History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 34

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

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Coal was found in outcrop in the valley when the white man first came. Oba- diah Gore and others of the first blacksmiths in the county used it in their shops. During the Revolutionary war coal was shipped in arks and Durham boats to Car- lisle, in this State, where the continental authorities established an armory. Of course all this quarrying in the other century was from outcrops and strip mining entirely. These shipments continued through the war for independence, long enough to demonstrate that it was a merchantable article that the outside world wanted, and that possessed values that would repay transportation. The trade increased slowly after the close of the war, but by whom shipments were continued is not now fully known. Some of the chroniclers of the early times place the com- mencement of the coal trade down the river from this point as beginning in the year 1820, with a shipment that year of 365 tons. However, after this statement was published, John B. Smith published in the Record of the Times, October 27, 1874: "I see you make a statement in your daily that the coal business opened in 1820. Abijah Smith [his father] purchased an ark of John P. Arndt November 9, 1807, and ran it to Columbia from Wilkes-Barre, loaded with coal. From that date Abijah and John Smith ran several arks yearly to 1826, loaded with coal for the market. In 1811 and 1812 they ran 220 tons of coal to Havre-de-Grace, had it unloaded on the schooner "Washington," and sold in New York, the bills for which were rendered by the commission merchant in 1813."

Some one has said that history is agreed fiction, and the history of the discovery and the use of coal here is certainly a verification of the fact that much fiction finds its way to the printing office. One of those has found its way into the last United States census report (1890) where, without stating it as a fact, the commencement of the coal trade is dated from 1820. Whereas the above shows that it was com- menced in 1807. Mr. George B. Culp, in an address before the Historical Society, June 27, 1890, not only confirms the above, but year by year gives the amounts shipped from the Wyoming region to 1820 as follows:

Tons.

1807

1814

700

1808

150

1815

1,000

1809

200

1816.

1,000

1810

350

1817

1,100

1811.

450

1818

1,200

1812.

500

1819

1,400

1813

500

1820

2,500

Mr. F. E. Saward, in The Coal Trade for 1891, states that the northern anthra- cite coal field is the largest anthracite basin in the world. It has long been known as the Wyoming. Its coal production since 1860 is as follows:

Tons.

1860

2,914,817 1880

11,419,270

1870.

7,974,666

1890

Tons.

18,657,694

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

To mine this coal requires the services of over 50,000 men and boys, and this number is steadily increasing rather than diminishing.

Mr. Culp curtly disposes also of the story of Philip Ginter being the discoverer of coal in the anthracite regions. In the legislature in 1891 a bill was introduced to appropriate $2,000 for a monument to Ginter as the discoverer of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania. The fact simply was Ginter discovered coal in Carbon county, but himself stated that he had "heard of it over in Wyoming" before finding it. In a foot note Mr. Culp gives the following:

" The Lehigh region is great in making claims. For instance, on April 23, 1891, in the senate of the State of Pennsylvania, Senator Rapsher, of Carbon, called up the following bill on third reading:

"AN Acr appropriating the sum of $2,000 for the erection of a monument to the memory of Philip Ginter, the discoverer of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania.

"SECTION 1, Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in general assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that the sum of $2,000 be appropriated toward the erection of a suitable monument to commemorate the memory of Philip Ginter, the first discoverer of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania, to be paid to the committee in charge upon the warrant of the auditor-general.

" Senator Hines, from our own county, asked leave to strike out the words 'the first,' because Philip Ginter was not the first discoverer of coal.

"Senator Rapsher, in reply, said: 'Mr. President, the historians, like men, some- times differ on that particular point, as to whether Philip Ginter was the first dis- coverer or not, but I think all the historians agree that Philip Ginter was the first authentic discoverer of anthracite coal in what was then Northampton county, a hundred years ago the first of next September, and it was the inception of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation company, and was the beginning of the anthracite coal traffic in Pennsylvania, and because the anthracite coal interest was of so much importance to the State credit in our section, this could be granted without any great strain on our consciences.'

"Senator Green, of Berks where they have no coal, said: 'Mr. President, I think we ought to have a discoverer of coal, and we might as well have him now as at any other time, so whether it is Mr. Ginter or somebody else, makes very little difference to me. I am willing to concede to that gentleman that claim. I am willing to go further: I am willing to take the word of the senator from Carbon for it. If he thinks he is the discoverer of coal, I think so.'

