History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 33

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1532

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encouraged the formation of a stock company, which commenced operations in 1811 and they built the first ship, a sixty-ton vessel. Far and near people came to look at the wonderful ship building, and soberest heads dreamed day dreams when the wide commons across the river would all be a vast shipyard and the all those river villages great cities. Lots and timber lands advanced in selling price rapidly and fortunate holders of stock in the shipyard were envied. April 6, 1812, the first ship was completed, and of her the Gleaner, of April 12, said: "Last Friday was the day on which the launch of the vessel on the stocks in this port was announced. A scene so extraordinary, 200 miles from the tide-waters of the river, raised the curiosity of every one. The old sailor and the inhabitants of the seaboard, whom the vicissitudes of fortune had settled in this sylvan retreat and to whom such scenes

* * * had once been familiar, felt all the interest so naturally excited. *

From Monday to Friday all was bustle and activity. Early on Friday people began to gather from all parts of the country. The firing of the cannon on the bank at noon gave notice that everything was in preparation. A little after two repeated discharges announced that all was ready.

The banks were lined far above and below with people, and a little after 3 the sound of axes, the bustle and noise about the vessel, indicated they were knock- ing away the blocks. It was a hundred feet to the water, and with flying colors thirty persons on board, the great crowd standing nearly breathless, the last block was knocked away-and the vessel did not move." Stewart Pearce accounts for the stubborn boat's action by the fact that the news of the "embargo" had just come to town. And as there.was now no business on the ocean, why not lie idle on the docks? The thirty passengers were all at the bow; when she would not move they all ran to the stern, and then slowly the boat did move, the speed accelerating, and as gracefully as a swan the keel kissed and married the waves. As the boat and waves met, the usual bottle was broken on her prow, and the vessel was christ- ened " The Luzerne of Wilkes-Barre." The fate of this unhappy venture is soon told. In a few days she started down the river with clearing papers from the "port" of Wilkes-Barre, and reaching Conawaga falls, near Middletown, was dashed to pieces on the rocks. The vessel and the hopes of the company were wrecked together. A costly experiment-a severe lesson. But the eternally invin- cible man was but temporarily discouraged. When the vast timber found its way to tide-water in rafts, then came the far greater wealth, the coal of the incompar- able valley, and ways were found such as we are now blessed with for its transpor- tation to the world's markets.

Bridges were a prime necessity after the first blazed roads were laid out. The ordinary streams were, for over twenty-five years from the first settlements, waded . on foot or passed over in low water on horseback or in wagons. At first those that could not be forded were carried over in temporary rafts, where the wagons would be taken apart and the animals made to swim. After a while rope ferries were crossing the river, and these are yet spanning the stream in many places, but there are more iron bridges now over the Susquehanna than there were rope ferries in the opening of the century.

An old yellowed scrap of paper that bears date June 6, 1794, was recently recov- ered. A subscription paper, signed by James Wilson, Robert Morris, G. Eddy, Timothy Pickering "and fifty others," as it says, collecting money to build bridges over Bowman's creek and the Mahoopany, on the road to Wyalusing.

Ferries were established at Kingston, Wilkes-Barre and Pittston in 1770. Yet there are old men to-day who can remember of crossing the river on horseback when they used to go courting in the neighborhood of Kingston, or to apple pearings, or to any of the other "bees" that once were "great times" for the young people.

Storms and Floods have come to Luzerne county. In 1784 occurred the great snow storm, when the level ground was covered to a depth of five feet, and in the

KELLY ARTIST 1876

GUTEKUNST PIłoTO .

Charles Muahh, -

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gorges it was in places hundreds of feet in depth, and for weeks all communication among the settlers was cut off. The soldiers in Fort Wyoming were cooped up until fuel getting threatened to became a serious question.

The following March the snow passed off with heavy rains, and the great ice flood came rushing down the river. The streams were covered with thick ice, broken up by the rising waters, choking them at points, and the river overran its banks, carrying destruction in its course. At Nanticoke, where is an old dam, the ice remained firm, and on this the loose ice lodged until piled high. The plains all through the valley were submerged, and the people were driven to the hills. Maj. James Moore, writing from the fort at Wilkes-Barre, March 20, 1784, said: "The people in this country have suffered exceedingly from the late freshet. Not less than 150 houses have been carried away. The grain is principally lost, and a very considerable part of the cattle drowned. The water rose thirty feet above low- water mark. The water was so high in the garrison that some of the ammunition was injured." Some of the immense piles of ice left on the plains only melted entirely away late in the summer.

