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 V > Part 25
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Colonel Washington Lee comes prominently into the early history of the anthracite coal industry. He was the first to mine coal in Nanticoke, doing so in 1825. Hanover Township, however, is underlain with coal from the river to the mountains, and the early blacksmiths and iron workers of Nanticoke had no difficulty in getting all the coal they needed.
The first physician to settle in Nanticoke was Alden I. Bennett, in 1825. The first tavern on Main Street was kept by Mathias Gruver. The first post- master was David Thompson, appointed in 1830. The canal by this time had reached Nanticoke, and from that time forward Nanticoke was among the promising progressive villages of Luzerne County. The first railroad was completed through Hanover Township in 1843; in 1848 the first locomotive was used below Ashley plane. Other railroads came into the region, and the day of canals was over, time inexorably bringing the abandonment of the North Branch Canal from Nanticoke to Waverly, New York. Nanticoke no longer needed it. Her prosperity was assured-in her coal and her railroad facilities. Colonel Washington Lee's mine, now owned by the Susquehanna Collieries Company, was producing 20,000 tons a year. The Dundee Shaft was sunk in 1857, through the whole of the about 900 feet of coal measures, but mining was not done until recently at Dundee. The first breaker was erected in 1859, and abandoned in 1891. No. 2. Breaker was erected in 1870 and abandoned in 1892. No. 3 was built in 1872 and abandoned in 1896. No. 6, at Glen Lyon, was built in 1885. No. 5 Breaker, now a washery, was built in 1868. No. 7 Breaker was erected in 1892 and destroyed by fire in 1923. It was soon afterwards rebuilt for the Susquehanna Collieries Company. This com- pany mines about 1,600,000 tons a year of coal in Nanticoke.
Nanticoke, incorporated January 31, 1874, began to function as a borough after election on February 17, 1874, put into office the following: Lewis C. Green, burgess; Xavier Wernett, E. N. Alexander, Patrick Shea, George T. Morgan, councilmen. Water company was organized in 1885; electric light company in 1889; bank in 1888, and board of trade in 1886. The borough was now well established. Growing steadily, fifty years passed by, then the fiftieth anniversary of the borough, the electors, in 1924, voted to seek a city charter for Nanticoke. This was granted, and the first city officials took oath of office on January 4, 1926.
Nanticoke, in 1920, had a population of 22,614. Its industries include six collieries, employing about 9,000 men in Nanticoke and vicinity; four silk
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mills; two clothing factories, and a cigar manufacturing plant that employs 500 workers. The assessed valuation of the city is about $17,000,000 ; there are eleven public schoolhouses, five parochial schools, and tweny-two churches.
The county assessors assessed Nanticoke property at $17,249,568 in 1926, the property of 11,517 taxables.
Nescopeck-See Nescopeck Township.
New Columbus-See Huntington Township.
Nuangola, an upland lake summer resort between Wilkes-Barre and Hazle- ton, was incorporated on November 16, 1908. The Federal census statistics are somewhat misleading as to Nuangola, for in 1910 the borough was credited with only one hundred and twenty-four inhabitants, and in 1920 only eighty- seven, whereas the county assessor's report for 1927 shows that Nuangola had three hundred and sixty taxables in 1926, only one-fourth of whom would have been in residence at the time of year that the Federal census is taken. The assessed valuation of Nuangola in 1926 was $173,827. Stanley Rosencrans was burgess, and Charles S. Balliet president of the school board in 1926.
Parsons, incorporated as a borough on January 17, 1876, was formerly a village of Plains Township, a village long established, but of only recent prosperity.
The first settler was Daniel Downing, who came in 1785. He built the first sawmill across the run, in 1800. In 1813, Hezekiah Parsons built a one- story house, unique in that it was the first frame house in the village. Heze- kiah built a cloth-dressing mill nearby, and in 1814, with J. P. Johnson, built a carding mill, and also operated a gristmill nearby. John Holgate's turning mill stood just below Johnson's, on Laurel Run, in 1812. Parsons was thus a milling center.
The first blacksmith was Rufus Davidson, who worked in McAlpine's turning mill in the 'thirties. In 1839 a powder mill was erected, by Captain Alexander, on the site of Laurel Run coal breaker of later times. The powder mill blew up several times and eventually, in 1865, was abandoned. Some other attempts to manufacture powder in Parsons ended disastrously.
