USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History, government and geography of Carbon County, Pennsylvania > Part 7
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In order to make the river navigable, White spent several weeks in preparing what was later called "Bear Trap," and which is referred to as "sluice" in the chapter on water transportation. In order to assure the company that the sluice gates would answer the purpose, he built a small one for an experiment in Mauch Chunk Creek, near where the Concert Hall now stands. The name "Bear Trap" was given by the workmen who were annoyed by the questions of those who came to see and ask what they were making.
The coal that was shipped in the arks in the earlier years of the business was taken out as from a quarry at Summit Hill. The teams then drove right into the mines or quarries to load. Mining in this manner from an open cut was continued until about 1844, when the dip of the veins became so great that uncovering them was almost impossible. Underground work was then begun. Prior to 1827, all the coal that was taken from the mines at Summit Hill was hauled to Mauch Chunk over the turnpike road which had been built.
The building of the Room Run Gravity Road from Nesque- honing to the landing, and the completion of the Switchback Railroad, so that the coal could be taken from what is now
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HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND GEOGRAPHY
Lansford and transferred by rail to the canal boats at Mauch Chunk, has been told under the subject of railroads. The growth of the industry had been very rapid, and the real value of the deposits of the company became known very gradually.
The following is an account which appears in a book published in 1845 at Lancaster, Pa .:
"To avail themselves in the best manner, of these new treasures, the company have made a railway for five miles.
"This road follows the curve of the mountain along the Lehigh, for about two miles, and then still winding with the mountain, turns easterly and runs parallel with the Nesquehoning Creek, to the ravine of the mountain, made by Room Run, which it ascends. It would be difficult, perhaps, to conceive a method of making a road more substantial than has been adopted on this. The rails are twenty feet long, seven inches deep, and five in width. They are supported by massive blocks of stone, placed in line four feet apart, imbedded firmly in smaller stone, and are secured to these blocks by iron clamps on each side of the rail, about six inches wide, but at right angles, and nailed to the rail and to the block by means of four holes drilled in each stone, and plugged with wood. The iron bars are two inches and one- half wide and five-eighths thick. The whole of the road from the coal mines to the landing is descending, on the self-acting plane; the descending wagon will bring up an empty one. The intermediate road is graduated from ten to twelve inches descent, in one hundred feet; this being considered the lowest grade on which a wagon will descend by gravity, and therefore the most favorable one that can be devised, when the freight, as in this case, is all one way."
In his report of the 31st of December, 1830, Mr. White adds: "My conviction is, that our great coal mine, or quarry, will prove to be a vein of coal about sixty feet thick between the top and the bottom slate, and that its extent will bear out my last annual report. Since that report I have examined our coal field in, and about, Room Run, where the stream breaks across the coal forma- tion, and have had the good fortune to lay open a series of veins of unparalled extent, of the following dimensions, viz : 28, 5, 5, 10,
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OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
19, 39, 5, 12, 15, 15, 50, 20, II, and 6 feet, making the whole number of veins opened 14, and the whole thickness, measured at right angles with the veins, 240 feet. Other veins have since been explored. The width of the coal basin at this place, north and south, exceeds a half mile; and the bearing of the strata lengthwise is south eighty-eight degrees west. If we allow sixty cubic feet to make one ton of coal in the market, after leaving enough for piers, waste, etc., they will give four tons to each superficial square foot (counting the whole as one vein), or 10,560 tons for each foot lengthwise of the coal basin, and consequently 55,756,800 tons for each mile; and allowing our demand to be one million of tons each year from these mines, one mile would last more than fifty-five years. The part of the coal basin belonging to the company, extends ten or twelve miles."
There are over six thousand acres of coal land of what is now the southern coal region of Pennsylvania. It extends from the Lehigh River at Mt. Pisgah toward the west to the neighbor- hood of Harrisburg, a distance of about seventy miles. In breadth it is about seven miles. The operations of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company are in the eastern end of the basin. Its coal lands extend westward from Mauch Chunk to the Little Schuylkill River at Tamaqua, a distance of about eleven miles. The greater portion of this coal area lies in Mauch Chunk Town- ship.
The thickness of all the coal veins has been estimated at forty-two feet. At this rate of estimation there would be about 71,500 tons to the acre. This would make the coal company the owners of 472 millions of tons of coal. The coal deposited in this township is of the best and most valuable in the world.
