History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 67

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections > Part 67

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Opera House, a very neat frame place of amusement, was burned in May, 1892, and steps have been promptly taken to rebuild a better brick edifice. The same fire that destroyed the opera house burned a portion of the Valley hotel, the stables, railroad building and the small frames and contents adjoining it on tlie west.

Brewery of Arnold & Krell, on Mine street, is one of the growing important industies of the city.

Broom factories are two in the city.

Prof. Earnet's business college is a well established institution of the place.

Two flouring mills; Pardee's, the oldest in the place, and that of the Hazleton Mercantile company on West Broad street.

Hazleton Iron works was established by L. S. Allison, and recently made a joint stock company and its facility and capacity enlarged.

Piano and organ factory by Peter Kelmer is on Chestnut street, near the iron works.

Stephen D. Engle's watch and jewelry factory is quite a flourishing Hazleton institution. The Engle Spring Gun company is incorporated; was organized in 1886, by J. F. Barber, H. W. Hess and S. C. Wagenseller, and in 1889 enlarged, and W. C. Galey and M. F. Koenig were admitted under new charter in 1889. This company confines itself to the manufacture of specialties invented by Stephen D. Engle. In addition to manufacturing his own goods for his jewelry store he is engaged in making and putting on the market his own inventions, which include a wide range from the dust-proof watch case and dental plates, to the celebrated apostolic and astronomical clock, the latter pronounced by scientific men to be far more remarkable than the celebrated Strausburg clock. Mr. Engle is one of the noted inventors of Hazleton and Luzerne county. And in the line of work in his own shop of jewelry of the most expensive and elegant description, there is no one factory in the State of more interest than his.

The other classified industries are 6 carriage factories, 5 cigar, 5 dentists, 68 groceries, 16 dry goods and general stores, 4 drugs, 10 hotels, 8 lawyers, 8 newspa- per publications, 18 physicians.

Hazleton Hospital is a splendid institution; erected in 1889, and was contributed to by the State to the amount of $60,000, and by liberal subscriptions of private citizens to the amount of $15,000; a spacious and elegant building on the hill east of the town; has two wards, twenty-four beds in each. Superintendent is Henry . M. Keller.

Railroads .- Hazleton is the central attraction of the entire system of railroads that now fairly criss-cross the coal fields of this section. Ario Pardee, of the Hazle- ton Coal company, made many efforts to secure favorable results in the matter of transporting the coal to market. The main line of the Lehigh road was built along the Lehigh river after the destruction and end of the old canal that at one time furnished transportation from this section at Penn Haven. The old railroad had been built to Beaver Meadow, the nearest point to Hazleton. It crossed the different mountains by different "planes," as it was then supposed engines could not be built to haul trains up steep grades. The first railroad built to Hazleton was from

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

Weatherly to this point. The main line of the Lehigh road through this county runs twelve miles east of this place; and yet such was the importance of the busi- ness offered here that a line was soon completed from Penn Haven, from the main line, and it returned to the main track again at White Haven.

Hazleton now is abundantly supplied with railroads to all points. The main road remains the first one-the Lehigh Valley, then comes the Pennsylvania railroad running out a spur to this place from its main line from Harrisburg to Wilkes- Barre. Then the Reading found the place of sufficient importance to tap the place in connection with the Delaware, Susquehanna & Schuylkill railroad. The latter is Eckley B. Coxe's belt railroad that connects the mines of Coxe Bros. & Co. Thus, in fact, there are four railroads accessible here, though the recent "combine" of the Lehigh and Reading roads makes them under one management. The results are that through all this coal-bearing region are the amplest railroad facilities that touch by main lines or spurs or junctions every point, especially where there is active mining going on. Every little stream hereabouts, and it should be remem- bered that near the depot is the high point, or rather the place from which the waters flow in the four cardinal directions, as said, all these drains and streams have been utilized by engineers as the guides to survey and build railroads along.

Hazleton is, as you may be told by any well-posted railroad man, one of the best points on the line of the great Lehigh system of railroads, in point of paying busi- ness, both in travel and freight traffic.

CHAPTER XXI.

TOWNSHIPS AND BOROUGHS.

ASHLEY BOROUGH.

