USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Families of the Wyoming Valley: biographical, genealogical and historical. Sketches of the bench and bar of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, vol. III > Part 27
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until the close of the war. In June, 1780, Colonel Weiss moved Northampton, in the fall of 1780, in which capacity he served ant deputy quartermaster general, at Easton, for the county of
his family from Easton to Nazareth. After closing up the busi- ness of his department in 1783, he retired from the public ser-
the Blue mountain, including the broad flats, upon which is vice, and purchased a tract of land on the Lehigh river, north of
located the town of Weissport, Lehigh county, Pa. This was the site selected by the Moravian missionaries in 1754 for their mission, when the land on the Mahoning became impoverished.
Here they erected dwellings for their Indian converts and built
a new chapel. To this wild and secluded spot he brought his
family in the spring of 1786. The inhabitants were few and
simple in their habits, unburdened by the restraints and conven- tionalities of modern life. Nor had they need of many of the things we now consider necessary to our health and comfort. An umbrella was considered a great novelty, and Mrs. Weiss at first attracted some attention by carrying one on a rainy day. The Colonel's residence was built near the site upon which Fort Allen (named in honor of Chief Justice Allen) formerly stood.
"It was in the beginning of the month of January, 1756," writes Dr. Franklin, "when we set out upon this business of building forts. The Indians had burned Gnadenhütten, a village settled by the Moravians, and massacred the inhabitants; but the place
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was thought a good situation for one of the forts. Our first work was to bury more effectually the dead we found there. The next morning our fort was planned and marked out, the circum- ference measuring four hundred and fifty-five feet, which would require as many palisades to be made, one with another, of a foot in diameter each. Each piece made three palisades of eighteen feet long, pointed at one end. When they were set up, our car- penters built a platform of boards all around within, about six feet high, for the men to stand on when they fired through the loop-holes. We had one swivel-gun, which we mounted on one of the angles and fired it as soon as fixed, to let the Indians know, if any were within hearing, that we had such pieces, and thus our fort (if that name may be given to so miserable a stock- ade) was finished within a week, though it rained so hard every other day that the men could not well work." Within the en- closure around the Colonel's house was the well, which was dug inside the fort by Franklin's direction, and long remained as a memorial of the old Indian war, and also testified to what "Poor Richard" knew about digging wells. It continued to furnish an abundant supply of pure water until it was destroyed by the devastating flood, which swept through the valley of the Lehigh in 1862. The bell of the old Moravian chapel was found near this well by one of the workmen while digging a post-hole. Under the energetic management of Colonel Weiss the flats around his dwelling and the adjacent hills were rapidly cleared up and cultivated, while the surrounding forests furnished an abundant supply of lumber for his mills. To protect the soil from floods a fringe of trees was left along the bank of the river, and the Lombardy poplar was planted along the roads and around his dwelling to furnish shade. While thus engaged in transforming the wild glens of the Lehigh into fertile fields and changing these savage haunts into the peaceful abodes of civi- lized life, he probably realized that "peace as well as war has its victories." About this time he was also engaged in business with Judge Hollenback, trading under the firm name of Weiss & Hol- lenback. This partnership commenced as early as 1785 and con- tinued as late as 1788. In the year 1791 an event occurred, in itself apparently trifling, but fraught with momentous results to
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the future interests of this section of country. This was the dis- covery of coal in the Lehigh district. The story of its discovery is doubtless familiar to many. Nevertheless, as Colonel Weiss was prominently connected with its discovery and first introduc- tior to the public, a brief reference to the same may not be amiss. A hunter of the name of Philip Ginter had taken up his residence in that district of country. He built himself a rough cabin and supported his family by hunting in the dense and primitive forests, abounding in game. On the occasion to which we are now referring, Ginter had spent the whole day in the woods without meeting with the least success. As the shades of evening gathered around he found himself on the summit of Sharp mountain, several miles distant from home; night was rapidly