The Pumpkin Flood occurred in 1786, getting its name from the quantities of these embryo pies seen floating on the waters. November 7, 1786, Col. John Franklin wrote about the flood to Dr. Joseph Hamilton: "The terrible rain fell, October 5, in twenty-four hours, that raised the river from six to ten feet higher than then known, sweeping away mills and denuding the farms, often digging the potatoes and carrying them away. Rev. Benjamin Bidlack, then a strong young man, was carried in his house down the river. He would, in the darkness, call to the people along the shore. The building lodged against the trees near Harvey's coal mine and he finally escaped. The widow Jamison, with her children, in Han- over, were taken from the second story in a canoe."

In July, 1809, the Susquehanna rose sixteen feet above low-water mark, and inundating the lower flats, destroyed the grain. In January, 1831, the flats were again inundated; and again in May, 1833, the low lands were flooded by the high water. Arks and rafts, torn from their moorings in the smaller streams, came float- ing down the swollen flood without men to guide them. Stacks of hay floated by covered with living poultry. As they passed Wilkes-Barre the cocks crowed lustily, intimating to their brethren of the borough that their heads were still above water. In January, 1841, the weather suddenly changed from cold to warm, accompanied with rain, which rapidly melted the snow, and produced an inundation of the low country along the Susquehanna and Lackawanna. But its effects on the Lehigh were of the most terrible and destructive character.

In 1842 and 1843 were very high waters. In the spring of 1846 the water stood three and one-half feet deep on the river bank opposite the old Phenix hotel. This was the highest to that time since the "Pumpkin flood," and caused far more dam- age, carrying away costly bridges on the Susquehanna and doing damage to the public improvements.

The most destructive flood was that of September, 1850. In Luzerne the loss of life and property was greatest on the small streams. Solomon's creek rushed down the mountain's side with fearful impetuosity, destroying the public highway and the improvements of the Lehigh & Susquehanna company at the foot of the plane. The Wapwallopen, with its increased volume, dashed madly over the coun- try, sweeping away two of the powder-mills of Knapp & Parrish. The Nescopeck, undermining the dam above the forge of S. F. Headley, bore off to the Susquehanna on its turbulent flood the lifeless bodies of twenty-two men, women and children. These unfortunate people had assembled in one house near the forge. The house stood upon elevated ground, and was supposed to be the best place for safety. One man, fearing to trust to the stability of the house, took up his child in his arms, and calling to his wife, who refused to follow, rushed through the rising waters, and

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gained the hillside. When he turned to look behind him, house, wife and friends had disappeared.

All the low lande along the Susquehanna were covered with water, and, as usual on such occasions, the communication between Wilkes-Barre and Kingston was carried on by means of boats.

At Tamaqua forty dwellings were swept away, and thirty-three persons were drowned, sixteen being members of one family, and the damage sustained at this place was estimated at $500,000. At Port Clinton twenty-six persons were drowned, eleven of whom constituted a family of father, mother and nine children.

Wind Storms .- The first tornado known to carry havoc through the valley was in 1796. It passed over the country from west to east, unroofing barns and dwell- ings, and producing on the headwaters of the Lehigh what, among the old inhabit- ants, was called "The Great Windfall." The road leading from Wilkesbarre to Easton was completely barricaded with fallen trees, which required several months of labor to remove. Our county appropriated $250 toward the expense.

In February, 1824, a most terrific hurricane passed up the Susquehanna river, prostrating fences, trees, barns and dwellings. Such was its power that it lifted the entire superstructure of the Wilkes-Barre bridge from its piers, and bore it some distance up the river, where it fell on the ice with a thundering crash.

On July 3, 1834, a hurricane, sweeping from the northeast to the southwest, nearly destroyed the village, now the borough, of Providence.

