USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > Catasauqua > Early history and reminiscences of Catasauqua in Pennsylvania > Part 2
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David Williams, father of Thomas (who was killed on the railroad in 1872), David (superintendent of the Union Foundry), John (cashier of the Crane Iron Co.), and Oliver (president of the Catasauqua Manufacturing Co.) came here in 1840 from Wales, and took a contract for moulding with the Crane Iron Co. His death occurred in 1845.
Nathan Fegley came here soon after Mr. Lackey, and opened a store. Afterwards he kept a temperance hotel, and in addition to his mercantile business opened the first lumber and coal-yard in Catasauqua. He left in 1854, and his store passed into the posses- sion of Weaver, Mickley & Co., a firm which was com- posed of V. Weaver, Edwin Mickley, Samuel Thomas . and John Thomas.
In 1847, Joseph Laubach came here from Allen township, adjoining Hanover, and opened a store near Biery's Bridge. In 1850 he bought the property, where, two years later he started the Eagle House, which was the next hotel after that carried on by the
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Bierys. The Catasauqua House was built by Jesse Knauss about the same time; the American House by Solomon Biery in 1856; and the Pennsylvania House about 1857.
Charles G. Schneller started in business in a small way on Second street and Mulberry alley in 1848. In 1854 he moved to Front street, where he sold stoves and hardware for 30 years. He was a native of Beth- lehem, and came to Catasauqua from Bucks county.
Other early merchants were Getz & Gilbert, who established themselves in 1854; Peter Laubach, who opened a store shortly afterwards; and Joseph and J. W. Swartz, who began in 1856.
Morgan Emanuel, a native of Wales, was another early resident, who did much towards the development of the town. He died April 11, 1884, aged nearly 80 years.
CRANE IRON WORKS-The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. was organized in 1818, and after op- erating their coal beds and canal for twenty years, in which time they had increased their production and transportation of 1,000 tons in 1821 to 224,000 tons in 1837, they quite naturally considered the propriety of encouraging the establishment of industries along the Lehigh river for the consumption of their coal. They, therefore, in 1838, offered the valuable water privileges of the river from the Hokendauqua Dam to the Allentown Dam to any persons who would expend $30,000 in the erection of a furnace and run it suc- cessfully for three months by the exclusive use of anthracite coal.
This offer led to the organization of the Lehigh Crane Iron Co., which included members of the Coal and Navigation Co., and, in the Fall of 1838, Erskine Hazard (one of the leading spirits of the Iron Com- pany), went to Wales for the purpose of securing a competent person to come to the United States in their interest and superintend the erection of furnaces.
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He there met George Crane (proprietor of the Crane Iron Works at Yniscedwin) who recommended David Thomas, an expert employee for 20 years, and they called to see him.
THOMAS AGREEMENT-At first, Thomas was re- luctant to leave his native land, but, influenced by a liberal offer, besides the consideration that his sons would have better opportunities in America than they could hope for in Wales or Great Britain, he con- sented and on the night of the last day in the year 1838, he entered into an agreement with Mr. Hazard, which was as follows (including a supplement made afterwards at Philadelphia) :
MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT made the thirty-first day of December, 1838, between Erskine Hazard for the Lehigh Crane Iron Company of the one part and David Thomas of Castle Dhu of the other part.
1. The said Thomas agrees to remove with his family to the works to be established by the said company on or near the river Lehigh and there to undertake the erection of a blast furnace for the smelting of iron with anthracite coal and the working of the said furnace as fur- nace manager, also to give his assistance in finding mines of iron ore, fire clay, and other materials suitable for carrying on iron works, and generally to give his best knowledge and services to the said company in the prosecution of the iron business in such manner as will best pro- mote their interests for the term of five years from the time of his ar- rival in America, provided the experiment of smelting iron with anthra- cite coal should be successful there.
2. The said Hazard for the said company agrees to pay the expenses of the said Thomas and his family from his present residence to the works above mentioned on the Lehigh and there to furnish him with a house and coal for fuel-also to pay him a salary at the rate of Two hundred pounds sterling a year from the time of his stipend ceasing in his present employment until the first furnace on the Lehigh is got into blast with anthracite coal and making good iron and after that at the rate of two hundred and fifty pounds sterling a year until a second fur- nace is put into operation successfully when fifty pounds sterling shall be added to his annual salary and so fifty pounds sterling per annum additional for each additional furnace which may be put into operation under his management.
