History of Berks county in Pennsylvania, Part 79

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards
Number of Pages: 1418

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$120,039 $148,165

1 In tons.

Considerable tolls had been received from 1818 to 1825.

The traffic continued to increase from year to year. In 1842 it was over five hundred thou- sand tons, and the tolls over four hundred thou- sand dollars. "Ampledividends were made ; and shares, which cost originally fifty dollars, were sold as high as one hundred and seventy-five dollars and even one hundred and eighty dol- lars." In 1851 the total tonnage was 842,097 tons, of which there were 579,156 tons of coal; and the total toll was $285,621. After 1861 the canal tonnage reached in some years nearly one million four hundred thousand tons of coal and three hundred thousand tons of merchan- dise aud miscellaneous articles. The capacity

of the canal is estimated at one million eight hundred thousand tons descending and at least five hundred thousand tons ascending.

The boats are from seventeen to seventeen and a half feet wide, and one hundred to one and two feet long, with a maximum capacity of one hundred and ninety tons.

After the year 1858 the company offered premiums for dispatch in transportation. Two boats competed energetically and proved that a trip from Port Carbon to New York and return could be made in seven days. This was re- garded as an extraordinary performance. The interest taken in this contest was so great that a boat came to be loaded at the canal landings in eighteen minutes from the time the boat reached the wharf till the trip was resumed. Finally trouble was anticipated from this rivalry and the company discouraged it, and this put an end to it.

The company continued to operate this great enterprise till 1870, when they leased it to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company for a term of nine hundred and ninety-nine years.

PACKETS,-In 1825, John and Nicholas Coleman introduced the system of running packet-boats through. the canal from Reading to Philadelphia. Trips were made three times a week. The fare was two dollars and a half a trip. A trip was made in a day. Three packets were operated by them. They were named "Lady of the Lake," " Planet " and " Independence."

The packets contained no berths for sleeping purposes, but each a large dining-room. Cook- ing was done aboard, and meals were fur- nished.

These packets were well patronized. They continued in successful operation till about 1832, when the increasing traffic on the canal forced them to be withdrawn. Theretofore boats, loaded and empty, would turn out or lay over for an approaching packet, which was given the right of way.

The first steamboat on the canal came from Philadelphia to Reading on December 5, 1826. Twenty years afterward a line of "Steam- Packets " was begun between Reading and Philadelphia. The first packet arrived on

449

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

September 28, 1846. It was built of iron, with two Ericson propellers, eighty-five feet long, and thirteen and a half feet wide. These packets began to run regularly on October 5, 1846. They departed from Reading every day, except Sunday, at two P.M., and arrived at Philadelphia on the next morning. And they departed from Philadelphia and arrived at Reading at the same time. The fare was one dollar a trip. This enterprise did not continue long in operation.

JAMES F. SMITH .- The most prominent per- son in the county, connected with the canal navigation system, by reason of his long-con- tinued service with the Schuylkill Navigation Company and his residence in this community, is James F. Smith. He was born December 25, 1813, at Pittsburgh, Pa., and began his en- gineering practice in 1831, on the Allegheny Portage Railroad. Afterward he was employed on railroads in Pennsylvania and New York, and on the Morris Canal in New Jersey. He came into the service of the Schuylkill Naviga- tion Company in 1843, and was connected with that work as resident engineer during its en- largement in 1846, having charge of the lower division. He remained in that position until 1850, the year of the disastrous freshets, by which the canal was greatly damaged. At that time the late Ellwood Morris was resident en- gineer of the line of works above Reading, but resigned near the close of 1850. Mr. Smith was then made chief engineer, he taking entire charge of the Navigation Company's works and completing their repairs.

In 1870 the canal was leased to the Phila- delphia and Reading Railroad Company, and Mr. Smith was continned as chief engineer. In 1872 he took charge of the Susquehanna and Tide-Water Canal, from Columbia to Havre de Grace, Maryland. The Columbia dam, six thousand eight hundred feet in length, over the Susquehanna River at Columbia, was greatly damaged by ice-floods in 1874 and in 1875. The work of repair was one of great magnitude, but it was successfully executed under Mr. Smith's direction and according to his plans. The dam has stood the test of the river floods, both ice and water, without material injury since.

