USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of Carbon County, Pennsylvania; also containing a separate account of the several boroughs and townships in the county, with biographical sketches, 2nd ed > Part 18
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Before 1825, Thomas Walton opened a store on the farm now owned by Aaron Zimmerman, a short dis- tance east of New Mahoning. He also established a hotel and a blacksmith shop. The store was subse- quently kept by Abraham Hanline, while the hotel was abandoned.
Henry Arner, about the year 1820, began the manu- facture of shoes to supply the miners of Summit Hill. He was succeeded by Henry Bretney, who continued the business until 1855.
In 1832, Henry Arner and Abraham Hanline erected a powder mill on the site of the saw-mill now con- ducted by Lewis Zimmerman. Between 1839 and 1841 the mill was twice blown up, and two lives were lost, the venture being abandoned in 1854.
Another powder mill started in 1842, and conducted by John Erb, exploded several times with fatal results.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad Company began opera- tions at Packerton in 1862. Prior to that time the lo- cality was known as Burlington, and later as Dolans- burg, after George and John Dolan, who owned most of the land here. The place is situated on the Lehigh river, nearly midway between Mauch Chunk and Le- highton, being named in honor of Asa Packer.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Packerton is the central point of the immense coal traffic of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and large shops for the repair of the rolling stock of the company have been built here. All of the coal passing east over the road is weighed and forwarded from this point.
Mauch Chunk was the shipping point of the company until the increase in traffic made it necessary to seek a location affording more room than that place contained.
Most of the employes of the shops and yards at Packerton live in the nearby towns.
Packerton itself is a neat little village, built on a high bluff overlooking the river. It has no interests aside from those centering in the railroad.
Jamestown, adjoining Lehighton on the north, is built on land warranted to Paul Solt, who settled in the locality about the year 1780. It bears the first name of James McDaniel, one of the early settlers. Amos Rie- gel, a former sheriff of Carbon county, and the father of J. A. Riegel, became possessed of most of the town- site in 1862. He began selling lots in 1874. The place has been principally settled by employes of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
The first schools in the township, apart from those kept by the Moravians, at what is now Lehighton, were opened about 1825. Isaac Harleman, Samuel Dodson and John Fulton were among the early teachers. Ma- honing accepted the free school law in 1840, or there- abouts, and the township was divided into districts.
Packerton, having a high school, was set off as an independent district in 1872. Jamestown also forms a part of this district. The brick school building situated between these places was the gift of Asa Packer.
One of the most interesting events in the educational annals of the county was the unveiling, in 1908, of a beautiful tablet in the school house at New Mahoning,
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
commemorating the patriotism displayed in the Civil War by those formerly connected with the school. Thirty-six pupils and two teachers of this school vol- unteered in defense of the Union, as the tablet sets forth. The memorial was conceived by J. F. Kressley, one of the survivors. The New Mahoning district, which contained less than fifty voters during the time of the war, contributed sixty-seven men to the service of the nation, a manifestation of loyalty which is be- lieved to be unsurpassed.
There are now thirteen schoolhouses maintained in the township, three of which are situated in the inde- pendent district of Packerton.
Postoffices were formerly kept at Center Square, New Mahoning and at Pleasant Corner.
In the old days, the mail was carried to these post- offices from Lehighton every Saturday, and during the evening of that day the people of the neighborhood wended their way thither for the dual purpose of claim- ing the weekly paper or the occasional letter, and for social intercourse. Later the mail was delivered twice a week, and, finally every day.
On September 1, 1903, the rural delivery system of the government was extended to the township, and the postoffices were abandoned. David Ebberts, who had previously traveled twelve hundred miles a year be- tween his home and the postoffice, was chiefly instru- mental in getting the rural route started. A postoffice is still maintained at Packerton.
St. John's Lutheran and Reformed church, located between New Mahoning and Pleasant Corner, was built in 1850. The present handsome brick structure was erected in 1892.
Emmanuel's Evangelical church was built in 1868,
18
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
A Methodist church at Beaver Run, organized in 1881, has since been abandoned.
