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 5
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"The old Susquehanna coal ark," like the mastodon, is a thing of the past. The present men of the business should understand the character of the single vessel used by the pioneers of
1826
the trade. Its size and dimensions, cost and capacity, must be chronicled. And the difference between it and the present mode of transportation is as wide as the rough old grate of Jesse Fell- still to be seen-compared with the costly heating fixtures of the modern palace, of the modern coal prince.
"The length of the craft was ninety feet, its width sixteen feet, its depth four feet, and its capacity sixty tons. Each end terminated in an acute angle, with a stem-post surmounted by a huge oar, some thirty feet in length, and which required the strength of two stout men to ply it in the water. It required, in its construction, three thousand eight hundred feet of two inch- plank for the bottom, ends and sides; or seven thousand six hundred feet, board measure. The bottom timbers would contain about two thousand feet, board measure and the ribs or studs, sustaining the side planks, four hundred feet; making a total of some ten thousand feet.
"The cost at that time for lumber was $4.00 per M. $40.00
"Construction, mechanical work.
"Running plank, oars, caulking material, hawser (made of wood fibres), bailing scoops, etc. 6.00
24.00
"Total cost. $70.00
"The ark was navigated by four men, and the ordinary time to reach tide water was seven days. The cost attending the trip was about $50.00. Two out of three arks would probably reach the port of their destination; one-third was generally left upon the rocks in the rapids of the river or went to the bottom. The following estimate, therefore, of sixty tons of coal, laid down in market, is not far from the facts:
"Cost of mining 60 tons $ 45.00
"Hauling to the river 16.00
"Cost of ark. 70.00
"Expenses of navigation. 50.00
Total. $181.00
or equal to $3.00 a ton. To this must be added one-third for the perils of navigation, which will make the actual cost of the ton at tide water $4.00. Commissions on sales, transhipment from the ark to coasting vessels and other incidents, would probably make the whole outlay upon a ton, about five dollars.
"The average price of sales at this time was probably $10.00, leaving a profit of $5.00 on the ton. If therefore, three hundred and fifty tons of the five hundred annually transported by the Messrs. Smith reached the market, it left them a profit of seventeen hundred dollars, not taking into the account their personal services.
"In this small way the coal trade continued on from 1807 to 1820, when it assumed more importance in the public estimation. The years preceding that of 1820, were the years of its trials, and the men during that period who were engaged in the business, were merely able to sustain themselves with the closest economy and the most persevering and unremitting labor. Some of the Plymouth men who embarked in the business, made total failures; and others encumbered their estates with debts which required subsequent years of labor to wipe out. It was the work of forty years to convince the people that 'black stones' could be made available for fuel. The problem at this day is fully solved.
"The following account current, rendered by Price & Waterbury, of New York, to Abijah Smith & Co., composed of Abijah and John Smith, in 1813, and furnished me by Mr. John B. Smith, is a remarkably interesting relic of the coal business in its infancy. It very clearly ex- hibits two facts: one, the demand, price and consumption of coal, in the great city of New York, at that period; and the other, the wonderful zeal manifested in the pioneer dealers to introduce the article into the market.
The coal was sent to Havre de Grace, Maryland, and thence by coasting vessels to New York: " 'New York, February, 1813.
" 'Messrs. Abijah Smith & Co .- Gentlemen: Having lately taken a view of the business we have been conducting for you this sometime past, we have thought it would be gratifying to have the account forwarded, and therefore present you with a summary of it up to the eighteenth of January, 1813, containing, first, the quantity of coal sold and to whom; second, the amount of cash paid by us from time to time; third, the amount of interest, cash in the various sums ad- vanced, the credit of interest on sums received, and lastly, the quantity of coal remaining on hand unsold. Should you, on the receipt of this, find any of the items incorrect, we need hardly observe that the knowledge of such an error will be corrected with the greatest pleasure. As it respects our future plan of procedure, we shall expect to see one of your concern in the city sometime in the spring, when a new arrangement may be fixed upon. Our endeavors to establish the character of the coal shall not at any time be wanting, and we calculate shortly to dispose of the remaining parcels of coal unsold.
