USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 53
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Our great benefactor, Franklin, early foresaw the need of a fresh supply of water for Philadelphia, and recommended the Wissahic- con creek for that object ; but that, now that the city has so much increased in population, would be drained dry in a week.
There was little or no desire expressed by the citizens of Phila- delphia, for any other than their good pump-water, till after the yel- low fever of 1793. Then, when the mind was alive to every sug- gested danger of ill health, the idea of pump-water being no longer good found its increasing supporters. But after river water was introduced, many were still very slow and reluctant to give up their icy-cold well water, for the tepid waters of Schuylkill. Numerous pits, however, for other purposes, in time destroyed the former pure taste of the pump-water, and led finally to their total abandonment, and the consequent increased patronage to the present necessary waterworks.
VOL II .- 3 H 39
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Anthracite Coal.
ANTHRACITE COAL.
" I sat beside the glowing grate, fresh heap'd With Lehigh coal, and as the flame grew bright -- The many coloured flame-and play'd and leap'd, I thought of rainbows and the northern light, And other brilliant matters of the sort."
WHEN the anthracite coal up the Schuylkill, at Mount Carbon, &c., was first effectively discovered-since the year 1800, it was deemed of little value, because they could devise no way to ignite it -a character which its name sufficiently denotes. About the year 1810-11, however, a practical chemist, I believe an Englishman, his name unknown to fame or me, combining science with practice, made such an analysis of the coal as convinced him there was inhe- rent in the mass all the properties suited for combustion. He there- fore erected a furnace in a small vacant house on the causeway road (Beech street) leading over to Kensington. To this he applied three strong bellows; these succeeded to give out such an immense white heat from the coal as to melt platina itself! From this expe- riment, at which two of my friends were present as invited witnesses, were derived such proofs as led to its future general use in our city.
It was in the year 1808, that Judge Fell, at Wyoming, made the first experiment to use that coal in a grate of his own construction; a measure in which he succeeded far beyond his expectations. Be- fore that time they had used it only for smith-work. It was first so used in 1768-9, by Obadiah Gore, (an early settler of Wyoming,) and afterwards by all. the smiths there.
The Mount Carbon coal was known to exist in the neighbourhood more than fifty years ago; and some search was made, but the coal found being so very different from any which was previously known, it was not thought to be of any value, and the search was abandoned. It is supposed to be fifty years since a blacksmith, by the name of Whetstone, found coal and used it in his smithshop. At a very early period, Judge Cooper declared his belief of the existence of coal in the district, and the Messrs. Potts explored various places along the old Sunbury road, but success did not attend their opera- tions. A Mr. William Morris afterwards became the proprietor of most of the coal lands at the head of our canal ; he found coal, and took some quantity to Philadelphia, about the year 1800; but all his efforts to bring it into use failed, and he abandoned the project, and sold his lands to their late proprietor, Mr. Potts.
It does not appear that much notice was taken of the coal from the time of Whetstone, and the search made by the Messrs. Potts, until about thirty years ago, when a person by the name of Peter
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Anthracite Coal.
Bastrus, a blue-dyer, in building the valley forge, found coal in the tailrace. About the same time, a Mr. David Berlin, a blacksmith in this neighbourhood, permanently commenced and introduced the use of stone coal in the smith's forge, and continued to use and instruct others in its use many years afterwards. But old habits again be- came victorious, and appear to have held undisputed sway unti. about the year 1812, when Mr. George Shoemaker, a present inn- keeper at Pottsville, and Nicholas Allen, discovered coal on a piece of land they had purchased, now called Centreville. Allen soon became disheartened, and gave up the concern to Shoemaker, who, receiving encouragement from some gentlemen in Philadelphia, got out a quantity of coal, and took nine wagon-loads to Philadelphia Here again, our coal met with a host of opposition. On two wagon- loads Mr. S. got the carriage paid ; the others he gave away to per- sons who would attempt to use them. The result was against the coal ; those who tried them, pronounced them stone and not coal, good for nothing, and Shoemaker an impostor! At length, after a multitude of disappointments, and when Shoemaker was about to abandon the coal and return home, Messrs. Mellon and Bishop, of Delaware county, made an experiment with some of the coal in their rolling mill, and found them to succeed beyond expectation, and to be a highly valuable and useful fuel. The result of their experi- ments was published at the time in the Philadelphia papers. Some experiments with the coal were made in the works at the falls of Schuylkill, but without success. Mr. Wernwag, the manager at the Phoenix works, at French creek, also made trial of the coal, and found it eminently useful. From that time forward, the use of the coal spread rapidly, and now bids fair to become a most import- ant and valuable branch of trade, and to produce results highly bene- ficial to the interests of Pennsylvania generally.