3. It is mutually agreed between the parties that, should the said Thomas fail of putting a furnace into successful operation with anthra- cite coal then, in that case, the present agreement shall be void and the said company shall then pay the said Thomas a sum equivalent to the
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expense of removing himself and family from the Lehigh to their pres- ent residence.
4. In settling the salary four shillings and six pence sterling are to be estimated as equal to one dollar.
In witness whereof the said parties have interchangeably set their hands and seals the date above written.
ERSKINE HAZARD [ SEAL ] for Lehigh Crane Iron Company DAVID THOMAS [SEAL ] Witness :
ALEXANDER HAZARD.
It is further mutually agreed between the Lehigh Crane Iron Com- pany and David Thomas, the parties to the above written agreement, that the amount of the said Thomas salary per annum shall be ascertained by taking the United States Mint price or value of the English Sovereign as the value of the pound sterling, instead of estimating it by the value of the dollar as mentioned in the 4th article and that the other remaining articles in the above written memorandum of agreement executed by Erskine Hazard for the Lehigh Crane Iron Company and David Thomas be hereby ratified and confirmed as they now stand written. .
In witness whereof the President and Secretary of the Lehigh Crane Iron Company by order of the Board of Managers and the said David Thomas have hereunto set their hands and seals at Philadelphia the second day of July, 1839.
DAVID THOMAS [SEAL]
In presence of TIMOTHY ABBOTT.
It should be mentioned in this connection that Solo- mon W. Roberts went to Cardiff, Wales, in 1836, as an inspector of rails which were ordered by the Phila- delphia and Reading R. R. Co. and other railroad companies. He visited the Crane Iron Works in May, 1837, and then informed his uncle, Josiah White, of the successful use of anthracite coal in the manufac- ture of iron there. He returned in November, bring- ing the details of Crane's plans and specifications il- lustrative of the process. He was asked to take up the manufacture, but declined and recommended that one of Crane's associates be employed. In accordance with his recommendation, Erskine Hazard, of the Le- high Coal and Navigation Co., went to Wales in November, 1838, and Hazard secured the services of David Thomas.
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EARLY HISTORY
In the Spring of 1839, Samuel Glace, while inspect- ing the canal along Biery's-Port, noticed a number of men standing on the east side of the canal, which led him to think that there might be a leak in its bed, and so he asked the lock-tender, Jonathan Snyder, who they were. He then recognized Owen Rice and Frederick Biery, and they introduced him to the strangers as gentlemen from Philadelphia. Shortly afterwards, he received orders from Mauch Chunk, to ascertain if there were any quick-sands along the canal at Biery's-Port. And these were the men who selected the site for the furnace where the first iron was made in America with the use of anthracite coal, which proved a commercial success.
The organization of the Lehigh Crane Iron Co., prior to Mr. Hazard's going abroad, had been only an informal one, and on the 10th of January, 1839, it was perfected at the first meeting of the board of directors. The board consisted of Robert Earp, Josiah White, Erskine Hazard, Thomas Earp, George Earp, John McAllister, Jr., and Nathan Trotter, and organized by electing Earp as president and treasurer, and McAllister as secretary.
In April they entered into articles of association, which are here appended, as affording some idea of the foundation on which this great company arose and flourished :
ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION of the Lehigh Crane Iron Company, made and entered into under and pursuant to an Act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania entitled an act to encourage the manufacture of Iron, with Coke, or Mineral Coal, and for other purposes passed June the sixteenth, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
Witness, that the subscribers, citizens of Pennsylvania, whose names are hereto affixed have associated themselves, under and pursuant to the act aforesaid for the purpose of making and manufacturing Iron, from the raw material with Coke or mineral Coal, and do certify and declare the articles and conditions of their association to be as follows:
ARTICLE 1 .- The name, style or title of the Company, shall be Lehigh Crane Iron Company.
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ARTICLE 2 .- The lands to be purchased by the Company shall be in Northampton, or Lehigh county, or both.
ARTICLE 3 .- The capital stock of the company shall consist of One hundred thousand dollars divided into two thousand shares of fifty dol- lars each, the whole of which has been subscribed for by the subscribers hereto in the number of shares set opposite to their respective names.
ARTICLE 4 .- The sum of twenty-five thousand dollars being the one- fourth per cent. of the whole capital stock, subscribed for, has been actually paid in.