Tornado, August 19, 1890, swept over the western part of Luzerne and part of Columbia counties. People were attracted by the peculiar appearance of the clouds. Three distinct movements of the wind could be seen in the two strata of clouds and the motions of the air on the ground. It started in Columbia county, passing into Luzerne in a northeasterly direction, entering this county at Huntington township, with a track about 600 yards wide, in a waving course, about fifteen degrees north of east, and near the road from Maple Grove to Cambra, and before it entered this county was marking its path by general destruction. Great harm was done the properties of Clinton Hughes and Cornelius White, near Cambra. The latter gen- tleman recalled a similar though not so severe storm that passed near the same track fifty-six years preceding. The kitchen and barn roofs of C. M. Callender's were taken off. George Smith's house was picked up, carried 200 feet and dropped over a ledge, a mass of ruins. His little son was reported as receiving a fractured skull. Ambrose Bonham's buildings were destroyed. At D. L. Chapman's place, near Harveyville, the doors of the parlor were burst outward, tearing out the paneling. At Harveyville the Methodist Episcopal parsonage was totally destroyed. Mr. Hamline's furniture and library, with furniture and clothing, were destroyed, the Methodist church unroofed and the brick schoolhouse left a mass of rubbish. A barn in which several persone had taken refuge was destroyed, but no one seriously hurt except Thomas Brickla, who was killed. A. W. Harvey's store was badly wrecked and his flouring mill moved from its foundations. One and one-half miles east of Harveyville the schoolhouse was totally destroyed, Martin Gregory's build- ings much damaged and portions of his iron roof carried miles along the storm's track, and Roland Wilkinson's buildings entirely destroyed. At Mallory Wolfe's place everything was converted into debris, Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe injured, and their daughter, Mrs. Lodetia Wilkinson, killed. James Turner's house was moved, and Mamie Burns, who had started for the cellar, was caught and killed. The storm passed Muhlenburg just to the north of the postoffice, destroying the trees at James Wood's place, blowing away Gregory's house. The storm then crossed the Pleasant Hill mail route at J. H. Wagner's, and its severest force was about the farm of A. R. Kittle, in Hunlock township, pulling a pine tree thirty inches in diameter out of the ground and carrying it away, and then totally destroying many acres of forest. Lorenzo Craigle's house was blown away, but no one seriously hurt. George Lam-

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mereaux' house was destroyed, his step-daughter, Lizzie Frace, severely hurt in the spine, but eventually recovered. The Leonard schoolhouse was moved from its foundations. The track of the storm gradually narrowed after it crossed Hemlock creek, and after passing Harvey creek about a quarter of a mile above Rice's saw- mill it left only a partial track on Lehman Center, and here it gradually disappeared, having passed through Huntington, Union and Hunlock townships into Lehman. Whether the terrible funnel cloud was lifted from the earth into midair and was instantly transferred across the hills and the river or whether its mate sprang into existence and started in its race along the east side of the river-in other words, whether it was all one or two distinct tornadoes or not, is not material. It was, with its awful whirl, racing along at the rate of a mile a minute. There was no visible track connecting the two, if they were distinct storms.

About half a mile south of Nanticoke, on the top of Eagle's Nest ridge, a pine tree was blown down. A brisk gust of wind was noticed in Nanticoke. The whirl- ing wind blew down at the east end of the bridge, and, following the river from this point, the trees were marked by characteristic twisting; then there is no trace until Butzbach's landing, where the effects are strong, passing to the cemetery at Hanover Green and through the woods to the Catholic cemetery to Petty's woods; then veered to the north and entered South Wilkes-Barre on the line of the D. & H. R. R., with a track about 100 yards wide, at the hour of 5:30 P. M.

Striking Main street near its southern extremity, the storm swept northward' to Wood street, where it widened and struck Franklin street and the lower end of Dana place. At Academy street it turned to the east, and from here to Ross street the damage was confined principally to Main and Cinderella streets. At Ross street the storm turned again eastward and swept out Hazle and Ross streets to Washington and Canal, where it struck the Pennsylvania Railroad company's roundhouse and the Hazard Wire Rope works, and then turned northward up Washington, Fell and Canal streets. At Northampton street the storm turned to the east and swept out Northampton to the Central railroad of New Jersey. From here to North street the buildings on Canal street and along the railroads suffered most severely. At North street it again turned eastward up Bowman, Scott and Kidder streets to Five Points, where it left the city.