W HEN a mere " Corners," or in the beginnings of this as a business place, it was known, far and wide, as "Scrabbletown," especially after Daniel Kriedler built his forge, a stone building, six or eight rods below the Back road, on Solomon's creek. The old sawmill stood on this Back road, about thirty rods from the forge; it was a water mill, and was one of the early day important improvements, when people began to get off of dirt or split puncheon floors, and how happy the housewives were made as they swept and polished the real, smooth sawed-plank floors of their cabins. Indeed, then they could have real plank doors to the cabins, and no longer the old batten doors made of split boards, with a wooden pin for the fastening. The old mill stood about where is now the railroad company's house. In 1830 the mill belonged to the Huntingtons. The mill and the old stone forge both ceased operations about 1839. A little further up in Solomon's gap was Inman's tavern and a couple of cabins. This place was then called "Inman's tavero," and, no doubt, Inman and his friends intended the future borough should be there. But in 1840, when the building of the "planes" was going on, Inman's tavern went into "innoc- uous desuetude," and Inman sold out and went West, after Horace Greeley's advice to young men.

A coal mine was sunk in 1851 at Ashley, and then the name of Scrabbletown, by general consent, was changed to "Coalville." This mine was where the Hartford breaker stood; the latter, built in 1856, burned in 1884. In 1856 a large breaker was built over the old shaft, and a " slope" was opened at the foot of the mountain on the "Baltimore vein," a seam of coal nineteen feet thick. A tunnel into the mountain was commenced near the mouth of the slope. After the first breaker was burned another was built, called the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre No. 6 (now called

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

No. 8). The Dundee shaft was sunk in 1857-9, passing to and through sixteen veins of coal. Nothing has been done at this shaft since 1859; the property was purchased by the Delaware & Lackawanna railroad.

Chapman says that Ross' mill at Ashley, on Solomon's creek, was built about 1830 and abandoned about 1850.

One of the most important improvements consists of the "planes." In 1843 the Lehigh & Susquehanna railroad was completed from White Haven to Wilkes- Barre, to facilitate the supply of coal to the New York and Philadelphia trade, then rapidly growing. At first, light trains for freight and passengers were hauled up the mountain by horses, the entire distance between Wilkes-Barre and White Haven, but in 1846 this mode of transportation stopped. The railroad was opened for full traffic only in 1847; even then, horses were used to haul trains everywhere except at the "planes," or where gravity would do it. The trains were hauled up the mountains by stationary engines, and on the other side run by gravity. From Ash- ley there are three long "planes" to reach the top of Big mountain-a total rise of 1,000 feet. Originally, says Mr. Miner, verified by Mr. Plumb, "straps" of soft steel, attached to a "truck," were used to pull the cars up or let them down; two sets of "straps" to each of the three "planes," and at the top of each "plane" was a stationary engine revolving a large drum to wind the "straps" on. These "straps" were discarded in 1850 for wire ropes, and then locomotives were put on instead of horses, and the "planes" became much as you can see them now, the great stationary engines hauling to the mountain top the long coal trains as they start from Ashley. The "planes" beginning at Ashley, made a necessity by the development of the coal industry, and these together have made it an important, busy and enterprising place.

Our chronicler insists that Ashley has had a plethora of names; one time, even way back in the other century it was irreverently styled "Skunktown," then "Peestone," "Hightown," "Newton," "Hendricksburg," "Scrabbletown," "Coalville," "Nanticoke Junction" and " Alberts." All these before it became officially Ashley.

Tradition gives no excuse for its never being called Wadetown, after its first settler-Abner Wade.

Fritz Deitrick opened the first tavern, on the site of Payne & Conyngham's store.

Samuel Pees (or probably Pease) then had a tavern, and this gave it the name of "Peesville." The present hotel is on the site. These two were log hotels, in the days when two rooms and the "loft " with a ladder, constituted an average hostelry. Samuel Black opened and ran the first frame tavern, situated on West Main street, where his widow resided many years after it had ceased to entertain guests; then Lewis Landmesser opened his hotel. Alexander Gray opened the first general coun- try store in the place.

Railroad Shops of the New Jersey Central are located at Ashley, and are the most important institution of the place. The day these located here it made the place fairly jump out of its "Hardscrabble" clothes and put on the full regalia of an important, thriving borough. The postoffice name of Hendricksburg was changed to Ashley, and the office and center of the hamlet moved to about its present place. The works were thought to be great affairs at the first, but time and the growing enterprise of the road has shown itself as distinctly in their shops here as anywhere else. Additional buildings, and additions to the first ones, and increased capacity in every shop as well as numbers of employes have marked every department. Seven hundred men now find employment in the different shops. These skilled mechanics are of the best class of permanent residents of the place. The roar of the forges, the whir of the wheels, the pounding of many hammers, and the turning of the great lathes, are some of the songs of busy, happy and the well-paid and well-kept industrial world to be seen here.