approaching, and a storm of rain was advancing, which caused him to quicken his pace. As he bent his course homeward through the woods he stumbled over the root of a tree which had recently fallen. Among the black dirt turned up by the roots he discovered pieces of black stone. He had heard per- sons speak of stone-coal as existing in these mountains, and con- cluding that this might be a portion of that stone-coal, of which he had heard, he took a specimen with him to his cabin, and the next day carried it to Colonel Jacob Weiss. The Colonel, who was alive to the subject, took the specimen with him to Philadel- phia and submitted it to the inspection of John Nicholson and Michael Hillegas, and also to Charles Cist, before referred to, the brother-in-law of Colonel Weiss, who ascertained its nature and qualities, and told the Colonel to pay Ginter for his dis- covery upon his pointing out the place where he found the coal. This was readily done by acceding to Ginter's proposal of getting, through the regular forms of the land office, the title for a small tract of land on which there was a mill-site, and which he supposed had never been taken up, and of which he was unhappily deprived by the claim of a prior survey. Messrs. Hillegas, Cist, Weiss, Henry, and some others soon after formed themselves into what was called the Lehigh Coal Mine Company, but without a charter of incorporation, and took up about ten thousand acres of till then unlocated land, which included the opening at Summit hill, and embracing about five-sixths of the
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coal lands of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. The coal mine company proceeded to open the mines; they found coal in abundance, but like the man who caught the elephant, they hardly knew what to do with it. Between the coal mine and the distant market lay a vast expanse of wild and rugged mountains and valleys. The Lehigh river, in the season of low water, in its then unimproved state, almost defied the floating of a canoe over its rocky bed. There was an abundance of wood at low prices and no demand for stone coal. A rough road, however, was constructed from the mines to the Lehigh, about nine miles in length. After many fruitless attempts to get coal to market by this road and the Lehigh river, the Lehigh Coal Mine Company became tired of the experiment and suffered their property to lie idle for many years. But Colonel Weiss, notwithstanding the inauspicious outlook, determined that the coal should at least be introduced to the acquaintance of the public. He filled his saddle-bags from time to time and rode around among the blacksmiths in the lower counties, earnestly soliciting them to try it. A few accepted the proffered supplies and used it with partial success. The rest threw it aside as soon as the Colonel was out of sight, quietly remarking that they thought he must be getting crazy. William Henry, then engaged in manufacturing muskets under a contract from Governor Miff- lin, employed a blacksmith residing in Nazareth, and prevailed upon him to try to make use of this coal, but after three or four days' trial, altering his fireplace frequently, but all to no purpose, became impatient and in a passion threw all the coal he had in his shop into the street, telling Mr. Henry that everybody was laughing at him for being such a fool as to try to make stones burn, and that they said Mr. Henry was a bigger fool to bring those stones to Nazareth. The coal mine company, desiring to render their property available, granted very favorable leases to several parties successively, only to have them abandoned in turn when the difficulties and losses of the enterprise became mani- fest. The project was allowed to rest until the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, by building dams and sluices and other- wise improving the navigation of the Lehigh, and constructing a good road between the mine and river, succeeded in sending
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coal to the Philadelphia market in sufficient quantities and at prices which at length attracted the attention of the public. In the year 1820 three hundred and sixty-five tons of coal were sent to market. This quantity . of coal completely stocked the market and was with difficulty disposed of. Colonel Weiss, hav- ing had the misfortune to be deprived of his eyesight for about twenty years before his death, and later becoming extremely deaf, which misfortune he bore with exemplary resignation, did not enjoy seeing and being fully apprised of the fruits of his labor and ardent desires. He was a man of liberal education, strong minded, remarkable memory, and generous disposition, esteemed and respected by all who knew him. He died at Weissport January 9, 1839. Nearly three score years have passed away since he was compelled, by reason of advancing age and failing eyesight, to relinquish the active duties of life. How marvelous the results which have since taken place in the growth of that enterprise of which he was the pioneer !