The first storekeepers were Golden and Walsh; the first tavern was the Eagle, kept by Lewis R. Lewis; the first postmaster was Samuel Davis; the first coal mining in Parsons was begun in 1866, the Mineral Spring Mine then opened robbing the village of a mineral spring which had certain curative qualities. The mine, however, gave Parsons, in exchange, a new life in the industry it established. Thereafter, the village went forward steadily. A year or two later, another mine shaft was sunk and a breaker erected, making Parsons predominantly a mining town. In 1876 it had reached sufficient importance to justify borough status. The first borough officials were: John D. Calvin, burgess; William Smurl, president of council; O. A. Parsons, G. W. Mitchell, A. A. Fenner, H. McDonald, and Philip Harris, councilmen. Richard Buchanan was clerk. A decade or so later, the street railway com- pany connected Parsons with Wilkes-Barre by trolley.
Parsons was a place of 2,529 in 1900. In 1910 the population was 4,338, and ten years later the census was 5,628. In 1926 its list of taxables contained 3,066 names. The assessed valuation then was $3,664,233. This was its last year as a borough, however, for on January 1, 1927, Parsons was absorbed by Wilkes-Barre.
Gomer Griffiths was the last burgess of Parsons; Walter J. Williams was president of the school board in 1926; and E. A. Evans was supervising school principal. Forty-six teachers were employed.
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Pittston-The history of Pittston-hamlet, village, borough and city-is spread over more than a century and a half; and during the greater part of that time it has held a place of comparative importance among the commu- nities of the Wyoming region.
In 1770, possibly a little earlier, David Brown and Jeremiah Blanchard settled. In 1772, enough settlers were on the Pittston side of the river to justify the establishment of a rope ferry across it, for connection with their fellow-settlers at Wyoming opposite, and at other places along the Susque- hanna. The settlement history of Pittston, and of the Wyoming Valley in general, is the subject of the greater part of two volumes of this work, and, therefore, need not be retold here, in this necessarily brief sketch. Additional data will be found in the Pittston Township review.
Brown's blockhouse comes dramatically into Pittston history of 1778, and the terrors of that time might have ended settlement, had the pioneers been of less tenacious type than the men of Connecticut who had come into the Wyoming Valley to conquer both Indians and wilderness. Even sixty years later the Yankees predominated in this Pennsylvania town.
Pittston was an important ferry-point. Here, therefore, it was necessary to provide accommodation for travelers. A weekly mail route, between Wilkes- Barre and Owego, was established in 1799, and in the same year Colonel Waterman Baldwin opened his house on the lower side of Main Street, to travelers. It became a famous tavern. "Under the huge antlers that sur- mounted the bar, Miner Searle, Jacob Bedford, John Sax and Calvin T. Rich- ardson have stood and ministered to the demands of travelers." Another historic tavern was the Baltimore House, on the east side of Main Street. Peter Decker was the tavern-keeper in 1805, and his successors were Eleazer Cary, Asaph Pratt, and William Hart. Near Morgan's stone quarry another tavern, the Bull's Head, was conducted by the Benedict family for many years. Another historic inn was that built in 1830 by Calvin Stockbridge, and later owned partly by Judge Mallory, the hotel name changing to Port Mallory. The Eagle was built in 1849.
In 18II, Pittston became a post office town, and a weekly mail route between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton was maintained for a decade, Deodat Smith and Zephaniah Knapp being the carriers. Eleazer Cary was the first postmaster at Pittston, Zephaniah Knapp succeeding him. Under the third postmaster, John Alment, the post office was known as Pittston Ferry.
He owned the most southerly house on Main Street, and at that time (1828) Pittston consisted of only fourteen families. The heads of these were : John Alment, Calvin T. Richardson, Calvin Stockbridge, John Stewart, Nathaniel Giddings, John Benedict, Jacob Lance, Samuel Miller, Solomon Brown, Adam Belcher, Amos Fell, Ishmael Bennett, and Frank Belcher. Cal- vin T. Richardson, Calvin Stockbridge, John Stewart, and John Benedict were tavern-keepers, Nathaniel Giddings was the pioneer physician, and Solomon Brown and Ishmael Bennett were blacksmiths. It is, therefore, apparent that Pittston even in that day was a place that drew its trade from other com- munities than its own.
The village, however, did not begin to show indications of advancing to borough status until the coming of William R. Griffith and the development of the coal mining operations of the Pennsylvania Coal Company. Before the opening of the canal in 1832, Calvin Stockbridge and Colonel James W. John- son mined intermittently and shipped precariously, their coal going down the shallow rocky Susquehanna during spring freshets in primitive arks-crude carriers scarcely better than rafts, and so unmanageable during the freshets that more than half of them soon became wreckage in the difficult navigation of the Susquehanna River. The Pennsylvania Coal Company, however, oper- ated under better conditions, theirs being the era of canals, or railways, and of
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shaft-mining. The company was organized in 1849, and with the building of their gravity road the future of Pittston was assured. Eventually, the gravity system gave way to steam railways, and for many decades Pittston has been helped onward by excellent transportation services. The mining story is given elsewhere-in four special chapters, and the development of transporta- tion is also separately reviewed.