'1812. June 8-By cash of Doty & Willets for 5 chaldrons coal. $ 100.00
By cash of John Withington for 5 chaldrons coal. 100.00
By cash of Coulthaid & Son for 10 chaldrons coal 200.00
By John Benhamn's note (60 days) for 10 chaldrons coal. 200.00
By cash of G. P. Lorrillard for 1 chaldron coal. 20.00
By cash of J. J. Wilson for 4 chaldrons coal. 80.00
'June 13-By cash of Doty & Willets for 5 chaldrons coal. 100.00
By cash of G. P. Lorrillard for 1112 chaldrons coal 230.00
By A. Frazyer's note (90 days) for 25 chaldrons coal. 475.00
By cash received of T. Coulthaid for 5 chaldrons coal 100.00
By M. Womas's note (90 days) for 20 chaldrons coal . 380.00
1827
By half measurement, received for 9 bushels. 6.33 By B. Ward and T. Blagge for 174 chaldrons at $20 25.00
By Wittingham for 12 chaldron coal. 10.00
'June 25-By Pirpont for 12 chaldron coal. 11.00
By Mr. Lands for 12 chaldron coal 12.00
'July 16-By Robert Barney for 1712 chaldrons at $22 per chaldron
385.00
"Sept. 15-By cash for 1 chaldron coal 12.50
12.50
'Oct. 9-By William Colman for 12 chaldron coal. By Sexton & Williamson for 112 chaldrons coal 37.50
25.00
'Oct. 29-By cash for 12 chaldron coal.
'Nov. 7-By cash for 12 chaldron coal
12.50
'Nov. 12-By cash for 1 chaldron coal.
25.00
'Nov. 16-By Mr. A. Le Briton for 12 chaldrons at $25 per chaldron
288.50
'Dec. 5-By cash for 12 chaldron coal
12.50
'Dec. 11-By cash of A. Daily for 12 chaldron coal
12.00
'Dec. 14-By cash for 12 chaldron coal
12.50
'1813. Jan. 4-By cash for I chaldron coal.
25.00
'Jan. 18-By J. Curtiz for 9 bushels coal. 6.27
By amount of balance this day
763.12
Total $3,601.20
Errors excepted.
'PRICE & WATERBURY.'
"It will be seen by this account current that coal was sold by the chaldron; thirty-six bushels, or nearly a ton and a third, to the chaldron. The sales, therefore, for the New York supply in 1812, were inside of two hundred tons, though the price was liberal, about $15.00 a ton. Most of the early coal operators of Wyoming were unsuccessful. The risk attending the navigation, and the system of barter and exchange of those days, instead of cash, were serious obstacles in the coal trade. And even at a later period, when the canal opened a new thoroughfare of transportation, the trade was not remunerative. The demand for the article was limited, and it required years of struggle to establish the cash in the place of the credit system.
"At a later period, some of the merchants connecting the coal trade with their business, turned it to some account; but still down to 1840 the coal business in Plymouth could by no means be regarded a success. And with the exception of the Messrs. Smith, nearly all of the men en- gaged in the trade at its commencement, or immediately after, met with disasters.
"The Smiths pursued the business steadily, with great economy and energy of purpose. These qualities, combined with the knowledge which they had gleaned from long experience, enabled them to live merely, but not to accumulate money. They held on to their mines which in subsequent years became very valuable. The Messrs. Smith worked what is known as the great red ash seam, and which is thicker and the coal of a much better quality than the same seam on the east side of the river. On the east side of the river this seam crops out near the summit of the Wilkes-Barre mountain, and is not exceeding eight feet in thickness, while at the Smith mines, Avondale and Grand Tunnel, it averages twenty-six feet of pure coal. During the entire period that the Messrs. Smith worked this vein, some twenty years, and their successors a quarter of a century after them, the whole space cleared out has not reached ten acres."
It is the intention of the present writer to recount but few of the circumstances attending the development of the anthracite industry prior to its general recognition as an established commercial asset of the country, which it won about the year 1820. To do otherwise would be beyond the scope of this work.
Scientific mining was then a thing but little understood in America, but few of those who understood its intricacies having thus far reached our shores from England or the continent. An exception, however, was the case of Abraham Williams, who landed from Wales, in 1799, and shortly thereafter came to Wilkes-Barré. It is a strain upon imagination to find a practical miner of the present who would thus present his claims, as did Mr. Williams, through the columnns of the Federalist, in March, 1805:
AN EARLY MINER.
"The subscriber takes this method of informing the public that he understands miner's work. He has worked at it the greater part of 23 years in the mines of Wales, one year and a
'Oct. 24-By cash for 1 chaldron coal.
