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 60
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Perhaps later generations will demand that some of these incidents be given a more lengthy resume. But for the purposes of this narrative, as the present writer views it, only those events of really major importance are to be given attention.
Figures for Luzerne County indicated a population for 1890 of 201,203 as against 133,065 for the census of 1880. In Wilkes-Barre the population had risen from 23,339 in 1880 to 37,718 in 1890.
Within a nine mile circle, with the Public Square at Wilkes-Barre as its center, there were shown to be two cities, twenty-three boroughs and numerous townships, the population of which were showing highly encouraging increases.
If events noted on pages to follow can be said to have any definite trend the following decade, that trend is rather in the nature of substantial building construction reflecting the needs of a rapidly growing community and the rise to a position of influence and practical accomplishment along broad lines of welfare and fraternal agencies.
That brings up the question as to what events are of historical importance. In the intensive study of newspaper files for the decade 1880 to 1890 there are disclosed many events which might and probably did have an important bearing on the future of the community. Other events, then apparently of extreme im- portance, have little or nothing to do with the present. In this connection it may be recorded that in the year 1886 the Wilkes-Barre baseball team was a member of the Atlantic League.
This was a very much more important position in the athletic world than it occupies today. Cities of the size of Lowell and Worcester, Massachusetts; Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut; Jersey City and Newark, New Jersey ; were members of that league. The league soon stranded upon financial rocks without leaving any trend of results. Time, place and circumstance control these factors of permanency. It might be claimed that bicycle tournaments over at the West Side park in the early nineties had much to do with our present automobile age or with the age of air, soon to follow. They undoubtedly did. But to stop to record the various progressive movements of the Wilkes-Barre Bicycle Club, later changed to the Wheelmen, would occupy space out of pro- portion to that available.
The year 1890 was the year of the cyclone, mentioned elsewhere. It might be recorded as a year wherein the question of railroads supplying cars impartially to independent coal operators was settled. It was. The late John C. Haddock as an independent, sued the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad on this very point and won.
In 1891 John L. Sullivan visited the community. To many this is an historic event. That year, also, home talent presented variously successful plays. Concordia occupied its new hall and was very active in musical develop- ment. The Wilkes-Barre Record in this year installed a new $9,000 printing press. Mention of this fact is valuable perhaps, by way of comparison. Another newspaper in the city in 1926 installed a Superspeed press which cost $109,000 erected. Thus progress in the making of newspapers may be measured. We had conventions then-state, national and local to an extent which we do not
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now have. In 1892 electrically operated street cars passed over the Market street bridge; a wonder then but somewhat of a nuisance now in view of traffic regulations. Also there was much agitation for a new railroad passenger station on the West Side. This did not open until 1894 as a terminus of the Wilkes- Barre and Eastern railroad.
In 1893 there came much agitation from the southern sections as to another sub-division of Luzerne-"Mother of Counties." It was to be named "Quay County" in honor of the then senior Senator from Pennsylvania. The Quay faction failed to extend promised support when the matter came up before the legislature and the measure failed. This question of a new county, with Hazleton as the county seat, came up again in 1907 to be permanently settled by legis- lation favorable to Wilkes-Barre's interest.
It might be recorded that more theatrical attractions of national fame came to Wilkes-Barre in 1893, than come to it now, the new Grand Opera House, lending aid in that direction.
In 1894 the community possessed an Oratorio Society which produced the "Messiah" and many other standard oratorios.
It seems worth recording that, in the same year, Wilkes-Barre was selected as the place of holding the annual convention of the New York Retail Coal Exchange. As a means of entertaining a large number of guests, a trip was arranged which included a visit underground at the South Wilkes-Barre breaker of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company.
Scarcely had the party started its subterranean tour before a boiler burst at the company's power plant, thus temporarily shutting off a supply of fresh air as well as the power which lifted the mine cages.
The news was flashed all over the country and considerable excitement prevailed. After a few uncomfortable hours of imprisonment, power was secured from other sources and the party was hoisted to the surface little the worse for an unusual experience.