Industrially, Pittston has always been essentially a mining center, one of the most important in the Wyoming coalfield. It has had some manufacturing industries that are only indirectly connected with its major industry, but if coal mining were to cease, Pittston, temporarily, at least, would take on a cadaverous appearance. Instead, however, it continues steadily in the way it has gone for three-quarters of a century-a place of good business, substantial citizens, and well-appointed civic agencies. The Pittston Stove Company is the only outstanding industry that has been independent of the mining indus- try, though its product, of course, is essentially for coal users. The founders of the Pittston Stove Company began their operations in 1864, and the now widely-known Pittston stove is still being made. The Pittston Iron Roofing Company is another old company. Its beginning was in 1885. The Exeter Machine Shops flourished for many years, and then seemed likely to rust away in idleness until recently rescued by the Glen Alden Coal Company. Now, as the machine shops for its mines in the Pittston District, the old Exeter plant provides steady employment for many machinists. This, indeed, is the out- standing industrial change that has taken place in the Pittston vicinity during recent years.
Pittston became a borough on April 11, 1853, when court order was issued. Election was held on April 30, 1853. The following constituted the municipal government in that year: John Hosie, burgess ; J. V. L. DeWitt, H. P. Mes- senger, George Daman, Theodore Strong, and James McFarlane, councilmen ;
John Kelchner, constable: Alvah Tompkins, Nathaniel Giddings, James M. Brown, Levi Barnes, J. A. Hann, John Love, school directors.
On December 10, 1894, Pittston became a city, and as such has gone stead- ily forward. In 1900, Pittston was a place of 12,556 inhabitants; in 1910 its population was 16,267; and the Federal census taking in 1920 gave Pittston city 18,497 residents. The Luzerne County assessors listed 11,414 Pittston taxables in 1926, and the assessed valuation of Pittston property in that year was $10,563,327.
That the sons of miners are not nowadays ending their school days after graduating from the common schools is seen in some recent statistics from Pittston records. The registration at the junior and senior high schools of Pittston city for the school year 1926-27 totalled to 1,080. No less than one hundred and ten teachers are employed in Pittston city schools. West Pitt- ston employs another fifty-two, and Pittstown Township an additional thirty- five teachers. The Pittston District is, therefore, well served educationally.
Plymouth-On November 2, 1865, a petition was circulated in Plymouth village, praying the court to incorporate the community as a borough. It was signed by Draper Smith, J. W. Eno, H. Gaylord, John B. Smith, Peter Shupp and fifty-three other residents. On April 23, 1866, the borough of Plymouth was chartered. The first municipal officers were: E. C. Wadhams, burgess ; Samuel Wadhams, Henderson Gaylord, Peter Shupp, Ira Davenport, and Frank Turner, councilmen; Theodore Renshaw, high constable. The first meeting of the borough council was held on May 16, 1866, at the house of the burgess.
Some of the outstanding events of Plymouth history are given below. According to Stewart Pierce, the "first white man that ever trod the soil" of Plymouth was Conrad Weiser, who visited Indians of the Wyoming Valley and preached to them on the site of Plymouth, in 1742. The first settlers
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reached the vicinity in 1769. The first name by which Plymouth village was known was "Shawnee Flats." The first preacher of settlement days in Plym- outh was, it seems, Rev. Noah Wadham. The first public and judicial officials were Phineas Nash, Captain David Marvin and J. Gaylord, appointed by the Susquehanna Company, in the first days of the settlement, as "directors" of the "prudential affairs" of the district of Plymouth. The first schoolhouse was upon "Ant Hill," near the old parade ground, where, thinks Wright, there was also a whipping post. The first fort was built on Garrison Hill, in August, 1776, Captain Samuel Ramsom "hauling the first log." First home defense company was organized in Plymouth, in August, 1776, and, notwithstanding its original purpose, departed to join Washington's field forces in the follow- ing December. Some of the soldiers returned in 1778, but the weakened defending force in the Wyoming Valley could not withstand the savage onslaught made by Tories and Indians from the Niagara frontier in the first tragic days of July, 1778. Thirty stalwart sons of Plymouth laid down their lives at the Battle of Wyoming, in a desparate defense of their homes and families. The day went against them and their women and children were forunate in being able to escape down the Susquehanna River. Torch reduced the settlement to ashes, but ere another year had passed other log houses rose. Another disaster soon befell the settlement, the flood of 1784 causing much damage on the Shawnee flats.
