USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History, government and geography of Carbon County, Pennsylvania > Part 13
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There is now a Lutheran, a Reformed, a Methodist, a German Catholic, and an Episcopal Church in the town. St. John's Episcopal was the first.
EAST PENN TOWNSHIP.
In 1876 a portion of land lying west of the Lehigh River was set off from the Towamensing District, and was called Penn Township. In 1827, East Penn was again reduced in size, as a large portion of Mauch Chunk Township was taken from it.
The southern portion of this township being on the northern slope of the Blue Ridge, a large part of its area is still as much of a wilderness as when the Indians roamed upon it. A portion of it was settled by the English and Germans who located near Ben Salem Church. This old log church, thirty by forty feet with galleries on its sides, was completed in 1797. It was used by the Reformed and Lutheran congregations. The present brick structure was built on its site in 1855.
The earliest schools were connected in the church in 1790. After the church was completed school was held in it. All the teaching was in German. In 1812 a stone schoolhouse was built in the eastern part of the township in which was taught English by Lawrence Enge. The following certificate was given to Hannah Andreas :
"This is to certify that the bearer, is head of her class by good attention of her Book, and thereby has gained the good will of her tutor. ANDREW CRONILAN,
"the 30th of January, 1821."
In 1844 it contained six schools with three hundred pupils. In 1909 there were seven teachers.
The Furnace and Forge was erected in 1828 and continued for a long time.
Lizard Creek flows eastward through the entire distance of the township.
It is about eight miles long and three miles broad. The assessed valuation of its property in 1910 was $321,157.
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EAST SIDE BOROUGH.
This borough is in the northwestern part of the county in Kidder Township. It is directly opposite White Haven and on the older maps it is printed as East Haven. It has one school and the assessed valuation of its property is $52,334. It is the youngest borough in the county.
The town is growing and will likely become a center of health, as is White Haven on the opposite side of the river.
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP.
What is now Franklin Township was originally part of Towamensing, from which it was separated in 1851. It is bounded on the north by the Pocono Mountains, which separate it from Penn Forest; on the east by Towamensing; on the south by Lower Towamensing; and on the west by the Lehigh River. The Poho Poco Creek crosses it and enters the Lehigh at Parryville. The township is uneven but well adapted to agriculture.
The house of Frederick Hoeth stood east of Weissport. It was stealthily attacked by a small party of Indians in 1755, as is related in a previous chapter. After this atrocious attack, the remaining inhabitants of the township fled. The names which appeared on the assessment roll in 1781 were John Solt, Sr., David, Daniel, and John Solt. These men made the earliest permanent settlements. The Arners, Dreisbachs, Beltzes, Walks, and the Housknechts were among the early families to settle in this town- ship. There were no schools prior to 1822, as the children all attended the Gnadenhutten Mission. The first school was opened near the old Hoeth homestead. It was conducted in German by Lewis Schnell; the books used were the A B C Book, the Psalter, and the Bible. In 1884 there were ten schools; Franklin Inde- pendent School District having been later separated from the township, the township proper employed only eight teachers during January of 1910.
A furnace was built on the Poho Poco Creek in 1818. John Heimbach retained possession of this furnace until 1834. After that the property changed hands frequently and was managed with varying success.
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The township has an area of about fifteen square miles. The assessed valuation of the property in 1910 was $713,416. It contains two wagon building establishments and a fence factory. The pottery, which had been conducted for a number of years, has been closed. The township ranks high for its farm products.
FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT DISTRICT.
Politically speaking, this district is a part of Franklin Town- ship. It is the part lying directly east of Weissport, including the area directly along the canal, and is about three-fourths of a mile wide. The old state road leading from Lehighton to Strouds- burg extends through the district, and is still used daily by the carrier of the U. S. mail. The name of the district was probably taken from the builder of Fort Allen, Benjamin Franklin, or the burial ground, where lie buried several Revolutionary heroes, among them being Colonel Jacob Weiss, the founder of Weissport.
Two railroads and the canal are within easy reach, the canal carrying coal chiefly. Water is excellent and plentiful, the houses are lighted with electric lights, and most of the homes are owned by the people who live in them. Many of the citizens work in the Packerton shops. About eighty men are employed at the boat yard.
