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 56
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"Wire rope making was illustrated by the Hazard wire rope company, borne on heavy wagons, showing a pyramid of wire rope of all sizes and patterns as used in and about the hoisting machinery of the mines and elsewhere, from the heaviest cable tapering up to small ropes piled up in coils.
"Almost every business man in the city of any prominence exhibited a wagon loaded with the goods of his line in tasteful and profuse displays.
"Mr. Robert Baur had a printing press and book bindery hard at work. The Leader also had a press throwing off slips as the procession passed along.
"Isaac M. Thomas had Wright's (now Miner's) mill pictured as it appeared in 1795. "One car represented Ceres, the fruitful, in which were a number of little girls mounted on elevated spangled seats, and bearing in their hands sheaves of wheat, this was a pleasant feature in the parade.
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"The last of the tableaux was a dairy with churns in operation and oleomargarine at a discount.
"It required over an hour for the procession to pass any given point, and after traversing the route as laid down in the program, it was conducted to the Wyoming Valley Hotel on River Street, where on a stand erected on the opposite side of the way next the river, the grand proces- sion passed in review before the President, Attorney General Devans, Secretary Sherman and Governor Hartranft and Staff; the various Sections cheering as they passed the Presidential position. The President, with hat in hand, bowed his acknowledgments, and expressed gratifi- cation at many features of the parade.
"The crowd now was so great that it was with difficulty that the President and other high dignitaries could return to the Hotel, where in response to repeated calls for "the President' from the excited, but good humored crowd, His Excellency ascended to the balcony and spoke about as follows:
"My friends, if it were at all possible for my voice to reach any considerable portion of this grand gathering, I would gladly gratify your desire to hear mne speak. I desire to express my gratitude to this vast assemblage of the inhabitants of Wyoming, for the splendid reception we have received.
"I understand it however to mean not a personal compliment to any one individual, but that you, by your actions honor the Nation and the flag of liberty; in your respect for the President, forgetting all distinctions and parties, and if need be, to stand up for our flag as your fathers did one hundred years ago.
"Yours is not an obscure portion of the great National Commonwealth. Its story is known throughout the length and breadth of this broad land; yes, wherever the English language is spoken, and from my earliest boyhood I have had a desire to look upon a valley so renowned in song and story, and so rich in the material elements that go to strengthen the nation both in peace and in war. I am not surprised that you are proud of this noble inheritance, purchased by the blood and suffering of your ancestors, I am glad that I am here to unite with you in show- ing honor to the memory of the brave men of one hundred years ago, and to rejoice with you, on this, the day of the Nation, whose destinies, I for a brief space am called upon to administer."
"This was followed by pro- longed cheering, after which Gover- nor Hartranft, in response to loud calls for the Governor, stepped to the front, and briefly thanked the multitude most heartily for the re- ception which had been extended to our guests, the President and a por- tion of his Cabinet on this auspicious occasion, in this beautiful and far famed Wyoming.
"He also in behalf of the Commonwealth whom he, as chief executive had the honor to repre- sent, took pleasure in announcing that the strife that once existed be- tween the early settlers of the Valley and the Proprietary govern- ment of William Penn, is now happily allayed forever, and that the descendants of the Yankee and the German elements are now blended in a homogeneity of fra- ternal love, mutual fellowship, and kind regards.
1778
BB
A final meeting, sched- uled for 4 P. M. on the river common featured short ad- dresses by the chairman, Hon. Henry M. Hoyt, the Presi- dent, Secretary of State Sher- man and Hon. Sylvester ARCH ON PUBLIC SQUARE, JULY 4, 1878 Dana, after which the surg- ing crowd began to disperse and the most notable Fourth of July celebration in the community's history was at an end.
The last of four withdrawals of large areas of territory from what had originally been erected as Luzerne county by the Commonwealth in 1786, was
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to follow in the eventful year of 1878. Wyoming, Susquehanna and Bradford had already been carved from the original domain of the mother county. Both from its position as a railroad center of no mean importance and as the head- quarters and shipping point of many anthracite companies, disassociated in ownership and management from those of the Wyoming valley, Scranton in post-war times had become an independent center of population with but few ties, other than legal requisites as to county seat affairs, to bind it to the older community. Moreover the keener competition of business and professional life in the newer town had developed its resourcefulness, initiative and com- munity energy to a degree which could not be matched in Wilkes-Barré.