"Fortunately the bill was defeated in the house of representatives. Now, what was in this bill? First, to get $2,000 out of the State treasury to perpetuate a falsehood. This under false pretences.

"Second, To place on record the further falsehood that Philip Ginter was the (first) discoverer of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania. Mr. Ginter, himself, did not claim that he was the discoverer, because 'he had heard of stone coal over in Wyom- ing.

" Mr. Rapsher is certainly mistaken when he says that historians differ as to whether Philip Ginter was the first discoverer or not. No, they do not differ. All historians agree that Mr. Ginter discovered coal in what is now Carbon county, in 1791, and that he was not the first discoverer of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania. Ill-informed people may think he was, but intelligent people know better. Mr. Rapsher states that the discovery of coal a hundred years ago the first of next Sep- tember (1891), was the inception of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation company, and was the beginning of the anthracite coal traffic in Pennsylvania. The Lehigh Coal & Navigation company was incorporated February 13, 1822, and if its inception was in 1791, it took it a long time to be born-even thirty-one years. The beginning of the coal trade was not on the Lehigh, but was on the Susquehanna, and commenced

274

HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

in 1807. Do not let this be forgotten. Senator Green thinks * we ought to have a discoverer of coal.' 'Whether it is Mr. Ginter or somebody else makes very little difference to (him) me.' Most noble senator, you certainly do not speak the words of truth and soberness. In a work gotten up by the Central railroad of New Jersey, in 1891, I read the following: 'Mauch Chunk is in the very heart of the anthracite coal regions, and is also the birthplace in America of the black diamonds.' Considering that coal was discovered on the Susquehanna in 1762, and on Bear mountain, nine miles west of Mauch Chunk, in 1791, Mauch Chunk is a queer kind of a birthplace. It goes on the principle, claim everything for Lehigh.

"What surprises me, is that nothing in particular is claimed for the Schuylkill region. About all the worthies who make up tables and pyramids are Pottsville gentlemen, like Bannan, Daddow, Sheafer, et al. They are probably not familiar with the history of the State, and least of all, with the coal trade and its beginning in the Wyoming region. With a new generation of better informed gentlemen Wyoming will probably have justice done her in the future."

Mr. Stewart Pearce says that Col. George M. Hollenback sent two four-horse loads of coal to Philadelphia in 1813, and that James Lee, during the same year, sent a four-horse load from Hanover to a blacksmith at Germantown.

The blacksmiths of this region early learned the use of anthracite coal. Oba- diah and Daniel Gore were smiths, who came from Connecticut as early as 1768 and became owners of coal lands near Wilkes-Barre.

As a local fact it may here be parenthetically stated that Jesse Fell was the first to burn coal in the county in a grate as common house fuel, and the pioneers who came here and found the coal knew nothing of its history in other places and that so far as using it for domestic purposes or in grates, they made their own experi- ments, and in this line Mr. Fell was the successful leader. Mr. Culp, however, gives many reasons for his belief that it was first burned in grates in Wilkes-Barre by Jacob Cist. There are authentic letters showing that anthracite coal was suc- cessfully burned in grates in Philadelphia in 1802 and in 1803. He further says that it was burned in grates in Wilkes-Barre from 1803 by Mr. Cist, and continu- ously since.

The prolonged and very uncertain controversy on the first discovery of coal in this section seems a matter of difficult settlement. In regard to the finds of Gin- ter and others, there are of course fictions always creeping in, and what is true and what is not is now difficult of ascertainment. The claim made for Philip Ginter is,' that being a poor pioneer hunter, by accident he discovered coal where a tree had been torn up by the roots in a storm, in the year 1791. It is said this was the first of its known existence in that locality near Mauch Chunk. This may all be true, but it is strange, to say the least.

Obadiah and Daniel Gore had used coal in their smithy in Wilkes-Barre as early certainly as 1770, twenty years before Ginter's find. They found this coal a fre- quent outcrop about the foot of the hills around Wilkes-Barre. It was well known there was plenty of coal here in the Wyoming valley as early as 1766, and it was known in Bucks county as early as 1760-thirty-one years before Ginter's discovery.

