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 30
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 30
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 30
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"Breasts" are turned or started up from the gangway as soon as and where there is room for one, as the gangway is being driven. The breasts are chambers or spaces in which the coal is mined. These breasts are driven up, a uniform width at right angles with the gangway and directly up the pitch, for, as just mentioned, the beds or veins all pitch more or less, and sometimes they stand up vertical. They are driven up the pitch to a distance of 80, 90 or 100 yards. A pillar of solid coal is left standing on each side of every breast, all the way up from the gangway, to keep up the roof. The breasts vary in width, but are never less than six nor more than twelve yards in width. The solid coal left for pillars is from three to eight yards thick. Many props are also used in the breasts to help keep up the roof. Sometimes a hole is cut through from breast to breast near the face of the breasts every few yards as they go up, the lower hole being stopped up with boards when the upper one is made. This hole is made so the air passing may rise to the face of every breast without having to be carried up one side of the breast with a wooden brattice, and down the other side to the gangway and up and down the next one, and so on. Only experience teaches which plan to use.
34I
HANOVER TOWNSHIP.
As the coal is mined out up the breast it is run down a chute to the gangway into the cars as they are brought in to be loaded. These cars will generally hold. about two tons of this uncleaned coal. They are all drawn to the foot of the slope or shaft by mules or a little locomotive specially made for the purpose, and they are hoisted from there to the surface by steam machinery. Outside they are sometimes drawn to and from the opening to the breaker by a locomotive engine, but generally this hauling is done by mules. Sometimes it is done by gravity.
To ventilate the mine, a fan, run by a separate engine, is located at the surface, and draws the air down through the slope or shaft to the foot, through the dog-hole to the face of the gangway as it is being driven, across it, and across the face of every breast that is being worked, and out at the surface.
The fan is a wheel, or has arms or spokes like a water wheel of the old undershot kind, only they are made of iron and are com- * paratively slender, and in the place of the buckets of a water wheel, in the fan large sheets of thin boiler iron (or sometimes wood) are fastened across the wheel, set at an angle, for driving or drawing out the air. These wheels of fans are from ten to twenty- two feet in diameter, and from three to six feet wide. The air is drawn from the mine through a wooden tube or pipe five or six or more feet square. The writer calls it a tube or pipe, but it is square and not round. The fan is surrounded by a circular casing of wood, with an opening upwards, so that the revolving fan drives the foul air brought.from the mine directly up into the atmosphere, the square wooden tube from the mine being connected to the casing around the fan at its center or axle. The foul air enters at the center of the wheel or fan and is thrown out at the circum- ference. By mean's of this fan fresh air is drawn into, around, through and across the face of every gangway and breast that is being worked in the mine.
Some mines in this region are now sunk to a depth of four or five "lifts " of 80, 90 and 100 yards each down in the bed or vein of coal. As they go down deeper it costs more to mine, for it takes more and stronger machinery to hoist the coal and pump out
1
-
342
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
the water and run the fan. Five lifts on a pitch of about 45 degrees will take the bottom or lower gangway down to a depth in the ground from the surface of about 1,000 feet or more. There is no uniform pitch in any of our veins of coal. Sometimes it may be 40, then 50, then back to 30 degrees pitch in the same vein going down.
-
CHAPTER XIX.
1870 TO 1885-CONTINUED.
( N 1870 a race-course called Lee Park was made near the Wilkes-Barre line between the Middle Road and the River Road. There is a half mile track, a stand and a hotel. It is doubt- ful whether it is of any benefit to anybody unless it be to gamblers and betting men.
Many years ago there was a powder-mill on the Middle Road on the Wilkes-Barre line, the works being partly in each township. No powder has been made there for more than twenty-five years. It was driven, when in operation, by the water of Solomon's Creek.
A few rods up the creek from where this powder mill stood, there is now -- 1885-a brewery.
The township, and the boroughs within it, continued to prosper from 1870 till 1873, when stagnation overtook them, and no progress was made in business, in property, or in the condition of affairs until 1880. The strike of 1877 put the finishing touch to the want and distress of the inhabitants. The strike lasted six months, and for the next two years many families had.to live on "mush and molasses." No building was done unless where it was absolutely necessary. No new mines were opened, no extension of old ones was made. After 1880, affairs grew slowly better, and in 1882 many new houses were built, and old ones repaired and occupied, because rents could be got sufficient to justify the outlay. New mines were opened and old ones enlarged. House building flourished in 1883, and the railroads were crowded with passengers as never before, and all the appearance of prosperity had come again.
