History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 119

Author: Munsell, W.W., & Co., New York
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: New York, W.W. Munsell & co.
Number of Pages: 900

USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 119
USA > Pennsylvania > Lackawanna County > History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 119
USA > Pennsylvania > Wyoming County > History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 119

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The abandonment of active operations by the Slocums in 1826, and the relapse into inactivity of the stills and forge, seriously checked the progress of the settlement.

EARLY TAVERNS.

The earliest tavern in the township of which any in- formation can be obtained was the house of Stephen Tripp, so called, though it is doubtful if the accommoda- tions were either many or remarkable. The house of William Allsworth, at Dunmore, was another pioneer candidate for public patronage. Jonathan Dolph opened his house at Hyde Park as a tavern at an early date. Travelers were entertained at the homes of the Slocums and other of the more prominent early comers. In 1810 Philip Heermans opened a tavern at Hyde Park, in com- pliance with a demand for a public house at which town meetings and elections could be held.

HOW THE TOWNSHIP APPEARED IN 1804.

The following, condensed from a description of the Lackawanna valley furnished to Doctor Hollister by the late Elder John Miller, will be found of interest: Along the path from Keyes creek to Providence the woods re- tained their native aspect until the "Uncle Joe Griffin farm " came into view. There stood a log cabin with its roof running to the ground, occupied at that time by Reuben Taylor. Mr. La France held a possession right immediately above Taylor's, while the residence of Joseph Fellows, sen., was visible on the slope of the hill. Elder William Bishop's unhewn log cabin stood on the site of the residence of Hon. William Merrifield. Only one acre was cleared where Hyde Park afterward grew up. With the exception of the Indian clearing and a little additional chopping around it the central portion of "Capoose Meadow," or " Tripp's Flats," was covered with tall white pires. The road lay along the brow of the hill for nearly half a mile from Bishop's, when it reached the two-roomed log tavern of Stephen Tripp, whose distillery was near at hand. About midway between this point and the river, a little northeast of the present location of the Diamond mines, was a small tract of land only then recently pur- chased by Lewis Jones from John Gifford and William

Tripp. Gifford was a son-in-law of Isaac Tripp, and lived there at the time. John Staples occupied the widow Griffin farm. The Von Storch clearing was not far dis. tant. Between it and the cabin of Enoch Holnies was a belt of pine timber. Holmes's cabin stood on the site of the village of Providence. Where now stands the cottage of Daniel Silkman lived Henry Waderman. James Bagley lived on the flats now known as the Rockwell farm. Selah Mead cultivated a narrow intervale at the mouth of Leggett's creek, while Mr. Hutchins occupied a patch of land rising from the brook, known now as the McDaniels farm. The next clearing was that of Ephraim Stevens. A traveler over that part of the township of Providence at present bounded by the city limits of Scranton would have seen, besides the improvements mentioned, only those at Slocum Hollow and elsewhere, previously de- scribed.

In 1828 hopes began to be entertained of the extension of the North Branch Canal from Pittston to Slocum Hol- low. The expectations of the hardy veterans of the forest with regard to the canal having been chilled, "they still had in their minds an idea of a railroad. It was but the budding of something to come, and was called the Drink- er Railroad; and, while it never came in the manner and shape originally looked for, still it carried along with its excitement a man by the name of William Henry, who never tired studying over it and planning out its route somewhere through 'Drinker's Beech.'" During his constant traveling and surveying over the proposed route he learned that the region contained large quantities of of iron ore, which would some day enrich the country; but he foresaw that it would require strong hearts and willing hands to render it commercially available.

Mr. Henry, then a resident of Stroudsburg, was a man of enterprise, but of an obstinate will and inclined to over-sanguine views, a combination which prevented his ever attaining great success in life. When the possibili- ties of the Lackawanna region were revealed to him he determined that its resources should be developed, and to that end he worked untiringly. Mr. Drinker was the owner of the district known as "Beech Woods," or " Drinker's Beech." He was a man of perception and culture, and he was one of the leaders in the improve- ments of that early day. His mind was active in con- templating projects by which an outlet to the more ex- tensively settled regions of Easton, New Jersey and New York could be reached, and in 1819 he explored the country from the Susquehanna at Pittston to the Dela- ware Water Gap, with a view of connecting the two points by a railroad, to be operated by hydraulic power where nature favored that means of locomotion, and by horses in sections not admitting the employment of that means. Of course the interests of Drinker's Beech were upper- most in his mind, though the contemplated route of the proposed road was by way of Slocum Hollow. "Messrs. Drinker and Henry, undismayed by the cold, solemn avowal of the inhabitants occupying the valleys of the Delaware and Susquehanna that no such road was possi- ble, or necessary to their social condition, taking advan.t-