The idea of a new county, with Scranton as its county seat, had been in the minds of many prominent men of that district for several years. They therefore were ready to avail themselves of an unusual political situation which evolved in the Commonwealth in 1878, during the course of which opportunities arose whereby representatives from the then northern tier of townships of Luzerne could trade their votes and influence to accomplish the purpose in mind. Rather feebly opposed in their plans by representatives from districts of the present county and ably backed by a lobby of influential Scranton residents, the ad- vocates of the new county plan were successful in passing the measure of April 18, 1878, which provided that citizens of the district proposed to be severed from Luzerne should alone have the right to vote for or against the proposal. In securing passage of an act which excluded so much of the votes of the county, the success of the venture was assured from the start.
The result of an election on the 13th of the following August in the present territory of Lackawanna county was a vote of 9,615 in favor of the new county and 1,986 against it. The following officers were at once appointed: A. I. Ackerly, sheriff, F. L. Hitchcock, prothonotary, Joshua B. Thomas, clerk of the courts, A. Miner Renshaw, recorder, J. L. Lee, register, W. N. Monies, treasurer, P. M. Walsh, surveyor, Leopold Schumpff, coroner, F. W. Gunster, district attorney, H. L. Garge, J. C. Kiersted and Dennis Tierney, county commissioners, Thomas Phillips, E. J. Lynett and Duncan Wright, auditors. A. B. Stevens was afterward appointed sheriff, and Horace F. J. Barrett county commissioner, in place of Messrs. Ackerly and Kiersted, who were ineligible because of being representatives. Robert Reeves and William J. Lewis were appointed auditors in place of Messrs. Phillips and Wright, who declined to act.
An ample area of ground, near the center of the city of Scranton, was donated as a site for the county buildings and a public park, by the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company and the representatives of the Susquehanna and Wyo- ming Railroad and Coal Company. Courts were at first held in the Washington Hall building, on the corner of Lackawanna and Penn avenues, and the county offices kept in the Second National Bank building, directly opposite, on Lacka- wanna avenue. The temporary jail was a three-story brick storehouse, securely fitted up for the purpose, in the rear of Lackawanna avenue, between Washing- ton and Adams avenues.
While it was not until the following year that the new county began to function with all its machinery running with some degree of precision, steps
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were taken almost immediately to marshal assets of the newly created munici- pality for the purpose of permitting a bond issue to construct necessary public buildings to house the county's activities. The corner stone of the present court house at Scranton was laid in May, 1882 and the building was dedicated to public use in the fall of the following year.
From that time forth the youngest child of a family of four municipalities, which had come from a mother county of peculiar history and traditions, has kept its own house in order and has rivaled the parent municipality in population, wealth and accomplishment.
Experiments as to the application of electricity to the reproduction of sounds having been successfully conducted by Alexander Graham Bell and other inventors in the years 1875 and 1876, visitors to the Philadelphia Ex- position, in the latter year, brought back to Wilkes-Barré reports of the operation of a crude telephone system by means of which two people at some distance from each other could converse without difficulty.
Several experimental telephones attached to telegraph lines are mentioned by the press as having reached local owners in 1877, but it was not until the following year that any effort was made to establish a line for commercial pur- poses. Strangely enough, it was not to the city resident that the construction of this first line appealed.
With no means of reaching the county seat excepting by turnpike and with only infrequent mail deliveries to provide communication with the remainder of the county, residents of Dallas and Harvey's Lake were led to believe that the newly developed telephone offered inducements to their advantage.
After several preliminary meetings at Dallas, a company was formed and a charter was applied for under the name of the Wilkes-Barre and Harvey's Lake Telegraph Company. The word telegraph was used in the charter, as laws of the Commonwealth at that time made no mention of the telephone and pro- vided no method for the organization of corporations desiring to promote the use of the latter.
This charter was received by the company on July 4, 1878, the incor- porators being H. S. Rutter, E. P. Darling, H. A. Moore, G. M. Lewis, C. A. Spencer, W. J. Honeywell, joseph Shaver, T. F. Ryman, J. J. Ryman and W. P. Ryman.