In the early eighties, it is said, that if all the anthracite coal mined in the United States had been taken from this company's deposits one-half of its coal would still remain. Conservative estimaters to-day say that the deposit can not all be mined and removed in the next seventy-five years. The company's coal property is considered one of the finest in the world. The follow- ing represents the number of tons mined by the company during the successive years indicated by the left-hand column of figures :
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HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND GEOGRAPHY
1820.
365 tons
1830.
43,000 tons
1840
102,264 tons
1850.
424,258 tons
1860
517,157 tons
1870.
297,471 tons
1880
545,161 tons
1906.
2,793,229 tons
1908.
3,033,412 tons
Not all the company's output of coal in 1908 was mined in Carbon County. Several of the collieries are located in Schuylkill County. In the tables which are given below will be found a num- ber of items of interest. In the left-hand column are the names of the parties engaged in the coal business, as well as the places at which the coal is prepared for market. According to this statement it will be seen that the total number of men employed in the industry in the county was 5,512, and that the total number of tons produced amounted to the grand total of 2,486,550. It may be assumed that the value of each ton was four dollars, which is the price at which it is usually sold at the mines. There were taken from "Little Carbon" in this one year black diamond treasures that are worth $9,946,200 at the mines. If the price of this output be considered as six dollars, which is the fair esti- mate of the average market price of coal, we obtain $15,000,000 as the approximate value of coal that was dug from the rock- ribbed hills of Banks and Mauch Chunk Townships in one year.
15,000,000 is a number so large that but few minds can get anything like a clear idea of how vast it is, unless a comparison of some kind be made. If the money required to ship the coal from the county in this one year were all in silver dollars, and these dollars each loaded upon wagons, each carrying one ton, it would require 442 wagons to haul the money. Four hundred and forty-two two-horse wagon loads of silver dollars, if in a line, as in a parade, would make a procession more than one and three-fourths miles long.
If all the coal mined in this county in 1908 were loaded on wagons, each containing a ton and all in a procession allowing twenty feet to each wagon, the wagons would be 9,418.7 miles
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OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
long. This line would extend three times from New York to San Francisco.
During the year when this vast treasure of coal was exhumed there were thirty-five accidents, twelve of which were fatal. This would mean that one was killed out of every four hundred and sixty men engaged.
Number of each class of employees outside of the mines operated within the limits of Carbon County in 1908, with the number of tons pro- duced at each colliery :
Foremen
Blacksmiths
& carpenters
Engineers
and firemen
Slate pickers
Slate pickers
Clerks, etc.
All other
employees
Total outside
Grand total,
inside and outside
Total produc-
tion in tons
Lehigh Coal & Navi-
gation Co.
Colliery No. 1.
2
5
35
11
17
5
184
259
1,055
381,422
Colliery No. 4.
2
13
45
49
42
2
128
281
749
294,909
Colliery No. 5.
2
4
1
27
34
337
192,201
Colliery No. 6.
3
22
33
41
55
6
212
372
850
404,383
Colliery No. 9. .
2
11
21
26
30
3
140
233
630
415,855
A. S. Van Wickle, Coleraine.
2
16
40
40
15
8
178
300
763
318,638
Coxe Bros., Beaver Meadow
1
11
23
15
27
4
87
168
433
264,844
Hacklebernie
Coal
Company.
1
1
2
3
1
1
9
26
9,201
Moses Neyer
1
1
3
5
14
5,387
Frank Adams
3
2
10
2,644
Evans Washery
1
1
2
3
20
27
28
44,765
Leviston Washery ..
1
2
3
24
30
30
27,267
Lehigh Valley Coal
Co., Spring Brook.
2
17
34
8
8
4
198
271
587
125,034
Totals.
17 99 240 196 200 34 1,205
1,991 |5 512
2,486,550
The miners have organized themselves into a united body, called the United Mine Workers of America. Through this organization, they have exerted great influence in securing increased pay and having a voice in determining the condition
(boys)
(men)
76
HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND GEOGRAPHY
under which they labor. Though the organization may at times be too domineering, it has done much good, and it must not be forgotten that the abuse of a thing is no argument against it.
Number of each class of employees inside of the mines operated within the limits of Carbon County in 1908:
Mine foremen
Assistant
mine foremen
Fire bosses
and assistants
Miners
Miners'
laborers
Drivers and
runners
Doorboys
and helpers
Pumpmen
Company men
All other
employees
Total inside
Lehigh Coal & Navi- gation Co.