12.50
1828
half in Schuyler's copper mines in New Jersey, and three years in Ogden's in the same state. If anybody thinks there is any ore on his lands, or wants to sink wells, blow rocks or stones, he understands it wet or dry, on the ground or under the ground.
"He will work by the day, or by the solid foot or yard, or by the job, at reasonable wages, for country produce.
"He works cheap for country produce, But cash, I think, he won't refuse; Money is good for many uses; Despise me not nor take me scorn, Because I am a Welshman born. Now I am a true American, With every good to every manl.
"ABRAHAM WILLIAMS."
That coal lands at Wyoming were considered worthy of speculation as early as 1811, may be gathered from the following copy of a printed handbill, now possessed by the local Historical Society :
"SUSQUEHANNA COAL.
"The subscriber has a very considerable, and indeed an as yet unexplored, quantity of coal, lying near the river Susquehanna in the neighborhood of Wilkes-Barre, which he would wish to bring to the Philadelphia market. Being himself unable to advance the funds necessary for so arduous an undertaking he wishes to engage some person or persons to take an interest with him in it. To induce them to do this, he is prepared to show that the bed of coal is very ex- tensive; that the quality of the coal is excellent; that it commands 75c. a bushel in the city for less than 18c. per bushel; that of course it promises to be a very profitable speculation and that in- dividuals who can spare the small sums necessary to be advanced can, by embarking in it, make considerable and certain profits. * * *
"Persons desirous of being concerned in the Susquehanna Coal Company may know the particulars by application to the subscriber at the Shakespear Hotel from 7 to 9 o'clock in the evening, or at the Merchants Coffee house, from 12 to 1 o'clock."
"Philadelphia, February 21, 1811.
LEONARD BEATTY."
While the name Susquehanna Coal Company, sounds familiar to ears of the present generation, it was not through the medium of this handbill that this or any other corporation was then formed. In fact, the market of Phila- delphia was the despair of those who tried to win it.
"Sea Coal," so-called from the fact that it was imported from Wales and could be unloaded at the docks of that city more cheaply than anthracite could be delivered, gained a steadily increased trade, and it was not until the War of 1812 shut off the supply of the imported article, that anthracite found an op- portunity for introduction. Of not immediate import to the Wyoming field, but of far reaching.consequences later on, was an effort to supplant the imported product. Foreseeing an opportunity for the reward of initiative, Colonel George Shoemaker of Schuylkill County, in the summer of 1812, set out from a mine he had opened at Pottsville with nine wagon loads of coal. As can now be re- alized, the attempted use of his product, coming from the mines as it did, in large lumps just as quarried, was foredoomed to failure. No means existed at the source of supply for breaking it into usable sizes. If such a result was to be accomplished, it was done after delivery, and by the usage of a sledge or chisel and hammer. Colonel Shoemaker suffered, in part. the fate of his predecessors. By dint of perseverance he disposed of two loads of coal at the cost of transpor- tation. The rest he was forced to give away with a promise that the recipient would actually experiment with its use. Fortunately, the contents of one of these wagons was delivered to White and Hazzard, who owned a wire mill at the Falls of the Schuylkill. After the fire was started in a furnace of the plant, the firemen insisted upon poking and stirring it as was done with the soft English coals. Becoming disgusted with the non-response ensuing, the doors were shut and preparations made to rekindle the fire with the usual fuel. This delay was what anthracite required.
1829
Let alone for a few hours, it plead its own cause. From that time forth, champions for the use of anthracite were found, in members of this firm.
In dealing with the use of anthracite in industrial pursuits, the Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, 1885, has this to say of its development from the White and Hazzard experiment :
"The first use of anthracite in connection with the manufacture of iron dates from 1\12, when White & Hazard purchased one of nine wagon loads from the Schuylkill region and success- fully used the coal in heating the furnace of their nail and wire mill at the Falls of Schuylkill.
"The first successful use of anthracite as an exclusive fuel in the blast furnace was at the
Pioneer furnace, built during 1837 and 1838, at Pottsville, by William Lyman of Boston. The first successful b'ast was blown in at this furnace on October 19, 1839. In recognition of the results obtained in this furnace, Mr. Lyman was paid a premium of $5,000 by Nicholas Biddle and others, as being the first person in the United States who had made anthracite pig iron continuously for 100 days .* As early as 1824 attempts had been made to use anthracite mixed with charcoal in charcoal furnaces. These met with failure. On July 3, 1840, David Thomas successfully blew in a furnace which he had built for the Lehigh Crane Iron Company at Catasauqua, on the Lehigh river.