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

Here is the foot of the "plane "-one of the remarkable concerns of the kind in the world. Here is seen the ingenuity of the mechanics in construction; the automatic movement of the " push truck" and the long ropes that pull great coal trains up the mountain side. At this foot are two tracks, and the way this "truck " runs under trains, and is automatically changed from the front to the rear; the way it and its great steel wire rope seem to jump from track to track; the general move- ment of the whole machinery, with the stationary engine way off out of sight on the mountain side, are marvelous to the raw and uninitiated, as they were to the writer and his friend, as they stood on the old wooden bridge and watching, tried to com- prehend it all, and could not. [By the way, at that very moment men were at work replacing the old wooden bridge with a uew iron structure, and in a few days the old will be gone and the people will be proud of the bridge over the track of the plane-July 30, 1892].

The "planes " were a necessity, and are one of the most valuable improvements in the county. The question will arise to the reader as it did to the writer, and as it has no doubt to nearly every one, "Why didn't they tunnel the mountain ?" For the best reason in the world, the tunnel, commencing, say, at the foot of the plain, would have to go to White Haven to find an outlet-fifteen miles, and all that long distance would have been from 1,000 to 1, 700 feet below the surface. So, you see the " planes " were the only practical solution of the question.

The charter of Ashley borough bears date December 5, 1870. The principal petitioners for its organization were J. C. Wells, E. L. Deifenderfer, C. T. Lohr, William J. Day, George Dunn, J. K. P. Fenner, Samuel Crow, A. T. Joslyn, E. C. Cole, J. W. Cole, William Powder, A. Le Bar and John White. First borough offices: Burgess, Jeremiah N. Gette; council: J. C. Wells, M. A. McCarty, E. L. Diefenderfer, John Campbell and A. D. Le Bar.

Present officials: James K. P. Fenner, burgess; council: E. Lindermuth, president; John H. Eyer, treasurer; Peter Murphy, secretary; R. J. Carey, John Bowden, John Brenner and L. L. Newhart. The foreman of Rescue Hose and Engine No. 1, Thomas McDonald. A street car (horse) has rendered efficient service, but its capacity had long been insufficient for the enormous demand upon it, and in November, 1892, it was changed to an electric line, and became a part of the great traction company's system of roads. The place has ample railroad, telegraph and telephone facilities.

But a short time ago Ashley was a small place, said to be three miles from Wilkes-Barre, and a generation ago the people would ride along the dusty road, through the heavy old forests to town to do a little shopping or some other small errand. Now you may ride on the railroad, or street cars from the remotest part of Ashley to the courthouse, and you can not tell there is a break in the city on any foot of the way. It is purely an imaginary line that divides Wilkes-Barre and Ashley. It is certainly one of the flourishing suburbs of the city. Its industries outside of its railroad and coal may be enumerated as: 5 bakers, 3 barbers, 1 shoe- maker, 3 druggists, 1 furniture store, 9 general stores, 10 grocers, 3 hardware, 3 hotels, 1 livery, 3 meat markets, 1 merchant tailor and 2 jewelers.

AVOCA BOROUGH,

Formerly Pleasant Valley, is in the northern part of Pittston township, and is a flourishing borough. Settlement commenced here in 1871 and grew with the develop- ment of the collieries, and at this time has a population estimated at over 3,000. The name Avoca was adopted in 1889-changed from the old name of Pleasant Valley, under which it was incorporated to agree with the postoffice name. It has in the way of facilities for transportation four lines of railroads. There are four churches in the place, a board of trade and an excellent fire department. The town is well supplied with excellent water by the Spring Brook Water company; has telegraph and telephone communications with all the outside world. It has 1 clothing house,

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

5 breakers, 3 confectioners, 2 druggists, 1 dry goods store, 2 furniture dealers, 5 general stores, 3 grocery stores, 2 hotels, 5 meat markets.