The work of constructing the line began shortly after receipt of the charter and on November 14, 1878, the company declared itself ready for business. The Wilkes-Barré terminus was located in the office of Ryman and Lewis on the site of the present Anthracite building on West Market street. The Dallas office was located at the general store of A. Ryman's Sons and the Harvey's Lake terminus found a location in the cottage of H. S. Rutter.
e
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A large number of people were frankly skeptical as to the outcome of what, to them, was an amusing experiment. On the opening day of the new line, stockholders, their friends and a considerable number of those doubtfully minded gathered at the three stations. The first message came from Dallas to Wilkes- Barré and before the day had ended even the most skeptical were convinced that the new fangled invention actually functioned, although there were those in the Dallas section in particular who persistently clung to a belief that a hollow wire was the only possible means of communicating the conversation they had heard.
It can be readily understood that the suburban line mentioned above was merely an intercommunicating network of wires. There was no exchange.
A code system of ringing indicated the station wanted and all other stations could "listen in."
While negotiations for a central exchange telephone service for Wilkes-Barré itself were brought to a successful conclusion many months after the Harvey's Lake unit had been built, the former system, when constructed, was as modern in its equipment as any exchange of the country then in operation
The Wilkes-Barre Telephone Exchange Company was the title borne by a partnership formed by H. R. Rhodes of Williamsport and L. C. Kinsey of Wilkes-Barré late in 1877. The services of W. L. Raeder, then a young law student, were secured as solicitor. A license secured from the American Bell Company gave the local concern the right to operate telephones within a five mile radius of Wilkes-Barré. The original contracts, secured by Mr. Raeder are endorsed "Winter-Spring 1878" and read as follows:
"The Wilkes-Barre Telephone Exchange, L. C. Kinsey, Manager.
"We, the undersigned agree to lease of the Wilkes-Barre Telephone Exchange, the instru- ments now opposite our signature for the term of one year, beginning with the date of insertion in the office, and the following rates which we agree to pay monthly in advance.
"For one telephone (hand) $3.00 per month.
"For two telephones (one for the ear and one to talk through) $3.85 per month.
"For one telephone and one Blake transmitter $4.50 per month.
"$3.00 to be paid for the insertion of the wires and placing the instruments, the exchange to keep all wires and instruments in good order and to supply all material and batteries for the same and to keep the Exchange open from 6:00 A. M. to 10:00 P. M. on weekdays and from 4:00 to 5:00 P. M. on Sundays.
"Exchange to be started when twenty-five subscribers are taken.
" (Signed), "D. L. Rhone, Telephone. "B. G. Carpenter & Co., Telephone,
"Sturdevant & Goff, Telephone.
"Harry Sturdevant, Telephone. "J. B. Stark, Blake Transmitter.
"G. W. Guthrie, M. D., Hand and Mouthpiece.
"Fred I. Beach, Telephone."
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It was not until late in 1879, however, that the press of the community seems to have taken the proposed local telephone venture seriously.
Under date of December 31, 1879 the following item appeared in the Wilkes-Barre Record: "The private office of the Telephone Ex- change Company will be in the building of B. G. Carpenter Market Street. The place for the general business office has not yet been determined. The poles for the wires are expected daily."
On January 22, 1880 readers of that journal were apprais- ed of conditions, as follows:
"The work of erec- ting poles and wires for the Telephone Exchange is going on rapidly and it is hoped that business will begin at an early day. The instruments in the main office are of the latest and best patterns and are very handsome."
On February 2, the following item fixes the fact that the new exchange was operating. It had opened the day be- fore :
"Telephone com- munication has been es- tablished between the office of Sturdevant & Goff on Hazle Street and the branch office of the firm over which Mr. Harry Sturdevant presides 011 Market Street."
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FACSIMILE OF FIRST TELEPHONE CONTRACT IN WILKES-BARRE
Newspaper items of February 21st, March 3rd and March 11th, 1880, throw some additional light on the new venture:
"February 21st, 1880-The managers of the Telephone Exchange feel encouraged in their belief that this venture will be a success. Communication will soon be established with Plymouth.
"March 3d, 1880-A wire is to be put up at once between the Telephone Exchange and No. 2 Engine House, Butler Alley.