In 1878 there were nine breakers in Hanover, Sugar Notch, Ashley and Nanticoke, within the old township lines, and only four
-
344
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
of them in operation, and when at work it was only about half time or less. One of these breakers (called the Hanover) was struck by lightning and burned down. In 1883 there were ten breakers, and eight of them at work-sometimes full time and sometimes half time, but wages were high again-compared with what they had been-and half time for part of the year produced no want among the workmen for the necessaries of life.
Lands about the mines and their neighborhood for a distance of half a mile or more are generally uncultivated and thrown open to commons, on account of the difficulty of securing any crops, from them, even if the crops grew. Unruly boys and men, and goats, and cattle, and hogs that run at large make it quite impossible to live by the cultivation of the soil in their neighborhood, and so the land lies open and vacant, that once produced good crops. Nearly every family about the mines keeps a dog, and some of them two, and three, and even four large ones, making it entirely impossible for any one to raise sheep within many miles of the mines. Dogs have been known to go many miles away from home alone to kill sheep. There have been no sheep raised in Hanover since about twenty-five years ago-in 1858 or 1859.
Goats are kept in large numbers, and make it almost impossible to have any shade or fruit trees, or vines, or shrubs, about the houses, or flowers or even any gardens. They are animals pretty well calculated for barbarians, but not at all for civilized com- munities. The destructiveness of these animals is one among the great reasons why everything appears so desolate and uncom- fortable generally about miners' houses. Another reason is the de- sire to have all animals run at large for the benefit of the "poor man." I leave it for others to decide whether it is really to the benefit of the poor man to have these animals run at large.
The first telegraph in this part of the State ran through Han- over, but there was no office in Hanover. Until the mines grew large and coal was shipped in large trains from each mine, there was no telegraph office at the coal mines, but when "through" railroads, and their through trains traversed the township then the telegraph had to be used, and the mines as well as the railroads had them, and now they are very common and very necessary.
345
HANOVER TOWNSHIP.
The telephone runs everywhere, almost; to the mine offices, to shops, to lumber yards, to stores, to doctors' offices, to hotels, and to private houses. The telephone has become almost universal, in the four or five years of its use-now what will it be in forty or fifty ?
Fourteen log-houses still stand and are in constant use as dwellings. Of course, none of that kind of houses is ever built now.
One stone house, built nearly a hundred years ago, is still stand- ing and in use, but it is cracking and giving way a little in places, and it will be down in a few years. It stands on the hill near the Askam postoffice on the Middle Road.
There are now five post-offices within the boundaries of Han- over-viz: Sugar Notch, Ashley, Askam, Peely and Nanticoke. No business is carried on in the township and boroughs but the coal business and railroading, and such mercantile business and mechanical trades as are necessary on account of them, and the wants and needs of a mining population. Farming has fallen to a very low condition and but little is done. Garden products of every description are raised mostly on the flats, and these have to be watched, frequently with arms in hand, night and day, to keep off thieves, and the arms sometimes have to be used. The .mines, the railroads, the repair shops and machine shops are the business of the people now. In the whole township and the three boroughs, with a population of more than twelve thousand in 1884, it is doubtful whether there are more than four blacksmith shops not connected with the mines or railroads; while in the early times it took one blacksmith to every one hundred people, old and young.
Things that were formerly made here have ceased to be manufactured and some are no longer made nor used here, or elsewhere. There are no tanneries now, no tool makers, no plow makers, no makers of scythes, sickles, cradles, knives, axes, hoes, . harness, saddles, carts, wagons, carriages, brooms, cloth, cheese, soap-no weaving, no wool, no flax, no honey, no bees-wax, no bees, no cider, no tobacco, no millwrights, no gunsmiths, no wheel- wrights, no makers of wooden-ware. Indeed there is almost nothing made here now, and nothing produced except coal. But of coal the production is very large and overshadows everything else. Millions of dollars are paid or disbursed by the coal and railroad companies here every year.