BEAR CREEK TOWNSHIP

Is in territory the largest township in the county, that is just now principally celebrating its winding up of the sawmill industry of the great lumber king of Luzerne county-Albert Lewis. It was carved from the territory taken from Wilkes- Barre, Pittston, Bucks, Plains and Jenkins, in 1856. About the first thing ever known of this section of the country was in 1779, when Gen. Sullivan cut a highway for his army and marched from Easton to Wilkes-Barre. That is the unused wagon road to-day substantially from Wilkes-Barre to Easton, that was a turnpike and now used as neighborhood roads along its length. The first log cabin was built in 1786 on the Sullivan military road, about nine miles from Wilkes-Barre. The sec- ond one by Arnold Colt, on the site of the Jonathan Pursel tavern stand. Mr. Colt was engaged building the Easton & Wilkes-Barre turnpike. The first sawmill was on Bear creek, built in 1800 by Oliver Helme. The township contains sixty- seven square miles, and but a very small fraction of it is arable. Dense forests of hemlock and pine and much game constituted its natural resources. A store, tavern and many sawmills were its earthly possessions. The timber gone, its surface is a rugged mountain waste, that is inviting only to the immigrant farmers from the old world, who come in the pursuit of that high ambition to become land owners. A branch railroad was run from the Lehigh Valley road to the Meadow Run mills, and this has been the transportation to the immense quantities of lumber cut in the township, by the many mills it had at one time. The branch road is about seven miles in length. Bear creek rises in its northeast corner and turns south and runs south to the Lehigh river. Crystal Springs reservoir is a valuable body of pure crystal water, and here are several summer cottages, and Mr. Lewis has made a beautiful driveway from Summit Glen to his summer place. Bald mountain is 1,825 feet above tide water, and the Wyoming and the Lehigh mountains are very nearly as high.

The only hamlet in the township was where the turnpike road crossed Bear creek, near the center of the township. Here were along the creek several saw- mills, and the amount of this trade can be understood when it tempted the railroad to build a branch of its line to it.

It had in 1890 a population of 343, but this is on the slowly sliding scale, and 1892 would show a small decline from that figure.

Looking at a map of Luzerne county, Bear Creek township arrests the eye at once; for two reasons, it is the largest in area and except the creeks and mountains it appears as the white virgin paper.

BLACK OREEK TOWNSHIP

Was taken from Sugarloaf August 8,1848, and gets its name from the creek that runs through it, which enters on the eastsouth line, flows west to Gowen and then turns north and falls into Nescopeck creek, near the north line of the township at a point where is a hotel and Shellhammer's residence. Across the range near the south line is Tomhicken creek that passes into Schuylkill county southeast of Gowen. The Nescopeck runs across the northeast corner of the township. As stated this was all a part of Sugarloaf township down to 1848. By examining the list of early setters of Sugarloaf will be found the names of all the early settlers of Black creek. East and West Buck mountains are divided by Black creek that cuts its way from the south to the north. The Buck mountains are rich in coal bearing. These lands are a part of the Tench Coxe purchase in 1795. The Danville, Hazleton & Wilkes-Barre railroad taps the collieries of Black creek and the Coxe road, the Delaware, Schuylkill & Susquehanna, also is now running regular trains to this place.

ABarlow A, D,

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

Barney Huntsinger came here as a surveyor in 1806, and for his services took land that in time became the Christian Benninger place. D. and J. Huntsinger lands are west of Old Falls run, now Rock Glen station. The Benninger farm is a short distance east of Mountain grove.

The Huntsingers, Rittenhouses, Shelhammers, Shorts and Smoyers were of the pioneer settlers. Martin Rittenhouse and William Rittenhouse came in 1810, built the first saw and gristmill. It is near the center of the township, where the east and west wagon road crosses Black creek. A small hamlet grew up here, and a store and near it a tannery. Another sawmill was a short distance north of Rittenhouse. When the township was formed nearly all the settlers lived along the east and west wagon road. The three schoolhouses were on this road. The only other one being the Shelhammer schoolhouse in the northeastern portion of the township. The first schoolhouse was Rittenhouse's old log cabin residence; he had built a frame soon after the sawmill was started; the first teacher was a man named Tripp. David Shelhammer and Stephen Turnbach both built brick houses in 1850. The first postoffice was kept by Rittenhouse in 1856-mails once a week arrived from Conyngham, and Joseph Rittenhouse was the first mail carrier. The postoffice was removed to Rock Glen station in 1872. This. place was called Falls Run city until a postoffice was established, when it was changed to Rock Glen.