Jacob Cist, eldest son of Charles and Mary Cist, was born in Philadelphia, on March 13, 1782. On September 5, 1794, when only a little over twelve years of age, his father sent him to the Moravian boarding school, at Nazareth, in Northampton county, Pa., where he remained three years, leaving on June 10, 1797, after completing the established course of study at that time re- quired, which, besides a thorough study of all the ordinary English branches, included a knowledge of Greek, Latin, German, and French. His love for and talent of easily acquiring languages he seems to have inherited from his father, who was an accom- plished and enthusiastic linguist, and the knowledge derived from a three years' course under competent teachers was the ground- work upon which he perfected himself in after years. Here, too, under the old French drawing-master, M. A. Benade, he acquired a considerable knowledge of drawing and painting. He was par- ticularly happy in catching a likeness. On his return to Phila- delphia, in 1797, he assisted his father in the printing office, de- voting his spare hours to study, and in the year 1800, when his father purchased property in Washington city and erected a printing office there, he went to that place to take charge of the office. Upon his father's relinquishing the business in Washing-
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ton he determined to locate there, and applying for a clerkship secured one in the postoffice department, which he retained from the fall of 1800 until he removed to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in the year 180S. So well satisfied were Mr. Granger and his successors with the capabilities of Mr. Cist that upon his arrival in this city he was appointed postmaster, which office he retained until his death in 1825, thus having been for a quarter of a cen- tury in the employ of the postoffice department. His father, writing to him in 1802, says : "As it is to your good conduct in the federal city that I chiefly ascribe the confidence the post- master general places in you and the kindness he shows in pro- curing you an advantageous post, I cannot refrain of recommend- ing you the same conduct in your future stages of life as the surest means of forwarding yourself in the world with credit and reputation." His spare time in Washington he appears to have devoted principally to painting and literature. He has left a good picture of Mr. Jefferson and an admirable copy of Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Mrs. Madison, which she permitted him to paint, and a number of miniatures. Being obliged to mix his own paints, and not finding a mill to suit, he invented one and patented it in the year 1803.
He was a contributor to The Literary Magasine as early as 1804, and to Charles Miner's paper in Wilkes-Barre. Mr. Miner writes, under date of November 28, 1806: "I am charmed with your piece on 'Morning.' It possesses all the life, spirit, and variety of that charming season ;" and December 26, 1806 : "Your 'Noon' is in type. If you are but a young courtier at the shrine of the muses, you have been unusually fortunate in ob- taining their approbation ;" and February 19, 1807: "Your last letter containing your 'Night' was very welcome. The descrip- tion is truly natural and elegant, and its only fault was its short- ness. I hope you will often favor me with your poetic effusions or prosaic lucubrations;" and at other times he writes : "Your four pieces on 'Morning,' 'Noon,' 'Evening,' and 'Night' have been warmly commended by a literary friend in Philadelphia." Again : "From the friendship shown you by the muses, I sus- pect you visit their ladyships more than just 'a vacant hour now and then.' So great a portion of their favor as they have be-
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stowed on you, I should not suppose was to be obtained but by a close and constant courtship. I thank you for the communi- cation and shall always be happy to have my paper improved by the production of your fancy. Your address to your candle is excellent and shall appear next week."
He contributed to the Port Folio from ISOS to 1816. The pub- lishers, writing to him in 1809, say : "We have to acknowledge many interesting and valuable communications from you. We rank you among our most valuable correspondents and will hope for a continuance of your favors." His communications to this magazine were many and varied ; at one time it was poetry, at another the description of some new machine, sometimes over the letters "J. C.," and others over the letter "C." Many of the old settlers will still remember his sketches with pen and pencil of "Solomon's Falls" and "Buttermilk Falls." In the May num- ber, 1809, is a drawing and description by him of Mr. Birde's "Columbian Spinster;" in the March number, 1811, a drawing and description of "Eve's Cotton Gin," and in the October num- ber, 1812, an "Ode on Hope."
Jacob Cist was married on August 25, 1807, by the Rev. Ard Hoyt, to Sarah Hollenback, daughter of Judge Matthias Hollen- back, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., whom Charles Miner at that time described as "a charming little girl, apparently about sixteen years old, the natural rose on her cheek heightened by exercise, and a sweet smile playing about her lips." On her mother's side she was descended from old New England stock. Mrs. Hollenback's father, Peleg Burritt, Jr., was a grandson of Ensign Stephen Burritt, who, according to Hinman, was "a famous In- dian fighter," and commissary general to the army in King Phillip's war, and his father, William Burritt, the first of the name in this country, was an original settler in Stratford, Connecticut, prior to 1650. Her mother, whose maiden name was Deborah Beardslee, was the granddaughter of Ebenezer Booth, the son of Richard Booth, by his wife Elizabeth (Hawley,) who was living in Stratford in the year 1640. Her father's grandfather was a landholder in Pennsylvania as early as 1729.