Colliery No. 1.
4
8
157
75
55
11
6
336
144
796
Colliery No. 4.
2
1
4
33
22
26
9
8
112
251
468
Colliery No. 5.
1
1
4
70
42
14
1
0
57
113
303
Colliery No. 6.
2
1
6
74
32
31
4
3
120
165
478
Colliery No. 9.
2
1
3
122
42
29
6
3
75
114
397
Estate of A. S. Van
Wickle, Coleraine ..
4
1
4
193
164
36
2
6
53
463
Coxe Bros. & Co., Beaver Meadow ....
1
5
115
28
15
4
1
73
33
275
Hacklebernie Coal Company
1
9
3
2
2
17
Moses Neyer
1
4
4
9
Adams Drift.
1
1
5
1
8
Evans Washery
1
1
Lehigh Valley Coal
Co., Spring Brook.
2
3
97
50
24
2
11
75
52
316
Totals.
22
13
29
875
467
233
39
38
901
874 3,531
It was owing to the disagreements between the operators and the miners that we had the long strike in the anthracite coal regions in 1902. The strike began on May 2nd and continued until November 12th. The miners struck for various reasons, but the leading demands were a general increase of wages in and about the mines and a recognition of the miners' union by the operators. Outbreaks began at Shenandoah and spread over the whole coal areas. The Sheriffs called for assistance from the Governor, and by October 17th ninety-two per cent. of the entire guard was in the field.
77
OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
As cold weather came the people all over the country began to fear a coal famine. Wood and coal oil were used instead of coal, but they soon became very scarce and costly. Strong efforts were made to settle the dispute between the miners and the operators. Negotiations were carried on chiefly under the directions of John Mitchell, President of the United Mine Workers of America, and George F. Bear, President of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company. President Roosevelt finally persuaded the leaders on each side to submit their differences for adjudication to a Board of Arbitration. This was agreed to, and the miners went to work. When the arbitrators gave their decision the most important point that the miners gained was an advance of ten per cent. in wages, but the recognition of the union was refused. Had the plan of arbitration been adopted before the strike had been declared, or violence resorted to, the company would have avoided the enormous losses in property and profits; while the miners and their families would have been spared much hardship, hunger, and suffering, the best part of a half year's wages, not to mention the discomfort and disadvantage of ill will, resentment, and hatred, aroused among the residents of the community.
There is some dispute as to who first discovered coal. There is no doubt but that the story of Ginter as previously related is substantially correct. Accepted authorities seem to favor the statement that coal was first discovered in the Wyoming Valley by two blacksmiths, named Gore. It is claimed that as early as 1768 they used it in their forge, believing that its combustibility was due to the blast of air which they drove through it with their bellows. It is an accepted fact that during the Revolutionary War coal mined in the vicinity of Richmond, Va., was used in the manufacture of cannon balls and other war material. In 1776, anthracite coal was taken to Carlisle for the use of the Continental Army. The two flat-bottomed arks which were taken from Mauch Chunk to Philadelphia in 1803, it will be seen, were not the first attempts to transport coal.
In 1812, Colonel George Shoemaker, of Pottsville, hauled nine wagon loads of coal to Philadelphia, only two of which he
78
HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND GEOGRAPHY
was able to sell; but the mining of coal on a commercial scale actually began in 1820, when 365 tons of it were shipped from what is now Carbon County to Philadelphia. Leadership in the industry was taken by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. As soon as water came into their mines, they devised and manu- factured the machinery to remove it; when the transportation was too slow, they constructed canals and planes and railroads to improve it; and when the deeper veins were to be mined, they provided powerful and expensive engines to hoist it to the surface.
It is not easy to overestimate the value of coal to the people of to-day. It furnishes the power which drives our engines, locomotives, steamships, and dynamos. Without it there would be no gas to illuminate our streets and houses, dynamos would have to be driven by water power, and thousands upon thousands of steam engines which are daily producing so many of the things we need and want would have to stand idle. Without coal, our railroads, which not only carry people from place to place, but bring us our foods from the four corners of the earth, would be useless, our homes would be chilled with the frosts of winter, and our ocean steamers would rot at our wharves.
The work of the "breaker boy," though not laborious, is dirty and monotonous. The same is true of the miner. The dust in the coal workings is often so dense that it is impossible to see even with the aid of the mining lamp. The dangers are so numerous that H. M. Chance estimates that one life is lost for every 100,000 tons of coal mined. The service, however, which they render to humanity is necessary and important, and their labor should be proportionately and appropriately rewarded.