"In treating of the introduction of anthracite and bituminous coal in the manufacture of pig iron, so good an authority as Mr. Swank says that this 'innovation at once caused a revolution in the whole iron industry of the country,' and that 'a notable result of the introduction of mineral fuel was that, while it restricted the production of charcoal pig iron in the States, which, * * * like Pennsylvania, possessed the new fuel, it did not injuriously affect the production of charcoal pig iron in other States. Anthracite was the first to be largely used in American blast furnaces, and for many years after its adaptability to the smelting of iron ore was established, it was in greater demand for this purpose than bituminous coal, coked or uncoked. In recent years the relative popularity of these two fuels for blast furnace use has been exactly reversed. The natural difficulties in the way of the successful introduction of anthracite coal in our blast furnaces were increased by the fact that up to that time when we commenced our experiments in its use, no other country had succeeded in using it as a furnace fuel."
Undismayed by the apparent failure of Colonel Shoemaker's effort, four Wilkes-Barréans leased the properties of the then defunct Lehigh Coal Mining Company, in December, 1813. These men were Charles Miner and Jacob Cist, whose pens had been busy in describing the uses of coal wherever they could find space in publications of eastern cities, John Robinson and Stephen Tuttle. They began operations at Mauch Chunk, in 1814, and succeeded in getting an ark with its cargo, safely through to Philadelphia. This and succeeding attempts ended in failure, since the conclusion of the war permitted the landing of English and Virginia coals, which were preferred. In 1817, they surrendered their lease, but not without acquainting much of the population of Philadelphia with the uses of their product, at a considerable loss to themselves.
White and Hazzard, having become convinced, from their own experiences, that anthracite would eventually win out, took over these same properties after the Wilkes-Barre firm had retired from the field, their lease for twenty years naming a price of one ear of corn per year as a rental of some 10,000 acres. By an invention by Mr. White of what were called "bear trap" dams, which produced artificial floods when their arks were to be moved down the dangerous waters of the Lehigh, this firm was able to lay the groundwork for a mastery of the Phila- delphia markets in later years.
Experiences in attempting to convince others of their faith in the use of anthracite were not without their amusing side. The late Edmund Carey of Benton, who was born in 1822, on a farm through which Carey avenue, Wilkes- Barré now passes, told one of these experiences; published in the Record June 12, 1887 ; as follows:
"My father, George Carey, was one of the settlers who had the handling of the first anthra- cite coal in Wyoming Valley. He helped open a stripping in Pittston Township, now known as
*The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, in April 1835, offered: "(1) a gold medal to the person who shall manufacture in the U. S. the greatest quantity of iron from the ore, during the year, using no other fuel than anthracite; quantity to be not less than 20 tons.
"(2) A gold medal to the inventor of any plan by which iron ore may be smelted with anthracite. The process to be communicated, and the model of the furnace to be exhibited at the exhibition "
1830
Plains Township, in 1815, and in the spring of that year loaded a raft with several others and took it down the Susquehanna to Harrisburg, where they sold the raft load of 40 tons of anthracite for $10. They were discouraged at such remuneration and left the transportation of coal dormant until 1820, when they took another raft load down and failed to find a buyer. They were so dis- couraged that they dumped their load of black diamonds into the Susquehanna at Harrisburg, and as far as these early pioneer shippers were concerned the opening up of a coal market was ended.
In "Recollections of a Lifetime," published by John Binns, a well re- membered editor and politician of Northumberland and later of Philadelphia, he tells of a first experience in burning some sample coal sent him by a member of the firm of White and Hazard:
"Before he left the mines he sent me at Philadelphia, a wagon load of coal, in the hope that I would, in my newspaper, give it some celebrity; which in truth I was well disposed to do. To enable me to do so. I paid a stovemaker fifty dollars for a semi-circular sheet iron stove, and had it put up in my private office, in order to burn that coal. A sufficiency of charcoal, it was thought, was put into the stove, and the coal, which was in pretty large lumps, laid on the red-hot charcoal. To assist ignition we drew and kept together the circular sheet iron stove doors. It was a cold morning; there were some half dozen friends watching the experiment, but alas! and alackaday! after some hours, and the consumption of much charcoal, the stove would not burn. All it would do was to look red like stones in a well heated lime kiln. When taken out at night the coals were, to all appearance, as large as when cast into the stove. Whatever was the cause, such was the result of the first attempt to burn Lehi coal in Philadelphia, where, since that time, millions of tons of it have been welcomed and consumed."