The year 1894 also found Moody and Sankey holding revival meetings in Wilkes-Barre. In the fall, a new club house for the West End Wheelmen, now the Franklin Club, was begun and was formally opened the next year.
Current events of 1895 record Pittston becoming a city of the Third Class with a considerable display of public spirit. The next year Wilkes-Barre also, after long and somewhat bitter deliberation, accepted a charter under the same law, thereby surrendering a special charter it had held since 1871. Agitation for a new court house came to the fore in civic discussions in 1895.
The main event of the year 1896 was the Twin Mine disaster, as it became known, at Pittston. On June 28, an explosion in a mine of the Newton Coal Mining Company buried a mine foreman, four fire bosses and fifty-eight miners. The bodies were never recovered. This disaster is ranked as second among a lengthy list of such calamities in Luzerne County, being surpassed in point of fatality only by the Avondale disaster, mention of which has already been made. A large relief fund was raised for families of the victims.
News reports of the year 1897 mention the dedication on February 9th, of the Douglass Mission chapel of the First Presbyterian church at Firwood. It seems, also, that about that date, "Wallace" a lion escaped from his cage
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at the "Nickelodeon" on Public Square, causing a general panic until his later recapture. A blizzard prevailed in early March of this year which tied up traffic and caused considerable suffering and damage.
In December Joe Rice, the "world champion long distance bicycle rider" was tendered a huge reception upon his return from Madison Square Garden. Otherwise the year 1897 in retrospect, seems rather uneventful. . St. Stephens church and the Westmoreland club were rebuilt on the site of the buildings destroyed by the spectacular fire of the previous Christmas eve. A hotel com- pany, with a capital stock of $300,000 was organized and the Sterling hotel built on site of Music Hall. Major events of the years 1898 and 1899 are given more at length on pages which are to follow.
The final years of the decade prior to the opening of a new century reflected more noticeably than at present intensive efforts on the part of the Board of Trade. It was a period when such organizations here and elsewhere were in the heyday of their aggressiveness.
At the April 1884 term of the Court of Common Pleas, Judge Charles E. Rice was petitioned by F. V. Rockafellow, T. S. Hillard and Isaac Long for a charter to a number of citizens who desired to organize the "Wilkes-Barre Board of Trade." This petition set forth the usual circumstances attending the organi- zation of such bodies and on April 24, Judge Rice approved the charter and the new civic body immediately and with some enthusiasm set about its tasks. Trustees named for the first year of activity were, T. S. Hillard, J. W. Driesbach, R. F. Walsh, E. Constine, S. L. Brown, Elias Robins and M. H. Post.
The Board was active in negotiations which eventually brought the firm of Barber, Sheldon and Company from Auburn, N. Y. to Wilkes-Barre as has been narrated in a previous chapter. Building operations were begun in Novem- ber, 1885 on the new axle plant located on Conyngham Avenue, the Sheldon's first shipment of product reaching the market on November 15, of the following year. At the time a sketch of the Sheldon plant was written for this History, it was still in active operation under local control with apparently a promising and useful career ahead. At the present writing (1928) the concern has passed through the insolvency court, its machinery and equipment have been sold and its buildings, some forty in number, await disposition by its bond holders who bought them in at public sale. The ultimate fate of the Sheldon and several other industries founded under auspices of the Board of Trade could not, how- ever, be foreseen by that body which early adopted the slogan of "Diversified Industries" as its main endeavor. The Sanson Cutlery company, later to be known as the Wyoming Cutlery company, was another industry secured in the late eighties, its plant on Horton street being opened in 1888, as has before been narrated. The Dimmick and Smith Manufacturing company was another promotion of the period. This firm manufactured in the old Charter House, now the Salvation Army building, on Hazle street, a wrought iron safety boiler for steam heating. With a capital of $10,000 it began operations under favorable auspices. A. M. Dimmick was president of the organization, George Loveland, treasurer and F. C. Sturges, secretary.