ARTICLE 5 .- The remaining installments on the stock, already sub- scribed for shall be called in in such sums, and at such times and with such forfeiture for non-payment thereof as the Board of Directors may prescribe.
ARTICLE 6 .- The Board of Directors shall consist of such a number of persons as the stockholders may from time to time prescribe.
ARTICLE 7 .- This company shall be in all things subject to and governed by the provisions of the Act of Assembly, under which it is created and shall have the same, and no other, or greater powers, privi- leges and franchises than are conferred upon it by virtue of the said act.
Robert Earp. Josiah White.
Erskine Hazard.
Thomas Earp. Philadelphia, April 23, 1839.
George Earp. John McAllister, Jr.
Theodore Mitchell.
Nathan Trotter.
THOMAS EMIGRATES TO PENNA .- Mr. Thomas sailed from Liverpool in May, 1839, on the "Roscius," which made the unprecedented run of twenty-three days, and reached New York June 5th. He brought with him his whole family, including wife and children. Before leaving England he had had the blowing machinery and castings for the hot-blast made, and all were shipped except the two cylinders, which were too large for the hatches of the ship. So when the other ma- chinery arrived the projectors of the works were as badly off as if none had been sent.
There was not at that time a foundry in the United States large enough to cast such cylinders as were needed. There were small ones at Allentown and Bethlehem. The company applied to the Allaire Works of New York and the Alger of Boston, but neither of them could bore a five-foot cylinder without
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EARLY HISTORY
enlarging their works, which they were unwilling to do. Mr. Thomas then went to Philadelphia to the Southwark Foundry of S. V. Merrick and J. H. Towne, who enlarged their boring machinery and made the five-foot cylinders required.
Fire-brick were imported from Wales, there then being none manufactured in this country, and in August, 1839, ground was broken at Craneville (now Catasauqua) for the first furnace.
FIRST FURNACE STARTED-After many difficulties and discouragements, the furnace was finally blown in at five o'clock July 3, 1840. The ore was two-thirds hematite to one-third New Jersey magnetic. It was blown with two-and-a-half-inch nozzles, and the blast heat was six hundred degrees.
The first run of iron was made the 4th of July, and proved a great success. From this time on, the manufacture of iron by anthracite was successfully conducted at the Crane Works, and continuously ex- cept for the slight cessations common to all manufac- turing establishments.
Furnace No. 1, in which the success of the new dis- covery was first fully demonstrated in this country, was forty-two feet in height, with twelve feet bosh. It was operaed by a breast-wheel twelve feet in di- ameter and twenty-four feet long, geared by segments on its circumference to a spur-wheel on a double crank, driving two blowing cylinders, five feet in di- ameter, with a six-foot stroke, worked by beams on a gallows-frame. The motive power was the water of the canal, the difference between the upper and lower levels of lock No. 36. The furnace remained in blast until its fires were quenched by the rising waters of the flood of January, 1841, a period of six months, during which time 1,088 tons of pig iron were produced. The largest output for one week was 52 tons.
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The furnace was blown in again after the freshet, May 18, 1841, and continued in blast until Aug. 6, 1842, producing in this time 3,316 tons of pig-iron.
Mr. Thomas had been looked upon as a visionary and the remark was made by a leading charcoal iron-master that he would eat all the iron Mr. Thomas made with anthracite coal; but he didn't accept an invitation from Mr. Thomas to take a hearty dinner on merchantable pig-iron which was cooked in the Company's first furnace, and ready for him whenever he was prepared to eat it.
OTHER FURNACES ERECTED-This successful opera- tion of their first furnace led the Company to increase their facilities, and they put up one furnace after an- other to supply the increasing demands of their trade, until they had six in operation, as follows :
1842 Furnace No. 2, 45 ft. high; 14 ft. bosh.
1846 Furnace No. 3, 50 ft. high; 18 ft. bosh.
1849 Furnace No. 4, 50 ft. high; 18 ft. bosh.
1849 Furnace No. 5, 50 ft. high; 18 ft. bosh.
1868 Furnace No. 6, 60 ft. high; 17 ft. bosh.
The first load of iron-ore was brought to the Works on April 30, 1840, by Henry Hoch; and this was hematite from the mine of Jacob Rice in Hanover township, Lehigh county. One was also brought dur- ing the first year from the mine of Nathan Whitely, near Breiningsville, in Upper Macungie township; and from the mine of John Kratzer, in South White- hall township. In 1842, the celebrated Goetz bed was opened in Hanover township, Northampton county, and the first ore was taken to the Crane furnace.