The foregoing statement may appear minute, but it is due to the individuals who laboured to force us to see the great benefit which coal is and will be to our state. We are aware that the credit of pointing out the use, and perhaps of discovering the anthracite, has been claimed by and awarded to individuals in another part of our state ; but it is within the knowledge of many, that those individuals joined in pronouncing the coal good for nothing. We have abund- ant testimony also for the facts and dates we have given; from which it appears, that to Mr. David Berlin, George Shoemaker, and Messrs. Mellon and Bishop, we are indebted for the discovery of the use and introduction of our anthracite or stone coal.
The Lehigh Coal Company was originated in 1773, on a very small scale, and began its career by purchasing the tract of Jacob Weiss, on which is the large opening on Summit hill, nine miles up from Mauch Chunk. The difficulty and expense of transporta- tion were however such as to dishearten the stockholders, and the property was permitted to lie idle for some years.
The first and second coal regions were then entirely unknown
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Anthracite Coal.
Coal had only been found on the Summit hill, and at the Beaver meadows; but even there they had no conception of any continuous strata for miles. Indeed, the old coal company had offered a bonus of $200 to any one who should discover coal on their lands nearer to the Lehigh than the Summit mine, and got no claims for dis- covery. In the mean time, however, coal was used for the forge fires of the blacksmiths in the neighbourhood, and also in some of the bar rooms in the taverns along the roads, not distant.
The country at that time, (1800,) was extremely wild-from Stoddartsville to Lausanne-places now so familiarly known-making an intervening distance of thirty-five miles along the Lehigh, there was not one human habitation. Lands, along such a rugged and deep ravine of country, bore no selling value-for none foresaw any means to bring its timber to market. There were but thirteen houses above the Gap in the Blue mountain, including even the towns of Lausanne and Lehighton. Rafts had been sent during freshets from Lausanne downward, but none had ever come down from above that point. Since then, such has been the consumption of timber to make coal arks, as to use four hundred acres a year, and to threaten soon to exhaust the whole! From this cause, a back water navigation has been constructed along the Delaware, &c., so as to return the coal boats.
But to return to the history of the progress of coal production, viz. : In 1807, the coal company, for the purpose of bringing their coal into notice, gave a lease of twenty-one years of one of their coal veins to Rowland and Butland, gratis, for the manufacture of iron, from the ore and coal to be dug. It failed of success.
In 1813, the coal company gave a lease of ten years of their lands to Messrs. Miner, Cist and Robinson, conditioned that they should take to market annually 10,000 bushels of coal, to their own profit. Five arks were despatched. Three of them wrecked in the Lehigh -two reached Philadelphia, and the business was abandoned. White and Hazard gave $20 a ton for that coal for their wire manu- factory, and yet it was not enough to quit costs.
That attempt, however, led to future results of permanent good : for in 1817, White and Hazard, from the need of such coal, were induced to visit the Lehigh with Mr. George Kauts, and there the three contracted with the coal company, on a lease for twenty years, on condition that they should take 40,000 tons of coal annually for their own benefit.
In 1818, they procured a legislative grant to improve the naviga- tion of the Lehigh-a measure deemed almost chimerical by many. After some time they procured a stock association, and went on from year to year expending and improving-taking however but little coal to market until the year 1820-when they got to Philadelphia 365 tons " as the first fruits of the concern !" Little as that was, it com- pletely stocked the market, and was sold off with difficulty! It increased each subsequent year up to 1824-making in that year a
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Anthracite Coal.
delivery of 9541 tons. In 1825, it run up to 23,393 tons, and kepi along at nearly that rate until 1832, when it delivered 70,000 tons From that time it went on regularly increasing, until now, in 1839 it has delivered 221,850 tons. And now that it has got its momen tum, who can guess where it will end !