Christ Reformed church at Packerton was organized in 1899, while the corner-stone of Zion's Evangelical Lutheran church of the same place, was laid in 1901.
The telephone is just beginning to come into general use in the township.
Not only does Mahoning township lead every other district in the county in the number of its fertile and productive farms, but it contains more well-kept home- steads than any other rural section.
MAUCH CHUNK BOROUGH.
The natural scenery surrounding Mauch Chunk, which is the seat of justice of Carbon county, has been the theme of admiration for many years.
Its picturesque and romantic situation in the "Switzerland of America" has justly brought the town a fame which has long since spread beyond our own borders.
The place is located at the confluence of Mauch Chunk creek and the Lehigh river, and is almost en- circled by mountains of towering and majestic propor- tions.
Mauch Chunk derives its name from the familiar conical formation on the eastern bank of the river, op- posite the town, called by the Indians "Machk Tschunk," signifying Bear Mountain.
Whether this is an upheaval, or the beautifully fashioned result of the action of ice and water through countless ages, is an interesting question for the lovers of geological controversy.
One's first view of it is like the lifting of a curtain from a strange and magical picture. Whether seen in summer, robed in green, or in autumn, with its dress
BEAR MOUNTAIN, MAUCH CHUNK.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
transformed into more brilliant hues, this mountain- cone, with its glorious drapery, is the marvel of every beholder.
South mountain, from the summit of which, during the hours of the night, the lights of Flagstaff Park seem to mingle with stars, its surface studded with ledges of jutting rocks and strewn with huge boulders, rises precipitately from the western bank of the river to the height of a thousand feet. To the northward looms the peak of Mount Pisgah, somewhat resembling a volcano, which effect is at times heightened by the smoke emitted from the stacks of the power house of the Switchback Railroad, which stands upon its crest.
Between Mount Pisgah and South mountain flows Mauch Chunk creek, which is arched over, while the larger portion of the town nestles in this narrow gorge. There is room for but a single street facing the river.
Anterior to the year 1818, the spot where Mauch Chunk now stands was a perfect wilderness, covered with forest trees and underbrush, affording a secure re- treat and covert for the wild animals which had their haunts in this mountainous region.
Where now is heard the cymbal clash of locomotive bells and the richly rumbling bass of the stately cara- vans of commerce and where comfort and refinement dwell, silence then reigned supreme, except when broken by the manifold voices of nature.
It had been known for years previous to this date that the nearby mountains contained anthracite coal; but up to the time spoken of, every attempt which had been made to work the mines and convey coal to market had soon proved abortive.
Now, however, the burden of the task which had over- whelmed other brave spirits was assumed by Josiah White, Erskine Hazard and George F. A. Hanto, who
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
secured the lease of the mines at Summit Hill, and who became the founders of the Lehigh Coal and Naviga- tion Company.
Their efforts were ultimately crowned with splendid success, and it was in connection with the great enter- prise launched by these men that Mauch Chunk had its beginnings and its subsequent development.
The work of improving the channel of the river and constructing a wagon road to the mines, preparatory to shipping coal to market from this point, was begun during the summer of the year already alluded to.
The site of the town was selected from the emergency of the circumstances.
Had it not been that the owners of the land at the mouth of the Nesquehoning creek placed a prohibitive price thereon, hoping that coal might be found beneath its surface, that location would have been chosen.
The first improvements made at Mauch Chunk were merely those necessary to the business of the company, and were, of course utilitarian in character.
That the region was indeed a wilderness may be gathered from the fact that when operations were be- gun there were but thirteen houses visible from the river north of Lehigh Gap.
The workmen, who were under the immediate super- vision of Josiah White himself, were at first quar- tered on scows that were moved down the river as the work progressed.
During the first year of the settlement four hundred acres of land were cleared, and about forty buildings of various descriptions were erected.
Among these were saw mills, a grist mill, workshops and dwellings.
