USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Nanticoke > History of Hanover Township : including Sugar Notch, Ashley, and Nanticoke boroughs : and also a history of Wyoming Valley, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania > Part 24
USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Ashley > History of Hanover Township : including Sugar Notch, Ashley, and Nanticoke boroughs : and also a history of Wyoming Valley, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania > Part 24
USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Sugar Notch > History of Hanover Township : including Sugar Notch, Ashley, and Nanticoke boroughs : and also a history of Wyoming Valley, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania > Part 24
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
Col. Wright says :- The troops raised here for the Revolutionary struggle and credited to Connecticut by the continental establish- ment numbered more than twenty to one over the home department compared with the population. (Page 129).
EMIGRANTS.
" It is difficult to describe the rapacity with which the American rushes forward to secure the immense booty which fortune proffers to him. In the pursuit he fearlessly braves the arrow of the Indian and the distempers of the forest; he is unimpressed by the silence of the woods; the approach of beasts of prey does not disturb him, for he is goaded onward by a passion more intense than the love of life. Before him lies a boundless continent, and he urges onward as if time-pressed, and he was afraid of finding no room for his exertions. I have spoken of the emigration from the older States, but how shall I describe that which takes place from the more recent ones? Fifty years have scarcely elapsed since that of Ohio was founded; the greater part of its inhabitants were not born within its confines; its capitol has only been built thirty years, and its territory is still covered by an immense extent of unculti- vated fields; nevertheless, the population of Ohio is already (1832) proceeding westward, and most of the settlers who descend to the fertile savannas of Illinois are citizens of Ohio. These men left
*Mr. Miner in his history of Wyoming makes a careful estimate by figures as to popu- lation here and in Connecticut, and shows very conclusively that at least ten to one is not over the mark.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
their first country to improve their own condition; they quit their resting-place to meliorate it still more; fortune awaits them every- where, but happiness they cannot attain. The desire of prosperity has become an ardent and restless passion in their minds, which grows by what it gains. They broke the ties which bound them to their natal earth, and they have contracted no fresh ones on their way. Emigration was at first necessary to them as a means of subsistence; and it soon becomes a sort of game of chance, which they pursue for the emotions it excites, as much as for the gain it procures. * *
"At the extreme borders of the States, upon the confines of society and of the wilderness, a population of bold adventurers have taken up their abode, who pierce the solitudes of the American woods and seek a country there, in order to escape that poverty which awaited them in their native provinces. As soon as the pioneer arrives upon the spot which is to serve him for a retreat he fells a few trees and builds a log-house. Nothing can offer a more miserable aspect than these isolated dwellings. The traveler who approaches one of them towards nightfall sees the flicker of the hearth-flame through the chinks in the walls; and at night if the wind rises, he hears the roof of boughs shake to and fro in the midst of the great forest trees. Who would not suppose that this poor hut is the asylum of rudeness and ignorance? Yet no sort of comparison can be drawn between the pioneer and the dwelling which shelters him. Everything about him is primitive and un- formed, but he is himself the result of the labor and experience of eighteen centuries. He wears the dress, and he speaks the language of cities; he is acquainted with the past, curious of the future, and ready for argument upon the present; he is, in short, a highly civilized being, who consents, for a time, to inhabit the back- woods, and who penetrates into the wilds of a New World with the Bible, an axe, and a file of newspapers."-De Tocqueville, 1832.
Act March 2, 1799, changed the rates of letter postage:
Domestic letters, 14 oz. any distance up to 40 miles . . . 8 cents. from 40 to 90 miles, IO
¥
=
90 to 150 ¥
121/2 "
46
¥
150 to 300 17
300 to 500 "
20
over 500 miles . . 25
-
1
-
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HANOVER TOWNSHIP.
Double, and triple weights were accompanied by double and triple rates.
Act April 30, 1810-Re-enacts the same rates as the above.
Act December 23, 1814-Adds 50 per cent. to the above rates.
Act February 1, 1816-The above 50 per cent. addition re- pealed.
Act April 9, 1816-Rates of postage after May 1, 1816:
6 cents. One-quarter ounce any distance up to 30 miles .
« 66 " from 30 to 80 miles . .10 "
80 to 150 " 121/2 "
150 to 400 1812 "
over 400 miles . 25
Double and triple weights and rates as in previous acts.