Within the city limits the following is the list of the killed: Jacob Bergold, John Fritz, Mrs. James Henaghan, Mrs. Eliza J. McGinley, Baby McGinley, Frank Olean, Eddie Schmitt, Nettie Thompson, Adam Frantz, George Hannapple, Joseph Kern, John McGinley, Evi Martin, Peter Rittenmeyer, Andrew Szobal and Berlin Vandermark.

Seriously injured: Mrs. Barrett, Frank Fulrod, John Housch, John Long, James McGinley, John McNulty, Frank Volkrath, George Fry, Miss Henaghan, Fred Linn, Mrs. Margaret McAvoy, Mary McGinley, Isaiah Newsbigle and Franklin Walsh. Unknown employe of D. & H. R. R. company.

Thirty-five others were slightly injured.

Two hundred and sixty buildings, residences, stores, schoolhouses, churches, factories, public and railroad buildings were more or less injured, some totally destroyed. The estimated damage to property, made carefully by the relief com- mittee, was a total of $240,000 in the city limits.

After leaving Wilkes-Barre the storm did no serious damage, as its track was through a wooded region. Touching at Mountain park it crossed Laurel run and over the north end of Indian hill across John P. Lawler's farm and on to the northern side of Bald mountain, where it became diffused and left no distinct marks of its course.

It seems evident, however, that this storm continued its course further on, as a clearly marked path passes about a mile to the east of Spring Brook, and an envelope which was doubtless blown from Wilkes-Barre, was picked up near Hamil- ton, Wayne county.

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CHAPTER XI.

COAL.

VAST DEPOSITS ONCE ALL OVER THE STATE-FIRST SHIPPED DOWN THE RIVER IN 1807 -- PARTIES WHO FIRST MINED AND TRANSPORTED IT-JESSE FELL-CANAL OPENED- NICHO ALLEN AND PHILIP GINTER-MINER, CIST & ROBINSON ATTEMPT TO MINE AND SHIP COAL-RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION COMPANIES-VALUE OF COAL LANDS- EASTERN MIDDLE COAL FIELDS-COAL FOUND-ARIO PARDEE-ECKLEY B. COXE -- SUPERIOR HARD COAL-GEORGE B. MARKLE-TUNNELS-ACCIDENTS, ETC.

TN a preceding chapter is something of the county of Luzerne as it appeared on its face when the white man came to possess and make these homes and all this luxuriant wealth that we now enjoy. As it came from the hand of God it was lovely to look upon. The keen-eyed pioneer beheld it, said it was good and here he would stick down his Jacob's staff and dwell forever. He heeded but little the obstructions that confronted him on every hand. The heavy forests that perpetually shaded the ground; the fierce and hungry wild beasts in the constant search of living prey; the gliding serpents spotted with deadly beauty, the countless birds of song and plumage and game; the fish disporting themselves and shining in the mountain brooks and in the beautiful blue river, and beyond and more impressive than all these were the warlike Iroquois Indians, savage and pitiless, cunning and thieving, great and good in his own estimation when covered with greasy war paint, or when adorned with many and fresh bleeding scalps of men, women or children, and performing his war dance around the camp fire, or recounting the bloody legends of his cannibal ancestors. The dauntless pioneer met these powerful enemies of civilization, and his steady eye never quailed; his nerves were never shaken, and with one and all his motto was supremacy or death. The Anglo-Saxon blood has prevailed here as well as pretty much now all over the world. The English language is one of all-conquering energy. There is much iron in the blood that is propelling the life that formed the articulate words -it prevails, whether matched with the savages of the woods, or the older and once stronger civilizations that in their day ruled the world. The language is a part and essence of the Anglo-Saxon's nature; it simply predominates regardless of what it comes in contact with. The Spaniard discovered this country; his ancient settlements and villages antedate the coming and permanent clutch of the English more than 100 years; the French made largely the first discoverer's claim and title to far the larger portion of what is now the United States. All these held prior claims to this wonder-land, and yet the first 100 years has left the Spaniard the possessor of an insignificant little corner of the continent, and the French not even so much that they can claim either part or parcel thereof. The negro, that unfortunate black man of Africa, is now a free man and counts 8,000,000 of the over 63,000,000 of our people-the most cosmopolitan population in the world. The scientists tell us that the outcome of every civilization is a mere question of rocks and climate, the soil and water, with the sunshine; these are the factors, they say, in determining the ultimate story of every separate civilization. But there are other forces. Here are four separate peoples thrown together and, save the problem of the African, the Anglo-Saxon has settled the other questions. He too will fix in some way the solution of the " color" question in time. In all these ethnic matters the statute laws have only a nominal effect; the resistless