In 1876 Mr. Smith was relieved as chief en- gineer and appointed consulting engineer of canals, which place he retained until the sum- mer of 1885. In January, 1886, lie was elected president of the East Pennsylvania Railroad Company and of the Allentown Railroad Com- pany.

RAILWAYS.

FIRST IN PENNSYLVANIA .- The first rail- way in Pennsylvania was built in 1827 from Mauch Chunk to Summit Hill, in length nine miles. It was constructed to complete the transportation of coal from Mine Hill to Phila- delphia. From Mauch Chunk to Philadelphia a canal had been constructed shortly before by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company.1 But the canal could not be extended to Mine Hill ; so the company were compelled to devise and build a railway to take the place of ordinary roads.

Soon afterward " The Little Schuylkill Rail- road Company " was incorporated, and it con- structed the railroad from Tamaqua to Port Clinton.

PHILADELPHIA AND READING RAILROAD COMPANY .- In 1833 a railroad was projected from Port Clinton via Reading to Philadelphia. The Little Schuylkill Railroad Company was authorized to extend their railroad to Reading, and to construct a railroad from Reading to Philadelphia. A company was chartered on April 4, 1833, under the name of the " Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company." Twenty- seven commissioners were appointed, including George de B. Keim, Matthias S. Richards, Isaac Hiester and James Everhart, from Read- ing. Immediate steps were taken to construct this road. A considerable portion was con- structed during 1835, and by December, 1837, one track of the road was completed from Read- ing to Pottstown. An excursion party, com- prising one hundred citizens of Reading, made a trip on the 6th of December in five freight- cars, temporarily fitted up with seats and drawn by five horses. It started from the depot at nine A.M., and arrived at Pottstown in two and

1 The Lehigh Coal Mining Company was instituted in 1793, and the Lehigh Canal Company in 1818. These two companies were united and reorganized in 1821.

450

HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

three-quarter hours, including all stoppages. In returning, it left at two P.M., and arrived at Reading at five P.M. The first regular train from Reading to Pottstown ran on Tuesday, May 1, 1838. The schedule comprised two daily trains :

Left Reading at 8 A.M. and 12.30 P.M. Left Pottstown at 10.30 A.M. and 3 P.M.

And the road was opened to Norristown on July 16, 1838, and to Philadelphia in Decem- ber, 1839. In May, 1840, the time-table to and from Philadelphia was as follows :

Leave Reading at 7.15 A.M., and 2.45 P.M.

Leave Philadelphia at 5 A.M., and 2.15 P.M.

The fare was : First-class, $2.50; second-class, $2.

The Little Schuylkill Railroad Company being unable to construct the road from Port Clinton to Reading, the charter of the Philadel- phia and Reading Railroad Company was therc- fore extended to cover the construction and operation of a railroad from Reading to Potts- ville; and notwithstanding the financial diffi- culties which prevailed in and after 1838, this great project was completed within four years afterward. The first train ran over the whole line from Philadelphia to Pottsville, ninety- three miles, on the 1st day of January, 1842, and the road was opened for general travel on the 10th of Jannary following.

In the establishment of this great enterprise the construction of two long tunnels is worthy of mention-one near Phoenixville, in length nineteen hundred and thirty-one feet, at a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand three hun- dred and three dollars ; and the other near Port Clinton, in length sixteen hundred and six feet, at a cost of one hundred and twenty-five thousand seven hundred and eighty-two dollars. The latter extends through the Blue Mountain. The depth from the surface at the top of the mountain is one hundred and nineteen feet. A superior, large stone bridge across the Schuylkill, above Tuckerton, is also noteworthy. A third tunnel was constructed at Manayunk, in length nine hundred and forty feet, and costing seventy- five thousand dollars. The Phoenixville and Manayunk tunnels were enlarged in 1859, the

former at a cost of twenty-six thousand three hundred and ninety-three dollars, and the latter at a cost of twelve thousand eight hundred and forty-eight dollars.

The second track from Philadelphia to Potts- ville was opened for travel in January, 1844. In June, 1848, the trains ran as follows :

To Philadelphia : 9.10 A.M. and 3.50 P.M. To Pottsville: 10.45 A.M. and 5 P.M.

