USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume II > Part 15
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The borough has a well equipped and well housed fire company. The Charotin fire house was erected at the corner of Sixth and Arch streets in 1911. The building contains a large assembly room on the second floor, an apparatus and lounging room on the main floor, and a banquet hall in the basement. The company is well equipped and has afforded the borough ex- cellent service.
Officers for 1919 are: Burgess, Daniel H. Harris: Councilmen-C. C. Young, M. D. Ryan, Edward Eberhardt, Harvey F. Kidd, C. D. Peters, Wil- liam Heilman, Preston Kuehner : solicitor, William H. Schneller ; treasurer,
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James E. Missmer ; secretary, Edward Steyert; borough engineers, Bascom and Sieger; chief of police, John T. Small; street commissioner, Joseph Ernst.
Roseto-This, the youngest borough of Northampton county, was formerly a part of Washington township, and joins Bangor on the west, the demarca- tion line not being visible to the stranger's eye. It is one of the quaintest villages in the United States, and has been the subject of many magazine articles. The strictly Italian population of twelve hundred are mostly em- ployed in slate quarries, railroads, and manufacturing industries. It is situ- ated thirteen miles north of Easton, and has two hotels, two justices of the peace, one cigar manufacturer, six or seven storekeepers, several tailors, car- penters, bakers, an occasional locksmith, mason, shoemaker, painter, lock- smith, and barber. The borough, which was incorporated in 1910, is unique in many ways-a bit of Italy transported to our shores, and probably the only municipality in the United States administered by Italians, the majority of whoin are Roman Catholics.
The first Italian settler in this thriving town was Gerardo Ruggiero, who came in 1883. He was followed a year later by Lawrence Falcone and Nicola Roseto; the latter built the first house, and the postal authorities named the town after him. The majority of the citizens are naturalized or American born. Sixty-six of the younger element during the late war joined the army or navy, two of whom paid the supreme sacrifice. The inhabitants subscribed about $1,000,000 to the various Liberty Loans. The Stelia Coloniale (Colonial Star), a newspaper printed in Italian, was established in 1901 by James D. Caporaso.
Walnutport-The borough of Walnutport is located on the east bank of the Lehigh river, opposite the town of Slatington. Before incorporation it was a part of Lehigh township. The first election for borough officials was held in March, 1909. Samuel Griffith was the first burgess. The officers for 1919 are : Burgess, Dr. J. J. Reitz ; treasurer, Granville Kahn ; secretary, C. J. Diebert; councilmen-James Mummey, H. E. Bradford, William Handwork, Granville Zallnor, E. J. Schierer, Fred Fritzinger.
The population of Walnutport is about 1, 100, and the assessment valua- tion $336,000. In 1910 a fine municipal hall was erected, which also houses the Diamond Volunteer Fire Company. The borough has two churches- Christ Reformed Church, erected in 1903, which has a membership of about one hundred; and a meeting house for the Mennonite Brethren in Christ. The schoolhouse, a four-room building, was erected in 1870.
BIOGRAPHICAL
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS R
BIOGRAPHICAL
ASA PACKER-Judge Asa Packer, of Mauch Chunk, was during an active carcer covering about one-half a century, one of the most conspicu- ously useful men in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was equally noted and honored as a master of large affairs, for his great public spirit which made him a leader in the development of his State, for his munificent liberality in the establishment and maintenance of educational and benevolent institutions, and for those graces of personal character which made his life a benediction upon the community at large.