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forces of nature play with ceaseless activity, and the destiny of man and animal life appear to unthinking men to be that of fate. Modern thinkers tell us that ethnic life, the quality of every distinct civilization, is one almost entirely of soils and climate. There is no doubt that the surface and the immediate subsoil, together with the climate, has a powerful influence in shaping the animal and vegetable life that will spring therefrom. But clearly with these forces, and perhaps even in more power, are the laws of heredity, the transmitted blood that runs in the veins genera- tions after generations, and in the long lapses of time indicate the departing lines of different civilizations in their slow progress from savage to civilized life. Every page of the story of the Anglo-Saxon race tends to illuminate this fact. Swarming out from the inhospitable shores of the North Sea, strong and fierce savages, then bloody pirates and the most daring seamen, they raced around the world, trampling upon everything that stood in their way; with hair and skin bleached by the elements to whiteness, his strong animal nature conquering and destroying that he might build all anew; this wonderful creature transmitted his strong nature, planted his colonies, created his own language, hunted out dangers and obstacles and warred upon all and everything, and even upon one another, and fashioned the civilized world, and now at the close of the nineteenth century shows the astounding fact that he measures more brain surface than any other people the world has contained. And while modified markedly by different soils and climate, yet always and every- where he maintains his race supremacy. And in the meridian hour of his great- ness and glory, the canny Scotchman and proverbial scold, Thomas Carlyle said: "The English nation consists of 40,000,000 of people-mostly fools." And the more than 150,000,000 whom the taunt struck, have adopted the scold's words as an axiomatic truth.

Here in this beautiful valley met the Dutch, the Palitinate, the Moravian, the Frenchman, Irishman and the native savages, and then the Anglo Saxon appeared. To-day everything is Americo-English. The Dutchman has transmitted only his name; his descendants are as purely Anglo-Saxon as the straightest English. And so of all others; absorbed and a part of the stronger stock, or extinct. This phe- nomenon holds over our continent, the process completed or in the rapid course of completion. Our language and our thought is dominating the world. It must be "all the one thing or all the other." The marvelous race has boxed the compass of triumphs and defeats-enslaving and enslaved-and when the Normans swooped down upon and captured the little English island, and took their property and made slaves of all the people, time effected the bloodless revolution, and the once slaves were again masters, the only race in the world's history that progressed on the road to enlightment as well in slavery as in conquering masters. The magnifi- cent proof that blood is stronger than any possible circumstance or accidental con- ditions-" wherever he sits is the head of the table."

These observations are not inappropriate in considering the climatic and soil and water conditions of this section, coupled with the wealth down in the black- diamond caves that underlie a large part of the county, and this alone would make this one of the most favored spots of earth, even if there was little or nothing of value on the broad surface. The historian and poet have exhausted the resources of the language in describing this land of the anthracite-the "Happy Valley " of Dr. Johnson being the one most frequently used. One describes it as "The . Richest Dimple " in the Appalachian chain of mountains. Its wonderful wealth of anthracite has made this one of the best known spots on the globe. The entire coal fields, with thousands of other fertile acres, were bought of the Indians for $10,000 in silver, or £2,000 New York currency. Both parties, igno- rant of the hidden wealth beneath the surface, and fifty and seventy-five years after many a man sold his farm, nearly as ignorant as had been the Indians of its real value. With the other abundant riches of this spot, the immense deposits of

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anthracite coal far exceed all others combined, an infinite source of wealth, of which the reader can begin to approximate some idea when informed there are in the different veins as you descend ninety feet of coal, and of a market value of more than $40,000 in every acre after reserving the pillars. These coal deposits in the valley all lie in a basin apparently forming the bottom on which rests the super- incumbent rocks and soils, and reaching up on the sides only to the high table lands, a proof that at one time, in the long geological past, the entire country hereabouts, for hundreds of miles, covering the entire State and extending into other States, was all underlaid with the same strata of coal, which have been car- ried away from the uplands by the disturbances of the earth, and thus leaving for us only a very small portion of the once vast deposit.

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History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 33

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.) Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1532

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1532