During the period from 1810 to 1820 nothing occurred worthy of note except the change in values on account of the war, unless it was the continued emigration of the Yankees and the continued immigration of the Pennsylvania Dutch. The Pennsylvanians came from Northampton, Northumberland and Dauphin Counties and bought out the Yankees right and left. Thus the Yankees kept up a continual emigration to the Western Reserve in Ohio. And now Indiana began to be the "West." Wyoming Valley seemed to be a sort of half-way house or stopping place for persons and families from the East to stop at a while on their way west. Some of the original first settlers still remaining here and now grown old indeed, as soon as the war of 1812-15 was settled, sold out their farms and emigrated to the West. Well, their families had grown up and mostly gone before. Many of the new comers were men of means and bought some of the best farms in the township-the flats. Grist-mills and saw-mills were built, and new anneries were established. There were several new distilleries built, but they are not mentioned on the list of the assessors as introduced below. It would have been better if they had never been built, but at that age they did not know it. Men made fortunes in the liquor business then as they do now sometimes, and with the same general result to themselves and their families, namely, one or more habitual drunkards among them.
1820. The valuation on the assessor's list, $86,704.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
Number of dwellings . 121
persons assessed 160
horses 151
oxen 54
COWS 230
grist-mills 4
clover-mills
I
single men 16
By the U. S. census of 1820 the population of Hanover was 879. There being only one hundred and twenty-one dwelling- houses there would be an average of seven and a quarter persons to each dwelling.
THE UNITED STATES CENSUS OF 1820.
The U. S. census of this year was taken in the same manner as the preceding ones, but there was an attempt again to show some- thing more than mere numbers in it. There were the same "free white males and females, and the other free persons, and one slave," and "thirteen foreigners not naturalized." There were 145 engaged in agriculture, 30 engaged in manufactures, and one en- gaged in commerce. Paper was manufactured in Luzerne County in 1820. Among other things named in this census is a Bloomery forge for the manufacture of bar-iron at Nanticoke." This was the only establishment for making iron in Luzerne County in 1820.
It is reported as follows:
Bloomery forge, one fire. . $ 600
Capital invested .
Men employed, two.
Wages paid . . 600 Bog ore used, 150 tons.
Cost of ore . 400
Other expenses, including charcoal 1,050
Market value of the yearly product . 3,600
"This forge merely furnishes iron in the vicinity, and there being no extensive establishment within the county, or nearer than sixty miles, it is owing to this circumstance that the iron manu- factured is enhanced to a value equal to the market price at other establishments and the carriage. The demand is equal to the
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HANOVER TOWNSHIP.
quantity manufactured (about 30 tons), but it may be said to be rather exchanged than sold. There being almost a total absence of the precious metals in this part of the country, it in some degree acts as their representative, and is made to answer the purpose of capital in procuring the materials employed in its own manufacture, etc. The iron of this forge sold at $160 per ton until the present year; it now sells at $120."-U. S. Census, 1820.
There are several reasons for introducing this official report of a U. S. officer. Iron had been made at Nanticoke for more than forty-five years, but this is the first official evidence of it. But the principal reason for introducing it is that the writer has frequently stated that there was little or no money of any kind in circulation here, and that other things had to be used as a substitute. The above statement of an official of the government in 1820 must be taken as conclusive of the matter. This report also shows what kind of ore was used. It has been already stated that the farmers dug it out of their own land (when there happened to be any found on the farm) and hauled it to the furnace at Nanticoke and received iron for it. It shows also the value of the ore and its richness-or poorness-in quality. It produced twenty per cent. of iron. Iron ore was regularly procured from ground in Newport township. The furnace did not depend altogether upon the neighboring farmers for iron ore. This forge was in Newport township, a few rods up the creek, south-west from the L. & S. or P. & R. railroad depot at Nanticoke.
18
CHAPTER XIV.
1820 TO 1830-ANTHRACITE COAL.
66
FTER the return (to Connecticut) of the settlers in 1762 and during the winter, the committee, to wit :- John Jenkins, John Smith, and Stephen Gardner, made report of the discovery of iron and anthracite coal at Wyoming, and also the exceeding richness of the land, and the spirit of migration to that locality became very active and earnest." "'At a meeting of the Susquehanna Company, held at Windom, April 17, 1763, it ap- pearing that two or three hundred of the proprietors of the lands on the Susquehanna desire that several townships be laid out for the speedy settlement of the lands; it is, therefore, voted that there shall be eight townships laid out on said river, each of said town- ships to be five miles square, fit for good improvement, reserving for the use of the company for their after disposal, all beds or mines of iron ore or coal that may be within the towns ordered for settlement.'" .