The outstanding industry is mining. The outstanding incidents have to do with mining. Whether the most important year in Plymouth history was 1807, when Abijah Smith loaded his first ark with Plymouth coal, or 1854, when Thomas Weir and some fellow-townsmen sank No. I Shaft, or 1865, when W. L. Lance sank Shaft No. II and proved that seventy feet of coal beds underlay Plymouth, may be left for others to decide. All were auspicious years, all fraught with alluring possibilities for Plymouth. However, the story of anthracite coal mining has been elsewhere told, and there, as will be seen, the pioneer miners of Plymouth have been given their rightful place.
Coal was first burned for domestic purposes in a Plymouth house in 1808. Abijah Smith setting up a grate in the Coleman home, where he was boarding, this installation probably following the demonstration made by Jesse Fell in his Wilkes-Barre tavern. Now the demand for anthracite coal for heating homes is Nation-wide. It is almost a century since the opening of the canal to Nanticoke opened the safer way of Plymouth coal to outside markets. The opening of the iron road, the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, in 1837, pro- vided a quicker way. Thereafter, the transportation problems of Plymouth shippers were not so serious as those the pioneer operators had successfully overcome. However, other difficulties presented themselves, and it was not until shafts were sunk that Plymouth production reached a steady, substantial volume. Since then, the progress has been steady, and Plymouth held its place among the important boroughs of the county. Its energetic neighbor. Larksville, has been forging ahead, but is still far short of Plymouth, in popu- lation. Kingston, in 1921, almost doubled its population by absorbing Dor- ranceton, but even yet is smaller than Plymouth. Nanticoke is larger, but is now a city. So Plymouth stands as the most populous borough of Luzerne County. Its population in 1900 was 13,649; in 1910 it was 16,996; and in 1920 somewhat less, 16,500.
The prosperity of these people depends mainly upon the continuance of coal mining; and although Plymouth operations have continued for one hun- dred and twenty years, even the property that was first worked is not yet exhausted. The Reynolds, or Washington, mine of the Lehigh and Wilkes- Barre Coal Company that still produces coal is the continuation of the first mining operation in Plymouth. Altogether, in Plymouth Township, Larks- ville, and Plymouth Borough, the larger coal companies operated thirteen
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mines, and there are some other smaller ones independently worked. The largest operations in the Plymouth district are the Nottingham, Washington, and Lance No. II, operated by the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company ; Loree Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, and the Boston mines of the Hudson Coal Co., the Gay- lord Colliery of the Kingston Coal Co., the Avondale Colliery of the Glen Alden Coal Co., the Lindsay Colliery of the Plymouth Red Ash Coal Co., the Chauncey Colliery of the Geo. F. Lee Coal Co., and the Susquehanna Colliery of the Susquehanna Coal Co.
In general history, Plymouth's interesting story may be followed in Hen- drick B. Wright's excellent work, and in Plymouth Township history. It cannot be given space here, more than to indicate the steps forward. Gas was first used as an illuminant in Plymouth in October, 1875; water company was organized in the same year; the first Plymouth banking institution was opened ten years earlier ; and electric lighting units were first installed in the borough in 1886 or 1887.
In 1926, the assessed valuation of the borough was $7,024,635. The num- ber of taxables was 8,027. William E. Smith was burgess, in 1926. Education- ally, Plymouth's progress may be gauged by the statement that the number of teachers employed in borough schools in 1926 was eighty-five.
Pringle-Bordering on the boroughs of Kingston, Edwardsville, Courtdale and Luzerne, and also the township of Kingston, Pringle Borough was at one time a village of Kingston Township. It was incorporated as a borough on January 17, 1914, absorbing the territory which had formerly been Pringle Township, the latter having been organized out of part of Kingston Township in the previous decade. .
Pringle is essentially a mining community, and takes its name from that of a prominent family of that vicinity. Thomas Pringle was first president of the borough council of Kingston, formed in 1857, and Edward A. Pringle was Kingston's first high constable. The early history of Pringle may be studied in that of Kingston Township.
In 1910 the population of Pringle Township was 1,875; in 1920 the census taking was, of course, of Pringle Borough. The latter was then found to have a population of 1.960. County assessors' statistics for 1926 show that Pringle then had 1,665 taxables, and property of an assessed value of $1,083,204. Andrew Leeson was burgess, in 1926; John Butkievicz was president of the school board, and Francis Leeson was school principal, heading a teaching staff of eighteen.