The record evidence of its existence in Wyoming is in an official letter to the proprietaries, Thomas and Richard Penn, Spring Gorden, London, by James Tilgh- man, their agent at Philadelphia. In his letter to the Penns, after much other busi- ness he says: " He went up the northeast branch as far as Wyoming, where he says there is a considerable body of good lands and a very great fund of coal in the hills which surround a very fine and extensive bottom there. This coal is thought to be very fine. With his compliments he sends you a piece of the coal."

" The bed of coal, situated as it is on the side of the river, may some time or other be a thing of great value."

This letter is still extant and in excellent preservation. To this Thomas Penn

Nalleauk ismer

277

HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

replies, dated London, the following November 7, and says: "I desire you will return my thanks to Col. Francis for his good services, etc., and for the piece of coal which we shall have examined by some persons skilled in that article."

The correspondence on the subject seems to have terminated just here, no doubt owing to the overthrow of the rigid denomination of the Penns about that time.

Charles Stewart made a careful survey of this section in 1768, and on his survey he marks a large tract of land on the west side of the river opposite Wilkes-Barre, "stonecoal."

Bituminous coal in Pennsylvania was discovered in quantity on the Conemaugh river below Saltzburg as early as 1750.

John David Schoepf, in his Travels, mentions a visit in 1783 to a bed of brilliant black coal one mile above Wyoming, which on handling leaves no taint and burns without emitting an offensive odor. It is found here on both sides of the river and in various parts of the valley. He mentions in Jacob's plains, a spring on the sur- face of which floats a tenacious fatty matter, depositing a yellow sediment. He conjectured it came from the neighboring coal beds. Then William Sculls' map of the country where is now Pottsville, made in 1770, marks coal lands at this point.

W. Penn Miner states it as a curious historical fact that one of the strong induce- ments to the early use of coal in the house was that the crude grates, often the open wood fireplace where coal was mixed and burned with wood, allowed much of the sulphur fumes to escape in the room, and this proved a remedy to the seven-year itch that prevailed quite common at that time. Soon after its first use it was observed that the luxury of scratching gave way to the coal burning, and suffer- ers were soon well, and to this day have remained so.

Crandall Wilcox, as early as 1814, sold coal from his mine on Mill creek, Plains township, at $8.50 per ton in Marietta, Pa. His sons at a much later date sent coal in arks to market by the river, even after the canal was completed to Nanti- coke, in 1830. Col. Lord Butler owned that wonderful development of anthracite on Coal brook, a mile east of the borough, afterward known as the Baltimore mine, which supplied Wilkes-Barre in early times. The coal was quarried and delivered at $3 per ton. Col. Washington Lee sent several hundred tons from his mines in Hanover in 1820, which sold in Baltimore at $8 per ton.

In 1823 Col. Lee and George Chahoon leased a mine in Newport, and contracted for the mining and delivery of 1,000 tons of coal in arks at Lee's ferry, at $1.10 per ton, the coal selling at Columbia at a loss of $1,500.

In 1829 the Butler mine on Coal brook, near Wilkes-Barre, was purchased for Baltimore capitalists, being originally incorporated as the "Baltimore & Pittsburg Coal company." From this company the coal takes its name, which has given a wide reputation as one of the finest veins of anthracite in the region. It first shipped coal in arks.

The Stockbridge mine in Pittston sent coal down the river in arks in 1828, furnishing about 2,000 tons in three years. Joseph Wright had shipped coal from Pittston in 1813. This was probably the son of Thomas Wright, who had a forge on the Lackawanna near the crossing of the main road to Providence, and well understood the value of coal and coal lands. The place is still known as "Old Forge." It was among the earliest tracts to change hands from original owners. having been sold by the heirs of Thomas Wright to a Mr. Armstrong, of Newburg, and Hon. Charles Augustus Murray, a gentleman from England. It was said that the location of Scranton hung in the balance at one time between "Old Forge" and "Slocum Hollow," the latter with its blast furnace and iron ore beds securing the prize.