Joseph Florum

389

WILLIAM HENRY'S OPERATIONS-ADVENT OF THE SCRANTONS.

age of the speculative wave of 1836, called the friends of the road to Easton at this time, says Hollister, " to de- vise a practical plan of action. Repeated exertions in this direction had hitherto yielded a measure of ridicule not calculated to inspire great hopes of success. At this meeting, prolonged for days, Mr. Henry assured the mem- bers of the board that if the old furnace of Slocum's at the 'Hollow' could be reanimated and sustained a few years, a village would spring up between the ungarded passes of the Moosic calling for means of communication with the seaboard less inhospitable and tardy than the loitering stage coach." The plan was a novel one, but it did not strike a majority of those present as promising any adequate return for the capital it would be necessary to invest. Mr. Clark states that "the boldness of the scheme staggered them all but one, whose name has hith- erto received little mention at the hands of local writers " (though Dr. Hollister does him justice). Edward Arm- strong, the one favorably inclined listener referred to, was a gentleman of considerable wealth and of great benevolence and courtesy, who resided on the Hudson river, and whose financial transactions occasionally called him to the Hollow.

The selection of a site for a furnace was left by Mr. Armstrong wholly to the discretion of Mr. Henry, the former offering to share with the latter any responsibility and financial investment and any consequent profit or loss; and Mr. Henry chose as the location of the furnace a spot a few rods above the ruins of Slocum's forge, a quarter of a mile from the mouth of Roaring brook -- " the very spot," Mr. Clark remarks, " that would have gratified the spirit of Ebenezer Slocum." In March, 1840, Messrs. Henry and Armstrong purchased 503 acres of land of William Merrifield, Zenas Albro and William Ricketson for $8,000, a price remarkable at the time for its liberality. The purchase money was to be paid by Mr. Armstrong, who required the deed to be made in his name. Mr. Henry, by whom the details of the business were conducted, gave as the first payment a draft for $2,500 on Mr. Armstrong, in favor of the owners of the property, payable in thirty days. Mr. Armstrong died very suddenly before its maturity and his administrators, having little confidence in the Slocum Hollow seheme, requested Mr. Henry to forfeit the con- tract, regardless of their knowledge of the fact that Mr. Armstrong had gone into the venture deliberately and earnestly. Crushing as such an unexpected blow might well have been, it did not daunt the determination of Mr. Henry. Securing an extension on the obligation for thirty days, he proceeded to New Jersey to consult with parties who had wished to embark in an enterprise of the character of that to which he was devoting his energies. He met his son-in-law, Selden T. Scranton, at Oxford Furnace, New Jersey, and after some discussion persuaded him to assist him in carrying out the plans he and Mr. Armstrong had formed. Mr. Scranton enlisted his brother George W. Scranton in behalf of the enter- prise, and they determined to accompany Mr. Henry to the Lackawanna valley. They started August 17th,

1840, but before leaving New Jersey prevailed upon San- ford Grant, of Belvidere, to follow them in the explora- tion. On both sides of Roaring brook, lying between two veins of coal, they found abundant quantities of ball or kidney ore visible. The surrounding country, and particularly Roaring brook and Hyde Park, were speedily explored, and the day after their arrival (August 20th, 1840) titles for the land purchased by Mr. Henry were executed and a company was formed, the members of which were George W. and Selden T. Scranton and Sanford Grant. It being desirable to further strengthen the company, Mr. Phillip Mattes was soon afterward admitted and the firm was announced as Scrantons, Grant & Co., William Henry being named as agent. The capital represented was $20,000, of which George W. and Selden T. Scranton invested $to,ooo, Sanford Grant $5,000 and Philip H. Mattes $5,000. In thirteen days from the date of the title to the land Mr. Henry employed Simon Ward to do the first day's work, at 75 cents, in the interest of what is now known as the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company. Mr. Ward has stated that he bor- rowed a crowbar of Mr. Elisha Hitchcock and com- menced prying out stone at a spot near the north corner of the brick engine house of the furnace containing the vertical engines. The work of laying the foundation of the first furnace (afterwards for a time known as No. 1) was begun September 20th. Mr. Henry removed from Stroudsburg to Hyde Park, and under his management the work was pushed forward to completion.