After his marriage he returned to Washington and remained there until the spring of 1808, when he removed to Wilkes-
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Barre and entered into partnership with his father-in-law, under the firm name of Hollenback & Cist, which existed a number of years. For three years Mr. and Mrs. Cist lived at Mill Creek, but in the fall of 1811 they moved into their new house on Bank street, now River street, in this city. At an early day Jacob Cist's attention was attracted towards the uses of anthracite coal. He was a boy of ten years when his father experimented on the Le- high coal and might possibly have seen him at work. He must often have heard his father conversing with Colonel Weiss, both in Philadelphia and Bethlehem, on the feasability of opening their mines and making a market for the Lehigh coal long before he was old enough to appreciate the importance of the undertaking or the disadvantages under which these pioneers in the coal trade labored in persuading people of the practicability of using stone- coal as a fuel, though in after years, by observation and study, he saw its importance and he learned by a practical experience the labor and disappointments attendant on its introduction to use. As early as the year 1805 he conceived the idea of manufactur- ing a mineral black for printers' ink, leather lacquer, blacking, etc., from the Lehigh coal, and the results of his experiments were secured to him by patent in the year 1808. In regard to his discovery Chief Justice Gibson wrote the following letter to Thomas Cooper, who published it in the Emporium of Arts and Sciences, Vol. II, new series, page 477 :
"WILKES-BARRE, Feb. 23d, 1814.
"DEAR SIR-I send you a likeness of one of your friends. There is nothing remarkable in it, except that it is done with the stone-coal of this place instead of India ink. It is prepared for use by rubbing a bit of it on a fine hard stone in gum water, just thick enough to hold the particles in suspension. It is then laid on in the usual way with a camel hair pencil. By a comparison with a drawing in India ink you will, I doubt not, give the prefer- ence to the coal, as it will be found free from a brownish cast. always perceivable in the former. The harshness observable in the enclosed drawing arises from the extreme badness of the pencil I was obliged to use and not from the quality of the ink, (which is susceptible of the greatest softness). The coal is found
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to be superior to lamp or ivory black for paint, printers' ink, and blacking leather. It also makes the best writing ink for records that has yet been discovered. The color is deeper, and is not in the least effected by the oxy-muriatic acid or any other chemi- cal agent, and must remain unaltered by time. The application of coal to these purposes was discovered by Jacob Cist, of this place. He has obtained a patent.
Very sincerely, your friend, JOHN B. GIBSON.
Thomas Cooper, Esq."
To this letter Judge Cooper added the following note :
"The only objection to the preceding account of the uses to which stone-coal may be put, is, whatever mucilaginous substance be used to fix it on the paper, water can wash it away.
"But that it will afford a coloring matter, unattackable by any acid and unalterable by any time, cannot be doubted.
"The discovery is of importance. T. C."