He was born in Mystic, Connecticut, December 29, 1805. His early education was extremely limited, being only such as he could obtain in the primitive district schools of those early days. To compensate for deprivation in this respect, he was possessed of a receptive mind and habits of thought and observation, and through these he was enabled to acquire a generous store of practical knowledge which proved ample equipment for his future life, and gave him position side by side with many who had won college honors. At the age of seventeen he packed all his worldly possessions, con- sisting of a few simple articles of clothing, shouldered his humble pack, and set out afoot to make his own way in the great world which was altogether unknown to him. Trudging along the rugged roads of that almost primitive time, the plucky lad walked the entire distance between his birthplace in the land of blue laws and wooden nutmegs to Brooklyn, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. This first achievement was a fair index to his future; the boy was father of the man whom, once determined upon a course of action, no obstacle could stay, whose purpose no discouragement could shake, to whom could come no task too great to undertake. After many days of weary walking, of climbing his way up rocky hills and toiling through dusty alleys, in sunshine and in rain, the lad arrived, footsore, weary and hungry, at the home of his cousin. Mr. Edward Packer, in Brooklyn. Mr. Packer was a house carpenter, and young Asa determined to learn the trade under his tutelage. He applied himself to his work with genuine enthusiasm and characteristic thoroughness, and became an accomplished mechanic. No master of the trade could push a plane truer or more rapidly, or send a nail home with greater precision.
His apprenticeship ended and now a young grown man, Mr. Packer went to New York, where he did journey work for a year. The life of the city was distasteful to him, however, and he returned to Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, settling in Springville township, where he worked at his trade for some few years. Meantime, on January 23, 1828, he married Sarah M. Blakslee. In 1833, learning that men were wanted to run coal boats on the then just opened Lehigh canal, he drove in a primitive sled to Mauch Chunk, made a satisfactory arrangement, and then returned home to close up his affairs in time for the opening of navigation. In the spring he set out to engage in his new undertaking, walking to Tunkhannock, on the Susque- hanna river, where he boarded a raft which took him to Berwick, whence he walked to Mauch Chunk. He was at once given charge of a canal boat, and not long afterwards contracted for an additional vessel which he placed under his brother-in-law, James I. Blakslee. During the summer he brought his family to Mauch Chunk. His boating business proved so remunerative that at the end of two years he withdrew from active effort in this line, but retained an interest in the enterprise. With a portion of the means which he had acquired, he bought the general store of E. W. Kimball, on the banks
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of the Lehigh, making Mr. Blakslee its manager, while he himself estab- lished a boat yard and engaged in the building of canal boats, a work for which he was well adapted by reason of his former experience as a carpenter. From this time on he prospered in all his undertakings, and in a few years came to be regarded as a wealthy man, though his means were small com- pared with what they afterwards became. About this time he placed in his store a stock of goods amounting to $25,000 in value, which was a large purchase for those days. He took large contracts for building locks on the Upper Lehigh, which he completed with handsome profits in 1830. The following year he and his brother Robert took large contracts from Stockton & Stevens, of New Jersey, for building boats at Pottsville, Schuylkill county, to run in the direct coal trade to New York. At the end of three years the brothers dissolved partnership, Asa returning to Mauch Chunk, and Robert locating in Reading.
Mr. Packer next engaged in mining and shipping coal from the Nesque- honing and other mines, unloading his products into his own boats from the first named, at a point a little above where the East Mauch Chunk Bridge now stands. Thenceforward his career was continuously and conspicuously prosperous, and altogether the result of his own endeavor. In 1852 he took up his greatest business enterprise, the building of the Lehigh Valley rail- road. With rare foresight he discerned the vast results which would grow out of such a highway, and he entered upon the gigantic undertaking unaided and alone. He contended with difficulties, physical and financial, which many pronounced insuperable, and at one time his entire fortune was seri- ously imperiled. With almost superhuman courage and determination he persisted in his work, and in 1885 his judgment was vindicated and his victory won, in its completion.
At the time of his death, Judge Packer was regarded as one of Pennsyl- vania's richest men. True, he accumulated vast wealth, but he administered it with a liberal and enlightened judgment and a deeply sympathetic heart, proving a great power in the development of his State, in the advancement of civilization, and in bringing employment to thousands of families. His personal benefactions were countless, but were so modestly bestowed that they went unheralded by those recipients of his bounty who were helped to homes and established in business, or found relief at his hands in their time of sore need. Educational, religious and charitable institutions always held a first place in his estimation, and such he aided with an unsparing hand. St. Luke's Hospital in South Bethlehem was one of his favorite objects ; he contributed to it liberally during his life, and at his death left it a bequest of $300,000. To St. Mark's, in Mauch Chunk, in which he was for forty-four years a warden and vestryman, he left the sum of $300,000. In this beautiful temple now stands, erected in his memory by his widow and children, one of the most beautiful reredos in all America.