The churches with their allied organizations and the primary, intermediate, grammar, and high schools, employing in all six teachers, attend to the educational needs of the children.
KIDDER TOWNSHIP.
Penn Forest was divided in 1849. The new township was named Kidder after Judge Luther Kidder, who was then on the bench of the county. In the west are Mud Pond, Moses Wood Pond, Big Pond, Round Pond, and Grass Lake. Moses Wood Pond and Mud Pond are the sources of the Black Creek which flows east into the Lehigh River below Lehigh Tannery. The streams from the other sources flow west into the Tobyhanna, Dilltown Creek, and Mud Run from the southern border.
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Hickory Run rises in the center of the township and flows south- west into the Lehigh.
The timber of the township has been removed, but very little of the soil is cultivated. The township is about eight miles square.
At Hickory Run, in the early fifties, there was erected a saw mill, a paling mill, and a bark mill. In 1855 there was erected on the hill a large boarding house capable of accommodating about one hundred and fifty men who were at work in the woods. The mills were run until all the timber was used after which they were abandoned in 1878.
A large dam had also been built above Saylorsville. It was swept away by the freshet in 1847; in the rush of water seven lives were lost.
At Saylorsville, on the Hickory Run, there were sawmills which have long been abandoned. A wintergreen distillery is now at this place.
Albrightsville was settled in 1839. The tavern was started in 1844, and a postoffice has been here for many years.
The schoolhouse was built in 1855 and was used for church purposes until churches were provided.
East Haven once contained a flourishing sawmill. A school- house and a few dwellings are at this place. There is also a station along the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
In the early history of Lehigh Tannery as many as eighty thousand hides were tanned in one year at a tannery located there. This was entirely destroyed by fire in 1875 and never rebuilt.
In 1875 the Knickerbocker Ice Company of Philadelphia built a large ice house. A sawmill was also erected in the town- ship, but it was burned in 1874 and never rebuilt. The bridge across the Lehigh was built in 1867-68.
Mud Run, a station along the Lehigh Valley Railroad, con- tains a depot and a postoffice. Many sawmills at one time flourished in this community. In 1909 there were four schools.
A great fire swept the hills in the vicinity of Mud Run in 1875. A strong wind blew from the west and mills, houses, logs, timber,
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and standing trees were destroyed. Much valuable property was thus consumed.
The assessed valuation of the property in 1910 was $192,353 and four teachers were engaged in its schools.
LANSFORD.
Lansford was so named in honor of Hon. Asa Lansford Foster, and was formed from the mining settlements known as Ashton and Storm Hill. It grew up as new workings were undertaken by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. "Storm Hill" was the name given to what is now the eastern part of Lansford, being so named because a house built there by Peter Fisher was blown over during a great storm. The name Ashton was applied to a cluster of houses which stood where the western part of Lansford has since been built. Lansford is located on the plateau which forms the first terrace above Panther Creek Valley as one ascends the mountain toward Summit Hill. The borough now includes an area approximately one and one-fourth miles long by one-half of a mile wide. It was incorporated in 1877.
Mining operations were begun in the vicinity of Ashton in 1844, when tunnels 3 and 4 were driven. In the following year tunnels 5, 6, and 7 were started. In 1846 the planes began to carry coal from the valley to Summit Hill, and thence to Mauch Chunk by the Gravity Railroad as stated in a previous chapter. The building of the Nesquehoning Valley Railroad and the cutting of the tunnel through the mountain at Hauto into the Panther Creek Valley, as well as its favorable location in the heart of the richest coal deposits in the world, caused its rapid growth.
In 1910 the assessed valuation of its property was $4,655,454. The population according to the census of the same year was 8,321. During the school term of 1910-1I twenty-eight teachers and a Superintendent of Schools were employed. There are four well equipped school buildings.
The town is supplied with electricity for light and power, sewers, water, trolleys, and will soon have postal service by free delivery. There are seven Portestant Churches, four Catholic,
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and one Jewish. The newspapers are the Lansford Leader and the Lansford and Summit Hill Record. The town has a city hall, paved streets, up-to-date dwellings, and is rapidly building up with comfortable homes which the people are erecting for them- selves.