22*
346
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
It seems as if when one enjoys one great and good thing he must forego all others. If we have a great coal business, then we cannot have any other business worth mentioning, at the same time. The business of Hanover was once entirely agricultural, now it is entirely mining. Her future history while her coal lasts will be merely statistical; of the kind that can be stated in figures-the amount of coal she produces, number of men employed, wages paid, persons injured, lives lost, number of steam engines used, depth of mines, amount of money invested in mines, amount paid out per year, and so on to the end of the chapter. Her population will not be the owners, to any considerable degree, during that time, and her owners will not be any part of her population- unless a very different condition of things arises from the present.
THE UNITED STATES CENSUS OF 1880.
The population of Hanover and the three boroughs within it, according to the census of 1880, was :-
Hanover township
. 2000
Sugar Notch borough 1580
Ashley borough . 2798
Nanticoke borough 3884
leaves in Hanover 2589
Deduct 1/3 for Newport 1295 )
Total . 8967
This is an increase in population of 138 per cent. in ten years. As part of Nanticoke borough lies within the township of Newport an estimate of the population there had to be made and deducted. It was estimated at one-third of the inhabitants. A census of the population of Nanticoke having been taken this year, 1884, by themselves, for their own municipal purposes, the number is re- ported to be over 8000. New mines have been opened and breakers built since 1880, and the population has undoubtedly greatly in- creased-perhaps doubled in that time.
The assessment of Hanover $ 566,742
=
" Sugar Notch
143,545
" Ashley . 242,561
" Nanticoke 339,451
$1,292,299
Deduct 1/3 of Nanticoke
113,150
Total valuation
$1,179,149
-
HANOVER TOWNSHIP.
347
The assessment of Hanover . . Horses and mules 148-cows 230
" Sugar Notch .
« 67- “ 41
" Ashley
86- 78
" Nanticoke
228- " 79
The original lines of the lots of the first division of Hanover on the western side of the township as surveyed in 1802 were run from the river south twenty-two and a half degrees east, by the compass. Now it may seem curious to the general reader-and it is stated here in this way in order to set him thinking-that in 1870 the same lines on the ground ran, south nineteen and a quarter degrees east by the compass. Showing that the compass-the magnetic needle-has varied three degrees and a quarter in sixty- eight years; or else the North Pole has shifted its place that much. At the same rate of variation, continued in the same direction for about four hundred years, these same lines will run north and south by compass-that is, according to the magnetic needle.
It may be understood from what has been said in previous pages, that the taxes are very high, and that the reason for it in part is, that the assessments are made by assessors not elected by the owners of the property, or by their friends and neighbors, but persons in general not owners of anything, and not responsible. The local taxes are also levied, collected, and expended, by the same class of persons. It may therefore be surmised that the taxes will be put, as they are where these people rule, to the highest point the law allows, and frequently higher, and that this condition of things is growing more and more oppressive every year. If this only fell upon the companies alone they could easily get it all back out of their workmen, but where a man with his family owns and occupies his house of five rooms, and lot of 50 by 150 feet, worth altogether $1200 to $1300, and has to pay taxes amounting to from fifty cents to seventy-five cents per month for his own dwelling, it seems pretty heavy.
The owners of the property are almost wholly non-resident. No farmer can now own the back land and make a living on it and pay the taxes, insurance, and repairs.
There are but few Americans here now, whether natives of the township or new comers. They are not liked by the foreigners.
·
.
348
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
The foreigners are about the same in nationalities as in 1870, being English, Irish, Welsh, German, Swede, Swiss, French, Polanders, Hungarian, Canadian, Scotch.
List of taxables have been omitted for some time, as the lists are altogether unreliable-names of persons that have been dead for years and of persons long since removed from the district are found on the lists, and the registries of voters have not escaped the same frauds. Sometimes as high as twenty-five, and even thirty, per cent. of the names are of persons that do not live here. And this kind of small fraud seems to be growing, and growing for no reason only that the person making the assessment or registry can get more pay.
In 1873 the Postal Card Act went into operation. The stamped card is furnished and carried by mail to any place in the United States for one cent.
In 1883 the rate of postage on domestic letters of one-half ounce or less was reduced to two cents for any distance in the United States. Postal cards remain one cent.
In 1885 the maximum weight of domestic letters was raised to one ounce for one rate of postage, and all fractions to an additional rate, for any distance in the United States.
THE TOWNSHIPS UNDER PENNSYLVANIA LAW.
