History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 20

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 20
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 20
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 20

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).

Bristol, in Bucks county, to Easton, in Northampton county, sixty miles in length, to accommodate the Lehigh coal trade; and apparently on its way, as surveyed, to Carpenter's Point, now Port Jervis, a few miles below the mouth of the Lackawaxen. The company was repre- sented by Hon. George W. Woodward and William H. Dimmick Esqs., as counsel. It is clear that whatever the object, the investigation did not lead to resumption, and the facts as elicited are given to show the progress and condition of the trade toward New York in its early stages. From the Carbondale mines the coal was carried over the mountain on a gravity road of a single track to the canal at Honesdale. It will be observed that "foreign experience" had operated injuriously in the east and at the south, and the canal was not complete at its twenty- five-ton boat capacity until the necessity of enlargement became evident. Unfortunately it is not in constructing canals alone that such experience operates disastrously in this country. But that is not a subject for comment in this portion of our coal trade history.

The sites of both Honesdale and Carbondale were in the natural state of our northern wilderness when ground was broken for these improvements. Carbondale in 1828 contained one log cabin, built to shelter Mr. Wurts in his early explorations. It is now a flourishing town, having a city charter, and has been an excellent market for prod- ucts of agriculture from townships surrounding it for half a century.

Honesdale has long been the county seat of Wayne county, a populous and flourishing borough. It was named from the first president of the company, Philip Hone, Esq. The appliances at this point are claimed to be " of a capacity to handle one thousand tons of coal an hour."

The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's trade at first was feeble, and anthracite as difficult to introduce in New York as it had been in Philadelphia. Mr. John Wurts, many years afterward president of the com- pany, wrote to Mr. Charles _ Miner, of Wilkes-Barre, a long and interesting account of his efforts to in- troduce coal upon boats on the Hudson to gen- erate steam as motive power where wood had been used as fuel. It seems strange at this time that a city having constant communication with Liverpool and Glas- gow should have had such strong predjudices against coal or so little knowledge of its use. True, improvements in making coke and the discovery of applying the hot blast to the hard coal of Wales were just beginning to revolu. " tionize the iron trade in England. It was not till 1833 that the introduction of hot blast to the furnaces on the Clyde reduced the cost of pig iron more than one half. Then wood was still cheap in New York. Not a boat could be prevailed upon to give it a fair trial, or volun- tarily to lose a day for the purpose of testing this stone coal. The greatest concession gained was permission to work at night, while the boat was lying idle, in fitting the furnace at the company's risk and in furnishing coal for the experiment on one of the small day boats. This was

at last accomplished, and the fact

COAL INTRODUCED ON STEAMBOATS-THE PENNSYLVANIA COMPANY.

demonstrated that steam could be generated and the boat propelled by it. In the same way the owners of a larger boat, running between New York and Albany, were in- duced to try the coal, and not only the power to pro- duce sufficient steam shown, but the more important facts that the trip could be made with greater speed and at less cost for fuel than by the use of wood. This then was evidently the dawn of a prosperous trade. A large steamboat was then constructed under the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's directions, fitted with furnaces designed especially for the use of anthracite coal, with successful results. It is possible that this may have been a ferry boat, as an article in the New York Journal of Commerce in 1835 under the caption, "Steam by Anthracite Coal," stated: "The new steam ferry boat 'Essex,' to ply between New York and Jersey City, has been fitted up with. Dr. Nott's patent tubular anthracite coal boiler. The 'Essex ' is one hun- dred and twenty-six feet long on deck, with twenty-four feet beam and nine feet hold, using Lackawanna coal." The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company contracted to deliver to Dr. Nott's boat five thousand tons of coal per annum, at $4 per ton, which was one dollar per ton below the market price, for six years, coal not to be paid for unless the receipts of the boat exceeded other expenses ; upon condition that the company should have the use of this patent anthracite boiler for six steam boats at a price not to exceed sixteen thousand dollars.