The first magnetic ore was brought in 1840 from the Mount Hope mine in Morris county, N. J.
In the erection of the furnaces no machinery was used. Trees were cut down and set up as poles to which ropes and chains were fastened and these held scantling in place at intervals; planks were laid as a
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EARLY HISTORY
floor on this scantling and on this floor heavy stones were carried or pulled up to the masons on small two- wheeled carts with long handles.
A large blowing-engine was afterward erected, be- cause the water-wheels were not powerful enough to furnish blast for all the furnaces, even though a small engine had been erected at an earlier date. This ne- cessitated more room, and Bridge street (which ran in a direct line to the Canal) had to be vacated and located as at present.
CANAL BRIDGE MOVED .- The next question was how to remove the canal bridge to the new location, and Samuel Glace, an experienced superintendent on the canal, solved it. He waited until the boating season was over; then he placed two empty boats under the bridge and drew the water from the canal, which put the boats on the ground; then he placed long blocks on the boats and covered them with planks; then the water was let into the canal, which raised the boats and put the bridge up in the air; and then the bridge was easily drawn to its new position.
PUBLIC INTEREST-The manufacture of iron was quite a curiosity and down to the Civil War, for a per- iod of 20 years, the Works were visited by many peo- ple of prominence. I remember Sir Morton Peto, Simon Cameron, Horace Greeley and Dom Pedro (Emperor of Brazil). The bridge house was at times crowded with people, and it became a custom of the villagers to come to the evening cast.
The girls at the Female Seminary of Bethlehem came here during the Summer in relays and some boys were detailed to escort them who took special care to lead them by the water-house, past the hori- zontal cylinders, which had two enormous doors or flaps, and these upon every revolution of the ponder- ous cog-wheels (driven by the water wheels) opened
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with a fearful noise, which caused the maidens to shriek and jump away, to the great amusement of their escorts.
The teams which brought iron ore from the mines were sometimes more than two miles in length, reach- ing from the Crane Iron Co. scales out to Eberhard's Quarry on the Mickley Road. The roads in the county were made frequently impassable to the far- mers and this reconciled them to the proposed C. & F. R. R. The magnetic ore was brought from New Jersey in loads and hoisted on an inclined plane by horse-power and then piled up in front of the furnaces 60 feet high.
The coal was piled up on the site of the new canal, opposite the Bryden Horse Shoe Works, in immense quantities. It was brought by boats, and in the Winter season placed on barrows which were then taken on huge scows to the furnaces, ready for use. This was done night and day during the entire Winter. On one of the midnight trips, Hugh Dougherty (a brother-in-law of the late Johnston Kelly ) was missing, and found drowned. This was the first Catholic funeral in town. The interment was made at Easton.
Immense quantities of coal were also hoisted by buckets and piled in great heaps on the site of No. 6 Furnace (which was torn down in February, 1914.) The opening of the L. V. R. R. and of the C. & F. R. R. changed this and many costly improvements had to be made to meet these new conditions.
The six furnaces operated by the company for many years have been reduced to two. The men employed vary from 300 to 500.
The company erected numerous small two-story brick and frame dwellings in the First Ward of the borough for the convenience of its workmen, number- ing altogether 95, put up at the same time as the fur- nace. It has also 5 dwellings in the 2nd Ward, 3 in the 3rd, and 1 in the 4th; total assessed, 104.
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EARLY HISTORY
The company made an assignment in 1893; a re- organization was effected under the name of the Crane Iron Works, and passed under the control of the Em- pire Steel and Iron Co.
The main office of this enterprise was at Philadel- phia from 1839 to 1895, then it was transferred to the Front street office at Catasauqua where it con- tinued until 1908, when it was removed to the Empire Steel and Iron Co. building on Bridge street.
IRON CURIOSITIES-At the laboratory of the Crane Iron Co. there are two interesting curiosities on the side of the building which look like the mouths of two projecting cannon. They were placed there as mementos in 1907. They are abandoned tuyeres, which had been in the furnaces, through which the hot-blast was forced. The one next to the pavement was in the first furnace, erected in 1840.