It will be observed, that no regular sale of anthracite coal was effected in the Philadelphia market till the year 1825. It may be remarked also, that the manner of using the descending navigation. by artificial freshets is the first on record as a permanent measure. Gen. James Clinton had, in 1779, so contrived to raise the waters of the east branch of the Susquehanna, by making a sluice dam across the outlet of Otsego lake, and so caused his division to pass onward by the raised waters.
"Dark anthracite! that reddenest on my hearth, Thou in those inland mines didst slumber long, But now thou art come forth to move the earth, And put to shame the men that mean thee wrong ; Thou shalt be coals of fire to those that hate thee And warm the shins of all that underrate thee.
Yea, they did wrong thee foully-they, who mock'd Thy honest face and said thou wouldst not burn, Of hewing thee to chimney-pieces talked, And grew profane-and swore, in bitter scorn, That men might to thy inner caves retire, And there, unsinged, abide the day of fire.
Yet is thy greatness nigh. Thou too shalt be Great in thy turn-and wide shall spread thy fame And swiftly-farthest Maine shall hear of thee, And cold New Brunswick gladden at thy name, And, faintly through its sleets, the weeping isle, That sends the Boston folks their cod, shall smile.
For thou shalt forge vast railways, and shalt heat The hissing rivers into steam, and drive Huge masses from thy mines, on iron feet Walking their steady way, as if alive, Northward, till everlasting ice hesets thee, And south, as far as the grim Spaniard lets thee.
Thou shalt make mighty engines swim the sea, Like its own monsters-boats that for a guinea Will take a man to Havre-and shall be The moving soul of many a spinning jenny, And ply thy shuttles, till a hard can wear As good a suit of broadcloth as the May'r,
Then we will laugh at winter, when we hear The grim old churl about our dwellings rave : Thou from that " ruler of th' inverted year" Shalt pluck the knotty sceptre Cowper gave, And pull him from his sledge, and drag him in, And melt the icicles from off his chin. 39*
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Watering Places.
Heat will be cheap-a small consideration Will put one in a way to raise his punch, Set lemon trees, and have a cane plantation- 'Twill be a pretty saving to the Lunch. Then the West India negroes may go play The banjo, and keep endless holiday."
[See Appendix p. 517.]
WATERING PLACES.
" And when too much repose brings on the spleen, And the gay city's idle pleasures cloy, Swift as my changing wish, I change the scene, And now the country,-now the town enjoy."
THE practice of summer travelling among the gentry and their imitators, is quite a modern affair. Our forefathers, when our cities were small, and pump-water still uncontaminated, found no places more healthy than their homes ; and generally they liked the country best, " when visited from town." From that cause there were very few country-seats in existence ; and what there were, were so near as to be easily visited on foot, "not for the good and friendly too remote"-to call. Thus the Rev. Gilbert Tennant's place, Bed- minister, was at the corner of Brewer's alley and Fourth street Burges' place and Mitchell's place were in Campington. Two or three were out in Spring Garden, on the northern side of Pegg's run ; Hamilton's place was at Bush-hill ; Penn's place was close by at Springettsbury ; and lastly, Kinsey's place, were is now the Naval Asylum, and Turner's place, Wilton, was down near Girard's farm. All these were rather rarities than a common choice.
As population and wealth increased, new devices of pleasure were sought, and some inland watering places began to be visited, chiefly, however, at first, for the good they might be supposed to offer to the infirm. Next in order came sea bathing, most generally used at first by the robust,-by those who could rough it,-such as could bear to reach the sea shore in a returning " Jersey wagon," and who depended on their own supply of " small stores," sheets, and blankets, &c .- Increase of such company, in time, afforded sufficient motive to residents or. the favourite beaches, to make such provision for transient visiters, as could not conveniently make their own supply. Thus, yearly, such places of resort grew from little to greater, and by degrees to luxury and refinement. It is still, however, within the memory of several of the aged, when the concomitants of sea oathing, before the Revolution, were rough as its own surges, and for that very reason, produced better evidences of positive benefits to
WATERING PLACE-SEASHORE .- Page 462.
STENTON, LOGAN'S COUNTRY SEAT .- Page 480.