Nicholas Brink, who had previously lived in Phila- delphia, was the company's steward. His wife, Mar-
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
garet, was the first woman to come to Mauch Chunk. Soon after locating here a son was born to them, and he was named Josiah White Erskine Hazard George F. A. Hanto Brink. This being the first birth to occur in the town, the inhabitants considered the event worthy of public demonstration. "The forest was illuminated with pine torches, plenty of pure old rye whiskey was drunk, and the noise and dancing were so great that it seemed as if the very tops of the pines had caught the infection, and kept time by swaying to and fro."
This celebration was participated in by about six- hundred men, the number then engaged in pushing to completion the improvements which had been begun.
The only avenue of approach to Mauch Chunk at this time was the line of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike.
The road lay along the margin of the river, and, in passing through the "Narrows" below the town, there was room for but a single vehicle at a time. For years it was necessary to take the precaution to send word ahead to a place where such as came from the opposite direction could halt and wait until passed.
In making his report, one who had visited the locality for the purpose of examining into the practicability of the projects under way, said: "The making of a good road is utterly impossible, and to give you an idea of the country over which the road is to pass, I need only say that I considered it quite an easement when the wheel of my carriage struck a stump instead of a stone!"
Many viewed with similar feelings of incredulity the proposition that a town should be built where na- ture seemed manifestly to have made it impossible.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
But the men who had undertaken this enterprise were of the kind whom obstacles only spur to greater en- deavors, and the work went steadily on.
In 1821, Josiah White was joined by his wife and four children, and during the following year a com- fortable house was provided for them. This stood im- mediately in the rear of the spot where the Soldiers' Monument has since been erected, and was surrounded by spacious and well kept grounds.
Sixteen stone houses were completed on the lower part of Broadway in 1823. The Mansion House was begun at this time, and was finished in 1824. During this year the ravine was given a further appearance of being inhabited by the erection of nineteen log build- ings above the place where the Town Hall now stands.
A stone grist mill was completed in 1825, while three additional saw mills were placed in operation on the river about the same time.
In 1827 the company built a wooden bridge across the Lehigh, also putting up a fire-proof office building adjoining the present court house.
A two-story stone building, which served as the com- pany's store house, was put up in 1828. It stood on the spot now occupied by the court house, and was donated to the county upon its organization, being its first tem- ple of justice.
Men and manners were for the most part as rough as the surroundings during the early period of the settle- ment, as is commonly the case where hardy spirits are engaged in subdning nature, and where the refining influences of home and civilization are lacking.
Fights were of common occurrence, although the men were not so much given to quarreling among themselves as they were to waging war against the laborers of Lehighton, with whom they frequently had sanguinary encounters on their own ground.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
The habitual use of intoxicating beverages, too, was then approved by custom, and laboring men were sup- plied with liquor by their employers.
Josiah White, sturdy Quaker though he was, made no exception to the rule.
The men employed at Mauch Chunk were given their whiskey as regularly as their meals, a man being kept on the payroll whose sole duty consisted in dispensing it, a "jiggerful" at a time to each man.
William Speers was the "jigger boss," and it was in recognition of his first name that the allowances came to be generally called "Billy cups."
Reference is made to this custom in a song which was once locally popular :
"When old Mauch Chunk was young, At noon they blew the horn,
And, gathering thick, came gangs of men, And so at eve and morn.
With grace and promptitude and skill
They moistened lip and tongue,
And went to work with right good will, When old Mauch Chunk was young."
Prior to 1832, the land about Mauch Chunk and the improvements which had been made upon it were owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. The town at that time contained about one hundred and fifty buildings of every description, having a resi- dent population of approximately one thousand people.
It had a church, four schools, a newspaper and print- ing office, one hotel, an iron foundry and a car manu- factory, while boat building was also carried on exten- sively.
But above all, it was at the head of the Lehigh Canal, and the boats which departed from this point laden
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
with coal wafted back cargoes of merchandise and freight for a large extent of country.
The wild and picturesque location of the town, the many novelties of the nearby coal mines, and the won- ders of the Switchback Railroad, which was the first of any importance in the United States, drew many visi- tors to the place.
This railroad, following the same route then as at present, carried the product of the mines to the plateau at the foot of Mt. Pisgah, whence the coal was conveyed by means of inclined planes and chutes to the river below.