The reader, if he has caught something of the picture of the beginnings of anthracite, which these pages have attempted to convey, may be inclined to turn to a mass of literature on the subject with which any well equipped library abounds. An attempt has been made to indicate by authentic proofs that the Wyoming Valley in general, lead all other districts of the anthracite field in enterprise, initiative and persevering effort in introducing its underground treasures to the world and, in particular, it may lay claim to four important circumstances of sufficient importance to perpetuate its name when future mention is made of a great industry which has more than fulfilled, in each suc- Ceeding generation, the fondest dreams of its pioneers.
Amid cross currents of dispute and storms of debate which have beclouded issues for many years, these four claims to lasting fame, in connection with a splendid enterprise, stand out without fear of contradiction:
1. That Wyoming, as a district, was the place of actual discovery of anthracite.
2. That the Gore brothers, at Wilkes-Barré, first reduced it to commercial use through the instrumentality of the air blast.
3. That Judge Jesse Fell, in giving to the world the successful results of his experiments in adapting it to domestic uses, rendered a service of immeasur- able worth.
4. That the Smith brothers, of Plymouth, in exploiting the product of their mines over a continuous period on a strictly commercial basis, and to an ultimate success, were the real pioneers of the industry.
CHAPTER XLI.
LUZERNE, THE "MOTHER OF COUNTIES"-SUSQUEHANNA, BRADFORD, WYO- MING AND LACKAWANNA SET OFF-THE MARKET STREET BRIDGE- ITS DESTRUCTION AND REBUILDING-THE "CITY OF ROME" BUB- BLE-THE FIRST CIRCUS-THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER- THE COUNTY'S FIRST STRIKE-EARLY SHOPS AND STORES -HARD TIMES-THE FIRST SUNDAY SCHOOL-VIO- LENT CHURCH DISSENTIONS-EPISCOPALIANS AND PRESBYTERIANS LEAVE THE "OLD SHIP ZION"-DEATH OF JUDGE MATHIAS HOLLENBACK.
For his religion, it was fit To match his learning and his wit;
'Twas Presbyterian true blue; For he was of that stubborn erew Of errant saints, whom all men grant To be the true Church Militant; Such as do build their faith upon
The holy text of pike and gun; Decide all controversies by Infallible artillery ;
And prove their doctrine orthodox By apostolie blows and knocks. -Butler.
At the opening of the nineteenth century, Luzerne County embraced practically all the territory which has become known as the Susquehanna Pur- chase. Its area was in the neighborhood of 5,000 square miles; and considerably larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined, slightly larger than Connec-
1831
1832
ticut and lacking a small percentage of being as large as New Jersey, of the original thirteen states.
Up to the year 1810, no considerable portion of this area had been sub- divided. As has been stated, a strip of the northern section had, in 1804, been added to Lycoming County, in the vain hope of making it impossible for Col. John Franklin to succeed himself as a member of the lower house of the Assembly.
The State's official census figures give the population of Luzerne as 4,904, for the first census of 1790. Ten years later it was 12,839, a gain of over 250 per cent. In 1810, these figures had reached the respectable proportion of 18,109, another gain of some 50 per cent. for ten years. With the Easton and Wilkes- Barré turnpike the sole representative of an adequate means of transportation existing in the county in 1810, and with long distances to travel by boat or over a rudimentary road system, ahead of those residents of the northern tier of town- ships who desired to transact business with the county seat, at Wilkes-Barré, it is small wonder that agitation was to follow for the division of this splendid territory into units which would conduce to the greater convenience and pros- perity of its inhabitants.
At the spring session of the Pennsylvania legislature of 1810, this matter of subdividing Luzerne came to a head. By an act of February 21st, Susquehanna County was set off from Luzerne, its area as surveyed by its meets and bounds totaling 828 square miles. The organization of this new county proceeded slowly, however, and it was not until the fall of 1812, that its county officers were elected. Bradford County was likewise set off from Luzerne by another bill introduced the same date.
Under the original act, this new municipality was first called Ontario County, but by supplemental act of March 24, 1810, its name was changed to Bradford County, in honor of Hon. William Bradford, a former Attorney General of the United States.
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