History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 37

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

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At first his prosperity was slow; in the financial upheaval of 1837 he suffered heavy reverses, borrowing enormous amounts to tide himself over successfully. But in 1864, said a man competent to know: "Mr. Pardee testified in court that his income the preceding year was over a million dollars. It was then he endowed the chair of mathematics of Lafayette college, and gave the college in addition $300.000 to build ' Pardee Hall.' "

Mr. Pardee was twice married. First with Elizabeth Jacobs, of Butler valley, and of this union were children as follows: Gen. Ario Pardee, Jr., of Phila- delphia; Calvin, Alice (Mrs. Earle); Ella (died in Paris). His last marriage was with Miss Anna M. Robison, of Bloomsburg, and her children as follows: Izrael, Anne (Mrs. Allison), Barton, Frank, Bessie (Mrs. A. S. Van Wickle), Edith, Gertrude.

Although nearly eighty-two years of age at the time of his death, so unex- pected was it that it came to the community like a sudden shock. But three weeks preceding the final hour he, in company with his invalid wife, daughter Gertrude, Mr. and Mrs. Van Wickle and Dr. Robison, had started on their trip to Florida in the hope of bettering Mrs. Pardee's health. At the time of starting it was the common remark that he looked unusually well and vigorous. At Rock Ledge, Fla., their point of destination, he had compelled himself to so much exercise that he became over-fatigued, and, against the earnest advice of Dr. Robison, refused to stop and rest. A slight cold, and then a chill, and in a few hours he peacefully passed away. So unexpected was the end that those of the party could hardly be sum- moned to his bedside in time to see him alive. When the first telegram reached Hazleton it was generally supposed that the natural mistake had been made by the operator, and that it referred to Mrs. Pardee, and not to him, and it required explanatory telegrams to compel a full realization of the facts in the case.

Are not these lands the most valuable in the world, considered without reference to any added value by the presence of population as in cities? Nature here has spread this wealth, and the energies of man simply dig out the black diamond and send it to the market.

Eduris. Cabinas

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

Fortunes have been sunk and millions lost in the early efforts to develop the mines and introduce anthracite coal to the various uses to which it is now indispens- able. Few of the pioneers lived to enjoy the fruits of their labors and enterprise. Few of the living even now comprehend the value of anthracite, either the cost value, the "exchange value," or the far greater value as one of the necessaries of life, without regard to ratio, or exchange or price in open market. In the scram- ble for control of markets it has come to be regarded as a mere item of tonnage, by which to estimate income to rival lines of transportation. The next generation will be able to estimate it from a point of view gained through bitter experience, and will understand its full pecuniary value. The loss of life and the almost countless accidents, resulting in the loss of limbs and health, have added fearfully to the cost, which can not be estimated.

If the estimate which places the limit of production below 35,000,000 tons per annum shall prove correct, and experience to the present hour seems to confirm this, then will the money value soon be ascertained in the market price.

Following closely upon the opening of Pardee's collieries about Hazleton were the mines of George B. Markle & Co., at Jeddo.

Coxe Bros. & Co. started up their works at Drifton in February, 1865, and shipped their first coal in June following. Their second breaker at Drifton com- menced work in 1876. In 1879 they started the mines in Black Creek valley, and developed the Gowen, Deringer and Tomhicken collieries. In 1881 opened the Bea- ver Meadow, and at Eckley in 1886; at Stockton in 1887, and about the same time at Oneida. Commenced shipping coal at the latter place in 1891. The firm com- menced building its belt railroad in the spring of 1890, and completed between fifty and sixty miles of single track, connecting all their collieries with main railroads tap- ping this coal field.

The geological position of the coal seams in this region is as follows: B or Buck mountain, then Gamma or the G vein, then the Wharton, the Parlor, and E or the Mammoth, and then the Primrose. The average of the veins actively worked here is thirty feet in depth or thickness. The earth's disturbances have sometimes split the coal seams, and sometimes the Wharton and Parlor are one, and then in a short distance they again separate. Miners only know approximately the corre- sponding veins as they epen them, even in closely adjacent localities.