Mining of coal, of course, is the principal industry. Many people are, however, employed in a silk mill which is located here. Others are engaged in the shirt factory and in the shops and foundry conducted by the coal company. The property is pro- tected against fire by a fire department; there are three banks to protect the financial interests; and three men serve in the capacity of police. Lansford also has one of the two ice plants of the county.
LAUSANNE TOWNSHIP.
In 1808 Penn Township was divided into East Penn, West Penn, and Lausanne. According to this division, Lausanne included all the northern portion of what is now Carbon County on the west side of the Lehigh River. In 1827 a portion was taken from Lausanne to form Mauch Chunk Township; Banks was taken from it in 1842; and Packer was cut out of it in 1847. When Lehigh Township was formed in 1875 from what yet remained of the original Lausanne, it was reduced to its present size, which is about four miles long and two miles broad, containing approxi- mately eight square miles. The assessed valuation of the taxable property in 1910 was $43,401, and one school was maintained.
The streams are Laurel and Spruce Runs and Hazel Creek. The township is mountainous and but little of it is cultivated. Much of it to-day is a wilderness as it was in 1808.
LEHIGH TOWNSHIP.
This township with Lausanne forms a triangle in the northern portion of the county. It was embraced in Lausanne until 1875, when it became a separate township.
The Quakake Creek flows east and empties into the Lehigh at Penn Haven. Spruce, Laurel, and Indian Runs form the creek
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OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
which empties into the Lehigh below Rockport. Leslie Run rises in Luzerne County and empties into the Lehigh at Leslie Run depot.
Broad Mountain is the southern border of the township, and between it and Bald Ridge is Quakake Valley, which extends across the township near the middle from east to west. The settled portion extends from the northern slope of Bald Ridge.
The first road was the state road from the Lehigh and Susque- hanna Turnpike to the Mountain House, through Weatherly Borough to White Haven. The White Haven and Lausanne Turnpike was started in 1840. The Lehigh Valley Railroad runs along the banks of the Lehigh in this township. The Mahanoy Division branches off at Penn Haven Junction.
The first known settlements were made at Rockport about 1824, when sawmills and houses for laborers were erected. The settlement was first called Lowrytown. The rafts built here were floated down the river to Mauch Chunk, the boatmen walking back by the Indian path which led from Gnadenhutten to Wyo- ming.
The Buck Mountain Coal Company built a railroad five miles long to Rockport to enable the shipping of coal by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company's canal. A tunnel of two hundred yards was necessary at the foot of the incline to extend the plane to the river.
The post office was established in 1850.
The settlement at Penn Haven was commenced in 1838 by the Hazleton Coal Company as a shipping point for coal. After the freshet of 1850 the company constructed a branch road from the Hazel Creek bridge to the mountain top at Penn Haven. From here the coal was taken from the railroads aside of the river by two incline planes twelve hundred feet long and four hundred and thirty feet descent. These have since been aban- doned. Pictures of them may still be seen in many of the homes in Mauch Chunk.
Its tanneries once were prosperous, but their operation has been discontinued.
Glen Onoko, Penn Haven Junction, Penn Haven, Weatherly
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Borough, and Rockport are located in this township. Rockport is noted for the excellence of its building stone. The court house at Mauch Chunk is built of stone quarried here.
The surface, whose area is approximately fifteen miles square, consists largely of forest lands, and the assessed valuation of the property in 1910 was $126,689. During January of 1910 three teachers were employed in the schools. The township was formerly noted for its tanr' ries.
LEHIGHTON.
The Moravians purchased the land now forming Lehighton in 1746. The southwestern part was occupied by the Mission which is described in the early history of the county. The land on which the town plot was first laid out in 1794 was owned by Jacob Weiss and William Henry. The town square with building lots bordering on it was laid out.
A bridge was built across the river to Jacob Weiss', and the road was extended up the narrows to the Landing Tavern during the year the Lehigh and Susquehanna Turnpike Company was incorporated. Later it was continued across Broad Mountain to Berwick. The first hotel was opened in 1809 by John Hagen- buch. A tannery was started on a portion of the Moravian land near the cemetery in 1859. Daniel Snyder built a grist mill at the mouth of the Mahoning Creek about 1825.
A log house was built on the Mission grounds in 1820; one- half of it was used for a school, and the other half for a church. The public school system was adopted in Mahoning about 1840, while Lehighton was still a part of it.