SCRANTONS & PLATT.

The first and second efforts to start the furnace were abortive, owing to ignorance in the use of anthracite coal. The third and successful attempt was made in December, 1841. On the 18th of January, 1842, the furnace was blown in. The blast ended February 26th, and about seventy-five tons of iron had been made.

The ball ore found near at hand was found to be too ex- pensive to mine. In the spring of 1841 a large amount of iron ore was discovered on the slope of the Moosic mountain, only about three miles distant, which with the intervening land was purchased by the company. The additional expense thus involved, in a great measure unprovided for, and the early difficulty in starting the furnace, exhausted the company's capital and plunged it in debt. At this juncture, Mr. Henry's management not being successful, George W. Scranton came in the fall of [841, to assume the responsibility of a large portion of the business of the company. Sanford Grant had re- moved to the Hollow early in the previous spring, and Mr. Charles F. Mattes, son of Mr. P. H. Mattes, repre- senting the latter's interest, in April. The most earnest efforts of the company had in many quarters been re- ceived with sneers. The enterprise was dubbed a " Jer- sey humbug." But the comparatively successful blast of the winter of 1841-42 inspired the public with more con- fidence, and those who had any interest in the vicinity began to anticipate good fortune as the result of what would follow.

390

HISTORY OF LACKAWANNA COUNTY.

One difficulty was the lack of facilities for transporta- tion. It was necessary to haul the product in wagons either to Pittston, on the North Branch Canal, seven miles, or to Carbondale, on the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's line, fifteen miles, and the roads were bad. An added disadvantage was the financial embar- rassment of the period, which menaced the destruction of manufacturing interests in all quarters. The first year's product of the furnace was shipped over the North Branch and Tide Water Canals, via Havre-de- Grace, to New York and Boston, at a time when the price of iron was depreciating daily. Since the commencement of the forge, in the fall of 1840, iron had fallen in value more than forty per cent., and Lackawanna valley iron had no reputation and no prestige in the markets. The credit system was common in the valley, but, having begun to lose faith in the future of the iron enterprise, the citizens of the surrounding country refused to accord it to the company. "The darkest period in the history of the partnership," says Hollister, " was seen in 1842-43. In a remunerative sense the iron speculation had proved a failure and left the treasury worse than empty. With- ont character, money or credit, its affairs began to look hopeless. Their notes given to individuals in lieu of money were daily offered to farmers at forty per cent. discount in the uncurrent tender of Pennsylvania cur- rency. Every petty claim of indebtedness was urged and pressed before the justices of the township with an earnestness really annoying." In this strait Joseph H. and Erastus C. Scranton, then of Augusta, Georgia, in- terposed to avert the impending disaster by advancing funds to bolster up and sustain the enterprise; and Sep- tember 7th, 1843, a new partnership was formed, by which the title Scrantons & Grant was retained and Joseph H. and Erastus C. Scranton were admitted to the firm without the withdrawal of any of the former mem- bers. But, notwithstanding the relief thus afforded, it became more and more plainly manifest that unless some more profitable element could be introduced, the busi- ness would continue to be a losing one and eventually fail; and the idea was conceived of the erection of a rol- ling mill and nail factory on Roaring brook below Nay Aug falls, which by converting the company's iron into bars and nails would enhance its value at least twenty- five per cent; though without additional capital this measure, however promising in its results, was impracti- cable. G. W. Scranton was sent to New York and suc- ceeded in interesting Mr. John H. Howland in the pro- ject to the extent of $20,000. Later John Howland, a son of the above mentioned, became a partner and brought more capital to the company.

The erection of the rolling-mill and nail factory (which was begun in 1843 and finished in February, 1844,) by the aid of New York capital led to the subsequent in- vestment in the Lackawanna coal field of $150,000,000 from the same quarter. In 1841 the company had erected a building which served the purposes of store and office and a dwelling for Mr. Grant. In the winter of 1844 and 1845 a brick store was built near the furnace,