It has been stated that coal was used on ferry boats in New York as early as 1831. The exact date of Mr. Wurts's labors is not recorded, and his letter has been lost. Lackawanna coal acquired a high reputation as a fuel for generating steam, and the increasing demand for it compelled constant improvement in the capacity of the canal. Originally designed for boats of thirty tons, which it reached in 1843, it was in 1846 forty tons, in 1848 fifty tons, in 1853 one hundred tons, and now the average per boat is about one hundred and thirty tons, "with a ca- pacity adequate to the transportation of two millions of gross tons annually."

The active competition between the Schuylkill Canal and the Reading Railroad, approaching completion in 1841, so reduced prices that permanent enlargement of the Delaware and Hudson Canal was hastened to lessen cost of transportation and meet this competition. But it was not enough Canals have had their day and are out of fashion, if not out of date-" vain transitory splendors." The long, cold winters of northern climes, where the bright fires of anthracite coal are most needed to cheer the lengthened nights, render canals useless more than half the year by their frosts, and the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, with an annual trade ex- ceeding three millions of tons, having reached the maxi- mum capacity of its canal more than ten years ago, has now control of the trade on lines of railway leading from the heart of the Wyoming coal field to Canada, opening directly the very best prospective markets in the world; with numerous connections east and west at all important

points along its route, insuring an almost unlimited de- mand for the products of its mines.

THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL COMPANY.

Like an oasis in the desert, the Pennsylvania Coal Company through all the misfortunes and depressions of the coal trade the past few years has maintained its po- sition as a dividend paying corporation, and held its stock above par amidst the fierce contests of the animals in Wall street.

The reader will not confound this company with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, which is now enrolled among the coal transporting companies in this region, operating under the charter of the Susquehanna Coal Company on both sides of the river at Nanticoke, and which owns that portion of the old North Branch Canal from Northampton street, Wilkes-Barre, south.

The subject of this sketch was originally engrafted upon the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, the ambition of which was limited in extent of its landed possessions and powers of expansion by restrictive clauses in its charter. Two charters were procured from the Legislature of 1838, both approved April 16th. "The Washington Coal Company " was probably organized first, and on April Ist, 1849, was authorized to sell and relinquish its property to the Pennsylvania Coal Com- pany, under which title the two were consolidated and afterwards absorbed the rights of the Wyoming Coal As- sociation, chartered February 15th, 1851.

Large tracts of land were purchased in certified Pitts- ton township on the Susquehanna, and in Providence .and Dunmore on the waters of the Lackawanna. A double track railroad was made, the cars propelled by stationary power and gravity by a series of inclined planes. The distance is forty-seven miles; the tracks do not run side by side, but diverge at points to the distance of two or three miles from each other. Ground for this road was broken in 1847 and it was finished in 1850. - The loaded track, as it is termed, or the track upon which the loaded cars are run, starts two miles below Pittston on the Susquehanna, with a plane upon which the coal from the Port Griffith mine is hauled; and a train of cars made up at the summit runs by its own gravity, the speed regulated by one or two men at the brakes, accord- ing to the length of the train, to the town of Pittston, where it is taken in sections to the second plane, from which it takes its own way again to the foot of No. 3 at Pleasant Valley-and so on to Hawley on the Delaware & Hudson Canal, tapping in its course its mines in Luzerne, and on the Lackawanna in the present county of that name. The return track carries the empty cars back to Port Griffith, dropping the proper proportion at the different mines in its westward course.

Many gentlemen held stock in both companies and were often at the same time directors in both. At a very early day this company secured most favorable terms for rates of tolls both upon the Delaware & Hudson Canal and upon the Erie railroad. Upon the New York division of the canal a liberal rate was fixed, it was said, to induce

HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

persons or companies to provide coal to be transported on the canal. Upon the Pennsylvania section the reason given for charging one-half cent a ton per mile toll, while a cent and a half per ton was charged on the New York section, was to encourage the transportation of coal over the Erie railroad to markets which did not come in com- petition with their markets on the Hudson-both logi- cal, good and sufficient, although seeming to clash. As a transporting company, through trade was to be en- couraged on the canal, as experience has proven it to be cheapest on all lines of transportation. As a coal com- pany, looking to large markets and to profits on coal far beyond the capacity of its canal, it was wise to be seek- ing new markets and encouraging the trade by cvery op- portunity which presented. This foresight has been of great service to the Pennsylvania Coal Company. When coal sold at $2.50 at Rondout this company paid no tolls, but when the price was above that sum one-half the increase was charged as tolls on the Delaware and Hudson Canal. This arrangement, with the favorable terms for transportation on the Erie road, has given the company important advantages over rival companies. Without the heavy cost of locomotive railroads, owned or leased, or large indebtedness to draw interest from its treasury, it has been able to make dividends which sent its stock up to 280 per cent. while other stocks were below par in the markets. In 1850, the year the gravity railroad was opened, it was credited with one hundred and eleven thousand, one hundred and ninety-four tons upon the Delaware and Hudson Canal, according to the testimony of Mr. Musgrave before the investigating committee of the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1857. In 1879 it sent to market one million three hundred seventy- two thousand, seven hundred and thirty-nine tons. Divi- dends have been as high as thirty per cent., and for seve- ral years twenty per cent., in quarterly payments. Dur- ing the panic of the past few years profits have of course been much reduced, but its excellent coal, with skill and economy in mining added to the foresight of its officials, have kept its record good.

Mr. William R. Griffith, a gentleman of wealth visiting Wyoming valley, became interested in its coal deposits, and was chiefly instrumental in promoting the organization of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, and in selecting its coal lands. A pleasant little episode in this narrative may be pardoned. Mr. Griffith in early life had among his favorite companions a little lady, daughter of a gentleman who had since become resident in Luzerne county and a mine engineer. For some years Mr. Griffith resided abroad, a childless aunt, whose heir he was, desiring to finish his education in France, where she resided. On his return his first thoughts turned toward the playmate of his youth, who he discovered had become the wife of a prominent merchant of Carbondale, a mother and a widow. True to his early attachment, although apparently forgotten, after waiting a decorous time he sought the valley and made her the offer of his heart, his hand and his elegant equipage. They were married and lived most happily, with the respect and esteem of all who knew

them. They have passed away. Few remember their story. A brother of the lady still lives, an honored citizen of Carbondale, and a sister resides near Trenton, N. J. Her only son became a prosperous and re- spected physician in the city of New York. The Penn- sylvania Coal Company owes its existence in a measure to this little romance.

THE DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA AND WESTERN RAIL- ROAD.

The above named company is one of the grandest results of the many great conceptions of genius and en- terprise exhibited in the course of development of this northern field. By legislative enactment "the corporate rights, powers and privileges of the Delaware and the Cobb's Gap Railway Company " were merged in the Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company, and the corporate name changed to the "name, style and title of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Com- pany." The Liggett's Gap Railroad Company, chartered in 1832, was merged in the Lackawanna and Western in 1851, and with other small charters and connections, uniting like mountain rills with larger streams, this great work was enlarged until it has become a thoroughfare for coal tonnage and for general transportation of freight and passengers from New York city to the far west and northwest.

It is not many years since the valley of Wyoming was likened to that happy vale in the kingdom of Amhara, surrounded on every side by mountains, in which " Ras- selas, Prince of Abyssinia, was confined in a private pal- ace, with the other sons and daughters of Abyssinian royalty, till the order of succession should call him to the throne." Colonel William L. Stone, in the preface to his pleasant book " The Poetry and History of Wyoming," published in 1841, says: "The happy valley to which the illustrious author of Rasselas introduced his reader in the opening of that charming fiction, was not much more secluded from the world than is the valley of Wyoming. Situated in the interior of the country, remote from the great thoroughfares of travel, either for business or in the idle chase of pleasure, and walled on every hand by mountains lofty and wild, and over which long and rug- ged roads must be traveled to reach it, Wyoming is rarely visited, except from stern necessity. And yet the imagination of Johnson has not pictured so lovely a spot in the vale of Amhara as Wyoming." Colonel Stone had a rough journey over the mountains in the stage-coaches, comfortable as they were to the mountaineers, as those who read the notes of his visit in 1839 will remember. But he had the full benefit of the glorious vision which bursts upon the traveler who, after a tedious day's ride from the Delaware, over Pocono and t : rough the " Shades of Death," reaches the summit of the mountains border- ing the valley on the east.