With its accustomed liberality, the company, in 1832, threw the town open to public enterprise, effect- ing the sale or lease of a large number of lots, and in- augurating an era of individual activity and prosperity.
Speaking of the pioneer residents of Mauch Chunk, Josiah White and Erskine Hazard were chronologically and in other respects the first. They were indeed among the princes of pioneers, and their names are in- scribed in imperishable characters on the title page of the almost fabulous history of anthracite coal.
John Ruddle, a native of England, came here as an accountant for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- pany in 1820. He was one of the earliest residents of East Mauch Chunk, where his descendants still live.
Isaac Salkeld, accompanied by his family, arrived here from Philadelphia in 1823. He was a general foreman for the company, and superintended the build- ing of the Mansion House, the gravity road to Nesque- honing, and many other improvements.
For a time he had charge of the old Mauch Chunk Foundry, one of the first in the state outside of Phila- delphia. His son, Jacob, was for many years promi- nently identified with the life and activities of Mauch Chunk.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
George Belford, who was one of the company's first employes, in later life became a coal operator and was chosen as the first president of the Mauch Chunk Bank.
Others who were here as early as 1824, and who left their impress upon the town were: Samuel Lippin- cott, Benjamin Mears, Isaac Dodson, Abiel Abbot and Alexander Lockhart.
William Butler, a leading churchman, located in the place in 1826; Ezekiel W. Harlan, later a coal operator also came at this time.
Asa Lansford Foster, who achieved substantial suc- cess in various fields of endeavor, arrived in the set- tlement in 1827.
Joseph H. Chapman came during the ensuing year. He was a man of many activities, but in later life had charge of the coal shipping department of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company.
Daniel Bertsch, prominent among the early coal operators, and in other respects, came here as a black- smith in 1827.
John Leisenring, Sr., a native of Lehigh county, with his family, came in 1828 to become the landlord of the Mansion House. Later he was a merchant and general business man. The name of his eldest son, John, is intimately associated with the development of the transportation facilities of the Lehigh Valley; he also became a wealthy coal operator. Another son, A. W. Leisenring, became a leader in the financial affairs of Mauch Chunk.
The year 1833 witnessed the coming of one who was destined to become one of the foremost men of his day, Asa Packer. He was accompanied by his brother- in-law, James I. Blakslee.
During the same year, Robert Klotz, a native of the Mahoning Valley, began life as a mule driver on the
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
towpath at Mauch Chunk. He was later a conspicuous figure in the town, and represented his district in congress.
Among the best known of the comparatively early settlers was Colonel John Lentz, a veteran of the war of 1812, and a native of Lehigh county. He was a leader in the movement which resulted in the organ- ization of Carbon county, under which he subsequently held various offices of trust and honor, being also a hotel keeper. His son, Lafayette Lentz, is one of Mauch Chunk's oldest and most respected residents of to-day.
Others of subsequent prominence who made Mauch Chunk their home during the first twenty-five years of its existence were: E. A. Douglass and his brother, A. A. Douglass, the former an official of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and the latter a coal operator; A. G. Brodhead, the well known railroad man, and Charles O. Skeer, a leader in the coal in- dustry and in business and financial affairs.
The first mercantile establishment to be opened in Mauch Chunk after the discontinuance of the company store was the famous "corner store," which occupied the site where the Navigation Building now stands. It was originally owned by Asa L. Foster, who had for- merly conducted the company store, Benjamin R. Me- Connell and James Broderiek.
This was the principal establishment of its kind be- tween the Susquehanna and the Delaware, and many of the farmers of the first named region disposed of their surplus products here, and the fact that they received cash in exchange, instead of being asked to do business on the basis of barter, which was then the custom in most rural neighborhoods, made the market a very desirable one to them. The store was so con-
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
structed that boats could be floated beneath it and un- loaded by wheel and axle through hatches in the floors of the building.
After a few years, Mr. Foster became the sole owner of the establishment, and in 1837 he sold out to Asa and R. W. Packer. They carried on the business until about the middle of the next decade, being succeeded by Hiram Wolf, Harry Wilbur and David Trehorn, under the title of Wolf, Wilbur and Company.