"March 11th, 1880-It looks as if the Telephone Exchange would prove a successful business venture if we are to judge by the number of wires already erected and in process of erection. The city has a perfect network of wires.
The system was purely local. Miss Snow, now of Scranton, was the first operator. John Mackin, of Montrose, an early night operator, later graduated into being the plant repairman.
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Early telephoning was an adventurous undertaking. The circuits used were of iron. One end was "grounded," that is the electrical energy was led off into the ground by a single strand iron wire after passing through the instrument. Transmission on rainy days was deplorable. Even in good weather Wilkes-Barre Telephone Exchange there was a splutter- KINSEY & CO. Otto -- 218 Market Street. ing and bubbling and gurgling over the wires that had never LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. been heard before by No. 2. APRIL. 1, 1880. human ears. The lines Lewis, J. M., attorney Brown, S. L., bookstore running east and west Brown, S. 1 .. & Co., of house Murphey, Dr. were noisier than the Marvel & Co. market Beach, Fred. J Miller, W. M. & Co., groceries Borden, P. R., residence lines running north Borden, P. R., store Newsdealer and south. The night Bar Office, court house O'Malley, Dr. was noisier than the Burgunder, B., butcher Parrish, Charles, office Bennett & Co., hardware Parrish, Charles, house day and at the witch- Bullard, Dr. Parrish, Geo. 11., residence ing hour of twelve, for Crawford, Dr. Post Office Commissioners' Office Paine, L. C., oils, etc. what strange reason Carpenter, B. G. & Co., stoves, etc Rommel, Frank, market no one knows, the Constine, E., grocery Record of the Times babble was at its Conyngham, C. M., house Crandall, tobaccos Rhone. D. 1 .. Ryman, W. P. Cool's market Reichard & Son, brewery height.
In 1883, the Berwick and Danville toll line was built. Mr. Kinsey was suc- ceeded this year by J. O'Brien as Man- ager.
In 1884, this company was consoli- dated with the Nor- thern Pennsylvania Telephone Company which operated in Scranton.
In 1886 the new company was consoli- dated with the Cen- tral Pennsylvania Telephone & Supply Company.
Dilley. B., liquors, etc.
Rutter, N , house
Dickson Manufacturing Co.
Sturdevant, Harry
Dickson & Atherton
Sturdevant & Goff, lumber
Dickson & Sturdevant, coal
Seibel & Wentz, butchers
Farnham & Paine, attorneys
1 Tuck's drug store
Guthrie, Dr.
Valley House Vulcan Iron Works
Harvey, Dr., office and house Hospital
Valley Depot
Valley Manufacturing Co
Houpt. M. B.
Wright, George R., attorney
Hunt, C. P., house
Wright, H. B, house
Hunt, C. P., hardware
1
1 Woodward & Coons, att'ys
Wells, J C., lumber
Wyoming Valley Manuf'g Co.
EMPIRE AND SUGAR NOTCH LINE.
Hollenback shaft
Empire office
( 1)
Conyngham's Empire store
Conyngham's Ashley store
Ashley breaker
Ashley despatcher's office
Sugar Notch store and office
THE FIRST TELEPHONE DIRECTORY
(Photographed from the original now in possession of the Bell Telephone Company)
Rollin Chamberlin became the manager in 1889. He wanted to extend telephone toll lines. He sold the first service in Nanticoke to his friend J. B. Scureman who had and still has a drug store there.
It is interesting to note that Mr. Scureman bought telephone service because he could reach Wilkes-Barré, an out of town point. Development in Wilkes-Barré itself was the reverse, for it will be remembered that the early
Harding, G. M.
Wolfe, N & Co., druggists
Jail Lohmann's Restaurant
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Wilkes-Barré subscribers bought service when it afforded only local communi- cation among subscribers in the city itself.
In 1901 the Pennsylvania Telephone Company acquired the Central Pennsylvania Telephone and Supply Company.
New ideas of speed in communication and the refinements in telephone operation caused a great demand for telephones after the beginning of the 20th Century.
The telephone was becoming a necessity. The impetus given to the tele- phone industry then has resulted in the great development today. Wilkes-Barré in 1925 had 14,931 telephones. Each of them is connected through the long distance wires of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company with the 15,000,000 other telephones in the country.