"This would appear to be the first discovery and mention of anthracite coal in the country."-Dr. Egle's History of Pennsylvania, 1883, p. 889.
"In 1768, Charles Stewart surveyed the Manor of Sunbury, on the west side of the Susquehanna opposite Wilkes-Barre, and on the original draft is noted 'Stone Coal' as appearing in what is now called Ross hill. In 1769, Obadiah Gore and his brother came from Connecticut with a body of settlers, and the same year used anthracite coal in his blacksmith shop."
"In 1775-6 several boat loads of anthracite coal were sent from Wyoming down the Susquehanna, and thence hauled to Carlisle barracks, to manufacture arms for the government."-Sec'ty Int'l Affairs 1878-9.
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HANOVER TOWNSHIP.
"During the war of the Revolution several boat loads were taken down the Susquehanna, it is supposed, by Capt. Daniel Gore, for the use of the armory forges at Carlisle."-Miner.
"In 1776, two Durham boats were sent from below to Wyoming for coal, which was purchased from R. Geer, (Rezin Geer) and mined from the opening now on the property of Col. G. M. Hollen- back above Mill Creek. From Harris's Ferry, now Harrisburg, the coal, 'about twenty tons,' was hauled on wagons to Carlisle, where it was used in the United States armory, recently erected there. This was done annually during the Revolutionary war."-Annals of Luzerne.
. In 1829, Professor Silliman, who visited the valley, says :- "Obadiah Gore informed me that he was the first person who ever used anthracite coal and that was in the year 1768 or 1769. He found it to answer the purpose well, and all the blacksmiths of the place (Wyoming) have used it in their forges ever since."-Histor- ical Collections, p. 429.
Coal was quarried out for sale for household use after 1808. It was sold at the quarry or mine for one dollar per ton. Probably from 1810 to 1820 as much was mined or quarried in Hanover as 1000 to 1500 tons per year. Now, in 1884, 1,253,128 tons were mined in Hanover and the boroughs within its ancient boundaries. Then, its value at the mine was $1000 to $1500. Now it is worth -after passing through the breaker-at the mines, $2,500,000. Or then, one dollar a ton, now two. It should be said here, however, that for the coal sent to market from the township, etc., the amount of money or return to us for it is the wages only of the men em- ployed in its production, and that is about one dollar per ton, being in the aggregate about $1,250,000 per year now. If the population is, as estimated now-in 1884-about 12,000 people, that would be about $104 for every man, woman and child. .
In 1807 Abijah Smith commenced mining coal in Plymouth, and with his brother John carried on the business from 1808. Their average business annually down to 1820, was from six to eight ark loads, or about four or five hundred tons.
The old Susquehanna coal ark, like the mastodon, is a thing of the past. Let Col. Wright describe it :-
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
"The length of the craft was ninety feet, its width sixteen feet its depth four feet, and its capacity sixty tons. Each end termin- ated in an acute angle, with a stem-post surmounted by a huge oar some thirty feet in length, and which required the strength of two stout men to ply it in the water. It required' in its construction 7600 feet board measure of two-inch plank. The bottom timbers would contain about 2000 feet, the ribs or studs sustaining the side planks 400 feet, making a total of some 10,000 feet.
The cost at that time for lumber was $4.00 per M . . $40.00
Construction, mechanical work . 24.00
Running plank, oars, calking material, hawser (made of wood fiber), bailing scoop, etc. 6.00
Total cost $70.00
"The ark was navigated by four men, and the ordinary time to reach tide water was seven days. The cost attending the trip was about $50.00. Two out of three arks would probably reach the port of their destination, one-third was generally left upon the rocks in the rapids of the river, or went to the bottom. The fol- lowing estimate therefore of 60 tons of coal, laid down in market is not far from the facts :-
Cost of mining 60 tons $ 45.00
Hauling to the river 16.00
Cost of ark 70.00
Expenses of navigation 50.00
Total . $181.00 or equal to $3.00 a ton. To this must be added one-third for the perils of navigation, which will make the total cost of the ton at tide-water, $4.00. Commissions on sales, transshipment from the ark to coasting vessels and other incidents would probably make the whole outlay upon a ton about $5.00.
"The average price of sales at this time was probably $10.00, leaving a profit of $5.00 on a ton. If therefore 350 tons of the 500 annually transported by the Messrs. Smith reached the market, it left them a profit of $1,700, not taking into account their personal services. By the closest economy, from 1807 to 1820, they were able to sustain themselves. Some of the Plymouth men who em-
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277
HANOVER TOWNSHIP.
barked in the business made total failures. It was the work of forty years to convince the people that 'black stones' could be made available for fuel."