and occupied in 1845. In 1847 and 1848 it was enlarged, the main building then being 26 by 100 feet, with a wing 25 feet square. At various times the offices were en- larged until they occupied a floor space of. 85 by 25 feet. The store was under the management of Mr. Grant. From time to time dwellings had been put up for em- ployes as occasion required. In March, 1844, Selden T. Scranton took up his abode at the Lackawanna Iron Works, and his brother George W. Scranton returned to New Jersey and succeeded him in the management of Oxford furnace. In September, 1845, Joseph H. Scran- ton, who, as already narrated, had previously advanced money largely to sustain the wavering fortunes of the concern, bought out Mr. Grant and E. C. Scranton, and came to the valley to reside permanently early in 1847. Quiet, unobtrusive and indifferent as to who got the credit for what he did, so long as the work was done, he was a man of most indomitable energy, iron will and ex- ecutive capacity; and, though new to the iron business, rapidly mastered its details and by his force of character, his wide and valuable acquaintance, at once assumed a leading position in the firm, quickly taking, by common. consent, general charge of its manufacturing and mining operations and of the ever increasing new constructions, furnaces, mills and their adjuncts, to which these opera- tions led. With his arrival on the scene began the era of permanent, solid construction, and of steady growth based on sound judgment. Except some parts of the old store, little remains of work built previous to bis coming.

In 1845 the first T rail was manufactured in the United States. The attention of the company was directed to this new branch of the iron industry during the construc- tion of the New York and Erie Railway. Thus far rails had been imported from England by the Erie contractors at a cost of $80 per ton. The Scrantons agreed with the Erie Railway Company to furnish 12,000 tons of iron rail, to weigh fifty-six pounds to the yard, and be de- livered to the railway authorities at the mouth of the Lackawaxen during 1847 and 1848 at $70 and $80 per ton. This important undertaking made another demand for increased capital, which was loaned to the Messrs. Scranton, on their personal security, to the amount of $100,000 by several wealthy capitalists, who had the suc- cess of the Erie Railway at heart., New machinery (which had been carted by mules sixty or seventy miles over mountains and through forests) was put into their rolling- mills. "Until now," writes Hollister, "the means of transportation to market of the now largely increased annual product of iron remained as difficult as at the commencement, with the exception of the extension of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's railroad from Carbondale to Archbald, which reduced the hauling by teams to nine miles; the iron ore was carted three miles and a half from the mines; the limestone and extra pig iron needed by the mill, purchased at Danville, drawn from the canal at Pittston; and the railroad iron, now the principal product of the works, was drawn to Archbald upon heavy wagons, requiring the use of over four hun-

VIEW LOOKING N. W. ELKHILL IN THE DISTANCE

PICNIC GROUNDS

FRONT VIEW

EMMAK

W. R. BERRY, R. A.

VIEW LOOKING EAST

CRYSTAL LAKE HOTEL & SURROUNDINGS PROPERTY of GEO. & A. SIMPSON, LOCATED IN LACKAWANNA & SUSQUEHANNA COUNTIES PENNA.

ELISHA HITCHCOCK.

RUTH HITCHCOCK.

EBENEZER HITCHCOCK.

MARION HITCHCOCK.

AMANDA HITCHCOCK.

391

SCRANTONS & PLATT-JOSEPH H. SCRANTON-PROVIDENCE BOROUGH.

dred horses and mules. Even this large force, gathered from the farmers of Blakeley, Providence and Lackawanna, sometimes at the expense of agricultural interests, was able to move the first rail only with provoking tardiness." The first 1,500 tons of the 12,000 contracted were de- livered at the place designated. The balance, in accord- ance with an amendment to the contract, were delivered at different points on the line of the Delaware division of the road, thus enabling the railway company to construct that portion of the road four days before a date specified at which, if it should be so constructed, the State of New York was to appropriate $3,000,000 toward the com- pletion of the railroad. The promptness and energy of the Scranton company thus, as Mr. Loder, president of the Erie company, afterward avowed, saved the railway company from failure or suspension; and at the same time not only brought the Scranton works into notice but aided to hasten the day when they would be no longer obliged to reach the markets with such tar- diness and at such an undue expense as they had had to incur heretofore. In 1846 Mr. J. C. Platt, a brother- in-law of J. H. Scranton, was admitted to the firm and assumed the position of store-keeper, and the company was reorganized November 7th, 1846; George W., Joseph H. and S. T. Scranton and J. C. Platt being the general and several wealthy gentlemen of New York the special partners of the firm of Scrantons & Platt, the capital being increased by the reorganization. October Ist, 1848, a new partnership was entered into, which included the same general and more special partners. G. W. Scranton gradually withdrew from active participation in the affairs of the iron works to look after the railroad interests of the partnership, and, later, to enter political life, and after 1850 had little to do with the business. When, in 1853, the firm of Scrantons & Platt was merged in the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, and S. T. Scranton was made president, Joseph H. Scranton took the place of general superintendent, and pushed actively to com- pletion much projected and unfinished work. When the company was again and for the last time brought to the very brink of ruin during the panic of 1857, Mr. S. T. Scranton having resigned and returned once more to New Jersey (where he later started and managed the well-known Oxford Iron Company, which failed so dis- astrously in 1879), Joseph H. Scranton was elected president of the company, with full charge of its in- terests, financial and manufacturing. Never was cor- poration more fortunate in the choice of an officer. With immense capacity for work, devoted to and delighting in his business, master of its details, and with a fierce de- termination to make it succeed, he touched the corpse of the company's credit and it was reanimated. The com- pany was quickly relieved from its embarrassments, its debts were paid, its bonds taken up, it commenced the payment of dividends to its long suffering stockholders, and long before the fourteen years of Mr. Scranton's ad- ministration were terminated by death he had the satis- faction of knowing that the stock, which when he as- sumed the presidency was all but valueless, was selling