The townships have capacity as bodies corporate: to sue and be sued; to hold real estate and personal property; to levy such rates and taxes as may be expressly authorized by law. The townships are authorized and required to levy taxes for the con- struction and maintenance of roads and bridges, for the establish- ment and support of schools, and for the support of the poor; i. e. the school district and the road district are coincident with the township. Public and private roads are laid out under the super- vision of the County Court, the construction and repair being under the direction and at the expense of the township. The township elects assessors of taxes, supervisors of roads and bridges, over- seers of the poor, directors of schools, treasurer of township funds, town clerk, auditors of township accounts, constables and justices of the peace.
349
HANOVER. TOWNSHIP.
Portions of a township or townships may be incorporated as boroughs. They succeed to all the rights and duties of townships unless otherwise provided by their charters, and receive additional privileges corresponding to the greater and more varied necessities of a denser population. The County Courts have power to grant these charters, to authorize and define the duties of the officers, and to divide the boroughs into wards and fix the place of holding the elections.
The preparation of county and township tax-rolls is a county function. The' expenses and supervision of general and local elec- tions fall within the sphere of county activity.
. The above is intended to be a short detail of township organiza- tion and officers since the adoption of the constitution of 1874.
LIST OF PRICES-1870 TO 1883.
1870, March 1-472 lbs. butter
at $.45
$ 1.91
Apl. 21-I bbl. flour
7.00
7.00
Sept. 23-15 lbs. sugar, w ,.15 2.25
1871, Jan. 26 -- 1 lb. butter .45 .45
26-2 lbs. sugar, w "
.16
.32
26-1/2 bbl. flour
"
8.50 4.25
1872, Sept. 1-14 bbl. flour
"10.50
2.62
I-I bushel potatoes
.70
.70
1-2 lbs. sugar, w
:. 12
.24
66 I-21/2 lbs. butter
.32
.80
1873, Sept.
30-4 lbs. butter
«
.35
1.40
30-20 lbs. sugar, w
.121/2
2.50
=
30-1/2 bbl. flour
"10.00
5.00
30-2 bu. potatoes
.75
1.50
1874, Jan.
26-12 bbl. flour
'10.00
5.00
26-2 lbs. butter
.45
.90
26-2 lbs. sugar, W
.13
.26
26-1 bushel potatoes
.90
.90
26-1 bbl. flour "
7.00
7.00
1875, ¥
26-8 Ibs. sugar, w .
.121/2
1.00
26-2 Ibs. butter
.45
.90
1876,
25-2 Ibs. butter
.35
.70
«
25-2 Ibs. sugar, W
.12
.24
"
350
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
1876, Jan. 25-14 bbl. flour
at $8.00
$2.00
Feb. 9-1 bushel potatoes
.60
.60
1877, Jan. 25-12 bbl. flour 9.00
«
1.60
$80
¥
25-4 lbs. sugar, w
"
.35
1.05
1878,
«
26-12 bbl. flour .
7.50
3.75
26-4 bushels potatoes
«
.30
.60
1879, Jan.
¥
25-3 Ibs. butter .
.22
.66
=
25-10 Ibs. sugar, w
“
.80
.80
1880, Jan.
26-2 bushels potatoes
"
.30
.30
26-10 Ibs. sugar, w
"
8.00
8.00
1881; Jan.
25-1 bushel potatoes
"
.60
.60
25-2 Ibs. butter .
.30
.60
25-12 bbl. flour .
7.25
3.63
«
25-8 Ibs. sugar, w
.II
.88
1882, Jan.
24-14 bbl. flour .
8 50
2.13
24-I bushel potatoes
"
I.IO
I.IO
24-3 Ibs. butter .
-35
1.05
24-10 Ibs. sugar, w
.II
I.IO
1883, Jan.
25-12 bbl. flour .
7.00
3.50
25-5 lbs. sugar, w
«
.IO
.50
¥
25-2 lbs. butter .
.35
.70
=
25-I bushel potatoes
“
1.00
1.00
.II 1
.99
" 26-9 Ibs. sugar, w
.60
2.40
26-2 lbs. coffee (roasted)
6.00
6.00
25-I bbl. flour
.IO
1.00
25-I bushel potatoes
"
.50
1.00
26-1 Ib. butter
.II
I.IO
e
26-1 bbl. flour
..