The distance from Reading to Philadelphia was traveled in two hours; and to Pottsville in one hour and twenty minutes.

In May, 1855, there were eight daily passen- ger-trains-four departing and four arriving. The following statistics are presented to. show the increase of traffic over the road, its receipts and income, at different periods, till now :

Così Tonnage.

Mdse.

Pas- serigers.

Receipts.

Net Income.

1843

218,711

17,534

26,424

$394,318

$179,395

1855

2,213,292

154,384

111,822

4,321,793

2,593,915

1865

3,090,814

846,105

393,359

11,142,519

4,812,271

1876

4,622,916

2,493,276

1,331,949

12,227,511

3,717,161

1885

12,530,594

7,200,930

23,531,057

44, 643,966 12,527,959

NOTE .- The figures of the passenger traffic for the four years first named are based on number through passengers, i. e., Philadelphia to Pottsville, one way, and the figures for the last year named are total number of passengers carried during 1885.

The statement includes the total business of the road and all its branches.

The introduction of this railway immediately stimulated enterprise at Reading, and caused energy and capital to be directed towards manufacturing. The increasing tide of affairs induced people and capital to concentrate here more and more every succeeding year ; and buildings multiplied rapidly to answer the de- mands of the rapidly increasing population. The company established its work-shops here when the railway was completed. And these have grown here in capacity with the ever- increasing traffic of the road. The first large shop occupied the half-block on the west side of Seventh Street, between Franklin and Chest- nut Streets, where it has continued till now, a period exceeding forty years. Each succeeding decade found the company with more extended shops of all kinds for the manufacture of en- gines and cars, affording in the mean time con- stant employment for an ever-increasing num- ber of workmen. The total annual income to the people of Reading from this single source

451

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

during the past forty years counts into millions of dollars, all of which contributed directly towards the substantial growth of this commu- nity, in its buildings, stores; factories, churches and schools. The largely increased wealth of the city is, therefore, attributable to this valu- able internal improvement.

The passenger station, or " depot," as it was always called, was located at the northwest corner of Seventh and Chestnut Streets, and continued there till 1874, when it was removed to the commodious, costly and creditable build- ing1 erected by the company at the "junction " of the Lebanon Valley and East Pennsylvania Railroad, with this road, about three-fourths of a mile to the north. This was done to accom- modate and facilitate the large passenger traffic conducted daily under the management of this company. The possessions and investments of this company at Reading amount to an enormous sum. From these it is apparent that the company appropriated a great proportion of its income here, besides affording constant employment to several thousand men in its numerous shops and on its several branches of railway. This fact stands out prominently. in the management of the company and it is worthy of special recognition in this history; and though this generous feeling resulted directly in the enrich- ment of this inland city and county-seat, the entire county of Berks was indirectly benefited by it. The statistics for the last forty years, in respect to the growth, wealth and producing capacity of our county, show that the major part was at Reading. This enrichment and development of Reading were, however, very beneficial to the county in various ways, especially in respect to supplying funds for our general government and to providing stores, merchandise of all kinds and an enlarged home market for the people. Many property-holders were enriched thereby, the enhanced value of real estate having been produced by the irre- sistible process of development through the energy and management of this company.

And I can attribute to the same strong cause the increased population, wealth, influence and power of the entire Schuylkill Valley from Phila- delphia to the mountains, the Lebanon Valley

from the Schuylkill to the Susquehanna and the East Penn Valley from the Schuylkill to the Lehigh, an area of territory covering alto- gether several thousand square miles.

The valuable and extensive buildings of the company at Reading comprise the following : Machine-shops, at Seventh and Franklin and Seventh and Chestnut ;1 foundry at Seventh and Spruce; forge, etc., at Bingamin and railroad ; passenger stations ; car shops, etc., at Sixth and Oley;2 depots at Eighth and Buttonwood; East Penn Shops, at Marion and railroad ; round- houses on North Sixth ; rolling-mill on North Ninth.

The stations in the county, along the line, are the following : Douglassville, Monocacy, Birdsboro', Exeter, Neversink, Franklin Street, Reading, Tuckerton, Leesport, Mohrsville, Shoe- makerville, Bern, Hamburg. The entire length of the railway from the southern extremity of the county to the northern is about forty miles.