Other concerns which secured help in organization from the Board were Wilkes-Barre Paper Manufacturing Company; the Crescent File and Tool Works, which began operations in 1889 in two buildings; the Wilkes-Barre Soap Company, established the same year, and the Wilkes-Barre Gun Company
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established in Lee Park in 1891 with Isaac Long, president, George P. Loomis, secretary and Christian Walter, treasurer. None of these, nor the Wyoming Boiler Company which began operations in 1892, succeeded in progressing much beyond the swaddling clothes stage of business development. One by one they passed into the limbo of failures, their stockholders being the chief mourners. Another activity of the new Board, however, led to permanent results. That was the organization of the Wilkes-Barre Lace Manufacturing Company in 1885, the history of which has been detailed in the previously mentioned Chapter and which at this writing is still a big industrial asset of the community.
However the attainments of the Board may be measured by the yard stick of modern community development, the organization seems to have incited activities in many other civic directions.
On the 9th of March, 1891, Mrs. Ellen W. Palmer of Wilkes-Barre in- augurated a plan of entertaining the breaker boys of neighboring colleries on Saturday evenings in a vacant storeroom on East Market street. This led to the establishment of the Boys' Industrial Association*, an organization destined to become one of the community's welfare institutions of national fame. A history of this institution, published in the Philadelphia North American, Febru- ary 9, 1902, was authorized by Mrs. Palmer and reads as follows.
The modest effort of a woman, Mrs. Ellen W. Palmer, of Wilkesbarre, who ten years ago started a movement to improve the mental and moral conditions of the breaker boys of the Penn- sylvania coal mines, has finally come to splendid fruition in the Boys' Industrial Association, recently established in Wilkesbarre.
The building is of brick, with stone trimmings, and has a very imposing appearance; (corner stone laid with imposing ceremonies October 4, 1890). It is 50 feet front by 70 feet deep, and four stories high, with basement. It was erected at a cost of $10,000, and this amount has been paid within a year, except about $1000. Much of the work incident to the erection of the building was done at cost by business men and contractors, who in this way showed their appreci- ation of what was being done for the working boys of the city and surrounding towns.
Dating back almost to that famous period when Jesse Fell made the discovery that "stone coal" could be burned in a grate as fuel, the slate picker in the breaker and the door boy in the mine have been familiar figures in all localities where anthracite is taken from the earth. Being, generally, sons of poor and humble parents, though eminently respectable, and, therefore, denied the educational advantages enjoyed by those more fortunate than themselves, it was but natural that many of them should drift into evil ways.
How to help them was a difficult problem, for the boys had enjoyed such freedom that they had become very stubborn and hard to manage. They resented anything that savored of charity and could only be reached through infinite kindness and tact. These essentials were finally forthcoming; the sturdy little breaker boys are growing into fine, self-reliant men, and are filling positions of responsibility all over the State.
Mrs. Palmer inaugurated the work. On the 9th of March, 1891, she succeeded in getting nearly one hundred slate-pickers and others variously employed about the coal works into a vacant storeroom in Wilkesbarre. Although greeted by a noticeably mischievous and unruly gathering, she made a favorable impression, the result being that at the next meeting a much larger number was in attendance. Those present included American, English, Irish, Welsh, Polish, Hungarian and Hebrew boys.
Shortly after this a series of Saturday evening entertainments was inaugurated. The character of these entertainments was so widely different from what the boys had been in the habit of enjoying that they were deeply impressed, and soon the number of attendants became so great that it was found necessary to secure larger quarters.
In the meantime classes in various branches of study had been organized, and within a comparatively short time it was observed, from the brightened countenances of Mrs. Palmer's proteges, that something new had come into their lives, for when they appeared at their modest schoolroom each evening they were dressed in better taste, their hands and faces were cleaner, and their hair more neatly combed than formerly. The little fellows urged on by their kindly- faced teacher, plunged into their reading, writing and arithmetic with real earnestness. The first year 150 names were placed on the roll; the second, 300; the third, 450; the fourth, about 600, and at the present time there are nearly 750; and the rush for admittance to the "grand" enter- tainment on Saturday evenings is so great that it is necessary to close the doors of the auditorium promptly at 7.30 o'clock to prevent overcrowding.