Casper Christman, James Speer, Nathan Fegley and Company and John Kent and Company were among those who early entered into business in the town.
John Leisenring, Sr., was a leading merchant from 1840 until his death, which occurred in 1854.
The pioneering spirit which distinguished the build- ers of Mauch Chunk was made particularly manifest in the realm of invention.
John Wilson, whose trade was that of a tinker, and who was one of the first men to come to the locality, made the first heating stove to burn anthracite coal. It was a plain, round, sheet-iron cylinder, with fire-door, tearing-door, ash pit and a screen under the grate. It also contained a pan to receive the ashes.
Wilson, too, is said to have been the maker of the first cook-stove successfully burning hard coal. He was of a humorous disposition, and delighted to be called "John Wulson, the tinker."
Asa L. Foster did a great deal of experimenting in the endeavor to perfect the coal-burning stove, and many of his ideas were utilized by John Mears, a worker in iron and tin, who engaged in the manufac- ture of stoves in the place.
The first attempt attended with any considerable suc- cess to utilize anthracite coal in the smelting of iron ore in this country was made at Mauch Chunk.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
White and Hazard, the managers of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company began to experiment in this direction in 1825, when they erected a blast furnace, together with a tilt-mill and forge on the site where the Broadway livery and boarding stables now stand. The knowledge they acquired was later turned to good account, but produced no immediate results, the fur- nace being abandoned and another built on adjoining ground, in which charcoal was used.
In the fall of 1837, the old furnace was again fitted up and the experiment retried by Henry High, Joseph Baughman, F. C. Lanthrop and Julius Guiteau. The result encouraged them to go on with their work, al- though they were ridiculed by old-fashioned iron mas- ters, who affirmed their readiness to eat all the iron that could be manufactured in this manner.
To test the matter more thoroughly, a small furnace was built below the weigh-lock, which was completed during the summer of 1838.
After overcoming many difficulties, the furnace was made to produce iron of good quality, but the venture was not financially successful.
A few years later, however, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company promoted the building of the first blast furnaces of the Crane Iron Company at Cata- sauqua, where success was achieved from the start.
A foundry started by the first-named company near the old furnace on Broadway was sold about 1830 to John Fatzinger. He and Jacob H. Salkeld carried on the establishment for many years.
The Mauch Chunk Iron Works, until recently owned by the estate of W. H. Stroh, were opened by Edward Lippincott and Elias Miner in 1845. Formerly a fur- nace was conducted in connection with the plant, but this feature was found unprofitable and was aban- doned.
From an Old Print. MAUCH CHUNK, AS IT APPEARED IN 1845.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
One of the thriving industries of Mauch Chunk in earlier times was the wire mill established by the Le- high Coal and Navigation Company in 1849. Opera- tions were first carried on in the old grist mill building on Susquehanna street, and later another building was added. All the wire rope used by the company was manufactured here, the process having been evolved by Erskine Hazard. The works were closed in 1872 and the industry transferred to Wilkes-Barre.
The grist mill property referred to occupied the spot where the establishment of the Hooven Mercantile Company is now situated.
In 1875, Ario Pardee opened a steam rolling mill on the corner where the Central Hotel has since been built. Alexander Robinson conducted the business.
Among the other local industries which are still in existence is the West End Brewery, formerly owned by John R. G. Weysser; the Mauch Chunk Silk Mills, and the repair shops of the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
Mauch Chunk was incorporated as a borough on January 26, 1850. At that time the population of the place was about twenty-five hundred, which included the people living in East Mauch Chunk, which was not separated from the older settlement until 1854. Both boroughs were set off from Mauch Chunk township.
At the first municipal election Charles O. Skeer, E. W. Harlan, Joseph Bullock, Jacob H. Salkeld, Leonard Blakslee and J. R. Twining were elected as councilmen. They chose E. W. Harlan as burgess at their first meeting.
Upper Mauch Chunk, constituting the Second Ward of the borough, and occupying a natural terrace over- looking the rest of the town, was laid out for building purposes in 1846. The first settler in this neighbor-
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