Shickshinny Borough-The place where five mountains, Newport, Lee's, Rocky, Knob, and River, meet was so indicated by the Indians; hence Shick- shinny's unusual name. And as the mountain ranges meet here, it might also be expected to be the meeting place of waters. Two streams pass through Shickshinny Borough and flow into the Susquehanna River just beyond. Shickshinny is a beautiful river town. The center also of a beautiful agricul- tural region, for at Shickshinny the northern coalfield ends. Some claim the name originally to have been Shickshawnee, but an early deed, 1774, from John and Thomas Penn, settles the question, for reference is made definitely in this deed to the name Shickshinny for this locality.
The borough was chartered on November 30, 1861. Its territory being taken partly from Salem Township and partly from Union. The first borough officers were: Jesse P. Enke, burgess; T. W. Search, B. D. Koons, N. B. Crary, John F. Nicely, and Thomas Davenport.
Some of the outstanding events of Shickshinny history are here given. Others will be found in township and general reviews. The first permanent settler in what became Shickshinny was Ralph Austin (the great-grandfather of Charles Austin, cashier Wyoming National Bank, Wilkes-Barre, Penn-
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sylvania). This was the period of Connecticut jurisdiction, 1782. Austin's land passed to Matthias Hollenback under the Pennsylvania claim. His daughter, Mrs. Cist, held it until her death, in 1857, when the tract was sold by Attorney A. T. McClintock to Nathan B. Crary, G. W. Search, Lot Search and Nathan Garrison, who associated to lay off a village upon it. There was at that time only one family living on the plotted land. Just below town, however, was a colliery and breaker, called Beach's mines from the owner, Nathan Beach, of Beach Grove, Salem Township (see Egle's "History of Pennsylvania." page 884) diagonally across the river from the Mocanaqua mines; Mocanaqua mines also owned by Nathan Beach, of Beach Grove, Pennsylvania. He sold these mines to Carey and Hart, of Philadelphia (hence the early name of Hartville instead of the present one-Mocanaqua). Carey and Hart sold to the Duponts, they to Major Conyngham and Company, of Wilkes-Barre, they to Simpson and Watkins, of Scranton, and they to the present owners, the Dickinsons, of Scranton and New York.
The mines on the Shickshinny side of the river were opened by Nathan Beach, the owner. His grandson, Dr. Erasmus Crary, in 1840 invented the first inclined chute that had been used in the coal industry, sending the coal down from the mountin by this chute; it was then loaded in arks or boats for shipment to Philadelphia and elsewhere. The next one to operate these Shickshinny or Rocky Run mines was Nathan Beach Crary, in 1858. He was a grandson of Nathan Beach. Later, Mr. Crary leased Beach's mines for a short period to Jesse Beadle, who paid the lease by the out-put of coal. Later, in 1865, Mr. Crary sold them to Stackhouse and Weir. In 1866, owned by Cyrus and John Stackhouse, which became under them the Salem Coal Com- pany, and finally ownership became vested in E. S. Stackhouse, the present owner. Thus through the years, the history of ownership is briefly: Ist. Beach's mines with Dr. Erasmus Crary and N. B. Crary operating. 2d. Salem Coal Company (Cyrus and John Stackhouse). 3d. and last, E. S. Stackhouse.
Shickshinny has had three bridges across the Susquehanna to Mocanaqua. In 1859 the first toll bridge, followed by a second toll bridge and the present beautiful concrete free bridge, the product of State and county.
Almost a mile up Shickshinny Creek was a sawmill, which ran steadily until 1885. There was a mill nearer the village in earlier years; and another gristmill was built in 1865, by G. W. and Lot Search. The canal to Nanticoke was built through the township in 1828. At that time a little schoolhouse stood a mile below Shickshinny. It was taught by William Robinson. Union Township erected a schoolhouse opposite the Presbyterian Church in 1858. The first church was the Protestant Methodist, built in 1860, situated on its present site. At a revival in this church was the beginning of the Methodist Episcopal and Presbyterian churches. Methodist Episcopal built in 1870 and the Presbyterian in 1874. Mr. and Mrs. N. B. Crary founded the first Sunday school in Shickshinny. It was organized in 1857 in a log schoolhouse back of what is now Glen Avenue, Shickshinny, in Union Township. Mr. Crary was the superintendent, Mr. A. L. Nicely assistant superintendent, and Mrs. Crary the one and only teacher for a time. The circumstances attending the founding of this school are well remembered by some now living.
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