Sweet vale of Wyoming ! whose Gertrude was once embalmed in every heart of cultivated Europe by the pen of Campbell, now deemed worthy of mention in modern guide books. Has the romance departed from

PIONEERS IN THE COAL TRADE.

it with the retiring red man? and even the Gertrude of Halleck, seen on the next field, with

" Love darting eyes and tresses like the morn, Without a shoe or stocking, hoeing corn,"

been driven out by flying trains of cars crossing its center on tracks leading north and south, east and west, from Baltimore to Boston, from New York to Niagara, and from Philadelphia to Saratoga and to Portland ?

A mile east from the main road leading from Wilkes- Barre to Carbondale-not far from Providence Corners, then often called Razorville from the sharpness of its lavern keeper or of the winds which, sweeping the mountain gorges, occasionally blew his house and his sign post over-in a quiet nook on Roaring brook lay "Slocum Hollow," named from its proprietor, one of a large, respectable and influential family of the valley, who had there his farm and mill, and it may be a small furnace. Mr. William Henry, a gentleman of experience in ores and metals, came through Cobb's Gap from the iron lands of New Jersey on a prospecting tour, and finding iron ores and coal convenient began the manu- facture of pig iron, the power of the stream furnishing blast for his furnace. George W. Scranton with his Yankee brothers had migrated from Connecticut and settled at Oxford, New Jersey, when young, and there engaged in the iron business. He visited Slocum Hol- low and, like Mr. Henry, whose daughter he had married, also became interested in these ore and coal beds; and soon perceived with prophetic eye what capital, energy and enterprise combined might produce from this wilder- ness. Of commanding presence, strong will and per- suasive manner, with but a common school education, his perceptions of business and of character were quick and clear. He went to New York and laid his plans before the money kings, and soon had capital at his loco- motive wheels captive in the beech woods. The dam on Roaring brook was first too small and then too large. Then the furnace became too large, and the steam engine had power enough to provide blast for several furnaces; but as it is the coal trade and not iron that is the subject of this sketch, each reader will visit Scranton and note the result for his own satisfaction.

At the Delaware Water Gap the railroad from Scran - ton united with the Warren railroad, by which it reached the Central Railroad of New Jersey at Junction, in 1856, together forming the highway for Scranton coal to tide at New York. The Central railroad, feeling too independ- ent with its immense tonnage, by insisting on terms of renewal of contract drove both the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western and the Lehigh Valley railroads from it; the one to the Morris and Essex road, which was continued to Easton, crossing it at Washington, New Jersey, and the Lehigh Valley constructing a new line from Phillipsburg to Elizabeth along side of and in direct competition with the Central, which was compelled to join fortunes with the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company and the Lehigh and Susquehanna road of the Navigation Company to gain its coal tonnage. It was short-sighted

policy all round and led to disaster, but served ultimately to greatly increase the coal trade.

In early days Cobb's Gap on the east and Liggett's Gap on the west smiled at each other over Providence and the Capoose meadows, a little north and east of Hyde Park and Slocum Hollow, both the prospective courses of possible grade for such small locomotives as were then constructed. Colonel Scranton loved to tell of the look of incredulity which met his assertion that the time would come when the coal trade by these routes would reach hundreds of thousands of tons, and require so many locomotives-not one-third the number employed when he told it. Upon the completion of his line to New York Col. Scranton attended a meeting in Philadel- phia, for the first time to consult upon the prospects of the trade for the coming season. The estimated increase was about four hundred thousand tons. Mr. Scranton suggested in behalf of his company, just entering business, that a fair share of the prospective increase, at least at eastern points, should be conceded to it. Without vanity, he was a proud man, and met the uncalled-for assump- tion that with the heavy grades of his road through Cobb's Gap he would not be likely to unsettle the trade with surplus of coal with a quiet determination to let them see what could be done; and their estimated in- crease was far exceeded, with a decided reduction in prices.

The northern division of the road, through Liggett's Gap, joined the Erie railroad at Great Bend in 1851, and its tonnage north, west and northwest in 1878 was 676,- 207 tons; in 1879 1,506, 110 tons. Total coal forwarded north and south in 1878, 2,147,353 tons; in 1879, 3,792,368 tons.