His principal monument, however, is the magnificent Lehigh University. Deprived, as has been seen, of a college training, he was desirous of affording to the young of his State opportunities such as had been denied to him. The wish of his heart he imparted to Bishop Stevens, and to him unfolded his plans for the establishment, at some point in the Lehigh Valley, of a univer- sity where young men of limited means might have an opportunity to secure a thorough education, especially along technical lines. Accordingly, in 1865, he set aside for the establishment of the proposed institution fifty-six acres of land in South Bethlehem, and a sum of $500,000, a gift, it is believed, the largest given in the United States for such a purpose up to that time. In 1875 he added fifty-two acres to the university tract, increasing it to one hundred and fifteen acres, and also erected a fine library building at a cost of $400,000 in memory of his daughter, Mrs. Lucy (Packer) Linderman. This proved to be his last personal undertaking in connection with the institution,
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
AV DR. LENOX ANP TILDEN L'ANDAT ANS R L
John Fritz
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his death occurring not long afterward. Under the provisions of his will he left a permanent endowment of $1,500,000 for general maintenance, and added $400,000 to this previous gift of $100,000 for library purposes, thereby increasing that special endowment to a half million dollars, and the aggre- gate of his university benefactions (land value included) to the princely sum of three million dollars, and more than probably a similar amount was received when his estate, which was held in trust, was distributed. In the grounds of Lehigh University stands a most beautiful edifice, the Packer Memorial Church, erected in 1886 by Judge Packer's last child, Mrs. Mary Packer Cummings, at the cost of a quarter of a million dollars.
Judge Packer was prominent in political affairs, and wielded a potent and salutary influence in the counsels of both State and nation, and in all pertaining to commercial and educational interests. In 1841 he was elected to the Legislature, and he was re-elected to succeed himself at the expiration of his term. His retirement from the Legislature was followed in 1843 by his appointment by Gov. David R. Porter to the position of associate judge of his county. In 1852 he was elected to Congress, and he was re-elected in 1854. These official honors, though not solicited or even desired, were cheer- fully accepted, and all their multifarious trusts and duties were wisely and honorably discharged. In two instances he was brought prominently before the State and nation, when he permitted his name to be used solely as a matter of duty to his political friends, and where no reward was possible. In 1868 he was named for the presidential nomination in the National Demo- cratic Convention, and in the following year he was the Democratic candidate for governor.
He was a member of various Masonic bodies, and Packer Commandery No. 23, Knights Templar, of Mauch Chunk, was named in honor of a member of his family. Mauch Chunk and Packer are names inseparable, for it was in the city named that he entered upon his carcer of phenomenal success and usefulness, and there his interest centered throughout his life.
Judge Packer died May 17, 1879, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, after a life of highest devotion to the interests of education and other laudable objects. In his personal character he was most unassuming, and his wealth, power and position never changed his outlook or bearing, but he was the same brave, strong, kindly, simple-hearted and generous man to the last. His toleration was marked. Strong as were his own opinions, he recognized the right of as strong contrary opinions by others, and as long as they were honestly held they never affected his friendships. His observance of Sunday as "The Lord's Day" was most marked, and it was some circumstance entirely beyond his control which would keep him from attendance at the services of his church.
Judge Packer was survived by his widow, whose death occurred in 1882, three years after his passing away. The remains of the two, husband and wife, repose in the Mauch Chunk Cemetery, and by their side the bodies of their two sons-Robert, who died in 1883; and Harry Eldred, who died in 1884. The monument in the family plot stands prominently on the brow of Mount Pisgah, just rearward from the old home, the erection of which was begun by Judge Packer in 1860, and where in 1878 he and his devoted wife celebrated their golden wedding, one of the most delightful and touching social events ever witnessed in the Lehigh Valley. The old home, about which cling so many tender memories, is now the residence of the only sur- viving child of Judge and Mrs. Packer, Mary (Packer) Cummings.