The Carbon Academy had been located at Weissport, but the freshet of 1862 washed away the building. R. F. Hofford, who conducted it, started another at Lehighton with A. S. Christman as assistant. This building was later sold and another building erected. The academy building is now used as a dwelling.
The first newspaper was called the Weekly News. The Carbon Advocate appeared in 1872 and is still continued. The Lehighton Press is published weekly and the Evening Leader daily.
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The town property is protected from fire by two hose compan- ies. Order is preserved by two policemen, one serving day, and the other night. Money and valuables are securely kept in two banks, the First National and the Citizens.
Joseph Obert started the first house for packing meat in the Lehigh Valley in 1865. It is still in operation and equipped with up-to-date appliances. About one hundred men are employed and the business amounts to one mileon dollars a year.
The following industries are now in operation: Two brick plants, a lace mill, a shirt factory, two silk mills, a stove factory, a wagon factory, and a planing mill.
The houses are lighted with electricity, and the Carbon Transit Company operates a trolley system between Lehighton and Mauch Chunk. The postoffice was established ninety-eight years ago and now has sixteen incoming and outgoing mails daily. Water is supplied from three reservoirs.
The borough is approximately two miles long and one and one-half miles wide. There are eleven streets running north and south which are numbered and ten running east and west which are named. The assessed valuation of the taxable property in 1910 was $4,655,454.
There are three school buildings (one in each of the three wards) in which are engaged twenty-two teachers under the direction of a supervising principal. The following are the public buildings: Opera house, six hotels, and eleven churches. The fair grounds in the western portion of the town are in charge of the Carbon County Agricultural Society. This society is con- stantly improving the grounds and the yearly fair is one of the best educative agencies along agricultural lines in the county.
The public park in the central part of the town is one of the choicest of its kind in the county. The monument marking the burying place of the martyred Moravians is one of the historic marks which should be seen by all.
LOWER TOWAMENSING TOWNSHIP.
This township lies on the southern border of the county. It is bounded on the south by the Blue or Kittatinny Mountains;
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on the east by Monroe County; on the north by Franklin and Towamensing Townships; and on the west by the Lehigh River and East Penn Township. The Aquashicola Creek rises in Monroe County, flows east along the base of the Blue Ridge, and enters the Lehigh at Lehigh Gap. This township was separated from Towamensing Township about 1841. Ten years later another effort was made to again divide the township, but it failed.
Of the early settlers, the Boyers, the Bowmans, the Merk- hams, and the Strohls were the most noted. Some of their descendents are to-day residents of the township. The assess- ment rolls and old deeds of this township contain many names that have been entirely forgotten. In 1752 Nicholas Oplinger was appointed constable. The Christian name of the Boyer who came to this township before 1755 is not known. He was living on a farm north of the Gap when the Indian trouble of 1755 began. All the families of the vicinity gathered in a block house which had been built for protection against the Indians.
Mrs. Nicholas D. Strohl, a granddaughter of Frederick Boyer, was brought up in her grandfather's family. She relates that while the families were at the block house the father of Mr. Boyer one morning went up to the farm accompanied by his son, Fred- erick, who was then thirteen years old, and the other children. Mr. Boyer was ploughing and Fred was hoeing potatoes. Without any warning, they were surprised by a band of Indians. Mrs. Boyer saw them first and called to Fred to run. Mr. Boyer first ran towards the house, but finding he could not reach it, he ran for the creek and was shot through the head as he reached the farther side. Fred escaped to the wheat field and was brought back. The Indians scalped the father in Fred's presence. Then unhitch- ing the horses from the plough, they started for Stone Hill, taking Fred and his sisters with them.
After reaching the level land on the top they were joined by other Indians on their way to Canada. The sisters were separated from the brother in the march and were never heard from again. Nothing was ever heard from Mrs. Boyer and those who remained in the block house. Frederick was a prisoner with the French and the Indians of Canada for five years, and was then sent to
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Philadelphia from where he came to take possession of the farm. He died October 31, 1832, aged eighty-nine years.