In its issue of April 26, 1837, the Kingston paper says of the trade: "Up to April 17 fifty arks had been despatched from Plymouth, averaging sixty tons each. In 1824 the State provided for the survey of a canal route, or the exploring by 15

278

HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

commissioners of the coal lands on the route from Harrisburg to Pittsburg. About the same time the National road starting at Baltimore was commenced to make a national road west to St. Louis. Everything at that time was directed to the western trade, while the boundless wealth of this section slept, and was unknown and unheeded. In time with the awakening of systems of internal improvements would appear articles in the newspapers or pamphlets calling public attention to the north branch of the Susquehanna. In 1791 the legislature appropriated money' to improve this river, and make it easily navigable. In 1792 an appropriation was made for a road from " Metchunk mountain to Neecopeck," and another from Wilkes- Barre to Wyalusing. But in the idea of the proposers of these improvements there is no hint that the coal of this section was wanted. The first lock on the canal was laid at Harrisburg in 1827, and three yeare later the canal was completed to Nanticoke dam, and Hon. John Koons, of Shickshinny, built the boat " Wyoming," towed it to Nanticoke, where it was loaded with ten tons of coal, and after a long, tedious and difficult journey landed its cargo in Philadelphia. On its return trip, with fifteen tons of merchandise, it was frozen up, and the goods had to be carried to Wilkes-Barre on sleds. The next year, 1831, the " Luzerne" was built opposite Wilkes-Barre, and with a cargo of coal proceeded to Philadelphia under Capt., Derrick Bird. This boat made the first successful round trip to Philadelphia, loaded each way, in 1834.

At this time arose the serious question of shipping the coal northward from this point, and a struggle of twenty years finally ended in building the canal to the canal at Elmira, N. Y. In the fall of 1856 trade to New York was opened, and that year 1,150 tons were shipped, which in 1859 had increased to 52, 000 tons.

In 1840 the board of managers of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation company deemed it a matter of sufficient importance to order the publication of the history of coal in this section. In that account two different hunters, at different places but about the same time, discovered important outcroppings in the year 1790. [There is now little doubt that these outcroppinge had been found before this date by pioneers .- ED. ] But the two hunters who were credited with calling others' attention to the find were Nicho Allen and Philip Ginter-the former found his on Broad mountain and the latter on Bear mountain, nine miles west of Mauch Chunk. The account says Philip Ginter informed Col. Jacob Weiss of his find.

When Col. Weiss received the pieces of coal from the hunter he took them to Philadelphia and submitted them to the inspection of John Nicholson, Michael Hillegas and Charles Cist, who authorized Col. Weiss to satisfy Ginter upon his pointing out the precise location of the coal. These gentlemen united with others in forming the coal mine company, but without a charter. Mr. Maxwell includes the eminent financier of the Revolutionary war, Robert Morris, among the active patrons of the early improvement of the Lehigh, but mention of his name does not occur in the early histories within reach.

Jacob Cist, a gentleman of unusually solid and brilliant scientific attainments, who had in early life removed to Wyoming, was a son of Charles Cist. In 1813 he united with Charles Miner, editor of the Gleaner, aud John W. Robinson, all of Wilkes-Barre, in the lease on the Lehigh. Stephen Tuttle was a fourth. Isaac A. Chapman, afterward editor of the Gleaner, and author of an early history of Wyoming, was at one time associated in the enterprise. He was an engineer with Milnor Roberts and Solomon W. Roberts on the upper division of the naviga- tion under Canvass White, and died at Mauch Chunk while in the company's service.

A curious old contract of January 27, 1815, " between Charles Miner of the one part and Benjamin Smith and James Miars of the other part, witnesseth that the said Smith and Miars have agreed to haul from the great coal bed near the Lehigh, commonly called the Weiss bed, to the landing near the Lints place, sixty tons of stone coal by the first day of April, 1815."

279

HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

There is also a memorandum, signed and sealed by Philip Heermans, agreeing to build arks in a workmanlike manner, ready to run by the first spring freshets in the Lehigh, ten arks for $400. "Said Charles to find all the materials on the . spot; to haul the timber, board the hands, and to furnish them a reasonable quantity of whisky. Wilkes-Barre, November 23, 1814." A note added-" Mr. Heermans was a very clever fellow and had built the arks previously used."

The company's history says: "Only $4 was paid for hauling the coal over the road before referred to, and the contractor lost money. The principal part of the coal which arrived at Philadelphia was purchased at $21 per ton by White & Hazard, who were then manufacturing wire at the falls of the Schuylkill. But even this price did not remunerate the owners for the losses and expenses of getting the coal to market, and they were consequently compelled to abandon the prosecution of the business, and of course did not comply with the terms of the lease."