JOHN FRITZ, distinguished mechanical and metallurgical engineer, was born August 21, 1822, in Londonderry, Chester county, Pennsylvania. His father, George Fritz, a native of Hesse Cassel, was brought to this country by his parents in 1802, with three brothers and a sister, to whom were sub-
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sequently added three daughters born in America. The family settled in Pennsylvania. George Fritz married the native-born daughter of a Scotch- Irish Presbyterian immigrant in 1787, and they had four girls and three boys, of whom John was the first. He was named after his grandfather, the foreign form, Johannes Fritzius, being Americanized into John Fritz.
The "Autobiography of John Fritz," published in 1911, bears unconscious testimony to the effect of this environment upon innate genius. His father, a millwright and mechanic, could not be content with farming, but repeatedly followed the call of the trade which he loved better; and the sons, inheriting his talent and his predilection, after dutifully following the plough in their youth, abandoned it for mechanical engineering, in which, educating them- selves without the aid of technical schooling, they all achieved high position. It should be added that both his ancestry and his early life endowed John Fritz with splendid health and strength. Finally, we cannot omit to mention (what John Fritz was wont, on all occasions, to emphasize) the moral influ- ence of his God-fearing father and mother upon his whole life.
Like other American boys, he had the benefit of some schooling; but his own epigrammatic summary, "Five days in the week, for three months in the year, is too short a time for the study of Bennett's Arithmetic," tells the whole story. In 1838, at the age of sixteen, he became an apprentice in the trades of blacksmith and machinist-the latter comprising repairs of agricultural and manufacturing machinery, including the simple blast-furnaces of that day. At the end of this apprenticeship he returned to work for a time on the paternal farm, with his mind made up to engage somehow in the manufacture of iron, with special relation to its use on railroads. In 1884 he made an entrance upon this career by employment in a rolling-mill at Norristown, then in process of erection. He was put in charge of all the machinery, and discovered weak spots in design and construction which he afterwards remedied either by his own inventions or by those which he adopted and introduced. Meanwhile, he seized the opportunity to master thoroughly the thing nearest to him, outside of his immediate task. This happened to be the puddling-furnace. John Fritz worked through a long day at his job as superintendent and repairer of machinery, and then spent the evening in the exhausting work of a common puddler, studying, while he rabbled or drew the glowing charge, the apparatus and the process.
Having learned what was to be learned in that particular business, he accepted in 1849, with the sympathetic approval of Moore & Hooven, his employers at Norristown, a position in a new rail-mill and blast-furnace at Safe Harbor. The salary was smaller ($650 a year, instead of $1.000) ; but he wanted to learn all about blast-furnace practice and the manufacture of rails. His strenuous and successful work at Safe Harbor was cut short after a few months by an attack of fever and ague. During this interval he made a trip to Lake Superior, and saw the great Cleveland and Jackson iron-ore deposits in the Marquette district. After his return he tried in vain to interest Pennsylvania capitalists in Lake Superior iron mines, as a source of supply even for Pennsylvania. He was told that he might as well dream of bringing iron-ore from Kamchatka as from Marquette; to which he replied that within ten years (this was in 1852) iron-ore from Lake Superior would be sold in Philadelphia. One-half the Jackson mine could have been bought then for $25,000.