Extract from an "account current, rendered by Price & Water- bury, of New York, to Abijah Smith & Co .:
"1812.
"June 8 .- By cash of Doty & Willets for 5 chaldrons coal . $100.00 By cash of John Withington for 5 chaldrons coal 100.00
By cash of G. P. Lorrillard for I chaldron coal . 20.00 June 13 .- By cash of G. P. Lorrillard for 111/2 chaldrons coal 230.00
By A. Frazyer's note (90 days) for 25 chaldrons coal 475.00
By half measurement, received for 9 bushels . 6.33
June 25 .- By Pirpont for 1/2 chaldron coal
By Mr. Landis, 12 chaldron coal 11.00
I 2.00
Oct. 9 .- By William Colman for 1/2 chaldron coal 12.50
Oct. 24 .- By cash for I chaldron coal 25.00
Dec. 14 .- By cash for 12 chaldron coal 12.50
"Coal was sold by the chaldron, thirty-six bushels, or nearly a ton and a third to the chaldron. The sales for the New York supply in 1812 were inside of two hundred tons. The price .was about $15.00 a ton, and yet most of the early coal operators were unsuccessful." (Page 324).
"Col. George M. Hollenback sent two four-horse loads of coal to Philadelphia in 1813;" and that "James Lee sent a four-horse load from Hanover to a blacksmith in Germantown."-Stewart Pierce.
"It constitutes the principal fuel of the inhabitants as well as their most important article of exportation."-Chapman, Hist. Wy. 1817.
John Bobb sent coal down the river from Hanover in an ark before the canal was dug, but we are not able to tell what year it was in. Many others did the same thing .. There was a constant sale of coal down the river by arks, from the time people learned to burn it in the house, and that, of course, was very soon after Mr. Fell's discovery in Wilkes-Barre in 1808. The grate came into general use wherever coal could be got.
278
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
The real beginning of the coal business then, according to the undeniable facts as stated above, should be placed in 1807, instead of 1820, as is always done, or else in 1776.
In the proper place chronologically, the fact has been stated that Jesse Fell discovered that coal-stone coal, as it was called then- could be burned in a grate of iron bars placed in a common open fire-place made for burning wood. Until then-1808-it was believed that such coal could be made to burn only by having a blast of wind from a bellows forced through it from below, and it had been mined or quarried until then for use only in forges and blacksmith shops. That many boat loads had been floated down the river-in arks or floats made for that especial occasion or trip -has been mentioned above. But now the coal business put on a different face. It could be used in private houses for fuel in place of wood, and would burn all night and keep a house warm in win- ter time. Every family in Wyoming Valley, within a very short time, had a blacksmith make them a grate and a mason set it up in their fire-place every winter to burn this stone coal. A good fire could be kept all night with it, and comfort to a wonderful degree was increased in cold weather in their log-houses.
Wherever coal cropped out in a man's field there was sure to be a coal quarry. Persons of sufficient wealth, when they found no coal that could be mined as it was mined then on their own land, bought an acre or less on the outcrop of some land in the mountain with the right of way to and from it, and had coal mined or quar- ried for themselves and sometimes for sale. The Comfort Carey Mine at Sugar Notch was one of this kind, and was worked for many years, probably more than forty. Every brook or run coming down the mountain side, or through a notch in the Little Mountain, cut through several beds, and these were easily found and easily worked. For many years the dirt and rock were taken off the top and the coal quarried out like building stone. Afterwards they learned to go under the rock for the coal. It was broken up at home with a large hammer or old axe as it was needed, every evening, into such sizes as they desired, but the larger and smaller sizes were all put on the fire together. The grates used would hold from a half bushel to two bushels of coal, heaped up. A single fire would burn about ten tons in a winter. Any farmer that would
279
HANOVER TOWNSHIP.
open a bed and mine it out for sale to his neighbors had no difficulty in selling it, and it was worth a dollar a ton at the bed. It was a good thing for the owner as long as it lasted, but he would soon get so deep in the ground that the water would not run out and then he had to abandon it. In the mountain they did not have this trouble. Pumps worked by hand were sometimes used, but that was found too expensive.