For several years the work was carried on in such storerooms as were vacant, but later
*The Boys' Industrial Association was chartered in 1899 with the following Directors :- William L. Conyngham, Alexander Farnham, A. C. Campbell, H. W. Palmer, Martha B. Phelps and S. J. Strauss.
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the Wilkesbarre City Councilmen gave Mrs. Palmer permission to occupy a large room in the City Hall and here meetings were held for nearly two years. Meantime the Councilmen were closely observing the progress made by the association, and, desiring to further aid the movement, presented a piece of ground on which they gave Mrs. Palmer permission to erect a building cal- culated to serve as a home for "her boys" for all time to come.
The house is fitted out with every appliance for facilitating its special work. In the base- ment the carpentry and shoemaking classes meet for practical work.
On the first floor there are two parlors, one for the boys and the other for young men. On this floor, in other apartments, are the various branches of the manual training school, in which caneseating, basket and hammock making are taught by men proficient in the work.
On the second floor is the auditorium, which has a well-appointed stage thirty feet wide, with a proscenium opening twenty feet in width by twenty-five feet in height. From the foot- lights to the back wall the stage has a depth of seventeen feet, and on each side is a comfortably furnished dressing room.
On the third floor is the gallery.
On the fourth floor is a lodge room, gymnasium and two rooms for the debating clubs.
Several of Mrs. Palmer's "adopted sons" who had reached their majority were among the first to offer their services when President Mckinley issued his call for volunteers at the outbreak of the war with Spain, and, while they did not get farther than Mt. Gretna, Chickamauga and Lexington, in the five months they were stationed at those places awaiting orders to move to the front, a number of them died fron typhoid fever. Their remains were subsequently sent home and last year, on the 30th of May, a Decoration Day service was held over their graves, as well as over the last resting places of other members of the association who have died during the past twelve-month. The music on this occasion was supplied by the association's own mili- tary band, and the addresses were made by boys connected with the organization.
Mrs. Palmer is being assisted in her work by many representative men and women of Wilkesbarre and Wyoming Valley. The financial part of the work is performed by Miss Mary L. Trescott, who was the first woman to be admitted to practice at the Luzerne County bar. Miss Trescott also acts, without compensation, as secretary of the association.
The above description fits the Boys' Industrial Association at the peak of its fame and usefulness. The establishment of a Boys department of the Y. M. C. A., amended factory laws, raising the age of employment for children, the installation of mechanical slate pickers in practically all modern breakers and growing opportunities for recreation outside the Association all contributed to a gradual falling off in attendance in later years
While many now prominent in the professional and business life of the community volunteered as assistants to Mrs. Palmer as advancing age lessened her activities, the loss of the personal touch she had given, and loss of that personal contact with boys which had been the keystone of the structure of this splendid undertaking proved handicaps which could not be overcome. The effort was Mrs. Palmer and Mrs. Palmer was the B. I. A. At her death, May 2, 1918, the mainspring of the undertaking was broken and after a few desultory attempts at replacing it, surviving directors of the Association eventually decided that expenses connected with maintaining the home were no longer justified. Under agreement with the city which provided that in case of its non- use by the B. I. A., the property would revert to municipal ownership, the city council assumed control of the structure in January, 1920, and forthwith turned it over to the newly formed Wilkes-Barre Post No. 132, American Legion.
Through a joint contribution of funds subscribed by Fred M. Kirby and Gen. Asher Miner, the entire building was renovated and remodeled later in the same year and at the present writing is still the American Legion Home, a use of part of the building being enjoyed likewise by General Lawton Post, United Spanish War Veterans and auxiliary organizations. That neither the work of the Association nor the memory of its founder are forgotten is evidenced by an annual memorial service held on the anniversary of Mrs. Palmer's death by those who are proud to call themselves "alumni" of the B. I. A.
Frequently men now prominent come long distances to attend these exercises which are held at the base of the marble statue erected later on the
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north River common by the Contessa Dandini de Sylva, in memory of her mother.