Hon. Eckley B. Coxe bears a family name that is closely connected with the Eastern Middle coal fields, and one that carries our history back to the early annals of the American colonies, their settlement and early struggles, defeats and triumphs in the new world.

In 1795 Hon. Tench Coxe, of Philadelphia, published his book called "A View of America." In the sub-title it says "the whole tending to exhibit the progress and present state of civil and religious liberty." In his book he speaks of our coal deposit and says: "Of this useful fossil Providence has given us very great quanti- ties in our middle and western country. The vicinity of Wyoming and Susquehanna is one bed of coal of the open burning kind and the most intense heat. On the headwaters of the Schuylkill and Lehigh are some considerable bodies. At the head of the western branch of the Susquehanna is a most extensive body which stretches over the country southwesterly. All our coal has hitherto been accidentally found on the surface of the earth or discovered in the digging of common wells and cellars."

He states that at that time and earlier coal was carried from Virginia in ships as ballast. In 1810 he published another book, "A Statement of the Arts and Manu- factures of the United States of America for the Year 1810." George S. White in his "Memoirs of Samuel Slater" called him the "father of American manufactures," and says, "Mr. Tench Coxe has been an harbinger of light on this subject." [The development of the cotton industry, then the one supreme article of importance to 16

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manufacture. ] Continuing, he further says: "The writings now extant of Tench Coxe prove emphatically that these were his great views as a statesman who was. advocating principles that were to be the foundation of new empires, and of amelior- ating the conditions of mankind." Then adds the significant sentence: "It is not saying too much when we claim for him the appellation of the father of the- growth of cotton in America."

In White's Memoirs of Samuel Slater is the following additional reference to the. Coxes:

"The American branch of the family of Coxe. The first ancestor of the Coxe family connected with America was Dr. Daniel Coxe, who was physician to the queen of Charles II., of England, and also to Queen Anne. He was [by purchase- from the king] principal proprietor of the soil of West Jersey, and sole proprietor of the government, he having held the office of governor to him and his descendants. forever."

"At the request of Queen Anne he surrendered the government to the crown, retaining the other proprietary rights. [This historical incident may be consulted in the old folio edition of the laws of New Jersey. ] A member of the Coxe family was always appointed by the crown, while there was a resident member in the province, as a member of the royal council of New Jersey until the Revolution." Gov. Coxe was called "The Great Proprietor." [See Smith's history of New Jersey. ] Here also is an account of his son, Daniel Coxe, the first ancestor who. resided in America. Further along in Mr. White's valuable book we learn: "Dr. Coxe was also proprietor of the extensive province of Carolana [the early spell- ing] an account of which is given in full in an octavo volume written by his son,. Col. Daniel Coxe, entitled the "History of Carolana,"-a copy of which is in the library of congress, the Philadelphia library and also the Atheneum of Philadelphia. The writer had the pleasure of examining a copy of this book in the library of Hon. Eckley B. Coxe, of Drifton. The king's charter to Dr. Coxe was in extent of territory and vested powers the most comprehensive ever granted by the crown to a subject. The family eventually released it, the king conferring in lieu thereof the- fee to 100,000 acres of choice land in New York. Dr. Coxe was also a large pro- prietor of land in Pennsylvania, and in other of the American colonies. To his. eldest son, Col. Daniel Coxe, he gave all his American possessions-the gentleman who is mentioned above as the first resident. He arrived here in 1702; intermarried with Sarah, the only child of John Eckley, a judge of the supreme court of Pennsyl- vania, and left issue among others, William Coxe, who married Mary, daughter of Tench Francis, attorney-general of the province of Pennsylvania. Tench Coxe was the son of this William and Mary Coxe; born in Philadelphia, May 22, 1755, died July 17, 1824. Summarized the genealogy of the Coxe family is: Dr. Daniel Coxe of London, governor of West Jersey, etc., born in 1640, died in 1730; his son Col. Daniel Coxe, born 1663, died April 25, 1734; his son William Coxe, born May 8, 1723, died October 11, 1801; his son, Hon. Tench Coxe, born May 22, 1755, died July 17, 1824; his son, Hon. Charles S. Coxe, of Philadelphia, born July 31, 1791, died November 19, 1879; this was the line of lineal descent that brings us to the present Hon. Eckley B. Coxe, of whom more anon.