About 1829, some Welshmen from the mining regions in Wales came to the late Maj. Eleazer Blackman's Mines-sometimes called Blackman's Mines, but now the Franklin Mines in Wilkes-Barre- and did the first underground mining in this part of the country, and perhaps the first in the United States. It is possible that the very first undermining for coal was in a bed close to the Blackman mines, owned by Wood and Robinson. These were Edward and Jonathan Jones, all deceased, the father and brother of Richard Jones, deceased, founder of the Vulcan Iron Works of South Wilkes-Barre. This gave the coal business a new start, and the canal being finished up to Hanover and Plymouth above the Nanti- coke dam about the same time, the coal business was, of course, an assured success. Goal could now be taken to market at a cheap rate, and the coal trade of the Wyoming region commenced.
Near the same time-1829-the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company built a canal from Rondout-Kingston-Esopus-on the Hudson river, to Honesdale in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, and a gravity railroad from Carbondale-Luzerne County then, now Lack- awanna County-to Honesdale, by which the north-eastern end of the Wyoming coal field was tapped. Mining for the New York market commenced, and the company shipped that year 7000 tons.
About 1833 or 1834 the canal along the Susquehanna was opened to Pittston. All the coal from Hanover, Plymouth, Wilkes- Barre and Pittston went down the North Branch Canal-the Sus- quehanna to Harrisburg, Baltimore, Philadelphia and the inter- mediate towns and country. But little, it is thought, reached New York and the East from this region until the opening of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company's canal from Mauch Chunk to White Haven, and their railroad from White Haven to Wilkes- Barre across the mountain over the planes at Solomon's Gap in 1846. This railroad had been run by horse-power for a year or so
280
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
before 1846, carrying light freight and passengers, but no coal had been carried over. It ran only from Wilkes-Barre to White Haven on the Lehigh, where the coal was transshipped into boats and taken by canal to Philadelphia and New York.
In an appendix to Chapman's History of Wyoming the follow- ing description of Hanover is found-published in 1830:
"Hanover is bounded N. E. by Wilkes-Barre, E. and S. E. by the Lehigh River and Northampton County, S. W. by Sugarloaf and Newport, and N. W. by the Susquehanna River, which separ- ates it from Plymouth.
"That portion of this township which 'lies in the Wyoming Valley is thickly settled and the land is of an excellent quality and well cultivated. The mountainous part is covered with timber, consisting of white and yellow pine, oak, hickory and chestnut, some portion of which may be cultivated.
"Anthracite coal is found everywhere in this township from the river to near the summit of the mountain, a distance of two or three miles. The argillaceous iron stone abounds in the mountain, and, it is believed, of sufficient richness to justify its being worked upon an extensive scale.
"In the eastern division of this township are the eastern branch of the Nanticoke and Solomon's Creek, which are pretty good mill streams. In this latter stream about midway up the mountain and two miles from Wilkes-Barre, which is called Solomon's Gap, is a beautiful cascade, which has long been visited as a great natural curiosity. Its wild and romantic aspect and the delightful natural scenery around it have, within a few years, been considerably injured by the erection of a very superior merchant mill im- mediately below the falls by General William Ross, of Wilkes- Barre, who is the proprietor of this valuable water power. But the lovers of nature and of art are still highly gratified with a visit to this romantic spot.
"In its eastern division are Pine, Wright's, Terrapin ponds, and Sandy Creek, which empty into the Lehigh, and sources of the Nescopeck, and the big and little Wapwallopen, which flow into the Susquehanna.
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HANOVER TOWNSHIP.
" Penobscot Knob, the highest peak of the mountain in this town- ship, affords an extensive and sublime prospect. Standing upon its apex you look down upon the surrounding country as upon a map. To the west and south-west the valleys of the West Branch, Penn, Buffalo and Bald Eagle Creeks, and the majestic Allegheny, in Centre County, are plainly seen, whilst the intervening mountains dwindle in the view into gentle undulations. Here, whilst he con- templates the vast prospect around him, man feels his own little- ness, and, instinctively turning to the Great Author of all, exclaims, 'What is man, that Thou art mindful of him!'
"Hanover was originally settled by immigrants from Paxton and Hanover, then Lancaster, now Dauphin and Lebanon Counties, who came on under the Connecticut title in 1769, among whom was the late Judge Hollenback.
"The original settlers in this township have given place to the Germans, who now compose the principal part of the population. They are an honest, industrious and punctual people.
"Hanover furnishes annually a large surplus quantity of wheat, rye, Indian corn and pork, which has hitherto been transported by wagons to Easton, and latterly to Mauch Chunk, to a market. The great stage route from Wilkes-Barre to Harrisburg passes through it. Nanticoke falls is near its western angle. * * * It contains about 1,000 inhabitants."
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