This patent was considered to be worth upwards of five thous- and dollars, but a number of law-suits, arising from a constant infringement of it by manufacturers, so annoyed Mr. Cist that he was glad to dispose of it for a less sum. It is said that after the destruction of the patent office records by fire, some one else took out a patent for the same idea and is now working under it. After Mr. Cist had removed to Wilkes-Barre he made a study of the adjacent coal-fields, especially at the mines of the Smith Brothers, at Plymouth, and the old Lord Butler opening. He determined upon entering into the mining of coal as a business as soon as he should feel satisfied that the right time had come to introduce it in the cities in large enough quantities to make the adventure a profitable one. That time came in the year 1813, when the British squadron held both the Delaware and Chesa- peake bays in a state of blockade. In the spring of that year he undertook to introduce it in Baltimore and Philadelphia. The former project proved a failure, but in the summer and fall he sent several wagon loads to Binney & Ronaldson, in Philadel- phia, and their success appeared to encourage the mining of an- thracite upon a larger basis, so that in December of that year
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Jacob Cist, Charles Miner, and John Robinson secured a lease from the old Lehigh coal mine company of their property on the Lehigh river, near Mauch Chunk. Mr. Miner, in writing in the year 1833 to Samuel I. Packer on the formation of this co-part- nership, says: "Jacob Cist, of Wilkes-Barre, my intimate and much lamented friend, had derived from his father a few shares of the Lehigh coal company's stock. Sitting by a glowing an- thracite fire one evening in his parlor, conversation turned to the Lehigh coal, and we resolved to make an examination of the mines at Mauch Chunk and the Lehigh river to satisfy ourselves whether it would be practicable to convey coal from thence by the stream to Philadelphia. Mr. Robinson, a mutual friend, active as a man of business, united with us in the enterprise. Towards the close of 1813, we visited Mauch Chunk, examined the mines, made all the enquiries suggested by prudence respecting the navigation of the Lehigh, and made up our minds to hazard the experiment, if a sufficiently liberal arrangement could be made with the company." The following extract from the same letter is sufficient to give the reader an idea of what was accomplished : "On Tuesday, the 9th of August (1814), I being absent and there being a freshet in the river, Mr. Cist started off my first ark, sixty-five feet long, fourteen feet wide, with twenty-four tons of coal. Sunday, fourteenth, arrived at the city at eight A. M. The coal cost us about fourteen dollars a ton in the city. But while we pushed forward our labors at the mine (hauling coal, building arks, etc.,) we had the greater difficulty to overcome of inducing the public to use our coal when brought to their doors, much as it was needed. We published handbills in English and German, stating the mode of burning the coal, either in grates, smiths' fires, or in stoves. Numerous certificates were obtained and printed from blacksmithis and others, who had successfully used the anthracite. Mr. Cist formed a model of a coal stove and got a number of them cast. Together we went to several houses in the city and prevailed upon the masters to allow us to kindle fires of anthracite in their grates, erected to burn Liverpool coal. We attended at blacksmiths' shops, and persuaded some to alter the tue-iron, so that they might burn the Lehigh coal; and we were sometimes obliged to bribe the journeymen to try the ex-
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periment fairly, so averse were they to learning the use of a new sort of fuel, so different from what they had been accustomed to. Great as were our united exertions (and Mr. Cist, if they were meritorious, deserves the chief commendation), necessity accon- plished more for us than our labors. Charcoal advanced in price and was difficult to be got. Manufacturers were forced to try the experiment of using the anthracite, and every day's experi- ence convinced them, and those who witnessed the fires, of the great value of this coal. We sent down a considerable number of arks, three out of four of which stove and sunk by the way. Heavy, however, as was the loss, it was lessened by the sale, at moderate prices, of the cargoes as they lay along the shores or in the bed of the Lehigh, to the smiths of Allentown, Bethlehem, and the country around, who drew them away when the water became low. We were just learning that our arks were far too large and the loads too heavy for the stream, and were making preparations to build coal boats to carry eight or ten tons each, that would be connected together when they arrived at Easton. Much had been taught us by experience, but at a heavy cost, by the operations of 1814-15. Peace came and found us in the . midst of our enterprise. Philadelphia was now opened to foreign commerce, and the coasting trade resumed. Liverpool and Richmond coal came in abundantly, and the hard-kindling an- thracite fell to a price far below the cost of shipment. I need hardly add, the business was abandoned, leaving several hundred tons of coal at the pit's mouth, and the most costly part of the work done to take out some thousands of tons more. Our dis- appointment and losses were met with the spirit of youth and enterprise. We turned our attention to other branches of indus- try, but on looking back on the ruins of our (not unworthy) ex- ertions, I have not ceased to hope and believe that the Lehigh navigation and coal company, when prosperity begins to reward them for their most valuable labors, would tender to us a fair compensation at least for the work done and expenditures made, which contributed directly to their advantage."
This adventure was so disastrous to the finances of Mr. Cist that he did not again engage in the practical mining of coal, though his mind was never idle in devising plans for the opening
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