in open market at 300; that the concern had not one dol- lar of debt; that he had raised the product of the mills from 10,000 tons of rails to 50,000 tons, and had the con- struction of another still larger mill commenced, which later in the hands of his son was to increase the capacity of the concern So,ooo tons more; and that the Lacka- wanna Iron and Coal Company not only ranked as one of the two largest, but was also generally known in the trade as the best paying and most ably managed concern of its kind in the United States.

Upon Mr. Scranton's death, in 1872, he was succeeded in the presidency of the Iron Company by Moses Taylor, of New York; and in the management of affairs at Scran- ton till September, 1874, by his brother-in-law, J. C. Platt. Then Mr. Scranton's son W. W. Scranton was made general manager, and he still remains so. During his administration the Bessemer steel works have been built, the steel rolling mill has been completed, the blast furnaces made larger, the new blast engine house built, additions made to the foundry, machine shop and collier- ies, and the productive capacity of the concern consider- ably more than doubled; so that it ranks to-day among the seven or eight large iron works of the world.

Owing to the death of Joseph H. Scranton and his cousin George, and to the removal to New Jersey of S. T. Scranton and G. W. Scranton's sons, the sons of Mr. Joseph H. Scranton, Joseph A. and W. W. Scranton, are the only men of the name now residing in the city.

THE BOROUGH OF PROVIDENCE.

The village of Providence, two miles from Scranton, although incorporated into the first and second wards of the city, preserves its name, its post-office and other in- dependent features. As a village its growth was tardy until 1826, when it consisted of but seven dwellings and was called " Razorville " or "the corners."

EARLY INTERESTS.

Large numbers of sheep were raised in the township, and the inhabitants, depending wholly upon their own woolen goods for raiment, early gave attention to carding and fulling mills. The hardy pioneer women were ever busy in dealing out their warp and filling for frocks, coats, trowsers and flannel petticoats, and these mills were regarded as equally important to the weal of the neighborhood with the grist-mill and the saw-mill. A carding and fulling mill was built a little above Provi- dence in 1808 by John Watres, and passed into the hands of Messrs. Carter & Miller in 1841. The earlier exports of Providence were grain, lumber and whiskey. Of the latter a large quantity was manufactured at Tripp's still, half a mile below the village.

During 1826 Colonel Henry W. Drinker, of " Drink- er's Beech " gave a brisk impulse to the village when he, with trifling State aid, crossed the valley with the Philadelphia and Great Bend turnpike and opened communication with New York city by a tri-weekly stage. Passengers could then go from Providence to

392

HISTORY OF LACKAWANNA COUNTY.

New York by way of Stroudsburg in three days. The Lackawanna was first bridged here by Drinker in 1826.

BUSINESS PROGRESS-POST-OFFICE.

On what has since become the southwest corner of Market and Main streets, in Providence, in 1828 Messrs. Elisha S. Potter and Michael McKeal opened a country store. During the same year Mr. Potter and Nathaniel Cottrill bought fourteen acres of the Enoch Holmes tract, which included the water privileges of that locality. Not long subsequently Mr. Cottrill purchased the interest of the late Mr. Potter, and thus controlling the whole property, in 1829 erected a grist-mill upon it. He also built a tavern, still standing and known as the Bristol House, in 1828. In 1830 another hotel was erected in the village.

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History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 119

Author: Munsell, W.W., & Co., New York Publication date: 1880 Publisher: New York, W.W. Munsell & co. Number of Pages: 900

Author: Munsell, W.W., & Co., New York
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: New York, W.W. Munsell & co.
Number of Pages: 900