Huntsinger in 1820 built a distillery on the Benninger farm. It was run suc- cessfully, but, like country carding mills, had its time and fell into "innocuous desuetude." John Barnes was an important early settler-because he was a black- smith. His place and shop were east of the Rittenhouse mill, on the wagon road. The place became J. I. Pegg's. Daniel Stiles opened the first store. This was quite a little settlement, on the road some two miles east of the Rittenhouse mill. Another store was north of the Nescopeck, near D. Shelhammer's place. Here also was a church and schoolhouse, and southeast of this was a sawmill.

There was but a slow growth to the township during these early years; the farmers were clearing up their places, and the sawmills and lumbermen were busy cutting the forests of pine and hemlock. At the Rittenhouse hamlet was the first tavern, by George Klinger. The place became the property of the heirs of Michael Smith. The first death in the township occurred in 1818-Mrs. John Kittner, daughter of Huntsinger.

Mountain Grove (formerly Wolfton) is an important station just on the west line of the township. Here are the noted campmeeting grounds, a railroad station, post- office, a few dwellings and the permanent " camps" of the people who flock there in the hot summer. It is a notable religious resort, and is under the German Re- formed church.

Fern Glen is a railroad station. Here the Coxes have their elegant summer- resort residence. This is known as Deringer, which is one of the company's mining towns.

Gowen is another of their mining towns, and is a station on the railroad. The principal population of the township are at the mining places.

BUCK TOWNSHIP

Was formed from Covington in 1833, and derived its name from George Buck, who was one of its early settlers, and who kept the first tavern, afterward known as Terwiliger's. John Nagle was the first settler in Buck. He built his log cabin on the old Sullivan road, near the Lehigh, in 1782, fourteen miles from any human habitation. Conrad Sox, Justice Simonson, Samuel Wildrick and Thomas Tatter- shall settled here soon after. Mr. Simonson lived to be nearly one hundred years of age, and when far in the nineties had often walked to Wilkes-Barre, a distance of fifteen miles.

The first sawmill was erected in 1806 by Hugh Conner on the site of Stoddarts- ville, and in 1816 the first church was built there by John Stoddart.

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

In 1810 the Great swamp, which extends over a considerable portion of Buck, was purchased by a company of Philadelphia speculators. A president and eight- een councilmen were elected; and the "City of Rome " was laid out, 100 miles from the seaboard, in a dark, gloomy swamp, called the "Shades of Death " by those who fled through it from Wyoming after the massacre in 1778. Three or four shipbuilders and a number of artisans of various trades were actually induced to purchase lots and remove to the " city," where reptiles and wild beasts should aloue have habitation. A respectable merchant of Philadelphia, meeting a citi- zen of Wilkes-Barre, seriously inquired, "Will not the new and flourishing city of Rome become a dangerous rival to your town?" Hon. Charles Miner had con- siderable trouble, through his paper the Gleaner, to expose the fraud.

The township originally contained fifty square miles and is in the southeast corner of the county; its east line is Lackawanna county and its south line is the Lehigh river. It once had an important population in the way of sawmills. The township was cut in two by the formation of Lackawanna county in August, 1878. The east and west sides are rough and mountainous and all between these mount- ains is swamp. This was the "Shades of Death " to the Yankees as the poor fugi- tives often fled in terror toward the Delaware. As sparse as is and has always been its population, yet it has never been able to raise enough farm products for its own supply.

Stoddartsville is its only hamlet. In the heyday of its prosperity it had forty houses, beside its mills, and a population, largely transient, of 200. The county line divides the place, so that a portion of the town lies in Carbon county. It was laid out by John Stoddart in 1815, when he erected the large stone grist and saw- mill, the ruins of which to this day show that it was built to defy the tooth of time. It was a great improvement at that time, perhaps the most expensive in southern Luzerne county, costing over $20,000. In addition to his mill he kept the first store and tavern, the first blacksmith wagon and cooper-shop. The town site was the prop- erty of Mr. Stoddart and Thomas Arnott.

The era of prosperity of the place was from 1835-65. Here was the place of the crossing of the Lehigh river and the Wilkes-Barre Eastern turnpike, where Sul- livan and his army crossed on their way to Wilkes-Barre. The great freshet in the Lehigh river of 1865 swept away the old canal works along the river and with them went the hopes and prosperity of Stoddartsville. It now is very nearly the existing type of the "Deserted Village."

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History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 67

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