Tavern. The structure was of logs and a small section of it is still standing. The tavern from time immemorial has been an institution of great importance among English speaking people. The German has his garden, the Frenchman
*Joseph Fell, son of John and Margaret Fell, was born at Longlands, in the parish of Rochdale, County of Cumber- land, England, October 19, 1668. He learned the trade of carpenter and joiner with John Bond, of Wheelbarrow Hill, near Carlisle, and worked at it as long as he remained in England. He married Elizabeth Wilson, of Cumberland, in 1698, and in 1705, immigrated to America with his wife and two children. They sailed in the Cumberland, and made the capes of Virginia in twenty-nine days from Belfast. Landing at the mouth of the Potomac, they made their way by land and water via Choptank, Frenchtown, and Newcastle, where they took boat for Bristol, Bucks County, Penn- sylvania. He died in Buckingham, in the same county, in 1753. The family were members of the Society of Friends or Quakers.
Thomas Fell, the eighth child of Joseph Fell, married Jane Kirk, of the County of Bucks. Their first child was Jesse Fell, who was born in Buckingham, April 16, 1751. On August 20, 1775, Jesse Fell and Hannah Welding, of Bucks County, were joined in marriage by Isaac Hicks, Esq., one of the Justices of the Peace of Bucks County, "by virtue of a marriage license by them produced under the hand and seal of the Hon. John Penn, Esq., Governor and Commander and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania." In the latter part of the year 1785, Jesse Fell removed, with his wife and four children, to the Wyoming Valley for the purpose of engaging in mercantile pursuits. He purchased the property at the corner of Washington and Northampton streets, and since known by his name, for forty pounds, on December 21, 1787. Here he carried on a store and tavern for many years. For a long time it was the sojourning place of the judges and lawyers upon the circuit, and the rendezvous of many local celebrities. During 1797-98-99 the Sheriff's sales of real estate were held at the "Buck," as Mr. Fell's tavern was named. Mr. Fell continued to occupy these premises and to keep open house until his death, and for many years thereafter the place was, and is now, known as "the Old Fell House." On October 21, 1789, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsyl- vania commissioned Mr. Fell, Sheriff of Luzerne County for two years. On October 23, 1790, Sheriff Fell was re- commissioned, and served a further term of two years. On January 10, 1792, Mr. Fell was appointed Lieutenant of the County of Luzerne, by Thomas Mifflin, Governor of Pennsylvania. On April 11, 1793, Governor Mifflin appointed Mr. Fell, Brigade Inspector of the Luzerne Militia brigade, for the term of seven years. Although he was a Quaker and a professed non-combatant, Mr. Fell accepted the office and performed the duties thereof until the spring of 1798, when he was succeeded by Putnam Catlin, a member of the Luzerne County bar. Major Felt's first military experience has been described as follows: "On the morning of the first parade of his brigade he took it into his head to drill a little himself. Dressed in full regimentals, he marched out on the back porch of his house, and, placing himself in a military attitude with his sword drawn, exclaimed 'Attention, Battalion! Rear rank three paces to the rear. March!' and he tumbled down into the cellar. His wife, hearing the racket, came running out saying, 'Oh! Jesse, has thee killed thy- self!' 'Go to, Hannah,' said the hero; 'what does thee know about war?'" On February 5, 1798, Mr. Fell was appointed by Governor Miflin an Associate Judge of the courts of Luzerne County, to serve during good behaviour. This position he filled with dignity and credit for a period of thirty-two years and a half, and terminated only by his death. In 1798, Mr. Fell was appointed Town Clerk of Wilkes-Barre, which position he held for several years. While the Commission- ers, Judge Thomas Cooper, General John Steele and William Wilson, were settling the contested land claims, under
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has his cafe, but the Englishman prefers his inn. The English instinct on this subject was expressed by Dr. Johnson, when sitting in the Mitre Tavern, he said to Boswell, 'there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn,' and by William Shenstone, when he scratched with a diamond upon a pane of glass in an old English tavern, the lines:
'Whoe'er has traveled life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest welcome at an inn.'
"The old Fell tavern was after the fashion of an English inn. The county of Luzerne had just been organized, a court established, and Wilkes-Barre was beginning to assume the honorable and important position of the county town. The judges and lawyers and jurymen the parties and their witnesses, all the people who came to court must have a place to 'put up,' as the phrase was. Lines of stages were being established and occasionally a traveler from a distance would want accommodation. I have had, from a former resident of this city, now deceased, and who, upon his first visit to Wilkes-Barre, was for a short time a guest of the Fell tavern, a description of the customs of that day. The living or sitting room was big and well furnished with old-fashioned high back, split wood chairs; a large fire-place in which great logs of hickory wood were burning
THE OLD FELL TAVERN
so brightly as to furnish both light and heat, made a winter's evening cheery and attractive to all comers; at one end a modest assortment of decanters containing the various beverages with which our ancestors were wont to sterilize their water; a barrel of cider on tap in the corner; the atmosphere redolent of tobacco; the ornaments on the walls consisting chiefly of rifles and powder horns and antlers, interspersed with relies of the Wyoming Massacre, and of the Indian sway in the valley, with, here and there, a rough portrait of some revolutionary hero. There were less than five hundred people in Wilkes-Barre then, but a large percentage of the men folk gathered nightly in winter in the big room of the tavern, and sat around the wood fire and discussed the affairs of the time, crops, prices, polities, religion, the luck of the hunter who had just come home to get a wagon to haul in his game, the prospect of a good spring for shad in the Susquehanna, the coming lawsuit to be tried at the next term of the court, and the merits of the opposing counsel (there were then but four lawyers at the bar)-all these and many other such themes the stranger
the Compromise Act, of 1799, Judge Fell was constantly employed as their Clerk. He was from the beginning their right hand man-for information or for advice-and his services were inestim ... In 1804, he was appointed Assis- tant Clerk to the County Commissioners. This position he held until January, 1819, when he was appointed Clerk and in this office he continued until his death. Few men wrote so plain and beautiful a hand as Judge Fell, his hand- writing was indeed so excellent as to be an enviable accomplishment, and was of much value to him. On March 17, 1806, the act incorporating the Borough of Wilkes-Barre was passed by the Legislature of Pennsylvania. Judge Fell was named in the act as a Commissioner to issue the proclamation for holding the first election for borough officers. The proclamation was issued April 15th, and the election held May 6th. He was elected Burgess, and served in that office for one year. Subsequently, he served four terms as Burgess, from 1814 to 1818. Ile was a member of the Borough council for many years, and he served as its President from May, 1809, to May, 1810; May, 1811, to May, 1814, and May, 1820, to May, 1823. He was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Wilkes-Barre Academy, which was incor- porated March 19, 1807, and filled that position until his death, in 1830. Ile was four years Secretary, and three years, President, of the board.
In 1810, the Luzerne County Agricultural Society was organized, and Judge Fell was its first President. From 1812 to 1814, he was Treasurer of the Bridgewater and Wilkes-Barre Turnpike Company, operating that part of the road running from Wilkes-Barre to Tunkhannock; and for a number of years he was one of the managers, and, in 1824, President of the Easton and Wilkes-Barre Turnpike Company. In 1845, Fell Township, Luzerne (now Lackawanna County, was organized, and was named in honor of Judge Fell.
Mr. Fell left surviving him three sous and five daughters. Sarah Fell, his third child and second daughter, married Joseph Slocum, of Wilkes-Barre, in 1800. Mrs. Fell died March 7, 1816, and Judge Fell died August 5, 1830.
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