In a valuable book, "First Century of the American Republic," pp. 160, a chapter on "Progress of Manufactures" by the Hon. David A. Wells, is the follow- ing:

"In an address before the Pennsylvania society for the encouragement of manu- factures," August, 1787, by Mr. Tench Coxe (afterward assistant secretary of the treasury under Alexander Hamilton) the great progress in agriculture and manu- factures since the late war was particularly dwelt upon." Mr. Wells than quotes- numerous passages and statistics from the address showing the status of Ameri- can growth in all parts of the country and awards to Mr. Coxe the highest.

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authority of his time on the subject. He further states that when the convention to form the constitution of the United States met at Philadelphia Mr. Coxe, by his earnest and able presentation of the subject to the members of that body, induced the southern representatives on their return to encourage the raising of cotton fiber, and it is truthfully said that many of them made personal efforts in that line.

Alexander Hamilton in his famous report of manufactures in 1791 says of coal: "There are several mines in Virginia now worked and the appearance of their existence is familiar in a number of places." His attention had been called thereto by his assistant, Mr. Coxe. It was about this time that Mr. Coxe published his views on inter-state commerce-a paper in importance second only to that of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. He proclaimed the doctrine of "free trade between the States" and forever crushed the clamor of a party then rising up with all the specious pleas for regulating the commerce that crossed State lines.

Again of him Alexander Hamilton said *: "In examining American writers on the subject I find no individual who commenced so early, and who continued with such unswerving perseverance in the patriotic promotion of the growth of cotton as the only redundant staple which this country could produce; in the commencement and forwarding the cotton manufacture under really disadvantageous and great embarrassments, I find no one appearing at the head and front of thess measures equal to Tench Coxe."

In the matter of the development of American industries it has been fashionable to name Samuel Slater as the "Father of American Manufactures." But history should rectify this. Tench Coxe was the great economist; the author of the American Samuel Slater, as he induced that young Englishman to come to America and was his guide, friend and mentor. Tench Coxe's writings in the foundation of our nation were as beacon lights shining out upon the troubled waters. He was a great states- man in the full, broad sense of a term that is so often misapplied nowadays. He lived and advanced at least half a century before his age and time. And to-day his every idea and doctrine of government and the promotion of the welfare of the people are as sound as they were at the dawn of the century and of our glorious republic. He was the cotemporary, and, with due deliberation, the peer of Adam Smith. As a historical fact of no slight significance it may be stated that he owned the first copy of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, that was ever brought to the United States. This man, greater than his time, would enlarge the liberty of the people by developing every of the great resources of the country. His ideas of political economy were as broad as is the true welfare of man. And like all correct principles, they were not confined by State lines, nor by mountains and seas, but as everlasting truths were for all time. Such minds only can reach to that high eminence that constitutes the true statesman as distinguished from the politician- or even the successful office seeker. The truth is always when found eternal, immortal-yesterday, to-day and forever; its discoverers, the patient slaves of genius, are the real sons and daughters of history, who will, because they richly deserve it, live forever. There was nothing "brilliant " or "magnetic," as the parlance of the day has it, about Tench Coxe. He was far too great for that. His life and work in the young growth of the world's great republic was the strong and enduring foundation on which rests the present greatness and glory of our civilization. His modest little book, "View of America," published in the other century, attracted the profound consideration of the best men in every country of the old world and was translated into several different languages.

Here was another of this race of remarkable men. We have already referred to Col. Daniel Coxe, who married Sarah Eckley and was the author of a book published in 1741-a description of Carolana. The headlines of the opening chapter says: " A description of the great and famous river Meschacebe " (Mississippi). In

*See Memoirs of Samuel Slater.