Passenger Station .- Next to the general office building of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company at Philadelphia, the passen- ger station of the company at Reading is the finest and most commodious building in its ser- vice. It is a superior, two story brick structure, sitnated at the junction of the main road with the Lebanon Valley and East Pennsylvania roads, about a half-mile north of Penn Street, in the. central portion of the city. The main build- ing is surmounted with a large and elevated clock-tower, visible from all sections, which contains a superior clock and four dials, facing north, east, south and west. Altogether, the building comprises twenty-four rooms, besides spacious hallways,-fifteen on the first floor and nine on the second. Extensive covered plat- forms are constructed over the three roads, nearly a half-mile in length; eastern, ten hun-

1 The machine-shop was destroyed by fire on January 8, 1854; loss estimated at $50,000. It was rebuilt imme- diately afterward.

2 These superb shops, including all the valuable machin- ery, many cars, and at least 100,000 feet of lumber, were destroyed by an extensive fire on June 26, 1870. They had been built during the years 1864 and 1865, at a cost amounting to about $120,000. Their dimensions were seven hundred and ten by one hundred and sixty-eight feet, spanned by three contiguons roofs.

452

HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSLYVANIA.

dred and thirty-eight feet ; northwestern, seven hundred and nine feet, and southwestern, six hundred and ninety-two feet; the first being forty-seven feet wide, and the others forty-two feet wide. The passenger trains to Philadelphia and to Pottsville pass through the first, those to Harrisburg and to Allentown through the second, and those to Columbia, Slatington and Wilmington, through the third. The building is heated by steam, and the clocks are operated

hold eminences in the surrounding country. And as we have men in the departments named, so have we in internal improvements. The most prominent in the railway system is G. A. Nicolls, he having come here when the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was pro- jected through the Schuylkill Valley, in 1836, and remained here ever since, a period covering fifty years. His entrance here was with the dawn of our substantial development through

1874

(R)

SMITH BRO. PHILA

READING PASSENGER STATION.

by electric attachments. The entire area of ground comprises about two acres. The total number of passenger trains departing from and arriving at the station daily (excepting Sunday) is seventy- four.

The building of this station was begun in August, 1871, and it was completed in 1874, and opened for the accomodation of passengers 0 ) August 3, 1874, when the lower station was abandoned. In 1884 the company re-established a station near by the former place, at Franklin Street.

G. A. NICOLLS .- In the several departments of the business life of Reading, we have had and still have men who were or still are identi- fied in the respective vocations in which they were or are now engaged on account of long continuous service. In banking, in merchan- dise, in manufactures and in newspaper publi- cations their names stand out prominently like

the combination of iron, coal and steam, and he has been continuously connected with it in all its greatness from decade to decade till now.

Gustavus Anthony Nicolls was born April 3, 1817, at Abbey View, Thomastown, county of Kilkenny, Ireland. His father was Colonel William Dann Nicolls, of the English Royal Artillery, and his mother was Maria Graves, daughter of Anthony Graves, a landed proprie- tor in the county of Kilkenny, and they had issue three children,-the subject of this sketch ; a son, William Jasper, born at Exeter, Eng- land, in 1824; and a daughter, Maria Anne, born at Woolwich in 1825. The Nicolls family is descended from John Nicolls, of Arran, in Strathmore, near Inverness, Scotland.

Mr. Nicolls was named after his uncle, General Gustavus Nicolls, of the Royal En- gineers, and also intended for the military pro- fession. With this end in view, he, during the early years of his boyhood, was educated under the personal supervision of his father, and then sent for some years to the Waterford Classical and Mathematical Academy, an insti- tntion distinguished for the scholarship of its pupils ; after which he finished his education at

453

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

the Wanstead Military College, near London. His proficiency in mathematics in all its various branches has been well attested by his success- ful career in later life as a civil engineer. Hav- ing been educated for the English . military service, his father, immediately after the com- pletion of his course of study, desired him to be sent to the East Indies, and in this behalf his uncle, Sir Jasper Nicolls, then commander- in-chief in India, promised to appoint him an aid-de-camp on his own personal staff. But, believing that the United States offered a bet- ter field for his talents and energy, he chose to emigrate to this country, and, accordingly, sailed from England in September, 1834. Upon arriving in Philadelphia, he studied law for a while in the office of Henry M. Phillips, Esq.