Colonel Scranton represented this district in the thirty- sixth Congress. Re-elected to the thirty-seventh Con- gress, he died in Scranton, March 24th, 1861, aged fifty years, mourned by hosts of friends who honored and loved him.

Slocum Hollow became Scrantonia, then Scranton, a city now of 40,000 inhabitants, active and enterprising, the light of its forges and furnaces illuminating the night, and the sounds of its hammers and rolling mills making vocal the air with their music. Now the seat of justice of the new county of Lackawanna, it remains a fitting monument to the memory of its founder.

NAMES LONG FAMOUS IN THE TRADE.

Among the oldest of the operators is Mr. Ario Pardee, of Hazleton, who has been in the business more than forty, perhaps fifty, years in that district; successful and generous, as was shown by his magnificent contributions to Lafayette College, at Easton. In the list of operators will be found A. Pardee & Co., Pardee Sons & Co., C. Pardee & Co., Pardee Brothers & Co., running the heaviest colleries in that part of the county. G. B. Markle & Co., Coxe Brothers & Co., J. Leisenring & Co., Linderman, Skeer & Co., are growing old in the district.

On the Susquehanna Mr. Jameson Harvey and Mr.

HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

H. B. Hill now survive to see the wonderful growth of the trade in which they were once active.

Mr. Charles Parrish, one of the most successful pro- moters and organizers of the coal companies, is at the head of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, which mines on the Lehigh as well as on the Susquehanna. Some of the finest colleries in the valley were erected by Mr. Parrish and Mr. Samuel Bonnell, jr., who has changed his venue to the silver lodes of the west.

DEMAND AND SUPPLY.

It will be noted by the intelligent observer of the coal trade as it has passed into history that with the opening of every new line for coal transportation to competitive markets they have been overstocked, and prices reduced below the point of fair profit, until the demand grew to meet the supply. Increasing consuniption secured better prices, with failure of adequate supply and larger profits, until new mines were opened and increased transporta- tion, furnished by the completion of new lines of roads or canals, repeated the experience.

The political economist of the coal regions must be convinced by the experience of the past, as reflected by the seesawing process, that "supply is a determinable quantity," and that a quantity of coal supplied without adequate deinand leads to ruinous prices and loss to the trade; notwithstanding the declared opinion of eminent professors of the science that "demand and supply are perfectly analogous facts." In this age and country it seems like supreme nonsense to say that " demand can- not exist without supply, and cannot increase except in proportion as supply increases." If so, how is it that prices vary so disastrously?

Through all the depression the consumption of anthra- cite coal fell little, if any, below twenty millions of tons per annum. As the demand for manufacturing purposes failed new markets were found, and notwithstanding hard times and many reverses the termination of each decade has registered a substantial increase. In 1830 the total amount of anthracite sold was 174,734 tons; in 1840, 364,384; in 1850, 3,358,890; in 1860, 8,513,123; in 1870, 15,848,899; in 1879, 26, 142,089.

Mr. Franklin B. Gowen, of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company, in a position which entitles his esti- mate to credit, places the total possible production of anthracite for 1880 at not to exceed 28.500,000 tons, of which the increasing demand for the manufacture of iron and kindred industries will absorb from one-half to three-quarters of any possible increase.

But who in January, 1879, could have anticipated or predicted an increased production or consumption of nine millions of tons, a bound in one short season from seventeen millions to twenty-six millions ? The influence of the iron trade was not felt or acknowledged in the early months of that year, and it is not impossible that its revival may affect the trade of 1880 to a greater extent, as the proportion of time in which it was operative in 1879, say six months, is to the whole year.

There were many collieries in the Wyoming coal region

idle much of the time in 1879. Few of them were oper- ated on full time in the early months of the year. Unless the pressure upon their resources during the reckless hurry of the later months has fearfully demoralized them, there should be a large increase in 1880. Already an arrangement has been found necessary to limit the pro- duction by working only three days in each week, from the 16th of February at least through July. But this necessity is ascribed to the accumulation of domestic sizes. The effect upon prices was magical, and the Coal Trade Journal of February 18th, said : " The man who wagered that prices would touch $6 per ton at wholesale some time this year is not regarded as so great a maniac as he was a month ago."

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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 20

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