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the preface of this book may be found what was undoubtedly the first suggestion that ever appeared in print of the confederation of the colonies of North America and that substantially foreshadowed the immortal work of our Revolutionary fathers, as follows:

"The only expedient I can at present think of or shall presume to mention (with the utmost deference to his majesty and his ministers) to help and obviate these absurdities and inconveniences and apply a remedy to them is that all the colonies appertaining to the crown of Great Britain on the northern continent of America be united under a legal, regular and firm establishment over which it is proposed a lieutenant or supreme governor may be constituted and appointed to preside on the spot, to whom the governors of each colony shall be subordinate."

There was a fitness, little known to the average American voter, in the election during the latter years of his life of Gen. George B. MacClellan as governor of New Jersey. His election was but a recurrence, most fittingly so, of a chapter in American history-Gen. MacClellan and Hon. Eckley B. Coxe were full cousins. The connec- tion of Tench Coxe with the great coal industry was but a natural sequence of his keen foresight in the coming America. When he knew of the discovery of coal near where is now Mauch Chunk he promptly turned his attention in that direction. The geology of the subject at that time, it should be kept in mind, was but little under- stood compared to now. He knew if there was coal at that point that then the vein must extend for miles in some direction and so he purchased nearly 80,000 acres of land and so arranged it that these encircled the point where it was known that coal existed. He knew all these lands were not probably coal bearing, but he reasoned well that some of them certainly would be. In this way he secured the coal lands that are now operated by the house of Coxe, Bros. & Co.

This, as briefly as possible, is something of the ancestry of Hon. Eckley B. Coxe the head of the house of Coxe Bros. & Co., of Drifton, one of the largest coal pro- ducers of any private house in the world. A word more here as to the family name of Eckley, and the romantic manner in which it came into such close connection with that of Coxe, may well be produced.

In Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," we read that: "Col. Coxe, the grand- father of the late Hon. Tench Coxe, made an elopement in his youth with an heiress, Sarah Eckley, a Friend. What was singular in their case was that they were mar- ried in the woods in Jersey by fire-light by the chaplain of Lord Cornbury, the then governor of New Jersey."

Sarah Eckley, of whose match (as quoted by the annalist) one Margaret Preston, evidently a member of the Society of Friends, writes in 1707, as follows: "The news of Sarah Eckley's marriage is both sorrowful and surprising, with one Col. Coxe, a fine, flaunting gentleman, said to be worth a great deal of money, a great inducement, it is said, on her side. Her sister Trent was supposed to have pro- moted the match. Her other friends were ignorant of the match. It took place in the absence of her Uncle and Aunt Hill, between 2 and 3 in the morning, on the Jersey side, under a tree by fire-light. They have since proselyted her and decked her in finery."

It will soon be 200 years since this pleasant little romance struck such terror to the female friends of the family of Mr. Eckley of Philadelphia. And yet how freshly is this ancient history accentuated by the prominence and presence of the great-great-grandson and bearer of the two names of that runaway match.

Judge Charles S. Coxe was many years one of the eminent members of the bar of Philadelphia, and for a long period filled with distinguished ability the office of judge of the district court of that city. He being purely a lawyer, realized his inefficiency in the matter of developing the great coal property that was the immense inheritance of the Coxe family. He would not sell any of the inherited coal lands, being well impressed with the wisdom and foresight of his eminent father, Tench

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Coxe. He leased some of the mines, but the lessees were, as pretty much all others of that day, mere experimenters in the unsolved problem of mining, transporting, and then creating a market for the coal of the anthracite regions. Some mines had been opened in the Coxe lands, but had hardly been worked at all, and lapsed into neglect and mostly disuse. He determined to make amends in this respect in the education of his children.

The Engineering and Mining Journal, of June 27, 1891, in giving sketches of the prominent men in the mining industry of the United States, in a brief sketch of Mr. Coxe, said this much of the man on the scientific and technical side of his edu- cation and equipments as a master in this journal's specialty:

"No man could be selected as a better representative of the great coal mining industry of the United States than Hon. Eckley B. Coxe, of Drifton, Luzerne county, Pa. This gentleman, with his brothers, inherited large coal estates in Pennsylvania, and was consequently educated with the special object of preparing him for their management. The ability which he has displayed in the management of extensive works and his familiarity with the literature of the profession have won him a world-wide reputation as an expert in this difficult branch of engineering.