The venerable James A. Gordon wrote from his home in Plymouth to the Wilkes- Barre Record of the Times, February, 1874, his recollections of this early Luzerne enterprise on the Lehigh:

"On the 17th July, 1814, with Abail Abbott, Stern Palmer, Strange H. Palmer (another printer), Thomas P. Beach, Joseph Thomas, Chester Dana and Josiah Hor- ton shouldered knapsacks and tools for a march to the Lehigh to build arks for Messrs. Cist, Miner and Millhouse (Hillegas ?).

"Four arks were ready for loading by the first freshet. The estimated cost of fifty tons, one ark load of coal, was: Mining, $50; hauling from summit, $4.50 per ton, $225; cost of ark, $125; loading ark, $15. Total, $415.

"Lehigh pilots were on hand. The fleet moved off with the rapid current, and in fifteen minutes brought up on a reef called 'Red Rocks,' half a mile below. One ark got through. In the ensuing December peace was declared, and coal went down to $6. The enterprise was a financial failure."

Miner, Cist & Robinson made heroic endeavors to make mining coal a success, but their failure was complete and their time and money losses heavy. Their lease of coal lands expired by non user. The Lehigh Coal Mine company being wholly dis- couraged executed a lease to White, Hunt & Hazzard, for a term of twenty years.

In 1813 Mr. Miner was publishing The Gleaner in Wilkes-Barre; and in a long editorial article from his pen, under date of November 19 and the head of "State Policy," he urged with great zeal the improvement of the descending navigation of the Susquehanna and Lehigh rivers. He then said: "The coal of Wyoming has already become an article of considerable traffic with the lower counties of Pennsyl- vania. Numerous bede have been opened, and it is ascertained beyond all doubt that the valley of Wyoming contains enough coal for ages to come." He then goes on to speak highly of its quality, and says further: "Seven years ago our coal was thought of little value. It was then supposed that it could not be burned in a common grate. Our smiths used it, and for their use alone did we suppose it serviceable. About six years ago one of our most public spirited citizens made the experiment of using it in a grate, and succeeded to his most sanguine expectations."

Again, in the same paper, issued on the 31st of December, 1813, in an article headed "The Prosperity of Philadelphia," Mr. Miner wrote of the objects to be accomplished for her advantage: 1, The connection of the waters of the Chesa- peake and the Delaware- since accomplished; 2, The connection of the Schuylkill with the Swatara-since much more than accomplished by the Union canal; and 3, The opening of a communication from the Susquehanna to Philadelphia by a road or railway from Wilkes-Barre to Lehigh, and thence by that river to the Delaware, and thence to Philadelphia. "I have visited," he said, "Lausanne and a number of other places on the Lehigh, having particularly in view to ascertain the real situation of its navigation." . Then, in the next issue of the same paper there is another editorial by Mr. Miner, headed "Navigation of the Lehigh," and occupying two and a half

280

HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

columns of the paper. In it he wrote earnestly and at length as to the merits of our coal, as well as to the improvement of the Lehigh. Upon this point he printed in italics the following sentence: "I say with great confidence, this is the course pointed out by Nature for the connection between the Susquehanna and the Dela- ware;" and experience has since verified its truth. He then urged upon the public the improvement in question, on the ground of the comparatively small expeuse it would require. He was too sanguine, as the event has proved. On the contrary, he then said: "Our public improvements must grow with our growth and strengthen with our strength. We can not expect in this young country, having so many points to improve, to equal the old and more populous countries of Europe. I appeal to the judicious men who have witnessed the failure of our grandest plans, if they have not miscarried because they were disproportionate to the necessity and the ability of the country;" and he closed this part of the subject by saying, "I hope our grandchildren may live to see a complete railway from this place to the Lehigh, and a canal from thence to Philadelphia."

This is an interesting passage. It would be interesting to know just how many of Mr. Miner's readers understood at that day what a railway was. There was not then a railway in existence-save the "tram roads" in and about the mines of New- castle-and to those who understood this how much like the merest vagaries of the imagination must Mr. Miner's confident hope have seemed. And yet it has been more than realized. His grandchildren have indeed not only lived to see that very railroad and canal completed, but he lived to see it himself, finished and in use; and more than this-he lived to see not only that particular railroad and canal, but also eight other railroads and two other canals diverging from this valley to the great coal marts of the country!

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History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 34

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