He was engaged in 1852 to superintend the rebuilding of the Kunzie blast-furnace on the Schuylkill, about twelve miles from Philadelphia. This involved the new method of manufacturing pig-iron with anthracite instead of charcoal or coke as fuel, a scheme which had just been proved practical by David Thomas and William Firmstone, in the Lehigh Valley. Mr. Fritz, though not the designer of the new furnace, was called upon to remedy defects, and managed to the satisfaction of the proprietors and without losing
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the friendship of the engineer, whose opinion he had contradicted. In 1853. Mr. Fritz joined his brother George and others in building at Catasauqua a foundry and machine-shop to supply blast-furnaces and rolling-mills. In the following year he was invited, through David Reeves, to go to the Cambria Iron Works, Johnstown, as general superintendent. This was the turning- point of his career. His preparation for it had occupied sixteen years, dur- ing which he had mastered every part of the manufacture of iron into commercial forms, while he had also learned the higher art of commanding the enthusiastic loyalty of workmen, and the highest art of all, perhaps- that of securing the confidence of employers. He met successively the problems of technical authority and responsibility, temporary repair and reform of an old plant, improvement in quality of product, and the procure- ment of means for new and needed construction. When these problems had been so far solved that the mill was running well and making some money. the property was attached under judgments upon former claims. Fritz per- suaded all parties to allow the work to go on, and he was the only man upon whom all parties could agree as an agent to protect the rights of all. Under his management operations went on under the shadow of impending bankruptcy until a reorganization was decided upon. The capital was sub- scribed, and operations were resumed. He determined to put into the works a three-high roll-train, in accordance with his prophetic vision of earlier years ; and this plan was opposed by many of the stockholders, who were supported by the opinions of leading iron-masters and the declarations of the laboring "heaters" and "rollers," and it was by sheer force of personal character that he secured authority for the execution of his plan. He intro- duced the three-high rolls into the Cambria company's mill, laying thereby the foundation not only of unexampled prosperity but also of an improve- ment which was rapidly adopted through this country and the world, and has been justly called the last great step of progress in iron manufacture preceding the Bessemer process.
But this triumph was followed by further trials. The day after the success of the three-high rolls had been demonstrated in the Cambria mill, the mill itself was destroyed by fire. Fortunately the demonstration had been conclusive. Inside of thirty days, Mr. Fritz had the mill running again, though without a roof to cover it; and it was one of the proudest recollections of his after-life that he subsequently erected a building 1,000 fect long by 100 feet wide, with trussed and slated roof-the finest rolling-mill building at that time in the United States -- without interrupting the running of the mill which it covered, and without injury to a single person. In the progres- sive reconstruction of the Cambria Works, Fritz introduced many improve- ments which he had conceived in previous years-improvements in puddling- furnaces, gearing, boilers, etc.
After six years with the Cambria Iron Company, Mr. Fritz accepted in July, 1860, the position of general superintendent and chief engineer of the Bethlehem Iron Company. The works of this company, designed and erected by Mr. Fritz, were so far completed by September, 1863, as to begin the rolling of rails made from the product of its own blast and puddling furnaces. The first of his improvements was the introduction of high-pressure blast in the iron blast-furnace. His horizontal blowing engines were muth criticized at the time, but they have run continuously, day and night, for more than thirty years, blowing from 10 to 12 lbs. pressure, and frequently more. He was so well satisfied with the result of his innovations in blast- furnace practice that he designed a larger furnace with an engine that would supply a 20 to 30 lb. blast; but the directors of the company were too con- servative to authorize this experiment.
During the Civil War the government needed a rolling-mill somewhere in the South in which twisted rails could be rolled. It was probably the
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advice of Abram S. Hewitt which led to the selection of Mr. Fritz as one who could procure the necessary machinery and secure the erection of the mill with the least possible delay. He was surprised in March, 1864, by his appointment to this place with almost unlimited powers, the War Depart- ment declaring that "any arrangements" he might make would be "fully carried out" by the government. Mr. Fritz immediately prepared the plans and secured the necessary machinery for the mill, which was built at Chatta- nooga, Tennessee, and of which his brother William was made superintend- cnt. William Fritz had been employed at Cambria and at Bethlehem until 1861, when he enlisted in the Union army, and in 1864 he was on furlough, recovering from a serious wound. He ran the Chattanooga mill successfully until the end of the year.
During nearly thirty years of work with the Bethlehem Iron Company, Mr. Fritz, supported by the faith and courage which he inspired in other men, made that enterprise one of the most famous in the world. The intro- duction of open-hearth furnaces and of the Thomas basic process; the pro- gressive improvements of strength, simplicity and automatic handling in the rolling mills ; the adoption of the Whitworth forging press; the manufacture of armor plate; the erection of a 125-ton steam-hammer; and innumerable other improvements in the manufacture of iron and steel, owe their present perfection in large degree to him. The stamp of his mind may be found on almost every detail of construction and operation throughout a wide range of processes and products.
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