25-I gal. kerosene (coal oil), 10 and 30 cents.
Wages in 1882 and 1883 were considered to be high. Skilled carpenters were paid two dollars and twenty-five and fifty cents per day. Unskilled two dollars and two and a quarter. Miners could make more; laborers about one dollar and sixty-seven cents to two dollars, but work was not very steady for them.
Before the Rebellion a ton of prepared coal at the breaker cost the purchaser one dollar and a quarter; delivered at the house any-
25-12 bushel potatoes
.13
.52
25-3 lbs. butter .
4.50
35I
HANOVER TOWNSHIP.
where within a mile and a half for one dollar and seventy-five cents. A list of the prices from 1869-after the high war prices had ceased-is introduced here. This is the price of prepared coal delivered at the house of the consumer in the neighborhood.
PRICE OF COAL PER TON, DELIVERED.
1869, Dec. 8-I ton chestnut coal delivered . $3.50
1870, Jan. -I
¥
« 3.50
1871, “ -I « 4.00
Oct. -I
3.75
1872, Jan. -I ‹‹ 4.00
¥ 3.50
3.50
Nov. -I
3.25
1874, Jan. -I
3.25
Dec. -I
3.50
1875, Jan. -I
« . 3.50
3.25
1876, Jan. -I
3.25
Dec. -I
pea
=
1.50
1877, Jan. -I
1.50
" Sept. -I
¥
nut = 3.00
3.00
Dec. -I
pea
1.50
1879, Jan. -I chestnut « «
¥
2.50
1 880, Jan. -I
pea
1.50
Dec. -I
=
66
1.50
1881, Jan. -I
2.50
£ Dec. -I
2.50
1882, Jan. -I
Dec. -I
2.50.
1883, Jan. -I
2.75
Dec. -I
2.75
1884, Jan. -I
2.75
Dec. -I
2.75
1885, Jan. -I
2.75
=
Oct.
-I
.. .
2.75
"
Dec. -I
1878, Jan. -I
2.75
Dec. -I
chestnut "
=
2.50
"
Dec. -I
1873, Jan. -I
352
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
WAGES PAID TO JOURNEYMEN CARPENTERS-SKILLED WORKMEN.
ACCOUNT BOOKS OF JARED MARCEY.
1803, Aug. 23-12 days' work for Hitch-
cock . at $1.00 . per day $12.00
1805, -3 days' work framing “
.862/3
2.60
1 806,
-11/2 "
1.00
1.50
1 807, -I day's
1.00
1.00
1 808, -I
" to be paid in boards .
1.00
1 809, -I day's work, Ezra
Teeter .
1.00
1.00
1810,
-4 days' work
1.00
66
4.00
18II,
-314"
1.23
4.00
1812,
-41/2"
1.25
5.62 1/2
1813,
-1314 days' work, E.
Blackman . 1.00
"
16
13.25
1814,
-234 days' work, Wells
Bennett “ 1.00
2.75
1815,
-I day myself (the Boss) "
1.25
1.25
FROM ACCOUNT BOOKS OF THOMAS QUICK, JOURNEYMAN.
1 840,
-David Garringer, by the month (with board) . 23-Jesse Downing, by the month (and
. $22 and $ 24.00
1841, Oct.
board)
26.00
1842, April
-Isaac Rawn, by the month (without
26.00
1843,
27-David Garringer, by the month (with board) 24.00
1844,
-David Garringer, by the month (with, board)
26.00
1845, Sept. 26-David Garringer, 2334 days at $1.121/2 (without board) 25.58
1846, July 30-Michael Keely, 2034 days at $1.25 (without board) 25.31 1847, March 26-John Bird, 2 months and 5 days at $22 (and board) 48.25
board)
1
HANOVER TOWNSHIP. 353
1848, Nov. 8-Charles Dun, 47212 days at $22 per month (and board) 399.81
1849, Sept. 20-Richard Dilley, 11712 days at $1.25 per day (without board) . 146.87
1850, Nov. -Avery Marcy, 5 days at $1.25 (without
board)
6.25
1851, May
IO-Richard Dilley, 1612 days at $1.25
(without board)
20.62 12
MARKET REPORTS FROM THE WILKES-BARRE "RECORD," MAY I, 1885.
WHOLESALE. RETAIL.
Butter, fresh roll, per Ib. .