Two brothers, Jacob and Nicholas Snyder, came into pos- session of a three hundred acre farm on the north side of the Aquashicola Creek about 1781. Upon this farm was a mineral spring. The water from this spring was analyzed by Thomas E. Jones, of the University of Pennsylvania, who reported that it had healing properties. Bath houses were erected, but they were used for only a short time.
The date of the settlement of Bowmans is not definitely known, but it was before 1791 as the old records show. It was named after Henry Bowman.
The Oplinger, mentioned in Franklin's letter, was one of the first settlers. Boyer, Ziegenfus, Arner, and Kunkle are some of the prominent names on the assessment sheets.
The first road was that traveled by Zinzendorf in 1742. It was later used by the Moravians and traveled by Franklin to Fort Allen, and later became part of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Turnpike.
General Thomas Craig, mentioned in connection with the Revolution, settled at Lehigh Gap in 1814 and kept the hotel until 1822, when his son succeeded him.
The Clarissa Forge and Furnace was erected about 1818, on the Aquashicola Creek, nearly a mile northeast of Little Gap. David Heimbach named it "Clarissa" in honor of his wife, and Joseph J. Albright, a later owner who was a great admirer of Henry Clay, changed the name to "Ashland Iron Works." Ore was brought to. Lehigh Gap by boat and thence to the furnace six miles distant by wagons. The furnace was worked successfully until 1841, when it was entirely washed away by the floods.
The first schools in the township were held in the Union Church under the direction of the Lutheran and Reformed con- gregations. The free school system was adopted in 1838. Seven stone schoolhouses were built about 1852. There were ten schools in the township in 1884, while in 1910 there were twenty- one teachers employed.
The assessed valuation of the property in the district in 1910 was $1,828,450.
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HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND GEOGRAPHY
MAHONING TOWNSHIP.
The first settlements north of the Blue Ridge were made in this township. In March, 1862, William Penn deeded a tract of five thousand acres to Adrian Voresen, of Rotterdam, Holland. Voresen sold it to Benjamin Furley, of the same city, who in 1735 had some of it surveyed. In 1745 Furley sold part of this tract to Edward Shippen, a merchant of Philadelphia and the grandfather of Benedict Arnold's wife, Peggy Shippen. Mr. Shippen conveyed his tract to Richard Peters, of Philadelphia, of whom the Moravians bought the one hundred and twenty acres mentioned in the story of Gnadenhutten. The deed was drawn up in favor of Charles Brockden. In his visit to this locality in 1742, Zinzendorf communicated with the Indians whose hunting grounds were in the Mahoning and adjacent valleys. He looked upon the locality as a good place to start a mission, and reported this to the Brethren at Bethlehem, which resulted in the purchase mentioned above.
When the Gilbert family returned their farm was sold to Joseph Longstreth. Later the property was owned by Dr. S. Kennedy, and in 1820 it was bought by Septimus Hough.
The Dodson family came into the township about the same time as the Gilberts. Beck, Freyman, Nothstein, Miller, Hough, Fenstermacher, Klotz, Beltz, and Balliet are names found on the list of taxable persons in the early history of this township.
The first store outside of Lehighton was opened at New Mahoning in 1825 by A. Riegel. He also opened a blacksmith shop and a hotel at the same time. For a number of years a powder mill was conducted in this township, but was blown up several times and finally abandoned in 1854.
Schools were opened by the Moravians at Lehighton. In 1823 they were started in different parts of the township. The free school law was accepted in this district in 1840 and the town- ship was divided into districts. Lehighton became an inde- pendent school district in 1866 and Packerton in 1872. In 1910 there were ten schools.
The village of New Mahoning for many years had a store, a postoffice, a hotel, and a school. The store was first kept by
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Ammon Arner. It was from Arner's school that the soldier boys volunteered during the Civil War.
This township is one of the richest agricultural districts in the county and furnishes the towns and boroughs to the north and east of it with its products. The area is about seventy square miles; the assessed valuation of the taxable property in 1910 was $468,123.
MAUCH CHUNK TOWNSHIP.
This township was organized August 23, 1827. The land of which it was composed was taken largely from what was then East Penn Township. A small strip was taken from Lausanne, and the part that is now east of the Lehigh was added later. The portion last added was equal to about one-fourth of the original township. It is about thirteen miles from east to west and contains approximately twenty square miles.
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