By 1929 telephone engineers estimate that Wilkes-Barré will require 23,000 telephones.
This growth will reflect the growth of the city itself for the two are mutually dependent. What is true of Wilkes-Barré is true of the other Wyoming Valley cities. "The story of this twin development seems but begun," states a prospectus of the present operating company.
What would seem, in the light of present events, to have been a dip into the "pork barrel" of government funds, a special legislative activity even yet in existence although somewhat curbed by budget specifications, was an act of Congress dated June 14, 1879, by the terms of which the sum of $15,000 was ap- propriated to make "the Susquehanna river navigable between Richard's Island* and Pittston."
Hon. H. B. Wright was then one of the leading members of the lower house and his efforts were responsible for the undertaking. This sum was spent in deepening the channel near Richard's Island, thus keeping the stream open for the passage of boats to Plymouth and Nanticoke.
On March 3, 1881 an additional sum of $15,000 was granted by Congress "for further improvements." With this appropriation a dyke or chute was constructed in the river at the "Gas House riffle" just above the North street bridge, a portion of which canoeists of the present day often discover to their sorrow in negotiating the swift waters at that point.
This opened a channel to Pittston and, as has been noted in a previous Chapter, revived for a time the use of small steamboats for carrying passengers to and from Wilkes-Barré. On August 2, 1882, still a third appropriation in like sum was granted, but to this a string was attached in withholding further appropriations until the completion of a survey of the river and its possibilities. This survey, undertaken by Army engineers, reported unfavorably on the practicability of the plan and further attempts to improve the stream for navi- gation purposes ended. The fact that the river bed persisted in quickly filling with culm after being dredged and the still more potent influence of competition of electric car service between city and suburbs soon caused the unsatisfactory boat system to be operated at a loss and this ended all attempts to use the Sus- quehanna for other than small individually owned pleasure craft. An echo of wasted government dollars and of river navigation in general was heard in 1903, when, after the disastrous flood of the previous year, a body of local citizens,
*Richard's Island, earlier known as Fish Island, was removed by dredges of the Wilkes-Barre Connecting Rail- road Company when its new bridge was erected in 1912 near the lower end of Kirby Park.
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giving themselves the title of the Susquehanna River Improvement Association, requested Congress to remove both the long unused dam at Nanticoke as well as the chute at the gas works on the grounds that both were flood menaces. The Association was successful in having Col. J. A. Stark of the War Department investigate the situation, but his superior, Secretary Root, ruled that the govern- ment had no authority to grant money for this purpose. Time and its annual spring freshets have practically eliminated both of these artificial barriers to the natural course of the river's current and discussions in the press, once frequent and sometimes violent as to the effect of these barriers, are unknown to the present generation.
The Federal census of 1880 plainly indicated the loss of the territory of Lackawanna county in connection with population figures of Luzerne.
On the face of the returns, Luzerne county showed a recession in population for the first time in its history. While in 1870 the figures showed 160,915 within the county's boundary, the census of 1880 indicated but 133,065, an apparent loss of some 27,000. For the first time Lackawanna appeared in the census returns with the figures 89,268 appended.
Had the two totals been added together, as had happened in 1870, the aggregate for the same territory would have been 242,334, thereby indicating fully as rapid a percentage of growth as in any decade. While the county theor- etically suffered in its return for the period, the census of City by no means lent discouragement to those who were optimistic.
The City's figures in 1870 were 10,174. In 1880 the population had more than doubled, the census showing 23,339.
Doubtless considerable credit for this substantial population increase was due to the fact that Wilkes-Barré was becoming a manufacturing center as well as the hub of anthracite development. The first accurate inventory of the country's manufacturing was made possible by returns of the census of 1880. That accredited Wilkes-Barré with eighty-nine manufacturing establish- ments with a total capital investment of $1,146,500, employing 645 people whose wages amounted to $223,399 for the preceding year. The value of the product of these establishments was $1,133,334, scarcely half the value of the product of any one of a dozen of our larger plants of the present. Of the thirteen establish- ments then reported as the largest of the community, only three, the Vulcan Iron Works, the Dickson Manufacturing Company and the Hazard Wire Works are named as employing approximately one hundred persons each. The list of larger establishments of 1880 is as follows:
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