$ 0.25 $ 0.28
Butter, creamery, per Ib.
.25
.28
Cheese
.13
.16
Chickens, dressed, per Ib.
.16
.20
Eggs, fresh, per dozen
.15 .18
Honey
.1212@.14
.16
Turkey, dressed, per Ib.
.18
.22
Clover, large, per bush.
6.25
6.75
Clover, recleaned .
6.75
7.00
Clover, medium, per bush.
6.00
6.50
Timothy, per bush.
2.00
2.25
Baled hay
20.00
22.00
Loose hay
20.00
22.00
Straw, rye, per ton
14.00
16.00
Straw, oats, per bundle
.08
Sugars, granulated, per Ib.
.06 1/2
.07
Sugars, standard, per Ib.
.06 14
.061/2
Sugars, yellow C, per Ib. .
.05 1/2
.06
Molasses, New Orleans, per gal.
.55
.70
Molasses, West India, per gal. .
.50
.60
Syrup, golden drips, per gal.
.60
.73
Coffee, Java, green, per Ib.
.20
.25
Coffee, Maricaibo, green, per Ib.
.15
.18.
Coffee, Rio, green, per fb. .
.II
.16
Coffee, Rio, roasted, per Ib. .
.15
.20
Salt, Ashton's, per sack
3.00
3.25
Salt, ground alum, per sack
1.00
1.25
23
354
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
Salt, Deakin .
$ 1.50 $ 1.75
Pork, mess, per bbl.
15.00 16.00
Bacon, dry, salt .
.07 72 .09
Bacon, smoked .
.12
.15
Hams, sugar cured
.IO
.13
Lard, bulk .
.09
.10
Shoulders, per fb.
.071/2
.09
Mackerel, No. I, per bbl. .
$20@38 .20 per Ib.
Mackerel, No. 2, per bbl. .
12@18
.1212 per Ib.
New Process, per bbl.
$ 6.25 $ 8.00
Amber, winter, per bbl. .
5.50
6.00
Rye flour
3.50
4.40
Corn meal
I.IO
1.25
Corn meal, bolted, per cwt.
1.15
1.40
Cracked corn and chop, per cwt. .
1.15
1.25
Corn, shelled, per bush.
.65
.8c
Rye, per bush.
.62
.65
Oats, new, per bush. .
.45
.50
Wheat, red country, per bush ..
.90
1.00
LIVE.
DRESSED.
Prairie steers
$ 0.05 $ 0.08
Common steers .
.041/2
.07
Sheep
.04
.071/2
Calves
.05 1/2
.08
Hogs
.0412
.07
Potatoes, per bush.
.40
.50
Beans, medium, per bush.
1.50
1.75
Tallow in cakes, per İb.
.04
.05 1/2
Kerosene, per gal.
.12 to .20
HISTORY OF THE HOUSES.
The fate of the old houses that were standing about 1840 or 1850 :-
. In order to tell this story-in a short way-the beginning will be made, first at the old Col. Washington Lee house at the river below Nanticoke, and the next at the old Urquhart house on the other branch of the River Road, or rather on the cross-road near it, but both these houses being nearest to the Newport line on its
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HANOVER TOWNSHIP.
branch. Then we follow the roads to where they meet at the Nan- ticoke Corners, then follow the road to the Wilkes-Barre line.
We then take the Middle Road-the nearest house to the New- port line, and follow the road to the Wilkes-Barre line.
Then the Back Road is taken and followed up in the same way; always taking whatever is nearest to either road on the cross- roads as we go along.
THE RIVER ROAD.
The Col. Washington Lee house at Nanticoke. This house stood on a high bank on the shore of the Susquehanna, having only the river bank and the road between the river and the house. It stood and still stands a few rods west of the mouth of Nanti- coke Creek. This was the home of Captain Andrew Lee, who died here in 1821. The son, Col. Washington Lee, resided here till 1868 when he sold to a coal company. Since that time this has been a tenant-house of the Susquehanna Coal Company. This house is near the Newport line on lot No. I, second division, and is about a half mile above the dam in the river at the old Nanticoke Falls. The road to this house crosses the line into Newport (from Nanti- coke Corners, as it was called in old times to locate the spot) and down the creek towards the river it crossed into Hanover again, and after passing Col. Lee's house thirty or forty rods, it again enters Newport going west.
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