79
OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER VI.
THE PAINT ORE INDUSTRY.
When looking for slate that should be as good as that found south of the Blue Mountain at Slatington in 1856, Robert Prince found an ore which he believed could be used in the preparation of paint. At that time he owned a mill and arranged to use it to grind some of this ore. He hauled the ground ore to Weissport in wagons, where at that time it sold at $120 a ton. The profit, thus, was large and he soon had a number of competitors. Henry Bowman organized the Carbon Metallic Paint Company, which was soon followed by the Lawrence Metallic Company.
Ore is mined very much as is coal. The gangways are six feet high, five feet wide at the bottom, and three and one-half feet at the top. The roof is supported by timbers which are from three to four feet apart. It is so built that it always extends along the clay, about two feet of the clay being removed, leaving the hard cement rock for the roof.
Breasts are worked only as fast as the gangway advances. As the breasts advance, chutes are carefully prepared so that the loosened ore will readily slide into the cars in the gangways. Air holes are driven to the surface for ventilation. As the breasts advance clay is packed tightly into the gobs so that there may be no loss of air. The surface water causes the greatest hindrance to the mining. When the packed clay becomes watersoaked it often swells enough to burst the timbers.
PREPARATION AND USE OF THE ORE.
It is hauled from the mines to the mills in wagons. In the mills, it is burned for about seventy-two hours to remove all the oxygen. One oven holds about twenty-five tons of ore. When burned it is screened to remove the clay and such refuse matter
80
HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND GEOGRAPHY
as it may contain, and then is crushed between rollers to about the size of a grain of corn. There are at present sixteen pair of stones in operation. The mines at this time are entered by five openings. About thirty-five men are engaged in the industry, and the value of the ore produced in 1909 is estimated at $20,000.
The ore is used in making oilcloth and linoleum. The mortar for the government buildings is usually colored with it. It is one of the chief ingredients in the paints used in painting struc- tural work, iron steamships, tin roofs, and the like, since it pre- vents rust. On being mixed with oil the ore does not change its color, seven pounds of paint ore being usually required to mix with one gallon of linseed oil. Paint made from the ore will harden under water and will not scale off or fade.
The following is the composition of the ore. Ore taken from the various workings differs but little in composition. It loses about twenty-four per cent. in roasting :
Metallic Iron.
34.6
Metallic Manganese. .929
Alumnia
5.492
Lime. 3.51
Magnesia.
1.081
Sulphur
. 674
Phosphorus.
. 018
Silica
16.21
THE SAND INDUSTRY.
Stony Ridge is rich not only in paint ore, but also in its deposits of sand. The total value of all of the sand produced by the eight companies engaged in the sand industry amounted to about $40,000 in 1909, and about 150 men were employed in pro- ducing it. The prepared sand is shipped in cars to many towns and cities, where it is used chiefly for building purposes.
THE SILK INDUSTRY.
The throwing and weaving of silk is becoming one of the important industries of the county. Silk is a word variously used. It may mean the fine, soft thread produced by various
81
OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
species of caterpillars in forming the cocoons in which the cater- pillar is enclosed, or a thread prepared from the same, or cloth woven from the above-named material.
The cocoons are boiled in water to kill the enclosed worm and the silk composing the cocoon is then unwound. In this state it is called raw silk. Jobbers in raw silk usually import it from China and other countries and sell it to the weavers. In order to prepare it for weaving, the raw silk must undergo a process called throwing; so the weavers of silk usually send it to the throwers, who spin it and prepare it for weaving. Weatherly has a weaving and a throwing mill and employs about two hundred hands. There is a weaving mill at East Mauch Chunk and a throwing mill at Mauch Chunk, both employing several hun- dred hands. Three throwing plants are located at Lehighton, one at Nesquehoning, one at Lansford, and one at each of the following places: Weissport, Bowmans, and Palmerton.
EARLY ATTEMPTS AT IRON MANUFACTURE.