Another effort of the Board of Trade destined to be crowned with success, was securing for Wilkes-Barre a post office building suited to uses of the com- munity. Public discussions as to the need of a government building for this purpose dated back to 1883 when, on January 1st of that year, the first free delivery of mail was established in the city proper. As early as 1886 a sub- committee of Congress had recommended the purchase of a site in Wilkes-Barre and the erection of a "suitable building." Figures of the local post office sub- mitted by this sub-committee in its report may be now read with interest, es- pecially since an announcement made by William E. Mannear, the incumbent as post master at the close of 1927,* disclosed that business transacted in the local office and sub-stations for that year totaled slightly over $600,000; that sum entitling the local office to additional recognition on the part of the govern- ment. These figures for 1885 were as follows:
Gross receipts Wilkes-Barre $25,302.06
Salary.
2,700.00
Clerk hire
3,000.00
Rent, light and fuel.
742.72
Other incidental expenses.
12.00
Free delivery
7,098.06
Total expenses
13,552.78
Net revenue
11,749.28
*The following is a list of postmasters at Wilkes-Barre, the dates of appointment and the locations of post offices. Lord Butler, commissioned July 1, 1795, kept the office in a ground-floor room of his residence, corner of Northampton and South River Streets on the site of the present Woodward residence.
John Hollenback, uncle of John Welles Hollenback, was the second postmaster and was appointed in 1802. He kept the postoffice in the residence of Thomas Dyer on Main Street and Mr. Dyer was assistant postmaster and during Mr. Hollenback's term of office, in 1803, arrangements were made for a service between Wilkes-Barre and Tioga, the mails being carried on foot by Charles Mowery and a man named Peck.
In 1805 Ezekiel Hyde was appointed postmaster and removed the office again, establishing it at the corner of Market and Franklin Streets. He kept the office but a short time and in the same year Jonathan Hancock was ap- pointed postmaster and moved the office to the corner of Public Square and Main Street where the Bennett Building now stands.
In 1808 Jacob Cist was appointed postmaster and retained the position for about 18 years. He moved the office to South Main Street, below Northampton Street in Mr. Hollenback's store, where he kept it for some part of his term and then moved it back to River Street to a building then standing on the site of what is now A. H. Mcclintock's residence at No. 44 South River Street.
A. Beaumont who was appointed in 1826 moved the office to the old fireproof building in the centre of Public Square and from thence took it to a building then standing on West Market Street (now the Miners Bank annex). Four years later, in 1832 William Ross was appointed and moved the office to 11 South Main Street.
In 1853, David Collings received the appointment and moved the office to the store on Public Square between the present Fort Durkee Hotel and East Market Street. He retained the office but a few months and in the same year A. O. Chahoon was appointed and the peripatetic office was again moved to West Market Street.
Eight years later in 1843. J. P. LeClere was appointed and he moved the office back to the Public Square. During his term, in 1845, Congress reduced the rate of postage to five cents for a distance of less than three hundred miles, ten cents for over 300 miles and two cents for drop letters. During the same term in 1847, the carrier stamp was adopted to be affixed to the letter by the carrier.
In 1849 Steuben Butler received the appointment of postmaster and again the office was on wheels and was moved to 36 West Market Street. During this term, Congress, in 1851, made a number of changes. It was in that year that the first regular stamp issue was made and a radical departure from the old system of collecting the postage was effected. In that year too, a further reduction in the rate of postage was made and a charge of three cents per half ounce, for a distance up to three hundred miles, if prepaid, was established. When the letter was not prepaid the rate was five cents. Double these rates were charged for distances over three hundred miles.
John Reichard was appointed in 1853 and for the third time established the office in the old Public Square site. His successor, Jacob Sober, who was appointed in the following year for a part of his term retained the same office. E. B. Collings, who succeeded him in 1858, retained the same premises during his term of three years.
S. M. Barton was appointed in 1861 and again the office was moved, this time to the East side of Public Square, a little North of the Fort Durkee Hotel.
It remained there during the term of his successor, E. H. Chase, who was appointed in 1865.
For the first year of the next postmaster, Stewart Pearce's term, the same premises were retained but in April, 1870, the office was removed to 25 West Market Street. Mr. Pearce retained the office for eight years.
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