In April, 1835, Mr. Nicolls, then in his eighteenth year, received the appointment of rodman in the engineer corps of the Philadel- phia and Reading Railroad Company, and, in 1836, he was promoted to the position of as- sistant engineer, and given charge of finishing a section of railroad which lay between Doug- lassville and Exeter. In 1837 he was made principal assistant and stationed at Reading, and, in the year following, superintendent of transportation, which he hield for eight years, till 1846. He was then appointed chief engi- neer and general superintendent of the company, and continued to discharge the duties of these two positions for thirteen years. The business of the road had by this time increased to such an extent that the two offices had to be sep- arated, and Mr. Nicolls selected the latter. He served as general superintendent till February, 1871, when he was appointed to act also as president's assistant. This order obliged him to remove his residence from Reading to Phila- delphia, where he continued to reside till May, 1877, when he returned to Reading. In 1873 he was elected second vice-president of the company, and, in 1875 and 1876, he was unanimously re-elected to that position. In 1877 the positions of first and second vice- presidents were abolished, and then Mr. Nicolls was elected president of the following branch - roads of this company : Reading and Columbia, East Pennsylvania, East Mahanoy, Allentown,

and Chester and Delaware River. In 1876 he was chosen president of the Susquehanna and Tide-Water Canal Company. These several positions he has since retained by annual re- election. His retention in them is undoubted evidence of his marked ability, energy and in- tegrity in the discharge of his duties. During his long and unusual term of service, now cov- ering a period of more than fifty years, he has seen the company advance from its very begin- ning into its present wonderful proportions. And he has ever been devoted to its interests and progress. His constancy is particularly prominent as a characteristic during his entire career as an official. And his system in the management of railroad affairs is equally rec- ognizable, resulting in many great advantages to the company and in safety to the people. During the destructive riots of July, 1877, at Reading, when the whole community was alarmed for its safety, and railroad employees were excited, dissatisfied and rebellious, he was fearless in occupying his prominent position at the passenger station and in giving valuable suggestions for the preservation of the com- pany's property and for the movement of regu- lar trains.

Besides the positions named, Mr. Nicolls was a director of the Reading Fire Insurance and Trust Company from the time of its organization in 1868 till 1875. In 1862 he was elected a trustee of the Charles Evans Cemetery Company, and he has continued to fill that office till the present time. He is also a director of the Schuylkill and Lehigh Railroad Com- pany. During the year 1882 the "Reading, Marietta and Hanover Railroad "-a branch line of the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroad Company system-was completed mainly under his supervision. Mr. Nicolls was a charter member of the Philadelphia, Reading and Pottsville Telegraph Company. In the organ- ization of the company in 1847 he was elected one of the board of managers and he has been re-elected annually till now. As a citizen of Reading he has always shown a strong interest in its material development and prosperity. En- terprises of various kinds have received his active encouragement. He assisted in erecting

454

HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

here the cotton-factory and the steam-forge shortly after 1850. These two large and costly manufacturing establishments have been largely instrumental in building up the respective sections of Reading in which they are situated and have afforded almost constant employment to many working-people for the past thirty years.

The charitable work in Reading carried on by the "Reading Benevolent Society," has always received the aid of Mr. Nicolls. He served as president of the society for eleven years, from 1860 till the close of 1871. The Young Men's Christian Association has found in him a generous and constant contributor in its noble purpose of laboring for the improve- ment of young men. He filled the office of president of the association for over two years, from 1880 to 1882. Mr. Nicolls also acted as a manager of the Reading Dispensary and of the Reading Hospital for a number of years. He is now serving the " Home for Widows and Single Women of Reading," as chairman of its building committee in the erection of its handsome and commodious stone structure; and the " Reading Society of Natural Sciences," from the time of its organization in 1869 till its dis- solution in 1884, received his earnest attention. During this time, one of its most active mem- bers-Mr. Hiram Hollenbush-a few years before his death, made for Mr. Nicolls a cabinet containing a beautiful and complete collection of all the various kinds of wood found in Berks County.

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History of Berks county in Pennsylvania, Part 79

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards Number of Pages: 1418

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards
Number of Pages: 1418