A blast furnace was erected at Mauch Chunk in 1826 by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. A forge was also erected and this was first used to crush the stone that were put on the coal road to Summit Hill. At this furnace Messrs. White and Hazard tried to use anthracite coal in smelting iron ore. Their efforts failed, but the building was afterwards used for this pur- pose. Another furnace was later built just below Mauch Chunk, where water wheels were used to furnish a blast of air sufficient to burn the coal. The burning apparatus was later improved and worked very well; but the expense of manufacturing iron in this manner was still considered too great, and the furnace for a long time was standing idle. A foundry was also built at the same place later, and the two were conducted with success. Here was made the machinery for the Mt. Pisgah planes. During the greater time of the operation of this plant there were employed about eighty or more men, and the power needed was derived from water wheels. The water wheels were forty feet in diameter.
The works passed through the hands of many owners. Dur-
82
HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND GEOGRAPHY
ing the course of the years in which they were in operation there were manufactured steam engines, mine and quarry machinery, building iron, steam pumps, and the like.
The company's old grist mill stood on Susquehanna Street. This was later turned into a wire mill. In 1849 the company here began to manufacture its own cables and wire. The mill was operated for making wire until 1852, when the plant was conducted by Mr. Hazard's son till 1872, when the wire business was transferred to Wilkes-Barre.
An anthracite blast furnace, which was also run by water, was started at Parryville in 1855. The building was sold to the Carbon Iron Company in 1857. The building soon proved too small and a new plant was erected. In 1869 a third building was built and arrangements were made for making pipes. The com- pany was then known as the Carbon Iron and Pipe Company.
This change of name was caused by the fact that the firm had failed in business during the panic of 1873, and the property was bought by Judge Leisenring and others who began doing business with success under the name just stated.
Penn Forge and Furnace was started by Stephen Balliet and Samuel Helfrich on the north side of the Blue Mountain in 1826. It was known as Penn Forge. The property changed hands several times before it was abandoned.
The first stove to be used for heating that burned anthracite coal was made at Mauch Chunk. John Wilson, a tinker, was the inventor. Wilson was one of the first men who came from Philadelphia to work for White and Hazard. The stove was a plain round cylinder with a door and an ash pit. The grate was a perforated sheet of iron below which was a drawer to carry off the ashes. He later made a baking stove by placing an oven on the cylindrical stove just described. This addition necessitated a stovepipe which passed on the outside of the baking department to carry off the coal gas.
PART III.
CHAPTER I. CIVIL HISTORY.
All the land north of the forks of the Delaware was at one time called Towamensing District. This "country not inhabited," which is the meaning of Towamensing, was thirty-six miles wide from east to west and extended to the northern border of the state. Northampton County was organized from it in 1752. This vast wilderness was organized into two townships, Penn Forest and Towamensing, which had the Lehigh River as their boundary line. In this division, Penn Forest included the land west of the Lehigh and north of the Blue Ridge.
Penn Township, in 1808, was divided into East Penn, West Penn, and Lausanne Townships. West Penn was included with Schuylkill County when it was organized in 1811. It will thus be seen that what is now Carbon County, in 1811, consisted of East Penn and Lausanne Townships on the west side of the Lehigh River, and Towamensing on the east side.
Towamensing was later divided. Its northern portion was included in Monroe when that county was organized. The por- tion of Towamensing which was between the Tobyhanna and the Lehigh, in 1842, was set apart as Penn Forest Township.
Mauch Chunk Township was taken chiefly from East Penn in 1827. A narrow strip was also taken from Lausanne. Towa- mensing was divided into two townships in 1841, the southern portion being called Lower Towamensing and the northern part kept its original name. Banks Township was later formed from Lausanne, and Mahoning from East Penn.
When the county was organized in 1843 it embraced East Penn, Mauch Chunk, Banks, and Lausanne on the west side of
84
HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND GEOGRAPHY
the Lehigh River, and Lower Towamensing, Towamensing, and Penn Forest on the eastern side of the same river. Since then Packer (1847) and Lehigh (1875) have been taken from Lausanne, Kidder (1849) from Penn Forest, and Franklin (1851) from Towamensing.
As early as the close of the War of 1812 there was talk of erecting a new county. Several unsuccessful attempts were made. The act of the State Assembly which finally organized the county was passed in March, 1843. The Governor, David R. Porter, appointed John D. Bowman, Thomas Weiss, John Fatzinger, Abram Shertz, and Samuel Wolf to select the place of the county seat. This committee selected Mauch Chunk, the citizens agree- ing to provide the necessary buildings at their own expense. Immediately after the decision was announced, cannons were fired, and a jollification was held at Mauch Chunk.
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