THOMAS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES-The following biographical sketches have been included in this narrative to show the character of the founder of Catasauqua and his contemporaries.
DAVID THOMAS was born Nov. 3, 1794, in the coun- ty of Glamorgan, South Wales. He was an only son and his parents gave him the best education which their means would allow, but this was confined to the rudimentary elements. He was very studious by nature and took much delight in the acquisition of knowledge. Not satisfied with working on a farm, he secured employment in iron works when 17 years of age and continued there 5 years, in which time he showed great aptitude for business. His progress was so great and his accomplishments as an iron-worker were so highly appreciated that he was selected in 1817 as the general superintendent of the blast fur- naces connected with the Yniscedwyn Iron Works in the Swansea Valley, and also of its iron-ore and coal mines; and he filled this position for upwards of 20
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THOMAS AND CONTEMPORARIES
years. During this time, he experimented success- fully with the use of anthracite coal as a smelting fuel, and ultimately produced anthracite iron by the introduction of a hot blast into the furnace.
While he was developing his experience in the suc- cessful manufacture of anthracite iron at this estab- lishment in Wales, enterprising capitalists connected with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in Pennsylvania were considering means to develop their business in the'Lehigh Valley, and in this behalf they offered valuable water privileges along the river to any persons who should lay out $30,000 in erecting a furnace and run it successfully for three months by the exclusive use of anthracite coal for fuel.
Selected Manager-This great inducement led these capitalists to organize an iron company, which they named after the active proprietor of the works in Wales where Thomas was employed, and they dele- gated one of their associates, Erskine Hazard, to visit that establishment and secure a competent man to superintend the erection of such a furnace as was contemplated; and this resulted in employing Mr. Thomas. The Company selected Biery's-Port along the Canal, three miles above Allentown (afterwards named Catasauqua) as the locality for their great un- dertaking, and in one year after his arrival, Mr. Thomas demonstrated the practicability of producing iron successfully as a commercial commodity by the sole use of anthracite coal.
Since then Mr. Thomas has become recognized as the pioneer in this particular line of business in Am. erica, which directed much long-continued public at- tention to this locality. Quite naturally his accom- plishment and its beneficient results to the community will be made a significant feature in the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of Catasauqua in the year 1914. Therefore, the manner of his first arrival is worthy of emphasis in this sketch.
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EARLY HISTORY
Visits Biery's-Port-In pursuance of his agreement with the Lehigh Crane Iron Co., Mr. Thomas came to Pennsylvania, reaching Allentown with his family on July 9, 1839. Two days afterward, accompanied by his son Samuel (then a lad twelve years of age) he walked to Biery's-Port to see where it was proposed to erect the new furnace. When he reached the top of Frederick's Hill (now called Packer's Hill), he stopped "to view the landscape o'er." In the dis- tance he saw the Blue Mountains whose blue outline extended along the horizon with its great ridge broken by prominent gaps in several places.
The residence of George Frederick was at the foot of the hill where he lived with a number of stalwart sons in a two-story stone house, erected in 1757, and a few hundred feet north of it, near the entrance to Biery's Bridge (which crossed the Lehigh river) were the house and red barn of William Miller ; while just across the river from Frederick's was the residence of Jacob Deily, formerly the home of George Taylor, a signer of the Declaration of Independence; and at the far end of the bridge was the hamlet of Biery's- Port, where two farm houses on a large plain seemed to be the only habitations directly north, and woods extended as far as the eye could reach to the right.
Startling Noise-While the prospecting Welshman and his son stood there, a loud noise from the vicinity of the hamlet startled them. Little Samuel, while in the great city of London, on the way to their new home beyond the sea, with the foresight which was charac- teristic of him in later years, had provided for such a supposed emergency by purchasing a gun, but, alas, at that moment of apparent peril, he recalled that it was among the family effects somewhere in a canal- boat on the Morris Canal, slowly moving towards this point and not just then available. After discovering the cause of this explosion, they decided to venture forward and soon reached the bridge which they
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THOMAS AND CONTEMPORARIES
found to be constructed of chains, anchored at both ends and in the centre to heavy stone piers. They each paid a big copper penny to the toll gatherer (Daniel Tombler, ancestor of the Tombler family of this community), and, proceeding farther across the canal bridge, reached the hamlet which consisted of a grist-mill, saw-mill, fulling-mill, and several dwelling houses.
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