"Mr. Coxe was born in Philadelphia, June 4, 1839. His father was the late Judge Charles S. Coxe, and his grandfather, Tench Coxe, well known as a states- man, financier and author, who was commissioner of internal revenue in Washing- ton's administration. Eckley B. Coxe graduated from the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1858, and after completing a course in the scientific department of that institution, and spending six months in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania engaged in topographic geological work, he went abroad in 1860 to continue his studies. The next two years were spent at the Ecole des Mines, in Paris, and then a year in the Bergakademie, at Frieberg, Saxony, after which he passed nearly two years in visiting the mines of England and the continent to study their practical operation.

"Upon his return to the United States in 1865, Mr. Coxe, in company with his brothers, under the firm name of Coxe Bros. & Co., began the business of mining anthracite coal in the Lehigh region, upon property which had been inherited from their grandfather, Tench Coxe. Since that time he has been engaged in the operation of his company's collieries, which are now among the largest producers in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, their output in 1890 having been about 1,500,000 tons. It is in the management of these mines that Mr. Coxe has won the high reputation which he enjoys, as one of the most progressive, able and honorable of the representatives of the great coal-mining industry of this country.

"For many years Mr. Coxe has resided at Drifton, Pa., near the mines and the homes of the many thousand miners and workingmen whom the firm employs. Between the firm and its employes have always existed the most cordial and pleasant relations, which is noteworthy in comparison with the feelings between operators and miners in some parts of the State. It has always been a matter of pride, how ever, on the part of Mr. Coxe and the firm which he represents, to spare no pains in improving the condition of the workingmen in their employ."

He has long been a prominent member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, of which body he was president from 1878 to 1880, and he is an active member both of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and of the American Society of Civil Engineers, of the former of which he has been a vice-president. He has frequently lectured on scientific subjects, and in 1872 he published a translation of Weisbach's Mechanics of Engineering and Construction of Machines.

This is brevity itself when applied to what he has done in the way of developing one of the most important industries of the country. To tell of this fully would require far more space than it is possible to here give. When he took control of the active operations it was at the time of the original organizations of the labor

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societies throughout the country, and the real beginning of this "conflict of labor and capital," to use an expressive term, that has gone on with a constantly growing strength on all sides. On one side labor combined, and the other capital or employ- ers combined. Just here this statement of a simple fact ie the widest and strong- est comment possible to make on the life and services to mankind of Mr. Coxe: In his shops, mines and railroad are thousands of employes-among the largest in this line of any firm in the country, and yet in fact in the bloodless but persistent war he has stood between the men and the vast corporations, the unconquerable cham- pion of the rights of all. He has fought the battles of labor and the producer, we may well say, with far more success than have any of the great organizations them- selves, and at the same time has championed with equal success the rights of capital against its own errors. Both sides to this sometimes bitter contention have made most hurtful mistakes, and as often as this has occurred, they have found this man their fearless and strongest adversary.

In all his vast and complicated affairs he has never reversed a deliberately formed judgment. This exemplifies the two sides of his nature, his combativeness and strong will, governed by a broad and generous education and a comprehension of economic subjects that most fitly illuminates the wise precepts that came to him from his grandfather, Tench Coxe. When the private mine owners of the country found themselves enmeshed in the coils of the railroads, and their very life being squeezed out of them, when the last ray of hope had nearly gone, this man, single- handed and alone, stepped forth, took up the gauge of battle, dragged the offenders into court, took them before the Inter-State railroad commission and won a most signal victory. More than all this: When this titanic struggle was on, he brought to bear his own resources, and built his own belt railroad, nearly sixty miles of track, connecting his mines with all the different roads tapping this coal district-routing his strong enemies and compelling them to his terms more effectively than did his great victory in the courts. Thus he fought the battle and gained a signal victory for every private operative in the land, and humbled the proudest and most power- ful corporate combine in the world. The victory was for all our people-the hum- blest miner in the deepest shifts, as well as for every householder in the land compelled to buy fuel-the universal and great necessity of us all.

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History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 37

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