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Watering Places.
visiters, in the increase of robust feelings, than they do now. But last in order, in the progress of luxury, came the last device of pleasure, in travelling excursions,-now "boxing the compass" to every point. The astonishing increased facilities of communications have diminished distances. Steamboats transfer us to far distant places, before we have fairly tried the varieties of a single day and night of their operation! Post-coaches, and fleet horses, roll us as easy as on our couches : New England and northern tours occur,- the Grand canal and Niagara are sought ; westward, we have Mount Carbon, and the line of new canals ; and homeward, " round about," we have the wonders of Mauch-Chunk, Carbondale, the Morris canal, Catskill mountain, and the everlasting battlements of the North river. In such excursions much is seen to gratify the eye, and much to cheer the heart.
" The verdant meads, the yellow waving corn, The new-mown hay, the melody of birds,
The pomp of groves,-the sweets of early morn."
Scenes like these, ofttimes varied, and sometimes combined with sea scenes, are ever grateful.
"The music, The dash of ocean on the winding shore ;" " How they cheer the citizen, And brace his languid frame !"
We proceed now to notice historically the only "watering places" known to our forefathers, placing them much in the order in which they occurred, to wit :
"The mineral water in the Great valley," thirty miles from Philadelphia, was first announced, as a valuable discovery, in the year 1722. In the same year, great praise is bestowed on the newly discovered mineral water at "Bristol spring."
In 1770, such was the decreased fame of the Yellow springs, in Chester county, that it was deplored as a public evil that it had been so deserted; although its efficacy of waters and charms of scenery and accommodation were still undiminished-at the begin- ning-(fifty years before.) It was stated, that from one to five hundred persons, daily, had been accustomed to be found there in the summer months.
We think " Long beach" and " Tucker's beach," in point of earliest attraction as a sea-shore resort for Philadelphians, must claim the precedence. They had their visiters and distant admirers long before Squam, or Deal or even Long Branch itself, had got their several fame. To those who chiefly desire to restore languid frames, and to find their nerves new-braced and firmer strung, nothing can equal the invigorating surf and genial air. And what can more affect the eye and touch the best affections of the heart, than there to think of Him who made those great waves-stalking like so many
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Watering Places.
giants to the shore,-tossing their white crests high against the everlasting strand, and calling to each other, in the deep-toned moans of imprisoned spirits struggling to be free ! In the beautiful language of our country woman, Mrs. Sigourney, we may say,-
"Thou speak'st a God, thou solemn, holy sea! Alone upon thy shore, I rove and count The crested billows in their ceaseless play ; And when dense darkness shrouds thy awful face, I listen to thy voice and bow me down, In all my nothingness, to Him whose eye Beholds thy congregated world of waves But as a noteless dew drop !"
" Long Branch," last but greatest in fame, because the fashiona- bles, who rule all things, have made it so, is still inferior as a surf, to those above named. It was held before the Revolution by Colonel White, a British officer and an inhabitant at New York. The small house which he owned and occupied as a summer retreat, is still ex- isting in the clump now much enlarged by Renshaw. In conse- quence of the war, the place was confiscated and fell into other hands, and finally for the public good.
l'hat house was first used as a boarding-house by our fellow citizen, Elliston Perot, Esq., in 1788. At that time the whole pre- mises were in charge of an old woman left there to keep them from injury. Of her Mr. Perot begged an asylum for his family, which was granted, provided he could hire his beds and bedding of others. Being pleased with the place, he repeated his visits the three suc- ceeding years, taking with him other friends. In 1790-1, Mr. M'Night, of Monmouth, witnessing the liking shown to the place, deemed it a good speculation to buy it. He bought the whole pre- mises, containing one hundred acres of land, for £700, and then got Mr. Perot and others to loan him 2000 dollars to improve it. He then opened it for a public watering place; and before his death it was supposed he had enriched himself, by the investment, as much as 40,000 dollars. The estate was sold out to Renshaw for about 13,000 dollars.
The table fare of those companies who first occupied the house under the old woman's grant consisted chiefly of fish, and such salted meats as the visiters could bring with them. All then was much in the rough style of bachelor's fare.
Prior to the above period, "Black point," not far off, was the place of bathing. They had no surf there, and were content to bathe in a kind of waterhouse, covered; even Bingham's great house, near there, indulged no idea of surf-bathing. The taverr entertainment at Black point was quite rude, compared with pre- sent Long Branch luxuries ; cocoanut pudding, and floating-islands, &c., were delicacies, not even known in our cities !
Indeed we cannot but see, that the most of former summer ex- cursions were but for the men. They were generally deemed tou
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Watering Places.
distant and rough for female participation. But later improvements in roads, and a far more easy construction of spring-carriages, have since brought out their full proportion of ladies,-gladdening the company along the route by those feminine attractions which lessen our cares and double our joys. Thus giving an air of gaiety and courtesy to all the steamboats, stage-coaches, and inns, where they enter, and thus alluring us to become the greatest travellers in our summer excursions, to be found in the world ! From these causes, country-seats, which were much resorted to after the year 1793, are fast falling into disuse, and probably will not again recover their former regard. See Appendix, p. 538.
CANALS, RAILROADS, TURNPIKES ..
Make freighted barks beyond the mountains stray- New States exulting, see the flitting sails Waft joy and plenty round the peopled vales!
IN some parts of the Union a very erroneous opinion prevails, that the United States are indebted wholly to the example of New York, for the active and beneficial spirit of internal improvement, which pervades the whole confederacy of states.
The splendour of their justly acknowledged grand enterprise, appears to have eclipsed the brilliance of the numerous achieve- ments of the other states. Hence, although Pennsylvania has expended several millions of dollars more on internal improvements, than any state in the Union, she has been but little noticed therefor.
In Pennsylvania, party spirit, as in New York, has not been brought in as an auxiliary to our public works. Hence our march, though resolute and constant, has been silent and unostentatious. If we except three of the almost uninhabitable counties in the north- western part of this state, five-sixths of every part of the common- wealth is to be intersected by canals and railways, leaving no point at a greater distance from the highways than twenty-three miles, when the works in actual progress shall have been wholly finished
We shall prove-chiefly from official documents, that from the year 1791 to July 1828, the enormous sum of $ 22,010,554 has been expended by the state and by corporations, on canals, rivers, turnpike-roads, railways and bridges, &c.,-and this exclusive of the sums expended by the state prior to the year 1791.
We can also show, that additional works are in actual progress, and that they will be finished at an additional expense estimated at VOL. II .- 3 I
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Canals, Railroads, Turnpikes, & c.
$ 12,450,000, making a grand total of $ 34,460,554, expended in Pennsylvania in forty years, from 1791 to 1831, (the time we pen this article,) for internal improvements.
From the year 1791 to 1828, 265 companies have been incorpo- rated by the legislature for the purpose of effecting various internal improvements!
" The first act passed in America for a railway for general pur- poses of commerce was that to Mr. Stevens and others, to make a railway from Columbia 10 Philadelphia-84 miles. The parties did not execute their plan, but the state has it in hands to execute it quickly. [Since finished.]
Since the year 1792, 168 companies have been incorporated to make about 3110 miles of turnpike roads-of these 102 have gone into operation and have constructed nearly 2380 miles of roads at an expense of $8,431,059.
The numerous bridges, which have been erected over almost every stream in Pennsylvania-many of them then very expensive ones, have given to us the title of " the state of bridges."
Some of the county bridges have been constructed at an expense of from thirty to forty and even to sixty thousand dollars. The Schuylkill permanent bridge, was the first great structure of the kind attempted in America, executed at an expense of $300,000. The Lancaster, or upper ferry-bridge (since supplied by the wire-bridge) was com- posed of one arch of 328 feet of cord. A span exceeding any other in the world. Our wooden bridges, generally, are unrivalled in number, magnitude and scientific boldness of design.
William Penn, in his proposals for a second settlement in Penn- sylvania, as published in 1690, alludes to the practicability of effecting "a communication by water," between the Susquehanna and a branch of the river Schuylkill :- A singular presentiment of a project actually commenced in one century afterwards. And at a still earlier period-say in 1613, Sir Samuel Argal wrote home to Eng- land, saying he had the hope to see a cut made between the bays of Chesapeake and Delaware. And the Modern Universal History, edition of 1763, says there is an easy communication with Maryland which comes within four miles of the Chesapeake bay-also, that a project was once set on foot for joining the river and bay by an artificial canal, (now done,) but it met with such opposition from the inhabitants of Virginia and Maryland, " that it came to nothing."
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